Kurt Pegler talks sports, media, serving at church

Kurt Pegler has been bringing sports news to central Illinoisans since 1990 on daily WMBD-TV newscasts. The Illinois State University graduate and Chicago native has been contributing to the central Illinois Christian scene for just as long, helping out behind the scenes at Grace Presbyterian Church and taking part in other Christian community activities, like Community Bible Study. We talked to Kurt, who is one of the nicest people in this area, on a recent Friday afternoon at WMBD.

Amen Peoria: How long have you been at WMBD?

Kurt Pegler: I started in 1987, so I'm coming up on year 38 here now. I started as an intern in the fall of ’87, and then I was hired after my internship as a part-time news reporter. They didn't have a full-time sports opening. I covered my fair share of, you know, school board meetings and other things like that as well, as everybody has to do. I had to cover some court cases, too. There's so much now with sports in courts, that kind of helped me understand the court process much better. If you're in the ballpark the whole time, you're not really learning that side of the game. 

And then in 1990, I moved into the sports department when an opening came up. Dave Snell was still the sports director back then. He went to bat for me to get hired, which was great.

AmP: Why do you think you've been able to succeed so long in this role? A lot of people just come here a couple of years and they want to move on. Why have you stayed?