By Emma Fullen, Ball State Public Media intern

If you know WBST or IPR, chances are you’ll know Stan Sollars. He’s the voice you hear bright and early
on Morning Edition reporting the local news and the producer on a multitude of projects throughout his 30
year IPR supremacy.

Sollars’ on-air career spans more than 50 years, debuting as a 13-year-old host on Wes-Del High Schools’
station, WDHS-FM. His interest in production, however, rang through his early childhood.

“Ever since I was a wee lad, I was interested in radio and television,” Sollars said. When he was just 3-years-old he
built tinker toy microphones and broadcasting towers.

“I was fascinated by being able to speak to people and help them laugh or tell them the news.”

Sollars attended Ball State University where he earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in journalism. He became a senior lecturer at his Alma Mater and joined WBST as a Senior Producer in 1992. Even after 30 years, Sollars looks forward to every day.

“I still feel useful, that’s the thing. News is not always a joyous profession, especially these days,” he said. “We’ve got the pandemic, we’ve got severe political divides— some days it’s not happy, but I think it’s helpful for public discourse to know what’s going on.

“There are the sad stories, but there are also stories of encouragement and discovery. And learning about the negatives can be turned into things that can help people down the road.”

Sollars’ production work doesn’t end at reporting the news. From 1994-2000, he produced and engineered 62 weekly shows and five specials of Rock & Roll America, an NPR series, which now resides in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum collection. He served as production sound mixer for PBS national education segment, “Sweetwater Music Minute,” and has earned more awards (including 2 Emmy Awards) than you can count on all your fingers and toes.

He recently had the opportunity to test audio codices for Netflix, researching how far down audio can be shrunk without ruining the quality.

To the non-audio engineer, this project would normally go in one ear and out the other, literally and figuratively. A few nods and smiles might be shared to say “sure, I totally understand what you’re saying,” and also “what the heck did you just say.”

But Sollars’ teaching philosophy goes beyond the classroom, truly helping students, listeners and colleagues grasp the difficult concepts he knows forwards and backward.

As studious and committed as he is to his radio work, just a stroll through Sollars’ telecommunications classrooms will prove to the casual passerby just how much his students value his collegiate guidance.

In one room, a whiteboard hangs with the words “Sollar System” written by students describing the breadth of Sollars’ sound design diagrams for his class, Sounds of The Beatles which focused on the bands’ engineering techniques.

And just walking past the several award-winning, surround-sound recording facilities, you can feel the pride radiate from Sollars himself, having led the design process. Since 1969,

Sollars has fully dedicated himself to whatever he commits to. And that has served him very well.

Pointing to his mind, he said: “That 13-year-old is still in here. I bring that same work ethic that I was taught at the station [in high school] to my work, every day.

“As long as I’m still happy and they still let me through those doors, I’ll be here.”