Matt Swaney was born and raised in Bloomington-Normal, IL, a son to Dan and Jane Swaney. Dan is a local broadcast veteran both in television and in radio, and Jane is a childrens librarian.

During his childhood, Matt was constantly exposed to both the radio and television industry through his father, and, as most aspiring radio people do, created his own 'radio station' in his basement. With the advent of streaming technology, his station turned from a childhood plaything into one of the most popular internet radio stations on iTunes radio. However, with the SoundExchange royalty ruling in 2007, the royalty costs associated with maintaining his legal stream would far exceed his financial abilities, and the station was silenced.

For most of his teenage years, Matt was on a different career path, starting with 9-1-1 dispatching, and eventually into law enforcement.  In 2004 he was hired as a patrol officer in Normal, IL, however an injury at the academy kept him from continuing his academy training. Matt returned to the familiar surroundings of the broadcast industry.

Matt was hired as Webmaster and Creative Media Developer for Regent Broadcasting of Bloomington, IL, in December of 2004.  His duties included, maintaining and designing five radio stations websites (WJBC, WBNQ, B104, The Oldies Channel, and WJEZ) as well as other station-managed sites, and various project web sites. Coincidentally, WJBC is where Matt learned about radio as a child while watching his dad at work.

In addition to his web and interactive duties, Matt was a member of the Creative Services department and was actively involved in the writing and production of some of the most creative and outside-the-box commercial and production audio that the radio cluster had ever seen.   His work has not gone unnoticed.  As recent as June of 2008, Matt's work was winning statewide awards for creativity and excellence.

Matt lives in Bloomington, IL, with his wife, Vickie, along with their cats, and Buddy, the wonder pug.

Matt is also active in his community where he has served as an Illinois State Fire Institute certified Firefighter II for Carlock Fire Protection District since 2000, and also worked with Bloomington Police Department as a Law Enforcement Explorer, where he earned the prestigious Boy Scouts of America Law Enforcement Career Achievement Award, the equivalent of Eagle Scout in Law Enforcement Exploring.

In his free time, he enjoys producing viral videos, blogging, playing the piano, surfing the web, and spending time with his wife. I