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Articles about Prometheus Illinois: Round Lake area radio station lets variety of shows reach out to community
Articles about Prometheus Illinois: Round Lake area radio station lets variety of shows reach out to community 
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| Illinois: Round Lake area radio station lets variety of shows reach out to community |
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Copyright 2006 Paddock Publications, Inc. Chicago Daily Herald October 15, 2006 Sunday Lake Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 826 words HEADLINE: Local voice on airwaves survives first year Round Lake area radio station lets variety of shows reach out to community BYLINE: Jason King, Daily Herald Staff Writer BODY: On a recent Wednesday morning, Dave Sanocki manned the sound board, picked out the tunes and set up the public service announcements to air during his radio show on WRLR. He also prepped for an interview with two representatives from the Round Lake Area Park District. And then there was the locksmith. Specifically the locksmith who needed to fix the door to the building. With power tools - just outside of the thin walls of Studio A. Such is life at WRLR, a low-powered FM radio station, where often the on-air talent serves as engineer, receptionist and maintenance supervisor - sometimes at the same time. But Sanocki (he uses the last name Saganocki on air) loves it. "It's great to have a station show a little faith in your abilities and put you on the air," he said. The station has been on air for a little over a year now, and like any new organization, there have been growing pains, particularly with filling out the program grid with shows. But acting station manager Christopher Thelen said, on the whole, the station is doing well. "We've had some great successes. There's a lot of community interest and we have a lot of new shows. It's been exhilarating," he said. "The one difficulty with being an all-volunteer organization, people have outside lives. We would love to have a station manned 24 hours a day." The station began broadcasting Sept. 2, 2005, but the plans for it took shape years before then. Station president Bish Krywko and a group of Round Lake area residents began pursuing the station in 2000, when the Federal Communications Commission created a low-powered classification for noncommercial, educational broadcasting. The classification is available to schools, churches and other noncommercial entities. Since it's only a few years old, low-power FM radio is a pretty new niche, and there are only 29 stations in Illinois, three of which are in Lake County. The other two stations, 99.9 WFEL in Antioch and 101.5 WLGS in Lake Villa, belong to churches. Dan Prowse, station manager for the College of Lake County's radio station, which currently only broadcasts online, said if low- power FM can keep the mega commercial radio companies from stymieing the movement, small stations like WRLR could really bloom and grow. "It's local programming. It's people listeners know they're familiar with," Prowse said. "It's local news and local announcements that's important to people." The station broadcasts on 98.3 and transmits a 100-watt signal, which covers the entire Round Lake area and some neighboring communities. The station broadcasts from Round Lake Heights, where it inhabits the old village hall. The station's tower also is in the village. The station raised funding through sponsorships and donations before going on the air and is sustained in the same way. The low- power license is only granted to non-commercial entities, so on-air commercials are verboten. The programming is diverse. Very diverse, Thelen noted, which is one of the reasons the station has been well-received. The lineup includes local sports talk, including live high school game coverage, a program focused on technology and music shows devoted to heavy metal, local bands and club music, Thelen noted. "Allan Bergh's show plays two hours of big band. Where are you going to hear that on the commercial stations?" Thelen said. The lineup also has showcased local politics and talk. The station broadcast live, and plans to do so again next month, election results. And Round Lake Mayor Bill Gentes had a program that touched on many aspects of area politics. But Gentes, like others, found the time commitment difficult and he stopped doing his show after a few months. "I spent two to three hours preparing for the hour I was going to be on the air," he said. "It was talk radio, just like the real thing. It was fun. It's just a time thing for me." Sean Gillette is a part of a program that has been with the station for almost the entire time it's been on air. The Round Lake resident co-hosts a program called J Street Radio, on Thursday nights, which showcases local music talent. "Our station gives opportunities that other stations don't, hearing music that isn't on a major label. There are so many good bands locally that don't get played," Gillette said. "We've got people knocking down our doors to be interviewed on air. It's been great." It's that type of programming, Thelen said, that makes WRLR stand out, both locally, and nationally. And it's why Thelen and other radio staffers believe the station will fare well in the future. "We're seen as a benchmark for (low-power) stations in the country because of our programming and our technology," he said. "We understand there are bigger and better. "We don't look at that as competition," he continued. "We see ourselves as an alternative to commercial stations. We have more music variety, more local events. In some ways we're still the best kept secret in Lake County." This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it GRAPHIC: Michael Kastler, left, and Dave Sanocki chat after finishing up their Wednesday morning program, Tech Talk, on WRLR, the low- power FM radio station located in Round Lake Heights. PAUL VALADE/pvalade@@dailyherald.com LOAD-DATE: October 20, 2006 |
