WRLR Fundraiser next Friday!

The local Round Lake Area Radio Station WRLR 93.8-FM is hosting a fund raiser. WRLR is a local nonprofit radio station which I am quite proud of, will take place Friday, May 23, at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, 500 E. Rollins Road, in Round Lake Beach.

Monday's Post-- Mystery Man Identified

Its longtime Round Lake resident and WRLR Radio President Bish Krywko!

Election Day is Coming Soon

I have been invited by the local radio station WRLR 98.3 to be part of there election coverage for the 3rd year. So on election night (the 17th) I will be there, with commentary on Lake county races. Tune in and listen to my pearls of wisdom!

They have a great lineup of other people who are very knowledgeable about county politics as well. Which should make for a great evening! In the studio to provide insight and analysis on various local Lake County races will be former cable television host/reporter Sharyn Elman, longtime political observer Phil Howe and former Gurnee Mayor Dick Welton, amongst others.

Beginning after the polls close at 7 PM and up to 12 midnight, the election team will thoroughly monitor and report vote totals from races and referendums, as they become available from the Lake County clerk's office. Live telephone interviews with candidates will take place throughout the 5 and half hour broadcast.

WRLR specializes in spotlighting local races and issues like no other radio station can. It is a non-profit, community radio station operated completely by volunteers. It fulfills it mission statement to educate, inform and entertain through its 24-7, wide ranging locally focused program schedule. The station has been instrumental in giving Lake County's communities the opportunity to be heard on politics and issues at the small town level.

WRLR reaches a potential listening audience of more than 200,000 people throughout Lake County, western Mchenry county, and southern portions of Wisconsin. In addition, the station has listeners throughout the world who get WRLR's programming stream over the Internet at www.wrlr.fm .

Tune in to WRLR -- 98.3 FM-- For complete election coverage!

On election night I will be anchoring election night coverage on WRLR from 6pm to 11pm. Local radio! For you in other communities outside Lake county you can listen on the internet at www.wrlr.fm

POSTSCRIPT
I was on from 7 to 11 last night, and had a great time. Sean Gilette was there all evening with me, and was excellent! Chris Thelen was patient and prepared as always, and Bish and all his group of volunteers did a great job keeping us informed. The national races were interesting and I was able to talk about a lot of the house and senate races that were key in shaping the new House of Representatives and as of this moment the "sort of" shaping of the new Senate (still waiting on Virginia and Montana Senate races). The hardest part for me was keeping my rabid partisanship under control. Two democrats called me to tell me that I was syncophantic towards republicans so I must have done a good job.

There were some exciting local races to talk about, and I am going to blog about what they mean for us in a post later on this week.

Dreamed of Being on the Radio?

One of the nicest things in the Round Lake Area is WRLR-FM (98.3) which is a low powered radio station that serves western Lake County. It is completely staffed by volunteers, and has been on the air for nearly a year now.

They are always looking for volunteers and also looking for on-air personalities as well. If you have always thought about being the next Eric and Cathy, Edward Murrow or Paul Harvey then contact Station President and Founder Bish Krywko at rondaradio@hotmail.com.

Election Night

On Tuesday night I spent the evening over at the radio station (WRLR) where Bish Krywko the station president had asked me to stop by and offer "local political" analysis. He fooled me! I ended up doing most of the talking until about 11pm. There were technical glitches with our Waukegan feed, and the Bish ended up on the phone coordinating. So along with Chris Thelen the WRLR music director we filled up the air with guests. We had Congresswomen Melissa Bean, and her opponent's David McSweeney, Aaron Lincoln and Bob Churchill, Senator Geo-Karris and her opponent Susan Simpson, Sandy Cole and her future opponent Sharyn Elman. We had local politicos like Trustee Brian Brubaker and Steve Skinner, and District 116 CEO Dennis Stonewall.

I had a great time and was amazed at how fast the evening went by. Some of the results that were the hit of the night were District 116's passage of a $17 million dollar referendum for a new building. The defeat of long time lake county Senator Adeline Geo Karris were some of the most startling results of the night.

The picture of election day carnage is of my discarded big gulp, a phone, part of my laptop and the half empty bag of onion rings which I was in the process of demolishing when I took the picture!

Election Day is Today!

It makes good sense! It makes a difference! I will be on WRLR 98.3 commenting on election returns throughout out the night starting at 7pm. I am looking forward to that, should be a lot of fun.

Funeral Services for Mayor Ila Bauer

A two night (Thu & Fri) wake will be held at Justen Funeral Home in Round Lake from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Church services will be held on Saturday at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Round Lake beginning at 11:00 am. Mayor Bauer will be laid to rest at Avon Cemetery.
Extra seating will be setup in the church hall for an expected overflow crowd with a video/audio feed to a large screen for mourners. Partial road closures (Cedar Lake) are expected Saturday in the immediate area near the church. WRLR will broadcast the church services live, with a rebroadcast on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Mayors Chamber of Commerce speech's Today

What do these 5 handsome people have in common? They are mayors! From left to right Mayor Rich Hill of Round Lake Beach, Mayor Terry Lumpkins of Round Lake Heights, Mayor Ila Bauer of Round Lake Park, some chunky guy, and Mayor Ted Mueller of Hainesville. This picture was taken at the 2003 version of the Mayor's State of the Village address sponsored by the Round Lake Chamber of Commerce. Its a yearly tradition and this year will be my fifth speech! It will also be covered live on WRLR 98.3 and you can stream it live. It should start around noon.

Not the Day of my Dreams

Well I did two things yesterday, one was the indoor track and field meet at the University of Chicago. I was over 13 feet 3 times and fouled once in the long jump. I then put the shot over 8 meters 3 times but my best was 8.12 which is 26 feet 7 inches to be candid I was disappointed with the shot. I was pleased with the long jump since I fouled over 15 feet, I missed the board by 2 inches (supposedly) so its a matter of getting my starting marks more organized. I strained my back while doing the shot put so I decided not to sprint in the 55, 200, and 400 since I could not loosen my back in 20 minutes of stretching. All in all a lousy day. Hans Zigmund did well however throwing the shot a personal best of 8.28.

The second thing I did today was go to the WRLR Christmas party. I had a good time, saw lots of my fellow on-air talent and overall had a good time. Bish Krywko throws a good party for his radio station!

Tonight's Guest on Village Voices at 7pm

Tonight on Village Voices at 7pm on WRLR 98.3 FM I will have Mayor Rich Hill from Round Lake Beach as my guest. Rich is serving his second term as Mayor and is Mayor of the largest of the Area communities with the Beach being about 28,000 people. We will be taking your calls at 847-546-9757 or email me questions at bgentes@wiresaway.com.
I am sure we will have a lively discussion since Rich has done quite a few really positive things for his community and the Round Lake Area.

Thursday Radio Guest on Village Voices

My guest will be Round Lake Park Mayor Ila Bauer (shown here with our Congresswomen Melissa Bean). The always controversial mayor (even more then me recently) will field calls and talk about some of the exciting things going on in Round Lake Park. In addition we take calls and the number is 847-546-9757, or email me with a question which I will ask her live on the air. We need to be nice to her however because she recently broke her wrist and is email and writing impaired at the moment!

The show airs from 7-8 on WRLR-FM 98.3 every Thursday night.

Scenes from a Weekend

Have had a busy weekend already and its only Saturday. The first two pictures are of the giant polished jelly bean like structure at the Millennium Park in downtown Chicago. Quite shiny! Trustee Sherry Perkowitz and I were hunting contact solution down for her when we decided to take a short cut through the park. The picture where two of my officers are shoving the head of our newest officer into the cooler is just that! However the new officer had just completed his pepper spray training by getting pepper sprayed. Not a job for the faint of heart.

The last picture was of the view from the Round Lake High School press box during the homecoming game and the two crack announcers doing the game on WRLR 98.3! I listened on the radio and then went to the game, they are quite good, lots of facts and very poised, they clearly did their homework.

Village Voices-- Debuts tonight at 7pm

Tonight from 7-8pm I will be doing the inagural Village Voices radio show on WRLR 98.3. My first guest is one of the most influential people in getting this radio station off the ground and under a roof. Round Lake Heights Mayor Terry Lumpkins. In fact the show will be broadcast from the old Round Lake Heights Village Hall which is the new headquarters of WRLR.

The format of the show is an interview with my guest and then opening the show up to phone calls from the audience. You can ask questions via email and or via AOL instant messenger as well. All this will happen live!

I have lined up a variety of guests, Mayors Ila Bauer, Rich Hill, Tim Perry and Jim Betusak, County Board member Bonnie Thompson Carter is another as well. These are just the guests that I have confirmed dates for by the way!

So I hope to hear you tonight on the air with questions for my guest.

Labor Day Weekend is Here!

Well this is going to be quite the Labor Day weekend! Not so sure how the one 110 years ago was but ours will be wonderful! Last night was the flipping of the switch of for WRLR 98.3 the new local radio station in the Round Lake Area. I attended and saw numerous dignitaries and local friends there.

Today the Labor Day weekend rolls on with the Round Lake Spartans all day extravaganza at Hart's Hill. Football, brats, corn, kids and you name it will be on the menu all day long at the field.

While I am not sure of where all of them are, 100's on BBQ's will be taking place in the backyards of Round Lake. One will take place in my yard for sure.

For me this is the last weekend of sailing on Long Lake, we have had our best season in years, winning 2 races and finishing in the top 3 numerous times.

Busy Day for the Mayor-- Although I am not Complaining!

Spent today working on real estate (the real job), delivering tickets to the Foreigner concert to the winner of the quickie ticket contest I ran. Went over to the WRLR 98.3 studios to practice for the upcoming radio show "Village Voices" I am hosting on Thursday nights at 7pm every week. Had a few people drop by including one of Round Lake's very own Republican heavyweight county board member Bob Powers and his wife.

I was also able to sneak onto to the internet to discover that my favorite soccer team in the whole wide world after the now defunct Univerisidad de Guadalajara Leones Negros. Manchester City won its third game in a row 2-1 over Portsmouth in the English Premier Division to go second after 4 games of the 38 game season. I suspect its downhill from here! But hope springs eternal!

I then proceeded directly to Long Lake where we finished 4th of 10 in the weekly sailboat races. I then got off the boat raced home to grill some delightful vegetables that Bob Newport of the Round Lake Area Park District gave us to try. I then sampled a glass (okay more then one) of an Illinois Cabernet Franc American Vintage 2003 from the Lynfred Winery that we had in the house since yesterday. Quite good! I think I am a red wine snob... So that is praise of the highest order! Who knew there was a winery in the Chicago area.

Village Voices-- A Radio Show about the Area-- Hosted by Me!

I have agreed to be the host of a weekly talk show on the new low power radion station in the Round Lake Area WRLR (98.3). Yesterday a press release was sent out to the media announcing the entire lineup. However every Thursday night from 7pm to 8pm I will host elected officials from local, state and federal offices. In attain I am going to invite others who are newsworthy to the show. The format will be conversational for the first part of the show then we deal with questions we receive via the phone and of course via email.

My hope is to answer pressing questions and get feedback on issues facing the area. I have learned over time that sometimes the best way to answer questions is go right to the horses mouth so to speak!

The new 100 watt low power station serves more than 100,000 residents living in the Round Lake Area, Hainesville, Lake Villa, Lindenhurst, Grayslake, Ingleside, Long Lake, Fox Lake and other communities in western Lake County.

I have blogged a few times about the radio station here and here.

Yesterday's press release with the full details on the stations lineup is here.
Press%20Release%20050817.pdf

Radio the Round Lake Way!

Radio Round Lake or Rondaradio or WRLR will be at the Summer Fest being held by Round Lake Beach this coming July 8th and 9th. They hope to kick off their first broadcast from the fest. WRLR will have a tent where staff will pass out flyers, sign up potential listeners (who get a chance to win a free WRLR 'RadioActive t-shirt by doing so), meet some of the new on air talent and hear more about the station. The public will be able to participate in the stations live reports from the fest and say 'hello' to the family and friends over the air.

I blogged about the station a few weeks ago so you can get more detail here.

Radioactive! Radio the Round Lake Way on FM 98.3

One of the most exciting new things on the Round Lake Area horizon is RONDARADIO a low frequency radio station that has been on the drawing board for years and is in its final stages prior to going live and on the air. I must also point out that I was able to assist in the fundraising by securing a $30,000 grant from Lakewood Homes for some of the major startup costs two years ago.

This is such a good idea, I wish I had thought of it, but I didn't! Round Lake resident Bish Krywko did along with his wife Fran and the energy and drive to get the radio station to this point are all down to their vision.

RONDARADIO is a community-based radio station that will be run by volunteer community members and students from Round Lake, Grayslake, Grant and Lakes high schools who live, work and play in the stations service area. They will also serve as a working classroom for broadcast students from area colleges and universities.

The station will operate on the frequency of 98.3 FM, broadcasting at 100 watts of power. Operation will be 24/7 and will utilize computers to assist with programming.

The Village of Round Lake Heights is home to the WRLR Studios and our 130' broadcast tower. The signal will radiate out to an area 3.5 to 5 miles in diameter from the antenna and most likely will extend even further, 7 to 10 miles out.

The stations 100 watt signal will reach a potential 90,000 plus residents living in the greater Round Lake area including all the Round Lake villages, Hainesville, Lake Villa, Grayslake, Lindenhurst, Ingleside, Long Lake, Fox Lake, Antioch, unincorporated Lake County and many others