Triton station on the air for 30 years "(!) - River Grove Messenger [04-12-06] -
Timothy O'Grady
BY CHUCK FIELDMAN
STAFF WRITER
Scott Dirks has done pretty well for himself in the world of radio ever since his brother "chickened out" more than 25 years ago after winning a contest to play DJ for an hour at Triton College radio station WRRG.
Dirks, a 1976 graduate of Proviso East High School in Maywood, got called into action after his brother won WRRG's "Everyone is a DJ" contest, but quickly decided he had no interest on being on the air.
"I never really had an interest in radio, but my brother freaked out when he won the contest, and he told me to go in his place," Dirks said Sunday when he returned to the WRRG studios for the first time in 20 years to help celebrate the station's 30th anniversary.
"I was into music a lot, but I hadn't ever thought about going into radio. I really enjoyed it when I first tried it. It seemed like a fun thing to do."
Dirks continued working as an on-air personality at WRRG for a couple of years and then took the job as the station's program director for a five-year stint when the position opened around 1981. He also was working part-time at WLUP in Chicago. When he was offered an overnight shift at WLUP in 1986, he left the Triton station and moved on.
Recent gigs
More recently, Dirks has been working at WZZN. Until very recently, he was the station's production manager. He recently became assistant program director.
"I wouldn't be in radio today if it hadn't started here," Dirks said while enjoying pizza and conversation with some former and current staffers at WRRG. "Working here was a very good training ground. And I used this to kind of catapult into a radio job."
It was the fond memories that Dirks has of his days at WRRG that prompted him to immediately be interested when he received an e-mail about the station's 30th anniversary celebration, which took place Saturday and Sunday in the WRRG studio and surrounding areas.
"Being here was my most fun time working in radio," he said. "Being here gave me the opportunity to play radio without the responsibility that goes along with working at a commercial station. I learned a lot working here."
WRRG-88.9 FM is a non-commercial educational radio station owned and operated by Triton College. Staff volunteers include Triton students and community members. The station's programming includes a range of artistically and culturally significant musical choices, topical talk, community affairs, public service awareness and sports.
The station's alumni include Dirks; Wendy Snyder, on Steve Dahl's afternoon show on WCKG; Walter "Freak" Kozielski, WRXQ; Christine Moran, WDRV; and Steve Cushing, nationally syndicated "Blues Before Sunrise" show on WBEZ in Chicago.
First event
The weekend reunion was the first such "official" event, according to Kurt Werner, Triton's director of TV and radio broadcasting.
"There have been some unofficial reunions, but we thought the 30th anniversary was pretty significant and would be a good time to have an official reunion," said Werner, who himself was on the air at WRRG from 1979-87.
"It's really been nice to see people coming back from different times. Everyone has been having a great time seeing people they haven't seen in years and talking about the times when they worked here."
WRRG's reception is somewhat limited within the Triton district. However, Werner said plans are in the works for broadcasts to soon be streaming live on the Internet on the station's web site, www.wrrg.org.