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The Highland Park Landmark 012518
The Highland Park Landmark 012518
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18 | January 25, 2018 | The highland park landmark life & arts<br />
hplandmark.com<br />
Get<br />
ready<br />
to<br />
vote!<br />
THE GLENCOE A NCHOR • THE GLENVIEW LANTERN<br />
THE HIGHLAND PARK LANDMARK • THE LAKE FOREST LEADER<br />
THE NORTHBROOK TOWER • THE WILMETTE BEACON • THE WINNETKA CURRENT<br />
Calling all art,<br />
athletic, day<br />
and overnight<br />
camps!<br />
We need vendors for the<br />
4th Annual CAMP EXPO!<br />
coming<br />
feb. 1 - feb. 25<br />
Categories include:<br />
Beauty • Dining<br />
Education<br />
Fitness & Recreation<br />
Health • Pets • Services<br />
Shopping • Vehicles<br />
Honor your favorite local businesses by voting for them in<br />
the second annual North Shore Choice Awards!<br />
Look for the ballot inside your 22nd Century Media newspaper<br />
or vote online at www.22ndcenturymedia.com/nschoice<br />
2018<br />
Sat., February 24, 2018 • 10am - 2pm<br />
Northbrook Court<br />
1515 Lake Cook Road, Northbrook, IL<br />
For more information, call (708) 326-9170 ext. 16<br />
or visit www.22ndcenturymedia.com/camp<br />
VENDOR BOOTH DEADLINE: FEB. 7<br />
Vinyl lives on in Highland<br />
Park-raised man’s podcast<br />
Classic rock<br />
podcast reaches<br />
nearly 1M<br />
downloads<br />
Megan Bernard<br />
Contributing Editor<br />
Bob Stern grew up listening<br />
to Chicago radio. It<br />
was only a matter of time<br />
before he made a career<br />
out of it.<br />
The Chicago born,<br />
Highland Park raised man<br />
said he was always intrigued<br />
by radio, making<br />
visits to Chicago often<br />
as a child to witness live<br />
broadcasts. Once he went<br />
off to school at the University<br />
of Illinois Urbana-<br />
Champaign, he made it<br />
his No. 1 passion. Today,<br />
he hosts his own podcast,<br />
Vinyl Schminyl Radio,<br />
which has reached nearly<br />
1 million downloads.<br />
“At school, I began<br />
working for the student-run<br />
station called<br />
WPGU,” Stern said of his<br />
first radio job. “It was one<br />
of the only commercial<br />
radio stations run by students<br />
in the country. We<br />
broke a lot of music on<br />
PGU. It was when classic<br />
rock was new.”<br />
After many fond memories<br />
working for WPGU,<br />
Stern sought out a radio<br />
job after graduation, landing<br />
at WXRD in Woodstock.<br />
There, he was “the<br />
morning guy” for several<br />
years, but always wanted<br />
to break into the bigger<br />
market of Chicago.<br />
“I told myself if I don’t<br />
get into a bigger market<br />
by the time I’m 25<br />
years old, I’m going to<br />
go into sales,” Stern said.<br />
“I didn’t want to be one<br />
Glencoe resident Bob Stern created and hosts the Vinyl<br />
Schminyl Radio podcast available online and on iTunes.<br />
Photo Submitted<br />
of those radio guys who<br />
jumps from small market<br />
to small market. I didn’t<br />
want to be a gypsy.”<br />
Coincidentally, the day<br />
after Stern’s 25th birthday,<br />
he started in radio<br />
sales. For many years<br />
later, he sold radio time to<br />
advertisers, then later got<br />
into more tangible sales<br />
with selling professional<br />
audio visual products.<br />
While his career revolved<br />
around the world<br />
of radio, it didn’t necessarily<br />
give him the airtime<br />
he craved. So, eight years<br />
ago, he began the podcast<br />
he calls Vinyl Schminyl<br />
Radio in April 2010.<br />
Originally, Vinyl<br />
Schminyl started as<br />
a Monday through Friday<br />
“classic deep cut” of<br />
the day, where he played<br />
one song and talked about<br />
its back story, where it<br />
charted, the motivation<br />
behind it and some history<br />
GIVE IT A LISTEN<br />
Vinyl Schminyl Radio<br />
www.vinylschminyl.com<br />
www.bobstern.libsyn.com<br />
Or search “Bob Stern’s Vinyl<br />
Schminyl Radio” on iTunes<br />
of the artist — “more than<br />
any radio announcer will<br />
talk about,” he said.<br />
That “deep cut” still exists<br />
today, plus some thematic<br />
weeks focusing on<br />
a particular year or topic.<br />
Then there is also The<br />
Vinyl Schminyl Radio<br />
Hour, a longer version of<br />
his podcast hosted once a<br />
week.<br />
“I play more music in<br />
the hour and I don’t go<br />
into the back story that<br />
great of a deal,” Stern<br />
said.<br />
After he launched the<br />
hour-long podcast, Stern<br />
noticed the downloads<br />
started to pile up. So<br />
much that he calculated<br />
them: he was getting as<br />
many downloads in one<br />
month than he was previously<br />
receiving within a<br />
six-month period.<br />
“There are countries<br />
Please see vinyl, 19