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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

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