Live from Huntley High School

Here’s the latest, most exciting news from Huntley Radio.

Jim Carollo. (Photo provided)

On Saturday, October 2 at 7 p.m., Huntley Radio will be broadcasting LIVE from Huntley High School. THIS IS OUR FIRST LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST. And it is from Huntley High School’s football stadium. This is their big Homecoming game and they’ll be playing their long time rival, Jacobs High School. Announcing the game from stadium’s broadcast booth will be WHRU’s own Chris Cunningham and Curtis Koch All this has been made possible because of a grant received from the McHenry County Foundation. Together with other donations, these funds allowed us to purchase the necessary equipment so that we could do live remote broadcasting. This is a tremendous step forward for the station. Having this equipment in place, we will be able to broadcast LIVE future high school events, as well as many exciting community activities.

We’ve been saluting all the folks at Huntley Radio who work behind the scenes, day in and day out, making sure you receive our signal 24 hours, seven days a week. Last time, we introduced you to Huntley Radio’s Executive Director, Allen Pollack. This time we’d like you to meet our Chief Engineer and Board member, Jim Carollo. Jim was part of the founding group, and without his expertise, experience and knowledge of radio, it would have been very, very difficult to begin broadcasting. Once the station found its home in Deicke Park, and after receiving a funding donation to equip the station, it was Jim who gave us the “shopping list” of what was needed to begin. When we got the funds in place, Jim ordered everything, and with help from some of his engineering friends installed and tested everything…and then we began. Of course those first years we only “broadcast” (streamed) on the internet, but we were on 24/7 with wonderful programming and music.. .When the station received its FM license in October 2014, Jim was shopping again for the other equipment needed to become a Low Power FM station. Again we were fortunate to receive funding and, of course, we needed a location for the transmitter and a tower on which to install our antenna. With the Village of Huntley’s approval the transmitter was installed at the base of the water tower at Algonquin and Kreutzer and our antenna was placed on top of the tower. Jim took care of all of that. Now, our antenna sits proudly up there sending our signal out to five different communities: Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Gilberts, Algonquin and Carpetersville.

Here’s a little background on Jim. He partially retired from WGN radio in 2010 and agreed to serve with WGN until 2013 when he retired completely. Jim is married to Karen and they just celebrated their fifty-second anniversary. They have three sons and five grandchildren. Jim graduated from DeVry Technical Institute and began work with WGN radio in 1970. He became Chief Engineer in 1979. He enjoys reading (and I think working!) He and Karen love spending time with their family and friends. Jim is not only our Chief Engineer, but he is always around to guide us through the many issues confronting our operations and makes sure we are following all the FCC guidelines. A BIG SALUTE TO OUR CHIEF – THANKS JIM!

Our new Special Events Committee is planning to be visible at many community events, so when you see our booth, be sure and stop by and say “Hello.” We’d like to meet all of you, our faithful listeners. And if you’re not familiar with our station, please try us. We have such an eclectic variety of programming, you might not like everything, but you’ll certainly find some things you will like.

Remember, tune your FM radio to 101.5. Make it a habit.

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