Well folks on of Connecticut's Longest Running Traditions is now history.
Last Sunday we pulled the plug on the Polka Power Radio show on 840 WRYM, this show was airing on WRYM for 70 years and was considered one of America's Longest Running Weekly Remote Broadcasts.
As you may know I hosted the show for the past 5 years with John Gladsyz. I started co hosting as John came down with a bad case of Lyme Disease and he needed help running things... there were many times where he would just blank out and not know where he was for awhile, so I would always jump in and take control when he needed it... but I also started helping him to keep the polka tradition alive.
We were hosting the show from the Polish National Home in Hartford, and they really didn't like us being there... but they sure loved having us promote all kinds of things for them for free. Many weekends we would be there by ourselves in the huge dining room. It was depressing at times.
But the big reasons we shut it down was one sponsors... John's company Orbitech Satellite was the programs sole sponsor. He was paying out of pocket to keep the show going. We had lots of companies tell us they wanted to sponsor the show but none ever did. And also time is money, John and I did the show week after week and we were never paid a dime to host it. And the cost of running it (equipment, cd's etc came out of our own pockets)
two... John's Health - with the Lyme disease he has his good days and bad days.
three lack of listeners... we never had an idea who many were listening and on the last show we asked people to call in and give their opinion on the show... in the two hours we only received 3 calls with two of them telling us Polka is dead and as much as they like the show we are wasting our time... and one asked us not to go, but understood if we did pull the plug.
Four... time we both have families and work 70+ hours a week. Both of our wives were not happy that we couldn't spend our Sundays with them and our family. While the show was only two hours long being in the mid day it took up a good chunk of the day... and when you were done you were burned out to do anything else.
Five... no one wanted to take the show over we offered to hand it over to anyone else who wanted to keep the polka tradition alive... no one wanted it unfortunately.
So with that on Sunday May 26th we decided to end the show. When it was showtime I understand WRYM kept the Spanish language programming going and I also understand that John did not get a single call asking where the show was.
RIP Polka Power, it was fun.
Last Sunday we pulled the plug on the Polka Power Radio show on 840 WRYM, this show was airing on WRYM for 70 years and was considered one of America's Longest Running Weekly Remote Broadcasts.
As you may know I hosted the show for the past 5 years with John Gladsyz. I started co hosting as John came down with a bad case of Lyme Disease and he needed help running things... there were many times where he would just blank out and not know where he was for awhile, so I would always jump in and take control when he needed it... but I also started helping him to keep the polka tradition alive.
We were hosting the show from the Polish National Home in Hartford, and they really didn't like us being there... but they sure loved having us promote all kinds of things for them for free. Many weekends we would be there by ourselves in the huge dining room. It was depressing at times.
But the big reasons we shut it down was one sponsors... John's company Orbitech Satellite was the programs sole sponsor. He was paying out of pocket to keep the show going. We had lots of companies tell us they wanted to sponsor the show but none ever did. And also time is money, John and I did the show week after week and we were never paid a dime to host it. And the cost of running it (equipment, cd's etc came out of our own pockets)
two... John's Health - with the Lyme disease he has his good days and bad days.
three lack of listeners... we never had an idea who many were listening and on the last show we asked people to call in and give their opinion on the show... in the two hours we only received 3 calls with two of them telling us Polka is dead and as much as they like the show we are wasting our time... and one asked us not to go, but understood if we did pull the plug.
Four... time we both have families and work 70+ hours a week. Both of our wives were not happy that we couldn't spend our Sundays with them and our family. While the show was only two hours long being in the mid day it took up a good chunk of the day... and when you were done you were burned out to do anything else.
Five... no one wanted to take the show over we offered to hand it over to anyone else who wanted to keep the polka tradition alive... no one wanted it unfortunately.
So with that on Sunday May 26th we decided to end the show. When it was showtime I understand WRYM kept the Spanish language programming going and I also understand that John did not get a single call asking where the show was.
RIP Polka Power, it was fun.
