Some people want to hear the news on the radio first thing in the morning. Others like a little on-air levity to start their day. Then there are those who like to wake up to the sound of high-energy dance music.
If you belong to that last group, WPNA-AM 1490 morning man Chet Gulinski wants you. And what kind of dance music does Gulinski offer on the Oak Park-based station? C&C Music Factory? Lisa Stansfield? Erasure?
How about Joe Rock and Company`s ”Hey Joe Polka,” the Wil Glahe Orchestra`s version of ”The Pennsylvania Polka” or Frankie Yankovic doing a bouncy rendition of ”With a Bit of Luck”?
That`s right, polka music. From 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays, Gulinski hosts ethnic WPNA`s ”Morning Drive-Time Polka” show, which features some of the zippiest music this side of the Baby Doll Polka Club.
But Gulinski`s show contains more than just polka music. It`s a full-service morning drive program with news, weather, sports, financial and traffic reports as well as daily features on health issues and the
environment, a Washington news roundup and even ski reports. Gulinski likes to say that the show, which will mark its third anniversary in April, provides morning-drive listeners with all the elements the larger downtown stations do. ”We wanted to offer an alternative type of morning program,” said Gulinski, is also the station`s program director and general sales manager.
”We knew that people liked to hear news, weather and other information in the morning, but at the same time we wanted to incorporate some lively musical entertainment.”
When it comes to polka music, Gulinski knows of what he speaks. A former pharmacist who went into radio full time in 1962, he has a library of about 4,000 polka records and has been playing the music on the air since 1955 at WPNA and its earlier incarnation as WOPA and WBMX-AM, as well as at WTAQ, WAIT and WVVX.
While WPNA is owned by an offshoot of the Polish National Alliance, Gulinski, a president of the Senior Polka Association, says the appeal of polkas extends well beyond listeners of Polish extraction.
”It`s not only the Poles who have polka music,” he said. ”So do Russians, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians and the French. Also, Italian tarantella music and Irish jigs are similar to polka music. It appeals to a vast amount of people, and so far it`s worked out very well for us.”
Like other ethnic-oriented stations such as WCEV, WCRW, WEDC and WSBC, you won`t find WPNA ranked among the city`s top 30 stations, but Gulinski says the 20 to 40 pieces of mail he receives daily from listeners has convinced him that there`s a viable audience for his unusual morning show.
Gulinski admits that his program has a healthy number of older listeners, but he rejects the stereotype that the polka audience is all older ethnics.
”That`s not true,” he said. ”A lot of younger people are getting interested in polka music. It`s a very lively, spirited type of musical entertainment, and listening to it on the radio in the morning primes people for the rest of their day.”
