Duo keeps Elgin church service on the air

Steve Muchow and Justin Potts are like the big offensive linemen in football.

They're a vital part of the team, but if you hear their names called then you know something has gone awfully wrong.

Like the quarterback getting sacked.

Or worse - muffled audio or cloudy sound for a church's radio broadcast.

For a combined 45 years, they've been the men volunteering behind the scenes at the First United Methodist Church in Elgin, setting up microphones, mixing sounds and ensuring the audio for the 9 a.m. service is in tiptop shape to be sent over the airwaves at Elgin's very own WRMN.

"They're tremendous. They make this ministry a reality," said Jonathan Hutchison, pastor at First United for the past year and a half.

An audio engineer by profession, Muchow first volunteered his time and talents in 1983. Five years later, he recruited Potts, an information technology manager.

"We pretty much work as a team. We can do it alone, but it's a lot easier with two people there," Muchow said of Potts. "I was very happy to have the help, believe me."

The pair have been together since 1988, doing their part to bring Sunday services to people who can't make it to church.

Just call it the radio congregation.

"Steve and Justin have been incredible in the amount of volunteer time they've put in. Steve is an incredible technician. Steve knows radio backward and forward and is a great engineer and problem solver. He's really taken the lead in mentoring Justin, whose only been doing this for 20 years," Hutchison said with a slight chuckle.

Muchow, a longtime Elgin resident, initially was an usher. One day, something grabbed his ear and it wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"I heard some distortion and I went to see why the sound system wasn't sounding so good," he recalled, noting he asked the pastor at the time if he could fix it.

Soon, Muchow, now 63, was running cables, adjusting microphones, twisting dials and reading short introductions for the 9 a.m. service, which is simultaneously recorded through a feed to WRMN and later broadcast at 11 a.m. each Sunday morning.

It's been an Elgin tradition since 1951, and positive feedback from listeners only helps keep Muchow sharp and motivated.

"It's really furthering the ministry. It's a fair amount of time, but the service we perform is unique. We try to bring it to them," said Muchow, adding that his mother Carole Muchow lives in Elgin and also listens.

"You never know how far the station reaches or who it's going to reach. It's gratifying to get feedback from people."

Over the years, there's been a few close calls where the feed to the radio station went dead. So someone had to personally bring the tape to the station. Today, this information can be sent electronically or moved on a minidisc.

The broadcast slot at WRMN is exactly an hour, so if the service runs over the pair has to do some quick editing.

"It's a full-time thing every Sunday morning. We're working before the service starts, during the service and after. It's a labor of love," said Potts, 41. "It's a way for me to give back to the church. It's a way of giving my time."

The work doesn't stop at 10 a.m. They also have the same responsibilities for the 11:30 a.m. service, which is more contemporary and has more equipment - and things that could potentially go wrong.

"It's gotten easier and it's gotten more complicated at the same time," Potts said, adding there's more tasks to tend to but newer, more sophisticated equipment.

The pair don't have any fancy nicknames. And most of the time they are holed up in a booth.

Overall they are grateful for the support the radio ministry receives from church elders, as well as their wives.

Debbie Potts helps the pair pack and unpack the equipment. Linda Muchow sings in the church choir and is a sounding board for Steve.

"I always ask her how it sounds - if it sounds right. I trust her judgment. She's helped me make improvements over the years," Steve Muchow said. "I'm always open to feedback from anybody."

Linda Muchow is proud of her husband and Potts.

"For the most part, it's been a team effort every week," she said. "I've listened to a lot (of broadcasts) and I think ours is pretty good. It's a pretty professional broadcast."