McHenry County Historical Society to host radio news director

Submitted by McHenry County Historical Society

On Monday, June 25, the McHenry County Historical Society will hold its 48th annual meeting at 7 p.m. at its museum at 6422 Main St. in Union. The featured speaker will be local STAR 105.5 radio news director Stew Cohen.

Cohen spent his early broadcast experience as news director working for WYEN radio in Des Plaines in the 1970s. As he describes it, he “couldn’t pull out a cellphone and call the radio station or pound out a story on his laptop.” Instead, he had to find a pay phone to send a story on the scene or return to the station and write up his newscast on an IBM Selectric typewriter. While the announcer was cuing a record on the turntable, Stew prepared for the newscast using UPI wire service copy and stories he wrote from the news he covered. The 1970s were very “hands on” and a great deal different from today.

Today, Cohen is the news director of WZSR-FM, STAR 105.5 and WWYW-FM103.9. He is completing his first book, “The WYEN Experience,” about the people of a radio station that flourished in the 1970s with young broadcasters, including Garry Meier of WGN Radio and Bob Roberts of WBBM Radio, and was sold by the mid-1980s.

Cohen will talk about some of his experiences covering stories, read a few interesting passages from his book, relate how radio has changed since the 1970s and tell about some of the interesting characters he included in the book.

Following his presentation, a brief annual meeting of the historical society takes place, covering finances and reports from the president, administrator and various committee chairs. The election of members to the board of directors also takes place. The program and meeting are open to the public.

For information regarding concerning this meeting, membership and programs offered by the McHenry County Historical Society, call (815) 923-2267 or visit www.mchsonline.org.