WGN Radio's Hometown Voices visits Oswego

At 5 a.m. Friday, homes and businesses along Route 34 in Oswego were dark, but Pearce’s at was lit up with a cheery glow.

Inside, WGN Radio 720 was set up, with radio hosts Dave Eanet, Orion Samuelson and Greg Jarrett set to broadcast their Hometown Voices Show at Oswego.

The show, originally called Hometown Heroes, has existed for around six years and looks at Chicagoland communities.

Greg Jarrett has been leading the Hometown Voices tour for about two years.

“I love it. I love the people and being able to talk to them,” he said, sitting behind a table covered in microphones, laptops and papers. “When you’re in the studio you can’t see the people’s reaction. Here, you can see and hear everything.”

There were a wide range of people sitting inside the bar and spilling out onto the outside patio.

Terry Friednam and his wife, Marcia, had taken seats by the bar. The 41-year Oswego residents have been long-time WGN Radio listeners. Terry gets up early every morning and always tunes in.

“It’s funny,” he said. “Orion used to broadcast back around when our kids were young. We’ve just always heard him.”

Dawn Gould is also an early riser, normally waking by 4:30 a.m. to hit the gym, and listens to WGN Radio as she gets ready.

“It’s a part of my day,” she said, drinking a cup of black coffee from the free continental breakfast provided by Oswego’s .

The WGN Radio crew was also up early, driving into Oswego to get the show ready for the morning crowd.

“It was so far from my home, my GPS was asking if we were there yet,” laughed Jarrett, to many chuckles from the audience.

Allied First Bank president Ken Bertrand thought it was fantastic that Hometown Voices had come to Oswego.

“It’s a great opportunity for [Oswego],” he said.

The show was punctuated with traffic and weather updates to sports coverage to more serious events, like the religious tensions in the Middle East and the global stock market.

But for the most part the mood remained light-hearted, with appearances by Oswego Village President Brian LeClercq and All My Children star Walt Willey.

Talking about the economy, LeClercq said, “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do. We’ve learned to adapt here.”

Oswego was recently , a point remarked on by the WGN Radio hosts.

“I’m going to be exploring after the show,” said Jarrett. “It was a bit dark when we came in, but Oswego looks beautiful.”

Other highlights of the show included Vietnam veteran and corpsman Doc Barrett of Oswego coming in for a greeting, after he was featured by undercover man Justin Swain earlier during the week.

“He was part of the Purple Foxes,” said Jarrett. “This here’s a hero.”

To close out the three and a half hour radio show, Allstate Agent Kevin Calder awarded a check of $1,000 to the American Cancer Society for research.