Usually when someone makes waves, itās not a good thing. People enjoy the status quo. Whatās that saying? Donāt rock the boat?
This April 11, 2013, edition of the Sun Day is our third-year anniversary edition, and when I review our brief history (which feels much longer, ancient sometimes) serving the Sun City and Edgewater communities, I admit that weāve made some waves, but thatās all part of what a newspaper is and does.
Canāt let governments, boards, councils, management companies, etc. run rampant after all, now can we? Canāt let the ferns outgrow the garden. And like the tide to a coast, waves bring change, they reshape and redefine our boundaries.
Waves are good. Some waves bring you news, sports, arts, entertainment, local politics, current events, emergency information, alert notifications, and, of course, music of all varieties. Iām talking about airwaves; Iām talking about Huntley Community Radio. And Iām also talking about the immediate future of the Sun Day.
Since the Sun Dayās inception, weāve worked continually to expand, offering more columns, better local coverage, and more feature stories that readers find entertaining, informative, and engaging. Sam Geatiās Dining Out with Geezers, the Woodchucksā Ask the Woodchucks, Joanie Koplosās Health and Wellness features, and Mason Souzaās recent coverage of local politics are a few that come immediately to mind, among others. Not to mention our expansion into Edgewater in Elgin, our biggest advancement to date.
Thank you, Edgewater, for accepting the Sun Day and The Edge into your community and for your interest, which further enhances the paper and allows us to bring better stories and even more variety to our overall readers. Thank you.
I look back over these last three years and see how much the paper has grown in such a short time. The Sun Day has been able to perform at least one milestone per year. Year one, we doubled our page count. Year two, we expanded to Edgewater and went to a weekly format (which will return near yearās end). And keeping with our brief tradition, year three brings another growth for the Sun Day, one Iām exceptionally proud to announce.
Starting immediately, Huntley Community Radio is now the sister station broadcast affiliate of the Sun Day. Personally, I donāt think thereās a better fit, and itās my genuine hope that we make waves together.
At this early stage of our affiliation, our relationship is only budding, but Sun Day readers can expect to see immediate or near immediate benefits of our collaboration with HCR, including the start of their programming schedule in this edition, among other upcoming notifications and updates printed on a regular basis. A Sun Day radio broadcast is also being discussed as an additional option to our affiliation.
As with anything, the Sun Dayās affiliation with Huntley Community Radio is a work in progress and one that did not come overnight but after years of bonding. From the beginning of the Sun Day and when HCR was still in a conceptual phase, both organizations have been big and proud supporters of the other, identifying with each of the otherās burdens and sharing each organizationās successes. If thatās not support, then I donāt know what is.
Our affiliation is an exciting match, too, as our purposes are very much the same. Both organizations believe in sharing information. And although the delivery methods are different yet equally effective, both organizations believe in enriching the community by providing needed and wanted information dedicated to the public each organization serves. Furthermore, HCR was initially developed with a strong focus on the Sun City community by its current ranking captains, Sun City residents Allen Pollack, Dorothy Litwin, Jim Carollo, and Pat Molohon. That focus remains strong while Pollack, Litwin, Carollo, and Molohon, along with their proficient and thorough staff, expanded the stationās arms to embrace the entire Huntley community, which, of course, weāre all a part.
As always, none of the changes or expansions the Sun Day has seen over the years would have been possible without your support and readership and advertising. Thank you for reading. And thank you in advance for listening.
Note: additional information on Huntley Community Radio and how to listen is on Page 15. Also, the term āairwavesā mentioned in this editorial is not intended to be taken literally. At this time, HCR features online broadcasts while they await proper licensing from the FCC.