This is Newisco Weekend. I'm Lisa Hale. Keeping a Wisconsin musical tradition
alive is the mission of our next guest. Here's Terry Barr. I am so happy to welcome to our show
today. Aaron Shulpi. Now Aaron is the owner of WRJQ Radio. That is an online radio station
based in Appleton. Aaron, thanks for joining me. Thanks, Terry. How are you?
I am great and I'm looking forward to talking to you about this. Let's say kind of a specific
fun tradition in Wisconsin. Oh, absolutely. Let's dive into the idea of Polka's as a tradition.
Where did this start? How did this become the state dance and music that we all really enjoy and
love? I know it started back in Bohemia. In that area of Eastern Europe,
there near Poland, and Germany was involved as well. But I think it really came when a lot of
people would emigrate to Wisconsin and really became popular in the 1930s, especially in
Eastern Wisconsin toward Manitowag. That's a real rich Czech Bohemia style Polka's. And Romi
Guaz, of course, was the one who was the most popular in the Manitowag Kiwani County areas.
And not to discount the Germans who went to Southern Minnesota, South Central Minnesota. That
was a big thing there too. But in Wisconsin, anyways, the Manitowag and Kiwani County areas of the
state were real rich in that Czech and Bohemia style. Everybody who had a wedding, you know,
knew a band and it would be three or four pieces. It could be a ten piece band and they'd all
have barn dances and play the weddings and that type of thing. And it just carried on.
And then when recordings became available, you know, around that same time, you know,
they would record those and then it would be distributed to the rest of the state and even in
some cases nationally. Well, as I mentioned earlier, you're the owner of WRJQ radio. And you'd
play nothing but Polka's. Why was this important to you? And what's the history of the radio station?
Well, WRJQ is an online only radio station right now. I run it from my house. It's going on
19 years. But before that, it was an actual AM radio station from about, well, the signal
goes back to 1952. It was WAPL, the first rock and roll station in Wisconsin. But eventually,
around 85 or so, it became Polkas and a few other changes here and there. But when I started
working in radio at the age of 13, that would have been 1994. We were playing a mix of big bands
and Polkas. And I just kind of, I was interested in radio first. And this station just happened
to be up the road from where I grew up. But so anyways, that station went off the air. A lot of
people had asked me, you know, streaming services were being popular or becoming popular at that
time. And I said, well, let me look into it and I'll see what I can do. And I looked into it.
And here we are 19 years later. That is awesome. And I've looked around. There are very few
radio stations playing Polkas anymore. And I can recall so many stations had an entire Sunday show
at one point. What happened to everyone? And why did you decide to stick with it?
I enjoy the music. That was part of my childhood. So I decided to focus on that. And it was a
niche that needed to be filled. And there are still some Polkas show is on radio stations throughout
the Midwest and up the East Coast, too. But not like it used to be, like you said.
Have we lost the tradition or are we finding our way back? What are you kind of seeing when it comes
to maybe a trend around the tradition of Polka? We haven't lost the tradition. What's gone are the
big 8, 9, 10 piece groups that had charts in front of them and nice musical and intricate arrangements
and things like that. And now what's happening is there's, you know, younger people are leading
two, three and four piece bands that are a lot easier to book. Let's just be honest for the
event holders and things like that. But that's where it's really going. Now there are still some
places that eventually will throw out a showcase, a nice 8 piece band and those are real special moments.
It's out there. There's a lot of church picnics and there's a lot of beer gardens, beer halls
and things like that that hire these younger groups who I'm fortunate enough to call my friends.
I mean, that's how close everybody is in this community. That's really the difference. So that
the tradition and the fun and frivolity of it all is not gone or lost. It's just in a different
form at these days. What would you like to see for the future of Polka music? As much as we all love
Ray Dorshner and Sixth Hat Dutchman and, you know, Romy Gaw's type bands from yesterday year,
it's not coming back. And I mean, there'll be a tribute here and there and we'll get some guys
together and we'll do that. But it's not a regular thing. So I would just love to see these younger,
I might say younger, I mean, they're my age and they're 40s and 50s. But I'd like to see those
bands continue the fun trios and they're mixing in some country and some rock and things like that
and they're two the older people who grew up with the old big bands, the larger Polka bands.
We'll still like it, but yet the younger people are not, oh geez, that's my great grandma's
music. You know, they're not like that at all. So that's that I'd like to see that going forward.
Well, now I'm going to ask you, do you have a favorite or one that you like to dance to?
I don't dance. I'm a listener, Romy. I don't dance.
Okay. Do you have kind of a favorite? I know you don't want to really pick one and say that's it.
But well, that's that's going to be off. There's a favorite song or two is like asking who
your favorite kid is, you know, when you do this for, you know, I'm going on 30 years, this
Christmas, he'll be 30 years in broadcasting. I enjoy the Minnesota Dutchman style a lot,
Ray Adorshner and the Rainbow Valley Dutchman from Manascha, Wisconsin. Huge
influence on my musical tastes, but he borrowed that from Minnesota. So there's a lot of bands out
there, Elmer Scheid, the six fat Dutchman, Babe Wagner. I know those are all old bands, but I do like
the more the German Dutchman style, but I like it all. There's some Polish style that I like,
even though it's a little bit, you know, on the younger side for my musical taste, but I love
going to Polesky and seeing that stuff and watching everybody dance, and the average age is like
20 at the time of the floor, there's whipping around. I really do like it all. It's really hard
to pick a favorite, but if I had two, I would say Minnesota Dutchman style, absolutely 100%.
Aaron Schultke, owner of WRJQ Radio in Appleton, online Polkas all the time. Thanks for
keeping the tradition alive. We're all doing the best we can. I appreciate your time, Terry.
Thanks for having me on. This Polka is a live version by Ray Adorshner and his band. Now talk
about tradition. Adorshner's group has been together for more than 60 years, and during that time,
two of his brothers and three of his sons have played with the Manasha-based group.
Thank you for being a part of Newisco Weekend. Your look at the stories and issues facing
Northeast Wisconsin. Newisco Weekend is produced and written by Terry Bar and Lisa Hale. Our executive
producer is Todd Michaels, directed by Lisa Hale. Lead correspondent is Terry Bar with features by
Conrad Krieger, Brittany Merlot, Melissa Kay, Joanne Croulette, and Pete Schwabba. Plus we have our
commentator Amanda Nimmer. If you have a story you'd like to hear covered, please feel free to
email me anytime. Lisa.Hale at civicmedia.us. You can also text us through the Civic Media app.
I'm Civic Media, Northeast Wisconsin Bureau Chief Lisa Hale for WISS and WGBW News. Be unstoppable.
