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It all started... On April 24, 1965, Ed and Joan
Panyrek started their Polka D.J. career as a hobby over radio
station WMUS in Muskegon, Michigan. The program continued to grow until they had a three hour show every Saturday afternoon. On June 15, 1968, they had a remote unit installed in the recreation room of their home and started doing the program from there over radio station WGHN in Grand Haven, Michigan (1370 AM) from 1-2PM every Saturday afternoon. At 2PM, they switched to radio station WLRC in Whitehall, Michigan (1490 AM) until 4PM. Ed and Joan felt they received more coverage that way, and brought more happy Polka music to more people. They also had their own live TV Polka Show for a period of 14 weeks with many out of state and area bands and dancers each week. Ed and Joan Panyrek's Polka DJ career continued for many years, with even syndicating their Polka Show to many other stations in the United States from West Virginia down all the way to Texas. They continued to remote as many broadcasts as possible, while distributing Polka records, helping to book Polka Bands, and even today, can always depend upon Ed and Joan to give a helping hand to any area halls, clubs, bands, organizations, DJ's, and other Polka activities. The Panyrek's moved from different station to station during their Polka DJ career, but their final broadcasting years brought many delightful memories with WKBZ and WQWQ in Muskegon, Michigan. But, on Saturday, April 06, 1996, Ed and Joan Panyrek,
"The King and Queen" of Polka Music, decided it was time to
retire from WQWQ AM 1520. The final broadcast of Ed and Joan was on
a cool April day, but the air was filled with very warm hearts for this
lovely couple. Between 200 and 300 guests from the listening
audience piled into the station studio headquarters, at that time, located
at 6083 Martin Road in Norton Shores, Muskegon, Michigan. The table
of an adjacent conference room was overflowing with a dish-to-pass feast
highlighted by a giant decorated sheet cake, from another sponsor.
The broadcasting continued to the front lawn of the radio station, where
live polka music and dancers warmed the sunny chill of April. Inside and out, soft drinks, beer, and champagne
flowed celebrating the 31 years of memories of Ed and Joan Panyrek.
Such memories will always be admired, but some of the lasting memories
occurred in 1972, when the Polka World Newspaper crowned the Panyrek's
"The Top Polka Deejays in the United States!" In 1978,
they were inducted into the Michigan Polka Music Hall of Fame. Then at 4PM, on Saturday, April 6, 1996, the Panyreks passed the microphone to their successors at WQWQ 1520 AM, to... Tom and Mary Amy Sanocki and "The Polka Melodies" Ed and Joan Panyrek had been asking Tom for a few years to actually take over the show to give his best in the field of a radio show. Each and every time they asked, Tom would politely say he was not interested in that type of a commitment. The Panyrek's got smart! They asked Mary Amy if we would be interested in the polka show - and Mary Amy said "YES, WE WOULD!". The "Polka Melodies" Show was created and our first show aired on Saturday, April 13, 1996 on WQWQ AM 1520 from 2:00-4:00PM. Our show continued for quite some time with that time slot, but as our children and school, plus other activities became more of a burden during afternoon times. Mary Amy and I decided to change our show from afternoons, to a morning slot. With that change, the ownership of the radio station was changing too...and "The Polka Melodies" was moved to WKBZ AM 850 from 8:00-10:00 AM every Saturday morning. With that change, our ratings skyrocketed! More and more polka listeners tuned in to our show in the morning than in the afternoon time slot - and with that in mind - the Station Manager of WKBZ gave us the good news that our show had the second largest listening audience in West Michigan, only falling second to a large country and western radio station. Mary Amy and Tom were very delighted with this news! After this announcement, WKBZ awarded us the opportunity to increase our show by one hour. From then on, we had the time slot of 8:00AM - 11:00AM, with our ratings continuing to increase each year with every rating book that was published. Then the unthinkable happened to WKBZ...After well over 75 years in business...the first radio station in Muskegon...the oldest radio station in Muskegon...was soon to be silent...and in the year 2000... WKBZ was in a financial strain, and "The Polka Melodies"
was forced to move back to their sister station WQWQ AM 1520. We
continued to broadcast 8-11AM every Saturday morning without any
interruptions. But the problem existed as additional financial
strain was placed upon the owners of WQWQ, (and the station call letters
changed once again, to WKBZ), was soon to catch up with
them.
It was not uncommon for Tom and Mary Amy to broadcast the 3 hour show without any heat in the building, and many times, without any engineering expertise. Broadcasting equipment somehow disappeared from the station, so it was up to Tom to go out and purchase equipment in order for for them to broadcast their polka show. Tom soon learned some tricks of the trade to get the station up and running on Saturday morning for the Polka Show. Many times Tom would wake up around 5AM to see if the radio station was on the air or not...and many times Tom would run in the station just to play music or to insure the listeners that the Polka Show would soon be up and running full power at 8AM. We continued the show, basically limping along, for many weeks. Our first Saturday show of 2001, January 6, 2001, on WKBZ AM 1520 was soon to be one of the last shows on that station. Mary Amy and Tom walked into the station to find the station without equipment to broadcast our show. The only equipment was a tape player and the computer running the network airplay. We played some polka music, but did not have the ability to talk to our listeners to tell them what was going on...but then Tom had an idea. We were able to tape record our voices on a hand-held tape player, then play the tape over the airwaves to say our "good-bye" to our audience. We thought, at that point, this was the end to "The Polka Melodies". Our show was off the air for a period of 6 weeks. Tom quickly started an interview process with various radio stations
around the West Michigan area, hoping to find a station we could call our
home for polka music. WMHG Magic 1600 came to our
rescue!
On March 2, 2002, our location moved from the corner of Summit and Getty Street in Muskegon...to our new location at 3565 Green Street in Norton Shores, Muskegon, Michigan. And, on March 6, 2002...the station manager, Don Beno, from WMHG AM 1600 called to congratulate our Polka Show! We have moved their station ratings up to #3 in West Michigan - just due to our faithful listeners on Saturday morning. We were ecstatic. WMHG AM 1600 has now asked us to increase our Polka Melodies Show one additional hour. We are currently working to build up more sponsors to cover the third hour. If you know of a business or someone wishing to help sponsor our show, please contact either Tom or Mary Amy Sanocki. Thank you. On July 2, 2006, WMHG AM 1600 and WKBZ AM 1090 teamed together to simulcast our polka show every Saturday morning from 8-11AM ... and an additional 2 hour show was added on Sunday's as well from 10AM until Noon. As announced, WMHG is scheduled to be shut down due to FCC regulations, and our polka show will be moving in it's entirety over to WKBZ AM 1090 by the end of the 2006 year. December 31, 2006 was our last simulcast on the two stations as we are now totally broadcasting on NewsTalk 1090 WKBZ every Saturday morning from 8-11AM and on Sunday morning from 10AM to Noon. We also broadcast LIVE on the internet as well: www.newstalk1090.com Tom and Mary Amy Sanocki would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of our listeners, and especially to those who participate in our show with dedications, and all the kind words you give us. Please, pass this website along to all your friends and relatives, and let's keep the polka industry strong! Thank you so very much - from the bottom of our serce (heart). Tom & Mary
Amy Sanocki Click here to view pictures of our family: Click Here Click here for additional pictures of our family: Click Here
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