By Rick Kaempfer
PLAYTIME WITH BILL AND KERRI
B
ill Turck’s road to his current loca-
tion, co-hosting Playtime with Bill
Turck and Kerri Kendall on Sunday
afternoons (1-3pm) on WGCO is one of the
most interesting non-traditional radio
roads ever traveled. Twenty plus years ago,
he was literally in the most dangerous
place in the world.
“I arrived in Sarajevo just after Susan
Sontag did Waiting for Godot there,” he
explains. “And I spent much of the Bosnian
War there as an artist and witness. The peo-
ple I stayed with were art professors in a lit-
tle place overlooking sniper’s alley. My bed
was basically on the front line. I saw myself
as a chronicler of the destruction.”
That experience led to a book. “My
first book Broken was
recommended by the
National Association
of Mental Health
Institutes for the treat-
ment of PTSD.” That
led to four more
books.
He
also
worked as a war pho-
tographer and did
relief
work
in
Rwanda.
Typical
radio story, right? Just
your usual start in a
small market and
work your way up to
the big-time tale.
After his experi-
ences overseas, Turck
focused his political
activism domestically
and became a part of the Occupy move-
ment. He wrote two critically acclaimed
plays for the movement (Occupy My Heart
and The People’s Republican of Edward
Snowden). It was then, during his politically
active days, that the idea of doing political
talk radio began to appeal to him.
“I started bugging a local radio show
that seemed to be working for the Occupy
movement. He said ‘why don’t you come
on the show?’ I said ‘Sure.’ In the interim,
unbeknownst to me, the radio station was
looking to fire him. The first day I was on
the air, we did a good show, and when we
walked out the studio door, the station
manager and the program manager were
there to tell us the show’s been canceled.
Welcome to broadcasting!”
After doing a show called Revolution and
Beer for a while (a program that discussed
politics over craft beer), Turck decided to
get off the political train. “I decided I didn’t
want to do politics anymore. It had become
boring to me. Everything had been done.
Everyone had been parceled off into their
own little partisan trenches, and it just was-
n’t fun or interesting anymore. Besides, I
always had a bigger passion. I thought the
arts were underrepresented in the media. I
thought that through the arts we could
make a positive change in the community,
and maybe reach people beyond our parti-
san trenches without antipathy and bitter-
ness.”
Turck found a potential on-air partner
through a friend, and he and Kerri Kendall
have become one of the most unique radio
teams you’ll ever hear. What’s the perfect
pairing with a political activist/writer/art
lover? Naturally, a Playboy Playmate who
does energy healing and intuitive spiritual
12 illinoisentertainer.com february 2019
readings. Just like every other show, right?
The two have discovered one of the
great secrets of this town. There’s an unlim-
ited well of creative talent: musicians,
authors, writers, actors, and artists. By
focusing on that community, Playtime will
never run out of potential guests. “It’s a
vibrant group doing some amazing things,
especially
here
in
Chicago
and
Chicagoland,” he agrees.
“Artists are doing fantastic work. One
of the sore spots for me, I suppose, is that
the brilliance of the work coming out of
Chicagoland whether it’s music or theater
or literature or visual arts is so outstanding,
that in an earlier era these artists would
have been nationally or internationally rec-
Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall
ognized. The rise of the digital era has refo-
cused everyone nationally, but it also has
sort of cut opportunities for artists to
branch out. I’ll give you an example.
Brandon James from Englewood, a local
kid we’ve had on the show a couple of
times, has a beautiful flawless tenor voice.
He should be national. People should know
his name. We want to do what we can to
give talented artists like Brandon a plat-
form.”
It may sound like Turck takes a bit of a
serious approach to the subject matter, and
there are certainly times when he does, but
maybe the most surprising thing about the
show is its free-wheeling format in which
nearly everything goes. “It’s a little bit of a
magazine,” he says, taking a bit of an issue
with my characterization. “But we know it
can’t be dry, so we don’t let it be. We have a
big mission here. We’re trying to bring the
arts to a new audience. The people that lis-
ten to this radio station might not be that
familiar with the arts, and we’re opening
doors for them. We’re showing them what
is out there. We’ve had a lot of political can-
didates on, and we’ve tried to show them
the return on investment in the arts com-
munity, whether it’s breaking down arts
therapy programs, or showing the impor-
tance of things like murals and public art.
We show them that art like that can actual-
ly help to stop gang graffiti. Kids learn
work skills and work ethic, and the arts are
perfectly suited to deliver that message.”
It may be one of the most unlikely stops
on your radio dial, but Playtime with Bill
Turck and Kerri Kendall can be heard every
Sunday afternoon on WGCO-Evanston,
1590 AM.