Chuck Wills, Pam Raider, Vera Grubbs, Jim Eagleman, Dave Seastrom, Rick Fettig.
The Voice of Brown County
~ story and photos by Jeff Tryon
It is a quiet Tuesday evening in Nashville, but inside a little room up at the History Center, a devoted group of citizen journalists has gathered to produce“ The Brown County Radio Hour,” the only broadcast devoted entirely to the comings and goings-on in the area.
Heard on the first Sunday morning and Wednesday evening of each month on Bloomington’ s volunteerpowered radio station WFHB, the show is a blend of interviews, music, and monologues with one thing in common— they are about Brown County.
“ I’ ll try to ask intelligent questions,” jokes on-air host and interviewer Dave Seastrom as he settles in behind the microphone to interview a group from the Brown County Opioid Crisis Alliance.
Nothing is scripted or even sketched out in advance, just the gentle questioning of the soft-spoken Seastrom, which tends to put people at ease. Behind a glass window, Engineer Chuck Wills is making sure everything is clearly heard and digitally recorded.
Later, individual pieces are edited, and introductions and other announcements are recorded for what will become the 84 th Brown County Radio Hour show.
Guests or story ideas are generated by the core group of about a half dozen people who oversee the creation and production of the show, most of whom have been a part of the Brown County Hour for most of the eight years it has been in production.
Seastrom said it used to take the group two months, meeting every Tuesday night, to produce one hour of radio.
44 Our Brown County • March / April 2019