‘Setting the standard’
Channel 4 in Palos Heights lauded for excellence in public access TV
There are three part-time workers running Channel 4 in Palos Heights and overseeing 10 volunteers at the station. One is Dave Wierzal, a retired Sandburg High School coach and teacher. At age 60, he brings in a lot of ideas experience, plus many contacts. He also brings in a lot of youth. Wait, what?
It’s true. Wierzal is decades younger than the other two men running the station — Ron Jankowski and Carl Germann. Jankowski turned 85 in December and Germann turned 84 the same month.
Whomever thinks television is a young person’s game has not been hanging around Channel 4. The station is killing it in content produced for TV and the internet.
And in recent months, they have been all but killing themselves keeping the content going while moving its studios from cramped quarters at Palos Heights City Hall to the spacious building that housed the Southwest Central Dispatch Building at 8911 W. 95th St.
The new digs were open for business on Jan. 24 as two shows were recorded, one focusing in on Moraine Valley Community College and the other on travel.
When the shows were over, Jankowski, the producer who started the station in 1999, got a chance to relax for a few minutes.
“It took a lot of work to get to this point,” he said. “We’re still fine tuning but we’re fully operational now.
“We have five cameras and can do some trick shots and we have a lot of flexibility.”
At the Jan. 17 City Council meeting, Palos Heights Ald. Jerry McGovern, who oversees the public access channel, boasted the station produced 305 local shows and averaged 120 hours of programs per month in 2022.
Channel 4, which is partially funded by the city, Comcast and AT&T, received a letter from Comcast lauding it for being one of the best cable access channels in the state and setting the standard for other channels.
The station sends cameras to events in the area, broadcasts City Council meetings and occasionally presents live events.
But the meat of the work happens in the studio, with shows about schools, sports, businesses, books and other topics.
There is programming about Palos Hills and there are talks in the works that Palos Park might come on board in the future.
The station has come a long way
since 1999, when Jankowski was merely in his 60s and newly retired as a producer at NBC 5 in Chicago.
“The League of Women Voters wanted a camera recording council meetings,” Jankowski said. “There were a lot of arguments back then and they wanted it exposed.”
A Radio Shack camera was placed in council chambers, but the wasn’t always someone there to operate it. Jankowski’s wife, Sue, encouraged Ron to volunteer, and that started an era of progress.
“I wondered ‘what can I do to help this city?’’’ Jankoski said.
Plenty.
He and Sue and Carol Stefan helped get the station rolling in the early 2000s.
Jankowski was busy running things inside and outside but 10 years ago, when Oak Lawn’s Germann asked if there was a spot open, Jankowski jumped at the opportunity to bring him on board.
“He knows cabling and wiring,” Jankowski said. “And that allowed me to do a lot of work outside the studio with contacting people and planning the shows.”
Wierzal was a fan of the station because his wife, Jeannine Kacmar, hosted programs regarding the library. After Wierzal retired from Sandburg in 2020, he wanted to do some camera work and other behind-thescenes duties.
But he was quickly put in front of the camera and has hosted shows on everything from sports to religion to some of the new technology at Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital.
“When I retired, this is something I wanted to pursue,” he said. “But I didn’t know in what capacity. Ron hooked me and reeled me in and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. The bottom line is that I love it. I think Palos Heights should be incredibly proud of what Ron’s created here.”
Channel 4 continues to seek volunteers as it continues to blossom.
Jankowski, who worked for an aerospace firm and helped create components that were in rockets in space in the late 1960s before 10-year stints with Gaylord Products and Channel 5, said he appreciates the city’s help and support throughout the years.
How long can an 85-yearold keep this up? He takes it on a year-by-year basis.
“I plan on being here for the rest of this year and then decide,” he said. “I don’t want this to stumble in any way. I want to make sure that when I retire, this will have a good base and will continue.
“I have a passion to make this thing successful. I’ve been really excited about the support I’ve had to make those goals that I had when I came here on a volunteer level.”