Slick Willy Radio debuted in 2019 from Weeber’s home-based studio in Erie. The internet radio station features “nothing but the best music from all genres” from rock to country and even up-and-coming artists. Weeber’s vision for Slick Willy Radio’s “sister station” was to have a community-based radio station providing family-friendly music from the 60’s-90’s era such as oldies, blues, country, pop, and classic rock.
Rock River Community Radio aims to “support local businesses, schools, and families by offering a positive, family-friendly listening experience with great classic music free from explicit content.” It’s designed with businesses in mind that can play it for their customers to enjoy while shopping or dining. It’s a platform for local organizations and businesses to advertise events or specials. And it provides live play-by-play commentary of local sporting events for those not able to attend in person.
The radio station officially started streaming mid-August 2024 and it’s been going well so far, says Keith. “We have some great sponsors that have helped us get things going and allow us to provide for our communities. We have great support from local businesses and the schools as well with allowing us to do their sporting events. We really see an increase in listeners when we are doing the EP Panther sporting events. It’s interesting to see across the country where we have listeners, knowing they are most likely former residents of our communities, alumni for our schools or even relatives that live in the local area. We want to provide not only for Erie residents, but Prophetstown, Morrison, Albany, Fulton, Cordova, Port Byron and other local communities.”
Keith grew up in Erie until moving to Bettendorf in 2006. He’s currently a career firefighter at the Rock Island Arsenal. He’s been helping Weeber with Slick Willy Radio since the beginning and even had a Thursday night show for a few years.
Besides the music, Rock River Community Radio’s main focus is celebrating and strengthening the local connections, especially with Erie-Prophetstown sports. After a successful season of broadcasting the Panther football games last fall, their ultimate goal is to provide coverage of all sporting events. They already have coverage lined up for both girls’ softball and boys’ baseball this spring.
“We had two great commentators for the EP football games this past season, Scott Miner and Scott Hammer, and they have already said they will be back for next football season,” said Keith. “We had a couple others that stepped up to help us a couple nights of both boys’ basketball and girls’ basketball, along with post-season play of EP volleyball. Coach Mac did a couple wrestling matches as well, maybe we can get him back for next wrestling season as well? We’re always looking for anyone that may be interested in doing play-by-play commentary of sports to reach out to us.”
And while music is the constant of the station, you won’t necessarily hear newly released songs, says Keith. “We pride ourselves in providing the listeners with classic music that most radio stations no longer play. Where else can you go to listen to anything from the 60’s-90’s, classical, country, classic rock, pop, blues? We try to arrange the music to have more of the oldies music during the weekdays and a mix of the rest throughout the evening and weekends. We do have some great shows as well that we encourage everyone to take the time to listen to.”
The station has also partnered with Pastor Tiffany Garcea at Erie United Methodist Church for “Five Minutes of Grace,” a devotional every Sunday morning at 8 a.m. followed by Christian music until 11 a.m., with an archive of all the recordings here.
“Cort In The Morning” is on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7 a.m. This one-hour morning show has the perfect mix of laughs, stories and music.
New on Tuesdays is a partnership with Aroundptown.com for a local news roundup every two hours starting at 5:30 a.m. The report is compiled by Managing Editor Sarah Ford with COO of Stahr Media and Around Ptown publisher Janel Stahr recording the report from her Rock Falls studio.
There’s a weather report throughout the day, and the station will be streaming the Quad City Steamwheelers football games this season. Find the complete show schedule on the Rock River Community Radio website, rockrivercommunityradio.com, which streams 24/7, or you can download the app that’s available on both Android and Apple devices. “You can take us everywhere you go!” says Keith.
They’re always looking for sponsors as well, with sponsorships helping to keep the radio station playing the music listeners want to hear and providing local sports action and other community information. “We would love to work with any local business not only in advertising but having them playing Rock River Community Radio in their businesses. We have some great sponsorship packages with great pricing that we feel are very fair to our local businesses,” says Keith. “There is so much we can help with spreading the word,”
They’re also open to any ideas or suggestions that listeners may have. Reach out to Keith or Weeber at info@rockrivercommunityradio.com, sending a message through Facebook, or by calling 309-644-0126.
