2. (Click here to go to our website) Call to Order – President Weldon Garrelts called the meeting to order and led in the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Invocation – David Hunter: The food here, we adore it, and thank Thee so much for it. May we e're enjoy good friendship, but if hurts occur, amendship. Amen. Vittles – Chicken meatloaf, wild rice, mixed vegetables, salad and toppings, rolls and butter, Ban Chocolate cake & banana pudding, tea and coffee.

4. Attendance – 22 members, 2 visitors. Birthdays – none. Guests – Evelyn (wife guest of Herb Bail).

5. Lions Report – None: If you are ill or know a fellow Lion that is under the weather, please call Pat Bryan at 586-4535.

6. Lottery – Kathy Struck won the $9 lottery.

7. Announcements – Weldon Garrelts announced that Candy Day is coming soon. Jay Hoeflinger will be in charge. Omer Benn, Marvin Paulsen, Homer Kuder and Pat Bryan volunteered for the Mahomet Lions Club Beer tent. Fred Greffe was also there.

8. Jay read a letter of thanks from the Women in Transition. There were 12 volunteers who helped with the yard work.

9. Program – Sam McGrew introduced our speaker, Mike Haile, General Manager of Lite Rock 97.5, WHMS radio.

10. Mike was fascinated with radio early in life after his dad took him to the radio station at 5 years of age. When he lived in St. Louis his neighbor took him to visit KXOK, where he got to start working.

11. After high school, he moved to California, where he got a degree at Cal State Long Beach and he worked at KWOW in Pomona. He came to Champaign in 1978 to work and did programming but wanted to learn sales.

12. He thought he would only stay here 18 months, but has been here 35 years. He is now part of the team put together by Stevie Jay at WDWS/WHMS.

13. He met his wife here and decided not to move. Some colleagues he works with include Loren Tate, Jim Turpin, Brian Barnhart, Dave Gentry, Steve Kelly, Dave Shaul and others.

14. He works for one of the last privately owned media companies in the USA, which is owned by a not-for-profit Foundation left by Mrs. Marajen Stevick Chinigo.

15. They have 9 reporters covering local stuff and one of the best Sports programs. They just started an online Newspaper edition for premium subscribers. People in 21 different states were recently noted online listening to “Penny for Your Thoughts.”

16. Mike answered numerous questions.

17. How are radio ratings done?

18. Currently ratings are done by 2 companies: Arbitron and Eastlan. Arbitron uses a diary system, for which you are paid $1, but this is 50-year-old technology and the younger generation will not use it.

19. Mike was elected to the advisory board but said he was unsuccessful in getting change. Now he uses Eastlan, which uses a phone survey system.

20. Omer Benn noted he is pleased with Mike’s effort to have faces with the ads in the News-Gazette.

21. They own 8 weekly local newspapers.

22. What about the recent purchases of large Newspapers, such as the Washington Post?

23. Mike said, “The local newspapers are not going away.” The purchase of these larger newspapers is all about merging of large news content with online distribution.

24. He left us with an interesting statistic: From 11AM-2PM, One in 4 listeners across the country are listening to Rush Limbaugh.

25. Tail Twister – Omer Benn began by reading a couple of funny jokes,

26. then he asked Ted Gonsiorowski to carry the bucket.

27. He fined Kathy Struck for having won the lottery;

28. David Lin for his organization of a scooter safety program.

29. He auctioned 2 tickets to the football game with parking. President Weldon Garrelts bought them for $4.

30. Rich King bragged about his trip to Rocky Mountain Park and said his son took 4 th place in a game this week.

31. and then Mister Twister made the fatal mistake of fining Dave Hunter for his Letter to the Editor!

32. Greeter: Byron Balbach Sept 11 – Mike Schlosser - U of I police training academy Sept 18 – Loren Tate & Jim Turpin – Illini Sports Click here sammcgrew@att.net to email Sam McGrew and let him know what you would like to see in a Lions Club program some time.sammcgrew@att.net Coming up September 4 – Business Meeting, Know Your Lion

33. Thank you for watching Editor Rex Hess Publisher David Hunter To email Dave with your comments, click here → hunter4000@comcast.nethunter4000@comcast.net To go to the our website, click here → http://www.champaignlions.org/http://www.champaignlions.org/