About the Team
Heather Frey, Producer
Heather Frey is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where she was a regular DJ on Columbia's WCRX. She hosted an alternative-rock music show, "Alternate Routes", which she brought back to the airwaves from her years at Triton Community College. At Triton Heather also hosted a Beatles show called 'Echoes from Pepperland'. Heather's grandfather was in Armed Forces Radio in WWII and a producer at WLS in Chicago after the war. He was the lead producer for The National Barn Dance, and Heather grew up hearing stories about the Golden Age of radio. Heather's love of the Beatles led her, at the age of 15, to the Festival for Beatles Fans, where she met Terri Hemmert of WXRT, who encouraged her to work in radio. Since then, Heather has worked for WKQX (Q101), WCKG, WXRT & now WCPT in Chicago, where she is office manager & sales assistant, and produces The Mike Nowak Show on Sundays. Not knowing much about gardening but having a definite love of tree hugging and sports, she gets along swimmingly with Mike. In addition to being a lover of radio, the planet & music, Heather is a full time & proud Mom to her son William. She hopes to help Mike Nowak take over the world, one radio & garden at a time.
Rick DiMaio, Meteorologist
Rick DiMaio is not just a weatherman on The Mike Nowak Show. He is our expert on climate, climate change and all the ways our environment shapes and is shaped by us. A former Channel 32 chief meteorologist, he teaches full-time at Lewis University and part-time at other schools, including Loyola University, Columbia College, Oakton Community College and the School of the Art Institute. Earlier in his career, he was staff meteorologist for United Airlines for ten years. During his tenure at United, Rick designed and produced an International Pilots Weather Manual for the airline's European and North Atlantic operations. He also produced various in-house case studies on diverse weather conditions and supervised and co-published a one-year thunderstorm study. All of that is seriously impressive, but Rick is also impressive when he's not serious. He has a real penchant for the kind of jokes usually told by seven-year-olds. Aside from that, he's pretty funny.
Mike Sanders, Production Guy
Mike Sanders looks like the only sane person in the picture at left, doesn't he? Do not let him fool you. Anyway, here's what he has to say about his role on the team.
"Hey I'm Mike Sanders the host of Our Town and multiple hat wearer here at Chicago's Progressive Talk AM & FM and from time to time I help Mike Nowak with production (mostly of the technical nature) as our gizmo's and gadgets here are as grass roots as the man we are speaking of. Mike Nowak is a heck of a guy and while he refuses to donate any money to the Children of Mike Sanders college fund (tee hee) he is essentially my radio mentor, a great friend and he never fails to let me pick his brains about broadcasting, life and other meaningless pursuits."
Beth Botts, Guest Host
Beth Botts is a writer, speaker, Master Gardener and Openlands Treekeeper. She writes on gardening for the Chicago Tribune and Organic Gardening magazine and is a senior editor and writer at Chicagoland Gardening Magazine. She misspent way too many years of her life as a newspaper editor and reporter, including more than 20 years at the Tribune. Several of her stories have won awards from the Garden Writers Association. Raised in Hyde Park, a sinkhole of independent politics, by a mother who was an organic gardener and environmentalist before either term was popular, Botts now does her digging and weeding just on the west edge of the city, in the shade on the north side of a 4-story apartment building. She grows tomatoes and salads in containers on the 3rd-floor porch because that's the only place where there's enough sun. Whenever she gets a chance, she's out in the Indiana Dunes.
Growing in Chicago blog Chicagoland Gardening Magazine
Twitter: @chicagogardener Facebook: Beth Botts
Leah Pietrusiak, Intrepid Green Reporter
Leah Pietrusiak is Polish and Latvian, doesn't speak either, but did
graduate with a degree in environmental journalism from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison so she's not a total loser. The Chicago native
has written for the Chicago Reader, Time Out Chicago, Time magazine,
and is working on perfecting her Little Mermaid/rap stand-up routine,
which she recently performed at the World Famous Comedy Store in Los
Angeles. She rides her bike a lot, and has an obsession with the color
yellow. Bright, bright yellow.
Kathleen Thompson, Webmaster
Kathleen Thompson is a feminist writer and activist who also happens to design and maintain Mike's website. With Hilary Mac Austin, she founded OneHistory.org, which is a website devoted to making heard all the voices of American history. It is designed as a resource for students, teachers and the general public.
