Polka and Wisconsin go together like bread and butter. And while commercial television channels rarely feature this spritely dance music, polka is alive and well on local cable “PEG” (public, education, and government) cable access TV channels across the state.
Mary and Jim Asplin
Mary Asplin, a resident of Marshfield, has just put to bed her 689th polka show. That’s right. Mary has produced nearly 700 half-hour polka shows since 2007. That year Mary’s husband, Jim Asplin, was serving on the City of Marshfield Cable Committee that oversees the local PEG access channel now known as Marshfield Broadcasting. “My husband asked the cable committee why they didn’t have something like a local polka show on Community TV and they told him, ‘go out and tape one and we will run it.’ Together we started taping bands and bringing the footage back to the station where the staff edited it.” The show was called Jim Asplin’s Polka Potpourri.
Before long another community member, Dick Hanneman, volunteered to do the editing. By the time Dick died in Fall of 2009, he had edited 120 shows. Not wanting to see the show end, Mary taught herself how to edit on her home computer using Pinnacle software and produced another 211 shows on her own until 2014 when she had knee surgery and had to take a break.
By then several Wisconsin PEG access TV channels were carrying the show and the City of Stevens Point noticed that it was receiving reruns and wanted to know why. Enter Dan Jirovec. Dan took over covering the dances while Mary continued with the editing. The pair produced another 358 half-hour polka shows as Lights, Camera, Polka! Sadly, Dan died six weeks ago, but the polka tradition that he helped celebrate across the state through cable TV lives on. Mary’s husband, Jim, has agreed to help once again!
Mary estimates she has covered 50 or 60 different bands over the last 14 years from the Molly B. Polka Party to the Verne Meisner Orchestra. In the Stevens Point area, she has taken her camera to the Sherri Land Goodtymes Bar & Ballroom in Milladore and the Rookies Sports Pub, which generally hosts Polish-style polka bands. In the Wausau area, she’s covered the dancing at the Rib River Ballroom, Schmidt’s Ballroom Bar & Grill and the Stetsonville Centennial Community Center, where she recently shot Barefoot Becky and the Ivanhoe Dutchmen, a band out of Iowa. Mary also goes to polka fests, church picnics and fundraisers featuring polka.
“You get to know the people who dance,” said Mary. Most people who like German polka are older and the dances are a great way to socialize. For those who have lost a spouse, it’s a chance to meet someone new. “It can be quite a soap opera,” laughed Mary. Polish polka is faster and it attracts the younger set. “People like to see people they know on-camera,” said Mary. “When I cover a dance, I make sure to show the band, but most of the time, I’m focused on the dancers.”
Lights, Camera, Polka! is carried by Waupaca WIN-TV on Spectrum channel 991; Marshfield Broadcasting on Spectrum channel 989; Wisconsin Rapids Community Media on Spectrum channel 985 or Solarus channel 3 (in HD); Oshkosh Media on Spectrum channel 2; Stevens Point Community Media on Spectrum channel 984; and Wausau Area Access Channels on Spectrum channel 980 (which also airs the old Polka Potpourri shows). If you live anywhere near one of those cities, be sure to check your Spectrum line-up. Most Spectrum customers are receiving the PEG access channels for several communities. Trempealeau’s WTCO also schedules polka dances on its local cable access channel. If you manage a PEG channel in Wisconsin, you can download Mary’s shows from WCM’s program sharing service.
Wisconsin’s local low-power FM radio stations also play polka. For example, Sun Prairie’s LPFM radio station, The Sun 103.5, airs Rick Marsh's Down Home Dairyland, which regularly showcases polka, and Oshkosh Media airs polka from 9 am to 1 pm every Sunday on WOCT-LP 101.9 that includes Down Home Dairyland and a syndicated show called Polka Celebration.
If you want to get out your dancing shoes and join the fun, you can call one of the halls that hosts polkas, get a schedule directly from your favorite polka band, or go to WDEZ’s website – it’s a radio station out of Wausau -- for the Polka Jamboree Calendar.
