The History of The Antioch News

The Antioch News performed an important communication service to the small village in northern Illinois. It “faithfully recorded the events of the day, promoted the good of the community, rejoicing in [the reader’s] success and sympathizing with [the readers] in [their] trouble and sorrow.” Seven different publishers owned the business over its lifetime until it was merged with neighboring community papers.

Even before the small village of Antioch was incorporated in 1892, there was a newspaper. J.J. Burke started The Antioch News in 1888. The weekly four-page newspaper featured advertising for local products including lumber, coal, poultry, and butter. It listed both local and state news. Most issues also have “points of humor,” short stories and classified ads.

Burke sold the paper to A.B. Johnson in November of 1901. In his last editorial column, Burke wrote, “Fourteen years ago last September, with little experience and less cash, I established The Antioch News having an abiding faith in the future development of the then little straggling village of my nativity, which faith has never deserted me and seems to have been abundantly justified the splendid growth and commercial importance of the town as seen today.”

He goes on to write, “During those fourteen years I have been constantly “in the harness” and have seen The News grow from a very small beginning to occupy a place of prominence among the country papers of the county and state. Its prominence and position is not the result of accident, but has required hard and unceasing toil which I have ungrudgingly given it.”

Johnson was “not a stranger to the office or people of Antioch.” He worked at the paper with Burke two years before taking it over. Johnson ran the news until June 1920, when he sold the business to the firm of Horan, Wood, and Woodhead. John L. Horan was left as the sole owner of the paper when he partners withdrew. He held on to the paper for six-year, the weakest era in its history. Only one issue is available on microfilm in 1925. When Horan died in 1980, his obituary praised his role in starting the Antioch Fire Department and Rescue Squad and his veteran affairs with the Antioch American Legion and AARP chapter. It noticeably abstains from mentioning his involvement with The Antioch News.

The Gaston family bought the paper from Horan in September 1926. They held on to The Antioch News for 46 years, twice as long as any previous publisher. Homer B. Gaston, former editor of the Richmond Gazette, wrote in his first column introducing the turn over and in celebration of the paper’s 40-year anniversary, “The Antioch News first made its bow to the public as a small hand bill printed on colored paper. From this small beginning it has grown to its present six column eight pages all home print.”

The paper flourished under Gaston’s management. It was cited for Illinois state and National Country weekly honors for its high standard of journalistic and printing excellence. The tag line under the masthead read, “The Antioch News is the only paper in the world that is 100% for Antioch.”

A column dedicated to the Gaston’s legacy at the paper said, “The printing machinery is made by man to do a job. Durable and sturdy, the presses roll on and on. How many hours, how many years Homer Gaston watched these machines publish his editorials, his brilliant writing, his paper! The presses continued to operate. The Linotype continued to set type. Man, however, wears out. In November of 1943, at 60 years of age, Homer Gaston died.”

After Homer’s death, his wife, Margaret and her sons took over. “A valiant, determined and dedicated woman carried on, bringing the news the community of Antioch.” The family was very proud to have produced an “unbroken chain of weekly publications” for 46 years.

Gaston wrote in her final editorial titled, An Era Ends, “[The paper] has grown with the community and has followed the sons and daughters of the region into distant states and foreign lands and through the wars of the current century. Many of the older generation and newcomers have faithfully read The Antioch News each week. The newspaper has expanded with the years and now reaches hundreds of homes in Antioch and neighboring communities.”

Harold Gaston continued to operate A & B Printing Service, Inc. after the family sold the paper to Joseph T. Rush in 1971. Rush was a photographer and band director at Antioch High School. He made his wife, Barbara, the paper’s business manager. They introduced a more modern look to The Antioch News. It went from a broadsheet to a tabloid with a photo offset process, a new technique that became popular in the 1970s newspaper publishing business.

Rush sold the paper to Jerry Pfarr in May 1974 after a “heavy increase in business” at his photography studio. “He felt that it was time to let someone else have The News so he could devote full time to his portrait and commercial photography studio located in Antioch.”

Pfarr, who moved to the area from Wisconsin when he purchased the paper, was a 20-year veteran of the newspaper industry. His brought his award-winning column, “The Pfarr Corner” and a new look to The Antioch News.

Pfarr quietly sold the paper five years later to Lakeland Newspapers in April 1979. Lakeland was a family-owned publishing group that produced 14 other community newspapers in Lake and Kenosha counties. William H. Schroeder ran The Antioch News for Lakeland until he retired in 2005. His daughter said of him in his obituary, “He wanted it to be grass-roots journalism. He wanted to report on pancake breakfasts and honor rolls, school board meetings and local economic news.”

When Lakeland Media was sold to Shaw Media in 2005, they combined The Antioch News with other papers under one masthead as the Lake County Journal. That newspaper eventually became the Lake County Suburban Life available today for free in news boxes located around towns in Lake County.

Many other newspapers served Antioch since the 1970s, including the Pioneer Press’s Antioch Review, SunTimes NewsSun’s Antioch Preview, Northwest News Group’s Antioch Journal, and Southern Lakes Newspaper’s Hi-Liter and Antioch Report.

Original entrepreneur of The Antioch News, JJ Burke, wrote in his final valedictory, “A newspaper is to a great extent, what the people make it, and no man, no matter how great his ability may be, can make it a success without the co-operation and patronage of the people, not grudgingly but generously given, and whatever of success The News has achieved is due to the loyalty and patronage of the people who have sustained it through all the years that have gone.”

Challenges of a Food Critic

By Lindsey Nemcek
Eating food for a living is a dream job for many. While Chicago Tribune restaurant reporter Kevin Pang agrees that it’s pretty awesome, he describes it as a bit of a curse, too.

“It’s like if you were ever caught smoking when you were a kid and your father made you smoke the whole pack as punishment. That’s my life,” Pang says half jokingly.

Part of the three-person team that covers food in Chicago for the paper, Pang spends his days sampling everything from charcuterie boards to fried chicken and french fries with gravy, cheese and bacon. He’s been nominated three times for a James Beard Foundation Award.

The Chicago Tribune has been his home since he moved to the city nine years ago after starting his journalism career as a hard news reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

Pang made the jump from covering the courthouse to cooking when the Tribune was looking to expand their features staff. But he was hesitant to make the move.

“If I went to features, the road to getting back if I wanted to would be hard,” he said, admiring the adrenaline rush of election night reporting or breaking news stories.

“You can take all the tenets of hard news reporting and apply it to features,” Pang said. “I’m not just writing 100 words about quinoa. Any time I get to be a real journalist, I savor that.”

His assignment is broad: to fill the dining section every week. He recently covered the opening of Chicago’s first Shake Shack, National Sandwich Day, and new Michelin stars for Chicago’s top restaurants.

“The great thing is we have so much freedom to write about whatever we want,” Pang said. “But sometimes it’s good to have parameters because there’s such a vast food scene here in Chicago. I could write about cheese mongers, wine producers, people who keep honeybees on their decks. But I can’t get around to all of them.”

Pang says that he tends to write about things that he’s naturally interested in, which happens to be cheap food, barbecue, and Chinese.

He likes writing about food, but he loves a good challenge.

Pang recently premiered a 90-minute documentary about 3-star Michelin Chef Curtis Duffy. “Grace” is the culmination of hundreds of hours spent shadowing the chef to document the creation of his new restaurant. It unknowingly turned into an emotional story about the challenges Duffy overcame, including the murder-suicide of his parents. Pang’s extensive profile of the chef in the Chicago Tribune article, “His Saving Grace,” is a piece of art.

“Right now, food is a lot of fun,” Pang says. “I understand that this is a dream job for a lot of people and it is a great, great job, but it can also be unchallenging because its just going out to restaurants – and that’s great, I’m not complaining. A lot of people would kill for this job. But I like the challenge of doing more involved projects like being able to work on a documentary for three years.”

Since he’s just finished a documentary, Pang hopes to write a book one day.

“It’s about finding outside things that keep you fascinated and curious,” he says. “Having that is really important.”

While most people consider dining out a novelty, Pang has to eat out three to four times a week. He’s been assigned to visit six restaurants in the next two weeks, which he says sounds awesome, but it’s a lot of dining out. He considers cooking at home with his wife a treat.

Pang loves “dude food;” the easy recipes that translate into manly meals, which he admits is often the lazy way out. One of his favorites: sour cream mixed with a ramen noodle soup seasoning packet as chip dip.

“It’s unbelievably good,” Pang says with a smile as he exposes his less sophisticated self. “I don’t want to be a foodie facist.”

“I love eating at Alinea and I love eating a sausage and egg McMuffin from McDonald’s and I love eating my mom’s Shanghai dumplings and I love eating potato chips with ramen and sour cream dip,” he says. “It’s food. Eat what makes you happy.”

To him, it’s never about how food tastes, but he admits that’s a big component of it.

“The least interesting part of eating is the act,” Pang says seriously. “Eating is communal. That’s what I like about food: the cultural act, the social interaction.”

Pang shared this concoction for crispy, cold Kentucky Fried Chicken Salad in Lucky Peach, and he says he heard more feedback on this recipe than anything he’s ever done.

1. Chop up leftover KFC chicken (with the skin, of course)
2. Mix together and add mayonnaise, sriracha, chili sauce, lime juice and chopped apples.
3. Enjoy!

Pang tries to keep his identity hidden whenever possible to remain true to his anonymous food critic responsibilities.

America’s Drunkest Cities

By Lindsey Nemcek

Men’s Health magazine took data from a Centers for Disease Control study on alcohol use to rank U.S. cities by their “drunkenness.” Using an unscientific method, the magazine gave cities rankings based on liver disease, DUI arrests, etc.

Check out this interactive map of America’s Drunkest Cities.

PHOTOS: Antioch Theatre

Antioch Theatre sits on Lake Street, near the intersection of Main Street in the center of town.

 

The ticket window still has it’s historic charm.

 

The theater has a unique stage that allows for live performances.

 

The theater also has a balcony made out of red wooden planks.

 

The theater can seat about 240 people, but several seats are broken, so the capacity is slightly less.

 

The projector room holds large, noisy equipment that displays 35 millimeter film.

 

Film companies will stop producing the 35 millimeter film at the end of this year.

 

Saving Antioch’s “heart beat”

The Antioch Theatre marquee lights the town every night. (Photo/Lindsey Nemcek)

By Lindsey Nemcek

The Antioch Theatre lies in disrepair. The old roof leaks. The rusty seats creak. The dusty drapes smell musty. The carpeted floors feel sticky. The single screen has seen better days. And the technology is practically in a state of emergency.

But a determined fight is underway to keep people flocking to the glowing marquee. Just as it was nearly 100 years ago, the theater is still a hot spot to bring a Friday night date for under $15. Cuddled in the antique seats, couples watch movies from the unique balcony seating Antioch has to offer, making it feel like a private screening.

Families, too, seek the theater to watch cartoon movies with their kids. The cheap prices for admission, popcorn and candy outweigh the trek to one of the larger, more costly modern multi-screen movie theaters in nearby Gurnee, Fox Lake or Round Lake. The feeling guests get watching a flick in the quaint confines of Antioch Theatre is more than just going to see a movie. It’s an experience that only small towns can offer.

But nostalgia is not enough to keep the doors open and the popcorn popping. The current owner, Cindy Kottke, hasn’t been able to pay the mortgage or taxes on the property for two years because the business hasn’t been profitable.

Single-screen theaters, like Antioch’s, struggle to pay bills because the facilities can only show one film at a time and movie studios require a theater to play a film for 2-3 weeks. Movie-goers usually head to the theater to see a film the first week it opens. Business dies down during week two. By the third week, barely any tickets are sold.

Limited ticket sales during each film cycle are something Antioch’s theater has dealt with for years. The biggest problem currently forcing it into debt is the looming cost of repairs and improvements it needs to stay open.

Hollywood studios will discontinue 35-millimeter films this year and all theaters must evolve to a digital projector, if they haven’t already. Absorbing the cost of a $60,000 piece of equipment is just one line in the growing bill it will cost to keep Antioch Theatre open.

It needs more than $700,000 to repair the existing building, add a smaller, second screen (so they can show more than one film at a time), and convert to digital technology. The structural improvements include things like a new roof, sound proofing, seats and the addition of a sprinkler system, something legally required in the modern age of movies.

The building was remodeled into a modern movie theater back in 1919. It’s marquee has been a hallmark of downtown Antioch ever since.

This historical photo provided by the Lakes Region Historical Society shows the theater in its early days.

Local historian and Lakes Region Historical Society Museum Director, Ainsley Wonderling says she doesn’t go to see movies now, but she remembers parading around for the costume party every Halloween at the theater. As a young girl, her parents would take her to watch cartoons at the Saturday morning cereal shows.

“The theater is of vital importance to downtown,” Wonderling said. “People come to see a movie and eat in town. It would be a big loss if it closed, that’s for sure.”

“Antioch has one of the best downtowns,” said Kottke. “There are so many opportunities to bring people to the area.”

Antioch Theatre is one of the main attractions. The business is so important to the downtown landscape, the Chamber of Commerce has stepped in to help save it.

“It’s important that we have a viable downtown movie theater, especially one with as much history as ours,” said Barbara Porch, Chamber Director. “It provides recreational fun and foot traffic to the rest of the town.”

The theater was on the verge of foreclosure until a local resident decided to make it his mission to rescue it.

55-year-old real estate investor, Tim Downey, doesn’t know a thing about running the movie theater, but he knows that it’s worth saving.

“I’ve seen tons of downtowns that have lost their theaters,” said Downey. “They’re almost impossible to bring back.”

He plans to purchase the theater from Kottke’s bank and keep her on as manager. Downey plans to finance the purchase with a personal loan and funds secured through local business sponsorships.

“Theaters are the heart beat of a small town,” Downey said. “There’s constantly something new and fresh showing that brings people in town. Those people spill over to other businesses.”

Downey says the theater brings 40,000 people out every year. They catch a movie and grab a pizza at Anastasia’s or dinner at Oliverii North. They wander through the pet store and buy candy at Something Sweet.

So it only seems natural that the local businesses that benefit from the theater’s presence play a major role in saving it. With encouragement from the Chamber of Commerce, Downey has secured two large sponsorships from Something Sweet candy shop and Raymond Chevrolet car dealership.

But Downey needs at least one more large commitment, or several small ones, before he feels financially prepared to take out the large loan.

“The bank is growing impatient,” Downey says. “But it hasn’t foreclosed on the property because a bank doesn’t want to own a 100-year-old theater.”

Downey’s biggest fear is that someone else will buy it before he can arrange his financing and turn it into something other than a theater. He says that would just be another step towards Antioch’s downtown decline.

“It would be a travesty to lose our downtown movie theater,” Mayor Lawrence Hanson told Lake County News-Sun. “We should do everything we can to make this happen, and I think our community will support this effort.”

After the loans are secured, Downey plans to raise the rest of the money by creating an online Kick Starter that collects private cash donations from community members.

The Village of Antioch posted an update on its Facebook Page in February asking for help to secure the last sponsorship. It got a big response: 305 people shared the post on their own Facebook profiles, 139 people liked it and 20 people commented on it. An overwhelming voice of encouragement booms from the page:

If Downey can secure his last sponsorship, things are looking good if he is left to rely on the community for the last dollars.

The marquee is just one of the structures that will get a facelift. Some people suggested that Downey go the cheaper route and install a flat sign against the building, but he insists a new dynamic marquee that looks like it did back in the 1920s is the way to go.

“To see those lights shining every night, reminds people that there’s something happening here,” he says.

With the support of local businesses, Downey fights to preserve a piece of Antioch’s history so the lights will keep shining for many more Friday night dates.

Click here to see more photos of the Antioch Theatre.

Antioch Theatre’s 35-millimeter projection equipment will soon be replaced with a new digital projector if Downey can secure the last of his funds. (Photo/Lindsey Nemcek)

Facing bleak job market veterans make careers in, around military

By Lindsey Nemcek and Scott Sutton

It’s a chilly Friday afternoon and Daniel Williams is headed up to Fort McCoy, Wis., for his monthly weekend of training with the 45^th Infantry.

A reservist for seven years, Williams also served a tour in Iraq and Kuwait. He has since traded in his combat boots for dress shoes and works as a student liaison at the DePaul University Office of Veterans Affairs while completing a degree in digital cinema.

But cinema doesn’t seem to fit into Williams’ future, as he said he plans to reenlist.

“This is what I was born to do,” Williams said.

That sentiment is not uncommon. Many veterans are now bypassing the transition into public sector civilian life, and instead are staying in the armed forces as a career, sometimes even taking a pay cut to do so.

Infographic: People look for help near home after food stamp reductions

By Lindsey Nemcek

Hungry people who depend on food stamps for groceries are turning to local food pantries for help after the government reduced SNAP benefits November 1.

Infographic: Survey of New Vets

By Lindsey Nemcek

Research shows an increasing female population of new veterans who need the most help among the veteran population, resulting in new service programs provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Female veterans are a growing population,” said Lindy Carrow, research associate with the Social IMPACT Research Center at Heartland Alliance. “The systems of care are trying to adjust to the new need with more women vet centers.”

Sponsored by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Carrow’s research team used data from the Department of Defense, veterans systems and the US Census to report on which veteran programs need funding, she said.

The report, New Veterans in Illinois: A Call to Action, profiles new veterans, calling attention to both young vets and female vets.

“There’s often a lack of local data,” Carrow said. “Maybe you know that traumatic brain injuries are an issue for veterans, but you don’t know how big of an issue it is in your community or how many veterans are even living in Illinois.”

Federal food stamp cuts affect Illinois

By Lindsey Nemcek

More than 2 million people in Illinois were affected when funding for the federal food stamp Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was cut on Nov. 1. Extra benefits granted through the 2009 economic stimulus package expired, subtracting $45.2 billion from the program’s budget.

“It seems like a small decrease, but it will have an impact on those who depend on it,” Illinois Department of Human Services spokesperson Januari Smith told the Chicago Tribune.

Storify: Shooting at LAX Airport

@ToryBelleci of Mythbusters tweeted live from the scene.

Tweets about shots fired and chaos at Los Angeles airport quickly broke the news about a lone gunman killing a TSA agent and injuring others at a security checkpoint in a terminal on Friday, November 1, 2013. The following Storify describes the event.

[View the story “Shooting at LAX Airport” on Storify]