Madeline Island 

Madwood Pro-Motion

Radio Productions - Recording - Sound Reinforcement - Event Coordination

Madwood is a Discmaker Partner Studio

 

PO Box 144
551 Miller Farm Rd
La Pointe, WI 54850
ph: 715-209-0474

News

  • The Madeline Island Radio Hour is now being broadcast on the west coast.  Browns Point Radio serving the south Puget Sound and the Tacoma area have added our show to there programming.  Thank you Browns Point, we know you have a few islanders in your area.

     


  • The Ferry is running... The following is the current ferry schedule through September 1st.

                To the Island                                 To Bayfield
     

     


  • Bayfield County Journal
    Broadcast at its best, on the island
    Barbara Brown
    Thursday, November 08th, 2007
     
    LA POINTE — Living year round on an island in the northland is not for everyone. But, for those stalwart individuals that prefer island life over any other lifestyle, have their own story to tell.
    A group of professed “creative types” from Madeline Island, one of the 22 Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, are telling their stories about island life and history on a new radio broadcast appropriately called, The Madeline Island Radio Hour.
    Not since the Prairie Home Companion show with Garrison Keillor hit the air waves has there been such incredibly clever skits about hometown characters, great music performed by local musicians, interesting historical essays, children’s literature, and silly, knee-slapping humor.
    The show is the brainchild of musician and producer Ric Gillman, owner of Madwood Pro-Motion that produces the one-hour broadcasts. Gillman is assisted in writing and producing by other island residents, Julie Stryker, Lois Carlson, and Carl Brooks who is “The Voice” of the Madeline Island Radio Hour.
    The talented production group said the idea of the broadcast slowly developed over the last three years and finally took form last March after Gillman invested in some “serious” recording equipment. Gillman said there was another factor that hastened their decision to create the show. It was the passing of one of the island’s elders, “Cigar” Nelson. Gillman and Stryker said they regret missing the opportunity to interview Cigar before his death.
    Born and raised on the island, Cigar was known by all, meaning about 200 year round residents, and was recognized as an exceptional storyteller with on-the-spot wit, Gillman and Stryker said. “We all have our ‘Cigarisms,’” Stryker added. With the loss of one of the island’s townsfolk, it became apparent to the group, it was time to pay tribute to the island elders and capture the history of life on “the rock” through the stories they conveyed.
    To date there have been seven shows produced by Madwood Pro-Motion that are available on CD and being broadcast on independent public radio stations in Grand Marais, Minn. and Bisbee, Arizona.
    Listeners can count upon “The Voice” introducing each show with “Ladies and gentlemen and anyone else who may be listening..... Welcome to the Madeline Island Radio Hour, and his warm-hearted closing remarks, “This is Carl Brooks for the Madeline Island Radio Hour wishing all of you mainlanders a pristine beach to explore, and a flat rock to skip. Until next time, happy sails.”
    The first show was recorded live at The Bell Street Tavern on Madeline Island featuring a comical State of the Island Address, Children’s Readers Theater, Ditch Surfers musicians, an interview with an elder, and other entertainment.
    The successive shows evolved into a first-rate format of outstanding musicians, singers and songwriters, hilarious parodies and spoofs, historical docu-dramas, children’s poetry and readings, interviews with island elders and the not-so-elderly, a Mingling with Madeline segment that poses questions relevant to the island for listeners to guess the answers, a limerick contest, and frequent reference to Buffalo Bean Coffee, whose high caffeine levels are responsible for most of the over-the-top islander behavior.
    In the background are convincing island sound effects such as Lake Superior wave action, the ever-present summer sound of seagulls, the crackling of winter ice and the roar of the windsleds crossing the lake in winter to the mainland.
    Without doubt, one of the funniest features of the show is the the character, “Donna Askme,” the guest host who responds to frequently asked tourist questions such as “What happens to the ice road in the summer?” “Donna Askme” is quick to respond with quips and quibbling that guarantees a belly laugh for listeners.
    “Donna Askme” has an answer for everything as her theme song purports, “Don’t forget to ask, don’t forget to call, because “Donna Askme” she’s a know-it-all.”
    “Donna Askme” never faces the audience during a live broadcast so her identity remains anonymous, Gillman said. But she does seem to know just about everything there is to know about everyone and everything on the island. She also has a crush on “Roar,” one of the two windsled brothers, “Rip” and “Roar,” which unfortunately for “Donna Askme,” doesn’t share her infatuation.


                            
                                         (()ne of the wind sled brothers)

    The Madeline Island Radio Hour, to be sure, is about life on the island, written by islanders, and done so with equal measures of reverence and playful satire.
    But the show’s appeal is not exclusive to islanders. Gillman, Stryker, and Carlson were mindful from the onset of production to create a show that anyone living in any small community could relate to and draw comparisons to their own unique history, townsfolk and characters, elders and youth, and the individual nuances that flavor each and every small town in America. The Madeline Island Radio Hour has achieved just that as reflected by two, out-of-area radio stations picking up the shows.
    CDs of the seven shows are available for only $10 each by contacting Madwood Pro-Motion at P.O. Box 144, La Pointe, WI., 5485    0.
    To contact “Donna Askme” go to donna@madelineislandradio.com

     Mother-son duo releases Christmas album

    (see the CD on our products page)

    By Keith Uhlig
    For the Marshfield News-Herald

    At first, Bentley Gillman wasn't keen on cutting a Christmas album with his mother.

    "I'm 21 years old," he said. "I want to do my own thing."

    But the suggestion came from Bentley's aunt last Christmas. His father, Ric Gillman, who lives in La Pointe on Madeline Island, has a recording studio. His mother, Patti Gillette, 49, of Rib Mountain, is a good singer. Gillman, a bit begrudgingly, said he'd do it.

    In July, Patti and Bentley started to record Christmas songs in his father's studio, laying down tracks of songs such as "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "O Holy Night," and "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

    "I wanted to make my mom happy. I wanted to make my dad happy. And I wanted to make my aunt happy," Bentley said.

    The end result was "Pray For Peace People Everywhere," an album that features the voices of Bentley and Patti and their acoustic guitars. The songs are simple, clear and soulful.

    Bentley, who didn't want to produce corny or mushy holiday music, is happy he did it.

    If you were part of an audience who jammed into the Wausau East High School auditorium in February 2005 to see the Central Wisconsin Educational Theatre Alliance production of "Les Miserables," you know Bentley. Or at least you know how powerful his voice can be. He sang the role of Jean Valjean.

    He graduated from Wausau West High School in 2005 and studied vocal performance and musical theater at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for two years. But the formality of music theory classes penned him in. "There was way too much structure," he said.

    So now, he's taking a break from school, living on Madeline Island with his father, writing his own songs and performing gigs here and there in northern Wisconsin.

    Music always has been part of Bentley's life, and Patti's.

    She jokes she was singing "An Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" when she was 3 years old. When she was 15, she sang "If," by Bread, for the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.

    She and her former husband, Ric Gillman, formed a folk duo that performed in the Seattle area, and they released an album.

    Now she's a psychotherapist with Dix & Gillette Counseling Services. And while she sang with groups such as Pro Musica and her church choir, for the most part singing was just fun. But now she's looking to play gigs again. The Christmas album is part of the resurgence.

    Patti and Bentley are proud of the album.

    There weren't any mother-son rifts stemming from creative differences, they say. Well, no more than usual.

    But Bentley will take performing with his mom only so far.

    "We will not be going on the road together," he said.

     

PO Box 144
551 Miller Farm Rd
La Pointe, WI 54850
ph: 715-209-0474