On Sunday mornings, when most of her Lincoln Park neighbors are still sleeping, Patty Voloschin is making her weekly 25-mile trek to LaGrange. Inside a low-rise building tucked behind a parking lot for garbage trucks is WTAQ Radio Fiesta, a Spanish-language station that concentrates on music with a Latin beat. But on Sundays at 9 AM they turn off the music.
En familia means “within the family,” Voloschin noted, and “we wanted people to feel that if they called in to discuss something on the air, it was still within the family.”
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Newman also knew he wanted a psychiatrist or a psychologist, not a professional broadcaster, to host the show. “I thought that if listeners were concerned enough about a sensitive problem to call in, they should be able to talk to someone who could give information, not just a referral.”
Voloschin began to talk about depression, and ten minutes later she got another call. This woman spoke in a very rapid Spanish. “I am going through a nervous crisis right now,” she said. “I’ve been to the hospital several times. I live worried sick. I’m afraid to go out in the street. I’m afraid someone’s going to kill me.”
“One time a guy just showed up at my office a day after a program on alcoholism,” recalled Voloschin. “He didn’t want to talk on the air, so he drove all the way from the south side to find me. He said he wanted to get better, but he didn’t know where to go.”
