HEMMER, Paul

Paul Hemmer

HEMMER, Paul E. (Dubuque, IA, 1944- ). Broadcaster, businessman, musician, and composer. In 1976 Hemmer became the youngest recipient of the FIRST CITIZEN AWARD since the it was started in 1971 by the TELEGRAPH HERALD. While still a student at WAHLERT HIGH SCHOOL, he organized "Hemmer's Ambassadors," a combo that performed at school dances, church picnics and parties.

From 1962-1966 while majoring in music education at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Hemmer organized the first "stage band" at UW-P to perform campus events. He also played substitute piano for the Joey Paradiso and Larry Foster orchestras in Dubuque and had a steady Friday through Sunday evening job at Timmerman's Supper Club in East Dubuque, Illinois playing both organ and valve trombone.

(1969) Paul Hemmer and his orchestra became popular musical entertainers. Photo courtesy: Paul Hemmer

In 1965 Hemmer completed enough arrangements to assemble his own 12-piece orchestra. They played big band arrangements of contemporary rock and pop tunes for area proms and occasional country club and private parties. By 1969 he had added enough "ballroom style" arrangements to start accepting engagements at area ballrooms.

During those years, Hemmer became an "on the air" radio personality for WDBQ-AM in Dubuque. Upon graduation from UW-P, he accepted a position as morning announcer and stayed there until 1994. His wit and humor, including the many "characters" he developed over the years, gave him one of eastern Iowa's most loyal audiences. His collection of an estimated twelve thousand hours of old radio programs provided much of the material for the "Studio B" half-hour radio drama program.

In 1994, Hemmer constructed 97.3 KGRR-FM in Dubuque. Paul, his son, Steve, and wife Jan operated the station successfully with a staff of nine until June of 2000 when he and two partners formed "Radio Dubuque" to operate KGRR-FM, KAT-FM, WVRE-FM and KDTH-AM. He continued as morning host on KGRR, and in August 2007 marked his fortieth anniversary as a morning radio host in Dubuque, IA.

In 1975 Hemmer was commissioned to write an original musical comedy for Dubuque's celebration of the nation's bi-centennial. The result was GET THE LEAD OUT which ran for twenty-two performances at FIVE FLAGS CIVIC CENTER during July and August of 1976.

    "It's hard to believe it's that long ago--1976.  I       
     remember traveling to Chicago in November of 1975
     to spend a weekend working in the Congress Hotel
     with Charles Giroux to work on the outline for the
     plot and plan where we'd put musical numbers. It
     was the only time we spent in-person until he
     returned to Dubuque in late May of 1976.  Every-
     thing else was done via phone and snail mail. What
     a different time it was then. 

     And, I wrote every note by hand. Today, I can do a
     full orchestration for the DSO [[DUBUQUE SYMPHONY
     ORCHESTRA]] and extract the parts completely
     transposed, etc. in the time it took me to copy just
     a single part for the 17 piece orchestra in our pit.
                Paul Hemmer, e-mail, Nov. 2, 2010

JOE SENT ME!, a PROHIBITION era musical with 1920s style tunes poked fun at the Alphonse CAPONE connection to Dubuque. Joe Sent Me! ran for a month in Dubuque as well as two weeks at Theatre Americana in suburban Los Angeles, CA. In 1991 Hemmer returned to musical theater with STEAMBOAT COMIN', another original show that played at Five Flags. He joined with David RESNICK, another local composer, to write Sketches from a Drawing Room to celebrate Iowa's sesquicentennial in 1996. The revised show was produced in 1998 as Here's to Dubuque. He completed work on a revival of Joe Sent Me! which was staged at The Grand Opera House in February 2007.

Photo courtesy: Paul Hemmer

Hemmer has concentrated on the big band sound with performances at hotels and ballrooms from Des Moines to Chicago. In 2004 "The Paul Hemmer Swing Band" was reorganized to produce a series of 90-minute variety shows for The Celebration Belle Mississippi River Cruise company. The band recorded one LP and four cassettes of their brand of big band "sweet swing" and often played more than 120 shows per year. He also hosted a pre-recorded feature called "Nice & Easy" on 1370 KDTH.

Hemmer has written full orchestral arrangements for pops concerts by the DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and The Northwest Indiana Orchestra. His original composition, We Remember Christmas for chorus and orchestra was featured several times by the orchestra.

From 1999 to 2003 Hemmer and two other musician partners owned and operated a jazz club - "Duke's Place" –where live music ranging from Dixieland to blues acts was featured each Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday night.

In addition to the First Citizen Award, Hemmer received the "School Bell" Award in 1975 from the IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. Governor Robert Ray's "Media in the Arts" award was presented to Hemmer in 1976 for his development of "Book Talk," a book review program produced with the CARNEGIE-STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY.

On Friday, January 8, 2010, Hemmer signed off with "So, auf Wiedersehen, Dubuque." Over the past forty-two years, he had signed on more than 21,000 times and amassed about 86,000 on-air hours-- the equivalent of being on the air non-stop for almost ten years.

In March, 2010 the board of the GRAND OPERA HOUSE announced that Hemmer had been hired to be the new general manager. Hemmer announced that he intended to make marketing a top priority and would work on selling sponsorships of events and shows. He also wanted to work with schedules so that people attending events would be out by 10:00 p.m. at the latest.

--- Sources:

"175 Years" Vol. II Telegraph Herald, p. 115

Stevens Orchestra Project http://stevensorchestra.tripod.com/id80.html

e-mail, Paul Hemmer