Robert Zadrozny

Robert Zadrozny, also known as Bob, is a retired Army veteran and former Disc Jockey of a Chicago area based Polka radio station who currently resides in Crete, Illinois.
Early life
Robert was born on July 17, 1928 in Harvey, Illinois. His parents, Andrew and Stella emigrated from Vienna, Austria to America where Andrew found himself a job in Harvey. Andrew’s job was for a company called Wyman-Gordon, whose military contracts kept the Zadrozny family afloat during the years of the Great Depression. Robert worked for a Walgreen's store during and after his high school career at Thornton Township High School which ended with his graduation in 1947. He moved to a Walgreens store in downtown Chicago after his graduation where he became a chocolate syrup maker. He kept the position until 1949 when he started delivering Walgreens products as a truck driver throughout suburban Chicago. Bob recalled his days of producing the chocolate syrup for Walgreens’ soda fountains, “I made the chocolate syrup for all of the Walgreens stores; all over the country, wherever they had stores.”
Career in the Army
Robert’s successful career working for Walgreens was interrupted when in 1950, he was drafted into the Army. Despite being too young to serve in World War II Bob was of age during another conflict overseas; the Korean War. The beginning of Robert’s early Army days saw him complete basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri until he finished and was moved to Camp Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas. Much of Robert’s experience at Camp Wolters consisted of improving the living areas and camp infrastructure for the increased amount of new soldiers that would be training for combat in Korea. Robert also completed the necessary training to become an infantryman as well as learning how to make advanced bridges out of unconventional objects and methods like rope tying at a rigging school. Robert was then transferred to yet another school at a Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia. His task there was to make sure that Army vehicles sent to Korea were correctly water proofed before their deployment overseas. After another quick stint at Fort Wolters, Robert was discharged from the Army near the end of 1952. Despite being drafted during a time of war, Robert’s tenure in the Army never involved any active duty in Korea.
Career at WTAQ
Robert went back to work at the Walgreens in Harvey, Illinois for a short time until he was able to get a job as a die polisher at a die cutting shop for Wyman-Gordon. He held that position until 1959 when he became an apprentice machinist and eventually would be promoted to the head position as the man who would run the tool room.
Johnny Hyzny was the host of a weekly radio show for WTAQ, 1300 AM out of La Grange, Illinois and he was also a close friend of Bob’s. In 1972 after a request from Hyzny, Robert joined him to help run the show once a week. The program was a Polish-based Polka station. Robert had the chance to interview the popular polka artists from the Chicago area, including Eddie Korosa (also called the Prince of Polka) and Eddie Blazonczy. Due to Robert and Johnny Hyzny’s work with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Convention during 1974 and 1975 in Washington, D.C., the duo were lucky enough to rub shoulders with famous politicians like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford (of which Bob had the chance to sit at the Vice-President’s desk prior to their introduction), and Hubert Humphrey among many others. Robert’s last radio show for WTAQ was in 1986.
Personal life
While Robert was working for Walgreens, he became reacquainted with a former high school classmate named Audrey Lehnen. The two formed a relationship and became married on November 7, 1953. Robert and Audrey had six children named David, Nancy, Steven, Ronald, and rounded it out with twins named Robert and Susan. On November 19, 1976 Audrey Zadrozny passed away at the age of 47 from a brain tumor.
In 1980, Robert married Virginia Zera, whom he met at his radio show a year earlier.
Robert suffered a stroke in 2012 but has since returned to good health. He currently lives at the retirement home St. James Manor in Crete, Illinois.

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