Radio station owner brings Wreaths Across American to the area.
By William Smith
The concept of Wreaths Across America is so simple that KCPS Radio owner Chip Giannettino couldn’t believe it wasn’t in Burlington.
“I assumed we had that here. I mean Wreaths Across America has been going on since 1992,” he said.
Moved by the idea of placing wreaths on the graves of military veterans, Giannettino decided to bring the project to Burlington.
He learned about the event recently when interviewing Tiffany Hauptman on his radio show. She started the program for Danville, where wreaths were placed on the 111 veterans buried there.
“I knew Aspen Grove cemetery is a lot bigger, so I figured there might be about 500 veterans buried there,” Giannettino said.
He was shocked to find out that at least 3,000 veterans are buried there, dating back to before Iowa was a state. Giannettino had taken on a job 50 times bigger than he thought – and he attacked it with gusto.
“We opened a chapter of Wreaths Across America here,” he said.
After a short opening ceremony at 11 a.m. this Saturday in the north portion of Aspen Grove Cemetery, roughly 500 volunteers will fan out across the 140-acre resting place. They just won’t be placing wreaths on graves — they will do so respectfully, by saying the name of the veteran being honored.
Giannettino said the massive undertaking wouldn’t be possible without the help of Aspen Grove superintendent Mike Bloomer and the board of directors. They took to the idea as quickly as Giannettino did.
“Wreaths Across America has a simple goal — to put a remembrance wreath on every veteran’s grave, wherever they are in the world. So they started from Arlington. And now here we are 20-something years later, and this year will be the first time it’s over 4,000 cemeteries,” he said.
Giannettino surpassed the fundraising goal of 3,000 wreaths, and it’s not the first time he has raised money for the community. He and his wife, Val Giannettino, moved to Burlington when Chip bought KCPS in 1987.
It had been a country station and went bankrupt a few years prior. The equipment sat unused during that time, and when Giannettino tried turning it on while taking a potential buyer’s tour, smoke started emitting from it.
“I opened up the console, and saw I had started a small fire,” Giannettino said.
That told him all he needed to know. Giannettino had built up a comfortable nest egg working in movies and television in California with his wife Val. He wanted to buy a small, independent radio station in a small town so they could raise a family.
But he didn’t see a future in the broken-down radio station. Not until he offered half the asking price, which the owners gladly accepted.
“So, I came back and told my wife that I bought a radio station,” he said.
Chip didn’t think Val had ever heard of Burlington. He was shocked to find out it was where she visited her grandparents on an annual basis when she was a child. She was coming back home, in a way.
“We sold our house with all the furnishings,” Giannettino said.
The Giannettinos arrived in a car pulling a small U-Haul that contained their entire life. They loved Burlington, immediately immersing themselves in the community. Val headed up Downtown Partners Inc. for several years before becoming development director for Notre Dame and then Southeastern Community College.
But the first 10 years on the air was tough. KCPS was still a music station, and Giannettino had to fire his first-morning host shortly after hiring him.
So Chip became the host. He had planned on being an on-air personality and adopted the stage of “Fred W. Hoffman.”
“No one cared. We worked hard for a long time and lost our shorts,” Giannettino said.
Music on AM radio was dying, as was the old radio format. When Giannettino took over KCPS in 1987, the station went off the air at sunset.
It soon became a 24-hour radio station. Once Giannettino was able to drop the music and turn it into a talk radio station, everything changed.
“We decided that talk radio was going to be the thing that separated us out from just another music station,” he said.
For three hours every weekday morning, from 6 to 9 a.m., Giannettino talks about Burlington and the surrounding community.
He knows most of the callers and listeners. Some days, Burlington Mayor Jon Billups calls into the show to clarify talking points on the show.
Giannettino has raised four children with Val since they moved to Burlington 35 years ago, and those children are now scattered across the country, living successful lives.
He said he could never give back to Burlington enough.
The city and its people have helped Giannettino achieve everything he ever wanted.
Wreaths Across America is just a bigger way to give back. A way to honor those willing to give their lives for their country — no matter how long ago it may have been.
Giannettino plans to expand the program next year, laying wreaths on the veteran’s graves at county cemeteries, as well as Aspen Grove.
“We’re going to do our part, and we’re going to get this county covered one cemetery at a time,” he said.