Matthew Hermes

A 1974 graduate of Adrian High School, Matthew Hermes opted to travel before attending college. He and his highschool swim team buddy bicycled 10,000 miles around the United States of America during the summer of 1975. Sleeping in cemetaries, church pews, jail cells, and a rat-infested oceanside park in Providence, Rhode Island, Matthew and his buddy crossed the Mississippi, the Continental Divide, rode up the Pacific Coast Highway/US Route 101, re-crossed the Continental Divide while travelling from Seattle to Montreal (3000 miles in 30 days), was side-swiped by a car in front of the former home of the Philadelphia Phillies, Veterans Stadium, toured the nation's capital, walked the sugar-white beaches of Panama City in Florida's Northwest Gulf Coast, and finally, bicycled northward through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and back to where it all began: Adrian, Michigan. All-in-all, 33 states and two Canadian Provinces.

Matthew Hermes studied at Lake Superior State University and graduated from Michigan State University before realizing that he belonged in the classroom. So he pursued an elementary education degree at Siena Heights University in Adrian, and, while teaching on campus at St. Joseph's Academy, was very active in community theater at the historic Croswell Opera House in downtown Adrian. It was during his starring role as Luther Billis in South Pacific during the summer of 1986, that he travelled to Naperville and interviewed for a fifth grade teaching position at one of the state's top elementary schools, Highlands. Hermes won Teacher-of-the-Year honors in Naperville's District 203 and was subsequently awarded one of the Top Twelve Teachers in the State of Illinois for 1995.

On October 19, 2000, Hermes walked into WDCB as a volunteer. By January, 2001, he was host of Friday night's Fusion Sides, where he played vinyl sides of jazz fusion for two hours starting at midnight. On Tuesday morning, June 05, 2001, at midnight, Hermes began as the regular host of overnight All Things Jazz where he continues hosting what is now "'DCB Jazz." As of Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, Matthew is now approaching his 4,000th All Things Jazz/’DCB Jazz radio program. He also became the regular host of Sunday morning's Sounds Ethereal on Sunday, February 12, 2006. On Sunday, February 23, 2020, Matthew ended his 14 year run of hosting Sounds Ethereal.

Hermes spends his days sleeping, mornings and nights at the health club, and the early morning hours playing the best in "'DCB Jazz" on Listener Supported Public Radio, 90.9fm WDCB. He's been a storyteller of "Scary Tales" throughout Chicagoland since he started his teaching in Naperville, in 1986. Hermes, a former-schoolteacher, lives the life of a writer, storyteller, and radio announcer.

He hopes to one day get back on his bicycle and retrace the 10,000 miles he once travelled with his high school buddy, Matt Harpst, during that serendipitous summer of 1975.

Someday, someday, Matthew Hermes hopes to be a published author of his children's stories.

Someday.