Former St. Charles mayor, Geneva attorney start podcast to put spotlight on Fox Valley

They are just a couple of guys who talk about everything.

Former St. Charles mayor Ray Rogina and former Kane County assistant state’s attorney and Geneva attorney Pat Crimmins have teamed up to create a podcast that is aptly named Just A Coupla Guys. The two are longtime friends, and Crimmins once had Rogina as a teacher.

The podcast can be found at foxvalleymagazine.com/couplaguys and currently also is available on Spotify and Stitcher. It soon will be available on Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.

Rogina was a St. Charles School District 303 business teacher and department chair for almost 30 years. He also taught law and economics at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville and at Aurora University.

“As I tell my kids, you’re blessed if you can go through your life with 10 great teachers, 10 teachers that motivated you and inspired you,” Crimmins said. “Ray was my first.”

In recent years, they have coached students in District 303′s mock trial program.

“It’s been a long-standing program and Pat has been a real contributor – pro bono, I might add, for over 30 years,” Rogina said. “He gets me once in a while to make a cameo appearance and help out.”

Rogina said Crimmins was a great student.

“His inquisitiveness trumps a lot of things,” Rogina said. “I think he carried some of those traits from high school to this very day. And, of course, today we are working together on this kind of project.”

The two recently interviewed Kane County public information officer Julie Mann for their podcast. Mann, who also had Rogina as a teacher, worked at WBBM Newsradio for many years.

That moment made Rogina proud.

“Here I am sitting in the room with two former students and they’re both distinguished alums of St. Charles High School,” Rogina said. “I can’t tell you how much I’m beaming.”

The two also have interviewed Kane County Cougars general manager Curtis Haug and actor and Chicago native Jim Belushi. In addition, they talked to former Kane County State’s Attorney Gary Johnson about his crime memoir, “Luck is a Talent.”

“It was a very heavy interview in which he described the Jeanine Nicarico case and the unfortunate murder of that 10-year-old girl,” Rogina said. “It was a very, very heavy interview but a very fascinating one, to say the least. Gary is always an interesting guy to talk to.”

The two want to use their podcast to bring stories to life.

“We hope to bring storytellers to the podcast who can share specific stories about their lives to our listeners so the listeners can enjoy the Fox Valley or Naperville in a better way,” Crimmins said.

They don’t want the focus to be on them.

“We just hope we can bring interesting people to the floor and have them tell their stories,” Crimmins said. “That’s what we want to do.”

As Rogina noted there are plenty of interesting people in the area.

“Pat and I have worked in the public sector obviously for a long time and we’ve met a lot of people,” he said. “And what we’ve both come to realize is that up and down the greater Fox River Valley and into Naperville in the western suburbs there are just so many stories to tell and so many interesting people that are doing a lot of interesting things,” Rogina said.

Information about the podcast is available at Just A Coupla Guys’ Facebook page.