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Hilton Head Island's signature Christmas light display has grown over the past 19 years almost as much as the little magnolia that cradled its first string of lights.
All it was supposed to do was to brighten a newborn's first Christmas on what was then a dirt road in the North Forest Beach neighborhood.
Now that magnolia has to be strung from a bucket truck, donated by Sunbelt Rentals. Meanwhile, everybody on the street has gone off the deep end, turning it into the "Dove Street Festival of Lights." It's become a charity fundraiser for the Deep Well Project. It has a Web site (www.dovestreetlights.com), a newsletter and related events at the nearby Coligny Plaza. It's a must-do nightly happening, attracting everybody from a caroling Elvis impersonator to busloads of people from retirement centers.
And as of this week, Dove Street has its own tiny radio station.
Radio Free Dove Street is to inform people in cars inching down Dune Lane to Dove Street what the lights are all about. It carries the carols that flow from the stereo speakers in the bedazzled yard of Rob and Cathy Lolik, the ones who had the newborn.
Their neighbor and co-founder, Paul Beckler, says the radio will answer common questions they get as motorists ooh and ahh in the bluish-white glow that heralds Christmas by the beach. Things like how much it jacks up their electric bills, how many bulbs are twinkling, and how they get them so high into the canopy overhead.
Radio Free Dove Street is certain to include a dash of humor -- perhaps the famous being the North Forest Beach Chickens clucking "The First Noel." If you are just tuning in, free-ranging chickens ruffled feathers in the neighborhood a few years back, with some neighbors firing up grills for fresh wings and others sporting "Save The Forest Beach Chickens!" bumper stickers.
The temporary radio station at 107.5 FM can be picked up as far away as Coligny Plaza, but gets fuzzy at about the Smokehouse Grill. When you think of its transmission tower, think rabbit ears.
Matthew "Nick" Nickels got volunteered to solder together the $199.95 radio transmitter kit. That's because he tinkers with stuff, works for Hargray Communications, says "I'll try anything once," andwas at the Dove Street beach hoping to see a space shuttle one night when his good friend Rob Lolik put the squeeze on him.
As long as Radio Free Dove Street doesn't set off every garage door opener in town, we'll call it a gift from a wise man.
