Lisle Woman Is Talk Show Winner

With sweaty palms and a moment of disbelief, Stephanie Webber Trussell could not believe that she had won. Radio personality Chet Coppock read her name. She had beaten out four other contestants in The Next 89 WLS Talk Star contest.

Her winnings? A set of headphones, a trip to Mexico and—two hours all to herself on the air.

Watch a video of the announcement of her name here.

Trussell sumitted an audition tape and a biography and landed a spot as a finalist. The five contestants were interviewed by Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft and spoke during a live broadcast Aug. 22. Judges' opinions counted for 80 percent of a contestant's score; the rest depended on texted votes.

"The night before the contest I listened for first the time to the audio clips of my competition," she told Lisle Patch in an email. "And I was left thinking, 'Those people were so talented. What am I doing among that group?' " She said all her opponents were "polished educated professionals" and "nice people.

"Contestant Megan Fox went first and she was like a cast member on SNL, confident, well spoken and funny," Trussell said. "When she sat back down next to me I told her the rest of us should just concede. I was last and that gave me time to think of an opening joke. I had to remind myself to talk slower since I normally talk faster than most humans can hear.

"I was doing pretty good until I got to a line that made me choke back tears," she said. "I was emotional all week because I felt so much much love and support from my townies. I should have cried before the show." 

Each finalist was given 90 seconds to explain why each deserved his or her own show.

"I have no idea what I said," Trussell said. "I was just happy that I was done talking on the radio. My palms would not stop sweating. After I spoke, I noticed that the fan sections of the other finalists were smiling and giving me the thumbs-up sign. I felt good. I just did not want to embarrass my family, friends and townies."

After Trussell's name was announced, the show took calls from listeners.

"I recognized the voice of a Lisle dad and fellow conservative, Bill Dickey. I was able to thank him, the town and gave a shout out to the varsity football team that was scheduled to eat their first team dinner this season at my house the next day," Trussell said.

She does not know now the date and time of her show.

You can read about Trussell and the other contestants and listen to their audition tapes here. For Trussell, click here.

On Aug. 15, Trussell wrote a blog for Patch inviting Lisle to vote for her to become a finalist. In her , she wrote: "I am thrilled to be in the finals and having my picture on the same page as Mark Levin is beyond my wildest dream but I really want to win and just like when I decided to run a marathon last year, I need the support of my townies."

In her short biography on the WLS website, she wrote: "I deserve my own show because I am different from other conservative talk show hosts and WLS needs at least one host that critics can't call racist or a classist. I am a suburban wife, mother of 6 (including my daughter-in-law), volunteer and blogger, oh, yeah, I'm black."

While she is excited to get on the air, she will have one problem, she said.

"The problem is trying to keep it limited to two hours because I can talk endlessly especially when the topic is politics and Obama's failed policies."