Local DJ Provides Soundtrack to Annual Jubilee

It takes a lot of hands to put together a party as big as this weekend’s Jubilee, and none are busier than those of Ken Lindemann, owner of Bolingbrook’s Better than a Jukebox.

A Bolingbrook resident for 27 years, Lindemann started Better than a Jukebox in a round-about way to make money to finance his daughter’s education—he answered an advertisement seeking DJs who enjoy people and music.

“I had the personality, and I was not afraid of a microphone,” he said.

He got the job but didn’t stay long. As soon as the idea was feasible, Better than a Jukebox was born.

“After I got enough experience and enough courage, I took two people and we opened Better than a Jukebox,” Lindemann said.

The DJ service he began specialized in weddings and corporate events, and as Lindemann’s contacts and clientele grew, his involvement in the community also expanded.

Lindemann became an active member of the and was eventually appointed chair of the village's civic and cultural affairs commission.

And that appointment, alongside years of serious party-throwing and an outgoing nature, is what has brought Lindemann to the town center setting up for .

Though the commission position he holds is unpaid, Lindemann has taken the week off of his job at Northwest Ford in Franklin Park to make sure everything is set for the party.

Because of the economy, Lindemann said, Better than a Jukebox is down four employees from nine to five and he, himself, has had to seek outside employment to keep afloat.

“After 20 some years, because of the economy, I had to go out and get a ‘real’ job,” he said. “Got to get up at (6 a.m.) now, and that’s normally the time I’m just going to bed.”

But watching the 60 year old as he builds a booth beside the Bolingbrook Performing Arts Center stage, it’s not hard to see that this is the work he truly loves. 

The Jubilee is sponsored by the Civic and Cultural Affairs Commission and will run Friday through Sunday, featuring live music, food vendors, bingo, crafts and more.

If you go, be sure to check for Lindemann somewhere near his truck.

“Everyone knows the truck,” he said. “They know the truck before they know me.”