- [Jim] It is crunch time in this Missouri factory, it's one of the few places making glasses to view the upcoming eclipse.

- We'll get a phone call and say, "Can you deliver a half a million?"

And anyhow, we're doing the best we can.

- [Jim] We remember the local man who changed the way we hear concerts.

- And I'd go to these shows and their sound systems were terrible.

So I started building sound systems.

- [Jim] Remembering Bob Heil, the go-to guy for rock stars and ham radio operators alike.

This teenager captured the hearts of judges and fans on "The Voice."

- I'm like, "Oh my gosh."

In my mind I'm like, "This is happening.

It's real."

- [Jim] Foley, Missouri's Ruby Leigh sits down with us for a chat and of course a quick yodel.

It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) I'm Jim Kirchherr and there are several very bright lights right here in front of me and I don't see them, don't see a thing because of course I'm wearing my eclipse viewing glasses, which I will be using on April 8th, hoping for clear skies, dreading cloud cover.

These glasses are out there, or soon will be.

Some places you might get them for free, but you can get them for a couple of bucks in stores or online.

But make sure it's a seller you trust because, well, these do have to meet certain standards.

This pair, by the way, was made by DayStar Filters, which is on a country road outside of Warrensburg in western Missouri.

It's a little company playing a very big role in getting us ready for what's being called "The Eclipse Across America."

DayStar's rural setting gives little hint of what's going on here because back there in the distance, it's anything but peaceful.

DayStar is one of only a handful of companies in the United States making eclipse viewing glasses, turning out hundreds of thousands, even millions since last October's annular eclipse.

And when we were there, the April 8th eclipse was just weeks away.

Quite an operation.

There's so much going on here.

- Well, they have to get it all done by the deadline or else.

There is no waiting until later.

- Right.

Jen Winter is co-owner of DayStar.

I mean, this is crunch time for you, right?

- Oh, thousands and hundreds of thousands of orders at a time.

- Right, right.

- We'll get a phone call and say, "Can you deliver a half a million?"

And some of them we can and some of them we can't.

And anyhow, we're doing the best we can.

- [Jim] Here's how they do it.

Eight pairs of glasses are printed out on cardboard sheets.

Then the eye holes are cut out.

And this is the key ingredient, the special filter.

They don't make it here, it comes in wide rolls, which they slice into two inch strips and that's what covers the eye holes.

- [Jen] It's gonna block 99.9999% of the light.

- [Jim] Another sheet of cardboard is then glued on the back to sandwich the filter in between.

- Carefully aligns them and lays them down.

- [Jim] This machine punches the eight pairs of glasses out of the sheets so they can be removed, bundled, packaged, and shipped all over North America.

And the demand is great.

While the path of this eclipse only goes through part of the country, a lot of major population centers from Mexico to Canada will experience a total eclipse.

During totality when the moon is completely blocking the sun, it can be viewed with the naked eye, but before and after and anywhere there's only a partial eclipse, including St. Louis, the glasses have to be worn to look directly at the sun.

I think when people tried these on in 2017, maybe for the first time a lot of people found these or saw these, you put them on, you see nothing.

- Nothing.

Nothing.

- But if you look at the sun- - Until you see the sun.

That's just how much brighter the sun is.

- [Jim] And how much did you say it blocks?

- 99.999% of all visual spectrum.

So that's a really good example of why Pop-Tart wrappers or tinfoil won't work because if you can see anything around you, they're not gonna safely block the sun.

- [Jim] They do pretty much the entire process here from start to finish because, well, when it comes to deliveries and supplies, they are kind of off the beaten path.

- [Jen] Hi Nora.

- [Jim] And that's by choice.

Just outside the door of the factory are Jen Winter's cattle.

I didn't know this is what we were coming out to see.

- I didn't know it was what I was going to grow up and do.

I had no expectation that I would be in cattle.

- [Jim] But what about the high tech part?

- [Jen] I didn't know I would be in that either.

- [Jim] She bought DayStar 20 years ago and moved it from California to the Missouri land that's been in her family for generations.

- [Jen] It's a better place to observe nighttime astronomy than it is in the big city.

- [Jim] So your interest started with the astronomy or with the science and the filters, all that?

- It started with astronomy.

- [Jim] before she was a solar filter maker, Jen Winter and her late husband were eclipse chasers and eclipse photographers.

This isn't just, I mean, I know it's a business.

- It is.

- But you really enjoy the sun.

- Oh yeah, no sun, no fun.

That's what we always say because all of these filters that we make, I have to test live on the sun.

- [Jim] And while eclipses come and go, the sun, let's say never sets on this business.

- And a lot of times folks don't realize that because the sun is out every day, with proper gear, you can keep looking and observing the sun every day and we sometimes refer to the eclipse as a gateway drug.

So this is what we do when it's not an eclipse.

We manufacture solar filters that separate the hydrogen.

You notice it's red.

So what you'll see through this is actually the red light that only hydrogen gas produces.

And that lets us see those interesting things on the sun.

- [Jim] This attaches to a telescope?

- It goes into the draw tube of an eyepiece of a telescope.

- [Jim] DayStar filters are used by astronomers, amateur and professional, by educators, and they've gone into orbit.

But all that is set aside to fill the current demand for eclipse glasses.

- [Jen] But this eclipse this year crosses millions and millions of people.

It's gonna take all of our manufacturing capacity.

- [Jim] On April 9th, do you take the day off?

- We're gonna take quite a few days off.

(laughs) We haven't had a vacation in two years.

- [Jim] A couple of days later we were closer to home.

And what better place to talk about the eclipse than the McDonnell Planetarium and what better person to talk about getting ready for it than planetarium manager Will Snyder.

- The eclipse is something we do encourage people to get ready for beforehand.

So right now, if you're interested, one thing they can do is come here to the planetarium.

We're doing a show right now all about the eclipse, of course the basics of why this happens, why it matters, and how to safely watch it.

So that's a great opportunity to get ready, get eclipse glasses, and understand the event a little better.

But also in the lead up, we'll be doing solar telescope observing here.

So on Sundays throughout March and up to the eclipse, you can come on in, weather permitting, and get a cool opportunity to learn about how to observe the sun and see cool things about it.

- [Jim] So you've gotta have some special stuff to do solar observing, yeah?

- You're absolutely right.

So sort of just like we don't wanna look at the sun with our eyes, we definitely don't wanna use a telescope either.

So here at the planetarium, we use a variety of different filters and special telescopes designed to safely look at the sun.

And depending on what type we use, you can see everything from sunspots to even solar prominences.

An eclipse is just such a wonderful opportunity to get people excited about what goes on overhead.

- [Jim] The path of totality will pass through southeastern Missouri and into Illinois on the afternoon of Monday, April 8th.

In St. Louis, all but just a sliver of the sun will be blocked, so viewing glasses will still be needed the entire time.

About 23 miles north of St. Peters on Highway 79 is the small, and I mean really small town of Foley, Missouri.

It is now known though as the home of one big, and I mean one really big deal in country western music.

Teenager Ruby Leigh found time to share her amazing story with Veronica Mohesky.

♪ I want to be a cowboy's sweetheart ♪ - [Veronica] In September 2023, 16-year-old Ruby Leigh stunned the judges of "The Voice" with her performance of Patsy Montana's "I Want To Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart."

(Ruby Leigh yodeling) The fully Missouri native singing and yodeling granted her a four chair turn from the judges, which meant all of them wanted her on their team.

Leigh finished the season as the first runner up in December and joined me for a conversation about her experience on the show.

I'm here with Ruby Leigh who came in second place on season 24 of "The Voice."

Ruby, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So I have to know, how are you feeling after getting second place?

- Pretty good, honestly.

It's pretty exciting and I tell everyone, I definitely, even though I lost, I don't feel like I lost.

I totally won.

It's just such an amazing experience to be a part of and to be on Reba's first team and get her to the finale was just incredible.

And you know, I made it farther than anyone else from Missouri ever has on the show and I broke a lot of records doing it.

I'm now the most viewed audition in "Voice" history, so I feel pretty good.

I mean, it's pretty awesome.

- So you're 16 years old and you were when you auditioned.

I mean, what was it like being one of the younger people on that show?

- It's kind of nerve wracking.

It's kind of different 'cause you're against all these adults that have been doing it their entire lives and I've only been doing it for six years, so I'm very new to it and my family's not musical.

So it's one of those things but going in I felt pretty good.

I was like, "Whatever happens happens."

I wasn't worried about it.

So it was great.

I felt really good about it and I definitely don't think it was a disadvantage.

- How is your family handling your kind of new found fame?

I know you said you were singing for a long time, but how are they handling it, being on "The Voice" and all this?

- Yeah.

They're doing pretty good.

They're enjoying it with me.

My family goes everywhere I go and they're very supportive and being on the show I got to introduce my dad to Reba McEntire, which is like his life long favorite.

My dad was there for every round, but when my whole family got to be there, it was even more special.

Like for the finale, I got to introduce my sister to Gwen.

She loves Gwen.

So it was a cool experience for all of us and it was cool to be able to share that with my whole family and not just something that I keep to myself.

So it was really fun.

- How did you feel with the initial four chair turn?

- It was definitely surprising.

When I went out, I honestly, I talked to my family and I was like, "I feel like if anyone was gonna turn, it would be Reba, because the rest of the coaches don't really know my music, they're not really country oriented."

And when I went out there and John turned first, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know that you were like even a part of this."

And then, you know, he turned for me and it was such an amazing eye-opening experience.

And then obviously Reba turned and then all of them, it was shocking going through it and singing.

I'm like, "Oh my gosh."

In my mind I'm like, "This is happening.

It's real."

- So what went into your decision in picking a coach?

We know you picked Reba.

- I picked Reba because number one, she's country and she knows a lot about country.

Number two, she's been in the music industry for her entire life.

She knows so much and she has so much wisdom that I felt like she could share with me, which she did.

And you know, number one again, she's an amazing person.

- Can you tell me about how you started singing?

Was it something that you wanted to do or did your family sign you up for lessons or something?

- No, I've never had a voice lesson until the show.

Being on the show you have to.

But yeah, I never had any vocal lessons or anything.

And my family is the most non-musical family you've ever seen in your life.

It's not even funny.

So it's a really long story, but I started singing in my dad's race car shop, he used to race cars and he was playing classic country music and I started singing along and then I ended up, I learned a classic country song and my dad posted it on Facebook and all of his friends and family members were like, "Oh my gosh, great job.

How long has she been singing?"

It'd be like 30 minutes now.

So a lot of responses like that.

And then I sang again at a flea market my first time ever singing out with a group that was playing.

I asked to sing and I sang a song and then it kind of took off from there.

I got invited to more events and then I got my own shows and it just really branched off from there and obviously now I'm on TV, which is weird.

- How did you start yodeling?

- I saw someone on YouTube yodeling and like I said, non-musical family.

So I went to my dad immediately as every kid does and I was like, "Dad, how do they do that?"

My dad's like, "I have no idea how they do that."

So I kept watching it and watching it and I tried to mimic it and then eventually one day I got it to where I broke my voice.

I do more of a, they call it a proper yodel, which is more of a modern yodel and it's where you break your voice.

It's like that flip that you hear.

And a lot of people don't do that.

A lot of people sing the yodel and they don't actually break their voice.

- Can you yodel for us now?

- I probably could.

(Ruby yodeling) - That is incredible.

Wow.

- Thank you.

- Your voice is so beautiful.

So what's next?

Where can people see you performing or where can we hear your music?

- Yeah, so I'm working on releasing an album this year, so that's gonna be really exciting.

It's gonna have some covers from the show obviously and a lot of originals.

So I'm working on releasing that and a lot of people can find me on obviously social media.

I'm on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

- Well Ruby, thank you so much for coming here.

It was so great to talk to you.

- I appreciate it.

Thank you.

- What more could a musician ask for than to sound as good as possible when performing?

Our final story is about a local man whose inventions and innovations did just that, made him something of a behind the scenes legend in the music business and even among ham radio operators.

Marissa, Illinois native and Belleville resident Bob Heil died last month at the age of 83.

Here's a profile by Ruth Ezell we first aired in 2009.

("How Long" by Eagles) - [Ruth] For musicians on a par with the legendary band the Eagles, The quality of sound reproduction is everything.

♪ Like a blue bird with its heart removed, lonely as a train ♪ - In fact, Eagle Joe Walsh, that's him on the far right, swears by the microphones produced by Heil Sound of Fairview Heights, Illinois.

Company founder Bob Heil, who's been a close friend of Walsh for years, refers to the guitarist as his beta tester.

- Joe is very technical and he was telling me that, you know, we wanna move the mid range out an octave and let's make it go down to 50 cycles instead of stopping it on a hundred and a quarter like all the other manufacturers.

And so I started listening and building for Joe and we have now come up with a line of microphones.

It's just absolutely magnificent.

- [Ruth] Bob Heil's ability to understand what musicians need to sound their best then give it to them has made Heil one of the most innovative and respected people in the world of professional audio.

His background would suggest Heil is hardwired that way.

He was born October 5th, 1940 in Marissa, Illinois.

At a young age, Heil displayed a passion for keyboards, first with the accordion, then the organ.

- My wonderful parents bought me a B-3 Hammond organ and that was a big deal in 1952.

Two years later, a lady from Freeburg, Illinois, Mary Valentine, who went to grade school with my mother called her and said, "I hear you got a kid that plays Hammond organ."

And she said, "Well yeah, he's only been playing a couple years."

"Well I just bought this Hammond organ for our restaurant in Freeburg and I need somebody to play it."

And so I started playing there on the weekends, Friday and Saturday night.

I was 14.

- [Ruth] It wasn't long before Heil's talents came to the attention of the late Stan Kann, the longtime organist for the Fox Theater in St. Louis.

Kann gave organ lessons to the teenager for about a year, then let Heil substitute for him at the Fox whenever Kann had other engagements.

- When we first started at the Fox, that organ hadn't been played in many, many years and it was in bad shape.

And we'd have to tune and voice that thing at night after the theater would close.

And he taught me how to voice and tune a pipe organ, that is an art.

You do not just walk in and do that.

And he taught me how to listen.

- [Ruth] Heil also learned to repair and build pipe organs as his performing career grew.

And if that wasn't enough, he indulged his ongoing fascination with ham radio.

- I was in high school as a sophomore.

One of my buddies got an amateur radio license from the Federal Communications Commission.

In those days you had to take it before the FCC, the test.

And I did that and I got my license.

And talk about falling in love with another thing was that, 'cause I was a ham radio operator that got into building, designing and building.

- [Ruth] Little did Heil know how his interest would converge when in 1966, he opened a music shop in his hometown.

Ye Old Music Shop in Marissa sold Hammond organs.

And even though Heil's world revolved around music written in the 1920s and thirties, he'd rent out organs to rock groups stopping in St. Louis on tour.

- And I'd go to these shows and their sound systems were terrible.

Had little stupid columns you couldn't understand and he'd put these little columns in Kiel Auditorium, forget it.

So I started building sound systems, big sound systems.

- [Ruth] Systems that incorporated some of the same technology used in ham radio transmitters, very familiar territory for Heil.

At the same time, Ye Old Music Shop evolved into what was a rarity in its day, a music store with instruments and accessories tailored to the professional musician.

- I had dozens of Les Paul guitars and Fender Stratocasters and it was nothing for somebody to fly over here from England and buy guitars from me 'cause I had very special things.

- Bought a sound system from him.

First major rock and roll sound system I ever could afford to buy.

- [Ruth] Dale Benz is a guitarist whose day job is operations manager for the Sheldon Concert Hall.

That first purchase Benz made at Ye Old Music Shop some 30 years ago was memorable.

- And he sold us the coolest system at that time.

And right after that he took us back to his shop and showed us the sound system he was designing for The Who.

- That's right, The Who.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Bob Heil's reputation got a big boost in 1971 after he got an SOS from the Fox Theater.

It seems a major rock group on tour had just arrived in town to perform, but the sound system wasn't gonna make it.

So Heil rushed to the rescue with his gear.

The sound quality from the performance that night impressed the band so much that Heil was signed on the spot to complete the tour with the Grateful Dead.

Word spread quickly and when The Who needed to replace its sound system on short notice, the band paid to transport Heil equipment from Marissa, Illinois to Boston, Massachusetts on a jet liner.

The seventies was a busy decade as Heil designed for the likes of rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, country singer and songwriter Dolly Parton, and a long list of other big name performers.

Along the way, Heil was coming up with high quality, affordable products for club bands on a budget.

Products like this modular mixer, the HM 1200.

- A club band maybe couldn't afford all of the channels, so we had blank panels and they would maybe only wanna buy six or they could afford to buy eight.

And it was all modular and you simply unplugged it and put a blank panel in here.

Since it was modular, if they had any problems with it, number one, everything was in a socket.

It wasn't soldered in, the ICs and transistors, so they could change that if that blew up.

That's usually what went wrong, if anything went wrong.

If not, they could send the whole thing back to us in Marissa and we would fix it and send it back.

But their mixer still worked.

And in those days, oh gosh, if your mixer went down, it was all hardwired stuff, you lost the whole thing.

So you didn't get to play for a week or two.

- Heil expanded his product line to include home theater systems and satellite dish systems for homes in regions that couldn't get TV signals any other way.

He was also a technology contributor on local radio and television stations where he was dubbed High Tech Heil.

But Heil eventually dropped those ventures and sold the music shop to focus on designing and manufacturing microphones for the ham radio market.

- [Bob Heil] When we got into the ham radio market, this is what you get with a ham radio.

And no matter what you do, when you put an element inside a clamshell, it's very hollow sounding and it just doesn't sound that great.

And we came up with this and we've absolutely changed the whole ham radio market because now they sound like a broadcast station almost and it's all because of the microphone.

- [Ruth] And here's where Heil's friendship with Joe Walsh resulted in another great development for the music industry.

Walsh, like Heil, is a ham radio operator.

And in 2004, Walsh made a surprising discovery.

Heil's ham radio mic outperformed the microphone Walsh used for his music.

So with some adaptations, that ham radio mic spawned an entire line of studio and stage microphones used by individual musicians and groups as diverse as ZZ Top, Neal Schon, Gnarls Barkley, Charlie Daniels, Slash, Paul Rodgers, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, plus scores of other artists.

- We use 'em a lot for recording here.

It's a very full warm sound that these mics produce.

- [Ruth] The individual parts of every Heil product are designed by Heil himself, manufactured at plants around the world, then shipped to Heil Sound Headquarters in Fairview Heights, where the finished items are assembled by hand and tested before they're shipped to customers.

- We can do that.

- [Ruth] Bob Heil has such a distinguished track record that in June of 2006, he and his wife Sarah were invited to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

That's where Heil became the only manufacturer to have an exhibit installed in the hall's museum.

When it comes to audio technology, Bob Heil is a rock star.

- [Bob Heil] Oh, we're very honored and extremely humbled and proud of the fact that we can still do it right here in Fairview.

♪ Tell me how long, how long ♪ Woman will you weep ♪ How long, how long ♪ Rock yourself to sleep - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

We'd love to hear from you.

You can reach us at NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Jim Kirchherr, thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time.

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) - [Presenter] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.