By VICTOR SKINNER
Contributing Reporter

MUSKEGON -— Muskegon’s Andy O’Riley is known for being a little larger than life.

The area radio personality has spent his career honing an on-air persona, and has focused in recent years on expanding that influence through social media sites like Facebook, with great success.

In 2012, O’Riley leveraged his social media savvy to raise $3,000 in a matter of days to send a young girl with cerebral palsy to compete in a beauty pageant in Florida. The year before, O’Riely took to Facebook to help win Fox 17’s Pizza Hut Pay It Forward contest and $5,000 for No More Sidelines, a charity that helps children and young adults with special needs participate in sports and other activities.

“It’s powerful,” O’Riley, 43, said of Facebook. “If you’re able to engage an audience, you can get big things done.”

That realization is the foundation of the former radio host’s newest venture – O’Riley Media Group (OMG) – which will operate as a subsidiary of Lakeshore Creative Services, an audio production business he started six years ago.

Over the last two decades, O’Riley has engaged west Michigan residents through their FM dial from Muskegon and Grand Rapids radio stations. He’s best known as the long-time on-air personality at WMRR 101.7 in Muskegon, though he worked most recently on the “Andy and Dave in the Morning” segment on WFGR 98.7 in Grand Rapids.

In January, Townsquare Media, the owners of WFGR, dropped the show from its lineup, along with others. O’Riley said he took the opportunity to launch OMG in early February, and the social media business is already gaining traction.

“I’m looking to not become the next guy who throws in the towel,” he said.
O’Riley has courted more than a half-dozen clients since leaving the air, and in the first week of promoting their businesses through Facebook OMG increased the number of eyes on their pages significantly, he said.

“Our first week we represented seven companies and from Wednesday to Sunday we (increased page ‘likes’) by an average of 105 likes, with no paid ‘likes,’” O’Riley said, adding that OMG’s services cost businesses roughly “what they would probably pay a part-time employee for a month.”

Many small business owners are overwhelmed and intimidated by social media, or can’t afford to hire a dedicated employee to connect with potential customers online, he said. OMG will focus on promoting and connecting those businesses through a steady stream of daily conversational-style posts on their Facebook page to get readers engaged.

“What I’m targeting is smaller businesses that would like to have their business (persona) reflected through their social media,” O’Riley said. “To me, the key to online presence is to … reflect what your business really is. We want to be an extension of these businesses online.”

“My goal is to give them that online voice, a personality on the internet,” he added. “We want them to be top-of-mind awareness of the people they’re marketing to.”

OMG also uses the relationships O’Riley has cultivated in over the years, especially in West Michigan, to create promotional and public relations opportunities that connect businesses in the community, something he was known for on the air.

“I can see a lot of change coming to Muskegon in the next five years and it’s going to take some togetherness,” he said. “We will find logical, sensible cross-promotional opportunities.”
Dave Kaechele, O’Riley’s former partner on “Andy and Dave in the Morning,” said OMG is an “absolutely perfect” fit “as far as (O’Riley’s) personality and Facebook goes.”

Kaechele, who also worked with O’Riley for several years at 101.7 in Muskegon, believes it’s his former colleague’s genuine love of Muskegon and honest demeanor both online and in person that will benefit his clients the most.

“He’s the guy you want putting forth your message because … if he’s pushing it, you know it’s got substance behind it,” Kaechele said. “He’s very community oriented, he’s very charity oriented, and that rubs off on other people.

“He’s a good voice for Muskegon. He loves his town and loves his community.”

That love is apparent to anyone who’s been to a Muskegon Lumberjacks game in recent years, said Jason Goorman, former announcer for the local hockey squad.

As a crowd ambassador, O’Riley has interviewed coaches between periods, adamantly promoted local causes, and generally fired up the audience as a loyal supporter throughout the organization’s tumultuous history, he said. “He’s just super outgoing and he knows everybody,” Goorman said. “If you look at the Lumberjacks organization, with and all the personnel changes, Andy O’Riley has been there the whole time as their in-crowd promoter.
“Pretty much everywhere he goes everyone loves him.”

It’s also obvious to anyone who’s friends with O’Riley through Facebook that his authentic and charismatic personality carries over well to the online world, Goorman said.

“He’s very active on Facebook, and the posts he puts up generally get … a lot of likes,” he said.

Between OMG and Lakeshore Creative Services, O’Riley’s optimistic he can create enough work for full-time employment.

“The interest is there,” he said.
The grandfather of five, however, also said he would not rule out a return to radio.

“I would never say I wouldn’t return to radio again. It’s the only job I’ve ever really had as an adult,” O’Riley said. “I will always have a love for the business.”

By LAUREN FOLKES
Senior Reporter

Brightly colored paper lanterns drape the entryway, dangling above numerous shelves of common and harder-to-find Asian food products. Ready-made Vietnamese fashions from silk handbags to pretty high-heeled shoes to decorative fans are found in abundance. Teas, spices, hand-crafted toys, and wall décor envelop the tiny store, while canned and convenient foods mount the inner shelves. The quality and bulk selection are impressive, the prices are inexpensive.

When seeking genuine Asian food products from around the globe, a small store between Third and Monroe Street, is your ticket to an oriental experience. Valy Vietnamese Oriental Food and Gifts sits at the corner, down the block from Mia and Grace Bistro.

Valy Vietnamese has been in business for eight years and is the only authentic Oriental food store in Muskegon. Products come from Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, China, and the Philippines.

Nga Nguyen—whose name means Swan— owns and operates the business, which offers an enormous selection of foods, spices, teas, and gifts. Nguyen also runs an alteration and tailoring business at her store in a separate back room. Customers can pick up their clothes order while stocking up on essentials and delicacies like various-sized rice noodles, red chili garlic sauce, fried dace, curry paste, longan (Chinese fruit) and seasoned sour mustard, to name a few.

The small store utilizes its space well, taking advantage of every nook and cranny. The towering shelves make one feel as if they are scouring the close stalls of a faraway marketplace. The white walls juxtapose perfectly with the colorful environment created by the hanging lanterns, green bamboo plants, and colorful displays of jewelry, hats, wall design, and foodstuffs.

Valy sells convenient foods from across the globe, to-go items such as Kung-Fu Beef Flavored Oriental Style Instant Noodles from Taiwan, to An Lien, a rice dish from Vietnam, Nagaraya Nuts, cookies and candies for children, and Shin Cup Noodle Soup hailing from South Korea. Valy Vietnamese also provides food catering services for the community.

Nguyen moved to the United States from Vietnam as a refugee; her father was killed in 1975 during the conflict in Vietnam between North and South Vietnam. She has resided in Muskegon for 22 years and enjoys running her business day to day.

“My store has true cultural foods and items. If customers need a recipe, I have many that they can try,” she said.  Nguyen often helps customers prepare authentic meals by offering recipes from back home. Whether you’re a novice in the kitchen or just yearning to incorporate healthier, colorful, and new foods into your diet, Nguyen can help customers on the journey.

What can you find at Valy that distinguishes it from a chain grocery? Popular Asian staples at a great price and bona fide oriental ingredients on top of the slew of non-food products.

Large white freezer cases line a back room. Each houses an array of frozen meats, egg rolls, poultry, and seafood— such as frozen squid tubes and wild caught mackerel—plus a plethora of sauces to douse the foods.

Menlo egg wrappers are sold by the sheet. If you are looking for healthier foods or are vegetarian or vegan, Valy carries veg-friendly foods neatly marked in the freezer section. Gluten-free soy sauce is also available for those with the allergy.

Another exclusive Valy offering are the Asian Ice Cream flavors found in the frozen compartment. Flavors range from Azuki Bean, Durian, Pandan Leaf, Mung Bean, and Coconut Pineapple and are 1.25 per bar or 4.50 per package.

Kids will love the animal faced hanging balloons and frosted wafer sticks and other sweets that runs parallel to the shelves carrying conical peasant hats, seashells, and multiple trinkets.

Valy now participates in the Balikbayan Box Service; a corrugated box sits by the storefront where shoppers can donate non-perishable items. These relief goods—food, clothes, financial donations—will be sent overseas to Mindanao in the Philippines. The box service is sponsored by the Philippine Cultural Group of Michigan.

Nguyen provided this broad recipe for Fresh Spring Rolls, a favorite, of which all ingredients can be purchased at the store. One needs rice paper, rice noodles, diced cucumber and carrots, soy sauce or fish or peanut sauce, and a protein element: shrimp, pork slices, or tofu. “Miso and seaweed are also good for authentic recipes,” she said, pointing to the miso in the refrigerator.

If you’re in the market for delicious food, a bamboo plant, oriental home décor, or even beautiful jewelry designed by Nga, then shop at Valy. You’ll be supporting a local business and boosting the local economy in the process. Fostering community growth starts with a healthy economy and Muskegon is fortunate to have a unique store such as Valy Vietnamese.