Celebrating 50 Years of Milwaukee Public Radio
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FALL 2014 // WUWM.COM f/WUWMRADIO l @WUWMRADIO INSIDE THIS EDITION WUWM@NITE NEW FORMAT 3 WUWM REPORTERS ON NPR 3 BOB BACH RETIREMENT 4 INTUNE ELECTION COVERAGE 5 COVER STORY CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF MILWAUKEE PUBLIC RADIO Fifty years ago, The University of Radio and American Public Wisconsin-Milwaukee launched MediaTM, WUWM continues to be a fledgling non-commercial radio your source for in-depth news and station from humble studios in reporting. the basement of the Fine Arts Music Building on campus. WUWM opened its doors for a When the station debuted on special anniversary open house to September 9, 1964, it preceded celebrate fifty years of Milwaukee both the Corporation for Public Public Radio and the generous Broadcasting® and National Public support of the WUWM listeners who Radio®. make it possible. More than 250 people explored WUWM, touring Over the years, our location the studios, meeting their favorite and format has changed but our on-air personalities and enjoying commitment to providing excellent, WUWM’s photo booth. Participants informative content has remained had an opportunity to go in the true. Operating 24/7 with locally- studio and interview the on-air produced programming interspersed staff from Lake Effect and WUWM with content from National Public News. ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 9TH... 1776: Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America 1839: John Herschel takes first glass plate photograph creating the negative 1850: California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state 1926: The U.S. National Broadcasting Company (NBC) formed 1964: WUWM signs on to the air 1982: John Kuhn, Fullback of the Green Bay PackersTM, is born WUWM 89.7 FM - MILWAUKEE PUBLIC RADIO INTUNE FALL 2014 form’ to All Things Considered and jazz. Morning Edition was launched. DEAR FRIENDS, Bailey’s experiment was written about in Billboard Magazine. WUWM is celebrating its 50th year of broadcasting. It started with a different In 1978, with funds provided by the Department of Health, Education and mission and with a much different sound. Welfare, and matched in part by UW-Milwaukee, WUWM moved its transmitter to the tower owned by WITI TV6. At the higher location, even UW-Milwaukee sought to give students enrolled in its Department of Mass 1,500 watts delivered a reasonable signal to reach much of the metropolitan Communications some hands-on experience. The station area. On-air fund drives were born. I remember that a bunch of us went out launched in 1964 with only enough power to be heard to a bar to celebrate after we raised $40,000 after a week-long drive. over a few block radius of the campus. Students could program whatever they wanted. The station signed on In 1980, WUWM interconnected to NPR via Westar satellite. A the air at 4 p.m. with educational programs. In the communications dish was installed on the UW-Milwaukee campus, making evening, students programmed mostly underground WUWM the first Milwaukee station with satellite capabilities. rock with some jazz and poetry. On the weekends, the Following changes in FCC rules, WUWM increased its power to 7,000 station aired a mix of foreign language broadcasts, watts and again in 1984 to 15,000 watts. The station was now building an opera, show tunes and rock music. The station was audience. funded by the University’s instructional budget and had no measurable listeners. When WFMR, Milwaukee’s classical music radio station, was sold and dropped the format; WUWM added classical music to the schedule and well- Three years later, Congress created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. known classical music announcer, Obie Yadger, joined our staff. NPR was formed shortly thereafter, and programs like All Things Considered and The World of Opera joined the schedule. All Things Considered was Bailey left the station to return to teaching, and I was appointed General delivered via phone lines, and other programs were distributed on tape. Manager in 1985. We launched a study on building more listeners for WUWM. As a result of that study, WUWM dropped classical music and Founding manager, Ruane Hill, led the station into the 1970s before returning became a full-time NPR news station. The audience started to increase, as did to teaching. He is still a fan of WUWM and attended the station’s anniversary fundraising. WUWM was the second public radio station in the country to celebration. become a full time news station, the first being KQED in San Francisco. Jay Landers then became general manager. But money became tight, and It was 1998 before we broke the $1 million mark in annual fundraising. We UWM was less inclined to take instructional dollars to support the broadcast are now raising well over $2.5 million from the community, and last year, we station. Landers left, and an administrator from the College served as interim broke the 100,000 mark in weekly listening. GM for about a year while decisions were being made regarding how the station would operate in the future. Some public radio stations in other cities Along the way, we’ve moved into state-of-the-art facilities in downtown were attracting listeners – mostly because of NPR programming. WUWM still Milwaukee and hired a talented and dedicated staff, including journalists had only a few hundred listeners each week. who have won hundreds of awards. All of this is made possible because of generous supporters like you. Thank you. George Bailey, an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications at UWM, became the General Manager. Bailey was developing a national reputation for using audience data and a professional sound to attract an audience. Now he had the chance to prove that what he Dave Edwards was writing about was actually possible. WUWM’s format shifted from ‘free Director / General Manager INTUNE FALL 2014 WUWM MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR/GENERAL MANAGER, Dave Edwards WUWM INTUNE newsletter is published four times each year by WUWM. It is available to all Friends of WUWM. PROGRAM MANAGER, Bruce Winter NEWS DIRECTOR, Marge Pitrof WUWM operates on 89.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 13,500 SM watts. Our primary coverage area blankets all of the Milwaukee metropolitan EXEC. PRODUCER, LAKE EFFECT , Mitch Teich area including Racine, Waukesha and West Bend. WUWM’s extended service MANAGER, FINANCE & ADMIN., Cheryl Locher area includes listeners throughout southeastern Wisconsin. CHIEF ENGINEER, David Felland Milwaukee Public Radio®, Milwaukee Public MediaSM and Lake EffectSM are service marks of WUWM 89.7 FM–Milwaukee Public Radio. INTUNE EDITOR & DESIGNER, Christine Lamitina E-MAIL ADDRESSES: CONTACT US GENERAL: [email protected] 111 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Ste. 700 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 NEWSROOM: [email protected] LAKE EFFECTSM: [email protected] PHONE: 414.227.3355 FAX: 414.270.1297 LISTENER COMMENT LINE: 414.270.1220 PRINTED LOCALLY ON RECYCLED PAPER. MEMBERSHIP: 414.270.1225 2 WUWM.COM WUWM@NITE RELAUNCHES WITH NEW FORMAT First, lets start by telling you what WUWM@ the creative and technical force behind the Night is not. We’re not the radio equivalent of program. Hosting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and your iPod on shuffle. Nor are we the same 10 hit Thursdays, Bruce provides artist interviews and songs played in a predictable rotation. We’re not regular segments. talk radio. We’re not “solid gold oldies” stuck in a Producer and Co-Host Rachel Owens is Bruce’s musical time capsule from 40 years ago. sidekick and co-creator of content. In addition What we are is a great to hosting on Tuesdays and reason to keep your Fridays, she also conducts WUWM@NITE AIRS WEEKDAYS radio on at night – or to regular artist interviews. FROM 9 P.M. TO 12 A.M. turn us back on. We’re (except Thursdays – 10 p.m. to 12 a.m.) Assistant Producers Trapper musically intensive and Schoepp and Eleanor Peterson intensively local, with book and interview artists, edit interviews, live performances from our WUWM and mix interviews, produce digital content and studio and on-stage, special features and great host regular segments. conversation. We cover arts, music, storytelling and the spoken word. Assistant Chief Engineer Jon Strelecki engineers Grace Weber performs in the studio sessions and mixes them for broadcast. WUWM@Nite Studio. Executive Producer and Host Bruce Winter is Jon is the magic behind our WUWM exclusive the mastermind of WUWM@Nite, as well as performances by local and national talent. CONNECT WITH US! TELL US WHICH BANDS AND ARTISTS YOU’D LIKE TO HEAR ON THE AIR: FACEBOOK.COM/WUWMMUSIC OR TWITTER.COM/WUWMATNITE DID YOU HEAR? WUWM REPORTERS ON NPR PROGRAMS COURT REINSTATES WISCONSIN VOTER ID LAW Ann-Elise Henzl reported on Morning Edition that a federal appeals court ruled to reinstate the photo identification requirement for the November election. It had been previously blocked in a lawsuit brought by voter advocacy groups. Full story here: http://bit.ly/VoterIDWisconsin NOT YOUR FATHER’S HOG On Here and Now, WUWM’s LaToya Dennis reported on the LiveWire, Harley’s possible foray into the electric motorcycle market. Full story here: http:// bit.ly/wihog TO BOOST ATTENDANCE, MILWAUKEE SCHOOLS REVIVE ART, MUSIC AND GYM Erin Toner reported on Morning Edition how MPS are re-investing in subjects like art and physical education with the hope of attracting more families and boosting academic achievement. Full story here: http:// bit.ly/mpsartgym WUWM 89.7 FM - MILWAUKEE PUBLIC RADIO INTUNE FALL 2014 3 PROGRAM SCHEDULE WUWM 89.7 FM NPR/IN-DEPTH NEWS 7/8/14 MONDAY - FRIDAY 5 am – 9 am Morning Edition 9 am – 10 am BBC Newshour 10 am – 11 am Lake Effect 11 am – noon Fresh Air with Terry Gross noon – 3 pm Here and Now UWM Today (Thurs.