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Waupaca County Post

October 19, 2006

WDUX celebrates half a century on the air

By Robert Cloud, Post Editor

For 50 years, WDUX has been broadcasting music, along with national and local news and sports from its studios in Waupaca.

Founded by Dorothy Laird, of Green Bay, whose husband, Ben, was the first president of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, the station went on the air on April 29, 1956. Its original studios were located above Waupaca Abstract and Title Company on South Main Street. At the time the AM station had 500 watts of power. There were also WDUX studios in New London.

Today, WDUX AM 800 has 5,000 watts during the day and 500 watts at night. WDUX FM 92.7, which went on the air on Jan. 29, 1967, operates at 6,000 watts. The studios are located on Tower Road. The station is owned by Laird Broadcasting Company and Bill Laird is the president of WDUX.

In the intervening years, WDUX has reached out to listeners with swimwear pageants, a comedy challenge, turkey bowling, karaoke contests, donkey basketball games and Packers basketball tournaments. These events, which take the station manager since 2000, started at WDUX as a salesperson in 1991. She recalls racing an antique snowmobile backward against Larry McCarren in Challenge the Rock at Rustic Woods in the early 1990s.

Ask newscaster Jack Barry to recall one of his career highlights with WDUX and he will describe a basketball game between the Packers and teacher from Weyauwega-Fremont High School in 1991. A former teacher himself, jack played on the teachers’ team.

“I was their ringer,” said Jack, who coached women’s varsity basketball at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. peter, Minn. The teachers were no match for the professional athletes. “We got crushed,” Jack said.

In the ‘90s, WDUX’s swimwear pageant and comedy challenge brought national notoriety to several local residents. Jim Bartel won the 1992 WDUS-Miller Swimwear Pageant and went on to win the national competition in Atlantic City the following year. She appeared as Miss February in the 1995 “American Dream Calendar”, published by Donald Trump.

Roger Radley won the 1992 WDUX-Miller Comedy Challenge in 1992 an also won in Atlantic City the following year. In 1993, Dan Davies won the local comedy challenge before winning the national competition.

Among its more popular live community events, WDUX does the Home Show at the Expo every spring, lunch with Santa with the Churny Company and a talk show from Pick ‘n Save from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Thursdays.

Larry Stevens’ midday show can be heard on the FM station. Joining WDUX in March 2003, Larry has more than 22 years in the broadcast business. He started out running syndicated programs in his hometown of Wisconsin Rapids, before moving up to fill in work and a full-time gig. Prior to coming to Waupaca, he worked in Merrill, Wausau, Stevens Point and Oshkosh.

“I married a Waupaca girl and we built a house here,” Larry said, when asked about his move to the area. “The travel back and forth to the Valley got tedious, so when there was an opening at WDUX I took it and haven’t looked back.”

Lee Stevens, who is no relation to Larry, is best known to WDUX fans as Captain Lee. He can be heard after 9 a.m. on AM 800 hosting Swap Shop. He is also the continuity director and ad copy writer.

A Manawa native, Lee has been with WDUX for half of the station’s existence. He is a 1978 graduate of Little Wolf High School and a graduate of the Trans American School of Broadcasting in Wausau. WDUX has been his first and only job in radio.

Lee recalls the many technological changes that have occurred at WDUX since he came on board.

“We went form doing production on a single track reel-to-reel tape machine to doing production on computer with numerous multi-racks, and all the other tricks it can do,” Lee said. “We went from two turntables and records to CDs and CD players, to having most of our music is now played off computer.

Rick Winters, the FM morning disc jockey, music director and prgram director, has been with WDUX for 15 years. Born in Lomira, Wis., Rick moved to Waupaca when he was in the fifth grade. He also works for WSAW, Channel 7, in Wausau.

As with most radio personalities, Rick uses a broadcast name rather than the one that appears on his birth certificate. He explained why broadcasters change their names.

“It started out something cool when you’re young,” Rick said. “But it’s good to have a little anonymity because there’s always a couple of crazies out there. You can say something innocent on the air and somebody will get upset about it.”

Jack Barry, the news, sports and operations director for WDUX, is originally from Granada, Minn. While a student at Gustavus Adolphus College he did some broadcasting and covered college sports for the St. Peter Press.

In 1987, Jack moved to Waupaca and joined the staff at WDUX. Then, in 1991, Jack began teaching in Hortonville, although he continued broadcasting high school sports.

“It got to the end of that fifth year teaching and I didn’t see myself teaching for the next 20 years,” Jack recalled. In 1996, he returned to working full time at WDUX.

“I grew up as a sports junkie. As a kid I would listen to the Twins and the Vikings on the radio,” Jack said. “Live sports broadcasts are my favorite part of the job.”

Jack can be heard presenting the news in the morning, noon and evening on both the FM and AM stations, with Rick Winters on the morning FM show and with Terry Nellis for local high school sports coverage.

“Radio broadcasting takes a lot of time. There’s a lot of late nights and early mornings, but it’s fun. It doesn’t seem like work at all,” Jack said.