WFHR's 84th Anniversary

Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, November 5th, 2024.

Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.

At part two today at 430, we're going to talk with our friend Tracy from the South

of County YMCA.

Looking forward to that, and a big thank you to Tri-City Services, sponsor in that segment.

Right now we have with us on the phone, a legend here, and Wisconsin Rapids, a legend

here at WFHR, helping us celebrate WFHR's 84th anniversary, longtime sports director,

broadcaster, co-host, marketing, one of the best beards in WFHR history, Mr. Terry

Stake is with us.

Hello, sir.

Hello there.

James is how he's doing.

Doing all right.

To talk to the people of Wisconsin Rapids again.

I don't get there very often.

And we miss you around here, Terry.

It's part of the reason why I really appreciate Pam reaching out and you guys being able

to work this out and you being able to join us.

How have you been?

Well, I've been okay.

I don't know if the people know, but I have MS, so I don't walk very good anymore.

But other than that, I'm going along pretty good.

Still get to do a few things.

So it's good.

I'm living in the Northwoods where there's lots of lakes and deer and squirrels going.

I'm happy.

Good to hear.

Very good to hear.

And I appreciate you sharing that, Terry.

Thank you for that.

And I know you're still keeping pretty active when it comes to sports and everything, right?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I spent 42 years at sports, so it's hard to get away.

I mean, I'm not doing anything anymore as far as the broadcast industry is concerned.

But I follow everything very closely, still able to go fishing and with help, I go deer hunting.

But that's about my activities now.

And that sounds like a pretty good.

That sounds like a good set of activities.

We're here to talk about WFHR and the history of it in local radio.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't have one of my favorite voices in WFHR history.

And one of my favorite sports personalities to talk to about, you know, commentating today,

Terry, you know, when you're watching a game of whether it's baseball, football, anything

like that, commentating has changed a bit, but it's also kind of very similar to what

it used to be.

Is that the way you see it?

It's far as sports is concerned.

Yeah, just sports commentary, home and a game and everything.

Call it a game.

Yeah, it's hard to change calling the game.

I think, you know, as far as radio is concerned, TV has changed.

I think they talked too much on TV.

But radio, you've got to paint a picture.

And I always thought that was a great art for any sportscaster that ever did.

It was to paint a picture of what it's like to the people that can't see the footage

of the football matriculating down the field or a line drive or a three point basketball

shot.

You know, that's, I listened to some people up here and there's, there's a few good

ones and there's a few that need a lot of work, but I probably needed a lot of work too.

You'll be both.

I'm still working at that.

I'm still working progress.

What were your, your first, tell us a little bit about your first days here at WFHR

Terry?

What were that like?

How'd you get hired?

All of that.

Okay.

Well, I started in 1968.

They, they needed a part time, an answer that would work weekends and I did two hours in

the afternoon.

I'm trying to, I think it was four to six.

I can't quite remember the times.

And at that time, you had to have a first class broadcast license to work in the evening.

So the station sent me to school to get one and I did and then I worked evenings.

We played country music.

Back in those days, we used to sign off at 11 o'clock and that was, and we always played

the national anthem as we signed off.

And when we first started W, what was our FM station then was WWRW.

And that's time I'll cast with WFHR until I think it was 11 in the morning.

Tell coffee clutch or through coffee clutch and the trading post at that point.

And then it went, they played music and WFHR, I guess, played music too.

We were all live.

We didn't have any tape.

There was, other than a Sunday night, there was a Jack Raymond show other than that.

There was a live announcer doing live stuff, not most of it, like it is now audible.

Our staff was much bigger.

We probably had four or five salesmen.

We had two or three.

We had three copywriters.

We had three, and they were the people that wrote commercials.

We had three newsmen, five full-time announcers and a part-time.

And then I became one of the full-time.

And see what else did we have that's different now.

We had a program director, like Amps or UR or station manager, and then a general manager.

So we had the staff was tremendously bigger than it is now, or even when I left.

Yeah, and I remember some of those later, the last of those days and stuff.

Even with all those people and the staff we had and what you were hired for,

you've done so many jobs in radio over the years, like many people in radio you get in

and you get hired for this, but you end up wearing a lot of hats.

What were some of the other things that you started to do in broadcasting as far as outside of sports?

Well, that was, the first three years were out of sports.

I just did a evening show, and then myself, Bill Noble's, the guy named Bob Reinhardt,

we switched where we worked every weekend.

We worked Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

I think it was if I remember correctly.

And then we had two weekends off, then we worked a weekend.

Then after about three years, I was trying to get our former general manager,

who's no longer with us, but you know his son, Jack Jenner, I tried to get him to let me broadcast sports.

And he was adamantly against it.

And I kept working on him and I finally wore him down.

Then I became after that, I became a sportscaster and we were doing pretty darn well at that.

And so that it just carried on and left it lasted until I left.

For so many, sorry, go ahead there.

No, that's fine.

I was just going to say that so for so many of us, when we think of WFHR, we think of news, sports,

these things, they're intertwined together, but it really wasn't that case early on.

It was your presence, it was your work along with many others that really built a foundation

to where now sports is an integral part of what we do here.

Yeah, I think that's right because we were not, we did play by play, the mobile kids,

play by play of some sports, but we didn't do it like I did.

I just kept bugging Mr. Jenner at home and other people.

And then when Miles Knutzen came on as general manager, he was more force force

so we kept increasing.

I started broadcasting wrestling, which had never been done before anywhere on a play by play basis.

And the state term, if you go to the state wrestling terminus, there's probably,

I don't know, 30 radio stations at the state individual tournament and that state team,

and there's probably a radio station for every team that's down there on a play by play basis.

So I started that and then I moved into hockey, which I really didn't know a whole lot of balls,

but I think I got better at as the years went on.

But we did just about every major high school sport, which we had not done for many years before that.

Which is certainly the revenue aspect of that is huge for radio, huge for anything,

but certainly the mission of WFHR as well, of covering local news and sports as a part of that,

giving a chance for these high school kids and for their parents to hear their names on the air and some of that.

That's such a, again, an integral part of local radio now, and it's cool to hear kind of the beginnings of that.

And especially when you mentioned that about wrestling, Terry, when you're, if you haven't broadcasted before,

you haven't called a game before, most sports you have somebody to look to, okay,

Vince Scully called a game this way in baseball, you know, Madden called a game on football this way.

But with wrestling, as you mentioned, you didn't have any kind of like blueprint, didn't really have an outline.

How did, how did that go, you know, in real time, trying to figure out how to, how to give that,

as you said, paying a picture for that?

Well, shaky at the beginning.

It's good, it's good, but I didn't know much more about wrestling than the people listening to me.

I used to go to practice for a few, not every night, but maybe once or twice a week,

I would go to Lincoln High School's practice, and that was in the old Lincoln High School on the stage,

and I would listen to what they're trying to do, so I did that.

And I think any time you broadcast any sport, you need to be more than just show up at the game.

You've got to go through some background.

I went to football practices.

I became an official and knew the rules.

I think that, I don't think every person has to be an official,

but it wouldn't hurt you to know all the WIA rules and what the major emphasis are to

this sport and that sport. I think that'll help you, but the guys that just show up and broadcast

the game, unless they really played the game and really knew the game, I think it's hard to describe,

you know, like you said, paying a picture.

And I probably didn't paint a real clear picture of wrestling at the beginning,

but it was so popular that, you know, that sport, because we're a state champion,

state champion, state champion, that, you know, people would listen to me.

And right at the beginning, there was no team sport.

So I got to learn it on an individual basis first before they started having team tournaments.

And I knew it a little better.

And I called people who used to say, what is this that?

I probably made that up.

I tried to describe it.

I learned something from a fellow by the name of Earl Gillespie.

I don't know if you remember who Earl Gillespie was, but for about two years,

I got to spend time with Earl Gillespie on the Badger football broadcast,

because the great Arnie Strobe had had a heart problem.

And he needed somebody to help carry and put out equipment.

And he said, well, you want to go along on all the broadcast?

And I said, are you kidding me?

So the first broadcaster, too, I sat up by Arnie above the football broadcast.

And then Mr. Gillespie called me down and said, why don't you sit here and be my spotter?

And at the end, he'd give me 10 bucks or something, which I didn't really need.

But one of the things we were talking about before we went out of the air

is description of the game.

And he told me one thing that I'll never forget.

He says, never talk above your audience.

In other words, don't use so many technical terms that grandma at home cannot understand.

It's a little different on television, because you're seeing what they're talking about.

Yeah.

So my goal was to always make sure that grandma understood it,

and that the person that was a top-notch wrestler that knew every term of wrestling

and what was going on could understand it.

And so that was what I tried to do with every sport.

Those are really good notes, Terry, not just for young broadcasters out there,

for those of us that have been doing it for a while to rehash.

And just in any form of life, any job you're doing out there,

I think that's really good notes with that.

We're speaking with longtime sports director and WFHR Legend, Terry Stake right now,

celebrating our 84th anniversary.

Terry, I wanted to talk a little bit about other anniversaries.

We've done a good job of celebrating our anniversaries over the years and decades here at WFHR.

You've been a part of a lot of those, including one that I watched every year around this time,

or at least try to watch some of it, the big musical piece that you go, not musical piece,

but there's one that you guys did over at the library and had a big video presentation for it.

They played on our public access sometimes.

You've been a part of a lot of these anniversaries over the years.

Any of them stand out to you?

For that 50th, that's the same one that you're visiting about.

We wore tuxes, we went to the library, we went back to old-time radio is what we did.

Back in the 40s, probably, or 50s, I remember, we used to have a lady come in on,

just before my time now, but we put it on that thing, come in and play the piano in the morning.

In do some things, that was before my time, but that's what we tried to do on that one,

and I don't remember, I'd have to go re-watch it like you, but we put on a production at the library,

and then obviously it was filmed and went on the air, and I suppose, like you say, public access,

I wouldn't mind seeing it again if I could find it somewhere, but that one sticks out.

Our 60th, we brought in a car that was an old car. I remember I was the only one could drive it,

because I was the only one who knew how to drive a stick ship, being an old farm kid.

And I tried to teach Greg Gack how to drive it. We went out to the left junior high parking lot,

letting him try to drive a stick ship.

Oh, would I give it to see that?

There were some moments where I was getting a little nervous. We did run over a curb.

That's great.

And then we put on a cookbook.

Just ironically, somewhat I live up here now in Lake Tomhawk, and I go to church in Manaka,

which is not very far from here. And a lady that I knew in our church came up to me and brought

to cookbook over, and pointed to one of the people, and she said, was that you? And I said, yeah,

there are a few people know what I do, and there's quite a few people from Wisconsin Rapids that

go to the same church right now. So they know me from that, and they know what I did.

So the other people in the church know what I did.

Terry, when I was, when your name comes up in conversations over the years,

or even recently, when it's come up, and I'm telling people, oh, you're going to be on the

air with us, and we're celebrating your 84th anniversary, almost every single person will bring

up wrestling. You're very attached to that, and that sport. And in part, because of some of the

stuff I think you were saying before and everything, but I'm curious for you, when you look back at

your career, what are some of the things that stand out to you? What are some of the things that

you're, whether you're proud of them, or they're just moments that you remember very fondly?

What are some of those memories you have?

Okay, you got four hours.

Well, as you mentioned wrestling, I think that because I started doing it,

and at the time I started doing it, there was only one other radio station in the state

that even broadcasted the individual state wrestling tournament. So I kind of known for starting

that. And of course, it was easy to start because we were winning championship after championship,

after championship. And even the non-wrestling people would listen because their town is going for

a state championship. I remember that. That's a highlight. One of the lowlights, I think, was we

went to the state soccer tournament, I think four or five times. And I was not a good soccer broadcast

and my kids both played soccer at least on the little kids level and my oldest son in high school.

But I wasn't a big soccer fan and I really didn't know how to describe it because it didn't have,

you know, football has yard lines and basketball has the half-court and you've got the red line

and the blue line and hockey. But there they're just running around in the field kicking the ball.

I know there's strategy. I realized that, but I didn't know that strategy. So I took some people

long to help me out because I really didn't know how, but I wanted to stay high when you're going

for a state championship and anything you want that you want that on the air. And like you said,

you went to his kids' names on the air. Iowa said it's their day in the sun. I don't care if they're

only two in one or one in twenty-two, it was still their day in the sun and you got to make it

as exciting for them as you possibly can. Well, and it speaks to how much you cared about this job

to put yourself in situations where you weren't comfortable, but you were going to do it because

that you wanted to get out there. That's what a reporter does. I mean, that speaks really

highly of the work, I think. That's really appreciate that backstory. That's interesting.

Well, I'll tell you where I wasn't comfortable. Mr. General sent me out to do a ski jump one time.

And I went on a, I think, a snowmobile or something. They got me up to there where they,

where they, what do you want to call it? The lifts or where the skiers landed and they graded

them or whatever. Oh, sure. So I'm up there and I'm trying to describe a guy taking off out of a ramp

and landing on that snow. That was probably a disaster. But I did that, but I was really

uncomfortable there. So bad at least to add somebody to help me out a little bit.

And then I was, I was thinking of another low light or another, probably the funniest instance.

And it's in my book. I'm not going to go into make a big deal out of the book, but we were at

Randy Paul and Dave Miller and I were at Elmwood for a board Edwards high school playoff game.

And in the booth, there was not enough room for three people. So Randy and I were at the

counter where we had our equipment and stat sheets and stuff like that on. And Dave was behind us

with a microphone that, no, Dave was keeping stats. Randy was behind with the microphone.

A lot, you know, a long-quared microphone. And he's walking around and walking around

all of a sudden. There goes the equipment. There goes Dave Miller. Randy had pulled the cord

all the way around their legs and Dave went over backwards. And I grabbed the equipment before

it fell on the floor. And we never missed a beat. We made a laugh a little bit right now.

That's amazing. I've not heard that one. That's fantastic. As we're wrapping up, Terry, I did

want to mention your book. I encourage people to check it out and everything. Can they still get

your books somewhere? Sure. You have to contact me. I can give them my address and phone number.

If you just contact me or I'll even give them an discount now because it's been out for a while

and 20 bucks autographed. And it's my address is 7106 Bass Lake Road Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

And that's 54539. And my telephone number is 715-421-6567. Or they can contact Pam at the

radio station in Chino. It's going to get ahold of me. Yeah. Yeah. I can give our front

desk a call 715-424-1300. Same number. It's been for a long time.

Yeah, Terry. I just like to say, can I say something real quick?

Please. Yeah. Okay. I just like to thank a few people that helped me in my radio career

tremendously. And obviously one was the great Arne Stroke. I mean, he

pulled me what to do. Scott McIntosh was another guy that really helped me out as far as

broadcasting and timing commercials and doing all those kinds of things. Those two people,

I think, injection now, obviously, for putting up with him because I wasn't. I was just

formed in his side for a long time because I wanted to do sports and he didn't want to do sports.

And when we when I finally retired, they had a quick retirement party for me and he was there.

And I still remember him. I gave him a little jab yet that he that we made a lot of money in sports

despite him. But he supported me. But those those three people, I think, stand out more.

I had a lot of people that I worked with, you know, Chris and Nick and Greg and, you know, you

there were tons of people I worked with. But those those three people really got me started

in an industry that I never thought I was ever going to make it in. And I've actually made it now

into the broadcasters, legends, hall of fame. That was the combination of my career like this.

Yeah. And we're not here without people like you and your career. We're here celebrating

84 years thanks to people like you and trailblazers like you. We appreciate you, man. Thank you so

much for the time. Be well. We'll talk again real soon. Okay. Thank you very much, James.

And hi, everybody. I'm Wisconsin Rapids. We'll be talking to you again soon, Terry. You take care.

Thank you for the time. And thank you, everybody, for joining us. We'll be back with more midday

magazine coming up right here in 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WF HR locally grown radio.