Happy Easter!

It was nice to see the recent effort of City and County of Fond du Lac employees who donated stuffed animals to brighten the Easter holiday for needy children.

Sandy Foote is the Community Services Officer with the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Department. She told me she got the idea and decided to e-mail employees at the City-County Government Center never dreaming they'd donate over 500 Easter-related stuffed animals.

They were distributed to area shelters, clinics and schools who come across children from families that can't always afford things like Easter chocolate or jelly beans.

Sandy wrote another e-mail thanking those employees for their generous donations. Because of her humble nature she had Chief Deputy Sheriff Mick Fink pose with all those fuzzy bunnies before they were given out. I had the chance to pass by Sandy's office several times while the stuffed animals were taking up residence. It instantly elicited a smile, even when she wasn't seated in the office with them.

She shared with me that a recent tour of the the Sheriff's offices brought in "at-risk" children, who haven't had many good encounters with law enforcement officials. She says all those happy hares melted a few hearts.

Easter is after all about sacrifice and redemption.

Gasoline Blues!

It was amusing the other day to hear an industry expert say that the price of gasoline will probably hit $3.00 a gallon by Memorial Day. It doesn't seem to scare as much after we endured $3.50 a gallon or more in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Okay I was going to rant about prices going up at the pump 5-cents a gallon or more at a time and only coming down a couple cents when it does come down, if at all. Say what you will about the real driving factor in gasoline costs, but come on how can a major supplier come out with a quarterly profit of $100 billion and tell us it's out of their hands? That ain't rain I feel on my back!

I have to admit that I do now make travel decisions based on gasoline prices. We have a station vehicle, which I rarely use, but when I made a trip to cover a news event the other day in my car I turned in mileage. First time I've done that. It did sort of reimburse me for all the station business I do in my car without thinking twice about it, until now.

Every day events that once didn't bother you begin to take on new meaning. I got stuck at a railroad crossing the other night waiting for one of those 2-mile long procession of railroad cars from our friends at CN to go by. There were 4 cars ahead of me and I waited and waited. My patience started to wear thin until I saw the car behind me, a pizza delivery car. Then I began to wonder how patient the person waiting for the pizza was. Hope there wasn't a time incentive for the delivery, you know if it's not there within a half hour we eat the cost etc.

Meanwhile I find myself playing the gasoline lottery. How much money will I save gassing up at a certain time? I won it last week when I gassed up as gasoline hit $2.67 a gallon and watched it go up twice since to $2.74 a gallon.

I've decided I'm not going to let the price of gas totally impact my travel. Only difference is I'll visit relatives via e-mail.

Freedom of Speech!

There's nothing so precious as our right of Freedom of Speech. One of the best examples is the ability for people to speak before the Fond du Lac City Council. Recently we've heard from people on both sides of issues concerning the city's water, the humane society and proposed expansion of F-Dock.

There is a small problem with perception however. Those who sign up to speak are asked to give their addresses. However some don't give the full address for example on the water issue a number of people spoke from the Town of Taycheedah and while they have the right to do so those watching the proceedings on television at home might think they are watching another resident of the city express their point of view. We've also seen people from Madison and Milwaukee weigh in on issues. Again they have the right to do so, but sometimes they have ulterior motives and are using the podium to get across their own political self interests.

The Fond du Lac School District's recent referendum is another example of being able to speak your mind, which both sides did. The opposition talked about higher teacher salaries and benefits. District officials offered to sit down with those residents after the referendum and talk about it. Whether that will happen or the concerns brought up were again just so much howling at the wind remains to be seen.

The Internet and blog sites also recently heated up 1st Amendment talk when a blog site was temporarily shut down because of possibly libelous and sexually explicit comments made about a Winnebago County official. As one free speech expert put it "It's a whole new ball game." Anyone with an opinion can express it on a blog site, which I just did.

It's great to see people express their opinions, but as I've learned from my job you should try to see both sides of an issue. That can lead to compromise and sometimes fixing the very problem you're concerned about.

Are we overworked?

Are we overworked? Recently I heard the French have a 35-hour work week. Americans seem to super size their workload almost as much as we do our hamburgers.

I'm tired from Monday through Saturday, grabbing about 5 hours of sleep in a typical night and working long days. We used to talk about the 40-hour work week, but how many people work 50, 60 or 70 hours a week? I fall into the later category. I know I'm not alone. My brother John works 12-hour days, 6 days a week during the summer, gets 2 to 3 days off and then goes back on the same cycle.

What's worse is we take it home with us. A few years ago I might have said that when I left the radio station and went home for the day I was done. Now with the Internet I go home, take a break and then put another hour or more in on the computer working on a station newsletter, going through e-mail and sometimes typing up stories.

I talked with another reporter recently and found she too had a full plate and the heap just keeps getting bigger. When I started out in radio I was also holding down a job as a public safety dispatcher. Between the two jobs I was putting in more than 60 hours a week. I guess that set the tone. You see business professionals that happily put in their time, politicians, etc.

Then there's the professional pitfalls. For me it's watching TV newscasts and news shows, searching the Internet for more. That's not enough, I also have to check out the latest sports news.

What's most distressing are recent studies that found most Americans aren't getting as much sleep as they need. At least seven hours is recommended. Now teens are sleeping less too. It's no wonder coffee-flavored and energy drinks are doing so well.

It's hard to relax isn't it? It's just a matter of getting a good night's slee.........p!

Election Day Journal Tuesday, 4/4/06....

2:00 a.m. At work for a potentially long day. It always starts the same. I check my e-mail, voice mail and run a spyware program on the computer. Until 6 a.m. I write news, edit sound (taped interviews) and get news ready for our live morning newscasts.

5:00 a.m. I call our friendly area Sheriff's Departments and the State Patrol to see what's happened overnight. After that I spend some time editing our online newsletter KFIZ Today.

6:00 a.m. Our live newscasts begin. I enjoy this part of the day because even though I've been up now for several hours we help get other peoples' days started.

9:00 a.m. I start making phone calls to area school districts to confirm who we need to talk to for election results. Calls are also made to candidates to see where they will be for interviews this evening.

9:30 a.m. Off to the Fond du Lac Police Department to check through their reports. At 10 a.m. I drive out to a Highway 41 southbound exit ramp for a work zone safety press conference. It's sunny, windy and the traffic roars by the site, but three area workers have been killed in the last three years so it's important to be there.

12 p.m. I'm now at the Holiday Inn in Fond du Lac to cover the Fond du Lac Area United Way's annual awards luncheon. A good meal and some good company. On my way home, a little after 1 p.m. , I stop to vote. At 1:30 I stop home to catch a quick cat nap. It's going to be a late night.

2:30 p.m. Back on my way to work where I will again check e-mail, voice mail, edit sound from the press conference and awards luncheon and write stories. I then start putting together an elections result section for the newsletter and website.

6 p.m. I do some editing on tomorrow's edition of the newsletter and continue to work on newstories. An hour later I heat up some clam chowder in the station's microwave and munch on that while I continue preparation for election coverage.

8:00 p.m. Since we are carrying the Milwaukee Brewer's game we have to insert election reports during the game, but we're also updating results on the website. During this time I am updating the website, making calls to interview and congratulate the winners, doing reports and taking information from Wade Bates who's at the City-County Government Center to get Fond du Lac County results.

10:00 p.m. Most of the election results are final, but results for the Ripon Schools' referendum don't become final until the next hour. While I'm waiting I begin writing up stories on the results and editing sound for the next morning's newscasts.

11:45 p.m. I record two overnight newscasts with some of the results and teasing the morning newscasts. Afterwards I continue working on stories and editing sound from interviews.

1:10 a.m. My brain has now reached the mush stage and rather than write up something that's pretty pedestrian I decide to go home and catch a couple hours of shut eye. I do a last minute check of the station kitchen to make sure the coffee makers are off, turn off the lights and go home.

1:30 a.m. I'm home finally where I can get about two hours of sleep before going back to work to finish up election stories and begin what I hope will be a much shorter day. I'll pay for the long day, but it won't really hit me until Thursday. Is it all worth it? Sure I love what I'm doing! The only real disappointment is that just 20-to-30 percent of those who are registered to vote will have exercised that right. Glad I was one of them!

Award-winning journalism...

Here's a photo of the two awards KFIZ News won from the Associated Press of Wisconsin. One was for the Best Feature Story: "The Pope Did His Job," and the other for Best Hard News Story Non-Spot: "Andrew's Star." We won in Division Two.

The Way AP divides the state up is Madison and Milwaukee are Division One and the rest of the cities in the state are in Division Two. So actually there's more competition in Division Two. A spot news story is one told from the scene, such as a plane crash. A Non-Spot story pretty much covers the rest.

So how do you win two such awards? Talent, luck, bribery? To be honest it's all about the people and the story you cover. "Andrew's Star" was about the funeral of Ripon native Andrew Wallace who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq last fall. You might think that was a depressing story to tell, but actually it was a tribute. It fused two communities together, Ripon and Oshkosh. Ripon of course was Sergeant Wallace's hometown, but before being deployed he taught in Oshkosh and made his mark on his students. For Ripon Andrew was the first soldier they'd lost in a war since 1968. It was moving seeing the students and residents who lined the streets to get a glimpse of his procession to the cemetery, many waving flags.

"The Pope Did His Job" was another story that touched lives or rather the lives that Pope John Paul II touched. For that it required attending a mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Fond du Lac in the days following the Pope's death. We talked with Father Patrick Heppe and Holy Family Parish members about the Pope. Sure they were sad about his passing, but also happy to know that someone who served the church so well in his time on earth would now be reaping his heavenly reward.

Award-winning journalism isn't about telling a story from the head, it's about telling it from the heart.

Thanks AP and thanks KFIZ listeners. It's your story we're telling.

Radio Fools....

I've had the opportunity to work with some fools or at least at some times foolish people in the radio biz. So with April Fool's Day I thought I'd pass along some examples of how foolish we all can be sometimes.

In Michigan's Upper Peninsula I once worked with a guy we called "The Captain." He always seemed to have trouble with his car. One day a friend asked him how many miles he had put on the old clunker since he had bought it. "50,000 miles." "Ever change the oil?" "Well how often do you have to do that?"

In Minocqua I worked with a fishing guide who came in and recorded a fishing program for us every summer. He'd pretty much record the programs and leave and we never really knew what we we're going to hear. One day the feature was playing and he talked about some experts in Walleye baiting. He used a different term for expert and skipped the word Walleye when he referred to those pros in his feature.

Along those same lines an announcer I worked with in Beaver Dam once did a sports cast talking about a local high school football team that had made it to sectionals. They were playing that day in a Division Four game. He went through the sportscast not realizing listeners probably got a laugh when he referred to the team that was competing in Division Four play.

Sometimes you get a few jokers at work and in Beaver Dam we had a guy who sometimes would slip in a few fake birthdays like Harry Monke (monkey) from DeForest. He wasn't the one who read them and other announcers sometimes would end up reading the zingers. To this day I'm still wondering if one of our morning announcers ever got the joke when he read the birthday for Mayville music teacher Carrie Okie (karaoke) ?

Anyway if you'd like to enjoy a few laughs and benefit a good cause "The Second City Touring Company" will be performing Saturday, April 1st at the Fond du Lac High School Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. It's good clean humor and will benefit ASTOP.

Covering both sides of the fence....

During a recent edition of KFIZ's "The Focus" I was accused of not covering both sides of the Fond du Lac School District's $8.7 million referendum. On the surface it may have seemed that way. Now the real story.

Whenever there's a divisive issue I try to cover both sides of it. Sometimes there's no organized opposition, note the term "organized." Then again it may be an effort that pops up late in the game.

When I became aware of organized opposition to referendum I called the person I was told was leading that effort. I got his voice mail and left a message inviting him or some representative of the group to come on "The Focus." A week later someone representing the group did get back to me. Thank you Mike Fredrich. He agreed to do a taped interview because he was in Washington, D.C. at the time on company business. In the meantime we did a show on the referendum with school district officials. Mike's interview airs on "The Focus" Friday (3/31/06) morning at 11:30 a.m. unedited.

Anyone who is a regular listener of "The Focus" probably knows that every couple of weeks we have the Superintendent of the District (Greg Maass) on the morning of a school board meeting. This was arranged to give listeners a chance to hear what's going on in the district and perhaps incentive for attending the meeting themselves or watching it on cable television. The last couple shows with him did revolve around the referendum and the school board meetings those evenings also had question and answer sessions about the referendum. The last Monday morning of a school board meeting the majority of the show was spent talking about other things going on in the district.

I've covered a number of referendums over the years and have tried to give both sides. However more than anything else I've found that it's better to give as Jack Webb was fond of saying in "Dragnet," just the facts. The interviews we did with the district were designed to get out the facts. It's up to a voter to decide who or what they believe. I try to play devil's advocate when there is no one to give an opposing point of view. It's not always a successful ploy because you can't always ask the question that someone else wants to ask, but won't step forward to pose.

The best job I ever did covering a referendum happened while I was working in Beaver Dam as the Dodgeland School District was trying to push through a referendum. After 30 years of being rejected by voters the district was able to pass a comprehensive school building referendum. Half of the people I talked to though I was leaning in favor of the school district and the other half accused me of supporting the opposition.

Don't sit on a fence, get out and vote on Tuesday, April 4th.

Choosing to serve...

Those who run for public office should be commended. Other than serving their local community they usually don't have higher political ambitions.

That being said the incumbents usually have an advantage. Unless they've done something that really disappoints the people that elected them. That does happen. I worked in one community where a popular senior center director was fired. During the next election the Mayor and half of the city council members up for reelection lost their seats.

Getting back on point, I recently spoke with an elected official who observed that incumbents do have an advantage when it comes to knowing the issues. He also pointed out that if people don't take the time to learn more about the candidates, they will usually vote for someone whose name is familar to them.

Not everyone is suited for office, but they choose to run. If voters are supposed to know more about those who represent them, then candidates should take the time to familarize themselves with the office they are running for. Those who run in earnest should sit in on some of the meetings they will be expected to attend. Get a feel for the issues and what is on peoples' minds.

I recently was on a panel for a League of Women Voters' forum and most of the candidates had good answers for the questions that were posed of them. One candidate was consistent in his answers saying he'd have to study the issue more or there should be a study done on the issue. To that candidate I would recommend study the issues yourself, ask the right people for the information and I'm sure you'd get the answers to your questions. Studies can be expensive and I'd rather see fewer studies when the alternative may be cutting services to afford a study.

As for whether being in office can change a person, it sure will. For some it will be a rewarding experience. For others they'll find out it can sometimes also be a thankless task. I sometimes tell this story. I was working at a radio station in Park Falls in 1992 when Russ Feingold came in and introduced himself. He talked about running against U.S. Senator Bob Kasten and the things he'd like to accomplish. He'd driven himself to the station. Flash forward to 2004 and now U.S. Senator Russ Feingold visits KFIZ on a Saturday to talk about his reelection campaign. Before he left I asked him if being a U.S. Senator had changed him over the last dozen years and I reminded him of our visit in Park Falls. He said he didn't think so...and left with his entourage of three or four.

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, April 4th.

Rally around the Humane Society...
The Fond du Lac Humane Society deals with about 2,000 abandoned or unwanted pets a year. They basically provide a rescue operation. Now it's time for someone to rescue the Humane Society.
They won't be going into a building in the city's southwest industrial park. That doesn't change the fact that their 35-year-old facility is no longer adequate for their needs.
Put away any bitter feelings that may have cropped up over a special use permit request and cash in on the help that has been offered as a result of publicity surrounding the issue. They won't be there forever. Take a page from our Wisconsin Governors and form a task force. Man it with people from the Humane Society, City and Business leaders. Good minds can solve any problems and lots of minds seem to speed up the process. For a dog the hardest thing to determine is whether the hand that's being extended is one of kindness. Trust that the offers of help are sincere and hope for a rewarding experience.

Never see it coming...

A friend of mine lost her job the other day. She found out after she had completed her work for the day. She'd only been working for the company for a few months. I wasn't privy to the reasons she was let go, but she was a little insecure about her job security to begin with.

I feel sorry for her, but am sure that the nearly 700 workers at the two Fox Valley Kimberly Clark Mills who recently learned about their futures were just as surprised. Fact is you never see it coming and no matter what you're told about your job performance you can't seem to shake the feeling that it may have had something to do with the way you did your job.

Twice I've been fired in the radio biz. The first time I was working in Minocqua and eight of our full-time staff of twelve learned just before Christmas that the stations we worked for were being sold and would be going to a satellite music format. Our services were no longer required. The other time it had to do with the company "going in a different direction." That can mean just about anything, but is still a terrible way to say "you're fired."

If you're one of those that believes that "When God closes a door, he opens a window," then there is a silver lining. The last time I was let go, "different direction," I ended up coming to work in southern Wisconsin. It's a place I'm happy to call home. For my friend and the workers at Kimberly Clark, I hope God opens that window soon.