Four Broadcasters To Be Inducted Into WBA Hall Of Fame

Four leaders of the Wisconsin broadcasting community will be inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame on Thursday, June 19, 2008. The induction ceremony will be held at Stone Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay following the annual Hall of Fame Banquet, the closing evening of the 2008 WBA Summer Conference. The four 2008 inductees were formally nominated by the WBA Hall of Fame Committee earlier this year. They include: Terry Havel, Willie Davis, Jonathan Little, and Mike McCormick. 

TERRY HAVEL

Terry Havel, as a teacher of English, Drama and Broadcasting at small high schools first in New Salem and then Burlington, Wisconsin, may have had the most lasting impact of any broadcast educator in Wisconsin history. During that same time he practiced as he taught, as a disc jockey and air talent at radio stations in Iowa, Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin, including WLIP, WIIL, WFNY and WJZQ, all in Kenosha; WMIR, Lake Geneva; WRJN, Racine, and WZUU, WEMP, WQFM and WLUM, all in Milwaukee. His crowning achievement was obtaining a FCC license and then building WBSD-FM, in Burlington, one of only two high school radio stations in Wisconsin. He managed WBSD from its first days in 1975 well beyond his retirement from teaching in 2006. During his career at the small Burlington High School, his teaching and encouragement along with his live “on-the-air” laboratory, astoundingly helped launch the successful broadcasting careers of over fifty of his students.

WILLIE DAVIS

Willie Davis’ broadcast career spanned over 30 years, following a 12-year National Football League Hall of Fame career with the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers and coinciding with a 27-year stint in the beer and wine distribution business. His early exposure to broadcasting was as a color commentator on NFL telecasts on the NBC network. He then took the step to ownership and management in 1976 with the purchase of the small bankrupt KACE-FM in Inglewood, California. He followed turnaround success there with the purchase of WAWA, West Allis, and then WLUM-FM and WMCS-AM, in Milwaukee and stations in Houston, Texas and Seattle, Washington. His presence in Milwaukee was marked by a long-term commitment to the African American community in southeastern Wisconsin and an independent local voice for the whole community. Community service was his hallmark and he served on numerous national and local Boards and Commissions. He has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Grambling University, Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He has been honored as the NAACP Man of the Year in 1978, the NFL Man of the Year in 1987, and with the March of Dimes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

JONATHAN LITTLE

Jonathan Little began his broadcasting career in 1961 at WHLA-FM, the student radio station oat the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, spinning records on a weekly jazz music show. His professional career began at WSPT, Stevens Point, in 1963 and then followed disk jockey/program director stints at WISM, Madison, WDUZ, Green Bay, and a ten-year run at WTSO/WZEE, Madison. Staying in Madison, he moved into general management, putting WMMM-FM, on the air in 1991, and then at WOLX-FM from1995-1997. In 1998, he moved on to Troy Research, a radio, television and motion picture consulting firm. Throughout his broadcast career, he was dedicated to the music of his times, and most especially to aspiring local musical artists and groups, whose recordings he frequently included in his play lists, regardless of the formats with which he worked. He was honored with the Gavin Report’s Program Director of the Year award in 1987 and 1988; Billboard Magazine’s Operations Manager of the Year in 1988; and the Madison Area Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

MIKE McCORMICK

Devotion to “The News” is the thread that runs through Mike McCormick’s 31 year television broadcasting management career. He served at KPLR-TV, St. Louis, from 1962-70, and as Vice President and General Manager oversaw the station’s transition from black and white to color delivery and established its first news operations. He served as Vice President and General Manager at WOR-TV, New York, from 1970-72, and established that station’s first full-time news operations and instituted its first editorial process. His 15 year tenure at Journal Communications in Milwaukee began in 1972 as Vice President and General Manager of WTMJ-TV and it ended with his retirement in 1987 after his twelfth year as President of WTMJ, Inc., and Senior Vice President of Journal Communications. His legacy includes co-author of the first formal code of ethics for Journal Communications, leader of the WTMJ-TV editorial board and its editor for editorials, establishment of a full-time news operations and editorial process at the company’s Las Vegas’ television station. He is a lifetime member of the National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences, and has served as a Director on the NBC Television Affiliates Board and National Association of Broadcasters Television Board.

Legislative Session Update

As regular session ended in mid- March, there was a flurry of legislative activity. Fortunately, none of it had any negative impact on the WBA! With the Video Franchise Bill safely signed into law, broadcasters could sleep well knowing that any new entrant into the digital cable market (read – AT&T) would have to ensure non-degradation of service and would be subject to the strongest must carry/retransmission consent language in the nation. The non-compete clause bill introduced by Rep. Jim Ott, died a quiet death in committee. After our smashing testimony in Senator Carpenter’s committee, the ban on Direct to Consumer Advertising bill also disappeared into the legislative black hole. Also, we managed to get through an entire legislative session without any serious mention of a sales tax on advertising. Having warned several key politicos of the awful economics of such a tax hike, all apparently decided it wasn’t worth the uphill fight they would face. During the budget debate, the Assembly passed a very large reduction in funding for public broadcasting. Our letter in opposition helped to assure that this reduction was removed from the final version of the budget. One victim of the end of session was a proposal to clean up some Amber Alert language and clarify broadcaster’s liability. Rep Wieckert had the bill drafted in conjunction with the Department of Justice, but it was never introduced. Rep. Wieckert has announced his retirement from the Assembly, so next session we will begin again. The Department of Justice was also helpful in the matter of the XM-Sirius merger. Attorney General Van Hollen wrote a forceful letter in opposition to the Federal Justice Department, alas to no avail. With the regular session done, there are 2 outstanding subjects remaining. The Governor has called a special session on Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). Special Session Senate Bill 1 does call for the elimination of the requirement that public TV provide free candidate air time, as do all the other major CFR proposals floating around. However, the chance of any CFR bill passing is between zero and none. This does leave public broadcasters a bit up in the air as to what the new Government Accountability Board will do with this unworkable and previously ignored provision. That brings us to the mini-budget or “fix it budget” or the “we’re $600 million in the hole, what do we do now?” budget. This special session could be done in a few more days or drag out well past the election. The versions passed by the Assembly and the Senate are very different from each other and from what the Governor originally proposed, but they are alike in one way: neither of them is hung with “ornaments” of miscellaneous policy and pork. Our Legislative Day and our roll out press conference on HDTV were both smashing successes giving us a lot of goodwill at the Capitol. Over the next few months many of you will see more of the political types as they get out their message, than we will in Madison. But be assured that all of the issues which died in March will make a full recovery come January 2009, at which time WBA will be prepared to give them the kind of greeting they so richly deserve.

Chairman's Column