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Area Outlets Celebrate the Past and Look to the Future

Where would we be without the media?

In today’s world, it sometimes feels like a double-edged sword; there’s a lot of information coming at us at every turn, and it can feel overwhelming. At the same time, we can easily stay on top of current news in a variety of ways from numerous sources: in print, over the radio, on TV and on social media.

To say it has changed wildly over the last century is an understatement. From technology (typewriters and handwritten scripts!) to wildly innovative tools at their time (hello, floppy disks!), media is one of the most evolving industries in the world.

Our own locally owned publication, Fox Cities Magazine, celebrated 40 years in 2023.

“Change was everywhere in the Fox Cities (when we started), including the building of the Paper Valley Hotel, which expressed a need for community information for their guests,” publishers/owners Ruth Ann Heeter and Marvin Murphy say. “Our first four color cover (was printed) in the fall of 1986… early issues came out sporadically.”

“Our original computer—basically a typewriter with a screen—is still in our basement! (The floppy disk allowed us to deliver magazine content to an independent typesetter)… We have been so fortunate to be involved in a business that allows us to continually meet interesting people and learn about various businesses and our community.

“We have been blessed over the years with staff that have enhanced their creative skills assisting putting the issues together. And, our distribution team enjoys the excitement of business owners as they drop off the new issues. Forty years couldn’t have happened without them!

“We have also been blessed with the continued support of our advertisers who, while they are absolutely promoting their businesses, are also supporting all of the area museums and nonprofit organizations by providing us the pages to present these organizations’ activities and exciting news.

“When asked ‘What is so surprising about being around for forty years?’ We both answer: That you can fall in love with your occupation. Or, to quote Brett Favre, ‘Can you believe they pay us for this?’”

1975 Appleton Post Office was built in 1932 on the southwest corner of Superior Street and W. Washington. The building was vacated in 1975 when the new post office was built at the corner of Franklin and Division St.
Post-Crescent historical file photo

The Post Crescent Newspaper Since 1853

Taima Kern, editor, The Post-Crescent 

If you had to describe its history in just a brief description, how would you do so? The Post-Crescent’s story is similar to that of many publications with long histories. It started in the late 1800s, when most news outlets were popping up across the state and country, competing with its peers, evolving and adapting. Throughout our history, no matter our name, ownership, medium or location, we’ve served our community with pride, dignity and care. 

Where was its first location in Appleton? Do you know how many “homes” it has had here? Where are you currently located? Since the 1930s, we’ve only had three homes. Our most well-known was 306 Washington St., in which we resided from 1932 to 2020. In 2020 we relocated to the 10th floor of the historic 222 building, until the building was purchased by U.S. Venture. We are in the process of moving to City Center East, 122 E. College Ave., and are delighted to be able to find a new office in downtown Appleton.

Does The Post-Crescent have a “forgotten” history that should be acknowledged? The Ryan brothers founded The Appleton Crescent in 1953. Six years later, The Appleton Motor, which later became The Appleton Post, came on the scene and competed with The Crescent. However, they ultimately merged into the Appleton Post-Crescent in 1920.

How has The Post-Crescent evolved? Can readers expect anything new in 2025 and beyond? Over the years, The Post-Crescent evolved in-step with reader and advertiser needs. We added a livestream team with regular sports-related shows, special sections came and went, and hundreds of journalists, photographers and editors each played their part in adding to the region’s history. Going forward, The Post-Crescent is always looking for ways to innovate for our readers and advertisers, while also sticking close to our roots and providing the news our community wants, needs, and can’t get anywhere else. 

Any fun facts or anything else you think our readers would find interesting about The Post-Crescent now or within its history? A Post-Crescent publisher, V.I. Minahan, coined the term “Fox Cities” in the 1950s to describe Appleton and its neighboring municipalities along the Fox River. This has survived the test of time and is now commonly used by businesses, organizations and citizens alike.

WHBY Radio Since 1925

Born in smalltown Wisconsin as a college Physics project 100 years ago at St. Norbert’s College in De Pere, WHBY’s first broadcast happened in 1925 and has been delivering local community news ever since.

“Radio was the thing,” Steve Brown, former Director of Broadcast Engineering for WHBY, says. “People would build their own radios and listen to the station. It was the original social media. You could sit around the box and find out what was happening.
“I’d call WHBY one of the first community-based radio stations in Wisconsin. In our geographic area, it would have been the first. Making the community the subject of the broadcast. In those days, there weren’t any networks—everyone did their own thing.”
In the 1930s, the Norbertine fathers decided to have an upgraded station in Green Bay. In those years, you bought a radio station and moved it to where you wanted it. There were rules that you couldn’t own too much so in 1939 they built a building and designated WHBY for Appleton.

Originally a music-based station with some news and sports programs, it transitioned to its now-signature news and talk format in the 1950s, nearly 25 years after its debut. Since then, the station continues to pride itself on delivering trusted news and meaningful conversations that keep the local community informed and engaged.

“There is a tremendous amount of pride that comes with celebrating 100 years of broadcasting,” B.J. DeGroot, Brand Manager of WHBY, says. “The incredible communities that make up northeast Wisconsin are the fabric that have gotten us to celebrate a century of service… I cannot thank those who’ve paved the way for WHBY enough, and our current team for embracing Woodward Community Media’s core values that guide us forward. As we embrace our past and present, I’m excited for the future of WHBY as a leader in local community media.”

Programming was intermittent in the early days, and WHBY was a leader in terms of bringing community—as well as world—news into homes. Even being the first to bring to life live action sports.

“In 1930, WHBY presented what was believed to be the first in radio broadcasting in the state,” DeGroot says. “Lines were installed from the studio to the council chamber in Green Bay City Hall and at 8:00 that evening, the Green Bay City Council proceedings were broadcast.

“On Thanksgiving Day in 1930, after high mass celebrated at St. Joseph’s Church in West De Pere. After the mass, music was broadcast shortly before the East/West high school football game.”

“Imagine this station in the World War II years,” Brown explains. “You would have had people just glued to the radio wanting to know what was happening. That’s what they would have called the Golden Age of Radio. You had network programming to entertain people, you had the news for that connection. You had the newspaper and the radio, that was it.”

In our media climate today, times have certainly changed. And WHBY is keeping up.

“I think we have the strongest lineup that we’ve had in a long time,” DeGroot says. “The fact that we’re offering live programming from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. outside of 3 hours in the afternoon, there aren’t a lot of others who are doing that.

“It’s changing so frequently. There’s such a focus on digital, and there needs to be. The idea here is we can use social media and other platforms to spread the news, but I think radio is coming back. We’re invested in local, and people want local.”
“WHBY is a trusted news source,” Brown says. “That’s how it’s made its reputation over the last several decades.”

WHBY is celebrating its 100th anniversary through August 15, and digital content highlighting each year of the station’s history from 1925 to today. These features will run on-air, offering listeners a chance to learn more about WHBY’s evolution over the past century.

FOX 11 WLUK Since 1954
Derived from WLUK’s Anniversary Special

“55 miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, WMAM Radio started TV 11 with all facilities located in Marinette. It didn’t take long though, before the TV station, W-M-B-V for Marinette-Bay-Valley would call Green Bay home, adding offices and a studio, only one year after its first broadcast in Marinette on September 10, 1954.

By 1960, the entire NBC affiliate moved to downtown Green Bay and switched to the ABC Network. Once in Green Bay, the call letters also changed. Playing on its channel number, eleven, WLUK was chosen to keep the theme ‘Lucky Eleven’ and an image of ‘Lady Luck’ was used in promotions.

But WLUK wasn’t done there. Expanding yet again, this time next to the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena and just a few blocks east of Lambeau Field. Construction began on the three-story building in the 1960s on Highland Avenue, renamed Lombardi Avenue when Vince Lombardi resigned as the Packers’ head coach. Although the building itself has seen some changes, this remains the home of WLUK.

Low ratings and a lack of finances, caused WLUK to take news off the air in 1967. Even a stellar on-air evening team of Bob Brice, Jim Irwin at sports, and Don Schunke covering weather wasn’t enough. It took four years to build enough money, enough resources and enough on-air talent to bring it back in 1971.

During that time, WLUK still remained an important part of the community, broadcasting live reports, sports shows, specials, and public events.

This included “Packerama,” a half-hour weekly show with Jerry Kramer syndicated throughout Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. The station also broadcasted St. Norbert college football games, University of Wisconsin Green Bay soccer, telethons for Rawhide Boys Ranch, Farm Progress Days, and was the first to televise a high school girls’ basketball game in the state. The ABC Network’s Monday Night Football that started in 1970 also proved to be a big boost for WLUK and the Green Bay market.

Besides sports, music also served to be a popular venture on-air. W-L-U-K produced two weekly polka shows ‘Riverside Presents’ from the Riverside Ballroom and ‘John Check and The Wisconsin Dutchmen’ filmed in the studio.

WLUK has been an innovator in Northeast Wisconsin as technology rapidly progressed.  Black-and-white cameras were replaced by color in the mid 19-60’s and film gave way to videotape in the early 70s. TV 11 was the first station in the market with a fully equipped mobile television studio. And in 1976, a new transmitting unit was developed that could put a reporter live on the air, even 40 miles away.

WLUK was the first station in Wisconsin to operate with this ENG, Electronic News Gathering camera and transmitter. ‘Scoop, the Live-Action Camera’ proved to be a leader for WLUK viewers, and other Wisconsin stations took notice. A live scoop segment aired from a different location every night. TV 11 was there for the Hortonville teacher’s strike and 30 days straight in Shawano County covering the Native American rebellion, and the stories were fed around the country. The ‘Sky Scoop’ helicopter was also added, usually tracking down breaking news.

WLUK was also successful, offering more content, longer, becoming the first station in the market to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Playing movies all night through ‘TJ and the ANT,’ Television Jockey and the All-Night Theater. No longer were viewers left without television programming between one and six o’clock in the early morning hours.

By the time WLUK carried the Green Bay Packers preseason games beginning in 1973, the station was in very good shape. Strong programming from the network fueled strength for the news, and the station has never looked back.

The news relaunch was met with a strong on-air team. Al Sampson, or as Vince Lombardi dubbed him, ‘Big Al,’ was the sports anchor and covered the outdoor scene. Glen Loyd, ‘The Action Man’ brought justice to individuals and businesses alike, always fighting for the underdog. Stanley Seigel, a native Californian was hired as the anchor. But after Ray Wheeler applied for the now-filled anchor position, WLUK did something never done before in the market, hired both men and installed them both as co-anchors.

Bob Thomas, a well-known meteorologist from Chicago made his move to Green Bay. But, after Bob left the station to sail the world, Jackie Brockington was eventually hired.

Jackie made history at WLUK, becoming the state’s first African American on-air personality.  WLUK is also credited with hiring the first female television news reporters in the state, first woman news director, and offered equal pay for men and women, in all departments. Around that time, Bob Schulze was also added to the evening news powerhouse after Al Sampson was diagnosed with throat cancer. Bob was hired as his replacement on the sports desk, although the well-known outdoorsman still submitted daily stories from the field. By the late 70s, news on WLUK was a hit, both in viewership and finances.

Live programming on WLUK expanded throughout the decades. 30-minute newscasts at six and 10 were replaced by hour-long newscasts at five and nine, then adding back a 10:00 newscast a few years ago. WLUK’s morning show, “News 11 Today,” was later renamed “Good Day Wisconsin” and now airs four and a half hours every weekday. And after 12 years of being an NBC network affiliate, WLUK made one final change in 1995, becoming its present-day FOX network affiliate.”