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OPINION: The Conley twins head to school Posted September 2, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) The 4-year-old twins were excited before bedtime. They had a lot of energy, and took longer than usual to fall asleep. We went over the rules of good manners in school. Raise your hand. Listen to the teacher. Keep your hands to yourself. To have a friend, be a friend.

I took an early lunch yesterday to be there as Rachael and Joel Mario put on their backpacks and headed off to four-year-old kindergarten for the first time. We took pictures outside the house before getting into the mini-van. Joel wanted to take his stuff-animal raccoon to class for show-and-tell. Rachael had to be told that she could not “trade” her plastic dime-store mood ring with her classmates. My wife cried as the twins walked into school for the first time. I was certain it hadn’t been four years since these little ones came into our lives.

I’ve criticized the Wausau School District several times in this blog. I’m frustrated with school taxes, school supplies, and an Administration that consistently mishandles staff misconduct cases. All four of my children attend the public schools in Wausau, and I’m pleased with what happens at the classroom level. We’ve had high-quality teachers for all of our kids. Our children have come away from their classes with a love for learning.

Still, if I could send a note along with my kids it would say “Good morning, teacher… Today I’m sending the most precious things in my world to you. Please do well by them.”

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
9.2.10

OPINION: No victory Posted September 1, 2010 by Chris Conley

MacArthur in khaki trousers and open necked shirt with five star rank badges on the collar. He is wearing his field marshal's cap and smoking a corncob pipe.

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) You’ve heard the great quote of General Douglas MacArthur, “In war, there is no substitute for victory.” As we end combat operations in Iraq, his words ring true.

Consider what he said immediately preceding that famous line: “War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision”. Prolonged indecision is what we have in Iraq. It’s what will have in Afghanistan. It is also what we had in Vietnam and Korea.

What happened in Iraq isn’t President Obama’s fault. It’s George Bush’s. In order to have victory, you have to define it. Bush always defined victory in Iraq as “a stable democracy in the heart of the middle east.” But that is not a military objective. We need to be told what victory looks like, be it taking control of a city, capturing and killing an enemy leader, defeating a rival army. We’ve done those things in Iraq. We found, tired, and hung Saddam Hussain. We have the military might to march into and control any city. Enemies run from us, and dare use only guerilla tactics. Our brave military men and women have accomplished everything we’ve asked them to do.

But our military can’t force Iraq’s leaders to form a coalition government. We haven’t nudged them towards agreements on sharing oil revenue. Or getting rival ethnic groups to work together. But those are important parts of a functioning democracy. They are not military objectives. Yet that’s how we’ve defined victory. And that’s why Iraq ends in an unsatisfying muddle.

Will the outcome be any different in Afghanistan? What does victory look like there? A functioning democracy? U.S. troops will fight to another draw, because, again, victory is defined in non-military terms. We will achieve every military objective. We will achieve very few of our political goals. And again we’ve defined victory in political terms.

Conservative Pat Buchanan asks a pointed question. Is a nation that can no longer win its wars a superpower? Iraq and Afghanistan will teach us the lesson we’ve forgotten through history, that there’s no substitute for victory.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
9.1.10

OPINION: Footnotes from the Rally To Restore Honor Posted August 31, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU)  Here are few footnotes from the Rally To Restore Honor.

The National Parks Service wisely got out of the business of estimating crowd size at public rallies in Washington. (They were sued over their crowd estimates for the Million Man March when they estimated that less than a million people were there.) A head count for events like this is silly. The crowd was large. The event was successful in terms of turn-out. CBS news claiming 17,000 people were there was clearly too low. The exact number is irrelevant.

The phrase “mostly white crowd” was used repeatedly by multiple news outlets in reporting on the rally. This is far beyond any journalistic standards. Every reporter’s stylebook says the race or ethnicity of an individual is to be left out of a news story unless it’s important to the story itself. This was not a KKK rally, or a civil rights march… the ethnicity of the crowd has no place in the reporting. It’s cow-towing to the political left, who try to paint conservative activism as a movement of angry white males.

Finally, I’ve taken some criticism for this comment in my blog from last Sunday:

“When I see him [Glenn Beck] on TV today, I’m painfully aware that he’s a recovering addict. The long, unnatural pauses when he speaks are a give-away” (You can read my entire blog here: http://tinyurl.com/33y4akd )

I’m not saying anything about Glenn Beck that he hasn’t already said about himself. He’s talked on his radio show at great length about his past addictions, and they way they still impact him today. And, personally, I celebrate people who have overcome substance-abuse problems. Those are difficult habits to break, and I admire people who’ve moved beyond them.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager-Midwest Communications, Wausau
8.31.10

OPINION: Attracting the young crowd Posted August 30, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) Marathon County is in the middle of an interesting discussion about attracting and keeping young professional to the area.

(This topic was the subject of News Director Matt Lehman’s on-air commentary last Friday. You can hear it here: http://tinyurl.com/39kp6k3)

A good place to start is to look at the places that young professionals consider “cool” places to work and live. The places on my short list would be Seattle, Austin, Boulder, Boston and Madison. Does Marathon County have any chance of being like those places? Maybe not. For starters, they are all much bigger than Wausau. And I’m not convinced that bigger is better. Bigger includes much higher cost of living, much higher crime rates, and much lower quality of life. Most of those communities are college towns, and the businesses, venues, and things-to-do that have sprung up cater to college people. For better or worse, UW-Stevens Point is the big college in our area. It’s hard to imagine the community, technical, and two-year colleges in the Wausau area growing to the point that we’d have a large student population to change the face of our city.

I’m not saying Marathon County is a hopeless case. Far from it. Actually, I’m amazed at the number of young people who grow up here and stay here. We should focus on the things we can do. Here are two starting points: First, attract more high-tech companies that employ large numbers of young, upwardly mobile people. This is usually done through active recruitment by government, and incentives – like tax breaks. If you put the right package on the table, computer software, ad agencies, and other similar companies will come. The other thing is to create a more vibrant music/bar/social scene. And our area has had mixed results with creating permanent, live music venues for young people. We’ve done better with occasional music concerts and festivals.

Is there a danger in actively pushing these kinds of changes? Yes.

I’m older than the group that this initiative is trying to attract. And Wausau works for me and my family because it is not a big college town. It doesn’t have high cost of living. It has a family-friendly quality of live. We don’t have a huge, unsafe ‘bar district’. If we change Wausau, will we attract fewer of the 30 and 40-somethings, who are more established, more likely to become homeowners, more likely to come and stay and raise children here? Will the slightly older crowd look around and say ‘what happened to the community we loved?’

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.30.10

OPINION: There's no escaping what Glenn Beck's become Posted August 29, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) I’ve never met Glenn Beck, but many people I’ve worked with have. When I was a kid, he was the nighttime and afternoon disc jockey at KC-101 in New Haven, Connecticut. I remember listening to him. He was funny, outrageous, and played the hit songs of the day.

Years later, I worked with a news reporter in Connecticut who worked with Glenn Beck. I’m not sure if all the stories were true. He says Beck was regularly drunk or high. My reporter also claimed that he got into a parking lot brawl with Beck after an argument turned physical.

(Glenn Beck freely admits that earlier in his life he was a substance abuser. He’s also talked about how bored he became with the repetitiveness of top-40 radio. When I see him on TV today, I’m painfully aware that he’s a recovering addict. The long, unnatural pauses when he speaks are a give-away.)

Glenn Beck has had professional success that he’d never imagined since becoming a radio talk show host. If you listen, he’s not a deep thinker. He is a master showman. He’s excellent at framing issues, hyping guests. Adding video to his game has made him a cable TV phenom.

We’ve seen how big Glen Beck has become this weekend. Yesterday he held a rally on the Mall in Washington DC, coinciding with the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. In all likelihood, the rally will be the biggest conservative gathering in Washington this year. Like him or hate him, Glenn Beck has become a huge conservative figure, and his star is still on the rise.

Glen Beck’s popularity lies somewhere between Coast to Coast AM, a show that deals with conspiracy theories, and Rush Limbaugh, who is the best ever with political analysis and satire. Beck emphasizes entertainment over substance. Entertainment usually attracts a larger following.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.29.10

TRAIN BLOG: The Greenport Shuttle Posted August 28, 2010 by Chris Conley

TRAIN BLOG (WSAU) You don’t know how long Long Island is.

I moved to the Hamptons for a radio job in 1994. It was late summer when I moved into my new townhouse. It was a very expensive place to live. My home was on the less-expensive North Fork of Long Island. I lived in Greenport, an old fishing village. My just-tripled rent was bleeding me dry.

Greenport was also the end of the line for the Long Island Rail Road. My house was four blocks away from where the tracks ended at the tiny Greenport station. About a football field’s length away from the bumper posts were the waters of Peconic Bay. You could take a small 6-car ferry to Shelter Island from there.

The Long Island Rail Road that I knew as a kid was a huge commuter operation, with dozens of trains packed each morning with workers from the suburbs arriving at Penn Station or Flatbush Terminal. On the main line through Nassau County trains would rumble by every three or four minutes. When taking commuters home each afternoon, most trains ran only as far as Ronkonkoma or Babylon about an hour outside of New York City. That’s where the electrified tracks ended. Trains to the east end needed diesel engines and old coaches that dated back to the Pennsylvania Railroad of the 1940s.

Very few people took the train all the way to Greenport. You’d start by taking the electric train from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma. If you were lucky, you’d get a train that ran express down the main line to Hicksville. The local stops to Ronkonkoma were stations built in the middle of nowhere, not much more than large parking lots near the exits of the Long Island Expressway. Commuters would drop their cars off in lots surrounded by marsh grass, catch the train, and head to work. There was a large train yard just beyond the Ronkonkoma train station. A single, non-electrified track extended beyond the yard to Greenport. There were only two trains a day that roamed beyond there to the east end.

Greenport trains rattled, as old cars trundled down poorly maintained tracks. An small switcher engine usually pulled the train, since speeds wouldn’t get above its 35-mile-per-hour gearing. An old FA engine would be on the other end of the train, serving as the engineer’s cab for the return trip. Usually all the passengers on the Greenport shuttle could fit in a single coach.

An hour beyond Ronkonkoma was Riverhead. It was the last town with a big train station on the east end. Riverhead also had a train yard. Years ago where there were four trains instead of two, half the runs ended here. Beyond town the train tracks run through potato fields and vineyards. Stations were little more than small shacks with a ticket booth. Cutchogue station looked like a storage shed in someone’s backyard. Blink and you could miss Southold station. Then a few trees. A short trestle over the marsh past the marina. Dirt roads became paved streets as the water came into view. My home was on 8th Street. From the train you could see my second-floor kitchen window. The old train would slow to a crawl as the sea came into view, stopping at the old 4th Street depot.

The train would arrive in Greenport each night around 7:30. I’d hear the bells from the crossing gate. Some nights I’d walk down to the station. Eight or nine passengers would get off as the crew tied up the train for the night. A few would head for the ferry. Others would get in their cars and drive home.

I’d always thought of trains as romantic… a throwback to the past. Sometimes things that are old become farce. This was a train that crossed that line. Here was an old, slow train to nowhere that no one rode. Time had passed it by, but I still liked to hear the whistle.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.28.10

OPINION: Fairfield Little League Posted August 27, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) The team from Fairfield, Connecticut was eliminated earlier this week at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. This is one of the leagues that I used to umpire in when I was in high school and college.

Someday, I’ll write a book about my amateur baseball umpiring experiences. (Right after I’m done writing my book about great train rides in North America and writing my broadcast industry memoirs.)

The Fairfield league was not as well organized as the league I later worked with in Laconia, New Hampshire. A lot of kids played baseball then. Soccer wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now. Fairfield didn’t have a tournament-quality Little League field. The best field was at Gould Manor Park, which had a home run fence and regular groundskeeping. There were no bleachers, no concession stand. Other games took place at four or five other fields, some at neighborhood playgrounds and others at area schools.

I was one of the better umpires in Fairfield, so I would usually get teamed up with an inexperienced rookie. I’d umpire once a week, usually on the “good” field at the park. But I was on-call three days a week. I’d walk to Gould Manor, just down the street to my house, and meet up with the Head of Officials. I’d hang around for 10 or 15 minutes to see if I was needed. I usually was. If they were short an umpire somewhere else, I’d hitch a ride with the Chief Ump to the field. He had a motorcycle. I’d arrive on the back of a Harley, which was always quite an entrance.

By the summer of 1987, I was pretty serious about my umpiring. I bought my own equipment. I had an under-the-shirt chest protector, my own shin guards, mask, and short-billed cap. If I blew a call, at least I looked good doing it. Other umpires used the equipment that was stored in a shed at the park. That summer there was an infestation of head lice. It spread like crazy, from one team to the next through the shared batting helmets that were kept in the same shed. Most umpires got it too. That summer everyone had a shaved head in the Fairfield Little League… except the umpire who had his own equipment.

The “lice season” was a low point for the Fairfield Little League. This year seems to be a high point.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.27.10

OPINION: High school football coverage Posted August 26, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) The high school football season begins tonight.

I’d like to share some important changes in the way you hear high school football on the radio on our Midwest Communications stations in Central Wisconsin.

The biggest change involves which stations will air the games. This year FOX Sports 1390-AM will air both Wausau East and D.C. Everest football games. When both teams play at the same time, the team that’s playing on the road will have their game aired live. The team that’s at home will have their game tape-delayed. Most Friday nights will become high school football doubleheaders on FOX Sport 1390.

This season there will be no high school games on WSAU AM-FM. Now that the radio station has a larger coverage area, it’s impossible to find one high school sports program that’s of interest to a majority of our audience. Our listeners in Stevens Point wouldn’t care about a Wausau-East game. Wisconsin Rapids listeners probably have to interest in D.C. Everest games. Most Friday nights WSAU will carry Brewers baseball or our regular talk programs.

There’s a final change this year, an enhancement that will make high school sports easier to enjoy. We’ll make all high school games that we broadcast available as podcasts on our web sites. If you aren’t able to hear a game on Friday night, you can listen to them any time. We’ll continue to post high school scores and schedules on our web sites as well.

Good luck to all of our area high school football teams.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager-Midwest Communications, Wausau
8.26.10

OPINION: The housing market is still a mess Posted August 25, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) There are many reasons why people don’t want to own a home. I’ve met people who were on the way up in their radio careers. A home would be a hindrance if they got a job offer in New York or Chicago and had to move on short notice. Others were fearful their ratings would go down. They didn’t want a home for fear they wouldn’t be able to make the payments if they were out of work.

For me, personally, I hate doing yard work. I liked renting a townhouse or condo where someone else handled the lawn and landscaping. I only became a homeowner six years ago, when I had a growing family, a stable job, and was living in a city with more-favorable housing prices. (Even then, I intentionally bought a house with a small yard.)

Home ownership is not for everyone. For some, it’s a lifestyle choice. For others it’s a matter of financial means.

There is overwhelming evidence that almost all Americans who want a home and have reasonable financial means already own one. Economic columnist Robert Samuelson (http://tinyurl.com/3ym64mc) provides these gems:

• Almost three-quarters of Americans ages 45 to 54 and four-fifths ages 55 to 64 are already homeowners, and

• In 2009 Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or other government entities financially backed 95-percent of all new mortgages.

What conclusions should we draw? The legitimate housing market (people who want and can afford a home) is saturated. What’s left are the very young or very old who aren’t ready or don’t want home ownership, or the people who aren’t financially able.

The 95% statistic is dire. When the government props up a market to that extent, there is no economic market. The government is playing the role of market-maker. There would be little or no demand for new mortgages unless the government propped up lenders who can’t scrape together a traditional 20-percent downpayment or are otherwise not creditworthy.

But shutting down Fannie and Freddie isn’t the answer either. Remember, before the housing bubble burst people were getting mortgages without even having to confirm that they had jobs. There were complaints that people had to fill out more paperwork for an auto lease than a housing loan. Now suppose you have to sell your home, and 95-percent of would-be buyers now can’t get mortgages because the government guarantees that propped up the housing market have been swept away. There would be no buyers. Property values would go down even further.

The debate over Fannie, Freddie, and dozens of state loan guarantees will miss the bigger point: the housing market is hopelessly fouled because of government intervention. Getting the government out of it without causing a complete collapse is still tricky.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.25.10

OPINION: Movement in the WI-7? Posted August 24, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) Something happened in our local congressional race last week, only I have no idea exactly what it is.

Realclearpolitics.com, the definitive web site for political polling, had shown the 7th District of Wisconsin as a toss up. Last Thursday it was re-classified as “leans Republican”. The million dollar question is why.

There’s been no independent polling in this race, yet there certainly has been internal polling from the candidates. GOP candidate Dan Mielke has whispered for weeks that his primary opponent Sean Duffy has done polling that he won’t talk about in public… because the results aren’t good. There’s no way of telling if this is true. Democrat Julie Lassa doesn’t appear to be organized enough to do polling within her campaign. And as the newest entrant in the race her name recognition across the district is still low.

But surely the national parties have done polling in the WI-7. The national parties have 435 races around the country and they have to decide which seats are truly “in play”. They’ll pour national advertising dollars into those races where they have a chance of winning. Polling informs those decisions.

Something caused this race to be moved out of the toss up category. Knowing why would be fascinating.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.24.10

P.S. Real Clear Politics predicts the GOP will take control of the house. Their current seat-count is 203-to-199. They classify 33 races as toss-ups. 32 of those races are seats that are currently held by democrats.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com

 

OPINION: Paul Ryan's roadmap Posted August 23, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) No doubt, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is a rising star in the Republican Party. His “Roadmap for America’s Future” has won him the attention of conservative pundits as a blueprint for reigning in entitlements and controlling government spending. Rush and Sean have discussed Ryan’s plan at length. Columnist George Will says Ryan would make a good running-mate for someone in 2012.

Yet Ryan’s performance in the public spotlight has been mixed. The GOP made Ryan its point man when Barack Obama released his budget proposal last January. Ryan made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows. Honestly, he didn’t seem ready for prime time. His answers to tough questions from journalists lacked clarity. He muddled through what turned out to be a meaningless task. (The budget still hasn’t been passed, and won’t be taken up until after Election Day. The government will operate under continuing resolutions or an omnibus spending bill.) Ryan did better when he was invited to Barack Obama’s healthcare summit. He pointedly challenged the finances of the healthcare plan, and seemed to get a rise out of the President. He scored points among his base. The rest of the country won’t remember it when they have to make up their mind about Ryan for higher office.

Now comes columnist Matt Miller, with a critique of Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future” in last week’s Washington Post. (Read it here: http://tinyurl.com/25y9hs8) For Ryan, this is a blessing.

If Paul Ryan is truly a star in Republican Party, he’ll be able to give as good as he gets from his critics. If his plan is a good one, it will stand up to scrutiny.

I see the “Roadmap for America’s Future” for what it is. It’s a policy statement. Not many members of Congress have them. But anyone who runs for higher office needs to put out dozens of position statements on the issues that await them in office. These plans are for political junkies. Whatever gets through Congress and eventually becomes law bares no resemblance to the original ideas.

Paul Ryan’s position papers don’t really matter. How he defends himself in public is very important if he aspires to higher office. That’s what will be interesting to watch.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager-Midwest Communications, Wausau
8.23.10

OPINION: Voices of Summer Posted August 22, 2010 by Chris Conley

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) For me, Bob Murphy was the voice of summer. You've probably never heard of him. Murphy was the radio voice of the New York Mets. And on hot, bustling New York City summer days when everything seemed to move too fast, Murphy was a slow, cool drink of water. His deep, rich baritone would tell us how badly the Mets were doing. They were lovable losers while I was a kid, while the Yankees were winning across town. But the Mets broadcasts on WMCA sounded better. On the radio, Murphy had no match.

If you lived in LA, Vince Scully was your voice of summer. Ernie Harwell in Detroit. Jack Buck in St. Louis. Harry Caray in Chicago. Harry Kalas in Philadelphia. These are the old friends who spent summers with us. In Milwaukee, and on the lakes and at the cabins in Wisconsin, summers are filled with Bob Uecker's voice.

And we listen to them out of habit. The Brewers aren't going to make the playoffs this year. We listen anyway. The game is the soundtrack of our weekends and our long summer nights.

As an aside, our ratings indicate that listening to baseball on the radio is a lifestyle. The Brewers games at night win their time slot in the ratings regardless of whether the team is winning or losing. The only time they haven't is when Bob Uecker was ill. And our next ratings report will undoubtedly show that audience returning now that Uecker is back.

For those who didn't hear, Bob Costas was a guest in the Milwaukee Brewers broadcast booth on Sunday afternoon. As best I can tell, he was in Milwaukee simply because he wanted to take in the game. Costas is a tremendous baseball fan, and a gifted announcer. His skills behind a microphone are unquestioned. But over the years I've come to think of Costas as less than authentic. The stories of him keeping the Mickey Mantle baseball card in his wallet ring hollow. He's become a multi-millionaire through his television work. He'd said before that he'd love being some team's radio play-by-play man... to spend an entire season with one team. He'd reportedly been offered those jobs with the Cardinals and Mets. In my mind, he would have been the only worthy successor to Bob Murphy after he died from cancer. But there were always an olympics to host, Sunday Night Football pregame shows to do, more money to make. I suppose I don't blame him.

Costas told this story about Bob Uecker on Sunday. It's the broadcast highlight of the summer.

"Uke and I were doing the World Series on The Baseball Network. Joe Morgan was the third man in the booth. Joe was talking about playing in the World Series. He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and he played in October with all those great Reds teams of the 70s. He's a league MVP, 340-post season hitter... and I turn to Uecker and said, 'did you play in the World Series with the '62 Cardinals?' And Uecker said he was on the disabled list for the World Series. 'What was wrong with you?' Uecker said he had hepatitis. 'Hepititis, how'd you get that?' Uecker said the trainer injected him."

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
8.22.10

Sunday's Brewers game recap here: http://www.wsau.com/news/articles/2010/aug/22/padres-top-brewers/

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