Wisconsin justly prides itself on being an incubator that has spawned several progressive institutions of the Twentieth Century. “Wisconsin on the Air” is the story of Wisconsin’s pioneering role in Public Broadcasting.

I will tell you first what I like best about this work. I have had the “Wisconsin Idea” explained to me in theory as that the limits of the University of Wisconsin reach to the boundaries of the state. Nowhere have I seen this illustrated in action as well as in this tome.

Public Broadcasting originated in the physics department of the University of Wisconsin in early 1917 with 9XM, later WHA, “the oldest station in the nation.” Over the decades programing has modified as service to the people of Wisconsin has required. At times that has meant transmission of UW classes over the radio waves and classes suited for grade and high schools that supplemented the local instruction. Trade classes, music, science, UW sports and entertainment have all had their turns on the dial. Like other public networks Wisconsin’s have wrestled with the conflicting missions of providing what people want to hear and what they should hear. Initiatives to add stations so as to extend coverage and struggles for with private stations for frequencies spurred and inhibited growth of Wisconsin Public Radio. Coverage of news events and public affairs sparked controversies with political figures. Many of its ideas would inspire other state networks and NPR, including long running “All Things Considered”. As technology advanced Wisconsin Public Radio was joined by Wisconsin Public Television. As funding evolved from the Ford Foundation to Corporation for Public Broadcasting interaction between Wisconsin Radio and NPR and national public television would guide the development of each.

Author Jack Mitchell has extensively researched the history of an organization he obviously loves. The narrative switches from third to first person in Chapter 8 when the author became manager of WHA. Mitchell does an excellent job of blending details into a flow that refreshes the interest of a wide scope of readers.

So what readers would enjoy “Wisconsin on the Air”? Certainly someone who grew up with Wisconsin Public Broadcasting will appreciate the backstage insights. Those of us who watched local public television outside of Wisconsin will recognize enough to tickle our memory cells. If you are a fan of NPR pick it up to learn where it all began. Then there are those history fans who want to delve behind the “newsmakers” to the people, the organizations and media that mold the culture. If you find yourself in any of those categories get comfortable and tune into “Wisconsin on the Air.”

I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review. ( )

Wisconsin Radio started one winter night in 1917 at Professor Earle Terry's home. The guests of the professor and his wife, Sadie, listened to music being broadcast from the Science Hall. None of the guests present recognized the historical significance of this event, but it was the beginning of broadcasting from the University of Wisconsin that continues to this day.

The vision of Professor Terry was to reach the citizens of Wisconsin throughout the state and "to educate, to inform, and to inspire large numbers of people simultaneously." He and his graduate students spent untold hours to bring that vision to fruition. At that time, and over the years they "received little acknowledgment or reward for their efforts."

Author Jack Mitchell was the head of Wisconsin Public Radio for over 20 years. He documents the many people who influenced what became WPR and WPT. His own experience during his tenure shows how building and maintaining cooperative ventures is a complicated, time consuming process.

This is an interesting behind the scenes account of an institution that continues to educate and influence people in Wisconsin and throughout the nation. As a high school student during the Vietnam war and knowing how divisive it was that time, I was brought to tears by the account of Wisconsin Public Television organizing a massive "welcome home" for Vietnam veterans. After 35 years, the Vietnam veterans received an outpouring of support on May 21, 2010 at Lambeau Field home of the Green Bay Packers. After 100 years, WPR and WPT is still evolving to meet the needs of citizens in all walks of life just as Professor Terry envisioned. ( )

I'm not always one for nonfiction, but I requested this book due to my love of Whad Ya Know out of Madison Wisconsin. It took to page 139 before seeing it mentioned. That was okay. The rest of the reading leading up to and following page 139 was interesting information if a bit dry. It settled down after the first few chapters or I just got used to the quotations used to tell the story.
Bureaucracy abounds everywhere and that is true in public broadcasting as much as anyplace else. It's a wonder we have the shows we get and the ability to keep them going.
I can recommend the book, especially if you are a fan of public broadcasting and you'd like to see how it got started. It began in Wisconsin. Points to Wisconsin for more than cheese and beer. It's a lovely state filled with history. Public broadcasting history included. ( )

100 Years of Public Broadcasting in the State That Invented It

I had no idea that public radio basically got it's start in Wisconsin and I had even less of an idea on how complicated and uncertain that start was.
Public radio and television are things that I have always had in my life and have pretty much taken for granted. While reading this book I was amazed at how controversial or challenging things were that in these days just makes sense, content for children, local and national news, documentaries, even the very concept of public radio as a worthwhile idea. Everything had to be dreamed up in the first place and fought for and often defended.

While this book is probably not going to be interesting to just anyone, I thoroughly enjoyed reading not just about the development of public broadcasting but the social and political history going on around it as well.

This book is well researched and clearly told with a love of the topic and a lot of history is packed into a fairly small book and for the most part the pacing is really fluid and keeps you interested. Where I struggled a bit with it was the section towards the end that focused more and more on the politics and restructuring and funding issues. As important as all of that is, I have to admit it slowed my reading down to a crawl at the end. That said, I found this book to be entertaining as well as educational and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in history, politics or of social changes. ( )

This book is not the most interesting ever written. It covers a topic only a small group of people (at best) are extremely interested in … and most of them are mentioned within its pages. That said, I found myself fascinated that the author could make the topic as interesting to me (a non-Cheesehead) as he did … at least through the first half of the book. Yes, the book is its most scintillating when he is writing about the earlier years of public broadcasting in Wisconsin, years in which he was not a participant.

I’m a big fan of narrative non-fiction, non-fiction with novel-like storytelling. For example, Walter Isaacson wrote the history of the Internet by focusing on a group of people who had a hand in pivotal discoveries that changed the trajectory and made it what it is today. I couldn’t put it down. Would that Jack Mitchell had done that with public broadcasting in Wisconsin!

Focusing on making the key players come alive for readers -- rather than on the infighting, the bureaucratic and political struggles -- would have made Wisconsin on the Air more a book for “the public” than insiders, which it seems to be aimed at. I could probably argue the case that it didn’t need to be an interesting book, just factual. I would have preferred it to be interesting AND factual.

Review based on publisher-provided copy. ( )