Larry Lee (Wisconsin Reporter/Anchor, Brownfield Ag News) said, “My career in broadcasting has been a series of unexpected events. Sometimes, things happen in life where you know God is driving, and we’re just along for the ride. That sums up my radio career.” He was approached by a high school classmate to join him at Brown Institute in Minneapolis after graduation in 1980. “I turned him down, but I did go take the tour and flunked their “voice test.” That convinced Larry that he had made the right decision to attend Western Wisconsin Technical Institute (now Western Technical College) in La Crosse, WI, to pursue an associate degree in audiovisual communications. “In 1984, I was back in northwest Wisconsin visiting my parents when my high school friend called from his second radio job at WAQE (Rice Lake, WI). He was News Director there, and he really wanted me to apply for a part-time announcer and news stringer position.” When he arrived, Larry was greeted by the receptionist who handed him a note and a 4-inch reel-to-reel tape. The note said, “Record these and I’ll call you later.” The note had a news story, a commercial script, and a weather forecast. When I asked the receptionist, “Where shall I do this?” she answered, “You can use the newsroom.” When Larry walked into the newsroom, he found two old Ampex reel-to-reel recorders, a couple of cart decks, a cassette player, and an old, unlabeled Gates console. “I asked the receptionist for some Post-It notes and spent the next 45 minutes playing every source and labeling the switches and knobs on that old Gates console. It took me that long to find where the microphone was wired.” After completing the recording, he drove the half-hour back to his parents’ home, and his mom met him at the door saying, “You start tomorrow.” Larry believes that the unlabeled Gates console was part of his hiring test. When his friend left WAQE, Larry became their News Director. After leaving WAQE, he visited WXCE (Amery, WI) to help with a wiring problem. “Morning man and co-manager Cary Dean Eastvold came into the newsroom, where I was crawling around under the console and said, ‘So you did news in Rice Lake?’” I replied, “Yes,” and he said, “So, do you want to do it here?” Larry became their News Director until 1992, and came back as the Program Director from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, he was approached by Mark Skibba at WYTE (Stevens Point, WI) about their news opening. After initially declining the offer, Larry loaded up an old Ford Tempo with as many belongings as possible and headed to central Wisconsin on a weekend and accepted the position. A couple of years later, Larry followed Mark Skibba to Midwest Communications stations: WDEZ, WIFC, WSAU, WRIG, and WOFM. He left there in 2001 to help with a family wheelchair transportation business. He did part-time announcing for WBCV for a couple of years during that time. A position Larry had held before at WSAU was open again. “I was fortunate enough to be re-hired by a new Operations Manager who had never worked with me before, and I stayed there almost four years. The latest unexpected turn of events happened in July 2016. Cyndi Young at Brownfield Ag News asked if I could come to meet with the team to discuss their open Wisconsin reporter-anchor position. I had done traditional news all those years so I was both surprised and excited to be invited to join a top-notch agricultural news team.” Larry concludes, “Now, every day is something new. I tell people I’ve gone from covering cops and courts to crops and cows. It’s much different, very refreshing, and I’m learning new things.”
