New London hires cable producer

By John Faucher

Once you hear his voice there’s a good chance you’ll never forget it.

New London’s newest cable producer Casey Zempel has a voice born for radio and television production.

Chad Hoerth, City of New London Director of Public Services, introduced Zempel to the Parks and Recreation Committee Tuesday, July 7.

Zempel is taking over for Richard Johnson who retired earlier this summer.

Zempel spoke to the committee about his background in marketing, radio and video broadcasting and he previewed a short video clip that he recorded of downtown New London using his personal drone.

Members were highly impressed with the quality of the video and some made note of his distinguishing voice early into the introduction.

Zempel was born and raised in Clintonville and graduated from Clintonville High School in 1999.

He then attended the Brown Institute for broadcasting. After finishing his broadcast degree, he stayed at Brown College two additional years to earn his bachelor’s degree in communications.

For the past 15 years he has worked with NRG Media out of Plover.

NRG Media owns radio stations across the Midwest and four in the Central Wisconsin market.

Zempel served as their Creative Services Director. Within that role he created numerous radio commercials and client TV commercials and yes, even had his own show on their flagship station, “Big Cheese 107.9”.

Video background

Zempel said he has always enjoyed photography and started taking pictures before he took an interest in video.

“I was already familiar with DSLR cameras and over the course of the last ten years, that’s what everyone started shooting video on. So it was kind of natural,” said Zempel.

Ten years ago he started getting into video work as a side to the radio station to earn some extra money.

His employer at the station heard about it and asked him if he would be interested in making video for the station.

“That service evolved over time to extend to our clients. Near the end of my broadcast career I had made thousands of radio commercials and hundreds of videos,” Zempel said.

“I was very well versed in Adobe Audition at that time [a program used for radio commercials] and to go from Audition to Adobe Premiere seemed very familiar with me,” Zempel said.

Licensed drone pilot

Hoerth told the committee that he was excited to learn Zempel was also an experienced and licensed drone pilot.

Around four years ago, Zempel took a class at UW Madison on operating and capturing drone footage.

“I was blown away by some of the imagery you can capture and the different vantage points you can offer viewers,” said Zempel.

He studied extensively and passed the Federal Aviation Administration’s Part 107 exam for unmanned aircraft. He’s been flying for the past 3½ years.

Family life and hobbies

Zempel and his wife Misty live just outside of New London with their 11-year-old daughter Anya.

In his free time he said he enjoys creating video work and voice-over productions, fishing, metal detecting and learning about local history.

“New London is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever lived in,” said Zempel.

He noted characteristics such as “a gorgeous wide river”, numerous recreation opportunities, “more well-maintained parks than I ever seen,” and a historic downtown to name a few.

Zempel describes New London as a place with “really friendly people” and a city determined to keep it that way.

“We have it so good here,” he said.

“I can’t wait to remind you, why you love where you live. Stay tuned,” said Zempel.

Hoerth told the committee that one of Zempel’s first tasks in the new position will be researching equipment upgrades for video capturing, editing and broadcasting.