City, Rotary collaborate on program
By Robert Cloud
Down the hall from council chambers, the city of Waupaca’s radio station is crammed into two small rooms.
Along with WIN TV, the city’s community media provides live broadcasts of city council meetings, videos of library, Winchester Academy and Waupaca Historical Society programs, performances of local bands and special events.
From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the first and third Wednesday of the month, Waupaca Radio FM 96.3 broadcasts Good News Waupaca.
Wayne Netzler, who is on Waupaca Radio from 9 a.m. to noon every Wednesday, and Chuck Reynolds, president of Waupaca Rotary Club, host the program.
They interview guests who speak about local opportunities to volunteer and contribute to the community.
Recent guests have included Tara Roberts-Turner, who spoke about her experience at the White House Conference on Nutrition, Hunger and Health, Steve Johnson and Mary Zimmerman of the Waupaca Area Community Foundation, and Fred Silloway with Friends of Hartman Creek State Park, among others.
Post on Good News
On Nov. 2, the show featured the Waupaca County Post’s editor Robert Cloud and reporter James Card.
Almost every show includes Reynolds and Netzler sharing headlines of positive news from that week’s Waupaca County Post.
Good News Waupaca aired its first show on June 1. Guests included Bob Adams with Foundations for Living, Laura Colbert from the Arts Hub, Sue Abrahamson from the library, and Tracy Behrendt from the Waupaca Area Historical Society.
Sponsored by Rotary Club, the show’s goal is to build up good will in the community.
Each show is posted on the city’s website and the Waupaca Good News and the Waupaca Radio FM 96.3 Facebook pages.
“Josh Werner is the catalyst of the show,” Netzler said, noting that city media staff had been discussing the show’s concept, but it was “put on a back burner for a while because of covid.”
Werner is the city’s director of IT and community media.
Netzler said Reynolds became involved and “between the three of us, it was bam! and we had Good News Waupaca.”
A lifelong love of music is what brought Netzler to radio.
He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1992, with a major in radio, TV and film.
His career, however, shifted into record stores and concert venues.
He began working in Atlantic City, then Las Vegas for House of Blues, a chain concert halls and restaurants.
In 2010, Netzler returned to Wisconsin and moved to Waupaca where he had family.
“I went back to UW-Oshkosh for a year to catch up on technology,” Netzler said. “I came back to what I originally planned to do when I was younger.”
Netzler said his favorite part of the show are the people.
“Everyone’s life is a canvas,” Netzler said. “The people are more interesting than the events.”
He noted that he learns something new during each show.
“I hope listeners get that sense and I hope they enjoy it,” Netzler said.
Reynolds said the idea for Good News Waupaca emerged around the same time as the Rotary Club “was promoting peace in our community.”
Good things in community
“It’s easy for people, because of their phones, to be focused on things far away,” Reynolds said. “It’s important to know the good things happening in their own community.”
During its meetings, Rotary has speakers who talk about their organizations and what they do for the community.
“I had this idea for a program that would give them a platform,” Reynolds said. “I brought this idea to Josh Werner. He said they were working on the same idea.”
Reynolds said he, Werner and Netzler “had a few meetings and hammered out how it would work.”
For Reynolds, the show is about all the opportunities for local residents to get involved in their community,
“We just moved here full time about 3 1/2 years ago from the St. Louis area,” Reynolds said, noting that the metro area has a zoo, an art museum, theaters and a symphony orchestra.
“It took me by surprise at how we can have a completely full calendar here,” Reynolds said. “It’s a vibrant community. People who live here are like fish in water. They underestimate what they have.”
Reynolds pointed to all the opportunities Waupaca offers in terms of community involvement, music and the arts, opportunities not only to be spectators, but participants.
“That’s the spirit of this community, to collaborate, to do something,” Reynolds said.
See Good News Waupaca interviews online at https://www.facebook.com/GoodNewsWaupaca/