The Wisconsin Magazine; 555

[beeps] What we're seeing is the right chamber of the heart. This is the chamber that pumps blood to the lungs. And then we're seeing over here the left chamber of the heart or the left ventricle which pumps the blood out to the body. In between is the muscular wall of the heart which separates these two chambers the septum of the heart. Two hundred years ago everybody thought they knew everything about the heart. It ruled the emotions and when it stopped you were dead. Scientists know a lot more today but they're still working to find ways to keep hearts and souls together. For most people a single family house is the most important slice of the American dream. Despite high costs, incredible interest rates, and the ravages of inflation people are realizing that dream today. You'll have a chance

to see Eric and Beth Heiden in action. They're unsung superstars in the world of speed skating. Fearless Frank Seacrest answers for last month's forecast. You'll have a chance to meet sportscaster Rod Locke and decide for yourself whether he's destined for the top or for a long stay in a hospital. And our point of view this month comes from Sheila Thompson who wants freedom from religion. Hello I'm Jeff Clark. Welcome to the February edition of Wisconsin magazine. Take heart young man the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Eat your heart out. My heart beats for you. These and other trite remarks will be finding their ways to many a door this month as St. Valentine and Cupid spread their good cheer on the 14th. But February has also become Heart Month as designated by the American Heart Association. It's a time to take a look at the progress we're making against the number one killer in America, cardiovascular diseases. Believe it or

not 22000 Wisconsinites and nearly 1 million Americans will fall dead from this killer in 1979. Magazine took a look at hearts and souls this month both literally and figuratively and by literally we mean if you're squeamish about watching surgery you may not want to watch. We take care of patients just as other types of heart surgery teams in purely in private practice take care of patients and we do this every day doing ordinary types of heart surgery. [beeps]

I think the biggest thing has is this heart preservation. And this consist of. Keeping the heat very cool and then using a special kind of solution. To preserve the heart during the time of the main phase of the operation is being done. With a heart temperature when it's preserved with the solution. Plus the ice uhh maintains a temperature of about eight degrees Centigrade and so uh at this temperature level one can go for Oh at least two hours without any damage to the Heart muscle whatsoever. I think the major reason that we're seeing a decline in death rate is better medical treatment of coronary artery disease. And there are two things that come for that better medical treatment. One is the medical aspect of that treatment which are medicines. And I think that has probably made a very significant difference in uh treatment that patients not only in terms of

survival but in terms of symptom level with coronary artery disease. The other thing which has received a lot more publicity is of course coronary artery surgery. I'm personally convinced that that has also affected survival in a very significant way. I think those are the two major factors. I think the fact that the uh American people seem to be changing in terms of what they scope what they drink how much exercise they do what they eat is encouraging. In the diagnostic field we have built a evaluation of the patient. um First before extensive diagnostic. Workup is undertaken such as the stress

lot. In this area of the patient is given a Type of exercise which is monitored very closely by electrocardiogram with blood pressure. And his physical capacity, his oxygen consumption, the amount of oxygen he burns. After this evaluation we would know if he has heart disease. Then after the changes are seen on the electrocardiogram or the stress thing overall. And then the patient might need more workout sessions as a heart cauterization. Now we're going to start doing this heart cauterization procedure and as you know from your. Previous explanation with the nurses. Really isn't very much feel to it from your standpoint

Lady patients say it's like a super hot flash. Okay now we're about ready to do some pictures and I'm going to move the camera little bit so we can get a little better. view here. We do these pictures. I do want to have you take a big breath in while we take the film. OK? Take a big breath in and hold your breath now. Hold your breath normally. Now that's good. That was a Nice picture. So in this area we have a pretty extensive evaluation of the facilities these days. The newest area of nuclear medicine is in fact nuclear cardiology. Some of the procedures that you've seen upstairs. The reason that nuclear medicine got involved in this area is that we can extract functional information from the heart in a relatively safe and non-invasive manner.

What we're doing now with the computer is we're going to call up a data file that contains a completed study on a patient that is normal. What we're seeing is the right chamber of the heart. This is the chamber that pumps blood to the lungs. And then we're seeing over here the left chamber of the heart or the left ventricle which pumps the blood out through the body. In between is the muscular wall of the heart which separates these two the heart. This is the same study that you saw previously but now I think you can see how the computer can clean up some of the statistical noise in our data. This is a totally normal heart. You can see how the wall the heart contracts symmetrically and uniformly for both the left ventricle and the right ventricle. In contrast to the previous study. This is a very abnormal study. There is

very little contraction of the walls of the left ventricle. There's a portion of the wall here that is contracting quite poorly. You can tell by the lack of color. One of the interesting things here is that instead of contracting uniformly with each beat. That this portion of the heart is actually bulging outward when this part of the heart is moving in. An aneurysm involving the inferior wall of the heart. Our nurses are trained to make this patient start rehabilitation right at the intensive care level. Moving the... We have patients that could do very little activities. They could walk

half a block or even less. Now they are jogging, they are doing exercise, playing golf, enjoying life. They are going back to work. active members of society. [music plays] The controversy between medical and surgical treatment of coronary artery disease is ss far as I'm concerned isn't a controversy at all. The people who say no one should be operated on and the people who say everyone should be operated on are obviously one end of the spectrum. There's come to be some wide agreement about what kinds of patients may in fact be treated should be treated medically and some should be treated surgically and... But between those there is a very wide spectrum of patients where the decisions are difficult. And the decision...

Is based on a lot of things for example what decision you make ah for a certain problem with certain coronary arteries might be very different than a 37 year old as opposed to a 77 year old or 67 year old. So there are multiple factors to be considered. And I think you're just asking for trouble to meddle with a vessel that is doing reasonably well right now. What is the date on which we're basing these decisions? The reason for the conference is to present those particular kinds of patients who are not only instructive but in whom making that kind of decision is difficult not only for the patient but for the cardiologist because of the information available. I'm not saying you have to replace the valve but the ventricle wouldn't just be happily unloaded by fixing the valve and bypassing. He does have much [inaudible] is related to the PVC. I don't think it's severe but I agree that's an additional problem. Another problem is her aortic root is not very big. Her aortic annulus is not very big. [unclear]. How many people. The important thing is to take the available data about survival about

relief of symptoms which are the two major parameters that we use. Try to apply that to your particular patient in his particular needs. Advise him of risks either way. And obviously he has to make the decision. She decided that she [unclear] part of all this type of activity on her body. We see some patients with coronary artery disease who are presently medical. And that doesn't mean two or three years from now they won't be surgical. Also after we operate on the patient. We have done surgery but we've given them blood supply back to the heart muscle again but we haven't done anything about the basic process that caused the problem to begin with. So they need medical therapy after the operation to prevent more problems. So it's really I think the medical people and the surgeons working together

that leads to the best type of care. Percentage of the total volume of surgery all across the board has dropped. This could be attributed possibly possibly due to [unclear] advancement in medical care of the patients with [nothing] The next big thing will be transplants. That you'll be able to do transplants quite safely. Which you cannot do now. That will be the next large movement Some of the finer things will be little better ways to do some of the

more complex congenital heart problems. I think this preservation will continue to be refined. We are working on ways for instance to preserve the heart for 24 hours. But this will help some with the transplant situation and not actually not be needed it for the operating room situation. Here at St Luke's Hospital we started the first data registry probably in the world as we have thousands close to almost 10,000 patients there. all the groups of cardiologists and the surgeons in Milwaukee County submit to this registry of computer facilities and this process and register. And when want information we for example how many patients? [unclear] status of the patient is now. What the progress he has made or she has

made? And what is the state of his health. we have this information for scientific research as well as we could see what you are doing right or wrong and correct if there's any area needs rectification. We've made major advancements in the treatment of the disease surgically and medically. I hope we're starting to make major advancements in the prevention of the disease and we think again that goes back to what you eat. What you smoke or don't smoke. Exercise, body weight, and those kinds of things. And its difficult to marshal data to substantiate this but I'm sure we all feel that there is a change in American society in terms of how we should conduct ourselves. Five years ago and if someone had come over what you were smoking a cigarette and ask you to put you out you'd be horrified. Now if you smoke a cigarette in a restaurant you're liable to somebody put his thumb in your water glass. Things are changing in terms of what people are doing I think. And I think that is [unclear]

positive because the answer to this disease is not to operate on it or to give people medicine for it but to prevent it. Happy Valentine's Day. If you've been dreaming about a home of your own the time to make that dream become a reality is now. Some financial forecasters say within five years the cost of the average dream house will be at least $100,000. Even at today's prices however building or buying a home isn't that easy. In our feature story the house that Dennis built Magazine looks at a family that did build its dream house. And we've also got some tips for you on how to make your housing dreams come true.

The unfortunate thing is that a person walks away from a project like this immediately anyway just very exhausted from the whole thing. And you think you never want to see again. And that's the time I feel that a person could turn around and really take advantage of all the expertise information gathered and turn around and do a second one with a fraction of the effort and save even more money. Dennis Behr is not a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician or a mason. He's a broadcasting engineer. But he made a dream come true this past year when he built this house overlooking Lake Waubesa in rural Dane County. His dream wasn't merely to have a new home built but to play a major role in its development and construction. Dennis was the general contractor on his house. It's a modular prefabricated home built in a factory. But Dennis supervised the entire construction job, hired subcontractors to do the work he couldn't do, and did the rest himself. It's a job he

says took more perseverance than skill. I don't know if it really requires so many skills. I guess it probably does but the main thing is a lot of perseverance and a lot of you know determination because there's times when when you really want to kind of kind do throw up your hands to the whole thing. And this probably would be true if this was a business you were in but you have to kind of conquer every area, research every area and then once you're done with it then you say oh yeah that was really simple. If I had to do it again I'd know how to do it but you know do it again. You just do it once and do everything that one time is very inefficient, very slow and very frustrating. It was also a learning experience for Dennis and a time for a little help from his friends. Whether we were pouring the basement or dealing with the well or whatever I just kind of learned as I went along. I don't know I didn't do any any formal reading or research. I just asked a lot of

questions to a lot of people that were in the business and a lot of my friends helped me out a lot. And I think one thing that also helped is all my subcontractors were a small town type people that I knew real well so when I got into areas where I didn't have the expertise I still had the confidence in the people that were working for me that they would bridge the gap. Today's real estate market is a seller's market. Tomorrow's looks much the same. Couple this with the spiraling cost of building materials, construction labor, and inflationary interest rates to finance that house you've been dreaming about and that dream turns quickly into a nightmare. Don't give up yet. There are a number of ways to build your dream house and stay within your budget. Dennis Behr chose one alternative: a prefabricated modular home which he general contracted himself. There are others. If you're even more of a do it yourself or than Dennis Behr you might be interested in building a

modern version of your ancestor's log cabin. Log homes can be an alternative that will save you money, give you a rustic cozy dream house, and allow you to build it yourself. Depending upon which company you choose to buy your log home package from it can be as simple as putting together a Lincoln Logs set or as complicated as cutting your own window and door spaces out of the logs that you fit yourself. But for some people it's another answer. One couple who chose this alternative Don and Sue Brechert [?] of St Nazianz. Well we were traveling a brown Door County Wisconsin and we're looking at other homes regular conventional type home and we ran in to this one up at a log home up there that they had an open house so we just both, we went into and we looked around it and we both just fell in love with it. It was just what we were always looking for. Were you looking for something that you could do a lot of the work yourself when you built it?

Not really. At first we had been looking at conventional houses and they just didn't appeal to us. And then we saw this house. They had done a lot of the work themselves so then we figured that we probably could do a lot of the work ourselves too but there wasn't that much we could do. The Brechert's [?] didn't choose to build all of this house themselves. They hired a contractor to put up the shell and all of the interior partitions with accompanying insulation, electrical wiring, plumbing and the like. Then they took over. We put on the roof. The cedar shake roof which took us six weeks to put it on. And it was really hot. It was either hotter or it was windy and the sand was blowing so and we can only do it on weekends when we had off. And then we did and the inside we put in all the knotty pine board. And as we did the staining. Building a log home isn't for everyone or for every neighborhood but it was the answer for Don and Sue Brechert [?] and could be the answer for you if your lifestyle and

taste are adaptable to a more rustic motif. Well I find it really cozy. And most people that come in just fall in love with it and they... it's just really homey and cozy and it's nice and warm. I really like it. It's not your basic everyday home when you walk in you know and see drywall walls and you don't see the beams and the exposed rafters. We have a lot of compliments on our roof on how the cathedral ceiling package looks. We're really well pleased with it. Another choice available to anyone wanting to build a dream home is the non-modular factory built house. Here it comes down to saving money because the factory buys materials in large, quantities builds in a controlled environment, and guarantees your cost.

Well basically I think it's relatively simple. We do feel as though we provide a a very viable alternative to a stick built, what is called a stick built home and feature three main areas that we feel we are at an advantage to those people in that business. The first one would be in the quality aspect of the home particularly in the materials that we do use here. The second area would be in the time frame in which we can get a home built because we are building under controlled environmental circumstances in the plant itself. And the third part which we think is very important is the guaranteed price that we operate on. Once that order is made we call non-contingent or ready to build. The factory built house also offers a guaranteed delivery date which can also save money in free delivery construction and planning costs. But it has a disadvantage in that most dealers act as general contractors. You don't have as much leeway in doing it yourself. Factory crews erect your house at the site to ensure the house conforms to

quality control standards. This has been a change that's come about due to new trends in marketing. And there are some areas where [audio cuts off] do it yourselfer might be able to help himself through areas of the foundation for instance or yard work or paint labor, paint decorating type of thing. But in general the house itself should be done by an experienced crew. We were dealing in the early years primarily with folks on farms who were very capable of doing things them- selves. And as we get more and more in the urban areas we're finding people less willing and less able to do things like that for themselves. So we've gotten more into the contracting business to the point that now that 95 percent at least of the work that I do in the south west Wisconsin area is a completely contracted job. The future looks like real estate will continue to be a good investment. Costs are going to continue to go up. And if you're thinking of buying or building the time to do it

is now. It's the age old problem of supply and demand according to the president of the Wisconsin Realtors Association. Jay Ralph Anderson. We have never really caught up with our demands on housing since World War II. We had a period of time then assumed that we we might be doing so but we've never caught up with our with our demands for our people for consumers in housing and as long as the demand is there the market is going to be strong. We've given you a glimpse at some of the alternatives available. There are plenty of others. Check with your lending institution, your county extension agent, your realtor or other resource people in your community to find the right alternative to help make your dream home a reality. Still to come on Wisconsin Magazine Fearless Frank Seacrest puts more than one foot in the grave to check on the frost level. You'll meet Mr. Luck, the sportscaster with enough nerve to call George Plimpton the [?] of New York. And you'll hear about Sheila Thompson's

non-theistic point of view. Right now our people feature. It's not the breakfast of champions, pushy parents or the the crowd that makes Madison's Beth and Eric Heiden run or rather skate. In Eric's case to win twice the men's World Championships. In Beth's to play second in the women's world sprints last year. This year they're at it again. They won handily at the Olympic ice rink in West Allis to qualify for the United States speed skating squad. Last weekend they out-classed Norwegian and Russian skaters at Norway's Trondheim stadium to win a combined seven of eight races. Eric winning three and Beth four. We wanted to take a closer look at how the Heiden's get ready to win and get a few tips on what it takes to win in a sport that's almost obscure in America where there's little glory and attention for speed skaters. [music]

One thing is sure it's an exhausting process that demands devastating discipline and pure singleness of purpose. What this summer training is is just staying in shape and trying to do exercises simulate skating as much as they can. We're usually doing two workouts a today and then Friday now this month we have one more go which is going to be like an easy day. 3, 4 and a half hours We'll start training in May and then after about three weeks you just get into the routine and it's not too bad. When I was younger, boy it takes at least a year because you know you're just starting to get away from your friends for like going to the swimming pool every afternoon or something

like that. And it looks tough now on a hot summer day. What keeps those Heidens things going? Beth's mother says she's competitive but Beth denies that and says the real race is against her own record. You're training in you're thinking what are the Europeans doing right now. Yeh, you never know. You think you better train a little bit harder cuz they're probably training pretty hard. You want to beat 'em. The way it sounds a lot of European countries don't train so hard during the summer but they have ice time a lot earlier than we do. I think that's another big reason is that we get on the ice so late. So we have to be in really good shape by the time we do get the ice because there's only maybe a month or so before we have major competitions. Status and fame and frequently government funding supports those foreign skaters too. But if Eric feels he's short changed at home he doesn't show it. Though friends and fellow skaters say it's just not right. These skaters in Europe are more like Eric you know. He's a national hero and

you know they just about have monuments you know in countries of a good speed skater And in America I think that this is such a you know a country where violent sports are you know more spectator sports in that and they appreciate more team sports you know instead of individual performances. I feel the same. Like Eric I think should get a lot more publicity then he does. Um people don't, don't. They don't give him enough recognition. Like what he's done is so great. Compared to what other people have done in American sports I think. The thing is for me when I'm in Europe there's so many people that are really interested in this in skating. And like for the first 2 to 3 weeks in there every day somebody from like the news media is there to talk to me and people out on the streets recognize you and stuff like that. And after a

while that to me I just don't enjoy that at all. Like I couldn't see how a movie star or something like that could get along. So when I get back to the U.S. it's kind of nice to have it so low key. You're looking forward to getting on the ice now just because you know you put in so much time and drive training that skating is just kind of something that is dessert or something so... [unclear]. Eric and Beth have earned their dessert even if they have to go into the deep freeze to get it. Starting in winter or the Heiden's commute about 150 miles daily to workout at the Olympic size ice rink in West Allis. You get out of school and right away you're driving down to Milwaukee. It's your whole day right there. It's all either skating or studying. Yeh you do get a feeling of being cut off. When you're skating out on that rink and you know it's cold out, nobody's out there and I just see other skaters and sees people going by in their heated cars and you feel like you're

you're out in the cold you know. We don't really compete in skating. What he does is what he does and what I do is what I do. You're going to be spending your time doing it might as well do your best. Why do it otherwise? My parents go down to the rink in Milwaukee on weekends and help with the timing and things like that at the trials which a lot of the parents do. My parents have never been really pushy. They just want us to have fun. They're quick to qualify for the US world races in Europe where they'll have recognition

and accept it with modesty a trait perhaps resulting from American nonchalance even neglect of speed skating. And it's [audio cuts off]. The Heiden's credit coach Dianne Holum for much of their success. At any rate they're challenging winter isn't over and will be keeping an eye on their triumphs. Long range forecasting is a dangerous business. It takes a special kind of person to make the forecast and let come what may. Frank Seacrest is that kind of

person or was until last month when Fearless Frank was very very wrong. It's crazy. Did I ever blow it last month. Well I say something about not much you know for the upper Midwest. We broke every kind of record in the book. Chicago's practically buried under snow. Madison Milwaukee. Green Bay, La Crosse, Eau Claire. They all have record snow cover on the ground. Just incredible. Something about Frank's Fearless Forecasts. Well we'll talk more about that later. Right now we have something to do right? We've got to check on the thickness of the ice. So let's get with it. Well I found myself a nice fishing hole but I decided not to expose myself to this problem right now. Until I work up some courage I thought I'd like to talk to you about some of the good and some of the bad things about our big snow and a

bad winter. And then you can come back and you'll see a unique and fascinating way to check ice on Devil's Lake. Well when it comes to a big snow cover there's good news and there's bad news. This is the bad news. Well I guess you get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing a weatherman shovel the stuff he forecasts. But I'm really worried because out on the sun deck and a lot of roofs we're getting to the point where we have to worry about the roof collapsing and the sun deck collapsing out at my place. Look at this will you. I've got just about exactly 23 inches of snow on this thing and I wanted to figure out how much it weighed so I'd have to know... So I could find out if I had needed to shovel it or not. Well here's what I did. I've got a square foot of snow here and I know that one inch of water over a square foot weighs 5.2 pounds.

But I don't know how much all this snow weighs because or some ice in it at the bottom down here from the ice storm and there's real fluffy stuff on top so it's different. And I have to melt it down to see how much water is in it. So what I do is take the tub and take my square foot of snow and put it there. I'm going to put it down in the basement overnight and let it all melt and then I'll find out how much water I'll have and I can figure out exactly how much it weighs and whether or not I can relax or if I have to shovel it all. Well it took me a day and a half to melt all that snow. And this is my 15th quart of water from that melted snow and I know already that each court should weigh 2 pounds. Considering the container there's 2.2. So that's exactly right. 2pounds per quart. 15 quarts. That's 30 al ltogether. That's 30 pounds per square foot on my roof. Now most roofs are designed only to hold 30 pounds per square foot. So I'm going to

shovel mine off and you better too because that represents let's see yes about 6 tons of snow on my sun deck 20 by 20. And if you have the same problem get shoveling. Well I came to Forest Hill Cemetery to talk with Bill Jones who gives reports on frost depth. These are the official numbers. This is where we get 'em. There is no set up. What does it look like Bill? Have any frost? Right now here we have absolutely none. The fact if you look closely here the grass is still green. That grass is green. That's right. How can that be? Well your ground soil is warm. You have a good cover before the frost came in. We had early snow approximately Thanksgiving time and without any frost in the ground the ground is warm. Snow acts as an insulation. Oh it's like a blanket. Like a blanket that is right. Incredible. I came to measure frost and you don't have any. Don't have any. Well you think you have any next month if I come back? I don't think so. Not for the present amount of snow we have. Long range forecaster. You find them everywhere you go.

Well I really feel badly about that forecast last month. I really do try my best and you remember it really was cold. That's what I said of course. But there wasn't as much snow in New England and there was more snow in the Midwest because the storm track was not along the coast. I was inland further and that made all the difference in the world. Well what about the forecast for next month. Frank's Fearless Forecast is dead. I'm frankly very fearful of making a forecast but just to show you that I am not completely fearless. I am now going to check the level and thickness of this ice in the most fearless way I can imagine. And here we go. Cut! Cut! Please cut. How thick is it, Frank? It's about half about a foot.

Frank come home. All is forgiven. The question of whether TV news should be information or entertainment is often talked about but seldom settled. Rod Luck has his own answer. He's a sportscaster at ABC affiliate Channel 12 in Milwaukee. He says he's an entertainer. It figures that many of his stories are built around you guessed it Rod Locke, the entertainer. That style may not suit the critics and Luck hasn't exactly been overwhelmed by accolades from his sports colleagues but that's never been the point in commercial television. The real point is the rating point. Here's a profile of Rod Luck from the television trenches in Milwaukee. If there's a floor below the basement that's where Channel 12 stood in the ratings among Milwaukee's news programs. There was dog eat dog competition between Channels 4 and 6 far and away the market leaders. But as far as Channel 12 is concerned the dogs had already eaten. 2 and a half years ago the Hearst Corporation decided to do something about it. There was a purge of 12 than an influx of money and people. New management insisted on a new look for the news. Faster pace and punchy

writing. 12 made some gains but it still had a long way to go. As far as sports was concerned. Well let's try football analogy. It was 4th down 40 to go late in the 4th quarter. Channel 12 was down by 15 points. Now the Packers would probably call an off tackle play for short yardage in that situation. But Channel 12 management decided to go for the big play. They had nothing to lose so they hired a guy named Rod Luck. [Rocky theme music] Luck has worked in television for 15 of his 30 years. He's worked in Portland, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. For the last year and a half. It's been Milwaukee. [Tom Hauff]: When Rod Luck first appeared on the scene he'd been out of the business for a couple of years. I felt personally I think that the perhaps his brand of sports reporting really wasn't going to work. Maybe maybe he'd overdone it somewhere or maybe lost track of where

exactly it was that he wanted to go. So he came to us and we said we're in a position to try it. I think that we we felt we felt at that point that we could get we could get hurt. But we were so far down that it couldn't kill us. We knew that Rod Luck was someone who could do enormous good for our station. If, if he worked. And if he didn't at that point it would go virtunally unnoticed. Now if you think it's strange for the news director to describe the hiring of an experienced sportscaster as a gamble as an almost desperate move. Well then you haven't met Rod Luck. This is Rod Luck in action. And this is Rob Luck. Luck again. [background noise]

Once more. And finally Rod Luck triumphant. I made it! [unclear]...rides again, baby. Some people say that Rod Luck has to be crazy to do some of the things you do. Are you? Yeah but I but but I but I think it's you controlled at times most of the time. More often than not craziness. I but again it goes back to entertaining. I do anything anything to entertain you, to move you. I believe TV again is not only information and entertainment. It's emotion. If I have a story where I think I should cry; I'll cry. If I have a story I think I think that that just tells me to get involved in I'll get involved in it. A lot of people say you're crazy for doing that.

I say they're crazy for not trying. [indistinct speaking] [indistinct speaking] [indistinct speaking] Luck was originally hired as the weekend sportscaster but within a year the weekend ratings doubled. An accomplishment in television roughly equivalent to walking on water. The critics didn't like what Luck was doing and neither did his fellow sportscasters. But it played in Peoria and Whitefish Bay and the numbers showed it. [indistinct speaking] [indistinct speaking] [indistinct speaking]. I get criticized by the critics the TV newspaper critics that I didn't graduate or come out of a school of

journalism. My style isn't that way. It isn't what it was being taught in journalism schools or broadcasting schools. So therefore I am I guess I'm a black sheep. And people criticize me and they say that I'm no good. Yeh, I have the the local journal has a critic named Mike Drew and the Sentinel has a critic named Greg Moody who I don't think understand me and won't don't want to understand me. It's easy to dismiss Luck as just another crazy guy on TV unless you look for the method in his madness. He practices participatory journalism. That is he makes himself part of the story. As the moment approached my blood began to boil my body stiffened. I was ready to meet the man they call The Machine. That type of reporting wasn't invented by Luck but he's its only practitioner in Milwaukee. It gets

attention and viewers. Once a few hours are in the tent they get mostly straight reporting and listings of scores just like any other sports cast. The truth is that that 90 percent of what Rob Luck does is the same as his competition is doing. It's just that 10 percent that creates that illusion that the 10 percent of getting involved of doing it instead of just reporting it that makes him different. The secret to Luck's jump in the ratings may well be the 10 percent the involvement stories. But Luck isn't betting on it. He's also a tireless self-promoter. He speaks at grade schools, high schools, and a breakfast meetings. After speeches he tells audiences: OK I came here. Now you owe me. Watch my show. He covers all the sports even debating and spends more time covering high school sports than anyone in town. A famous newspaper publisher once said the secret to success was to find a way to put every person's name in his newspaper at least once a year. Luck's trying the same thing. It's slow. It's a lot of work but he figures it builds ratings and keeps them.

[Luck indistinct talking] 500 kids, a thousand kids knew we were here today. They're going to go home and watch to see if they're on TV tonight. The kid we did a story on has a boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, and uncle his nephew. Every place I go, every city I work in we get the kids. The station's that concerned about it get the numbers. Who controls the TV set at home? The kids. There's little doubt that Rod Luck is a driven man. He's apt to be short tempered and tough to work with. He bristles with nervous energy. He works 100 hour weeks and fuels himself on cold fast food that someone leaves on his desk. He doesn't see his family very much. Luck says it isn't the money that drives him although he makes more than $35,000 a year. What drives Rod Luck? Well it could be television itself. WISN TV. Milwaukee. This is Channel 12 Action News with Vince Givens and the action news team. Luck needs to be on television. He's a performaner, a center of his universe and

everything everything else is just a backdrop. His time on the air is his oxygen. I want to do 10 stories in one day sometimes. My cameraman has only enough [unclear] for three that day so I push 'em and drive 'em. And yeah I'm tough to work with but I don't have to get along with the people I work with. When that red light goes on on the news and camera's rolling humming at 5:30 or 10 the people I work with got a show that they love me in. They can hate me all they want before that. [unclear] every smile and pat each other on the back. You know, what have you. How big is your ego? It's giant. But it was humongous a few years ago. That's why I quit the business in 1975. I couldn't handle it anymore. It was killing me. It was killing me physically and mentally. I was very brought down person [unclear] person. I was laid back. I was getting the point of that... I was killing myself physically. I felt that if I would have stayed in the

business I would have probably jumped off a building one day without the camera rolling. Because things get to me. The critics do get to me. They're winning. Each day they take a little bit more away from me. But I'm not going to show it. I want you I won't let them know. Why'd you come back? I love this business it's the only one I really wanted to to die in. I thought I could do without it. I'm like a woman who's been beaten by her husband. And finally decided to take off. And I was I kind of liked the beating. Kinda like an alcoholic who threw a bottle away but remember those great nights and you got a buzz off. I get buzz off. those [unclear] fireworks and all the kid stuff. I remember one time in Portland Oregon getting run through of fence by a bull. A Brahma bull during at a rodeo and I broke or knocked some teeth out. My neck was broken. I was laying in the fence hung up in the fence and looked at my cameraman was almost in tears looking at me saying I want to help you and I was looking up at him and was cussing him out telling him to get his camera and if I die

I'm gonna come back and haunt him. The guy who absolutely hates detests Rod Luck is going to keep watching to see if the fool is going to break his neck. Of course you know we have a standing agreement that if that ever happens, if Rod is ever killed in the line of duty we'll lead our news with that story. Last summer he got a severe concussion and was quite upset that we didn't lead the show with it and I told him that's not part of the deal. I said you have to kill yourself. Rod Luck hasn't made actual news the number one news program or even the number two. In fact it isn't even a very close third right now. It is however starting to look like a contender and that alone is a major improvement. It isn't really even possible to measure Locke's contributions to the ratings are just too many other factors involved. But at the very least he's given channel 12 the kind of visibility that can't be won by mere promotion and happy talk. He says his market jumping days are over. If that's true and if he stays crazy he may just become a fixture on the Milwaukee sports scene. Maybe not the best looking fixture.

Probably not the best liked but Rod Luck doesn't much care. He'll settle for being the most watched. Rod Luck. There's a story about a man on his deathbed who claimed to believe in God. When I asked about it he explained that if there was a God he was protected. If there wasn't then it didn't make any difference. It seems that it does make a difference to some people as Andy Halper found out on this month's Point of View. A few years ago some people were saying God is dead. Now others are saying he's not only alive but answering a toll free number. Television religious programs are not just Sunday morning ceremonies anymore. The Church still doesn't pay much in taxes. And the division between church and state is often blurred. Has religion become too pervasive in our lives? The Freedom From Religion Foundation says yes. Headquartered in a dining room on Madison's west side this locally based national organization communicates with about 500 members in 45 states. Last month Sheila Thompson a teacher and a volunteer for the past two years became the group's first

paid employee. She was eager to discuss the foundation's goals and her non-theistic philosophy. There are two goals and one goal is to promote the constitutional principle of state church separation. We want the government to be free from religion. And the other goal is we'd like to educate the public on non-theistic beliefs. Beliefs that there is we don't believe in a god or gods or any mythological characters of that kind. Why do you feel it's necessary to do that. Why isn't it just enough to free yourself from religion and not to be bothered about it in your personal life. Well it would be enough if religion left everybody alone. Also what really upsets me is the Constitution is being threatened right now. The Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, fundamentalist churches are doing everything that they can to revise the constitution. They want to make a fetus a person from the very moment of conception. And if that happens again women are going to

die from self-inflicted abortions. Going back to alleys where they will be killed again and the country will not be a democratic country. We'll be living under a church state again. We don't like the words In God We Trust on our money. That was only put on July 11th 1955. Before that time it was not on there. And it certainly hasn't helped the value of the dollar has it. And also I personally do not like it that the Pledge of Allegiance has the words under God in it. I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose. So said Clarence Darrow. Darrow was a... [breaking in over speaking] this public service announcement produced by the Foundation was rejected by Madison's WISC-TV. Sheila worries about the group's access to the media. [woman in background talking] and Thomas Edison. But the FCC seems to think that religion can be on TV because everybody wants to hear it or it's something that no one disagrees with. We find many things that are disagreeable about religion.

But just because the Christians evidently have large numbers in this country and because they are so powerful have so much money, they don't want us on. They control many of the airwaves. You can't you can't turn a Christian into an atheist or into an agnostic or into a free thinker. That's not possible. It comes from the person by themselves and it doesn't happen overnight. Like some people say oh I became a born again Christian overnight. All of a sudden I had this experience and all of a sudden I'm saved and now I believe in Jesus and that. But that doesn't happen that way with theists because atheism or agnosticism is a very long process of reasoning and it takes a long time for people to feel comfortable with the philosophy and before they really make a commitment. Most of the mail the foundation receives is positive. Some is not.

the negative type male is like really negative. The fundamentalists type that say you're going to burn in hell and I can't wait to see you burn. Things like that which is I think is really sad because if I didn't believe in a hell which I don't if I did I certainly wouldn't even wish it on my worst enemy. I think it takes a cruel person to believe that there is such a thing as a Hell. The church has become a lot less separate from the state than our founding fathers intended. We should all become better educated about non-theistic beliefs. TV's Fairness Doctrine should apply to religion as well as to politics. At least that's Sheila Thompson's point of view. Our point of view is segments represent the opinions of various people around the state and do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or Wisconsin Magazine. We have a comment from a viewer tonight concerning our story last month on murder in Adams County. Cecilia Di wrote the people in Adams County are mostly good

people and the rural life is nice. It is the handling of the murders around here that is so rotten. If you have questions or comments or stories suggestions drop us a line. Write to: Magazine 821 University Avenue Madison Wisconsin 5 3 7 0 6. Incidentally the Target staff produce another program in addition to Wisconsin magazine. It's called Target. It's the only series broadcast statewide that deals with statewide issues. Tune in next Thursday at 7 o'clock and check it out. I'll see you again on the March edition of Wisconsin Magazine. [unclear]