Antigo: First Impressions

Drive from Madison...lovely lakes, neat lawns

We arrived in Antigo yesterday afternoon after driving up from Madison.  Much to the trip involved county roads, particularly County Road Y.   We drove past farms and homes that were simply beautiful, well maintained and appeared very comfortable; not the impression we had been led to believe by some of our reading.

Antigo RV City Campground

We spent last night in the Antigo Lake City Campground.   It is level, surrounded by pristine lawns, on a lake, quiet, and very well maintained.  There are bicycles free for use by campers, the key is hanging up in the restroom.  There was even a sign in the Men’s room soliciting input from campers on how they could improve their operations.

The whole city of just 7,864 people seems to be filled with local pride.

 

FM 106 COUNTRY

This morning we decided to listen to some local radio news so I searched and found FM 106 Country Music and News.  We listened to music, heard local advertising, and national and local news.  Much of it was slanted toward employment.  By way of example, when there was a report about this year’s cranberry crop being slightly down from last year the story also included the fact that there are 4000 jobs in the cranberry farming industry.

At 7:20 AM “The Breakfast Club” with Gary Hartl came on the air.  He was broadcasting from the local Burger King.  It was a pleasant and somewhat calm exposition about local events, there are MANY, and local issues.  We learned that it is National Apple Betty Day and National Do Something Nice Day, and listened interviews of local people.  We just had to go and see it in person.  We arrived just as it was finishing at 8:30 AM, so we went in and met Gary.  He does this show every morning, Monday through Friday and then goes to his other job as a car salesman.  He is a charming and articulate guy, obviously skilled in radio broadcasting and justifiably proud of his home community, Antigo.

Gary was willing to give quite a bit of his time to discuss how things are going in Antigo. He mentioned that there is a community spirit that results in significant generosity.  An example is that nearby Wausau, population 39,000, raises half as much money for the Salvation Army each year as Antigo, population 7864.  Wausau uses paid bell ringers. In Antigo they are all volunteers.  Antigo raises money directly to support local residents when they have problems.  People also volunteer to fill backpacks with food on Fridays so that children on the School Lunch Program will be supplied over the weekend.  The sign “Antigo Strong” appears many places in town.

The Antigo High School Football team, the Red Robbins, in first place this year, is able to cinch a Championship tomorrow night at an away game in Mosinee.  We plan to attend.  Country 106 will be there to broadcast it live.  Gary told us that when the State established a Championship in the 1970’s the Red Robbins, “potato fed big boys,” as Gary described them, were the first winners, defeating a team from the “city of Racine” and twice again for a three year run.

Gary asked us what we were doing and said that he was intrigued by the answer.  He invited us to return tomorrow morning to be interviewed on his show.  We can’t resist. He has an appearance scheduled with a 4-H Club and Assemblywoman Mary Felzkowski on the show to explain the local benefit of the investment the State is making in bringing in the Foxconn factory in Racine County.

 

Antigo Daily Journal

From there we went to look for the Antigo Chamber of Commerce, but on the way we stopped by the office of the Antigo Daily Journal.  The office was humming, with nine people visibly working hard at the time.  The woman at the front counter said that when the press started running it would be a bit loud.  We asked how the paper was doing and she said “really well.”  We asked what the secret was and she told us that they are really good at what they do.  She also mentioned that they published local obituaries and that when people came in by 11:30 in the morning, the obits would be in the next day’s paper and that this is unusually rapid response.  She offered to go and get the owner, Fred Berner, to talk with us.  He came to the counter and explained that he had two press runs to get out so he didn’t have time to talk right now but he gave us his home phone number and a good time to call this late afternoon!  He told us that the paper was one of three in the State that was not part of some sort of chain.
 

--David