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The Capital Times - Bill Berry: Love of nature and kids united in Ranger Mac's radio program
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/berry/index.php?ntid=78811&ntpid=2
Bill Berry: Love of nature and kids united in Ranger Mac's radio program
By Bill Berry
The Capital Times
Published: April 4, 2006
STEVENS POINT - This is a story about love radio and a kind-faced man who made it happen.
When the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame inducts three new members here on April 22, Wakelin McNeel will be among them. Also to be inducted are George Archibald, of International Crane Foundation fame, and Daniel Trainer, who built the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources to the largest undergraduate college of its kind in America. Archibald and Trainer both accomplished tremendous feats, and they are also still alive and making an impact on natural resources conservation.
McNeel, on the other hand, has been dead for many years. But it's hard to underestimate the impact he had on the lives of Wisconsin schoolchildren. Those children are senior citizens today, but mention the words "Ranger Mac" to many, and they'll know exactly who you're talking about.
Wakelin McNeel was Ranger Mac, a true radio pioneer who created a radio program called "Afield With Ranger Mac" for Wisconsin Public Radio. The program was broadcast on the state educational network between 1933 and 1954. By some estimates, he reached upward of 700,000 young people with lyrical stories about nature and its beauty, and sometimes painfully descriptive accounts of how humans had fouled things up. ...
[Click link above for the rest of The Capital Times newspaper article.]
Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/berry/index.php?ntid=78811&ntpid=2
Bill Berry: Love of nature and kids united in Ranger Mac's radio program
By Bill Berry
The Capital Times
Published: April 4, 2006
STEVENS POINT - This is a story about love radio and a kind-faced man who made it happen.
When the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame inducts three new members here on April 22, Wakelin McNeel will be among them. Also to be inducted are George Archibald, of International Crane Foundation fame, and Daniel Trainer, who built the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources to the largest undergraduate college of its kind in America. Archibald and Trainer both accomplished tremendous feats, and they are also still alive and making an impact on natural resources conservation.
McNeel, on the other hand, has been dead for many years. But it's hard to underestimate the impact he had on the lives of Wisconsin schoolchildren. Those children are senior citizens today, but mention the words "Ranger Mac" to many, and they'll know exactly who you're talking about.
Wakelin McNeel was Ranger Mac, a true radio pioneer who created a radio program called "Afield With Ranger Mac" for Wisconsin Public Radio. The program was broadcast on the state educational network between 1933 and 1954. By some estimates, he reached upward of 700,000 young people with lyrical stories about nature and its beauty, and sometimes painfully descriptive accounts of how humans had fouled things up. ...
[Click link above for the rest of The Capital Times newspaper article.]
Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. E-mail: [email protected]