Jack Stiehl
The actual “builder” of the Wisconsin Public Radio as a network, Jack Stiehl enjoyed a 45-career (1931-76) as a UW engineering professor and public broadcasting engineer. After 15 years of pioneering engineering work with WHA-AM, he became the first Chief Engineer to the State Radio Council (forerunner to the Educational Communications Board), when that body was created in 1945. His first major duty was designing and building what would become the nation’s first statewide non-commercial FM network. In a five-year span he oversaw the building of a remarkable total of eight FM stations including WHA-FM, 1947; WHAD, Delafield, 1948; WHKW, Chilton and WHRM, Wausau, 1949; WHWC, Colfax, and WHLA, West Salem, 1950; and WHHI, Highland, and WHSA, Brule, 1952. He later helped put WHA-TV, Madison, on the air and under his technical leadership the state FM network became the first educational stations in the country to utilize subcarrier broadcasting in the mid-1960’s.
Jack Stiehl passed away on October 29, 1999.
