LeRoy Wolniakowski
One of Wisconsin’s most innovative engineers, his career reached into five decades, from 1955 to 2000, for just two companies in Milwaukee, WRIT- AM & FM and WEMP/WMYX. His stations were always at the cutting edge of technology with WRIT-AM being the first Wisconsin station to use cartridge machines to replace turntables in 1959, and WRIT-FM, then renamed WFWO-FM, the first station to be fully automated in the State in 1969. When his company was sold, their competitors at WEMP/WMYX, hired him to improve their facilities and serve as a company- wide consulting engineer for the national firm of Heritage Media which owned those Milwaukee stations. During his career he designed the studio layouts and cabinetry for both of his companies’ new facilities and served as part time consultant for numerous independent broadcast production facilities in Milwaukee. True to broadcast traditions, he was active in his community as a 40-year member of the Knights of Columbus and a member of the Polish Falcons and the Polish Heritage Foundation.
