One hundred years of public broadcasting in the state that invented it.

Peek behind the microphones of Wisconsin Public Radio in this history of public broadcasting. This talk deftly maps public broadcasting’s 100-year journey, begun in 1917, by charting the adventures of the Wisconsin broadcasters who invented public broadcasting in the state and gave it to the nation..

Jack Mitchell, who developed National Public Radio’s All Things Considered before becoming the head of Wisconsin Public Radio, centers public broadcasting’s history around the “Wisconsin Idea” that drove its development and still sets its course. Along the way, Mitchell will introduce the personalities and philosophies, funding challenges and legislation, and original programming and pioneering technology that gave us public broadcasting.