Citizen Wausau

*This* Close to an Emmy

by Erik Cieslewicz on September 10th, 2008

Last night, while working on a campaign ad for John Powers, I get a text message from TV’s Mikel Lauber that reads

Congrats. Secrets in Shawano is Emmy nominated.

My, vastly appropriate response was

W00t!

What else can you say to the prospect of winning what is arguably the most important award of a television professional’s career? I really am beside myself with the whole thing. After only a year of experience Mikel and I decided to go after Secrets in Shawano one afternoon when he told me about the story. I was instantly hooked, and sometimes it takes a little effort for me to get exciting about news stories. So I knew Mikel had something special on his hands. What followed was the two of us researching the whole thing like crazy. Multiple trips from Wausau to Shawano, and one of the best stories of my life.

No, not one of the best news stories, one of the best stories; as in an experience that you tell to your friends, family and anyone in between. I may someday write up the whole adventure, but not today. For one thing there’s no time, but I also don’t want to bore you!

After all of the photography (to whom I must share thanks with to Brooke Sperry, Randy Bise and Jason Klappa, who did a bit of extra photography for me), I moved out of my apartment and into the edit bays at work. I remember getting in at 9:00 AM, doing a normal shift, going someplace fast foody for supper and then back to the station until 11:00 or midnight even working on these pieces. My apartment seemed to exist solely to keep my cat off the streets during this time.

The works were scrutinized (and were better for it) by lawyers, the news director, assistant news director, the program manager and even the general manager of the station. I’ve never had that type of oversight except on occasion when Sue Ramsett, the news director, looked over a couple of the Snowmobiling and Drinking series Mikel and I did (with aid from Jonalee Merkel and Jason Klappa). This spoke volumes to me about how important these pieces were. And if I wasn’t already putting my best into them, I certainly was now.

The response was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Mikel’s in-box and phone were flooded with praise, hate mail, legal threats and everything in between. The web-site has thousands of responses posted on the stories, a feat never achieved before then, and still never seen since. Even The Wausau Daily Herald had a topic started on their discussion boards about an exclusive story by a competing news provider.

I always knew this series was special. It’s worth of entry as a short subject documentary in a film festival. It goes beyond what most people think of when they think of broadcast news, especially on the local level (and even more so in small market). Congrats again to Mikel on this, he poured himself into this story.