The Marathon County Historical Society and the Marathon County Public Library will present “History Speaks On the Air: The History of Wisconsin Public Media” at 2 p.m. Feb. 26 on YouTube and FacebookLive.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Rick Reyer will present the rich history of Wisconsin public media and touch upon the impact and importance of deciphering in the media between “fake news” and reliable information.

Reyer began his career at WPR in 1989 in Green Bay as the first business development representative outside of Madison. After a stint in Madison in the early 1990s, Reyer came back to his home community to open the central regional bureau at UW-Marathon County, now UW-Stevens Point at Wausau, in 1995. As central regional manager, Rick oversees the operations of 10 WPR stations covering all or part of 20 counties.

More presentations

“History Chats: Bits and Pieces“
Thursdays at 12:30 p.m.
Every week, MCHS staff members Ben Clark and/or Gary Gisselman give a short presentation of an interesting topic relating to the history of Marathon County. History Chats go live at 12:30 p.m. every Thursday, as a free, online broadcast via both YouTube and Facebook Live. Past broadcasts are also available for
later viewing.

Feb. 3- Sylvester Rice

Clark presents the story of Sylvester “Sam” Rice, the first African American to attend Wausau High School for a brief time in 1923.

Feb. 10- Early baseball in Marathon County

Gisselman takes us back to the early years of baseball in Marathon County—from its introduction in the 1800s through to the early successes of Wausau Lumber Jacks teams.

Feb. 17- Lost pieces

Clark pieces together some of the stories and tangents that ended up being removed from earlier History Chats, because they didn’t fit into the narrative of those topics. This week, these miscellaneous bits of local history get their own program.

Feb. 24- Public questions

Clark and Gisselman take the week to answer questions from the public. If you’ve ever had a nagging question about Marathon County history but never knew when or where to ask it, this is your chance. You can respond to the historical society’s posts on social media or email them directly at [email protected].

MCHS is in the Woodson History Center at 410 McIndoe St., Wausau. Exhibit
and office hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free. The research library is open from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. Tours of the
Yawkey House Museum are available Tuesdays – Sundays. Call for times and prices.

For more information, call MCHS at 715-842-5750, email [email protected] or visit www.marathoncountyhistory.org.