1967 - Filling In for 50 Years

Temporarily filling in for his UW-Madison professor (Farm Program host Maury White), Larry Meiller put on his broadcasting hat in 1967, a career which continues today. Meiller took over the program entirely in 1968 and began pursuing a doctoral degree at UW-Madison.

Meiller was a pioneer of WPR’s call-in show format. In 1978, his Midday Report merged with Accent on Living to became a daily call-in show, Wisconsin Hear and Now. The program  featured guest experts and provided advice and information that would benefit listeners’ daily lives. According to Meiller, the first program featured two guests from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The topic was pet care, and the first listener call came from a woman asking, “How do I tell if my cat is male or female?” to which one of the guests replied, “You pick up its tail”. Not all listener questions have such easy answers even after 50 years on the air.

Meiller continues to broadcast live each weekday on WPR’s The Ideas Network, offering helpful advice on topics around the home and around the state. In addition to hosting one of WPR’s most popular and longest-running call-in programs, Larry has also spent the past 40 years as a professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communications in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2017.