WDEE Station Manager Max Alexander
The City of Deerfield officially passed the torch to a new generation this summer. Deerfield TV has long been associated with Dave Lemke and Lyn Meyer. Now UW-Whitewater graduate, Max Alexander is the new Station Manager.
Max took the reins in July, when the pandemic had slowed the production schedule at WDEE to a crawl. While the station continued to cover village, township and school board meetings, community events had been cancelled and school sports were at a standstill.
That all changed with the beginning of the new school year. High school sports are back on and Max has been busy covering football, girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball, and wrestling. “He’s very good,” said Lyn. “He’s got the education, he’s well-experienced, knows computers, and he has a brand new Tricaster to play with. His first new toy!” Lyn is particularly impressed with his comfort level with the Tricaster and his ability to multitask during a game. “When he films basketball games, he’s got the controller for the gym cameras, he’s got a keyboard for the Tricaster, and another keyboard for I’m not sure what. His eyes are going back and forth between all of them. He does a fantastic job changing the shots. He doesn’t just pan back and forth. He’ll take a close shot from underneath the basketball hoop and follows it with another interesting shot. The close shots are constantly changing the view, which makes coverage much more exciting.” Max has also been working on creating graphics for lower-thirds, intros, and outros to enhance Deerfield’s programs.
Max stepped into the Deerfield part-time position after working for a couple of years at Watertown TV, where he began working after he graduated from UW-Whitewater, and where he still works part-time for Media and Communications Director Lisa Famularo. Between school and Watertown, he’s had a wide variety of experience. “I’ve worked as camera operator and assistant director for some shows. My first sports camera work was with ladies tennis and I also completed a few video projects at UW-Whitewater including “Reaper of Death” and “Intranet.” While at Watertown TV, Max entered two shows in the Best of the Midwest Media Fest and received a Merit Award for the drama Breath of Death and an Excellence Award for “Home Exercise,” a pandemic-inspired program that demonstrated how to stay fit even when you can’t go to the gym.
Lyn and Dave are still active with WDEE. After more than twenty years of building up the PEG TV station, both still want to be a part of it. Lyn got involved in WDEE right at the beginning after he retired from a long career with AT&T as a central office technician in 1995 and took up driving high school bus part-time. He leveraged his bus driving gig to boost sports coverage on WDEE. “For fourteen years I’d drive the team – football, basketball, whatever -- to away games, film the game, then drive the team back home.” Today, after retiring as station manager after nearly twenty years, Lyn continues to record Deerfield Township meetings and church services at St. Paul Liberty Church.
Dave retired at 60 from the Dane County Parks Department after a forty-year career and founded WDEE with Fred Fry in 1998. Dave is still the Chair of the Cable Commission and records village board meetings. Fred Fry serves as secretary and comes in on Tuesday nights to schedule programs for the week. Gerry Wichlacz, the multimedia teacher at Deerfield High School, who also got involved early in WDEE, continues to serve on the Cable Commission. His classroom is right across the hall from the WDEE studio where the station moved in 2002 when Lyn became station manager. The studio is utilized by Gerry for video production classes and his students are encouraged to do production work for WDEE, particularly high school sports coverage.
“I really appreciate that Max considers Deerfield his number one duty,” said Lyn. It feels good. Everyone else -- we’re in our 70’s. It’s time for some young blood. New ideas. We’re very glad Max is here.”
Mary Cardona
