Producer of the Month

A community remembers with the help of Kenosha Voices

Chris Allen (right) interviews Tod Ohnstad for Kenosha Voices.

Kenosha Voices will soon be taking on more of the cultural history of Kenosha, when the team interviews area musicians and former athletes who played softball around the city.  But it all began more than a year ago with the idea of interviewing the owners and workers from the “lost industries” — the ones that once formed the economic backbone of Kenosha.  “The Kenosha County Historical Society had been discussing doing an oral history project for decades and coming out of the pandemic, it just seemed like it was time we got this project off the ground,” said Chris Allen, executive director of the Kenosha History Center. 

“We started with people who worked in industry, but the project quickly evolved,” said Allen.  “Once we started airing the program on Kenosha Community Media (KCM) channel 14 and on our YouTube channel, there was so much interest in the project from people beyond that group.” With KCM providing the technical expertise, more than 60 interviews have now been completed with a wide assortment of people -- teachers, small business leaders, politicians, and people who grew up in Kenosha and have memories to share. “There is no insignificant story,” said Allen.  “They are all important in their own way.” 

Allen serves on the KCM board of directors, so he was aware of the technical services KCM could contribute to the project.  Late in 2021 he began talking with Media Coordinator Jason Rimkus.  Two volunteers at the History Center were also involved from the start.  After interviewing each other, Karl Frederick, who worked for the Kenosha News for 40 years, and Bob Lichter, who worked at Peter Piersch, a manufacturer of fire trucks, turned to interviewing a line-up of guests. 

“I think what has made the series so engaging is that we are bringing primary sources in front of the camera to talk about what it was like to be on a factory line building engines and what it was like to be in front of a classroom of kids.  When you hear a story from a first-person perspective, it’s powerful.  People can relate to it.  And it sparks memories.  They think, ‘I remember going to the Thompson Strawberry Farm!  I remember watching the ships come into the dock!” They remember the good old days.  We’re sharing their history.  They worked alongside these workers we are talking with.  They remember these same businesses.”

The first weekly episode of Kenosha Voices debuted on February 11, 2022.  With the experience of over 60 interviews behind him, Allen says, “Oral history is difficult at times.  It can bring up difficult subjects.”  It can also go in unexpected directions.  Before sitting down in front of the cameras, Allen and his volunteer team do a pre-interview with their guest.  “We go in with a set of questions reflecting what we think they will be interested in talking about and find that they talk about something completely different. And it’s fascinating.  And that’s what we go with.”

Allen also said he’s learned the value of talking with people from different walks of life who have all lived through the same history, but from different vantage points.  “Kenosha is a very diverse community so it’s important to talk with people from all backgrounds.  What’s been interesting is that we get stories from people who were working in the very same building, but the stories about their experience are very different.” 

Kenosha Voices is being recognized by Wisconsin Community Media this year with a Significant Community Program Award, which honors important programs that have made a significant community impact. 

You can watch Kenosha Voices on KCM channel 14 on the Charter Spectrum cable system in Kenosha at 5 pm on Saturday and noon on Sunday.  The series can also be seen on KCM’s Roku channel.  The Kenosha History Center has woven some of the interviews into its Lost Industries exhibit. The interviews are being played on TVs throughout the museum and can be heard by clicking QR codes on displays. The Kenosha History Center also carries the series on its YouTube channel and it now has a podcast called Kenosha Voices.  All the interviews are being saved in its archives for future generations to access, research, and learn from.

In this episode of Kenosha Voices Karl Frederick interviews Ray Ivy and Rick Prescott about what it was like to grow up in the Bonnie Hame housing project.   The temporary neighborhood was erected during WWII to house workers who came to Kenosha to work for AMC and other factories involved in the war effort.

Long-time photographer Tim Hatfield jumps into community television with both feet

Tim Hatfield shoots a scene for the production, Shop with a Cop.

Tim Hatfield was sold on community television the first time he stepped into the Sun Prairie Media Center (SPMC) in February of 2020 to drop off a video of his church’s most recent service.  “I was given a tour and I joined the media center on the spot.”  Hatfield, a recently retired civil engineer, has always been interested in visual imagery.  “I’ve been dabbling in photography most of my life, I bought my first SLR in the early 1980s. I honed my skills as a member of the Battle Creek Camera Club in Michigan, an excellent nature photography-oriented club -- some of the members actually sold images to the Sierra Club for its calendars.” 

Once he became a member of SPMC he started producing videos. “For my first video, I taped my ride in a B-17 bomber flight over Madison. Since then I’ve taped parades, school concerts, city committee meetings and hockey games to name a few.” 

Tim Hatfield and the Outstanding Volunteer award from Sun Prairie Media Center

In 2022, Hatfield was awarded SPMC’s highest honor for “Outstanding Dedication and Service to the Media Center.”  Jeff Robbins, SPMC Executive Director said, “I can’t think of a year when we’ve had a more worthy recipient. Tim Hatfield is probably the single volunteer that we rely on the most for filming ANYTHING. Not only does he do great camerawork, but he – we hope – seems to genuinely enjoy it. And he does his own editing!” 

Hatfield says, “I love capturing and editing video, it gives me opportunities to meet new people, to attend new events, plus it keeps me active.” 

Hatfield entered the Best of the Midwest Media Fest this year with three shows:  The Great Race (“The world’s premiere old car rally, brought 120 of the world’s finest antique automobiles to Sun Prairie and we were there!”); Landscape of Families: Presented by The WI Dells Singers and Dance Troupe of the Ho Chunk Nation (“A final glimpse of the Ho-Chunk enjoying their homeland prior to the start of forced expulsion from their villages.”); and Enduring Skills Weekend at the Historic Indian Agency House: Voyageur Canoe Excursion (“Have you ever tried blacksmithing?  Flint knapping?... Many historical skills and techniques would be lost to time were it not for those who continue to practice and research them to this day.”). 

You can see “Voyageur Canoe” below on Sun Prairie Media’s Telvue server by clicking the image below.  Then use the arrows on the bottom right to make the video full screen.