Longtime board member, broadcaster honored by Assembly

A Superior resident was honored Tuesday as a “Hometown Hero” by the Wisconsin Assembly.

A longtime member of the Douglas County Board whose broadcast career began during the second term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lew Martin was supposed to be introduced by State Rep. Nick Milroy but Martin says the lawmaker had a change of plans.

“I bring greetings from my representative, Nick Milroy, whose wife is having a baby as we speak,” Martin told the assembly.

The 95-year-old started at WEBC Radio in Superior in 1937. He was working at an Eau Claire radio station the night Orson Welles had his “War of the Worlds” broadcast and took calls from panicked listeners worried about a Martian invasion. That was 1938. He returned the next year to sign on WDSM Radio in 1939. And today, he continues part-time work at Wisconsin Public Radio station KUWS-FM in Superior.

State Rep. Janet Bewley of Ashland pinch-hit for Milroy in telling the full Assembly that Martin is a hometown hero. She says his career is full of historic signposts.

“Lew was in Superior when the Kennedys were there. He rode a train with Harry Truman. And he often interviewed Hubert Humphrey. He is known as the voice of Superior.”

And “the voice” took out a piece of paper to tell a joke.

“When you’re young, you tell jokes. When you’re old, you read jokes,” Martin said

By the way, the Milroys are celebrating the birth of an 8 pound, 9 ounce baby boy. Milroy says they haven’t named him yet, but Lew or Martin is a possibility.

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