{"id":8009,"date":"2022-06-06T11:29:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T16:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=8009"},"modified":"2022-06-06T11:29:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T16:29:09","slug":"after-storied-communications-career-uwo-73-alumnus-tom-luljak-finds-coda-leading-wpr","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/after-storied-communications-career-uwo-73-alumnus-tom-luljak-finds-coda-leading-wpr\/","title":{"rendered":"After storied communications career, UWO ’73 alumnus Tom Luljak finds coda leading WPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Tom Luljak, a 1973 radio TV film and speech education graduate, was named interim head of Wisconsin Public Radio in October. (Tom Krueger Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tom Luljak has come a long way since his shaggy hair and mustache-affixed smile made the pages of the\u00a0Advance-Titan<\/em>\u00a0to promote his rock show on WRST-FM.<\/p>\n

The 1973 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has now had a storied professional career of more than 50 years. Or, as he puts it, he\u2019s had three careers\u2014one in journalism, one in corporate communications and one in higher education.<\/p>\n

And if those are three separate careers, then what he\u2019s up to now is either career No. 4 or, at the very least, an impressive coda. In October\u2014just a few months after the start of his retirement\u2014he became interim director at Wisconsin Public Radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really like about this opportunity right now is this I think is going to be the cap end to my career, imagining that I really started my work \u2026 at the student stations at La Crosse and, of course, UW Oshkosh,\u201d he said. \u201cPublic radio is the first place I began to apply my skills and now at the other end of my career I\u2019m able to give back and share some of the knowledge that I\u2019ve learned along the way to help ensure that Wisconsin Public Radio continues to be the vibrant strong and respected institution that it has been for more than 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luljak\u2019s communications career can be traced back to his days as a paperboy on the streets of Cudahy. He was fascinated by the whole concept\u2014that these people called journalists were gathering information and telling stories that were shared around the world.<\/p>\n

After high school he went to UW-La Crosse with intentions of becoming a high school teacher. His interest in journalism remained, and one day he said he stumbled into the student radio station and his life was forever changed.<\/p>\n

He soon realized he wanted to pursue both secondary education and broadcast journalism\u2014but that UW-La Crosse didn\u2019t have a clear path for that combination. \u201cI looked around and I\u2019d heard wonderful things about UW Oshkosh\u2019s journalism program and I knew they had a relatively new broadcast facility,\u201d he remembered. \u201cSo I did my homework and decided that as lovely as La Crosse is, I really needed to get to Oshkosh to fulfill that part of my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was at Oshkosh he came into his own. He was able to chase his passions for teaching and media, supported by \u201camazing\u201d people in the school of education and \u201cincredible, supportive\u201d faculty in the radio TV film department. The hands-on experience at WRST-FM\u2014yes, including hosting the\u00a0Rock 88<\/em>\u00a0show as advertised in the A-T. By the time he graduated with a double major in radio TV film and speech education, he\u2019d worked as the station\u2019s news director, his first experience as a supervisor or manager in a workplace.<\/p>\n

\"Advance-Titan<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an incredible time at UW Oshkosh,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the perfect school to help me meet my interest and my curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the decades that followed, Luljak would spend about eight years running the news department for WTMJ radio and TV in Milwaukee, where he won a Peabody Award for investigative journalism. He also taught courses on broadcast news, public relations and public affairs, among others, at both Marquette University and UW-Milwaukee. When he left journalism to run corporate communications statewide for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, he continued to teach, and eventually he answered a call from UW-Milwaukee to run marketing and communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just one of those cases of being in the right place at the right time,\u201d he said. \u201d \u2026 I thought, \u2018What could be better than to be in a place where I could use all of my journalism and communication skills I picked up on the corporate side and on the broadcast side, and combine those skills to serve higher education in the state?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after joining UWM, he became interim vice chancellor and then vice chancellor. He\u2019d serve in that role for more than 20 years before retiring last June. He\u2019d been blessed by the opportunities that unfolded in front of him, he said, and had a wonderful career, but he was looking forward to spending more time with his two grown children and three grandkids.<\/p>\n

Then came one more opportunity: WPR.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a very important gut check with my wife and my kids,\u201d he said. \u201d \u2026 They all encouraged me to do it, so here\u2019s one more opportunity to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interim director gig takes the 70-year-old full-circle. It was public radio where he got his start on UW campuses and now he gets to help one of the state\u2019s prized media institutions while a national search is underway for its next leader.<\/p>\n

Both the UW-La Crosse and UWO radio stations now are part of a statewide network with WPR, and earlier this week Luljak returned to the Oshkosh campus to meet with members of the RTF department. The goal of the visit, he said, was to get a better understanding of how WPR can best serve WRST-FM and its audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people in Oshkosh realize what a gem the University is because sometimes when you have an institution that\u2019s right in your backyard you can take it for granted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said if the opportunity presented itself, he hoped to take a seat in front of the microphone where a half-decade ago a shaggy-haired student sent\u00a0Rock 88<\/em>\u00a0out on the airwaves.<\/p>\n

Learn more:<\/strong><\/p>\n