Mrs. Evans in Exclusive Company
WOMAN DIRECTS RADIO STATION
Milwaukee Sentinel - December 5, 1966
Mrs. Evans in Exclusive Company
WOMAN DIRECTS RADIO STATION
Milwaukee Sentinel - December 5, 1966
As a top radio executive, Mrs. Rosa Evans is in exclusive company, one of only a handful of women in the country who hold down presidencies of major radio stations.
Mrs. Evans is president of radio station WOKY, founded here almost 20 years ago, and is also chief operations officer for a string of five radio and TV stations which are the property of a Milwaukee family enterprise.
Mrs. Evans directs station affairs with an experienced hand since, she explained, "there's not a job here that I can't do."
That means in traffic or continuity or any of the other aspects of a station operation as well as behind a microphone where she was an accomplished performer in her early days in the business. Her long background dates to her college days at the University of Wisconsin educational radio station in Madison.
However, in the last 15 years she has been in the administrative end of the business exclusively.
WOKY, which began here as station WEXT in 1947, as a daytime operation, is one of the major properties of the Bartell Media Corp, a family enterprise with headquarters in New York.
OVERSEES 5 OUTLETS
Besides WOKY, the parent company has radio outlets in New York City and in San Diego, Calif. It also owns two television outlets in the Caribbean area. In addition, the corporation has a publishing affiliate. Mrs. Evans has charge of the corporate administrative duties for all holdings of the broadcast division of the parent organization.
A graduate of the state university, where she was a sociology major and them completed graduate work in speech and radio, Mrs. Evans started with WHA in 1938. She learned station production and operation methods besides her work at the microphone.
Listeners of those early days at WHA may remember her as a top notch songstress. She studied voice in college and sang with the University of Wisconsin chorus as well as over WHA. A career in singing would probably have been as successful as has been her career in radio had she chosen to pursue such a course.
Mrs. Evans, who was then Rosa Bartell, organized a transcription service for the state station. During her years with WHA she met Ralph Evans, an electrical engineering graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and they were married in 1942. They spent the war years in Washington, D.C.
In 1947, the Bartell family, including four brothers, David, Gerald, Lee and Melvin, and Mrs. Evans and her husband, pioneered the family radio network with the organization of WEXT. The outlet, a daytime operation then, had studios across the street from Jackson park at W. Forest Home av. and S. 43rd St.
One of her first productions and one of the most popular was "Playtime for Children," the only children's radio program of its kind in Milwaukee. Its popularity won recognition both nationally and locally. It received the Milwaukee Radio Council award for eight straight years. Much of the music on the program was her work. She also sang the role of the "Lullaby Lady" on the children's program.
"It caught on beautifully and put WEXT on the map," Mrs. Evans said. Because of its popularity, sponsors asked that the show, a morning production, be repeated in the afternoon.
FORSAKES "MIKE"
Mrs. Evans and her brother, Gerald, now board chairman of Bartell Media, lay claim to being among the first to put on a singing commercial. They originated some of the earliest musical commercial jingles hear anywhere in the country. That was 1948.
But her heart was in the administrative end of the business, which, she said, "I enjoyed more than the talent end."
So when WEXT expanded into a full time operation in 1950, its call letters changed to WOKY, Mrs. Evans moved into administration full time and that's where she's been since. It was about this time that the Bartell family began its extensive expansion program which embraces today's radio, TV and publishing affiliates.
Administrative detail for the Bartell broadcasting operations is done in the WOKY offices here, with all of the broadcasting detail under the supervision of Mrs. Evans.
"You need a constitution of iron to handle a job such as this," she said. "Fortunately I have it."
"This is a business I know and enjoy," she said. "Not a day goes by but what you learn something new. When the day comes that I don't feel that way, then I'll know that I should step out."
In her business career, Mrs. Evans has observed one cardinal rule. She runs the business with unusual efficiency but the business of running her home has priority.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans have four sons, Rick 22; Bruce 17; Larry, 12, and Benjamin,9.
Evans has a substantial hand in company operations. He is vice-president of engineering for the parent corporation, Bartell Media. He designed and built WEXT, the Bartells' first station.
For more information please contact:
Evans Associates
216 Green Bay Rd. SUite 205
Thiensville, Wisconsin 53092
(262)242-6000
http://www.evansassoc.com
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