The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
After 44 years behind the microphone, legendary Milwaukee broadcaster Jane Matenaer is retiring.
She made the announcement on the show she hosts, “Matenaer On Air,” on Monday, Nov. 3, alongside co-host Greg Bach and producer Calvin Butenhoff.
“I really want to take this opportunity to say: thank you,” she said, making the announcement. “Thank you for four decades of welcoming me into your homes and your cars and your garages and your barns or wherever you listen to the radio. Thank you so very much. I have been so fortunate for the last 44 years…You grieved with me, you celebrated with me, you gave me words of comfort and encouragement and congratulations and well wishes.”
Her final show as host of the program will be on Dec. 12. A parade of guests will be appearing on “Matenaer On Air” over the next several weeks to celebrate her amazing career.
Along with that celebration is a little reflection — on more than four decades in radio. To do that, I sat down with Jane at our Radio Park studios in Racine to talk about her remarkable journey. We covered everything from her first time behind a microphone, to the decades she spent hosting morning shows in Milwaukee, to the global (and beyond!) sensation that was “The Packerena,” to her last three years at Civic Media, which she calls “the proudest of my 40-plus year career.”
Watch the full interview above, or see our special feature story, “Jane says farewell,” here.
Video edited by Tony Zimmerman, engineered by Calvin Butenhoff.
Listen to “Matenaer On Air” every weekday from 9-11 a.m. on the Civic Media network, and find podcasts from every show here.
You can find the episode where she announces her retirement embedded below.
Share a message with Jane and with “Matenaer On Air” by emailing JaneSays@civicmedia.us.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.
