Recombobulating on the radio (Oct. 31-Nov.7)
Featuring appearances on "Matenaer On Air," "The Todd Allbaugh Show," "Driving it Home with Patti Vasquez" and more.
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.
Happy weekend, recombobulators!
Before we get to the roundup — and I did a lot of radio this week, much here for you to listen to — we had some big, big news at Civic Media this week. The legendary Jane Matenaer was announced she is retiring.
Jane is one of the very best people I’ve ever worked with in media, full stop. Being a regular guest on her show, “Matenaer On Air,” where I have joined every Friday for the past few years to recombobulate on the week that was, has been a real treat and a true joy. Though I’m going to miss those Friday conversations dearly, I’m so excited for her to ride off into the sunset after a remarkable 44-year (!) career in radio.
We’ll have more here at The Recombobulation Area and on Civic Media to celebrate Jane over the next few weeks, but for now, you can go here to find more on her remarkable career in our post at Civic Media, see our post at
, and listen to the announcement here. You can also find stories on Jane’s big announcement at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Milwaukee Business Journal.
With that, it’s on to the roundup…
On Friday, I joined — hey, look at that! — Jane Matenaer and Greg Bach on “Matenaer On Air,” where we talked about Jane’s big announcement, what Tuesday’s election results mean for the midterms in Wisconsin, the latest on the controversy surrounding Dr. Jill Underly and the Department of Public Instruction, and more.
On Thursday, I joined my friend Patti Vasquez on Heartland Signal and WCPT 820 in Chicago for “Driving it Home,” where I bring the latest on Wisconsin political news to discuss with our neighbors to the south. Listen to that episode here (my segment starts at about the midway point).
Also on Thursday, I joined “The Todd Allbaugh Show” (2-4 p.m. every weekday on Civic Media) to talk about the latest reporting on two-year colleges in Wisconsin — no one has been more on top of the story of two-year campus closures in Wisconsin than Todd Allbaugh — and talked about Tuesday’s election results, and more. Listen or watch below.
On Tuesday, I joined “Mornings with Pat Kreitlow” (6-9 a.m. weekdays on Civic Media) at the end of his show to talk about my latest column revisiting Mandela Barnes’ 2022 campaign as he considers a run for governor, and some of my takeaways from last week’s Marquette poll.
And since I wasn’t available to post this last week, here’s last Friday’s Halloween appearance on “Matenaer On Air.”
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.