By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald

Ino native starts new TV station

ASHLAND -- Julie Moravchik works close to home. She wouldn't have it any other way. As general manager and news director of the new Ashland-based television station, WAST-TV, Channel 25, Moravchik is hard at work telling the stories of the residents of northern Wisconsin. "Wisconsin's about community, about family and about being loyal," she said. And it's no exaggeration to say that this community and these families are her people. She grew up down the road from the station's main street headquarters on a dairy farm in a little dot-on-the-map town called Ino. Her Slovakian great-grandfather settled there in 1917 and it's safe to say that the family has taken root. Julie Moravchik's parents, Joe and Carol Moravchik, continue to work the family farm and Joe likes to say that he's only moved once in his life. "From an upstairs bedroom to a downstairs bedroom," he said. He found his bride -- Carol Trautt -- a few miles away in Iron River and made her a farmer's wife when she was only 19 and he was all of 20. They managed the farm and raised four children. Julie was their firstborn. Working in the barn and milking was a routine part of her day. Up at 4:30 every morning, there was a lot to get done before the school bus came. "All my kids work hard," Joe Moravchik said. "They got that from working on the farm." How Julie Moravchik developed muscle is no mystery, but where did the Ino farm girl get a passion for news and television reporting? Once again, the trail leads back home. Her grandfather was active in local politics, campaigned for governors, had a seat on the school board and was a St. Florian Catholic Parish trustee. Her father's habit of reading the daily newspaper began when he was only 10. It even got him into trouble at school as he preferred news magazines to textbooks and assigned reading. "He'd read U.S. News and World Report," Carol Moravchik said, "not Huck Finn." And as a child Joe Moravchik also distinguished himself in a big time senatorial campaign. "I played the accordion for Hubert Humphrey," he said. Julie Moravchik grew up far from any large city but in a family that paid close attention to local and world events. After high school she left behind the milking parlor and her father's accordion playing to study at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. It was only a matter of time before she found her way to KUWS 91.3 FM, a Wisconsin Public Radio station, and then after graduation to a job with the Duluth, Minn., television station, WDIO. "(Television) was a perfect fit," she said. "Everyday was different. I loved the video side of it. I felt like I could tell stories better with pictures and motion. It was another tool I needed." She spent more than a decade there as a reporter, learning the business and working hard. Then in 2003 her career was unexpectedly interrupted. One night while on assignment with a photographer she was injured in a horrible car accident. "(The photographer/driver) hit a patch of ice," she said. "It was the slowest moment of my life. We hit the ditch and flipped and rolled seven times. With each roll I could feel metal crushing on top of my head." She remained conscious throughout the ordeal. "I really thought it was over," she said. "No fancy prayer came to mind. I said, 'Help me Lord.' And then there was a moment toward the end when I felt like I was being held." She was left with neck injuries, fractures and a long recovery. "At first I couldn't lift my head or drink out of a straw," she said. "But it hit me full-force: God let me live." The accident took place in April. Six months later her career again received an unexpected jolt for a much different reason. She traveled to Minneapolis to receive a regional Emmy award, along with photographer Dean Vogtman, for the ongoing series, "On the Job." Moravchik said this "incredibly happy" event led to a remarkable job offer with KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities. "I never planned to work in a big city," she said, but took the job and stayed there until a combination of homesickness and an offer too good to refuse came her way last fall. An Ashland family who purchased a defunct broadcasting license was looking for someone to build a local news station. The timing was perfect for Moravchik whose combination of education, experience and a well-honed work ethic gave her the confidence to take on the challenge. "I wasn't ready one day sooner," she said. From the time of the offer in September 2005, to the new station's debut on Dec. 19, Moravchik said there was a nonstop whirlwind of preparation. She hired a crew of 16 journalists and technicians and together they built a station, christening it True North TV. "We came in here and did this all from bare bones," she said during a tour of the news set. "It's a once in a lifetime chance." Local news is enormously important to the people of northern Wisconsin, Moravchik believes, and with this ever in sight, she and her small staff pound the pavement -- and dirt two-tracks -- from Superior to Hurley and down to Mellen and Spooner looking for stories. "We want a hometown feeling," she said. "We're doing this for the people." She speaks of the station's viewers and her employees the same way she speaks about her family, with respect and dedication. The Moravchik family continues to grow. Now its fifth generation is in residence in the Ino farmlands. Julie Moravchik's goddaughter, Grace, lives just one cow pasture away from her beginnings. Julie Moravchik's parents and brother Jeffrey, who also has an insurance business in Ashland, raise beef cattle, and breed and sell horses together. Her other brother, Joey, a developmentally disabled adult, lives in a group home in Hurley and works at Highland Corporation where he was the January 2006 employee of the month. Moravchik's sister Jennifer graduated from UW-Superior last May, lives in Duluth and works for a credit union there. "My family's all about family," she said. "Everybody's right here." When asked to speculate on his daughter's future, Joe Moravchik made it clear that he wouldn't mind if she moved even closer to home. "Maybe when she's done with TV she'll marry somebody and come home and milk cows," he said. To see if that story ever breaks, Wisconsinites will have to stay tuned.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006