There's The Studio...And The Men's Room...But I Can't Find The Star Chamber!

What a ride.

My first week is officially over at Newsradio 620 WTMJ and, unless I hear otherwise, I assume I'll be back Tuesday to try it again on Wisconsin's Morning News.

It's been quite the adjustment: I liken it to high school, where you stay in the same building but change teachers and classes each fall...the only difference in this case being that it's been 24 years since I moved up a grade.

I'm having a blast while learning the ropes, finding out which buttons do what, who's on which day and what features air on certain mornings. It'll be a lot easier to be creative once the scenery is a little more familiar.

Then there are the e-mails--scads of them, many from longtime listeners of both stations with honest questions, suggestions, and observations. I thank each and every one of you, and I'm trying to respond to each as time permits.

Some stick out more than others.

One that left a mark came from a long time buddy--someone I've known since high school who remains a close friend. He's brilliant, media-savvy and a huge sports fan.

He sent in a first-week critique of my performance, and also had a take on the week-long Bob Harlan series, "A Green and Golden Legacy". He pointed out that there were blemishes on the outgoing Packers C-E-O's record, and that maybe we gave Harlan the kid-glove treatment because of our station's ties to the team.

I've heard this before, and I can emphatically say that I've never been taken before the Journal Broadcast "Star Chamber" for the marching orders demanding that only milk and honey flow from the speakers when talking about our flagship squads.

I never EVER got told what to say or what to cover when I spent a year hosting "Packers GameDay" in 2002--the only criticism I got was from our program director who mentioned one housekeeping flaw in my presentation but not a word about content, direction, or opinion.

And, anyone who ever listens to the post-game call-in knows that the BEST radio comes AFTER the Packers lose. That's when things get visceral, when everyone and everything is in play for both host and caller. The team, the players and certainly the coachers are all up for, to quote an absent friend, "an ass-ectomy without a local."

Think that happens if the Packers are squatting on us?

To that end, I've never been given the speech that so many listeners think we in the media get about leaning to the left--that somehow all of us get marching orders to dump on the right and triumph all that's liberal.

Hasn't happened.

I remember when I first got to Milwaukee to do mornings at the former WQFM--I'd read the Journal and Sentinel radio/t-v columns and just naturally assume that everything had a pro-Journal spin. I just figured that anything that made the paper had been sanitized and was presumably Journal-centric.

Then I started working here, and got to see how things are from the inside. I learned how far off my original perception was.

It's always tough when you cover yourself or those you care about. You try as hard as you can to avoid conflict of interest. You want to be fair. And, admittedly, we don't always cover ourselves in glory when we...cover ourselves. But we try. We really do.

And no one tells us to do it any other way.