I will always remember Glen Loyd as “The Action Man” on what had to be the most outrageous ongoing television news broadcast in Wisconsin history….the group that held forth on Green Bay’s WLUK-TV Channel 11 in the early 70’s. They were deliberately outrageous. Stanley Siegel, the anchor who went on to a big-time career, said they HAD to be outrageous to generate talk about the newscast, which was up against entrenched ratings-leaders Channel 2 and Channel 5.
I got to know Glen when I was part of the media menagerie in the Fox Valley years ago as a stringer for WBAY-TV Channel 2, and every bit of Glen Loyd is genuine. He didn’t have an “off” switch. He’s a member of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation’s Hall of Fame, and no one deserves it more.
Glen Loyd, square-jawed square-shooter, was the most serious and important part of the WLUK-TV newscast. He was Mike Wallace before Mike Wallace was Mike Wallace. Glen Loyd got action. If you were doing anything remotely shady anywhere in the Fox Valley and saw Glen Loyd roll up with a camera crew, you knew it was going to be a bad day.
He could (and did) get Bart Starr out of a team meeting to talk with him. But one of the most memorable things he did was sue half a dozen of the biggest employers in Green Bay for dumping crap into the air and water. He won.
For nearly the past three decades Glen Loyd has been “the man” at our state’s powerful Consumer Protection department. He’s made countless radio and TV appearances and has fought for people who’ve been wronged as though each victim was his best friend. He traded in his bully pulpit in Green Bay and later Dallas TV to become our watchdog, and we‘ll never see another his equal.
He’s seen every scam under the sun and knows exactly how the swindlers operate. And I did enough interviews with him during my days as a news anchor to know how passionate Glen is about exposing this stuff. You can’t fake the kind of energy Glen Loyd brings to the job every day.
Glen turns 70 in a few months, and is leaving his state job. But he’s not really going away. He’ll continue to fight for us through his blog and says he’ll continue to make broadcast appearances gratis.
Happy trails, my friend. Until we meet again…
Glen is the real thing. Love the endquote in george hess' story:
ReplyDelete"Surely, over these years, he has uncovered at least one great truth to avoiding becoming the victim of a consumer swindle?
"The more I do this, the more I say trust your local business," he said."
Barry (not the Alvarez)