All month long, we’re looking back at the 15 years since we launched OnMilwaukee.com in 1998. A lot has happened, and some of it has even been captured in video.
Now, OnMilwaukee.com predates YouTube, but we’ve still managed to (accidentally) create a time capsule of sorts.
Here are, in no particular order, seven videos over the years that capture the spirit of Milwaukee’s Daily Magazine.
First TV commercial
My business partner, Jeff, and I shot this video with Larry Hansen of Nitro Digital Studios in 1998 or 199. We walked around Downtown at dusk, capturing b-roll of the night’s activities. Look closely and you’ll see stuff that no longer exists. The music is some jazzy copyright-free tune. It was my idea to turn it black and white and letterbox. Yes, it looks extremely dated.
Presidential visit
On May 19, 2005 President George W. Bush visited the office of OnMilwaukee.com during a Milwaukee stop to talk about Social Security. We spent an hour with him in an off-the-record visit, then he took Jeff and me in his presidential limo to the Art Museum. Here is Bush talking about the time we spent together, as well as some local news footage of the day.
First boring mobile YouTube video
Nothing all that exciting about this compelling, silent six-second video of our writers live blogging from the first day of Summerfest, but it’s the first mobile YouTube video we posted via iPhones.
Learning to curl with the Wauwatosa Curling Club
This is our first edited video shot completely on the iPhone. Here, I attempt to learn how to curl at the Wauwatosa Curling Club. You can see my results are mixed.
OnMilwaukee.com Recommends
Back in 2008, we dabbled with a video segment of our famous OnMilwaukee.com Recommends column. Working with WISN-12, they put this on their weekend morning news, but quickly realized that our writers weren’t great at reading TelePrompTers. It didn’t last too long.
Behind the scenes with Joe Bartolotta
He owns some of the hottest restaurants in Wisconsin. Every day, thousands of diners celebrate special occasions at his establishments. Joe Bartolotta runs a company which consists of 11 businesses and 700 employees, operating in a fiercely competitive marketplace and enjoying success despite a sluggish economy. In this OnMilwaukee.com exclusive, Mark Concannon showed us the many facets of what's involved in running the Bartolotta empire.
OnMedia with Tim Cuprisin and Ted Perry
Our dear, late colleague Tim Cuprisin did a regular media video with Time Warner Cable the first year of his employment at OnMilwaukee.com. Here’s Tim talking to FOX6’s Ted Perry.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
