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It was back in early March of 1962, when Eugene Sinervo and I were summoned to the office of then Station Manager John Borgen.  Also present at this meeting was Tom Quayle, owner of several travel agencies in Upper Michigan.  Mr. Quayle presented the latest census figures of Upper Michigan which showed that of the three hundred thousand residents, fully 25% to 27%, were first and or second generation Finns.  Mr. Quayle pointed out that if WLUC-TV could present a Finnish Language TV show, he was convinced it would encourage travel to Finland; of course, using his travel agencies.  The decision was made to produce such a program as soon as possible. 

Eugene and I scraped together books of Finland, photographs, story ideas, and recordings which made up the first airing of "Finland Calling" on Sunday, March 25, 1962.  The initial program was a half-hour show, but by the end of April it was extended to a full hour.  In fact for a short time, it was extended to two hours. 

Every show in those early days was done live.  These early telecasts were really something else.  Each song from a LP or 45 rpm recording was played off a turntable in the control room and any distraction led to the needle jumping off track which one could hear loud and clear.  Also our interviewing guests in the Finnish language left the rest of the crew, directors, engineers, camera operators trying to guess what was going on as none spoke Finnish.  They did learn one word and that was “levy" which means record and they knew I was going to ask for a song to be played. 

Mr. Quayle's insight was soon proven to be accurate.  We hosted our first tour to Finland in 1962.  Since then, as of the year 2005, there have been 25 tours to Scandinavia, 22 of which were hosted by my wife Doris and me.  Over a thousand folks have participated in these tours with the last being in 2003 and the next in 2005.  Will there be other tours?  Finland Calling has entertained and hosted a number of Finnish visitors to the Marquette and Negaunee area including two Presidents of Finland, the Prime Minister of Finland, a number of Ambassadors, Consul Generals of Finland, members of the Finnish Parliament, numerous entertainers, choirs, teachers, students, and many, many others.

I have also scheduled and hosted Finland Calling Dances in many communities throughout the Upper Peninsula.  I use my camera to record some of the festivities which are then shown on the Sunday program.  I was awarded the "Knight of the Order of the White Rose" in 1988 from then President Mauno Koivisto for hosting the Finland Calling program and for the number of tourists that the program arranged to visit Finland. 

What's ahead for the show?  I retired from TV6 News in June of 1995 but have continued hosting the show, which I record on Wednesday’s in the studio.  My pride of my Finnish heritage and the enjoyment I have in meeting so many people from so many parts of Finland gives me the encouragement to continue.  On March 25, 2005, the Finland Calling program will celebrate its 43rd anniversary.  This will be celebrated on the show on Easter Sunday, March 27, and with a big anniversary dance at the Ishpeming Elks Lodge on April 10. 

In closing, with 43 years in production, Finland Calling has to be one of the longest running success stories on TV, hey?