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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted May 7, 2004 Text © 2004 Michigan Tech University Press Release. Photos © Michigan Tech University and Keweenaw Now, as indicated.

MTU to honor Dean of Copper Country Airwaves for service

HOUGHTON--Richard Tuisku, better known as Dick Storm to his many listeners, will receive Michigan Technological University's Distinguished Service Award at spring commencement ceremonies May 8, 2004.

A native of Toivola, Tuisku has been broadcasting in the Keweenaw since 1964. He has received numerous awards for news, public affairs and public service. In 1994, he co-founded Tu-Mar Broadcasting, which owns radio stations WOLV-FM, WCCY-AM and WHKB-FM.

Richard Tuisku, known also as Dick Storm, will receive Michigan Technological University's Distinguished Service Award at spring commencement ceremonies May 8, 2004. Tuisku, founder of Tu-Mar Broadcasting, has been in the radio news business since 1968. (Photo © and courtesy Michigan Technological University. Reprinted with permission.)

Tuisku attended the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing through grade six and then returned home to attend Houghton High School, graduating with honors in 1960. He attended the Brown Institute of Broadcasting and Electronics in Minneapolis before landing his first job in radio, at WSWW in Platteville, Wis. He returned to the Upper Peninsula in 1964 to work at WMPL-AM until 1980, when WHUH-FM, the precursor to WOLV, went on the air.

Meanwhile, he continued his education, graduating from Suomi College (now Finlandia University). Tuisku enrolled at Michigan Tech, where he earned a BS in Business Administration in 1968.

He has been in the news business since 1968, when the WMPL news director quit and Tuisku stepped into his position.

"He was making more money than me," Tuisku says, explaining his decision to change careers from announcing to news. Over time, he says, "I learned the business by the seat of my pants and have developed my own rules and codes of ethics by trial and error."

In addition to gathering and presenting the daily news, he produces the weekly public affairs program "Copper Country Today" and a regular education program. In 2002 he was elected to the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and was named U.P. Person of the Year in 1991.

News broadcaster Richard Tuisku (Dick Storm) attends a Hancock City Council meeting earlier this year. Tuisku's wife, Mary Tuisku, is a Council member. Richard Tuisku and his trusty tape recorder can be seen at many important meetings and civic gatherings in the Copper Country. (Keweenaw Now file photo © 2004)

Along with promoting civic activities on his stations, Tuisku has served on a number of local committees. He currently is vice chair of the Tri-County Community Corrections Board.

Tuisku is also a noted local country musician and singer and, for many years, was a band leader. He also hosts a popular two-hour country oldies program each weekend called "The K-Bear Hall of Fame."

He and his wife, Mary, live in Hancock. They are the parents of two daughters and a son and have three grandchildren.

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