Two famous speakers at UWL on the same day, 46 years ago

In February of ’72, former Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy talked with U-W-L students at Cartwright Center.  The 1968 presidential candidate warned that the presidency could become a “4-year monarchy” with almost “religious connotations.”  McCarthy said that as Richard Nixon was running for a second term, and was about to visit China.  The Democrat also commented that marijuana ought to be sold with a warning on a package.
 
Drugs also were mentioned by the day’s other campus visitor…comedian and activist Dick Gregory.  Speaking at Mitchell Hall, Gregory argued that he could come to La Crosse and find someone to sell him marijuana or heroin with 15 minutes, but he didn’t think police would be able to find the sellers.  Gregory also accused the CIA of killing President Kennedy, and of conspiring in the murders of Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X.
 
La Crosse had a new FM radio station on the air that February.  WSPL was the sister station of WKTY, and played rock music, featuring announcers such as Mike Kearns, John Desmond, and Ralph Heath.  WSPL is now known as 95.7, the Rock.
 
And WIZM radio hired a news director named James Alan Miklaszewski, a native of Cudahy.  He later went on to CNN and NBC-TV, and shortened his on-air name…to Jim Miklaszewski.  He was a local radio star 46 years ago, 1972, yesterday in La Crosse.