Chuck Zehner (January 9, 1942 – December 2, 2000) was the producer and host of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Milwaukee Public Television Milwaukee PBS is the collective brand for two Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States: WMVS (channel 10) and WMVT (channel 36). Both stations are owned and operated by the Milw ...

series ''

Tracks Ahead ''Tracks Ahead'' is a television series about railroading, produced by Milwaukee PBS, originally solely for their station WMVS, then syndicated to public television stations, starting in 1990. In general, the series examines all aspects of rail ...

''. He hosted the show from 1990 to 2000. He died on December 2, 2000, of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

South Milwaukee South Milwaukee is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 20,795 at the 2020 census. History South Milwaukee was laid out in 1891 by the South Milwaukee company within the Town of Oak Creek, with the purpose o ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. After his death,

Spencer Christian Spencer Christian (born July 23, 1947) is an American television broadcaster, best known as the former weather forecaster for ABC's '' Good Morning America'' from 1986 to 1998. He currently is the weather forecaster for ABC-owned KGO-TV in San F ...

took over and is the current host of ''Tracks Ahead''.

Tracks Ahead

At the dawn of

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

, Zehner, a

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

train enthusiast, began producing and hosting the interview format show ''Just Trains'' on Milwaukee's local access channel on

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

Cable. Eventually the show was picked up on the cable network around Milwaukee, After 72 shows Milwaukee's WMVS Channel 10 (PBS) agreed to air a new magazine format show ''On Track'' in the Milwaukee market. For the second season it was renamed ''Tracks Ahead'' and expanded to the PBS network.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zehner 1942 births 2000 deaths People from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin