Soderlund

Alumnus shares prescription for success

Self-discipline, self-control and a reputation for honesty. Those words sum up Harold Soderlund’s prescription for success, a prescription he applied to his own life and that he recommends to today’s young journalists.

If he had his life to live again, Soderlund said, he would “probably do the same things I’ve done…Keep things small and take the opportunity to do what you can yourself. There’s no money in working for a big company.”

But those who work for themselves must have the self-discipline and self-control Soderlund recommends. Those attributes, he said, are more important than simply working hard. “Hard work just makes you old,”

A Lincoln native, Soderlund showed a knack as a promoter when he was a student at NU. He worked his way through college by means of his own business, selling ads to be posted in phone booths around the campus. Eventually, seven colleges were involved, and Soderlund and his partner spent the summer traveling from one city to the next, selling ads for the coming school year.

Soderlund graduated from UNL in 1935 and attended law school for one year. But he wanted to get married, and students in the 1930’s just weren’t married. “It wasn’t the custom,” Soderlund said.

So Soderlund and his bride moved to northwestern Nebraska where he went to work for the Sheridan County Star at Rushville. He did a little of everything; he sold advertising, wrote a column and even cast mats for the paper. “If you got the metal too hot, you’d burn them 9 the mats),” Soderlund remembers. “I never did get the hang of it. I kept burning them.”

After nine months at Rushville, Soderlund returned to Lincoln where he sold advertising for the Nebraska Hardware Merchant, a trade paper. He followed that with a five-year stint selling telephone directory ads and a few years at Burroughs Company. He worked for the office of Civil Defense during World War II.

By 1943, Soderlund was selling advertising for KFAB Radio in Omaha, where he later became sales manager. As a sideline, he and Todd Storz started an outdoor sign business that was very successful. But Soderlund wanted to get into television in the early 1950s and applied and received the license for KOOO in Omaha, a station he owned and operated for several years.

At the same time, Soderlund started his advertising representative business, selling advertising time for many stations. Eventually, he left KOOO to operate his rep business, Soderlund Company, full-time.

One of Soderlund’s most successful ventures involved Martha Bohlsen and her cooking show. Bohlsen was “an established star” when Soderlund met her, he said. She had been a columnist for the Bee News in Omaha and later on-air sales person for Perfex products. Together, the two produced 20 years’ worth of homemaking shows, sponsored by Pillsbury, safeway and other national advertisers. And Bohlsen stayed in Omaha and with Soderlund “even when people in Chicago and New York were after her,” Soderlund said.

Soderlund retired in June 1993, and moved back to Lincoln. But he continues to support the broadcasting industry with his time and interest.

“I’ve been impressed with his willingness to promote the industry,” says Ed May, president of May Investments in Omaha and a long-time acquaintance. “He’s a generous person,” May said, always ready to help.

“Herald Soderlund is a gentleman with a capital G,” Eric Brown said. Brown, owner of KRVN radio at Lexington, said Soderlund treats everyone with dignity and is always concerned about the other person. “He is honest, consistent and articulate,” Brown added, and was totally dedicated to his business.

Both May and Brown said Soderlund’s endowment is an example of his commitment to the broadcasting industry and its future.

Larry Walklin, chair of the broadcasting department at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, adds that, “as an alumnus of the university, he (Soderlund) has true interest in students.”

Walklin also praised Soderlund’s business skill. “He is an astute visionary who ahs read the trends of radio revenue successfully,”

Walklin said.