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ELKHART--After 38 years in the television business, Robert Kalthoff has seen a lot of changes.
As vice president and general manager of WSJV-TV 28, his duties are interesting and constantly changing.
"I think that's why this job is so exciting," he said. "Every single day it's very different."
Kalthoff's educational years brought him close to the area that he would return to one day.
"Years and years ago I went to Culver Summer Naval school," the Chicago native said.
He got in one year at the University of Illinois before he went to serve in the Air Force during the Korean War. Five years later he returned to get his degree in journalism.
In 1956 his career began. A career that has brought him many opportunities to make change in the television world.
He took a job with a Chicago company as a television sales representative, selling national advertising for television stations all over the country.
Twenty-eight-and-a-half years later he has gone from a trainee to chairman of the board.
In 1984 Kalthoff took a position with a new television broadcast group. That career move took him to Florida where he oversaw four small television stations.
Four years later he had an opportunity to join another organization, Granite Broadcasting Co., where he helped them analyze stations and markets. He moved from the Sunshine State to Duluth, Minn. to take over a television station the group had purchased, with the purpose of turning it around, he said.
He did just that, moving the third place station to first place in four short years.
"We made a pretty dramatic turnaround," he said.
"The last six months I was with Granite, I moved over and took a corporate position for government relations," he said.
In this position he worked in Washington, D.C. to lobby the passage of the cable bill, something he thoroughly enjoyed.
"At that time I was on the NBC affiliate board," he said. "I heard about the job in South Bend and because I was a native of...