Flambeau Rama LIVE Broadcast

All right 98 Q country as promised out and about at flamborama here Joel gray couple special guests gonna tell you about in a moment We're broadcasting from the signature sign and graphics stage.

We'll call it here and also Special thanks to Glenn and the folks over there end of an aqua Chevrolet for bringing us our broadcasts along with Lena's northern pines old-year nutrition D&D tire and autocenter Kayla's kitchen and closet We got stuff to sign up for you got to do it before eight o'clock before the brewer

pregame starts.

We got an 800 hour Del's package, two Brewer tickets.

We got three different quilts from Quilta's Desire, Spin the Wheel for Prizes.

Darla will be here.

She is here and she's going to take all that in.

In the first hour of our live broadcast, we are going to talk Brewer baseball because we have a couple of special guests with us.

We have Ken Kazuba with us who is, does, helps with a baseball post game show down in the Milwaukee area and has a little podcast.

Ken, thanks for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for having

It's always great to be here for the Flamborama.

It's the best time of the year to kick off the Flamborama tonight and doing it this way.

First

ball

game tonight at six o'clock.

So this is going to be this is a lot of fun.

And he's the voice you hear early in the morning when you wake up Saturday from that rough Friday night at Flamborama.

He's the voice you hear saying there's a double to left and Jim's bar is now that's the guy right here.

He's the voice of Flamborama.

Can you have a lot of fun doing that?

Don't you?

Oh yeah.

It's a lot of fun.

No two ways about it.

You know, I've been doing it almost 10 years now and the people are real receptive to it.

The teams like it and it's something that you don't usually hear at these softball events anymore.

So it's a lot of

fun.

I love it.

And we got Tim Allen with us.

Tim, host of baseball post game show also works with Ken down in the Milwaukee area.

Tim is joining us by a phone actually.

Tim, how you doing?

What's going on gentlemen sounds like you guys are having a great time.

I would probably much prefer to be up there

Tell us about your post-game show because tell you what, you guys, I've listened to it, you guys do a great job and this is a great time to be a Brewer fan, Tim.

You guys must be having a lot of fun with that game you do right after the Brewer broadcast end,

right?

Well, when the Brewer's do well, business is good.

It's just more people engaged.

And you know, I've said it for years, guys, Joe and Gray and Kenny, I've said it for years.

There is this unique relationship.

between the Brewer fan base and that baseball team.

Now, I'm not going to compare it to, you know, the Packers and their fan base.

They got about a hundred year head start on the crew, but yeah, it's a show that we started 21 years ago, and I've been doing radio almost 40, but 21 years ago, we pitched a post-game show, a real interactive...

fan-based and caller-based.

Yeah.

And a great blend.

And they said it's not going to work, Tim.

It's just not going to work.

But we'll give you the opportunity to try.

All right, two decades plus.

Nice.

And here we are in the 21st year of that post-game show.

But I do want to say I've spent some time in the Park Falls area.

Really?

I do want to say hello to

a good good friends of mine Kirk and Jane Walters up there I don't know if you guys remember the old Dixie Chalet oh yeah I spent a lot of time with Kirk and his family up there and you know did did the did the deer hunting one year and just ran around in my wild and they spent years around Park Falls it was

fun fantastic

We're going to get your take on the trade deadline day coming Monday, Tim, but before I do that, tell me where our dedicated Brewer fans can find your show after the Brewer games are done.

Yeah, you can check it out on the Odyssey app, the iHeart app.

You can check it out on YouTube, WI Sports Radio on YouTube, and you'll see the video stream there.

So yeah, all platforms are there for you, Twitter and Facebook and just search out Tim Allen and post game show and you'll find it.

Yeah, it's a great way to talk brewers and be interactive with guys who hang around it and live and breathe it.

And Ken, you do tour with your Kaz's podcast that you got going on there.

You talk not only brewers, Ken, but

basically anything Wisconsin if there's a couple ants recent as there's a tick race over an oxbow you'll you'll cover it right

oh yeah we that's that's the one thing we want to do something more unique in terms of covering Wisconsin sports not just the big three so to speak the brewers backers and the box yeah but you know you want to cover all the small stuff like stuff like this here it's a big deal whether you have a golf tournament pickleball tournament youth sports hunting fishing we'll talk it also it's a it's a lot of fun we're we're

In our first year of that, I came from on Wisconsin Sports when I was a part of that and now I branched off and I said, you know what, Casus Sports Corner, we're going to go and do that and we're going to see how it rolls.

Where can they find you on Casus Sports Corner?

I'm on all the socials so you can find it on Facebook and X. You can find it on Instagram and threads and we're going to continue to move forward with what we're doing so it's a lot of fun.

Tim, one other thing, you know who said hi to say hi to you.

Hurricane Harve last night.

He had his Harva Ramah last night at Empty Pockets.

Yeah,

no, I hear some of the some of the music going on back there.

I actually jumped up with one of the bands at Harve's place there.

What a couple of years ago Kenny was it and we played my theme song Stranglehold and Ted Nugent.

That's the other thing guys is that

You know, it's just a happy relationship between, you know, Brewer's fans.

Well, speaking of

that, hold on.

I'll

be doing that a little bit later on.

My band has an event in Waukesha tonight.

What's your band's name?

Yeah, if you want to follow us on Facebook, it's Conviction Band.

So Conviction Band on Facebook.

And we're hoping, through a couple of different sources, to get the band up in that area and have some fun.

Classic Rock just straight ahead.

Nice.

Corner and REO and tourney.

Yeah.

All right.

So we got a couple of baseball gurus here.

So we need to do this with Ken and Tim.

The trade deadline is Monday.

Is there any chance the brewers are going to get schoolable?

What are the percentage chances?

What are we looking at here with this?

Yeah, there's no doubt there's a chance.

I think though that it's been a really quiet trade deadline here this year and I just wonder if...

A potential strike or a potential lockout next year has an impact on that.

It certainly will have an impact on player control.

And that may impact it even on a heavier basis.

But I just wonder if...

He'll say Joe Ryan, for example, in the Minnesota Twins.

Hey, watch it now.

Whoever wanted to get him, he's got a year control left after this season.

And so, I mean, if you grab Joe Ryan and there is a lockout, that halts it right there.

You would still have team control in 20-28 if there's a lockout in 20-7.

So I'm thinking...

Maybe baseball also this is another scenario.

Maybe baseball wants this to be one big barrage of a trade day whether it's Sunday or tomorrow or whether it's Monday Like the NFL does or like the NBA does where it's just wild scenes of trades of spider webbing all across the nation That could happen Sunday or Monday

Yeah, I would agree with you Tim.

I think that the Opportunity there for that to happen is

is very good, especially the way MLB with the looming player strike, you know, with the lockout, that's potentially going to happen.

And from what I understand, they're far apart right now.

Am I correct on that?

That baseball is, they're miles apart.

So it's sad, guys.

It really is.

I mean,

is it pretty safe to say that baseball after this year will be different?

It'll probably be maybe

quite a bit different than it is.

This might be the last year of baseball as we know it, right, the structure.

Well, Joel, it's interesting because, you know, there's so much money to divide here, and it's just sad.

We always think of the players and the owners, and we just think in that term.

What are they making?

Gosh, they make billions, and the players make hundreds of millions these days.

It's pretty sad that you can't find a way to split up that kind of pie.

It really is.

And you know what, people don't think about is, you know, the concessionaires.

A lot of times at American Family Field, those concession stands, they're fundraisers for local philanthropic, local charities.

They miss out on, you know, the owners and players, they don't think about the ushers or the ticket sales department or

you know parking lot attendants or or any of these what about distributors the the sausage distribution or the beer distribution or the cotton candy or the popcorn we never think of or they never think of that it's pretty sad that you can't split up billions of dollars to keep everybody happy

yeah it is crazy and it's it's looking like next year is probably going to start with a lockout of some of some

that Joel is is that if Scoogle ends up going to the Dodgers I mean he clearly is the big fish this trade deadline yeah if he ends up going to the Dodgers what are you guys gonna do what am I gonna do we're all good Kenny what he we're all gonna shake our head and say how is this even possible with the lineup they have back-to-back World Series it went a ton of games and then you go out and the rich get richer like that

That, I think, will be the deaf nail and the owners will lock out.

On the

other side of that, what if the brewers win the World Series and then

you say,

$110 million dollar payroll, you guys can still win a World Series.

What would that do to it?

Yeah, no that that's real interesting and people aren't pointing at the brewers these days and they're pointing at the tamper rays these days You see you can the Cleveland Guardians all low payroll smaller market teams and all fairly successful Now they successful to the point where they're winning World Series No, and that's where the rub is.

Yeah, okay fine Are you content with the vision titles and making the playoffs every day?

I don't know how old you guys are but I'm a vape

where I went through 26 years as a Brewer fan, without even making the playoffs, let alone a World Series, they didn't even make the playoffs for 26 years.

And then all of a sudden, we raised the bar a little bit, and now we're winning division titles back and back and back, four or five.

We're probably going to win another division title this year, and then get bounced in the playoffs.

Is that good enough?

That's where the question is for some of these small market teams.

Do they go all in?

and slide a few more chips.

They have to kind of knock them off.

And that would be a bargaining chip for the players.

And the players will take that right back to the owners to your point.

They will take it right back to the owners and say, see, you can do this.

So we have a little more strength as a players union.

Well, this is the type of baseball talk that you'll hear with Tim Allen's show after each brewer game.

And you might even hear Ken on there a little bit too.

You can go to Kaz's Sports Corner on your social media.

Facebook and others Instagram and if you love talking Brewer sometimes people up here in the north we get our games they do a great job broadcast in the post games are good the interview the players but this crosstalk with fans and stuff that's something that people that's that's why we're sports fans right

well and that's one of the things that makes Tim show so special because the fans get an opportunity to interact they get to call in and they get to talk about it and Tim will go through various things with the fans to answer their questions

And it's really a dynamic that's one of the most unique when you talk about sports radio talk and having your fans involved.

So these are all things that we're talking about.

We've been talking about them for a while.

And it's going to continue as the Brewers continue to win.

Fortunately for the Brewers again today, the Yankees beat the Cubs.

So the Brewers just need to take care of what they do.

And right now it'll be in what 26 games over 500.

This team has broken all kinds of milestones this season alone in terms of what they're doing.

They're exciting to watch.

You look at this team and you go, are you going to go all in?

You should go all in.

That's what I believe, Tim.

But what is that, though, Kenny?

I mean, that's the thing, though.

How do we define all in?

And it's a difference for different teams.

Well, I think for the Brewers.

For the Brewers?

Clearly it would be Scoogle and a bat and a reliever.

Correct.

I mean that get all three of them that would And the other thing to think about is when you do this There's certain times Doug Melvin many many years ago was the general manager his former general manager of the Brewers the prior to that he was the GI

two games out of first place at the trade deadline one year.

And what does he do?

Waves that white flag and said, no, I just don't think they got enough or we at that time for Doug.

We don't have enough to win a World Series or get a deep run or even have a shot at the World Series.

So I'm going to sell out here.

That's, I mean, that's the thing.

Does the general manager, president of baseball ops, Matt Arnold currently, does he believe with a few moves he can win the World Series?

I don't see how he cannot think that way.

Correct.

It's right in front of him.

Yeah, I believe that as well.

I think Matt Arnold, you know, knowing Matt Arnold a little bit that, again, you know him a lot more than I do in speaking with him, but the few conversations I had with him, he's a very methodical guy.

He's a guy that's all in on baseball and the way he's running this team and how he's moving this team forward.

And just what they're doing with their farm club and some of the moves that they're making throughout the season in the last couple of years have been pretty impressive.

So I do believe that they're looking at it, especially knowing that there's a strike that's potentially looming, that he's going to say, you know what?

We got nothing to lose.

Let's do it.

And I think Mr. A's in the same

boat.

And they do have the prospect capital to do that.

They have, according to a couple of different lists, some are one, some are labeling them as the second best farm system.

I don't see how it's second best to anybody.

They have a ton of high end potential star prospects.

Do you want to get rid of a few of them here to make that move?

That's going to hurt, maybe down the line a little bit.

You might see a player bubble up and become a star for somebody else.

That happens.

But I mean, you've got the prospect capital to go out and literally get whatever you want.

If they want scoogle,

Joel, guys, if they want Scoogle, they will get Scoogle.

It's that simple.

More with Tim and more with Ken.

We're talking brewers.

I got a question for you two guys coming out of the break that I think I need to have answered.

Maybe I don't think it's one that anybody's ever asked you guys before.

It's more brewers.

We're live at Flamborama.

We're at the signature sign in graphics.

A platform stage here.

Broadcasting brought to you by Minakwa Chevrolet and we'll have more from Flamborama and Park Falls live in just a moment here on 98Q

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Gear

up, folks, for Flamborama in Park Falls.

One of the longest-running community celebrations in the state starts July 31st through August 2nd.

The weekend will be filled with carnival rides, a craft fair, softball, chalk drawing, Northwood's Community Credit Union sawdust dig.

Youth Broadcasting Contest, Park Falls Rotary Pickleball Tournament, Cornhole and a whole lot more.

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I'm meteorologist Mace Michaels, lingering showers and mostly cloudy tonight and a low not too far from 60 degrees.

Mostly cloudy for tomorrow.

Some pop up showers and storms around a high, not too far from 80 sunshine returns for Sunday.

Beautiful a high again around 80 degrees.

Currently it's 68.

All right, back we are again at Flamborama.

Joel here.

Gray is here.

He'll join us closer to the six o'clock hour.

We're talking brewer baseball.

Ken Kazuba, Tim Allen are joining us.

We're talking all things brewers.

I have a special gift for Ken, actually, before he departs here.

I just opened up a box of online items that I purchased, a lot of sports stuff.

And there was a couple of brewer things in there.

Ken, I think you're going to get a kick out of it.

I'm going to share that with you.

Tim, we thank you for joining us.

question guys.

Here's a question I want to kick off this segment.

All right.

Is is the success of the Brewers recently?

Is it because of the whole system?

Is it that good?

Or is Murphy a really, really good coach?

Or is it a little bit of both?

Is Murphy just is this the right time for him to be in there?

Or is he just making them all really, really good?

Tim, I'll give my answer

first if that's all right.

I truly believe that it's a combination of things.

When you have the GM, like they do with Matt Arnold, and the farm system, when Matt Arnold stepped in, it made things a lot easier for him, I believe.

And then you couple that with bringing a guy in like Murph.

who's a different type of manager.

He's a guy that he commands the clubhouse, not to say that council didn't, but he just does things in a different manner.

He's more, in my opinion, I believe he's more known nonsense.

And then you couple that with the players that they've been bringing in.

And he's able to help form a chemistry in that clubhouse and get the most out of his guys more so than you see other MLB managers.

So would that be in the case?

Yeah, it's a combination of things.

This Brewer team under Murph and Matt Arnold.

As well as the owner, Antanasio, stepping back and just letting those guys do their thing, it's really kind of, it's very unique.

And Tim, Joel, and I, we're all around the same age.

So I went through the same pains that Tim did.

I grew up not far from County Stadium, then County Stadium.

So when the brewers finally got.

to the point where they were at after the team was sold, they really took off.

You could see changes in how they were doing things in the organization.

And since then, they've just continued to get better and better.

So it's really exciting to see, but it's a combination of things.

Well, I'm going to throw you a little bit of a curve ball here.

I think it's actually started with the aforementioned Doug Melvin.

And that full crop in the early 2000s of Prince Fielder and Giovanni Gallardo and ultimately Ryan Braun and JJ Hardy and Corey Hart and Bill Hall and that group there.

That started a little bit of a groundswell of, hey, wait a second here, these kids can play a kind of thing.

All right, well then fast forward, you get a taste of the playoffs in 2008.

Unfortunately, you hired Ken Maka, and he was like a crotchety grandpa kind of style with a bunch of young bucks.

And I just didn't think that that was a good fit at that time.

You get a lot of single dudes with a bunch of money in their pockets.

And you have grandpa kind of taming them a little bit.

But then you get through that, you go with Ron Renneke.

And then in 2011, it started another little thing where, whoa, this team is now Fielder and Weeks and Braun, and they're really maturing at that time.

And then you lose Prince Fielder and things went south a little bit.

So you hire Craig Council, you fire Renneke in 15.

You hire Craig Council and I thought it was a good hire.

And I still to this day think Craig Council is a good manager.

I do.

I didn't like the decision he made, but I'm happy for him personally.

Professionally, I hope he fails because I'm a cub hater.

But David Stearns, and if we were to point at Pat Murphy or Matt Arnold, David Stearns proved something I think to baseball.

Now he's not having a good go of it in New York right now.

David Stearns, I was squawking on the air at that time.

Why do you have to tear it all down and lose for three, four, five years before you can get going?

Why can't you rebuild and compete at the same time?

And David Stearns proved that to be right.

You can do that.

Okay, so then he hires Matt Arnold and this is key here Matt Arnold comes in from Tampa and and he has this system of analyzing players prospects whether they're international or Domestic and that right there between Stearns and Arnold that right there turn turn the worm as they say and You can you can?

So counsel's out, unfortunately takes the job in Chicago.

And Murph comes in, now to get to your Murph or Matt Arnold.

Murph comes in, Ricky Weeks is given to him as his associate manager.

To me that meant that was a succession plan when Murph

didn't succeed.

I don't think the organization expected Pat Murphy to be one hell of a manager.

They were putting Ricky Weeks in line there and once Murphy won a division title, second year wins more baseball games than anyone else in the league and another division title.

there's just no way now you got now you got to extend him and blue where did Ricky weeks ago they they move him out into the ivory tower as as Murphy would say into the into the front office and and you go from there so I think it's a combination of things to agree with Kenny which is rare but yeah it's it's a combination of things that and you know their international scouting has really stepped up there Dominican complex

They're scouting internationally.

They are grabbing some really, really talented kids internationally.

And now the sky's the limit as these kids come up.

I mean, you are stacked in the minors.

Yeah, Tim Allen and Ken Kazuba joining us.

We're talking Brewer baseball.

We're going to tell you where you can find them.

If you're a Brewer fan and you love that post-game chatter, we'll do that in just a moment.

Couple of things from a Twins fan.

When I first saw Murphy, I said to myself,

This guy seems like a Tom Kelly.

He just treats reporters with respect.

He's just out front.

He just talks baseball with everybody.

And then the second thing that impressed me about him that really confirmed my first one is when our civic media sports guy, Mike Clemens, you probably know who Mike is.

Um, absolutely.

I worked with Mike for many years.

Mike said that when Murph first came on, he said, we go into his office and he lights a cigar and we talk baseball.

We just sit around and talk baseball.

I'm just like, well, that's a that that's old school, man.

That's fun.

And I think that

the players see that Tim, don't they?

They see that how much he just respects the game and just he wants the best for these young kids.

He wants him to get their big contract wherever it is that they see that, don't they?

They do and he he starts with the person and I think that's another another angle on this that that is sometimes, you know, under view and that is.

They hire good good human beings.

And that's what Murph is all about.

He is all about, you know, caring about the person, getting to know the person.

Sometimes to a fault, though, that can bring up some issues where you like the kid so much as a person, you know, his family, you know, his wife or kids or whatever.

And it's tough to cut a guy like that when he's hitting 091.

And that was Blake Perkins some months ago.

And so sometimes to a fault, but...

I think happier employees work harder for you.

I mean, that's with you guys and radio, some of your employees.

If they're happy, they're going to work harder.

I think that's what Murph is all about.

He's a person.

He's a person first and a baseball player second, and maybe that's an algorithm that can't be

measured.

Well, and that goes back to the other point, Tim, in terms of the organization as a whole.

When you got a guy who's batting 0-99 or 0-91, and we had another guy that was down way below the Mendoza line, you have, with the tremendous talent they have, they afford themselves the luxury to give these guys more opportunity.

to get themselves back up to snuff, so to speak.

So that's just a credit to how they do things in terms of the organization.

They're going to give their guys ample opportunity to perform.

And I've said this on your show, Tim.

One of the shining example of that is, so you have Ortiz, who, you know, a lot of people, including myself, I was on the bandwagon to move them down, get them out of here.

Well, what did the organization do?

They said, wait, we got this kid named Cooper Pratt.

Oh yeah, we're bringing him up.

One of the best things I truly believe that happened to Ortiz and his bat was...

He's now at third base.

He doesn't have to take all those plays at shortstop anymore.

He said it on the MLB network last year.

He said it's tough to play shortstop because I'm a third baseman per se and now he's hitting.

and he's performing and now they don't have to go look for a third baseman.

So these are things the organization has done that has given them opportunity and made them what they are right now under Merv and G.M.

Arnold.

All right, if you love this brewery...

Joe, what about your Minnesota twins up there?

Man, I'm hoping they don't sell.

I mean, it's not quite the rivalry it was many, many years ago when the brewers were in the Yale.

Yeah,

that was one border battle that that got pretty intense for a while.

It did.

There was some I was at a lot of the games on the twins played at at Miller Park back then and there's some pretty intense nights of fan rivalry.

It was it was pretty good.

You're right.

I think with them being in different different leagues, it's kind of simmered down a little bit, but it's fun.

In fact, I'll be at Ampham Field next weekend with my three brothers for Friday and Saturday's game.

Well, so

will I. I'll have my Kirby Puckett jersey on behind the third.

face dugout so you can look for me.

So Tim,

before we... Yeah, so

before we let this get away, Tim, if folks, if you like this kind of brewer talk, the baseball post game show, tell us, Tim, again, where they can find you, please.

Yeah, all the major platforms, Odyssey app, iHeart app, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the live stream is...

pretty interesting on the video.

WI Sports Radio, that's WI Sports Radio on YouTube.

And again, I mean, it's just a fun time.

I'm super grateful I get a chance to talk about a team I love and get paid for

it.

It's very good.

All right, Tim, we're going to let you go.

So thank you.

You got a gig tonight.

You're going to be singing.

So we're going to let you go.

Thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

And sports fans, if you love that sports talk, you're going to want to check out everything Tim just said.

there.

So Tim, thank you so much.

Hope you

have a good time.

And when the Brewers hit the World Series, feel free to call on me again.

We'll have some fun.

We'll do Tim.

Thank you much.

We're going to let Tim go now.

I'm going to give this to you because I just got this in the mail today.

My wife and I like to buy online stuff.

I like to buy

old sports memorabilia and I bought a whole, it was called a junk drawer of sports memorabilia.

So I got literally saw this like two hours ago and I thought, I gotta give this to Ken.

So I'm gonna give him the envelope and we'll let him open up this little brewer treasure that I found for him.

Well, first of all, thank you very much.

It's awfully kind of you.

Let's see what we got in here.

It's a little piece of history.

There are three guys at this table.

Only one of them knows what's in this envelope right

now.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Holy

Moses,

so the first

one is a couple of game tickets from 19 October 3rd 1999 Standing Room only Brewers versus the Cincinnati

Reds 1999 which would have been

That was the last year or two of the stadium, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

That

was the last year before they built and were opening up Miller Park.

Yeah.

Then Miller Park.

Yeah.

So

yeah, historic.

I was in County Stadium as a kid.

I sat in just about every section, but we primarily hung out in the bleachers

because, you

know, we didn't have a ton of money.

Yeah.

So a little Mocky County Stadium history there.

I thought that was cool.

And the other one is I didn't even look at it.

Go Brewers, go 08.

08.

Yeah,

there you

go.

And that's what Tim was referring to when he was talking about, you know, the kind of the start of the run.

Yeah.

And that was an instrumental.

I was at those playoffs.

They had CC's the Bathia.

So when you talk about a rental, but potentially with Scoobal, the Bathia was a rental.

essentially because they weren't going to pay him all that big money and he came in and did a fabulous job and I'll never forget being at that game.

In fact, we were at the Badger game the day before and then we came Sunday for that October.

That game.

Yep.

Yep.

So this one right here.

You talking

about?

No, no, no.

Okay.

That one.

Oh, wait, this one October 3rd of 99.

That must have been the last game of the season, right?

That's been the final game of the season.

Yep.

So it was the closing of it was the closing of the old girl as they call it County Stadium.

Okay.

So that's the tickets.

for the last game.

These all have frames, so this is outstanding.

Yeah, I'm glad that means a lot to you because I scanned it a little bit and I figured you might enjoy that, so that's so awesome.

It's awfully kind to you and it's very much so appreciated.

It's a very unique gift because memorabilia, I have a lot of memorabilia, fortunate enough to, as you run across some of these sports celebrities and some are really good and some are

not.

My most cherished memorabilia I have is worth nothing.

But my brother worked in downtown Minneapolis in 1987 when the Twins won the World Series.

And they had the parade and the whole downtown Minneapolis was just crazy.

And there was confetti coming from every building.

And the Federal Reserve actually took old money and shredded it and threw it out also.

I still have confetti from the 87 parade.

Now I can't verify it anybody.

It is what it is.

But I know what it is because my brother sent it to me when I lived in Iowa.

Well, it's kind of like the silly frozen tundra turf.

acres won, you know, in 96.

So

yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So those memorabilia and the memories that are created from these are so awesome.

Well, can you got some saw?

This year.

This is kind of cool.

Yep.

Go on.

This is the first year we've had coed at flamborama.

Right.

Yep.

We have coed for the first time.

Eight teams.

Christian Newberry put together all the teams.

He's done a great job.

The last.

few years with Henry Rochenbach and his mother Michelle in putting together the softball tournament and they continue to do a great job it just gets better and better so the men's side has 16 teams this year and the co-ed has eight so there's gonna be a lot of softball that you can come and watch and

you

know what we got great specials on beer

and we've always got ice cold beer.

We've got a number of drinks that we have available for you.

Support the concession stand and that's that's run by who's the concession stand run by restore you restore you

okay restore you runs the entire there they're the sponsor the softball event nice and and there's a lot of work that goes into it so kudos to those folks we have a number of great sponsors we have some tremendous 50 50 raffle things that we're gonna be doing and like you guys who have a pair of country or crossroads 41 yeah

stage passes or I'm sorry, they're not.

Access yep, but they're tremendous Saturday night as part of our 5050.

You're also going to now I'm going to break this news done

done

done.

I

like

it.

We're going to throw in four.

tickets to Crossroads 41 as

part

of

the 55th Grand Olein.

Zach Brown Band, Lainey Wilson, Jason Eldine, over 30 artists down there that year.

Yep, so somebody's going to get those along with the cash they have so they'll be able to have some money to go to the event.

Yeah, nice.

Well, Ken, we really appreciate you taking time to join us.

I met up with you three, four years ago.

I've always wanted to go up and interview you as a voice of the softball.

I did, and from there, we've communicated here and there, so now it led to you.

being on with us.

Hopefully it'll start a tradition of you being on with us the Friday night of Flamborama.

Well, terrific.

I really appreciate it.

Great.

It's a pleasure to meet you and Joe.

So this has been a thrill for me and looking forward to seeing you guys throughout the weekend.

So it's a great event here.

Get the Flamborama folks.

You can hear us from a long way away.

You're not going to be disappointed.

Flamborama is one of the one of the most unique town festivals here in the state of Wisconsin in its 73rd year.

That's right.

And

Kaz's Sports Corner.

Kaz's Sports Corner.

They can find it on where?

What are they?

On all

on all your major social.

So Facebook, Instagram.

We have a number of other things.

So we get a lot of new things coming up this year.

And we'll keep you posted on all those.

But don't hesitate to get your sports information to us.

No event or nothing that you have done is too small.

We like to put it out there so everybody gets to see it, whether you hit a hole in one.

or you caught a giant bass, let

us

know.

Well, we know you're going to come back next year because you got some pierogies from pierogies are us, a little popcorn.

So we know food always brings guys back.

Oh, without a doubt.

And those pierogies from pierogies are us

are

outstanding.

So yeah, lots of lots of good stuff here, folks.

Lots of good food, lots of cold beer, lots of cold drinks.

A couple of books right here.

All right, Ken.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Ken Kazuba and we're going to have our two live from Flamborama.

Gray will join us and we'll talk about.

all kinds of different things.

Come down and join us.

We got great prizes here.

FlambleRama 2026 more to come on 98Q.

Thanks again,

guys.

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All right, 98 Q country gray here with you on the elevated stage.

We've got here courtesy of signature sign and graphics, the one and only signature sign and graphic stage.

Did flamboyant even know there was going to be a signature sign and graphic stage, Joe?

I think Courtney found out about it like everybody else to be honest with you.

Courtney at the chamber.

Well, we're here under two different tents right next to pierogies are us.

And let me tell you, I think I'm about half pierogi right now.

Roxanne and Stanley over there set us up in a way that I could not believe.

We had their food last year, Joel.

We knew how good it was.

And I'm still sitting here just melting into my chair.

And you can not only have like the regular pierogi with whatever you want inside, but then you could have it for dessert too.

Yeah, they had a sweet.

I didn't realize that it was half and half dessert and savory that they brought over here.

But I mean, I've already had a chorizo one.

I've had a Reuben one.

I think I might have even wound up with a jalapeno potato mozzarella.

But what I ended up with was a smile and the kettle corn right next

it.

I mean like we are at the hot spot of delicious.

There's pizza down the way a little bit.

The St.

Anthony's ice cream booth is here.

Darla brought us some donuts from the donut stand.

You

won't

have any trouble finding a green trailer with bright pink banners covered in chocolate frosting and six other things they don't need but

all delicious donuts

are here.

Oh my goodness.

I remember fair donuts from back in the day and I'll be honest.

I kind of think of them like circus peanuts a lot of time.

I was like it's the rose color glasses.

These are the real deal though.

These are delicious hot fresh exactly what you hope they are when you order your

many donuts

a little bit.

Everything food wise.

So come on down.

The rain has stopped even if it does sprinkle a little bit.

There's a huge tent free music here in the north end of Park Falls.

The softball tournament has started and we got a lot of great sponsors that are helping to bring you.

Now, not only are they sponsoring our broadcast, but we have gift certificates that will be on the wheel right now and tomorrow from 10 to 2 when Darla's here at the booth.

You could win a Lena's Northern Pine certificate.

You could win Odeer Nutrition, D&D Tire and Auto Center, Kayla's Kitchen and Closet.

There's a couple of Monaco Chevrolet gift certificates in there also.

They're sponsoring this broadcast.

Now, Gray, all of the entries that go into the box tonight,

between five and eight, and when Darla's here tomorrow, 10 to two, we'll all go in for a Wisconsin Dells vacation package valued at $800.

That includes a $700 suite that you get to stay at overnight.

It's a $700 suite.

Two brewer tickets we'll give away.

There's three different quilts, desired quilts, and the...

The wheel is is ready for you.

It's ready for you.

It absolutely is.

They've got we actually filled the candy buckets with every bit of variety.

They've got now and later's and mambas and things I haven't even heard of before in those sweetheart ropes that just shouldn't even exist because they're so good.

But also some tickets tucked in there, some gift certificates and things.

If you're talking to us at 98Q, there is there is a greater than zero chance you're about to be handed something that's going to make your weekend

a little better.

Speaking of that, speaking of that, we're going to do something right now.

all right the next four kids the next four kids you have to be under 18 to come up to us and say Joel gray you're wonderful you're gonna get up you're gonna get a wristband that you can use six to ten tonight or tomorrow either one just say Joel gray you're wonderful Joel it will give you one free wristband sorry

Joel is clearly starred for a little bit of attention

and affection, but the youngest of four boys.

What do you want?

Did you happen to see we got an immediate reaction from the front front row and somebody turned around that they're grabbing parochies right now and said you could have said that 10 minutes ago.

Hey, it's your benefit.

Stop down by the booth here.

We're underneath a dish network banner right next to the civic media.

Red Jeep across from parochies are us.

Just stop by.

Tell us we're wonderful and we will return the favor with like

Joel said, we've got

the first four and only them

25.

Is it what a wristband is I think

I think it is indeed and I imagine this is the color that's only good for today Is

it today?

I think it's all double check on that one and if there's a chance that they will work tomorrow We may have to adjust course a tiny bit because my goodness and I think we actually have a couple members of the band stopping by right now We'll have to chat with you guys at some point come on over We're about to we're about to hit top of the hour news and stuff But I think we've got a feature opportunity if you guys you guys have just a couple minutes

All

right.

Take it away.

Great.

All right.

Okay.

So who do we have here?

Tell us about yourself.

We got this microphone on right now.

Tell us a little bit.

What's the band called?

First of all,

yeah, so we're called 7000 apart.

My name is Omelie and then we have my husband Jonathan and then Jasmine is here with me.

Hello.

And then we also have Carly on drums.

for

audio engineering today and Mike we have my brother

all right well you guys sound great we had we had a guy from Milwaukee who was on the phone with us Tim Allen who does it has a band down in Milwaukee and he said who's that singing in the background he said those guys are that's really good yeah you guys sound good so tell us a little bit of your history where you're from and how you how you got to this point here

don't know so I'm originally from Sweden actually

and

so I came here to the US as an exchange student when I was seven

and that's how I met my husband Jonathan.

Yeah, we just started hanging out because we both love music.

And then one thing led to another.

And yeah, we started dating.

And then we were in a long distance relationship for three years where we were 7,000 kilometers apart from

each other,

which is 4,350 miles.

I looked it

up.

Thank you for the conversion.

Appreciate

that.

And then it was during that time that we started 7,000 apart as a way of just having something.

The

first

thing you know first thing that came to mind.

Oh, what Joe?

I don't want to know.

Habba.

Okay, fair enough.

Habba's sweet, right?

Yeah, we just

played two Abba songs.

Did you hear that?

So were they an influence on you musically at all when you were younger?

A little bit.

I mean,

I definitely listen so.

There's this cover band kind of they started as a cover band and then became a band called 18s

Okay,

so they would do covers of Abba, but like in a teen way So like a pop way in like the early 2000s, and I loved 18s Okay, so they were a big hit

so somebody who was inspired by Abba was your inspiration kind of an indirect sort of thing

two generations down, you

know so seven thousand apart That's the the story you just referred to them.

Oh fantastic.

Well, it's the 21st century.

It's 2026

What's the best way to find you guys online?

If people are curious, where should people punch your name in and what should they search?

They can just type in 7-0-0-0-A-P-A-R-T anywhere and they should be able to find us.

We're pretty easy to find because we have a name with a number in

it.

Yeah.

Okay, so yeah.

No, what most people might fall back on, you guys went to first.

We need the number in our name immediately.

We're not going to be 7,000 apart, 1-2-3-4-5.

You guys could just lock that down, which is difficult in today's day and age.

It is, yeah.

Well, thank you guys.

So where do

you

call home now?

So between both Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Stockholm, Sweden.

OK.

So we

go back and forth.

You stay busy with gigs in both?

You just play in both places?

Yeah.

Mostly gigs here.

But then we do a lot of studio work, a lot of writing, a lot of recording.

Nice.

And we do play in Sweden as well.

All right.

Fantastic.

So 7,000 apart.

Spell out 7-0-0-0 apart there.

OK.

And you're here till 8 o'clock, right?

8 o'clock.

Come on down.

Fantastic.

Fantastic sounding group.

So thank you for joining

us.

Appreciate it.

Thank you

guys.

We'll listen to you soon.

Yes, we're broadcasting live from Flamborama from the signature signing graphic stage.

This is why we're here is they were walking by and we just wanted to chat with them.

That's why we're doing this here.

We're doing we're here live until eight o'clock tonight.

That's when the Brewer pregame show will kick in out in Anaheim.

So if you have something going on this weekend that you want to promote,

Just come over.

Come on over.

We'll chat with you.

Simple as that.

All right, Joel, thank you so much for having such an awesome conversation for that last hour.

Like you just said, we got a couple hours left.

But I've got other gratitude to share because we wouldn't be here if it weren't for Monaco Chevrolet, our main broadcast sponsor.