A Musician’s Protest in a Global Spotlight (Hour 2)

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And I'm Brian Noonan, Attorney General Josh Coll joins us in about 20 minutes to talk about the, we just heard about a new lawsuit Wisconsin has entered into with 19 other states and a little victory yesterday.

So we'll talk to the Attorney General about that coming up.

The boy aquarium bumping us back with a little

Neil

Young and heart of gold because Neil Young is joining the fray.

Long time activist.

I

think it's safe to say Neil Young.

Joining the argument and the fight for Greenland by...

Taking on Amazon and the Trump administration and feeding his fans music for free.

I think it's interesting because he donated a full year's access to his entire music and documentary archives to the people of Greenland calling it an offer of peace and love.

And obviously this donation comes in the middle of these international tensions over Greenland after the Trump administration backtracked on previous claims of ownership.

threats of tariffs and that seems like

I texted our group yesterday.

I'm like, Hey, do you guys remember a week ago when, uh, when we were talking about world takeover and Greenland and tariffs in a 52nd state?

And here we are.

Yeah.

Memories.

That was only

last week.

It was only last week.

He was at Davos last week.

That's, that's how fast this timeline moves.

Keep up people.

You'll miss a lot.

I don't know what to tell you.

Hold

on.

So wait, have we taken over already?

Have we moved on?

Greenland is ours or no?

I

don't know.

Stephen Miller came out of the shadows and he started writing things and I don't know what happened, but yes, Davos was only a week ago.

Here's the problem.

It hasn't been sunny, so Stephen Miller's been able to get out.

This is true.

He hasn't

had to stay in the darkness, which is

trouble.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he melts like the Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz if he sees too much light or water or something.

But Neil Young is saying that he hopes his music

will help ease the unwarranted stress caused by the U.S.

government's actions.

Now, this isn't actually the first time if you have followed any part of Neil Young's career that he's taken some sort of stand.

He actually pulled his music from Amazon over CEO Jeff Bezos' support of President Trump, and he also left Spotify over COVID misinformation on Joe Rogan's podcast, which, by the way, he did that for a short amount of time, then his music went back up on Spotify.

Of course.

Well, it's not just, I mean, Neil Young is not just a guy.

If Neil Young pulls his music off and sales and downloads and everything else stops, there's a lot of other people that are getting affected.

And probably some of those don't have the bank account that Neil Young has.

And they're like, hey, Neil, I get it.

We commend your stand.

But my kids, they need some shoes.

So if maybe we could...

Chill out on that.

I mean if you want to make donations and be an activist that's cool

But we were just going to go to the Dells for the weekend, so I need my income to keep coming in.

I'm going

to have to postpone that trip.

I don't know if you know this, playing tickets, non-refundable kind of thing.

But as you mentioned this, Young acknowledges that by removing his music from Amazon, it's probably going to hurt his record company in the short term.

He acknowledges this.

But he believes.

But I don't care.

I don't care.

I have the money.

But he believes the message matters more.

He's speaking out on international issues.

He's also been very vocal about a lot of the domestic concerns here in the United States, criticizing ICE and the Trump administration for policies.

He says that are destabilizing our communities.

Now, for Greenland, this particular gift means free access of decades of music and films, renewable for as long as residents live there.

It's a bit of a mix of culture, conscience and, you know, an outspokenness that only Neil Young has been able to bring over the years, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to poo-poo Neil Young.

Sure,

Neil Young.

But it's like, okay.

Great.

I wonder how many people at Greenland are excited by this news.

You don't know maybe maybe all of them maybe all 12 the people in Greenland are ready to go

yours where my mind goes I think 56,000 we learned just last week in Davos by the way Jamie that is so

far in the past.

I don't even know where Greenland is anymore

Iceland it's it's Iceland but right right

hold

on we learned last week Remember these things in my head, but here's the thing that I go back to too Just like when Neil Young pulled everything from Spotify.

How much is this?

actually hurting Amazon.

I mean, Jeff Bezos

alone in

2023 was made $70 billion, which translated to roughly $8 million per hour as far as salary.

So this isn't this isn't going to hurt Amazon.

And I get Neil Young is trying to make a stand.

But

it's yeah, and you have to and that that's actually that's absolutely true.

But you have to say, All right, how much does me standing on a street protesting?

Sure.

hurt anybody it doesn't but you have to so I gotta give it to Neil Young in that way it's his statement and we can laugh at it if we want go how many people are you know clamoring for Neil Young's 62 year career stuff but it's his way of it's his way of actually doing something and saying something and so good for him

Even if even if just a few people up there go, oh, I can I have access to all this he made somebody happy and Yeah, I I'm never good.

I'm never gonna be mad at somebody trying to make somebody happy

No, absolutely, especially right now, right?

Like we just forgot that Davos was only a week ago and Greenland was a conversation one week ago because

And then

I wasn't saying

that as a joke.

But oh my god, really?

That's

all.

It's just

a week to go.

Every day.

Every day, there's new stuff.

And we're like, oh, OK.

And I'm sure we're not the only ones who feel that way.

If you think things are going too fast, or if there's anything you want to jump in about 85575 Civic, that number may be gone next week.

Who knows?

And then you need a new number.

But right now, it's 8557524842.

Nick is in Madison.

He's got something to say.

Hey, Dick.

Welcome to the show.

Well, first of all, get it right.

It's Iceland, not Greenwood.

Dick,

I'm just making notes.

He just made the notes.

I'm jotting.

It's hard to keep up, Dick.

Things are moving rapidly.

We've moved on to Iran this week, and I came up with a name for him yesterday, the president.

I'm calling him President Crisis Management.

He creates crisis and then tries to manage it.

That's all he does.

He's conscious.

That's true.

We said that.

I think

we said that a week ago for Davos.

I think

we said

that then.

But yeah.

You look at his first term, it was a disaster.

How did he manage COVID, for instance?

That was really well done, huh?

Leech and sunlight, Dick.

I don't know what you're talking about.

We

appreciate the call this morning.

I mean, Dick's not wrong.

We do move very quickly right now and this administration creates a lot of their own issues.

I mean, we just talked about that this morning in light of Minneapolis too.

Apparently the verbiage came out to DHS of what they were supposed to say.

Kristi Noem went to a podium.

She said the things.

They did not go over well.

those things and now there's backlash from their own party so now Stephen Miller has to put out a late-night press release or statement I should say basically saying well they were trained well and we're gonna look into these things because it might not have actually been what we said it was because the training might not be what it is like don't give me the words just tell me that

you know, you went out there and you wanted it to look like one thing and it really wasn't and then the backlash got too bad.

So now we're gonna, you came out of the shadows to issue this statement.

That's what it is, right?

It's all, yeah.

It's just one thing after another and I'm, Jamie, I'm gonna go back three weeks if I can or maybe a

month.

God, I don't even know if I can remember that for a bit.

I'll try.

Weren't there supposed to be a big release of the Epstein files?

Sure.

Wasn't that supposed to come?

Yeah.

But I know everything else is like, hey, wait a minute.

Wait, we were supposed to see some paperwork.

Right.

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, yeah, that time has passed.

Oh, we're so far past all of that.

We're so far past all that.

Now, I don't know if this will surprise you.

but probably not.

I did a little digging last night to see if there were any other artists who had ever done anything like what Neil Young did.

I was

curious, like,

has anybody

ever done

this, right?

Now, full digital archives gifted to a specific population, that's pretty unique, and musicians usually leverage their intellectual property for humanitarian, environmental, or political causes.

But to give it to a whole, you know, continent, essentially, that's a little different.

our whole land mass.

What

about you two giving us their entire album, everybody?

Right, exactly.

That is on the list, somewhere on here.

I've got a lot of them, but I won't read them all.

But there was a few on here, like Sounds Right Initiative from 2024.

This was a Brian Eno accredited nature as a songwriter, royalties, and the royalties that fund the biodiversity conservation.

In 1979, we had Music for Unifaceth, The Beat

Abaddon, a summer donated all the royalties to UNICEF.

And

then with the

political and cultural solidarity, you have the concert for Bangladesh in 1971.

George Harrison

raised

funds for refugees through this large-scale benefit concert.

Anti-apartheid movements in 1985.

Bruce

Springsteen and

Bono, yep, used music like Sun City to oppose the South African government.

Bob Dylan in the 1960s and Joan Baez supported the American Civil War.

rights movement through a performance in activism.

It was called Freedom Songs.

Pearl Jam even got in on the act for environmental and political purposes, and Green Day in the 2000s did as well.

So, you know, there's other artists who have gone this route,

but... Listen, don't bring up Green Day.

They're keeping our dear leader from going to the Super Bowl, them and Bad Bunny.

Can I ask a question?

Can I ask a question?

Do you honestly think that the president is not going to the Super Bowl because of artists like Bad Bunny and Green Day and Brandy Carlisle?

Or do you honestly think he's afraid he's going to be shown on a jumbotron and booed?

He was booed roundly at his last sporting event.

Of course, that's why he's not going.

Listen, he's not the kind of guy who is willing to take the slings and arrows just because that's what every other president

has

done.

Every president goes to the Super Bowl.

Sure.

He made his, oh man, remember last time he was in, oh, he went to the Super Bowl last year with the Jets and the flyover

and the whole thing.

Yeah, he wouldn't get that warmer reception in San Francisco, I don't believe.

I

don't think so.

And for

him to say, well, first, he's anti-them.

So he's anti-green day and bad bunny.

Because, you know, they don't like him and he doesn't like people who don't like him.

So that's it.

But then he said it's such a long flight.

It is a long flight.

It's hard when you come from Florida.

It's hard.

But is it hard on a plane that has bedrooms and an office and a kitchen and basically it's a flying...

apartment?

Does it make it hard there?

I think most of us dream of having that moment.

Don, listening on WMDX, texting in for Madison this morning saying that maybe what Neil Young will inspire other performing artists to do the same, maybe it will inspire consumers to start boycotting Amazon.

Individuals make a difference.

Thank you for the thoughts this morning.

And if you want to give us your thoughts, we'd love to hear from you.

1-855-752-4842.

That number is also 1-855-75

Civic.

places you could be on the 8th of February is in the Super Bowl.

But so yeah, they're saving on all of that.

Well, every trip a president makes costs an exorbitant amount of money.

And that doesn't change from administration to administration.

This administration takes a lot of trips.

They do.

Just back and forth

to

Florida.

Well, it's important.

You got to get your golf in.

I get it.

It's 7.19 right now.

You're listening to Civic Media Mornings.

I'm Jamie Martenson.

And I'm Brian Noonan, Wisconsin Attorney General.

Josh Call joins us after the break.

So stick around on the Civic Media Radio Network.

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started.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

Wisconsin's Attorney General Josh Call and a multi-state coalition of governors and attorneys general have been filing lawsuits against the Trump administration over a number of different things.

Yesterday, the coalition got a victory.

which is always good to celebrate.

They secure to win blocking the Trump administration's attempt to illegally withhold billions of dollars in congressionally approved funding for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.

That's a mouthful to help explain what that mouthful means.

Wisconsin's Attorney General Josh Call joins us this morning.

Mr. Attorney General, thank you for being here.

We appreciate your time.

Yeah, good morning and thanks for having me on the program.

So explain to us, first of all, congratulations on the win by the multi-state coalition.

Can you explain what this lawsuit was about and what this victory means for people in Wisconsin and all the other states that are affected?

Yeah, you know, there was legislation passed by Congress and signed the law by the president at the time that provided for investments in a lot of clean energy technology.

And one of the things that was provided for was

electric vehicle infrastructure.

That's a real win-win for Wisconsin because on the one hand, it helps promote clean air because as we're shifting to more electric vehicles, that's good for protecting clean air.

But it also means jobs for folks in Wisconsin as that infrastructure is installed.

What Donald Trump did as he came along and basically his administration said, we don't care what the law is, we're going to cancel these grants.

We went to court, we challenged it.

And we now have a ruling that was issued, I believe, last week from the court blocking the Trump administration's action.

And what that does is it preserves tens of millions of dollars of investment in Wisconsin.

So this win is good for Wisconsin jobs, and it's good for our environment.

And there's also a coalition of 35 state attorneys that you're leading.

And we want to talk a little bit about this one as well, because we have a short amount of time.

So we're going to try to fit as much as we can with you this morning.

Since you're leading this one up, it's basically on AI.

And this is to crack down a little bit on the AI chatbot.

So explain this to us and how this is going to look.

Yeah, absolutely.

So we join this multi-state letter.

We're actually not the lead on this one, but we have a bunch of states, a bipartisan group of AGs.

You know how divided these times can be partisan fashion.

We had a bipartisan group of AGs come together to call on X, XAI specifically, which makes grok, which is one of these chatbots.

We called on them to take action to prevent some of the really disturbing kinds of images that are being generated.

from continuing to be generated.

There have been a lot of concerning reports about images where people are able to be what's called newtified, where basically an image is taken and AI will transform it.

This is really, really offensive, is an invasion of people's privacy.

There's a lot of concern that this is happening, not just with images of adults, but also with images of kids.

We need to make sure that as we are developing these new technologies,

that people's basic rights are protected.

And so we are calling on GROC and XAI to take action to make sure that this isn't happening.

Attorney General for Wisconsin, Josh Call is our guest.

Let's take a step back for a minute, Mr. Attorney General.

How do these multi-state coalitions come together?

And how much more weight does that carry when a lawsuit is filed?

It happens in a variety of ways.

We've had

Big bipartisan coalitions, as we just mentioned with this letter to XAI, we work together on consumer protection issues to combat the opioid epidemic.

Sometimes, though, these tend to break along partisan lines, and that's happened often during the Trump administration.

So my administration works closely with other AG's offices where we're regularly in contact.

And by bringing these challenges collectively, what we can do is, first of all, be efficient and pool resources

We've got limited resources, and we want to use them effectively.

So by working together, we can reduce what it takes to put into any particular case.

But it's also important to have these big coalitions, because in a lot of these cases, and we just mentioned the vehicle infrastructure case, when there's an order issue, it often applies only in the states that have brought challenges.

And so by being a part of these challenges, we are helping preserve over the course of the challenges against the Trump administration.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that is coming to Wisconsin through victories we've had or through times when the administration has back down.

And so continuing to be parts of those challenges as they arise is going to be really important for the state.

Do these rulings then impact, because obviously the Trump administration won't be here forever.

So do these rulings impact future administrations and some of the things that they then try to down the road implement?

Are we looking that far ahead with some of these as well?

Potentially they could.

I will say a lot of what's happening is because the Trump administration is so extreme and so willing to

flout the law that it's hard to imagine any future administration just openly defying the law in this way.

But it's setting clear precedent that, you know, with some of these programs, for instance, the Trump administration can't just break the law, ignore the law, and cancel things unilaterally.

It's got to follow the process that's in place for all lawmaking in the country.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Coll is with us.

We only have about a minute left.

Mr. Attorney General, are there...

In the foreseeable future, more of these coalition lawsuits that you're predicting are going to be filed?

It's going to depend a lot on what the Trump administration does.

If they continue to take actions that harm Wisconsinites and that violate the law, we are absolutely prepared to take action.

Just recently, we joined a multi-state brief in support of what Minnesota is arguing in their case, challenging the actions of the Department of Homeland Security.

Certainly, it's possible if they try to have actions like that in other parts of the country that there would be all the state briefs.

But again, if the administration continues attacking people's rights, attacking the law and ignoring the law in a way that harms Wisconsinites, we're prepared to act.

Thank you so much.

That is Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, Josh Call.

We appreciate your time so much this morning and making us a little smarter and also enlightening us a little bit.

It is 729 right now.

You're listening to Civic Media Mornings.

I'm Jamie Martenson.

And I'm Brian Noonan and we're going to talk a little bit about Wisconsin communities making secret deals over data centers.

Say it isn't so.

We'll talk about it on Civic Media.

735 right now.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

You are listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.

If you're listening in La Crosse, you're listening on WLCX and Madison on WMDX and in Wausau on WXCO.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noona.

Good morning.

We've talked a lot about data centers.

And there's every town it seems like is having some referendums.

They're having town meetings there.

Everybody's talking about data centers.

Wisconsin, if you don't know, has about 40 data centers.

They stretch all over the state.

But here's an interesting question.

How did a $1 billion, 520 acre data center proposed by one of the world's richest companies go completely unnoticed?

in Beaver Dam.

I don't know.

Thankfully, Tom Kircher does.

He's a reporter for Wisconsin.

Watch a non-profit, non-partisan newsroom.

They always have great in-depth reporting, and they are reporting on this.

Tom, thanks for being here.

This story, as I read it, is amazing.

First of all, how do you get tipped off that this is happening, that this giant development is coming?

and nobody knows anything about it.

Yeah, you know, actually, this story idea came from one of our Wisconsin Watch readers.

I got an email a couple of months ago from a person who suggested we take a look at some of these massive data center proposals.

And, excuse me, over the course of a phone call and some emails, he sort of offhandedly mentioned non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, and that term caught my attention.

And so let's get into a little bit of the fact finding here because this, this story is, I've read it a couple of different times because there are different elements to it and there are several pieces of it.

So how did, as you, as you started doing your fact finding, how did this $1 billion, 520 acre metadata center,

stay hidden in a town the size of Beaver Dam for over

a year,

for over a year or two.

Yeah, that's right.

It's because of the non-disclosure agreements that I mentioned.

So in the case of Beaver Dam, a non-disclosure agreement was signed between the local government officials and the company that wanted to put the data center in Beaver Dam.

And that effectively shut the public out of the process of consideration.

So for more than a year, there were meetings with

Beaver Dam staff and what turned out to be Metta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

Behind the scenes, if you will, planning preparation for development that's worth a billion dollars.

Only after a year, once that agreement was signed, was there a public announcement to say, hey, Beaver Dam, we're considering a really big data center.

So when they sign these NDAs and they finally do let the public know a year later, is it a done deal already or are they still having to go through all the usual processes to get the approval?

Yeah, good point.

So it is a preparatory in nature, if you will.

So it's typically at a city staff or village staff level that they're planning staff, for example, exchanging information, negotiating.

ideas to see how feasible a data center might be in a particular community, but going further than that, you know, actually making some specific proposals.

And so it's not a done deal.

You know, once it's revealed to the public, there still must be public votes taken by the city council or the village board, but so much of the preparatory work has already been done.

The question becomes, when should the public be let in on the process?

Yeah.

And was there anything that in the nondisclosure agreements that could have actually allowed the city or development officials to share with the public, or was it just that buttoned up as you were doing your research?

Yeah, without being a lawyer, I'd want to be careful.

Sure.

But for the most part, right, it essentially binds the company that wants to build the data center and the local government, the city, the village, the town.

from disclosing anything, even the fact that there's a discussion about a project.

You know, these agreements will refer to a project.

There's not even the mention of data center.

And, you know, as I think a lot of people know, these are massive proposals.

So we looked at seven big proposals in Wisconsin.

You know, they range from the billion dollars in Beaver Dam to up to 20 million dollars in Mount Pleasant, you know, near Milwaukee.

So these aren't

just another business opening or even a shopping center.

These are transforming type of projects that affect land use, power use, water use.

And again, the question is, when should the public be made aware that, hey, this massive proposal is being considered?

Tom Kircher is a reporter for Wisconsin Watch.

He joins us to talk about these NDAs between municipalities and data center companies.

There was a big...

was it a week ago, two weeks ago, time is irrelevant anymore, where Microsoft said just what you were saying, that we need to be more transparent with the public.

Were the seven municipalities and potential projects you mentioned the only NDAs that you found, or is this attempt to keep the public out of the discussion for as long as possible more widespread?

So in looking at these seven big projects around the state, NDAs, the non-disclosure agreements were used and for them.

But that's not to say that there isn't secrecy in other projects, too.

For example, in DeForest, you know, outside of Madison.

In that case, the village of DeForest did not sign a non-disclosure agreement for the data center proposal there.

But for months, there were staff

level negotiations between the data center company and the village of DeForest, pre-development agreements being written up, that sort of thing.

That happened for months before there was ever a public announcement.

So even when there's not an NDA in place, there are still examples of the public not finding out about a project until well after it's been planned.

And when we talk about these NDAs, how are they being referenced?

When we look at this and when these city councils and these county councils are looking at some of these proposals, they have to be on some sort of agenda, right?

Like these conversations have to keep coming up.

So how are they being named so that people don't understand them and don't know what they are, I guess?

Right.

You know, there are examples of that Beaver Day and being one where

Initially in the process, you might not see the name of a big company like Microsoft or Meta.

There might be, there's an example of a small company called Balloonist LLC that was named in some of these.

So you're right, there are some public disclosures to an extent, a mention of a company name or reference to a project, but typically not a reference to a data center.

And these things are,

affects so many parts of life, right?

The land use, the hundreds of acres that might be involved, how much power is going to be used, how much water is going to be used.

And so there's more and more blowback, if you will, from the public when they find out, oh my gosh, this data center could be coming to our community.

Not to say whether the data centers are good or not, there's economic development arguments, there's worries about the environment.

But again, the question of when should the public be brought in?

And it did.

uh, sparked some legislation, um, actually just a few days before we published our story at Wisconsin Watch.

A state lawmaker has proposed that, uh, non-disclosure agreements between a data center company and a local government be prohibited.

Well, that, and that's, that's progress.

When you were investigating this story, did you hear anything from some of these municipalities that

Did anybody from Beaver Dam come in to you and say, well, you know, this is just how things work.

Tom, you don't understand.

Yeah, very good question.

And in fact, when it comes to economic development, when a company wants to come to your town and propose a business or some kind of development, often there are these non-disclosure agreements that are signed for a limited period of time.

From that side of it, so to speak, from the business side,

It's competitive, right?

I don't want my competitors knowing where I might be locating, for example.

So there's, again, understandable reasons on the business side to keep things confidential, at least for a point.

But it's one thing when a company signs a non-disclosure agreement with a property owner.

If I'm a company, Brian, and I want to buy your land, when we sign a deal to keep it quiet, that's between two private entities, right?

But when it comes to the government, I mean, the government is supposed to be

representing the public right looking out for the public.

So there's something inconsistent there when a local government says we're going to keep this proposal under wraps for months or even longer before we let the public in on it.

We're talking with Tom Kircher.

He is a reporter for Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom.

I guess one of the questions as we're sitting here, and perhaps, you know, with the research and your fact-finding, you can't answer this, but how does this public opposition in places like Beaver Dam, even Port Washington, how are you seeing the decision-making at these hearings take place with some of this influence on the local level?

I know in Port Washington, in the north of Milwaukee, there's been some controversy, certainly, even though that project has already been approved.

So even at that stage, there's still public reaction to it.

There's an effort to recall the mayor from office.

Folks might recall, back in December, there was a public meeting about the data center in Port Washington.

And three members of the public were arrested as they were protesting.

Even after things get approved, there's still a feeling on the part of some citizens that, hey, we weren't lit in on this soon enough.

And it

is a tough call to be fair.

If I'm a data center company and I make a phone call to the city of Madison, say, I'm interested in maybe putting a data center there, does that mean there should be this immediate public announcement with the cameras?

That

seems silly.

At the same time, if months and months and months go along and there's a lot of documents exchanged back and forth and planning, at some stage, the public would want to know, hey, there's this massive project, maybe good, maybe not, that's proposed for our community.

We'd like to have input.

Tom we got a text from Troy in Mount Horrib and this is I think this is a good question But I'm not a lawyer and you said you're not a lawyer either.

What about open records laws?

I wouldn't do those nullify an NDA Would I still be able to find it or is it the fact that the NDA is so hidden?

I wouldn't even know to ask for one

So we did obtain these not disclosure agreements from the local governments through public record requests

So, you know, it is a bit of a search, right, to try to figure out, does one exist?

If it's confidential, how do you know that it exists?

You know, but it is possible to request, specifically, is there an NDA sign between your local government and any data center company?

And then it's possible to get at it that way.

All right.

I mean, it is a really fascinating story, so we would encourage anybody to go check it out.

We've been talking with Tom Kircher.

He is a reporter for Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom.

Tom, thank you so much for your time this morning.

Thank you for this fantastic reporting.

Where can people go check this article out and read for themselves, all of this work that you've put into this?

Yeah, thanks.

WisconsinWatch.org, and you're right.

We're a nonprofit.

Similar to maybe a traditional type of newspaper, but we're not out there chasing the daily stories.

We're trying to step back and do big picture looks at issues.

And

it

is always very in-depth and very informative.

And we always appreciate Wisconsin Watch People and reporters joining us.

So thanks a lot, Tom.

Thank

you.

You're

welcome.

Thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

It's

a little nerve-wracking to see, but...

So many things are done in secret.

Yeah

shouldn't surprise us, but it does and we're talking about this so much Next we got to talk about a classic sitcom

and no secret this one

We're gonna get to that everything's out in the open

it's 748 right now.

You're listening to civic media boardings on the civic media radio network

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Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

It's 7.52 right now.

That is one of my all-time favorite TV theme songs.

I absolutely love it.

I'm so excited.

We're going to be talking Laverne and Shirley with this next guest.

It is 7.52.

You're listening to Civic Media Mornings.

My name is Jamie Martenson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

Yes, Laverne and Shirley turns 50 years old.

Turned 50 years old yesterday.

Yes.

You

know, Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams.

They played Milwaukee roommates who worked at the fictional shots brewery.

Show went on to be one of the most watched in prime time during its third and fourth seasons.

Big time and.

You know, just like the Fonds and Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley have been embraced by a lot of people in Milwaukee, none more so than Lakefront Brewery.

Lakefront's founder and owner Russ Klisch is with us.

Lakefront Brewery, if you don't know one of the OGs of Kraft Brewing, founded in 1987.

They're located in the River West neighborhood in Milwaukee, famous for the brewery tour.

And that's where Russ, first of all, thanks for being here.

Always good to talk to you.

That's where Laverne and Shirley's legacy really lives on at Lakefront in the tour, correct?

Yes, we always sing the song right at the end and it always brings a lot of smiles to people's faces when the few times you ever can sing on a brewery tour.

That's true.

I've been on a number of them and yours is the only one to sing on.

Well, I'm over on Instagram right now, and it looks like yesterday during the 50th anniversary, the tour group had a little bit of fun.

There's some singing, there's some dancing, and it looks like a really good time.

But when it comes to Laverne and Shirley and this 50th anniversary, we have to ask, how did the show make breweries like Lakefront, how did it put you guys on the map?

How does it still put you guys on the map?

Well, I think around 2005 we decided why don't we start singing the Laverne Shirley song at the end of the tour Yeah, and and everybody loves it It's still still to this day There you know, you hard hard to remember this but 50 years ago you didn't find that many ladies in the Manufacturing workplace and when they sang that song that said

you know doing it my way that that still resonates especially with a lot of the older ladies that come here because at the end of the in the middle of the song they say do it in our way we always tell everybody let's raise your fist when you say that and and you see all these ladies in their you know 50 60 70s and they really get into it and it really meant something to those ladies

what

and it's it you end the tour like you said at the bottling line the iconic shot in the opening credits is them putting their gloves on the bottles you guys do that and just a little bit from and follow Lakefront brewery on Instagram Lakefront brewery is right there you can follow him on all the socials but it says we at Lakefront owe a debt of gratitude depending Marshall Cindy Williams and the producers that chose to set the series in our good city Laverne and Shirley worked as bottling line employees at shots brewery around 2005 like you just said Russ we expect

We expanded our bottling line by installing a conveyor belt from the shuttered Schlitz Brewing Company, and that's where the glove goes.

So you guys are fully embracing it.

And your tour, for those who were hearing this and said, I've kind of heard of Lakefront's tour.

What sets the Lakefront brewery tour apart from any other brewery tour in the country?

One thing we do differently here is we hire a lot of comics or theater people to do it.

We don't write a script.

And so every time a tour guide goes out, it's kind of their own little act.

So you can come here and see the tour and get a different perspective from a different other people.

So it's fun in that respect.

We don't have, you know, videos that we show.

We give beer first along the way.

That usually

keeps people

poly.

That's the important part.

Yeah, that's the important

part.

And so we let them sample and that makes everybody happy and laugh at all the bad jokes.

And so we do that.

And plus we educate them on how beer is made.

So that's

all fun.

Yeah.

Um, no, I do want to ask because, uh, as we talk about what you guys do and embrace Milwaukee and Laverne and Shirley, I think we would be really remissed if we didn't talk about the upcoming Valentine's Day celebrations and a little, uh, a little bit more fun that happens at Lakefront.

So you guys offer a really unique experience.

Russ, and we're talking with Russ Clish, uh, Clish.

He is the owner of Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee.

Tell us about these really unique.

Valentine's Day celebrations that only are offered at Lakefront Brewery?

Yes.

A while back, we didn't get anybody coming to our Brewery in Valentine's Day.

I couldn't

imagine

some guy trying to tell us a significant other to come down here.

So we decided to do weddings and cheap inexpensive weddings.

You know how expensive weddings are, right?

I was married for $25.

You can come down here.

We got ordained from, you know,

from the internet, we got our license and we would give a tour, I should say a tour, a wedding like every half hour.

And we have like 20 of them throughout the day.

And so it's nice.

All of a sudden you announce like, Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So is coming in.

Everybody stands up and claps and a lot of them bring like 10, 15 people with them.

And I also do a mass vow renewal at noon and six o'clock.

For

anybody

who wants to come in, that's free.

You get a free beer for both of you if you come and do that.

So if you can't do that for free beer, I'm not sure what that all means.

Yeah, really?

Come on

down.

Do I need a reservation?

Because I'm thinking, listen, I've been married a long time, but you know, you can always use a spruce up.

Do I need reservations for that renewal or do I just show up with my...

For a renewal, you don't need a reservation.

You can just show

up.

You do need a reservation and a license if you want to get married, though.

All right.

All right.

Well, we eloped, so we definitely need a brush up.

Oh, yeah.

We should do a group out and get all go down and get our vows renewed.

If you want to get married at Lakefront Brewery, go to lakefrontbrewery.com.

Get all the...

information it's right on there and then take the tour celebrate Laverne and Shirley enjoy some of the best craft beer in I'm gonna say the country Russ I'm going out

on a leg

it's definitely a Milwaukee but I'm a you know I'm a big fan try some Kurds the Kurds of the month Lakefront is the OG Russ always a pleasure to talk to you have a great listen have a great Valentine's Day you're gonna be horse by doing all these weddings

thing but preserve the boys to it preserve the boys

Thank you so much for being here.

We'll see you soon,

Raj.

Thanks.

Take care.

That was great.

Now I feel like having a beer.

I feel like chameeling and shmalling all the way down a sidewalk.

And

I have no plans for Valentine's Day, so

I think that might be fun.

There you go.

The Mrs. Now has plans.

That's right.

The last time we had our vows renewed was by Elvis in Vegas, so why not go to a brewery to keep our...

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