A Conversation with Drake Bentley on Milwaukee, Media, and What’s Next

All right, y'all, we here with a war-winning journalist, Drake Bentley.

What's going on, man?

How you doing?

Man, I'm doing pretty good.

It's an honor.

Appreciate it.

So you pretty much just landed at WNOV and Milwaukee Courier.

Yeah, I did.

Yep.

What's the first Milwaukee story you're dying to chase down?

You know, before I left the Journal Center, I was really trying to, you know, people talk about how Malcolm X.

lived in Milwaukee as a young boy.

But there ain't much information about it.

And it makes sense.

His father was involved in a lot of pro black groups.

And those records are hard to come by.

So if I could, I would say I would I would like to dig a little bit deeper into the time that the little family spent in Milwaukee.

What would you say is your go to a foodie spot right now?

Well, you know, I'm a pretty easy food person, as you can tell.

But, you know, my ideal meal, kind of that birthday meal, I'd probably go with Hubs Pizza over there on something in Hampton.

I forget what it is, maybe like 45th in Hampton, somewhere around there.

But yeah, I would, and then I would definitely go for Supreme, you know, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions.

all the good stuff.

That was certainly my childhood pizza and I still enjoy it.

What's one of the stories that you covered that stuck with you longer than you expected it would?

I would say and there's a lot but a lot of these trending stories I did with other radio hosts and other

television personalities, you know, with meteorologists and stuff, stuff kind of when they jump stations or they leave a station abruptly, it kind of sticks with you for a while.

In general, that overhanging Yanis story of is he going to leave Milwaukee?

Is he not?

Or is he, you know, is he going to remain a buck his whole career?

But yeah, I would say which makes sense is Yanis has kind of been the the one that's stuck around.

If you weren't a journalist, what would you be doing right now?

Oh, that's tough I was you know, I decided I wanted to be a journalist late in life I went to school for It was a business degree, but I My second love is politics and I was a political science major Yeah, I'd probably which I have in the past probably be working

for some politician, I would guess, somewhere along those lines.

Ideally, I think I could probably win the Green Bay Packers a Super Bowl as their head coach.

But

yeah,

I'd say I'd probably be working for a politician if not a journalist.

Where'd you go to school?

I went to college.

I went to high school at Wauwatose East.

So I was a chapter 20 to 20 kid.

I got busted in from the north side.

And then I went to college at Whitewater undergrad and my master's degree is from the university in Nebraska But I never never been to campus.

I completed it all virtual during COVID and whatnot.

All right team Warhawk.

Yeah

Okay, you got one mic one hour in the whole city is listening.

Who's your dream guest and what are you asking them first?

Oh That's tough

I would say we're pretty fortunate that we are somewhat smaller and most of our big figures are reachable.

If you want to have an hour with them, whether or not they'll divulge anything is another story.

I'd probably go with, right now, probably Jordan Love, maybe.

That's a good pick for sure.

Well, thank you, man.

Yeah, any time.

Appreciate your time.

Again, we here with award-winning journalist, Drake Bentley.

All right, Milwaukee.