Babies are a lot of work. I try and pitch in. I do diapers. I mean, I don't change
them, but I go, you got to do this diaper. We have three other kids too. A seven-year-old,
a five-year-old, and a two-year-old. I should probably learn their names.
Four kids. Bedtime is a crisis. They act like they've never been to sleep before.
Bed, what's that? No, I don't want to do that. Then it becomes some hostage
negotiation, but in reverse. Look, if you stay in there, I won't give you
whatever you want. I won't meet your demands. What do you want a helicopter to
kill, but anything? Just stay in there. There's always one awake, like they're
taking shifts. All right, I'll annoy them from midnight to two. Who wants three to
sex? Now let's lie down and practice kicking them in our sleep. Because my wife
has instituted this open-door policy where if one of our kids has a nightmare,
they're welcome to come in our room and pee in our bed. Luckily, that only happens
every night.
At 708, at WRJN Radio, I don't know, waste any time. I want to get right to our WRJN
Historical Marker number 8. Tim Edis, he was our vice president, General Manager at WRJN
for several years, instituted a lot of great things at the radio station. We are exploring
the history of WRJN leading up to our 100th anniversary in 2026. We're talking to as many
people as we can. We've had seven interviews leading up to number 8, which is Tim. And
thank you for joining us as he's driving on his way to work somewhere. Hi, good morning,
Tim. Good morning, Don and good morning, WRJN audience. I have some flashing lights behind
me. Is that something I should pay attention to or not? By the way, if they stop, you don't
know me if they stop you. Don't even mention my name. Don Rosen, don Rosen said it's
okay to do 65 on the belt line. Then again, everybody does 65 on the belt line of Madison.
You you mentioned my name, fines are doubled. I've had so many years working with Tim here
at WRJN Radio. And he instituted a lot of great things. We're going to talk about that.
First, I want to know how you even got into the radio business because you are a real
radio guy. There are people that come into general managers and they're not radio people.
But you're a radio person. So how do you get started in the whole mess here? I have two
words for you. Herb Tarling. In all honesty, it was WKRP in Cincinnati when I was in
junior high. And I thought that'd be kind of a cool job to be like Dr. Johnny Faber or
Venus fly trapper. You know, I need those others. But I ended up being herb Tarling and
this is a big guy. I'm trying to think. Arthur Carlson, yeah. So when all of a sudden
done, you know, again, it was just kind of a lifelong fashion. When I was in high school,
they had something called senior class days at our local radio station. And when all
was said and done, none of the seniors wanted to do it. None of the juniors wanted to
do it. And that was a soft one. I said, well, I'll take a stab at it. And from that
point forward, I worked in radio. So that was April, gosh, it would be about this time
of year, 1983. And you've been in, you've never worked at a number of radio stations
like all of us. So what was your first station you worked at? That would have been WMCW
in Harvard, Illinois. What do you do there? So I actually started out as a copywriter
and then they said, well, let's take a chance on him on air. And I did afternoons on
the weekends when I was in high school. And I did that pretty much all the way through
my sophomore year of college and then ended up doing overnight in Rockford at an old
East station until I graduated from college.
Okay. And what would you do? What'd you go to college for, by the way? Radio. It was easy.
You know, when I went to Hofstra University, I was working at a commercial station
at the time. And I was doing the overnight seven nights a week and I was janitor at
the station. And when I went to college, Hofstra, they had an FM station there, which was
pretty big. I mean, they carry the New York Islanders at one time and so they were pretty
big station. And I wanted to work there on the air. And I remember I was sitting on the
floor. Now this was the early 70s hippies, you know, the hippie type of movement. And
so I'm sitting on the floor. And the guy who runs a station stepped over me says, what
do you want? And I said, well, I'd like to see if I can get a job here at the radio station.
I don't think we want you here cut to about five years later. I am now the public. I'm
doing afternoons and I'm now the public service director of this radio station, WGBB. He
walks in begging for help with public service announcements. He didn't remember me because
he stepped over me and didn't really look at my face. But I remembered him. I gave him
the public service announcements. I don't hold a grudge much. And so, but yeah. So in
college, too, yeah, I never got to work in my college radio station, but you did. All
right. So you're in Harvard, Illinois. You graduate college. What do you do then?
So actually the Monday after I graduated college, I went in the sales. I've been a sales
intern for the last year of college just trying to get extra credits and stuff like that.
In the body year, give or take later, they made me a sales manager of our little AM
country station that we had as part of the cluster. And then I left Rockford, came to Madison
and was actually here with a standalone FM. This is when they did the 80-90 drop-ins, another
great idea from the FCC. And we moved to station from Watertown, Wisconsin to Madison,
94.1. And I went up against a well-established market leader, Z104, and I really got our
bus kick for about a year. And I said, you know, I know for this. So one of my clients
hired me as their marketing director. You know, 23-year-old kid knows everything. And
when that was all said and done, that lasted about three and a half months, and I had to
get back into radio. So I actually went to Jamesville and ran a standalone FM station
there. And those there, five and a half years. And that's when folks of list communications
who ended up buying WRJM. So let's hire this guy away. We're tired of competing with him.
That came to receive.
Yeah, that's a thing in radio. When competitions didn't want to compete anymore, they just
to buy them and just offer them a job. And it was a lot easier. That recently happened
to me at another station I worked for in the other part of the country. And we beat them
in mornings for the first time in years. So the guy who runs their chain off for me
a job at a station in Rockford, Illinois, one of his stations. I didn't want to go. Yeah,
buying me out. I like these people I work for in Cheyenne. And so, but it does still happen
where if they can't beat you, they buy you.
That's just it. And again, the broadcast industry has certainly changed. And I'm sure we'll
talk about that in this hour. But when all is said and done, it's still a competition.
It's a friendly competition most of the time. It's one everyone wants to win. And yet
there can only be one winner, right?
Yeah, in my early days in radio and DJs are doing stunts with each other. They used to
mail each other to ranchalist stuff like that. And, you know, you know, the notes say
I'm going to sting you in and your morning show stuff like that. We don't, I don't think
we do. I haven't gotten anything in the mail lately. So maybe they don't do it anymore.
So OK, so bliss communications. Skip bliss. We were going to have as one of our I spoke
to him. We're going to have him on our on our historical market series at a nice conversation
with Skip. We'll have him on there. He was the owner of the station. And I remember,
I remember the day you came to this radio station to talk to him for an interview, whatever.
You pulled up in a purple pickup truck. Yeah, a purple Ford Ranger. Guess what I'm driving
now? Not that car. It's not a Ford Ranger. And it's bright orange. So you rebuild cars.
I do. I haven't done any a couple of years, but yes, I do. So he rebuild, you rebuild
cars. And I've seen some of your work and it's just beautiful. It did great work on
these cars. OK, so you're in the thing and I'm snooping around your car, looking around
through the windows. I see a whole bunch of radio stuff in there. And you basically
say, get your nose out of my car. But you came to WRGN as vice president general manager.
What was the year? That would have been 1997. So I actually came as sales manager. And
that was when Tony Gazana was still the sales manager. So Tony was general manager. And
then they parted ways around the first of the year. And Ed duty came in. You might remember
Ed. Yes. You guys used to talk movies all the time. All the time. He just passed away
about two years ago. I was sorry to hear that. Yeah. Ed had a long fight. And again, really
pleasant guy, great pianist. He could play piano like no one in no one's business.
One of the things that I remember best about Ed is helping him move his piano into his
apartment. So that's what sales managers do, I guess. Anyway, before before before you
move on, we have an ad duty story to tell you and I we were at we were at a budget meeting
in Jamesville, Wisconsin with our owner. Well, actually with Bob daily was the president
of blisk communications. And I was there with you and Ed duty and Ed duty fell asleep at
the meeting. Do you remember that? He's head went down the dozed off and you know, just
like small snores. And they were asking us and I'm staring at it. He's sleeping. He fell
asleep at the budget meeting. Well, you know, no one ever said they were really exciting.
You got to do your due diligence and get your rest while you can. Okay. So you worked
under Ed duty as general manager. And when he left, is that how you became vice president
GM? Yeah. They promoted me in April of let's see. That would have been about two years
later. 90. I'm sorry. April of 2000. So we just crossed over into the world is going
to fall apart and Y2K and all that other. And yeah. So April of 2000 until roughly, I
guess it was April of 2010. I was general manager and vice president. And how long did that
last? How many years? 10 years. Yeah. A decade of decadence. Yeah. It was certainly
decadent. I mean, it was communications was one of the only places that that actually
gave us. That's a count. I don't know if you remember that. And I but that's been pretty
rare since what would they give you an expensive. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. Well, they still
company some companies don't have them. Here's something you don't see any. Here's profit
sharing. You don't see that anymore. Exactly. You know, that was a great company to work
for. And again, it's learned a lot and worked under some great people like you mentioned
again, Bob Bailey and Skip Bliss. Just fantastic. You know, inspiration and always wanted
to see it win the Rob Lisser. Again, taught me a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rob Lisser. Hold
down the line. We're talking to Tim Edas. He was our vice president general manager here
at WRJ and radio. He is WRJ and historical marker number eight. I hate to make it to sound
like here, you know, in the history, dusty history books, but you know, we want to keep
track of our history because you know, and then we're not only going to be around here
forever. And with our hundredth birthday coming up in two years, we want to make sure
there's a preserved history of this radio station. And we're talking to as many people
as we can, even posthumously. We did the last one about Terry Bond. And we talked to his
wife posthumously about Terry. So we're taking care of business here at 719 WRJ and hometown
radio refreshed a civic media station. I'm Don Rosen. Keep it air.
And I'll stay in a dream. I don't know which way to go.
720 WRJ and historical marker number eight in the history of this radio station is an
important person in history. Tim Edas, who was our vice president general manager for
many years. A lot of fun with you, Tim. You know, that's part of the thing about radio
is it's it's not a back breaking job. You don't go home at the end of the day and say,
Oh, I need a massage. Oh, I need to get I need to get a back rub. Oh, my neck is killing
me. It's not that bad a job. And we have fun at this job, didn't you? Yeah, I did. And
again, as our friend, Eddie Colts, you know, I remember him used to say, we don't have
to go home at the end of the day and take a shower like everybody that has a real job.
You know, people say, how many years have you worked? None. Basically, you're having fun
at this job. Everybody and we just had a staff meeting here yesterday. Nobody's nobody's
gripping about anything. What do you have to grow? You sit here all day, you either play
music or talk. I mean, how difficult can that be? Do you realize what you do for a living?
And you know, the fact of the matter is it's an extremely important thing, particularly
to the community and small communities like Racine Kenosha, even here in Madison, you
know, being able to connect with that audience, they rely on you every single day. So it's
an important job, but it definitely is not groundbreaking, except when you have to set
up your own remotes. Yeah, remotes are when you go out on the road and your broadcast
from a store or your broadcast from an event, and we've done many, many, many, many, many,
some have worked out well, some not so much. Could you dealing with, you know, you're in
a, you're not in a studio. You're in a place where you go open to the elements sometimes.
You're with equipment that can fail. I mean, equipment fails. I mean, there's nobody's fault.
Things do break, but we always have fun doing it broadcasting from, remember, we used
to broadcast from the Wisconsin State Fair for 11 days. The thing, the thing about the
Wisconsin State Fair is, if you're there, you're there. You've got to be there when they
open up and you have to be there when they close. I'll tell you a quick, funny story.
So we're broadcasting from there and I'm showing up at, you know, noon and we're leaving
at, you know, six, seven o'clock at night. So we get a call. We were doing a, a co thing
with a car dealer and we get a call from the director of the state fair and she calls
me up and says, where are you? I was in back here at the radio station. She says, well,
I'm at your broadcast site and I see two stupid cars and no announcers here. Where are
you? You have to be here when we open up the fair. Really? I didn't know that. So I ran
here. We actually hired some part time people to sit there on beach chairs, you know,
sit there and just man the tent. I mean, there was nothing else we could do. And at night,
Tony Gazana and I sat there from seven o'clock until closing time at 11 on beach chairs
in the dark because we had to stay there. And I did something which I didn't realize I
was doing. I ratted out another radio station and said, well, they're not staying here.
They leave early every night. And they were thrown out of the fair and it was a big radio
station. You know what it was? It was 95.7. It was a, they were WZUU at the time, I think,
or something like that. They were not RIT. But got thrown out of the fair because I ran
them. They gave me the mark of the squiller across my face. Anyway, so we've done a lot of
good. The, the, the, can you think of any remote we've done that you were involved? Oh,
I know what you were involved in. I know a big one. You were involved in that bicycle
promotion we did at Elmwood, Plaza where you took old bicycles. The people donated, fixed
them up and gave them the families, the meat of them. That was probably one of the best
and most satisfying things and replicated that in other markets since too. And it's,
frankly, a little trucked up talking about it because our people that simply can't afford
things like that. Still today. And, you know, again, using the limited mechanical skills
I had and certainly the gracious support of the audience, I think that first year that
we did it, especially the one at Elmwood, Plaza, I think that was the second year. I think
we did it at a bike store the first year. But that second year, I think we had well
over 250 bicycles. And that was phenomenal. There's a group here actually in Madison
that has replicated that idea and uses it regionally now. And it's somewhat involved
in that through promotion at this time. So. Yeah, I remember all the bicycles coming
in and we were broadcasting from there every day at Elmwood, Plaza. It was where it was
that big store. Yeah, gold flats. Yeah, gold flats and it's been a million things since
then. But it was huge and all these bicycles were in there and people just donating them.
And I thought that was a great thing you did. And you're there with your little toolkit
and you're fixing all the bikes. And they're probably they're still in use today.
Bicycles last a long time. So I'm Ken, yeah. And those two kids now, one of them has kids
of their own. So I mean, it's kind of, you know, the circle of life as they say, right?
Well, you there when I did the 24 hour broadcast from there. Most likely, yeah. Yeah, I didn't
know what it was for some food. We were trying to get food for, you know, people that couldn't
afford a lot of food for their families and was a food drive. And we did it from that
same, same place. And they said, what you stay on the air 24 hours with me. So we got
on the air and I was there for 24 hours on this was on our FM station, WZY. And I was
there for 24 hours. I took the only breaks I took with a run home and walked the dog.
And I was at a condominium complex right down the road. And I ran home to walk the dog
and came back, but I never slept. And 24 hours, that's, and we have little sheets of paper
doing a countdown.
I kind of remember that. Yeah. And again, I mean, some of the obviously, the live broadcasts
from festival hall, you know, for the anniversaries every five years, those certainly, you know,
really stand out as major, major, major productions. But at the same time, really doing what local
radio does best. And that's communicating and connecting with again, the local audience.
You know, it's fun to just say it as it is for disc jockeys on the air, where the management,
you guys have to bring in the money. I mean, this electric bills, land taxes, salaries,
we're going to be paid. And bringing in the money is constant. It never stopped. You have
a team of salespeople working for you. And you're only as good as your salespeople, you're
higher. So it's not all fun. I know we have a, you know, Chris Marrow is our manager now.
And he's director sales for civic media. And he's got to bring in money. I mean, it's
got to be all the time. That's got to be a rough job.
It isn't. It's not. I mean, again, I think if people get value out of their marketing and
their advertising investment, truth is, they'll be back. And one of the things that someone
taught me a long time ago is that you can make a sale or you can make a good partner.
Sales oftentimes, you know, you have a lot of what I want to say, people that just simply
don't get the results that they should get, particularly when it comes to radio, because
you have to use it correctly. It's kind of like, you know, having a prescription from the
doctor. If you don't use it correctly, it's not going to cure. And you're not going to
get anything out of it. But it's a long term proposition. You have to have frequency.
You have to reach people and often have to reach the right people, right? Well, the truth
of the matter is, is so a lot of people that get into sales, let alone radio sales are
just simply out to pad their pocket as opposed to helping the business. And, you know, it
happens in every industry. That's the problem. But if you have good people that are dedicated
to helping clients and the local community grow, then frankly, it's not as much of a struggle
as you might think.
Well, we have a lot more to talk about with the Tim Eaters, our former vice president,
General Manager at WRGN Radio. We're going to talk about some of his legacies, some
of the people he worked with. And he could mention some other names, some of the sales
people and some of maybe the air talent that he worked with here. And then after he left
here, he went on to other radio stations and other markets and bigger jobs. So we're
going to talk about that and where he is today. That's all straight ahead. It's 729 WRG.
And I'm Don Rosen. Thanks for joining us here at 1400 AM, 99.9 FM and 98.1 FM home town
radio. Refreshed a civic media station.
I let a fly in there. I went to go look outside to see how nice it was, you know, the
temperature. And I'll fly fluently, follow me into the studio.
What do you say there, Tim? I said, even if they're flies, you need listeners. So just
take what you get. It could be an old relative of mine. So I got to be careful. Not just
wanted. You never know. Okay. We're talking to Tim Eaters at WRGN Radio. He was our former
vice president, General Manager. This is WRGN Historical Marker number eight. If you're
just joining us, what we're doing is we're keeping track of all the people that work
here in the past and put it together an historical record of it because we turned 100. We will
turn 100 years old in two years. And the reason just a quick background here, we lost
a dear friend of mine in radio, Bill Moose, about several months ago. And his wife asked
me to speak it as funeral. And I did. And she said, do you have any air checks of him?
And air check is some recording of him on the air. And I said, no, I said, don't you?
She goes, no, he never saved any of them. So he was on the air. He was in WIBU, not far
from you. He was at that radio station for about 10 years. He was at WZW in Milwaukee,
which is one of three point seven for 20 years. And there's nothing on the radio of his
existence. Isn't that scary? So at that point, at the funeral, I said, I'm not, I don't
let that happen here at this radio station. We're going to, we're going to make an historical
record. So we have something of everybody that worked here. I found that shocking. Don't
you 30 years on the radio? There's nothing that shows you ever worked on the air.
Yeah. And again, especially with the internet being what it is and some of the people that
in our industry and or our fans of the broadcast industry, a lot of people are collectors.
And it's just amazing to me that, you know, if you even put something out on one of the,
well, they used to be radio boards, but now you could probably just put it out on the
internet that somebody doesn't have something somewhere, but I'll bet you're right that it's
just simply not in existence anymore. And there were there were air checks on the internet,
but they weren't of him. And 20 years on the radio, you figure somebody would have saved
something, but nope, nobody saved it. Okay. So you advice president general manager here
at the radio station. And I promised our audience when you weren't listening earlier today,
I would ask you to do your Barney 5 impersonation because I watch the Indie Griffith show at night
a lot. And I think of you almost every night when I watch Barney because you do the best
Barney 5. I have not done that in several years, but I'll give it my best shot for you.
Probably when you least expect it. I have to think of something clever to say, but I
will say this is that that Barney 5 impression when I was very young in this industry because
when I ran the Jamesville radio stations prior to coming to Racine, I used to pull an
air shift and they kind of got wind of some of the impressions that I did at a place called
Morning Sidekick. And they said, well, you know, we'll send you over some scripts and this
time you mailed everything back and forth. This is before the internet. And we'll just
pay you for it. Well, that Barney 5 impression for about two years made my house payment
every single month. Well, you think about it. And before you leave today, I will demand
the Barney 5 because you do it. So you know, you got that sniffled it.
I was so relieved that you didn't ask me to do the crusty. I was just going to say that
in the end. I can't. I am. What happened? That's the clean version of it, by the way.
I'm going to take a snooze. Okay. So give us some of the fun things you remember about
the radio station. Some of the people you worked here with at the time. I want to get
some of the people's names mentioned. Now, I know you worked with Ron Richards, who was
our announcer. He was also a program director here at the station. And later on operations
director at WRJN and our FMWZY. So you worked with him. Give us some of the people, some
of the sales people you remember names and stuff. Well, sure. You know, again, there's people
by Greg Zajak, who's still in the business. And he actually is up in old goodness at the
Polka station. I'm trying to think of that. What's the name of it?
WTKM. Thank you. He's still up there selling for a gentleman by the name of Dave Duncan,
who was actually my program director in Rockford, Illinois. Duncan is Dave Stout is his real
name, but he actually bought that with his wife, Connie. And he talked to me several times
about buying it. And I don't want to. But that's okay. You know, I remember Greg Zajak,
all of us. Oh, he bald guy. Big boys like this. Oh, yeah. Okay. Who else? Well, obviously
Jeff Rochach. He was kind of the class clown. You probably remember him. And, you know,
Terry McDougall, who's selling real estate now in town there. You know, those are some of
the key sales people that were around for a good period of time when we had it. And obviously,
there were people that were downstairs with our magazine that we had and Ross Worsala ran that
for us. But we had a really small sales staff, really. I don't know if you remember. But
three or four people were kind of the anchor. And then we'd run through a couple people here
there at the bottom of the list, if you will. And that would pretty much it for a good 13 years.
We didn't have a lot of turnover once we kind of got things established. But when all is said
and done, you know, again, some of the great people like Lou Turner come to mind. You know,
Lou and you and I at my bachelor party, I'll never forget some of the things, but we're not going
to talk about those on air because we'd like this to not get deleted from the archives.
But just some really neat things that we would do. And the one thing that you missed is the
million dollar hole in one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Talk about that.
So the million dollar hole in one was I'm trying to think of what was the name of the
the driving range out there. It's right. No, yeah. I know it's right there in the interstate.
I'll think of it in a minute, hopefully.
Long story short, we go out there for two or three days and it closes to the pin. Would get
not, you know, some type of a qualifying prize. But if you got it in the hole, obviously,
it was a million dollars. Well, the grand prize, and this is when Ed was still the general manager
at duty, you had to actually record the final shots in order to basically tell the insurance
company that somebody actually did get a hole in one. Literally, I'm down at the hole, if you will,
and there was three or four finalists, T and off, T and off, T and off. And the last person that
teed off got closer and closer and closer to the hole. And I realized that my camera, my video camera
was dead. And I'm thinking about, oh, my God, please don't make it. Please don't make it.
Yeah. And of course they did. We didn't give them money away.
No, no one won a million dollars, but somebody won a trip to Whistler Canada. So that was kind of
cool. We did have a machine called Radio Lotto. Remember Radio Lotto? I do remember Radio Lotto,
yeah. It was a way to give away big cash, jewelry, and Coca Cola, which we gave away. And we
as a schlep this thing was a giant old computer machine, but it looked good. It was in the giant
box. We had Tom Kramer schlep this thing all over at the state fair, wherever we went to broadcast
from he, he brought it with him. And if you pick six numbers at random and you got all six,
you got a huge amount of money. I forget what it was. If you picked five, you got jewelry. And
you know, as you went down the list and if he's just picked one, you got a bottle of Coca Cola.
That was it. But, but it was something I was going to say about that. I don't forget what it was.
Oh, people in order to play, you had to type in your self security number into the unit.
Could you imagine doing that today? Nobody would do that.
Yep. Enter your credit card number. Give us your place. So forgive us everything.
Yeah. And people used to do that without, you know, didn't bother them.
Where was that guy? I'm looking it up here. Was it the town of Raymond?
That sounds about right. Yeah. And again, I think they've developed that land into something
else by now, but I was just down through there about a month ago. Yeah, it's not there.
All right. Well, we'll look it up someday. This is what happens is you get old. You forget all this
stuff. You can't remember. Okay. So before we get to your legacies here, I want to know, after
you left here, you went to big radio station in Milwaukee, went to the hog.
Yeah. Was that 1029, the hog for 51 weeks and four days. It didn't quite make a year.
How do you remember that? Because it was brought to my attention by the general manager.
I'll give you not at least putting in a full year. I said, well, I start Monday at this other job.
Sorry. Well, I don't I can I have trouble remembering the years I was at radio stations.
You have to do the exact day, minute and second. So the hog is the big rock station in Milwaukee.
And you were there for just short of a year and you would have sales there, right?
Yeah. So I decided to take a step back for management and kind of unlearn some of the management
things and learn some of the sales things so that in my next iteration, whether it was with that
company or another, I could better serve and better work with with salespeople. And it was
very educational. And it was great opportunity and great people up there too. But if you
of them still in the building, you once told me years ago when you were here, your dream job would
be in Madison. You wanted to live and work in Madison because you're a runner and used to
run in those races at the in Madison, did all that crazy stuff, healthy stuff. And I got a story
to tell in a minute. But so after you left the hog in Milwaukee, you went to work in Madison,
right? That's correct. So I, again, was there at I Heart Media as a sales manager first and then
director of sales and then the last year and a half roughly as a market president. And then
in what would that have been June of 2022? Yeah, June of 2022, they combined the Madison and
Milwaukee markets. And the lady that ran the Milwaukee market had a little bit more time in
than I did. And so they offered her the job to run both markets. And they treated me right on
the way out. But I was kind of on my own for for a first time in a while and not able to work in
radio for a while. So I went to work at a hardware store. Really? You may not have even heard that
story. No, I did. Brand new for you. Yeah. I'm still working there. You still work at the hardware
store? I kid you not. So as you know, you work for Adams, right? Well, I work for Adams
outdoor during the week. But it's kind of like Batman and Bruce, you know, I almost said Bruce Lee.
Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne. Yeah, you have to have an alter ego. And my alter ego is
hardware, man. So I went to work. As you know, sharing I bought a house, we were going to flip it.
Remember that when we bought the house in Algoma. And we still have it. And so I say, well, okay,
I can't work in Madison. I don't want to necessarily take a job anywhere else. I'll just go
ahead and, you know, use this money that they've paid me to go away. And I'll go live up North
all summer. And we moved up there for the summer and decided that that was going to be the thing.
But after about a week and a half of that, I said, I can't do this anymore. I've got to do something.
So I went across the street to the hardware store and said, I'd like to apply. And they said, well,
we don't have any openings here, but we do have an opening at our Ryow Creek store. And Ryow Creek
is basically just inside of Kiwani County and not too far from Sturgeon Bay, but not too far from
Algoma either. I thought, well, it's only five miles. Why not? So I started work there literally
the next week. But I never really walked the store. And when you go to somewhere in the middle of
the country, hardware stores, not the same hardware store as the one in Algoma or in the little town.
This head animal, this, that, and the next thing, stuff that as a city boy, I have no idea what
the heck that's for. I do a lot of learning. And so to that point, when I started here at Adams
in September, late September, early October, they said, would you consider staying on board?
You really kind of mastered this all. And we've learned some things from you and you've learned a
lot of things here. So I still go up there at least one weekend a month and work. Do you have to
wear bib overalls and stuff for? No, no, no, but it is definitely not a suit and tie job.
I didn't hear that story. Yeah. So I've been doing that coming up in two years now.
And you and your wife, Sherry. I, by the way, I was the best manager wedding. So Sherry is a
wonderful human being. You're very lucky. She is very lucky to have you and you're lucky to have her.
You guys started uncorked on main street, which is that you don't own it now, but you started
uncorked on Main Street, which is a wine store. Wine, all you want, uncorked. Still there,
same logo, same everything, but you guys started that. Now we only have a short time here. So
what we're going to do is just start the story and then I'll interrupt you and we'll finish
it when we get done. How'd you start that? So we actually met at a winery in Algoma and it was
always Sherry's intention to get back into the business. She was in banking and miserable. So we
decided about nine months afterward. It was like having a baby right after you got married.
Nine months after we got married, we opened uncorked. So I believe Tony is coming up on his 21st or
22nd year in business. And again, we were there for 10 of that, a little bit over 10 of that.
So Tony Bagonia is now the new owner there and has been for the last almost 11 years and doing
a great job. That's right. You guys did meet in the winery. I remember that now. Yeah,
doing a remote broadcast. Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's right. That's right now. So you got to,
you got to jog my memory. This is why we want to do this stuff because we got to get this stuff
down on, uh, I was just a tape. I don't use that anymore. Kid meet us. He's our WRJ
and historical marker number eight. Mark coming up with Tim in just a moment.
Close your eyes. Give me your hand. Do you feel my heart beating? Do you stand? Do you feel
the same? Am I only dreaming? Is this burning? That song was, was that? No, that wasn't that wasn't
the song Prince Road for the bangles. They wrote the other song for them. Okay. I thought I had
some great radio trivia here, but I guess not. You know, um, Tim and I, we weren't on a mission
to, uh, I think we were going to declare to speak at a Wisconsin radio association broadcast
association conference. And we stopped at Frenchy Bhutan's funeral. Remember that? Yeah, I do
remember that. Yeah. On the way there, we have Frenchy Bhutan. It was the weekend of his funeral
and he was buried. He was a funeral was in Burlington at Judy Daniels. Mm hmm. And we stopped by
the way there. And all I remember saying, where's Frenchy looking for a casket and his wife,
Kathy said he's right there. Where? There's a little tiny box. Yeah. Frenchy in it. So we,
you know, I ironically have been to a couple of other broadcasters,
generals, uh, since and it seems like, uh, they're all, uh, going with the cremation. Uh, and again,
that not to make any joke of it at all, but I just kind of think that maybe that's something that, uh,
is, is kind of appropriate because, uh, the idea of cremation is that you can scatter your ashes
and we'll still be on air. How long have you been holding a little bit of a joke? I've
been holding that one in your back pocket for I made that up on the spot just like I did for
13 and a half years working there. So never meant, never meant to think or plan to think
in the whole time I was there. So you and I stopped at a Perkins, I remember.
The I love story. And I got and I got a salad and I asked him not to put something on the salad,
they did it. And they said, hold on, we'll get you another one. They came back two seconds later
and the things were missing. And I know for sure the guy stuck his fingers. If I remember correctly
was black olives. Yes. And the guy kept licking his fingers after he was walking away.
I'm sure he picked them out with his fingers out of my salad. And I didn't want to eat it
afterwards. But, uh, yeah, you were, you, do you still run? Uh, no, I, I have a, a little bit of a
heart condition and two brand new hips. Wow. You are Robo cop.
Well, surely, surely after I moved to Madison, I caught pneumonia and I had a collapsed
lung and they died. And then they also found out that I had been born with a defective heart. So
no more running. Yeah, I had a heart valve put in. Everyone's got a heart is a standard of
procedure now to get a new heart valve or new something with your heart. Well, you take care
yourself. So now you sell for atoms, which is one of the biggest billboard companies in the state,
if not the biggest one. Uh, actually, yeah, we're still number three, but we try out harder than
harder. So we're not like Avis. Anyway, once all said and done, we have a significant amount
of inventory in Madison and also overseeing Kenosha. Uh, but, uh, you know, still the, the big
guys on the block are clear channel and obviously Lamar too. But again, it's, it's a lot of fun.
I've got a great sales staff here that I manage and have for the last year plus, uh, just really,
you know, again, a nice extension of, uh, you know, what we were able to do in broadcast as well,
a lot of the same clients and being able to get a different perspective in marketing as well.
And by the way, once you buy a billboard, uh, from Tim, he'll give you a discount on nails and
screws at the hardware store. You'll get a 10% discount, right? I'll even deliver. Okay, so tell
you about some of your legacies here. Everybody leaves something behind with the radio station.
You were from many, many years. You must have left something behind that we're, that we have today
that we wouldn't have had without you. Well, I think the big thing is you look at the timing of
when I got there in 1997 and the internet was obviously taking off about that time and so much
of what we did during that period of time from, uh, again, 1997 to 2010 was really very much related
to how do you make this work for you as a broadcaster? Uh, how do you make this work for the audience
and be able to deliver that information in a timely fashion? So the two things that I was thinking
about is number one, obviously, uh, we, we did, uh, with websites and had good websites out there,
but at the same time audio streaming so that people could actually listen, uh, not necessarily on
their devices at the time, but on their computers, uh, and, and, and really kind of take it with them.
In, in particular, when you have, uh, you know, city grade signals that are not the big 50,000
lot stations, people that work in the walkie, you know, maybe not be able to get 92 one at that time
in a building downtown, but they could certainly get it on their computer. So I think that's number one.
The number two thing, uh, really is podcasting and I was thinking about this a lot because you kept
telling me when the 10 o'clock rolls around today that my interview is going to be on a podcast and
I'm thinking, well, wait a second here. You were kind of podcast, uh, pioneers in that we would
literally have Tom Carco do two or three new cast, newscasts a day and put them on to, uh, a podcast so
that people could, you know, stay up with what was news, uh, while they were at work or whether they
were doing other things. And then our Saturday morning programming on WRJM also was podcasted. So
we were maybe five, ten years ahead of the rest of the country and podcasting, uh, and all that,
you know, thanks to a gentleman by the name of Al Pervin. I don't know if, uh, you guys all still
do the websites, uh, through Al, but, uh, intertech media, if you remember him. Yes. Uh, you made the
suggestion. I thought, well, why not? Let's try it. And so Skip Bliss said, give it a shot. You know,
what do we know? We don't know. We don't know and we're sure enough. We were kind of the pioneers,
uh, at least in that part of the state. We don't know what we don't know. I remember that we don't
know what we don't know. And then Bob Daley would turn around and say, they must know something. We
don't know. That's right. When somebody would change a format out of what we were doing, they'd say,
some other city would change from the format that we thought was the best in the world. He would
say, but what do they know that we don't know? And that's true. I mean, they know something because
they made the, you know, the more I think about it, maybe they didn't know squat.
They, they at least expected something, right? Now you got to do Barney fight for me. Even if you
just say, oh, yeah, now, yeah, now, and I know, and I'm in routine. I listen to Don Rosemann W.R.J.
and tell you, you know, I love it. That's, that's sniffle that he does. That's a lion. I love doing
these, uh, historical marker things because I love talking to people that I really enjoyed working
with now. Some of the people are doing. I didn't work with. So I've got to bring other people in to
help me with them because I wasn't here during their career, but I was here for you from the,
on the first day with that purple pickup truck that pulled into our parking lot to the last day,
you were, as a matter of fact, I think your last day here was just far one of my heart surgery.
Yeah, it was, uh, you were about two weeks. Yeah, later. Yeah, give it a go. It was, it was, uh,
a whirlwind. It was one of those things you didn't see coming, but at the same time,
things happened for a reason. And, you know, once you put all that aside, uh, the shock and
everything, uh, it, it certainly is a progression. And the, the one thing I am so regretful of in my
life is I didn't allow any visitors into the hospital. And I didn't know you were in the lobby
when they said you have a visitor who wants to see you. And I said no visitors. And it was you
were in the lobby of the hospital to come visit me at St. Luke's. And I didn't let you up because
I didn't want anybody in there. Tim, hold on the line. Don't don't hang up yet. Tim Edis was our
vice president general manager. He is WRJ and historical marker number eight. If you missed any
of this, you can hear the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, type in down rows and show.
Excuse me. And you'll find it. Just look for hour number two from today. Thank you, Tim.
Do appreciate it, my friend. You're welcome. Thank you. Stay right there.