And good morning. This is what I call WRJ and historical marker. These are people who worked
here in the past were coming up to the hundredth anniversary of WRJ and December 6th of next
year would begin our hundredth year. And we're trying to get all the people to work here
over the years before it's too late. I hate to say it like that, but before it's too
late because, you know, it's a reality. People pass away and when you're dealing with a hundred
year old radio station, you lose a lot of people. So we're not going to do that with Tom Mountain
today. He's our WRJ and historical marker number 14. And joining us is our former news director,
Tom Carco, who's got all the history of everybody. So Tom is here when we do these. And
thanks for joining us, Tom. See there are two Tom's here. So Tom Mountain. Yeah. Thanks for
joining us. I do appreciate you coming down here. So you work, you still work, but you
work at the casino, right? Right? In Milwaukee. What do you do there? Clancy air.
Clancy air. We have an 1833 club. And I sit at the door and make sure that they belong
in the room. Let me see if you're on the list or not. Don Rosa. Goodbye. You're the muscle.
You're the muscle. Not the bounce of security. Okay. Let's see. Don Rosa. Get out of the
list. Security, please. Guys him. So let's talk about your years here. Now you started
here according to Tom's notes. You didn't remember when you started here, but you actually
started in 1987. How did you wind up here? How did I wind up here? Yeah. I went back to
school at the age of 30. I went through the radio degree program at Gateway. And we
were just talking about Dick Wieland. He was my instructor there. And we had a radio
station right there connected with the school, which was WGTD. Still there. And I said,
why aren't we working over there? You know, the students, I mean, getting some experience.
So I opened the door one day and walked in there and they hired me. And that was really
my kind of unofficial official start and radio. I had to get here to WRJN. Well, I said
I'll resumes everywhere. Even Pennsylvania, oil city and Franklin, Pennsylvania. I think
they think that the twin city, yeah, oil city. And I got there and I spent the overnight.
And the next day I went back to the station and they I said, well, how much were you thinking
of getting, you know, as far as a wage? And I said, I thought, no, don't get to a crazy
time. You know, this is your first time out. I said $4.50 an hour. It's about what I'm getting
now. Yeah. And the guy, the guy's, oh, we reserved that for our job people. Man, I said,
okay, why? You're just doing that routine about, you know, something talking and all the
door I went, yeah, goodbye. I got you. So what was the program director here when Tom Mountain
started? That's an 87 program director. That would have been, you know, ready for that question,
more yet? Wasn't it Ron? I think Ron. I'm not sure. Yeah. Okay. So that's who hired you,
Ron Richards. I assume. I'm 73 now. I have short term and long term memory loss. So who would
have been the general manager then? In 87. Yeah. That was Dex. Dex card. Okay. Dex card was the
owner general manager. Now, when you came here, were you a talk show host or? No, music. Just
distraction. We used to have the FM right in here running on real to real to real. Yeah. Because
that's and every one every once in a while, you know, that they get messed up to the tracking with
and it would introduce Dolly Parton and, you know, some other person would come on singing. And
then you have to go in there and then run this one and then try to get that thing back on track,
you know, rewinding tape and it was the real to real to Dex and the carousels and the cartridges
and the whole nine yards. Yeah. That was the X card. And we even have the cartridges in here.
We have to remember where we came from. Your public would look at that and say that's an A-track.
Yeah. It's not an A-track. But we have to remember where we came from in this business. Yeah.
This is where we came from. Oh, you want to go away away back? Let's talk about the 78 records
that were recorded with programming on them, not just music, program, talk stuff. I didn't come
back that far. Yeah. Okay. So you came here to WRGN and we know he's a talk as a talk show host.
When did you switch over to talk? What happened there? I did become a general monk.
Who was the gentleman that was on before me doing open line? 87 Frenchy Bhutan.
No, it was Frenchy Bhutan. It's actually Frenchy. Yeah. Frenchy did usually afternoons.
By cook. It went from 87. Let's see. Jim Bradley in 87, I believe. No, 87. No, it's not.
Who is it? It was Ron was doing mornings. Okay. Because it went from Jim Sorenson to Dave McGrath,
then to Jim Bradley, then the ownership change, and then I believe it was Ron doing mornings,
and after I think Bob Cook was still around because Bob retired in the 90s. I remember Bob,
yeah, and after that, it would get to the early afternoons and then eventually to Frenchy.
When they came to work and they dropped me in the here, I don't open line. Now, now open line was
a talk show literally. Anyway, it can call in. Right. We didn't have any delay. I know. Now,
we could say that. Now, you had guests at one point, too. You had the mayor and you were just
talking about that chief pose in the Mayor Jim Smith. Did a lot with Racine Unified? No,
I actually did. Well, yeah, I did some things with Racine Unified, but National Night Out Against Crime
was the one I thought. But you know what's different? You didn't do any controversial talk,
like they have today. Oh, I couldn't wear. I just were 50% of the people are going to hate what
you're saying. Yeah, 50% are going to love it no matter what you say. That make a difference.
But you didn't have that kind of talk show. No, no, it wasn't that way at all. It was more just
local school board Bernice Thompson. I, uh, well, maybe get to that in a second. Okay.
Why don't we place something from we've got some things of what you did back then. And let
give people give people an idea of what you sounded like number one. Yeah.
Buy cell, trade, give away or search for a hard to find item. It's all possible with
tradeio every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon. Here on AM 14 WRJM. Hi, this is Tom Mountain.
And I'm looking forward to taking your tradeio calls Saturday mornings at 634 975 634 WRJM.
It's stuff on the same phone number, by the way. So, um, that's what we did stuff on the weekends.
Yeah, I just want to tell you how to work weekends. Oh, yeah. Once had one Saturday off a month,
I think something like that, something like that. And tradeio was like a swap shop type of show,
which we used to have it for years. The problem was now you got the internet. Yeah. And it was
so much easier to do swapping on the internet fast. You didn't have to, you know, you just say,
this is what I want. And a thousand people came up and gave it to you from all over the country,
all over the world. So that kind of did in the swap shop shows. And those are the kind of
programs that we did back then. And it wasn't unique to this station. I mean, many stations
on the country. It's similar things. They just called it something different. So that's the kind
of thing that Tom would do on a Saturday when he had to or he would do also, let's go to number two.
And there would be things like talking to your legislators.
A secure legislator is back on EM 14 WRJN. Hi, this is Tom Mountain. And Mondays are now
reserved for our representatives in Madison. I'd rather stay closer to home. I'd rather be talking
about issues that affect us directly, you know, then focus on some type of national issue. I like
to bring in the the legislators, the local officials and talk about talk about stuff that's
happening right in our own backyard. And that's, that's what we can do with ask your legislator.
Again, there's a show that couldn't tick off anybody. I mean, you can ask your, but you know,
it wasn't like today where you're talking to your local role. Yeah. Yeah. And that little clip
of you talking explaining why you like to do that came from the 70th anniversary program. We did
it Memorial Hall in 1996. Remember that? No. Wait a minute. Let me see if I can find it in that.
Yeah. That's all brings back memories. Yeah. Yeah. Did the legislators. I like that because then
they could ask them the questions and we could have the answers right there whether they liked it
or not. The answer, but we could have a direct direct contact with the legislator and the listener.
And that way, you know, he's not getting secondhand information from me or one of the get one of
the one of the listeners. We're getting it straight from the legislator. And I think that was
more more helpful than anything. If people come to you to get on the air, these legislator
you have to go at times. Yeah. Well, they knock on your door off. Not that too often. They were
knocking on your door. Not really. Because today, a lot of these people knock on our door. Not
everybody, but yeah, they want to come. I don't remember that that happening. I mean, it was a lot
easier. I think back then to get those lawmakers on the air. Yeah. Because there was no internet.
Now they can go on Twitter, right? They could do live feeds and they can do everything they can
get on with podcasts. It didn't exist back in the 80s. Did you get, did you talk to the
congressman from this district at all? Sure. Was that less Aspen? What was that again? Was
that less Aspen? Yeah, I've had, I've had them on a couple of times. Yeah. A couple of times.
Yeah. Less Aspen. Gosh, who was the, the our assemblyman? Oh, man. It's a day now. There's so many.
Was less Aspen. Was he Earth thing? Who was Earth thing? That was Gordon Gailord Nelson.
Gailord Nelson. Yes. Less Aspen was well known in this community for a lot of things that he did
for this community. Well, I heard of his name. And I wasn't even living in the Midwest at that time.
And I heard of less Aspen. Less Aspen got the first air show in this. That's what I remember.
The Blue Angels on the Lakefront. Because I blew it at the time. Was he defense secretary at the time?
Or the, yeah, he helped get the, had a lot of pull to get the air show and the Blue Angels
on the Lakefront and the military. Here's something you did a lot of remote broadcasts.
We did a ton of those where you go out and you do the radio show from a store, from an event,
like, yeah, we did. We did mornings with, with me. We did mornings together. We did.
Did it. Was it with Kurt? Yeah. Kurt, Kurt, who's still on the station here.
Right. I would go out. I would go out and go and go into people's
like, kitchens and feed them breakfast. Did you really? Yeah. Yeah. We go out and
interview them at the kitchen on the kitchen at the kitchen table. People's homes, you went to.
Yeah. Yeah. We go to a certain restaurant. We come, I come in with that hash brown.
I do remember that. I remember. Yeah. But you were getting, yeah, you went out and brought
it over their house. I don't remember that. That was fun. That was. You both went out. No,
it was just me. Just remember that. Remember the, uh, Kurt was back here and you, yeah,
remember the, oh, you were the gym follower to, uh, uh, Marlon Perkins. Yeah. I do remember.
I remember when you did that. Yeah. And you, you, one of the, one of the, one of the best things
that we did was, uh, Kurt Vaughn and I, I don't know if we were talking to anybody from the military,
but he talked about doing the military push-up. I have that. Yes. Yes. And you're,
you're counting them off. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. And you gave me the phone number for the local
recruiter and then we got him in here and we made Kurt do the, the push-ups and, uh, on the air.
The recruiting office was like over the old shopgo complex. Okay. And then what's gave
them all? And they didn't have to go that far. Come on over. Yes. The two Marines was,
to Marines, right? I think so. Yeah. And Kurt Vaughn did push-ups in the studio and you,
and Tom counted them off. Yeah. And we used that on one of our, uh,
the ordinary push-up. I mean, was that, was that, was that push-up and clap? Wasn't it?
What they, what they realized about say, were they real push-ups? Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no.
No, they're real push-ups. He really did. To Marines then. Plus get him in hand today and do some more.
Well, when they ended, other random groceries get closer, we'll maybe resurrect that and Kurt
couldn't listen again. I remember you were in this studio once where we're having an FCC inspection.
Oh, no. Do you remember that? Yes. We had the, it happened twice when I was here. And both times,
I had to assure the FCC inspector around. And we don't want people to talk to them. Just let them go
about their bid. They check the files. They check the station. They check the equipment. They check,
don't, and I remember they came in here and your license was it. This is when you have to have
licenses on the wall. Your license was missing. And I remember you said, I said, Tom, the FCC,
I said, who's this guy in the air? I said, Tom Mountain. And where's this license? I said,
where's your license, Tom? And he said it was the WGTD. And I remember your response,
I said, shall I get off the air? And he said, no, no, just sit there. Just get us a copy of it.
And the funny thing is, it had been there. You took it down to bring the WGTD. And I said,
whoa, and the FCC guy said, I saw him writing. He didn't, but we didn't get a fine or anything
forward though. That was back in the days when you didn't, it was like in court. You don't offer
up everything. You just answer the questions you've asked. I just walked him around. I said,
where do you want to go? Show us the file. Can I show us this? Show us that. It said, okay.
And then there's a missing license. And then I walked in here. He looked up at the license.
He says, who's he? That was it? Because there was empty space. And you took it down. Anyway,
so that was, we didn't get fine or anything for. So that was, that was okay. That's what's
the third cut on here? Oh, we got a good time. We got to come on a little time. Sure. Okay,
I'm sure we get the money. There was one time in 1992 as a JT Journal Times story that talks
about you meeting an older woman at festival park at an event for, you know, your broadcasting for
something. And she had a different vision of what you love. Oh, I remember that. Based on
you, she listened to you all the time. Right. And then she finally met you. And she was kind of
as a dumbfounded, right? Yeah. Why? Yeah. You didn't look like you sounded. Oh, oh, yeah, right.
Okay. I thought you had audio. No, no, no, no, no, no, I was up to believe a political rally.
Okay. At that festival park. And the lady came up to me and she goes, and your time mountain
with that look. I'm sorry. I'm not around here. I expect somebody good looking. If I was
good looking, you'd be on TV. I want a radio. That's right. There's a reason we're on the radio.
Face, face for radio. Yeah. Wow. So you left here in the year. We threw you out of here.
And what year was it? 14 years. I was here. 2000. Yep. Okay. I left here in 2000. And
what do you think? Why do you leave radio? I went to I went to the dark track. Why didn't you
do they put me in the newsroom? Well, why do you want to leave radio though? I'd, I'd
I'd yeah, yeah, that too. It's got money. A little more money. A little more money. Yeah,
because you I did it. Great. The dog track. What did you do? Feed the dogs and walk them with
you? I know. So I ran their gold club. I did some marketing
and they were laying gray. Yeah. We put ads in the in the programs, put ads together.
We did party with the puppies. Sounds like just about in the radio. They did everything
they had to, right? Yeah. So when you were there, you left there. Did you leave before it
closed down or you left? No, I stayed right to the end. We went, we even went to
Meta Madison. We gathered a bus and took all our employees down there and tried one last little
push to, you know, keep it open. Keep it open. And it never happened. That must have been hard.
Having to work through those times because you kind of knew how the end was coming. Yeah. Yeah.
And then, then I just decided to, I was out of work for a little while and I decided to try my
luck at some of the local casinos and help unintended, right? Yeah. Yes, it's pun intended.
But and then I've been a part of what I mean now for 15 years.
Well, we did a broadcast from there with John Tash. And I come with all this radio equipment.
A security comes running all over the place and we had permission to be there. And so I gave
them a name and said, all right, because we had, they were coming in with boxes of equipment.
They, well, you don't know. Yeah. But I gave them the name of the person and I said,
all right, you're clear. So we came with all this equipment, phone equipment and everything.
And we did a whole radio show with John Tash from there. As a matter of fact, from Potta
I hosted, I was the opening, I was the host for John Tash, who appeared there.
And my co-host was Jane Mattenair, who worked for another radio station in Milwaukee.
It turns out she also works here now at Radio Park for WAUK, which is in our other studio here.
She works there every morning, Jane Mattenair. So it's a small business. You never know
you're going to run into people again. That's why you shouldn't yell at people and tick them off
because you never know when you're going to work with them again. Actually, now it's a lot smaller.
You never had the radio bug again. No, not really. I just never, I never got out of
me. I guess I got it out of my system. Wow. Okay. And you live in Milwaukee now?
You moved right over? Can I show you? I live in Milwaukee. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's good.
It was in you, we mentioned, we touched on the fact that you left the announcing part per say
and then shifted into the newsroom. Right. That was a case if we had an opening and
you gave it a try for about a year, right? Right. Right. Yeah. It was tough for you. And I know that.
Oh, yeah. I mean, three in the morning. I got some, sometimes you'd be here
told like three in the morning writing stories for for me morning for the
corner show you in the newsroom. And then and then I have to be back at 11 o'clock. Yeah.
And the morning and start my shift. So I just go there. I couldn't keep that kind of schedule.
Yeah. I don't remember. Why? Why did I block that out? I don't remember you in the
newsroom. I do remember that. And I know you, it was, it was difficult for you. And you,
you worked hard at it. And that was very much appreciated. And then eventually he left. And
I tried my, it's been 25 years. It's been 25 years. I can't believe it. So you weren't in
radio that long though. 84, 84, 87, 14 years. I remember we came, you came back here and you,
you did one more show on a sound off. You hosted one time. And he didn't like it. You just,
you said, I don't want to do this. And we tried to bring you back. You're such a great talk show host.
You had a great talent for it. Well, thank you. And we hate, you know, this, there's a lot of
talent in the business. But when you run across it, you don't want to let it go on. We didn't want
to let you go. And he just said, no, I don't want to do it. But he did show up for the anniversary.
Yeah, but we gave him something to do a talk show back on the station again. He didn't want to do it.
He didn't want to do a Frenchie thing. We're French. He would show up every summer. And,
and do I never work? Yeah. Frenchie did a half the year in Lago, Florida. He played with the
lounge lizard, Frenchie Bhutan. He, he had an organ or a electric piano. And him and his wife
went around to all these clubs. And he was the, he was the lounge lizard. He was the guy who
played the music, had jokes, won liners, and then moved on. Then he worked here. It was off season.
He worked here in the radio, Frenchie Bhutan. He's also a legend. People still ask him,
where is he? Well, Frenchie passed on. Yeah. Like a lot of people. We're talking to Tom Mountain
today. Tom was our talk show host for years on the midday talk show on WRJN. And also joining
his Tom Carkel, former news directing. Did you work any of the jobs before radio? What do you
do? Uh, grocery store. Oh, that's family business in the grocery business. That's right.
Mountain Piggly Wiggly, right? Right. Yeah. I forgot about that in Mayville.
Mayville, Wisconsin. Really? How do they remember? You know, Wisconsin. I can't remember where
you looked my car keys, but I can remember you worked at Mountain Piggly Wiggly. No, I didn't.
No, it worked for my brother. You want me? You want Mountain Piggly Wiggly in Mayville?
My brother. Yeah. My brother is still here. The grocery magnet.
No, it's in the hands of a company out of O'Connor, I can't think of the, he sold the store.
My brother is a 10 years older than me, so he's happily retired. Is that Ralph Maliki, is it?
No. Because I know he owns still some of the rooms. No, no, no. I can't think of it.
Okay. Well, I forgot about that. You started a walk. So how come you couldn't work in your
growing grocery store? He's my brother. He knows the truth about you. I don't want my brother
tonight. I know he's going to mess up everything. He's going to put the cereals where the oatmeal
belongs. No, that didn't work out. So I ended up at Biking Village up in Reesburg, Wisconsin.
I spent 10 years there in Reesburg. And then I had I have arthritis and I couldn't do the job
anymore. And they were nice enough to help me out and and put me in touch with the department
of rehabilitation. Yeah. And I went back to school and took a two year course at Gateway.
So we weren't born? 1950s. No, no, no, where were you born?
Juneau, Juneau, Wisconsin. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So you were you're a local yoke, you were
born. Oh, yeah. Then Wisconsin. Born in red. Where'd you go to? Where'd you go to high school?
Juneau high school. Okay. Last, we were the last class to graduate from Juneau high school.
It could be it came a consolidated district after that. See what we're learning here today. Wow.
See you didn't know this either, did you? No. Wow. This is interesting. We had 50. You used to
just saying you had 950 in your graduating class. 970. 970. We had 50.
Lot shorter ceremony. So, so I ran out of high school. You went to the grocery business in
Reesburg. I attempted to go to college. Attempted. It didn't it didn't take.
When do you want to go to college? Actually, I told Claire from one year. Okay. Okay. So everything's
pointing away from this area. So how do you get down to the Kenosha Racine area? That's a good
question. Now that's why I asked it. Well, it's a long story. Oh, I'll condense it. Give us the
good version. I eventually got out of the grocery business. I ended up at all places Kentucky fried
chicken. And the place I maybe I should have even mentioned it. But anyways, I get I they're
building a grocery store in Reesburg. Okay. A Viking village. And one of the girls that I worked
with at Kentucky fried chicken, she said, you deserve better than this. She said, I know the owner
of that store, call them and see if you can get a job with them. And to make a long story short,
I called them up. He interviewed me and I ended up working at Viking Village for 10 years.
And then my arthritis got so bad that I couldn't do the job anymore. Okay. And then I ended up
with the vocational rehabilitation through the state. And they they were able to put me through
school. And I did a two year degree program at Gateway. And then I ended up in I don't
wanted to do radio all my life. I used to grew up with Bob Berry. Oh, and who we just had on
the air here. A couple of weeks ago. And I love I love to stick. I loved the way he did
the brand the show. And I wanted to be the next Bob Berry. Yeah. And you're not the only
person to say that by the way. I know a lot of people who got into radio because of Bob Berry.
Yep. Oh, W. Okay. Why? Yeah. Yeah. So we yeah, he started in Hartford playing polka music.
Oh, God. Yeah. Really? Yeah. It doesn't mean a TKM. That's where it is. They cattle were
poca. Book a station. That's where he started working it. And then thank you boys.
Then he came down to Milwaukee. He worked at all the Milwaukee stations.
He sounds great. He sounds like he did back in the six years Bob Berry. Yeah.
Yeah. He hasn't changed one. I only was great down on the air. And Chris Morrow, who's the
president of our Southern division here at Civic Media. He worked with Bob. He was the overnight
announcer. Chris Morrow. And he had a set up the morning show. And he said the first morning
he was sweating because here's a legend coming into the building. Right. And this poor little
teenagers got to settle the studio for him. And he worked with Bob Berry. So I had Chris in here
when Bob was on the air with us. So that's what made you want to get into the radio.
Wanted to be a Bob Berry? Yeah. I, uh, I, well, I was going to school. I, I found the job at WNN
all. And I, now that's in Wisconsin, Dell, Wisconsin, Dell. And they had, uh, I can't do this.
But they had, they had a, uh, they had a, they had a, they had a window, you know, like you
could watch the people make fudge. Yes. And they could walk by and they could see me in the studio
doing my, my show. And I'll just, one girl walks by. Okay. You can get. Oh. Oh,
yeah. Right. It wasn't, it was a very derogatory gesture. Yes. I'll never forget that.
Never. So I didn't know you worked at the Dell. Then one day, um, I actually,
let's put on front door unlocked. And I turned around and here's a guy standing right behind me.
And, and I said, sir, I, I, I can't have you in here. And I thought this is going to be trouble.
You know, he's like, oh, okay. So I need just left. He turned around and left. I don't know what
prompted him to come into the booth, but they kind of scared the heck out of me. So
did you work at Tell me Bartlett's water show? No, no, no, no, no, no, just, just, just, uh, uh, I
filled in. I basically filled in, did weekends. Uh, and how old were you when this was going on?
No, I was making $2.50 an hour. How old were you? Uh, 2030. Oh, 30. Yeah. Well, 28, 29.
That's a fun place to work. The Dell's not the winter, but they're in the summer. Oh, yeah.
Place to work. Yeah. Okay. Question. It made me think, did you ever have to sign on the station
here? Doing the morning show before it was 24 hours filling in before, you know, for some of
these applications or sick or something. We did that. I mean, we did. I did the morning show
with Kurt Volman, but not, you know, signed on five 30. Yeah. At that time. Yeah, because I don't
think it went 24. I don't really remember a lot of stations went 24 hours during the, uh, the
four, the goal for and because they, you know, now they had a good coverage. So they kept,
and when they went 24, they just stayed 24 hours. But before that, it was five 30 and we signed
off at midnight. And I was just wondering if you, I, I, you did the early meeting probably,
I remember, at all, the person who was on the board the night before had to stack up all the
carts that we would play the next morning, you know, they're in a carousel in preparing the
morning show, but you had to stack them all up. Um, and so I wondered if you, you did the morning
thing and say, you came in and there were no carts stacked or, no, or something wasn't in place.
Wow. Can't I remember that amongst the remote broadcast that you did, you were recognized by
neighborhood watch. You, you'd mentioned that before. You, you must have had really good time and
relationship with those folks. Yeah. Yeah. You would go out and broadcast the neighborhood watch
and they would do national light out, especially where it would be that in August. And they would
do all kinds of community events and you would go out and broadcast. You would do that. Right.
And you were recognized by them for, for attending them and promoting them and doing all that
must have given you a lot of satisfaction. Oh, yes. I was chief Paul Zane.
You were a good community. Going out in the neighborhoods, it was great. I mean,
giving back to the community, giving them a chance to talk about all the things that they were
trying to, you know, make these neighborhoods safer with the community policing was a big thing
back then, you know, and the different outlets. One of that, one of that, there was an apartment complex.
I think it was six street.
Don't, don't, don't, don't. I'm not banging. He's tapping through loud.
Everything vibrates. Wow. It's okay. No, there was a cop house. COP house. What was that?
A community oriented policing house. No. Yeah. There was in that neighborhood but they cleaned
up this one apartment complex. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. I think it was sixth,
the memorial. Sixth memorial. Yes. Yes. It was really good. It was a community station when you
were here. And we're still a community station now. We still have every morning. There's another
guest from the community in here. The Racine Traffic Safety Commission is always somebody in
here. So it hasn't changed. And that's why when civic media bought the radio station, they used
the phrase hometown radio refreshed. And that's what we're hometown radio refreshed. We're talking
to Tom mountain this morning. This is W R J and historical marker number 14. We're talking to
people who worked here in the past. We want to get him on record because you know, we may,
they may be subpoenaed someday. We want to get all the information we can on them just in case.
Tom Carco, a former news director is working with me this morning doing the program. I want to
get to these clips. This clip is what now we're going to talk about. Just play it. Let's see if
it's out familiar. All right. Joining me is a familiar voice. I'm sure that he's familiar with
the program to you somewhat. Tom mountain. Good morning, Tom. Good morning. Yeah. And you'll be
here too. I'm the color common here. Color common here to provide color common here. Okay,
to throw in your two cents from time to time as well, right? Yeah. A little general. A little
hot air on the program. In general, you'll be helping me to get to know the ins and outs of the
program, right? Sure. Now that sounds good. Who is that? That's Jim Walker, the late Jim Walker.
Oh, that's Jim Walker. And you guys, he had, I think, been kind of putting the lead of
party line after Debbie. Part of Debbie left at the end of October of 96. And we had to fill
that role. And so Jim was there. And then you were there until we tried something else,
and that didn't work. But that's Jim Walker. You guys are trying to do party line and take,
take that to the, you know, beyond what Debbie had done to which was really impossible. Oh, yeah.
Now, Jim Walker and I, I can recognize his voice. Jim Walker and I worked together at 103.7,
the old W, easy W and Milwaukee for 10 years. And when there was an opening here, I say, come on
back. He wasn't working. He was unemployed. Come on down here. You're a great announcer. Yeah,
great voice. Yeah, great voice. What are you doing at home sitting watching television?
Get over here. And so we brought him over here. And he worked on our FM, which was an easy
listening station. And then when the party line, we need party line filling, he worked there.
I didn't recognize his voice. Jim also did news for us as well, filled in. Right. On news.
Right. Oh, it was, yeah, we lost him several years ago. Jim Polensky was his name,
but Jim Walker's his radio name that he used. Good guy. Really. Good guy. Oh, yeah. Wow.
I didn't even recognize his voice, but he's got a great sound to him. I forgot. Yeah,
a lot of people are not with us anymore. And Jim's one of them. Well, let's talk about
1990. May it got me all. Okay. You go sniffle in the corner. In 1995, Mr. Mountain here was honored
as a friend of education. Horlick High School teacher submitted your nomination because of you
hosting the talk show and talking about timely educational and political issues. And in the
recommendation, the nomination, he is fair in his approach and welcomes school personnel
for their side of the issues. Right. Right. Well, we'd we'd get comments on the air
regarding school board. Oh, yeah, that was very popular. Yeah, that was a very, very popular.
Um, one person comes to mind and we'll talk to him that right after that. But yeah, you and uh,
you had a lot of thought it was good to have their side of the story. I mean, so to speak,
I mean, it's only just fair to have the educators on to give them a chance to, you know,
comment on things that were said over the air. I mean, it's just a good made sense to me.
I mean, it's good to follow up with that. Yeah. Education obviously is a huge part of everybody
of budgets in a community and the history of education in this community, especially going back
decades, uh, is something that is people want to talk about. And parents are involved and
others are involved. And so you got honored. Whoops. Hello. Uh, so you were honored for helping
get the word out on, on different educational issues from the officials with the unified
school district to the teachers union to, to even parents. And, and, and so that was a nice honor
for you. So let's, you mentioned, you mentioned this twice now, uh, certain school board member.
Okay. Let's, do you want to touch on this problem? You can just say it anyway you want to, but
anyway, 1995 is when you got a certain phone call from a certain school board member. We don't
necessarily have to name, uh, and there was, uh, some interesting comments made by the school
board member. You remember that? Yeah. Yeah. Somebody should take them out back and teach them a
lesson or something. Remember that something like that. Wasn't it? Yes. Yes. Yes. And our general
manager at the time, Tony Gazana, actually called the police department because of it. It was a
threat. Yeah. Yeah. You got threatened. Right. I really made the front, front page of the, uh,
journal times. Attention, you didn't necessarily want to have no, I didn't expect that. Oh,
man, I forgot about that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It maybe didn't surprise you given the person who
was talking, uh, at that time. But, uh, it was, it certainly made, uh, got some attention around
here and in the community itself. Right. Wow. I could ask you if the air who that was. I remember,
well, home, I can't read lips. Okay. I'm not good at that. Jeez. Okay. Oh, that was, I forgot
about that. You were threatened. And Tony Gazana took it seriously. Well, yeah, he should. Yeah.
Anytime you get something like that, yes, you have to take it seriously. And now,
especially if something like that were to happen. That's why I'm like doing these historical
markers. All of a sudden you jog my memory on things, you know, happened years ago. I don't think
anybody would go for you because you're harmless. Um, I'm a disc jockey. What do I do?
You're more than that. That's all I am. Just a disc jockey. No, DJ.
Before we get, we're going to start to run out of time here. Let's do one more. The sound clip.
Now, this is just a throw in and see if you can remember this at all. I hope the roto
router commercial comes up because you and I used to dance so that almost every day. Yes.
That was all room dancing. Yeah. We do anything with it and dancing. Yeah. Wow. That was Debbie
Oh, that was Debbie at the 1996 anniversary show. You were interviewing the party line group. And
that's it's another thing. And she brought up a roto router commercial. And you guys apparently
used to dance. And it was a roto router commercial. I don't have any idea about that. You've got me
on this one. I heard that and I said, I've got to bring out the end just to see. But roto router.
Right. What do you do that like the mom ball to the twist or you do that particular
anniversary show with from 1996 our 70th anniversary of Memorial Hall. You got the you had the
privilege of I wrote this down because I can't remember anything either. You had the privilege of
not only interviewing five of the seven party line hostesses. We had five of them together at
one time at Memorial Hall. There's a picture in the in the journal times of that. And you got
to interview the five of them. Wow. Yes. You also in the show. The show was a legend. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Legendary. And the other two had left the station many many years before. Also
on that same show, you're you're you did a show that that we all broadcast from Memorial Hall.
And you also got to interview Polish program host Tony Simczyk. Milwaukee radio legends
Jack Lee and Jack Baker. Wow. Jack Baker, by the way, his first radio job was a WRJN in 1945.
You interviewed engineer Bernie Fox former mayor Owen Davies County board supervisor Ruth
Gettwerd who is also celebrating her 70th birthday that that year. And remember norb trottier.
Yes. I remember the name. Yeah. That's a 70th. That's the 70th picture that Donna showing to Tom.
So he can see it. Pictures I've seen so many times. Oh my goodness. Look at the lineup of that
group. Wow. That's post office material. No great hair in that picture either.
Oh, there's no great hair now. This is a little bit. Not a lot. No, not a lot of
all. Well, this was just fantastic having you in here today. Okay. What we're going to do is
we podcast all these interviews. So people can hear them at their leisure on WRJN.com. You can
go to the or just search Don Rose and show and you'll see all the podcast. I am so happy you came
in Tom. So happy we got to hold you. I know where you were in Tom Carco said, I think he's
spinning the roulette wheel up in the pot of water. Yeah. Yeah. He's the creepier.
I am so happy you came in my friend. Well, it's great being here. You look great.
Well, thank you. You really do. And I'm so happy you're in here in Tom. Every time we do these,
I'm so indebted to you. We're coming in now. How do you have that? No, it's our quite
extensive. Yeah. He's our he's our muscle. He's our brains of the historicals part of this show.
Thank you very much, my friends. Tom. Tom. Thank you. Tom.
Mountain. Thank you, Tom. Marco. Thank you as well. Thank you.
