are you being known for primarily for its annual award show when he does a lot
more from annual scholarships to promoting the music scene and of course the
whammy awards the Wisconsin area music industry organization brings together
fans and musicians on the phone to tell us about the upcoming holiday parties in
Green Bay and Milwaukee and upcoming award ceremony is vice president Ron
books Ron welcome to maxing radio well thank you very much for having me and
hello Wisconsin are you gonna are you written for the Packers Ron of course
excellent that is awesome where where are we calling you at tonight in
Wisconsin I am in Nina Wisconsin okay so right up in in Lambo Field
territory almost yeah and I was one of those little kids along the rails and
looking through the fences back in the 60s when I grew up in Green Bay so Packer
fan forever wow that's incredible Ron whammy has been promoting Wisconsin music
for more than 40 years give us a brief brief history of the organization well
some 40 years ago a group of fellas most of them were either booking agents or
other people involved in the music industry got together and actually the first
address for the for the organization was the summer fest headquarters but the
the general idea is to promote music in general in Wisconsin and to create a
better scene and to honor and recognize excellence within the music
situation so it's just been a long a long time and it's it's been an
interesting ride so Ron when did you join whammy and why why did you join this
organization and become vice president well I was a band leader and living up
here in the Fox Valley there was always a feeling that you really weren't a
part of things and I just decided that for promoting the band that I was in I
had to meet some people that were in different parts of the state so I started
going to some whammy meetings and I think the way I ended up on the board is you
know once you show up for something a few times they are interested in your hot
number so eventually I was asked to join the board which was many years ago
now now I heard you started off in the green room or managing managing the
stage at the award show yes now rocker I think you've presented at the
award at the award show have you not I have okay and and I know Terry has been a
co-host and I am the person for many years now who gave you instructions right
before you wanted to do the envelope oh that is awesome yeah that was a good
time I think that I gave away that award in Appleton when you guys had the
awards ceremony up there oh okay beautiful Fox cities P.A.C. what a great
what a great venue a beautiful venue tell us about the whammy scholarship
programs you know who's eligible what do the scholarships do for Wisconsin
based artists well they're basically for for young kids middle school on up
and it's something that's a little bit new we've formalized it a little bit if
anybody is to find out about the the requirements and such the best place to go
is right to our website which is whammy.org and everything that you need to know about it is
there but it's mostly for young people and giving them opportunities it takes a
recommendation from the teachers so we're we're trying to be more aligned with schools and youth
programs uh Ron books from the whammy w-a-m-i the Wisconsin area music industry uh the whammy
had two holiday or has uh two holiday parties coming up uh one is tomorrow you guys going to be
rock and Brady Street at Nashville North and the second one is January 22 or 21st in Green Bay
at the epic events center tell us about this holiday party well you know we usually have it
every year it's open to the public um it's always held on a sat or on a Sunday because that is
one of the nights when everybody who normally would be playing is not playing and so it's open
to the public there's no charge for it and of course it is going to be at Nashville North
tomorrow night so we're expecting it's going to be a uh packer victory party as well as a holiday party
there you go and guess and then next week which is going to be Sunday the 21st uh we will have a
similar uh event at the epic events center uh which is Green Bay's newest and uh just an awesome
concert center i don't know if any of you have ever been up there for a show but it is just an
awesome place we've heard good things about it uh looking forward to getting up to Green Bay
sometime and checking it out and then the definitely worth the trip the uh whammy award show in
ceremony takes place uh uh is it May 19th is that right is that day right it is Sunday May 19th
okay and that is to be held at the epic event center in Green Bay oh the party going on is kind
of a kickoff and getting everybody acquainted uh we'll have a duo there performing would be Paul Hanna
and Chris Hannaway who are very very well known musicians in the Green Bay area uh and of course
we do have live entertainment going on at the one at Nashville North as well that would be a duo
called until dawn and then a group uh by the name of would you kindly and if fans wanted to vote
for their favorite whammy bands right now how do we do that well we have partnered with broad
jam to bring the voting system that's used for country music association and many other things
and many other programs so it's actually done in three steps the steps right now that is open
is registration uh and you would go directly to the website again whammy.org um in this registration
section anybody can nominate anyone so this is open to the public uh when we get to the first of
two rounds of voting uh then we that will be for members there is also a people's choice section
which is not for just members that's for everybody and that's divided into four quadrants in the
state northeast northwest uh southwest and southeast um which is something that we have been
doing uh it's been very very popular uh just in the last year uh i would say let's see
mammy has normally had about two hundred to three hundred nominees every year and of the voting
it'd be about one thousand to two thousand votes um our system now with the two round system we've
had forty three hundred nominations seven hundred eighty finalists and over one hundred thousand votes
over the two rounds of voting so it's just exploded and wide open uh across the state now
now i'm a musician in uh whammy member but if if i'm not a musician can i still join whammy
is there something there for fans as well yes there is there's a fan membership we have
several different levels of membership starting at a fan membership which is nine ninety five a year
uh and the if you register as an artist that's fourteen ninety five a year and uh in addition to
just being a whammy member uh partnering with broadjam uh you get a single membership for a year
with broadjam which if you were to go directly to broadjam for that it would be a hundred bucks wow
that sounds like a great deal and plus the awesome deal plus the money that you're paying
it's going to a good reputable non-profit is going towards scholarships bettering the arts and
music industry here in Wisconsin is a win win for sure uh this is great and i'm excited about
the uh green bay uh award show because that's great i watched the live stream last year
when you were all in milwaki and it seemed like everybody was really excited to get up to green bay
this year oh absolutely and it was a sold out show in milwaki uh we're looking for big things in
green bay and it's really part of our effort as an organization to to be more statewide rather than
you know for many years things happen in milwaki but uh we've we've had it at the Foxy's P.A.C
now at the epic center so we're trying to branch out who knows maybe we'll have it in the North
West sometime maybe we'll take it to Madison one of these years oh we're all at the red carpet for
you uh whammy dot org w-a-m-i dot org to get all the details become a member and make sure you uh
nominate some of your favorite bands it's uh a good way to support your local music scene uh
run books thank you so much for taking the time tonight we really appreciate what you do
and we appreciate the whammy's and we really appreciate appreciate you uh uh
partnering with us and and having local music on the radio um after all you're a musician
i'm a musician we always want to hear our stuff on the radio don't we that's for sure
all right uh thanks brother we appreciate you run all right thank you for having me
i have a great night night run let's do some uh new music here from up go pack go yeah new music
from free dirt now this is outdoor cad it's max ink on civic media we are local music
