Saturday night across the Civic Media Radio Network, 844-967278984496 party call or text
from the Civic Media app. You don't have the app. I'm going to find out your favorite app store
at civicbedia.us. Jimmy the Wisconsin area music industry awards ceremony now in its 42nd year
will be held at the Epic event center on Home Gren Avenue in Green Bay on Saturday, May 18th.
Voting for nominees has already started and here on the phone to tell us about the important
deadlines and how you can be a part of the selection process is Whammy, Vice President,
Ron Books. Ron, welcome to Maxine Gradyo. Hey, thank you for having me. Appreciate you being here
and hello Wisconsin. So what's happening up there in in in Green Bay is all the snow finally
melted up there. What's what's happening with the weather? Oh, it's all melted. It's a little
unusual this year. We had like 60 degrees the other day. So it's all pretty well gone.
Well, no frozen tundra. Well, you never know. So for those who may not be familiar with Whammy,
tell us a little bit about it. The Wisconsin area music industry. It's mission and what it means
for an artist to be recognized with an award. It is the oldest and the original organization.
Our mission is to educate and bring attention to excellence in Wisconsin and the music scene.
So it's a challenge to get across the whole state. It's a big big area to cover. And of course,
we have programming and certainly we have some scholarships that we go about giving out.
But basically it's about honoring and making sure that we help the entire music scene in the state
of Wisconsin. And that's no small task. I mean, it is like you just said, it's it's a big state which
would explain why for the very first time I believe you guys are going to have the award ceremony
in Green Bay. That's kind of a big deal. Yeah, we've had it in the Appleton at the Fox
city's PAC a few times. And we've certainly had it in Milwaukee many times, but certainly it's
part of our effort to get out and around the state. Talk about the scholarships that Whammy offers.
And because that's really what the programs about other than promoting local music, but it's
about helping other people talk about the scholarships. Well, we have what we call a seed
scholarship and actually the applications for that close not too long ago, but we should have
some announcements on that as we get toward the show. But basically it's for students,
people that are well under 18 or students that are going on in music. So just a little
something to help them out and keep them inspired. Now let's get back to Green Bay a little bit
because you know, I wanted to talk about where the actual award ceremony was going to be held. It's
going to be held at the epic event center. And as I understand it, this place is exactly that
epic. Tell us about the epic event center. Well, it had some capacity of about 2000,
but they've been running major concerts there. It's a it's a venue that is not as big as say
the Rush Center, but it's a good venue for you know, 2000 seats or so. Recently they've had
the struts there. They had night ranger there. They've had several shows that have gone over very,
very well. And it's it's the newest and most popular venue. Actually we get a from my understanding,
a lot of people come up from the Lockheed to the event center just to see the artists that they have.
Nice. That's really says something about it. So so you said this epic center is is relatively new.
So do you have any other little new things, little hidden secrets about Green Bay that we can
check out? Well, were there or that anybody can check out while they're there?
Absolutely. Well, first of all, the epic center is located up in the entertainment district
that surrounds Lambo Field. So everything is up there as far as venues and entertainment hotels,
everything that you would expect for a nationally football city. And then of course we are going to
have a program of artists performing on 18th, which is the night before the whammies. So what we're
trying to do is have a whammie weekend with all of the hotels there and get as many people nice
and come in and enjoy the air just and certainly max some of them and civic media are part of the
whole program up there. We're going to be broadcasting live from our Green Bay affiliate WGBW
up in Green Bay on Saturday, May 18th rocker Terry Varver trying to put KJ in the car as well.
Get her up there. Strap me to the top. We're going to do our show on Saturday night from six to ten
from the Green Bay studios. And we're going to be enjoying the live music and we're hoping to have
people out in a ball at bars giving us live reports too. We can't wait. It's going to be a good time.
Yeah, we will even have kind of an open house party there. You people will need to stop by.
They must stop by. Ron, tell us about the voting process and where we are in that timeline right
now and how fans can vote and when they can vote. Okay, right now the first round of actual voting
is open and that will be until Friday, March 8th. And of course, we're going to be a second round
of voting. That will start on March 2nd and it will end on April 12th and then everything gets
total up and finalized and winners are announced at the show. Give those dates. I'm sorry, give
us give those dates again when voting. Voting is going right now for first round when is it end?
It ends on March 8th. And the second round starts when? Friday. And the final round of voting starts
on Friday, March 22nd and closes at midnight on Friday, April 12th.
Got it. Put those on my calendar. Got it. We all wrote it down.
And now the whammy is going to say as far as voting goes, there are categories which the general
public can vote in which is the people's choice categories and that's total up on a quadrant
basis, northwest, northeast, southeast, southwest. And so that's open to everybody. But there are other
other voting categories that are open to whammy members. Final like the Grammys where you have to
be part of the academy to vote for a lot of things. But we've added that people's choice just because
everybody loves to do it. And we want to get the participation of everybody. Now do I have to be
a musician to be a whammy member? Not at all. Okay. We have several different categories. One
of them is a fan. You can be an artist. You could be a venue, different membership levels. But
no, you do not have to be a musician. You just have to be interested in music. And incidentally,
our show on May 18th is open to the public. You don't have to be a whammy member to attend.
Wow. Now I heard broadjam who does the voting tabulation for the country music awards and the
Mama Awards has partnered with whammy to provide the voting structure and accuracy. Can you comment
on that? Well, it's something that we started last year on the partnership. So, you know, we
tweak it and get a little bit better every year at it. But the great part about it is it has
generated just a flurry of more votes. We have, as of today, we have already surpassed the number of
votes that we had last year in two rounds. Wow. That's amazing. Congratulations. And that's over
last year we had a little bit better than a hundred thousand votes total. Wow. That's a big number.
Well, fans could go vote for their favorite artists, their favorite songs, their favorite drummer
bass player. By the way, you can also vote for your favorite local music radio show and podcast.
Oh, my God. All that is absolutely. All that right now at whammy.org, w-a-m-i.org.
Ron, thank you so much for taking the time for joining us this evening. And most importantly,
thank you for the effort and the love that you have for the local music scene here across Wisconsin.
Well, thank you for your support as well. And I appreciate you having me and have a great show.
You too, whammy, weekend, happy and up in Green Bay at the epic event center. Sunday,
May 19th, we're going to be in Green Bay on the 18th broadcasting live and party in from Green Bay.
Won't you join us? It's going to be a good time. This artist.
You're going to make the show, right?
Oh, yeah, why not? Go it now. I mean, no, we have to go.
I think I think I have a seat for the red carpet, you know?
Awesome. Yeah. Thanks, Ron. Appreciate you. This artist, one artist of the year last year at the
whammy's is Amelia Ford on Maxine, Maxine Gradyo. We are local music.
