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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow, powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06 on this Wednesday.
It's August 20th, 2025, and it's another beautiful morning to have you here up north in Wisconsin Rapids.
We are live from WFHR Radio, helping them mark
85 years of local broadcasting and public service.
It is a great place to spend our mornings.
And we thank you for being here, listening across the Civic Media Radio Network, or listening or watching us on all of the different platforms that are out there.
Thanks for starting your day right here.
I got a question for you.
What does WFHR stand for?
We'll tell you about the start of this humble radio station in Wisconsin Rapids, the answer to that question coming up in just a bit.
So we are here live.
We'll be talking with folks here at WFHR, most notably for listeners of this show.
our friend Melissa Kay.
This is her stomping grounds right here and she will be along as part of today's history lesson.
Give us an update on Lelu, the rescue pigeon, and of course the big parking lot party that's going to be taking place here.
We are right across from the state office building in Wisconsin Rapids.
plenty of space in the parking lot here right on one of the main streets running through Wisconsin Rapids where people can stop by and there'll be all kinds of activities to take place here and help the station celebrate that 85th anniversary and talk about the historic role the station has played for decades here in the heart of Wisconsin.
Later we'll also have our regular Wednesday homeroom segment and for all the talk about federal budget cuts
There is also some new federal money being made available to schools, but it's a trap.
It's being billed as a national tax credit scholarship program.
but it's also a backdoor way to fund more vouchers for private schools.
State officials who want to protect public education can try to modify how the dollars are distributed, but State Representative Christian Phelps of Eau Claire will be joining us to talk about how even that funding could eventually be yanked back over to private schools anyway.
Congressman Derek Van Orden, he can't stop, won't stop holding private events rather than public town halls.
to defend the damage being done by his refusal to stand up to President Trump.
One of his upcoming events is a country club fundraiser here in the Wisconsin Rapids area with Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, GYM, and folks in the Wisconsin Rapids area are planning to make sure that both Jordan and Van Orden know that public opinion is not on their side with the things they've done in their session so far.
Plus, we'll have Melissa Baldoff with our climate check and Civic Media friends Earl Ingram and Chad Holmes all along the way.
And then a preview for tomorrow, we will be talking to Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi.
We're talking to her tomorrow because she's got a big announcement to make later today.
At least that's what she tells us.
And so we'll hear the announcement today and we'll talk to her more tomorrow here on the program.
All right, it is
Fog season, according to meteorologist Brittany Merleau, fall-like temps are on the way, mostly dry for the rest of the week.
A cold front could spark a little bit of rain on Friday.
Here's the state forecast for today.
Fog early, and then mixed skies and mild.
Highs will be in the low 70s up north to the upper 70s south, and east wind at five to 10 miles an hour.
Partly cloudy tonight with fog again.
lows tonight in the mid to upper fifties statewide and a light easterly breeze.
The Brewers and Cubs played a double header yesterday and so to help me uh oh gosh Parker Olson's producing the show and I guess to help me call an end to the Brewer's season and all their playoff hopes and and everything is lost now.
I mean just woe is us.
for losing both games of a double header to the Cubs yesterday.
I mean, that's it, right?
We're just jumping off the bandwagon, Parker.
I mean, I am actually like incredibly disappointed that they got swapped in the double header.
I am very sad about that.
I'm perfectly honest.
I had to listen to that freaking Go Cubs Go song two times.
Hey,
I know.
Dan Schumacher was texting me the the W flag, you know that the Cubs fly when they win Which is fair because we send him the L flag, you know all the time far far more often You know and then in recent years.
So anyway in game one the Cubs held off the Brewers six to four Christian yellows broke a week-long drought with a home run They got that five to nothing deficit down to
five before by the sixth inning, but the Cubs tacked out an insurance run to seal the victory.
Then in game two, the Brewers bats went into a full lull, losing four to one, and Brandon Woodruff struggled frankly through four and a third innings, allowing five hits and three runs.
Now the game was an anomaly, the Brewers scored first, and in games where the Brewers score first, they are 55 and 15.
Yeah.
40 games above 500 when they score first.
So
Yesterday was not typical and hopefully they can get back on track tonight for the series continuing in Chicago with coverage beginning at 630 and Jacob Mizorowski on the mound pitching for the Brewers tonight against former Brewer pitcher Colin Ray.
Oh yeah, I forgot he was at the Cubs.
Yeah, so that should be a nice little game that
allows the Brewers to hopefully get back to their winning ways and continue to solidify that lead in the National League Central Division.
Hopefully, yeah, the Brewers, I mean, last night, they had seven hits.
Like the offense wasn't terrible.
They just weren't getting the timely hitting like they normally have been.
And frankly, you know how they, for the last like month, they've been hitting a lot of seeing eye singles.
Last night, those balls in play were blind.
They were going straight to.
Yeah, so
and they were also making they were bobbling some balls defensively that they they'd normally haven't done so they just weren't as sharp and That's the thing about the baseball season.
You're gonna have some games like that and thankfully this year those games have been fewer and farther between
That's true and you're playing the Wrigley, which is a weird place sometimes with the IV
and
all that and oh Did you see the hit last night?
I can't think of what cub it was a hit.
I might have a Nico Horner had a triple
because it hit the outfield wall and it bounced in the like one foot by four foot cutout for the distance number on the wall.
So
it hit
brick instead of Ivy and came like halfway back to the infield.
Yes.
It ricocheted.
It was, it was like a pinball machine.
And, and that's Wrigley.
Wrigley is an unusual place that and Fenway Park.
And I've been to both and they're, you know, obviously they're historic.
They also were both built in 1912, the same year as the Titanic.
So, yeah.
So the age shows now and then.
That's
all right.
Anyway, you have to play the game.
It's still, it's still the same dimensions on the ball field, you know, 90 feet to the bases.
So let's just, let's just get it done tonight with Mizorowski back on the mound, 60 feet, six inches away.
Baseball, game of numbers.
So again, my thanks to everybody in Wisconsin Rapids here.
I came in yesterday afternoon to help get set up and folks who are watching on Facebook or YouTube can tell we're not in the studios because obviously they use the studios here for their morning shows on WIRI and WFHR when they do their local cut-ins.
So we're here in one of the palatial offices with, you know, the fluorescent lighting and the white walls, which if you have even a little bit of a tan like I do,
It just makes you look down right orange, but you know, it's it's not TV kids.
So
or you can be in here and look ridiculously paper white like me.
I guess it would look really washed out in a in a bare bones office in Madison.
Yes, we
We totally get it.
It's it's all about it's all about the sound that comes out and making you feel good and informed as we talk to you along the way.
But everybody's been great here.
And now this is not their original home.
The stations changed a few times over 85 years.
But they still do have some great artifacts here, I guess you could call it, you know, old radios.
They've got some old newspaper articles up about, you know, I mean, once upon a time, pre TV,
You know, I mean, your local radio station, that was it.
And there's some big newspaper ads about all the many programs that would air the local institutions, local voices that you could always just count on for years.
And people are really going to enjoy seeing that during the parking lot party, which I believe is noon to six today out here in Wisconsin Rapids, just across from the state office building.
But I love this stuff.
I love old radio stuff, as as I'm sure will surprise nobody.
A buddy of mine, uh, while I was helping him move, he showed me some really old newspapers from like the forties and I was geeking out.
It was so cool.
Thank you for saying really old newspapers from the forties and not the eighties or something like that.
That's
a,
that would have been cruel, but you know, so to this day, of course, WFHR has been many, you know, has had many different formats as, as most stations do.
In fact, today is national radio day.
It is
marking the what is it 105th anniversary or something like that of one of the first commercial radio stations out of Detroit.
We're going to talk about that in today's history lesson coming up in just a little bit.
And by the way, I mean, look, WFHR is what 85 years old.
does not make them a relic by any stretch.
I'm looking around and I'm seeing some Wisconsin Broadcaster Association awards from quite recently for the work that the folks here continue to do in the community.
And that's why we're so glad to have people listening here.
And frankly, to any of your local civic media radio network stations, it's great that we have all this new technology, you know, YouTube and Facebook and everything that you can catch us that way.
But
There's still a lot to be said for local radio, the role that it plays in news, the role that it plays in emergencies, like really bad weather.
And of course, all the fun stuff that you can do that, you know, some, some satellite music, you know, syndicated thing can't do.
There's just no substitute for local radio that way.
No, they can't bring you pigeon quest.
They can't bring a pigeon quest either.
So yes, Melissa Kay will be along before long and we'll talk about that too.
So we've got a lot to tell you about over the next couple hours here about what's happening in Wisconsin Rapids.
And then later, Todd Alba will be here.
And I, yes, I know when I first got here and it was dark and nobody else was here yet.
And so I shot a video for
my facebook and i was like yep i guess i'm really early i'm the i'm the number one fan of the todd alba show he's he's gonna be here just just you wait and see and and he will todd alba will be coming along here doing his show from two to four a much different setup than what i've got i work off of two laptops two microphones some headphones and a wi-fi i'm good um
Todd uses the thing that involves, you know, satellites in orbit, you know, syncing up just right.
And he's got the he's got the dish and he's got the the tables and he's got I mean, he's got like
a monitor and lights and stuff.
Oh, he is he is just a one man studio and watching him set it up and tear it down as a thing of wonder.
And I say that because we can't we've all offered to help.
And he's like, nope, nope, I got this.
And he's right.
He knows where everything goes.
It's just faster to just do it yourself.
So you just sit back and enjoy the show.
So you want to be here at WFHR if for no other reason, tend to watch Todd set up and tear down for his show a little bit later on today.
This is a message for Aaron Zahmers.
Please do not end the live stream until
everything has taken down.
I want to watch this
happen.
Keep it up as late as humanly possible.
Yes, exactly.
Roger is, I'm closer to Roger than ever before.
He's in Stevens Point on Facebook talking about already strope being the longtime voice of WFHR for 40 years, including the Coffee Clutch call-in show.
Yes, that was legendary.
Here at WFHR, which stands for William F. Huffman Radio.
Yes, William F. Huffman was the founder of WFHR.
And of course, Roger had that put that up on Facebook as well.
From the heart of America's up north and hey, frankly, from the heart of Wisconsin here in Wisconsin Rapids, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
live from Wisconsin Rapids at WFHR radio that we'll be telling you more about throughout the course of the morning.
And then Todd will be talking about it again this afternoon, marking 85 years of broadcasting and local service, a lot older than up north news, only in our 60 year here, but also enjoying the public service that we provide through things like our newsletters that you can sign up for it up north news wi.com.
And in the addition today, there's a story about a new invasive species.
that has Wisconsin officials on alert.
It's called Japanese Stiltgrass, a fast spreading plant that chokes out native vegetation, dries up forest floors and increases wildfire risk.
It's now been confirmed in Rock County and possibly two other places in Wisconsin.
So again, learn more about that.
There's also a link to an article on our website that I know I talked about once before.
some of the quirky traditions on Wisconsin college campuses.
And then finally there's details on the story we were talking about last week, my story on Governor Tony Evers vetoing a bill that was aimed at gig workers.
And again, the headlines made it sound like Governor Evers was vetoing this bill that would benefit gig workers.
That's certainly how the bill was sold.
That's not exactly what the bill would do.
It opened
the door toward a way to get benefits for delivery drivers who are independent contractors.
But with no requirement to do so, it's unlikely that the companies would have taken part.
Moreover, it's what else was in the bill that was concerning to Governor Evers and others, basically expanding the definition of independent contractors, because then those folks aren't considered employees anymore.
which means you don't have to provide them with certain benefits or other worker protections.
So to learn more about that, be a subscriber to our newsletter.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Sign up for that.
Sign up for my Sunday morning politics newsletter as well.
And that includes our question of the week.
This week is, what do you think Donald Trump's next job position should be?
Because,
you
know, Sean Duffy thinks that he should be a future
transportation secretary like he is now.
I don't really see that in Donald Trump's future.
How about you?
What would you like to see him do next?
We're getting a lot of good responses in there so far.
In the headlines today, you've got President Trump truly giving mixed signals would be putting it generously.
as far as what's going to happen next with Ukraine with the Russian invasion of it.
Trump talked to several right-wing media outlets in the past day or so and basically tried to have it several different ways that no U.S.
troops would not be, you know, on the ground, but yes, there might be, you know, U.S.
air support for providing security guarantees.
Will there actually be security guarantees?
He says, well, that depends.
He
talks about wanting to get Vladimir Putin the Russian dictator and Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine in a room together but Putin won't even recognize Zelensky as the rightful president of Ukraine which is rich coming from a dictator.
This is all to say that for all of the obsequiousness of Trump meeting with Putin last Friday and
You know, a lot of words being said the other day at the White House with Zelensky and European leaders, there's still nothing real concrete to show for all of this, just a lot of vague language coming from Trump.
Well, the same can be said about something else as well, and that would be the National Guard in the nation's capital.
And the stories there today reflect that these are people without
lot to do because for all the talk of high crime in Washington DC and the need to crack down the National Guard troops are so far being restricted to tourist areas Which is problematic in two different ways from a tourist standpoint How do you like coming to your nation's capital for a tour and seeing armed soldiers and tanks and other personnel carriers and looking like There's a military occupation of your nation's capital
And at the same time, for all this talk about crime, they're not in the neighborhoods where crime is said to be rampant, and why would they?
They're not local law enforcement.
They don't know the territory.
They don't have a role that local law enforcement does.
To whatever degree they can assist local law enforcement with something, then
that conceivably could be a positive thing.
But again, much like I was talking about with Todd Alba, setting up and tearing down his gear, you're most likely just in the way and should just let the people who are doing the job have the space and the resources they need to get the job done.
That of course is not the Trump way.
Nor is it the way for some Republican governors who are supporting Trump in this endeavor.
They have pledged in what six or seven different states to send at least a couple a hundred National Guard troops each Which if I were in one of those states I would be wondering about the cost of that and whether there wasn't something else that our National Guard members could be doing at home rather than going to a place where they are at
best glorified tourists.
And at worst, as we've seen in some videos, they're the target of protest.
They're Washington DC residents who have gathered around some of the troops to, you know, shout and cheer and cheer, you know, not at them personally, but just at the very notion that they have to be there because they don't have to be there.
But that is the police state situation we find ourselves in, not just in Washington DC,
Heck, even in Texas, where Democratic lawmakers finally came back to work at the state Capitol and have found that they are being tailed between their Capitol and their homes by police on state orders.
Literally a police state that you have with the Republican governor in Texas.
And none of these things are temporary if these leaders had their way.
So the trick is to set up conditions where someday, perhaps as early as next November,
They won't get to have their way with things like this anymore.
We'll have more from Wisconsin Rapids.
We're live here at WFHR Radio.
That's coming up right after the Midwest Farm Report.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Coming to you live from the studios of WFHR Radio in Wisconsin Rapids, where they are celebrating 85 years of community service.
I'm Pat Crite Low.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you on these mornings, powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We're going to be joined by James Maloof here at WFHR in a little bit.
Melissa Kay will be coming along as well to be part of our history lesson, as she always is on Wednesdays, except now she gets to do it in person.
A reminder that if you can't catch the show live and would rather listen on demand or listen back at some point to an interview, the best way to do that is to simply, as I like to say, pod this program and head over to Spotify.
You can do it on Apple as well and get yourself signed up to be a subscriber follower.
It doesn't mean you have to listen every day, but you're there and we appreciate that so much.
Again, Spotify, Apple to get your podcast.
But let's get back to the focus of, here's the center of it all right now.
I mean, it's WFHR, but somebody has to be, you know, the personification of it.
James, I guess that's you.
Oh, let me turn your mic up here.
Congratulations and happy.
You don't look a day over 84.
It's really good to meet you, Matt.
This is
the first time you and I have had a chance to really talk or anything.
So it's really good to meet you and I appreciate you being here.
Here, slide on in here.
There we go.
Otherwise, it has that look like...
What was that old Tonight Show bit where the one guy's behind the other?
We don't want to have that.
Tell folks about yourself and your role here at the station.
James, I've been here, well, this is my second stint with WFHR.
When I first started in radio about 22 years ago, I signed on when WFHR and WGLX, another classic rock station in the area, were tag-teamed and I actually got hired at the classic rock station.
I was part-time and I was told that I had 30 days in radio.
And that was about it and to make a run of it and everything.
So from there have been all over doing radio and stayed with the classic rock thing for a while came back here about nine years ago.
And when I did, Bob look brought me back in and a big shout out to him and appreciation to him because this place has been a second home to me.
When I with a skill set like mine, I don't have a whole lot of jobs that I can do.
There's
not a lot of things I could do a lot of work construction, all those things, but
radio gave me a home.
I didn't go to school for this.
I'm an actor.
I'm a writer, you know, I didn't know that I'd have a place WFHR gave me that, especially the second run.
So in this nine years in the time since then, one of the things that I've been very focused on is not only keeping the lights on to be honest with you before, you know, a heart of Wisconsin media and then civic buying us, we weren't really sure where we're going to go and what was going to happen.
And most importantly, for our staff, our listeners didn't know.
And so, you know, they have supported this station for, you know, 85 years, and we want to do right by them.
So my focus was that local.
And then as I started talking with our station manager, Chuck, a little bit more about these things, and we started talking about the kind of radio that I can do, freeform, very open.
I am not a trained interviewer, Pat.
I am not as polished as you.
I am not a polished as half the people here at Civic.
But I can put my own spin on things.
I can do my own thing.
And I can somehow get accepted by
this audience.
But that's really what it comes down to.
I mean,
in whatever form it took over the past 85 years, this station has been about local service in some way shape or form.
And then sometimes it happens in a polished professional manner.
And back in the days when they had to wear tuxedos for
goodness
sakes to broadcast on the radio to now, I mean, you're in the same civic media t-shirt, we all get to wear it's like a company uniform, we all have that.
And in our able, like you said, free form is
Frankly, what I think it's that authenticity that people are are looking for
absolutely,
you know
Yeah, yeah, I don't think that the old standard and nothing against we're not here without the old standard
right
and the trailblazers the people that got us here and everything but the idea of it has to be like this from now
on
We you know, that's not what people listen to they don't engage with that they register more if you're having an open conversation I tell my guests all the time on rapid support and anything
we'll get done doing something and they're like, oh, I stumbled over this word.
I said, no, that's good.
It's okay.
We want that.
That's all right.
That's how people talk.
When we started with Up North News and Courier Newsroom, it was such an adjustment for me to make starting with the most basic thing, having a TV background, I shoot everything horizontally.
And now everybody shoots things on their cell phones, and it's vertically.
And they said, that's what we want.
Like, really?
But you can't see the whole thing?
Yeah, but that's what they want.
They're watching on phones.
And then it was, you know, I would put things on a tripod.
You know to keep the shot steady like oh no no people don't want steady that it looks too polished to you know just hold the camera with your hand and Frankly the same goes for for radio.
It's it's we've never Quite embraced just being yourself more than we have in this day and age But you get to do this you do enjoy it and I mean do you do you have one or two things that you look at your your full career on and say
that was the kind of thing I enjoyed doing the most or that was a moment that you enjoyed doing the most?
Wow.
You know, it's going to be a corny answer.
But early on, I got the chance to talk to we had like, I think it was our 80th or 81st anniversary.
And we, you know, we didn't really have the
the manpower that we had back now and everything at the time.
So we really, Pam, Chuck and I, we really put together a bunch of interviews and bringing in a bunch of people from years past and everything.
And as we started to collect more and more and more, we had like 20, 30 people from WFHR's past coming on the airways for us for like a week to celebrate.
And just getting to talk to those people, getting to do that.
We lost a very important member of our team pretty early on when I came back in Carl Hilke, who is one of the souls of this station.
Very good job.
Very good definitions
of it.
Getting to work with Carl in a light that he hadn't really gotten to do a lot.
He did the morning show with me, and he hadn't done morning shows, but he didn't...
I don't think they tapped into his comedic ability very much.
I had the chance to do that.
I'm honored to have been able to work with him and be on the mic with him at the end there.
It's a
privilege.
And the thing is, it's not just Carl, but I mean, you look on the walls here, there are plaques honoring people who are in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
There have been famous, well, locally famous people, locally famous shows, coffee clutch being among them.
So, I mean, I wouldn't dare
rescue to some of 85 years in just in one interview.
But can you talk a bit more about some of those other famous names and famous shows when people think of WFHR?
What comes to mind?
If I can for a second.
work over at Second City teach over there in Chicago a little bit and on the ways on the way up to the second floor at Second City that this beautiful mural of Farley and Gilda Radner and Belushi and all the people who have passed and it's really well done and I tell my students all the time I don't know how you walk past that not get motivated not not get inspired not get like I want to do I get to do this for a living I walk in every morning and I see those plaques and I'm I kid you're not every morning man I see those and it's a motivator
it's a reminder of what we get to do here.
Then there's a lot of people that could do this.
There's a lot of people that would maybe want to do this job.
We get to be here, you know, so making sure that you appreciate that.
I think that when it comes to trying to keep going what they started and those original people and, you know, people like Chuck's dad and stuff that really got this whole thing rolling, it's supporting this area.
It's making sure that the audience comes first.
It's knowing your audience.
As a Chicagoan, not rambling about Chicago sports, it's, well, actually, they don't mind that because everything that we suck, so it's all right.
When it comes to...
really covering this area.
I think that the major thing that we do, or we can do especially, is especially when we have elections, when we have politics going on, we're able to bring our local representatives on.
I speak with Senator Tess and Representative Krug once a month.
Congressman Kanye used to join us all the time, getting to do that stuff.
And when I'm talking to the community and they have ideas, they have thoughts, they have ideas, anything like that, being a middleman.
for that and
being able to share that.
Yeah, and former state rep Katrina Shanklin will be joining us here at 830.
You mentioned the Rapids Report.
Tell folks a bit about, you know, what what coverage is like today here at the WFHR.
Tell Katrina hi for me.
She's great.
She's
awesome.
When with the Rapids Report, it's kind of our something that Carl started.
And it's really something that I still don't feel like is my show.
I just don't want to break the show.
It's still his show.
But for us, we get to have on local people, local representatives, different things like that, and interview, be able to talk to them, get to know them a little bit more, get our audience to get to know them more.
I think one of my favorite segments on there, we have a monthly visit with Sheriff Sean Becker.
And Sean and I, between you and iPad, I have a little bit of a rocky past.
So Sean knew me and my family long before.
started the radio.
But things change and people change.
And when I first started working with Sean, I was very nervous about that.
He could not have treated me into this day does not treat me could not treat me better.
And
we have such an open dialogue when he first started talking to us was around the George Floyd stuff.
It was along those things.
And we could have an open conversation right here in the middle of Wisconsin Rapids about that.
the people that I have on that freeform conversation, it frees you up to be able to ask questions that might seem harsh or seem like, oh, he's throwing a curveball at me or something like that.
Like, no, we're just, this is something you would bring up in conversation.
Right.
James, tell us about the the festivities today, the parking lot party that's going on this afternoon.
There is so much that I need notes.
Because I
was like, I'm going to forget stuff.
One of the things that we're looking forward to with this is being able to have families come down and kids come down.
Something that's really important to all of us, I'm sure you too, is the next generation of radio and keeping this beautiful thing alive.
We love radio.
We want to keep it going.
You need young people to do that.
I think that our politicians could probably learn something from that.
And having younger people be able to take over the guard and everything.
But that's a whole other story we can talk about some other time.
With this today, one of my main focuses is the kids being able to come in and Melissa does this amazing thing with working with them and kind of showing them a little bit of behind the scenes, how the sausage is made.
They get to record themselves and hear themselves on there.
I can only imagine that the sparks that are going to get created from something like that.
We have a sweet-off
we're doing.
Sweet-off is in desserts.
Take this very seriously.
Not that the Norwegians are feeling left out, not the sweet-off.
It's desserts.
Yeah, we're doing that.
Our bunch of our staff put together treats and stuff and we're gonna have Milton Steele come in and guest judge it along with some of our listeners that come in.
Milt is special for a lot of reasons, was a longtime voice here and a great guy.
He's also in the face of our old cookbook.
We're gonna put together a new cookbook and combined with recipes from locals and everybody.
We're looking forward to putting that together and that's exciting.
We have
Let's see, we're gonna have some food trucks down here.
We're gonna have a little bit of that.
We're gonna make sure to feed people, so bring your appetite.
We're gonna have a bunch of our non-profits down here, which is really one of the sneaky kind of cool things
about doing something like
this.
Yeah, being able to do that.
One thing that I'm really proud about working at Civic, living in this area and this community, the ability to be able to a good cause and a good time.
to be able to do both to be able to swing that that's on paper that's that's not always easy to pull off seems like we do it all the time around here
yeah i mean james you could not be a better ambassador for for a station that yes it may not have been you know your your stomping grounds originally but you have truly made it your own you and the community has embraced you in return so thank you so much for all you've done here especially for for civic as well as a relatively new owner the station's been through several ownership changes over the years as has
basically every radio station and I hope this one you guys find to be good stewards as well for keeping local news and talk and information and community service alive on the radio now.
It's
interesting how 85 years in that original message and here we are with this company and Civic and it's the same message.
It couldn't be in a better play
at hands.
Definitely so.
James, thanks again very much.
Have a great time.
All right, appreciate it.
take that I'll let you he's got he's got another studio he's got a whole thing to run over here including those local cut-ins that get done as part of the Rapids report that you can hear on WFHR and again a parking lot party going on from noon until six today I mean the food trucks if nothing else reason to come by and enjoy some treats along with that sweet off I'm glad we clarified the fins too they get very upset about
leaving them out of things like this.
Today's history lesson is on the way.
I'm Pat Crichtlow.
You're up north.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Wait a minute.
This is not the usual history lesson to music.
Shouldn't there be Dean Martin here or Pat Boone or something like that?
What's what's Robert Plant doing here?
It's his birthday.
That's what it is.
The lead singer of Led Zeppelin, 77 years old today.
So we're gonna go with it.
I like it.
Yep.
It's a good way to welcome in Melissa Kay from WFHR, WIRI, who I thought was going to be sitting right here next to me, but she's still from the home studio here, but for good reason.
And again, it has something to do with all those Swedes who are going to be part of today's sweet off.
You're bringing in desserts.
I am.
And because we don't have a full-sized fridge at the studio, there's
just
not enough space to keep everything cold.
Yeah.
And trust me, I've worked at stations with a full-sized fridge, radio stations.
You don't want that.
They're not great about removing stuff that they didn't get around to eating, shall we say, you know.
Yeah, there's a lot of penicillin that's growing in these places.
But I got to see you here yesterday.
It was nice to
see
you so much for the hospitality.
This is going to be a lot of fun today.
Yeah.
Pat, before you leave the studio, you have to get a picture taken in the photo booth.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
Melissa has set up a photo booth.
Yeah,
Ashley did that.
Ashley did that.
Yeah, it was great.
And what some would say was a supply closet.
Others would stay as Studio A2.
But no, the photo booth is what they've got going on there.
All right.
I
think that's going to be there for pictures and everything.
Agatha will be there.
Agatha.
Agatha will be there.
The mascot.
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuted on this day in 1882.
The National Football League was organized this day in 1920 in Canton, Ohio.
On this day in 1970, the number one album was by Creedence Clearwater Revival called Cosmos Factory.
Here's Travelin' Band from the
album.
I know, Led Zeppelin, CCR.
What has happened to these folks?
Look, this is the number one album of that day.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is good.
But how about this for an album?
CCR had traveling band Cool Stop the Rain, looking out my back door, up around the band, rumble through the jungle.
Their version of I heard it through the grapevine.
I mean, just one of the ultimate classic albums was
not a 100% mistake.
Yeah, 55 years ago today.
This is the anniversary of the birth of the late soul superstar, Isaac Hayes.
Can you
dig it?
We can dig it, yeah.
Al Roker is 71 years old today.
Amy Adams is 51 today.
Fred Durst, I know, I know.
Fred Durst from Limp Biscuit is 55 today.
Singer Demi Lovato, 33 years old today.
On this day in 1991, Spin Doctors released their debut album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite.
It had two princes, it had Little Miss Campy wrong, and it did pretty well for a debut album, tell you that.
You
never knew that was the title of it,
though.
Yes, yes.
See, you do learn stuff on the history lesson.
I do, yeah,
always with you, Pat,
always.
Aw, thanks.
And finally, on this day in 1977, the number one single was by the Emotions.
No, no, this is not Little Boo-Thing.
This is the original.
This is
the
one the emotions did, not Little Boothang.
I did think about playing Little Boothang just to see if I could throw people off, but no, this was the actual, this is the original from 1977.
A new version of the Rick Roll.
Written by Maurice White and L. McKay of Earth, Wind and Fire.
We mentioned that today is National Radio Day because it marks the start of broadcasting at station 8 MK in Detroit, which is still broadcasting today as WWJ, an all new station that started on August 20, 1920.
And coincidentally, today is Bacon Lovers Day.
Why coincidentally?
Because why wouldn't you have two of the greatest things, local radio and bacon, be celebrated?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Let's get a Lelu update.
Lelu is not sitting on my shoulder as I'd hoped would be the case today.
But
sorry.
They're not quite there yet.
They're doing great.
Flying out of their cage by themselves.
Okay.
But the and their favorite thing in the world is rice.
Oh,
that is the treat that they love the most.
I tried some sunflower seeds, you know, Rob and unsalted didn't touch him all night.
They're just still sitting there.
But rice did the trick.
Rice does the trick.
Okay.
Here's an interesting note from Tony on YouTube.
Spindockers endorsed Tom Nelson during his campaign in 2018 and made a song for him.
I made a video for it.
I might
have to link that in the show notes.
Yes.
That's, I learned something today.
There you go.
Let's see.
So tell us a little bit more, Melissa, about what you're going to be doing today if people come see you at the parking lot party.
Well, today, you know, it thinks you get coffee at noon and we're going to have the tasting for listeners to judge from noon to one.
So as they come in the building, they'll get greeted by Ashley directed toward the kitchen where Pam will be handing out one bean per person.
We're going to actually be voting with beans and then they'll get to taste the five desserts and then choose, you know, take their bean and drop it in the jar for the one they want.
And at one o'clock, we will tally those.
and add them to Milt's, our celebrity judge, his decision and then the listener's decision.
But we might keep the voting going on throughout the rest of the day.
It depends
on how much food's left.
And it is Milt who James was just talking about as he was the cover model for the 50th anniversary cookbook 35 years ago.
And a wonderfully, I mean, this looks like a radio station 35 years ago.
without a doubt.
So wait
till we update it for this one.
We have such a great plan for
our cover photo.
That's awesome.
This is such a fun day.
Melissa, I'll see you around here a little later on.
Happy anniversary.
Thanks for coming in this morning.
Yeah, no problem.
All right, good to see you.
And after the news, we're going to have a, well, we'll get back on a regular Wednesday schedule with our homeroom segment and State Representative Christian Phelps from Eau Claire and so much more.
Katrina Shanklin joining us as well here from WFHR live on this Wednesday morning.
I'm Pat Breitlo.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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