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Lake WSOTA Studio.
Here is the founding editor of Up North News and Craig
Lowes.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6 0 6 on this Wednesday morning, September 17th, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake WSOTA from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media Radio Network, or perhaps by app or podcast or website or social media.
However you got here, glad you got here.
I got a question for you.
Did you did you notice the change in seasons recently?
Not fall.
No, not no, not the school year.
No, not football.
Campaign season.
We have not one, but two campaign announcements on this program to share with you this morning.
The first one is just a couple of minutes old, State Representative Francesca Hong making it official.
She is a candidate for Wisconsin governor and she will be joining us in the 830 half hour to talk about her run.
We will play her introductory video in just a bit.
We had to censor it first if you know anything about Francesca Hong.
It's that she's very, very, she does not pull punches when she speaks about that.
We will also be talking to Karine Hendrickson.
She is a now former childcare provider in the Nuclaris area.
And of course she has been quite frustrated with the state of politics in our Wisconsin legislature when it comes to looking out for working families.
She made it official on this show that she would have to close up her child care center that it was just no longer something where, well, she didn't want to lose money.
Nobody does want to.
And so she's had to close up her child care center.
And now she's ready for what's next.
And she has an announcement that she's going to be baking on our program this morning as well.
So
Campaign season for 2026 is definitely underway and we are one of the places where candidates stop on their way to 2026.
So we hope you stick around and hear what Francesca Hong and Kareen Hendrickson have to say.
If you can't stick around for everything you can always pod the program head over to Spotify Sign up there or Apple wherever you get your podcast and that way you have us on demand wherever you go also coming up on the program today We have our homeroom segment.
We will be talking to brain Horton from the Wisconsin Public Education Network about what else is happening in the state capital along the lines of education, you know, the state budget's done, but there's all kinds of bills that legislators have been introducing that could affect
the way that your kids get an education.
Some could be helpful, some could be meh, some could be just
downright annoying or nuisance or even harmful to public education, undermining public education.
So, Bryn Horton will talk to us about that in our 7.30, half hour.
And of course, it's Wednesday, so we have no shortage of civic media friends to visit with as well to tell us what's going on.
And in their respective necks of the woods, there's James Kelly reporting from Chippewa Falls.
There's Earl Ingram in Milwaukee, Jimmy Koska in Boscobel looking at sports and news in Southwest Wisconsin.
And Melissa
K from our sister station in Wisconsin Rapids on Parker Olson, producer of this program, what is National Pet Bird Day?
Yeah, we're hoping for a big update on Lelu here.
Yes.
If we've learned nothing from our history segment,
daily history lesson is that there is a day for everything.
And I don't even read them all because there's so many of them.
I mean, there could be national retro bar coaster day as I hold up a coaster that I don't know where we got this back in the 1980s.
But it's
those are
cool.
That will go around.
Got to put your coffee cup on something now and then.
So yeah, it's pet bird day.
There's a there's a day for everything.
Here's what there's not a day for.
Publishers Clearinghouse and the prize patrol, bringing a great big oversized check to your door and promising that you're going to get so many thousands of dollars for life.
So many people have believed this over the years.
The look I'm getting from Parker tells me the prize patrol is not a thing.
Correct?
Right
clue.
Well, that's because this was run by publisher Clearinghouse, which is a magazine sales company.
When was the last time you subscribed to a magazine?
I'm sorry, let me restate the question.
Have you ever subscribed to a paper magazine that was delivered to you in the mail and that you sat leisurely and flipped through?
Hard
No, because you already have that with you right there.
Here it is.
It's that little phone, that little device that can bring up anything from anywhere.
So basically every magazine is now a website or an app or social media posts.
And so publishers Clearinghouse, which for years was, you know,
The place where you would get your magazine subscriptions.
They'd send you this mail.
I'm explaining this to Parker, but don't don't you're like what's he gonna?
Yes.
Yes, they would send you it's important once a year They'd send you this this and big envelope all filled with all kinds of flyers about all the money you could win and all the great deals on magazines You could get TV guide TV guide Newsweek and time and sports illustrated and popular mechanics and then there'd be the sheet with all these stamps on it
each one with a different magazine cover.
And kind of like we talked about with Columbia house with the records, you know, using using the mail was like how you did all this stuff Parker back in the day before there was e mail when it wasn't electronic when it was like a stamp, put it on the card, mail it in you get your discounted sports illustrated just in time for the swimsuit issue.
But you're also entered for the possibility that the price patrol could show up.
And as they took great pains to say, you didn't even have to buy a magazine.
You just had to send the envelope back and you were entered into the sweepstakes.
And then of course, you know, you'd get a knock on your door.
Well, you wouldn't.
It never happened to me.
But, you know, there would be, you know, somebody there with a great big check and TV cameras and balloons and everything else, all set to.
Give you money which included sometimes rather than one big check.
They would be so much, you know per life like $5,000 a month for the rest of your life, which again, it's not that you'd necessarily retire on it, but That's a pretty nice thing to have along,
okay, which gets us to today's story.
Publishers Clearinghouse is no more
it is.
It has gone bankrupt.
I wonder why.
And now we do know why.
But you know, who else really wonders about this?
All the people who were promised cash for life and are now shocked to find out.
Oh, that promise is being broken.
So the remnants of publishers Clearinghouse went through its bankruptcy process.
And some other company bought it, a company called
ARB and ARB says, well, we still want like the direct mail part of the company and the online parts of the company, but we're not buying the part of the company that's responsible for making payouts.
So that part is still bankrupt and the people who are promised forever checks are not going to get them.
In their chapter 11 filing, publishers Clearinghouse listed at least 10 prize winners among its creditors with the largest unsecured claims, totaling millions of dollars.
One man who won $5,000 a week forever back in 2012, told the New York Times, he knew something was funny when he didn't get his annual check from the company back in January.
So he has had to scramble to pay the bills.
Without the money that he has learned to rely on for the past 13 years And it's running out CNN has a story about somebody who's had to sell all of their all their toys their jet skis and their boats and he said I haven't worked in 10 years
I
work now, and he has no marketable skills to get into the job market.
Do a marina or something, but he's got nothing to gas up the boats with.
So this all dates back to 1953, when a couple, Harold and Lou Esther Mertz,
their daughter Joyce formed a business out of their home in Long Island to send direct-to-consumer mailings that solicited subscribers for a number of magazines and then they would get a little cut of each magazine subscription and it grew and it grew and they started doing these contests in 1967 and all throughout the 70s 80s and into the 90s I mean everybody would buy there even if they don't just wanted to renew one magazine or something and they'd always hope
that maybe this was in the years, of course, before multi-state lotteries and billion-dollar jackpots.
And you just hoped that lightning would strike and, you know, Ed McMahon or somebody would be at your door to give you the big check and money for life unless people stopped buying magazines and we got no more money to pay you with.
Well, they started, they started in the 50s.
The contest started in 1967, which tells me that, I mean, that was the heyday for magazines.
I mean, everybody had magazine subscriptions and newspaper subscriptions.
And I
I still get a paper copy of the Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly.
Of course, I picked one that has a nuclear explosion.
going to say, is
bomb?
Yeah, well, it's marking 80 years of the nuclear era and how scary
a goofball
the button.
Yeah, I still get it.
Although, by and large, when I see interesting articles from the Atlantic, I'm going to go to their app.
Yeah, read it on my phone.
But there was just that part of me.
It's like, you know, I feel like I got to have some and frankly, I do sometimes when we travel or whatnot, it's, you know, when you got to put your phone in airplane mode, it's nice to have that to look at.
But no, people don't anymore.
So yeah, by the 60s, they, they had enough money that they could set up a contest figured interest rates would grow up so their savings would go up so there'd always be something to pay out until it didn't happen anymore from Tony on YouTube.
I used to subscribe to the international version of Newsweek.
Now they don't make any version of a physical magazine.
No, they do not.
You still see them in the bookstores.
If you go to what's its face, Barnes & Noble, I mean, the racks are full of these magazines.
I don't know who's buying them.
They're very specialty based.
That's the only place I can think of.
Somebody's got to be buying them, right?
So anyway, I'm sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news for folks, but if you're counting on your publisher's clearinghouse money to keep you going, I might suggest going to get a physical newspaper and looking through the one ads because it's time to find some work.
Let's check some sports now at 618.
Christian Yelich hit home run number 29 and had three RBIs.
I'll start pitcher Freddie Peralta struck out 10 over six innings.
He won his National League leading 17th game as the Brewers beat up on the Los Angeles Angels 9-2 last night.
Freddie Peralta looked good.
He allowed one run on just two hits.
He walked only two.
He struck out the side in three different innings.
William Contreras had two RBIs.
There were other key swings by Sal Freelick, Caleb Durbin, Andrew Vaughn, and Jackson Churrio.
Brandon Woodruff will get the start in tonight's game two, and you can catch that at, I believe, 6-0-5.
Yes, right there, 6-0-5.
Pre-game of the Brewers versus the Angels on stations across the Civic Radio Network.
I predict another wind Parker.
I think,
we're looking good.
magic numbers now it's Cubs one, but the magic number drops
a little bit.
Yeah, that's what the bursitis is telling me.
This is this is what we're gonna get today.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, we will talk a bit about monopoly money and inflation and corporate America and what they all have in common coming up next from the heart of America's up north live from Lake Wissota.
Thanks for making this the place has been part of your mornings.
I'm back right now.
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.
Just about 623 now.
Nice to have you along.
It is 64 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley.
Brittany Merlot will have a state forecast coming up live in just a little while after the seven o'clock news, but she did let us know that the heat is going to be hanging on for one more day.
Chances for rain keep sneaking in and then a big system is going to slide through the state over the weekend and make things a little wetter.
For today, partly sunny and warm showers and storms are possible into this evening in western and northern parts of the state.
Highs today will be in the low to upper 80s, just the 80s overall, depending on where in the state you are, a southwest wind at five to 10 miles an hour.
Spotty showers and thunderstorms tonight, partly cloudy otherwise, lows once again near 60 and a light northerly breeze, but it has been just phenomenal.
The sleeping weather.
here lately, but can't can't beat that.
So again, back to the political news of the day, State Representative Francesca Hong will be with us at 835.
But during this hour, she did put out the note officially confirming her candidacy for governor.
If you're not familiar with Francesca Hahn, we're going to play some of her campaign introduction video here for you.
We had to first run through and bleep one of the words that she's known for because she tells it like it is.
Actually, let her tell you like it is about her background and why she's decided to run for governor.
Give a listen.
And I know a lot about stress.
I work in restaurants.
I started in this kitchen 15 years ago, and you might recognize what's across the street.
A lot of people in that building don't get why it's so hard to get by right now.
Working hard doesn't mean you can always keep up.
One wrong step can lay you out flat.
This is by design.
I'm State Representative Francesca Hong.
I'm a service worker, community organizer, and a mom.
I work for a living.
Always have, still do.
Five years ago, my community sent me to the Capitol.
The system is rigged.
I'm running for governor to fix it.
For years, we've been told that doing better isn't possible.
Well, let me tell you that all we need to do is fight together.
We can fully fund our public schools and have universal childcare.
We can guarantee paid leave and have cheaper healthcare.
We can fix a rigged system that puts oligarchs over workers and small businesses.
We can do better.
Don't let anyone tell you we can't do this.
We can build a Wisconsin where we share the table I'm Francesca Hong and I'm running for governor because I know that together we make better possible
And there you go.
That's the representative Francesca Hong talking about she worked in a restaurant right across the street from the
state capital and has been a member of the state assembly and a rather outspoken one.
She is clearly going to run, you know, to the left of the rest of the democratic field unapologetically so.
She herself being a chef and a bartender says more bartenders need to be running for office.
Think of Alexandria Cazio Cortez and she is a member of a democratic socialist of America.
She is part of the socialist caucus in the assembly.
who, by the way, includes reps from Milwaukee and from Eau Claire with State Representative Christian Phillips, who recently submitted an op-ed that we're going to publish here soon about how we need to get over what Republicans love to seize on the S-word socialism and really get back to the heart of what it means for a government that works for the people rather than for corporations.
And so we'll talk to Fran Hong about that coming up at 830.
There's also, in talking about corporate America and its hold on the economy, there were several random notes that caught my attention in the past day or two.
There's a lot about the current sluggish economy that we can peg to moves by the White House.
But there's more out there than that.
It's about big business getting bigger.
And this reduces competition.
And competition is the most important factor that keeps prices manageable.
But there are so many things that that show off how as these companies get bigger, we continue to get nickel and dime.
And to the point where it almost makes your paychecks worth about as much as monopoly money and monopoly being the key word because it's not like any one company has full monopoly control.
But their share of the market is so much bigger when there's that many fewer competitors.
For example, there's a story.
yesterday about how a St.
Louis based grocery chain is going to acquire Wisconsin based festival foods.
And this will include 42 festival foods locations, nine hometown grocers locations.
The company Schnuck out of St.
Louis is a family run company as well.
And as was as was festival and its original roots.
And so that's not to say that by itself, there's something, you know, that's ominous there.
It's just another case as we've seen in the grocery industry of, you know, some of the big companies getting bigger, their buyouts, their acquisitions.
And so, despite all the words said yesterday, dedication to hometowns and employment and everything else, it's just something to watch for at a time when grocery prices, you know, don't appear to be going down.
You have XL Energy, which is asking for a rate hike.
We talked about this with Robert Craig from Citizen Action.
Utilities, again, have a near monopoly in their marketplace.
And even when they make a profit, they are always looking to hike the rates a little bit more in that ongoing battle between shareholders or customers.
Who do you serve?
Remember, we talked to Jim Payne up in Superior, the mayor there, about the water utility, the only privately held water utility in the state of Wisconsin, and how maybe getting it out of private hands and back into the public sector will be better for ratepayers, you know, the actual customers of the water company.
But you even have Ben and Jerry's, which is now part of a big corporation called Unilever.
and where the Jerry of Ben and Jerry's has just announced he's resigning from the company because he's feeling muzzled politically by the company Unilever, their corporate parent.
Which makes sense when you've got somebody like Derek Van Orden trying to play big brother in policing the thought and the speech of people all around Wisconsin.
So there's no easy answer for all these things.
Just a random assortment of things to watch for so that you don't continue to get nickled and dimed and have your
right to free speech just chipped away bit by bit.
We'll have today's history lesson in just a bit.
You're up north.
Can we talk about One Hit Wonders for just a moment as we kick off today's history lesson on this Wednesday morning, September 17th.
That is the Sanford Townsend Band, Smoke from a Distant Fire, which on this day in 1977 peaked at number nine.
And to this day, almost 50 years later, I'll hear that come on, you know, one of my favorite songs at the time.
It's had a lot of legs ever since.
You can still hear it on classic radio stations.
And you go, that was a really good tune.
How come they never did anything else?
You know, what is it about some bands and some writers and they can just pump things out like crazy?
And then you don't have to go into the whole list of one hit wonders.
But, you know, you hear one sometimes and you go, I really thought that person or that band was going to be bigger.
hear the hit and you go, oh my gosh, that's the only thing I ever heard from them.
lucky once.
right.
Well, that could be it.
Maybe some, maybe some other talented songwriter slipped them a little something and said, here, try this, you know, and they, they, they struck pay dirt on one.
Couldn't do it any other time other than that, but.
Whatever the reason, the Sanford Townsend Band peaked at number nine this day in 1977.
All right, I was joking about Ed McMahon earlier and by sheer coincidence, this is the anniversary of the beginning of the Ed McMahon hosted show Star Search.
It made its debut on CBS in 1983 on this day and then later went into syndication.
Here's from 1990.
Here's a little of the intro to Star Search.
You
know, for all the stars that would appear on that show as beginners, how come one of them couldn't stick around and replace that guy as an announcer?
Yeah, he's really working
huh?
How did he get that gig?
Anyway, the show itself was a juggernaut in, of course, the years prior to the internet where you had
things like this as a way to get your big break.
This is a partial list of names you know that you may have seen for the very first time on Star Search.
Justin Timberlake, Brittany Spears, Alanis Morissette, Sawyer Brown, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera, Tiffany, Leanne Rimes, Usher, Shanice Aila, Pitbull, Destiny's Child, comedians Dave Chappelle,
Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Adam Sandler, Dennis Miller, Bill Engvall, Carlos Mancia, Drew Carey, Steve Odenkirk, Kevin James, Rosie O'Donnell, Norm MacDonald, and Conan O'Brien.
All were on Star Search when they were unknowns looking for their big break.
That show was like, it felt like every, every talent agent in the business was watching this looking for their next
get.
Yeah, yeah, to a degree.
But I think they, you know, what they've done in America, well, not so much America, the voice is the other one I was trying to think of is, you know, they've really gone for that niche singing.
But Star Search was like all things, kind of like America's Got Talent, it was singing, it was comedy, it was anything like that.
But it didn't have like, you know,
the Simon Cowell kind of, you know, sassy judges kind of thing.
Yeah, it was just very much a straight rating scale from whatever judges they had or the public, I forget who all voted at different times.
So of course, it was it was a simpler time.
It was a nicer time.
Whereas the shows now, you know, they got to get complex.
They got to get all the production value in there.
And they've got to have conflict.
And Star Search was just a plain old fashioned
variety contest show talent show.
That was it.
No, we never talked about that at all.
All right.
So let's go back to the music charts on this day in 1955.
This was the number one song by Pat Boone.
God, it hurts to play it.
This is the sterilized version of the Fats Domino song.
We had talked about it three weeks ago.
The Fats Domino version, peaking at number 10.
And then Pat Boone did the cover and it went to number one.
And so to cleanse our palate, here's Fats Domino with the better
version.
Now, there was some good that came out of Pat Boone remaking it and going to number one back in 1955 is that Pat's Domino did get a lot of attention and since he wrote it, it earned him substantial royalties.
So that was a nice thing.
Let's move up the timeline to 1968 when the psychedelic soul anthem from the fifth dimension was certified gold with this tune.
This,
of course, would be the Fifth Dimension's Stone Soul picnic.
Let's see, what else do we have today?
The United States Constitution was signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia this day in 1787, bringing the Constitutional Convention to an end.
Birthdays today include the late Junior Bridgeman, the former Milwaukee Buckstar turned billionaire entrepreneur.
He was born this day in 1953.
He passed away this past March at the age of 71.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes hits the big 3-0 today, 30 years old for Patrick Mahomes, and this is the anniversary of the birth of Hank Williams Sr.
in 1923.
Now to be clear, country music was different than what it is now.
Where you could literally yodel like this and become a star.
On this day in 1983, Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America.
On this day in 1984, John Wait hit number one with Missing You.
And happy 74th birthday to Fee Waybill of the Tubes, who was born this day in 1950, making him 75 today.
That's another group.
I think the tubes only had like two hits on the charts, and I thought that they'd go a little further, but they did not.
Oh,
all weird back then.
I mean, Melissa K is here from WFHR in Wisconsin Ravage.
She'll back me up on that.
Weird music videos, which...
You know... Good morning.
I haven't seen a lot of them, but I think it's funny that Parker thinks they're weird.
Parker
they're weird.
Yeah.
fair.
imagine locking him in a room with MTV for a day and just watching 80s music videos and having him give his
ride.
It's a very burlesque type of deal.
My
text clothing then was normal.
It's
funny.
There was a lot of things that were normal in the 80s.
We regret now.
Melissa, how are you today?
Oh, I'm good.
How are
you?
I'm very good.
Thanks.
Today on the National Day calendar, this is National Apple Dumpling Day.
I don't know if I've ever had apple dumplings, but I've eaten my body weight in apple crisp and I'm going to have some more here.
because my mom
made fruit dumplings a lot when I was a kid.
Really?
Okay.
That sounds that sounds good.
But more importantly, strawberry.
Oh, well, I mean, you, you lost me at rhubarb, but you know, strawberry dumplings, that could be fun.
Sure.
More importantly on the national day calendar today is national pet bird day.
Congratulations, Lelu and Melissa.
How is Lelou these days?
You know what?
I really think that Lelou is gonna fly again someday because yeah, remember how I told you they flew up to the top of their little box
that
I made for them?
Well now they started to fly up to the top of the table, which is next to it, which is twice as high as the box.
Oh, baby steps.
Fly
right up there.
Baby flaps, I guess, as the case may be.
So Lelou the rescue pigeon may fly again.
Mayfly.
It determines stubborn bird.
No, that's a wonderful thing.
That's great.
So yeah, you probably didn't know there was a national pet bird day, so you probably didn't plan to do anything special.
Lelu's not going to get like a little tiny cake or something like that.
Rice.
Rice is
a rice cake.
I see what you did
What?
Well,
Lelu loves rice.
Just rice, that is the thing.
So we'll find out if Lelu likes rice cake.
Well, if it's rice, you know, like kernels formed in a cake, they will love it.
Maybe because I would simply tell you this, a lot of people like popcorn.
But if I offer you a popcorn ball, you're gonna say get that away from me.
Difficult to eat?
Yes.
Well, they're like kettle corn, you know, and people like kettle corn.
But then take kettle corn and form it into a ball and then leave it alone for two weeks while it gets good and stale, you know,
yeah,
that's not how it's how it's supposed to work at all.
Let's see, I got one more music note to pass along Kanye West went to number one this day in 2005, along with Jamie Foxx.
This is
of course Ray Charles' I Got a Woman is being sampled here and the year before in 2004, Jamie Foxx had portrayed Ray at Charles in the film Ray.
He does an amazing Ray Charles.
But we're going to bring that down now because even though I've confirmed this clip 15 different times,
I, you always want to make sure you get the clean
know.
And, you know, the internet being what it is, just because it says clean version.
Yes.
Don't make it on faith.
You listen to that puppy all the way through.
Yes.
The internet lies, Pat.
It's been known to happen.
Yeah, it does.
It's not entirely unprecedented, you know.
So trust but verify.
That's what we like to do.
So what have you been up to out there in beautiful central Wisconsin?
Well, we're getting ready for our upcoming events.
We're involved in the Christmas tree walk this year.
And guess what, guys?
We're decorating our tree.
Like, we're pulling all the elements of WFHR and WIRA into it with a Agatha chicken head.
as our treetopper.
We're going to have cranberries looping the tree.
I've convinced them, I think I've almost convinced them that we need to take like dry corn, corn, you know, like the field corn field corn and break it up into pieces to use as ornaments.
We're going to put CDs with our like information on them as ornaments.
It's going to be so much fun.
I can't wait to do it.
Well,
very interesting.
Yeah.
I mean
it's part of the Southwood County Historical Museum
and
different organizations can have a tree to decorate that then as people walk through the beautiful mansion that is our museum and see all of the different trees from the different organizations.
So it's our first year doing that.
That's I mean good for you guys for planning for Christmas now because I mean I'm the kind of guy that it'd be like the week before and I go
Well, I suppose we should do something, you know,
well, it takes a while to make a paper mache egg at the chicken head.
I'll bet that it does.
that is that your job?
Well, Ashley and I are taking that on.
Okay.
Well, then I completely working
at art night.
There might be wine.
I can't
say
that's good.
No, I can say and there should be.
Melissa Kay from 97.5 WFHR and 105 WIRI in Wisconsin Rapids is with us for today's history lesson.
Coming up right after the seven o'clock news, we're going to be talking to Kareen Hendrickson, former childcare provider in the Nucleus area who is going to make a campaign announcement coming up in just a few minutes here.
That's followed in our eight o'clock hour by state representative Francesca Hong, newly announced candidate
for Wisconsin Governor.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
The Brewers continue their series against the Los Angeles Angels this evening.
Pre-game coverage at 6.05 on several civic media stations around the state.
Also, sign up for our newsletters at Up North News.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
You can get the Sunday morning newsletter that I put together about the week in politics and the question of the week.
which is all about Ron Johnson and conspiracy theories.
And is it possible to pick just one that we could get him to stop talking about forever and ever and ever or not?
And of course, we've got our new weekday newsletter editor, Ellie, who's getting started with us and has put out the newsletter this morning.
That includes stories about, oops, oops, oops.
hit that page over there Pat.
Where can you find the the peak fall colors in your favorite Wisconsin destinations?
So she talks all about the travel Wisconsin fall color report.
And also Wisconsin parents are rightly concerned about the cuts Donald Trump and Republicans want to make the head start, which is a critical link for vulnerable children to get a good education.
Again, sign up for that at up North news wi.com.
Now I can set those notes aside.
Welcome back Melissa K as well.
Along with producer Parker Olson.
and talk about Melissa and, you know, chapters.
There's different chapters out there and,
know, what's the saying?
When one door closes, another door opens, but until that door opens, it's hell in the hallway.
But now a new door is going to be opening for Melissa.
You know, there's been these periods of joblessness and you have to make up, you know, the right way to rationalize those times.
Melissa's not going through that.
She's immediately going through the next door, which involves doing much more work with the news department at Civic Media, correct?
That is true.
I'm moving into full-time news for Wisconsin Rapids area here, which is part of the transition that
Shaly Pittman our new news director is working to incorporate for all of reporters to just focus on news because there's a lot of news and there's a lot of of time it takes into as you know Pat the amount of time it takes for Journalists to do solid good reporting.
That's fact check.
That's you know, I've investigated it.
It does take time and effort and resources so
I really appreciate that she is putting in that effort It's a little bittersweet to be leaving shows like yours and the morning show But I am really looking forward to the extra time because there's a lot to dig into just like the solar farm story that's happening here There's so much research I need to do with that the rail The expanded passenger rail story that is coming out of toma area and hopefully through here There's just so much interesting
information that I think is important for our communities to know that's happening here locally.
The more we focus on local and the more we build up and share and learn about our communities, I think the closer it brings us as a community.
I am so genuinely excited about this because civic media, again, I'm not an employee of civic media, but I'm like your next door neighbor, something like that.
And I hang out on your front porch every morning.
And that's not how we appreciate you at all.
And we appreciate you.
Come over
for sugar any
time.
There you go.
But I have just so enjoyed watching the growth of this network and the recognition that, okay, now we've grown these radio stations and we've grown these talk shows.
But you've now got a news department that is one of the largest in Wisconsin now.
And geographically, but I mean, just in terms of you've got bodies everywhere around the state, which a lot of places cannot say.
And so to enable that news department to be doing even more for local news coverage is is a good thing all around.
It's good for the listeners.
It's good for you having more time to work on news stories and
As we say at Civic Media and at Courier Newsroom up North News, I mean, we have been watching local news, especially local newspapers die left and right.
And so any kind of investment in local reporting, that's good for democracy.
That's good for, you know, voter education.
It's just a great thing overall.
And I'm so glad you're doing this.
Yeah, it's good for our state.
It's good for our communities.
I just, I appreciate that people appreciate the local news because anytime I talk about it out in the community, they're like, what?
Really?
I
didn't know.
And they're excited to sign up for the newsletter and they read our stories.
It's really refreshing.
It is.
And so it's going to be great having you work on those things.
And so less people think, well, wait, no more Melissa.
Well, in much the same way that we've got other civic media news folks on now and then to tell us what they're working on, you'll be doing the same thing just not with the same regularity.
But as things come up, we are
going to be genuinely excited to have you back here and find out all the things that you're going to be doing.
And every once in a while, I'll have to drop in with a with a Lelu update.
Absolutely.
Our producer Laura at the at our station here in WFHR created a breaking news with pigeon coos.
So she'll have
breaking news with pigeon coos.
Yes.
All right.
Well, you don't see that every day nor hear it every day.
So
That's outstanding.
Melissa, thank you for doing that.
And thanks for being part of our history lesson for all these Wednesdays.
It's been outstanding.
It's been
years now.
It has been, hasn't it?
It probably feels like a decade to you, but I'm appreciative.
And then we got and that you take us on the journey.
First off, telling us there's a thing called rescue pigeons and the application process and the screening.
I'm so glad you passed the background check.
I mean, now in this day and age, you might
do it.
They scrub your social media
Yes.
Yeah.
And be forced to
making nervous.
Forced to wear a pigeon costume instead.
You know, just a terrible, terrible directions that this could have gone in.
And it all went perfectly, you know, and appreciate you coming
along with me on the journey.
You're such a good mama bird.
We appreciate you.
Melissa, thank you so much.
Take care.
So had everybody in Rapids Forest.
Thank you guys.
All right, you take care out there.
And again, so again, Melissa will be part of Civic Media's news coverage along with the entire rest of the team.
For example,
James Kelly will be here two hours from now updating us on the things that he's working on for new stories in Western and Northern Wisconsin.
We'll have Jimmy Koska here one hour from now doing the same thing.
And we've got Earl Ingram coming in just after eight o'clock as part of the What's Going On podcast that you can get through Civic Media 2.
We've got Kareen Hendrickson standing by.
We're talking about campaign announcements.
Francesca Hong, new candidate for governor will be on at 835.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio
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