Media Misery (Hour 2)

Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.

You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by UpMorth News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of UpMorth News, Pat Craiglo.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 606 on a Friday morning, September 19th, 2025.

It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north.

Live from Lake Wissota, wherever you're spending your mornings, listening across the Civic Media radio network, catching us by podcast or through the website, or maybe watching us on social media right now, which is concerning to some people.

I will explain in just a bit.

But thanks for wrapping up your week right here.

I got a question for you.

Would you like to win some free brewers tickets?

It is the final installment of free ticket Friday and in just a few minutes less than 15 I will give you the keyword for today for this morning I should say between now and 9 a.m.

Or you can text us using the civic media app Calling up one of the radio stations on the app using the text feature texting us the keyword and I'll let you know About how you can go about winning that with the keyword

coming up in just a bit.

On this morning's program, we'll talk about Jill Underly, Wisconsin's Superintendent of Public Instruction, not exactly sugarcoating the current environment in her annual State of Education address Thursday at the Capitol.

We'll have Kia Vakil from Courier Newsroom talking about some of the week's big stories along with our Week in Review panel.

which has some thoughts on the latest capitulation from corporate media and how it has emboldened Donald Trump to outright threaten the license of broadcasters simply for not liking what they say about him.

And we'll ask the panel what kind of role can journalists and their readers, listeners and viewers play in pushing back against this latest example of a wannabe dictator doing whatever he wants, including making a mockery of the First Amendment.

that coming up in our seven o'clock hour in our eight o'clock hour for struggling families on lower incomes.

There are food banks, but some of those families are also in need of basic household items like diapers.

There is a diaper bank in Southeast Wisconsin that is holding a special campaign this week, where donations are being matched and doubled.

We'll talk to our friend Kate Duffy from Motherhood for Good and the Milwaukee diaper mission.

which also helps women with basic hygiene supplies as well.

Dr. Kristen Lierly will preview her weekend show and Mike Clemens will get a set for the Packers at Cleveland and the Brewers spending the weekend in St.

Louis.

First, however, the weather from meteorologist Brittany Merlot says a soaking weekend is on the way for some parts of the state as a slow moving massive system has moved in, sending waves of rain over the next couple of days.

The state forecast for today breezy and cloudy on and off rain, maybe some thunder highs in the upper sixties up north mid seventies south and east wind at 15 to 25 miles an hour for tonight.

The rain will be ramping up and could be heavy at times lows tonight in the mid fifties up north around 60 to the south with an east wind at 10 to 20 miles an hour.

She'll have four full forecast details less than an hour from now, but looking at the radar, you can really get an appreciation of this system.

Essentially, it looks to be sitting somewhere over maybe South Central Minnesota right now.

And so Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Eastern Dakotas, most of Iowa, parts of Northern Illinois, big old spiral of rain.

And it's one of those where, as Brittany said yesterday, it's gonna be tough to predict exactly who's gonna get rain, you know, when, but it's just a whole lot of spotty rain activity.

And so you just have to plan that you're gonna be getting some rain at some point or another off and on throughout the course of the weekend.

And again, Brittany has further details on that coming up in just a bit.

But first we head down to Madison studio a to where we we see the concerned face of one Parker Olson and Concerned yeah, and then Alicia to Alicia puts on YouTube.

Oh What's in the honeycomb designed on your shirt?

Okay, not afraid people I was little I actually do own shirts that do not have plaid designs on them

I

feel

much because you're going you're going for comfort.

Oh, no, no, there's plenty of them.

But today just kind of felt like I could put this one on which is it's got a white base.

It's a short sleeve, you know, dress shirt.

It's got a white base, but then it's got all these, I don't know, hexagons or whatever they are kind of has a honeycomb thing.

And so it's got a kind of a beach theme.

Some of them look like they have little palm fronds in there.

Or yep, or just, you know, the the colors of the Caribbean, I guess you could say so.

It's a it's a bit of a little a little festive Friday fun.

Yeah, with

the wardrobe.

It's styling a little here.

Yeah.

I mean, there's many a time where I reach for something like a solid.

I've got I've got this solid orange shirt.

It's very it's very bright.

It's very colorful, but at six o'clock in the morning, it's a bit much.

I appreciate actually avoiding that.

And as I've said before, again, between being a news anchor and being a legislator.

I wore, you know, just the standard suit and tie, a lot of different ties, a lot of different suits, frankly, but a lot of solid color shirts for years and years and years.

So to be at this age now and have this job now where, you know, the plaid shirt is kind of the requisite uniform, I'm okay with it.

You know, I still like to dress up now and then.

But I do like dressing up.

Comfort is important.

So yeah, no, I am

pretty.

Very appreciative of how laid back we are here.

There you go.

Laid back.

Is it what's on the docket for this weekend

for you?

Not a whole heck of a lot going down on Sunday, hanging out with a couple of friends, watching the Packer game, hoping to have some wings.

I hear we're stopping at a wings place, which I'm very excited about.

You're excited about a wings place.

I am more excited about the wings than I am about watching the Cleveland Browns play the Packers.

Oh, well, OK.

Does that include watching the Badgers as well as they take on Maryland tomorrow?

Yeah, that'll probably be part of my Saturday too.

Yeah.

You don't sound too jazzed up about it though.

No, I can't say I'm exactly thrilled on that one.

And

that might be second screen

content.

That's why we got why we got civic media here for you.

We have saved a lot of people.

Well, the Badgers have saved a lot of people the time of actually sitting glued to a TV watching the football team.

Yeah.

And basically put it on the radio and listen to the background as you do everything else that you want to do.

And that's what you'll get as the Badgers open the Big 10 season tomorrow hosting Maryland.

You can hear the pregame starting at 9am on Civic Media stations in Richland Center, Amory, Wisconsin Rapids and Rippon.

And of course, the Packers as Parker mentioned Sunday, it's a noon game against Cleveland.

Pregame begins at 10am Sunday on stations in Richland Center, Park Falls.

Racine Kenosha and Watoma.

So you'll be watching the Packer Game with friends this

weekend.

I'll be watching the Packer Game with friends.

The Badgers will probably be second screen content.

Yes, because there's a lot of seconds.

So you will do two screen viewing of things.

Oh,

yeah.

We last weekend, my dad and I, we have the TV in the basement and we have my TV for my room.

I brought my TV in my room down to the basement so that we can have two things going.

And I'll tell you what, Whitewater plays against the number 16 in the country tomorrow.

And that will be the first TV content while

the

Badgers are on the other TV, kind of off the corner, not being thought about nearly as much.

I'd be curious to know what percentage of the population is used to watching two screens at once.

and and how often they do it.

And I mean this in both the TV way and the social media way.

For example, I mean, I'm very much a dual screen watcher, let's say the Academy Awards.

And

then on the other screen, I'm either watching, you know, social media comment on things, or I'm yapping back and forth with my friends about it.

But then there's the dual screen, the TV stuff yesterday last night being a perfect example.

Uh, as often happens on Thursday, we go to our local watering hole and meet up with some friends and neighbors there.

But this, this particular bar, like a lot of places does not have, they, they depend on dish or one of the other places that does not have an agreement with fan dual sports, Valley, formerly FSN or whatever the heck it is.

Because that group has been at an impasse with dish network and other things for years now.

And I that's why I could never have something like like say a dish network because I mean, if you can't watch the Brewers, why bother?

So while a lot of people are watching the Cubs and the Reds up on the TVs because they are part of a national TV game on Fox last night, other folks are gathered around me on your phone on my iPhone because I've got the spectrum on there.

I just turned that puppy sideways.

I said it on the bar in front of me and I had people watching there.

Yeah, you and I are the same, Pat.

We used to do that a lot while we were eating dinner and white water.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yep.

So there's, there's a lot of dual screen stuff.

Now, speaking of that Bergen, Quinn Priester starts the game last night.

Perfect.

Perfect through four innings, 12 men up, 12 men down, including six straight strikeouts to begin the game.

And he still got a no decision in this one, which was really rough.

The Brewers would eventually come back to win.

And that's the thing, even though he got a no decision, when Quinn Priester is pitching, whether he gets a decision or not, the Brewers have won 19 in a row.

Yeah, when you start the game like that, that really helps.

Yeah, it's pretty helpful.

I think I read yesterday that if the Brewers get one more win with him starting,

Um, it'll tie a Roger Clemens record of 20, um, wins when they

pitch.

Yeah.

That

would be cool.

Yeah.

And Christian Yelich, he's not doing so bad.

He just, he hit RBI number 100 yesterday.

100 runs batted in.

First time he's done that since 2018 when he had 110 ribbies and was named the National League MVP.

So here

he is.

Triple digits.

once again for him.

So

that comes

back from back surgery.

And again, I was one of those.

I was one of them with the back surgery.

I thought, well, that's it, you know, Viacadios.

Have a good retirement.

I was wrong.

I'm glad you were wrong, Pat.

I am too, very much so.

Jacob Mizorovsky will start tonight in St.

Louis and that will get us going on a three game weekend series for the Brewers against St.

Louis and the pregame will get going at 640 on stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine, Park Falls and Hayward.

All right, while we're talking baseball, let me give you the keyword for this morning.

Here's the thing, there's only one homestand left.

It's next weekend when Cincinnati comes to town.

And so for Free Ticket Friday, you have a chance to win four tickets to the game next Friday night when the Brewers take on the Cincinnati Reds.

So get that Civic Media app out and get set to text us this keyword until 9am blue, like the color B-L-U-E.

Text us blue.

and you will be in the running, there will be more keywords throughout the weekend, more chance or not through the weekend, more keywords throughout the day, and so more chances to enter and then one of the day's entries will be chosen at random to win those tickets.

All right, very quick, because we're going to have Keva Keel coming up next, and then today's history lesson.

Just a quick note that Dr. Jill Underly, the state superintendent of public instruction, held her state of education address yesterday at the Capitol, as reported here by the Milwaukee Journal of Sentinel's Cleo Kreici.

And the poll quote out of it is quite simple.

This year, the biggest schoolyard bully in our public schools is our own federal government.

She was talking about the hostility that the Trump administration and the Republican Congress has.

And frankly, with Governor Tony Evers stepping back, look for Underly to be in a secure position to give the most unvarnished review of how the legislature is treating our children and undermining our public schools.

She criticized the use of the US Department of Education funding as some kind of a bargaining chip.

And of course, she came back to the near generation of short changing our public schools by the legislature, forcing school boards to ask local taxpayers to hike their own property taxes just to cover basic operating costs as the legislature passes the buck.

Underly had a lot more to say.

We are going to hear about it from her directly next Wednesday in our weekly hometown segment at 7.30 from Dr. Underly.

From the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Crightlow and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

All right, let's get into it.

Part of our week in review as we do Fridays here on the show with Kiavakeel, Career Newsroom's national political editor joining us back home in Los Angeles.

Kia, hello.

How are you?

I'm well, Pat.

How are you?

I'm good.

Past couple of weeks you you've been on

I was gonna say on the road.

Well, no, it wasn't the road.

You were in the air.

You were overseas.

You were over in Europe.

Where was it?

Vienna and Munich were the highlights?

No,

I went to Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Krakow.

So I

was abroad for...

little over three weeks and I haven't traveled in a little while and I just wanted to do some travel

and

take a break

from the state of the news.

I'm very much an advocate of travel and getting away from the headlines for a while because you got to plug back in.

You can't unplug.

full time.

And that's always my biggest fear is that too many people have unplugged and said, well, you can't change anything anyway, even as, you know, the First Amendment is being shredded and things like that.

So, so now that you're back, let's get into things here.

And, boy, last week, I would have said the overarching theme because of the Charlie Kirk murder

was this wrestling of how do you talk about the legacy of somebody with so many negatives and yet be against political violence.

That to me seems to be a distant memory now because the tour of vengeance that Republicans have gone on have now taken us on to a completely different plane of freedom of expression versus what wannabe autocrats want to do.

That seems to be the overarching theme this week to me anyway.

Yeah, I mean they're completely shredding the First Amendment and any arguments that Trump, JD Vance, all these guys top to bottom right wing activists have made about free speech or paid speech or freedom of expression, you know turned out to be total BS and that's not shocking to me and

to be clear there are some voices on the right who are principled and you know pushing back on this just all out assault on teachers, college administrators, college students, airline pilots, journalists, political pundits, people, everyone who are saying things you know that are you know maybe ugly and celebrating Kirk's death and that I find distasteful.

Two folks who are quoting his own words and just posting that they didn't like his views and you know

Condemn his death, but didn't like his views all those people are getting doxed fired harassed investigated by the government from Texas to Ohio to Virginia all over the country and it's a modern-day McCarthyist red scare it's cracking down on people's freedom of speech

you can disagree with that speech.

And look, I'm not going to pretend like the left has always gotten that completely right either.

You could probably point to some overreach, but we've never seen anything like this under Democratic leaders where they're using an arm of the state and working with really extreme activists online to harass and target and essentially encourage people to snitch on others for their posts online.

And it's extremely ugly.

It's extremely concerning.

And then even worse is we now have corporations who are censoring, whether it's Jimmy Kimmel, his late night show being pulled off the air, whether it's, again, reporters being fired or benched or whatnot, or companies that are just afraid of how to cover this in terms of not engaging with his views or whitewashing them.

terrifying the moment we're in.

This is the sort of thing I read about in history books growing up and being like, oh gee, I'm glad we're past that.

We turned out out, you know, we're not past it.

It's roared its ugly head, reared its ugly head again.

And, you know, I think most Americans probably think this is too far and find this to be, I think most people broadly don't like political assassination, don't think he should have died.

maybe had a lot of people disagreed with him, a lot of people agreed with him, but I also think most people do not think this crackdown is appropriate, but that doesn't really matter.

We're not in a majoritarian country anymore.

No, and when you mentioned McCarthyism, again, being from Wisconsin, who'd have thought we'd, well, a lot of us would have thought we'd have the next McCarthy coming from Wisconsin, that in Derrick Van Orden, but of course you monitor, you know, all the courier newsroom outlets around the country,

And so while he may be very special for the hundreds upon hundreds of tweets that he's put out, I'm sure that in plenty of the other states, like like you're hinting at, there are members of Congress or other elected officials who I think in an equal measure, history will not be kind to when we look at, you know, defending our freedom of speech in this country.

Yeah, I mean, whether it's Governor Greg Abbott in Texas,

celebrating the firing of teachers, college professors, students being expelled because they made like a distasteful video.

Again, like these are public institutions.

They are covered by the First Amendment.

Those

are

lawsuits waiting to happen.

They're going to get sued for a lot, and they deserve it.

If and when the courts still uphold the First Amendment, which I think, depending on which courts you wind up in, some will and some won't.

you know, I think at the end of the day for as far gone as the Supreme Court is, you know, if you invalidate, if you essentially say the First Amendment doesn't apply, then you're asking for something much uglier than what's happening, right?

You're asking for people pushing for a new constitution, a constitutional revolution, like you can't say the First Amendment doesn't apply.

And that's what they're saying.

Yeah.

Although I perhaps the most chilling thing I would have heard all week, you just uttered when you knew you dropped the little phrase, depending on which court you go to.

Yeah, you never thought you'd have to say that about First Amendment rights in this country.

This week was supposed to be about other things.

We are still careening toward another government shutdown.

The budget hasn't been resolved.

The Epstein files remain covered up.

I mean, there's still actual work to be done in DC.

And I'm betting you're going to say very little progress was made on any of it this week.

Yeah, no.

The government shut down.

We're barreling towards in a little under two weeks.

At this point, I'd put money on the fact that it's going to happen.

You have Republicans who have no interest in negotiating, even though they need Democratic votes.

You have Democrats who are sort of on the same page, but not, you know, not exactly presenting a like really strong argument.

So it's just a mess.

There will be a lot to cover over these next couple of weeks.

And again, now as the career staff grows and the team grows, we'll have Cam Stevenson coming from Washington, DC, Capitol Hill, every Tuesday for us.

And Kia Vakil helping us wrap up the week on Fridays.

Kia, thank you as always for everything.

Glad you're home safe.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you, you too.

Back with today's history lesson in just a moment.

You're up, Norm.

Today's

history lesson we start with Brooke Benton or Greg Bach doing his best Brooke

Benton

Brooke Benton born this day in 1931 he had several R&B hits in the 50s and 60s

He actually put 50 songs on the billboard charts as a singer or songwriter, but then he had a comeback hit in 1970 with Rainy Night in Georgia.

Listen,

listen.

I could listen to that voice.

Here we go.

Listen to this.

Come

on.

All right, I'm done admiring singers for the

moment.

Here's

Greg Bach.

Greg, how are you?

I'm doing well, man.

Hey, there we go.

The show and talk about musical memories.

There,

there.

That's pretty good.

All right.

Oh, you got any big plans for the weekend?

No, not really good.

I love hearing that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Honestly, like I'm thinking because yeah, it's it's good.

I'm going to try if the weather is is handling itself.

I'm going to try to do some stuff out in the yard.

and kind of start to wind those projects down.

But if not, then I'm going to sit and hang out with my wife and my dog.

Always fun to do, you know, let's see.

I'm supposed to ask Tony asks if if you're still using your CPAP machine and how you're feeling.

Oh, good Lord.

Of course I am.

I use it.

I use it.

Here's the thing is if I don't use it, it's because I fall in the sleep and I didn't get a chance to put it on.

But it is a part of.

the every night experience.

Very nice.

Very important.

Samesies.

Thank

you.

Good.

Good.

You guys are good sleep.

Yeah.

On this day in 1796, George Washington delivered his farewell address.

On this day in 1982 was the first documented use of emoticons, which was simply a smiley face made with a colon and a dash and a parentheses.

And it was used on the Carnegie Mellon University Bullets and Board System.

Because apparently nobody thought to do that on a typewriter.

I

mean, yeah.

Yeah, I'm calling BS on

that one.

I don't like the hyphen for the nose.

That makes me a little uncomfortable.

Well, that's because you see, young kids like you, you grew up in this era where emoticons, I mean, you get the whole emoji.

You get, it's animated, like the little face winks at you and everything.

back in our day, we just had to type a colon and a dash and the parentheses.

And that was all we got.

That's all we got for choices.

colon parentheses.

That's where I

stand.

Okay, just don't want to know your anti nose.

I'm anti or you just your

nose is typing you type in the whoa, you type in the letter.

I'm smiling at you right now, which is very

weird.

I just type out laughing out loud.

Yeah, everybody knows what I'm talking about.

I send a voice note of me laughing.

Let's go to 1960, 65 years ago today, the number one song was by Chubby Checker.

That song had some staying power.

It came up the charts again two years later.

It would become the first single ever to hit number one two different times.

probably because it's the only dance most of us can do.

It's just swivel your hips and your

knees.

There's like a, there's, there's like a, yeah, there's, he's got, let's twist again.

The twist.

Yes.

Slow twist.

The peppermint twist.

Oh yeah.

He, he, he has a lock on the.

twist based economy when it comes to

music twist based economy yeah you just you ride that horse until

it

can't run no more yep yeah for him on this day in 1893 New Zealand became the first country to grant all women the right to vote happy birthday to singer bill medley from the righteous brothers he is 85 years old

today

Talk

about the singers with deep voices.

So Bill Medley and the late Billy Bobby Hatfield formed the Righteous Brothers.

Bill Medley grew up listening to Ray Charles, Little Richard and BB King.

In fact, the term blue-eyed soul was coined by a Philadelphia DJ to describe the sound of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield.

Wow.

And Medley said the the name righteous brothers came from a group of black marines at the El Toro base who liked their style and referred to them as righteous brothers Here's the thing about Bill medley.

He just turned 85.

Yeah earlier this year as an 84 year old He released his latest album.

He's still recording albums.

God I've done nothing with my life

Well, no hang on Greg.

This might be awful.

We don't know.

Is this a good album?

Why would you say that

about

85 year old music legend?

We've already talked about how some of the guys have to hang them up, and they don't hang them up.

They still tour.

I'm just saying.

This just in Parker

hates old people doing music.

I would like to write my formal apology to the FCC.

I understand.

Please, before we get yanked here.

You upset

an

old white guy.

You're in trouble now,

pal.

All right.

Greg, I'm going to play from this next birthday.

I'm just going to ask Parker to start the music.

Parker's moving around.

Is there a mouse running around your feet?

What's going on

there?

Honest to God, I'm pretty sure a spider was just crawling up my leg.

Don't even

know how to respond you you almost jumped up on the stool like you know like in the cartoon when there's a mouse in the house Okay,

I'm sorry you

want

As I was saying, Greg, I'm going to have Parker now that he's composed himself.

I'll play this next one, our next birthday boy.

And I just want to see if you can, how long it takes you to guess who this is based on the guitar stylings and then the singing.

So Parker hit today's birthday boy.

I give it just second wait for the lead guitar here.

It's about to come in.

There we go.

Now, if I tell you it's chic, does that help?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

Who are we talking about?

Niall Rogers.

Niall Rogers is 73 years old today, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He was with chic, then he became a legendary record producer.

His records have sold more than 500 million copies.

Now, Rogers is 73 today.

He's still amazing.

Yeah.

I have not one, not two, but three notes here about the year 1970.

It was on September 19th, 1970 that Diana Ross after leaving the Supremes got her first number one solo hit Parker.

You got to hit the button here.

I'm pointing at him.

He's looking for the spider, Pat.

He's looking for the spider.

There ain't no mountain high enough for Parker to get up in the way

from the spider.

Man, that FCC joke really came back to bite me quick.

I didn't know they could send in a spider.

Something just like the spider.

Yes, but a bum.

Okay, so there's Diana Ross with Ain't No Mountain High Enough, her first solo hit this day in 1970.

Also on this day in 1970, again, we're back to doing series premieres here, the premiere of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

And I didn't know if whether we wanted to do a single on Greg.

Who could turn the world on with her smile?

Let's see, and happy birthday to Frida Payne, the singer is 83 years old, and she had a 1970 hit Band of Gold.

Happy birthday to Trisha Yearwood, who turned 61 years old today.

If

she and Darth Brooks been married now,

I bet that's

solid.

Yeah.

Or as he refers to himself, Mr. Yearwood.

I love that.

Mr. Yearwood.

Yes.

Yes.

Let me see.

How long have Garth and Trisha been married?

I love that, Google.

Thank you very much, Google.

19 years, almost 20 years.

Good for them.

That's fantastic.

Oh my goodness.

All

right.

There you go.

Longer than I thought.

Good.

Here's another birthday today.

Jimmy Fallon is 51 years old today and still employed, at least for another day.

You

never

know.

of this day in 1985.

You remember this one, Greg, when Tipper Gore and other political wives formed the Parents Music Resource Center to get labels on albums that had explicit language?

Yes.

Meanwhile, Frank Zappa, John Denver, and others testified at congressional hearings about obscenity and rock music.

D. Snyder.

D. Snyder as well.

That's right.

Yep.

So that's that's why you have labels is because Al Gore's wife and others said we got to we got to slap a label on these things

And they fought it tooth and nail and they really like it was it was a big deal And then what they come to find is that when you put the labels on the records it would sell more

Exactly they figured that out like they

stopped

fighting it.

We're like,

okay, this

will work.

Yeah, sure We'll put a label on everything

On this day in 1987, the Grateful Dead hit number 10 with Touch of Grey.

Their only song to hit the top 10 on the Hot 100.

On this day in 1989, a new series began with Neil Patrick Harris as a teenage physician.

That's right, Dougie Hauser MD premiered this day in 1989 on ABC and is still around.

Dougie Hauser or Neil Patrick Harris, he got

some staying power.

Absolutely.

Well, he went away for a while.

Everyone's like, oh, who's he?

And then he came back.

We're like, oh, we love him.

It's always what happens.

Yes.

There's a star.

They're amazing.

We love them.

We're sick of them.

We say, no, thank you.

And then we act like we never saw them.

And then we're like, oh my gosh, where did you go?

And they're like, yeah, you stopped booking me.

So

also

that's on you.

Two things, I feel like if you took a picture of Parker when he was younger, like he was 12, he would look very doogoo doogie.

Oh, very doogie.

Yes.

Yes.

Also, Parker, there's a spider on your shoulder.

Oh, Meg.

Shaking in my boots here.

One more, one more tune here on this day in 1999.

The chicks became the first group in the history of the Billboard 200 album chart to have a country album.

debut at number one with the album Fly.

Fly not

only had this song Cowboy Take Me Away, it had Goodbye Earl.

If I fall, you're going down with me, ready to run and Sin Wagon.

I'll

still

listen to that album front to back.

Yes, I was gonna say I believe that I believe I love all of the chicks music.

I celebrate their entire discography.

But I think Fly may be a perfect album.

Oh, without a doubt.

And it Yeah.

And no wonder it debuted at number one.

They were writing the A Wave of Popularity and people took to that album right away.

On this day in 2011, one of those TV things that you don't know if it's going to work or not, Ashton Kutcher debuted on two and a half men replacing Charlie Sheen.

And it worked to hunger on for like I think four more seasons.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And a weird show.

And one year ago today, Shohei Otani created the 50-50 club.

He became the first player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season.

That guy's better than you and me and everybody else.

Yeah,

but the burrs swept them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They can't take that away from us.

Today is National Butterscotch Pudding Day.

I haven't had Butterscotch Pudding since I was like 10 years old.

Wow.

Today is, this is both Concussion Awareness Day and National Overthinkers Day.

Coincident?

Of course.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Wow.

That's a real thinker.

It is a real thinker, yeah.

And finally, Greg, it is National Talk Like a Pirate Day.

I bet you there's pirates who talk like me.

Just like, hey guys, would you like to go plunder the booty over there?

We'd like to get some.

I knew Greg was just

not

going to go along with this.

We're going to steal this ship and all its wares.

And frankly, I don't like the misrepresentation of me in TV and films.

Thank you very much.

I may be a pirate, but I'm also a person.

I'd love to see him go, Hey, you guys, we're taking over your ship.

Okay.

Oh, let me squeeze past you.

My name is blue beard.

I'm here to take you stuff.

Yeah.

Greg Bach.

You can hear him on Matt and Aaron air weekdays nine to 11 right after this program on the civic media radio network.

Much more head of the next couple of hours of these mornings with pack right low powered by up north news.

This is the civic media radio network.

Are we gonna listen to this?

On behalf of Civic Media, we'd like to apologize to the spider that caused such disruption that we couldn't even go into the commercial break without busting out.

Did you ever find the little bugger?

Turn your microphone on.

And I

forgot to turn my mic on.

Oh, it is Friday.

Wow.

If there's anybody listening in the Madison studio, please bring Parker some chamomile tea.

We're going to call the day.

We're just going to end this whole show right now.

Whistle!

Whistle!

Thank

you.

There we go.

Yes, we have the Roy Kent coffee mug.

It is Friday.

Shall we?

Well, let's first do the... What's that thing called?

Free Ticket Friday.

See?

It's happening over here too.

Free Ticket Friday.

Let's get that keyword out there.

You could win four tickets to see the Brewers again since that next Friday night.

Text us the keyword blue, B-L-U-E, like the color.

Text blue until nine o'clock.

Greg, would you guess, hazard a guess that you'll have a keyword as part of matinee on air, a different keyword later on?

Oh, most definitely we will have a keyword for you when we're on the air.

Well, we're on from 9 to 11.

We generally, you know, we like to tease it a little bit.

But yes, just like with Pat's show today, this morning, when we give you our keyword, you're going to pull out the Civic Media app and you're going to text it in via the Civic Media app.

Remember, spelling counts.

Yes, it does.

B L U E blue is the keyword until nine o'clock this morning.

All right, I got my got my Harvey Levin oversized mug here.

Let's pretend that this is the TMZ newsroom as Parker pitches the entertainment story of the day.

Parker, what have you got?

Star Wars starfighter aren't you so excited, Pat?

We got a new Star Wars movie coming out and it's star studded, which is really weird for Star Wars.

It has Ryan Gosling starring in it.

What?

Mm

hmm.

Yeah, that makes me.

I'm gasoline and Star Wars.

Yeah.

And it's also

got

a

bunch of others too.

And is that the name of it Starfighter?

Yeah, Starfighter.

It takes place like five years after the most recent trilogy.

And

so five years after Rise of Skywalker.

Yes.

Okay, all right, that's what they're doing now with these with these some of these properties They're doing like it's five years after return of the Jedi it's five out five years after the well Also, it's a long long time ago.

So five years means nothing

The galaxy far far away.

We're timed as a flat circle.

What's five years anyway

where they can conjure the science to fly through space and have laser weapons They're like when when did this take place long time ago?

Mm-hmm far away.

You got

attention.

She's like what Ryan Gosling

I assume that that is a good thing that she's expressing.

Here's hoping.

But but a new Star Wars, she says.

OK.

Maybe not so much the Ryan Gosling.

Maybe yes on the Star Wars.

OK.

So all right.

So we will get a feel for where people are on a star studded Star Wars star fighter.

Is this something that is just.

getting going in production or if they already shot it and we know when it's coming out.

Um, it is in production.

I think right now, I saw a picture of Ryan Gosling on set and it feels as weird as you would think it would feel for him to be in a Star Wars costume.

I don't know what you're talking about.

There's a lot of Star Wars movies and TV shows with, with stars in it, with, with known actors.

I was going to say from the

beginning, Alec Guinness, you know, is Obi-Wan Kenobi in the,

in the

original movie.

Okay.

Huge star.

Yeah.

I guess I just was $95 million off of that movie from the back end deal.

He did with the points.

He's a smart, he's a smart Jedi.

All right.

All right.

What else we got?

What else we got?

Well, uh, Stephen Colbert made a little pitch to potential employers while he was at the Emmys.

Uh, he brought a head shot and he asked if Harrison Ford could get the head shot to Steven Spielberg and maybe get some, uh,

get some jobs lined up for him.

Stephen Colbert is the next Indiana Jones.

No, no, I don't think I'm not getting that one.

All right.

Maybe we'll workshop it maybe.

So what do we think between Stephen Colbert, now Jimmy Kimmel and John Stewart?

Do we think that any of them are coming back to like a network TV show or

might we see some kind of like an independent project going forward?

Greg, if you were especially let's take Jimmy Kimmel out of it because Stephen Colbert and John Stuart have more of a history together.

Well, what are the odds that they don't just say, Well, you know, I guess we're retired, we'll cash the checks as opposed to coming back with something.

I think that John Stuart likes his gig at the Daily Show right now.

He only has to work one day a week.

Yeah.

And I think Stephen Colbert still has something in him.

I think he still has something to say.

I don't know if it'll be, I, I know it can easily be a podcast cause that's just the easiest pivot, but I'd like to see him on television or something about Stephen Colbert, especially on network television.

That's it still has some.

push for me personally.

But I think the easiest thing for Colbert to do is say, All right, pack it up, pack it in.

And here we go.

We're gonna go start a podcast.

Yeah.

Alicia writes, Wait, what has John Stuart been canceled to?

No, no, no, I just met because John Stuart is only working that one day a week.

That, you know, maybe they could do something.

Tony puts up no more corporate media.

Well, I mean, yeah, the mega corporations.

I, for one, am happy to be working with the corporate media that is Civic Media.

That's a fine corporation, a public benefits corporation.

May I add as well?

I really enjoy working for Civic Media and really all of its affiliates.

Exactly.

All right.

So again, Stephen Colbert, you want one more?

One more entertainment story to close out the week.

Oh, did you realize that Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift are engaged yet?

No, you didn't know that.

Well,

now you know, that's not your story.

No, it's not the story.

It's not the story.

All

right.

Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL was asked if Taylor Swift might be a halftime show.

And he said, just maybe, which I think is kind of baffling.

Well, you think you think he was taking a dig at it like she might not be good enough?

I think it's weird that she hasn't done one yet, given she's been a massive star for like decades.

Kind of doesn't.

needed.

I mean,

she's

she's had her own thing going on.

Also,

the logistics of it all, I wouldn't be surprised if it just didn't work out.

And also, I think that people would lose their minds if she did.

Like, there's such a there's such a weird like, like

I need, I need tough and cool for my halftime show.

Can

you imagine though that if she was and all these Swifties got tickets to the Super Bowl, but just for her.

So like during the Super Bowl, the

left,

they're all in the concourse and milling around and scrolling on their phones.

And there's like half empty stands for the Super Bowl.

And then they all come rushing back in for the halftime show.

And then

after Taylor's done out, they go again.

That would be an amazing scene.

And it's exactly what would happen.

That's why Tay Tay is not doing the Super Bowl show.

Greg Bach.

We'll see you at nine o'clock for Matt and Aaron air.

If you

don't

mind.

Absolutely.

Come on.

All right.

We'll be happy to you have a wonderful weekend.

We've got our weekend review panel coming up right after the news.

I'm Pat Kratlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.

You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglo.

Good morning, it is 7 0 6.

It is nice to have you back here up North on a Friday morning.

It is September 19th, 2025.

Parker Olson's producing things down in Studio A2 meteorologist, Brittany Merlot.

is standing by and so is our Week in Review panel journalist Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze and former U.S.

Attorney Jim Santel to talk about the big stories of the week and obviously what is happening to our First Amendment in our corporate media is going to be a big part of this hour's discussions.

In our next hour, Dr. Kristen Lierly joins us along with Kate Duffy from Motherhood for Good, talking about a big diaper drive going on for a local diaper bank and how you can help out and how your donations can be doubled thanks to somebody who's going to be matching all of those gifts.

And Mike Clemens will be along at 835 to talk all about the brewers sweeping the angels and now heading to St.

Louis for a series against the Cardinals.

And then they had out of out of the st.

Louis series this weekend They then had to where is it San Diego?

That's right for games Monday Tuesday Wednesday of next week and then they come home for the final home stand of the season next weekend against Cincinnati and That gets us to free ticket Friday.

This is the final free ticket Friday

of the Brewer's season.

So you want that Civic Media app handy to send us the keyword.

I'm going to give you just a little bit and you can get four tickets to next Friday night's game versus Cincinnati.

And it's our last free ticket Friday.

So

Listen for that keyword you'll have until nine o'clock to text it in and then more keywords throughout the day, more chances to enter one of those drawings or one of those entries today will be drawn to win those four tickets to the game.

Now let's give it to you now.

It's blue.

blue text the keyword blue like the color before 9am and you will be in the running for those brewers tickets on free ticket Friday.

Now let's get to meteorologist Brittany Merleau who is looking at a radar.

over the upper Midwest that just basically looks like an old cocktail napkin and you put the cup of coffee on there or whatever and it's just got these rings of a mess and it's just these rings of rain all over the place and you just don't know when it's going to rain but you know you're on the napkin somewhere, Brittany.

I have never heard that comparison and I love it.

You've got me cracking up.

I can't even think now.

Now that's perfect.

Yes.

I mean it is you look at the napkin you lift up the coffee cup and you go oh Maybe I should maybe should aim better when I'm pouring but be that as it may We got a mess across the Midwest

We do and this isn't even the low-pressure system itself.

This is still just a

front wrapped through the state, but the winds are picking up.

It's going to be a breezy day today and that's going to continue into the weekend.

Actually, we have a beach hazard statement on all the Lake Michigan shores through at least tomorrow.

And we're also looking at Douglas County.

You're going to see some of the bigger waves potentially approaching about 10 feet high.

So.

strong winds off the lake, strong winds inland as well, and a lot of rain on and off.

It's becoming numerous now throughout the state, a little heavy at times, especially right now towards Hurley, Eau Claire, Park Falls.

You're kind of getting in the mix of that.

But this is going to be the case as we go through the next few days.

What I'm thinking is, is we'll have a little break this afternoon and then more starts to ramp up later tonight, or it could be heavy in spots.

We might get a little bit of a break tomorrow, but then Sunday it looks to get heavy as well and potentially into Monday, too, where we could see a front setting up across southeastern parts of the state, where it could just start to downpour maybe two inches, three inches in some spots.

But widespread, we're really looking at about a half an inch to an inch by the time this weekend is said and done.

Really depends on if your town gets underneath multiple thunderstorms.

or not.

This is a messy system.

It has honestly been one of the hardest ones to forecast, to be honest with you.

But the good news is I don't see any severe weather in it.

I just see some heavy rainfall potentially.

So breezy, wet.

dark and dreary this weekend.

Don't forget the umbrella.

I actually made a post on Facebook.

I want pictures of your umbrellas.

I just started thinking this morning, there's got

to be an

array of colors and designs and things.

And if you get caught in the rain, I want to see a video too.

Yes, they're absolutely so many umbrellas.

That's a that's a great idea.

I

wonder if there are any umbrellas that look like Pat's shirt.

Right?

Oh,

you know, the one day I don't wear a plaid or a flannel shirt.

And now it's being used as fodder for

umbrellas.

No,

it's just a

little palm trees on it.

It's it's fine.

Let's see what's in the mailbag here.

First off from Alisha.

Oh, what's with the honeycomb design on the shirt?

All right, moving on here from Roger and Steven's point.

Good morning.

As the bells echo from St.

Peter's Church, I tuned into the game that Chad Holmes called last night.

Wassa East at Mosini.

The game had a one hour, 40 minute rain delay with a thunderstorm.

Mosini won 35 seven as the game went final at almost 11 p.m.

Shadows puts in some long days.

Let's see.

I know that we've got Robin Tigerton here.

There he is.

Good morning from Tigerton.

Cloudy and 59 he puts on YouTube.

Yesterday I was busy mowing five yards in Tigerton.

Yesterday when you were all talking about pizza, I had a supreme pizza at Blazers Bar and Grill in Split Rock.

And he notes that the Tigerton sunsets are rapidly coming before seven o'clock.

6.58 is what he says sunsets going to be in Tigerton.

He said last night around Lake Dubai area north of Stevens Point had two and a half inches of rain.

Tigerton two tenths of an inch of rain overnight.

He said we do need the rain.

It was the first in 10 days.

And so that much rain is needed.

And he also says he does not have an umbrella.

Whereas Alicia puts on their

info.

I know Alicia says, Oh, I've got a rainbow umbrella that I bought at Fox Valley Pride.

So

get

them sent in.

And I mean, do you subscribe to the whole theory of, you know, opening an umbrella inside as bad luck or can people open their umbrella inside to make the video or the photo?

Or would you rather they be

outside?

Okay.

I wouldn't do that.

I would be outside with it.

Outside's better.

Come on.

Look at

you

being all superstitious.

But if it's stored inside and you're not going anywhere and it's just sitting there, you can just send a picture of it just sitting there.

That's fine.

Okay, that'll work.

Thank you, Brittany.

We'll talk to you next hour.

Have a good day.

Hey, remember you can...

Where'd that go?

Come back here.

Remember, you can sign up for our newsletter up north news wi.com.

We've got a weekday version.

We've got a weekend version with Sunday morning question of the week that I put together the weekday one is put together by Ellie, our new news watch newsletter editor and

She talks as well about the diaper drive that we're going to be discussing an hour from now with Kate Duffy from Motherhood for Good.

So you've certainly got a story there of ways that you can help us out.

And there's also a story here about a Lake Michigan shipwreck that has been found uncovered after 139 years.

So learn more about that in our newsletter, sign up for it at UpNorthNewsWI.com

In the news there is a report that Congressman Tom Tiffany might be on the verge of announcing a run for governor.

It's not an announcement that's coming from him.

It came from Wisconsin College Republicans.

Yesterday they tweeted out a flyer advertising a very special event in Wausau hosted by Tom Tiffany coming up next Wednesday, September 24th.

Multiple Republicans in the state told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Tiffany is planning to officially jump into the 2026 governor's race next week.

I mean, I'm still not thoroughly convinced because again, putting your name out there is a great way to do fundraising and build name ID.

And in the end, he could say, you know, this just isn't the right time for me, but thanks for all of you who've been writing checks recently.

So again, I'll believe it when I hear it.

although it would be great news for Wisconsin Republicans because right now they have two relative unknowns who are running in Washington County executive Josh Schoeman and Waukesha County business owner Bill Barion.

And so while Tom Tiffany is far better up north in the Seventh Congressional District, his name of course has come up in countless conversations because Republicans are desperately seeking a rare win in state elections.

You would get the impression that Republicans were dominant in Wisconsin to look at the legislature, but that, of course, was based on maps that were gerrymandered for over a decade.

If you look at statewide elections, there have been 18 statewide elections dating back to 2018.

And of those 18 statewide elections, the Democratic or the Progressive candidate

has won 15 of those 18 state elections.

Now, there will be a primary, of course, both for the Democrats and the Republicans for the governor's race.

There will be races next year for Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, Secretary of State.

But with a wide open governor's race, Republicans are looking for somebody who has name ID.

And so it is quite possible, though I would say not a certainty yet, that Tom Tiffany could get into the race in the middle of next week.

Coming up this weekend, we're going to hear more about a Republican plan that would make some big changes about elections and ballot drop boxes.

That note is coming from WISN TV ahead of their Sunday show Up Front.

They will be interviewing Republican State Representative Scott Krug.

He's the Assembly Majority Leader.

He's the Vice Chair of the Assembly Elections Committee.

And it starts off with some good news.

The Republican proposal that's about to be unveiled would finally, finally allow the processing of absentee ballots the day before Election Day.

That's something that should have been done a long time ago.

It's not counting the ballots, that happens on election day.

But it's a process to get the envelopes, open up the envelope, well first verify the envelopes against the voter list, then open them up and get them set and then you can feed them, you know, the next day.

Whereas if you're doing it day of, it stretches the process out and...

Frankly, Republicans haven't fixed it because they like that it's stretched out.

They like that sometimes the results don't come in until after midnight because of big cities like Milwaukee, Green Bay, Racine, Kenosha, and elsewhere.

And they can say, oh, there must be something suspicious going on with these ballots coming out late at night.

Well, now Republicans say they are willing to pass a bill that would begin processing absentee ballots the day before.

Of course, there's always a catch.

There's always a catch.

And so the bill would mandate new, quote, security measures for Dropboxes, including 24-hour surveillance video of each Dropbox that must be live-streamed on the municipality's website.

Ballots would also need to be transferred under the supervision of a law enforcement officer, and the legislation would penalize clerks

who correct errors on absentee ballot requests.

In other words, this is going after a fly with a sledgehammer.

This is overkill to the umpteenth degree here.

Surveillance video on every Dropbox that has to be live streamed on the municipality website.

I'll say it again, there is already a penalty for mail fraud.

If you use the mail fraud, you're going to get in trouble.

Do we put 24-hour cameras on every mailbox?

Does the city of Chippewa Falls have to have a website showing the webcams of every mailbox?

No!

Same goes for absentee ballot dropboxes.

I'm up here in the town of Eagle Point, has a beautiful old town hall.

You're telling me that this town and every other township that wants an absentee ballot dropbox now has to go through the expense of a live stream 24-hour camera?

and has to have a law enforcement officer there to transfer the ballots.

Once again, these Republican legislators are teasing you by saying, hey, we're willing to make elections go a little bit more smoothly processing those absentee ballots.

But here's some strings attached.

And they're not even strings.

These are ropes.

These are chains.

This is a non starter.

But

It's been pretty par for the course lately when it comes to Republicans managing elections.

Our Week in Review panel is coming up.

Our keyword before 9 a.m.

for Free Ticket Friday for Brewer's Tickets to next Friday's game against the Cincinnati Reds is blue.

Text blue, B-L-U-E, before 9 a.m.

I'm Pat Crichtlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Our esteemed Week in Review panel is coming up right after we talk a bit about what they're all up to these days.

You can get from Jennifer Sholsey her newsletter on Substack called Indistinct Chatter.

search for news.

Jennifer, their latest issue says it does no one any good for Charlie Kirk's life to be sainwashed or for reporters to rush to publish unverified info.

from Mark Jacob, who's got Stop the Presses at stopthepresses.news and couriernewsroom.com.

Talks about media timidity from some cowardly journalists after the Charlie Kirk murder.

And of course, former US Attorney Jim Santel has amicus a law review every Saturday, starting at 9am on civic media radio stations around Wisconsin.

Learn more at civicmedia.us Jennifer, Jim, Mark, good morning.

Good

morning.

See, yeah, I'm getting better.

I'm just saying good morning.

I'm just saying good morning.

How are you?

Because then there's that uncomfortable thing after that.

So

we'll

just stick with good morning.

So here we are.

I feel like, you know, this segment got started with just, you know, Mark came on board and I thought, well, let's get some friends here to join in with us.

But every so often, I just want to go back to the way that it

was in the beginning because I just know all I have to do is say something and It's like pulling a string Mark ABC capitulated to Donald Trump and They basically are I'm sure Jimmy Kimmel's not coming back the way things are looking right now What do you think I'm gonna go get some breakfast.

I'll be back in a while the floor is yours Literally smart

Well, look, the real problem

is corporate media.

It's people, big corporations who own a lot of different businesses that many of which have nothing to do with journalism, but they happen to own media outlets as well.

Therefore, because they're scared of Trump sabotaging their other interests, they're willing to sacrifice their media outlet or the legitimacy of it,

in order to satisfy the would-be dictator.

And so that's why they are so quick to capitulate, to throw millions of dollars at Trump and to do what they did to Kimmel.

And there's this self-censorship going on now in media where people get fired for saying perfectly reasonable things, just to maybe they think it's almost like the Aztecs throwing

people into the fire to sacrifice themselves then to the gods.

I mean, there is this kind of idea that if you, if the media punishes its own, then the dictator will be satisfied.

Well, and the truth is the dictator's never satisfied.

The dictator wants more and more always.

I saw this going in a lot of directions.