You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
On a Monday morning, December 15th, 806th of the time, nice to have you back here up north.
All across the Civic Media radio network, John and Gordy will be joining us in just a moment.
First, if you missed it earlier, the
The sad announcement that this is our last week of shows in the early morning, our final live show will be on Friday, followed by some highlight shows from 2025 and then a clean slate of programming here at Civic Media.
We have loved this partnership over the past three years, but my duties at Up North News are
expanding and we'll keep you up to date on what that all will include coming up in the new year.
But again, I really appreciate the opportunity from the civic media folks to come here and put together a morning show.
But it's become quite clear moving forward that what the people want
is 24 hours of John and Gordy.
So I'm here to announce John and Gordy will be, will be living at the civic media headquarters and will be just everywhere all the time.
Morning guys.
How are you?
Good.
It's almost like that
They're laughing like they didn't get the memo Parker.
I don't know.
You saw it, right?
Yeah,
saw it.
I don't know why they're laughing.
They know that they're on air 24 seven starting on Monday.
Yeah.
Guys, how was your
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that.
I've really loved this.
I've really enjoyed it.
I am a radio rat from the beginning.
That's what I initially wanted to do in life.
The TV thing was a complete accident, and then there was that midlife crisis going into politics.
But I'd always wanted to come back to radio, and it has been just a wonderful thing.
There'll be some other adventures.
in 2026, I suppose, but that Jane McNair kid, she's kind of making her retirement look interesting.
So
don't know, maybe we'll see what comes down after that.
Everybody gave her such a nice send off.
I love that about this business is that, you know, a lot of times people don't get to say goodbye and leave on their own terms.
And so when you got something like that, it was a nice development.
We wish her all the luck in the world and all the happiness.
I don't want to step on her toes, which is why
I put this off until Monday, but yeah, one more week of this and thank you all for the kind words and for the experience.
It's been great.
Yeah.
And I've talked to people like that.
Obviously, retirements kind of been on our minds now that we're both in our early 60s.
And initially, we were, you know, the kind of people that said, Why would you ever retire if you're liking what you do?
And
it goes.
And now I'm at the point where people go, Pat, you
You could never retire.
You could never leave news and politics.
And I'm like.
Have you not looked at the world lately?
When the time comes, whenever that is, well, I said, I'm going to throw my smartphone into the ocean because I'll be on a beach at the time.
I will open up a flip phone so that I never have to look at news headlines again and order me another pina colada.
That might be a bit of a stretch, but I am going to try so hard not to be the information junkie that I've been for 40 plus years.
But I get it, John.
It's a hard habit to break.
You're
Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll still be doing it at up north news.
I'm just saying at some point that too will end.
And you know, could I really do what Jane is doing starting today?
And that is just actually relaxing and life without a whole bunch of news and politics and media.
And I think whenever that time comes, I think I'll be able to do it.
But I have met
You know, I've met people of all stripes, the ones who have been like, oh, retirement's the best thing.
You got to do it right away.
And the others who are now, you know, they've tried once or twice to retire and have said, nope, not my thing.
Not my thing.
I got to be busy all the time.
Yeah.
And that's fine.
That's how I felt.
I know Gordy.
And that you may as well get a paycheck while you're doing it.
That's a thing.
You know, oh, yeah,
when
I mean, well,
it for the money.
that.
Well, yes, that's true.
But but it is it's very it's very enjoyable.
But I know that, you know, just retirement itself, the people that I've talked to, and I mean, these are doctors who, you know, I'd see at clinic parties with my wife, and they'd be saying, you know, the toughest thing about retirement is that even if you have saved enough, if you've saved what you thought you wanted to save for retirement, there's just something psychological about no longer having money coming in, that it's all about money going out, and that is
very hard for some people.
It's why they can't retire.
It's just not, it's not in their wheelhouse to not be making an income.
We've been so trained in this economy like, Oh, you always got to be making money.
God forbid you relax for five minutes, you know?
Yeah.
getting benefits from being a politician?
As a matter of fact, now I did not get like vested in the state retirement plan because you have to be there for 10 years and I
there for four.
But you still get like this little
piece of a of a pension so that next year when I turn 62 I will actually get something like uh it's like $70 a month or something
like
that yeah that ain't nothing
you know and
yeah but it it brings up that whole notion of pensions versus you know what we got now with the 401ks and the IRAs and everything else I mean you used to have that
comfort or that security of knowing that there was a pension waiting for you.
And now it's like, I hope Wall Street does well today because I've known retirees who Wall Street has a bad day.
And next thing I know, I see him at the pull tab machine, you know, just kind of, and I don't want to have to think about Wall Street every day of my retirement, you know,
afterwards.
And you're just up your professional, yeah, like day trader, whether you whether you like it or not.
Yeah, not my my speed.
You guys were talking today about what Christmas Carol and and screws and things like that.
it just wanted to concentrate in on Scourge was how what what you can talk about.
Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life.
We
And who is it that played John Steed in The Avengers way back when?
That actor played a role in the Alster Sims movie.
And he would introduce it in an anniversary redone version, not redone, but remastered version of it.
Oh, sure.
And I always remember I have that version of it.
Oh, yeah.
And then I have even I have actually a letterbox version and a regular movie size version and a digitized version.
I have collected as much of that movie as I could possibly.
You're like the Taylor Swift business model.
I'm going to make you buy the same song four different times because I'm packaging all these all these different ways.
I'm sorry.
Maybe I'm showing you know what I'm not exactly high class, shall we say.
Muppet Christmas Carol.
That's that's the classic for me because it was Michael Cain playing Scrooge and Michael Cain said he would only take the role if he could play it completely straight.
He never gets he never camps it up.
He never gets you know, hams it up with the Muppets or he doesn't acknowledge that they are Muppets at all.
He plays it completely straight and he's amazing in the movie.
So if you have
Yeah, look, you can you can you can do, you know, campy versions of it and still have some fun with it.
But it was just a nice way that you could still have the the Muppet humor, but just not with the Scrooge character.
And that's very foundational.
So I'm sure your listeners, you know, had a lot of good thoughts on, you know, the versions of there's so many versions of it out there.
So many
people who played Scrooge over the years.
that anymore in Hollywood?
I
You
You know, it's one of those kind of movies.
There is a movie way back in 1935.
I watched all the different versions of it, but this one is a little darker than most of the movies that were made of A Christmas Carol and Scrooge, and that is where Cratchit goes up to the bedroom upstairs where Tiny Tim is laying, you know, because they didn't...
they didn't have funeral homes and they didn't have all the process that
So yes,
it really is.
And yet, you know, I mean, the lesson is there, it's still as much a morality play as ever about, you know, greed and and the difference between, you know, chair.
that and charity, having compassion for not just your fellow man, but for your employees and things like that.
So it makes it very enjoyable and I'm glad I've been reminded of a classic like that because otherwise we will just sit here and talk about National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
That's a classic comedy, but it's never gonna be a classic Christmas tale, shall we say?
I don't know.
You guys have other things that you completely binge on?
Yeah.
And Peter Dinklage is as one of the characters in there.
You know, he was he I believe he did that one right before
Game of Thrones, but I could be wrong.
But when you really started noticing him and a couple of the other roles that he did, and what a great actor he is as well.
And then, of course, you've got now the late great James Kahn playing a role that you're going, wait, this is the guy from the Godfather.
He's playing just a wonderful role there.
I hate to end on a melancholy note, but we
When we mentioned Rob Reiner we're gonna do it in in appreciation because obviously this is a tragic situation But we we can't not tip our cap to him even though this was a terrible circumstance, but His his legacy will be the guy that invented the mockumentary with this a spinal tap, right?
You know princess bride stand by me and then a few good men and you're going wait
This is Rob Reiner.
He's doing and then he does Harry Met Sally after that and misery after that.
I mean, nobody knew Meathead had it in him when he started directing these movies.
Yeah, and he was working on a sequel to it as well.
And he talked, I saw a clip of him talking about being the son of Carl Reiner, you know, just a TV pioneer.
And it just makes you work that much harder that you don't, you know, he says, your name gets you in the door, but you got to prove yourself after that, you know,
Well, he did.
I mean, your dad creates the Dick Van Dyke show.
Dick Van Dyke turned 100 on Saturday.
Yeah, that's that was a big monumental moment, wasn't it?
And he's got books how to live to be
hundred,
know.
And he should
you know.
Yes, he actually made it there.
Johnny Gordy, you can hear them afternoons here across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Mornings on the Madison Station and soon everywhere.
Johnny Gordy, thanks guys.
We're just talking to you, Pat.
Well, me as well.
Thank you so much.
Take care.
Have a great day.
Alright, we'll continue things here and soon be talking to John Hankus from Wisconsin Eye about that network going dark today.
I'm Pat Krightlo from Up North News.
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.
eight five five seven five civic as our phone number eight five five seven five two four eight four two you can call it you can text it you can use the civic media app to call the show text the show leave us a voice note or drop into the comment sections on facebook or youtube either for civic media or for up north news and
The comment sections went and got busy today on one of the Facebook sites at least because I I dared to mention that on Saturday night the new right-wing regime at CBS Decided to devote a couple of hours of or some primetime time on Saturday Not to Dick Van Dyke their longtime star who turned a hundred years old but to Erica Kirk the widow of Charlie Kirk and
It was a town hall CBS's social media was taken over by dozens of social media posts about Erica Kirk and about Charlie Kirk and I mean I I didn't know how else to put it on social media except to say I've I've seen enough we can call it time of death for CBS news right now.
in deciding to turn things over to celebrate someone who was as divided as he was as opposed to somebody who, you know, like a Dick Van Dyke who brought us joy and comedy, or do neither one.
But that was a conscious decision on their part at CBS News.
It seems like there's always an issue with folks on the far right and the media, that if they hear something they don't like, it must be a conspiracy against them, even if true.
For example, Wisconsin Eye, which we're going to get into next, Alicia pops up on YouTube and says, my state representative said, in terms of giving state funding to Wisconsin Eye, they're worried about Wisconsin Eye turning into state run media.
Sure.
Wisconsin Eye provides an unfiltered, unvarnished view of state government.
There are interview shows and talk shows on there with journalists who are so above board and so beyond any kind of suspicion of bias.
These are great reporters and hosts who ask
fact based questions and insist on fact based answers.
And it's everything that we could want from a TV channel covering our elected officials.
And it's something that we frankly deserve to have.
But we don't have that because it was Wisconsin I was dependent upon philanthropic donations more so than state funding.
So John Hankus will be along in 10 minutes and we will talk much more about that.
We had such a great conversation a little less than an hour ago with former Congressman Reed Ribble about health care and Reed Ribble was a Republican Congressman from Northeast, Wisconsin's eighth district for six years and Got a reputation as you know, one of those Republicans who genuinely genuinely wanted to find answers to the things that are troubling his constituents health care certainly among them and
Again, made the case that there are all kinds of ways that you can have an honest debate about health care.
And then you have to work toward a solution.
The one wrong approach is to do nothing or to savage the people who are trying to solve this health care conundrum in this country and then not putting up any real alternative of your own.
Now, Republicans in Congress today have put up something.
Health savings accounts.
And I'll even put a thousand dollars into it.
And then you put all of your extra money into this health savings account and that will enable you to, you know, find the right health insurance and, you know, make the deductibles and everything else.
And if it sounds too good to be true, it's because it is.
And we knew that long before this debate that created the Affordable Care Act.
And yet Congressman Scott Fitzgerald recently had a column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
touting the benefits of health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts and things like that.
And I was taking note of a response, a letter to the editor in the journal Sentinel by a Dr. John Perryman of Williams Bay.
And here's part of his letter.
Scott Fitzgerald's recent column discussing how Republicans are, quote, solving the problems created by Obamacare, end quote, was clear evidence of how little he and the GOP understand the realities of health care and how tone deaf they are to the needs of Americans.
While HSAs offer many tax advantages, this approach ignores the reality that tens of millions of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
and they would be unable to pay the high deductible, let alone set aside funds to an HSA.
These are not true solutions, it is tinkering around the edges, he writes.
The base problem is that health insurers are corporations and as such, their primary goal is profit maximization.
Among their strategies for this is making the patient pay more and creating barriers to coverage
With the goal of paying fewer claims, this is the fundamental problem.
And that's the letter to the editor from Dr. John Perryman of Williams Bay about Congressman Scott Fitzgerald's column.
Now, Scott Fitzgerald served, I believe, in the National Guard.
He has been a state senator and he is now a member of Congress.
When it comes to health care, he's good.
He will not ever have an issue affording health care.
And that's part of the point that I think many people are making is that there are far too many people making a government salary, getting really great health insurance, and yet they appear to be moving heaven and earth to try to keep ordinary Americans from being able to afford health insurance.
We have two problems with healthcare in this country.
Underutilization and overutilization.
And they're both issues.
Republicans only want to talk about the over-utilization that, oh, people are going to get a million tests and they're going to go see the doctor if their finger gets a scratch on it, it's going to drive up costs.
Yeah, you have to work for ways to have reasonable co-pays that guard against over-utilization.
It's true.
But you're lost if you don't first deal with the under-utilization.
All of the people who get sick
but don't go get care until it's too late, until it's too expensive because they don't have health insurance coverage.
Solve the health insurance affordable coverage problem, and you've taken a big step.
We've got too many politicians who have no interest in doing that whatsoever.
We'll talk to John Hankus from Wisconsin Eye.
Coming up next, I'm Pat Crightlow from Up North News.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Remember to stay up to date on what we're doing at UpNorth News, head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Click subscribe in the top banner and be a subscriber to our weekday newsletters and our Sunday morning politics newsletter as well.
Today's edition from Ellie Bordeaux has the Badger State Buzz calendar of events that are going on this week.
Also an article on ice dams and how to prevent damage to your home as a result.
Our Sunday morning newsletter has a question of the week.
And this week's question deals with how to pay for education in Wisconsin.
Right now, so much of our public school funding is reliant upon local property taxes.
Is that the right way?
to fund education?
Does that give a degree of local control?
Or should this be a case where state funding from a more progressive income tax is what funds our schools?
A lot of great answers have come in already.
And to see our question of the week first, well, that's where you head over to upnorthnewswi.com and click subscribe and be on board as a subscriber to one of our newsletters.
All right, so we've talked about, you know, how the state should fund schools.
Let's talk about funding for coverage of our state government itself, because for a number of years now, well over a decade, Wisconsin Eye has been providing that unfiltered, unvarnished coverage of state government with live sessions of the Assembly and Senate, committee meetings, some live, some tape, some interview shows, presentations, panel shows, and that's all happening in a network that has gone dark.
as of today due to a lack of financial resources and so Wisconsinite president and CEO John Hankus joins us now to talk more about what the what the network is facing.
John, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing well, Pat.
Thank you.
Hello to all your listeners.
No, thank you.
I appreciate your time here.
So the network went dark at midnight overnight and there is a slide up on the screen now that explains the situation.
How about if in your own words you explain what is it that has forced Wisconsinite to go dark right now?
Let me begin with a short story.
So yesterday afternoon evening, I was lamenting the loss of the Packers.
and Christian Watson and Micah Parsons and 920 last night, the phone rings.
And I'm thinking, you get a call at that time, not good.
Well, it was former governor, Tommy Thompson.
Tommy said, John, how are you doing?
And I said, I'm fine, governor.
He said, is Wisconsin Eye going dark on Monday?
I said, yes, it is.
He said, it's a sad day for Wisconsin and it's a sad day for Wisconsin Eye.
How can I help?
So behind the scenes, Pat, there are a number of individuals who believe strongly in the mission and work of Wisconsin Eye.
And I believe we will find a resolution somewhere in the near term.
We're not there yet.
But what brought us to this point is the fact that Wisconsin Eye relies solely on charitable contributions.
We're a 501C3 organization.
And there has been support through the years, through private donors, through foundations, through business foundations.
But since the pandemic, the environment for philanthropy nationwide has changed rather dramatically.
There's an intense pressure and competition for charitable dollars.
So take it back to the pandemic.
And a lot of local community-based projects went into hibernation for good reason.
There was just too much anxiety over the economy.
Well, in the last 18 months or so, a lot of those projects have reemerged as well as new projects.
So whether you're talking Wausau, Racine, Madison, Milwaukee, there are multimillion dollar charitable campaigns going on all around the state.
On top of that, there continues to be skittishness over the economy.
Then you throw into that mixed record-breaking political fundraising.
And oftentimes, Wisconsinite gets put in that same bucket.
But we do not advocate for candidates or causes or campaigns.
We're that neutral ground.
So we've got to fight our way through that fog and say, no, we're different.
We have to distinguish ourselves as really the...
the transparency and the access that citizens need.
So it's just been a really tough environment.
I'll give you some numbers.
So in the last 18 months, Wisconsinite has made 52 well qualified, well developed donor requests.
And those are of individuals, businesses, and formal foundation proposals.
52.
totally $9.2 million and all of them have been declined.
So you have to take a step back and say, well, this funding model is no longer sustainable.
What do we need to do to keep this network alive moving forward?
Well, that's where
people ask,
that's where people ask, John, you know, what is the the state commitment from from the time that it started until now through, I forget how many state budgets that must be by now, but has that varied in terms of what each legislature has made for a state funding commitment to this 501c3?
No, there really has been no commitment from the state.
The state has stepped in on a few occasions.
during our 18 years of service.
They participated with some funding to replace the cameras in the Capitol.
That was about five, six years ago.
During the pandemic, the administration provided a one-time grant to help get us through a dry season, if you will.
And then most recently, they provided a $250,000 grant to help Wisconsinite.
but over 18 years there has been no annual support by the state for Wisconsinite and that's been by design.
I mean very early this network was created as an independent entity so that whatever party was in power would not manipulate control or
to its advantage schedule programming or coverages.
So credit goes to the legislative body and the governors through the years for saying we want to do this independent of state control.
We're at the point now where we provide them with a service.
They recognize that.
And so there is right now $9,750,000 in an account.
with Wisconsinite's name on it in a statutorily required dollar for dollar match.
So in other words, if Wisconsinite were successful in raising endowment dollars incrementally along the way, the state would match those dollars.
So we're competing against ourselves.
We're trying to raise money to keep operations going month to month, to keep the lights on.
At the same time, we've been trying to raise endowment dollars.
and in this difficult environment, neither of those have proved successful.
So right now the conversation going on behind the scenes is, would the state consider doing one of several things?
Either put that money into an endowment account managed by the state where the dividends, the earnings would go directly to Wisconsin Eye.
Well, that's a good model.
It may or may not achieve all of our annual budget, but certainly it would be the lion's share.
The other consideration would be help us for a year, peel off a million dollars from that matching requirement, and set us on solid ground for the next year.
And then we'll work a strategy to try to raise those other dollars.
So the state has an opportunity to be part of the solution right now.
I would hope
so because I mean, look, the endowment idea sounds intriguing for this reason.
While it's admirable to set up something that, you know, is immune from political control, to just provide money on a case by case, you know, need based on whims is frankly no different than what your model is right now, which is again, relying on the whims of philanthropic donors.
It seems a heck of a way to ensure
unfiltered coverage of state government is basically depending upon charitable giving to do that.
So it certainly seems that there is a place for state funding that, like you said, is somehow made as independent as it could possibly be.
You said there's talks behind the scenes.
Do you feel like those talks can make progress so that Wisconsinite isn't off the air for too terribly long?
I believe so.
And hats off goes to Assembly Speaker Robin Voss.
He has been an advocate and supporter of Wisconsin Eye as long as he's been in the Speaker's office.
He's a key part of that conversation.
There's also been conversations with Democratic leadership.
And I believe that there is support all the way around.
It's now a matter of working out the details.
and figuring out what kind of timeline we're looking at.
But let's be real about this.
Even if those dollars were put into an endowment count and started earning interest tomorrow, it will take time to get us to the point where it's generating enough to keep us going operationally into the future.
So there still has to be some bridge funding of some sort.
So what's been really impressive to us and very encouraging is that
When we first made the announcement of potentially shutting down for a period, online giving in small donor amounts, $5, $25, $100, has been incredibly impressive.
Over $50,000 in small dollar gifts, which says to us that there is a broad viewing audience out there of citizens who really care about Wisconsinite being accessible.
where we need to make some success pad is in those realms that use us all the time.
And by that, I mean lobbyists and lobbyist interests, those principles who employ lobbyists because, I mean, one of our key audiences are those very people who advocate for state outcomes.
Yeah, we're talking to John Hankus.
He's the president and CEO of Wisconsin Eye at wisi.org, W-I-S-E-Y-E, wisi.org.
You can also make a donation that way.
You can find the address on the website as well if you'd like to mail in a donation or you can text wisi to 44321.
Again, text wisi to 44321.
So we're at the point now where you've had people like former Governor Tommy Thompson, you know, saying what can we do?
Clearly the the SOS has gone out, but
Basically, you've led into my final question here, which is you really need that full range of donors.
And we see that at Up North News as well.
You need a couple of high dollar donors.
You need some mid-level.
But you really succeed best with that grassroots support.
And there are all kinds of folks around the state that dip into Wisconsinite here and there to make sure that their elected officials are doing the things they say they're going to do.
How do you feel about achieving a greater level of grassroots support moving forward?
I think it's really important.
Our social media communities have grown every year in the last five years.
So we have more Facebook followers and X Twitter followers than we ever thought possible a few years back.
That grassroots support is really important.
It helps us to meet our IRS requirements for donor solicitations as well.
So the large gifts are
are really important.
The small dollar ones, though, that that are kind of the bread and butter and they help attract some of that larger private money when they
see
that in there.
John Hankus is the president and CEO of Wisconsin Eye.
John, we wish you all the best.
Thank you for taking some time to explain what is happening.
And we hope to get an update again soon.
Take care.
All right.
Thank you very much.
When we come back, we'll talk to Greg Bach, find out what's coming up next year along the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
So the next couple of weeks here are going to be a little weird.
You have our show that's ending at the end of this week.
But then a couple of weeks of highlight shows that Parker has graciously been putting together some of the best moments of 2025.
And then we've got Jane McNair, who has retired as of Friday.
But Matt Nair on air goes on for a little while here, which is why Greg Bach is is sitting in the big chair and ready to take things over at nine o'clock.
How are you
doing?
I'm doing quite well, I must say, you know, just getting ready for our first show.
Jane watching over us, I would say.
Let's
not make her Celestial over here.
Hey,
she is our angel.
She is our angel, but
she is an
angel on earth.
See
what I did there?
I see that.
Yes, very much.
But it's still, it's matinee on air for today as we kind of make that transition.
A matinee-less matinee on air for the
moment.
Saiyan's
matinee.
Is that a degree of wish casting that maybe after a week
or two, she's like, I don't like this retiring thing.
We kept all the music in the
file.
We kept the music.
We were good.
We're good.
We haven't changed the name on the mailbox.
We're good.
Come on back in, Jane.
You can still find us on Google.
I don't think that's going to happen.
She was talking too much about the things that she wanted to start doing.
And I think she gets to do all of the things that she wants.
She said it best that after nearly 45 years in radio, she is satisfied.
She feels good with what she has done.
And I'm really glad that.
I'm really glad that we as civic media, all of us were able to be her home before she decided to retire
feel like that gave her a good send off, a good place to be what she did.
She made that very clear.
So it was very, yeah, we're, we're, we're going to miss her.
But you know what?
We're going to hear from her from time to time.
She said herself, she's not going to let it, like, you know, she's going to be in our emails and on her text lines and whatnot.
So
we can't stay away, you know, exactly.
I mean, she and I have already talked about hosting like some kind of an, an alum.
knife function for for civic media, you know, past and present.
So we could.
Will there
be tiny awards to tiny trophies like the.
Oh, I hadn't thought of that.
But guess what?
That just made the list.
So there we go.
So will you be doing like will you have occasional co-hosts or is this going to be a solo endeavor?
You and the calzone, of course.
the me in the cal zone.
I mean, for right now, it's going to be just the two of us, but we've got Tucker, our great senior producer helping out as always putting everything together.
We're going to have amazing guests.
We're going to have some of the same familiar faces as our weekly guests coming by as well.
And, you know, it's going to be we're going to be trying things out for the next few weeks.
We're going to be seeing, you know,
new styles, new, new formats, you know, we're going to hear from old, like we'll still be doing our audio survey.
We're still going to be keeping it, you know, there's going to be a lightness to the second hour that we want to make sure people can relax a little bit.
But I'm really looking forward to the guests we're going to be having on and the discussions that we're going to be taking part in for, you know, like really big statewide issues that are really affecting all of us that we may not be aware of.
And today we're kicking it right off like right out the gate 906.
We're going to be talking to a gentleman.
about data centers.
His name is a Blaine Halverson.
He's from a group called Stop the Menominee Data Center Group, and we're gonna be talking about that because that, I mean, it is prevalent in Wisconsin.
It's huge in America, and people are starting to wake up to what these data centers mean for their
communities.
going to go away is my contention.
And so let's figure out how do you account for what is going to be an increase in computing, which happens because of AI.
For example, over the weekend, Sherry said, So what's this chat GPT thing?
Is it an app?
And
chat GPT app on my phone.
And, you know, how is it different from Google?
I'm like, Well, this gives you like, actually, like
plain English explanations, whereas Google just returns a bunch of hits from websites, you
and she's like, okay, that's cool.
And pretty soon, like an hour or two later, I'm sitting here, she's over in the other room, and I hear her talking into her phone, saying, what's the difference between such and such and such and such and like,
What'd you do?
She's like, I put GPT on my phone.
It's great.
It gives
us all these.
So right away, more data, more data, more computers firing up.
And as all the rest of us start doing more and more, we're going to have that need and maybe try to do it without getting rid of all of our drinking water in a given area.
Yeah.
And that's the big thing too.
I don't disagree with you.
I feel that data centers are, I mean, there are over 4,000 in America.
They're not closing down tomorrow.
but it is about accountability, transparency and listening to the people whose utility bills they will affect and just the everyday life, selling off acres of farmland to build these huge data centers and what will they give back?
That's what people want to know and what will they take away?
Somebody put up a link to an article about, now this is Scandinavia of course, I don't want to say Norway, but it could be wrong, where they're using these data centers now
for heating purposes, because they generate so much heat and up way up north there, they need the heat.
Now, that's not going to be much good in the summertime, but at least again, they're thinking about, you know, if, if we have to have these things,
how can we make it work to our advantage?
So it's a great first introduction to the topic that you'll have.
So I think that's, I think that sounds like fun.
Do you have a good weekend?
I did have a good weekend.
It was packed with a lot of nothing, which was great.
I tried to do a
little as possible and just kind of get myself in the right frame line for, you know, taking over and doing the thing and trying new stuff with the show.
Like it's, it's I'm very excited.
You know, we're, we're talking, we're talking to a local toy store, toy store owner in Wausau.
And we're going to be talking to a woman named Katie Goodwin, who's part of a group called grocery butters with grocery buddy.
grocery, buddy.
It's just a volunteer-powered donor-powered organization that gets groceries to people, and it's very exciting.
I'm very much looking forward to the discussions today, so I took some time to rest.
Well, you should, because, yeah, it gets real from here.
Greg Bach, listen to him, matinee around here, starting just after the 9 o'clock news.
All right, Greg, good luck.
Break a leg.
Thank you very
much, gentlemen.
All right.
We'll talk to you a little later.
Parker, thank you so much as well.
My thanks to today's guests.
Former Congressman Reed Ribble, John Hankus from Wisconsin Eye, Dr. Kristen Lyrely, Selena Heller.
Let's see with Jimmy Koska, John and Gordy, and all of you for being here today.
I'm Pat Crightlow from Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
Enjoy the rest of your Monday.
We'll have our final Tuesday show coming up tomorrow morning, bright and early, 6 a.m.
here up north.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
