Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with us here at WFHR locally grown radio.
Got your host, James J. I'm joined by Melissa K. Good morning. And the best listeners and radio. Thanks for joining us everybody.
We got good things lined up for you today. We're going to have some fun a little bit later with our friends from the Save of the Arts Council.
I'm going to talk a little bit about the band uptown. That's coming up in a little bit. We got a local and state news coming up.
But right now we kick this hour off the way we like to on Thursdays with our pet of the week from the South of County of Maine Society.
Joining us on the phone executive director, Madison Rafter. Madison, how are you?
I'm good. How are you?
We're doing good. Thanks a lot for joining us. We appreciate the time. I know that you like to be in studio when you can.
But calling in understandable, you guys are got a lot going on over there, Madison. How is the construction going?
Confections going good. We're hoping still for at least end of February. Otherwise mid-February. They're almost finished. We've got a couple.
Oopsies that we found during the construction process that we now got to work on getting a couple parts for. But we are very excited for them to be finalized and done.
Very cool. Very, very good to hear. We're excited for not only you and your team over there, but of course all of our furry friends, those dogs being able to enjoy that.
Madison, before we get to our pet of the week and some of the ways we can help out our Humane Society, I have to thank you publicly.
I appreciate you. Madison was working with me and Laura about getting the rabbit Janice over there to get her nails cut.
Janice weighs about 150 pounds. She's a big. No, no. She's a big rabbit. She's a human sized rabbit. She's pretty big.
James, did Madison clip your nails? No, I almost did ask her though. She did such a good job.
I was like, I really hate cutting my nails and I always cut them too short. I thought about it for a second, but she was very busy.
And I don't know how flipping me on my back would go. I don't know if I'm a little taller than Madison.
I do really appreciate that. Madison did that other kindness of her heart. Just taking the time out of a very, very busy day to do that. So thank you, Madison.
I appreciate you. Of course, not a problem. I enjoy being able to educate people about animals and if it's as simple as trimming nails that need assistance, I have no problem offering that out.
And being a huge rabbit lover helps a little bit, right? Like a little bit, a little bit.
Yeah, you know, when you have rabbits for over 10 years, it's one of those things that you know I'm so well and just being able to educate people and help out where I can, I love it.
Well, I bring it up not to give you more work, but to compliment you and to let people know that may have not gotten the chance to work with you or be around you, how informed and how intelligent you are on this subject.
You are, I think, a trusted voice in this community when it comes to our animals and it comes to being a voice for our animals.
And I want people to keep that in mind when Madison or the Humane Society is posting or talking about some of these hoarding situations or some of the situations out there,
that we're putting these animals in that are selfish and not putting the animals first, like this segment is all about.
We love having fun talking about our pet of the week, celebrating our Humane Society, but this all comes back to putting animals first.
And that's when you know you're truly loving an animal right. And we do appreciate that, Madison.
Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
Madison, we have made people wait long enough. I have rambled enough. I've gotten on my, I'm getting off my soapbox.
Who is our pet of the week?
Our pet of the week this week is going to be Suduco.
I had brought up Frosty to Orange Cats about a week or two ago. And I kid you not, these cats could be twins.
Not in the aspect of how they look, but more based off of the aspect on personality wise, these cats are just the most lovable orange voice possible.
Um, where Suduco is a little bit more of the buff coloring, but both boys are just the sweetest cats ever.
They want to call up in your lap. They want to be snuggles. You hear them purring across the room.
Just sweetest, sweetest boys ever.
Um, but Suduco, a little bit different from Frosty, the Orange Cat. He is a large cat.
I'd say he's probably close to that 10 pound mark.
Um, but otherwise he is neutered microchips and up to date on vaccines.
But if you are looking for like the most lovable Orange Cat, you got to check out Suduco.
And beautiful coat. I see the color is called buff.
Buff. Yep. So there is orange. There's buff. There's smoke and there's so many different colors out there.
But usually when it's that really light cream color, we call it a buff.
There are a couple of great pictures of Suduco on the website. Encourage you to go check that out at SWCHS.com.
It sounds like Suduco would fit just about any kind of family.
Oh, yeah, he's fantastic. If you have kids, if you're just looking for a young couple that's looking for their first cat.
If it's an older couple that's looking for a chill cat, Suduco, I feel like would fit into any family situation.
While we don't necessarily know his past history since he didn't come into us.
It was a stray. We don't know if he do well with other dogs or other animals.
But again, with very slow introductions, I think he'd fit very well into any home environment.
I relate to Suduco. I get it. It's fun.
You know, it's interesting to have a little mystery to your past.
You know, there's a little mystery there. Make some more interim.
Makes me a little, ooh, what's going on with Suduco?
What's what's a mysterious past? Yeah, yeah.
But you got to look him up and look at the pictures because there's one there that he's just like,
oh, just love me.
Yes, yeah, the second one. Yeah, the second one.
It's so good.
And Suduco, along with all of his friends at your fingertips at SWCHS.com.
I'm looking at it right now and I'm falling in love with Dessa.
I love to look at Dessa's face and dumpling.
And I always like to bring attention to dogs like Harold and Gator that have been at the facility for a while.
There are so many great animals.
We could spend hours and hours talking about each one of these wonderful animals over there.
There is a new furry friend, a new best friend over there at the Southwood County Main Society for you.
Madison, we appreciate the time.
I don't like to keep you too long when you're on the phone here.
I know busy you are.
Is there anything anything your guys are in need of more than other things?
We know it's always kitten season.
Yeah, I'm for sure.
So with our dog renovations, we are running well on supplies.
Hot dogs are always a good one.
30 gallon garbage bags.
With our hoarding case cats, we are always in need of cat litter, cat food.
Pretty much any pet supplies that anyone is willing to donate.
We are more than willing to take it.
You can find out more and help out more with our friends at the South County Main Society by reaching out to them at SWCHS at SWCHS.com.
Get me a call at 715-423-0505 and keep in mind that their facility is located at 3621-64 Street North in Wisconsin Rapids.
Be sure to follow them on Facebook and social media as well.
Madison, we're looking forward to the next Thursday already.
We're going to spread the word about SadooCo and the great animals over there.
Thank you so much for the time.
Of course, thanks for having me.
We'll talk with Madison next week and have some more fun with our pet of the week.
Again, find out more at SWCHS.com, SWCHS.com.
Let's go ahead and take a quick time out, Melissa.
We'll come back.
We'll talk a little entertainment.
We'll talk some more fun.
When we come back on the morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Well, come back to the show everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
We're going to talk a little entertainment.
We're going to talk a lot of entertainment this hour because we've got Sally Kissner from the Arts Council joining us in a little bit.
We're going to talk about Uptown coming to town.
It's going to be fun.
Looking forward to that.
Right now, diving in, Margaret Roby seems to be a lot less concerned about her Barbie Oscar snub for best actress than just about everybody else.
Great.
Which is perfect.
It kind of is.
There's no way to feel sad when you know you're this blessed.
Obviously, I think Greta should be nominated as a director because she did what she did is a once in a career.
Once in a lifetime thing.
It's been an incredible year for all the films.
We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact.
And it's already done that.
And some, and some way more than we ever dreamed it would.
And that is truly the biggest reward that could come out of this.
Yeah.
Yep, not some dumb prize.
It's some dumb award show.
Exactly.
The related news, Robert Downey Jr. doesn't think Margaret gets enough credit for her performance as Barbie.
Specifically, how she reacts during American free hours, a monologue.
And what I love about this, and I love about Robert Downey Jr. is he is a student of the game in the brief.
And I mean brief time that I was around that man.
He dropped two old Hollywood references.
He wasn't talking directly in me.
He was talking to the whole team and everything.
But he was, we're out there on a bridge filming it like a midnight one in the morning.
And it's, we're waiting for the rain to die down.
And he starts referencing singing in the rain and how they had to create rain and all of this.
Like this, this is a guy who comes from a family of this and understands this.
And I appreciate that approach because it's one thing for any actor can come out and say,
well, Robert deserved an Oscar.
What he's doing is giving you the details of why he thinks she deserves it.
He's not just saying it, he's giving you the data to back it up.
Great.
And I agree from an informed opinion as versus just a while she should have.
And to think about this too is, she comes out and says, yeah, I feel like I was snubbed.
Well, then who, she also has to deal with one of the other actresses thinking that they didn't belong in there.
And they, you know, you can only have five.
So you'd have to knock somebody out of there.
And, and, and Margaret Roby in this whole, and not just her career career as a person, but Barbie,
a lot of the intent of it is from what I've heard from her and I've heard from others,
is showing, you know, women supporting women and having more of that.
That would defeat the purpose.
I kind of go against completely.
And it shows how genuine she is about this with her response.
It is not a, something her publicists came up with or something like that.
Margaret Roby speaks from the heart speaks from the cuff and I appreciate that about her.
Yeah.
And she's, and the success of the movie speaks for itself.
Yeah.
And she's so dang talented.
Like, actors like her that have this incredible career, like their first six to ten films,
it's just incredible to watch.
And I get so excited.
I don't know how people like, I've wanted this since I was seven years old.
But I don't have a tinge of jealousy in me when it comes to these things.
I see this stuff and I get excited for the game.
I get excited for acting.
I get excited to see what she's going to do in the next ten-twenty years.
Or what she'll do when she's, you know, older and, you know, around Meryl Streep's age or something like that.
Like, it's going to be fun to see what she does.
I think it's kind of cool.
Yeah.
And see what's next.
And I think that for whatever it's worth, she's going to have other opportunities to be nominated.
More than likely.
As you probably know, Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphesia almost two years ago and dementia a year ago.
His ex-wife Demi Moore helps care for him along with his current wife Emma Heming.
And she has some helpful advice for families of someone with dementia.
Demi says, quote, I think the most important thing I could share is just to meet them where they are at.
When you let go of who you, they've been or who you think or even who you would like them to be,
you can then, you can then really stay in the present and take in the joy and love that is present.
And therefore all they, that they are, not all that they're not.
That's, that's a really good advice.
Yeah.
Going through this with my Nana and it's not easy to speak on and I didn't expect to.
I didn't think about it.
You would think somebody who plans these segments would have thought about that.
That's something that I think that if you're paying attention, you kind of learn in the moment about this.
But especially if you've never handled anything like this before.
And not only it's great advice, period, but I think that for many people that have struggled dealt with this, they kind of get it.
I think they understand that.
Well, because you, you have to.
For, for their happiness and for your own contentment as well, you have to be able to accept them where they are because that's where they are.
It's not you can't change it.
And I think that one of the ways that happens for people like it happened for me was I recognized right away when my Nana, my Nana was calling me my Uncle Anthony or call me Anthony, who my Uncle Anthony passed away before way before I was even born.
And it hurt at first because I've always, I was always her king.
I was, I was Jimmy.
I was, you know, you know me.
But she still, she still smiled at me when she called me Anthony.
She still gave me this big smile and all this.
And I just remember thinking, I got to remember that smile.
I got to paint that in my brain and make sure I have an image of that, a snapshot of that in my head forever.
Not, not her call me Anthony, just the look on her face.
And it got me in the moment.
And I just rolled with it.
I didn't correct her.
I didn't, you know, try to make her feel bad or anything like that.
I just rolled with it.
If you're in the moment, I feel like those things kind of, they play themselves out.
They tell you what to do.
You just follow the lead kind of.
That's not something that I think is, you know, I don't know if I've ever read that in a book though or anything.
Yeah.
And if you're, for those of us who haven't experienced it, like I've, you know,
as our grandparents and our parents, in some cases, are getting older and there is some memory laps.
I think that happens naturally anyway, even if there isn't any dementia or Alzheimer's.
So you kind of get in the habit, maybe, of being okay with it.
My grandpa called me my mom when, you know, the last few times I saw him.
But I kind of expected that.
I'd look a lot like my mom and my mom has passed away.
So for him to call me her was, it wasn't as hurtful necessarily.
And I didn't correct him because I didn't feel like there was, it didn't, it didn't really matter.
Yeah.
You know, and he was happy to see whoever it was he thought was in front of him.
Mm-hmm.
So, I don't know.
No, I appreciate that.
Thank you for sharing that, Melissa.
And I think those are, that's all very noteworthy.
And adds to what we're talking about here.
Be focusing on them and doing what you can for them, being there for them in any ways that you can.
And does it matter, you know, if they call you Jim or if they call you Anthony?
Yeah, yeah, really.
I mean, they're acknowledging your presence.
Yeah, yeah.
That's great.
I ended up the next time that happened with my non-I ended up teasing her that,
that was better than some of the things she called me.
As long as she didn't call me late for dinner.
Right, I got her to laugh.
You know what I mean?
That's the point of all this.
And I appreciate to me, Emma, Bruce's kids sharing a lot of this as somebody who loved Bruce Willis,
a huge, huge fan.
Well, there's so many fans that he has and them sharing what he's going through helps other people,
you know, as sad as it is to say, a celebrity like this going through something like that,
makes it far more real for those who don't have someone like that in their lives.
Because we all know that people suffer from Alzheimer's and dementia,
but having a celebrity like this share that, you know, just like Michael J. Foxx with Parkinson's.
Yeah.
To share those things makes it a lot more real for a multitude of people.
It has a similar feel to it of what you say there with Michael J. Foxx.
And when COVID hit, I think a lot of people that came home for when Tom Hanks caught it.
You know, just extending this to other things.
Yeah, it's interesting.
I know when this news first broke about Bruce Willis and the dementia,
that weekend I went and watched one of my favorite Bruce Willis movies.
And I don't, I encourage people to do that or maybe a scene or two of something.
I really liked him in the red movies, but there is a little sneaky good movie.
And it's not a great movie, but it's a sneaky good movie from back in the early 90s,
I think, called Hudson Hawk, where he plays an art thief, him and Danny Ayello.
And they have this thing where they're going to like say they're going to break into a museum
and steal this painting, but they got to do it and they only have so much time.
So they do it by the time of a song, like swinging on a star.
And so they sing swinging on a star while they're doing the heist and all this and everything.
And it's a silly movie.
I'm not at all saying that it's a great plot or anything like that, but Bruce Willis,
Danny Ayello's performances.
Ah, perfection.
Top notch perfection.
It's a fun movie to watch if you're looking and want to celebrate Bruce Willis at his career
and have some fun.
And we wish him and his the best.
I wanted to, oh, did you have something to listen to?
Well, he just got so many good movies out there to watch.
You could, you could spend a month watching his movies.
Yeah.
Personally, for me, it's the fifth element.
It's such a good one.
It's such a good one.
That's such a good reference.
I love that movie.
It's so good.
There's so many great, but Chris Tucker, that movie is hilarious.
Oh, yes.
It's so good, so good.
I wanted to touch on this with you, Melissa, real quick.
Just a couple of things from her friends over at Wisconsin Rapids Community Theater,
where they are getting ready for a couple of big productions.
One of them, the Wisconsin Rapids Community Theater's Silver Foxes,
the Golden Age of Radio.
Oh, that one's going to be fun.
Tickets are on sale right now for this.
Their productions kick off.
They have a show on February 22nd at 2, February 23rd at 6, and February 24th at 2.
Three shows for this one.
Whoa.
Nice.
And the Silver Foxes are some of our favorite people, a part of this community,
a part of WRCT.
It's a group of vets, of seniors that get together, have some fun on that stage,
and give you some great entertainment, and hopefully some inspiration to maybe do it yourself.
Those shows are fun, and they're not as from an actress perspective.
They're not as demanding, because most of the time you don't have to memorize.
You're able to have your script up there with you.
So it's less of a time commitment, less of a stress, you could maybe say.
Maybe memorization isn't your forte anymore, or it never was.
Whichever way it goes, you know, this is a great opportunity to have fun,
to have that family come rotary that comes from doing a show,
but minus some of the stress.
Be sure to check that out, and be sure to get your tickets to check out the Glass Menagerie,
coming up March 1st, the Winter Production for Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre.
It is one of the greats from Tennessee Williams, and being directed by our own,
Seth Habhagger and Beth Habhagger.
Yeah, they're co-directing this show, because of the demands on Seth with games on our stations,
but it's fun to be a part of this and see as the development is happening.
We've got some of our major stage pieces now, our set pieces,
and the stage is looking cool.
We're going to actually do our filming next week,
some of the multimedia parts of this production, so it's going to be really cool.
I'm so excited.
This is just between you and I, okay, Melissa?
Are you getting tired of Seth yet?
You work with him here, you've got to work with him over there.
I mean, just between us, just not getting out there.
I do actually want to send a note.
I got to see Melissa's hair yesterday, and my God, it looked awesome, Melissa.
Man, your hair looked awesome.
Well, I was playing around with styles for the filming part of it,
because part one of the film pieces that we're doing is when my character is young.
So that was the hairstyle for when she's young, which, fortunately,
I only have to do one more time, because that was a lot of work.
It did seem like you had to do it, but worth it.
Yeah, it was cool.
Check out a lot of curls.
You know, about the other side of things, with Seth tomorrow,
when he joins us on the morning show, I want to get his perspective,
but it sounds like you and your castmates, your crew,
it's really buildings and great chemistry.
When Daniel and Akasha are doing such a great job as well,
I will eventually learn their last names, so that, say them on there.
But at least I got their first names right.
And those are their real names, not their character names.
Yes, shout out to them, and everybody else,
it's working so hard on this production.
I got to run into your set builder a couple of times.
Pete, doing working hard on our set.
Christine's been helping him a lot too, so we've got a great team.
Really, really do.
And I ran into Pete at Walmart, and then he was in studio yesterday,
and I got to tell him a couple of times.
We've had a, as long as I've been a part of WRCT,
and that's going on 30 years, we've always had great sets
and great set builders.
What's going on in the last couple of years have been game changing.
They're different.
It's something different, and it's something to go see everybody.
Get your tickets and find out more at wrctheater.org,
wwwrctheater.org.
We're going to take a quick time out, get to our state and local news.
When we come back, we're talking with our friend Sally Kissner
from the Arts Council and Joel Walker, managing director of Uptown.
We're talking a little uptown.
Before they come to town here, at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Welcome back, everyone.
Morning, show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Got your host, James J. I am joined by Melissa K.
Good morning.
And we have, in studio with us, some of our favorite people.
We have Sally Kissner, executive director of the Arts Council of South Wukani.
Thank you, Sally.
Good to see you.
Thanks.
Good to be here.
I appreciate you being here.
And we have Eric Brittnocker from the Performing Arts Center with us.
Eric, good always good to see you.
Thank you so much.
And joining us on the phone is managing director of the band Uptown,
Mr. Joel Walker.
Joel, good to have you with us.
Hey, it's so great to be here.
How are you guys doing?
Doing good over here, Joel.
How are you doing over there?
Where are you calling us from, Joel?
I'm calling from my home in Los Angeles.
Oh, about 7.30 a.m. right now.
Not okay.
Right on.
Thanks for kicking off your day with us, Joel.
We appreciate the time.
I want to talk with you about Uptown.
I want to get into the band and what they're all about.
Before I do that, though, I just want to do this publicly.
And thank you, Sally, Eric, for rolling with us.
We are supposed to have you on Midday Magazine.
I wasn't able to do that.
And I appreciate you guys rolling with that and still being able to make this happen.
So thank you to all of you.
You bet.
No problem.
Joel, when it comes to Uptown, this is a band that, like,
dives into the Motown Classics,
along with bringing some newer stuff to it.
What would you, if somebody comes up to you and says,
Uptown, tell me about them.
What's the first thing, the first sentences out of your mouth?
What are the first ways you describe Uptown?
I would say our elevator pitch, which is what we call it in the industry,
is that we are contemporary Motown and Soul Group.
It's like seeing the original Act like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye,
and the Temptations, if they were born any younger right now.
So the energy that you remember seeing them in back in the day,
but the socialness that still captures you from before.
So something similar to that.
Yeah.
Joel, my favorite singer of all time is Marvin Gaye.
I grew up on it.
Love Marvin Gaye.
Love his music.
And one of the things that I have a conversation with my mom about from time to time is,
well, what would Marvin be doing now?
What would he be doing in this day and age?
And the kind of work and the things he'd be writing in that.
So it'd be so interesting.
And we get a little flavor of that with some of the bands with Uptown
because they bring in not only some Motown,
but they bring, like you said, a modern touch to it.
Yes, yes.
And Marvin actually would be super popular in this era, the Gen Z era.
Oh, yeah.
Because everything now is about a vibe.
Yeah.
And Marvin was all about a vibe.
There's a classic video thing,
singing a falsetto on a couch,
then jamming with the band.
That would be a tiny desk, like gold right now.
I got goosebumps as you were saying that, Matt.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's such a good scene.
Oh, it's so good.
When it comes to the guys,
let's talk about the band itself.
Can you tell us about the members of the band?
Yes.
So you guys are going to see the original members of the Uptown band.
So there's a troop of us that's about eight.
But the original three,
we created the show Uptown in Harlem.
That's why it's called Uptown,
which is the home of the Apollo feeder.
So every single song that we sing,
is one of the artists performed or premiered at the Apollo.
So Steve E. Marvin, Michael Jack from the Jackson Five,
the temptation before tops.
And that's what made these artists hit the next level and become icons.
And I created it with my friends,
basically, in my basement in Harlem.
So Derek Hicks, who has been on TV shows,
he's part of a really popular Apollo group called The Wind Day.
And he's with me and Bradford Bell,
who is from North Carolina originally,
and is a dance teacher and has helped us with the choreography.
But combined with that,
a super team of Motown,
and the stars.
And we're going to go and create a party that was confident for you guys.
We're looking forward to it, too, Joel.
We're speaking with Joel Walker,
managing director of the band Uptown,
that are going to be coming to town,
kind of being up in just a little bit on February 8th,
and we're going to be right around the corner here with this band.
I keep forgetting it's February.
I had to remind myself it's February.
Joel, when it comes to the style of music,
these guys are incredibly talented.
I can't think of many types of music they couldn't do.
Why Motown?
Well, you know, we grew up on Motown.
That's another thing that culturally,
we're all African-American men.
And we grew up listening to Motown.
Our father was actually in a do-up group,
and he was younger.
And it's part of growing up,
listening to this music, watching,
listening to the temptations, hearing stories from our parents,
and our grandparents about their era.
And it just fits perfectly.
Just like anything you grew up on, you know.
It's like sweet tea.
It's part of who you are.
There's nothing that tastes like nostalgia.
There's nothing that tastes like that.
It feels good, it tastes good, hits all the senses.
Now, you told us the why.
How, though, how do you pull this off?
I've watched many videos of this band,
and it's incredible to me.
The sound, the music, the way that they are moving
with the music like the other bands did.
What kind of training did you and this team do
to be able to pull this off so well?
Well, we've been together for about seven years,
and we've practiced these routines thousands and thousands of times,
probably a hundred times before we even hit the stage the first time.
But it's just a lot of practice.
Like I said, we made it in my basement in Harlem,
and we would just go down there for hours,
and rehearse over and over again and move
so that we could get the coordination and the endurance down
so that we could sing in there at the same time.
And that's what the greats did, too,
and we're just emulating them.
So is that where some of the training came from,
learning what they did and how they trained and rehearsed
and kind of mimicking that?
Did you guys watch YouTube videos of old clips of the four tops
or anything like that?
Yeah, of course.
I think if you're going to pay tribute to somebody,
you want to go as...
You want to watch as much content of them as possible,
and that's what's great about nowadays.
There's a lot of things that people don't like about social media
and all that kind of stuff, but going on YouTube and being able to watch
the legends of music in a real time
and to see what their movements look like,
how they're singing, how the crowds react into them,
how they interact with the crowd, that is priceless.
And even when I was younger, I couldn't do that.
I used to have to record a tape to the radio
to try to get a song to listen to over and over again.
Now I can just pop it right up on my phone
and listen to it and study it, basically.
My co-host, Melissa, is on the phone with us here.
And her and I were talking the other day
about people that can sing
and dance or sing and play an instrument
at the same time on stage.
I don't know if I could play like a harp
or like some of those instruments that I see some people doing
and at the singing at the same time or anything.
I'm pretty sure I couldn't play like a tambourine.
I couldn't even do and sing at the same time.
It feels, and you touched on something
that I think was really key to this endurance.
That's something that it cannot,
it can only be built up through rehearsal, correct?
Right. Yeah, it's like, you know, dance is more than a sport.
It's an art, that's because you have to do that movement
with coordination and grace.
So that takes muscle memory.
The same thing with playing an instrument,
like you said, playing the harp.
Harps one of the hardest to play the world.
I'm pretty sure most people could play something like that and sing.
But it's muscle memory that they develop
to get to that level.
And I can't play an instrument very well.
But the dance thing for me is that it's just training
and you get used to it.
I'm sure you can do it.
We can teach you something.
I'll stop by.
We'll see what I can learn.
We'll see.
I don't want to brag, but I used to break dance.
So I'm not just saying.
Oh, so you definitely do it.
Don't encourage me, man.
Don't encourage me.
We need him to not be broken.
When it comes to the type of music you guys are playing,
what are some of the bands, some of the music that you guys touch on?
Oh, we touch on.
So we touch on every decade from probably around the 50s
and 60s to today.
We're really touching our R&B soul and low-cut down.
But we give you earthworm of fire.
Do you wonder temptations?
Bore tops?
Littlesteady wonder.
Ampensady wonder, by the way.
That's not the Jackson Five.
Prince.
All the way to Bruno Mars is like a contemporary version of all those guys.
He kind of makes everybody from every generation to feel that nostalgia.
Like you said, that tastes really good.
And we do it in a very high energy and fun way.
So you're going to be going in there and watching,
but you're also going to be leaning dancing out of the aisles.
Yeah, that's just it.
You watch these guys.
And you see, you go there, you're going to be moving.
You're going to be moving.
You're going to be dancing.
You're going to be bopping your head.
And you're going to be standing up and singing along to all these songs
with this incredibly talented band.
Joel, I really, really appreciate the time.
Thanks so much again for working with our schedule and working with us.
We cannot wait to welcome you guys to town.
Yeah, I can't wait to be there.
I mean, it's a little cold there, right?
A little bit, a little bit.
Actually, you're coming.
Actually, it's pretty warm right now.
Yeah, I mean, a little...
We're having record temps this the next couple of weeks.
So I mean, you picked a good time.
We're going to bring the heat.
Right.
Yeah, you are.
Appreciate you, Joel.
You have yourself a great day, man.
All right.
Thanks so much, man.
You too.
Thank you, Joel.
Joel Walker, managing director of Uptown, joining us.
A big thank you to him.
And of course, I thank you to Eric and Sally helping us get a chance to talk to Joel
and talk a little Uptown.
Sally, this is another great find.
This is another great one.
A gift you're given to the community here.
Bring it to us.
Yep.
And this one I found at the Wisconsin presenters.
Network conference that I went to about a year and a half ago.
So I got to see a showcase live by them.
And I was...
Everybody in the audience was on their feet.
And just...
Their high energy just energizes everybody in the audience.
When you were reaching out to them, did you have Motown songs in your head?
Oh, yeah.
Did you get...
I imagine that, right?
It couldn't be helped.
Right.
This is a fun one.
But a little...
Like, is this a different band?
I asked you this every guest.
Is this a different band?
Is there a different setup or anything like that for this one, Eric?
You know, no.
There's nothing really different.
I mean, you know, it's kind of the same.
I mean, every group is a little bit different.
They all have their different needs.
You know, we're doing a lot of work with our lighting programming.
I've got a number of younger technicians who have taken on lights.
And so we're kind of taking our...
What I call like our rep plot, which is our lighting plot that exists for a lot of shows like this.
And we're, you know, building effects into a lot of those lights.
So we're able to kind of take what's...
What has happened in the Arts Council season so far.
And we're now getting to the point with my students where we're adding to that.
And, you know, just basically better light shows, you know,
you know, technicians are getting better, those types of things.
So, I mean, this is a pretty standard, what I would call a rock and roll group.
You know, drums, bass, guitar, singers, dancers.
And aside from that, you know, most groups require a lot of the same things.
They need to be able to hear themselves, you know, they want to be heard.
And so you have to provide them with the tools to do that.
I understand it might be basic to you to a lot of people out there that don't know this stuff.
I think it's very interesting.
And I don't think a lot of people would understand what basics are or some of what you're talking.
Some of the things that they...
They just start off with your original kind of format there.
And I'm very excited for the kids getting to learn from these things.
Every rep counts.
You know that better than most.
I imagine that they're really enjoying that too.
Yeah, they do.
You know, in every show presents its own challenges.
You know, not every show is going to be absolutely fantastic.
We deal with things, you know, on a nightly basis.
That's, you know, that's live performance.
Some things don't come out exactly the way that you'd want to.
Well, you know, so it's part of that thing like where some people,
if you're not in this industry, you don't necessarily understand some of the challenges that exist.
And so, you know, if it doesn't look exactly the way that it, you know,
or you have a critical eye and you're like, oh, that's out of place.
Or, you know, you have a critical ear and that doesn't quite sound right.
Or we can't quite make that, you know, part of the passage out or something like that.
There's a lot of things that are at play.
And I think it's hard, you know, in the moment to explain to anybody
why you can't hear a certain thing or why something sounds a certain way.
Because it's forever changing.
And, you know, the dynamics of a performer, the equipment that they're working with
or providing, you know, the sound that they're providing to us.
A lot of those things change from event to event, from moment to moment.
And so, you know, running sound or running shows live is very difficult.
And so, you know, knowing that a lot of this is done with high school student technicians
and training, along with professionals, you know, kind of behind the scenes.
You know, all things considered, I think we're doing a great thing.
And so, you know, as professional as we can be, with high school students,
I think we are. And I think we do a great job at what we're doing.
And I think that, you know, the Arts Council, and they're embracing, you know, kind of the
what's been established over the last 20 years with the Performing Arts Center
and the help of the students. I think it's just a great relationship.
And it fosters what we need in the world. And that's skilled technicians
to keep working with artists like this across our nation and across the world.
Very well said. Very well said. And it couldn't agree with you more.
And a shout out to you and those kids and the great work that you guys are doing over there.
And of course, to you, Sally, and your team over there and being able to bring
acts like this to town, we've got a great season of great acts coming up.
March is jam packed. We're looking forward to talking more with you about that.
But with Uptown, let's give them the details of the show.
You bet Thursday, February 8th, one week from today, 730 p.m.
tickets are $39 for adults and $10 for students.
And you can get them at the Arts Council.
You can call 715-424-2787 or visit us at 1048 Streets South
or go online, saverthearts.com. And please check out
UptownOfficial.com. And it'll give you a taste of what you're going to see that night.
I'd also like to do a shout out to our sponsors, WFHR and WIRI,
as well as Wisconsin Rapids City Times and cobblestone hotel and suites.
Big thank you to all of those businesses supporting local arts at something that we believe
and very strongly in this community. And we're able to enjoy, thanks to people like
yourselves. Thanks so much for the time you two. And again, for working with the schedule
and everything. Really appreciate your guys and what you do for our community.
Thank you.
We will have more coming up for you here at WFHR. We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back to the morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Melissa and James hanging out with you. We're going to take you right to the top of the
hour, wrap up the show. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.
Oh yeah.
We've had a lot of fun today. A big shout out to Madison Rafter from the South of
County Main Society, getting us our pet of the week.
Want to thank Sally and Eric and Joel for joining us talking about Uptown.
Coming to town.
Coming to town.
Get your tickets to savorthearts.com. Get your tickets at savorthearts.com.
And be listening for a chance to possibly win tickets.
Pretty cool. Be listening for that everybody.
Sounds like a fun show.
Oh, it sounds so good.
We're going to wrap up the show talking a little bit of fun here.
And a little bit different over that a right story, if you will.
And this one comes to us from our own Melissa case.
You sent this over from our friends at Reddit.
I couldn't resist.
The worst rated fast food restaurants in each state.
Now, you can call up and tell us if you disagree with this.
Or, you know, 715-424-2600. Feel free to call up and join the conversation.
I was looking at this list, Melissa. Did anything stand out to you?
I was surprised by the one that our state rated the worst.
But we'll wait to get to that because we've got to build the anticipation, right?
Yes. Yes.
I was a little surprised by that too.
But I was mostly surprised by the multiples of different ones.
Like I see Michigan, Ohio, all the way down to Louisiana with McDonald's.
McDonald's.
And to Montana.
And to Montana, yeah, with McDonald's as there.
And then Burger King is kind of spread out a little bit too,
where within some of the states with Texas and Oklahoma,
and then all the way out to the Dakotas.
Or no, not the Dakotas.
I think McDonald's has the most though.
That's like 11.
I think they count 11 states that say,
they're McDonald's is the worst.
That was a little surprising to me.
I thought that was quite interesting.
There's a couple on here that I've never heard of.
What's Schlotsky?
That's what I was going to ask.
Yeah, I was going to ask you if you knew what it was.
Yeah, I don't know, but Kansas doesn't like it.
Yeah, yeah.
It's called Schlotsky's Austin eatery.
I didn't know there was an Austin in Kansas.
I don't know.
I'm pretty sure that's Texas, but.
Yeah, yeah.
And there's a couple that only show up on the list,
like once, like Sonic or a firehouse or some of these ones.
Yeah, I think there's like three for Panda Express.
Which I've had their food.
Actually, I kind of liked it.
I stopped at the one in Steven's point.
I thought it was kind of impressed.
I think like a lot of people with all of these businesses,
if I haven't been to them, I've been to them
and I've had a good and a bad experience at all of them.
Yeah.
But the fact that their menu options are versatile.
Yeah.
You can't go to McDonald's and order a burger on a salad.
Yeah.
You know, you can't just like, I don't want any bun.
I just want it on a bed of lettuce.
No, actually, you don't.
No, no, you don't.
It's our lettuce is brown.
But if you go to Panda Express,
you can order there like a sweet and sour chicken
on a bed of broccoli as opposed to a better rice.
Interesting.
When you're trying to eat a little bit healthier
at a fast food place, that's awesome.
Yeah, actually, yeah, that does sound pretty good.
Yeah.
Interesting.
KFC made the list a few times.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was another interesting
what I thought seeing KFC on there.
Idaho, Maine, Louisiana, Vermont.
A lot more than I would have thought I should say.
As far as like the variety of businesses,
I kind of thought this would be one or two,
or five to seven, you know, different.
There's like 10 or 20 different restaurants on this list.
But there's actually, you know,
we have to mention these ones, James.
We have to mention Florida.
Of course.
Yeah.
The fact that they think Subway is the worst.
Yeah, the whole, yeah.
It's funny to see that too,
with the whole entire thing just being clomped in Subway.
That's an interesting one.
And that's the only one.
Yeah, yeah.
And by far and away.
Hardies, I see with just one in there as well.
And that looks like, what is that?
What's Virginia?
Or no, that's South Carolina, I think.
Or North Carolina, I mean, that's Hardies.
Yes.
No, no, no, that's Virginia.
It is Virginia.
Okay.
I was half right.
But the one that I think should be on a whole lot more states.
That isn't.
It's only on four.
And I personally think that's wrong.
It also should be what our state is.
And I'm sure nobody out there could guess which fast food restaurant I have before.
Because the beef is terrible.
That's terrible.
I'm going to throw out.
And nobody should eat it.
I'm talking about possibly.
Ding-ding-ding.
I don't know the hotkeys, but ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.
Yes.
You named it.
But we would be remiss if we don't talk about Wisconsin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wisconsin.
Who was Wisconsin's Melissa?
Cudoba.
Cudoba.
Interesting.
I don't even think I've actually eaten out of Cudoba.
It's not that personal.
I never have either.
I just hadn't been around many of them.
We have one, I believe, in town here.
But I have not been over there yet.
Well, and it's fairly new actually.
Yeah, yeah.
It opened up recently in the last year or so.
And I don't eat out a lot.
I don't like Cudoba.
Yeah.
So Wisconsin chose Cudoba.
That's an interesting thing.
You could see the entire list at reddit.com.
Go to reddit.com to find that complete list.
And nice work, Melissa.
That was fun.
That's a fun list.
It's one of those things.
Normally, there is a much overlap between wanting to send a Cudoba.
I send a significant other cookies and wanting to break up with them.
But a place in Somnia cookies is offering a limited edition new 12 pack of cookies from their
website.
And they're offering something that is kind of a that ain't right thing.
It's not me.
It's you pack.
You can choose the 12 cookies you want to give your soon to be X.
And they'll include a handwritten breakup note on the inside of the box.
This is one of the tackiest things I've ever heard of in my life.
Oh, I don't know.
If you get broken up with, and you get cookies, maybe it's not so bad.
Well, okay.
That's a fair point.
And I should say, journalistically, I am speaking as somebody who was broken up with in a
three-year relationships through text.
So I admit that this one, you know, it's a little close.
No, no.
Looking back on that, James, how do you gotten cookies?
Would it maybe have made it better?
A lot better.
A lot better.
And a handwritten note.
Come on.
Yeah.
Is that as classy?
You might be spending me on this.
You might be.
It's obvious said in a press release that it's a quote, very unserious way of ending things
since warm cookies are better than a cold heart.
Oh.
Is there even warm?
Wow.
I'd be surprised by that.
Some good marketing.
I'll admit.
Some good marketing and say, it's pretty good.
I'm going to leave that one up to the audience if it's a that a right story or not.
You guys go ahead and decide at home about that one.
Let's get to some local good stuff and that includes our schedule.
I want to tell you what's coming up here at WFHR, good things on the radio dial tonight.
Right here at WFHR, Benjamin's basketball at 630, big 10 matchup.
The UW taken on Nebraska.
And on our sister station, WIRI at 705, our pregame kicks off for Athens at Assumption Girls
Basketball, Randy and Seth covering that one for you.
Oh, that'll be a good game.
You know it's going to be good.
And in our today during midday magazine in part one, we're going to talk historic point
boss with Mike Hittner and Tom Bremmer looking forward to that.
We've got the Robert and Mary Wakeley at Wakeley's Winterfest talk about.
We're looking forward to it.
That's coming up soon.
And Alison John Jack, regional cranberry educator with UW Extension.
It's going to join us in part two.
That's going to be a lot of fun looking forward to it.
It's going to be a good one right there.
I want to remind everybody that going out of the Central Counseling Cultural Center tonight is their host exhibit opening.
Aspiring artists exhibition will be taking place today from 530 to 730 over the Cultural Center at 2651 A Streets South in Wisconsin.
Rapids.
Be sure to go check.
These are new artists you haven't seen there before or artists doing a new medium you haven't seen before.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a really cool not only act an idea, but a great show.
Go check that out and some 40 plus exhibits.
Yeah, a lot of great exhibits.
We're going to talk more about this tomorrow.
Be sure to check it out tonight 530 to 730.
Opening night, meet the artists at the Central Wisconsin Cultural Center located at 2651 A Streets South here in Wisconsin.
Rapids.
We are talking uptown earlier.
Encourage you to get your tickets at saverthearts.com for uptown.
They are coming to town and how'd you like to go for free everybody?
We're going to give away tickets right now.
We're giving away tickets at 715-424-2600-715-424-2600.
Call up and tell Melissa and I, one of your favorite Motown hits and you'll win these tickets.
Melissa, great show today.
Yeah, you too Jane, thanks.
We're going to go ahead and let uptown play us out here and we'll take the winner.
You have a great day everybody from WFHR.
WFHR was constant rapids 1320 AM and W248DE broadcasting at 975 FM.
