Hour 1: John Benbow

Good morning, Wisconsin.

Good morning, world.

It's a new day.

Thanks for kicking it off with us right here at WFHR, locally grown radio.

Have your host, James J. behind the mic.

I am joined by our head of production, Mr. Seth Habhagger.

Good morning.

We're here to get you ready for the weekend.

We get good things on the way for you, everybody, including our own friend, Brittany Merlot,

talking a little mother nature.

Good morning, Brett.

Good morning.

Hope you guys don't hate me too much today.

No, no, no.

Actually, we're thanking you.

We had a good heads up about this and everything.

I was all prepared this morning.

I mean, as prepared as you could be.

I was a little disappointed.

I tried to throw a snowball at my father this morning and it wouldn't pack.

Not that I can't.

No.

Because it was coming at him.

And he just looks at me like, Jimmy, what are you doing?

What are you doing over there?

It was sad.

It was actually very sad.

But we're looking forward to this weekend.

What is the temperature it's going to look like this week?

And what does Mother Nature got for us?

Yeah, so today we're going to hit highs right around the mid-30s.

So the snow starts to depart.

We'll start to climb a little bit about freezing and actually a little bit of clearing.

So maybe we could see some sunshine before the day comes to an end.

I know.

But it's pretty cold tonight.

We'll drop down to right around the single digits.

And then tomorrow, a lot of sunshine out there,

highs in the upper 30s.

But everything changes by Saturday night into Sunday.

So we get a little comb in between the two snowstorms.

And we're going to snack again as soon as Saturday night into early Sunday morning.

And we're looking at some decent snow accumulations throughout Sunday,

even into Sunday nights.

And then Monday morning, it wants to flip to a whimsy mix,

which could put some ice down for our morning commute

before it flips over to all regular rain Monday afternoon

as our temperatures soar to near 50 degrees.

So we are going up a roller coaster once again.

And it's, of course, I'm not going to talk to you until we're going through the wintery mix

and have more of the rain.

So I had to lay all of that on you.

Yeah, I don't blame you.

You're like, well, we'll talk to Brittany in a couple of weeks, everybody.

Yeah, it's, you know, I looked at the forecast.

I looked at next week's forecast and I'm still surprised by what you're saying.

Like, even though I knew what was coming, that's just weird time of year.

It is weird.

It's been a weird year.

And we'll talk more and more about this as we go along, Brittany.

But I know that we're experiencing it and I know it's weird.

There's a part of me, though, that is kind of like, I don't know,

fights is really interesting.

Like, there's a lot of serious stuff that this can affect in everything

as far as our crops and our farmers and all that.

I'm not taking any of that lightly, but just taking a step back.

This has been a weirder winter than I can ever remember.

I would have to 100% agree with you.

I've never seen anything like this.

I don't have.

It is going to be interesting to see what it does.

How everyone can adapt to it.

I mean, for businesses, to farmers, to, you know, big industry, right?

Right, right, yeah.

I'm hoping, I'm hoping after Sunday, maybe, maybe some snow bill trails will open up too.

Oh, that would be nice.

That would be great for so much of our entertainment industry out here.

And a recreation industry out here.

They'd be really good.

That'd be really great for them to get at least a couple of days in it.

Some shift winter over like a couple of months, maybe, you know, can we do that?

Spring break.

Go snowboard.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, it is a perfect time for spring break, right?

I mean, it's true.

I'm sorry.

True.

Tomorrow.

Good point.

Good point.

Brittany, before I let you go, we've got a new show that we're doing around here called

Unlabel.

It's your 90s mixtape.

I have some homework for you.

I want a 90s song from you.

I want a 90s request from you, some point, OK?

OK, deal.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brittany.

All right.

I had a feeling.

You're our people, Brittany.

We appreciate you.

Have a great weekend.

OK, we'll talk to you on Monday.

You too, thank you.

Best in the business right there, Brittany Merle.

We love working with her.

Seth, we've got good stuff to get to this morning and a jam pack morning.

We're going to get into a new beauty hack because we know how much those are important.

Those are very important.

Yeah.

Get that coming up.

That's good thing we're not in a video today.

Yeah, just stuff like looking at the two of us and like, oh, boy, it's good thing we're

on radio.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know what to do with my hair anymore.

I really don't.

I've got my headphones on under my hair and I just can't even imagine the almost like it's

not a kid in play thing, but it's high enough I imagine to be here.

It's getting up there.

Oh, boy.

We got to talk a little March madness or March sadness.

However, we want to look at it.

Ooh, boy, I tell you.

Thanks, Kentucky.

Thanks.

I was going to say, boy, that was a bunch of bracket.

That was a bracket breaker yesterday.

My goodness.

You know, it was kind of, it was the part of it.

What a part of it was cool.

We had a local kid.

A Wisconsin kid making noise over there for Oakland.

That was pretty cool.

That was pretty cool.

Yeah.

So we got that coming up.

We're getting into, and this out in this day, we are going to have some fun stuff too

because at 8.35, we're going to welcome in John Benbow, he's Wisconsin Rapid School Board

candidate.

That'll be our final candidate for this week.

Okay.

In 9.05, we're going to have our entertainment section focused on the Alexander House.

Connie Hink, he's going to join us and we'll talk about some great things going on over

there.

Okay.

We're going to lot to get to with our schedule this weekend.

We want to touch on as well.

All of those things coming up for you.

But one to remind everybody, the Civic Media ride to, ride into spring, text to win statewide

contest is going on right now.

What you do is you want to download the Civic Media app.

Be sure to do that wherever you get your apps.

Choose your station.

Don't forget about FHR.

I'll go ahead and do that.

And then just be listening at the top of the 7 a.m., 10 a.m. hours and the 1 o'clock

and 3 o'clock hours.

We're going to give you a magic word.

Magic word.

Yes.

And you take that word under the app.

You text it to us.

And boom, just like that, you will be in on a chance to win an overnight getaway at

Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells or enter to win one of our two grand prizes.

That's really cool.

It's awesome.

This is fun.

We're giving away four overnight stays every day.

Yeah.

Awesome.

We are, I said a big shout out to Chula Vista being able to do that and the best listeners

in radio.

You guys give us this ability to be able to do this.

Exactly.

I was talking to a listener yesterday about this contest and she said to me, this doesn't

seem that hard and I was telling her, it's not supposed to be, we're not, we want you

to win.

We want you guys to, you know, that's part of the fun of this and we're celebrating

all of you out there.

And while we can't just like have people come up and like hand everybody a new bike,

we can't do that.

This is quite work that way.

We can do this kind of thing.

Yeah.

We're celebrating you guys and celebrating the power of this app and everything we've been

able to do with it.

Thank you so much to everybody who's already downloaded and they supported Civic Media.

We appreciate everybody.

Yes, we do.

Got stations up and down the state.

Civic Media is your station promoting democracy.

Like that's the big thing we promote.

We got a lot of cool shows on this network, a lot of great voices.

Some of the best voices in this state are on Civic Media Radio.

All that being said, democracy, you guys, freedom.

These are the things we are promoting, these are the things we are behind and you guys

are behind that too and we appreciate it.

So be listening for today at the top of the 10 a.m. hour, 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock hours,

we will get that word out there to you and that word is, no, I'm joking.

Yeah.

I can't do it.

I want to.

Going rogue here.

I really want to.

It's right in front of you.

I want to tell you what it is.

But I can't.

I can't do it.

Can't do it.

Be listening in the top of the 10 a.m. hour right here at WFHR.

Of course, our sister station, WIRI, for those words and get them into us everybody and

have some fun.

Keep in mind, I always, I keep forgetting this stuff.

You have the hour to get that word in.

Yep.

You got to make sure you're at the top of the hour.

But you can enter all four hours every day.

There's no limit, man.

Get in on that everybody and again, thanks to everybody that downloaded the Civic Media

App.

Let's talk a little March sadness, everybody.

We're only a day into March madness and according to Yahoo Sports, at least 99.9% of

brackets are already busted.

All right.

Wow.

I mean, I'm telling ya.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Why?

Why do we do this to ourselves, man?

Well, there is another side of this.

You can still enjoy March madness even if your bracket is busted.

Here are four ways to still enjoy the rest of the tournament.

It's basketball.

It's a game.

Like watch the games.

Enjoy the drama.

Enjoy basketball.

Yeah.

Like that's just me.

It's not even on the list here.

No, no, no.

I admit, I wholeheartedly admit, I'm a die hard basketball fan.

So I put that out there completely journalistic integrity out the window.

But at the same time, I know people who their bracket gets busted and they're like done.

They're like not even watching anymore.

Like, what are you doing?

What?

This is great.

I mean, that's what the fun thing though.

Yeah.

So the underdog upset your pick for the win to win it all, right?

But look at what?

But now you get to follow that team.

Yeah.

And you get to learn about that team.

Okay.

Now we need to find out all about Oakland.

Yeah.

I mean, that's cool.

How cool is that?

I love this stuff.

I love this stuff.

You know, all these other small schools that we don't know anything about find out where

they're actually from.

Oh, no.

What state are they in?

Kentucky's not moving on to the sweet 16 or something.

Shucks.

Like I really ever survived that or they've been around for a long time.

Yeah.

They've won a lot.

And I got to say, as a side note, I chose Kentucky to move on.

I've actually had them going on like two rounds or so while losing.

And that's on me, like that anybody, all of us that chose Kentucky, that's on us.

If you're paying attention to John, the last couple of years and everything, we should

have known better.

Here is the number one on their list as far as the ways you can still enjoy the tournament.

Enjoy the freedom.

Now you can watch the games in peace, no pressure or stress of getting a perfect bracket

or doing, you know, how your brackets doing or anything like that.

You don't want to think about that.

Right.

So just enjoy the games and enjoy the freedom.

I guess we have to make one small caveat here.

First of all, I mean, if you're doing a bracket with money, I'm sorry, because, and first

of all, why?

Why?

I mean, come on.

Stop.

You're not going to get any.

What?

Not going to win.

It's come on.

What did money do to you to hurt you to treat it that way?

I know.

Why would you do that to money?

It's just fire.

It might be money as well.

Really?

Really?

Really.

Support people who are still in it, keep up with the standings and follow along to

see who ends up at top.

One of the things I enjoy about this, and I enjoy about any playoffs, my team is rarely

in it.

So I find somebody a player or a team to root for, and I find that almost like a second

like life as a fan, and I find it fun.

So I do that with almost every playoffs of every sport.

This is no different.

I'm a big Georgetown fan, I like Niu, I root for gambling, I've got a couple teams

that I like loosely.

But a lot of it is, hey, none of these teams are in there, so what am I going to

for?

Well, I'm going to ask you now.

For Wisconsin, because they've got a couple of teams, and you've got Marquette, and you've

got Wisconsin, of course.

For someone who's from Illinois, like you, I know it's not your favorite school, but

Illinois, the University of Illinois, they've got a path, that sounds like a lot of people

are thinking they're going to go pretty far.

I mean, is that part of it too for you?

Oh yeah.

Check it out.

Like, teams, maybe not your favorite teams, kind of what you're talking about, but, you

know, you have grown up with them or something like that, and you're still like, oh, look,

they're doing all right, you know?

They're relatives to win to Illinois, into into Champaign and everything, so I root for

them a bit.

I have to admit, especially when they have Chicago kids on that team, which doesn't happen

very often.

Surprisingly.

They usually go to Kentucky.

Yeah.

Or UW, Wisconsin.

That's true.

I love Marquette.

I like you.

Shaka smarts my favorite college coach, like college football, college basketball, doesn't

matter.

He's my favorite coach.

So I'm rooting for Marquette Hard.

I got them going on.

Oh, right to the elite eight, I've got them going nice.

So if we, you know, we'll see how that goes, I'm sorry, Marquette, if that hurt, that's

I can help you any.

Yeah.

But those exactly what we're talking about, you're going to find storylines to pay attention

and care.

I love this time of year.

I love this tournament.

That's the fun part for me.

Yeah.

So you do the same thing.

You do it.

Yeah.

If, you know, because, well, very, I didn't really have a college basketball team that

I like throwing up, because Minnesota was never, you know, I mean, they were the big team,

but they were never really that great.

Every now and then they would be okay.

But so I, I just was always a bystander on that kind of thing for basketball.

I never really had a rooting.

So it's kind of fun when you're just, you know, watching the whole field and then you

can root for underdogs, which is the thing I like to do.

Man.

I like to see the underdogs.

Just thinking it probably had been cool to see Dave Winfield as a, as a, it made us

sort of go for a playing basketball, like that a bit cool back in the 70s, man.

I wonder, I wonder, there's got to be some film on that.

I love this.

Yeah.

I want to find that now.

I want to find that.

Also, a couple of other decent players out of Minnesota, you know, a history, embrace

the underdog and send to Rela teams.

Sure.

They're probably, you know, they're probably what's messing up your bracket.

Of course.

But it's already messed up.

Why do you care?

You know, go ahead and have some fun.

I have a theory.

And I just want to test this one year, pick all the underdogs and see how well it works

out.

Now, we, is it going to be, it may be any better than, you know, trying to pick, you

know, like really going through it with a fine tooth comb and, like, I'm going to check

out all the, oh, yeah, these guys are going to do that.

Just do all underdogs and see how your bracket turns out.

I'd be curious to see what happens.

I think I'm going to do that next year, actually.

And what else do you have to do?

MLB's opening day is still a week away and NBA and HL playoffs don't get started until

next month.

So why not enjoy this?

Yeah, what else?

Enjoy.

Have some fun.

And if you don't care, well, you got plenty of other things to do.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Now, they're shoveling.

So we got that.

Thanks, Mother Nature.

So we have something to do there.

Yeah.

And you got something to do this next couple of hours because we got a lot of great show lined

up for you.

We're going to be having, of course, our LKFA birthday anniversary club coming up next.

And after our news break, we're going to make you a star of the day with our friends

from Culver's.

It's going to be fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All those coming up for you right here on WFHR.

There we go.

Welcome, everybody, to the LKFA birthday anniversary club, one of our favorite parts of

the day.

We get to celebrate all of you and talk about our great friends over at LKFA.

Go visit them.

It's a wonderful diner at 221 Market Avenue and Port Edwards, wishing everybody a good

morning.

They got some great specials out there today.

A wonderful way to kick off your weekend and on over to LKFA, wish you a good morning

from all of us at WFHR.

You know, you used to word their diner and that is exactly what it is.

It feels you walk in.

It's like, hey, this is a great diner.

Yeah.

It's perfect.

Don't get to use that.

I know much anymore.

Yeah.

It is.

It is a classic diner with a lot of great stuff over there.

The food, the prices, the atmosphere are all great, but the people are going to blow you

away.

They're the wonderful people over there.

Head on over to LKFA and get us those birthdays and anniversaries, everybody.

We love to celebrate with you.

We grab a qualifier every day and that person or person is going to win at the beginning

of next month, 20 other gift certificates from our friends at LKFA.

I was joking with the listener because I always say it that way, but I just say two gift

certificates.

So it sounds almost like they could be gift certificates for anywhere.

Yeah.

Like at the LKFA, here's some brief certificates for Toys of Rush.

Yeah.

What?

What?

They're for LKFA.

Of course.

Of course, that you could use over there.

Get us those birthdays and anniversaries, send them to info at WFHR.com, james.mailup,

at civicmedia.us.

You get, of course, direct messages on our Facebook pages.

And of course, call up, join us.

That civic media app that we're encouraging to use, well, just a touch or two away to calling

us up.

Sure.

That's also going to be really handy if you want to win some free callvers and a little

bit coming up.

Yeah.

Get ready.

Another good reason to download that app.

All right.

Or call up 715-424-2600 to join the conversation.

Set.

I need one through three.

Okay.

One.

All right.

Gives us that one.

And I need a one or a two.

Two.

Ah, there we go.

Gives us our qualifiers.

So we can get right into to celebrate.

And just one birthday to put the spotlight on for today.

Jeff Nelson.

Happy birthday, Jeff.

Enjoy your day, sir.

Hope it's a good one for you, Jeff.

I loved you when you were a pitcher for the Mariners.

I'm kidding.

I thought that name seemed familiar, right?

Yeah.

I'm sure there's like a Jillian Jeff Nelson's out there.

So happy birthday to you, Jeff.

Happy birthday, Jeff.

Hope it's a good one.

We also, on Saturday, want to wish a very happy birthday to the wonderful Barb Hittner.

Oh, happy birthday, Barb.

Barb, of course, the better half with Mike and the mom of Stephen and Katrina.

That's right.

Join us here from Family and Natural Foods all the time on the air.

We appreciate them so much.

And we do.

A Barb's wonderful.

Well, we got to meet Barb a couple of times.

My mom actually knows a bit of the night, too.

And when I have run into her, she's one of those people where I, you know, when you

know the kids and then you meet the parents and things like lock in and like, oh, that

makes sense.

Of course.

Both Stephen and Katrina are such perfect copies and parallels.

That's great.

While also being themselves, of course, of their parents.

And there's like this one half that you were missing.

If you knew Mike, you meet it, you meet Barb and you're like, okay, it all adds up.

Now it all adds up.

One of the sweeter, more fun people I have met in my life.

Awesome person, wishing you a good day.

We also want to wish a very happy birthday to Peg Drawlinger.

Happy birthday, Peg.

Enjoy your day, Peg.

Hope it's a great one for you.

And we wish a happy anniversary to our qualifiers celebrating their 28th anniversary.

Ned and Cammy Kubishak.

Oh, Ned and Cammy.

Congratulations.

Enjoy your day, Ned and Cammy.

Hope it's a great one.

It's a Friday.

I say celebrate all the great.

Celebrate.

Yeah.

Celebrate your anniversary tomorrow.

We say celebrate today.

That's right.

Celebrate all the way.

And on Sunday, we wish a happy birthday to Valerie Marie.

Oh, happy birthday, Valerie.

Enjoy your day.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

And a very happy birthday to friend of both Seth and I, friend of this community, friend

of WFHR.

Ben Shadek.

Oh, happy birthday, Ben.

Ben's one of the more talented people we have had on the air with us.

Yeah.

One of the more talented musicians and people we have in this community.

Mm-hmm.

Really appreciate what Ben does.

600 bands that he's a part of?

Yeah, 601 actually.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The reason he's in all those bands, one, he loves music.

He loves supporting other artists.

And so when other people ask, hey, can you help with this?

He's so quick to jump in.

Yep.

While he's in it, 600 bands, I imagine that Ben helps even more people than that because

he works all the time on songs and different things with other artists.

Amazing.

And one of those guys where I, I root for all of our local artists and I'm pulling for

all of them.

He's one of those ones where one day I hear he signed a record deal.

I'm going to be maybe even more excited than he is.

Just because I root for him.

He deserves it.

He's earned it.

He's put so much into this craft.

Oh, absolutely.

He's so good at it.

He's got such smart fingers, such a smart player and really talented.

Wishing you a great day, Ben.

Enjoy your day.

And you're a qualifier.

Yeah.

We take a look at birthdays for today.

JJ Watts, 35.

Wisconsin's home.

He's only 35.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

He's known him since he was a teenager.

So I think that's part of why it seems like he's been around for so long.

Now, like a lot of football players, when they retire, they kind of slim down and everything

suit Joe.

You see Joe Thomas these days and it just is almost unrecognizable.

Looks great.

He looks really good.

It looks very happy.

Ben, I don't know many people enjoying retirement more than Joe Thomas.

More power tool.

Right.

And JJ Watts right up there.

He hasn't really thinned down though.

He's still got that player muscle to him and everything.

I would imagine that's hard to let go.

I wouldn't want a little bit.

I'd hang onto that as long as I could.

Yeah.

He's still in his 30s.

He can hang.

He can do that for a while.

I think he's all a famer.

I think so.

I certainly all a famed human being raised over 37 million for Hurricane Harvey relief back

in 2017.

Along with a bunch of other causes he's a part of and supports, especially in this state.

Him and his family, the Watts put a lot in the state.

That's cool.

Constance Wu is 42.

Crazy Rich Asians fresh off the boat.

Very talented.

She's funny.

You're a comic timing actor.

I don't know if I had this one wrong, but I had a prediction a while back when Reese Witherspoon

won an Oscar for playing June Carter Cash.

And I thought she was going to be the next Meryl Streep.

I don't know if that happened or is going to happen, but I do think that her talent is

way up on that level.

I don't know about its Meryl Streep level, but it's right there.

Reese Witherspoon is almost underrated and underused as an actor.

I agree.

She is good.

I don't care anything about those legally blonde movies, but I watched them with my girlfriend

at the time and enjoyed them because of her.

I enjoyed her performance with this one's performance.

I didn't really care much about the movies or anything.

She's one of those actors.

She can get me to watch a lot of different things.

Madeline and Big Little Eyes, June Carter Cash and walked the line, L Woods and Legally

Blonde.

I think that's the movie I was thinking of was Legally Blonde.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I knew what you meant.

I knew what you meant.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's good.

She's good though.

Let's see.

Keegan Michael Key is 53.

All right.

What?

Yeah.

We believe he's 53.

Yeah.

He does not look it.

Him and Jordan Peele kind of got their break actually kind of late sort of in life.

That's true.

In some ways.

And considering in entertainment, especially in comedy.

But Keegan Peele, one of the more funny sketch comedy shows we've ever seen.

Way.

Great MC.

Great, great.

Keegan has been doing a really good job.

Doing a lot of hosting work and everything.

He's also, and he'll pop up in these projects.

He's a great character actor too.

Yeah.

And he got to give a bunch.

Yes.

And he's a very good singer.

So he's a musical parts too.

He's very talented.

I like him a lot.

He's a big fan.

Matthew Modine is 65, Dr. Martin Brenner and Stranger Things, Private Joker and Full

Mental Jacket, Gross Anatomy, Vision Quest, Matthew Modine, man.

He's had a very interesting career.

For a while there, he was kind of being touted as the next big star.

Yep.

I remember that in the 80s when he was young, you know, part of the, he was kind of,

I don't know if he was part of the Brat Pack or if he was just part of, you know, like,

in their sphere.

How about?

Yeah.

Because he was in a couple of those movies.

But it never worked out.

But man, he's been in some really cool projects.

Yeah.

The great Bob Costas is 72 today.

One of the smartest minds ever in sports.

Oh my gosh.

You know, it's very intelligent, man.

Knows his stuff.

And really Bob Costas has talked about a couple of things in recent years that don't

have to do with sports.

And I've heard some people, you know, back, push back on that and everything, like, what

is he know what he's talking about?

Bob Costas has interviewed almost all the greatest minds of the rare, like tons of incredible

people outside of sports.

Yeah.

He has a journalist covered things outside of sports.

He's one of our greater brains out there.

Bob Costas wants to cover Legos.

Fine.

The cover Legos.

No.

The idea that we're encouraged to always expand, always be growing, always be trying different

things and all that.

But then certain people do something that, you know, certain people out there don't like

and immediately lose their minds.

Right.

And please, he's 72.

He's been what every wants.

He's been knowing this since the beginning of his career.

Yeah.

He was on later for that show that was beg basically created for him to interview people.

Yeah.

And not just sports, everybody.

So no.

I do have one thing about Bob Costas.

Okay.

I love him.

I think he's a great interviewer.

I don't like him playing.

I don't know either.

I don't know why.

I know.

I feel like a journalist.

I don't know.

I feel really bad because I know how much he loves it.

I know.

Yeah.

No.

No.

I think, you know, it's in part, it's not his fault, but it's also in part his fault because

he has stories and you know, he's one that he wants to share him and that's really cool.

But you've got to be so in and out in that job and so quick and concise.

I just don't think that's his style.

Yeah.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, 76 today, Jesus Christ Superstar, Avita, Phantom of the Opera, Cats,

can keep going with that one.

No comment.

Yeah.

I didn't think so.

Yeah.

Certainly quite a legacy.

Broadway.

I'll give him credit for being so successful, but that's where I stop.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer is 76 today.

Wow.

76.

People celebrate with his brothers, Coyote and Fox, and that's a bad joke.

That's a bad, bad, bad joke.

That's his real name.

That's his real name.

Wolf Blitzer.

How do you call him?

That's crazy.

Yeah.

William Shatner is 93 today, Captain James T. Kirk, Sergeant T. J. Hooker, musical mastermind

behind Rocketman.

Nobody I say this and I say it every year on his birthday, and I mean it with every

bit of respect I have.

Nobody is done more with less than William Shatner.

Nobody is thinks that William Shatner is a thespian.

Nobody thinks William Shatner is the best-selling author.

Nobody thinks that William Shatner is the greatest singer they've ever heard or any of

these things.

Yet, I just named for you two different TV shows and two different decades, not even

bringing up Boston Legal, or he had another show that he did a little bit later, but

he said multiple hits in multiple decades.

He's had literal hits with albums that he's recorded, and I notice I said multiple.

Many, many albums he's done, and he's one of those people where, I don't know, he seems

to be, have some confidence and maybe a bit of ego while also being able to make fun

of himself.

You know, I don't know, and he seems to be in on the joke, the Rocketman bit, all that

stuff.

It doesn't seem like it seems like he gets the joke better than us.

Yeah.

I don't think it was always that way.

I think at one point he was taking himself way too seriously, but I think you're right.

He leaned into it finally, towards, you know, as he got older, and he just went with

it.

And he was so much more popular after that.

Yeah.

I mean, not to forget about being, you know, James Kirk or whatever, he's just, yeah,

I think as soon as he got loosened up, people really started to like him.

And still a lot of people's favorite starship captain.

Yep.

Karl Mulden.

Oh, no, go ahead.

Karl Mulden would have been celebrating a birthday today, born in 1912.

Karl Streets of San Francisco, Michael Douglas, that's also in those American express commercials

too.

I remember those two babies.

Yes.

Marcel Marcel, born in this day in 1923, magnificent mind.

He was also a member of the French resistance during World War II and helped smuggle children

out of France during Nazi occupation.

Did not know that.

Oh, yeah.

What a life.

Well, a fascinating life.

Yeah.

Yeah, honest.

I don't care much about minds.

That's not my thing or anything, but that man, that man is a hero.

To beat, to his credit, he's the only mind most people knew.

Yeah.

Yeah.

People over Marcel Marcel was.

No, who Chico Marx is, Chico Marx born in this day in 1887, of course, of the Marx brothers.

Fabulous piano player.

Oh, wonderful piano player, a day at the opera people, a day at the opera.

If you're going to watch one, Marx brothers movie, that's the one.

And you will see Chico going to town on that piano.

Yeah.

They did it in every movie.

Duck soup.

That's my favorite.

That's my favorite.

Quick look at a Saturday, birthdays, Kyrie Irving is 32 tomorrow.

Let's see, Carrie Russell is 48.

She's good.

Jason Parks, 51.

Jason Kidd, I'm sorry, is 51 tomorrow.

Randall Park is 50.

I just combined it.

Randall Park and Jason Kidd.

I don't know how you can do that.

That's good.

I love Randall Park.

He's for the last.

Damon Alburn is 56 tomorrow.

Guitar singer, a bird.

Woo.

Carillas.

Nicely done.

Nicely done.

And let's see.

Oh, Shaka Khan.

71 tomorrow.

Shaka Khan.

Shaka Khan.

Oh, I love Shaka Khan.

Here every year in the kitchen's open theme.

You hear it all every time.

That's right.

The roof is.

And quick look at Sunday.

Jessica Chastine is 47 on Sunday.

Oscar nominator Redhead, zookeepers wife, help, zero duck 30, the Martian grade actress.

Very good.

Lake Bell is 45 on Sunday.

Wonderful voice actress.

Does she voice a voice on Ivy and a bunch of voices on Harley Quinn?

One of the all-time grades.

Yes, she's really, really good.

I love her voice.

She's also married to someone famous, but I can't remember who it is.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, I can't remember.

But her distinction and her, like her dexterity with her voice is really impressive.

It is.

Peyton Manning, 48 on Sunday.

One of the grades.

One of the grades.

All-time.

Alison Hannigan is 50 on Sunday.

What?

Lily from How You Met Your Mother and of course American Pie Movies.

Wow.

Jim Parsons is 51 on Sunday.

Sheldon, of course, in the Big Bang Theory and many other things.

Oh, yes.

He's a fabulous actor.

And the Undertaker is 59 on Sunday.

Oh, yeah.

Greatest.

I think you could make the argument.

Greatest gimmick in wrestling history.

He was one of a kind.

I remember when he first started in WWF at the time.

And he was like all of a sudden people were like, whoa, what is this?

You're right.

It was a great gimmick.

And it's the thing of it is, too.

It didn't like ever, even Hogan had to change his gimmick up and those things.

The Undertaker did the Dead Man thing a little bit and stuff.

But he basically did the same character over 20 years.

He's in a long career.

It's a mess.

Like, that doesn't happen in wrestling.

No.

That does not happen usually.

Some people no longer with us.

It would have been celebrating birthdays on Sunday.

The Great Louis Anderson would have been 71.

Born in 1953, passed away in 2022.

One of the greats.

One of the greats.

One of the greats.

I love Louis Anderson.

Me too.

And Arley Emory, born in 1944.

Amazing drill sergeant for full metal jacket.

The voice of the soldiers in Toy Story and everything.

An actual sergeant.

Yeah, he was.

Yes, that's right.

One of the greats.

Steve McQueen, born in 1930, passed away in 1990.

King of Cool.

I know we say James Dean and everything.

But you look at Steve McQueen.

You're like, no.

No.

James Dean was cool.

But Steve McQueen was the definition of cool.

Watch the Great Escape.

That's a great movie.

I love that movie.

I watch every...

I go watch it once a week almost.

I love that movie so much.

And my first big, great influence.

Harry Houdini, born in 1874, passed away in 1926.

Wisconsin's own.

Yes, Wisconsin's own genius.

Harry Houdini changed the game of entertainment.

There's artists.

I just read Monday's Playmakers.

I got a wonderful stat on Bob Gibson.

I want to read.

That was explaining to one of my students about Bob Gibson.

And how Bob Gibson literally changed the game.

They had to lower the mound because of them and all that.

Harry Houdini did that to entertainment.

All of entertainment.

Not just magic.

Not just, you know, getaways or anything like that.

Like entertainment in general.

He created, he went from the magician to the illusionist.

He was the first illusionist because he did it all.

And he was a remarkable talent.

We encourage you to head on over to our friends over at LKFA.

Celebrate with them.

Enjoy their wonderful diner and some great food, great atmosphere and great people.

And a big shout out to LKFA.

Wish you a happy birthday from all of us here at WFHR.

Welcome back, everyone, to the morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.

We're going to continue our candidate series right now.

We will have our Culver star the day after this segment.

So keep on listening for that, everybody.

And be sure to bookmark the website myvote.wi.gov.

It's a great way to keep up the date on everything that is on your ballot.

Registering to vote, where to vote and all the information you need

to get out there and keep democracy alive.

We are welcoming in right now.

John Benbow, Wisconsin Rabbit School Board candidate.

John, thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Appreciate the time.

John, just simple questions for you.

One of the things that we are doing with this time with our candidates

is trying to encourage more and more people to do public service,

to run for boards, to run for things as you are.

So my first question, the essence of it, is that how have you enjoyed this experience?

I have a lot of experience as far as I got on the board

because at the time, 15 years ago, the board wasn't making,

they get all their information, they wouldn't make a decision.

And when you're on a board, it's a fluent board,

and you have to make decisions to keep everything else running.

So that kind of frustrated me, I was involved with a project that multiple

taxpayers were involved with in the board.

We worked on this project for a year and a half,

and it was about 125 of the community members.

And the board got the information set on it,

and for six months didn't do anything with it.

So it was frustrating for a lot of the people that were involved in that project.

But as far as I've enjoyed it, it's not a get rich type of proposition,

but it's needed.

And you need leaders that are willing to give the time to make the decisions

to keep the, in this case, the school district, high quality and active.

What do you see as the board's responsibilities?

The major responsibilities of the board is to set policy.

Mainly you hire as a board.

You hire a superintendent to do the daily operations of your school district.

And then as far as the board, after that,

after the policy part, basically, you're now working with budgets,

deciding on what we need to buy, what we should buy,

how we need to get the funding, and that type of thing.

I'm just thinking with John Benbow,

Wisconsin Rapid School Board candidate.

John, how do you plan to include the parents, teachers,

community, and decision making with the board?

We have done a, I feel a very good job of doing that.

Currently on our superintendent's search, if you go to our website,

there's a complete roadmap of the hiring and interview process.

The community has been involved.

There was about a two week period where the public could give comments