Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day, and thanks for kicking it
off with us right here at WFHR, locally grown radio. 804 on the clock. Got your host, James
behind the mic. I am joined by our head of production, Mr. Seth Habagger. Good morning
all. And the best listeners and radio. Thanks for joining us, everybody. We kick off
the hour every day, Monday through Friday with our good friend, Brittany Merlot, talking
a little mother nature. Brittany, we love talking to you on days. Well, we love talking
to you with you. Let's be honest, it doesn't matter what it's like out there, but days
like this makes it a little bit easier. I was just going to say that. I was like, I bet
you love me today. Yeah, sure do, sure do. Beautiful blue skies out there for me. How long
second to stick around? Five, ten minutes? About thirty seconds. No. No, you guys, we're
going to have this all day today. High temperatures in the low 60s. So a bit warmer than yesterday.
Feel those winds staying calm. And then everything changes tomorrow. So let's just soak up the
sunshine in the nice, spring-like seasonal day today. We only have today is all that's
guaranteed. We only have today. Enjoy the day. It's carpe diem. I'm trying, Brittany. I'm
trying to sell it. You're doing good. You're doing good. But yeah, enjoy it because we are
going to see showers and storms pushing in as soon as tomorrow afternoon. When you're
going to be whipping up there to about 40 miles per hour through the weekend, it is
going to just be a drencher with storms throughout it to on Sunday possible and weird temperatures,
right? We drop a little cooler tomorrow. We'll spike into the 70s per Saturday and then
into the 60s. So just get ready for some rain and enjoy the sunshine while we have it.
All right. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. And certainly all we can do. I mean,
if there's anything you learn about living in the Midwest, it's enjoy the nice weather
while you have it. Oh, you got it. Yep. We're going to do that. We encourage you to as
well, Brittany. Enjoy your day. We'll get people ready for the weekend tomorrow.
All right. Sounds good. Have a good day. You too. Best in the business right there from
Brittany Merlot, joining us every Monday through Friday, right in this time. It's like
get you ready with a live update in the forecast. I have. I don't know what date is anymore.
No. No. No. No. Since we started doing voice tracking on WRI, I had to, I'm going to
be off tomorrow. So I had to do like work ahead and I'm a third state for I don't know.
It feels like Friday to me now. I don't know what date is. I'm lost. Normally I start
to show previewing the next couple of hours. What we have coming up like at the top of
the nine o'clock hour, our pet of the week from the South of County main society sponsored
by Johnson and sons, Chrysler Dodge and dealer, Jeep dealership, big shut up to them.
And of course, our South of County main society or maybe I'll touch on some of the stories
we're going to get into and topics we'll touch on like the LKFA birthday and anniversary
club or this new rule that airlines have about refunning our, you know, flights and things.
Yeah, I heard about that. But if I seem a little distracted or a little off, it's for
a couple of reasons. One today is the NFL, the beginning of the NFL draft. Very important.
It's my kids birthdays. Oh wow. My brother and sisters birthdays, Halloween and the NFL
draft. This is how it works for me in my head. These are the days that matter to me.
It is also National Penguin Awareness Day, which just happens to be perfect for me. But
all that being said, I'm a little distracted because for those that don't know, the NFL
draft is three days. And this is a bit of a moral kind of like, you know, a bit of a
minefield for me in some ways because it does seem a little archaic the way that we do
this, the way that we do it's not just drafting in the NFL, but in all major sports. I'm
an adult, so I understand why we do it this way. But it also, it bothers me in some ways.
The idea of, hey, you did everything right. You are going to be one of the top picks
in the end of in the sport NFL MLB anything. We get to decide where you go. You don't
get to pick where you go. Yeah. No job, no profession in the world. It does that. You
know, there's, if you graduate at the top of your class as an attorney, the top firms
in the country don't get to draft you. You know, you choose what you're right. You want
to go. Yeah. But this is sports and this is how we're doing it for now and may do it for,
you know, quite some time. But again, even morally still distracted because I, Seth doesn't
ask much of me. But this Saturday, I have to cover over the back fence because you will
be out of town. The NFL draft kicks off at 11 on Saturday. I have to be here, have to
be here to do this job. Right. And over the back fence on Saturday. So I'm a little distracted
because I've never actually been upset with Seth before. And I borderline upset with him.
I borderline how dare you have a life? I'm dare you as though outside the station. You
know, maybe you just give people live updates. I guess I'm just watching the draft everyone.
If you want to know, it's going on. Funny you say that. Because one, I did want to use
this as an opportunity to promote over the back fence and do encourage you to join Seth
11 the noon on Saturdays. Every Saturday, we don't have a sporting event from our badgers
or something like that. We are here with over the back fence. It's your live call and
show items you're looking for items you want to sell. You and Laura put it this way.
I really liked your community billboard. Yeah, right. You know, it's where you go where,
you know, where there are a eBay and Craigslist and all these different things nowadays. This
is just straight up. Here's my product. Here's what I'm asking for it. Give me a call if
you want it. Yep. Straight up. So I got this item. I don't know what to do with it. I don't
want to throw it away. Please somebody take it off my hands. Yeah. Like that's what we do
on that show. We've been doing it for decades. It's in a very, it's a wonderful show.
And it's a show that we also need you guys. You're interaction with. And if you don't
interact with it, there's a chance we may not be able to keep the show. Right. Going
back to the seahafers two owners ago, we've been fighting to keep this show. And we keep
it because tradition because you guys love it. But we need you to call in and join us
on the, you know, to prove to our to our ownership and to our sponsors and everybody else
that it's a popular show. We see it. We know you do. But we need others too. Yeah engagement.
That's what we're looking for everybody. Yeah. If you want to just call up and say,
wow, it's a lousy day today for the weather. Hey, that's fine. We'll talk about the
lousy weather. No problem. As I mentioned before, we're only here because of our listeners.
So I'm never going to threaten our listeners. But I'm going to threaten you with a good
time. Because if you're not calling it on Saturday, so that is exactly what I will be
doing. Oh boy. It will be playmakers in parenthood. Over the back fence in the playmakers
in parenthesis. Yep. Specifically for the draft. Yep. I'm going to be going over every
pick. I'm going to be following along to it. I'll do it. Oh, you'll do it. You'll
bring me your items. I'll get them written down and everything will repeat them and we'll
get them out there and then I'm going right back to the draft. I love it. And I'm only
half kidding. Oh, yeah. He's only happy. We encourage you to join us every Saturday,
11 to do forward the back fence. And then that really doesn't just start or end with
over the back fence. We've got a great weekend lineup. Seth and I are going to get into
that a little bit later. And we appreciate our listeners supporting local radio, supporting
what we do here. The only way we get to keep doing local radio is the support we get
from our sponsors and the support we get from this listenership. Our ratings are good.
We do well in these categories. We need to keep doing that. We appreciate you all helping
us with it. Absolutely. How's your morning starting? It's so far so good. It's a nice,
lovely day. And I will. It's a Thursday. Okay. Yeah. It's a nice, lovely Thursday.
I don't remember. I just said, oh, man. It takes a second. Oh, it's one of those things.
Plus, you know, I'm in and then your week is shorter because you're doing something else.
Yeah. Yeah. You wait. Didn't man. No. It's, so we, I joke that this is Friday Eve all
the time. I started partially doing that just because I couldn't remember that it was
Thursday. And that, that, that, that, that's exactly like you're the word Friday. So yeah,
I think that's something to do with that too. It doesn't hurt. No. I've got a couple of
quick hits here for you that want to start off. One that is kind of interesting. A Florida
golden retriever gave birth to a lime green puppy. What? I don't know how this. I don't know.
I think we've seen pictures of like this before somewhat, but it's pretty wild. Oh, wow.
I haven't really seen a lot of this before, especially from like a golden retriever. Oh,
I see. Okay. The video that they show, it's a little hard to see. But if you, when it,
it's next to its other, you know, brothers and sisters and everything, much paler, more
white. Yeah, exactly. Kind of see it. I'm trying to find out if they, there's a reason
behind this. If this, if they have any genetic reasoning or anything like that, Shamrock
is the dog's name. Oh, that's awesome. That's beautiful. That is lovely. That is a perfect
way to perfect name for a lime green dog. Yes, it is. And appropriate for a dog born in
the key lime state, keeping that in mind as well. Yeah. The unusual color is a result
of the puppy's fur being dyed by a Bilveridan, a green bile sometimes found in the wounds
of mother dogs. Oh, the phenomenon has been documented before and isn't limited to golden
retrievers. And Nova Scotia's couple's bulldog puppy was born in the same color in 2022.
Okay. DeBure and said Shamrock's green color has started to fade and she will likely be
the breed's normal yellow color within a few weeks. Probably. I kind of, I didn't think
it was going to stay green. So that's cool. It's not an herd of though, which is, that's
really interesting. But still, you see a whole bunch of puppies, you know, getting born
and then I'll say, whoa, hey, well, green. Yeah. That's a little weird. Seth, did you ever
know anybody that got their head stuck in between two, you know, like, you know, two bars
or anything like that? Like, like, you know, you have stairs and you have the, the, the
things there. Slats going down. Yeah. Slats. Slats is the word I was trying to look
for. Right. Or like, like that you have a chair that has those. Yeah. And when you're a kid,
you put your arm in there and then oh, I can't get it out. Yeah. That those kind of
thing. Yeah. My sister did that once. Um, and, and we, it was when we first moved out
here and we were living in Rome and we had to call somebody to come out and help and
all this. Oh boy. And it took forever because we're out in Rome and there's just a nightmare.
But, um, I, I always remember how Jillian just kind of left through it. Like, she just
kind of like rolled with it and everything and handled it really well. Uh, my, my sister's
got a very great personality, really, really grew way of handling things. Evidence A possibly
is that. Um, now I, I, I, I remember thinking back then when that was happening, wow, that,
you know, I would be probably crabby. I'd probably be pretty angry about that. And then
there's this. Oh, a wildlife rescuer in South Carolina came to the rescue of an alligator
found who have been trapped in a drainage pipe for nearly six months. Ah, really? Wow.
I don't know how angry alligators are in general. I don't know if they got a good vibe to
them. They're a mellow. Who knows? They tend to be unless you bother them. Right. Yeah.
I, I guarantee that after six months stuck in a drainage pipe, that alligator is a little
irritated. It's a little, gotta pick. Uh, man, shut up to the K and K wildlife services
that, uh, by Port Royal, uh, plantation that went to the Hilton head, uh, and, and got
the gator out. Okay. All right. Uh, they said the alligator apparently became stuck while
swimming through the pipe in October and had been trapped ever since. Oh gosh. Um, and,
and how they got this animal out is incredible. Um, minor injuries, including a shaping, uh,
a chafed snout from rubbing up against the grate and everything, but going to be recovered
and, uh, come to the alligator, you're going to recover just fine and be released back in the
wild. Oh, and man, is he never going to stop talking about this to his other alligators?
You know, you're never going to hear the end of this. So your friends with this alligator,
you're never going to hear the end of this. So he's going to go visit his relatives in
the sewers of New York. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got, you guys think you got a fat in the sewer? Wait,
wait, wait, what happened to me, man? Six months, six months. No TV, no radio, nothing. Just
sitting there for six months in a drain. It's pie. Does it do alligators not need to like eat
constantly? I mean, I, I'm just going to be meal or something. I don't know. I'm going to be
honest with the audience. I'm diving into that story later as soon as I have time. I have a lot of
questions. Yeah. I got a lot of questions about that. Who got his male, um, you know, I mean,
six months that piles up. Yeah, it really does. Gator male. Gator male. Gator male. Gator male.
We'll take a break. We'll be back more fun. The Elcafe birthday anniversary club coming up
on the morning show here at WFH. It's time to do some celebrating with the Elcafe birthday
anniversary club. One of our favorite parts of the day. We can talk about you and celebrate
our great friends over at Elcafe. Go visit them right now. They're at two 50. I'm sorry,
they're, I knew it was going to do that. They're at two 21 market. They have beautiful poor
deadwards. Go ahead and head on over there. Beautiful day ahead. They're open till two today.
Dine in or carry out. Give them a call. 887. 2233. 887. 2233. I see that they've got a nice
veggie pita or wrap strawberry salad bowl all in pigs in a blanket. All right. All kinds of good
food over there. Oh man, their wraps are so good. They really are tasty. Go check it out for
yourself. Elcafe. Open right now at two 21 market avenue in Port Edwards. Get us those
birthdays and anniversaries, everybody. We love celebrating with you. All right.
Info at WFHR.com. You can go ahead and email us there. Direct messages on our Facebook pages.
That's also another way to do it. And you can call up on the show. That's right.
717. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what you're going to give them. Oh no. She's not here. Okay.
It's 424-2600. Call now. Get your birthday in or whoever's birthday in. We can celebrate it on
the air. Join the conversation, everybody. We'd love to hear from you. Call up and join us.
And I do have to wholeheartedly apologize to one of our great listeners out there.
We had a list of names together and then could not find it yesterday morning.
Oh no. I couldn't find where it was. So I had to pull it together at the last second.
And one of the names got lost. And it's a great listener's name and a great family's name.
But we feel bad. So we want to wish a very, very, very everybody with me. Happy birthday to Joe Novak.
Oh, happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Joe.
Happy belated birthday, Joe. Not intentional. No. No. It was, it was all a mistake.
So make it up for now. We wanted to highlight your day two days. So yeah. Joe is automatically going
into the qualifying round. Excellent. So we appreciate all of our friends and get us these
birthdays and anniversaries. And it really, I can't express how much I feel guilty not getting
these on the right day. So we do apologize. Joe, now because we did do this, though,
you get to celebrate your birthday for like three, four days. Yes. All right.
To the weekend. Yes. Because of our mistake, you get to make, you get to party hearty.
So there you go. That's the silver line. That's the silver line. I got it.
Seth, I need a one or a two. Two. All right. Give us that. We can go ahead and write into the
celebrate. And first up, one or wish Pam's nephew, Christopher Lewick, who lives in Oregon,
Wisconsin. A happy birthday. His wife and him have birthdays two days apart. Oh my gosh.
That's cool. Happy birthday to both of you. I know we said happy birthday earlier this week,
but happy birthday to both of you. Yeah. Happy birthday, Christopher Lewick. Yeah. Happy birthday to
both of you. Sarah and you wish you both a happy birthday. Wish you an happy birthday to Christy
Foreman. Happy birthday, Christy. And Joe, your day hopes you good one for you. And happy birthday
to our qualifier today. Larry Tillman. Happy birthday, Larry. Larry. Enjoy your day. We hope
it's a good one for you. We dive into our celebrity list. Now Jonathan Bailey is 36. Lord Anthony
Bridgerton on Bridgerton. Okay. Don't know that show. No idea what that is. I just know that all
the women in my life seem to love that show. Really? Almost any woman I know. I mean, that was a
couple of years ago when it first came out. Right. Right. Everything. But that's one of those ones.
People talked about that a lot. All right. That was a pretty popular show. He is a good actor. I
only seen him a little bit, but he does. He's good. One of the the greater power forwards or
shooting forwards or power forwards or centers really. What do they call them anymore? I know the
positions don't matter in basketball. Not basketball. Tim Duncan is 48 today. Retired NBA superstar
from San Antonio Spurs. Tim Duncan throughout his whole career was called the Great Fundamental.
He's considered kind of a boring player in some ways because didn't really, you know,
excite the stat cheat or anything like that. He was Mr. Consistency. Oh my gosh. 20 points,
10 rebounds. He's your T. Ripkin in basketball, right? Yeah. One a couple of NBA titles.
Well, one with David Robinson. That was just one such a cool pairing with him in Robinson and
all of those things. All that being said, I feel like we're actually now getting to meet Tim Duncan.
Like, now we're getting to know him. He is a Caribbean kid and it shows now. Like,
his hair, he's got some great hair. Like, did anybody see Tim Duncan with dreads coming?
No, not at all. He was so, and I want to say straight lace, but he was so low key when he was in
the leak. He was not, you know, a flamboyant dresser or anything like that. He's quiet. You know,
they got to think so it is kind of fun to see him coming out a little bit. It is. It is.
He's gotten a lot into coaching and done a lot for women in sports and promoting that and pushing
that. He's one of the greatest top 75 NBA players of all time. Absolutely. I believe when they
have their 75th anniversary or whatever. Those first teams. Yeah, they were something else. They
really were. The great Jason Lee is 54 today. He's still water singer Jeff in almost famous.
Earl Hickey in my name is Earl Dave and Alvin in the Chipmunks movies. You might have known him.
He's one of Kevin Smith's boys, Mallrats chasing Amy dogma, Jane Silent Bob strike back. He's
been into all of those. Jason Lee has one of the most interesting careers of all time to me.
He starts out as a skateboarder with Tony Hawk and a lot of those guys. He even has a move that he
invented in skateboarding. It's crazy. And really popular in that. He really likes acting.
Wants to try that and everything meets Kevin Smith and gets a break and starts just working his
tail off as an actor and giving a huge everything he put in the skateboarding and acting and
in shows. He's a great actor and done some really, really good work in his career. He gets kind of
bored with the industry and kind of done with it and everything. Acting just isn't pushing in
the way he wants to. So now currently he's a photographer and he is incredible at it. He has
got a great eye and has dedicated a lot of his life to that and to other causes and really just
doesn't act anymore. He's still skate sports all the time. Like him and Tony Hawk are still great
friends and still hang out all the time and everything. But it's so interesting to think where
Jason Lee's life could have went this way or that way and that and where he has gone and all
these things. He's been very good at. Yes, that's so cool. That's interesting to see. He's just
fascinating. You don't see people walk away from most industries. Right. Two different industries.
Well, especially when we're if you're, you know, at a certain level, you get very well rewarded for
being at like his level. I mean, I'm sure he was making plenty of money. But he's kind of like,
no, I'd rather do this now. And that's like, hey, cool. He takes photos, spends time with his kids.
You know, it seems like a good gig. It seems like a good gig. Renee Zellweger is 55. She has
Bridget Jones, Judy Garland and Judy Dorothy and Jerry McGuire, of course. I would think that,
I don't know. I haven't seen everything she's done, but I think her greatest work is
Roxy in Chicago. She's very good. Very good. And she's going to be reprising the role of Bridget
Jones from what I read. I believe in another movie coming up. Yeah. Good for her. Yeah.
A good actor. Good actor. Good to see her working. Joe Buck is 55. NFL and MLB commentator and former
co-host of an English Sunday. I just realized that's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy to think of. Of course,
the son of a legendary broadcaster. Jack Buck. Yeah. And you've never heard anybody say they
like Joe Buck. You've never heard, you've probably never heard anybody say that. You probably have
some problems with him yourself or whatever. And Joe Buck is going to keep doing Joe Buck.
Yeah. Like, I'm not a big fan of his. And I don't really necessarily enjoy the way he calls a
game. But I respect how good he is at it. And I've come to the point of him where I kind of,
I kind of enjoy the fact that he just is going to do Joe Buck. He's just going to keep doing
his thing. And I respect that actually in a lot of ways too. I think that you in a job like that
or like we do or anything. The audience, like I said earlier, comes first. So if you're hearing
from the masses that much, you know, that they don't like this or they don't like that, I think it's
it's on you to make some changes. And at the same time, if you're higher up, if you're bosses,
if you're co-workers are all telling you, Hey, we like what you're doing. You know, we keep doing
what you're doing in many ways. Right. He's going to keep working. And he's one of the richest
commentators. Oh, yes. He's been very successful. He's also a very honest person. Yes.
You get him in interviews. He will tell you what he thinks. He will tell you the truth. And he
will get in. Sometimes I've noticed, I mean, I'm not on social media, but I've seen where he's
gotten into, you know, all of a sudden a like an ask me anything on Twitter will erupt because
because someone asked him a question and he'll answer it. And then everyone will start asking
him all these questions and do it. My favorite one was someone asked him about how to get into the
announcing game. He's like, have a famous dad. Yes. Yeah. It's the it's the the last thing I was
going to say about him is I actually like Joe Buck in interviews more than him calling a game.
Yeah. He's really an interesting person. But yeah, he gets it out of stuff. Yeah.
Wonderful interview. Great interview. And you're so right about. It's a great way to put it. He
really just is himself. Yeah. And just lets it all out there. Doesn't put on errors or anything
like that. You may not like it, but he doesn't care. One of the most versatile, greatest voice actors
of all time and really a great actor himself. Hank Azar is 60 today. He was all he was Huff on
Showtime's Huff. He was he's he's done a couple of acting roles. I think his most famous
maybe the bird cage where he he it's so hard for me to say this, but I say this lovingly.
He steals scenes from Robin and Nathan Lane. He does. He steals scenes from Rob Williams and Nathan
Lane, man, like two of the biggest scene stealers ever ever. That's a pretty amazing. Nathan Lane,
who's at like out of a 10 out of a zero through 10, a 20 throughout that whole movie. I don't know
how he does that. He keeps up that energy. Robin Williams playing the straight man. It was
pun intended. Pun intended. Like Hank Azar stands out in that move. Oh, Gene Hackman and drag
for God's sake. Like there's things that happen in that movie are insane. It still holds up.
One of my favorite companies. It's got to be one of the the one of the greats in of all time.
It still holds up. It's amazing. And one of the big reasons is Hank Azar. It really is. Of
course, the voice of Chief Wiggum in Moe on The Simpsons. He is also baseball announcer Brock
Meyer and Brock Meyer. He had to gargomile in the Smurfs movies. Tall kinds of work.
Hank Zerch. He's very talented. He had that moment too when he was like in a whole bunch of
movies. If I remember, he's not doing that so much anymore. But why would you? He's such a
talented voice actor. Well, yeah. Talley Shire is 78 today. Adrian in the Rocky movies.
Connie Corleone in the Godfather movies. You might also remember her as the therapist and the
old Geico caveman commercials. She did those as well. Talley is the sister of Godfather Director
Francis for Coppola, the mother of Jason Swartzman, the aunt of Nicholas Cage and Sophia Coppola.
No, she's she made the movies that she was in. She was very good in. Very. She wasn't in a lot,
but she was very good what she did. When she worked, you remembered her performances.
Yes. Yeah. She's so good in the Godfather. She's all amazing performance. I get goosebumps
thinking about her and Diane Lane in the Godfather. Like we never we never and when we talk about
those movies, we never mentioned the women women. And they're so incredibly good. So good.
Stu Cook, 79 guitars for CCR. Proud new name. Bad Moon. There's so many great CCR songs. So
many great to be. I'm going to be I'm going to list bad moon. I'm going to listen to one of the
greatest actors of all time. And I know I throw things like that out there from time to time.
It's not often that you all will agree with me though. Oh, top 10 actor of all time Al Pacino is
84 today. Why do we got Al Pacino sent of a woman. Most people always remember him as we're
talking about the Godfather is Michael Corleone. Yep. I think that one of his greatest active
performances is the movie Heat. There's a lot of great stuff. Now a lot of younger or a lot of
younger people out there will just know one version of Al Pacino. The stuff that me and Seth were
just kind of doing that little parody there. Yeah. This is one of the most versatile actors of all time.
And and one of the greatest performers of all time. But one of the reasons why I believe that
if in order to be one of the greats in order to be considered one of the greats, you have to be
able to do it on stage and camera. Part of the reason I feel that way is Al Pacino. Because
growing up and especially in an Italian household, De Niro Pacino, these guys were, you know,
greats. They were goats to us and everything. One of the first actors I studied was Al Pacino.
Al Pacino to this day doesn't know if he would, if he should have taken the Godfather role.
Because it kept him from doing live theater. And that is his love. He loves being on stage.
He likes working with other actors. He likes hearing and feeling the audience.
And I learned so much from him about that about theater acting. Certainly as a camera actor,
he's fantastic. Fantastic. He should have won many, many more Oscars than just the one
for a cent of women, which honestly was given to him, I think, because they felt like they
should have given him 100 other times. A very unconventional leading man. Yes. We have to think
that because of the whole ethnic thing, you know, he's not that tall. He's, I was going to say,
he's short, you know, which that doesn't really seem to be an issue anymore. But at the time,
I know it wasn't an issue. Yes. They didn't want, I mean, I mean, there were, and the Godfather,
people did not want him in the lead role. Up until anything in the mid 2000s, I would say,
you never saw a leading man with a woman taller than him. Yeah. Absolutely. Never would see that.
So if, if I'm Al Pacino and I'm up for a role in I'm 511, that really brings down how many
the type of women that are going to be able to audition for that role. Exactly. To that point.
So his leading man status was not guaranteed. At all. And, and my God did Francis
for Coppola have to fight to get Al Pacino for those guns. He had to fight to get Al the one to
do it first. And then he had to fight with every producer under the sun to get him to have that
role. You can't imagine anybody else in that role. One of the greatest signs of an actor.
I can't even think of who would who dare. Like that don't work. No, no. There's literally no
other actor you can say to me. And I mean, all the greats you can throw them all out there.
Nobody could do Michael Corleone like Al Pacino did. Right. And that is one of the greatest
compliments you can give to an actor. You can't see anybody else in that role. And, and then I just
have to mention for James and me heat. Yes. Yes. Because we both love that movie. And he's
got to love that movie. I still consider heat a perfect movie. It's close. It's 10
clots in every category. Anyway, people no longer with us like the great metal-lark lemon
born in the state of 1932, passed away in 2015. Legendary leader of the Harlem
Loan Trotters. God, I love the glow. He was great. And I think you can make the argument
the greatest voice of all time. I will throw that out there. I will say it. Ella Fitzgerald
born in the state in 1917, passed away in 1996. Lady sings the blues. Yeah. She's fabulous.
You, you don't know Ella. Go ahead and listen. Yeah. But, you know, this time of year,
I encourage you to listen to Ella Fitzgerald Louis Armstrong summertime. Every year around this
time of year, I listen to that. It's one of the greater songs that you'll hear. It's also a great
chance to hear the range and the versatility and the natural talent that that woman had.
I would say, I mean, that's great. I love that version of that song too. The one that always
gets me is when she does just get a task it. It's like a nursery rhyme and she makes it swing.
She makes it swing. Who does that? There has never been and there will never be another
Ella Fitzgerald. I think you can make it. I really do think you can make the argument that she
is the greatest voice of all time. Yes, incredible singer. One more time. We want to wish
happy birthday to Joe Novak. Happy birthday, Joe.
You know, sorry, we missed you yesterday. We'll get it right next year. We will.
Thankfully, we know now. No, no, no, no. Happy birthday, Joe. Happy birthday to Christy
Foreman. Happy birthday to Christy. And a happy birthday to our qualified Larry Tillman.
Happy birthday. Congratulations, Larry. And a special shout out to Pam's nephew, Christopher
Louick. A happy birthday to you, Chris. Yes, indeed. Enjoy your birthdays and anniversaries out there.
Everybody keep getting them to us. We love celebrating with you. We'll be back after our local
and statewide news and some sports on the morning show here at WFHR.
Welcome back, everyone. Morning show here at WFHR.
Locally grown radio. Seth and James hanging out with you.
Got an interesting topic to kick off the segment here.
I think that's an interesting one. Did you know that as of 2020, only 46 million
of people live in rural America? Okay. That is down 0.6% from 2010. The other 285 million
people in America live in urban areas, which is an 8.8% increase from that number in 2010.
Wow. That's almost 23 million more people, which is roughly the total population increase in
the United States during that time. Wow. So there's a lot of numbers there. Just to
reach you. A lot of factors. Interesting. Yes. Settle all that into our brains there a little bit.
It's early. Okay. You know, throwing a lot of numbers at you before 9 a.m. But what's the
difference between urban and rural? Yes. It's someone just drawing a line somewhere and deciding,
hey, that place don't even have a Starbucks. So that's taken up there or whatever.
It's kind of complicated, but simply put the US Census Bureau officially defines rural as
everything that is not urban. And in order to qualify as urban, the area must have a population density
of 1,000 people per square mile. Oh. Oh. Well, that's handy. That's kind of simplifies. Yeah.
It's a nice way of putting it. Yeah. Classifications of urban falls under two umbrellas.
An urbanized area has a 50 plus thousand of or more people. Okay. And an urban cluster covers
areas that are at least 2,500 and up to 50,000. Okay. So in between area. Okay. Yeah. And
everything that falls outside of that is rural. Okay. That's only about 14% of us. Isn't it a,
and it's kind of wild to think that 86% of Americans live in an urban area. No wonder everyone
yearns for vacations. We're too cramped in. We're too cold. We're too quiet. You know, come to
them together. Right. Mm hmm. I think this is kind of interesting. It's fascinating. We throw these
terms around. Yeah. But it's becoming, it is becoming more and more important. It feels like
just to me at least that we all need to start learning from like anybody that's ever spent time
around a five year old. Like how literal they are. Mm hmm. I talk in metaphors. I talk in like
examples and all that. And that's what adults do. Yeah. Yeah. And when you're talking to a kid,
like a five year old, you can't do that. It's concrete thinking. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We need to get
back to that a little bit as adults. I think so. And have words mean what the definition of
they mean. What a concept. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little far fetched in 2024. But let's hope
we can get back there. Yeah. Say by the early 2040s, maybe. Um, but, uh, but this is, this is an
example of that. Absolutely. Terms like urban and rural that we throw around. And are they
are aren't they? Yes. Um, I know people that consider a very big city, uh, rural area.
Parts of it. Yeah. I'm thinking of, uh, Houston in particular where I. Interesting. Yeah. I
thought so too. When I was out there. It's like the fourth, fourth biggest city in the United States.
Yeah. When I was in, when I was in there, I think the second or third. Yeah. But there are
spots of Houston where I was at where people considered being rural area that gave you ass locals.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then there's, there's plenty of places that are, um, middle population areas.
Yeah. They consider themselves a bigger city or something that aren't really necessarily
statistically like by this. Yeah. Maybe considered that. You know, that'd be, that'd be a
fascinating survey to do. Just for like locally here, like people in Wisconsin rapids, what do
you consider yourself? Maybe it has to do where in the city you live. You know, you may still be in
like kind of you're referring to in Houston, still in the city limits, but it maybe feels more rural
or you just get, you know, I was like, I don't feel like I live in an urban area. I would say I
live in a rural area. Yeah. I think it has a lot to do with what people's perspective is, you know,
and maybe there's people that in that same thing is like, no, I live in a city. So, I mean,
it's, I'd be, that'd be really interesting to see what people think about that. I'm, and
curious, curious to know what you all think for 24, 2600. Do you think about these things? Do you
think about where you're living right now? And if it's considered a rural or urban area? And, uh,
does this affect how you do things too? Because another thing that comes to mind to this is the,
the way people look at these things and if they're going to visit places or not. Yeah. Exactly.
I think that's another key part of this too. Uh, good morning. What's on your mind? Uh,
I have to say, for this area, and I mean, I grew up down down in the Twin Cities.
I would consider that area, you know, like the Adams-French area would be urban,
and the surrounding areas would be rural. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Now, and now,
being living in rapids, I mean, obviously in rapids is going to be urban. And then if you look
like at Rudolph, Vesper, um, maybe Pixel, kind of, and consider that, consider that rural.
But I think, you know, as for the spike, I think it comes down to me because of
the infrastructure, you know, out in the rural areas, you can't get very good internet.
Right. Yeah. Um, the convenience is out there compared to, like if you're in a urban area,
you know, you don't have your, you know, bigger grocery stores. Yeah. You know, yeah.
Some of those rural areas do have your modern top. But to get, and then that can get
expensive. I mean, I know we talk a lot, um, shopping, local, and support notes on the tops. But
I, you know, for certain things, it's pretty expensive. Right. Yeah. So you kind of have to.
You, you, uh, teed me up to a perfect thing that I, I was, I was looking for a way to shoehorn
into the conversation and I'm going to do it. But it's one of my favorite, like random kind of facts,
random kind of things about, uh, life in America and in our history and everything. The,
the invention that changed politics more than anything else, the air conditioner,
the population before the air conditioners invention, all the highest populated cities are
at least in the northern parts. Yeah. Uh, so they don't have as many, uh, so southern states and
northern, uh, western states don't have as many delegates or many much representation and,
and, and, uh, the Senate and Congress and all this, as the air conditioner becomes more popular,
and they have them in Houston and Dallas and these places, those areas blow up and all the
sudden politics completely changes in this country. And so there's that. I think we might be seeing
something similar with the internet and what we're seeing with what you guys are talking about
there with a broadband and that and, well, in these, uh, rural areas, I can't get it. I'm moving
somewhere where I can get internet. Yeah. I'm moving somewhere where we're seeing more of a migration
going on with some of that. We're also seeing a lot of people too going the other direction.
And I shouldn't say a lot, but we are seeing a, there's some, uh, people going in the other,
like, I'm done with the city like I have done with this country trees. Where are the trees?
Well, it's interesting. Here's kind of an example of what you just said there on that is,
okay, so Madison was, I mean, very populated. Mm-hmm. Look what's happened in Sun Prairie. Look
what's happened in Verona as your kin. Some of those, some of those things are boom because
people are getting out of Madison and they, you know, because of the cost of living in Madison,
it's unbelievable. So, I mean, it's a, it's probably a wish-wash type situation is, is,
is that two of people, you know, that lived in, in the bigger cities. Finally, like, we can't
afford to live here. Let's try to find something, you know, a little smaller, maybe less expensive.
And so, I mean, so, to be concerned about the numbers, what you just read out, I don't think
you're going to, you know, need to be really because it's going to balance out of that, you know.
Yeah, I don't, I don't, you know, all these evens out, you know, things going ebbs and flows.
To me, the, the, it was interesting about the population decrease and increase in the movement
that we have and everything. I found the definitions of these things to be just as interesting.
Oh, yeah. I don't know that there's, there's anything here to, to get up an arms about or
anything like that. I do think it's, it's, it's something to pay attention to. I think it's kind of
interesting, but I don't know that it means what it means necessarily other than some of the things
we've touched on here. I got it, I got, I got the perfect metric for this. Okay. I grew up in the
country and I would, we're very rural. I mean, I was way in the sticks. And, and, and we didn't have
garbage service. So there it is. If you have garbage service, that's pretty good. Then you're in an
urban area. If you don't, yeah, it works for me. I'm going, I'm going to call funk and waggles.
I'm going to see if we can get the definitions changed. But Seth, is there sticks really in North
Dakota? Well, I didn't grow up there. I grew up in Minnesota where there are lots of sticks.
But you're right with North Dakota. There's no, there's no trees. There's no branches. You would
find any branches there. It's interesting. It was interesting choice by that. Yeah. All right.
Always get the talk to you, sir. Thanks for the call. Oh, real quick before I let you go. Let's
all take a good lap on the NIL not getting pushed through. That's true. It did, it did fail. Yep.
Did fail. Thank goodness. Thank goodness it did.
I'm glad that that didn't happen either. But I do want to, I think you were just,
go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say I really want to get into a sun playmakers on Monday. So
just to let you know, we will, we will definitely get into the sun Monday on playmakers a little bit
more. But just a tease to the audience there. That is something we'll be talking about.
Appreciate you, Kev. Have a great morning. Yeah, but I was the one thing I want to know before
Monday is your excitement about the new plans down in Chicago. I actually am. I was shocked.
I read that article for those that don't know the Chicago Bears proposed a new stadium
for soldier field. They would be knew the new soldier field. They would be domed. It would be
domed. It would be a movable retractable dome with a see a see through dome. And it's going to be
right on the lake front. It like literally right on clean lake stadium. Yeah, yeah. It's the lake
front part that really sold me. And that's on school. And this is going to happen eventually or not.
It will. Like every stadium, I know that you don't want to, I know a lot of you might not want to
hear this Lambo field will be redone eventually. It will. Like all of these stadiums are going to
have this happen to them. Camden Yards is going to be updated or a whole new stadiums going to
happen eventually. Things are just moving so quickly would attack with all this different stuff.
And and if you want to keep your team, if you want to keep your team, if you want to be able to do
these things, and you want to have things like the NFL draft, you want to have the Super Bowl.
Of course, every, every franchise, every city wants to have that stuff. So this stuff is going
to happen whether we like it or not. I think we have a great example of this right here in town
with the jail in Wisconsin Rapids. For 30 years, they kicked the can on that thing. The only thing
that changed was how much it was going to cost to make that dang jail. We still end up, we're still
making the jail. We just, we just, it just got kicked the can down the road there and now taxpayers
now are having to, we're not taxpayer. You know what I mean? Now we're dealing with it now.
When it should have been done 30 years ago. Right. Same thing with Soldier Field. They put, they made
the quote unquote adjustments to it and everything and tried to do some weird sci-fi thing to it or
something like that. I don't, I didn't even know Andy Warhol worked on stadiums. Side line.
But, but you know, I'm trying to correct that now. They are going to keep the marble columns
though. And this is if this even happens. We'll see. Eventually something will happen. I don't
know if it'll be this one. Generally kind of okay. The big question is always who's going to pay
for it. That's the big thing. The, the, the sit, there is a couple of interesting things with that
where I didn't know this. The NFL has a, a loan program that they do for new stadiums. So they
have that. They, they are asking some money from, they are asking some money from the city. But
after that initial payment, there are no additional taxes or anything like that from there. We'll see,
we'll see. Okay. Talk more on playmakers. Appreciate you, Kev. All right, guys. Have a great weekend.
You too. You too. We'll take a quick break. Come back and have some more fun on the
morning show here at WFHR. This is what I want. There we go. Welcome back everybody. Morning
show here at WFHR. Locally grown radium. Seth and James hanging out with you. Get you ready for
Friday. Hope you're having a good one out there.
An underutilized instrument. The baritone sacks. It really is. Oh, it's got a great sound,
man. You played that thing right? Oh, that's so much. It's pretty good. Yeah. Have you paid more to
take a certain flight at a specific time, only to have a delay or cancellation completely derail
your schedule? Yes. Yes. Yes. Twice. Everybody out there? Everybody out there? Everybody out there?
Yes. Okay. Everybody agrees. Everybody's had that happen. And usually there's little to no
compensation from the airlines. Well, that has changed. Department of Transportation Secretary
Pete Buttachech has a new had a news conference yesterday where he announced that within six months,
airlines will be required to complete to comply with new rules, which will require cash refunds
for cancellations and long delays as quote an expression of passenger rights. But you won't get
$300 for a one hour delay. Here's how it'll work. Passengers will be entitled to a refund if
their flight is canceled or significantly changed. And they do not accept alternative
transportation or travel credits. This includes airlines changing your your itinerary before
the day of your trip. Okay. The delays covered would be more than three hours for domestic flights
and more than six hours for international flights. Okay. This includes tickets purchased directly
from airlines, travel agents and third party sites, including Expedia and Travelocity. So to be
clear, to get the refund, you get the refund if you don't take the later delayed or reschedule flight.
So if your flight is canceled and they're able to put you on a flight in the
month in the next morning, if you opt out opt to take it, that's accepting alternative travel.
Right. This is basically to save travelers from having a to haggle and chase down
compensation if they need to bail on a flight because of delay or cancellation. They have to give
you a refund in cash. So no travel vouchers within seven days. Oh wow. Okay. The the the dot is also
requiring airlines to give cash refunds on luggage if your bags are lost and not delivered
to you within 12 hours. That's incredible. That is that is good. I think everyone's going to be
happy about that one. And the new rules also force airlines to refund you for extra services you
specifically paid for and didn't get like Wi-Fi premium seat selections and in flight entertainment.
Okay. So I think you're going to be hard pressed to find anybody who doesn't like this.
Other than people that own airlines and run them and CEOs. And at this point, don't care.
No, no, because they have they have done such a horrible job over the last couple of decades.
It's been awful. And this is this is a long long overdue. We can we say that all the time. You
know, wow, they should have done this a long time. And it's true. But better late than never. And
these are these are good rules. I think these are excellent. I make the argument. We make the
all the time that I think the three of us are pretty like minded on this one about minimum wage
and raising a minimum wage. And one of the first things that you hear is, well, what about
mom and pop businesses that can't afford that. And to which I usually counter, I'm sorry. I hate
to I hate that they can't. But this is business. This is the world we live in. If you can't survive,
then you have to find something else to do or what have you and everything. This is business 101.
I'm not going to hold back on the airlines. Like the big complaint from a lot of these airlines is
is, well, with the amount of cancellations that go on, we could go bankrupt or this or that.
Okay. Fine. Then a new airline company will come up and buy or or somebody will buy out the
company that can actually run it. Like, what are we doing here where we're bailing out people that
aren't good at their job? Yeah. Like, if you and I don't do our job, we're fired. Like, that's
end of story, moving on. 99% of the people listening to us out there, if they don't do their job,
boom, they're fired, they're out. Whereas like with CEOs and some of these people that run these
companies, we let we just give them bonuses. We have politicians that have been in office for decades
or years at times and don't get anything done. Like, why do we with these jobs just kind of like,
yeah, you know, they got a nice smile or oh, they've been in the job for a while. Let's let them
failing upward, failing upward. Just because we've always done it a certain way, it doesn't mean
that we need to keep doing it that way. And I've got I've got even a more drastic one than that.
There are plenty of countries that own their own like the country owns their own airline. Yeah.
A lot of countries do that. Hey, guess what guys? We don't need you. Yeah. We can do it ourselves. Yeah.
So I say that's our that's a perfect. That's a perfect. It's just a perfect way to wrap it up.
We'll be back for more fun on the Boarding Show. That
