Hour 1: A Festival of Brians/Bryans?

Good morning, Wisconsin.

Good morning, world.

It's a new day.

Hope you're having a good one out there.

Thanks for kicking off your week with us.

Got your host, James behind the mic.

We are joined by the head of News, Melissa K.

Good morning.

And our head of production, Seth Havagger.

Good morning.

And of course, the best listeners and radio.

Thanks for much for kicking off your week with us, everybody.

Fun stuff on the way.

We're going to kick things off the way we like to.

Talking a little mother nature with our good friend, Brittany Marlowe.

Brittany, good morning.

Hey, good morning.

How are you guys doing down there?

Doing good.

How are you?

Pretty soaked up here.

I was going to say I'm still drying off, but we're good.

Yeah, I showed a dreary rainy Monday to start the week off, right?

Mm-hmm.

I was going to get better.

No, it's not.

I'm going to leave.

Really?

She's honestly.

She should just rip the band in right off.

I love it, Brittany.

Thank you.

Right.

Thank you.

I kind of warned you on Friday that it was going to be a really crummy dreary start

to the week and it sure is.

So, highs all week long are going to be in the upper sixties to low seventies.

That's all we're getting.

We're eighties this week.

Those are gone.

Hope you soaked it up over the weekend because we've got just some cooler temperatures and

some wet weather.

So, first, we're just getting the soaking rain this morning.

This is all along the warm front.

Today's highs, upper sixties, mostly cloudy, dreary damp.

We've got more rounds of rain rolling in this afternoon as well potentially.

But for majority of the states, a lot of us are going to dry out overnight.

And then the next round pushes in early tomorrow morning.

And then the severe weather strikes tomorrow afternoon.

That we do have a chance for a few storms tonight.

But I think a lot of those are going to stay south of our area.

And definitely more east as well into the state where they're going to see some hail

risks of severe storms.

But if we get any of them here, it will just be down heavy downpours in some large hail.

And we've already seen about a half an inch of rain.

We could see another quarter of an inch today.

And then tomorrow in some of these storms, we're looking at another half an inch to an inch of rain.

So, with all of that rain in just 48 hours, we're probably going to see some localized

flooding as soon as tomorrow morning.

Expect those puddles to be growing, those rivers to be rising.

And today's the day to prep.

If you live by any of those creeks or rivers that usually flood.

Get things off the basement floor.

That's right.

Yes, definitely.

Is this going to help with our drought situation in the state, Brittany?

Absolutely.

Every drop will help.

But it's not fun when you're kind of in a drier condition.

And then you get it all in one that it doesn't absorb it as well as it should.

So, it kind of actually enhances the flooding potential because it's so dry.

It's hard to make sense of, but, you know, as good as absorbing as it should be.

It was spread out over a broader period of time.

Brittany, where do you buy galoshes?

I'm just curious.

I have no idea where to buy galoshes anymore.

I don't even know if you can.

I don't know where you find them.

We'll look into that.

We'll look into that.

We appreciate you, Brittany.

Thanks so much for joining us to talk tomorrow.

Have a good one.

You too.

Thank you, Brittany.

Brittany joins us every morning right in this time.

So, I get you ready for what month the nature has in store for the day.

We appreciate her for that and her good work.

Good work coming up for me from the team, everybody.

We'll get into the El Caffe birthday anniversary club in just a little bit.

We are going to talk about one of our Wisconsin congressmen, senators, people.

I don't know.

Politician.

Politician.

Nice.

We'll also get into 2024 is the year of the return of the long lost weather veins.

Dun, dun, dun.

They were missing.

I don't know.

We're going to find out.

It's a thing we need.

Got the five jobs with the most millionaires.

Get into that.

Cookie kind of interesting, actually.

We will kick off the 9 o'clock hour with the kitchen's open segment.

This has got a great one lined up for you today.

You can't wait to dive into that.

Weather's not cooperating, but fine, whatever.

Have some entertainment news for you as well.

We're going to say goodbye to a great character actor.

We're going to talk a little bit about Madonna and Meryl Streep and some other fun stuff we'll get into there.

And a little later in the 9 o'clock hour, I want to get into a couple of other topics.

How many of us think ET is a scary character?

I thought he was.

We got a vote already.

And 21 controversial food opinions.

We do not shy away from the hard topics around here.

We will dive into that.

21.

Yeah, I know there's 21 hot number.

It is odd technically.

It's not that weird of a number though.

But it is odd.

That's great.

I love good words.

For a list.

Usually they do the whole 5-10 thing.

That's interesting.

But let's kick things off here.

And I don't like to do this to y'all before 8 a.m.

Or 9 a.m., I should say.

But we are going to want your audience participation.

Everybody pull out your morning show, play at home version.

Make sure everybody one of our listeners got one of those.

Go ahead and get rid of the call up 715-424-2600.

And keep in mind you can do that in the next segment as well

with our birthday anniversary club.

About half of us can envision a day when we don't use cash.

How many of you used, I hope you guys had a great week

and hope everybody out there had a great weekend as well.

How many of you used cash this weekend?

I used a lot of cash this weekend because we went rummage sailing.

Right.

And you can't rummage sale without cash.

Very true.

That's a good point already.

Wow.

Yeah.

I gave my $3 to Beth so she could use it to buy something.

So you say about how much cash I have on me.

By proxy, you did.

You did use cash today both of you.

And so just as a good note there, I appreciate that you guys.

So can you envision a day where we don't use cash.

We don't use a dollar in a good way.

In a new survey, 48% of people say that they expect to see

a cashless society within their lifetime.

And some people are already prepared.

15% say that they never carry cash, which is up significantly

from a poll five years ago when just 4% said the same.

But not everyone is there.

71% of people say that they still have some level of everyday

reliance on cash.

Wow.

And have used cash within the past two weeks.

Obviously, digital money is a big driver in the cashless society.

It's not just credit cards.

It's mobile wallets and servants, services like PayPal,

Venmo and all those.

The way things are going, it seems like it could happen.

But there are hurdles when it comes to poorer people who can't afford smartphones.

Those with bad credit, people who are unbanked,

and those who can't deal with technology.

Which is a gigantic group that ranges in age all over the gamut

and ranges by sex and race and all these other things.

And money because the Speaker of the House doesn't have a bank account.

Right.

That's weird.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, when you get all, I was about to say

something that was going to get me a real trouble.

Sorry.

I went there.

Cut it right there.

It was right there.

Bring it in.

So let's stick with the cashless society part of things

and where we are with this.

I think in rural areas it's going to be much harder to get away from cash.

Because we just, we don't have the infrastructure

for not only for the people who can't afford a smartphone,

but the infrastructure to support smartphones.

Right.

We don't have it.

We got a lot of hurdles to jump before we get to this place.

Many, many.

Yeah.

We've got, I mean, I don't honestly,

if we keep going the way we're going,

I don't think this will ever happen.

Yeah.

Because you're, I mean, we're only getting more the gap between the top one percent

and us is only getting bigger.

It's not closing in.

So if you're going to have that, you're going to continue to have people

who have less and less.

And when you have less, how many people do you know who are,

you consider poor in your own head.

You consider poor that have a, not only a credit card,

but half of these other things that we're talking about.

And, and I'm not talking about just people,

but communities and businesses to Melissa's strong point here.

I don't know if we're ever going to see this.

Right.

I think it's actually pretty far fetched to think that we're even five years away from this.

Unless we're going to just totally disregard and then giant portion of our society.

Which you can't do.

For one, that top one percent needs it.

Yep.

They're not, they're not where they are without us.

Yeah, I'm going to say how do they earn their money.

Yeah.

That top one percent, most of the people that you see as the CEO or at the top of those things,

or heck, most of the politicians you see are all silver spoon babies.

Oh, got money.

How many of these people actually made something and put in their hands in the dirt?

Actually did something.

They didn't just get money from their daddy.

And how many of them have actually handled cash?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

That's a good boy.

Yeah.

I don't know.

You're filthy, Luke.

No.

If I'm throwing a number out there.

I'm dirty.

I don't want to touch it.

Maybe like 5 percent maybe?

No.

I feel very, I feel like that's a pretty high range.

No.

But as long as we have a group of people, like we've just basically covered all of it.

Yeah.

Without access to certain things, there's always going to be cash in some way, shape, or form.

Yeah.

I'm with James on this one.

I don't think it's ever going to happen.

Now, if we want to just, you know, fantasize for a moment about what would be wonderful to have

or to see, sure, it'd be great if we could move away from cash.

Yeah.

Thank you, Melissa.

I wanted to find a rising note to end the segment on a funny note.

And to me, that's where I was going to go is for a lot of, especially for a lot of men, your butt comes back.

For some of us, we actually had one because I don't have one, but if I put my wallet in my back in my pocket,

I don't know.

You have half a one.

No, take it.

I'll take it, Melissa.

It's not good for your hips, James.

I know.

Don't sit on your wallet.

No, no, no.

I actually never have because I'm from the city.

You never put anything in your back pocket.

You put your wallet in your front pocket in the city.

And there's a little note for everybody out there.

I think that there's a lot of, it's a great start to the conversation here.

I think that there is some advantages.

If we are able to get away from this, it'd be kind of fun to be able to not have to worry about cash for anything.

Yeah, because then we would have infrastructure to support the smartphones everywhere across the country.

All of those people would have access to a smartphone, to a bank account, to the option of digital money.

And then they would also have money.

This is a really, really positive thing.

I'm interested to see where this goes.

You can go to Yahoo Finance to figure out, read the whole article.

Yahoo Finance.

I'm going to shout it out to them in the great reporting.

And we always want to hear from you guys.

You can call up any time.

Next two hours talk to us about this.

I mean, you could call up in the next three hours.

But I'm not sure if Jane will know what we're talking about.

I mean, don't get hilarious.

Oh, she'd love to take your calls, though.

She would.

Please make sure to call up and listen in on Jane's show.

We want to wrap up the opening monologue here with an interesting one.

The city of Kyle, Texas, is making a last minute push for people named Kyle to attend its second annual gathering of the Kyle's to break a Guinness World Record.

Because they failed the first time.

Yeah, the first gathering of Kyle's part of the annual Kyle Fair attracted 1,490 people bearing the same name.

At the same first name in 2023, but fell short of the Guinness World Record.

The large of the largest same name gathering.

The record was set in Bosnia, Herzogina in 2017 with 2,325.

Kiles?

Ivan's, I believe.

Oh, okay.

I was going to say.

It was Bosnia.

I don't think there's that many Kyle's there.

Shocking number.

Kyle's there.

That would be hilarious.

That would be great.

The second gathering of Kyle's takes place 1 p.m. Saturday at Lake Kyle Park.

And the organizers are hoping enough people with the first name Kyle expected exact spelling is required.

We'll show up for the record.

Yeah, that's the problem.

All Kyle's in attendance must show ID to prove their legal first names.

Registration is required by 12.30 p.m. that day.

Okay.

Make every Kyle count.

The city I said on social media.

Making a big push on this one.

A big shout out to the city of Kyle.

Seeing an opening and making advantage of jumping in, man.

That's good.

I did not even know there was a Kyle Texas until the story.

That's cool.

Well, it doesn't surprise me.

But now there also needs to some city name Brian in the country and potentially one named Kevin.

Because those are very, very popular names in our age demographic.

Right.

I wanted to.

I don't think there's a city name Melissa.

So I wanted to see which names.

I think John and some of those are pretty obvious that you would get a lot of people for.

But what's that second tier?

You know that that's a tier of names and yeah, you hit it right on the head Brian.

Yeah, so that's number one draft pick right there.

I think.

But the spelling is going to be an issue because.

Very many.

That's very.

It's very.

Yeah, they like to spell it differently.

They do.

Well, it would be the like I don't know why, but I feel like a gathering of Tim's.

Like like the there's certain names that like the gathering of Kyle's almost has like a like a attention to it or something like that.

But a gathering of Tim's like that that sounds so bad.

It seems like a bunch of people.

I don't just.

I'm scary at all.

Yeah.

It's like the fifth.

There's a handful of names out there that don't seem like they would be as as.

I don't know a little harder certainly, but they don't they seem like it'd be a little more.

Oh, interesting people.

Is there an is there's names too that I think have a meaning to us when we hear them.

Certainly that they have an attachment to them.

We think of this name and we think of this.

That kind of thing.

So I think that you could have a lot of fun with this one.

I think we need to look into cities that are named that are have a first names that are named after the first name and to look into that and help these cities out with, you know, figuring out.

I love it.

What you're saying about Tim being an unthreatening name.

You know, it's just it's just one work.

You know, Freddie Krueger.

Yeah.

Jason Voorhees.

Tim.

Yeah.

That doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

Timothy.

It doesn't really doesn't work.

What name would you do if you were hosting this in Wisconsin?

There's the big question.

What name do you think would be that you'd get the most people for in Wisconsin?

Brian.

Yep.

I knew it was coming.

I think that's a good one.

I think that you're going to probably run into a lot of Brett's and Aaron's.

We're going to see a lot of those.

I see where you're going there.

I think that there's those.

I know I've met a couple of hanks.

I got a nephew hanged.

There's a couple of those.

So there's some good ones out there.

Let's hear from you.

Anytime during the next two hours call up and let us know how you feel about either of these topics.

Know that we love hearing from you.

You guys are a part of the show.

You're kind of our third cast member.

So you kind of should call in every once in a while.

That'd be the fourth cast member.

I don't know.

One, two, three.

Oh, you got it.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah.

We will be back with the El Caffe birthday and anniversary club on the morning show here at WFHR.

It's time for the El Caffe birthday and anniversary club.

We encourage you to treat yourself.

Get on over to El Caffe.

There are 221 market avenue and beautiful ported words.

When you get there, wish them a great day from all of us here at WFHR.

Their breakfast special today is from Tinga.

It's a shredded seasoned chicken and cheese with choice of potato or fruit, toast or cakes.

They got some ezekiels.

They're going to be doing ezekiel soon too.

I love that they're featuring a lot of their staffs and favorites.

Yeah, well that's great.

It's a really cool idea.

Go join them for that great menu and great atmosphere and the wonderful people over at El Caffe.

A 221 market avenue, beautiful ported words.

And get us those birthdays and anniversaries, everybody.

Love celebrating with you.

Send them to info at WFHR.com.

James.MailofatCivicMedia.us.

You can reach out to us with any of those.

Feel free to, of course, direct messages on our Facebook pages as well.

424, go ahead and type in your search bar.

WFHR or WIRI, like those pages.

And of course, call up.

Yeah, 715-424-2600.

Just like this person did right here.

Good morning. What's on your mind?

Hey, I don't know if you mentioned it or not while I was on hold,

but for Wisconsin specifically, as long as it was spelling inclusive, the name Chris.

Yeah.

Oh, Chris.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

That's a good one.

That's a top five right there.

That's a great one.

Thank you for the call.

We have a great morning.

You do.

Keep those calls coming, everybody.

715-424-2600.

That would have to be gendered.

No, no.

It's going to have both.

That's a really good one.

And I think it is a good idea to have it spelling, you know, like someone,

if it starts with a C or a K, if it has an H or not.

I don't know if anybody spells Chris with a Y, but more power to you.

They might go right ahead.

They might.

Let's dive into our birthday and anniversary club.

And I need a one or a two from yourself.

One.

All right.

It gives us the qualifier.

We're going to dive right into the list.

But first up, we want to take a moment to remember one of our, one of the people

that the reason part of the reason any of us are here right now.

And a guy who ran this, it ran this news network for a long time.

I'm sorry, I don't have the words.

I need a teleprompter for these kind of things.

In memory today, we remember Carl J. Hilke.

Today would have been his 69th birthday.

We think of him all the time.

I know I shouldn't say we.

I think of him all the time.

I don't know if there's many days that I come in here and don't.

And certainly I'm extremely thankful to Carl for not only the work and the friendship.

When I first started in radio, I mentioned before that I started on 9-12 the day after 9-11.

You can imagine how busy Carl was on that day.

Right.

Booking around almost runs into me as he's turning the corner, stops and takes a beat.

Said, you're the new guy, right?

Hey, James.

And introduced himself and then just book a bird along.

But he didn't have to do that.

From that moment on, him and I were friends.

And I'm so thankful that the last the last years that he was able to do this job.

I not only got to do it with him, but got to let him be a little loose.

Let him be a little bit more freer.

Get to try some things that he never got to do.

Do some more music talk and comedy in these things.

Yes, he covered news better than most anybody will ever cover it in this state.

But he also had a comedic side and a very funny side of love of music, a love of baseball and so many things.

We were able to explore that.

Nice.

One of the best partners I've ever had in radio, I pitched something, Carl's like, let's do it.

Like, are you sure?

Let's do it.

Just the definition of, say yes in improv kind of guy.

I miss him every day.

And that's just me.

I cannot imagine how our listeners feel.

It got to know him for so long.

So many people that became friends with Carl out there.

So many people that worked with Carl, that listened to Carl, that appreciated Carl, that learned things from Carl's news.

And certainly none of this, all of this pales in comparison to the heart of this station and Pam Hilke.

Yes.

We're thinking of all of you.

And we're remembering Carl and every day, appreciate him.

Thank you very much for putting this on here, Pam.

Carl would have got a kick out of his 69.

That's 69.

We're going to let that go.

But a gag all day would have been a gag.

We dive into our regular list here and we want to wish a very happy birthday to Ken Sanders.

Happy birthday, Ken.

Happy birthday, Ken.

Ken, we wish you the best of days.

Hope it's a great one for you.

Enjoy your day.

And our qualifier today, Bailey Brooks.

Bailey, happy birthday.

What a name.

That is a fun name.

It's a great one.

Nice job, mom and dad.

And happy birthday to you, Bailey.

Thank you so much to everybody that got us these birthdays and anniversaries.

Greatly appreciate you doing that, everybody.

Let's dive into our celebrity list.

Jack Leeson is 32.

He was job free on Game of Thrones.

Good actors.

Getting some rolls out there.

I thought he was a little younger than that.

A little younger than that.

Yeah.

John Party is 39.

Country singer.

You're a singer musician and you're in the last name's party.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Pretty good right there.

You have no choice but to go into some kind of show business.

Really?

It's either that or it's what what was that those party stores?

I don't know if they still have them or not.

Oh, yes.

Oh, I think it's just called the party stores, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Something like that.

You go in there and you can find all the stuff for birthday parties.

Exactly what you're talking about.

Boons, streamers.

I feel like there's another parallel universe where that's where that's as high as that's where John went.

And he just pulled it all into that world and everything.

The party world.

For Buster Rhymes is 52.

Real name Trevor Tehom Smith Jr.

Oh, okay.

Chuck D from public enemy actually gave him the name Buster Rhymes.

It's a shout out to former like the old wide receiver George Buster Rhymes.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I did not know that.

It's awesome.

Chuck D gives you a name.

You go with it.

You just go with it.

I don't care what it is.

One of the more popular and better NASCAR racers in our lifetime.

I think Tony Stewart is 53 today.

Oh, wow.

I'm surprised I haven't heard that name in a while.

I know he's been doing some other racing and he kind of doesn't race as much.

But I'm going to say he's somewhat retired now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One of my favorite actors, one of they think the better.

It's hard to call him a character actor because he said so much work.

But Timothy Olympia is 56 today.

Underrated actor.

I'll say that much.

Right.

I know him from the Netflix comedy Santa Clara diet.

Seth Bullock on Deadwood.

I think a lot of us know him as a wailin' and justified.

Which he just was incredible.

Basically, if there is a role that you need somebody in a cowboy hat for

and you can't get Sam Elliott, you get Timothy Olympia.

Yeah.

There are many people that have looked better in a cowboy hat.

Either great performance in the Mandalorian as well.

Although that's also kind of a Western style too.

Oh, yeah.

He's kind of, he's a little bit typecast.

But to your point, he's done both.

He's done character work.

He's done leading.

He's like you said, and justified.

He was the leading guy on that one.

So he can do both.

Yeah.

He was in live free or die hard.

Yeah.

Not a cowboy role.

Magnificent bad guy in that.

The ending of that movie, the way Bruce takes him out,

is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in TV and movie history.

Movie history.

One of my favorite endings.

I'm not saying it's a great movie.

But one of my favorite endings to him.

It's so, oh my god.

What he does is so cool.

It really is.

You got to see.

Even if you just watch the last 10 minutes of the movie,

you got to watch it.

And great work, very versatile actor too.

His work with Drew Barrymore in the Santa Clara Diet was really funny.

It was great to see him do a comedic role.

Right.

And I like her a lot.

I actually saw her in a little bit of her in an Adam Sandler movie

or the weekend.

And they did a couple of movies together.

One of the more versatile actors that we don't give credit to

is Drew Barrymore.

Yeah.

She really is.

And everybody loves working with her too.

I think that's going to cool.

Happy 56th to Timothy Olympia.

Mindy Cohen is 58 and Natalie on Facts of Life.

That's a good one.

That's a good one.

Oh wow.

Bronson Pinchot is 65.

Love him.

Long before, Irkel or Streech or so many of those kind of characters.

There was Balke.

There was Balke.

And perfect strangers by a pet love that show.

That was a good show.

He is so good.

You know, he's kind of taking like a really interesting turn of the end

of, you know, recently in his career.

He's become a big book narrator.

Yeah.

And he's very good at it.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I think that's so cool that he's found out it's so much being

able to be versatile and pivot.

One of my favorites, Dave Thomas the 75 today.

The guy who did Bob and Doug McKenzie with Rick Moranis.

He's just did so many great second city roles over the year.

Over the years.

And a great movie actor as well.

Right.

He was on the 90s show Grace Center fire.

Yeah.

That's right.

He was second banana on that one.

And he was very good in that too.

Yes.

Great actor.

Great actor.

One of the greats, when we're going to talk about music,

you have to talk about share.

Yes.

78 for a share.

Wow.

Still going strong.

Yeah.

Still touring.

Still going strong.

Still doing her thing.

Yeah.

You can't talk about music without talking about her and certainly her,

the arc of her career.

It's been remarkable.

Yeah.

Absolutely remarkable.

And I think that the thing that is almost least surprising to me of it is that she's

still going.

But I'm not surprised by that.

If you've seen her recently and everything like, yeah, why not?

Why wouldn't you go out there?

Go for it.

She sounds great.

She looks great.

Like, I'd be going out there too.

Even if I didn't have a show.

I'd be going out there and stuff.

I might as well.

And then there's some people no longer with us.

Like, the great Joe Cocker born on this day in 1944, passed away in 2014.

Get by with a little help from my friends, of course, the cover of the Beatles song.

Most people grew up growing up in the 80s or late 90s.

Remember the Wonder Years and may have gotten turned on to Joe Cocker through that.

Great interpreter of songs.

You can leave your hat on.

Yeah.

That's a classic one of that songs.

I don't know.

Name me another singer that was like Joe Cocker.

And I think about this part too, especially as we go along.

And it seems like we get more and more picky with our singers.

Or singers have to be a little bit more perfect in some ways.

I mean, with their actual singing.

We've gotten a lot away from a lot of the 90s grunge kind of,

a raspy voice.

You know, in some of that, even mumble rap has gone away in some of those things.

So it's becoming more and more aware, no matter what genre you're doing.

You've got to be precise in everything.

Joe Cocker, the exact opposite of that.

And I mean, that is a compliment.

Yes, absolutely.

I loved his style of singing.

I also, I'd be remiss if I did not mention one of the greatest impressions of all time

is Belushi doing Joe Cocker in front of Joe Cocker and Joe Cocker laughing and loving it.

Oh, yeah.

Those that don't know behind the scenes of that, Belushi was embarrassed.

And it was a big Joe Cocker fan.

It was afraid that he would offend Joe Cocker.

So he was never going to do this when Joe Cocker came on Senate Live or anything.

Joe Cocker almost wouldn't do Senate Live unless Belushi did it.

That's how much he thought it was funny and loved it.

He knew who he was.

Well, he had a song name.

Don't let me be misunderstood.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That's another cover of an Amazon.

That's good.

By the way, oh, he was so good at that.

One of the greatest actors of all time, Jimmy Stewart, born in this day in 1908,

passed away in 1997.

I feel very comfortable saying that.

Yes.

I don't, I don't think that you can argue with his body of work.

No.

It's a wonderful life.

Obviously, Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

The man who knew too much.

But for me, Harvey Vertigo, these are the show, when I say that about Jimmy Stewart,

I'm not disregarding those other performances, especially Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

But my goodness, Harvey, I didn't know he could do that.

And I, that's, it's a dream role of mine because of his performance.

And man, he shows you something in Vertigo.

Yeah.

He shows you he can work with Hitchcock.

He shows you he is not a different type of performance.

Those are really good.

It's the shootest for me.

Oh.

It's, the shootest is my favorite John Wayne movie.

Maybe my favorite Jimmy Stewart movie.

Maybe my favorite Ron Howard performance.

It's an underrated movie, I think.

And it's, it's at him.

Just, I don't know.

There's something about it.

It still holds up.

I watched it with my mom not even a year ago.

And it's still to me is such a great film and his performance, man.

And just get goose bumps thinking about his performance.

I forget about him.

He was in a lot of Westerns.

And you forget about that.

Shenandoah.

He was such a versatile actor.

He could do anything.

He could do comedy.

He could do, he could do any, literally anything.

He was one of the greatest.

I know.

That's a good, it's one of my favorite Westerns.

Part of what is an influence to me, he didn't start out as one.

I'll be completely honest.

Growing up on a lot of these actors from my Nana Papa.

He was one of the ones that I was like, I don't know.

Because all I saw was, it's a wonderful life.

Right.

And I didn't really, there was something about his acting style that didn't really pull me in.

It wasn't until I got older and I heard how hard he worked in casting sessions and to get these roles.

Because of his voice, because of his delivery, he got typed very early in his career.

And it's one of the few actors who was able to break away from that because he was so dang talented.

It didn't hurt that you have, hey, I'm Jimmy Stewart from it's a wonderful life.

And some of those things to go into this stuff.

Where a lot of actors would play it safe, like a lot of actors did back then.

Right.

Just played it safe and everything.

Jimmy Stewart constantly tried to try different roles, push himself and pushed against a lot of things that his agent and others wanted them to do.

Oh my gosh, there's this hilarious.

He was the guest of the Jack Benny show.

Yeah.

And to tell you how good he was at comedy.

So he goes, you know, Jack is talking to him about movie content.

You know, like, you know, I'm with Paramount or whoever with Jack was with at the time.

And Jimmy's like, he's like, what have you been doing?

And he's like, oh, I did a picture for Universal and then I did a picture for Paramount and then I did a picture for, you know, he was one of the first free agents.

You know, he didn't do long-term contracts.

He just did one-offs to which Jack replies, oh, having trouble keeping work, huh?

Oh, the great Jack Benny.

A few had time and you're like, one more time.

We want to wish a happy birthday to Carl J. Hilke.

We miss him.

We think enough today.

We certainly want to wish a happy birthday to Ken Sanders.

Happy birthday to Ken.

And to our qualifier, Bailey Brooks.

Happy birthday, Bailey.

Happy birthday, Bailey.

Keep getting us those birthdays and anniversaries, everybody.

We love celebrating with you and keep celebrating and having a good time with our friends over at El Café.

They're open till 2 today.

Head on over there to 221 Market Avenue and beautiful port Edwards.

Wish them a great day from all of us at WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Need us rain songs.

No rain or something like that.

Melissa, Seth James here with you.

Thank you so much for joining us, everybody.

Helping us have some fun this morning and we appreciate you doing that.

I'm going to get into some fun stuff today.

Now, we do have a couple things that we want to get into and I think are necessary.

I do want to warn the audience.

I have a pallet cleanser.

I have a pallet cleanser for the end of the segment.

But I want to start the segment doing something I've never done on the air.

I have mentioned Ron Johnson a number of times on the air in part because

I've reached out to his staff and his team to get interviews with him.

I have a lot of questions for him and I've used never responded.

And they've been pretty blunt about it and they don't really have an interest.

So that's fine.

We just keep the door open and everything.

But I'm actually going to start off by thanking Ron Johnson.

Wow.

Yeah.

I've never done that before.

Never, not even close.

But if you go to Wisconsin Public Radio and check out the article from Rich Kremmer

that was released and a shout out to him in the next reporting,

Ron Johnson is called for his GOP to set aside squabbles on abortion

in order to win elections.

And I would like to thank him for giving us one of the best prime examples

we are going to have for Rank Choice Voting.

Now take a drink of your coffee if you're waiting for us to say Rank Choice Voting

because you're going to take a drink of coffee.

Anytime I mention it or anything because between now in November,

oh, you're going to hear that term a lot, everybody.

A lot.

Because I'm a big believer in this.

And I think that I have a team here that also feels very similar.

And if I'm being honest when I talk to listeners, when I talk to our community,

I'm just speaking of Wisconsin Rapids.

I think that overwhelmingly people are behind this and people are tired of this.

I had an interview with Senator Teston last Friday and one of the parts of the conversation

came up about the idea that Governor Evers not doing this or this because of an election year.

And I turned to him and said, well, what about, you know, that both sides do this?

The Republican Party has made it very clear they don't want to vote on anything to do

with the border or anything like that because it's an election year.

And how ridiculous this is, how silly this is, how the American people see right through this

and the games don't work anymore.

And Senator Teston to his credit was like, yes, that's what I'm here for my constituents too.

They see through these things. They don't see this as a good thing or anything like that.

But every time anybody does this, Democrat or Republican does something like this,

all they do is give us for one, they show you their hand.

They show you their hand. They're not even playing cards.

They're playing cards like a little kid where they've got the hand showing you.

They're showing you their hand and everything as we're playing Go Fish or something like that.

One, it's just about their party. It's just about winning.

It's not about us.

And it's not about the issues.

It's not about the issues. It's not about getting things, getting good things done

and taking care of the Wisconsin people or protecting the Wisconsin people or any of these things.

It's not about that to them. It's about winning.

It's about them staying in power, keeping the dollars that coming that they're getting

because every one of them got somebody in their pocket.

Go ahead and look it up yourself. That's not an opinion. That's a fact.

You can look it up yourself nowadays to see who, what representative and what politician,

who, what is in their pocket. OpenSecrets.com.

Thank you, Seth. And I have to say something too.

I swear on everything I am, I will say this about any, any politician.

I've never seen a more cowardly party or a more cowardly act than just...

I'm not trying to lump all party members in.

This is where we're getting trouble when we, when we generalize.

And I just about did it right there and I caught myself and I'm owning that.

It's not certainly everybody, but the people that just kind of bow and kiss the ring and the,

in the butt of, of a former president or, or any, anybody really.

But in this particular case of just the, God, I'm so afraid of offending him and his people.

I'm going to do whatever he says.

I'm just going to be a follower.

How was, do you think this country was built on followers?

You think this country was built on people to, did George Washington,

did everything? Oh, God, I'm afraid of George Washington and his opinions.

I better do what he says. The exact opposite.

The exact opposite.

Washington was one of the few people that wanted people in his cabinet that didn't always agree with him.

I think maybe my favorite political story of all time is Abraham Lincoln first getting into office

and what was his first act, hiring people for his cabinet that he just ran against.

Yep.

Because Lincoln understood that he didn't know everything.

Be weary of the person, especially politician, that acts like they know better than you.

That they know more than you.

That they, they know something that we don't.

Because they, they, what they know is what's going on behind the curtain.

And it's not the betterment of us.

It's not to the betterment of us.

No.

So, yeah, thanks for doing that, Ronnie.

All right, Ronnie, right?

I mean, till you correct me, I'm going to call you Ronnie.

Till he comes on and gives you an interview.

Yeah.

Tells you not to call him that, right?

Please, feel free.

James.Mailoff at CivicMedia.us, really looking forward to that conversation.

Yeah.

And, and thank you again for helping us push ranked choice voting even further down the line.

Oh, yeah.

Getting this to a place where it's about the American people and not about you guys.

Yep, let's do it.

Again, you can find that article at wpr.org, wpr.org.

Speaking of great articles, our own Melissa K just came out with a fantastic article.

I would encourage you to check out at civicmedia.us and put it on my Facebook page.

You put it on yours, Melissa.

I believe so.

Yeah.

We're talking about the library.

Yes.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

I didn't tee you up before this segment about that.

I apologize.

I mean, because I put out articles.

You put on a lot of articles.

Pretty regularly now.

Yeah.

But yes.

I just heard a lot from a lot of our listeners.

How much they've appreciated that reporting and really enjoyed that article.

So I wanted to tell people to check that out.

Again, civicmedia.us.

Now, some just a very similar to something that's old and it doesn't have a lot of use anymore.

And really, we're growing past as a society.

We're going to talk weather veins with the veins.

It's a pretty good transition.

That's all right.

Yeah.

Worked all night on that.

If you're doing some spring cleaning and you come across a strange old weather vein,

you might want to make sure it wasn't stolen.

Oh.

What?

Earlier this year, a town in France could finally put an old mystery to bed.

Back in 1999, the town's golden weather vein mysteriously vanished.

But back in January, the theft was found or the thief was found.

Oh, wow.

They were actually I did because of the credit card they used to mail it back.

And since they were voluntarily returning it, the town didn't pursue charges.

Oh, that's good.

I guess.

Now yet another, but before we can really celebrate that, yet another long-loss weather vein has been found.

Back in 1983, two thieves used ladders and ropes to ascend up the rooftop of the train depot in White River Junction in Vermont and steal its historic weather vein.

For 40 years, the mystery remained uncracked, but earlier this month, it was returned after it was unearthed by a sawdbees.

Sawdbees?

Sawdbees, thank you.

Sawdbees.

They said it was discovered in the estate of a collector of American, Americana, named Martin Shack.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's some cool follow-up questions I got on the one.

Yeah, for a mystery.

Anyway.

It's unclear how he got it.

But there's a good chance he didn't know it was stolen.

Collectors who know they own stolen art do not list for sale with a major auction house because it would easily be traced back.

Right.

It doesn't really add up.

A new permanent home hasn't been picked, but local officials want to choose a public place where it could be seen and appreciated and maybe in front of the police department or something like that.

Make sure that's stolen again.

Yeah.

Okay.

Why would you steal a weather vein?

I mean, the golden one, maybe, if it's actually gold, but they didn't do anything with it.

The guy that bailed it back just answered the question because he didn't know either.

Yeah.

He's like, I'm going to keep it.

What do I do with this now?

I guess I got to give it back.

There's nothing I can do with it.

And then mailed it using the credit card.

At 2 a.m. it was a good idea.

It was a good idea to know.

Yeah.

But you know, some time passed, I was saying like, I don't know what to do with this.

They're closing in on me.

It's time to get rid of this thing.

Let's go to the post office.

Remember when I was a kid and there was somebody they caught trying to steal the hope diamond.

And I remember hearing this story as a kid on the news and everything.

And I have to be like eight or nine or something like that.