Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with
us right here at WFHR.
Got your host James behind the mic. I am joining by your head of news. Our co-host. We're
welcoming back Melissa Kay. Good morning. I know. You were here all the time. He's a head of
production co-host Seth Habagger with us as well, putting up with me as he plays. That's so well.
It was perfect. It was perfect. We appreciate you all joining us. We're joined by our good friend
Brittany Merlot kick off the week. Good morning, Brett. Good morning. Don't hate me with how cold it is.
I know what that is. No, we don't blame you. No, no, we although it is cold out there.
Brittany, there is a bitter one out there. Hopefully people got to, did you get to see the wolf moon
out there this morning? Oh my gosh, I missed it. I'm so sad now. Everything I've read about it.
We're going to kick off the show talking a little bit about it. Everything I read, we were supposed to
be, it was supposed to be more peak this afternoon, tonight, more like that. But I don't know about
anybody else, but I saw a full moon this morning. It was just sitting out there with howling.
Cool. Oh man, howling for sure with those winds, right? Right about 30 miles per hour,
making our temperatures of four below right now is what it is. Feel like 22 below zero.
Yes. Double digits. We are so, we're just a few degrees away from a cold left or
alert, but, you know, we're Wisconsin strong, we can handle it, follow up, layer up, stay inside,
you know the, you know the drill. We do, we do know well. The high temperatures today are only
going to hit seven and what that's really going to be feeling like with the wind shell is probably
five below. That's the high today, negative five. Man, man, it's just a, right? No words.
January. Yeah. Freeze my mouth. Yeah. I know our jaws are all frozen. I get it. You stay warm
out there, Brittany. Thank you, you two. Got a cold one tomorrow before warm up. Oh, sorry,
did me to catch off there. Thank you for that, Brittany. We appreciate you. We'll catch up more
tomorrow. So good. Bye-bye. Have a good one. Brittany. Best in the business right there,
Brittany and Brittany are low joining us. Thank you for joining us, everybody. We are not going to
disappoint. We got two great hours of a serious comedy to start your day. We're going to kick things
off in a little bit with our friends from El Café in the birthday and anniversary club. We will go
over the LA wildfires. Have an update on that for you. We want to get into also 10 winter car
essentials. Oh gosh. Yes. That one coming up. Yes. We're also going to get into unusual 911 calls
of 2024. Some of the most unusual ones. We've get into that. Of course, in the nine o'clock hour
and a kick things off the way we like to on a Monday with Beth Habhager in the kitchen's open.
Yes, indeed. Got some entertainment news in there for you as well. Plenty to go over there.
I also want to get into what stats about your life. Would you like to see when you move on?
The Great Beyond. Oh, yes. Yes. What stats? I love the idea of having life stats. Yes.
Like sports, you know, thing. You know, you go out. Yeah. I had this many, you know, whatever.
I love it. Nobody knows what's beyond, but we do know that we get a stat book. We get a book
about all this that you you swore this many times. You know, no, no, no. All that coming up for you.
But first off, I want to just welcome back to Mel. Thanks so much for coming back. Melissa,
hope you feel good. You had a good break. Yeah. I'm glad to be back. Good to have you. Excellent.
And we bring you back with a full moon. Full moon, we get to talk about to kick off this show.
Oh, yeah, for those that didn't see one this morning, because I swear it was full to me.
Their first full moon of the year is about to it was already risen or is about to rise.
You're ready to howl at the wolf moon a celestial event. So named for the idea that in the dark,
cold months of winter wolves make themselves extra hurt at night. Oh,
that is where this traditionally comes from. And I think that's pretty self-explanatory.
And according to the old farmers, Almanac, this was called that since wolves tend to howl more
likely during the winter months. It's more likely to be able to hear them during the cold
months. It's because it's quieter. Yeah. It's cold. It's the sound travels different.
It does. I like going for runs and I like going for walks at night. There is just no better time
than the middle of winter. There is a different kind of silence out there. It is. It's just
hundred percent. And it's not deafening. It's not like I find it very welcoming. I find it very
just in feeling very inrooted in things in nature more than in the summer even, where every
the birds are alive and all that stuff and everything. I don't know what it is, but there's
something about that. And I hate the cold. I hate it. But there's something about being in the middle.
If you're bundled up and everything and you're out there, there's nothing like that feeling.
Yeah, where I grew up in the woods and those cold winter nights, the sound would travel so far.
And you could go outside and late at night and you would hear the wolves howling and communicating
with each other. They could have been a couple miles away because of how far the sound traveled.
But there is something with the stillness. There was no wind and it was just the sound, the distant
sound of wolves. It's an amazing experience. It's thought to have been brought to North America
by European settlers. The name is a bit of a misnomer though. While wolves certainly hull,
experts say that there is no evidence that they're doing so because of the moon or celestial
patterns. I last I checked. Wolves don't have a calendar where they get the little moon symbol
on the side and tells you. Wolves also aren't hauling because they're hungry, contrary to
popular belief. Howling and other wolves, quote, vocalizations are heard in the winter time to
locate pack members, reinforce social bonds, define territory, and coordinate hunting, communicating.
In other words, it's all like communicating. It's kind of cool. It is. And kind of interesting.
Well, it is still kind of noteworthy. And I think that there's still going to be plenty of people
who consider wolves to be hauling at the moon. Sure. I like the interesting. I think both answers are
fun to have this kind of like what we used to go by in theory, if you will, and the actual reasons.
Yeah. And maybe it's partially because of what we're talking about. The moon is so much more
bright in the winter. You know, it's or at least it seems that way. And maybe that's what people
would associate with how the wolves are hauling us because of the moon, right? Yeah. And even
that is even the full moon part is a little bit misleading because a moon appears to us as quote
full when the celestial body, earth's only natural satellite, is on the exact opposite side of our
planet from the sun, making the moon's face entirely illuminated by the sun's rays. Right.
The full moon is it going to be at its peak today, around 527, 530, by Eastern standard time.
So I would say around four our timers. So we'll be able to see it at least almost at its peak.
It's pretty interesting. It starts getting dark out. Yeah. It is a pretty interesting one. And
when is the next full moon? Wednesday, February 12th, the snow moon will be visible according to
astronomy dot com. Oh, cool. You know, names for all of them. I love it. It does feel like it.
That's really cool. There is. There is. I actually have a screenshot. Let me find it quick.
Of all the different names of the moons that are coming up. Yeah, snow moon in February,
warm moon in March, pink moon in April, flower moon in May, strawberry moon in June.
Okay. And keeps going from there, but we'll. That's fine. Yeah. That's good. That will be going
over those as we will be covering all full moons. We will be. That's what we do. We like
Ali Martin and moons. Should I have worded that differently? Should I? In Australian freed diver
went for a 370 foot two inch stroll at the bottom of a pool to bring the Guinness World Record for
the longest underwater walk with one breath. Oh, wow. Done by a female. Oh, wow. Amber Brook,
35 who has been free diving for over 10 years spent weeks training in and out of the pool to
break her own personal record of 334 feet as well as get us world record of 357 feet. Wow.
That berks underwater walk walkie technique involved bending at her hips. So her torso was at
a 90 degree angle in the swimming like position while her feet were planted on the floor of the pool.
Oh, reduce drag. Yeah. Wow. I've seen the people doing this, but I've never tried this or
anything myself, but I have seen people doing this one. I never knew that was a thing. I've never
even heard a free diving before. This is new to me. Really? You've never heard a free. I know. I've
never heard of it before. Oh, wow. I'm fascinated. I'm become it's more and more becoming where I don't
necessarily want to break a world record as much as I want to come up with a new sport. It feels like
that seems like the one. There you go. See now that would be cool. Now we certainly some,
you know, Dr. Nase Smith, you know, invented basketball. There's there's some people that we
can point to and say, Oh, this person created this thing or whatever. But a lot of sports don't
really have an origin story like that or anything. And no sport has a copyright on it. If you think
about it, that's true. Anybody can start a football league. Anybody can start a baseball league.
If it's going to succeed or what have you, that's a whole other story. Right. But nobody owns
baseball. Nobody owns football. Right. I want to own a sport. I want to copyright a sport.
I think that's the money making anyone. That's right. Anyone uses it. They got to pay you.
If you if you if you copyright a pickleball. Okay. For disclaimer, everybody, I have no idea if
you actually can do that. I don't know if you can really copy right now. You can now you can
copyright the name that I'm sure. There you go. That that has been done many, many times. So
and that's a problem because you copyright something that people use commonly and you spend a
lot of time just chasing after people to cause problems and make yourself money. It's it's
it's not like yeah, it doesn't sound like fun. Yeah, at all. It sounds like a lot more fun to play
the sport. Exactly. Actually, I spend the rest of your life in Portland. Yeah, exactly.
Unless that's your sport. Yeah. Oh, maybe that's the new sport. There we go hanging out in courtrooms.
Yeah. Get a name for that. Who can stay in there the longest?
It's not be noticed. It's not be noticed. I or be a reporter. I actually kind of played that
game. But I was working on California and doing the show that I was doing. I and the other
attorneys on the you know, I say attorneys and quotes. We were acting as attorneys. I would
spend a lot of times in Santa Barbara courthouse is watching the cases and trying to get the
lingo and some of that to the point where security like twice asked us to leave.
What are you guys doing here? What are you doing? Wedding crashers. What would be the term?
Coral cash crashers. Yeah. I don't think you I don't know that that would be a good way to go out of it.
They're open to the public. You know, unless they're specifically closed, you know, that's
are all you know, open to the public. You can go. I guess you guys were just like really
desperate looking people. We were allowed. We were allowed. We were we thought we weren't
please quiet down. Actors in here. Peace. It's just such actors. Yeah, being actors. Yeah,
was bad. It was bad. It is it is it is it um boy, you know, I've never done that list. Places I've
been kicked out of. I'm not quite a list. I was kicked out of the capital in Madison when I was
a kid. I've been kicked out of there. I've been kicked out of the Springfield. The capital in
Illinois. So that's two state capital. I've been kicked out of that. It's pretty good. None of this
is intentional. I have not tried to do any of this. I just can't help it. I
internationally I was kicked out of the Heathrow Airport. Oh, see now that's impressive. I feel
like that's a brag. I feel like that's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a
good one. We're being kicked out of the segment that's all right. We'll be back with another one
coming up on the morning show at WFHR.
It's time to do some celebrating with our great friends over at LKFA. We encourage you to
treat yourself. Get on over to LKFA tomorrow when they open their doors to 21 market avenue and
beautiful port Edwards. They'll be open for you tomorrow. So you got all day today to take a
look at their menu. Go to their website. Make plans. Yeah. LKFAWI.com that's LKFAWI.com. You can
check out their amazing menu. Get some ideas. Head on in there tomorrow and then see their
actual menu and completely like just don't know all this looks good. I can't decide. I can't decide.
They're also a great follow on Facebook. They do regular posts with their daily specials. They do.
There's a number of nonprofits and businesses in town that do a similar thing to what they do over
there. I really admire and I encourage more of this where yes, they post about their specials
and different things. They also just post like positive stuff every once in a while. They do.
Nice. And I see so many of our local businesses and nonprofits sharing other local business and
nonprofits things. Even when they're not associated with them. That's great. Just a big tip of the
head to this community. It's pretty cool. A big tip of the head to our great friends over at LKFA.
Make plans to visit them tomorrow at 221 market avenue and beautiful port Edwards.
Get us those birthdays and anniversaries everybody. We love celebrating with you. We send them to
info at WFHR.com. You can of course direct messages on our Facebook pages as well. And we
encourage you to call up. That's right. 715 44 2600. Yeah. It's time you came back to do a job.
Yeah. Yeah. How'd you do it? Were you feeling put upon their staff? It's really rough for you to
have to do that. It was so rough every day. Every day I had to do it. Of course. As you know,
Melissa gets busy around here. And especially when we're missing a soldier or something.
Right. One of our partners around here. Last week I had the idea all week. I wanted to just have a
snippet of Melissa giving the phone number. And I was just going to keep playing the sourdough day.
That'd be hilarious. That's happened. That didn't happen. Next time. We'll do that for next time.
I get to take another vacation. You do. Yeah. Just so we can use that bumper. Just so we get just
ready to force you to take a vacation so we can use that. Yeah. We know I'm okay with that.
We have two possible qualifiers. We have three names, but two possible qualifiers on the list.
So I need a one or a two and get it from you Seth because Melissa's going to be in tomorrow.
All right. Let's go with two today. All right. Give us that qualifier. We can get right into
this celebration. First up, one of the ways we tell you every morning how you can get us your
birthdays and anniversaries. Another way is just handing them to me. That's what Laura did.
We have Chris. Chris Berg is celebrating a birthday time. Oh, happy birthday, Dad. Yeah. Yeah.
Happy birthday. Wishing a very happy birthday to Mr. Berg. Wishing him a great man and
giving a lot to our not only our country, but our communities. And we greatly appreciate him.
Yeah. And a good guy. Good guy. Fun guy too. Happy birthday, Mr. Chris. Mr. Berg.
And a very happy birthday to Rita Sanders. Happy birthday Rita. Happy birthday Rita.
Enjoy your day, Rita. We hope it's a good one for you. We have a great day. Fantastic.
I like the name Rita. Yes. What is Rita's short for? Well, it can stand alone, but it can
stand alone. But it can be short for like Margarita. Margarita. Yeah. Which is a margarita.
Margarita. Margarita. Thank you. Margarita. I knew I knew a Rita once growing up. It was margarita.
That would do it. Yeah. Enjoy your day. Rita. Hope it's a good one for you. And we wish a very
happy birthday to our qualifier, Karissa Cleven. Happy birthday, Karissa. Happy birthday, Karissa.
Congratulations. Another great name, Karissa. That's a great day. You don't hear that one very
often. She explains it all. Yes. Yes. Well done. And happy birthday to your Karissa. You're a
qualifier today. Mm hmm. Congratulations. Yep. We take a look at our celebrity list. Happy birthday
to Liam Hemsworth. The youngest of the Hemsworth brothers. He's 35 today. Okay.
Liam played Gail in the Hunger Games. He is also going to be taking over in the Witcher in the
upcoming fourth season of the Witcher and more than likely the last season. And I don't mean that
is any insult to him. Just when they change a big, you're going from Henry Cavill to anybody.
It's anybody announced. Yeah. That's rough. That usually leads to the end of the series.
And Henry Cavill gave everything he could to the Witcher. I mean, possibly the biggest
thighs you've ever seen in TV history. He's on a horse. And I don't know whose thighs are
looking at here, man. I mean, is that the horse? That man is built. That's a built human being.
And he, well, he did everything for that role, except use his voice because the character really
doesn't talk. Yeah. Yeah. But one of his better roles. Absolutely. They've really well done
performance. And let's see here. Ruth Wilson is 43. Alison on Showtime's The Affair. Good actors.
There. I think a very, a guy that I was wrong about Orlando Bloom is 48 today. Will Turner
in the Pirates movies, Legalos in the Lord of the Rings movies and Hobbit, of course. And I
felt like he's, I don't know, good luck whoever plays Legalos next because that man was perfectly
cast and got so into the role. He learned, I believe archery for it and really got that down.
I've never seen that character look so well. We haven't seen that character much, but you never
seen that character like that. No. And just a perfect performance. I kind of thought that was
the extent of his talent. And that's happens a lot with actors, even when you study the, the sport
like I am insanely, you only can do what you're able to do through the character. You can't overact,
can't overdo. If you're curious for an interesting show, there's a show on Amazon called Carnival Row.
It's already done. They've got like three reasons. Yeah. His acting in that show is incredible.
It's incredible. It's not the greatest show in the world. It's not even the greatest writing or
anything like that, but there's a handful of great actors. And I'm really glad I watched it just
to see. Oh, yeah, he's, he's a bonafide thespian. Like that's a thespian right there. That man can act.
Right. Let's see here. Shonda Rhymes is 55. Gray's anatomy creator. She's also the power behind
scandal and how to get away with murder. Wow. So she's rich, in other words. Yeah. Yeah.
It's great. It's a really successful show. And able to be able to do something that you don't
see a lot of anymore. Well, when we were, long before any of us were born and even as we were kids,
your TV producers were, were pretty noteworthy. And you knew there, you know, that's a good boy.
Sit, bobo. Like you knew the, the so well that you knew the low, the thing that played at the
end of the production company. Yeah. Right. Yeah. The guy at the typewriter and he pulls the
paper and flies into the air. Mark seven production. Um, that's how, that's how a lot of these
production companies worked. Uh, you where you had these iconic names of TV that created like 18
of your favorite TV shows and all that. Uh, it just doesn't exist anymore. Shonda Rhymes is,
is a bit of a, she's as close as we are. We get to that old school. Yeah. You're right. Uh,
uh, Taylor Sheridan, I think his name is the guy that created Yellowstone. He's got like four
or five shows, but they're all spin-offs of yellow. Yeah. They're not different. Like these were
like some very different shows that we're talking between and everything. Yeah. Uh, and she's not
done. I believe that she is hard at work at like two or three other shows. I think she's doing
everything. I mean, it may not. I don't think that you're actually kidding there. I don't think
it. Uh, and she has her own digital media company called Shonda Land. Oh, that's awesome.
Whoa. I never got that. That's a great name. Yeah. Well, Shonda Rhymes is a great name too.
You're right. Yeah. Uh, and uh, speaking of Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey is 59 today.
They say here, Mick Dremey. Oh, Mick Dremey. Dr. Mick Dremey. Um, uh, yeah. That's not his,
that's not his actual character day. That's for the column, right? I hope. Right. Um, because I
know nothing about Grey's Anatomy. Nothing. No, that is not his actual name. Okay. Thank God. No,
that is the nickname. I was really hoping. Derek Shepherd is his actual screen name. I don't know
much about the show, but I will say I love shows that give actors like him that second break.
And, and Patrick Dempsey, when we were kids, was one of those actors a lot of people had high hopes
for. I think love potion number nine and some other movies like that he did, and it just never
worked out for him. Um, so he was in screen three. Usually that kind of spells the end of your
career and you're, you're doing TV movies if you're lucky from there on. He got on the bit,
one of the biggest shows in the last 30 years. Yeah. And he kind of relaunched his career. Yeah.
Went into, uh, I think he spun from that and left the show for a while and got into a racing
for a while. I was in the racing for all things. Um, Trace Akins is 63 today. All six foot seven of
them. Um, that is a tough man. That is a tough human being. Large human. If you don't know his
music, if you don't know his acting, just know that that is a tough human being. And there are very
few people in this world that have, like, I got to do it. I got to the, you know, cross with
already thinking, I may apologize to you. I don't know. I don't know as he looms over you.
I have to say, he's got, he doesn't usually sing in that register, but he can get his voice really
low. And I love it when he does that. It sounds really cool. One of my favorites in many of yours,
Julie Louie Dreyfus 64 today. Oh, he's great. Selena Meyer on Vip, Elaine on Seinfeld. Uh,
young, uh, he got her break on SNL. Um, and, and, and, you know, for a while there really didn't,
get a lot of, a lot of love for her work on SNL. I think over the years, it's kind of been
Roman, not romanticized, unromanticized. It's been the opposite where because she's such a talented
person, and we've seen such great things, um, they expected more from her looking back. Yep.
They didn't at the time. At the time, she had a fine career at SNL. Uh, she just actually started
to get more opportunities as an actor. So she left the cast man. She has had an almost uninterrupted
since she first started on Seinfeld. You know, she, you know, there's just been a stretch of
all these great shows she's been in and movies, you know, the new adventures of old Christine.
And then of course, Vip and all the, and all that went with it. And now she's going to be coming
up with the Thunderbolts movie. She's going to be big in that. You know, so, yeah, I mean, she's,
such as so intelligent. My God, she is so smart. Yeah, she's becoming more of an activist and
speaking out more too. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, and I've enjoyed that part as much as I've
enjoyed her whole career. She's, I just adore her. I think she's amazing. She's cool.
If you, um, if you are into, um, unsensored and kind of out there language shows,
Vip is just in one of the smartest shows I've ever seen in my life. It is an incredible show.
And her performance in that was just incredible. You're right. It's profane, but it's very good.
As great as she was comedically as Elaine in Seinfeld, she's five times that as the vice president
in Vip. She's just incredible. Her time, he's so awesome. It really is. It's really brilliant.
And it was, it was fine tuned on that 30 rock stage, you know. Yep. Uh, some people no longer
with us. One of my favorites, Richard Moll, uh, one of the state in 1943, Bull and Nightcourt.
Yes. Um, uh, he also was, uh, he was in a, he played a character act. He wasn't up until that
role. It really was after that. But he had a movie, the Jericho mile, he had a strong performance
in that tune. I remember seeing him and that as a kid because my dad watched that movie almost
every day. Wow. You get, you get familiar with it then. You know, so I found out just recently,
oh, maybe in the last year or two, but it was just recently that movie I've been watching since I
was a little kid. And I just thought that it was just a regular old movie or whatever. It was
a made for TV movie, uh, that they played. But it's, it's, the whole movie takes place in prison.
Wow. It is not like, uh, like network TV friendly. Like, I don't know how that made it out there.
Like the sense, sometimes different times, man. It was time. It was time. I remember him from
the Casper movies. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes. Good call. Casper is there to be getting and Casper
meets Wendy. Yeah. Then he did a lot of, uh, voice work after that. He was, he did tons of voice
overwork. So if you ever watch any episode of night court watching the episode where bowl
thinks he's talking to God and it is so beautifully done. It is for somebody that didn't grow up with
a lot of that stuff. For me, it is a perfect episode about faith. It is a perfect episode about
not only faith and belief, but, uh, having, uh, I think nobody is ever going to have a better
sense of humor than God. Nobody. And if you don't get that, I feel for you because I, I feel like
that, that, you, once you understand that, you kind of get life a little bit better. I mean,
he designed the platypus. Come on. Come on. Come on. The platypus. Look at the platypus. Thank you,
Melissa. Thank you. It's good to have you back. It's gonna, uh, Robert Stack also would have been
celebrating a birthday today. Born in 1919, hosted Unsolved Mysteries, starred in Airplane,
played Elliott Ness in the original and possible TV series. Um, as legendary as he is,
is Unsolved Mysteries. Unsolved Mysteries, the voice, uh, uh, yes, the voice. Oh, well,
call, a good call, uh, and his performance in Airplane where I focus, even myself, and we all
focus on Leslie Nielsen so much in that one, you forget that the seriousness of him as well in
that performance, but played a dead series. So perfect. Man, did he play good Elliott Ness.
Yes. He played belly Elliott Ness better than anybody who's ever played Elliott Ness. Let me
look up who's played him again. Oh, Kevin Costner. Um, no, no, he could get up. I love it. Uh,
yeah, but he did the great, great TV series. No, he was very good. I remember watching Unsolved
Mysteries. My mom grown up and that's, that's how I knew him, of course. That's a good one.
And good birthdays to everybody out there celebrating. We wish you a great one. We have one more
we got a shout out. Chris Marose birthday is today in our very own civic media company. He is
our corporate head of sales. So happy birthday, Chris. Enjoy it. Yeah. Oh, Chris is awesome.
Yeah, I wouldn't thank you, Melissa. I wouldn't hate to miss it. You can thank Laura. She texted
that. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. I miss these, but I don't know where they were. I can get
the civic birthdays because I almost just changed last week. Yeah, there is a calendar. You may or
may not be attached to it. You know, right. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I'm attached to that one. I
think that might be the one calendar. I'm not attached to it. But yeah, well, we'll get that
happy birthday, Chris. Chris is awesome. Chris is a great, great, great guy. You've heard his voice
a little bit too over the radio. He's got a great deep voice. Yeah, boy, he did that,
El Caffe commercial when they were in the world. Construction is so good. He's a great job with it.
His radio timing is flawless. Yeah, flawless. One of those old school voices. Yeah, happy birthday,
Chris. And happy birthday and anniversary to everybody celebrating out there. We'll talk to you at
the end of the end of the end of other end of this break. Wow. Wow, easy for you to say.
Just let that sit there for a second. When we come back, we're going to give you an update on
the LA wildfires. And we will also be talking about holiday decor and how long you can keep it up.
All that coming up on the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody. Morning show here at WFHR. Locally grown radio. Melissa,
Seth and James hanging out with you. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. I'm going to get
into some fun stuff in a moment about holiday decor and how long you can keep it up.
Bunchatch me. Let's do an update on the firefighters or what the fires going on in Southern
California. Firefighters in Southern California have made good progress this weekend with the
fires that have been tearing through LA County. The fact that the wind cooperated was a big help,
but they're supposed to be more wind today. And as of last night, neither of the two biggest
fires were anywhere close to fully contained. The palisades fires near Malibu and the Eaton
Fire near Pasadena. Thousands of homes were still at risk, but the flames had at least moved
farther away from the most populated spots and most of those places, if not all those places,
had been evacuated. Smoke finally cleared in both areas this weekend and we saw the full extent
of the damage as we already knew. Whole neighborhood's got wiped out. I would say
I was about eight o'clock last night. I finally heard from my good friend Will out in California,
him and his father are right. They did lose everything. Oh, no, really lost everything.
Oh, my God. And they're not even 100% sure what everything is because they have not even been
able to go back to look at their place. Yeah. I am talking with Will about to go fund me in some
things like that. And we'll get to that later. But I was asking Will how him, his family was doing.
And afterwards him and I are big news junkies. So we started talking about like like news,
like he started giving me updates on the area and what it looks like because I know that area
because I live there for a while. And as we're talking in the middle of it, he's just kind of like,
like, why would you, why are you going to talk about this in Wisconsin?
Like, why would you talk about this in Wisconsin? And why do we talk about disasters when
tornadoes rip through the South? Or what? Well, the same reason they talk about us when we have
disasters happen here, we are all connected. And this affects all of us. And that's the way this
country works. That's what it is to be an American. So yeah, if you have, if you're wondering why
we're talking about the updates on the firefighters and not that I think most of our audience needs
that. I think most of our audience gets that. But just in case. Yeah. Now, here are some other
stories surrounding it unless I just cut one of you off. No, I just heard one of you about the
speak that I'm sorry for that. Well, I just want to make a mention too of, you know, the help
from our neighbors. You know, we have Canadian firefighters coming down with their big scooper
planes to help drop water on the fires. We have Mexican firefighters coming up, you know, to help
on the ground. It's awesome how we're all coming together to help with this terrible, terrible
tragedy. Along with the lives lost, experts think it could end up being the costliest wildfire in
the US history. Current estimate is 150 bill. Woo. Yikes. It's still not clear if any of the fires in
L.A. were arson, Washington Post made a compelling case about the palisades fire. But I don't,
I feel like this, this, this is, it's distracting. It's distracting. Thank you, Melissa. I couldn't
think of the word distracting. This is going to be a long morning. I can't think of a more
thing, a more distracting or more unjournalistic thing to do right now. Yeah, it's not helpful.
That's, that says if a story that just broke yesterday, I'm going to go ahead and do a
documentary on it today. Like that's, that's kind of what you're doing there. You're not, you're
not actually reporting, you're doing sensationalism. No, you're just trying to get clicks. Yeah.
And that's pathetic. And that, that is, that used to be one of the most respected papers in the
world. In the world. And now it is, the Washington Post is a joke. It's a joke. It is. I will say,
I read, I look at the Washington Post almost every morning. I'll be honest with everybody. I,
I have a habit of doing that with our little, our world papers and the papers that are most
good throughout the country here and everything. And every day I look at it and I'm like, oh,
man, they're just getting worse and worse. Like all of them, they just have a bunch of journalists
resigned from, yeah, yes. Yeah. And understandably so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if you become the
personal property of a billionaire who, why, why would you own a paper if you don't want it to
espouse your views, you know, that, that's what the thing is, you know, and journalists with integrity
don't want to work at places like that where they are told what they can and cannot report on.
Exactly. Well, and apparently in order to be a billionaire, you have to have no integrity
and, and, and be willing to bend the knee for anybody. Yeah. It just, it just go, you know, go
ahead and fall down and beg for forgiveness and, and, and, and lay there like a, like a,
like a baby on your back, like a, like a turtle on its back. Just please, please, don't be mean
to be, please, please, here's some money. Please don't be mean to me. It just shows you what they're
made of. Yeah. Exactly. They're not. They're not these geniuses. No, apparently in order to make
that amount a money, you have to be a coward. Apparently, yes. Holiday decor. No, right. No
segue for that. No segue because there shouldn't be one. No segue. No. Every neighborhood has that
one house who may hang on to decorations a little bit longer than others. But is that a big deal to
you? According to a new survey, the date when holiday decorations should be taken down is January
16th. Oh, this coming Thursday. Wow. Thanks. Now, that was based on an average among people who
believe there should be a deadline. Keep that in mind. That's true, true. But 45% of people,
and that is a big number, 45% of people say that there shouldn't be a specific, quote, decorations
down date this year. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of like the decorations down. Yeah. I kind of like
decorations down date. I kind of like the, I don't know why. Sounds very dire. I like the idea of it
of like making it seem dire, but we all take it very silly. It's kind of like the
decorations down. Did you pass the decoration down date? But we all take it very tongue and cheek.
Oh, Lord, we do. Because you have to hear in this part of the country. I'm sorry, it's
what degrees outside today? Exactly. Yeah. It's a, you shouldn't be outside degrees today.
It should be an official designation. Oh, absolutely. Melissa, you're genius.
It's, it's on my thermometer. It may not be in there in words, but it's there. It's there.
It's there. Five degrees. When you walk outside and your nose hairs freeze, it's not a good day
to be outside. It's slapped in the face when your feet are frozen. Yeah. Like that tells you
something like you can do that. That seems to like now, quote, the 45% of people believe
decoration down date is a silly thing. The survey suggests that that means those people are
quote, happy to see the lights and decorations stay up long into the new year. Yeah. That seems
like a generous interpretation, especially if they're implying that Christmas lights are,
you know, in those things are fine for almost your round. Yeah. In any event, millennials are the
most chill about decorations staying out while boomers were the least likely to support it.
I think it kind of depends on your decorations too. You know, some people decorate like
seasonally. Some people are very specific with, okay, these are actual Christmas decorations.
Like you have a Santa up, an inflatable Santa up in your yard until March. Maybe we should talk,
but otherwise. Well, if you got like a snowman, that's okay, right? That's a winter thing,
right? That's a winter decoration. So maybe maybe you should get decorations that are more
specific to winter, which which can double for Christmas one. See? If you want to be them up all
year, absolutely. Yeah, that's that's absolutely right. So this is funny because we took our tree
down yesterday. We had a real tree this year. So that's, you know, always fun going up afterwards.
But but still I just thought it was funny. By the way, by the way, I just a little side note here.
So there's a lot of Christmas songs out there, right? You know, to play throughout Christmas,
there is one song. The end there's like an end of Christmas song that everyone should listen to
because it's really, really cool from the band. One of the great bands that come out of Duluth
Minnesota low. Oh, it's called Taking Down the Tree. It's like an end of Christmas song,
which is like the only one I know of. And it's a really cool tune. Yeah. It just came across a
low song for unlabeled. You did. And I don't know that one, though. I go, oh, yeah. It's great.
Cool. Cool. Yeah. And as you were saying that I'm like, wow, there should be a song about that,
about taking down the tree. Of course, of course, of course. Of course, there it is.
Like most of my ideas. Yeah. He's already thought of it. Yes.
I don't know. I do have one quick question. And I know the way I can be on the air here,
the character I can play. Sometimes it may be these may not come across genuinely, but I
genuinely am asking what the problem with this is of having decorations out year round.
I agree that like, you know, our good neighbors out there that like go all out and their whole,
you know, everything. Yeah. They don't just have an activity seemingly. They got real people out
there. Like, I mean, okay, that might be a, you know, maybe a little far right. Yeah.
You got the budget for paid actors to that caliber? Like, you know, go for it.
Maybe, but I can understand rolling it back a little bit as January goes along. But for the most
part, I don't see what the harm necessarily is who it's hurting. And I've never heard a good
reason of why they need to come down. It's just they have to. Okay, that's not a reason.
Like, if you're telling me because of this or of this reason or that reason, other than the
fact of that people just don't like it. Like, that's not a reason, you know, that's not your,
right now, there's neighborhood, you know, things that you have to. Right stuff. But I don't know.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you ain't hurt anybody, I don't see what the big deal is. And to the overall
point of Melissa, what she said, it's too cold out. Yeah. I am, I'm thinking of that character
in the latest season of only murders in the building played by Kumail Nanjani,
who has to do the Christmas because he did one like video on YouTube. And now he's like,
the Christmas workout guy. And he actually hates Christmas. But he's got Christmas like 24-7
in his apartment. It's hilarious. Oh, that's funny. On a day like this, we're going to get
into a good one. I think 10 winter car essentials that could save you in a storm. That's a good one.
It's coming up on the morning show at WFHR. Welcome back, everybody. Morning show at WFHR.
Melissa, Seth and James hanging out with you. We hope you're having a good one out there.
Thanks so much for joining us. We're going to take you to the top of the hour, get to our CBS news
and our local news break, play some weather. When we come back, we are going to kick off our 9 o'clock
hour. The way we like to with the kitchen's open with Beth Havagger. Yes, indeed. Yeah.
We'll have some entertainment for you after that and plenty more where that came from. But right now,
we're talking winter essentials, 10 winter car essentials that could save you in a storm.
If you're driving in the snow, the next couple of months, like most of the country is,
then this could be very helpful. This comes to us from many experts coming together. And
according to the experts, having these winter essentials can really make a difference if you ever
get stuck out in a winter storm. Now, how many of them do you have in your car right now?
I think that this list, a lot of this list or some of the list may seem self-explanatory.
Oh, I've lived in the Midwest my whole life. I know that already. But that's the point of a checklist.
Exactly. Yeah. It's not trying to teach you something new. It's trying to go over and remind you.
From what you and I need reminders. I do. Same. Yeah. That's all around.
It's kind of universal. Yeah. Jumper cables. 100%. And they say essentials. They say jumper cables.
Let me just get this one out there from my father. Just directly, if you guys don't mind,
working junk jumper cables. Oh, yes. Not the ones you've had since 79. That you used to use
for your old Monte Carlo dad. They're all corroded. And they still work. No, you think they
still work. You can't will. You can't will this dad. You can't. No, no, you get a nice new pair.
They're not that expensive. Flares or reflective triangles. Okay. Let me write that one. I got
a yeah. I don't have those. Yeah. I used to have a flare in my car. I don't know what happened to
it. Oh, it could still be in that car. That was many cars. Oh, okay. When I was a little kid,
I can't remember what movie or what TV show I saw. But I saw a character. They were lost in a
shot of flare. And as soon as I moved to Wisconsin, I wanted a flare. I just thought for sure,
I was going to get lost in the woods. And that was the only way anybody was ever going to find me
was if I had a flare gun. They should give them away when you cross the border. Let me.
Their gun is different than a flare, though. Just let me put that out there. Yes, and I'd be
fair. 13-year-old me did not know this. Right. I will never forget to look up. I pop
his face as I'm asking him. Wait a little for Christmas sister to me. A flare gun dad. Just just
yeah, that dumbfounded look. That's funny. An ice scraper. Oh, yes. How can you not have one of
the cars when you remember to put it in and then you get the first frost? It's not like we have
cassette tapes in our cars anymore that can double as an ice scraper. That's true. They work pretty
well. Yes, he works. Yeah, and that would work in a real pinch, but maybe with the rounded edge,
that would take a long time. Yeah. If you have gone this long into winter without an ice scraper,
and just realized it now, more power to you, man. I don't know what you're doing. You're lucky.
Yeah, you're lucky. You have a garage. You have a garage. It helps. It does. I don't want to drag
the segment out too long, but real quick. I tried something over the weekend. This just last night,
actually, for the first time. I got one of those guards, like safeguard things for your windshield,
because I park outside, and I spend 20 minutes of morning trying to get the ice off of my windshield.
I thought I'd try this. I put it on last night, took it off this morning. It was amazing.
Wow. It was amazing. Cool. Yeah, those are cool. That's awesome. Yeah, it was 10 bucks,
and it was well worth it. I've already gotten my money's worth. One morning, and I've already got
my money's worth out of it. It's a good life hack for you. Yeah, those things are worth it.
And I thought, okay, well, how long is it going to take me to take it off in the morning?
30 seconds. Maybe 30 seconds. I would still be trying to get the ice off of my windshield if I
took it off. So he was early to work today, and he had his coffee. Yeah, perfect.
Phone charger. Bring that. Make sure I got one of those. That's true. That's one easy to forget.
Yeah. Phone chargers are too easy to forget. They're way too easy to forget. Just leave one in
your car. You know, they've got all kinds of modern cars. Usually, there's a place to put them.
So a lot of times, though, your car has to be running for your charger to work. Mine does.
That's true, too. Yeah. A flashlight. Yeah. Yeah. Very important. Water and snacks.
Okay. Yeah. That's a good one. The water will be frozen. So, you know, space in there.
And double check your snacks. They may be four years old or eight years old or ten years old.
Make sure you get some new ones in there. Just like those jumper cables. Yeah, exactly.
They suggest a heated blanket, one that plugs into your 12 volt charger. That would be handy.
That would be, that's not a bad idea. Just blankets in general, though. I mean, without having
something, something is better than nothing. Yeah. Body and hand warmers like hot hands.
Mm-hmm. That's those are good. Yeah. Those are good.
This one, they have on here. I don't know if I've ever known somebody that did, but tow straps.
Oh. Yeah. Tow straps. Yeah. Yeah. So that someone can pull you out. Right.
Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
Something you put over your toes, Seth. My brain just with the, I'm like, tell what that.
Tow straps so that you can get your snowshoes on properly and then, you know, climb out.
Melissa, do you believe this? Seth hasn't heard of tow straps.
Oh, my God. Okay. All the kids are wearing them, Seth.
So I mean, I have them in six colors. To me, to be fair, to me,
tow cable or tow chain. I'm more familiar with those. Okay. What I'm going to sort of.
Yeah. Hey. We don't fool around, man. Yeah.
To put, we put chains on our tires sometimes. Yeah. We're bad.
And speaking of attraction mats for your tires, see now that makes sense.
Yeah. I've been stuck in this. Where's the sand?
Where's the bag of sand or kitty litter? Yeah. That works too.
Maybe they, okay, weather.gov does say drive around the, with a bag of sand or kitty litter in
your trunk too. There you go. Yeah. And ready.gov has a much more extensive list of stuff.
Oh, yeah. If you're curious about that. Yep. Fill up your car and while don't forget the kids,
though. There's a room for them. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, kids. You know, you cannot come
with survival gear. The granola bars behind. So I'm sorry, you're just going to have to walk.
Had to make a choice here and you're staying home with the dog here. But, but you'll be warm.
You'll be warm and inside and you should be leaving. Anyway, right? It's much stuff is
there isn't in the house nowadays. The kid may want to stay alone. I don't know. I do think
again, some of this stuff, you may be self-explanatory. You already knew some of these things, but it's
a good idea to go over them and do your own checklist. And all of these things in your vehicle and
you never use a one of them come spring. Boy, you're going to feel great. You know, it's okay. That's
better to be if you prepare. This is what I always tell my brother. If you prepare for it, it won't
happen. Exactly. See, you're throwing that karma right out in the universe and you're good to go.
I did want to send a shout out to everybody that pitch-headed last week when we didn't have
a list of great work by everybody. We've talked to Brittany about that and everything. Brittany did
a great job with the news and and you know, we did great jobs with other stuff. I mean, the
morning show was fine, but other than that, we do appreciate. Along with that, I did want to
thank Beth and Laura for pitch-heading last week. Everybody that works so hard on the newsletter.
Reminder everybody that we've got a new edition out came out last Thursday as it does every Thursday.
You can sign up for our newsletter at wfhr.com, put and chuck to work for that one.
Going, yes, thank you, Chuck. Thank you, everybody. But I got to tell you guys, when I came back to
go through all of my emails, we had a lot of people sign up last week for the newsletter.
We did. I saw that. Jump on that bandwagon. Get over to wfhr.com and sign up. All you need to
email. I don't know what was happening the over the weekend, but I saw at least, I ate to 10,
like different entries, made new sign-ups and sign-ups and everything. It's fantastic. Thank
you so much to everybody who has been signing up. Again, go to wfhr.com. Get in on the trend. You
don't want to be left behind. You don't want to be like Seth not knowing what toe straps are.
I'm learning. I really, I really hope there's some TikTok trend out there about toe straps that
I have no idea of it. I'm just referencing. I love it. T-O-W. T-O-W. We got a bunch of stuff lined up
for you in the 9 o'clock hour. We're kicking off with the kitchen's open coming up right here at.
This is locally grown radio. W-F-H-R 1320-A-H-O. W-24-A-D-E Wisconsin Rapids.
And always streaming on the civic media.
