This Is Sparta! (Hour 2)

Good morning, Wisconsin.

Morning, world.

It's a new day.

Thanks for kicking it off with us at WFHR.

Take it, Marvin.

Got your host, James behind the mic.

I am joined by Seth.

Good morning.

And the best listeners in radio.

We appreciate you all joining us.

Seth and I will have some entertainment news coming up for you in a little bit.

We'll get into some other fun stuff.

We'll get into our a bunch of local events going on in the area.

And of course get you into our schedule.

But right now it's 9 o'clock on the Thursday.

You know what that means.

It's time for our Southwood County pet of the week brought to us by our friends over at

Mill Town Coffee Company.

That was amazing.

That's fantastic.

It was the Laura.

Yeah.

Laura, nice work.

Nicely done, Laura.

Denise, thanks a lot for being here.

You got to follow that.

I don't know how I can.

And thank you.

Good morning.

It's so good to see you.

Denise, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

We want to send a special shout out to Mill Town Coffee Company, buying local supporting,

local supporting, our friends over at the main society, us here in this segment.

A big shout out to them.

And appreciation to them for that.

Denise, how are things going over at the shop?

They are great.

They told us they were on site.

Altman construction.

I'd bless them.

Yes.

We're on site yesterday and said by the end of April, we should be almost ready to rock.

It's been chaos for staff, volunteers, and the animals.

So thanks for your patience to the public.

There's dealt with ripped up sidewalks and parking lots and we're blessed.

Really got a great community.

And I have a feeling some people in the community almost enjoyed some of the obstacle course.

I feel like they do sometimes.

And I'm glad you mentioned Altman.

They helped make this building work right now and everything, a big shout out to Altman

construction.

I love our friends over there.

They're amazing.

It's great to hear.

How's the big dog doing?

How's that going with them?

It's going good.

We had a meeting the other night with the executive committee and I said we're going to do

this.

We have to find a place to put it.

That's the issue right now.

It's going up and we're going to have a name the dog contest.

Sue.

Oh, that's right.

Yes.

I'm so glad to hear that.

I love it.

It's fantastic.

It's all credit to you, Jane.

I just think it's a fun idea.

That's cool to hear.

We'll catch up with you on that as that progresses and everything.

Denise, who is our pet of the week?

We are going to go with Sparta this week.

Sparta is a 13-year-old gray tabby.

Came in as a stray and just we don't know what happened if someone released him or he

just got away.

But he's an old boy in need of attention.

He mows and cries anytime you walk by, he just wants attention.

He's good with cats or good with other dogs from what we've been able to tell and he's

not opinionated or spicy like some of the other cats we have.

If you want an older cat, he's your buddy.

Sparta looks like a cuddle cat.

Yeah, he is.

Looks like one of those cuddle cats.

A nice size, a good size too.

Also looks a little bobcat like like a little, just a very cool look to have.

A little bit, he's very pretty but just wants to snuggle all the time.

Sparta is a great example of a lot of the animals we like to highlight with the pet of

the week that are a little bit older and maybe been there for a while sometimes.

I know how the urge is to go with puppies or kittens and they're wonderful and they're

great.

These animals have as many positives as those do and some especially being centering in

here to Central Wisconsin, Rapids, Nicos, all these areas.

I think that these animals in particular can really be highlighted and really put a really

great use in this area.

Absolutely.

Encourage many, many others to reach out to the meat society about this one, find out

about Sparta.

See if you got a new best friend waiting for you right here.

Sparta looks ready to go.

He is ready to go and eat of love badly.

That's a good one.

That was a good choice.

That's a tough one.

This jobs there is and I'm saying that before you even come in to talk to us, let alone

have to choose one of these animals to highlight.

I appreciate that.

It's hard.

There's so many great animals on here and I cannot encourage people to check them out

enough.

SWCHS.com is the website.

Denise, I know this time of year there are certain needs that you guys might have over

there.

What can we do to help out?

We are in need of sensitive skin or sensitive stomach dog food.

We're very low.

I'm going to put it in order to Amazon or go to tractor supply today.

But if you have some despair, bring it on down for us.

Please.

Yeah.

That'd be a big help.

What is the best way to do that if they do want to drop that off with the construction

and everything going on?

Our front entrance is now open.

If it's confusing when you get there, just give us a call or come on in and say, I need

to help with this and we'll come out to unload it for you.

Encourage you to do that, everybody.

Encourage you to reach out to the meat society.

Any chance you get anything that you're looking to do to put into this community, it's

one of the better and more financially smart ways to help our communities.

It had given a hand over the demean society.

Keep in mind you can email them office at SWCHS.com.

You can always give them a call, 715-420-505, and of course, stop by there, 3621-64th Street

North in Wisconsin Rapids, as Denise was telling you, if you need to, give them a call.

I had a time that that helps out.

Keep in mind they got a great Facebook page, like their page, subscribe to it, share

their posts on your page.

You just never know who might see them otherwise.

Denise, we cover everything.

Yeah, absolutely.

Except for Saturday's event, we're very excited and very close to our super spring spectacular.

This Saturday, 10-2 Bullseye Country Club, and we have almost 50 grapple baskets that will

be available.

Yeah, we got a lot.

We've been talking about this one for a couple of weeks, and we're so close.

It's this weekend, everybody.

It's going to be very exciting.

We're looking forward to it.

We're going to meet you there, and Denise, any of the animals going to be down there?

We're going to try and bring in a couple animals, yes, at least one cat and probably one

dog.

We're not quite sure yet which ones, but we will try to have animals there.

That's wonderful.

Shout out to you and the team.

You guys are doing amazing work over there.

Appreciate you.

Appreciate you hanging out with us.

We're looking forward to the next Thursday already.

Thank you.

Appreciate you having me.

Big thank you to our friends at the Humane Society, and of course, our friends at Milltown

Coffee Company.

Shout out to Milltown.

Great coffee.

Great people.

We appreciate them.

They'll be our sponsor for a while here, over a couple of weeks, and we'll enjoy that.

And we would take coffee.

I can't be bought except for coffee.

Coffee fuels.

That one I can.

You can be like any coffee company's out there, that I will skew out.

You can be over there.

We shut out Milltown, and we appreciate them being a part of this.

We appreciate you, Denise.

We'll hang out soon.

Thank you.

You guys have a great day.

You too.

Again, swchs.com is a website head on over there for all the information and find out more

about these cool, awesome friends over there.

We'll be back with more show coming up right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show at WFHR.

Gotta wait until those keys kick in, oh man.

One of the greatest sounds ever.

Yes, at Hammond organ.

I don't know if there's many better intros to a song.

Oh my god.

It's a great buildup.

The first 30 seconds of this song, at least, are eternal.

They really are.

Seth and James hanging out with you.

Hope you're having a great morning out there, everybody.

I want to get into some entertainment news now.

I've got a couple of things to touch on that we were going to dive into.

I talked about this a little bit yesterday, and I wanted to be able to follow it up with

some more details, because I was talking about Elton John's performance on Senate

Live.

Sir, Elton John's performance.

Sure.

I didn't tell him.

I forgot.

Sir.

I was ready.

I found it very similar to seeing Paul McCartney at the 50th anniversary special.

I don't can't speak for anybody else when I'm seeing these acts.

I'm not expecting them to be a 20 year old Paul or 20 year old, so Sir Elton John or anything

like that.

So I admit that I go into it with a little bit of, I don't, I wouldn't say I lowered

the bar, because I also still have high expectations because these are legends.

These are great.

They've been doing this for a long time, yeah.

I was, I was, Brandy Carlisle is amazing, singer, songwriter, guitar player.

I thought she was fantastic.

Seeing her live on the 30 rock stage was wonderful.

She's done it before, but it was really cool to see her out there, and she did a great

job.

She was even in a sketch and did a great job acting.

I was, I was really like starting a wonder like, oh, I wonder if she's going to do acting

because she did a great job.

But my eyes, like a lot of people, were locked in on Elton John, and in part because of

the stories that I'd heard like one of them about to tell you.

So back in November, Elton John shared that he has, he lost his eyesight in his right eye

because of an infection, and that his left eye isn't much better.

And sadly, it sounds like it's still around, and a new interview with the UK paper Elton

told a reporter that he can't even watch his son's play sports anymore.

Quote, I can, I can see you, but I can't see TV, I can't read.

I can't see my boys playing rugby and soccer.

It has been a very stressful time because I'm, I'm used to soaking it all up.

Right.

It's distressing.

Quote, you get emotional, but you have to get used to it because I'm lucky to have the

life I have.

I still have my wonderful family, and I can still see something out of my left eye.

So you, you have to say to yourself, just get on with it.

Yep.

Which is, is for one, such an English mentality, and I, and I love, step up or lip and

all that, right?

I love this about English people.

Yeah.

I really do.

I don't think we talk about it nearly enough.

The generations of World War II, the Churchill generations, if you will, or whatever.

My God.

That, that, that, that, that, these, stand, do it a lot, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, we just, uh, Winston Churchill day was the, uh, yesterday, I believe, and it

got me, uh, listening to his speech.

Okay.

Okay.

And, and I don't know, other people, but nowadays with the love of the, the tech, you

can actually hear, like the, the, the, you can almost hear bombs in the background.

Right.

Uh, when he's speaking, and I think you're recording so clear, yeah.

That, not a perfect person by any means, but my goodness, what a leader.

That was a leader.

That was a, I mean, an impressive, uh, and when it comes to this kind of stuff that

Elton's dealing with, I, I found it impressive that he is sharing it for one.

But the fact that he's performing and going out there, well, he loves this.

You know, you, you give him a little bit, hey, good on you for doing it, but also I get

that you love doing this.

And then I see him on SNL, and I know all this going into it.

So my, my bar is a little bit lower, incredible, incredible.

This man at whatever age he is, uh, that he's up there, um, is, is, is on that stage

and owning it, just owning it and, and, uh, singing great sounds really good, um, but his

piano playing is, is great as it's ever been to the point where he stood up at one point

was playing.

And I know it wasn't easy for him.

You can see the look on his face when he stood up to play.

Um, you can't tell me that the, the, the, the, the, you know, how much money these guys

have, they, they will ever stop doing this because they love it so much.

Oh my gosh.

No, no, you, you, you do not put in what these, uh, performers put in if you don't love

it.

You, you wouldn't do the, the stuff they do because it's, it's taxing on your body.

It is taxing on your mind on, on, on your, I mean, this is not an easy, and yeah, it

looks like it's, the reason it's like, wow, he's having a lot of fun up there.

Well, that's because he's really good at it, you know, let's just say anything else.

If you're good at it, it looks easy.

It's not easy.

If you get to do it for 50 years, if you get a chance out there, I encourage you guys

to check out, uh, Elton Brandy Carlyle and SNL, uh, and you in particular, Seth, because

I would love to know what you think, um, even if you only watch a minute of it.

His, uh, usually he's at the piano and he's got a, you know, a computer like almost looks

like a laptop in front of him.

And you would think that there's song lyrics or song notes on there or something like

that.

I couldn't tell what was on that screen.

I don't know.

It looked really weird.

Right.

And I don't know if maybe it was the camera angle or whatever, but it looked like he was

using something else, which would make sense since he can't see that well.

Right.

And he can't read.

Right.

So if he can't read and he can't read sheet music or anything like that, there must have

been something out there that he could.

I'm curious about what that technology was.

That I would have to take a look at that.

But of course, he's been playing for so long.

He doesn't need to see the keyboard.

He knows where every key is, you know, by touch.

He can, he, yeah, that's why that, that'll probably never go away.

But to your point of this is the thing that brings him joy and happiness and he's losing

things that bring him joy.

You know, my being able to watch his children play sports, obviously is very, he, that's,

he's struggling with that a lot.

It seems so.

I mean, he, he includes, he's like, yeah, I know how lucky I've been, you know, how,

how fortunate I've been with money and everything like that.

He, he refers to that in there.

But man, ask anyone who's lost their eyesight and later in their life and it's a struggle.

It is a struggle.

I was up for a role where I, I played a blind person and I ended up bowing out of it because

I didn't think that I should play the part when other blind people were actual blind people

were going for the role and didn't, didn't feel good about it.

So I didn't, I didn't, I don't know what happened to the project.

I didn't see it completely through, but I was a part of the, a two audition process with

it.

So during that time, I was doing a lot of practicing of, of being blind.

There is no practicing.

There is nothing you can do to put yourself into that world.

I know that after talking to actual blind people in that, I cannot imagine what that's

like.

What he's going through and I do empathize with it.

But I also, I'm, I'm encouraged and, and blown away and I don't know, find, find

a lot of, well, if he can do what he was saying there at the end that you could sit there

and feel sorry for yourself, you can sit there and feel bad and everybody's going to have

those moments.

But at the end of the day, you got to remind yourself of what you got and not what you

don't got.

Right.

And he certainly knows.

Yeah.

We've got a lot of John Wick and we've got a lot of John Wick coming really John Wick.

So the, and this might have a little bit of a spoiler in it for anybody out there that

has not seen the last John Wick movie.

So if you, if that matters to you, please earmuffs earmuffs for this part for the one of these

part, I'll tell you what.

So the John Wick spin off ballerina hits theaters in June.

But that's not the end of the franchise and not even close.

There is a bunch of stuff coming out, including a John Wick five.

Now this next part, spoiler, they, they kind of, everybody, earmuffs, you ready?

You ready?

I hate spoilers.

He wants to make sure you're ready.

But they have to bring this up.

Right.

Um, they, they killed off the character in the last one.

Right.

Like, I don't know what they're doing here or anything.

I mean, it's indestructible as, as John Wick is, they made it pretty clear at the end.

But anyway, uh, Keanu's coming back.

He's going to be back for John Wick five, apparently, and not only that, but they're going

to do a prequel animated film.

And now this is the only part of this I'm actually excited about.

Um, they're, they're going to do a spin off movie featuring Kane, the blind assassin, uh,

played by Donnie Yen.

Oh.

And Donnie Yen is a, a blind man who is a martial arts, uh, uh, expert, uh, and I, I don't,

I'm trying to find the word because he's a master at it.

Right.

He is.

He might be an actual master actually.

Yeah.

He's, he's professionally trained.

I don't, I don't know if he was born blind or not, but I know that he has, um, you, any

time you ever want to think of somebody who was blind and worry about them or anything

like that.

Well, watch Donnie Yen.

He's amazing, man.

Oh, man.

His character was one of the best parts, uh, of, of this, of the movie, of the, the, the

last movie and everything.

Um, you know, this goes back to a conversation you and I have all the time about IP.

Yeah.

And when you own IP and you're going to, you're going to, you're going to strangle it and

get everything you can out of it.

Yep.

Um, I think that there's positive and negative to that.

I think if you're a big John Wick fan, you're maybe excited about this.

If you're a big John Wick fan, you may not be excited about this.

You know, uh, I, I feel like, yeah, the, the ballerina thing is a spinoff and I'm not even

talking about that.

But as far as the four movies, when I saw the final one, I talked about this on the

air.

Um, I'm, I admit, canary is one of my favorite, you know, top five favorite action actors

of all time.

Sure.

I'm a sucker for these movies.

Um, I was blown away by, I've never seen in an action series.

The arc of a character and a character grow and then put as much time as they did into

the choreography of the action scenes as they did into the building of these characters.

Right.

I was really impressed with that.

They didn't have to do that.

And I don't think I've ever seen that in the action movie before.

It wasn't as if, uh, I mean, I guess if you want to say maybe Rocky a little bit, there's

an evolution with that, an arc to that character over the movies.

Sure.

Yeah.

So I'll include that.

But outside of that, I don't think I've ever seen that with a character.

I was really blown away by that and the acting canaries and some of those things.

Sure.

But it almost doesn't mean anything.

They're going to bring it back.

They're going to, you know, that does a little bit.

I, I'm with you.

This is not like a comic book where you like almost expect it, right?

So yeah.

I'm, uh, and, and I don't, I, I get the need for IP, I get the need to put stuff out there

and to make money and people want to keep their jobs and everything.

But I, I feel like we have plenty of examples of this not working.

Yeah.

More examples than not of this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and I mean, obviously, this is, they're doing this because it's, it's worth it.

At least, you know, as so far, it's been worth it because the movies are very popular.

A lot of people love, people love to see them.

I mean, I guess the, the spin off that's coming up is going to be the big test.

Yeah.

Will.

People still want to see it without Keanu Reeves in it, right?

That's the big, that's the big question.

So I guess we'll find out.

Speaking of big questions, Seth, we've got a big one for the audience and, uh, this is

something that we like to be able to do.

Now, we've been doing a lot of crossover promotions with us in our sister station 105,

W.I., right?

Certainly.

Uh, we like to do things every once in a while where a show bleeds into another show or

something like that.

Yeah.

I'm still looking forward to like a, uh, Seth faces music unlabeled mash-up or something

like that.

It's going to, it's going to happen.

Well, I want to do something where we're bring, we're going to bring up a topic right

now.

Oh.

And I'd love you guys to give us your feedback either here on this show or on playmakers

on Friday.

Be sure to join us five or six.

Oh, yeah.

Stay Friday, playmakers, uh, only local sports live call in show in the area of, uh, uh,

shout out to quality plus printing and family natural food sponsoring that show.

Yep.

Two sponsors for that show.

Awesome.

It's not only an opportunity for you to get your sports takes and feelings out, but for

us to be able to talk to our rafters and river kings and, uh, local high school

coaches and stuff.

Yeah.

Uh, and share with us what is your favorite baseball movie?

What is the best baseball movie?

We're in season here.

Everybody.

We're about a couple weeks into the baseball season.

All about the baseball and that, uh, that famous question comes up every year, usually

around this time baseball season when the Hollywood Reporter put together a list of the

10 best baseball movies, according to them.

Okay.

Um, and I say that in for one major reason that's coming up.

So, uh, here are their choices here.

Uh, their choices.

So we're going to get through.

We're going to go 10 to one.

10 to one.

Let's start the bottom.

Let's do it.

Yeah.

These are in a bit of, uh, order.

Yes.

But we want your answers as well.

Everybody.

Your favorite baseball movie.

Nathaniel Guevars at the end of the list, uh, at number 10, Boiling Point from 1990.

This is a Japanese movie, but I, uh, it got a lot of popularity here in the States.

Yes.

I, you know, I got to see that.

I'm just really curious about that film, but yes, I kind of like that seeing this on

here.

And number nine, the pride of the Yankees from 1942.

It's kind of cool to see that on the list.

That is okay.

First of all, I, I have to address one thing.

There are not a lot of, like, considered great baseball movies out there.

They've tried many times and unfortunately, it's only hit, you know, like in terms of

hit, meaning literally a hit movie that have been based on baseball and those ones we,

we cling to, you know, we hold those very dear.

The fact that the pride of the Yankees is now on a top 10 list is remarkable because it's

not very good.

You got William Bendix, I think, playing, uh, Babe Ruth and William Bendix was many, many

things.

He was a funny guy.

He was a good noir films and stuff like that.

He's not a sports guy.

He gets so obvious.

At number eight, sugar from 2008.

This is a movie about a young man in Dominican Republic, Miguel Sugar Santos, dreams of

winning a slot on an American baseball team.

Oh gosh.

I've never seen that.

I actually watched that one.

93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

All right.

I saw some footage of that one.

I have not seen the whole thing, but it looks pretty good though.

Bang the drum slowly from 1973 comes up next at number seven on the list.

Again.

So Robert De Niro, many, many things in his career, um, not an athlete, no, but him and Danny

Aiello and that good stuff.

Yeah.

You can't get me to say it's a bad movie.

No.

I was a kid when I saw it and I, it's got a little nostalgia to me for it.

De Niro in a Yankee cap like it's, it's, I don't know.

There's some.

I'll admit, co-heartedly, I'm not only into the nostalgia part of this, but my Italian.

My Italian roots.

That's fine.

No, no, no worries there.

It's almost impossible for me for me not to root for Robert De Niro or, uh, right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's, I gotta say, um, it's, it's, it's a very moving film though.

Yeah.

It's, it's got, it's, it's kind of sad.

So you just gotta give that to you before you go into it.

90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes.

But again, that's interesting too.

That was a film based on a television play.

It was originally live broadcast live on television in the 1950s, which is really cool.

Uh, a League of the Roan number six from 1992, not nearly high enough, way too low on

the list.

Way too low.

Also way too low on the list, uh, number five, the natural from 1984.

So our two favorite films are lower.

I'm trying to figure out what a, uh, uh, fear strikes out from 1957 and number four.

Um, that's the Jimmy Peersaw story, if I remember correctly, and, uh, which is an interesting

Jimmy Peersaw was an interesting guy, but, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Tony Perkins.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I couldn't, Tony Perkins, Anthony Perkins stars as, as, uh, Jimmy Peersaw in that.

Yeah.

I don't know what it is.

I haven't trouble with Tony's today.

I mean, what's with your Tony's?

Uh, and number three, Bull Durham from 1988.

Yes.

Uh, going to lose some of you here overrated.

It is.

It's overrated.

I agree.

It's overrated.

Um, the, the best parts of it are, uh, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

Yeah.

They do.

They are by far the best parts of that film.

Um, and it's just sort of about baseball.

Mm-hmm.

It's not so much.

It's more of a romance, really, is what it is.

At number two, Moneyball from 2011.

You know, there's been a lot of debate about whether or not that's a baseball movie, um,

just because of what they focus on on it.

It's a good point.

I think people have, have kind of come to the consensus has become, it is a baseball

movie, and it is a very good baseball movie.

I agree.

It's a very fine film.

And at number one, uh, from 1988, eight men out, um, excellent film.

If you have not seen it, it is an excellent film.

John sales, uh, who I believe both wrote and directed at is a underrated filmmaker, by

the way.

And he's also in it as one of the reporters and it's got a great cast.

Oh my gosh.

It is a, it is a very good movie and I'm so glad it's finally getting its due.

My, uh, again, my bias, uh, leans in.

I, I don't have a real journalist, the integrity of what's going on.

It's, it's not only a movie about the Chicago White Sox, it's actually my team.

Yep.

Um, uh, but it's got my, my self-sider and it's got my guy, John Cusack.

You know, that, that, their family grew up a block from mine.

I got no, I got no integrity with the John Cusack.

I'm going to be honest.

It's got like, it's got like Chicago, I, it's, I can't stop me.

Uh, you got turquoise in it.

Yeah.

You've got, it's like they just cast it out of Chicago.

They did.

Um, yeah.

You got Charlie Sheen in the two.

It does a really nice job.

Yeah.

I actually think that it should be noted more.

Charlie Sheen was not a bad actor.

Not like all the hoopla and all the stuff.

I don't want to, you know, all that's one thing, you know, tiger blood, all that stuff.

Uh, but him as an actor, he always did a great job.

Yeah.

That's a new genre, yeah.

Uh, and underrated comedic actor as well.

But his drama was very good and never better in than this movie.

You can make an argument.

Uh, David Stratham, uh, one of the most underappreciated actors of all time does a great

job in that too.

One of the greatest character actors in my opinion of all time.

Yes.

And he's in, he's in a league of their own too.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

Um, so, uh, Seth mentioned this before yours, uh, your favorite baseball movie is a league

of their own.

I think that is my, my favorite borderline shocking major league.

Not on the list.

That's where I wanted to go because I wanted to get ours out there.

Mine is the natural.

Yeah.

That's always going to be my favorite.

But the league of their own is number two for me.

Right.

Um, and then I would put in, uh, you know, they don't have major league in there.

They don't have the sand lot in there.

Um, I'm a little surprised field.

The dreams didn't make the list.

Uh, again, how much about baseball is that?

I, again, that's, you know, it's a debate.

But what about the naked gun?

Come on.

Come on.

No, no, that doesn't know that.

Well, that's not a bad thing.

You know, Reggie, Reggie acted his tail off and I don't know.

There's something about, I go back and watch it.

Sometimes the Reggie Jack and robot seeds, he's acted as a, he's working really hard.

He's working really hard.

He's working really hard.

We will take a time out.

We'll come back and have some more fun.

Uh, and when we get back, we're going to talk a little bit about, uh,

something really cool, come into your email box, uh, in about a couple of hours.

Everybody's very nice coming up on the morning show.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.

Seth and James hanging out with you.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Appreciate y'all hanging out.

Uh, Seth, it, uh, just to remind you in the audience, it is 2025.

Um, it is.

I bring that up because we're going to talk about Napster.

Whoa, uh, I don't think we've talked about that since, uh, 2005.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been, it's been 20 some years.

Right.

Since I thought about it or anything like that, uh, for those that don't know or don't

remember, uh, out there, Napster was a music downloading website.

Yep.

One of the first ones.

Yeah, uh, probably the most famous one.

Yeah, because of all the legal problems that came after it.

So, uh, I, I will say this, I see Napster and I immediately thought of line

wire, I've immediately thought of a live wire.

That's the first thing I got.

Nice.

So, uh, did anybody see this though?

Uh, Napster just sold for $207 million.

Oh, what?

Napster, which launched way back in 1999, just sold for $207 million.

And yes, it is to your 2025.

A lot of people didn't know it was even still around.

It's like Spotify or Apple music, but not as popular.

Right.

Their big selling point is the audio is less compressed.

So people want good sound quality, prefer it.

Oh, that may sense.

That makes sense.

Uh, we, uh, I, I chose this story in one because I know that we're both, you

know, uh, kids of the 90s and everything, but also I have our, uh, one of the better

ears for sound that I've ever been around, especially in this industry.

Uh, I, I genuinely value and appreciate and respect your ear in the way that you

just hear sounds so much different than I do.

Um, and I, I think it's part of the reason why you're very good at the job, but

also you're really good for this topic here because what, what they're talking about

with this, I, so think of music on, um, like on a, a, a graph or something like that

when you see it on, on levels and the bass is down here and the guitar is way up

here and the lyrics are way up there and all that.

You've got layers to music.

Right.

It's part of what you enjoy about it.

You may not know that there's a, uh, the rhythm section is keeping the tone or

keeping the bass.

So you're not paying attention to it, but it's there.

And you would know if it wasn't there, you would certainly hear it.

If it wasn't there, you'd notice, like you said, yeah, the issue with Spotify, Apple

music, almost any of these companies is that they compress that music.

MP3s in order for the size to work, they've got to crush it down.

Yes.

In other words, they do that because it saves, uh, data, a, the, the, the, the standard

for, uh, good or, or basic sound in digital music is what's called the wave

file, W, W A V wave file.

And that is basically what you're hearing when you play a CD.

That's the kind of format that it's in, um, but it takes up a lot of data.

That's the down, because it's, it's just because it's a larger type file, uh, but

the sound quality, because of that is much, much better.

And that's why when you hear like our shows here and our, and a little behind

the curtain stuff, when you hear, you know, uh, some of our ads and stuff like

that, they all get converted to wave files before, as they're put into the system

because it sounds better.

Um, well done.

Well done.

Um, I could have taken like two years and couldn't have done that.

Um, so to me, uh, I think this is part of the reason why you've seen such a

push in less, I think it's been almost 20 years now that you've seen a push

towards vinyl and, and more artists, uh, you know, releasing their new music

out on vinyl or re-releases on vinyl.

A couple of reasons for that.

And I think it's because people like the, the physical stuff, people, and even

now CDs are starting to research it, because sed tapes, yeah, because sed tapes

are becoming resurgent.

And I think it's because that physical media, okay?

First of all, when you buy it, you own it.

When you subscribe to a, a, a service, you don't own the music.

First of all, they can take it away at any time because, uh, an artist

doesn't re-up a contract, right?

And they take all their music off of whatever service you're doing, okay?

This even happens like in video games and stuff like that.

You buy a downloaded version, they can still take it away from you.

If you have the physical thing, though, they cannot take that away from you.

Uh, anything I download or I buy nowadays, I buy the physical

copy, uh, whether, and I don't buy a whole lot of stuff to be honest.

But when I do, it's all physical, I want to actually have it.

I want to have it and own it.

And that's, that's the, that's the way it should be.

Uh, it, it should just been that way.

Like it's, it's a, um, a, a, a, a wiggle room that these companies have that

is not only, uh, classless, but unnecessary.

I don't think it's necessary.

No, it only hurts the artist and the, the people that are downloading and are

buying it.

Right.

Exactly.

A cortical buying it, um, because they're leasing it basically is what you're doing.

You buy a song for 99 cents.

You're really releasing it in the song and that's ridiculous.

Um, now I don't know if that's the case with Napster, but I know that I've, uh,

I was invited to a vinyl listening party a while back.

Hmm.

And, and, uh, one of the things we got talking, when I was asking, Hey, do I need to

bring a, uh, or you got hurt or any of that stuff?

Um, how do you, how are you, what's the sound system like?

What are the speakers like you have there?

Because to me, vinyl is great.

But if you just got a little tiny speaker for it, you're not getting the real

sound.

Yeah, you're not getting the full effect, right?

And I look at this a little bit like maple syrup, but what, what is he talking about?

I, uh, years ago had, uh, homegrown, you know, made singer, very maple syrup.

Right.

I have never been able to go back to the store bought stuff.

I've never been able to do it.

And for me, I've got, uh, I've got plenty of music on my phone.

Sure.

But I listen to it when I have to.

If I really need music and I don't get a lot of opportunities to all listen to

it there, but it always, I'm always grinding my teeth almost from it because I know

these songs and I know they sound a lot different.

Right.

I don't hear, I love layers in music.

I love levels of music and everything.

And I'm not hearing that in these MP3s.

I'm not hearing that.

And it's a little frustrating.

So I can see why a lot of people might go to Napster.

I can't see.

I, I'm shocked that it went for that much.

Yeah.

A metaverse company called Infinite Reality just bought it.

They say they plan to transform Napster into a social and interactive music

platform.

Or basically virtual concerts.

You'll buy tickets like normal and use a VR headset to watch artists perform

in more intimate settings.

And they're saying their sound system that they use will be perfect for this.

Oh, all right.

For one, if you've been using Napster, I don't know how much longer it's going to be

around.

Yeah.

You might have, might be changing, yep.

But two, uh, this is, this is tech.

This is the tech world.

And this is what happens all the time in the tech world.

There are, um, think of the big fish and the little fish and the little

or fish and the little or fish that, that whole diagram.

That is a lot of the tech universe.

Right.

Right.

It is constantly, uh, uh, cannibalizing.

I guess you could say, you have a, you have a compression system that is

fantastic, but you're not using it.

You're using it for, you know, some silly thing or, you know, some app or

whatever, where I could use it for this revolutionary thing.

Right.

So I'm going to buy up your company to you just for that.

Right.

Um, that, that kind of stuff.

Or if you're more sinister, uh, just to put it on a business because

they're competition.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's, man, for everything they try to sell you about Silicon

Valley, they big, you know, the new, the new business and the new world

and everything like that.

Ain't meet the old boss same as the new boss.

How has that turned out for everybody?

How has that turned out for you?

Meet the new boss.

Seems the old, yeah.

There you go.

Let's figure out.

Uh, imagine, so they're quote, imagine stepping into a virtual venue to

watch an exclusive show with friends or chat with your favorite

artist in their own virtual hangout.

They say you've even, you'll even be able to buy merch in there.

Of course, you'll be able to, of course.

I want to make sure you get that on there.

Like that's the big selling point.

An appster was a hit with college kids when launched in 99 because you

could download music for free.

It eventually got shut down, of course.

Best buy bought it in 2008 and it's been sold a few more times since then.

Why did best buy buy it?

Maybe because they thought they needed their own online, uh, music service

would be my guess and they didn't want to pay for the infrastructure.

Yeah, yeah, that's my guess.

It's a great, too much with it.

It's a great, um, it's like an old relic of the early internet that

refuses, uh, refuses to let go, you know, it is what it is.

You know, 200 mil for that.

I know that's, that's, well, it's still a name that people recognize.

You have a certain age though.

I mean, it, but so it's like, Oh, Napster.

Oh, yeah, I remember, you know, whatever.

Even though there were like a hundred other of those downloading services.

And I can't remember the name of a single one of them.

Yeah, but they were out there.

We encourage you to get ready for the WFHR newsletter.

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Mm hmm.

Nobody is covering this, uh, this area and such a Wisconsin like we are.

We have some of the best reporters in the state.

Yep.

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Yeah.

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So, yeah.

And Michael, uh, Comer in yesterday on Playmakers, we're talking a little bit about this.

He's got some great articles.

He's written in there.

About Laura and the powerlifting and some of the other works she's done with them,

the midday magazine interviews and really putting those towards, well,

that is the, to me, that is one of the best selling points of this newsletter.

I mean, you don't get a roundup of local sports anywhere like this.

Yeah.

Anywhere.

And Michael is in it.

It's a vaunt with this stuff, man.

I don't care.

If, if Rapids has a professional Titliwinks team, he knows about it.

He knows, wait, every time I think I know something, this is like dealing with you.

Every time I think I know something about useless information,

I talk to you for five seconds and say, okay, I know nothing.

And it's him with sports.

With local sports, man, he knows everything.

Hey, Michael, I saw a assumption of one of the Division V Championship.

And then he'll go on for 10 minutes about every single player.

He's incredible with this stuff.

He's awesome.

And he's a great writer too.

And, and, uh, gigantic shout out to our other cast members around here.

And, you know, uh, Brittany and Terry Barr and so many people that are, uh,

incorporating their chuck in the great reporting he does.

Yeah.

And all of this really sought, uh, seen over by Melissa K.

Yeah.

Uh, who does it?

Or whatever you want to call her?

She's our EP.

Yeah.

She's our EP of the newsletter, man.

She's incredible.

She does a really good job of this one.

And, you know, those of us that know Melissa know, she only knows one speed.

Uh, she puts so much into every single thing she does.

And she puts a care.

Yeah.

That's the, the main thing.

She puts a lot of care into it.

Cause it's important.

See what we're talking about.

Sign up for the WWE if you're a newsletter right now, everybody.

And a big thank you to everybody who's already signed up.

Yeah.

We've got so many people doing this.

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We appreciate it.

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Seth and I will be back with more show to wrap up the show right here.

Uh, coming up on 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR.

You say yes.

I say no.

You say yes.

I say no.

You say yes.

I say no.

You say yes.

I say go, go, go.

I say go, go.

I say go, go.

I say go, go.

I say go, go.

I say go, go.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Seth and James.

Ready to take off.

You say goodbye and I say hello.

We've got to get out of here, everybody.

We're going to take it to the top of the hour.

We're going to give it to the top of the hour.

Lead you in the ether on air.

Mm hmm.

Jane and Greg are going to take good care of you.

They're coming up in a little bit, shout out to them.

I'll get into our schedule in a moment and all.

A bunch of great things going on in our area.

But I got a fan right story.

I got to touch on Seth.

All right.

The drive-through lines at Chick-fil-A are notauriously long.

And on Monday night a Waymo driveless taxi glitched out

and caused a major back up at a Chick-fil-A line in Santa Monica.

No one was hurt.

But the driveless car did cause the enough commotion

that they had to close the drive-through.

Oh goodness.

A walk-up window remained open.

Witnesses say the Waymo stalled out with its hazard lights on.

And at one point it backed up a little and then stopped again,

which really freaked people out.

Because again, there's nobody in this thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Some hungry people complained about being stuck