Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning world, it's a new day.
Let's start the show. Hope y'all are having a great morning out there.
Thanks so much for joining us over here.
Your host, James behind the mic.
I'm John Bayer, head of news.
Our co-host, Melissa K. Good morning.
And the best listeners in radio.
Thanks for being here, everybody. We appreciate the company.
We're going to have some fun this hour.
Melissa and I are going to get into our newsletter, talk a little local theater,
got all that coming up for you in a little bit.
And we've got this percentage of people that believe calories don't count when
you're on vacation, Melissa.
We will dive into that with all of our journalistic expertise.
All that coming up.
But right now we kick off the 10 o'clock hour in a one of our
funnest ways we can with our friends from friends of rapids music.
FRM is with us right now.
We've got our great friend, Art Stevenson with us.
Art's good to see you. How you doing?
Howdy, James, it's great to be here.
Thank you for being here and Suzanne is back with us again.
Thanks for being here, Suzanne.
Hi, thank you. Nice to see you again.
Appreciate the time.
I'm Melissa. They do have their headphones on.
So if you got anything to throw in, please feel free to.
And of course, guys, not only do I appreciate your being here,
but I appreciate the fact that we are able to talk about FRM
fast and it being back.
That's such a great feeling.
I know we've talked about this a number of times,
but you never know who is listening that wasn't before.
I would just real quickly like to touch on what FRM is
and just remind people of how important this nonprofit,
this organization is in our community.
Go ahead.
Yeah, thanks.
Friends of Rapids music was started back in 2016
by Connie Tomsky-Fable, who she wanted to create a simple
Facebook group where there was a space where artists and venues
could post their gigs and share information of, you know,
local live music events happening in the area.
At the time, she thought maybe her and her husband
would be the only ones to join.
But today, we actually have over five and a half thousand members.
So it is a very popular site group for people to be involved with.
And in 2019, we became a nonprofit.
So our whole mission is to bring the community together through music.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a great mess.
You know, and there's a side note if anybody ever gets a chance
and you're talking to Connie, ask her about that story
because Connie, it's all on her face, like her excitement,
like she takes you through all the emotions and everything of it.
It's fantastic.
And it's a fantastic organization right away.
Encourage people if you haven't done so already to go to Facebook,
type in Friends of Rapids music or FRM music.
And it'll pop up right away for you.
It was tested at this morning.
Make sure to like and subscribe to the page.
And here we are with another FRM fest.
It is right around the corner coming up this September 20th
at the beautiful, wonderful Robinson Park.
As a free concert coming up, going 12 to 9 all day
with a bunch of fun stuff that we're going to touch on real quick.
And art, I wanted to, you know, ask you real quick, you know,
what this festival means to you, it coming back,
being a local musician, putting so many decades of work
into this area musically and entertainment-wise,
and just as a citizen and stuff.
But also, we'll talk about the lineup.
But first, what this means to you being here,
talking about this event, it being back.
Well, I think it's very exciting.
I was doing some research about earlier events.
And I found that there was a big event in Robinson Park in 1965
that had multiple polka bands, rock and roll, country,
western, all kinds of music.
And so it's been a tradition here in Wisconsin Rapids
to celebrate the music of this city in this rounding area.
That's wild, I didn't know that.
I wonder if the band shell was there at the time or not,
or wonder, huh?
Or maybe because of that event, they made the band shell,
I don't know.
It did occur at Robinson Park, and I'm not sure
when the band shell was built, but you should have seen the lineup.
Yeah, the lineup sounds really, like also, you know,
what was old comes new, what was new, who comes old,
some of those things, I mean, it makes sense, you know,
and we've seen a love of music in this area for a very long time.
It's one of the first things my family noticed
when we moved here was not only how many musicians there were,
but how much people in this area talked about music, love music.
It's one of our favorite pastimes is taking in these bands
and following these particular artists around and everything.
And it's so great to have this event back, it feels good.
Let's go ahead and tell people about the lineup
a little bit art, and we'll give it to them chronologically
as they're going to be premiering on that band shell
that I mentioned there before it on Robinson Park.
Right, well, we're trying to represent as many styles of music as we can.
And so we're opening with the beer and pretzel polka band,
and that's the Engelbright family and their friends,
and they play old time polka music.
And a little bit of country mixed in for variety.
So we love our polka's here in Center Wisconsin,
I'm sure that's going to be a big draw.
Talk about knowing your audience.
That's a great way to come out the gate, yes.
Yeah, and then a joyful little band.
And they came about because of the interest in jazz in the community.
And we had another band booked, but they had to give up their spot.
And so we pulled in from Portage County,
the joyful little band, which is a New Orleans style,
Dixieland traditional jazz band.
And so excited to have them on the stage there.
As an actual musician art, I feel like you could speak to this better than me.
But I love jazz and all of its different tree branches
that have come off that tree.
This Dixieland little more upbeat,
a little more kind of, I would think kind of a little...
I want to say happy compared to other jazz.
Jazz can be very happy at everything.
But I tend to associate it more with just dancing
in a little bit more movement.
This would be Honky Tonk, New Orleans dance music, fast and slow.
Yeah, right on, yeah.
Good band, good band too.
It's going to be a lot of fun to have them.
And they'll be right on that stage.
And following them will be...
Well, it looks like we've got the Monday night takeout band.
And that is a Wisconsin Rapids based organization.
Alex Quinnell's in it and Benchitek is in it.
And some of their good friends.
And it looks like in the picture here,
it'll be a five-piece band.
And I know that they expand to larger from time to time.
But they were regular and have been for quite a few years now at Holly Rocks.
It's a fun band. I haven't got to hear them yet.
I've heard Ben and Alex and their other band.
I've heard them perform here in our studio before.
But I haven't heard that one before. I've got to check that out.
Yep, they do rock and blues and rock covers, popular rock covers.
Very cool.
And get any time you can have Ben involved with any of these events.
It's always one of our...
I think one of our more proud musicians,
we are a hold up around here.
That's right, tremendous musician.
And he is not only doing double duty, but doing double duo.
Double duo is coming up to Wayne Jaworski's in that one.
And of course, Ben and his wife are in that one too.
So it's a quartet of two duets that typically appear as a duo,
but are joining for this show.
I haven't heard each of them individually.
And I've heard them in bands together and some of that and everything.
They think of those harmonies together.
Pam and Katie and especially in it.
Oh, well, that's got to sound good.
I can't wait to hear what they bring to the park.
That's going to be good, that's going to be a good one.
And the folk and blues brothers are up next.
That's Jeff Sachs, who has been around center Wisconsin for many, many years.
The guy can play every musical instrument you can think of practically.
The fiddle, the banjo, the guitar.
I've seen him play electric guitar.
I've seen him play electric bass, stand-up bass.
I've even seen him sit in on drums.
And he's just a wonderful musician, a singer, and writes his own songs.
And he teamed up with Darren Walker.
And they've got a quartet called the folk and blues brothers.
And it's as it is described by the name folk music and blues combined.
And Darren Walker brings a tradition to the music.
He is the great nephew of T-bone Walker, the Texas Blues guitar player.
And so I just can't wait to see this show for those guys.
It's a get for us as a community, as a festival to have them.
Mr. Walker, somebody I've wanted to talk to, interview before and everything.
And at the same time, he ingers me a little bit.
He can't be that talented, man.
Pick an instrument.
I can't even play the air guitar that well.
And this guy, no, I'm getting up kidding.
But he's a real wonderful person to be able to bring to our community.
And have a part of this event.
That's awesome.
Yep, and the drummer Tom Clayson lives right here in Wisconsin.
That's right.
Yeah, man.
He used to run the...
There was a band that he used to run.
Oh, yeah.
I remember what that band was.
North Fountrain.
Oh, North Thank You.
Oh, that was good.
That would have bugged me.
Oh, you rock, Susan.
Thank you so much.
That would have bugged me all aboard, I guess.
North Fountrain.
North Fountrain.
So we really tried to book as many locals as we could, you know, as many as we could get.
And we only had to go outside of Central Wisconsin for Howard Ludke, who was a popular pick
from the FR M board and from other members of the community.
He's got a lot of fans here, and he plays here fairly regularly.
And so he's bringing his Blue Max group here with his wife, Deb, on bass.
And I'm not sure who's Billy is probably going to be playing drums with him as he has
for many years.
And I think he's bringing in Pete Shank from the local community on keyboards as an extra
for the Blue Max show.
That's going to be terrific.
I encourage you to check out their Facebook page for FRM.
They've got a great video up right now of Howard.
He's going for it.
I was watching it this morning and everything.
It's a really nice video.
Give you an idea.
Give you a little bit of a taste of this man.
If you haven't heard him yet.
He's become a legend in Wisconsin in the Midwest for his Blues guitar playing, especially
the slide guitar that he does.
He's just an amazing, been at it for 50 years, you know, and it sounds like a 20 year old
when he's playing that thing, man.
Oh, he's got all the energy.
Yeah, I've never seen him, never seen him sang.
He's always been strong.
That's the way to put it.
And the event wraps up with an amazing band as well, Art.
Oh, Adam grew in the space burritos.
I have a close association with them as a matter of fact and spend a lot of time with
Adam over the years in various functions that we've worked in.
He's from Central Wisconsin.
He's kind of a legend.
Right.
He's become a legend around here for the horseshoes and hand grenades, one of the best and
most popular string bands to come out of Central Wisconsin and, you know, rise to national
prominence.
They played the Rhymen down in Nashville and they played Cain's ballroom in Tulsa.
And they're a top draw.
And the space burritos is Adam's country rock band.
And he uses it for a vehicle to get people dancing and having a good time and jam out
on some of the old familiar tunes, Jerry Jeff Walker tunes and some blues and some
Whale and Jennings.
And then he writes his own stuff and he puts his own songwriting into the band too.
And it's a capable bunch of musicians, five beast band and they're going to rock the
house at the very end.
They're going to rock Robinson Park.
I was thinking, Adam's such a complete musician, you know, similar to yourself, sir.
You know, that's one of the things I think of when I think of somebody like him.
What a great way to wrap everything up.
Incredible music, a little bit of something for everybody.
I love the addition, or not the addition, I should say, but just the focus on local talent
and sticking to a lot of that as you can.
Not only when we're bringing this festival back after some, you know, time off and everything,
but the idea that, okay, well, I can see some of these bands in state, sure, but seeing
them all in one location on the same day, it's a festival.
I mean, that's a true festival right there.
It's really cool to be able to offer to people.
And along with all of that, Susan, there are also going to be vendors down there and
some things for the kids.
Yes, we're going to have the very popular kid zone, which will be back again.
The activities there will include games, crafts, percussion instrument station, face painting,
balloon animals, and of course, a big bounce house slide.
There will be a variety of snacks and treats for the kids as well.
We'll also have caricature artists and a henna tattoo artist.
We'll have an amazing variety of food trucks plus beer and wine for the adults and craft
and art vendors to check out as well.
I make no bones about it.
Robinson Park, one of my favorite places in the state.
I love Robinson Park, I have a billion memories of it.
When you first walk in there along the stones there and everything, you'll probably see some
of those vendors.
It's a great way to buy local, support local, to stop by their places.
Even if you're not able to purchase something, give an idea of what they do.
Find out if they have a website, maybe you can share it on your social media or something
like that.
This event is a free event.
It's about celebrating this area, celebrating the music in this area.
It's also about supporting this area.
This is another great way of doing that, helping out our vendors out there.
Any opportunity they get to sell their goods or something like that is, it makes a big
difference in their huge difference in their livelihood and everything.
Here's an opportunity to do that.
Holidays are right around the corner.
If you have a mother like me, you cannot buy just anything in any department store.
It has to be completely unique and original and only one or two people have it.
The vendors over there got stuff like that.
Be sure to check that out.
I mentioned before that this is a free event, Suzanne.
This is a free event in major part because of the donors and the great people that helped
make this event possible.
Along with, of course, you guys and the team and everybody, we wanted to make sure to
shout out some of the donors.
Absolutely.
We had just an incredible response from our community businesses and even just local people
encourage, in energy, the Crowbar, whiskey rapids, writers' roadhouse, hotel need, aspirus,
rural mutual, wensel incorporated, R&R patio bar, salaris, Nicosaport Edward State Bank,
members advantage and, of course, aren't cranberry company who I'm involved with as
well.
Right.
There's individuals as well, Aliliri and Tom Combe, just some major donors here that
we greatly appreciate.
Also the Kevin Roberts scholarship, well, I should say the memorial, there is a scholarship
fund, but the money that we're drawing from for this festival is coming from the Kevin
Roberts Memorial fund.
So this festival also honors his life and legacy as well as Jeff Goss, who is a local
loved musician from the past.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I appreciate that.
I appreciate those notes there, Suzanne.
Really appreciate you two hanging out with Melissa and I this morning and bringing us
this information and talking about IFRM Fest.
Again, everybody, friends of Rapids Music, IFRM Fest is coming up Saturday, September
20th, 12 to 9, over a beautiful Robinson Park at 1150, 17th Street, North, right here
in Rapids.
This is a free event.
Come on down, have some fun, bring the family, you and your friends, come on down, just
you yourself.
I've gone there so low plenty of times, like you can still have good time, it's going
to be a lot of blasts.
You'll make plenty of friends.
There you go.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And James, I have to look, because I had to look it up.
The Robinson Park Banshell, according to the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, was built
in 1957.
Oh.
So it was there.
Okay.
Okay.
God, she's good.
So good.
I'm so glad.
I know that now.
Yeah.
That was awesome.
Thank you, Melissa.
And thank you, too.
We appreciate you for being here.
Thank you.
Thanks for the time.
Thanks James.
Again, go to your, go to your Googler and type in there, friends of Rapids Music.
Be sure to subscribe to their social media accounts, share their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see them otherwise.
And make sure to be at Robinson Park on the 20th for this amazing festival.
It's going to be going on all day.
It's a free, fun, fast check it out, everybody.
Melissa and I will be back from our show coming up on the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM WFHR.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us.
Hope you all were having a great one out there.
Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Got a lot better and a lot cooler around here, having Art and Suzanne by talking FRM.
Big thank you to them for that.
That was fun.
That was fun.
Oh, yeah.
Looking forward to diving into a couple of other topics, Melissa.
And real quickly, I did want to mention that our cast and crew of Angold and Pond are
in its go time for us.
We're off book this week.
People are in costumes.
Props are flying all over the place.
It is a fantastic, wonderful circus to be a part of a living, breathing organism like
a theater is.
And last night, had a great rehearsal, did a nice job, everybody.
You know this, maybe even better than I do, Melissa, in many ways, when it comes to, you
know, how to walk that line with your cast of giving them lines and letting them figure
it out themselves.
I've never been in this position before.
And I have mentioned to people many times, I am a hyper empath.
I did not realize how crazy my empathy can be when I torn as a director, like I want
to, I got to, I got to let them know they dropped a line at the same time.
I know what it's like to be on that stage and to drop a line.
And I don't want to do that to them.
I don't want to, you know, but you got to, you have to.
And I'm fortunate that these, these, these actors as talented as you are going to see
they are on that stage, as much as they bring these characters to life and make these
words their own, they are just as good of people.
I'm very, very fortunate in that regard.
I would recommend to directors out there, hire good people.
That is my big directing note to you.
It always helps.
Build a good team.
You know, when you have a show like this, you, you don't have a lot of moving pieces.
The, the set is, what you see is what you get.
That's the set we have.
There aren't a billion props out there.
It really is on the actors and the words to really bring, keep the interest and, and
keep things moving and bring this to life.
And even when I mentioned, you know, dropping a line or not having something in one place
where it needs to be in stuff, all of that will be fine tuned and will be ready to go
on opening night on September 25th.
But I say all that to, even through all of that, these actors are in character.
These actors are going with the motion, working with each other.
If, if one drops a line, the other one's got their back.
Like those things, you, you, you don't know, if you, you never know what you got, if
you got to hit or not.
But there's certain things that are tells and you're like, all right, this is going to be
a memorable show.
This is going to be good.
Some of the performances, as I mentioned before, are stand out.
But it's, it's just the way that they're reacting and treating each other that you can,
you can, you can almost guarantee it's going to be a great run.
We had a, a fun interview yesterday, well, and you as the director.
Yeah.
Um, you, are you cutting on in and out?
Sorry.
We must have a slight leg.
Okay.
I must be.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Um, I was just going to say you as the director, you as the director, um, get to see that now
and you get to sit back and watch all those pieces come together.
And even when they drop a line, like you said, they are able to figure out now is the
time for that to happen because once there's an audience there, they're on their own and
they got to just figure it out and move forward.
As I, I, I try my hardest to get myself on that stage, I have thought about just actually
sitting out there with a script just in case, just so I could be a part of the, no, it's
going to be a fun, fun show.
We look forward to this one.
We look forward to my, this crew, this cast, everybody's looking so forward to bring it
to the stage and everybody to kick off the 2025 season four was Council Ravitz Community
Theater on golden pond kicks off September 25th and 26th, seven o'clock shows that Saturday
a two o'clock matinee and then we do it all over again the following week, uh, weekend,
uh, seven o'clock shows Friday and Saturday, a two o'clock matinee, uh, it's coming up so
fast.
I can't believe it.
Yeah.
It really, you know, this opening show is usually the one that you have the, the shortest
kind of time to get going and I've done so I may have done more, um, first shows, fall
shows than any other WRCT and it still surprises me.
So, like, whoa, it's right around the corner, uh, we're ready to go.
We want you to be, get your tickets at WRC theater dot org WRC theater dot org while you're
there.
Go ahead and make plans to be a part of our variety show, uh, that is coming up soon
too.
Yeah, it's right around the corner.
It'll be on October 10th or I'm sorry, October 11th at two o'clock over at the, uh, WRC
auditorium.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Oh, awesome.
It's for all of that everybody and while you're at it, of course, we want you to go to
WFHR dot com and sign up for our newsletter.
Yeah, yeah.
It's free.
All you need is your email and if you have any feedback or ideas, certainly you can include
those when you sign up, um, but that comes out on Thursdays.
We're not going to give it time now.
We're just going to say Thursdays.
Yeah.
I think that's a good way to do it and, and, and, and, and certainly, uh, understandable
and a fair way to do it, I think, um, uh, I encourage you to get that, uh, your
recipes to us as well, everybody.
We are collecting recipes for our WFHR cookbook.
We've gotten a lot of great entries already.
We want more of them.
Get them to us, everybody.
And we're also going to include all of the recipes that were made during the staff
suite off at our parking lot party.
Um, I'm going to get those rounded up and include them.
Uh, I made a, uh, Ras, a rhubarb juice that is my grandma's recipe and it's just fabulous.
And I know that some of the people who came and tried it, they want the recipe.
Well, you've got to get the cookbook.
Yep.
Yep.
And, uh, we're looking forward to that and, uh, the release of that and getting all your
recipes to add to it, everybody.
Mm-hmm.
We'll just go to WFHR.com, up in the carousel at the top.
Um, you just, you might have to click over a couple of times, but there's a banner that
looks like, um, you know, a kitchen and you get this submit recipe.
It'll take you to a Google form.
You can enter it there.
And also just take a picture of your recipe card and text it to us, um, or email it to
us or stop by, drop it off or ask Pam to make a copy.
Whatever you need, uh, we'll make sure to, uh, get that recipe, get it included in the
cookbook and, uh, sure, certainly get that original, uh, copy of it to you if need be.
Mm-hmm.
Go to WFHR.com, sign up for that newsletter and get us that recipe, everybody.
We got to get to break, but let's go ahead and take a phone call before we do.
Good morning.
You're on the show.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
I don't know what happened there, but, uh, they, they hung up, uh, it's okay.
Please feel free to call back.
You are the best radio announcer ever, James.
Well, that's really nice of you to say.
I appreciate that.
Whoever you are.
It's a wonderful voice you have, by the way.
I know.
I worked on it all night.
I'm just turning over right over here.
Okay.
We got to go to break.
Uh, we will go to break.
We'll come back after our news, entertainment and sports break and have some more fun,
because we are getting into a good one, the, um, what do people think about diets on vacations?
Basically, what are we going to get into that coming up on the morning show?
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
Hope you're having a great Tuesday out there.
I'm going to get into this topic about people on their vacations and diets and calories
and all that in a moment.
But first, I want to talk about all dads, am I saying that right, Melissa?
Yes.
I can.
Yes, nailed it.
Oh, it was practicing all morning.
You sent over a wonderful article that I wanted to touch on this with the audience.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
They're a group of, they're an African native animals and they're from, well, from Africa,
obviously.
Um, but they're, they're becoming extinct in their native land.
And they were brought into like Texas in the 20th century for big game hunters.
But they've adapted to the area and are thriving in the wild in, well, I don't know, thriving
is the right word.
There are small pockets of them in the wild in the US now.
But they're doing better here.
It sounds like then they are in their native African homeland.
And so three of these young females have been brought to Wildwood Zoo in Marshfield and
they are ambassadors for the, the species and then also just environmental education.
Yeah.
This is such an interesting, like we talk a lot about these topics, but I don't know
that we've ever really talked much about this particular idea and angle on the, part
of this topic of introducing animals or keeping them from going extinct.
We've heard about this our whole lives.
The idea of taking an animal from one part of the world and putting it in another to
help it survive or thrive is fascinating and in a really, like I just, it's one of the
cooler ideas I think I've heard about involving wildlife and, you know, helping wildlife.
Well, and the fact that, you know, climates are changing in different areas.
I mean, look at what's happening here in Wisconsin.
We've got an influx of ticks that we never had before because of the different temperatures
we're experiencing now.
And so I don't know if that's why they are going extinct in Africa, but the fact that
they've been in our countries since, you know, in the early 1900s, that they are doing
well enough that we can help keep the species alive.
That's really fascinating.
Yeah.
The research and the work that's being done, let alone with the preservation and just
the enjoyment of these animals is such a win for us as a country, us here in the northern
part of the country or Midwest part of the country for them.
And for people who don't know what they look like, they're also called a barberry sheep,
but they don't look like, you know, like sheep, like you think.
They look more like a, they look more like deer, and both the females and the males have
large curving horns.
Yeah.
So what would you say, Jay?
It's like a mix between a deer and a...
A ram.
A ram?
Okay.
Yeah, I would say a mix of a deer and a ram with a little bit of goat in there.
Yeah, yeah.
They have this wonderful fur coming on, this fur part, the way their chests are is so much
different though.
It's like a chaggy mane of hair on their throat, chest, and front legs.
It's different than I've seen on any of the animals we mentioned before.
So that makes them, definitely, they're magnificent looking animals.
And they are settling in at Wildwood.
I don't think that they're available to view yet until they, you know, have been become
established, but the release from the Wildwood Zoo says that their rock pile exhibit will
highlight the out-ads adaptability, unique biology, and their unexpected ecological journey
from endangered African-native to American greenhorn, which is so perfect.
And I love their names.
The three females, it probably Rainier or Rainier, probably Rainier, right, like the
mountain.
Yeah, yeah.
Cascade and Acadia.
Hmm.
Very cool.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Other names.
I love the names.
I love, love, love the names.
They're really good.
Those are great.
And those are all mountain ranges, I believe.
That's what I was going to say, but I, you know, I didn't want to make the audience feel
silly, because they might not have known, no, I didn't know that, I didn't know that.
I did not know that.
But I was wondering.
So Cascade is a mountain range, and obviously Rainier is a mountain.
Yeah, yeah.
And you're going to be doing some work on this art, you're going to be putting an article
together about that.
Well, I had it in the news yesterday.
And I'm sorry, you had it in an article.
I meant to say you had it.
Well, it wasn't, it wasn't an article.
It was just a little blurb in the newscast that was yesterday, and I'm glad that you were
able to cover it a little more extensively today, because, you know, I have to pick and
choose what I can include.
Well, I appreciate that, and I appreciate your bringing it to us, a wonderful story,
wonderful story.
Before to hearing more about these animals.
And that's another zoo that I would love to visit.
I haven't been able to visit that one yet either, but.
I was there years ago.
It's been a while.
I would like to go check it out.
It's a lot of fun.
It's a good place to go, maybe on your vacation, you know, maybe you're on a break or something
like that, and you go check it out, and you don't even have to worry about your calories.
Don't even have to worry about it.
Because they don't count when you're on holiday.
Yeah, nice, nicely done.
Do they or don't they?
That is the question we are asking you, the audience out there, as well as each other.
56% of people say that their budgets don't exist on vacation.
47% say that their calories don't count.
And 59% skip responsibilities they'd normally keep up with, like working or tidying up
or something along those lines.
Yeah.
I mean, that's what a vacation is supposed to be about.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I personally can't ignore my budget, but.
I hear you.
I hear you.
Good on you.
Yeah, really.
I enjoy.
You know, we talk about this a bit and everything in different ways, but as we get more
and more into the idea of what is a vacation, what is taking a break, all of that, we talk
a lot about moments and how so many people are, that's what they're looking for now.
It's not just the destination, but what is the journey that's taking me there?
What is the journey waiting for me there?
The experience.
I think that as much can be said about that for those that take a break just to stay
home.
Yeah.
Just to stay indoors and not have to deal with life or people or anything along those lines
and just taking a bit of a mental break from things.
Or maybe a chance to catch up on a DIY project that you just had on your, your to-do list
that you want to do, you know, not like a, well, I need to repair that hole in the
roof because, but, you know, something like, I wanted to build these shelves in my craft
room.
You know, and those kind of things like that can, you may look at it and say, well, you're
working then during your vacation.
No, you're taking care of a mental, you know, the thing on your to-do list and checking
it off.
And everybody knows how good that feels.
Great.
It's going to make your home life better because, you know, you got that thing done, now
you can organize.
And I don't know about you, James, actually, I do know because we've talked about this
multiple times.
But, having things organized, a place for everything, everything in its place, it just,
it helps the brain feel better.
Yes.
Yeah.
It, our brains are looking for that.
It's not just, you know, that we, you may think that it's something that is just, oh,
is it just me or something along those lines?
Now, every human brain is looking for that organization a little bit of that.
It doesn't mean that you have to have it completely in your house, but it helps a lot.
Yeah.
So, there's something to be said for, you know, oh, I had it and I lost it, what was
I going to say?
There's so little that we have control over in the world right now.
But this is something that we can control to a certain degree.
Yeah.
And this is one of those things where we encourage people, you know, take those breaks.
You've got those, if you're fortunate enough and your business gave you days off from work
or paid days off or anything, use them.
Be sure to get out there and work, work on your vacation.
32.
So, James, can I, can I make, you play that back to yourself?
Maybe, 32% say that there's zero pressure to keep up with the news while on vacation.
And in general, 72% say there's no guilt about overindulging on vacation.
So, just kind of wrap up these numbers here with this subject.
Yeah.
I admire this.
I genuinely do.
I don't say that word lightly.
I only use it when I can really meet, when I really mean it.
And I admire people that can do this because I think about putting myself in this and you
mentioned me going on holiday or something like that, Melissa.
And I, I think of even doing something as simple as staying home and just, you know, catching
up on some things.
I would, I think I'd be busier in some ways.
I don't know that I know what to do with, with just sitting on my hands.
I'm not very good at it.
But you know, maybe it's, maybe it's time for you to practice.
That's how you get better at something, James.
You know, great point and, yeah, 100%.
And I only have a couple of more days left to needle you about this.
Yes.
Yeah.
To our listening audience.
So, listening audience, when I'm no longer on the morning show, I encourage one of
you at least once a week to call in and say, hey, James, take a holiday.
Oh, my God, you're good.
Oh, please.
And do it in the nicest way possible.
Like, you know, we don't want to get rid of you, James.
But we need you to be refreshed and revived and be able to unplug and, you know, enjoy
life.
So, Machiavelli and I will be back in a few.
And we'll explain what that means, again, one more time when we come back of why I'm leaving.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll get into that and we'll give it to our schedule.
Some good stories of the day all coming up for you right here on the morning show WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Coming show here at 97.5 FM, 13.20 AM, WFHR.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us.
I'm going to take you to the top of the hour.
Got another great civic media program and coming up for you throughout the day today.
Be sure to stick around for that.
Get into our schedule in a moment.
But as we're going to break, Melissa, you mentioned something about you and what you're going
to be up to.
Yeah.
So, a slight change in my job description.
I will be moving into full-time news.
Which means, sadly, because this does make me a little sad, James, that I have to leave
the morning show on a regular schedule, because I appreciate the opportunity you've given
me to be a part of this.
The morning show is fun and it's definitely been an enjoyable time, you know, to just,
you know, have fun with you and Seth, I mean, you know, Seth, and we don't know.
Yeah.
I won't tell him you said that.
Don't worry.
Yeah, please don't.
Thank you.
You know, it's been a great time being part of this.
And I am excited about moving into full-time news because the community stories show that
we were trying to get off the ground and launch, honestly, this change is going to allow
me to do a little bit of that in a shorter segments, but also I can do longer news articles
on our digital platforms.
And I can focus on these.
I'll be able to do a feature story every day on something happening in our local community.
And that fills me with excitement because I look forward to the opportunities to share
what's going on.
And, you know, to bring light on subjects that aren't getting it in our area, just because
of the lack of news and the lack of people of investment in journalism and in news that
we know is happening everywhere, but especially in our rural communities, because there's
just, you know, the big powers that be, don't see the importance of it.
And guess what?
It is important.
So I'm excited to be able to do that and to do more local news, local news stories.
So I invite anyone to reach out to me at any time, Melissa.k, at civicmedia.us.
If you have a tip or something coming up that you know needs attention, please reach
out.
I encourage you to do that, everybody.
This is, you know, there's no getting around.
This we're honest with our audience.
We let you guys look behind the curtain.
This stings a little bit to put it lightly.
I can't put it any lighter than that.
It's bittersweet.
It really is because you're an integral part of what we do here in the morning show.
This show would not be what it is without you.
There's no way to get around that.
I think it's the same.
Working with you has been some of the most fun I've had in radio and one of my favorite
people to work with in radio.
The only thing that is helping with this is understanding that not only all the things
that you said, along with hoping that you can have a little bit more of a life and you
know, live a little bit too because you deserve all those things you said before.
I could not agree with you more and we need it more than ever and we are so lucky to have
somebody like you in this position.
Also tagging on to that, you deserve a little bit of a life.
You deserve to have a little bit more fun in life and everything and not to say that
you don't, but hopefully this frees you up even more.
Well, you know how it is when you're trying to juggle 27 different things and there's
never enough hours in the day and just narrowing the focus, I think, is going to help and
that is part of what Civic is now, you know, we're a startup company.
Not that WFHR is because obviously Ben in the community going on 85 years but being part
of Civic Media and this bigger network has allowed us to draw on more resources.
We now have a news reporter in WASA, Isabella Nieto and she's doing fantastic work there.
We're hiring more reporters in some of our other outlying rural stations that don't even
, some of them don't even have staff yet and Civic Media is building up those areas to
help report on local news because community is so, so important and knowing what's going
on in your community is the only way to connect with it.
So I appreciate what Sage Wilde is doing, our CEO of Civic Media and the investment that
he is putting into Wisconsin and into our communities to help us connect with each other
because if we can't have these conversations and know what's going on, I just, I appreciate
that that is the effort.
It matters, journalism matters, local journalism all the more and we've got the right people
in place to get our community informed and keep you guys up to date on things and keep
in democracy ringing.
And every once in a while I may jump back in James or something, I hope you'll just let
me say, hey, can I pop on?
I've got something to share with our listeners and give you live updates and then every once
in a while maybe even a lilu update because my pigeon is making progress that we shall
say.
We'll definitely be doing that.
Certainly on the table.
We will definitely be doing that.
We've got to, you know, we've got to have you back on to talk about that and certainly
any, you know, news breaks or anything like that that you're able to join us for, you
know what Melissa, just keep the keys and you can let yourself in anytime.
You can let yourself any time that way.
It's just hang on to them and, and, you know, don't be a stranger.
We appreciate it.
I have that key.
It's called the Civic Media app.
I can call you anytime, anywhere.
Nicely done.
We do get one more show at Melissa tomorrow.
Melissa and Seth and I will be hanging out one more time and we're looking forward to it.
Seth.
No, I am too.
I'm looking forward to it.
Appreciate it.
I appreciate it.
I'm looking at our rapid support for today.
We're going to have a good one for you.
CEO of your United Way of Southwood and Ames County's Terry John is going to be joining
us getting an update on the United Way.
We're looking forward to that.
Oh, I bet she's going to talk about the day of caring.
That's coming soon.
Yeah, we're going to put some focus on that.
Some other great things coming up with our United Way.
We're looking forward to another reminder.
We have community blood drives happening right now.
We have one happening over the former Eastern high school music room that is going until
three o'clock today and then one over at Millen Library at four and nine.
Also from 10 to three.
Yeah.
Get out.
So if you can't walk in, if you don't have an appointment and one is not fits your schedule
and walk over to the other one and see if they can slouch in.
There you go.
Yeah.
Donate if you can.
And thank you, everybody, who has donated making plans to donate.
We greatly appreciate that.
Going back to even last summer, we've been short on blood and this is very needed.
We appreciate you.
I imagine Terry and I will be touching on this, but a quick reminder to all of you out there
that please join us for the 53rd Annual United Way Day at McDonald's.
This is happening at our specifically our Wisconsin Rapids McDonald's at 2128 A Street
South right here in Rapids.
It's going on tomorrow.
This event helps out not only create lasting change in our community, but McDonald's has
never tasted better than when you're doing this, when you're a part of this.
Is there certain hours of the day?
I believe seven to seven is when it's going on.
You can find out more by going to uwswac.org and get the complete details or certainly
listen to the Rapids Report today.
I'm Terry and I will be touching on, encouraging paper and for a big Mac.
So tomorrow's the day.
Yes.
Get on over there and know that you are not only getting some great food and everything,
but also impacting our community and helping our community in a major, major way like
the United Way is done for a very long time.
And remind everybody again about FRM Fest.
It is coming up this September 20th, Saturday, free entry, 12 to 9 over at beautiful Robinson
Park.
A little bit of music from all different styles, something for everybody.
You can find complete details of the event over at their Facebook page, just typing
your search bar, FRM, our Friends of Rapids music and it'll pop up.
It's a fabulous lineup and it was so great to hear from Art and Suzanne about what's
going on.
It was a lot of fun.
I really do appreciate them being here and doing that.
That was great.
And it was fun to learn when they started.
What did he say the early 60s and the band shell was built in 57 before that, so that's
really cool.
Telling us about that was really wild.
And then you brought it on home with the band shell because I don't even know where I would
have looked that up.
That was awesome.
That was really nice.
It's got some daily tribune.
Had our back.
Shout out to them.
Appreciate the trip.
Appreciate our friends at the Good News Network.org.
Be sure to go there for all your, especially you need a palette cleanser, they got it for
you, everybody.
Some great work being done over there.
And I came across this story I wanted to touch on.
I thought it was pretty cool.
You know, we, no matter how old you are, what decade or generation you went to school,
we all know what it's like.
You go into school.
Sometimes you get in fights or skipping school or different things to get you in trouble.
And you've got detention.
But at Morris High School in Maine, detention is enforced with an altogether different approach.
A hike.
Hmm.
Oh.
Let's go hiking.
Misbehaving students can, of course, choose normal detention.
But ever since school counselor Leslie Trudy started offering hiking detentions, the
children overwhelmingly pick that.
Yeah.
They, whatever it is that they do, they get in trouble.
They get this option.
They can do serve normal detention or they could just go on a hike with her.
They trudged along behind Trudy who got the idea of hiking detention from an outdoor
education conference she attended last fall.
Parents, parenting experts will likely always be split between those who favor sternness
and discipline and those who favor forgiveness and freedom.
But both methods have had great notes to them, great data to them.
We've seen that these have worked because every kid's different.
Some kids do, you know, respond differently to some of the traditional ways of detention.
And others are responding more to this and they're, they're seeing really great results
from it.
That's incredible.
A real shout out to her on this and there's a lot more details to this and a lot more
encourage you to find out.
I'm just giving you a little bit of the, the cliff notes version.
Go to goodnewsnetwork.org, goodnewsnetwork.org and find the complete article.
It's a very cool, very interesting.
So they, this one's interesting.
Four organ donor recipients got together in Minnesota to pay tribute to the woman who
saved their lives.
Oh.
Twenty-year-old Adeline Miller died after a car crash in 2023 and she was an organ donor.
One of the people she saved wasn't there for it, but her organs actually saved five
lives.
Oh, wow.
Now four of those individuals were able to get together to honor her.
Hmm.
Amazing.
Incredible.
Amazing as that.
And apparently we're living longer and this is true around the world and everything,
but the Japan just set a new world, a new record.
Nearly 100,000 people in Japan are now 100 or older.
Oh, wow.
The official tally is 99,763.
It's the 55th year in a row that number has gone up.
Wow.
So that's look like we are living longer out there.
Which makes me also want to take better care of my hair.
I definitely.
Different hair?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, the rest of the body, sure.
But I got to make sure the hair is there in my late, if I'm going to make it to my late
ages.
Does your dad still have hair?
Yep.
Yep.
See, you're probably one of the lucky ones.
My, both my papa and my grandfather were in their late 80s when they finally started losing
their hair.
So you probably don't need to worry about that so much, James.
Being on every piece of wood around you.
Maybe you should take more better food.
Take care of the rest.
Do you know what makes your hair more luxurious and lovely?
Good nutrition.
I like that.
I like where you go with this.
That's a good way to get to me.
He looks horrible, but his hair is great.
We'll talk to you tomorrow, everybody.
Melissa, great show.
You two do.
Be good to each other out there.
This is locally grown radio, WFHR 1328M, W24 A.D.E., Wisconsin Rapids, and always streaming
on the Civic Media app.
