Label This. (Hour 1)

Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning world, it's a new day.

Let's start the show. Time for the morning show here at 975 FM 1320 AM WF HR,

where you get double weather. Your host James here joined my our head of news.

Our co-host Melissa K. Good morning, head of production,

co-host Seth Habagger. Good morning, and the best listeners and radio.

Thanks for being to everybody. Hope you all are having a great start to your day.

We got some fun stuff lined up for you. We're going to kick things off the way

we like to getting a live update on Mother Nature from our good friend,

Brittany Merlot. Pretty, I apologize. I didn't mean to lead it with the weather there.

I didn't know how I did that, but I appreciate you joining us.

For those who didn't catch it the first time, you get to ask questions this time.

There you go.

We're talking about rain, right?

Back in my classic rock days, we did double shots all the time.

Here's a double shot of Zeppelin. That's all I was doing.

Was he talking radio clearly of a double shot of a web, so sorry.

We will not do that again. It turns out not a good idea. Didn't work out.

Now you just made it really cool, a double shot of meteorology.

I've never had this before. I'm in.

She is all in on this.

Nice clear blue skies to start out day out there.

Super gorgeous out there. Staying summary again today,

but we're going to be flipping from here on out with more rain chances moving in,

more clouds obviously with that.

Enjoy today, right? Oh my gosh.

Highs are going to be hitting 87 degrees,

a little warmer than yesterday.

Yeah, when they're barely going to be moving, so not much of a breeze to get the sweat off of you,

but it's okay. We're going to love it.

We're going to enjoy it because by tonight we've got showers and storms moving in,

probably overnight, around midnight or so.

Nothing crazy, nothing severe.

And then in the morning, dealing with patchy fog again, it's just the season I'm sorry.

And then tomorrow, maybe some dry moment highs should reach about 80,

so a little bit cooler, but then we've got showers and storms definitely moving in at night,

so both continue for Friday.

It looks damp and soggy Saturday and Sunday as well.

And all this rain, maybe about a half an inch to an inch in total,

unless you can underneath a big storm.

But it's going to drag our temperatures down for Friday to the low 70s,

and then we're going to hang out in the mid 70s for the weekend.

But it's going to be breezy.

Let's have a growth out there, damp and dreary.

All right.

Good to know.

And all the more reason why when you started with this of enjoying today,

we definitely should enjoy today.

Yes.

I think the temperatures are great.

So beautiful.

You think the temperatures sound great, Melissa?

Yes, I do.

Yeah, they're not bad.

Not at all.

I like the night temperatures.

I like those.

I definitely, definitely enjoy those.

Yeah, the fact that we're still hitting 70s, I mean,

it's not bad at all for September.

Yeah.

I'm going to spend a couple hours over at the South of County Rec Center today.

I'm going to be around the ice.

So I'll be handling this heat just fine.

Yeah.

I'll be going down.

Rub it in.

All right.

Paper cut, bun lemon juice.

It's built in air conditioning over there.

You don't even have to worry about that.

We appreciate you, Brittany.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

You too.

Best in the business right there.

We're joining us every morning right in this time slot.

We got a jam-packed fun show lined up for you, everybody.

Coming up the LCaff A. Birthday anniversary club.

A little after that.

Senior citizens want to get rid of the word senior.

We will talk about that.

Okay.

I got that one lined up for you.

We have 15 badly named things that could have better names.

And we're going to help rename them.

All right.

So what we got going on there.

And it sticks.

No matter what we say, it has to be.

Yes.

Right.

Because we make the rules.

That's right.

Yes, you should.

We should.

In the top of the 10 o'clock hour, get some entertainment news lined up for you.

We're certainly going to remember Robert Redford a little bit.

Melissa and I were able to touch on that a little bit yesterday.

Kind of wrap that today.

Also want to talk about not only a legend in Mel Brooks, but the best line he ever wrote according to him.

Oh.

Yeah.

That's curious.

I can't wait to hear that one.

That's coming up a little bit later.

Along with our newsletter conversation recipes we're looking for in some of that.

Got a couple of other good ones for us.

And before we wrap up, I have 10 great insults that don't sound offensive.

And I have had this.

I have had this one since April 9th of 2024.

Oh, wow.

I've been saving it in part because I was waiting for a point where between a Seth and Melissa.

It just became too much for me.

And you know what?

Have just had just have it out.

You two just go ahead and insults back and forth and everything.

There we go.

This is radio.

So we would have to kind of fight a nice way to do that.

So I thought this list would be helped.

There we go.

Yeah.

But it came in handy for today's show in one of our final segments together.

Because Melissa, you have got an incredible opportunity coming up for you.

Yeah, I'm going to be moving into full-time news.

And sorry, the tree truck is coming by.

That's why.

You see how good she is at news.

She is keeping us up to do the spot.

Right.

Right.

She's honest.

Yes.

But yes, I am moving full-time into news.

And that, unfortunately, means I have to step back from some of these other appearances on a regular basis.

But that doesn't mean I'm gone entirely.

That's right.

I will still be able to pop in when you guys let me.

Or when there's something breaking.

I am the gatekeeper now.

No.

No, you're not.

Whatever.

Not on this station, man.

I'm letting her keep the key.

I mean, you know.

Oh, okay.

Oh, man.

The key to the show.

I was misinformed.

Yes, you always always.

You.

So yes, anyway, moving full-time into news, which was going to allow me to really dig into some of these community stories that need to be told.

And hopefully keep a better, a better tab on everything that's happening in our community and the surrounding areas.

My news director wants me to focus first on Wisconsin Rapids.

I'm probably going to break that rule because I mean, you know, you break rules.

Right.

But there's really important stories happening all around our community that need to be told that are just not getting the air that they need on air.

Or on the digital platforms.

And so I'm grateful that Civic Media is investing more in the news team and really trying to expand our ability to make these local contacts and to have a pipeline to get the news seen by our communities because I believe.

And this is the mission of Civic that the more that we engage in our communities, the more conversations that we have, the more that we know what's going on right here, the more we are invested in our communities and lifting each other up.

So I'm excited about this next step.

I am going to miss you, James.

Fantastic.

I'll miss you too, Seth.

Yeah, no, you can't.

I'm like a bad penny.

I always start up.

Now I'll just have to start doing it in person.

Yeah, or on the chat or something.

Our off air rivalry will have to start.

Definitely.

Yeah, right.

Now the gloves are off.

Yeah, I like the idea of even with the listeners that around you to feel this response.

Like it's just you two around each other and feeling this way.

We still have to do it.

You know, it's a thing now.

I appreciate that, Melissa.

And certainly deeply appreciate you.

I on the 13th marked nine years back for me in my second run here at WFHR and WRI.

Wow.

And that's cool.

I don't know about you guys, but birthdays, anniversaries, these things.

I tend to end up catching myself oftentimes looking back.

I've been trying to get better about that.

Because I don't think that's a bad thing, but I also want to look forward.

Right.

And I find myself kind of in that dual position there.

And when that happened and we had this news already and everything,

I couldn't help but think about how far we've come and how incredible this team is.

Now, when I came on, we had great people, but we are also limited.

We didn't have that many people.

We had no budget.

The company that owned us literally gave us no budget.

Zero.

And every time we would lose somebody, our budget, you know, well, hey, it doesn't cost as much.

So we're just not going to add to that or anything.

Right.

They never did one thing to this station to help this community or to keep it relevant.

Right.

This company.

This great radio station that's been around going on 85 years coming up in November.

The plan, Chuck, I, and I will include Pam in this.

It wanted was to build a team and to build a team that could cover news better than anybody in Central Wisconsin.

That could cover sports better than anybody.

Weather, all these different things.

Seth was fortunate that we ran into each other and we were able to bring a great piece like you into things.

But Melissa, finding us, us finding Melissa, however you want to look at that, we're not here without Mel.

We are not here without those things.

Not only with what we're able to do with Harder Wisconsin media, but what we've been able to do was Civic and to her point.

We're in the right spot.

We're in a good place.

It's nothing against previous ownership.

It's in 2025.

We could not be in better hands and be with a better company with what WFHR has always done and what Civic Media is doing.

And Melissa is going to be a key piece of that going forward.

It hurts.

It literally physically hurts.

But what feels good about it is knowing the work she's going to be able to do.

In the fact that we're going to still drag her on the air with us whenever we can.

And did you hear that, Seth?

Yes.

Without me.

She's leaving.

I heard the words.

Well, he had to say that because you're done.

So that's why.

I'm done.

I thought what?

I'm just beginning.

I thought what Laura and Beth wrote for me to read was really nice.

And I wanted to make sure to get it right.

I wanted to make sure.

Well, if nothing else, you know, Lulu updates.

Oh, those are very important.

So yes.

We need to have those.

We'll be doing that.

And there may be something in the works, boys.

I'm going to call you in on a potential original radio drama.

Oh, I love it.

Yes.

Original radio drama.

And of course.

Percolating in my brain.

Oh, okay.

Sounds good.

Along with that, we're going to drag Melissa and the directors play out to our Christmas episode.

Yeah.

It's a good word.

That's tradition out there and everything.

And as Mel said, you know, she's going to jump on the air here with certainly central Wisconsin

news and important things to be able to let our audience know about.

That's one of the fun things and great things about doing live radio.

And why it was so important to us to have this morning show in different times than the

day that we could do just that.

Right.

And for us like breaking news is, you know, when there's an important meeting that happens

in the city that, you know, maybe residents didn't know happened or want to know more information

on.

I mean, we're not talking like the car ran into the fire hydrant.

Yeah.

Right.

Was it yesterday?

Yeah.

Oh, the gas leak in here.

The station here across the street.

Yeah.

Yeah, the control lawn ornament.

No lawn mower.

Yeah.

I like actually like law out of control lawn ornament is also a really fun story.

That's really scary too.

I'm reading that article.

I'm reading that.

I see that headline.

The flimingos.

It's the flimingos.

The guard gnomes and take it over.

What about that?

You don't see it anymore, but the lady bending over.

You don't see that one anymore.

I don't know what you're talking about.

What are those go great?

Oh, yeah.

Those.

Yes.

Yes.

What's the girl's name though?

I don't know.

We will be seeing you Melissa and we do appreciate you.

And thank you so much for joining us all these years.

It's been a lot of fun and we're looking forward to what's ahead.

And I appreciate it all the time.

Thank you very much because it's given me an opportunity to do something that I never thought of.

There you go.

That's really cool.

That's what it's all about.

It's good to hear.

We will have more on that tomorrow and stuff.

We'll talk a little bit about some of the things we'll be doing with the show here and everything.

I'm sure you're going to talk about me behind my back.

Yeah, that's right.

That's what we always do.

It feels tacky.

I thought I went over and over about this.

Should we talk about it now?

Will Melissa or do it tomorrow?

I wanted to put the focus on Mel and her last show.

That's a good idea.

I think we should do that.

But I did want to take a second to remind everybody as I think Melissa would want us to do.

To join our friends at the United Way of South Wind and Ames counties for their 53rd annual United Way Day at McDonald's.

Oh, yeah.

That's today.

I get my big bang.

That's right.

It's today.

The seven this morning goes from seven to seven proceeds of this of the sales at McDonald's go and help the United Way which help you.

Now, you may think, well, I'm not impacted by the United Way.

Yes, you are.

Yes, you are.

If you live in this community.

If you live in Central Wisconsin, if you live in Southwood or Adams counties, you are affected by the United Way.

You are a part of things.

And you are able to invest in the United Way.

And I do use that word key, invest.

You are putting into so many different causes and so many different things that are so vital to this area just by purchasing

some good food at McDonald's.

There you go.

And as great as the food is over there, it ain't never tasted better than on this day.

When you were able to know that some of that great big Mac or those fries you're taking down or something are able to impact our community.

That's right.

You know, their fries are the best.

And that's only because of what Burger King did back in the last year.

Agreed.

Agreed.

The few things have hurt me more than when Burger King changed their fries.

I just realized something.

How will Melissa air her grievances about fast food places if she's not on the show anymore?

Yeah, yeah.

Because she's got a laundry list of grievances.

We're just going to have a segment where she just calls it randomly.

Like, and we're not even talking about it.

Did you hear what Wendy's did?

Did you hear?

If they ever get rid of their frosty man.

Oh, man.

And the bitterness will come up.

Then the loves come up.

If Arby's gets rid of the Dremocus Shake, that would be it for me.

I would ride it.

I would ride it.

It'd be a one-man ride.

Just, yeah.

Yeah.

We encourage you to find out more about your night away by going to uswac.org and get on over to our local Wisconsin Rapids and McDonald's at 2128 A Street South right here in Rapids.

Head on over to Mickey D's and help out our United Way.

It's a win-win.

Have a fry for us.

Yeah.

Very nice.

We'll be back with the Elcafe birthday anniversary club on the morning show at WFHR.

You heard him.

It's time to do some celebrating with our great friends over at Elcafe in the birthday anniversary club.

We encourage you to treat yourself.

Get on over to Elcafe, 221 Market Avenue and beautiful port Edwards.

Say hi to the gang over there for us.

If you want to support local, get some Elcafe in your life, everybody.

Yes, indeed.

Got some amazing specials over there.

Poor Benedict.

Look and fun.

Oh, wow.

That sounds good.

You know, just about any Benedict.

I am willing to try.

You just about broke my brain there.

Poor Benedict.

Yeah, the eggs all resting on a grilled English muffin.

And the pork is slow-roasted and tender.

It's generously covered in not holiday but ranchero chisos.

This delightful dish comes with a side of potatoes or fruit.

For an extra touch, add avocado for just two bucks.

That's what her next gig is.

I was going to say what she was doing.

I had to say she was delivering the news there.

That was news because she's not allowed to do commercials.

So that was news.

We appreciate them.

Not only that pull pork Benedict, but they got some other great ones over there for you.

Be sure to check out their specials on their Facebook page.

I know.

They have a meatball sub, guys.

Yeah, that looked really good.

The meatball sub is their special.

And I love a good meatball sub.

Really?

Wow, that's cool.

Oh, yeah.

I'm with you.

Yes, same here.

And for, you know, I tried to avoid tomatoes, but dang.

I would risk it for this meatball sub.

It looks so good.

She would take the pain.

Just eat the meatball sub.

I would.

They've also got a picture that's been haunting me of all their pies and their fridge.

Like that I keep looking at.

Yeah, yeah.

Just go over to the Facebook page, everybody.

Like the page.

And be sure to keep up the date and all the cool things that they're doing over there.

Because not only do they got great specials every week and a wonderful line up for you.

But they also tend to do a lot of things in the community.

I have a lot of different things that they do there.

So encourage it to follow along with what they're doing.

They're fabulous.

I'm going to probably have to do some investigative reporting and find out what a Hawaiian.

Good idea.

It's a good idea.

It makes them all.

These are all homemade.

Yes, they are.

Their bread pudding recipe sounds fabulous.

I know.

I know that's not a pie, but oh my goodness.

It's close enough.

It's good.

That's not really good.

That's not really good.

Be sure to check that out.

Everybody, buy local support local.

And get us those birthdays and anniversaries while you're at it.

You can email us info at www.fatr.com, direct messages on our Facebook pages and call on up.

715-424-2600.

We appreciate you all getting us those and looking forward to talking with you, everybody.

Melissa, I need a one through three.

Oh, man.

Hmm.

Can I pick them all?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Wow.

It's our last crazy things happening here today.

They're my goodness.

They're all qualified.

We're thrown them all.

Going off the rails here.

Yes.

It's a complete sanity.

Completely thrown off there.

Everything's wild today.

Hey, let's see if we get another qualifier right here.

We got somebody calling in.

Good morning, you're on the show.

Yes.

Good morning.

It's not for today.

It's for September 27th.

Cheryl, fight FET and carry fuller.

Cheryl, fight and carry fuller.

That's right.

Okay.

I am just writing those down, right?

Yes.

Dilligently writing them down.

On the 27th.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for getting those to us.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work, everyone.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

You have a good morning, miss.

Thank you.

Oh, that was awesome.

Yes.

Keep them coming, everybody.

Yes.

We like the phone calls.

Yeah.

And hey, if I don't mention it enough, you can get them to us early.

That's all right.

That's right.

I wouldn't go too much more than a couple of weeks or anything like that

because we are incredibly busy around here.

But that's a great idea to get those to us.

Yes.

Nicely done.

Thank you.

Perfect.

We have a birthday to old partner of ours around here.

Bob Goff.

Happy birthday, Bob.

Happy birthday, Bob.

Happy birthday, Bob.

Bob's awesome.

Yes.

Awesome.

Just everything you could ask for out of somebody, a colleague.

He, one of the best old radio hands I've ever worked.

We didn't work with Bob for very long, but it was good.

He knew his stuff.

He's a very smart man.

Yeah.

I hope that things go.

And actually, yeah, I ran into Bob before.

I joined you guys because I ran into him through my work

with links 24 in Camp Douglas.

How about that?

Oh, cool.

Wow.

That's cool.

Yeah.

I hope things go well in Adams, Bob.

Yes.

We also want to wish a very happy birthday to basically a sister to me.

Kelly Rogas is celebrating her birthday.

Today, she is the youngest sister, the only sister of my oldest friend, Chris.

And Kelly is like a sister to me.

She's one of the sweeter, nicer people you will ever meet.

Enjoy your day, Kelly.

Happy birthday, Kelly.

Enjoy your day.

Happy birthday to Terry Shimansky.

Happy birthday, Terry.

Happy birthday.

Enjoy the day, Terry.

I hope it's a great one for you.

And on qualifier today, all of them.

But I did have it marked, as well.

You did.

Yeah.

Jesse Wirt.

Happy birthday, Jesse.

Happy birthday, Jesse.

Jesse, enjoy your day.

Jesse, Terry, Kelly.

You all qualify.

Yeah.

You all in there.

You can take Melissa for that.

Show them in the house.

Yes, indeed.

We take it all because of me.

Exactly.

We see who you share your birthdays and anniversary.

I want to have left, I want to have.

Ella Pernell is 29, an incredible young actress.

Jackie Taylor and Yellow Jackets.

She is the voice of Jinx and Arcania.

But the thing that I've seen her in is the show on Amazon Fallout.

Oh.

Which I thought was one of the better, sneakier good shows I saw less.

I heard, yeah.

In large part, Walter Goggins.

Walton Goggins, in part.

But fabulous.

For her, she's the lead in it.

That's cool.

She carries it, man.

She's incredible.

Nice.

And she has some of the most expressive, wonderful eyes I have seen in an actor in a long time.

Boy, there's a couple of actors I can think of that are similar.

But she's got just an expressive, wonderful face that really gives you everything you want out of a TV or movie actor.

Love it.

I really want to see Mrs. Paragrand's home for peculiar children.

I loved, loved, loved, loved the book.

My sister was...

She is the lead in that.

Wow.

Oh, man.

I want to see that.

Jill said it was good.

Yeah.

And she don't want to give those recommendations lightly.

So it might be worth checking out.

It's directed by Tim Burton.

Yeah.

So how could it not be good during the books were so fabulous.

Not only I think the best quarterback in football right now, but you can make an argument as his career goes on.

Maybe he ended up being one of the, maybe the best.

Patrick Mahomes is 30 right now.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback.

He's only 30.

Is that all?

Yeah.

He's been doing so much for so long.

Multiple time MVP and Super Bowl winner.

And I think the most exciting player in football by far and away.

Even at this age, even with him being a little bit slower and not having the weapons that he used to have in Kansas City and all that,

there is no player.

Maybe in sports for me that is more, I must see this man play than Patrick Mahomes.

Very exciting player, yeah.

It's never know what it'll do.

It's very Sanders playing quarterback.

It's incredible to watch this guy play the game.

I still will go down.

One of the greatest plays I've ever seen is an incomplete pass in a Super Bowl that they lost.

Just as an example of how great this guy is.

And how much funny is I really enjoyed him at Texas Tech and to see him turn into what he has.

It's been a lot of fun.

Yes indeed.

One of the greatest hockey players of all time, Alexander Ovechkin is 40 today.

Wow.

Left winger for the Washington Capitol, cemented himself as one of the best of all time.

Not only when he won his Stanley Cup back in 2018, but he is the all-time goal scorer in hockey.

I honestly didn't think that would happen.

Nope.

Again on our lifetimes.

No, no, no.

Never thought that would happen.

But that's an amazing stat.

I mean, yeah.

Is he playing this year?

Yeah.

Is he coming back?

Oh my gosh.

He might be his last year.

I'm not 100% but it might be.

And then a couple of creators here, Sam Esmail, is 48, creator Mr. Robot.

One of the best shows I've ever seen.

And you, Brian Singer, director of Brian Singer is 60.

Bohemian Rhapsody, the usual suspects, Superman Returns.

Most of the X-Men movies, Brian Singer is done.

He's a good one.

Yep.

And let me see.

Rita Rodner is 72.

So funny.

Comedical alleges.

So funny.

Oh my gosh, she's funny.

She's great.

Yes.

I really like her.

Kevin Clash is 65, former voice of Elmo on Sesame Street.

Yes.

And Elvira is 74, the mistress of the dark.

Oh, Cassandra Peterson, yes.

She somehow, you know, it's fascinating that, you know, she was an actress for many years.

And then that's the, she just put on this persona and started doing, you know, the midnight movie thing.

How she turned that into a fantastic career.

I mean, good for her.

Yes.

Fabulous.

It's amazing what she was able to turn that into.

And all credit to her for it.

100%.

And apparently one of the nicer people in the business, like one of the people that just everybody loves and like to work with and everything.

I saw a thing recently about Ernest, the actor that played Ernest in all those years.

And Bernie.

Yep.

I saw a clip of him in Rob Williams, like backstage at 8 a.m. the, not just for the comic relief.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

And they're just spitball them back and forth and it's amazing to see those two.

And Elvira was at that one.

Oh really?

Kind of like strolls by and they both just stop and just talking to her.

They're not ogling her.

Right.

They're talking to her and everything.

Yeah.

And she is riffing just as well with them.

Yeah.

I don't know that we ever got to see her complete, you know, talent.

No, not really.

I mean, she was, they made a couple movies.

Of course, she was in all those commercials and stuff.

But if you go back and watch her, you know, her local TV LA when she was doing the movie thing, that's probably her at her best.

Yeah.

Well, and just her without the wig, she's a red head.

Yeah, yeah.

She would never have that.

Yeah.

The Zen Master Phil Jackson is 80, a long time, you know, not only Chicago Bull, but a Los Angeles Laker Coach.

They're just putting here retired Los Angeles Laker coach.

Why are you doing?

He got one more titles with the balls.

What are you talking about?

He was actually a pretty good player.

Who went in the NBA?

I mean, the boy's brother said it's run by a bunch of college kids, I think, half the time.

I don't know.

Hey, William, Senior.

One more.

You're gonna put it in there.

Notted north to Coden as well.

Oh, he's right.

Oh, yes.

From North Dakota.

That's right.

People no longer with it.

Hank Williams, Senior, Born in this day in 1923.

You've got John Ritter, Born in this day in 1958.

Just one of the better comedic actors and comedic timings you've ever seen in TV.

Son of Cowboys, Senior, Text Ritter, as a matter of fact.

Yes.

And Bancroft, Born in this day in 1931.

Are you trying to seduce me, Miss Robinson?

It's just the graduate and her performance in there.

Miss Mel Brooks from 1964 until she would leave us.

Yep.

Because she passed away.

Incredible actor.

Yes.

Incredible.

And then we got, oh, Ken Casey.

Casey, Born in this day in 1935, passed away in 2001.

Author of One Flow over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Yes.

One of my favorite books.

And his Merry Band of pranksters.

If you've ever seen a picture of a bus that was painted in psychedelic colors.

Kind of like the Dr. Teeth bus in the Muppets, that was Ken Keezy.

That was his bus.

Yep.

The Grateful Dead actually got their start playing together at Ken Keezy.

Yes, they did.

Yes, they did.

Parties and stuff, yeah.

Parties and stuff, yeah.

They sure did.

And again, happy birthday and anniversary to everybody out there celebrate.

We'll take a quick time out.

We're going to come back and we're talking about seniors and the word senior.

And how they feel about it?

All right.

Coming up on the morning show here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.

Melissa, Seth and James here with you.

Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

We hope you're having a great one out there.

We're going to get into that conversation about seniors and the word senior in a moment.

But I did want to take a moment and I'm trying to do this throughout the month of September.

Bringing attention to it being National Suicide Prevention Week.

That is the September 7th to the 13th.

Suicide Prevention Month is what we're talking about here.

I just wanted to bring attention to the week because we did not have time to the last week.

But we need to make time for this topic.

And so yesterday with the United Way conversation or the other day when Terry was in with us,

we started our show talking about this and that was I appreciated from her on that front.

This is a topic that part of the problem with the topic is the idea that we talk about it like this.

And I am proud of our country, not just our country, our world and where we are in society,

where we are talking about this more in a raised voice, like other topics that we have done that with.

But I still don't know how much and what it's going to take to pull the stigma from this.

And I don't know that there's ever going to be a blue, you know, a playbook for how to help somebody,

how to see these things before they happen or any of that.

So the best we can do is be there for each other, give each other grace.

And keep in mind that there are certain layers to this.

We're talking about suicide prevention and suicide awareness here, but I would like to just put a focus in this segment

to suicide remaining one of the most urgent issues facing our veterans today.

Factors such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance use, chronic pain,

and the challenges of aging can all increase that risk.

And the impact is not limited to one generation.

From young veterans returning home today to those who served decades ago,

the struggle is very real.

There is hope by talking openly, sharing resources and standing together on this one we can make a difference.

There is a VVA resource page.

There is the veteran's crisis line or you can call 988.

There are those resources available for you.

If you ever need any resources, please let us know.

And feel free to reach out any time everybody.

We are here for you, we are here with you, and we want to help.

We do.

Let me think you need.

There is no...

I could just say...

For the people who want to help, don't be afraid to ask, how are you?

No, really.

Really, how are you?

Right.

Because one of the hardest things to do when you're in that place is to ask for help.

Yes.

Because you don't want to be a burden.

That's right.

You don't want to disrupt somebody's day.

You don't want to call attention to yourself because you are in a really dark place.

So when we need, when we say we're here for you, we need to actually follow that up with, how are you?

And please, please tell me, I really want to know, and if you need help, I'm here.

I have an old friend of mine.

We ran into each other the other day after I talked for a little bit and did the whole, hey, how are you doing?

How are you doing?

And we all know how we usually answer those things.

Right.

Fine.

Yeah.

Fine, fine, moving on.

And he asked me, and it kind of took me a little off guard, and so I answered a little honestly.

It made me too honestly.

And immediately I was like, oh God, I'm sorry, man.

And he's like, no, thank you.

And then he started unloading.

And we, it was only got five minutes, but it was, I guarantee that both of us left that conversation feeling a lot better.

I think one thing that you can do in what Melissa is talking about there is when you do ask how you're doing.

Right.

Don't just wait, don't be asking just so you can tell somebody how you're doing, although that is not a bad thing.

You want to answer with that.

Right, yeah.

But listen, and give a genuine answer.

Yeah.

Well, think about it this way.

If you step out in, and that's being what you did, James, and what your friend did, that's vulnerability.

You were being vulnerable with each other.

And that is very scary.

And that is, that is a very brave act to step out in vulnerability.

That is a very strong act.

Don't think that that's a sign of weakness.

It's not.

It's the exact opposite.

So that's something to keep in mind.

When you're hesitating to talk about these things.

This is a hard thing to ask somebody to be vulnerable, but when you do, mean it.

Yeah.

And while this is, this suicide does not care about a sex or race or age or any of these things.

I will note just being a man and knowing what men can be like, I challenge all you guys out there to be brave.

To face your mental health, to face these things, to be honest with each other.

Especially what you said there, Seth.

This tends to get lumped into this, like for some reason, being soft.

When there's nothing soft about it.

No.

The strongest people can do these things, can face, look within.

Anybody can look out.

We all do that.

Looking in, that takes bravery.

That takes strength.

And we need to get better about that as a society, labeling these things that way, if we're going to label them at all.

I did want to get to this, because we had last week a lost cat.

We did.

That was missing.

And we don't always get a follow-up on these, but we did.

I want to thank our listeners out there for letting us know that Onyx is back home safely.

Yeah.

That's great to hear.

I would love to interview Onyx and find out what this adventure was like.

Well, James, I got hungry.

And I know.

I was curious.

I'm a cat.

A cat.

Keep an eye out on it.

Is there any more follow-up you need?

Okay, right, right.

As he looks disdainfully at you.

Okay, how am I going to fill five more minutes here?

So, according to the internet, some senior citizens are trying to cancel or get rid of the word senior because it quote sounds old.

And they quote, don't want to be reminded of it.

Okay.

Of course, senior citizens are older.

That is how time works.

That is how the numbers work and everything.

But younger boomers, the ones are in their early 60s, want to separate themselves from older boomers.

Kind of like older millennials want to separate themselves from younger ones.

Instead, they're calling themselves Generation Jones.

They don't want to identify as boomers because they were a little more hip and rebellious.

One person describes their youth as quote, all the things that you can think of.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, exactly.

And that aren't safe to say on radio.

Not necessarily.

Historically, people start being called seniors at 55 and definitely by 65.

However, some companies and organizations targeting younger boomers are reportedly changing quote senior centers and senior living to things like community centers and active living.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One tick tockered joke that the phrasing the word senior because it makes you feel old is kind of the most boomer thing there is.

Which I just find funny just in the sense of we, I think we need to be able to laugh at each other.

And laugh at ourselves.

Yeah.

We're doing this all over the place.

We're correcting and trying to make things more current and more correct.

I'm not saying some things we are trying to make right.

Just plain and simple.

Some things we should have never been doing and it's a marvel that we were letting them happen.

Pretty good idea what those are.

We've been doing this for quite some time.

You can go back to the late 50s, early 60s that we have been doing this with stuff.

And whether it is getting people the opportunity to vote that should have been always been able to vote or correcting of words in terminology and some of that.

Renaming certain things.

There's not only a representation that matters in this but just being historically accurate and just being making sense.

Nowadays, history is there for you.

It's all there.

You can't hide anything.

There's no sweeping anything out of the rug.

It's all out there now.

So it just makes sense to kind of correct some of these things.

As somebody who is not a senior citizen, I don't feel like I got too much of a place in this conversation.

Anybody else who wants to chime in, please do.

But I feel like I'd rather hear from seniors out there how you feel about this terminology.

And where you're at.

I'll say I will mention my whole life, my father has been hanging on to his youth.

He never died his hair or anything like that.

He's hanging in shape, walking around with his shirt off or something because he's got a better body than I've ever had.

Any of these things my dad would do.

As he has gotten older, he has found that he is so thankful to be here.

And he is so thankful for these things.

That he kind of wears senior citizen or this kind of stuff as a badge of honor in many ways.

Right.

I mean, not to be blunt here, but the game of life, if you make it to that age, you're winning.

That's still here.

To me, again, I'm not there, but I can't imagine what they call me whatever you want.

I'm happy to be here, man.

But this is different for others.

Yeah.

We've seen the evolution of what are people in their advanced ages?

What do they call?

They were called old folks back way back in the day, then they were called the elderly or old timers or something like that.

And I don't think it was ever meant as a derogatory thing.

It was just like, you know, you've been around for a while, right?

You've earned us to look up to you.

That's right.

Exactly.

But at what point do people like to stop being called older?

Or do we want to be older?

Well, 18.

Right.

It's pretty much it.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

Sorry, Seth.

I cut you off.

No, that's fine.

But you know, if people are, they feel like it's saying something about them that's not true or something like that.

I guess I can understand why you'd want to change it.

You know, if it's got a certain connotation to it, senior does, you know.

We know what it means.

Everyone knows what that means.

But so, yeah.

I mean, some people are happy when they hit that mark and then they get discounts.

Right.

Right.

But the perks, that means my food costs less.

You know, one of the things you mentioned in their James about changing the name of like a senior senator to a community center.

I think this makes sense anyway because don't you want people of all ages to be doing these things?

You would think so.

Right.

I mean, think about the benefit of having, I've seen some stories about like care centers that also they have elderly that live there.

But then there's a day care center in there as well.

And the young interact with the old and they enrich each other's life.

Exactly.

And I think we need more of that.

Absolutely.

We need more of that.

Unity building.

It's, you know, learning from our older generations that have lived these lived experiences that we don't.

Exactly.

You were so right.

Yeah, we're not here without them.

For one thing.

Absolutely.

We are not.

And I wonder too, agreeing with everything you two said, just piggybacking on it.

I wonder if the way we approach these words is part of it too.

Why is the word old considered a negative?

Why is senior considered a negative?

We're in high school and you're a senior.

You're the top of the food chain, man.

You're a senior in sports.

It's a compliment being called a veteran in sports as a compliment.

Right.

So many places in life, we look at these terms as a good thing except for when it comes to ourselves.

Like that.

That feels like we, something in society we got wrong there.

You got it.

Right.

Perfect.

It's the worship of youth.

And I think this country has been as guilty as any country about that.

I'm not saying it's the only one, but I'm just saying this country for sure has had the cult of youth is been a very strong thing over many decades and maybe even centuries.

And that's something that I think, hopefully, we're seeing change just a little bit.

Well, you know what?

If we're going to idolize the youth, could we maybe have childcare then?

Right.

We maybe have, you know, meals for them when they're in school so that they are fed and able to learn.

See, what would you do in bringing a little backward?

Bring logic into this, Melissa.

Yeah.

Come on.

What the heck?

It's all about feelings, Melissa.

Did you know that?

It's all feelings.

Right.

The other thing on this, I think, is just labels in general.

Do we really need them?

No.

No, I'm sorry.

Not really.

100%.

It makes it easier for a shorthand, I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, give it a name.

I don't know if it's all Italian families, but in my family, when you didn't know what else to say,

I give it a name.

I give it a name.

That's good.

It's what it is.

You know, we've done that too much.

I agree, Melissa.

We will take a quick time out.

We'll come back and label things.

We have 15 right into it.

15 badly named things that we're going to give better names, better labels.

When we come back on a morning show here at WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio, Melissa.

Seth and James hanging out with you.

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

I've got a whole another hour to hang out with you.

We've got some entertainment news in there.

We're going to talk about, got some other fun topics.

And before we wrap up, our final segment together will be about insults.

Ten great insults that don't sound defensive.

We'll get into that.

I will be taking notes.

All of that coming up for you.

But speaking of names and naming things, you know,

once something becomes known as one name no matter how that came to be,

those names tend to stick.

They rarely change.

Well, in an online forum, someone asked what a badly named,

what is badly named and what's a better name for it.

And a lot of these have come out.

We're only going to go over some of them.

But we do want to hear from the audience on these.

Whether you have a better name for something we mentioned

or something completely different.

Yes.

I would love to hear from you guys.

Everyone five, four, two, four, twenty, six hundred.

Feel free to call or text us through the civic media app.

Right.

Dentures.

Should be substitutes.

Substitutes.

Substitutes.

Substitutes.

Substitutes.

Substitutes.

Substitutes.

I love it.

I kind of like that one.

That one is fantastic.

Yes.

I like that.

Ladies, this one, you guys can speak to way better than me or something.

But contractions should be birth quakes.

That seems to make sense to me.

Yeah.

You guys, that's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

Pretty good.

Yeah.

I've not experienced it myself.

I also can't really.

Any bacon alternative should be faken.

Faken.

Oh, absolutely.

Yes.

Yes, I love that.

Yes.

And then I don't think that's a bad thing too.

You know, fake is usually considered a pejorative word.

No way.

I think that's great.

I think faken should be definitely should be in the lexicon.

Yes.

Yeah.

There's got to be a company out there that does that.

All right.

Get on that.

Someone suggested that garbage men should be renamed pickup artists.

Yeah.

That's not bad.

That's not bad.

That's not bad.

What about Jetskies?

Jetskies.

Okay.

How about boat cycles?

Oh.

I don't know about that one.

How about polluting and noisy?

How about that?

Yeah.

Not a fan of Jetskies.

I don't know if that works.

It was so fun, though.

Nah, I know.

Now, you know, Jetskies, while it's you're not literally on a jet, you know, it's skiing.

Although, I love skiing.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden I thought about being on a rope at the end of a plane and skiing.

And if that's Jetskying, I'm all in.

I would do that.

That would make more sense, right?

Yeah, kind of.

I love you.

Yes, both.

I've always wanted to do that too.

I almost got to, I was going to go take lessons and it rained.

Both days that I went there.

James, when you plan your holiday, you need to do that in the planning.

That might be one of the things to get me to do.

A parasailing looks like a lot of fun.

And I'm built for it.

Like, I mean, I weigh as much more kite.

That's true, yeah.

That's true, yeah.

Your aerodynamics.

Astronomers should be called skyenants.

Skyenants.

Oh.

Instead of scientists, skyenants.

Skyenants.

That's hard to say.

Skyenants.

Yeah, that's intense.

That is hard to say.

Yeah.

It's not going to catch on otherwise.

That's definitely the first rule.

It's got to be easy to say.

Yeah.