The Kitchen’s Open: Baking with WFHR (Hour 2)

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

Sometimes I'm right, and I can be wrong.

My own beliefs are in my song.

The future, the figure, the drama, and then

makes no difference what you brought me in.

Ah, now everything people.

Let's get it going. Time to start second hour of the morning show here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR.

Got your host James here, joined by Seth. Laura will be back with us in a little bit.

We're going to also be joined by our friend Tom Heizer with a monthly veterans update.

That's coming up in just a little bit for you as well.

But it's a Monday in the 10 o'clock hour. We all know what that means.

That was me. That was me. I forgot to put that back in.

Good morning, everyone. And welcome to the kitchen's open on WFHR sponsored by the hotel

Mead. This treasure landmark in the heart of downtown Wisconsin Rapids offers two

restaurant options to meet your needs. You can enjoy a casual dining experience or

timeless elegance all in your own backyard. I don't know if you've heard,

but we're making a cookbook. Yeah, that's right.

A taking inspiration from years gone by where once again pulling together recipes

from our radio family and community to share with our listeners.

This idea was sparked by three previous books our station has published.

The first was a more of a hints and tips type of book based on one of the shows

that aired at the station 60 years ago. Coffee clash.

This showed a transition into another station favorite show over the back fence.

For the 50th anniversary of the station, it's then host Milton Steele pulled together

a cookbook filled with recipes gathered from listeners from all over our

listening area. Coffee clutch. Just the listeners are going to let you know.

Okay, sorry. Coffee clutch. Alright, so the first show was coffee clutch

and they created a cookbook and then we had over the back fence and they created a cookbook

and then 10 years later for a 60th anniversary created another cookbook.

So now 25 years after that, as we prepare to celebrate

another milestone for our station, we're looking to do the same thing.

So to add yeast to the bread or prime the pump,

you see what I did there and tried to get it anyway. I thought it would be fun

to go back and share some of the tips from the predecessors.

So don't forget, we're still looking for you to share your favorite recipes

and tips with us to include in our new cookbook coming out soon.

You can do that by heading to our website, www.fhr.com

and there's on the banner, it'll rotate through.

You'll see a place where you can click to include your recipe or just stop by.

Give it to Pam, we'll make sure that we can get it in.

So from the 35th anniversary coffee clutch book,

here are a few tips about baking. Alright,

so now please remember this is from over 60 years ago.

So we may have learned a few things, but I thought it would be fun to take a look back.

So according to this, this is specifically about cake baking.

A good cake can be baked with practice. A few rolls of thumb,

pre-heat the oven.

I need that, no, that needs to be in there for people like me.

It's like super detailed, right? Yeah, make sure you get everything in there.

Well, a lot of people might think that you can just put it into the oven, turn the oven on, and you're done.

So you need to make sure that that oven is already heated.

Otherwise, it affects the way in which the baked.

So you want to make sure that you pre-heat the oven and don't alter the recipe.

Use only the correct pan size.

Like brownies, maybe in a 9x9 pan or a sheet cake is usually in a 9x13 inch pan.

So make sure you do that and only fill the pans about half to two thirds full

because it's going to rise.

You have that area for it.

So keep pans in the center of the oven.

The sides of the pans should never touch the sides of the oven.

And use only clean, shiny pans.

Most important, do not peak during the baking process.

I love that.

Yeah, and that's a good tip.

It is an excellent tip.

If you keep opening up the oven to find out where it is, you change the temperature of the oven.

So your best bet is most ovens now have a light that you can look to see where you are.

I got to say, though, this is really good.

I mean, that seems...

Anyone who's baked before, it seems like, you know, maybe it's a little too much.

And for it's like, wow, that's insane.

But then you realize, well, what if you've never baked before?

You have to get all the details right.

Otherwise, it may not turn out the way you want.

And the idea of the temperature changing because you can't stop peaking.

I don't think a lot of us would have thought of that.

That's true. That's very true.

It also says a cake can be removed immediately from the pan after baking with the help of a damp cloth.

Or you can set the cake pan on the dampened cloth and then the cake can now be removed.

An overbaked cake is not always a burned cake.

I mean, we often think it's overbaked when we see the burn.

Signs of a too well-done cake are dryness and a crispy top.

So if it's too crusty on the top, it's been in there a little bit too long.

You want to make sure your cakes are nice and moist.

A cake will not break when removed from the pan if it has been cold correctly.

So to cool the cake, you do that on a rack for five to ten minutes.

And then remove the cake from the pan.

If you don't, the cake might stick to the pan.

And then you have to try to figure out how to make it not look so bad.

It's a lot of steps.

I should have to take a class to do this.

They do offer those at mid-state.

I need a class just to go through the steps.

What does this mean now?

So we've talked about an overbaked cake.

Well, an underbaked cake will shrink in the middle,

underbaking maybe due to an inaccurate thermostat control on the oven.

This is why towards the end of the time that is recommended for your cake,

you pull it out and take either a toothpick or they have cake testers,

stick that into the middle of the cake and pull it up.

If anything sticks to it, it's not done yet.

When it comes out clean, that's when you know your cake is fully baked.

So care should be exercised in choosing the right size cake pan.

If the pan is too small, the cake's texture will be coarse.

The batter could overflow or the cake will sink when cooling.

If the pan is too small, the cake will not rise properly and will brown unevenly.

So pay attention to what they recommend.

I guess I have a new appreciation for people who have this down to an art form,

a baking, a cake, because until you really try to do it,

you have no idea how many, you know,

everything's got to be just right in order to make it good.

How wrong things can go.

Yeah, exactly.

Any step, they should just get messed up.

There is a lot of science when it comes to baking because of the chemical reactions.

And so you really do need to pay attention to all of these little details.

It also talks about prepared cake mixes will stay moist longer

with the help of mayonnaise or cooking oil.

Oh.

So you can add two tablespoons of mayonnaise or two tablespoons of cooking oil to the batter.

How about that?

Beth, do you think, because I've always heard that, you know,

one of the bigger differences between cooking and baking is patience.

It's going to need a lot more patience with baking.

It does feel a little bit like where you're cooking.

I put it in and I check out it.

Right.

Baking, I'm 24, I'm right here, I'm blocking it, I'm backing it.

I've got to make sure everything's going right.

Until it's in the oven.

Yeah, right, yeah.

Yeah, so, and really, and with cooking, you can put a dash of this, a little bit of that.

You can adjust things as you go with baking.

It is very scientific.

That's why you follow the recipes when you're baking.

The ones that your grandma made, she probably went through two or three different things

before she found out what actually were.

Seriously, I'm sure that there was a lot of trial and error with a lot of those, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Overbaking cake batter will affect the cake.

So don't overbeat it.

It will reduce the volume and make the cake, of course, coarsely green, is what it says.

Coarsely green.

But you also want to make sure that you do beat it enough.

I used to, when I was first making cakes, not do it quite enough.

There's a reason why I'm on a boxed cake mix.

It tells you to let it beat for at least two to three minutes.

And there are little things that you can do with boxed cake mix to make it taste more like a bakery cake.

Instead of using water, use milk.

That helps give it a richer flavor as well.

So that was from the coffee clutch one.

I also wanted to share some baking tips that were included in our cookbook from the 50th anniversary

with over the back fence.

And Beth is reading right from the actual cookbook.

Yes, she's reading from the book.

She's awesome.

Great.

Great, nice touch.

Thank you.

I also think that some of this stuff should be included in our new cookbook.

Let us know.

Yes.

We can sneak that in as well.

So about cakes, this talks about cracked and uneven surfaces.

That means that too much flour, too hot and oven, and sometimes from too cold of an oven.

So that's one of the reasons you preheat that oven like the first one said.

Very important.

Very important.

So dry cakes, again, too much flour and too little shortening or oil.

Too much baking powder or cooking at a too low of a temperature.

So you need to make sure that you keep that oven at a consistent temperature as well.

If you have a heavy cake, that could be caused by too much sugar or baking too short of a period.

If the crust is sticky, that means you've used too much sugar.

Which some people would say, can you ever really do that?

You're right.

Yes.

And then you call it sugar cake.

If it's a coarse grain cake, that means that you've done too little mixing.

Too much shortening, too much baking powder, using shortening that's been too softened,

or baking in too low of a temperature.

So there are several reasons that it could be that way.

If your cake is fallen, one of the reasons maybe using insufficient flour, under baking it,

as we heard just a little bit ago, and too much sugar, too much shortening

or not enough baking powder.

Okay.

And baking powder is really what lends that rise to your cake.

So you want to make sure, and you do need to have an interaction with salt.

Which is why you include a little bit of salt in your...

Flavor activator, yes.

And it activates the baking powder to get rise to the cake.

If there's an uneven color to the cake, that could be caused by cooking at too high of a temperature,

crowding the shelf, allow at least two inches around the pan, from the walls of the oven,

or using dark pans.

So believe it or not, the color of the pan will affect the baking of the cake.

It's why when you look at a boxed cake mix, it tells you if you're going to using this kind of pan,

put it in for this amount of time.

If you're using this kind of pan, put it in for this amount of time, because the heat gets conducted differently

by those different colors.

Very cool.

The cake has uneven browning, that could be caused by not mixing well enough.

So some great tips in there as well.

Yes.

I mean, we do.

We need to include some of these in the new cookbook for sure.

I really enjoy this segment.

I love learning from you, Beth.

And I have to just be honest, though.

You said shortening.

And did anybody else have mom's little baby lunch?

That popped in my head.

And I actually had to look really quick.

That's just an old folk song.

There's nothing like the Beach Boys had a version, I guess.

But there's no real actual definitive version.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Some cool history behind it.

But I thought that was like a jingle or a song.

Now it's stuck in my brain to playing on repeat.

I'm so sorry to interrupt your segment.

That's okay.

Shortening can be used in place of butter.

And butter can be used in place of shortening.

It's a type of fat that's used that was made from animal products.

So that's why you use shortening.

Lard was a type of shortening that you would use as well.

And going back to that, you can tell when something has used lard

because the flavors taste a little bit different.

But it's also a lot higher in cholesterol.

So as we've gotten a little bit more health conscious,

we've learned about when to and when not to use shortening.

So finally, from our 60th anniversary cookbook,

The Recipe by Sandy Alwarden of Port Edwards,

that won best dessert in the WFHR 60th anniversary cookoff.

Yeah.

I thought that was great.

We kind of did a bake off.

Well, dessert off.

A dessert off.

Yeah.

Whatever you want to call it, yeah.

Between our staff here,

but we didn't do any kind of a cook off.

And at 60th anniversary, that's how they celebrated that.

So I thought that was great.

That's very cool and very.

And it made sense to include this best dessert.

It is an easy black forest portal.

Doesn't that sound good?

Oh, it's so good.

It's a great name.

It had an ingredient that I did not expect to see in an ink recipe.

So with this, as we talked about,

preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

And then here's the part that I never would have expected.

Sprinkle five cups of miniature marshmallows.

Wow.

Into a greased 9 by 13-inch baking pan.

Wow.

So when it says grease,

often nowadays we'll use a spray.

Right.

A cooking spray that you can use to,

or in the old days you would take a stick of butter.

And you would rub a pan with a butter or with the short mean.

And that just allows for the separation.

Otherwise, the cake will stick to that pan.

Right.

So you want to make sure that you include that step of greasing the pan.

Then after you've sprinkled that five cups of miniature marshmallows

in the bottom of that pan,

you're going to prepare one package of chocolate cake mix.

According to the package instructions, once you've done that,

you're going to pour that over the marshmallows.

Wow.

Here's an interesting thing that happens.

Marshmallows will melt in the oven.

So even though they're in the bottom of the pan when you start,

you probably will not see any marshmallows when it comes out.

Really?

That's right.

Wow.

They will disappear.

After you've poured that cake mix over the marshmallows,

you're going to spoon one can.

It's a 21 ounce can of cherry pie filling over the batter.

Wow.

All right.

So once you've done that, you're going to put it in the oven and bake it

at 350 degrees for an hour.

Take it out, let it cool.

Remember to test it in the middle with your cake tester.

It's going to come out clean.

Once it's cool, you frost it with a container.

Usually about eight ounces of thawed whipped topping and serve

and what you don't eat, refrigerate so you can eat it later.

Okay.

That sounds, you know, I'm not a big marshmallow guy,

but that sounds so good.

Oh my gosh.

Same.

And I had forgotten this, but I am almost a hundred percent positive back

when I first came back to the station.

I was running the board for sporting events.

I would flip through the cookbook.

And I could swear I came across this one.

I'm almost positive I did.

That's cool.

That's cool.

I'm going to make this sometimes.

Oh, it sounds amazing.

And not a lot of steps.

It's pretty easy.

That's right, yeah.

The cake mix and the cherry pie filling.

And you've got this torque put together.

And I might have to try this at home myself.

Because I want to see what happens with those marshmallows.

I'm curious.

Yeah, definitely do that.

You should definitely try this.

And then bring it here too.

I'm going to taste that.

I'm going to test it.

So that's I think why it's more of a torque rather than a cake

is the marshmallows are going to make it a different texture

for that cake.

So check that out.

It was a prize winner about 25 years ago.

So let's see if it still is a prize winner in your hearts.

Nice.

So if you have a favorite tip or recipe,

please consider submitting that and sharing it with us

for our 85th anniversary cookbook.

You can find again that link at WFHR.com.

You can stop by the station and pick up a submission form.

Or if you bring your recipe card with you,

we can just make a copy and you take it right back home with you.

So we want to make sure that we get those in.

There are some great recipes that have already been submitted.

But we could always use more.

That's right.

We'll find room for them.

Absolutely.

Once again, I'd like to thank the hotel mead for sponsoring our segment.

Whether you're looking for a great meal, a night out,

or a place to hold your next event,

the hotel mead has you covered.

For more information on all they have to offer go to

www.hotelmead.com.

And with that, we'll close the kitchen.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Oh, that sounds so good, man.

I'm just trying that.

Yeah, I'm starving over here.

Another great addition.

You know, it's good because we leave hungry.

That's right.

Absolutely.

Nice work, as always.

Nice, nice work.

Be listening every Monday for another addition of the kitchen's open,

everybody.

And a big thank you to the hotel mead for that.

We'll come back with our veterans update from our friend Tom Heiser here on the morning show.

Welcome back, everyone, to the morning show here at 975 FM 1313.

We are going to begin into our monthly veterans update now.

That was the bumper.

Yes.

I want us to shut up the Lord.

Nicely produced.

Well done.

That was a great one.

Tom, Tom, how do you feel about it?

Four thumbs up.

Four thumbs up.

Four thumbs up from Tom Heiser who comes in every month at the beginning of the month

to give us our monthly veterans update.

Tom, thanks so much for being here.

Appreciate the time.

I know we wanted to start off in a certain place, you and I,

just to let everybody know that October is Agent Orange Awareness Month.

Do you encourage people to share the rose to others and let us spread the word about this one?

I know that every year this is important one to us and everything.

I have to say on a personal note, my uncle Tim, who I lost recently, struggled from this as a Vietnam vet.

And it was something that we talked quite a bit about.

I was thankful to him that he was so, you know, like a lot of soldiers wouldn't talk a whole lot about his experience over, you know,

during wartime, but he talked about this and really got me and my brother and my sister,

many of us up to date on the importance of knowing what our soldiers went through with this.

Right.

And Agent Orange is not just related to Vietnam as such because there are other countries on Thailand.

I think the Philippines, they've all been included in that because,

and it's not just Agent Orange, there were like seven different herbicides.

Yeah.

That Agent Orange, Agent Green, Agent White, Agent Red, and Agent Orange was the one that was primarily used.

And from a vet standpoint, what was interesting is we were told by the government that this would not hurt you.

Right.

And we would spray each other with it.

I mean, there's still areas in Vietnam that there is no grass.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's important to know.

It's important to remember because what comes first is our soldiers.

When it comes to this subject, when it comes to that, and the idea of that,

I appreciate you bringing attention to that time.

Well, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

We have other things to get to.

I know I've got stuff going on throughout the whole month of October, busy month for our VFWs.

Wait till you hear November.

Yeah.

I can only imagine.

Looking forward to that.

Veterans day and all the events.

Yeah.

Okay.

Just a quick recap.

We presented the colors at the Assumption game on, you know, last Friday.

Yeah.

We had that go.

Not that.

It went very well.

And thank you to the weatherman.

We appreciate that.

Yes.

Yes.

Big shout out to our weather people.

Yes, yeah.

And then, okay.

We had the VFWs this morning.

And also today is the anniversary of enduring freedom.

Okay.

Again, in 2001.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a good reminder.

And then we have the Allies VFWs meeting on Tuesday.

Heroes Cafe Wednesday.

Mm-hmm.

We're already the second Wednesday of the month.

Yeah, we are.

Yeah.

I don't know how that happened.

Yeah.

What it did.

American Legion post meets at seven o'clock on Wednesday.

Thursday, the Rudolph American Legion named me at seven.

The Vietnam Veterans Chapter 101 meets at five.

Mm-hmm.

On Thursday.

Monday, the U.S. Navy was established in 1775.

So let's spend a row and a while.

Happy birthday to them.

Happy birthday to them.

I always appreciate you putting those birthdays and anniversaries in their time.

That's terrible.

I do, but the audience appreciates it too.

Well, thank you very much.

I love doing it.

And then Tuesday, the 14th.

We had morning, Joe and Doe over and point at the Elk's Lodge.

And on the 14th, also we have the Veterans Coffee and Auburndale High School.

Yeah.

And we had breakfast this morning.

The guys are already talking about going up there from Rapids.

Mm-hmm.

How awesome.

So it's...

It's big.

More popular.

That's great.

And that starts at eight.

However, some of the guys get there at seven thirty.

Naturally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Listen.

Like I don't know, y'all are going to be early.

If you're five minutes earlier, you're actually ten minutes late.

The problem will happen.

Oh, God.

That's my youth.

This is just how my papa was in the room for a second there.

I got a Culver's Knight coming up as well.

Yes.

On October 14th, Culver's Knight from four to eight.

And that's a Culver's here in Rapids.

Mm-hmm.

And we get a percentage of all the sales.

How cool.

And it's fantastic that they do that for us because...

Yeah, Culver's awesome.

They get us, you know, some money to keep us going.

Yeah.

And, you know, nobody gets paid from the VW week.

Right.

We put it back into the community right away.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

And then...

The VW meeting on the 16th.

That's at six.

And on October 20th, Women's Army Corps, they ended in 1978.

Oh, okay.

You know, that title.

But they still...

Yeah.

Right.

Now they're just part of everything else.

It's going to change the title.

We're talking about that title.

Yeah.

There you go.

And then the Heroes Cafe and the 22nd again.

Mm-hmm.

And then on October 23rd, Grenada began in 1983.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Just reading that just really took me...

I mean, that was...

I was a kid.

And I...

I would vaguely remember bits of that.

And I'd just seen that date.

But it really stood out to me.

Wow.

And then the United Nations Day is on the 24th.

Mm-hmm.

And on October 22nd, the Honor flight number 54 returns up.

I saw CWA.

Oh.

If you get a chance, go to that.

Yeah.

To walk them on back here.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is really...

It's something to get family on one side of the walkway.

You got the military on the other side, welcoming.

Mm-hmm.

And then actually the military escorts, the wives...

Mm-hmm.

...to their seating area.

Oh, cool.

So it's...

It's honors.

Everybody should see it at least once.

It is so moving.

It is so...

There are so many things that we talk about, especially with...

When we're talking about our veterans or things involving our soldiers.

And there's no words you can really put to it.

You got to experience it.

You got to be a part of it.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Um...

And then on...

Going into November in the first, we had the state cross-country meetout at the ridges.

Oh, very cool.

Which is not the colors there.

And again, on the fourth, we got the vets council.

And then November 7th.

Getting slightly into November a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

We have vets in the classroom.

And that night, a Navy musicians called the Commodores.

Now, it's not Lyon or Richie.

Not those Commodores.

It's the other ones.

It's a great name for a Navy band.

That's a great name.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And then on November 10th, we have the VFW spaghetti feed.

Oh, it's the time of year again.

Yeah.

And the veterans eat for free.

Just show an ID.

And they get to eat for free.

And it's...

It's all you can eat.

Mm-hmm.

And we have a really good chef.

Oh, yeah.

So, yeah.

If you get a chance, definitely, you know, come out for that because...

It's good.

Good stuff.

It's worth it.

It's very good.

Yeah, that's good.

We're not selling this spaghetti enough.

It's a...

It's very good spaghetti.

Yeah.

And that's from 4-3 to 7.

So, guys, time to take the wife out.

Mm-hmm.

It's a good one.

You're turned to clock.

Damn.

That night.

Nice.

Tom, appreciate this as always.

And always like to make sure that if people out there are listening and maybe they have follow

questions or other events are going on that we can tack on to this next month or so on.

How can they get in touch with each other?

You can call the VFW at 715-6000-0401 and we are available for Christmas.

If you don't want to have it at your house, if your house is not big enough for the whole family, come on out.

Yeah.

And the VFW has a bar.

Yeah.

Keep all of that in mind, everybody.

And certainly these events, we will be touching on these and talking about them more as we get closer to them.

And Tom will be joining us again around this time next month with another monthly veterans update.

Appreciate you, sir.

Thanks for the time.

No problem.

November is very, very busy for events.

So you'll see us at a lot of different places.

Oh, yeah.

Hoping to.

Yeah.

Looking forward to it as well.

Thanks again for the time, Tom.

Appreciate you.

You're welcome.

Thank you for belonging to here.

Yeah.

Laura Seth and I will be back after our new sports entertainment and partner break here on the morning show at WFHR.

Welcome back, everyone.

Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.

Got Laura Seth and James here with you.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Yes.

I almost said Melissa.

Hold habits.

Almost did.

But to be fair, I almost said Melissa Laura at Seth and James.

I was just including ads.

We don't even have that many microphones in here.

No, don't.

But we do have a caller on the line.

Good morning.

You're in the show.

Good morning.

I'm catching up on the coffee.

I had the wrong internet.

No.

Or you guys.

Good day, man.

I'm wondering if you remember who the coffee clutch host was.

I know we've had originally I know that.

Oh, it's time to hit my tongue.

It's right out there.

Yeah, that's the guy.

Arnie.

It's Arnie.

It's Arnie Strowatt, the original host.

Yeah.

Arnie Strowley.

Yeah.

That's the one.

Arnie.

Oh, my God.

He lived about four blocks from me and I went to a grade school in high school with his kids.

And he had a set of pipes on him.

That was unreal.

Awesome.

I didn't get to meet Arnie until much later in life.

And he still had those pipes.

He still had that golden voice.

You know, when he had that wooden leg, you know, we always knew someone bought that.

This station wouldn't be here without Arnie.

Yeah.

No, I was doing the math.

He said 1960 and I'm 77.

So that would put me right about during that age.

And if you remember, he was one of the sidekicks that came out from like Massachusetts or Maine.

And had a very distinct accent.

No, I don't remember that.

Wow.

Mark Barry.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Wow.

Oh, man.

Great name.

Yes.

Oh, great question.

This is cool.

Yeah.

Mark Belly.

Mark Belly.

Yeah.

Appreciate the call, sir.

Yeah.

Thank you for the chat memory lane.

We appreciate that.

Yeah.

Thank you guys for being at tune with that kind of stuff.

Oh, no problem.

Our history is the coolest thing.

Yeah.

Thank you for the call, sir.

You have a good morning.

Not only.

And thank you for listening.

Yeah.

We appreciate that.

Our history is very important to us.

Especially as we're getting closer to Eden, November and celebrating our 85th anniversary.

That's getting very close now.

Any opportunity for us to pay tribute to the people that got us here.

We are always going to take it.

Absolutely.

We're not here without the Arnie's and the Chuck Generos and in so many of these other

...

Well, I'm the Jack Generos.

Jack of the Jack Generos.

Yeah.

I meant Jack Generos.

Listen, Chuck's an all right guy.

He's only been here since he was, you know, was born.

Literally.

I just, it Chuck's amazing.

I just didn't want to make him seem older than he is.

I didn't mean to make him this.

We meant Jack, but also Chuck.

One of those Generos, yeah.

There's so many great voices over the decades that have got us here.

We appreciate it.

Just a couple of quick stories and a little bit of entertainment.

The reason a little bit of entertainment news to throw in there.

Okay.

Taylor Swift has taken over the box office.

This was Taylor's weekend and I guess she doesn't want people to forget it.

Because her album sales and her album reviews have not been what she is used to.

And she's not handling that well apparently.

Girlfriend, it's okay.

You've got more money than the Catholic church calm down.

The fan base is saying that her music isn't, they're happier that she's

with Taylor and their Travis.

They're happy that she's happy, but her music isn't as good with she's not happy.

And I would like to introduce her audience to musicians.

Yes.

Well, and I would like to introduce her audience to like reality.

It happens.

You know.

Let your girl grow up and move on.

If it's not for you anymore, that's cool.

You can also grow up and move on.

Within 12 hours of its release, the life of a showgirl had been successful.

The showgirl had been streamed more than any other album on Spotify this year.

And the song, The Fade of Ophelia, became the most streamed song in a single day in Spotify history.

Showgirl also broke the 2025.

Showgirl also broke the 2025 single day streaming record on Apple and Amazon.

And it's the most streamed album ever in a single day with 2.7 million copies burned.

Explain yourself, girl.

Taylor also dominated the box office her life of a showgirl album release event.

Raked in 33 million in theaters this weekend.

My bad.

As comparison, the smashing machine, a new movie from the rock that has taken a lot of hype.

Six mil.

It only made six mil.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's okay.

Wow.

I still am struggling to see what she's complaining about.

What's not her feeling any kind of way right now other than excited?

So much of, and this is something that has been in the case for a long time.

But I would say in the last 10 to 5 years, 5 to 10 years.

This has become almost a automatic thing that Monday morning producers are going to look at.

Whether you're talking movie producers or we're talking music producers.

The expectations.

What were the assumptions of what this album would do?

What was it going to do?

And seeing if it matches that.

Because it used to be, okay, we're going to have the bar here.

And it's usually a little lower than expected.

They've gone the other route with this.

And especially with your Beyoncé's, with your Taylor Swift's.

Where if they're projecting the cell 20.

If the numbers are saying 20, they're predicting 40.

So when it's not matching that, they're kind of, oh no, the sky is falling.

Taylor Swift's losing popularity and all that.

Well, clearly.

Yeah.

And clearly they're not accounting for inflation.

I mean, come on, guys.

Well, and not for nothing.

And she is not alone in this.

A lot of artists have done this.

A lot of artists have boxed their audience out.

Like they can't afford their strength.

Right.

They can't afford your concert.

That's the thing.

Yeah.

And again, she's not the only one doing that.

But she is probably the biggest.

But she's a big part of it.

She is probably the biggest.

Well, and her concert tickets are crazy expensive.

That's enough to tell you.

Look at the beginning of the Taylor Swift or era.

Look at the beginning of the era.

The era's tour.

And what, no, no, no, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, just in general, her popularity going from country to pop

in the rise of that.

And look at where ticket sales started to go from that time.

So she sets the bar.

My tickets are going to be this price.

So when Beyonce or any other artist is going to come out,

I'm having a real hard time naming popular artists right now.

And just keep on bringing up Beyonce.

But so that price that was set, everybody's trying to match that.

So for over 10 to 20 years, that bar that she keeps putting higher

and higher and higher, ticket sales keep going higher and higher and higher.

And again, not blaming her for this.

Somebody's at the top.

Somebody's going to do that.

Oh, yeah.

You're just going to have a small audience of privileged folks.

Is that really what you're aiming for?

That's apparently that's where she is.

I'm just saying.

And that's going to happen.

And maybe that's because her fan base has been so loyal for so long.

And maybe that's part of it too, that she just doesn't feel like she needs to.

Yeah, right.

Who knows?

And that's, yeah, that's about it for that.

So not long ago, this was one of the biggest pharmacies in America.

Now it's time for us to bury them.

Oh, no.

We say our IP to right aid.

Oh, really?

They just know more.

They almost forgot about that.

You and me both.

They announced the remaining 89 stores closed last week.

So they are officially out of business.

We need nine stores.

Wow.

They've been on the ropes for a while.

They went bankrupt back in 2023, but they still had 2.5 billion worth of debt.

So they had to go bankrupt again this past summer.

Wow.

They're springing, sorry.

If you go to rightaid.com now, there's just a button to request prescriptions and vaccine records.

I want to see what that looks like.

Okay.

Let's just help it there.

Let's find out.

Yeah.

There it is.

Wow.

Find your new pharmacy, it says.

Wow.

All right.

Right aid stores have now closed.

We think our loyal customers for their many years of support.

Right aid was founded in Scranton, Pennsylvania back in 1962.

At one point, there were about 5,000 of them across the US.

Wow.

Even earlier this year, they still had about 1,200 of them operating in 15 different states.

Okay.

Wow.

They've been fighting more than 1,000 lawsuits linked to opioid crisis for filing illegal

painkiller prescriptions.

Oh, dear.

Oh, boy.

I don't do it.

Yeah.

And they've also been losing ground to bigger chains like CVS and Walgreens.

And a lot of people just get their prescriptions through the mail now.

Yeah.

And then you have Amazon getting into this game and all these other companies getting into

the game now and stuff.

So honestly, I'm surprised they were open as long as they were.

Sure.

Sure.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I am.

I'm okay with them leaving if it means we're going to end up with 89 local pharmacies.

Right.

I love my love pharmacy.

I don't.

I don't have pharmacy here in town.

Kicks.

It's my favorite.

Great.

You know, I'm with you on that.

I don't see that happening.

Honestly.

No, me.

The CVS takes over everything.

But yeah.

To that point, honestly, Seth.

So one of my things is I don't like I hate monopolies of any kind.

The only good monopoly is the board game.

It comes to like what you just said there about CVS.

Yep.

I hear what you're saying.

I would agree with you a thousand percent if it wasn't for what I just said about Amazon.

I'd rather have CVS than Amazon taking this over.

If I got to pick a conglomerate to take over or anything like that, I trust them a little bit more.

Yes.

Yeah.

Granted, I'm choosing between the lesser of two evils right or everything in some ways.

Which apparently is the only choice we're getting lately.

Yeah.

Seems that way anyway.

It used to just be with elections.

That's everything.

That's everything.

That's everything.

My grandfather's favorite quote to just give.

The lesser of two evils, James.

It is a process actually that I cannot mention the name on the air.

But I think people know what word I'm talking about.

I was about to say it as soon as I shut off the case.

Cory Doctoro, the guy who coined this.

I'm a big fan of his.

Yes.

But he could have chose one we could say on the air.

Man.

It would have been nice.

Come on, man.

It would have been real convenient.

We are going to come back and we'll get into our schedule and some really good stories of the day and good things going on in their area.

One of the things that I wanted to mention as long as we're kind of touching on entertainment at the moment is a Christmas story.

The holiday production for Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre has auditions going on today.

Yes.

Tomorrow for the youth.

They're auditioning 430 to 530 for adults 628.

You'll have your audition at the WRCT Auditorium head on over there if you'd like.

Or you can fill out your audition should form early.

Very cool.

Go to wrctheater.org to go ahead and do that everybody and a quick shout out to these community that supported on Golden Palm and came out in droves to see that show.

Yes.

Thank you so much to this community.

You humble us.

Very cool.

Thank you to the cast and crew.

Absolutely.

Well done, everybody.

Well done, everyone.

Be a part of the next one.

A Christmas story directed by Christine Sullivan.

Be sure to check that out.

Auditions again tonight and tomorrow night for the youth.

430 to 530 for adults 628.

Fill out your audition form.

Get tickets and find out more at wrctheater.org.

We'll be back on our show.

It's 53 at our studios.

Welcome back, everyone.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Locale Grown Radio.

Hope y'all are having a great Monday out there.

Thanks for joining us.

Been a real fun couple of hours here.

We had a blast.

Yeah.

Want to say a shout out to Beth in the hotel.

Meet with the Kitchens open.

Reach out there.

Gigantic.

Thank you to our friend Tom Heizer,

where the monthly veterans update.

Yeah.

Always appreciate Tom joining us.

And of course, all of you.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Getting to our schedule here.

We got a great Rapids Report lined up for you today.

Laura did a nice job setting these guests up for us.

And back to back episodes today.

We're going to be talking with our Miss Wisconsin Rapids

and Miss Wisconsin Rapids teen contestants.

Very cool.

Very cool.

Pageant coming up.