Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day.
Sometimes I'm right, and I can be wrong. My own beliefs are in my song.
I'm trying to make a drama and then make a strong difference what you're going in.
I'm everything people.
Welcome back to the show. Our two of the morning show here at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM locally grown radio.
Your host James here joined by CEO of your United Way of South Winnihams County's Terry Johns.
Good morning. We got the band together on a hump day, having some fun.
We're going to take you to the top of the hour, getting to some good stories of the day, our schedule.
Talk about some great events going on in our area. It's Halloween week.
So we got to get into Halloween times and all of that. We'll wrap up with an update from our friends at the United Way.
Looking forward to that, but we'll be getting with entertainment news.
And this one we touched on on the sunrise show, but I really wanted to dive into a little bit with you, Terry.
And I thought this was really important. The Grand Old Opera is set to once again raise awareness for an important cause.
Now this happened the other day, but they're still collecting funds for it.
For those that didn't see Amy Grant led the 17th annual opera goes pink celebration on October 25th and on her breast cancer awareness month.
Carrie Underwood was also also performed that night.
Each year, $5 from every ticket sold is donated directly to the Susan G. Corman, the world's leading non-profit in the fight against breast cancer.
The funds help fuel research education and patient support programs across the country.
The opera goes pink was very successful this year and it's a really cool event.
It's a really cool event. I don't know how many people know about it.
And I just wanted to bring a little attention to it for those that don't. I thought it was really awesome.
And Amy Grant is an amazing MC.
I haven't seen her do a whole lot of it. Wow, is she good?
I like her.
Just a natural up there.
You know, I like them though.
You know, like her and Vince get like I just.
That's a cool cover.
They have a yeah.
That's a great aura around them.
Tell me that would be a great couple to have dinner with.
Like just like that would be awesome.
No, I just want to sing.
This is singing.
Put that.
Not eating with them.
Put down the meatloaf.
It's sick.
We're talking about it.
We'll get to the food later.
That's like, that's a really cool story though.
And another one of these things that I mean, the, the, I, the Grand Ole Opry's been around for so long.
And it, you know, you can't, if you know a music note, you know about the Grand Ole Opry.
I've known about it my whole life, but it's only been in the last four years
of doing working on 105, five a lot more and doing the sunrise show
that I've gotten to really understand what the Opry means.
Certainly the country music.
But just as a whole to us as, as, as a culture, it's so important.
It has done such great things.
And it's, it is one of those places where I know I don't have any tides to country music,
but I give anything to perform on that stage.
You know, there's something about it that when you go in there.
Like, I don't know, it's just, just a feeling.
Like it's, you know what I mean?
Like when you go and go to your find your seat and stuff, it's just, it's amazing.
I've heard, I've talked to people that have been there and seen shows there and stuff.
And when I hear them talk about it, it's exactly like when my father and my pop would talk about Riggly Field.
Or I have my friends talk about Lambo.
Yeah.
Or something like that.
Like there's a different feel to it.
It's really cool.
Well, that's great.
Well done by them.
Tip of the cowboy hat tool.
I thought this was a fun story.
It kind of interesting.
And an interesting twist on this.
Now, bad bunny was announced a while ago as the halftime Super Bowl show and stuff.
And there was some obviously pushback on that.
As a side note, it doesn't matter who they said, there was going to be pushback.
Because it's music and everybody has different things that they like.
But one of the things I don't know if a lot of people saw coming was this story right here.
There's a lot of people.
Certainly, I don't even know if it's a lot of people, but some people upset about it and everything.
And there's some people out there who as far as bad bunny performing are actually learning Spanish
so that they can understand his lyrics more.
That was exactly my question.
Well, no, two questions.
First, I'm like, who is that?
Of course, I'm asking my kids, right?
Yeah.
And then the second was, I'm like, are any songs in English?
They're like, no.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
The language app speaks, says, quote, it's our biggest spike in US downloads driven by a cultural event.
And with many users writing, understanding bad bunny as a reason they are interested in learning Spanish.
Is that hilarious?
Remember the old, what was the old one?
Rosetta Stone.
Yes, Rosetta Stone.
Yeah, yeah.
A bad bunny fan named Nicholas, who's from Germany, has become TikTok famous in a quest to learn Spanish in time for the game in February.
He's also learning bad bunny's lyrics so that he can sing along with the songs fluently.
He says, quote, I really thought, oh, I can totally do this.
How hard can it be?
Turns out very hard.
Spanish is not the easiest language to learn, especially if you come from an English-speaking country.
They do things a little bit differently with a lot of their punctuations and a lot of this.
There are two really cool things here.
Well, two things I think that are noteworthy.
One, how cool is this?
Spanish is the biggest, it's the most frequent language in the world.
If you, to me, learning Spanish even a little bit of Spanish is important.
It's vital going forward.
I find it almost ridiculous not to even just learn a little bit here and there.
And I'm not even saying, for any other reason, other than it's cool.
I think it's interesting.
I think it's just any language, not just Spanish, but any language, let alone the most popular language in the planet.
Like, is cerveza enough or do you need to have more than that?
I think that's fine.
I think you're fine.
I think actual Spanish people might say a little bit different, but for me, I think that's a good start.
I think language in general is cool.
So I don't care if we're talking about German, Spanish, or whatever.
I think it's fun to learn these things.
And if this is what gets people to do it, more power to it.
I was going to say, my takeaway from this is kids intentionally learning something.
And here's another side note about this with bad money and this performance and everything.
And this is coming from actual, like, diehard fans of his, as well as, like, a good friend of mine,
who is also Puerto Rican, like, bad money and everything.
And they will be the first ones to tell you.
You can learn all the Spanish you want.
That's not necessarily what he does.
His lyrics are the last part of his act.
It's all about the circus.
It's about the pop and circumstance.
It's about the beat, the music.
It's about energy and all these things.
His lyrics are really not one of the more important parts.
If I didn't tell you that he was a Spanish artist, you may not even realize right away with him.
People who are born and raised in Puerto Rico have a hard time understanding him.
If you speak no Spanish and that is even a hymn of a concern to you, I wouldn't worry about it.
The lyrics are really not one of the more important parts of this.
You have to speak funny.
Yes, yes, you have to speak.
I think I'll miss it only because I'll be the one in the kitchen refreshing the snacks
and getting the food ready for everybody.
I'm not against it.
I'm not for it.
If it was somebody that I was super interested in, I would make sure I'm sitting there watching,
but I can take it or leave it.
To me, do you love football?
Do you love football?
Because if you do, you should be really happy, bad money is doing this.
Because this is about growing the sport.
This is about the game getting bigger.
Now, I'll be completely honest with everybody.
I don't care if football is big in Europe.
I don't care if Brazil celebrates football.
I care about America.
But that is part of how you grow a sport.
Guess what?
We don't have enough Americans to play this game.
If you think we do, go ahead and look at the starting quarterbacks in the around the NFL
and tell me every one of those people deserve to be starting at that position.
We don't have enough people.
You need people from around the world.
The NBA realize this.
The other sports realize this baseball.
Football.
I mean, football hockey baseball.
They have people from around the world in these sports.
Football has a little bit of that, but it has the least of the four major sports,
and it's the biggest of them.
In order for the game to grow, you've got to have artists outside of the country.
And if you're going to have an artist, why not have the literally the biggest artist in the world
as the Super Bowl halftime show?
It is Business 101.
It makes sense.
If you don't like it, I don't blame you.
I'm not a gigantic, bad, bunny fan.
I think I like him as an actor more than I do as a singer and everything.
But I'm an adult.
Like, do you not understand Business?
Do you, if you've been watching football and don't understand the business of it?
Man, I would love to live in your world.
I would love to know what it's like to be living that kind of, like, candy land world
of not understanding that this is a business.
I'm just going to watch the commercials.
Yeah, that's what a lot of people are going to do.
I mean, here's the other thing.
Anybody that I've talked to that has a problem with this?
What was last year's halftime show?
What was the year before that?
What was the year before that?
I have no idea.
Yeah, because you were getting snacks.
You were going to the bathroom.
What do you care?
I think a lot of people just don't care.
And it's fine.
It's not even necessarily for us.
Like, it's more so for just the people that don't end up in the football.
That aren't going to be, you know, that into the game.
Right, right.
Yeah, yeah, just in Timber Lake, man.
I'm just saying, there's some memorable ones.
I think this is an interesting one.
Oh, yeah, yeah, there is.
I thought Bruce Springsteen's was pretty good.
Princess was maybe my favorite I've ever seen.
I loved the year.
It was Black Eyed Peace.
There's some good ones.
That's some good ones.
A collection of classic TV show costumes just sold at a recent auction.
There's some pretty cool highlights from these.
And along with these things I'm going to say,
I want to know if these are any of these that you would have, Terry.
Not that you would buy, but I say, hey, Terry, I got you this for your birthday.
Here you go.
Batman and Robin's costumes worn by Adam Weston Bert Ward on the 1960 Batman series sold for $575,000.
I was hoping those were going to be on there.
Isn't that cool?
That's the first one I thought of when you said TV show costumes.
That's the exact first thing that popped in my head.
Those would be pretty cool.
Those would be pretty cool.
I would ruin the value of them though.
I would wear them.
I would wear them from time to time.
I am lumped Wonder Woman in there too though.
I got to get that one there.
That's iconic.
With the lasso.
The Joker's costume worn by the great Caesar Romero on Batman from that same series sold for $212,000.
I love that costume.
I love that.
It's a battle rang and holster sold for $50.
Oh, Wonder Woman's costume, including the lasso of truth worn by Linda Carter and Wonder Woman.
$225,000.
Take it.
Oh, you'd rock that.
Two of Fonzzi's leather jackets worn by Henry Winkler Wisconsin's own on Happy Days, 87 grand for one of them and 75 G's for another.
That's cool.
And they're probably wearing them.
I would wear it every day.
Captain Kirk's Starfleet uniform worn by William Shetner on Star Trek $62,000.
I actually would have thought that'd go for more just because that fan base is so crazy.
And I have no connection there.
You know what I mean?
I would have no interest in that.
With those kind of items and everything, it's not just the fan base, but it's for every person that's betting.
Or bidding on it.
There's going to be somebody that's going to raise the bid.
Yeah, you think.
Jenny's Pink Haram costume worn by Barbara Eden on I dreama Genie.
So Genie's Pink Haram costume.
Oh, now I know what they're talking about.
Yeah, yeah.
42,000 for that one.
That's an interesting.
Not much of a costume, though, for whatever remember.
There's a little, hold on to that.
Herman Munster's costume worn by Fred Gwynne on the Munster's 37,501 of the lower priced things on this list.
I can't do a good Herman Munster.
I can't do a good Herman Munster.
I loved his laugh.
Oh, his laugh was great.
And Maxwell smart shoe phone worn by the great Don Adams on Get Smart sold for $35,000.
I don't know that.
Oh, yeah, good show.
That's probably the item you'd want from that show.
Is that phone?
And I'd pay more if it worked.
That'd be great.
That's a fun list.
So the Wonder Woman costume.
You know, fun facts.
I was Wonder Woman for Halloween one time as a young adult.
That would be a great costume for you.
Yeah, it was fun.
That'd be a good one.
It seems like it'd be fun to do.
It's hard to get that black dye out of my hair, but it was good.
I imagine.
And one more entertainment story I wanted to get to.
And this one, I encourage people to look into this and everything.
I think this is pretty cool.
You can go to our friends over at Wisconsin Public Radio WPR.org to find this article.
Actor Tony Shaloup, Wisconsin's own, has a new TV show coming out.
No, it is not Monk 2.
Monk gets angry.
That's what I was trying to pitch that show to him.
He did not have any interest.
Didn't fly.
His people did not reach back out.
I'm just going to give you a little bit of the article here and give you a little feel of what this is.
I do encourage you to read the article.
It is very well written and it gives you a great work.
Rachelle Wilson does a really nice job on this.
Sitting in an empty Lambo field, actor and green bay native Tony Shaloup
enjoyed a pre-game ritual with Packer legend Leroy Butler eating grilled cheese sandwiches.
Quote from Leroy Butler.
If I didn't have this before a game, I felt like I couldn't play butler says.
Holding up a freshly made sandwich made with 9 grain bread, butter and colby jack cheese.
For those that don't know, this was a tradition of Leroy Butler's before games.
Then Tony kicks in.
I have to tell you, this is the best grilled cheese I've ever had.
Whether it's the place being here with you, the specialness of it or something about it.
This is an excerpt from a new TV show called Breaking Bread.
A new documentary series airing on CNN.
There's going to be about six episodes.
This is a fun show.
It seems like a fun idea.
Sounds cool.
Wisconsin today.
WPR's Wisconsin today had a great interview with him.
You can hear more about it and everything.
The show is airing this Sunday.
I believe it premieres at 7 o'clock.
Oh no, November 2nd.
November 2nd, the first episode will premiere November 2nd on CNN at 7 o'clock on Sunday.
I know I'll be watching.
There's something about a good grilled cheese too.
Yes.
Especially with the ingredients and the way they're talking about they made it and everything.
I don't think I've had grilled cheese like that before.
It sounds great.
Also, Tony Shalube looks amazing.
I don't know how old he is, but he looks fantastic.
He's agent right.
He's doing something right right.
Check that out.
Everybody, I think that sounds pretty cool.
And it's got such a Wisconsin ties to it and everything.
I encourage people to check that one out.
And while you're at it, check out your favorite cheese recipe or bread recipe or something
and bring it to us over at WFHR.com.
Get on over there.
Sign up for our newsletter.
We'll have a new edition coming out for you this Friday.
And while you were there, submit your recipe for our 85th anniversary cookbook.
Everybody, it's our love letter to our community to celebrate our 85th anniversary next month.
We are collecting recipes from our community to put in there.
If your recipe is submitted, you'll get a free copy of the cookbook.
We're very excited about this, but we are going to be wrapping up submissions real soon.
Because we've got to get this through the printers.
Fun fact, mine is in.
Yeah, all right.
Oh, the wish bell.
I don't have it over here anymore.
I'm going to get it back.
Yes, thank you for doing that, Terry.
Thank you for submitting.
Yeah, I might have one more, but I did get one in.
Thank you.
I might make the cut.
I feel good about your chances.
I feel good about everybody's chances.
Because we're going to make this thing worn piece size if we have to.
We want all of your recipes, everybody.
Get them to us.
Sign up at WFHR.com for the newsletter and get your recipe to us.
It did take me about five hours to find it though.
Oh, yeah.
To find the form.
Oh, really?
It was struggling.
That's not good.
Let us know if you struggle or have any troubles with it.
And we'll make sure to get it in there.
If you don't have a chance to get online or you want to drop it off or anything like that.
However, you're going to get the recipe to us.
Please feel free to reach out to us or just stop by the studios here and drop it off.
Or we'll make a copy of it or something like that.
It won't be the same without you.
We want you to be a part of this cookbook.
You can submit your recipe and sign up for the newsletter at WFHR.com.
I encourage you all to do that.
We'll take a quick time out.
We'll come back with a fun one we've got here, Terry.
Oh, not a fun one, necessarily.
But an interesting one about how many of us don't use our vacation days.
And what do we do with them?
We'll come back with that coming up on the morning show here at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Terry and James hanging out with you with the greatest baseline of all time playing us in.
I can't get enough of Steve Wunder's superstition.
This can't get enough, especially this time of year.
This is an interesting topic, Terry.
I was looking forward to diving into with you in particular.
According to a new report, 23% of employees didn't take a single vacation day in the past year.
So it's not just me, despite the majority of them having access to PTO.
This is something that has been a topic I think since PTO was first invented.
It's something that, you know, being honest, it's not just something that our co-host tees me about about.
Oh, you need to take a vacation in some of those things and everything.
They do it for one thing off air as well.
And they do it for, well, it's a running gag.
It's also, you know, important because they're right.
Not only that we should use these things and use these days,
but we all need a break from time to time.
We need a breather from time to time.
So for you, paid time off is not a value add.
Yeah, yeah.
No, not at all.
They could, I could not see that being a positive or a negative to me if I'm thinking about a business or going somewhere or something like that.
Yeah.
It's never even crossed my mind.
I've never even thought about it.
For me, it's pretty high on the list.
I would say almost 90% of people I think it is.
There are a few, there are a number of things I say that are pretty weird and people look at me pretty funny from.
Yeah, yeah.
It's shocking.
I'm sure that one is probably the one that's way up on the list because most people are,
look at this as I think in a very healthy way.
I don't think I do.
I think my, I think it's good to have a strong work ethic.
Then there's insanity.
Right.
I'm on that curve there and everything.
I don't say any that, I say this hoping that people can recognize it in themselves if they are like this.
And if not, then maybe they can give me some tips on how it can be less me.
There are three major reasons that people do this though.
One is workload.
43% of workers have felt that they have too much work to do to justify their vacation,
while 30% have worried about falling behind at work.
Well, and I think too, especially in a salary position, most often, but you know, could be hourly too.
But yeah, like the work is still going to be there.
You know what I mean?
Like in my role or any of my staff, like nobody jumps in and does your work while you're gone for a week.
You have to pre-plan and then you have to expect that there's going to be, you know,
that whole dreaded pile of email when you come back.
But to me, it's still worth it.
Yeah.
You know, you just, but you have to, you have to be self-disciplined enough to plan for it.
There's a, there's a, a, an energy and radio that, and this is exists in a lot of industries.
But just in talking about the one I'm in and the one I jumped into where I didn't go to school for this or anything,
I got fortunate that radio found me and I got a home in radio.
But I found out real quickly and everybody that had experience in radio couldn't wait to tell me,
you know, people are coming for your job.
People are coming for your job.
If you're good at something, be really good at it and try to be good at other things.
So they can't get rid of you and all these things.
And that was the first eight, nine years of radio for me was building in my brain this idea that you have to hang on to your job
and that anybody could take it from you at any minute.
So then I get a second chance in radio and I come into this gig and I'm doing the work here
and I get an opportunity that I never would have thought I'd have.
I'm going to be co-hosting with Bob on the morning show.
And then after a little while, I'm running the morning show and there's nobody else here to do it.
So it falls on it.
So then it's not just that I have this in my brain of, okay, I've got to keep this job.
I got to keep working at the job.
I can't afford to take any time off because somebody will take this job from me.
And as a side note, everybody, I haven't had a job in a long time that pays well.
So that gives you an added bonus to want to keep that job.
But then there's the factor of, for a long time, it's just a couple of us around here keeping this station going.
So for years, it's like that.
And now we get to a place where we got a great team.
I got the best team in radio.
I wouldn't trade one person I got in this staff.
We're very lucky.
We got great people.
We have automation now.
We've got a number of different factors to where I can walk away.
But that part of my brain that has been that has been that much longer than this.
It's all I've been for almost 20 years is doing that.
So how do you turn that off?
How do you stop being that?
And that's just me.
Think about people that have been doing this for 40, 50, 60 years.
All of that.
It's real easy to say you should take some time off.
You should use that PTO.
It's a lot harder to get your brain to take time off.
I think you need to, like you specifically, like find a habit.
Find something that you enjoy to do so that if you weren't here for, oh my gosh, five days in a row.
Or maybe even two days in a row.
You know what I mean?
That you wouldn't be feeling like, oh, what's going on there?
Right?
You have to find something that you enjoy enough to fill that time.
You know, for some people, I think it's just rest and relaxation and rejuvenating.
Other people have trips or maybe it's something around the house you've been waiting to do.
You know, something like that.
But I think if you were super intentional about taking your mind away, you could do it.
I think for myself or people like me, I think I almost have to be physically out of town.
Even if it's just point or it's, you know, a Milwaukee or Madison or something like that.
I've got, I don't have to be on the other side of the world, but you've got to take me out of the way from the station.
You've got to take me away from my physical job.
Otherwise, especially with, you know, so much of my job is online nowadays.
And everybody might as well take the internet away from you too.
Because it's, I literally can't stop myself.
I don't know how to.
Friday, I was going over notes for this Monday's morning show.
I couldn't help myself of doing it on the drive down there.
Yeah, but that's okay.
It's just, I, I, I think that it's, it's one of those things that it wouldn't hurt people to be a little more understanding about.
Well, also the people that are doing this, like myself, also need to be more open to, hey, you deserve a day off.
You've got to pay day off, come and go and take the day off.
You know, the people around you deserve a day off from you.
Oh, God, do they.
Oh, God, do they.
I think I actually, I think I actually saw a little more life in the building, what I can know.
There's a number of reasons people do this.
The workload is one of them.
Another is team culture.
29% of workers have felt guilty or, quote, pressured to appear committed to et their jobs, which may lead to them avoiding taking PTO.
And 25% of workers say that their manager would likely respond to in a discouraging manner if they ask for a week off or something.
Now, that one, I have to say, in my radio world, in my radio time, I've never experienced that.
I've never had a boss that didn't, whatever the reason, you know, and I've had really, I've been really lucky.
I've had some pretty good bosses, even ones that I don't necessarily look at as a good boss, never said to me, discourage me from taking days off.
It's never been their fault.
I mean, this is my fault.
And if we're actually talking PTO, paid its time off.
We're not talking about family medical leave or, you know, like other reasons that you might be off, but if we're talking about company provided paid time,
how can someone in a leadership role in that company discourage people from using what the company, you know what I mean?
That's bad leadership, yeah.
That manager needs a talking too.
Yeah.
But I mean, there's also, I mean, of course, there's still process, right?
Like business goes on.
So I can't, all of my staff can't be on vacation on the same day.
We still have to operate.
So there are parameters to or a process or procedure, you know, to how days off are requested and granted.
But in general, I mean, it seems counterproductive for that company to have a leadership role person discouraging people from using their paid time off.
And the other reason behind this is a PTO expert expectations.
More than 33% of employees say that they don't think that they have enough PTO to take a proper vacation.
And some workers get unlimited PTO, but they actually makes it tougher to get away to because of unclear expectations of how long that they're supposed to take off.
And of course, if your employer was invested, they may know, you know, some of the benefits of this and have experienced it themselves.
So there are so many benefits, so many more benefits to PTO, not just for the person obviously taking it, but to the owner, to the manager, to the fellow employees above.
It makes people better, more focused workers.
There's less risk of burnout. It's good for morale. It can help provide more of a family look, you know, approach to the team looking out for each other vibe at a lot of workplaces that claim they offer that and want to have that.
This is a way of showing that.
And I don't believe that there's ever been a business that was hurt by doing right by their employees if they're doing it right.
You know, I think that it's a very smart thing. I'm a big fan of this. I think this is an important thing. I just need to take my own medicine.
Just very bad at that. Maybe if I put it in a cookie, maybe if I put it in a cookie.
Maybe there are cookies out there.
Yeah, I'm going to go do that. I'm going to have some of those cookies.
And we'll be back in talking about the benefits of having a dog. Got the four benefits of having a dog when we come back with the morning show on WFHR.
Welcome back everybody. Morning show here at WFHR.
Locally grown radio. Terry and James hanging out with you. Thanks for hanging out with us.
Got some fun stuff to get to before we wrap up this show, including this great study that gets us ready for tomorrow.
And our pet of the week with the South of County Main Society.
They'll be joining us at the top of the 10 o'clock hour.
Denise will be hanging out with Lauren. I look forward to it and looking forward to seeing a new favorite furry friend that we want to adopt and not let out of the building.
But whether it's a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a fish, whatever it might be. Animals can be quite a benefit to a person and their soul and all these things.
Well, we kind of understand this as a society.
Well, a new study out of the University of Brighton looked at the ways having a dog can positively impact your life.
And even though the study focused specifically on dogs, a lot of these things can apply to pets in general.
Sure.
So it's a side note for those that haven't seen the National Day of Counter today is National Cat Day.
So that kind of adds to this what it's called some kind of funny that we're talking about dogs on National Cat Day.
Structure and routine. Structure and routine are one of the biggest things that they have sought a benefit if we're human beings when having a dog or an animal or something.
You know, I agree with that.
It's like getting up in the morning to feed them or going on walks that you might otherwise let slide if dog, if it wasn't dependent on the dog getting outside and doing its business.
And kind of an extra sense of purpose, right?
Like, you know, I think about it from, like, I think this is totally legit from the mental health standpoint.
Like, just again, you can call it a sense of purpose, a motivator or whatever, but just to something someone else is relying on you.
You know, like, I just, yeah, and then they give you that unconditional love back.
Right.
So, yeah, there's huge benefits.
So there is a rewarding factor to it immediately felt with animals.
Yeah.
Because they don't, there's no head games with them.
There's no, you know, and putting on errors or any of these things.
We know that this is a thing for one because we see it with the many different programs that exist around our country when it comes to inmates working with animals and taking care of animals.
We have talked with Sheriff Becker many times about these programs and the ones that exist in Wisconsin and here in Wood County and some of that.
We see this a lot of time with our senior population.
And then taking in an animal or working at shelters and those.
This works in a lot of ways.
And I am, this is another one of those ones where I'm living proof on this.
I'm not very comfortable with this story, but it just ties so perfectly in.
I've mentioned before I spent my first 30 years in my life having a phobia about driving.
It was in a lot of accidents as a kid, seen a lot of accidents, a lot of that.
So driving the one thing in life I could not do.
I get behind the wheel, locked up, hated it, couldn't do it.
I moved to Cal, but I'm living there in a apartment with just me and my dog, Gonzo.
And my roommate at the time, my girlfriend at the time she was overseas, she was studying abroad.
So it's just Gonzo and me in January, February and all this.
In the coldest months of, you know, he needs food.
He needs is medicine.
The only way I get in there is driving.
And I got to get this for him.
So I start getting behind the wheel and trying to get a little more comfortable with it.
A little more comfortable with it.
And I'm just driving around the block.
You know, nothing big.
And Decalba is a beautiful town.
Think of Steven's point, you know, similar to that.
Even got the cobblestone roads and everything.
So I'm driving around and I come to a stop in this guy cut the light.
So I have to stop real quick and do the whole arm thing.
Put my arm out to grab Gonzo and hold him in place.
And that happens.
And then I start driving.
And I've never looked back.
Like after that moment, we're going and I realize, oh, I just went to Walgreens.
You know, and none of this sounds like a big deal to majority people out there.
I understand.
But for me, as it was going on, it took me like until later on that night to realize, oh, my God.
I did it.
I did it.
And I haven't looked back since.
It hasn't been a thing for me since then.
And that dog gave me that.
Like, I don't think that happens without that dog.
I don't think that happens without those things.
These animals could do so much for us.
Another thing is companionship.
Having a dog by your side can ward off feelings of loneliness.
And some people even use their pets as sounding boards or spill secrets or just talk to them.
Ask my brother Gonzo about that.
Sammy about that.
Sammy puts up all my stuff.
If like, you know, whatever, I'm there like last day of life.
They just regurgitate everything that anyone has ever, you know, it comes out like in a little printed booklet.
Yeah.
I haven't like told secrets or anything like that to Sammy.
Oh, I bet you have.
But if all the sudden animals can talk, a lot of us are going to be pretty nervous
just because of the stuff that we have confessed to them.
Oh, yeah.
I like that one.
That's a good one.
And it's so true.
Not only that sense of purpose that you were touching on Terry,
but that companionship thing that could be so vital to people no matter where you are.
I know when I was living out in California to know a whole lot of people working at the shelters out there.
Those animals were a big, you know, a godsend for me.
And mood boost.
That's another one.
A lot of dog owners say that they feel joy from interacting with their dog.
Some say they get happier just by looking at their dog.
It doesn't even have to be doing anything.
I mean, same, but I do walk in my living room and go.
Ugh, the dog here.
Sure.
Sure.
There's a little bit of column, a little column.
Wait, who took me into this golden retreat?
There's a lot of shedding.
Along with that connection.
Dogs can help you meet and connect with other humans too.
Like on your daily walk or going to a dog park, it's an easy icebreaker.
Oh, the good old, you know, meeting of your future wife at the dog park.
It's not only the romantic basis for many, many rom coms, but it comes from real fact, a real base,
or just running into different people and making new friends.
I think that there's not just those scenarios, but even going to a pet store
and talking and working with people or running into that.
There are so many different things that these animals can do
and there are a benefit to your life and a positive to your life.
If you've ever been a dog here, you got to do or you got to run the store
to get a new bag of food or anything.
I think the ends justify the means.
I think that they were, it works out.
I mean, there's a reason we've been doing this for 100 some years
or much, much longer than that.
What am I talking about?
We've domesticated animals for a reason.
I started laughing our 18-year-old.
I'm like, can I get a Christmas list sometime soon-ish?
She's like, it's October.
And then I'm like, yeah, okay, but I'd take it soon.
She's like, a dog.
And it's like, we have a dog.
Nope, I want to puppy, that's it.
And I'm like, you don't even live at home.
So that I was going through vet, you know, the cost of things with another dog.
And she's just like, oh, yeah, that's fine.
Yeah, whatever.
It's funny.
And this touches on a little bit of what we were talking about in our pre-game and everything.
But when it comes to spending large amounts of money, I have a hesitancy.
I don't stop.
It doesn't stop me from doing it, but I just spent a ton of money on my Jeep.
And there was a little bit of a second of a hesitation at everything.
It's a lot, especially when you don't come from money or you don't come from a lot.
Then when it comes to animals, oh, I don't care.
Yeah, I don't care.
I just bought a dog toy for a Sammy because I had to.
It was a dreidel.
It's a plastic dreidel I had to.
I've never seen one before.
So I grabbed that forum.
I did not look at the price.
Like, that's not something I normally do.
I'm used to my whole life.
So like, your splurge is on a dog toy?
Yeah.
Like, nothing about me.
But as soon as the logo, a dreidel for Sammy, has he played with it?
No.
Oh, he hasn't figured out how to spin it.
No, he'll figure it out.
He'll figure it out.
We were working on it.
He's holding out for the gold coins.
That's what he's here.
And when he wants the gold coins, he's smart dog.
Not dumb.
And there are other benefits, I think, too, that are on more to more of a personal thing,
like your day-to-day life may be beneficial.
Say, there's this activity that you enjoy doing, but it's so much better with a dog or
with your, you know, that.
They don't really mention it here.
Maybe they touch on it a little bit, and I just didn't see that part of it.
But I think that there's something to about something being there when you come home.
There's such a gift in that.
And the welcome, right?
Like it's you.
Yeah.
I imagine that there's even more benefits to this than we don't even see and don't even
realize.
Psychology today is where you can go for this.
If you're curious and want to find out more about from the article, you can go to psychology
today.com and find that complete article, everybody.
Take a quick time out.
We'll come back, wrap up the show, The Morning Show here at WFHR.
Welcome back, everyone.
The Morning Show here at WFHR, locally grown radio, Terry and James hanging out with you.
We're going to take you to the top of the hour.
Nothing but great civic media program and coming up before you throughout the day.
Stick around for it.
Got some other great stuff going on with our schedule.
Be sure to stick around and join us over at WFHR.com.
Sign up for the newsletter, get your recipe to us, and check out the Rapids Report.
Got a great episode lined up for you today.
We're going to talk to our Wisconsin Rapids Elk Slodge, number 693.
We've got our friends from the Elk Slodge coming in.
They got some fun events coming up, Terry, over there.
Not only this month, but next month in November.
I want to talk with them about that, their trunk or treat coming up on Friday, and next month,
the nightmare before Christmas party that they have.
I want to find out more about that.
There's all kinds of cool stuff going on with our Wisconsin Rapids Elk Slodge.
They do such good in this community.
Sounds fun.
Appreciate them.
I'm going to look forward to that.
Check out that and the other previous episodes of the Rapids Report at WFHR.com.
Get on over there, everybody.
Of course, on 1055WRI, a little bit later today from four to five.
We've got playmakers.
We speak sport.
Thanks to our friends at Quality Plus Printing.
Join Michael and I today with your sports takes and feelings.
Do not keep them inside.
It's not going to end well.
I'll tell you that.
It doesn't look good.
Do not keep your feelings inside.
Let it out.
Call us up on the show.
It's your live sports call-in show.
We're looking forward to talk with you.
We'll be catching you up on information over the past couple of days from the sports
world.
We'll talk about the world series, of course, and take a look at the high school schedule
and see what's going on with their local teams, our rafters, our river kings, all of that
on playmakers Monday, Wednesday, Friday from four to five, on 1055WRI.
Over here at the station at 630 today, we'll have the Wisconsin men's basketball.
They're hosting Plattville.
UW Plattville.
A very Wisconsin battle right there.
As you got the Badgers and Plattville facing off, that game will be right here at 630.
After home for the Wisconsin Badgers athletics, all winter, all fall, all winter long, we've
the home for the Badgers.
Got that coming up for you looking forward to it.
And Terry, as we got to wrap up with a United Way update, it was something that I wanted
to make sure we touched on one more time.
Just want to remind everybody that it is go time, it is campaign season, all hands on
deck, every penny counts.
Absolutely.
We are currently collecting donations for our annual fall campaign.
This will run, well, till we're done, I mean, that's just the reality.
But one important thing that's coming up, which is about four weeks off, is the deadline
for the sweepstakes.
So this is an opportunity.
If you're going to give anyway, give a dollar a week, so $52 and you get entered into our
drawing for, we have $5,000 cash prizes.
And so this is just a fun way, fun incentives to get people to give.
The deadline is 4 p.m. on Friday, November 21st.
And those prizes, important to call out, are sponsored by five local companies.
So we're not taking it out of, you know, if James, you make a donation of $50, that's
not going toward a prize, right?
That's going toward the good we do in the community.
But those, those prizes are sponsored by Aspirus Health, Gunderson, Mountain View Memorial
clinics, next home partners, prevail bank, and Williams plumbing and heating.
So those five companies have said, heck yes, we'll help you.
We're going to make sure that this is a successful campaign.
So you know, if you have a chance, donate, you could, you could win, you could win some
big money.
But the reality is, is those donations to our, to our fall campaign are what drives 2026.
So the, the more support we have from the community, the more good work that we can do.
And we have, you know, four different funding areas.
So you could even select a topic that is meaningful for you.
If you say, you know, I want my money to go to youth, or I want my money to go just
for housing, you know, and that would fall in financial security for us.
So you can give a general donation, you can put it into one of those four buckets, no
matter how you do it, what method of giving that you choose.
The important thing is that you do it.
And keep in mind, we, you know, with the times being what they are and everything, if you
don't have dollars and cents, if you're not able to do that, there are so many volunteer
opportunities with the United Way.
There are a lot of ways to impact your community, find out more, and of course, keep in mind
to and one is there for you for any questions you might have things going on in the area.
Big shout out to our friends over at two and one of the good work they're doing with
the United Way.
If someone in them is counties, find out more by going to their website, uwswac.org.
Be sure to bookmark that, follow and subscribe to their stuff on social media, share their
posts on your page.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
I appreciate the update, Terry.
You bet.
It is Wednesday.
We know what that means around here.
Bingo.
Bingo.
Bingo at the Wisconsin Rapids.
Elk Slod.
Number 693.
We're just talking about them.
Their door is open at five.
Bingo kicks off at 630.
Head on over there.
Get yourself a good bingo card and have some fun.
Keep in mind, this thing loads up like every Wednesday I go past there and is booked.
They got the whole parking lot's filled.
So get on over there early.
Door is open at five.
Enjoy it.
Have some fun with our friends at the Elk Slod.
We look forward to talking with them a little bit later.
Real quick one to get Halloween times out there.
Wisconsin Rapids.
Grand Rapids.
Bearing.
Nekusa.
Poor Edwards.
You're going to be looking for candy between five and seven.
Vesfer and Rudolph.
Between 430 and 630.
Pitsville.
Stevens Point and Clover.
It is five to eight.
Adams and friendship.
Four to seven.
Nice.
All on Halloween.
All on Halloween.
And with that, certainly we encourage you to get a big bag and fill that bag with candy
kids.
You know, put a backup bag in your pocket just in case.
What Jill and I would always do, make sure to have it right in the back pocket.
But also to all of us adults out there, please slow down.
Keep in mind that, you know, going to be a lot of kids running around and everything
on hot Friday.
So, you know, keep an eye out for all of them and have some fun.
We'll be talking about some of the Halloween events going on in their area a little more
focused on Thursday and Friday.
We'll make sure that you guys know about all of those.
Did have some world good stories I wanted to get to?
Like someone on Reddit asked people to name the most unexpectedly wholesome thing a stranger
has done for them and there is an amazing thread going on with that.
Encourage people to check that one out.
It is really cool.
And, you know, you don't have to be online, you don't have to be on Reddit to do that.
Think of yourself.
You know, wait, what's something that a stranger did for me that was pretty cool?
Yeah, that's fun to think about.
And to me, it's like, okay, what have I not, what could I do to pass on to someone else?
Yes.
Exactly.
A Navy vet named Mike McCassel is in the news for breaking two world records.
He did four miles on walking lunges, dang, and broke the record for most lunges in an hour
and longest distance covered.
Sounds horrible.
Yeah.
He dedicated the feet to his three-year-old son to teach him about perseverance.
Well, right on.
Job well done.
Right on, sir.
Although, I'm not sure a three-year-old can appreciate that yet, but when they get a little
older, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
But yes, I know what you're saying.
They might have been lost.
Like, I'm just sitting here like really even one mile on lunges.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
A seven-year-old kid near Philly named Grayson Poorman raised over $300 or $3,000 for his
police department's canine unit.
Cool.
They held a ceremony the other day and made him an honorary cop.
Sweet.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
You know, if he's got brothers and sisters, he's driving on crazy with that, though.
I love that, though.
It's a really cool story.
And there's so many of those stories.
We've had some local ones about helping our keon units or getting even, you know, funding
so they could get a canine or something like that.
It's a big topic.
We've touched on quite a bit.
Good on that, kid.
And I want to warn people, the footage from this is intense, but it does work out well.
And it is hard not to be blown away and, you know, really invigorated by the footage.
A mom in Fort Worth, Texas was in a nasty crash last Thursday and flipped her car.
These officers had to do CPR on her one-year-old daughter who was pinned under the car when they
got there.
Both of them are expected to make a full recovery.
They're doing very well now.
The footage is incredibly moving and it speaks to the kind of things that we're asking of
our officers all the time.
It's a really cool story.
I encourage you to check out everybody.
Great show today, Terry.
Thanks for hanging out with us.
You bet.
Be good to each other out there.
We'll talk to you later.
This is locally grown radio, WFHR 1320 AM, W24 ADE, Wisconsin Rapids, and always streaming
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