Don’t Automate Praise (Hour 1)

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 in.

Time for the morning show here at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM.

Locally grown radio, WFHAR. Got your host, James here.

We're joined by one of our head sales people around these parts.

We got to Leo with us.

Hello.

Koho sales marketing all the above.

Does a lot around here. We appreciate you being here, Leo.

Thank you.

And thank you everybody for being under the best listeners and radio.

We got nothing but fun lined up for you today.

We're going to get into the LCAFE birthday and anniversary club.

And a little bit got that lined up for you.

We got the percentage of employees that say praise matters.

We will get into that.

Got a crazy squirrel to talk about.

Thanks to Leo. I said to that one over.

Oh, finally.

One of the bigger debates that we have every time this year.

Is it acceptable to put your Christmas decorations up this week?

I have opinions.

So this one's about this week in particular.

So we'll dive into that a little bit later.

10 o'clock hour.

We'll kick things off with a special guest.

Fingers crossed.

We are hoping to.

We're on that in a moment.

Well, some entertainment news for you as well.

Some local events going on.

Along with a couple of other great things.

It's certainly our schedule.

All of that.

How much does the average Thanksgiving?

How many guests will the average Thanksgiving family have?

We'll get into some of that as we get ready for Thanksgiving talk.

And plenty more.

I have one here.

We got to make time for.

Here's what your drink says about you.

Okay.

That one too.

I want to get into.

But we kick off our show.

Our opening monologue.

Where we need to because it was on this day in 1940.

The WFHR first went on air.

Today is our 85th anniversary.

Happy anniversary WFHR.

You don't look a day over 21.

We look great.

The call letters were derived from William F. Huffman's senior owner of the

Wisconsin Ravis Daily Tribune at the time.

It began broadcasting on this day on November 1st in 1940 with a date and time.

Power of 250 watts.

Initially 1310.

Moving to 1340.

Kigawatts in March of 1941.

I love that we have a Wikipedia page.

I think that's cool.

Also though it needs to be edited.

It needs a little bit of editing.

Here's a side question for everybody.

Because I don't know anything about Wikipedia pages at all that other than looking at them.

Is it weird to edit it if you work there?

No.

I think you should be.

You should be the fact giver, the historian.

Absolutely.

I wondered if it was a little like trying to give yourself a nickname.

Because it doesn't work.

You can't give yourself a nickname.

Unless you're Shaq.

Shaq is the only one that seems like you can do it.

But if you're writing a biography, you're writing your own biography.

This is an autobiography for WFHR but nonetheless.

Yes.

We're incredibly humbled to be here.

This is a station that for many, many years has done something that is vital to all local communities

and especially rural areas and getting information out and being a safe haven for information.

From the very beginning, WFHR came out the box.

We are not going to be Republican.

We are not going to be Democratic.

We are going to be democracy.

We are going to be fact based.

We are going to focus on those things.

This is in 1940.

They were doing this.

That's awesome.

To imagine how important that would be in 2025.

I cannot imagine the people that paved the way for us to be here today could have understood.

Nobody could have.

No.

To see where information is gone and where media has gone.

The 24-7 news cycle and how much that has changed everything.

And here we are.

And while WFHR has changed a lot over the years.

Not just the voices.

But certainly shows.

And even the direction of those shows.

Sometimes being a music station.

Sometimes being a talk station.

But we've always been an information station.

We've always been central Wisconsin-based.

You guys have always come first.

And we kept that going for 85 years.

We're very, very thankful to the owners that we have had from past to now.

All great ownership and all have kept the lights on.

We appreciate that.

We certainly appreciate the sponsors and the businesses, the nonprofits.

We're not here in so many ways without that.

Well, their commitment to us and our commitment to them is very, very important.

That's what civic engagement is all about.

And that's one of our core missions as a company.

It's one of those things that you get to experience really being out there.

Boots on the ground kind of thing.

Going into businesses, talking to people and everything.

And really not only do we appreciate their representation.

But being able to see that firsthand is something that it's kind of funny.

But in the booth here, we miss out on sometimes.

We don't get that interaction with people as much as we'd like to.

Sure.

It's cool.

And it's so very noteworthy what you're saying there.

When it comes to you, the listener, you are the reason we're here.

We are here because of you.

And we're here thanks to you.

It's appreciated.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I want to all month long.

The phone lines are open.

715-424-2600.

We all got the play at home morning show version.

That is the civic media app.

You can text us, call us.

Civic media memories.

WFHR memories you have.

Things that you've enjoyed.

Voices of the past.

Any of the above.

We want to hear about it.

We want to walk down memory lane with you throughout the whole month

and celebrate this 85 years.

And again, got a special guest joining us at the top of the 10 o'clock

to talk about the anniversary with us.

We'll have guests throughout the month different people

that I can drag onto the airways with me that have put up with me.

People that I know that our audience would love to hear from.

So we'll be getting into that.

But again, happy 85th to WFHR.

Look at good for 85th.

Pretty good.

Looking pretty good.

Yeah, I mean, that's an institution.

Yeah.

At that point, you're just an institution.

We're one of the oldest things in this community.

In this in central Wisconsin.

Whether, you know, what are you business or however you want to label us

or anything like that.

There are not many things that have been around as long as we have.

And we say that with pride of community.

We say that with a lot of...

I don't know.

I would never want to speak for anybody else.

But I know when I first started here and I heard about the history of this place

and I'd already known about WFHR when we moved into this area,

we were listening to this station.

It wasn't until being in the building,

talking to all these voices and all these people that literally paved the way

for us to be here.

You get a...

There's a responsibility.

There's something else that comes with this.

It's...

Not everybody gets to do this for a living.

There's plenty of people that want to.

Not everybody gets a chance to.

Once you get that opportunity and you get the ball and you get to run with it,

well, then it becomes, okay, well, I have a responsibility now.

It's not just about entertaining people or keeping them informed.

It's about making sure that I hold the same standard

that the...

Artie and Chuck's dad and all these people that first went on these airwaves

and said these call letters are still doing.

And you got to try to be funny too.

And that's not easy for me.

I was not born with a funny bone.

Very, very boring.

I would like a very small point.

I think it was like 2% I read last.

2% of the population born without a funny bone.

Yeah.

And we don't talk about that a lot.

You know, nobody knows.

There's no ribbon for us.

There's no...

No.

There should be.

There should be.

There will be a full moon tonight or as some people call it.

A...

Oh boy, there's a bunch of great names for a full moon.

And of course, I'm not thinking of any of them right now.

Because I'm a little distracted if I'm being honest.

I...

There are a few topics.

I feel like, okay, I know the moon.

I know, I know moon topics.

I think about the moon.

I'm pretty good.

I got this wheel.

This is my one of my wheelhouse.

Okay.

Then I come across this morning moon water.

And I'm like, ah, okay, that's new.

I haven't heard of that one before.

There is a trend on TikTok right now in a lot of social media called about moon water.

During the last full moon, how to make moon water was the top trending how to make search on the Googler.

Okay.

And if you're not sure what that is, brace yourself, everybody.

Moon water is simply pure water sealed in a container and left outside to change with energy provided by the light of the full moon water.

Yes.

I've heard of this before.

I've had friends that have done this before.

Okay.

I have never heard of this one before.

Yeah.

The benefits are hydration, of course.

But supposedly in theory, it can also...

It also makes you feel closer to mother gala.

It gets you in touch with the seasonal flow of nature.

And you could also see noticeable changes in your life that are unexplainable.

Some of this is going to come across a little...

For lack of a better way to put a little hippie-ish to some people or a little bit out of their wheelhouse or something along those lines.

To those that don't like yourself, you say at least no of this and everything.

I think that to those individuals, we'll get a more to this.

To anybody who's kind of on the fence on this or looking at it with a skeptical eye or something like that.

All I ask is, have you done it?

If you haven't, try it.

See, if it doesn't do anything, hey, no harm, no foul.

You know, you put some water out and it got a little fresh air.

If it works, I think you really do.

And by it works, I think is a very big, broad definition.

But I think in this day and age, in 2025, what is the harm in giving certain things an opportunity a chance?

In opening yourself up to things.

To be honest, has everything you've been doing working?

Like, I mean, isn't it time to maybe change it up a little bit for whatever it is and whoever you are out there?

I may be just speaking for myself here, but, you know, it might not be worth a shot.

You said you've heard of this before?

I have, yeah, I've had friends that have done this before and I don't know what their end purposes were.

But, and I don't know if their lives improved, but they certainly did it.

Well, I think, you know, improvement is another one that can be a broad definition and everything.

But as far as what this is proposing it does is getting you more and close with, you know, mother nature or earth or, you know, just anything in general.

Just being more in tune, I think is something that a lot of us could use a little bit of.

This year has gone by kind of quick, but it's also been pretty rocky.

It's been a bit of a rocky year for a lot of people.

I don't know many people that are telling me that this is like the greatest year or whatever.

It just feels to be consensus for most people out there.

When that being said, well, hey, give it a shot.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's harmless.

I mean, you know, there's all sorts of theories about, like, you know, grounding where you just go out and stand in the grass and your bare feet and that gets you that connection to the earth, which, you know, I think we all take for granted, probably.

And in this very high tech world, what does it hurt to do something that's going to get you a little bit more, you know, back to nature and, you know, at the end of the day, we are all just animals floating around on a rock in infinite space.

One of my favorite, and I think, and so if you're, if this seems a little bit far fetched to you, a little sci-fi or something like that, I think one of the ways to bring it home.

Almost everybody out there knows what it's like, especially once it first gets like those first nice spring days and you can walk barefoot.

You can feel the earth under your feet or put in your feet and sand.

Beautiful smell of like grass growing again, the petro core, you know, the smell of that, you know, rain right before it hits.

Like these are all, you know, one thing that I really love about fall that kind of brings me back to nature, I was driving to work the other day and I got out of my car and I could smell campfire.

And I was just like, it's fall in Wisconsin and you just smell the campfire and that that would smell is just so amazing.

Nothing like it. Nothing like it.

There's campfire smell in summer, and then there's the one right around this time of year.

This one is magical. The fall campfire smell is way magical to me.

I think that these are very similar to what we're talking about here with this and creating that connection.

And I don't know anybody who has ever been, you know, not appreciated or not been made better by having a closer connection to the earth, to the planet, to just under what we're doing because it means you're more in tune with things.

There's a reason that dogs got to run around like crazy in circles to try to find where to do their thing.

It's their connection to the literal, you know, planet.

We'll say that, do I speak crazy when I take my dogs out?

Because it's never, because it's always when you're in a hurry.

Yeah, it's always when you're in a hurry.

Sam does it to me too. He did it to me last night.

He actually, like, worried me last night a little bit too.

He does this thing ever once in a while where he just wants to be outside and he just wants to sit out there.

And, you know, all dogs do this. I've seen plenty of dogs do it for some reason with this guy. It just, you know, throws me off.

I don't like it. I would say I'm checking on him for like 10 times as see if he wants to come in.

If you're going to check out the full moon tonight, everybody, let us know.

We want to hear about it. I'm going to hear if you would try this or not. Let us know 715-424-2600.

Call up and join the conversation.

Otherwise, Lee and I are going to take a quick time out. We'll come back doing some celebrating with the LKFA birthday anniversary club on the morning show at WFHR.

That's right. Let him roll right into the LKFA birthday anniversary club.

One of our favorite parts of the day we get to celebrate you and talk about our great friends over at LKFA.

Treat yourself. Get on over there today, 221 Market Avenue in beautiful port Edwards. Wish them a great day from all of us here at WFHR.

They have some great stuff going on on their Facebook page and encourage people to check that out and check out some of those amazing specials that they have over there.

There is a pork rib-eye steak and eggs that sounds really good. They got a 67 that sounds like a 67 maybe that's what they're doing there.

Maybe that is it. You can tell an old eye of that took a second way too long. That's great stuff over there. Be sure to check out by local support local support.

Our good friends at LKFA everybody.

And of course, get us those birthdays and anniversaries so we can celebrate with you and you can email us info at WFHR.com, direct messages on our Facebook pages and you can call up 715-424-2600 or of course call us or text us through the Civic Media app.

We want to celebrate your birthdays and anniversaries.

That's party.

Let's go ahead and celebrate first off. Of course WFHR celebrating its 85th anniversary. We'll have more on that throughout the day in the month but a happy 85th to WFHR.

And a happy birthday to Civic Media's own Dan Schaefer.

Happy birthday Dan.

Dan's a great guy. Got the chance to talk to Dan a little bit before he actually started working with us and everything.

And was very just didn't know me from Adam and couldn't have been cool or couldn't have been nicer.

And then oddly enough, we end up working together here and everything and just a really good solid guy.

As far as his information, his work, his journalism, all those things, second to none in many ways.

And incredibly important when it comes to his focus on Wisconsin politics and everything.

But just as a person, just a good guy.

That's a good guy and a big time box fan.

I love the box.

Happy birthday Dan. Enjoy your day.

We take a look in. Alia, I need a one or a two.

I'll go with a one.

All right. Give us that qualified boom boom boom boom.

And first up, we want to wish you a happy birthday to Darlene Bach.

Happy birthday, Darlene.

Darlene, we wish you a fantastic day. Hope it's a good one for you and joy.

And our qualifier today, Arlene Van Dooser.

Happy birthday Arlene. We've got an Arlene and a Darlene.

Yeah.

That's perfect.

Every year I get to do this. It's awesome.

It's awesome. Thank you to whoever gets us the birthdays and anniversaries for these wonderful individuals.

And I love saying both of your names.

Arlene is a great name, but Arlene Van Dooser. Now that's a name.

That's a beautiful name.

It's a great name.

And enjoy your day, both of you.

And your qualifier, Arlene, congratulations to you.

Let's go ahead and take a look at who you share your birthdays and anniversaries with.

Oh, taking a look here.

Odell Beckham, Jr. is 33.

Fantastic wide receiver.

Maybe the greatest catch in NFL history.

Maybe. I mean, just you look up Odell Beckham, Jr. in that catch.

And it's incredible how he made that.

Jason Kelsey is 38.

Okay.

Brother, of course, of Travis Kelsey.

A podcaster now, but former NFL player, Super Bowl winner.

One of the better centers I've ever seen, especially considering he wasn't highly drafted.

Him and his brother weren't highly sought after.

Wasn't like they came out of college as, oh, they're going to be all stars.

They're going to be home run hits and everything.

It's kind of hard to kind of see now with as much as the pop and circumstance

to Kelsey's have.

Right.

But that is a homegrown talents right there.

Those are individuals that they made themselves.

Right.

But they are right now. They did that.

They accomplished that.

And very noteworthy.

I could be a Hall of Famer.

I don't know.

It might be, I end up being a Hall of Famer.

It kind of gives you the same like the Manning Brothers vibes.

Yeah. Very similar.

Very similar.

Ryan Adams is 51.

Released over two dozen albums in his career.

Ryan Adams.

Wow.

Johnny Greenwood is 54.

Great guitars for Radiohead.

Okay.

One of my favorite bands of all time.

I think one of the most underrated actors there will ever be, like period.

And not a household name.

But I think you might know him from one of the many movies he has done.

Sam Rockwell is 57 today.

Play George W. Bush in the Dick Cheney movie Vice.

He also won Best Supporting Actor for three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri.

But a lot of people might remember him from the Green Mile or Galaxy Quest.

Galaxy Quest.

I love him in that.

Iron Man 2.

He did a movie back in the day called Moon, where it's just him basically as an astronaut.

Okay.

And he carries that movie.

I think a lot of us might also remember him from Hitchhiker's Guides to Galaxy.

Yeah.

He was the perfect president.

He was perfect.

He was excellent in that.

Seven psychopaths.

Is that the movie he was in?

Yeah.

That's an excellent movie.

My favorite of his movies.

Oh my God.

Oh, you just, oh, you just, oh, you won me over so much on that.

That is an underrated movie.

It's maybe the last time you get to see Christopher Walken really acting.

It was a magnet.

I love Christopher Walken.

And I will do a plug.

My younger brother does the best Christopher Walken impression.

Of just a random human citizen in the world that's not a celebrity.

Like, he calls me and leaves me voicemails as Christopher Walken.

Like, I can't do it.

But I'll be like, hey, this is your brother.

I don't care that we don't know each other.

You get that man my phone number.

So he can leave me those messages.

I will do that.

I want to hear that.

But one thing that I kind of a relationship between Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell that I love

is I watched the, you know, I go down YouTube rabbit holes and I watched a YouTube video where Sam Rockwell was being interviewed.

And he said much like Christopher Walken, he likes to throw a little dance move into every single role that he does.

And so now whenever I watch one of his movies, I'm like, Hawkeye on his beat.

Like, when is he going to do his little dance move?

He did a similar to Walken as well.

He did a music video where he's dancing throughout it and everything in a diner.

It's really good.

He's a good dancer.

Yeah, he's just, that's just him.

He's trained.

He needs to be on dancing with the stars.

Like a lot of actors, like De Niro, Pacino, many of them and stuff.

You get to a certain age and you end up kind of getting cast as a caricature of yourself.

Right.

Christopher Walken, certainly one of those actors that happened to, with Seven Cycle Pass, you actually see him performing.

That's, he's actually acting.

Yeah.

Great performances in all those.

Oh, yeah.

I had birthday to Sam Rockwell, 57.

I wouldn't have guessed that.

No.

Let's see here.

A Tatum O'Neill is 62 from her child, Stan.

One, she was 10 when she won Best Supporting Actors for Paper Moon in 74.

She is the best part of that.

She's also the wonderful Tom Boy picture in Bad News Bears.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know.

She may be just as famous for that role as she is for Paper Moon.

Potentially.

This is kind of funny.

The Seth and I were just talking about her.

The wonderful Tilda Swinton is 65 today.

Wow.

White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia.

The Archangel Gabriel in Constantine.

The ancient one, Dr. Strange in the Avengers movies.

You've never seen a bad performance from Tilda Swinton.

Have you ever seen the movie The Dead Don't Die?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that movie.

She's magnificent in that.

She's good in everything.

Everything.

She's fantastic.

But one of my favorite things about her.

Conan O'Brien was told by an audience member once.

And I remember when this happened because he kept on telling us in the writer's room

for like two weeks later, he would just bring it up randomly.

I don't know what to think of this.

He was told that him and Tilda looked alike.

And so he did not plan on this, but he brought it up in an opening monologue once.

Tilda Swinton heard this and reached out to him.

Now they didn't even know each other.

She reached out to him and loved it.

She leaned right into it.

They've done bits together on it since.

Like just the ability to make fun of yourself and laugh at yourself.

I love and people.

Yeah.

And somebody who to me seems like such a serious person is such a wonderfully serious actor.

And here she is like, no.

She just takes everything pretty lightly and all that.

I'm surprised that they like doing costume as one another.

They did.

Yes, they did.

They dressed as each other and stuff.

You can see the pictures.

I'm sure I'm lying there.

It's fantastic.

So Ryan Adams, we celebrated earlier.

Ryan Adams, 51 singer, songwriter.

Brian Adams is 66 today.

What?

They share a birthday?

They share a birthday.

That's crazy.

That's wild.

That is wild.

And are they both Canadian?

I believe so, yes.

I think they are, yeah.

That's pretty wild.

That is.

There are quits and it says, and then they're like, wow.

Cuts like a knife, summer of 69.

All for love.

I mean, in the 80s, 90s, Brian Adams was all over it.

Yeah.

There's a meme on Facebook that I see all the time that says, you know, if you were alive in 1991,

or if you weren't alive in 1991, you can't understand the reign of terror that everything I do,

I do it for you, like held over the nation.

And I pretty much, I think I was in middle school when that came out.

Yes.

Some of us still have a recovery.

Some of us still have a recovery.

Robert Patrick is 67 talking about great character actors.

Yeah.

It expiles a T1000 Terminator 2.

Has gone on to have, he could have gotten tight cast real easy.

He pushed through that really well.

And to his credit has just continued to work since Terminator 2.

Like, look at his IMDB page.

It's so impressive what Robert Patrick's done.

He's currently in the show, the peacemaker, with John Cena, and he's so funny.

Evil, funny, good.

Like, his character has all these different facets to it, multiverse, kind of stuff as well.

And it's just, he's magnificent.

I love when actors like that get chances like that, where you can take a character that you, especially you and I,

not like at all.

Yeah.

And he wins us over me.

I know.

He's that good of an actor and that charming.

And then to get to see him do it like in multiple ways with the multi-universe thing and stuff.

It's really cool.

Yeah.

Very deserving for guys that really bet on themselves, believing themselves, stay in the industry.

For actors like that, it's, well, of course he would.

Why wouldn't he?

Well, yeah, he gets a big break in Terminator 2.

But then the calls aren't coming.

And, you know, you realize this is your paycheck.

So if you're not making money from that, where you make money.

Yeah.

If you're an actor, you've got to put your time into other things while also trying to make it as an actor.

So to stay in the game is already a win to me.

Let alone to have the career that he's had to bet on himself and keep fighting at it.

And he's had a 20, 30 year career from it.

It's awesome.

Well, good on him.

Art Garfunkel is 84.

Oh, my goodness.

Mrs. Robinson, the son of the silence, bridge over troubled water.

I don't know that it ever gets brought up enough for one.

Great hair.

Great hair.

But you, Paul Simon's incredibly talented.

Paul Simon is amazing.

Nothing against Paul Simon.

Paul Simon does not get to where he does without our Garfunkel.

Absolutely not.

The two really needed each other.

Now, Paul Simon eventually was able to go out on his own and everything.

But I don't believe that Paul Simon would be on the level he is without Garfunkel.

And let's just talk about the fact that Garfunkel is just really fun to say.

It is.

It's a great name to see your 100% right.

There's just especially art Garfunkel.

Art Garfunkel.

It couldn't be Joe Garfunkel and it still would be, but Art Garfunkel.

That's just a fun name.

You know, we talk about this all the time as people that have, you know,

not run of the mill first and last name.

Well, James is a more of a run of the mill first name.

But, you know, myself, I've, my life, my whole life, Aliyah Khan.

When I was a child, Aliyah Arroyo now.

You know, people always wanted to make us change our names to fit into boxes.

I wonder if Art Garfunkel ever ran across that too.

Or people were just like, no, Art Garfunkel, it is.

Cannot top that.

Art Garfunkel.

No, I don't think Art Garfunkel.

I don't know.

I don't know.

And Bill Walton, born in the state in 1952, brilliant basketball player and announcer.

One of my favorite announcers in history.

One of my favorite people ever, Bill Walton.

Go up and look up any interview of Bill Walton.

It's hilarious.

He used to be on the Dan Lebitar show all the time.

And Dan would talk about it.

He would, and now Bill Walton with us.

And that was the last time you would hear from Dan.

Like, Bill Walton would just jump out.

In no typical interview, like where he's asking him questions or anything,

Bill Walton would just talk.

And you loved every second of it.

He was wonderful.

Also, noteworthy, I think, that he made a career as an announcer with a list

and fought through that.

Too many people that holds them back.

And I just taste that very much.

I don't like that.

People, you want to talk?

It doesn't matter what you, any of those kind of holdbacks that you might have.

You look at Bill Walton.

Had an incredible career and very, very well respected in the industry.

And Roy Rogers, born in this day in 1911,

you cannot tell the history of country music without Mr. Roy Rogers.

No.

We celebrated him on the Sun Rat Show.

Nice.

We will take a quick time out.

We'll come back and have some more fun on the morning show here at WFHR.

Gotta get that out.

Gotta get that in there.

Well, funky songs you'll ever hear.

Oh, love it.

The video is even better.

Cameo played us in there.

Aliyah James with you.

Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

Got some good stuff to get into.

And an interesting one right here.

And sometimes surveys, science, whatever it might be.

Kind of give us answers that we already know, but they confirm it.

I feel like this might be one of those, especially in the age of AI,

artificial intelligence.

A lot of workers have a simple request.

They just want to be told they're worth it.

They're worth having in the building.

They're a little bit of praise goes a long way.

Encouragement support costs nothing can mean everything.

That's the end kind of of the sum of this.

And that reassurance does not need to come from Susan and HR,

or Susan the bot, you know, AI, Susan bot 5,000 or any of these things.

In the survey, 83%, 83% of US employees say praise is,

quote, more important than ever in the age of AI.

I would agree.

Yeah.

And again, I think this is one of those things that whether we acknowledge,

whether we realize or not, whether it's subconscious or not,

kind of seems like, well, yeah, that makes sense.

But having that data really brings it home.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For sure.

I mean, everything is so automated anymore.

Again, even harkening back to our earlier conversation about moon water.

It's like everything is so technical.

Everything is just so fast paced all the time.

Expectations are high all the time.

You go to, I mean, it's almost sometimes like you're never not at work.

Especially when, you know, you've got group chats that you can be a part of and all of that.

So I think, you know, just someone taking the time to say,

hey, you're doing a really good job.

That's valuable.

That's maybe more valuable than moon water.

I don't know.

It's close.

It's close.

When it comes to that, that what you just said, that little interaction,

say you're in an office setting, you're a manager, you walking past your employees,

and you just casually say something like that.

What was, what did it cost you?

Nothing.

What did it do?

How much did it add on to your day?

Did it slow you down?

Did it?

Well, now I got it.

It, that took so much time that now I'm late for this or what?

No.

Right.

None of this.

But the value of doing that to somebody, the value of saying like, hey, you're doing a good job.

It really does.

It really goes so much farther than you can realize.

Really?

And I think that it's also very relatable.

This is, has a couple of other factors in it too.

One, in this country, in the way we approach work, and how workaholic we are,

and how crazy we are about work, and we don't really take time off even when we do.

I think most of us can understand what it's like to be out of town or away from your job,

and you're still checking your work email or something like that.

That is important part of this.

And then there's the Midwest factor, where we don't ask for help.

No.

We don't, we don't do those things.

It is the last line of defense that we will finally ask for assistance on the simplest of things.

And then you feel immense guilt for asking for that help.

Yes.

That's the Midwestern way.

There is a weird balance of self-worth that Midwesterners have.

Yeah.

Where there is a lot of pride, there is a lot of appreciation of where we're from,

and the people, what it is to be a Midwestern or everything.

Then there's this other part of, well, I don't want to bother people.

Oh, I don't want to, I don't want to put my burden on somebody else or something like that.

And that has a lot to do with praise.

That has a lot to do with self-worth, a lot to do with these things.

I think you can make an argument that this praise that we're talking about is more important,

given more and more factors here in this country, and then here in the Midwest.

I would say that you're not a good manager if you're not doing this.

Period.

End of sentence.

I don't care if you just gave every employee a raise.

I don't care if all your employees even say you're a good manager.

To me, you're not good at your job if you're not building your team up.

If you're not working to do that.

And so many people just take their sense of value from their jobs.

And I'm not saying that you should take 100% of your value from your job,

but you should also care about what, I mean, hopefully you care about what it is that you do for a living.

Some people don't.

I've had jobs right in care about what I was doing, but it's like when it's something,

when you're showing, when you're trying to be successful,

when you're showing the effort, even if you're not being successful,

that praise can go a long way because then that instills something in you where you're like,

oh, well, they see that I'm trying or they see that I'm succeeding.

So I'm going to put in a little bit more effort and hopefully have better results.

And at the end of the day, it's a win-win for everybody.

Without this, you leave it open to the person's mind, their imagination.

Without it, they're not sure if they're doing a good job or not in so many other things.

With it, all those factors you just bring up there,

and those factors lead to more, you know, a better business,

a better, you know, things running better, things go.

Better and stronger.

Make it more money, you know, all the above.

And you also think about the fact that so many people work from home.

I spent a good decade working from home, and that was me in my home office,

which was my children's playroom when they were at school.

That's cool.

And no human interaction.

And it's like, if I had one of my managers just call me on the phone and say,

hey, I listened to one of your calls because I was working in higher ed,

and they would listen to your calls to make sure that you were giving accurate information

or how personable you were with potential students.

And they, hey, you had a really good call.

And that person just enrolled in college.

That meant all the world to me because otherwise it was just me sitting in my house all day.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

That's rough.

Very rough.

Nearly 60% of employees say AI tailored recognition,

such as personalized praise alerts, is just as meaningful as recognition from a human manager.

That is fascinating.

That's surprising.

Yeah.

I mean, someone has to potentially program that, so I guess they're still caring.

It also screams to me, maybe it's just the way my brain is,

and that says a lot more about me.

But that seems really sad to me.

That were that desperate for praise.

That were that we don't, we get that little of it,

that even an AI giving it to, we'll take whatever we can get.

Kind of think, we'll scrape the bottom of the barrel for praise.

That's what that says to me.

I don't know if it's that necessarily.

I'm just giving you my first impression to it.

Again, probably says a lot more about me,

that it does the stats, but no.

The cynical old so and so.

Yeah.

Nearly 75% say that they are more likely to stay at a company where AI and human work together on recognition and engagement.

So I think that really what I'm taking from that is that the company that cares about that thinks of this.

On one hand, that seems a little strange,

as automation is replacing some human workers, remaining workers,

want to be told they're valued,

but they're okay with AI being that person telling them that.

That does seem a little weird, but again,

if you've never had praise, especially in the job,

I think this is one of the things that even generations just a little bit younger than us,

that is something that there is a gap between.

For our generation, well, if we go through a job

and we're there five, ten years,

and we never get one bit of praise, kind of used to that.

That's kind of what we grew up with.

That the younger generations,

they're looking for it, and they're not going to stand there, not take it,

or not get it.

They're going to move on if they don't get it.

They're going to go to a different place, they're going to go somewhere else.

That's really changed the nature of work,

because you see generation or two underneath us

may stay in a job for two to three years if they're not valued.

Yeah.

I will never understand no matter how much power you have,

whether it's a lot, it's a little, whatever it is,

you're a person with power of any kind or anything.

The idea of not realizing that they always win.

The people will always win.

We're talking about workers.

Well, I'm the manager.

I own the company, or I'm in charge or whatever.

You're nothing without people.

You can't run it by yourself.

You need people.

As soon as the people realize that,

that's where the real power comes in.

That's where real, because it comes back to we, the people,

no matter we're talking about politics, business, or whatever.

Well, there's no small job.

Everything keeps everything running.

Traditionally, you can look at certain jobs and say,

oh, well, they're the bottom of the totem pole.

No, they're not.

People will look at a janitor role and say,

oh, that's the bottom.

No, the janitor is keeping everything clean.

Without the janitor, you're going to come into a messy office.

So, value that person and thank them for the work that they're doing.

There is no small job.

Small people.

If they don't appreciate that.

Yes, well set.

We'll take a quick time.

We'll come back.

We're going to talk about, hey, is it okay to put up your Christmas decorations this week?

And we still got to get into this crazy squirrel.

We got that coming up too.

All that coming up with Leanne James on the morning show.

Welcome back everyone.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown ready.

Leanne James hanging out with you.

Thanks for hanging out with us.

The ever debatable question comes up every year around this time.

It's November 5th.

So, the correct answer as far as if you should put your Christmas decorations up now or not

is and everybody has their own answer.

Yeah.

Everybody has their own.

Let's hear from you out there because that's what we're talking about right now.

Is it acceptable to put your Christmas decorations up this week?

715-424-2600 call up.

Join the conversation through the Civic Media app.

Looking forward to talk with you everybody.

Some guys on TikTok said that there's some debate about this one in their own homes

and they brought it to the social media which of course got this going again.

The traditional rule is to wait until after Thanksgiving.

But we're obviously in a very non-traditional world these days

where it's not even Halloween and we're seeing Christmas decorations

being sold in stores and all of that.

A poll last Christmas found.

Most people think putting them up before Thanksgiving is totally fine now.

55% said it's okay.

33% said it's unacceptable and 12% really don't care.

So a third of us think you should hold off another week a few weeks

but two-thirds say hey, it's a free country to be you.

So philosophically I think I might be in the camp of wait until after Thanksgiving

and that's just because I love Thanksgiving so much.

It's after Halloween.

It's my favorite holiday.

But from a practical standpoint as one of them practical Midwesterners in Wisconsin

if you're going to put out lights out front or if you're going to decorate outside or inside

you know you've got weather to think about.

So I give people a pass if you're doing it because right now we've got some lovely weather

though it's still acceptable to go out and put out Christmas decorations and stuff.

But philosophically in my heart I feel like you shouldn't do it until after Thanksgiving.

But if you feel differently that's your opinion or a title to it.

The weather part is such a factor.

And I think that's noteworthy that's certainly an important part of the conversation

especially as next week the temperatures are dropping like 10-15 degrees and everything.

So you want to get them out there before that I'm not going to argue with you on that one.

And anybody that does I would say to them well you want to put them up in the cold?

You go right ahead you know you put them up or something like that.

This is I never really thought too much about this until I was living in California.

And around you know this time of year I'm waiting for Christmas decorations.

I'm waiting for any of it not for nothing nothing nothing literally like a week before Christmas.

Boom everything came out everybody's yards head stuff and I'm like it was literally overnight

and it just seemed like everybody just agreed.

Oh yeah Christmas and just all this stuff came out because the weather was nice

they could wait to do that they could you know take their time.

Whereas here you know we do this pretty early.

Even if you're doing it the first week of December some people might think that's a little early

or right on time whatever the factor you're doing it close to the weather.

I don't think that gets said enough really about this when it comes to this.

Even if you're again somebody who doesn't think that you're oh you're putting them out too early

or whatever well you know the weather I don't know.

And I would use that as an excuse even if it isn't one I would use it.

I do what I find interesting about this being an article even as my morning carpool.

I my daughter and and and two other kids that I carpool to the middle school.

They had very strong opinions on this and everybody's household was doing it differently.

And so it cracks me up that we're talking about it now because I was literally talking about this.

That's funny.

At 6.55 am with 3.11 year olds.

The perfect people to talk about this.

They are my focus group for everything.

It's awesome.

You know before I come on this show with you I'll be like this is what I'm talking about what are your opinions

and they're my brain trust now.

That's great.

Plus we need to get younger.

No, no.

That's awesome.

That's really good.

That's fun to do.

And you know this is fun to me this topic.

I like most of the audience.

Most people and everything have opinions on things and stuff.

And pretty much have an opinion on almost everything.

It's very seldom that I come across something and I'm like I don't really have an opinion on this.

I really don't have any feeling one way or the other.

I'm completely neutral.

Yeah.

I'm not Switzerland on a lot of things in life.

But this one I really am.

In part maybe it's growing up in a Jewish and Catholic household and celebrating both holidays.

So to me I don't know that there's a bad time to celebrate Christmas.

I mean if you want to start celebrating before Thanksgiving more power to you.

If you don't that's fine.

I will say one thing and this really doesn't really have to do with the holidays.

And I don't even know if I should say this.

But what if there is a factor to me?

Are they good decorations?

Like does it look good?

Like are you doing a good job?

If you're just kind of phoning it in, then I don't know.

I wait.

You know why not wait to everything?

But if we got especially in this area and you've been around here long enough now,

there are some houses around here.

They go all out.

Well and I love that there's houses around here in Rapids that just do it up for all the holidays.

Like the Halloween decorations just on this side of town.

Even though I am the other side of town, just some epic displays.

I absolutely love them.

And so that's one thing.

I don't know if people do this anymore when I was a kid.

My family would load up in the car to go look at Christmas decorations.

And like you, I come from a multi-faith family.

My mom was Christian.

My dad was my mom.

She's still alive.

My mom was raised Christian.

My dad was raised Muslim.

And I almost feel like my dad was more gung-ho about Christmas than my mom was.

Like he was all about putting the tree up, singing Christmas carols in his little Pakistani accent.

It's one of my favorite memories of my father.

And he would be the one, like, let's go look at Christmas lights.

I'm like, OK, let's go do it.

That's wonderful.

And it's very, very similar to my family where my mother is the biggest fan of Christmas I've ever known.

My wonderful Jewish mother loves Christmas all in all I know.

She's like, now to her, if she was answering this survey,

without a doubt, she's celebrating Christmas early.

Like she likes Thanksgiving and everything.

But the moment she could start putting her Christmas decorations up, she's doing it.

And she don't care what any survey says.

I got to have my belly full of turkey and cranberry sauce before I can put up a Christmas tree.

So I feel like, for one, I feel like, well, you don't want to get numb to it.

You don't want to overdo it.

But it gets maybe by the second week of December, it gets old if you have all that stuff up all righty.

Right.

And at the same time, there's also, like I said, I was, you know, saying before about

the really big ones and the great decorations.

I mean, why not a join for two months instead of one?

Why not have a little more out of it?

I don't know.

I will say as someone who has lived in several Midwestern states, Wisconsin nighttime is darker than nighttime in other states.

And so in whenever I'm commuting late at night in Wisconsin and people have Christmas lights up in November and December,

I always think them because it helps me be on the lookout for additional deer as we all have to be on the lookout for.

But also, like, I can actually see something and I know that I'm not just driving.

It's black.

I love this angle on it.

I have never heard this.

The safety aspect of Christmas lights.

It really is.

This is something for that.

For actually this month, actually, this Thanksgiving will be my 10th year living in Wisconsin.

It is the first time I've lived anywhere for 10 consecutive years in my entire life.

And that has been one of my favorite among the many things that I love about Wisconsin.

Farmers markets, cheese curds, old fashions, the Christmas lights for the two months in the dark.

I appreciate that.

So keep doing it Wisconsinites.

I love you for it.

Yeah.

Keep it up.

And we're looking forward to everybody putting out those decorations driving around town because I do a very similar thing.

And when we get to that time of year, feel free to let us know about your home or something like that.

We can encourage people to drive past it and all that.

That's kind of fun.

We enjoy that.

How do you feel about this one?

Do you care?

Yeah.

Because I wonder how many people care about, you know, for whatever, looking at silver linings or trying to grasp silver linings out of today's day and age in 2025.

I don't know about anybody else.

It takes a lot to get me worked up about something anymore.

Like there's just so many heavy things going on.

There's so many other things and other factors that I can't help having some perspective with stuff.

That when I stub my toe, yeah, it hurts.

And I'll say an Italian swear word probably.

But I move on pretty quick from it because it's just a stub toe.

The horror is processed, but so do I.

Yes, exactly.

Well, yes, great quote.

I'm curious what people think of this one though.

Let us know 715-424-2600.

Looking forward to talk with you all.