Winter Wonders and Rob Reiner’s Legacy (Hour 1)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Wabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who likes pina coladas but hates getting caught in the rain, Peach Wabba.

Welcome

to Night Light, ladies and

gentlemen.

Happy Monday, everybody.

It is Monday, but you know what?

We are in the couple positive things to look forward to, given that this is Monday.

It's the second Monday before Christmas.

You got this big holiday right around the corner.

Everywhere you go, storefronts, city streets, things are lit up, it's beautiful.

And, and I think Conrad will appreciate this.

The winter solstice is less than a week away.

We are about to hit the shortest day, and then baby, it is all getting, the days are getting longer, starting December 22nd.

I'm excited about that.

I like that.

Very excited about that, because this darkness stuff is for the birds.

Yeah, when it's dark at 3, 3 a.m.

Not fun.

So there you go.

We've got a really fun show tonight, folks.

It's gonna be a blast.

We're gonna have some great conversations with some really fun guests.

And we're going to talk a little bit about a very sad story with Rob Reiner.

We've all heard the news by now.

I heard last night when I was watching, I think I had Sunday Night Football on, and I could not believe what I was reading.

We'll talk a little bit about Rob Reiner and his legacy.

And then, believe it or not, we're going to talk Bears Packers again, part two, right around the corner.

We'll do that.

We'll do, we got a fun question tonight in regard to Rob Reiner and it's weird not having a text to win thing to read.

It's

kind of strange.

This is something off my plate.

We had, I started my day off, every morning we have these, every Monday morning I should say, we have a meeting at Civic Media in regard to this show and we kind of touch base and I barely, I'll be honest, I am not quite functioning yet at 10 a.m.

when we have said meeting.

So on Mondays, I get up a little earlier.

I get my coffee going.

So I'm fresh for the meeting and that kind of stuff.

And today, this is like, I can't even believe I did this.

I hit start on the coffee maker without having the carafe in the coffee maker.

So I went and made the bed, did all this kind of stuff.

And I come out and there's coffee all over the floor.

It just like, and I have a small coffee maker.

It's like a five cup.

I have a theory about coffee.

The smaller, the better.

Anyway, if it was like a 12 cup thing, my kitchen would have been trash, but it was all over the place.

It was like between the fridge and the counter.

There was like coffee grounds on the floor.

It was a mess.

So there you go.

All the more reason that you need coffee in the morning.

I just messed it up, folks.

I made a mistake.

I'm not perfect.

You need a coffee just to clean up.

I need a coffee just to clean.

I ran to Starbucks.

I got coffee and I came back to clean up my coffee mouth.

I didn't because I like my own coffee.

What do you do?

Do you drink coffee at home or you go out for it?

This is gonna be, I drink coffee cold when I wake up in

the morning.

Yeah, that's right.

I knew that.

So I have like cold brew at home that I always keep in the fridge.

You're gonna say you make it the night before and then you just drink it when you

get home.

No, when I go to the store, I get those big tubs of cold brew.

Yeah.

And, uh, it's dynamite.

Nothing wrong with that.

And I got this little, like, I'm not quite there.

I'm almost there, I feel like, where I actually really, really enjoy the taste of just black coffee.

Okay.

I think I just need a little sweetness in it.

So I have this cookies and cream, sugar-free thing that I got at Marshall's.

I don't know, if you ever go to Marshall's, they just have a section of just, you know, coffee syrups.

Yeah.

And I found this one and it's dynamite.

So

I had

a splash of that and it's oh, it's so good.

Where is there?

Is there a marshals in Green Bay?

Yeah, it's on the east

side.

All right.

Yeah, we have we have we have Ross and TJ Maxx And I feel like if we could get a marshals that would be the triumvirate of

discount savings.

Yeah,

exactly Oh, that's good.

I could I could you

Coffee in the summer I could do cold coffee.

I'd

like I

like my warm, especially in the studio, which is 51 degrees for some reason I also it was so cold this weekend folks.

It was ridiculously cold I I miss my window to put out outside lights Around the house and my wife even said, you know, it's nice.

Do you want to do it this week?

And I think that was like right after Thanksgiving or something.

I was like Yeah, I'll wait and I waited and I miss my window

So there are no exterior lights around the Schwabba house at the moment and I don't know that there will be this year So to compensate I put the lights that we typically put outside on the inside So the inside of my house looks like Vegas it is ridiculously bright And I realized I have an opinion on the new LED lights.

They can look very pretty.

They're very bright

But give me incandescent lights.

I like the old-school look.

I don't need my my Christmas lights crazy LED So there you go, so I've got I might still put something up if the weather it's supposed to get a little nicer this week Maybe I'll get out there get up on the ladder Clark Griswold's dad would be very upset with me for not Exteriorly illuminating

Need it that bright where you know appliance the neighbors with help

I know And our houses are a little farther away, so I probably get away with that But I have one neighbor who goes crazy.

He puts the like during Halloween.

He's got the Rock concert of zombies out there and they're like 20 feet tall He must have 50 grand worth of decoration for every major holiday like Halloween.

He's got

a

really cool Christmas display

And admittedly, when he started, I was like, oh, man, that's that's a bit much.

And now I love it.

I love it.

It's like I love that someone goes that crazy and people drive by and stop and look.

It's kind of fun.

So, you know, give me more people that get excited about the season.

I feel like in every small town, there's that one guy that just goes.

There is when I grew up in Campbell's Port before you ask him,

you're a Campbell's Port kid

until I was like 12.

So.

Your parents pulled you off the mean streets of Campbell Sport and moved you to the Q-O school.

Seven minutes away.

That's right.

They had one person that would go crazy too, but in Kimberly, there's actually a person that goes crazy for every holiday.

Okay.

And Halloween, they actually have like the people go through and like go through their house, they're not their house, the garage.

And then in the back too, they have like full decorations.

It's like different rooms and stuff.

It's so cool, but they do it for, I believe they do it for Christmas as well.

That's crazy.

See, that's kind of fun.

Until it blocks traffic, I know people in the suburbs like Milwaukee or Chicago, when you go crazy like that, you got to either get everybody in the neighborhood in on it together so they don't mind people traipsing through to

check

it out.

But I got no problem with people that really go nuts around the holidays because it just makes it that much more fun.

It kind of infect you with their seasonal spirit.

And we did that thing last week to that most annoying music ever.

the karaoke version of Holiday Road by Lindsay Buckingham.

I still have

it, you want me to

play it?

I bet you do.

We put it on, and I told everybody where they could go, compliments of one of our producers here, Jamie Martinson, who shared that list with us of all the great light shows around Wisconsin.

But let's get this out of the way, because it was very horrible to hear this Rob Reiner being murdered with his wife at home.

And at first, I have to admit, I thought it was one of those political slayings, like, you know, what happened in Minnesota or what, but authorities are saying it was his son and his son had drug problems and all this kind of stuff.

But what a horrible way to end your weekend with news like that.

It's like, it just doesn't make any sense.

Like every once in a while, there's a murder or death that just, you're like, what?

People can do that?

It's just it's so disheartening and it it just kind of makes you lose your faith a little bit in the human race To think that someone could do that and you know, I know the kid apparently had problems and I don't know all the details I'm totally speculating on what the media is reporting, but Just absolutely terrible.

This kid was obviously troubled and I don't know anything about Rob Reiner.

I love his work and I I know he's very political

And he was didn't make any bones about that and his wife.

They're very activist but by all accounts I was a huge fan of the guy from what I knew I don't want to be one of those people that sits here behind a microphone in Green Bay, Wisconsin and says he was a great guy I think he was a great guy.

I like his work.

I think that probably speaks to the kind of person he was But it's regardless of who was it's a terrible tragedy

Just absolutely awful.

And it's one of those things where I'll remember where I was.

It was one of those deaths or news bites or whatever that I will always remember where I was when I heard that.

So there you go.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, on a kind of a sad note, I don't want to focus or put too much of the focus on tonight's show on this horrible tragedy involving Rob Reiner and his wife and allegedly their son.

So let's turn this into a positive and get to our nightlight question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

What is your favorite Rob Reiner movie?

Let's celebrate his body of work because he made some outstanding films.

And my old pal Terry Barr.

Terry Barr.

Terry Bell.

Boy, I haven't confused those two names in a long time,

Conoran.

Yeah?

Terry Bell posted something from another filmmaker on Facebook that said Rob Reiner might have made the best coming-of-age movie, the best romantic comedy, the best courtroom drama.

Like, he was kind of all over the place.

And so let's celebrate that tonight.

The guy was a phenomenal filmmaker, and he was a nepo baby.

His dad was comedy legend Carl Reiner.

So let's have some fun with Rob Reiner's legacy.

Tell me your favorite or favorites Rob Reiner films 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic you can also text us on the app Or if you're watching the radio on the stream on Facebook YouTube or X you can leave us a stream comment And we will share your thoughts on the radio as always phone lines are open folks

Here in this first hour, as we so often do, we've got a lot of news coming up.

At the bottom of the hour, you got news, weather and sports.

So stick around for that.

That is coming up momentarily.

But for now, tell us or tell me your favorite or favorites when it comes to Rob Reiner movies.

I'll go first and I will say, stand by me.

I have a three-way tie because it's hard to choose.

Princess Bride, a few good men and stand by me.

All outstanding films and he directed I know he wrote to but typically I want to say he directed all of those because I think Aaron Sorkin wrote a few good men based on his own play I think William Goldman wrote The Princess Bride and I think I want to say Stephen King might have written stand by me Con you got a favorite Rob

Reiner

So the story in the Princess Bride William Goldman

Goldman

yeah, and then yeah, so it's the Princess Bride it's such a good I haven't watched I didn't see that film until last year And I was like wow this film is amazing It hit the comedy so well in that film and I was laughing and I was like oh this is getting serious, too It's like yeah, I loved it.

It's got everything and you said you mentioned William Goldman.

He was a big-time highly paid script doctor and

He wrote something that he wanted to show his kids.

He had written all these Oscar-nominated films, and he wanted to write something that his kids, or I believe it was either his kids or his grandkids, could see.

So he sat down and he wrote The Princess Bride.

And it was such an absolute masterpiece.

So, great stuff, but an incredible body of work.

Loved, and it's weird because I really liked a few good men.

because of the performances and the aesthetics.

It was shot through a lot of night scenes in DC.

You know, it was just so, so well done.

And not terribly cinematically.

It was a lot of courtroom scenes.

Anyway, it was great.

And yes, it was Stephen King that wrote the novel, Stand By Me, and Reynald Gideon.

I don't know who.

and Bruce Evans wrote the screenplay.

So there you go.

They were also producers on the film.

Let me know, folks, what is your favorite Rob Reiner film?

That's tonight's Question of the Night news, weather and sports coming up.

And we're going to tell you something really cool after this.

And we'll talk Bears Packers.

It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

Don Brown, our pal from WAUK, says this is Spinal Tap is his favorite Rob Reiner film.

That is a classic and rock-wrap artist Matt Harper from right here in G.B.

says The Wolf of Wall Street.

I kind of always forget he did that film.

That's a great one too.

Danny Weals says Stand By Me.

Great choices.

Let us know your favorite Rob Reiner movie.

We are celebrating his body of work tonight after such horrible news.

So get in on the fun, folks, and drop us a text or a stream comment.

If you're on any of these streaming platforms, give us a like or a follow if you don't mind.

And we've got a caller, Conrad?

Yeah, Mark from Priority Sack.

Mark from The Sack.

What is up, buddy?

How are you?

I'm doing relatively OK.

Just horrible news.

Awful.

I just awful lose, but I think the, you know, that a movie that I thought was just kind of okay the first time I saw it, but just has kind of grown on me is The Princess Bride.

I mean, there's so much great material in there that there's the code in there.

You can tell somebody if you really love them that you really love them, but just an as you wish.

I mean that that the It is just you know, good luck storming the castle boys that

When you're facing impossible odds against an evil force that That that you know, it occurs to me that Donald Trump is a Curious museum of the whole the evilness of of of Colin and Colin Ruegen Prince Humperding and Vincenny Wrapped up with every other evil character and in in reality and fantasy that there's been But based on his comments, he just made about Rob Reiner Yeah, well stuff

It's a wonderful movie, and this is years ago, but there was, I was in Target, I was looking at movies to pick something new up, and there was this young couple looking around at movies to watch.

I said, I said, well, Try the Prince's Bride Out, because they'd never seen it, and it just is a movie that I highly recommend, and it's just a wonderful film, just a wonderful movie.

that maybe it's a little light-hearted, but it's light-hearted and it makes you feel good.

Yeah, it's light, but

it's got age-old themes too, Mark, and that's a great choice.

That's my favorite, I think, as well.

It's up there with Stand By Me and A Few Good Men, but all very different movies that he made, or different from a genre standpoint, and he just crushed it.

And he wasn't the writer, he just directed, but, you know,

Part of great directing is not messing up a great story either, and he certainly enhanced them as opposed to the other way around.

Mark, thank you so much for the call.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Very much, you got it.

Have a great night.

And it's like, he was, and he did go after Trump, and Trump went after him today through his, was it Truth Social?

You got a Truth Social look,

don't you?

I don't think so.

So you're bound to get a few of those opinions in there too because he was a pretty vocal political guy But a phenomenal filmmaker let us know your favorite Rob Reiner film and

We'll read the text on the radio.

Coming up, all right, here are my guests tonight, folks.

This is gonna be really fun.

We've got Sean Connolly coming up in just a few minutes.

He'll be here after the news, which is coming up shortly.

New sports and weather coming up at the bottom of the hour.

And then I'm gonna bring on Sean Connolly, who is doing some really cool stuff.

And we're gonna talk about the longest cross-country ski event there is.

And I need to know how to say some of this stuff, Conn.

Is it, it's Berkey, right?

Yeah, Berkey.

I'm saying that right, like Birkenstocks.

Yes.

All right.

So Sean is an outdoorsy guy.

So he's going to inform this couch potato what is going on with these events he's got coming up.

He splits time between Green Bay and Hayward.

And he's going to tell us all about these really cool events.

Then we've got Laura Enright, author from Chicago, who is writing a book about a loan shark, a famous loan shark.

And we're going to talk to her about that book.

And then I've got Teresa Apertola.

I hope I'm saying her her name right.

She's a Green Bay stage actress.

She will be here in the last hour to tell us about a play that is coming up at the Green Bay Community Theater.

The more I learn about this Green Bay Community Theater, I just love it.

They're doing some great things and they've been around forever.

90 years Conrad, would it kill you to audition?

Get over there,

man.

I don't think they probably cut off the music.

They say, all right, we've seen enough.

And I

just looked

in.

That's all I did too.

That's all it takes?

That's like when they ask Homer, when he's taking the lie detector test.

Just answer the question truthfully, Homer.

Do you understand?

Yes.

And the whole thing explodes.

So we've got, there's your guess, our question.

What is your favorite Rob Reiner film?

We've got, OK, I'm going to, we've got about two minutes here.

I know.

You were like one of the first people I thought of yesterday when I got the news about Micah Parsons.

Just absolutely terrible.

And even, you know, as a bear fan, it's like, you know, this, we got this great rematch coming up this week, and you don't want either team to be compromised and whatever.

It's part of life, football's just lots of injuries.

But what were your thoughts when you heard that?

Sadness.

Did you think right away when you saw the play?

Oh, yeah, that's not good.

Yeah, it was not contact, right?

Yeah, it's not contact and then they replayed it and I saw that is it basically if you've seen any Achilles injury before that's what happens.

Oh, it's an Achilles.

It's sorry ACL.

That's what I meant.

But it popped, you know, yeah, you saw it and it's yeah, it's not I'm

sad Listen, this is like

And I think there's something to this theory it seems to me the most jacked guys who are like physical specimens like Miles Garrett or Michael Parsons or so are they just like I Don't know are they so Jacked that their muscles are tighter and they just pop or something.

I have no scientific Evidence to support my theory.

I think that they just put so much pressure on some of these muscles

Because, I mean, when they're going off the line, it's super fast.

It's hard.

They're going 100%, you know.

And I don't know.

I mean, did this happen back in the, did Ray Nitschke ever even come close to tearing an ACL?

I did see that these ACL injuries this year up 50% from last year.

Yeah, I don't know what to make of that.

I know one thing.

I'm certainly not going to tear mine sitting in this chair.

You never know.

I could pivot quickly with a topic.

We've got news, sports, and weather coming up right now, folks.

Don't go anywhere.

Dave on the stream says, yes, a novella that contains Stand By Me and Shawshank.

Stephen King, baby.

It's Pete Schwab and Nightlight.

We're coming back.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight IMP Chwaba.

It is great to have you here on this wonderful Monday evening, folks.

Our second Monday before Christmas.

Eight shopping days left.

Do people still say that, Conn?

Shopping days?

I haven't heard it

this year.

I've never heard anything like that.

The 19

shopping days till Christmas.

Okay.

So our question of the night is, what is your favorite Rob Reiner movie?

We are turning very sad news into a positive and discussing the legacy

that he left behind, sadly, too soon, even though he was 78 years old.

I said, Princess Bride, a few good men, and stand by me.

He was my favorite NEPO baby.

Can you stand by me?

Let's ask our guest who is in studio now.

He joins us here.

Very excited to have this guy on the show.

He is the Marketing and Communications Director for the Berkabiner Ski Foundation.

And he joins us here in the studio, a native of Green Bay, Mr. Sean Connolly.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, pleasure.

Thank you so much for having me.

Great to have you.

So you're a Green Bay kid.

I am

indeed.

That's exciting.

What do you have a favorite Rob Reiner film,

Sean?

So as a musician, and literally as I was turning this dial to turn to my headphones up, I just, it has to be spinal tap.

It has to be spinal tap because this one, you see it goes to 11.

But does

it, does this one go to 11?

Or do we need to have a better knob here?

But that's just so classic.

And now with the re-release of the new spinal tap, I haven't seen it yet.

I've heard only amazing things.

I haven't either.

But I mean, it's got to be spinal tap.

I mean, that's just, there's so many iconic lines from that movie and just every musician, you walk into a gig and everyone says turn it up.

One

of my favorite lines from that movie is, I think it's Paul Schaefer, David Letterman's old music director who said when they had to cancel the shows in Boston, he said, I don't worry about it guys, Boston's not a big college.

They both have the cold sores, it's just such a great movie.

It's classic, it's classic.

Absolutely.

Well, it's good to have you here tonight.

It's great to have you in the studio, too.

I understand you split time between here and Northwest Wisconsin.

Yes, absolutely.

I consider myself a citizen of the stage, if you will.

Yeah.

So Green Bay love it, born and raised.

I play Sundays at the Packer Games in the Packer tailgater band.

We walk around the logs and play with Packers.

So that's super fun.

I'm a musician in the area.

Love it here.

But yeah, really kind of fell in to just getting active in the outdoors.

My wife is also an amazing runner.

That's how we

met and with our two Golden Retrievers we just love spending time out in the woods and that's how we kind of fell in love with Cross Country Skiing and that's how I got involved at the American Berkabiner Ski Foundation up in Hayward, Wisconsin and the annual Cross Country Ski Race there, which for the listeners who don't know, the American Berkabiner Ski Foundation hosts the

third largest cross-country ski race in the world, largest in North America.

It goes from one town to the other, Cable, Wisconsin to Hayward, Wisconsin, 50 kilometers.

And it's every single February.

And we're going on our 52nd year, celebrated our 50th anniversary.

I started with them two years, with the organization two years ago, working with the American Berkmaner Ski Foundation in the

Least snowiest winter we've had in decades.

I'm like, you know, it's a good time to start working for a ski foundation when there's no snow on the ground.

It's a really great time.

You gotta bring us some luck.

So, but anyways, this year now, look outside.

It's absolutely incredible.

My wife and golden retriever's nine.

We're just skiing out at UWGB's campus earlier today.

Reforestation camp up in Swamaco for those in the Green Bay area.

I know we're going statewide, but look out your windows.

Look up.

There's a cross country ski destination or somewhere to go outside and snowshoe.

Do something outside.

You know, it's just, it's just a beautiful time of year to get out there.

You know, it's, I'm just going to share this, Sean, like I've said before.

I'm not an outside guy, much even less a winter guy.

But I remember when we moved to Wisconsin, northeast Wisconsin, Marinette, Wisconsin, and I remember seeing people cross country ski and I'm like, oh my God, that's the lamest thing ever.

It's not, it's like phenomenal exercise.

You're outside, like that's the kind of skiing I've done.

I have any desire to downhill ski.

Like I said before too, I spend most of my life avoiding serious injury.

But cross country skiing, talk about how great that is for people and their wellness and just what a great exercise it

is.

So I'm stealing this line from a great comic whose name is escaping me right now.

But you know, cross country skiing is that awkward moment when you're trying to get to the chairlift for downhill skiing.

That's cross country skiing.

But no, and for real, as you mentioned, it is a active sport.

It is a sport that you can do.

well into your later years in life.

That's why I got so excited about it.

When a buddy of mine, shout out to Jake Baumann if he's listening, said, hey, come on out and ski with me, man.

I think you'd really enjoy it.

And he's the one who got me really trained up to kind of do this Berkebinder race for the first time.

And I got out on the trails and there's these 70 year old guys, 80 year old guys, 90, just out there doing it because it's low impact on your joints, right?

So it's not like running where you're just pounding, pounding, pounding your joints.

But it's something that you can do well late into the life.

As a matter of fact, two years ago when the Berke had its 50th anniversary race, we had a skier.

who had done all 50 races.

His name is Ernie St.

Germain.

He's an incredible individual.

He's a Lakuta-ray native from the area and had an incredible 50 years of doing this race because you can do this into your later years in life.

It's so cool to see.

So that's one of the reasons I kind of got into it.

And like you said, it's great endurance activity.

And you know the best part about some sort of outdoor, even if you're not an outdoor winter guy.

When it's done.

When it's done.

And you can go warm up and you can have that hot cocoa and you can eat whatever sugar cookies you want.

I was trying to

make a joke and I totally stole

your phone.

I didn't know that was the actual.

It is, because that's one of the best parts about it.

You find a nice lodge, and you have a little fire, and you enjoy time with family and friends after you've, you know, you feel like you've earned it a little bit,

right?

Absolutely.

My kids had a tennis teacher a few years ago, and they, she actually said, I think I made a comment, like, hey, it's supposed to be 60 this week, or whatever, and she's like, no, it's terrible, because they are snowmobilers.

They embrace, they love winter,

and I

started thinking to myself,

Pardon me, if I'm gonna live here and I do, why not find something to do and embrace winter because...

Mostly I just sit and complain with my fire turned on

and I'm like,

you know, once you do it, it really is fun when you get out there.

But how, what would you tell people to start?

Like Conrad every day comes in here and says, where do I learn more about cross country skiing?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bay Nordic is an incredible, incredible facility on here.

Yep.

It's a great organization called Bay Nordic.

They do lessons up at Reforestation Camp just up in Suamiko.

And like I mentioned, if you're listening statewide, look for something near you.

And if you actually, if you go to Berkey.com, we just in November, we hosted a

statewide Wisconsin Nordic winter kickoff live stream kind of similar to what you're doing here on WGBW with civic media and anyways we had all these different Nordic space spots from all over the state we had Lopham Peak we had Minakwa Winter Park we had Windman Trails which is up in Winchester, Wisconsin We had Aaron's Nordic Center and Brilliant not far from here and we all kind of came together just to talk about Nordic skiing and that there's a lot of opportunities and a lot of ways to train and kind of get into it But as you mentioned if someone's just getting into it I would suggest you know

You don't need to spend a ton of money.

Yes, there's a little bit of a cost of entry, but you can get a nice used pair of skis for a hundred, maybe 200 bucks with a boot skis and poles.

There used to be a lot of ski swaps back in the day.

I think COVID unfortunately killed a lot of those, but there's a go on Facebook marketplace.

There's always someone being like, I haven't used these things in years or sitting in my garage.

They'll pull it on my Facebook marketplace.

So find something cheap for skis.

You don't need to spend a lot of money on skis, but where you should spend your money.

is a nice jacket, a nice pair of like pants.

The winter gear that'll keep you warm.

That's going to keep you outside and keep you doing it.

Like I, I can't tell you night and day difference when I finally was like, you know what?

I've had this jacket since high school.

It's got holes all over it.

It was one of those Packer starter jackets, the quarter zips that, you know, those, those are classic back in the day.

I had that one for years.

Finally said, I'm going to upgrade to something that's actually like legitimate.

That's going to keep me warm.

And that's what's kept me like outside more because it's, you know, these, and these, I skied here today because it was above zero the past two days.

It's been subzero temperatures, and if you have nice gear that it helps out a lot.

You skied here from just a few blocks down by the Meyer Theater.

Yeah, just in a quarter of a

mile.

Did you hit any cement?

Oh yeah,

tons of it.

And that's

OK?

No, it's not at all.

It's just a die hard.

I used to use what they call your rock skis or your B-skis.

Everybody's got a couple pairs.

And I took them off and walked down the concrete.

And then the city deck over here, they plow like half of it.

So the other half of the skis.

So

you can

stand.

I just

didn't say I did it.

My guest is Sean Connolly.

He is an awesome outdoorsman and a fine Irishman.

And

he is the marketing

and communications director for

Berkabiner's Ski Foundation, they have the third largest cross-country ski race marathon in the world, the largest in North America.

So when you come across people like us, like Conrad and I, sometimes we'll start the show and talk about how we'll complain about how cold it is.

It's like we live in, we are here willingly.

Why do we complain about this?

So you probably meet people like that too.

When did you know, do you like winter more than summer?

Yes, yes.

Do you get too hot and just like in my humble opinion, it's hard to cool yourself down.

Yeah, you can go inside, you know air-conditioned room But for me, I'm like man, it's like I was kind of I sleep cold like you know, I can't be warming asleep kind of yeah So I am I guess I got winter in my blood a little bit there, but I would say

I like winter a little bit more than summers because you do have to take advantage of a little bit more.

And, um, you know, like there are times when it's dark out like this at four PM and I don't mind sitting in front of my computer a little bit longer because it's dark.

What else are going to do?

But when it is nice and when it's nice out and it's light out and you have to opportunities to take advantage of the outdoors, well, that's what cross country skiing, snowshoeing, just go for a hike, you know, go play romp with your dog, build a snowman.

You know, you get, you get at least an hour or something outside.

So you, you get some activity out there.

Especially this time of year now with this dumping of snow we've had over the past I mean I say dumping but it's like compared to the past two years.

Yeah, this is this is amazing kind of like we talked about earlier for people who may not be into the winter sports Nordic skiers are a different breed.

They are like, oh my gosh It's cold.

There's snow.

This is incredible where other people are like give me a white Christmas then let it melt and move on but for us We're literally right after Christmas.

That's when our season picks up and that's when we start to have all of our ski events all the fat biking events all throughout January

And then we get into February our big winter ski season So there's a lot of events at the Berkey hosts not just during the winter But the winter season is our biggest time of year for getting people out and active.

Okay, so you talked us

You talked a little bit about this great event coming up, the Berkey Binder Cross Country Ski Marathon.

How can people find out more information?

Can they join?

Let's say someone wants to be part of it or they want to watch.

Where is the information?

Yeah, great.

So Berkey.com, that's B-I-R-K-I-E dot com.

Berkey.com has all the information.

There's a lot of great things going on right now.

So the Berkey registration opens up in May.

And on our first day, we'll get about 2,000, 2,500 people to register because there's just that many people that are just like, yep, this is what I do every year.

and I'm going to sign up and then the thing moral trickling over the years.

We're getting to over the years, over the months.

We're getting to the point now where waves are starting to close.

So we have like wave one will have X amount of people wave two will have X amount of people So ways are starting to close.

You can still get in there is definitely still room for you You'll be in some of the later waves, but we have a really exciting time out right now So if you're listening to this and you are a cross-country skier or maybe you've you're a runner or maybe you're a biker and maybe you've done some Berkey events We have a refer a friend program going on right now through Christmas Eve So if you sign up now through Christmas Eve or get a friend to sign up now through Christmas Eve

You get $25 into your Berkey account.

So get a friend to sign up So you're signed up and then it's in your account so you can use it towards a future event, right?

So that's what we've found is not just the Berkey but endurance athletes in general I feel like they're always looking for that next thing and once you put it on the calendar once you put money down and you say I'm doing this race now You're committed now.

You're like well.

I guess I got to go out and train or this thing's gonna suck So that's what it's all about if I sign

someone up Do they have to show like if I sign Conrad up and he's a no-show, which is a pretty good possibility

up when you have his registration dollars, that's all that matters, you get the money.

But we like it to show up.

So when you're racing, this is a race, a cross country race.

It seems like, and again, I don't mean to like, it's hard work, it's great exercise, but it seems like...

It's not like you're watching Usain Bolt.

It seems like people are kind of going about the same.

Is it endurance?

Is it like having huge thighs so you can go just a little bit faster than other people?

What are the strategies when it comes to cross-country skiing?

It's definitely endurance, for sure, especially for a marathon.

It's just like a running marathon or anything, you know, it's endurance.

Now there are two different styles.

The majority of people in cross-country skiing started, it was the classic sky like you said, like you were kind of going back and forth like that.

You're chugging, it's kind of one foot in front of the other, sliding, like you're on a Nordic track.

Right.

The other style is what's called skate style.

And that's the one that's actually pretty exciting to watch.

No offense, classic skiers.

You get out there and it's more like you're moving back and forth.

It's very fast.

It's something you would watch more in the Olympics.

And now, which is really exciting because now we're in an Olympic year this year too.

So getting people excited about that to say, like, hey, you know what, not many people can ski the Olympics, but when you ski the American Berkebeiner and you finish on Main Street and there's thousands of people out there cheering you on, that feels like, that's an Olympic moment, right?

So that's what we're looking forward to this

year.

We've got Berkey on the brain, ladies and gentlemen.

Sean Connelly is here.

He's the Marketing and Communications Director for the Berkebeiner Ski Foundation.

We're going to talk more about some of the events they have coming up after the holidays.

And if you want, drop us your favorite Rob Reiner film that is what we're asking people to do tonight to be part of the show.

This is Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

That sounds like the karaoke version of that song, which is Hans Zimmer's amazing score from the Princess Bride.

We've got a number of texts coming in saying the Princess Bride will get your texts shortly.

Conrad Krieger worked in the board tonight and my guest in studio right now is Sean Connelly.

He is the marketing and communications director for the Berkabiner Ski Foundation.

We're talking to Sean about some fun events they have coming up and news and weather are right around the corner folks.

We've got Laura Enright, a Chicago author who's going to be here to tell us about her new book about loan sharking in hour number two, which is what should be interesting.

And then local actress Teresa Apertola will be here in hour three.

Right now we've got

some more time with Sean, who's skied into the studio tonight, which blows my mind.

Big time outdoorsman, and here's the thing, Sean, I'm not an outdoorsy guy.

I don't really like winter, but I love being around people who embrace things I don't really, you know what I mean?

Like, it's kind of fun to talk to you about that.

For sure.

Do you, you said you're more of a winter guy.

What do you do in the summer in Wisconsin?

Like, what is your favorite activity?

Oh, yeah, it's gonna be wrong.

I, you know, it's not like, oh my gosh, I never stepped outside in the summer.

It's still summer, still great.

Just, you know, giving my choices, I'll take the winter.

But no, still trail running is great.

Get out kayaking.

I go with some friends fishing and just getting out in the Northwoods, hiking and just being outside with the pups.

And then, you know, after we get outside, then picking every tick off of them for about an hour.

Oh my gosh, no kidding.

So how did you end up with this gig?

You're marketing and communications.

Yes.

regarding an activity you love.

Is this a dream job for you?

Yeah, it's pretty

great.

It's pretty great.

I mean, I've worked in digital media my entire career, worked in television, radio, worked for WFRV TV here in town.

Shout

out to all the great guests we have on that show.

But yeah, just...

Really kind of the I literally got into the sport and did my first Berkey race in 2023 and then the job opened up in 2024 and I was like, well, yeah, let's let's do this

But

yeah, anyways, that's like I said kind of consider myself more of a citizen of the state because it is across the state But Wisconsin's got so many amazing things from like the largest cross-country ski race in the country to one of the largest car shows in Iowa to the largest music festival in Milwaukee to you know the greatest NFL team the

Biggest small,

biggest

small town in America says the guy,

you

know, biggest small town in America for green, but you know, it's just, it's such a cool place that it's great to celebrate and it's great to

share that celebration with

other people, whether it's outdoor activities, whether it's sports, whether it's music, there's just so many great things around here to share.

Very well said.

So how long

is this Berkey cross-country ski marathon?

How many miles?

So it is about 30 miles and it depends.

It's so funny if you said it's just 40

yards.

No, but it's, so, and I say about that because one of them is about, so how are you going to ski or speak in kilometers?

It's kind of a thing

just

because, so it's a 50 K or if you're doing the classic race, it's a 52 K. So there's classic and skate.

Those are the two different styles.

And so when you get out onto the, onto the trails, you'll see, you'll generally see like, you know, the track where you get your skis in the track and they don't really, really don't move out of that track.

And you can

ask your classic style.

Then you got the skate one that's a little bit wider and there you're kind of pushing side to side and you glide, you go a little bit faster.

faster.

So those are the two different versions and they're two different distances that way.

But you'll see skiers come from all over the world doing both different versions.

A lot of, I think skate skiing has kind of become a little bit more popular, but the week itself really is a whole week of skiing celebrations.

Honestly, it's kind of a celebration of Nordic activities and just winter in general.

So

the week actually kind of begins on Wednesday.

Wednesday is our open track day and that's the day if you want to come and you want to ski and you just want to, you don't want the whole

craziness of the race because there's a lot of people and their skis and poles flying everywhere so it can be a little bit intimidating.

So if you just want to ski the course but still have all the aid stations out there you'd be supportive.

You come on Wednesday you ski that.

Then Thursday is kind of our family day.

That's where we have what we call the Barker Burkey.

I was actually training for that earlier today with my golden retriever Cedar and Maple.

Everything

about you

is

outdoors.

Cedar and Maple Conrad.

Are you listening to this?

Oh

yeah.

We

need to

follow.

We should have came on the show today.

Generally you'll see them walking by the studio window here.

On skis?

No, we're getting there.

But skijoring, that's where you ski with your dog all the way.

So you have that, you have the kids' races, then we also have what's called a giant ski.

A giant ski is six people on one pair of skis, and they go downtown, and that is just a dash, and maybe we go like 30.

20 yards, 20, 30 yards.

But it's super fun.

Just that's a super fun.

So Thursday is kind of the fun family day.

Then Friday is the half Berkey day.

It's called the court of Lopet.

So that's if you want to ski just the half distance, kind of like doing a half marathon.

And then

Saturday is the big

big ski day, big celebration day where the whole course is lined with fans and you're in the woods for a lot of it, but then you go buy some cabins and those cabins will have shot skis out there for you.

And then you get downtown and there's balconies where people are lowering down

some

beers to people.

So

it's a party.

There has to be alcohol involved at some

point, you know, and then you can do as much or as little as you want, but it is, it is an event that giant ski event.

Some guys might have a couple of beers before they get on six people on one pair of skis.

It's pretty exciting.

It's February 18th.

through the 22nd, a phenomenal event.

Can we keep you for a few minutes past the news?

We've got some other events here I'd love to ask you about.

Yeah, no problem.

You graduated from Stevens Point.

What was your experience there?

Like I have a child at Stevens Point.

It's such a neat little campus.

Oh, it's just an incredible mecca in the middle of the state.

I love it.

And the town, especially even since I've graduated, I go back there now, I'm a musician, I play some gigs there, and I'm like, wow,

there's like

new distillery.

The campus just keeps growing with new buildings, the whole town.

is just, it's such a great place to live and to enjoy.

So I highly suggest shout out to Central Wisconsin.

You guys got it going on up there.

Love

it.

So when we come back, we're going to do the news, weather, sports.

It's all coming up, folks, in just a minute.

Sean will stay with us for a few minutes.

I'm going to ask you your favorite parts of the state, winter and summer, because we're celebrating in Wisconsin here with a guy who knows our state inside and out.

He's lived in different areas, and he's overseeing all these great events.

We'll talk about a couple of the events as well.

Conrad, you'll still be here, right?

I might take a powder.

I don't know.

Take a powder in the middle.

That's act two is coming up next.

Jim from Appleton the 920 says his favorite Rob Reiner film is Misery.

You know that's like when you forget some of the movies a guy has done.

That's a deep cut.

Completely forgot about Misery with James Cahn and Kathy Bates.

Jim also says I'm gonna copy you Pete.

I can only narrow it down to three.

Princess Bride, Spinal Tap and A Few Good Men.

A few good men?

A few good men and then he.

And then he managed to get misery in there, too.

Well done.

Tom from New Berlin says, Pete, repetitions can breed injury.

So don't do repetitions.

I don't know what to tell you.

All right, we're coming back, folks.

The news and the weather are coming up next.

You might even hear from Mike Clemens.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight.

We're coming back with Sean Connolly, and we're going to read more of your texts after the news.

Don't go anywhere.

It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight.

Broadcasting live statewide from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who can still look intimidating and leg warmers, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back.

Hey, ladies and gentlemen, kicking off.

The second act of tonight's show on a beautiful Monday here in downtown Green Bay.

Christmas is right around the corner.

What more could you ask for folks?

We're talking about the things in life that make us happy movies and TV comedy music and with my current guest Sean Connelly cross-country skiing winter sports summer sports We'll be back to Sean in just a moment Coming up at the bottom of the hour Laura and right will be here.

She is a Chicago based author who does great She writes about vampires and the mob con.

What about that?

I mean come

on cool.

That's really

cool

I think it's great and she's working on a new

Story about a guy who was a loan shark and she's working with him on the book I can't wait to talk to her about that and then we're gonna talk some theater in act three with Teresa appertola who will be here In the studio as well probably sitting in the same seat that Sean is sitting in right now.

I'll keep an arm for you Okay, our question of the night is Rob Reiner based we talked about the horrible death of Rob Reiner yesterday We got news that he and his wife had been killed most likely by

their son, which is just a horrible tragedy.

We're trying to spin it positively and talk about Rob Reiner's legacy and some of the things that he left behind and certainly earned his time here on earth contributing to things that make us very happy, these great movies.

So let us know what your favorite Rob Reiner film is and I will read your text on the radio.

We also talked a little conred sort of, we really didn't get into too much stuff, but you were very bummed out about Michael.

Yeah,

I still am.

Still I'm very sad.

So what does this do?

You know, are they sure it's the ACL?

Has that been confirmed?

It was confirmed today.

All right.

That is a bummer for Packer.

I'm sorry about that Packer fans.

And I make no bones about the fact that I'm a Bears fan.

But you don't want to, you want, if you beat like Aaron Rodgers, I was always, I was so mad when he left because we never got a chance to beat Aaron Rodgers.

Well, we beat him, but not.

with any kind of consistency ever.

So it's horrible when you have a sports injury like this that alters a season for a team and you never wish anything like that on anybody.

But, you know, Packer fans, I feel for you that really does, really does suck.

current guest Sean is a big Packer fan as

well.

Yeah, born and raised Packer fan and you know actually when they won their last Super Bowls living in New York City with a buddy of mine and we said hey with the Packers won the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season we're like well let's get tattoos haha it's not gonna happen crap we did we won so we had to get tattoos.

So what'd you get?

We got it's the state of Wisconsin with a big G in the middle of it and when I showed my buddy he's like hey do you mind if I get that tattoo as well so shout out to another Jake friend of mine and we got a twofer.

Oh, sweet.

The tattoo artist gave us a two for it.

And you still haven't.

I haven't gotten the laser removed.

No, but

I have too many

layers on to the skeet over here.

I believe it.

But yeah, so it's

under

there.

Next time, it'll be a more exciting show for the livestream.

All right, there you go.

We'll do the show.

If you come in in the summer, we don't have to have so many clothes on, but I know you love winter.

And I didn't mean to insinuate it.

It is night

light, you know, after all, I mean, I feel like what kind of show is this?

That's right.

All right.

So recap for Sean, if you would, this great event coming up February 18th through the 20 seconds.

It's the American Berkabiner Cross Country ski marathon here in Wisconsin from cable to Hayward.

Correct.

Cable to Hayward.

We finish right down on Main Street.

We construct what's called International Bridge.

It's a temporary bridge that goes over the highway there, Highway 63.

It's covered in snow.

You ski literally the last leg of the race.

You ski across Lake Hayward.

which is adjacent to downtown.

It costs a frozen lake up over this bridge.

And then you ski down into Main Street with thousands of screaming fans all cheering for you and cowbells going off

and people

handing out shot skis.

It's just, you know, here's the thing, even if you're not an outdoor skier, like yourself, even

if you're

not an outdoorsy person, winters in your thing, come on up to Hayward, Wisconsin on February 21st this year, have a beer on Main Street.

It's like tailgating at a packer game.

You're going

to walk

around and people are having fun.

And don't tell me you don't catch a little bit of what's called Berkey fever.

It's called Berkey Fever

up there.

And it is this thing that people catch that they're just like, man, this is, I just want to be around this because it's just, it's just a celebration of winter.

And it's so much fun.

So even if you're not into the active sports style life, I highly suggest people try it.

It's a great way to

get

through the long winter we have here.

But if you're not coming up and have a beer down on Main Street and catch a little Berkey Fever, it's super fun.

It's just, it's a beautiful time up in the Northwoods.

And it's, it's one of those things that again, I kind of mentioned earlier, Wisconsin has so many of these great things from summer fest to car shows, to amazing things.

all seasons, you know, this is one of those winter things I feel like every Wisconsinite midwesterner really should check off their list.

Is there, is there winter weather that's too cold even for you?

Like you mentioned this past weekend, you and your, it was like zero or below

zero.

When do you, when do you, an avid outdoor winter sportsman go?

Nope.

Thanks anyway.

Yeah.

I mean, there is a point where like, you know, literally it's just not safe.

It's not good for your lungs.

If

you're at like a below zero and you're breathing in that cold air.

So most winter athletes, you'll always see have this buff, have something to cover up their nose and mouth.

But yeah, once you kind of get to that like really subzero temperatures, I mean, you don't want to be out there for more than a half hour an hour.

And really you want to, you're active.

The second you're active, the second you're not active, now you're sweaty, now you're wet.

Now

it's brutal.

So you

just got to have the right, the right.

Procedure set up so you can make sure you're changing or you're getting in your car right away or you're starting your car when you're still a mile out So it's warmed up by the time you get

there that kind of

thing so you just got to prepare a little bit that's all

tell us about You've got this right around the corner of the

the Gitchy game.

Gitchy gaming games.

Yeah.

So that's a,

that's a Northwood tradition for the Berkey.

And that's actually a pretty fun event that's coming up this weekend.

And that's actually a junior ski competition.

So if you're listening out there and maybe your kids are interested in Nordic skiing, I know in the Green Bay area, there's a Ashwabana High School has a great Nordic ski team, Bay Nordic around here.

There's a lot of great Nordic ski teams all over the state, but this is a, it's called a junior qualifying race.

So it's kids from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, all coming out to the hit.

to the Hayward in cable area.

They're going to be skiing up in cable.

So yeah, 350 athletes, some athletes maybe enjoying us from Canada.

But it was actually started back in 1975.

So this was actually a precursor to the World Cup.

So it was people who wanted to like get better to get to the World

Cup.

They'd

come ski at this competition.

So get your game of games is a really fun one.

It's a youth ski competition.

So that one's more for like, if you're part of a team, so you can't really like sign up today.

It's one of those that kind of got to be a part of a team and already be registered for it.

But after that, now in January hits, we have a whole series

of things that are, you can go on Berkey.com and register right now.

First open weekend is called Shred to She Fat Bike.

It's our women's fat bike camp.

So we have a lot of great camps that are, you know, like some of these sports for years, actually for...

the first few years of the Berkey in 1973.

It started in 1973 and for the first few years it was a men's only race.

The women who were racing it were signing up as men and doing it as men.

So there were just as many heavy women out there as there were men.

That

one.

Fat biking is just like big thick tires.

They're tires that are made for snow.

And actually, you know, like 20 years ago, fat biking was like mountain bike tires, but now there are tires that are like double the size of mountain bike.

tires and call fat bikes.

And that's what's really popular.

Actually, this area of Wisconsin is actually one of the most popular places in the world for fat biking because you can go fat biking on trails with us.

No.

So that's a great camp to come on up with women on a train more and get better at that.

The following weekend is a classic only ski race.

It's called Sealy Hills Classic.

That's January 10th.

Great little race to kind of pre-qualify for the Berkey.

The weekend after that is a women's ski camp.

That's a really cool camp that we actually have a great New York Times bestselling author called Elise Copecki.

She's coming up and she's going to do some cooking classes and skiing class.

It's gonna be a really great weekend for women who want to get better at the sport want to be around a great Encouraging active community women and then the following weekend is what's called Berkey tour.

That's just a fun day where the whole course is open People can ski the whole entire Berkey tour the whole entire course and just kind of get to know the Berkey trail and then once February hits then we're really prepping up for our big Berkey week But we

have

all of January come on up to cable and Hayward, Wisconsin It's it's a beautiful winter wonderland up there ever since we got that great dumping of snow on the

Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

I mean, the snow's just clinging to the trees.

You drive up there, you put on some Bing Crosby and you enjoy

yourself up

there.

Man, I tell you, it's absolutely beautiful.

Very well done.

Where is the name?

from.

I know Birkenstock, like, how do you get to Birkebeiner and then Birke?

So this race is really steeped in a lot of history and lore, not just the past 50 years that we've been doing it here, but this act, the murdered Birkebeiner is Norwegian for Birch Lager.

And so this dates all the way back to 1206.

Let me take you to Norway, 1206.

There's a civil war as a prince by the name of Prince Hoken and his father, King Edward, was murdered.

And so the country

It's at war and this prince is the last surviving lineage of the of the royal family So two warriors Burkabiner warriors

and they

were birch again This was the poorer faction of the two civil like fighting classes and they couldn't afford like real

armor.

So they wore birch leggings.

So you can imagine birch bark, birch leggings.

So they literally wore birch bark on their legs.

That's where the word Birchabiner birch legged comes from.

So these two warriors skied this prince Hoken to safety, like skied him away from the battle and capital lineage going and in Norwegian history and lore, he was one of the greatest kings that Norway's ever had.

And so there's a whole history of it.

And actually the Berke, the American Birchabiner, there are Birchabiner races all over the country, over the world.

Sorry, there's a Canadian birch.

There's the Ingen and Marathon in Sweden.

There's 19 races that the Berkeys actually a part of a series that people do.

They'll go

all over

the world and they'll do these races all over the world.

So they all kind of reenact this rescuing of this prince.

One of the races actually in Norway, the skiers actually have to ski with.

I think it's four pounds, maybe five pounds.

I could check myself there.

They have to ski with a four or five pound sack that represents the baby.

So they actually have to ski with weight.

So anyway, so there's a whole history.

We could go down a rabbit hole.

It's for a whole

another episode.

But yeah, there's a lot of a unique history behind this race.

Sean Connelly is my guest.

He is the marketing and communications director for Berkabiner, the Berkabiner ski foundation.

So, that's incredible.

If you broke that out during your job interview, I would, that's a slam dunk.