Piet Levy on Summerfest, Milwaukee Music & This Year’s Lineup (Hour 2)

From Washington to Hollywood and right back to Wisconsin.

It's night light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Connecting the dots on the stories shaping our world with smart takes, sharp humor and plenty of personality.

You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.

It's news and culture without the noise.

Yeah, come on.

Here's Pete Schwabba.

Dude.

And Greg Bach.

Dude.

Welcome Welcome to nightlight everybody.

I am Pete Schwab.

It is great to have you here with us.

Greg Bacch is here tonight.

I'm saying that like it's a different thing.

It's not He is my my awesome co-host and Dom Lee is producing the show from Madison tonight It is great to have you here on this beautiful Tuesday night on a gorgeous May evening in in the state of Wisconsin How are you guys tonight?

Greg?

How's it going?

Oh, you know what?

All right.

Oh boy

You know, again, it's just another one of those.

It's a day.

It wasn't amazing.

It wasn't terrible.

But I'm here, and we're here to have fun.

And I'm excited that we're gonna have a great show.

I

don't

know why I'm talking like that.

Did you become a gangster since yesterday?

That's my question.

I did not.

That

split

my mind.

completely slit my mind.

I don't do it.

It was on my

list.

Well, it was on my list of things to do and then I forgot and I'm like, well, if I'm not doing it now, then I'm probably not that important in the first.

It's like when you forget something, like when you forget what you're gonna say, you're like, well, it couldn't be that important if I forgot it.

So yeah, I'll do it later, maybe.

You can never be a made guy

with a name like Bach.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

The best I could be is like a henchman in a mob, but I could never be in the mafia.

I know that I've seen too many documentary films like Goodfellas and The Godfather to know better.

You could be the heavy though, or muscle as they say, you could be the

hired muscle.

Yeah, but I always wanted to be the guy who like, you know, you got a guy like tied up to a chair and like, where's my money?

And I walk and go, Hey man, why don't you have the money?

Let's

talk

about that.

You know, like, what's going on, man?

Like, you took money in good faith.

You said you'd pay us back.

What's going on?

Like, why aren't you paying us?

And is it something more than just, like, I forgot?

Like, I want to get into this, you know?

I want to understand.

Your mob nickname would be the voice of reason, which might limit you.

Oh,

absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm brought in for very, very, very few capers.

collections.

Yeah, exactly.

Hey, this is great, folks.

We have a great show tonight.

We're going to be talking cycling at 535 tonight with Bill Bertram.

He is the board president of the Warsaw and Marathon County Parks Foundation.

And we have a really cool, I would say, element or part of the earth that makes cycling very appealing here in Wisconsin.

We're going to talk all about that with Bill.

That'll be a fun talk.

And then in hour number two,

the outstanding music reporter and critic, reporter, critic, Piat Levy will be here talking about Summerfest.

The lineup was recently announced and we'll break that down for you guys tonight.

Greg Bach, as you may or may not know, is a huge music aficionado.

I love music.

Piat writes about music.

Dom likes music, so it'll be a great talk at 620 tonight with our pal, Piat Levy, who has not been on the show for a while, so it'll be fun to welcome him back.

We have a great question of the night in our movie just to let you guys know on Thursday night in the second hour This week's nightlight movie club is vacation brought to you

by the comedy silings of Mr. Dom Lee.

He chose this great classic that is a perfect summer movie because that's when you take family vacations and it was a big hit and spawned many more lesser films of the vacation franchise.

But that one's a great one.

I can't wait to discuss it with you guys on Thursday night.

Do you refer to it as vacation or do you call it national lampoon's vacation?

I used to say vacation.

Okay.

Well, why do you know there's no I'm just simply asking because sometimes when you talk to people they'll say Oh, I love the movie vacation and then we like what you say national ampoules

because we grew we

grew

What they're just doing that

though.

Don't you think

you mean national

ampoules vacation?

I don't think so.

No, no, they don't, they don't, they don't correct me.

They don't know what I'm talking about because my entire life, it was always referred to as national lampoon's vacation or national lampoon's European vacation.

So I feel like Justin, I feel like since the remake a few years ago, more people have been referring to it as vacation, but that still leaves some folks in the dust going, I don't know what that movie is.

Who's in that?

And you say, Oh, and you clarify and they go, Oh, okay.

I know what you're talking about.

Just curious.

Yeah, that's interesting.

I don't, I've never, and I can't think of another film that's called Vacation.

So I wouldn't think you'd need National Limpoon Vacation, but either way, it's the technical title of it.

Yeah, so that

works.

All right.

And Dom you got to be excited.

This is your second movie selection for us.

I

am I am super excited I the first time I watched it was like a decade ago So this is gonna be kind of this is gonna be basically and watch rewatching a new movie for me because I have not I haven't watched it quite a while.

I will

see the Ed Helms one the more recent one from 2018 I haven't you know

No,

not at

all.

It

wasn't bad.

It was, it was fun.

You know, we'll, and we'll talk

more

about that on Thursday.

Yeah.

It's a, uh, I will say though, if you saw that movie a decade ago, you were definitely way too young to see that movie, but okay.

I'm sure he fell in love with Beverly D'Angelo, like the rest of us.

Um, I believe the fifth.

Okay.

He's like, I love the acting stylings of Anthony Michael Hall and any of his eras yesterday.

So all right, we'll be part of it folks.

We have a good time when we talk movies every night or every Thursday I should say in the second hour and this week's Film is Vacation so we'll talk about our favorite lines characters scenes and I still I know Chevy Chase is not very well liked in less so as he gets older But he is still so damn funny in that movie

He's very funny in that movie.

Yeah, I wanted to watch that the CNN came out with a documentary recently very recently and I don't know if you guys saw the they showed Social media showed like the opening shot and this person just like you know getting set up and saying you know just want to have a talk and he's just so Incredibly like insulting is one thing.

This is

just flat out mean like he's like I'm smarter than you.

You'll never understand me That's why I don't really want to have a comment like it's like

You have to understand why people don't like you, right, Chevy?

You have to understand this.

I think he knows, and I don't think he really cares.

I think that's part of his shtick, and as he gets older, I don't think he has a handle on it.

I don't think he has a filter that says, you know what, you're going too far.

You're being a serious jerk.

It's funny in Fletch when you're belittling people that deserve to be belittled, but not in real life when people are just doing their jobs.

I paid, I want to tell you guys this, I had to pay,

for gas today.

I filled up.

I think I told you this at the end of the show.

It was

actually yesterday, 89 bucks in my Land Cruiser.

Now it's a big car.

It's a gas guzzler.

I get it, but 89 bucks.

It was like in the fifties.

It was like 52 bucks the last time I filled it before the war.

Cause that's how long it's been since I filled it.

It's insanity.

Yeah.

I have,

I can't remember.

Well, no, I think I told you guys this the last time I filled up my car.

I also had to fill up my little tank for my lawnmower and I paid $60 flat because the machine wasn't taking cards at the, at the pump.

So he'd go inside and I said, just give me 60 bucks worth.

And I filled the little gas tank and then I filled my car as much as possible.

It wasn't full.

It was 60 bucks total.

Like it was, I just, and yesterday I'm driving home.

I'm like, Oh, gas is 459.

And I thought to myself, don't be excited about that.

Yeah.

It was 432 here, which is lower than anywhere I've seen it, but it's still almost double what it was or whatever.

I don't know if it was 309 or 295 or whatever

it was,

but it's a little crazy.

The other thing that irritated me today, have you guys noticed this?

Facebook Messenger.

I have so many different ways to communicate with people.

Sometimes I get confused.

Was it text?

Was it civic media message?

Was it

a

Facebook message?

Was it email?

I don't know.

Today, they asked me for a pin.

They say if you want your chat history, you'll need to enter a pin and that really ticked me off.

Is that a thing now?

Yes, I've been getting that for a long time.

That's not new.

So did you pick a pin and now you use a pin?

I don't want to.

I picked a pin a long time ago just because I was like, I'm just whatever.

I was annoyed, but I just did it because I didn't want to lose the history.

Sure.

Although it doesn't really matter.

I mean, like the same thing that I think they have that on on Twitter as well now.

I mean, that's so like that's something I've been thinking about for a while.

Like I'm all for security.

Like I don't want anyone to hack me.

I don't want anyone getting my system.

But now there are so many second like method verifications out there that it just feels like like the other day I was trying to sign in.

I was doing we were doing our taxes and I just signed into one of our investment accounts.

And I was on my computer for 20 minutes before I ever got into the account because I just set up

all of these things.

I'm like, can I just give you a password?

I'll give you a name, a password, and you could ask me the question I signed up for five years ago.

But now you want me to give you a phone number, give you an email address, get a message, sign in the message.

If I don't sign in the message fast enough, then it expires and I have to get a new message.

I get it, but then at the end of the day,

Recently got an email saying, hey, your social security number might be on the dark web or whatever.

And I called my bank and they said, there's not a lot we can do.

People can get your stuff.

Really?

So

why am I

signing up for all these monothequial?

Why am I signing up for

those?

I don't want to give them my phone number and my email.

I don't want them to have that because they're just going to sell it or do more stuff.

And I'm so cynical.

I don't think it's really that they care about my security.

I think they just want the information.

I don't

disagree.

I

don't disagree.

Hey, I think it's time, guys.

We get to our question of the night.

I believe so.

Let's talk about the question.

OK, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

OK, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Name a TV show, Cancellation, you can't quite get over.

That's more of a nightlight statement of the night.

Could have reworded that I supposed to make it what is a

show that I cancelled

that

you are still upset about it was just that simple

Next time you say

it with like could be like

tell me a show that was cancelled you're upset

about right.

I'm not a vowing But go to your Alex go to your Alex Jones voice

Which

is now the onion by the way, which exactly But let us know is there a show that got cancelled even if it was out for like 12 years folks tell us the show

That you can't get over that they canceled it.

I have a couple really good ones and I love this question So be part of the show 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic you can also text us on the civic media app

or

if you're watching the radio on Facebook ex Twitter or YouTube but drop us a stream comment and be part of the fun here on Tuesday night light.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

So

some good news coming out of the town of Watertown, the town, the town, small village.

I don't guess they're a city.

So as we talked about last week, the symphony, the school symphony, the wind symphony, the wind choir, I think they were called, they were

going to a

song, they were going to a concert.

And one of the songs that was on there was taken out because it was written.

in tribute to Marsha P. Johnson, who is credited as starting the Stonewall Riot, starting the modern revolution for folks, for, you know, the queer revolution here in America.

And, you know, you can go back and read about the history of this with the school.

But basically, the kids will be able to play the song, but not at school at a local church.

A church is stepping up in place of the public school that is not allowing them to play this.

Wait for it.

Wordless song called, it's called A Mother of a Revolution written by Omar Thomas and he will be at the event to watch them play this song at the church.

I

think this is wonderful.

I thought he was going to conduct them.

Isn't he going to, I think he's going to lead them.

I think the church is flying him in, which is really

cool.

Yep.

Composer Omar Thomas will travel to Watertown on Wednesday to conduct a performance of the piece.

This will be done at a local church, the Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Watertown, which that's just mind blowing to me that a church is like, Hey, public school, we'll

take this

from here and let these kids play this song.

I still think they should have played the song at the school, but that doesn't mean.

Yeah, go ahead.

Sorry.

It's both good news, but also it's still very frustrating because those

Schoolbar members just and they wouldn't

even talk they wouldn't they would not even talk after the vote.

They're so gutless

You're right Greg, Emmanuel Lutheran Trish.

And it's gonna be live stream folks.

So if you wanna check it out, I'm sure you can find that out with Google or maybe we can find that out during the break and tell you how you can do it as a show of support.

Great stuff.

Hey, this is Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

We got a great question tonight folks.

Name a TV show.

You can't get over the fact that it was canceled.

Let us know.

We are coming right back to talk more about the news and we've got something really funny we're gonna play for you too.

Night Light with Pete and Greg coming right back.

Taylor made for Tuesday night radio.

Yeah, it was beautiful.

It's like it's like no one ever talks about how rock that song is.

Yeah, but that's a song you would play on a boat

for sure.

Sure.

That is voice of Greg Bach.

I am Peach Mava.

This is Night Light and we are coming to you live on the Civic Media Network.

I am broadcasting from northeast Wisconsin on a beautiful day.

Greg is in Radio Park in Racine and our pal Dom Lee is producing the show from Madison.

We are the Otterhay Triangle.

And it is great to have you here tonight with us.

Our question of the night is, name a TV show cancellation you just can't get over.

We've all got them.

Be part

of the show.

We'll read your texts a little later.

Speaking of texts, this is great.

We got Annie from Watertown.

As you mentioned, Greg, she says, Emmanuel, referring to Emmanuel Lutheran Church, is great for such a gig.

I wonder how she means that like if the acoustics are great or if it's just a good space or what but I'm I

bet your word

for it.

Yeah

Any if you're listening right now

Go into detail please please let us know Hey, there's a couple other things going on in one.

I in particular a new story I just love but before we get to that one I want to this one.

I don't love Greg.

No, how do you feel about January sixers?

being compensated for what they did on January 6 when it comes to legal fees, possibly hospital bills or whatever, or because they can't afford lawyers.

The DOJ, Trump's, it's now referred to as Donald Trump's Justice Department, has allotted one point, almost $1.8 billion

Uh, because Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.

I don't, it's so convoluted.

I, I have trouble following it.

I'll be honest, but the bottom line is in what stuck with me is these people that stormed the Capitol, that injured people and broke the law are probably going to be compensated.

And people died too.

And

people died.

And they got, they got, they got, uh, let's see, they got, uh, pardoned.

They could possibly get money.

And what's really funny is that the acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, former personal attorney for Donald Trump, is trying to say, well, this is just like something that President Barack Obama did.

And I don't know what's really going to go on.

I mean, I'm only appointing all of the members of this committee who are going to decide who gets the money.

And it can be from anyone in any party.

It's anyone who feels like the law enforcement has been weaponized against them.

Here's the best part.

Well, that's it's all best parts really when it comes down to part of this whole deal is that the IRS is never allowed to investigate.

They are quote forever barred from pursuing any rel related investigation into Trump or his relatives, including into any tax returns filed before when yesterday.

So essentially gave them a blanket pardon from the IRS.

for any past indiscretions.

I'm sure he'll do that for the future ones too.

But yeah, I mean, this is just, we are going to be possibly paying traders and we are going to be compensating them for their, their riotous acts.

And the president, by the way, talked about it in a press conference and we have a small clip about that too.

Justice Department has this new fund that was announced today, $1.7 billion.

Why should taxpayers pay for the January?

Well, it's been very well received.

I have to tell you, I know very little about it.

I wasn't involved in the whole creation of it and the negotiation.

But this is reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly treated.

It's anti-weaponization.

They've been weaponized.

They've been, in some cases, imprisoned wrongly.

They paid legal fees that they didn't have.

They've gone bankrupt.

Their lives have been destroyed.

And they turn out to be right.

I mean, it was a terrible period of time in the history of our country.

And they worked on it.

I know the Justice Department, it's really been working on it very hard.

There's been numerous other occasions over the years where things like this have been done.

But these were people that were weaponized and really treated brutally by...

a system that was so corrupt with corrupt people running it and they getting reimbursed for the illegal fees.

He

knew very little about it, but he knows it's very well received.

And they were weaponized by him on the day of January 6 where he told them to go take a walk, and they did.

And people died for it, including people who stood with them.

So to me, like, again, we are now... Okay, so who are we paying now?

We're paying...

Uh, we're paying traders from January six, possibly we're paying out farmers who got, uh, messed over by the tariffs.

We're paying, we're paying out businesses.

They got messed over by, we're just doing a lot of paying here folks.

Like, I don't know about you, but I'm paying 60 bucks for a tank of gas.

And now I'm also paying for people who stormed the capital.

Amazing.

At least he is not taking a salary.

No, wink, wink.

Oh, I know.

Yeah.

And he also said this is, this is loyalty over the law.

So apparently if you're loyal, the law means nothing.

So.

If only Mike

Pence hadn't certified that election.

That was the first.

What a coward.

What a coward.

Speaking of mega folks, this cracked me up.

This is a guy, oh, I misplaced his name already, but he was testifying in Louisiana about, help me out here.

Greg, I can't find my notes.

So after the US Supreme Court handed down their redistricting decision, basically,

We saw a bunch of, I'm trying to find you here now too.

I saw this too, this gentleman here.

It's a video of a man testifying in front of his, basically his city council.

And he was, he basically called him out and he said that these individuals are the new Confederacy.

He's wearing a hat that said Trump did everything wrong.

Basically, the guy sitting at the podium, or who is one of the members of the council, decided to fire back an amazing, amazing burn.

So we can play that too really quick.

Hats says Trump was wrong about everything.

It should say you are wrong about everything.

That's adorable.

All

right.

The board is clear.

The board is clear.

Burn.

Pam

Bondi wrote that for you?

I love that's my line.

Right there.

Did Pam

Bondi.

That

was a Louisiana state senator trying to burn a guy who called him to his face the new confederacy.

Good job, sir.

My favorite part is when he says, burn.

You can't.

That's brilliant.

And I love that he stood up for himself.

So great.

All right.

When we come back, folks, we're going to talk about some really cool new cycling trails here in Wisconsin with our guest, Bill Bertram from the Wausau.

He is the board president of the Parks Federation in Wausau and Marion County.

We're going to do that next.

We're coming right back.

It's nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

This is Night Light with Beechwaba and Greg Bach.

Coming to you live from various parts of our beautiful state of Wisconsin and we are going to turn our attention to another very beautiful part of the state too.

Central Wisconsin as we welcome our first guest of the night.

He is a board member with Wausau and Marathon County Parks Foundation.

I believe President will clarify that in just a moment.

He joins us tonight to discuss potentially

Central Wisconsin becoming the biking capital of the world.

Maybe I'm aiming too high there, but we'll get that we'll get the low down Bill Bertram joins us now on nightlight over the stream.

How are you tonight, Bill?

I'm doing great guys.

How about yourself?

Doing well, doing

very well.

Thank

you.

It's

great to have you here.

I have to, I have to correct you Pete.

It's the biking capital of the universe.

Yeah.

So we were

thinking big.

God, I blew it.

All

right.

I can't believe, I can't believe we were thinking so small there.

My goodness.

I know

it.

I know it.

Yeah.

I thought, you know, start with Marathon County and see where it happens after that.

But Bill's already got the universe.

So that's good.

We

got, we got big ideas.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Tell us, Bill, why is red granite so good for cycling?

Yeah, so we're really blessed in a five county area that we have.

The red granite here goes back 1.8 billion years to pre-cambion times.

And it is a faceted stone.

and it interlocks on itself, and it compacts about 95% of the value of asphalt.

So for bikers that ride gravel, this is kind of one of the epicenters for riding because of that red granite.

And we get people from all over the US come here just to ride, ride our gravel.

Well, and that was going to be part of my next question.

It sounds like, you know, what you're trying to do now is letting the world know on what could be the best kept secret for cyclists.

Is that something, you know, how long you've been working on trying to get the word out there as far as like this project right now with regard to the granite belt?

Yeah.

So we, we actually have a couple of local guys that write about 1200 miles every summer on the granite in this five county area centered around Wasaw and Marathon County.

And so we pitched it to the state just about a year ago and branded it around what we call Wisconsin gravel.

And they were incredibly enthusiastic about it for a couple reasons.

One is gravel bike riding is one of the fastest segments of biking.

And the other is e-bikes.

And so both of them lend to our type of gravel here.

So we created almost 900 miles.

gravel trails or routes using existing dairy roads, logging roads, fire roads, rails to trails and rustic roads in that five county area.

So we tied them all together, looped them into a trail system.

So and then created eight trail communities where you can start and stop your adventures in that five county area.

Amazing.

So

I want to go back a little bit to the geology of this, if we

could, because I'm not a

cyclist.

You're saying gravel and then red granite.

The granite belt, as I understand it, relies on existing rural infrastructure like dairy roads, at least

in the

article I read, and then logging routes and gravel quarters.

Like I said, I'm not a cyclist.

I do have a slick Schwinn varsity.

I'd love to show you.

I don't blame you.

I'd show it off too.

I just wouldn't write

it.

I got a huffy vortex when I was 10.

It has the hubcaps on the wheels.

He could do some sweet

jumps.

If it didn't weigh 200 pounds, I could do some sweet jumps.

Yeah, and then probably more some money.

Can you explain what...

dairy roads and logging routes are and how they're good for cycling.

It all sounds very dangerous, Bill.

I'm not going to lie to you.

Well, there's nothing dangerous about it.

Uh, the, the, uh, when you look at this part of the state, it was the, the logging roads were first cut in to, uh, cut the white pine and the red pine in the Northern forest.

And as the white pine was cut down, uh,

Marathon County, Taylor County, parts of Lincoln County became the Dairyland, the heartland of Wisconsin for dairy farms.

And at the 1890s, early 1900s, they used this red granite.

Sometimes they'd call it rotten granite up here to pave the roads.

And

And so as the dairy farms have decreased in number, it's left these roads mostly abandoned for bikers.

And so a lot of them go through.

the national forest, they go through state forest areas and so there's incredible scenery, iconic red barns, along two national scenic trails, one's a water trail and the other one is the ice age trail, the parallel it.

So the scenery is just sort of incredible and typically the bikers that you know

Right today, road biking is in decline and a lot of particularly women want to move over to gravel and for family biking.

And so the speed limits on these gravel roads are about 35 miles an hour.

So it really lends itself to biking and very few cars.

Then you

might

run into an occasional move from a cow or a tractor, but not much else.

Okay.

And I guess I'm in the same boat as Pete too is like, you know, when I hear gravel or granite, I, I think, well, that sounds dangerous because when I think about riding a bike, I'm like, I want to ride on like concrete.

I know it's smooth.

It's flat.

And to me, I think of like falling over a lot because I'm not very coordinated, hence not buying a bike since I was 10.

But as far as like, you know, you talked about the, you know, folks come from all over the country and all over the world to, to ride on this.

on this system, going forward with this new plan, what is the economic impact for the community, for the area, as far as getting it out to the wider world and actually really trying to market what you have up there?

Yeah, great question.

So it's really folks like you getting the word out.

And when we launched the granite belt, we have the state of Wisconsin came in as one of our partners.

to create a master marketing plan to blow this out across the U.S.

but particularly in the Chicagoland northern Illinois corridor.

But so we're just at the front end of that today.

And a lot of it is in magazines and people word of mouth come here.

And then in the fall, we have an epic race here called the Red Granite Grinder in the community of Athens.

And that draws about 600 bikers from all over the US to ride that gravel.

And there's all kinds of types of gravel.

I grew up in Iowa.

And down there, they call it white rock or limestone.

And the granite can be the, or they're not the granite, but the rock can be the size of a golf ball.

Up here, the granite is really fine.

And probably the size of, I'd say maybe a third the size of a pea.

And because it's a faceted stone, like a diamond, it interlocks on itself.

And it creates a really hard pack to ride on.

And then that's really the uniqueness of granite.

And we're just blessed with a lot of red granite up here.

and it makes for a great surface to ride on.

And we don't have too many people fall, but they're not driving a...

Challenge accepted,

Bill.

Yeah, come on up.

You don't have many people fall on a bike with a banana seat.

That's what I'm here for.

Yeah, there you go.

The

banana seat and the high handlebars might be a challenge for you.

But as an example, we just had the governor up here two weeks ago.

And the first time he's ever ridden on granted, he's a street rider.

and

he

came up to, you know, ride the Granite and he was like, hey, I'm not sure I can do this, but you can ride Granite up here with any type of bike and any, for the most part, any tire size, but most of the bikes today are gravel or e-bikes, but you can use mountain bikes on them and you can use street bikes if the tires wide enough.

So yeah, it's perfect.

Good to know Bill Bertram is on the he's a board member with the Wausau and Marathon County Parks Foundation They are doing some great things in central, Wisconsin to make it the biking capital of the universe folks You might don't

be surprised if you see some green

little aliens

riding bikes through central, Wisconsin.

It

could

could happen believe in the multiverse

Another you.

That's right.

Exactly.

Wouldn't that be something?

I read an article too about what you guys are offering like in terms of the trails.

And you mentioned there were eight to 12 points of interest where cyclists could stop and read about the history of this area of our state.

What are some of those points of interest?

Yeah, you know it's there's 13 types of barns for example and our trail system has all 13 types from round barns to Dutch barns to English barns to gavel barns and what we found in looking at the data is that bicyclists like to stop and what we call point of interest signs and learn about the either the area of the state so

you know, one of the signs is how did Wisconsin earn the Dairy State title or, you know, what's unique about red granite?

You know, I had some buddies up from Chicago a couple years ago and they were, we were out riding and they said, what are all those tubes on the trees?

And I said, well, they're tapping and sapping maple.

And so we have signing to talks about

what that process is.

And so we have actually created a library, I think of 84 unique signs that we have on the different trails that talk about one room schoolhouses or, you know, kind of the history of barn raisings and life on the farm.

or the Dairy Farm, and why a cow goes moo and not hee-haw.

Some of the signs are funny and kind of amusing and others are more serious content.

But it really, we wanted to create an emotional connection to the bike riders so they come back and back.

And then we took this project and we said, hey, there's an opportunity to scale this across the state.

So now we're working with other groups in, up in the superior area, for example, that's called the RIF geologically by the Geological Society of Wisconsin, because it was the original, you can look at the bedrock and see that that was the coast of Pangea some billion, you know, years ago.

And we're up in Iron County and Ash and that becomes the iron belt.

And south of us,

around Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids becomes the central sands.

That was the bottom of Lake Wisconsin in the last glacial age.

And

so we've used the geological society has brought out a map to me.

when I was down there six months ago, and I said, we were trying to figure out how to name these regions.

And they said, this is really easy.

Just look at our geology.

We have some of the most unique geology in the United States and the state of Wisconsin.

And so that's how we've come up with different areas to focus on after the granite belt.

We we just have like a minute before we do a break bill and then we'll get back into it again But just real quick is it safe like are there cars are our cyclists in any danger of I know the rural roads, but what are the dangers if any?

You know, I think the dangers occasionally might be You know, you'd come across maybe a tractor or maybe

deer on the road or porky pine or something.

These are pretty rural

roads.

And they go through, the trailheads are all in rural communities.

And so it also helps strengthen these rural communities to get bikers into them.

And the communities are like 100% behind this.

This has been a home run

for

them in terms of creating what we call trail towns.

Well, it's good that we have, or that that area of our state has an actual trailblazer like yourself.

And we'll talk a little bit more with our guest, Bill Bertram.

And we're going to talk about a really cool award he's won as well.

We are coming right back.

This is a Tuesday night version of Nightlight.

Perfect for some rock dom.

I would agree with that.

So don't go anywhere, folks.

We are coming right back.

And I'll remind you of what our really cool question of the night is too.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Welcome back I'm Pete Schwabba sitting just upstate from Greg Bach and a little bit east and north of our pal Dom Lee who is holding down the fort in Madison We are the Yatterhey Triangle and it is great to have you with us on this Tuesday night for a Tuesday edition of Nightlight folks our question of the night is Name a show or what is a show would be more question for him that you were that you just couldn't get over the cancellation of

share that show.

I've actually got two.

We'll read your texts after the news early in hour number two, but be part of the show.

We have a few more minutes with our guest, Bill Bertram.

He is a cycling enthusiast and the board member, a board member of the Wausau and Marathon County Parks Foundation.

And the recent recipient of a Partner in Excellence Award from the RTCA, which is the Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program Midwest Region.

Bill, that's really exciting to be recognized like that.

And as much as you do for the outdoors and making it more feasible and more of a focus in Central Wisconsin, do you ever just get tired of it and say, I just want to sit inside and watch TV for a while?

Absolutely not.

Come on, Bill.

I wish I could say that, but you know, this is going to sound crazy.

I actually lived in the Netherlands, worked for a corporation and took early retirement to get involved in civics.

And when I told the company I worked for, they go, you know, you could probably have any job in the world for what you've done.

What are you going to, you know, we'll bring you back to the US or you could stay in Europe.

And I said, I want to, I want to retire and I want to, this sounds the nutty part.

I want to devote the rest of my life to doing good by my community and giving back for what I had had received.

And so that's, I don't get into the coffee club type thing at breakfast with other retirees.

And I just felt that I could make a difference.

and in our larger community.

And that's what I focus

on.

I mean, that is absolutely wonderful.

And I hope more people hear this because I feel like we need more folks like yourself.

That is, that's great.

That's wonderful.

And congratulations on the award too.

Question I have for you is someone who's such an enthusiast of the granite belt of everything going on.

What is your favorite part of it?

Like when you're riding something, if you're riding with a friend, you want to stop.

All right, stop.

We got point this out.

I want to get this to you.

I want to put this information in your head.

What's like your, what's your favorite part or parts of the trail?

Yeah, so since there's 13 distinct trails, and they all offer a little bit something different.

I think when I had people come up and ride, a lot of it is the trails just north of us where it parallels the Wisconsin River up in Lincoln County.

Some of those sites and vistas are just short of incredible.

But I still get

really turned on when, you know, I come past an iconic red barn and a farm and see in cows.

And then I think it's that idea of, you know, introducing the rest of the country to what we have in Wisconsin and then what we have here.

And so I do a lot of recreational bike riding.

I also, when I retired, I started an outdoor rec business called Iron Bull.

that we use that to bring people to Central Wisconsin to do our races.

So as an example, this coming Saturday, we have the largest adventure race in the United States being held here.

And so we typically use that to get people to come up here and experience our trail systems and the biking.

So there's some just, again, incredible vistas here and the scenery.

But I think the trails are kind of, I didn't design them, but they're enjoyable to ride because they offer you a little bit of everything.

That's awesome.

That is great.

Bill, we have a couple more minutes.

I love that something I read in one of these articles when I was doing some research on you.

You guys are trying to determine the economic impact of the gravel trails.

But for an example, last year in Vilas County, you had 160,000 bikers come.

The economic impact was like 23 million bucks.

That's incredible.

And will that only grow?

Is the word getting out?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, in today's world, at least with foundations and sponsors, it's not just enough anymore to say, hey, you're going to feel good.

This is a great experience and gives you a warm fuzzy.

We want to know what the return on investment is.

put our money into your organization or what you work on.

Economic impact is critically important to see if we're winning or losing.

Wisconsin is an exit state for young people.

Marathon County is an exit county.

There's just a couple counties in the state that are growing.

So that economic impact, the ability to draw people here to want to live and experience what we all experience is today,

critically important to us.

And so we use that economic impact with local businesses as well as foundations and then ways to attract people here.

That's

a great answer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was just going to ask, like, are these only bike trails?

Like can people hike or can they camp along the trails at all?

Yeah.

So we have our longest trail is 357 miles loop trail.

And we have camping all along it.

And it's, we believe the first branded

bike packing trail in the state.

And that's another fast growing segment of biking is people that want to bike and camp and they call it adventuratory.

So we created that to draw people here from around the country that want that experience.

That's great stuff, Bill.

If you if you're out on the trail and you hear someone and a little ringer bell.

And I say, on your left, that's just me.

I just want to let you know in case I'll be very courteous.

Those little things that are hanging off the handlebar

that are flowing in the

wind.

I'll have a baseball card in the spokes, and Greg and I will be on his huffy together to look really weird.

It's a tandem bike.

It's actually a tandem bike.

Oh, that's even better.

Bill Bertram, keep up the great work, sir.

Win many more awards and draw more people to your area.

It's a beautiful area.

Thanks so much for your time

tonight.

Thank you guys a ton.

You've got it.

All right.

We are coming right back after the news to read your text.

have a few more laughs and a lot of fun.

It's great to have you here with us on Nightlight.

I'm Pete Schwab.

He's Greg Bach.

We're coming right back on the Civic Media Network.

Trying to make sense of the world.

You've got Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Call our toll-free number now.

Headlines, culture, and real conversation.

And

now, our feature presentation.

Here's Pete and Greg.

Welcome back to Nightlight.

with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

You can always get in touch with us.

The number is the same whether you're calling or text 855-752-4842, 855-755-CIVIC.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform we still call Twitter.

Still ahead, we are going to be talking to Piet Levy, who is a music critic.

We'll be discussing the Summerfest lineup coming up this

Well, summer and other musical events happening around the area that'll be all coming up in just a little bit.

Plus, we'll wrap everything up with the nightcap where we get the last moment text messages from y'all and talk about what we learned on the show this evening.

So stick around.

We're having a really good time.

Uh, yeah, I mean, if you've missed anything from the first hour, thank you so much to Bill Bertram for being here talking about the granite belt and all the great things happening up in central Wisconsin.

If you missed that conversation, simply go to civicmedia.us slash shows.

Look for nightlight and download episodes after we're done.

And you can catch up on those every single day.

Be part of that.

Take those conversations with you anywhere in the world when you download those episodes onto your device.

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So download that app.

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And finally, finally, if you want to get in touch with us, there's a simple way as well.

I guess someone called old school Pete.

Yeah.

Email, email.

How many express?

Either way.

Yeah, you can just drop us an email nightlight at civicmedia.us, N-I-T-E-L-I-T-E at civicmedia.us.

Let us know about your thought.

Let us know your thoughts on, you know, a guest topic, something like that.

And we'd love to hear from you.

So so many great ways to be in conversation.

And speaking of conversation, you just heard the voice of the wonderful spectacular, I would say founder of this program, Mr. Pete Schwabba, all the way up in Marinette, Wisconsin.

Yeah.

Yeah, I flew all of those.

I flew all those people into Christmas City, USA.

They're outside your house right now, but he's all the way.

I'm not

opposed to a little fanfare periodically.

Well, that's good because they're only about three inches tall each of them.

So it's very little fanfare from outer space to hear the biking trails that call the grace that the grace.

That's right.

But he is all the way up in Marinette, Wisconsin on the Northeast side.

I'm in the Southeast side down here in radio park in Racine and all the way over in Madison at HQ for civic media is Mr. Dom Lee on the ones and twos.

And we are your Yadri Hey triangle.

Whew.

That's a lot.

Just said a lot there was a mouthful.

I know.

I was like, you know, the sound of my own voice is amazing.

Just amazing.

I just can't get over it.

I'm with you.

All right.

It's the perfect

gig for you.

Rice.

Suckers.

All right, so let's get to the question of the night.

Let's restate it and then let's get to some thoughts on it.

So, Dan, would you please help us out here?

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 a TV show that was canceled that you are still upset about?

Let us know.

Call or text 855-752-484-2855-757.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

We are streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.

We still call Twitter or, you know, get in touch with us via the Civic Media app.

We'd love to hear from you.

All right, Pete.

I know you have opinions on this one.

I've got two.

Let us know.

You have two.

I'm surprised it's not more.

I have two shows.

If I thought about it harder, I could have come up with more.

But hello, ladies.

was

a show on

HBO by Stephen Merchant,

one of the

co-founders of the office, the British office with Ricky Gervais.

Stephen is a very tall, very funny writer, and he was the star of this show.

They did one season.

I thought it was hilarious.

He plays like an IT guy looking for love in Los Angeles.

And the gags are great.

The writing's great.

I could not believe they canceled it.

And the only thing I thought of was the reason maybe was that he's not a leading man or something.

Goofy kind of nerdy, but it worked.

I thought it was a great show and I thought he was great in it I was very upset to see that show go and then another one on Netflix about the first FBI profiler Minehunter.

I thought

that was a really good gritty show and I can't think of the guy's name.

He was a Broadway actor Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Groff, who's like got this angelic, amazing voice and can dance and he's playing an FBI agent who's a profiler.

It was a very good show.

It was very, they did two seasons of that one, but I was still sorry to see it go.

Well, they were going to do, they were going to do a third season.

There was all this talk about like that.

If you look it up right now, if you look up, will there be a third?

I swear to God, the most, the top will probably be season of Mindhunter because

it was just

ending as it was getting going because the whole thing was

as they are investigating, the BTK killer is like on the loose.

So like it was just a huge store.

I mean, it was absolutely so crushing.

And that was, that was one on my list as well was mine hunter.

I looked

really

cool.

The

look of the show, the

aesthetics

were

just

excellent.

Yeah.

I miss

it.

And I don't know the name of the guy and I can, I'll look it up as I'm talking,

but

That's

his real name.

I think that's the actor's name.

If that's what you're talking, if that's

absolutely older partner, right?

Yes.

Absolutely amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

Just, I mean, the way he played that character was so good because he could have just been this gruff old, like terrible human being and he grows and he learns and he's better than you think.

And yeah, that shows great.

So, um, any, for you, that's, that's, that's your list right there.

Yeah.

Just those two.

Dom, what about you?

I used to watch a lot of Cartoon Network, and I gotta

say,

I really liked Regular Show.

I watched Regular Show a lot, and it canceled.

It was off the air, and I got really sad.

But

yeah,

I gotta say, Regular Show, it's coming back now, so it's kind of like,

I don't know if it's wishy-washy, but... That had a good run, though, Dom.

It was on for at least...

Like six, seven seasons?

Yeah, six to seven years.

Six or seven.

Yeah.

Sorry.

But yeah, my son is a huge fan of that show too.

And it was very funny.

I had a couple of friends who were on that writing staff and I loved it.

Loved it.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

I never saw that show.

I never saw that show.

It's worth a look.

I feel very out of the loop now.

For me, a mindhunter was one of those, although if you look at mindhunter, they say it's over, but then some people will say, well, we're trying to get like, it's been a while since season two came out, so I don't have a lot of faith in it.

A show that I was upset, it was canceled, even though I started watching it far after it was canceled, it was Deadwood, because Deadwood just

sort of

ends, and you're like, and then they did a movie, which was fine, but like, I

was really,

I really, really, really loved it.

Deadwood was such a good show was David Kelly, right?

Deadwood.

I don't think it was David Kelly.

No,

I don't because that's that's that's the Alec McBeal guy.

Yeah.

I thought he was behind that.

David Milch.

David Milch.

That's it.

Okay.

Totally different

guy.

Yeah.

Both Davids.

They're both Davids or but Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane.

Great, great tandem there.

Love that.

It was a great show too.

Timothy Oliphant just can't stop playing cops.

Sheriff's or he's so good at it, though, dude.

Oh, there's a spider in the studio right now right here in my face.

Sure.

Oh, that's fun.

Okay.

Cool.

Um, yeah.

So, okay.

So we got our, I'm trying to get some other ones to mine hunter dead.

Well, I'm sure there's other ones as well.

I mean, yeah, here's the thing is studio 60 on the sunset strip came out after.

the West Wing was canceled, even though Aaron Sorkin had left the show years before that.

And it was, it was a, um, it was, it was like, it was a show based on a late night SNL type of show.

And it lasted one season.

And I think one of the reasons why I got canceled was because 30 rock came out that exact same year and people just were like, Hey, this is funnier and better.

And I was always very upset about that.

And then I found the episodes online and I watched the entire season in like a couple of days and I've been going, Oh yeah, this should have been canceled.

This wasn't very good.

The

cast is

amazing.

The cast is amazing.