Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app, Good App!
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Tom Alvall here in beautiful Richland Center with Aaron Zommer as our producer and engineer back at the headquarters in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
It is the 21st of March TGIF.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite here.
Mr. Zommer is glad to have you along.
We are while the studio back home gets a little redo.
We are pleased to be here on the road.
Beautiful WRCE WRCO where it all began for me.
long, long time ago on a galaxy far, far away.
And please be joined this half hour by my friend, my colleague here, W.R.C.O.
for a long time.
And now, of course, since Civic Media bought W.R.C.O.
W.R.C.E.
a while back, Mr. Philip Knee, how are you, Philip?
Hello, Todd.
Good afternoon.
It's great to be here, Mr. Zomers.
How are things going on?
How are things doing back home?
How is the redo?
I feel like we should have made this into like a home improvement thing and done a whole series on it.
Huh?
But I don't want to turn the camera and show everybody on the stream.
But to be fair, there's not much more to show as the progress has all been under the hood as it were.
Oh, wiring, wiring.
Yes, all that good stuff, installing equipment, wiring, things like that.
But it's going to take a little longer than initially anticipated because as it turns out, you can't predict everything that's going to happen when you start a major project.
Good things come to those who wait.
That's what I've been told.
All right, thank you, Mr. Zamers.
We'll check in with you a little bit later.
Mr. Zamers will have his board game of the week a little bit later.
Also in this hour, we have my former boss, former Republican Congressman Scott Klug will be in with one of his weekly editorials from a political orphan, his take on the upcoming spring election.
So I look forward to hearing that from Scott.
In hour number two, we have the what's worse today involving extended warranties or extended family.
So we'll debate that a little bit and talk about that.
And of course, a little bit later this hour, we'll look at the daily news headlines.
As always, lots going on in Washington and Madison.
But as we said, first joined by Filney, general manager of WRCO and WRCE.
Also the host of those were the days every Saturday night from six until midnight on the FM side, 100.9 here in Richland Center and
For those listening across the state, if you want to listen to one of the best still live call in programs where yes, not only does Phil use sometimes CDs.
But occasionally vinyl tune in on the civic media app.
Phil, how are you?
I am doing well.
Thanks for the introduction.
Always an honor to be on your show.
Well, it's an honor to have you here.
It's, you know, it truly is coming home.
I got to see mom a little bit last night and hang out with you guys.
And even though we're in a different building when Phil, well, I started here in 87 and Phil, you started one a year before me.
86.
Yeah.
We were at the old original station down by the river, not in a van.
But it got flooded out and now you're up
here.
Exactly right, yeah, those were some good days back then.
And the old studio, if anybody has ever seen the movie American Graffiti, where the guy drives toward the outskirts of town to give this request to Wolfman Jack, who is all alone in this little white building at the edge of town, that's what our old station looked like.
It was built as a radio station.
Yes, it was.
Or the few
left.
And the doors, like the control room where we broadcast most of the time, it said,
control room, no admittance,
you
know, all the, it had all these warnings, you know,
they all, the old, uh, bulb, like the transmitter, like you had to warm them up and everything in the morning.
So
absolutely.
Yeah.
We, we had to, and I remember the first transmitter that.
I was around, it was a backup.
It took up about half the room.
And then the one that we used at the time about, you know, a little bit less than that.
And then by the time we moved, you know, it basically goes in a rack.
It's got two handles and you can put it in a rack.
You know, that's the way they looked out.
But, you know, times have changed.
That's for sure.
A lot more efficient now, too.
Efficient, but I don't know.
I feel very fortunate that I was able to learn from people like you and Ron Frut, the former owner of this station.
from you guys and be around at that time because I don't know.
I think some of them.
I don't know.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic.
But for me, some of the magic has just lost when it goes into Iraq instead of these big bulbs and everything, you know,
it was a lot different.
And I think that and nothing taking away from people to broadcast the day because we have a lot more things at our fingertips.
But when you had to splice a tape for a sound bite, you know, you actually had to slice a tape and put a piece of basically for lack of a better term like scotch tape on the backside to put tape together.
And you're.
commercials were all on cartridges that looked like eight track tapes.
And each commercial that you heard, we'd have to put into the tape deck and manually start them.
And then all of the music was on records.
And reel to reel tapes.
Also, we played some programs off of there.
And I say, if you could broadcast back then and sound good, it should be really easy today.
It should be.
But for guys like me, the computer stuff is as foreign to me now sometimes as
take somebody younger like Zomers and put him back in that era then.
I mean, it's different technology, I guess, or more technology.
But
it's fun.
I talked to our engineer, Drew Smith, about this, but I would love to set up an old studio and just for one day, just go back and broadcast the way it used to be.
That would be amazing.
See, I would feel very
comfortable.
I know exactly what to do here.
No training.
I don't have any computers to use.
I can just, yeah, I'm an analog guy living in a digital world.
Tell folks, I know we talked about
before but for listeners that might not have heard you on the show before tell folks a little bit about those were the days because for me Phil this is still just one of the best programs and radio in in Wisconsin and I know now with with the web and and the Civic Media app you have listeners from not only across Wisconsin but across the United States.
Yeah we really do which which is fortunate you know and and I say we're kind of a last of a dying breed you know I have people call from time to time to request a song yeah I said they can text but it's nice to hear
their voices you know and they'll call up and they'll be like oh
you really are there.
Oh, there is really somebody there.
You know, it's unheard of to have actually a body in a building during a weekend night.
And that's certainly the case.
I know Max Inc.
does their shows live.
We might be the last two in Wisconsin that actually have live radio shows on Saturday night.
Yeah, absolutely.
And people can call up requests.
You have trivia going on as well.
And it's from six until midnight.
And you guys have just a lot of fun as well.
Oh, we do.
Lots of fun and trivia and sound bites.
And I'm really amazed at the number of
younger people like high school college age that check in and there's a real you mentioned vinyl there's a real real a bunch of vinyl collectors out there in the area that are young people that just really impresses me that some of that classic music is going to live on for another generation or two.
What a creepy if I'm wrong, because I used to come down this Saturday nights and be the record puller for lack of a better term or our phone answer.
You pulled some things.
Jokes and tricks.
But but when you started the show.
Back in the late 80s, you'd say, call in and request songs from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s.
Right, right.
That's what was considered
oldies.
And now... Yeah, our cutoff was 1974 when I first started.
And those songs would have been 12 years old, you know, when we first started.
So now, the newest song I play is from 1995.
So that's... I mean, that's...
30 years ago I know but I mean to me I hear some of those songs like that wasn't that long ago right right like holy crap eventually it'll be the entire 90s but people the reason I don't I mean I there's so many songs to play
from that first 40 years of rock and roll that, you know, why keep extending it?
You know, it seems like we'll do what we can, but we'll eventually go through 99 and then we'll probably stop there.
You know, we get into Britney Spears and things
like that.
I'm not
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that's what qualified only.
Well, it doesn't
really mix really well with something else.
I
feel like the younger generation, at least myself, can definitely recognize that there is something magical that's lost in the digital world like now.
If you screw something up, okay, you just redo it because it's easy.
You just click delete and then click record.
And so it was a different type of excellence that you had to strive to when it was a huge pain in the butt comparatively to record anything and edit it together or to do the performance of radio, which now is largely automated.
that's a great yeah and Phil you remember when we would do commercials sometimes the music or the background music would be on a vinyl and you would have sound effects that might be on a card or something and it was being recorded on a reel to reel so you start the record then you'd hit the vinyl and then you start talking and then you hit the card for the sound effect at the same time
You know, and you got one take and if you didn't do it right to Zommer's
point, you had to start all over.
Yep.
It was all in real time.
That's for sure.
And you might get all the way.
It's a 60 second commercial.
You'll get to 57 seconds and mess up the last word.
8-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Let's go to the phone lines.
Whistler from here in Richland Center is on the phone line.
Whistler always appreciate your listenership.
What have you got for us today?
All right.
Quick fact.
Back when that building that you guys are inside of was built.
I did the original material takeoff for it.
Well, Wisconsin gas Okay,
so you work at the building that are
united building sir
Oh, that's interesting.
That's great.
No, we're so the building we're in now is a higher ground and yeah, it's a newer building.
So you actually help build this whistler
Well, I did the original material takeoff for
uh, Dylan, Dave, the two guys that were under contract with Wisconsin gas to local carpenter contractors.
And, uh, it was a time when UBC was in transition.
Yeah.
Going from UBC to fish.
Okay.
And all the dollars at $32,000.
3232
went by a garage door today.
Yeah, I appreciate the call whistlers.
Thanks for listening to us on WRCO or tomorrow.
Me WRCE right here, Richland Center and anything fills.
I go around the state.
You hear people like that who are involved in building some of these great stations or facilities that we have all over the state.
Indeed, yes.
And this, who's correct, it was Wisconsin gas.
It was actually a part of the Richland Hospital as well.
And then Ron Frut, our previous owner, bought this and converted it because we had been flooded out at the previous location.
We had the 100-year flood eight months apart.
I think we had two of them.
And, you know, within eight months, it was kind of like time to move.
And I've always said, water gets up this high.
We're all in trouble.
We better build an ark or something.
Well, this explains a lot because Phil has a hospital bed in his
office.
Just about need to
something.
You work so much.
You're here all the time.
I've said it before, I'll say it again.
You would chat homes up at WXCO in Warsaw.
To me, you're the two hardest working people in Civic because not only do you do morning, like early morning, you sign on and do music shifts, then you have talk show, then you go back to the music shift, then you go and just for the fun of it, three hours doing a high school game every night.
I mean, this is the epitome.
off community radio.
Well, if you find something you love and never work a day in your life, someone once said that.
And that is true.
People will say, oh, you work a lot of hours.
It's not I get to go to work.
I don't have to go to
work.
Spring sports coming up.
I know this kind of a transition girls are part of the boys basketball state tournament in Madison this weekend.
And then already I see kids are getting ready for softball and baseball and track.
There are two indoor meets in our area today.
There's one at UW Platteville and then two meets tomorrow at UW La Crosse.
And I'm sure there are more across the state.
They're indoor track.
to start, but we do have a softball match up tomorrow in the great outdoors.
It's a I think it's only a scrimmage.
OK, so yeah, so we're transitioning from high school winter sports to spring sports.
All right, stay tuned and come back.
Talk a little bit more with Phil Knee.
Find out what's happening here in the Richland Center area and we'll compare our brackets.
Speaking of Wisconsin got a big win yesterday.
We'll talk about that.
We are on location at WRCE in Richland Center, the all ball show on civic media.
Always down to take your request ringing the magic cowbell to give you an award prize and trivia It's fill me every Saturday night from 6 to midnight Those were the days great songs like that by request if you don't live in southwest, Wisconsin and listen to 100.9 FM You can catch them on the civic media app just download the app to your Apple or iPhone or Apple or Android device and then go to WRCO on the civic media app
That's a great tune right there.
The doors.
Yeah, that's my all-time favorite, I think.
Really?
Yeah, it's got a lot of things going on.
Speaking of flashbacks here, Phil Kneed, WRCO's general manager, also the host, as we said, those were the days.
One thing that I think Richland Center, or a lot of things I'm proud of here, but one of the really cool things is, Richland Center has the distinction of being one of the few places that still has an outdoor theater.
Right, exactly, right.
I always say,
OK, we have an outdoor theater.
We have a indoor theater.
We have a bowling alley.
We have a roller skating rink.
All unique things, you know, and hopefully people are listening across the state.
Maybe we'll make their way here sometime some weekend.
But speaking of the outdoor Starlight 14, they're not shown a movie yet this weekend.
They probably will.
Tony's pretty crazy.
He's probably going to be showing one before too long, but they are going to have their concession stand open tomorrow kind of as a trial.
run between four and seven for people to stop by and get some goodies.
And they have, you know, hamburgers right on the grill.
And that's awesome.
Oh yeah, good stuff.
So that'll be an opportunity tomorrow.
Well, I think for the management's listening, I think really it should be put in your expenditure.
You know, as a matter of community, you should go down and check out the menu.
I think I probably will.
Make sure it's 58.
Kind of
a test guinea
pig.
I don't mind, but they show some really great movies there too.
in the great outdoors, nothing like it.
They're really if you have not experienced it before, just check it out at Starlight 14 and come on up.
And as Phil said, you can once it gets a little warmer, enjoy the great outdoors, the movies up there.
And the cool thing is this isn't most of the time they are our current movies.
You don't have to wait a long time.
You can you can see the current movies right here.
I know back in the day, you know, you'd hear about a movie and then like in the small towns like six months later, it might make the way to your small town anymore.
They have first run movies.
And this weekend is kind of like a throwback to like 1938.
because they have Snow White and a Looney Tunes movie.
And they're both brand new movies that are out.
But it could be 1938.
You never
know.
Phil, we have an office pool here.
The NCAA tournament is underway.
You are one of the co-defending champions of the Civic Media NCAA pool.
You and our sales director, Chris Morrow, tied last year.
And I'm trying to make a comeback.
I got the Drake, the big upset Drake over.
Missouri, I did call that one.
And I had McNeese over Clemson and then I changed it the last minute back to Clemson.
Terrible mistake.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, you're not doing too badly though.
How far did you pick the badgers to go?
Well, thank you so very much for asking.
My heart went there and I put them in the final four.
Yeah.
Okay.
I've got Wisconsin versus Tennessee with Tennessee winning and then I've got Michigan State, St.
John's, Michigan State winning and I've got Michigan State over Tennessee.
Wow.
Very national champion.
Going for the big 10 then.
Yeah.
You remember?
You don't have yours in front of you.
I
don't have it in front of me.
I think I've got Duke going most of the way.
How far have you got the Badgers taking on Duke?
The
Badgers?
No, I think I have the Badgers through eight.
Oh,
all right.
Yeah.
All
right.
We'll
see.
I am Marquette bowing out tonight.
Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised.
They're not playing their best ball at the end of the season and they don't have Mike Clemens was on with me this morning and Marquette just doesn't have a real deep bench.
That's been kind of their their problem.
They got a really good.
That gold
kid, he's really
good.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, good luck to Marquette tonight and Chaka Smart.
Hopefully they could get a win over Rick Petino's kid, who used to be at Minnesota, is the coach at New Mexico now.
Richard Petino.
Yes.
They play at 625 tonight.
And also tonight, Phil, a shout out to the Wisconsin Badger women's hockey team.
They are playing their first game against the evil Minnesota Golden Gophers in the frozen four at 730.
Mark Johnson once again named coach of the year.
As he
should be every year.
They just have.
just such a tremendous program, don't they?
All he does is win.
Seven national championships he could have eight by Sunday.
So we'll see.
Very likely
will.
So looking forward to that.
Of course, the Badger men's basketball team got their win yesterday over Montana.
They play next on Saturday against BYU at 645 at a game that can be heard on WRCE, also in Wisconsin Rapids and Amory.
But over the air only, the NCAA doesn't let us stream it.
That's correct.
Yeah, that's a no-no.
But I think it's going to be a great game.
I saw BYU's win yesterday.
I watched it after the Badgers.
It could be a shootout.
It really could be.
Some of those BYU kids, they are a great shooter.
So I'm a little nervous.
But we'll see.
Yeah,
but hopefully it doesn't ruin your bracket.
Well, that's probably already ruined.
But good luck to all those bracketed people out there.
Phil, I got to tell you, you grew up on a farm.
My grandparents were dairy farmers.
Back in the day, my grandma on the farm, she had a woodchuck she couldn't get rid of.
And I am not a great shot with either a rifle or a .22.
But one of the best shots of my life was with a .22 on a clapboard fence across the barnyard.
I'm not making this up 50 yards.
Wow.
One shot, I took out a groundhog.
Wow!
That's amazing.
It was the best shot of my
life.
Otherwise, I can imagine you like the kid on Christmas story with his Daisy, or his red rider BB gun.
That's probably safer.
Now, I'm back over at your center.
Mom lives in town, and she has a groundhog under the deck.
And she's taken a picture of it as proof now and she was well.
He looks pretty skinny I think if you put a trap out there and we'll feel have you ever taken out a groundhog
No, I won't I have not I don't you know back in the farm They were a real nuisance because
I
dig holes like
in
your fields and things like that They will climb trees too.
We had that some some years ago people are like no they can't but then people started sending pictures if
dog or something chases them, they will climb a tree.
I've never seen a hard to believe.
But I
don't have a
tree.
I was thinking, you know, you could put some some cheeseballs and, you know, some Cheetos and Doritos and, you know, maybe lure them out.
Then all of the staff from WRC might move under your mom's porch.
This is serious stuff.
I got I got some how to get up there.
If you know how to capture a ground dog, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, because I don't want to.
I can't use a twenty two in town.
Oh, you probably couldn't.
No.
No, I think isn't.
They're like an animal control
person that you can follow.
So it seems like I should be able to take care of a ground dog on my own, doesn't it?
I don't know.
I'm just glad it wasn't a beaver because I have no idea how to get rid of those.
At least on the ground.
Maybe I'll have.
I mean, but I feel like if I take out the ground dog, I may we may get seven weeks of or seven more weeks of winter in Richland.
Oh, that's true.
Maybe he's ducking out because
it didn't live up to his prediction.
Maybe.
Maybe.
But
there are some live traps, I believe that you can you can get.
And
I'm
not
sure what the best bait would be, maybe an apple.
We'll lure him in there and then take him out in the country, letting him loose, and then he'll probably move back to your mom's.
Oh, that's
probably true.
You know, in a week's
travel.
Phil, you can hear him every Saturday night from six until midnight on those were the days.
And of course, I hear W.R.C.L.
Phil, my friend, always great to catch up.
Oh, thank you for inviting me.
I appreciate it.
It's the best part of my day.
Keep up the good work.
Well, you too, my friend.
Phil, everybody, come on back.
We'll talk a little news for you here on the Town Hall Ball Show.
We're live on location on Richland Center W.R.C.E.
on Civic Media.
Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the time of all show on the civic media ready to work.
We are live on location W R C E in Richland, Central Wisconsin.
Many things to my friend and coworker.
Mr. Filney, the general manager of W R C O W R C E, one of our great civic media stations here in Southwest Wisconsin and Thomas.
That's one of these things that I love.
being on the road and being able to set up whether it's here, whether it's WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids, WGBW over in Green Bay, WXCO in Wausau.
The list goes on and on.
There are so many great folks that are our co-workers here and to find out how they are working in their community to bring local news to their community.
That's really the main vision of Civic Media is to be a local news station.
Yeah, absolutely and they're great neighbors all across the state of Wisconsin and that's what makes it so enjoyable So many thanks to Phil for letting us do the show here for a couple of days and also for coming on the radio I will get to a couple of serious news headlines here in a minute, but I want to just continue on this Tangent if we can for a moment because I brought up during the break there that back here in which one back home in Richland Center mom lives here and my task after the show this afternoon
is to figure out how to take out a ground dog because she has had a ground dog living under her back deck at least five years now and we didn't really see it last year and she thought well maybe the thing died or got hit by a car or whatever just well now here this spring the ground dog has made a reappearance there is fresh dirt torn up around the under under part of the deck and she took a picture of it just to make sure that
I didn't think she was crazy.
And then she goes, well, he looks pretty skinny.
I think if you put a live trap out there and some food, I think we can get him.
So I'm asking you, the wonderful audience of the show, what do you recommend how to get rid of a groundhog?
And look, if I can live trap him and get him out of here alive and take him into the country, I'll do that.
But one way or the other, this guy's got to go.
So now, if you want to call in with ideas and how to get rid of a ground dog, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842, or text us on the Civic Media app.
Diane, listening on to MDX of Madison, says, the way to capture him or her is with corn.
All right?
That's a I go to go down and chess feed and seed here in town get some corn put in the live trap What else we have here?
We have a Dave in new Bob.
Sorry not Dave.
Well, he just called in something else Zomers took care of that what a Helen here's Helen in one a key listening on WM DX says I had a ground talk digging a hole at the foundation
had a pest control man with a live trap and got him in a couple of days.
They do a lot of damage.
You're absolutely right about this.
I mean, they're cute, right?
To look at in the yard.
But boy, these, these things, they're huge rodents and can do a lot of damage.
Tyler, listening up in FHR in Wisconsin Rapids, Tyler says, find his, this is fantastic, find his burrow.
Tyler says, scatter some frozen peas around the entrance.
And when he comes out to take a pee, you yank him on the noggin.
That's fantastic.
Very good.
I appreciate that, Tyler.
Here's another one from Wanaki.
Again, frozen peas.
All right, very good.
What else do you have?
Scott in Madison listening on WMDX says, I've had groundhogs on my property before.
They always come in a male and female.
So you catch and release, make sure you put it in the same place.
So you're telling me I got a pair?
You're telling me I have to deal with a pair of groundhogs.
family.
Oh for goodness sakes.
All right eight five five seven five two four eight four two.
We have Mark in prayer to sack on the line.
Mark, any ideas how to get rid of a groundhog?
Yeah, a life trap would probably work.
I mean, you just have to monitor it to see if you've got another one there.
But you know, you can bait it with whatever you can.
Probably go in and see what the most popular thing to debate them with is and transport them someplace else.
I hesitate to say that, you know, there's some people that do eat groundhogs that
that, um, you know, there's, that they taste probably a lot like rabbit, that they used to use a lot of rabbits when I was a kid.
You know, I'd go rabbit hunting and, uh, because they're purely vegetarian, but, um, yeah, you could, you could lie trap and transfer, transport it to the, to the country where it actually would be happy.
I remember working, when I worked at the oil refinery, the grunt hawks were digging through the dykes all the time that are on the, the, uh, oil tanks up here in superior.
Yeah.
They would, they would tunnel right through the things.
that and sometimes leading to collapse of the dykes that they put up around there if they got deep enough that um Anyway, but that's um, that's what you could do is live-crap it and haul it someplace else
All right.
Well, I appreciate the info.
We'll we'll check it out mark.
Thank you so very much.
I appreciate it Here's a listener on WCF W the tap up in Eau Claire Chipwell Falls says groundhogs love cantaloupe really
Cantaloupe says live trap wear gloves and tarp it when you transport it.
All right, very good 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Bev listening here in W R C E in Richland Center Bev What do you have for me any ideas on how to get rid of this groundhog?
Yeah, it's kind of in delicate time, but we had a ground wall digging around the foundation and bill went out every night for about a week and
Really
just urinate in the hole and that'll drive him away But you gotta be careful because I don't want I don't want a rodent with large front teeth taking me on in that situation if you understand what I'm
saying
But so you have to kind of be careful and make sure that somebody, I don't know if you're gonna, but I never heard of that.
So, well, I guess I mean, it makes sense because right if you, there's products you could buy with certain animal urine, they're supposed to keep deer away from gardens, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, we can coyote urine around the garden.
Really?
All right.
Well, this is a new, all right.
I trust you, Bev.
I trust it.
I may, I may have a couple of beers and then after dark, go out and take a leak in the yard and see if, if I, if I end up on the Richland, if I end up in the Richland County jail, you know, something went horribly, horribly wrong.
All right.
I appreciate that.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Beth.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Whizzler back on the line from WRCE here, Richland Center.
Whizzler, what else do you have for
us?
The next door neighbor used to be a county clerk.
He traps them in a live trap and then takes them out across the river and lets them lose.
Really?
All right.
That's not that's good.
See I'm getting all the kinds of great information all right.
I appreciate that Thank you so much.
I appreciate the call whistler 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 What else we have here to white listening on to be RCE and Richland center Dwight.
Thanks for calling in.
What do you have to say about how to get rid of a groundhog?
My idea being a country boy is that you go ahead and take a hose and fill the hole up with water
All right, we'll see that that I thought that what I thought of but the problem is the groundhog is made there his or her den Right next to the foundation of the house.
I'm like, well, I don't want to have water be soaking in the foundation.
Do you think that's all right or not?
I Think it'd be all right
Okay
All right, a hose and try to just flush him out that way.
All right, I appreciate it Dwight.
Thanks for listening.
We appreciate your listeners, Chip.
855-752-4842.
Brian, listening on WAUK in Milwaukee.
Brian, thanks for calling in.
Ideas on how to get rid of a groundhog.
Yeah, we had that problem all the time with the rodents on our three acre property in Kenosha with groundhogs and everything else, copers and all that.
And we would always use smoke bombs and you would just put one, you know, down in the hole and then cover all the other holes and come on out, you know, literally smoke them up by these things.
Really?
Yeah.
Like, like not just fireworks,
but
literally smoke bombs.
It's like a smoke bomb.
It kind of looks like a grenade type thing.
You just like to put it on the hole, cover it up with a rock and then smoke come out.
And that'll keep.
But after the smoke dissipates and stuff, is it going to come back or is that going to scare him away?
Usually it scared him away.
All right.
That's what we did for
you.
For you.
But see, that's the point.
I got to keep smoke.
I got to keep smoking the ground dog.
I think there may be a euphemism there somewhere.
I'm not sure.
But anyway.
I appreciate you calling.
Thank you, Mark.
855-752-4842.
This may be Zommer's my favorite segment of the week and it just happened organically.
How do you get rid of a groundhog from out from under the house?
Here's Tom listening in Florida on the text line says, soak some rags in bleach.
Set them around where the groundhogs are.
The smell is so unpleasant they will leave.
Well, now that may be safer for keeping me out of jail than
Then taking a leak in the hole That may be the better the better plan of action there So please all right if anybody else has anything uh 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 we have max listening on wmdx in madison max How can you help me get rid of a groundhog?
I always use lettuce And they come right to it right in the live trap
Call them off that you got to take them like 10 miles away to let them go because they'll find their way back, but Lettuce works just fine.
I think the cantaloupe would work really good too.
So you had another color calling.
I thought that was really good.
But all right, this
is great because you have experience doing this.
You've actually used Lettuce and it's worked.
All right.
appreciate it.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for the tip.
I appreciate it, Max.
855-752-4842.
We have Lyle listening in the town of Sun Prairie, listening via WMDX.
Beautiful Sun Prairie.
Lyle, how can you help?
What advice do you have for me now to get rid of a live ground talk?
Well, you've got some pretty good suggestions here, but if you don't want to urinate in the hole, you can try moth balls and scatter them around, but you've got to make sure that you get all of the holes.
All right, and that that works good as a repellent, but you got to be careful because you may drive them to make a Whole someplace else on your property
to see
that that's a great point So you're just pushing them off Lettuce works, but you probably need to be replaced every day if you're Having a hard time where cabbage is a little bit more substantial.
Oh So and any greens are fruit like that
Uh, and then I've, uh, I live trap them, but then we live in the country.
I dispatch them in a live trap.
Uh,?
if you transfer them to another property, they've probably already got enough animals that can support it.
And it's a death sentence to either that groundhog or another one.
Right.?
Right.
So they're going to starve because the capacity is there.
Right.
That's why I want
to be
humane about it.
That's why I thought the live trap I think that's a great point if you take it into a place not gonna survive I mean that's less humane than just you know taking care of them,
right?
I think it's more humane to dispatch it Yeah, and then finally if you get out during the summertime There's almost no bait that's gonna work because everything is green and there's food all around That's a great point try all sorts of different baits.
So the most success I've had is trapping them right in the garden
What I do is I put about 15 or 20 seeds for some bush green beans, set the crap on top of it, and the sprouts come up in about 10 days, and that's your bait.
Now, see, that's great.
Green bean seeds, and then they sprout those fresh young seeds are sweet.
The groundhog probably smells it and is attracted, right?
Right, and then they grow right up through the mesh in the bot in the live trap
That's fantastic.?
I appreciate it.?
That's that's
great.?
Great insight?
and the other thing that You know, even though I live in the country and I've got other traps I always use a live trap because I don't want to Trap any neighboring dogs or cat, right?
Right, right, right??
Yeah
I appreciate the, obviously you've done this before and I appreciate the insight, Lyle.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate all the replies.
This is great, Zombers.
I think now I'm ready to go this afternoon.
I think thanks to all of our listeners, if I can't live-trap, but I'm just going to drink and pee in the yard.
you can use.
This is my favorite segment of the week, by the way.
Stay tuned.
Scott Klug will be here on the other side with his take as a political orphan on the upcoming April 1st election.
It's the all balls show for Michelin Center here on the Civic Media
Radio?
Network.
wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to Todd Alval's show on the Civic Media Radio.
We're glad to have you along here on a Friday, TGIF.
This is great.
My favorite segment, it was not planned, but Phil and I were talking earlier that now I'm in Richland Center today.
And after the show this afternoon, Mom wants me to figure out how to get rid of a groundhog that has made his home underneath her back deck.
And lots of great
Calls and texts about this.
We have one more call.
We're up against the clock here Well, let's go back to the phone line eight five five seven five two four eight four two and to go to Milwaukee.
Is that right?
We have mr. Summers Brian and Milwaukee.
All right, Brian in Milwaukee, Brian you have if you make it quick, please one more thing, please
Yeah, I'm just thinking you know dress up in a you know black suit top hat wrap on the you know back back a few times
Yanks that ground hog out if he's at shadow or not and then give the plane to Florida Exactly
That's one way but see I feel like that he's already you know back in February He already had his day.
So he's I think it's too close to February to know that
But I appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
As honors, we had one of our viewers on YouTube, also while watching here with a suggestion.
Let's put that up.
Bill, watching on YouTube, says, put a radio near the opening with the Todd Allball Show blaring in the background.
Works every time.
Yeah Driving away groundhogs one groundhog at a time.
All right eight minutes down before the hour
of one o'clock.
Our old friend Scott Klug, former Republican congressman from the second district in central, south central Wisconsin, including Madison, back in the 90s, finds himself these days a political orphan and being frustrated with both parties, our ongoing Continuing Friday series, where Scott stops by with his take from a political orphan.
For those of us who sometimes feel lost in the middle, time for our weekly commentary from political orphan former congressman
Ballot drop boxes seems like a simple straightforward election reform.
You don't have to schlep into a county office to return your absentee ballot.
Just deposit it in a box outside your local city hall or even a nearby fire station.
But in Wisconsin, we managed to turn this into one more partisan bar fight, headlined by two contradictory state Supreme Court rulings.
First in 2022, the conservative Supreme Court ruled that drop boxes were illegal.
And then last summer, two years later, a new Supreme Court ruled they were legal.
The only thing that changed was the composition of the court, which now bends left.
Confused?
Well, it gets even more confusing because there are no state guidelines in place.
1,800 local unelected officials get to play the Grand Vizier.
Each one of them, based on a whim, establishes rules for their own communities.
In some jurisdictions, voters never saw a box.
In others, you tripped over them, available on every random street corner.
Now, all this confusion reigns, ironically, when a red-hot Supreme Court election will happen just weeks away.
That election will decide the new majority.
If the court changes stripes, back to conservative, is there going to be another 180-degree pivot?
We need to settle this.
I'm looking at you, Madison.
The Wisconsin legislature has to issue uniform standards.
Kathy Bernier, a former county clerk and former Republican state senator, has a common-sense approach.
She thinks establishing a chain of custody for ballot retrieval should be standard.
As she says, they need to document who retrieved the ballots, how many they retrieved, and at what time.
Pretty simple.
If the Republicans bought, they should talk to their counterparts in solidly GOP states like Georgia, Utah, and Florida, which have managed to blend access along with security.
The Bipartisan Defend Democracy Project urges expedited action.
Our leadership includes me, former GOP AG JB Van Hollen, Democratic Chair Mike Tate, and former Senate candidate Mandela Barnes.
Since the days of fighting Bob LaFollette, Wisconsin has been a leader in election reform.
And now, sadly, we're a laggard.
It's time for us to reclaim our heritage.
That's my take.
I'm Political Orphan Scott Kluge.
political orphan Scott Klug.
Always great to hear his voice and his take on this and this this group he's with a bipartisan group which includes former Lieutenant Governor Nelson Mandela Barnes pardon me and on the Democratic side and then Mike Tate also the former Democratic chair and then JB Van Hollen former Republican Attorney General and Klug a former Republican and here is four people from different political stripes and trying to find common sense solutions.
I think Kluge and I think former representative Kathy Bernier are pretty close to dead on.
Allow the drop boxes, but simply have a documenting of the chain of custody.
Pretty simple.
And the fact that it goes back and forth all the time, depending upon who the Supreme Court is, it shouldn't have to be that way.
We should have one uniform law like that.
And again, drop boxes have been found safe.
and secure and accurate and really it encourages people to vote more.
And I've talked about it like we're out here in Richland Center in Southwest Wisconsin and in many of the townships your town clerk
is someone who is employed full-time somewhere else.
These are not big, high-paying jobs.
You get a small stipend and have to do a lot of work.
They're community service jobs.
And so rather than having to go vote absentee or early at maybe the clerk's home or on their farm, you could actually have a dropbox where you stop by and vote early.
And there's
nothing wrong with
it.
So what's your feeling on this?
We can take calls after the news here next hour.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
We'd like to hear from you.
You can also text us on the Civic Media app.
What are you feeling on Dropboxes around the state of Wisconsin in terms of voting?
Coming up in hour number two, speaking of, we're going to have another episode of What's Worse.
And this is Fantastic Zomers, Extended Warranties or Extended Family.
Hi,
Allbaugh.
I've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty.
Thank you, and we'll also do a little board game of the week and talk sports and news.
Come on back, it's hour number two of the Allbaugh show, straight ahead, live on location of Michelin Center, here on the Civic Media Radio Network.