To Catch A Groundhog with Phil Nee (Hour 1)

Live from the Civic Media Studios at WRCE in Richland Center, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

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?

Yeah, no, I think that would be a good idea.

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.

Absolutely.

And.

You know, people always say you should vote for the person you want to have a beer with as president.

Some people say that.

But I feel like all the people at Civic Media are the people I want to have a beer with.

They all seem like the exact person you want as your neighbor.

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.

I love the way that's worded.

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.

A whole

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've uh, I've tracked a few of them on my in my yard here.

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.

I have.

Yep.

All right.

I

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.

News you can use, Todd.

News

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.

You know that's part of that one.

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

Scott Luke.

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,

Todd

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.

Live from the Civic Media Studios at WRCE in Richland Center, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Allbaugh here at our studios at WRST and Michelin Center, as Terry Barr said there at the top of the show.

Glad to have you along.

Mr. Zomer is down in Madison at the World Headquarters.

It is Friday, TGIF on this 21st of March, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Six minutes past the hour of one o'clock.

Welcome into hour number.

two of the big program's armors as we continue with our remodeling down at the old home station in Madison.

Remodeling indeed.

They are in there right now working on it.

Wow, very exciting.

Well, we appreciate all of our wonderful and fine engineers for putting in that new equipment and looking forward to that next week being back there.

But always happy to get out on the road.

All of our wonderful civic media stations, our great staff, and of course our great communities all around the state of Wisconsin.

As part of what makes Wisconsin great is to get out here and talk to all the wonderful people that listen to us each and every day.

It's a beautiful day here in Southwest Wisconsin.

And Sun is out a little overcast skies here there, but all in all our temperatures of the low 50s, so Should be a pretty nice weekend Zomers.

You're gonna watch I know you're not super into the NCAA Tournament So I'm not sure if you're gonna watch any basketball or not, but any big plans for the weekend.

I'll probably watch some basketball I have no specific games in mind because I don't know anything about the schedule, but I know My roommate will have something on and I'll probably watch it aside from that I'm gonna hang out with one of my friends tonight that I haven't seen and

couple months maybe, so that should

be

fun.

Well, I'm very good.

I'll

see a man of a horse or rather I'll be

working on groundhog removal later on this afternoon But also be looking forward to watch a little basketball as well as we said before Wisconsin the Badger men's basketball team takes on BYU in the round of 32 tomorrow afternoon actually early evening 645 is the tip-off time and you could hear that game

over the air in terms of terrestrial broadcast radio here in Richland Center on WRCE up in Wisconsin Rapids on WFHR and up in Amory on WLAK unfortunately due to NCAA lawyers not able to put it on the stream for you.

The good news is though the game tomorrow the Badger game is going to be on broadcast television on CBS.

So you can watch it over the air on CBS as well.

Marquette the Golden Eagles play

tonight at 625 against New Mexico, the Lobos in their first game.

Good luck to Marquette as they continue on there or start the NCAA tournament.

And then in Badger Women's Hockey, the Frozen Four gets underway in Minneapolis.

It is Wisconsin taking on the Golden Gophers of Minnesota at 730 tonight.

And that one a little tougher to find.

Some stations carry it on the radio.

Otherwise you have to go to ESPN Plus.

And, you know, I don't want to go too far down this road, but it just burns me up that some of the best hockey you're going to see is in the women's Final Four, Wisconsin going for their eighth national championship.

And Mark Johnson just named the national coach of the year for women's hockey coach and college.

And it just seems to me, you know, regular listeners of this show know how much I like, you know, Peacock and all these streaming services.

And it would seem to me that a national Final Four would deserve.

more than ESPN plus.

I would certainly agree.

Yeah, but that's what we're dealt with.

And so that's what we have to go with.

But great.

Good luck to Mark Johnson and the Wisconsin women's badger hockey team in the frozen for tonight.

Going to talk a little bit about vernal equinox.

I guess first full day of spring is today, technically yesterday, but.

First full day, we'll talk a little bit about that.

And also, and one of our regular listeners, L.A.

Tom was right on top of this.

He read my mind, because this is something I wanted to bring up today as well.

I've worked in politics for a long time.

And the joke was, it was a joke, but the joke was, you know, if we'd just go out and stay into the street and give everybody $100 to vote for the person that we're working for, that would be more useful than it would be to actually run all these ads.

Well, now,

Elon Musk is doing just that here in Wisconsin.

We'll talk about that in just a little bit.

But right now at 10 minutes past the hour of one o'clock, time to play What's Worst?

Here we

go.

Time once again for what's worse no prize money involved nothing give away But it is your chance to have your voice heard on state-wide radio across all 11 stations of the civic media news sports and talk Network glad to have you along coming up on Monday though be with us at hour number two on Monday as we'll be doing one of our Spring into spring bouncing the spring break into

spring because it's

spring break into spring That's what it is break into spring text to win trivia

Chula Vista Resort Packages, Milwaukee Brewer Club Level Seats, $100 in cash, and it's not from Elon Musk, by the way, and The Grand Prize, a wonderful package prize from Virlo Mattresses.

So it's going to be a lot of fun.

Make sure you tune into the show.

next week, starting on Monday for your chance to win each and every day.

But right now, no actual money.

We just have a little fun with this every day in the second hour.

And as they say, Zommer is timely, timely indeed, because, you know,

Some people are buying new TVs to watch the March Madness.

There's a TV just like the Super Bowl.

People will buy TVs this time of year.

But also now we're getting to know that warm weather, it won't be long until you have family reunions.

Easter is coming up.

You get together with extended family and the like.

So here now, what's worse?

Extended warranties or extended family.

extended warranties or extended family.

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Both controversial because when you buy a product, big box store, it doesn't really matter.

Well, would you like the extended warranty with that?

I mean, if you don't have the extended warranty, if something happens, you're going to have to pay for it.

Well, nowadays, it doesn't

matter.

Even if you have the extended warranty, you still got to

pay for

it.

I kind of think that.

And then extended family, I mean, you know, we all love our family for the most part, but there seems to be that third cousin twice removed that shows up at things, you're like, oh my gosh, I mean, either A, they're from a completely different political bent from you, or they're just annoying.

So what's worse, extended family.

or extended warranties.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to Ollie from the Northwood standing by.

Ollie, we appreciate you're holding on.

Extended warranty or extended family?

Ollie, what's worse?

Well, you know, the times they are changing.

I'm going to go with the worst is the extended family because if you have an extended warranty, you usually get

on the phone and try to get some response, and there is no response.

But with extended family, if you have an issue within your own family, everyone's on social media putting in their two cents worth, whether you want it or not.

That's a great point.

That's a really great point.

And social media, as you use a Facebook or whatever, it has brought us closer.

And sometimes that's a good thing.

You think, well, we don't see these people and you love them and you want to know more about them.

And then other people, or other times, not so much.

Yeah, you don't want to air in your dirty laundry all over

social media.

Right.

That's another great point.

You tell somebody something's going on in the family and then before long, it's all over social media.

I appreciate the call.

Thank you so very much, Ollie.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

We have Dave in New Berlin on the text line says, I think that extended families are worse.

I think with extended family, you really have no clue.

who you are going to meet.

Well, now that happens too, right?

When you go, especially at family reunions, there might be a cousin out there or a cousin spouse that you've never met.

And you're like, I had no idea this person was part of her family.

Has that happened to you, Zomers?

Yeah, or, or just significant others not necessarily married, but someone will bring their new boyfriend.

It's just like, oh yeah, the last one was a winner and you sure are too.

Nice to meet you, I guess.

I won't be seeing you next year.

That's a great point because, you know, again, extended family cousins, great aunts, whatever, that, that are going through significant others, you know, like a change of underwear.

And like you say, you know, you're not going to see this person again.

Right.

Just based on family history.

Eight five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Brian in Milwaukee, listening on WAUK says extended warranties.

are worse, I haven't owned a car since 2015.

And somehow I keep getting a call about my car warranty.

Weren't you just talking about the summers and you get these calls?

Hello,

Brian, we're trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty.

Yeah, like just those automated calls like that that are very annoying and lots of scams.

Get those.

I was like, hey, you have a $500

charge on PayPal.

And it's like, no, I don't.

Uh, go

away.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Uh, here's a listener on W. A. U. K. Milwaukee, walkie-shaw.

Hi, Todd.

I think extended warranties are worse because they are never valid when you need them.

As for extended families, the more the merrier.

Nan from Brookfield.

All right.

Well, Jim's wife, look at that.

Jim's wife calling, texting in.

Very good.

Appreciate that, Nan.

Yeah, I agree with that.

that, you know, if you have more support, that's always a good thing.

Roger, checking in on Facebook, Roger says, checking in from Stevens Point.

Oh, very good.

Beautiful Stevens Point.

We've taken the show there on the road at UW-Stevens Point, saying the extended warranty is worse.

The day after it expires, the TV fries.

Now, isn't that the truth?

Have you had that happen, Zommerz?

Well, I got a warranty for that event.

No, I don't.

Yeah, I had it happen with a tablet I had years ago where.

Really?

As soon as the warranty was done it it the so is that happened

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two What's worse extended warranties or extended?

family.

You could also text us on the Civic Media app.

One of our great UPS drivers, Sean, in here at Michelin Center, listening on WRCE says, oh, this is back to Mark Johnson and the Badger women's hockey team.

So it says, Todd, being a big Mark Johnson fan as you are, you got to see the movie Miracle.

Yes, you're 100 percent right.

And I've been it's on my to-do list and I haven't taken time to do it.

This would be a great weekend to do that.

I heard it's a great, a great movie on the 1982

uh uh Olympians in Lake Placid when they knocked off the Soviet Union there of course Mark Johnson was part of that U.S.

Olympic team as well as being on the Badger hockey team with his dad Bob Johnson was a coach and they won a national championship Mark Johnson wins a gold medal with U.S.

Olympic team then comes back to Wisconsin starts the women's hockey program and is now one seven

national titles with the Badgers.

They are going for their eighth national title tonight, starting at 730 in Minneapolis.

All right, that's great.

We'll come back to you a little bit more.

What's worse also tell you what's news breaking news in terms of Elon Musk wants to give you a Benjamin for your vote.

We'll explain on the other side.

It's the all ball show live from Richland Center on the civic media.

Ready to know.

you

and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title of all show of the Civic Media Ready Network on this Friday, the 21st of March, 2025, 21 now past the hour of one o'clock.

Play a little What's Worst here?

We're on location at WRCE in Richland Center.

What's worse, extended warranties or extended families?

Our very own news director here at WRCE, Joanne Kruelatz popped in quickly because Joanne, you said you just had an experience with this.

Yes, I think extended warranties are the worst, especially when you go shopping, you go through the self-checkout and you buy a set of sheets and it asks if you want the extended warranty.

You bought sheets?

I bought a set of sheets.

I thought, well, what's the extended warranty on these?

Does that mean if they develop a hole or when they're worn out, do I get a free set?

I've never heard an extended warranty being offered on sheets.

I haven't either.

until yesterday.

Good.

Gosh.

I mean, do you remember how much it was?

The sheets were on clearance for $20.

They were planted sheets.

How much did they want out of you for the extended warranty?

I think it was like $2 in some sense or so.

I don't remember.

I was just too flabbergasted that it came up with that.

I've never heard of that.

But they say they get you coming and going.

Oh, yes.

You know, at least with extended family, if you don't want to talk to them, you just don't talk

to them.

I wish there was an extended warranty on extended family.

You think that would help?

I don't know.

They'd

probably be expired by the time you need it.

Probably.

All right, Joe.

We appreciate you stopping by.

It's great to see you, my friend.

Oh, it's always fun to have you here.

All right.

Thank you very much, Joanne Krulatz, everybody, our news director here at WRCOWRCE.

That was a lot of fun.