Introducing Civic Media News Director Chali Pittman (Hour 1)

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Good afternoon, everybody.

Tal Alma, author, producer, and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Friday, TGIF May 30th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Welcome, everyone, here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison on State Street.

We'll look cloudy, Zommers.

At least that's what we think it looks like.

But in reality,

And this is serious, the entire state is under a weather advisory for air conditions, air quality advisory.

Really?

I did not know that.

Yes, because of the big wildfires raging in Canada, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and that is coming down through Wisconsin, through the atmosphere.

So if you're an individual with asthma or somebody that has respiratory conditions,

Either you might want to stay inside or limit your time outside.

Brittany Merleau this morning told us that this weather system is going to move out because there's a cold front coming down from the north through the south today.

That's going to bring in some showers, some garden variety, thunderstorms through much of the state.

And by tomorrow, most of the smoke for the wildfires should be out of the air.

So just be aware of that as you go throughout your day.

It's going to be a great Friday here on the show.

Coming up at the bottom of the hour at 235, Shaly Pittman, the brand new news director here at Civic Media, will be our guest sitting right here in the studio.

She is based here at the World Headquarters of Madison, have gotten to know her over the last couple of days here.

Fantastic individual.

long list of accomplishments.

We're very, very proud to have her joining Civic Media as the news director.

And so she's going to stop by, tell us a little bit about herself and kind of her outlook on the news.

Absolutely.

I am excited to have all of you hear the approach that she's taking to this position because as Todd said, very accomplished, very nice person.

I'm excited.

Yeah, she's she's very cool and really knows news and I think it's going to be a great leader for our news department.

So Shelly Pittman will be here at two thirty five at three oh six or shortly thereafter.

Little what's worse for you today.

I'm not on the face of it.

It doesn't seem controversial.

But maybe we'll stir the pot handshake or fist bump.

Handshaker fist bump that's coming up in our number two also gonna check in on various assorted and sundry news of the day gonna have We're gonna have fun this a little bit later Because I filled in for quite low this morning packed quite low on mornings with packed quite low Six until nine by the way across the civic media-ready network Patrick is going out to Idaho to see his first eldest grandson

graduate from high school, so he took an extra day.

I said, sure, be happy to fill in.

How can you say no when he was such a gracious and kind host last week when he had us up at Lake Basota at his home for our show, brought me an old-fashioned at the end of the show?

How could I not say yes?

Also, why would you not want to help out a friend and colleague see their grandson graduate?

He did wait until I had the brandy old-fashioned in hand and had a sip first.

That's funny.

That's funny.

By the way, as long

as I've got you here

and I'm doing this favor for you.

No, I was happy to do it.

I had a good time.

Lots of changes.

Speaking of our new news director, Sam Davison, the day you were out at Zombers on Wednesday, we kind of said goodbye on this show to him.

This was his last day on John and Gordy here, the morning show in Madison.

He's going to come back though, occasionally.

He's going to help run the Boy Scout camp in Eagle Scout, just like yourself this summer.

And then he's going back to school, already a graduate of UW Madison for broadcasting.

He's actually has felt the call.

to go back and be a social studies teacher.

So he's going to do that, but he'll still be stopping by.

So we have a dumb.

the new producer for Johnny Gordy, he was round, and then Greg Bach will still be the co-host of Matt and Air on Air with Gene Matt and Air from 9 until 11 every morning, but he was also producing Pat Kratlow's show.

Now Greg gets to sleep in a couple of hours extra because we have Parker, the new producer and engineer for that show, so I got to work with him.

Great individual both great individuals very excited to have them on board young new talent just like yourself summers So the the median age of the home office has gone down a few years.

This is true Those of you who've been listening for at least a few months.

You also remember just another producer we had here who left to go on to Other things,

you know,

she's going for a medical degree We are sad to see Jess and Sam go but happy for them because they're moving on with their passions

And Dom and Parker are doing great so far.

They're catching on to everything like that.

Parker, though, is a graduate of UW Whitewater, the nemesis of UW Platteville, my alma mater.

We joked around that, joked around about that a little bit this morning as well.

So anyway, we had, on the show this morning with Pat Craitlow's show, had a lot of fun doing that.

But we talked about

There's weather stuff with pretty more low and then these wildfires are really really serious up in Canada And that is causing the it looks like smog or or clouds, but no it's smoke for these wildfires.

So take care out there today.

But anyway Pat on his show every morning He does the national day thing where he says it's the national day for whatever whatever Well today one of the national days is mint julep national mint julep day I found out

If you I'm not a fan of mint juleps really, but if you are that's that's fantastic.

I don't think I've had one there's also I Did not even know this was a day, but we're gonna celebrate it coming up an hour, too I'm not gonna I'm gonna keep people hanging on you're going to love it if you were a fan of Sesame Street You're going to love it

So all that more can be up in your calls as well.

Always welcome to give us a ring a link.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

But let's kick it off with some serious breaking news at this hour.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinels, Daniel Bice, great reporter there at the Journal Sentinel, a bipartisan group of more than 130 former state and federal judges

filed a brief today supporting a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, saying the case could have, quote, chilling effect, unquote, on judges around the nation.

The 21-page amicus brief argues that the two federal charges against Judge Dugan represent, quote, an extraordinary and direct assault on the independence of the entire judicial system, unquote.

Dugan, of course, was indicted last month on charges.

She helped an undocumented immigrant evade federal officers after he appeared in her courtroom.

Goes on to say in this brief quote, permitting the prosecution of a state circuit court judge for conduct falling squarely within her rightful exercise of judicial discretion, establishes a dangerous precedent that will chill judicial decision making at every level.

It was a 100 again the brief was signed by 138 retired judges It also says in this brief quote the case directly threatens the ability of all judges to their job without fear of retaliatory prosecution

I'm sure, I should say I'm sure, but my guess would be that Maggie Dawn, an attorney herself, former Milwaukee County attorney there, will be touching on this more in her show right after hours from four until six.

But again, the breaking news at this hour, a group of 138 retired judges urges the federal court to drop charges against Hannah Dugan, that from Dan Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Also making news, this according to WisPolitics.com, great publication.

I wonder what in particular that that really affects Wisconsin directly.

And the other one is just a little bit bizarre, in my opinion.

This from, again, with politics, the Trump administration listed deep red Sean County alongside Dane County and the cities of Madison and Milwaukee.

as the Wisconsin communities were refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The release late yesterday included no information on why the communities were listed and attempts to reach Shuttle County officials were unsuccessful.

Now, here's the thing.

I was stepping away from the story for just a just a second.

I know Shuttle County pretty well.

My dad and stepmom will live there for almost 40 years, probably spend a lot of time up there.

the sheriff up there has been a long-sense Republican.

And now back to the story with politics, more than 67% of county voters November backed Trump.

67% win for Trump and Chateau County.

And the county board in 2021 approved a resolution, and here's the key, declaring the North Eastern Wisconsin community a, quote, second amendment sanctuary county.

Unquote.

Stepping away from the story.

So, Seanle, if you don't know, is just to the west of Green Bay.

It's about a 30-minute drive now on the beautiful four-lane highway 29.

But back in 19, back in 2021, the Seanle County Board passed a resolution saying that Seanle County was a second amendment sanctuary county.

In other words, we are going to allow people to be arrested for for having firearms.

Basically, if you were going to make sure we protect gun owners rights in Chateau County, well, of course, it's already protected by the Second Amendment, but they they seem to just really want to double down on this.

Back to the story with politics, the administration's announcement that Chateau County is under scrutiny here included a note.

that the list will be updated regularly and cautioned, and this is a direct quote from the Trump administration, quote, no one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information, unquote.

I mean, this is the same thing that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy said the other day when Wisconsin Congress from Mark Buchanan asked him, you know, in committee, and

Kennedy said, well, you know, nobody should really be taking health care advice from me, medical advice from me.

You're in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, dude.

So now here in this announcement, even though they're listing Seanal County as a community refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, the Trump administration encounters it and says, but you know, don't really believe us until you conduct your own investigation.

President, back to the story, President Trump signed an executive order requiring the creation of a list identifying states and local jurisdictions that obstruct federal immigration laws, Department of Homeland Security, some criteria for inclusion on the list, included factors such as, quote, compliance with federal law enforcement, immigration restrictions, and the legal protections for illegal aliens, unquote, their words, not mine.

So basically what appears to have happened here

is the Trump administration is trying to call out communities that are calling themselves sanctuary cities for migrants.

And because Sean O'County passed a resolution saying it was a second amendment sanctuary county,

Because it included the word sanctuary, it appears now that the Trump administration used AI or something like that and basically got caught up in the mix.

That's what I was gonna say.

I was gonna say I would bet a lot of money that it's AI.

Just like when they did their whole big tariff board and had a bunch of places that are uninhabited by human beings that just have penguins and stuff.

It's because it was AI generated.

So again...

If you think some of these out of control Trump policies aren't going to affect you, ask the people in Chateau County.

They elected Trump in Chateau County with 67% of the vote.

And now they are under scrutiny by Department of Homeland Security for being accused of being a sanctuary for immigrants.

You cannot make this stuff up.

855-752-4842, 855-752-482.

Your phone calls on the other side.

It's a TGIF edition of The All Ball Show.

You're listening across the state of Wisconsin to the Civic Media.

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Pursuing truth wherever it may lead, and having fun doing it, welcome back to the Tonal Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network on this Friday, May 30th, 2025, Zombers, the last show for a month of May.

We'll begin to June when we come back on the air on Monday.

How about that?

Yeah, you're right.

It always goes so fast.

It all goes so fast, right?

Glad to have you along.

Coming up at the bottom, or just after the bottom of the hour, Shelly Pittman, brand new news director here at Civic Media is going to be here.

Learn more about her and some of the things going on at the Civic Media News Department.

Right now, talking about a couple of stories, one of which is breaking Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from Daniel Bice at this hour.

A group of 138 retired judges urges the federal court to drop charges.

against Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to the phone lines.

Gary in Sussex.

Gary, happy Friday to you.

What do you got?

Hey, you too.

Hey, I appreciate you letting me speak on the air because I'm going to disagree with these 138 judges.

This man went, he was arrested for assault and battery.

for beating the living daylights out of a man and then punching a woman and both of them ended up in the hospital.

So she thought, well, because he's

an

illegal alien and he's now gonna most likely be deported, I'm gonna let you go.

How would you feel if there's one of your friends or your brother or your mother that got punched and this judge went out there and just let the guy go because she didn't want him thrown out of the country?

Well, I think I want to make sure I let you finish.

Number one, from what I've read about the actual case, some of which you put out there, I think is accurate.

There may be other details to the story that are being left out.

I'm not an attorney.

I'm certainly not a judge.

But from what I've seen, Gary, I don't think anybody is disputing what should or shouldn't happen to the individual who was, you know...

in the courtroom.

I think what it comes down to, and I think the entire tape, the videotape is hours long, but I've seen some of the clips from the courthouse video of this incident where the INS officials, or INS, the ICE they call it now, ICE officials in plain clothes were kind of just chilling, hanging out outside the courtroom.

And if you look at the report from Department of Homeland Security or ICE,

It accuses Judge Dugan of being like irate and coming out and throwing this fit.

But if you look at the actual videotape, it's not there, Gary.

She's very calm.

We don't know what she said, obviously, because it's just a tape, not the audio.

And when the defendant guy, I mean, he comes back out into a hallway where there is clearly on the videotape another

plain clothes, ice official.

He doesn't grab the guy, doesn't tackle him.

He doesn't hit.

He just kind of follows him out of the courtroom.

And then the guy, because there was other people outside the courthouse, takes off and then they get him.

So I don't think it's for me, at least it's not about that Judge Dugan was trying to help this guy get away or let somebody who committed a crime allegedly get away.

To me, it's these charges against Judge Dugan.

which seemed to be pun intended, trumped up.

Well, the thing is, your judge, and I guess she threw the ice guys out, told them, you can't be in my court.

You got to get out of the room.

That's why.

But if you look at it, and again, I'm not trying to be argumentative, but if you look at the tape, Gary, she said you have to go to the chief judge and she showed him where the courtroom was.

They said, OK, fine.

Actually, another, she didn't, apparently Judge Dugan didn't know there was another plainclothes guy that she didn't see.

He stays right there.

So again, she wasn't throwing them out of her courtroom.

She saw that she heard that they were standing outside and said, look, guys, you can't just be lurking around here.

Go see the chief judge who oversees the courthouse.

And they did that.

So I think it comes down to just a matter of, I think that the Trump administration wanted to make a point.

They picked Judge Dugan to do it.

And I just don't see

You know issues should be afforded or due process innocent and proven guilty I I just think that the feds have a really weak case based on the videotape

Well, I disagree with you But you know as far as I'm concerned as far as if you're illegal in this country if you go out there and turn yourself in and say look I've been living here working hard.

I don't believe anybody should be thrown out of the country I think that you should work your way to citizenship, but if you're punching people

Especially a woman and you're illegal in this country.

You have no right.

Well, I

would say that anybody regardless of their of their Status if your committee to crime will absolutely you should be you know, you should have a trial of your peers and If found guilty you should you should be put away, but Gary we just got about a minute left here But but yeah, but you brought this up you brought this up.

I mean rest of your take on it What do you think this thing where now it's being announced today?

that Trump has pulled the illegal status of half a million individuals which paid their own way to come here on a plane and they were given legal they went through the what did it they're quote unquote right way they were were here under a legal status for two years they had to have financial sponsorship to get here and now without any warning Trump is pulling their status

I don't know enough about it.

But if you're doing good and you were welcomed into the country and you get a visa to stay here for so many years, I have no problems with that.

So I think he could be wrong on that one at that take.

And you know what?

I don't know who's advising him.

I mean, you know, he has advisors and he'll probably change.

But I can't listen to you much longer.

But you said about the fist bump in the handshake.

Yeah.

Uh, I fist bump almost everybody and I appreciate when when when I fist bump they fist bump me back if I hand shake me, you know So that's that's the way to just try some time time go around and either fist bump and see what happens.

Nobody's gonna shake your fist

I Appreciate I appreciate your early vote on what's worse.

Thanks.

Gary.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye

Yeah, early vote summers an early vote.

We're gonna get into More of this story.

I just kind of mentioned to Gary there because this is a follow-up Again, we have a half a million individuals who are here legally and Just like that Trump pulls their status even though they're here legal and there was another case involving somebody from Milwaukee an immigrant who was set up Christie or not Chris.

Yeah, Christie.

No

DHS Secretary sends out this thing, and it turns out the guy is 100% innocent.

We'll talk about that.

Stay tuned though.

We're gonna keep it local.

The brand new Civic Media News Director, Shaly Pittman, right here on the other side on the Civic Media.

Have a

lot of good news across the state of Wisconsin.

It's 35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock.

Welcome in.

It is May 30th, 2025.

TGIF of Friday edition.

Nicely done there, Mr. Zalbers.

Who's singing that?

Who's the?

Who's the?

The Supremes.

Isn't it really the Supremes?

It sure is.

That's fantastic.

We're going to have some good news here.

We're going to talk to our new news director, Charlie Pittman here in just a minute, but I was remiss.

got into that phone call with Gary.

Always appreciate him listening.

We don't always agree, but always good to have him call in because I was just saying, you got to do the giveaway today because if you're watching live on the stream, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, Twix, whatever you want to call it, I am in my brewers jersey today or at least my three quarter zip and my brewers mug because it's the stupefabulous, stupendous, fabulous Friday giveaway for brewers tickets.

Your chance to win four club seat

Tickets at Amfam field for a game to be named later.

No, it's that we have it right here in front of us It's for Saturday June 7th against these San Diego Padres 635 start time.

This is very important You have to be able to go to that game.

You cannot transfer.

You cannot exchange Luke Mathers keeps these tickets.

It is well oiled mink

Leather satchel.

I think we decided

it was synthetic oil.

Yes,

synthetic mink oil that is sustainably

people

got

worried because we were killing mink Sustainable mink oil and he has these tickets and so we cannot exchange them so you have to be able to go on Saturday, June 7th on Brewers against San Diego 635 so text in download the civic media app if you don't have it it's free and Then open it up first 11 stations of the news talk sports stations

Click text in the lower right hand corner, and now you're all set.

The word today for our free Friday Brewer giveaway is park.

The word is park, P-A-R-K, park.

This weekend is a lovely time to go to the park.

P a R K text the word park right now on the civic media app and Somebody at the end of today will be a lucky winner of those four Brewer tickets for Saturday, June 7th Maggie Dawn will have one more word coming up between four and six.

All right Believe me.

No one is more excited for our next it's ours.

Did you mention that it's statewide?

Oh for goodness sake.

I Got I've got myself in trouble.

No.

Thank you.

Somers the lawyers tell us

We have to tell you this is a statewide giveaway.

All right, there we go.

We got the legalese out of the way.

Nobody is more thankful for our next guest than me after not having a news director for quite some time and working election night without one.

I've been filling the chair, but now no longer needed because we have a legitimate, wonderful, talented news director here at Civic Media making her first appearance on the air.

Absolutely.

First appearance on the air.

is Shelly Pittman.

Shelly, thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me.

It's an honor to be on your show, and I'm still gonna tap you for election night.

I hope you know that.

We'll see, we'll see, but no, I'm happy.

However, I can help out, but I'm really glad that you're here because, well, first of all, let's just start out.

Tell folks a little bit where you grew up, where you're from.

Thank you.

Thanks again for having me.

My name is Shali.

I have worked in journalism and in radio since I was 18 years old.

I grew up in kind of rural-ish Wisconsin, Fort Atkinson.

I went to UW Madison and worked at all kinds of radio stations, public and college and non-commercial, but I've never worked in commercial radio.

So I'm

kind of crossing it off my list now that I'm here.

The rules are a little bit different.

love that we're a statewide network.

This is so cool.

Um, still a lot to figure out, but, um, but yeah, I have done it all.

I've been behind the mic.

I've run so many boards and, uh, produced a lot of different shows.

And I, I come from W or T most recently.

It was the news and talk director there for six years.

Um, Madison.

Hippie Station is what it's commonly derided as, but it is so much more than that.

I was just gonna say, I've been on Tony's show before.

Castaneda,

yes.

Tony Castaneda, great guy, great musician, great Madisonian, one of my favorite people of all time.

He was kind enough to have me on his show, and he came on this show.

What you just said, I think is really important because, you know, there's always stereotypes or whatever.

And certainly, I think there is kind of that grassy-ness root of earthiness of WRT.

But we've actually used some of your stories of WRT newsroom on our show because you guys have really been known for some really great reporting here in Madison.

Thank you so much.

And yeah, it's true.

I think you pulled our reporting here on consulting a couple months ago, and that took a whole year.

And we do open records.

I think the important thing in your community is showing up, which I know that's something that civic media is trying to do.

But there's no replacing that, right?

And media, in many regards, is crumbling across Wisconsin.

So I think.

We're connected with our community.

We have the, you know, it's volunteer based.

We have kind of seven full time.

I should stop saying we,

right?

There are seven full time staff members and a few part time staff, but everyone on the air is a volunteer over at WRT.

So it's a lot of training folks on how to do good radio, but you also have a wide network of tips.

So that's pretty cool.

It is super cool and.

Well, I love about your experience at ORT, which is a community radio station.

Our owner CEO, Sage Weil, his original vision, which still holds true, is to create a network, a statewide community-focused radio network.

And we have so many great people across the state in our news department.

We have several of them on.

We just had James Kelly, our Northwest Bureau Chief up in Chippewa Falls on Friday.

I think that having those individuals all across the state being led by someone like you who comes from community-focused radio, I just think that it's a fantastic matchup, and I'm really excited.

I'm really excited to be on my fourth day here.

It's been a bit of a drinking from a fire hose.

I've been meeting with our reporters, our reporting team, and my number one takeaway is how hard they work.

work incredibly hard to report from their communities and that sometimes it's not as easy when you're in rural Wisconsin, right, when there aren't a lot of...

other news sources.

But I see that as our specialty in reporting what's actually happening in our community, also being the folks who show up.

So, I'm excited to continue that work.

We're talking to Shelly Pittman, the new news director here at Civic Media across our statewide radio network.

It is 42 minutes past the hour of 2 o'clock.

Shelly is one of the great

privileges that I have with this show is they allow me to travel throughout the state.

We've done the show.

It was pretty much from almost every market at this point now, at least the news talk market, I think.

And, you know, I grew up originally at the Center and WRCO, and now part of it is WRCE is my home station is where I started when I was 17.

And Joanne Krulatz, our news director there, she's going to school board meetings, to city council meetings.

She's putting newscasts together, a 45 minute live, new newscasts every day and a lot more.

You got when we were up at Chippewa Falls, James Kelly's going out to rallies on again, so I think Van Orton, the congressman up there.

You've got Melissa Kay at Wisconsin Rapids.

We did the show from up there, much like WRCO.

People are coming into the station every day.

Oh, here's what's going on with our local Lions Club to raise money.

Here's what's going on to raise money for the PTO.

What as you look at this network now that you're inheriting, I guess, are now leading is a better way to put it.

What would be your on day four?

A couple of goals that you would like to see.

us achieve our news department.

Well, the first goal is just to talk with everyone.

And I'm about halfway through that goal.

But short-term goals would be to make the news operations.

We've had a couple of changes in the last few years.

to make that a little more sustainable for our reporters, but I am definitely still finding my niche.

I think being connected to your community and having that play out on air, on talk shows and on news shows could use some refinement, but is...

is of paramount importance.

I think our news and our news talk or our talk programs being able to communicate a little more would be good.

So, yeah, I don't know.

I'm glad I'm not joining like the day before an election or something like that, right?

Right, yeah.

And I think our friend and colleague, Jane McNair, who is an icon in this business, pardon me, particularly in Southeast Wisconsin, and she and I have chatted, and the irony is not lost on any of us.

The oftentimes communication companies sometimes are the worst to internal communication.

We're doing okay, but I think there are some things to figure out.

But there are so many projects to take up, and that's also what I love about this company is it does have a little bit of a...

to start up vibe to it.

And there are so many things that we can do, right?

I was talking, I was in, what do you guys call it, the

knock?

I just call

it the control room.

Yeah, network

operation center, the

knock.

Is that

what it stands for?

Yeah, that's what it stands for.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I've been here three years, I didn't know.

It's a really great place to hang out because you can listen to any station with the click of a button, which I love.

But our Chris Casper, the engineering guy here, was just showing me what they used to do live remotes.

And they have all this technology that you can go anywhere in the state and do a live remote, even if you don't necessarily have broadband.

So there are a lot of opportunities here.

I've got folks asking me about open records already, and I'm excited to bring more of that with us as well, or just as much.

to really hone that.

So there are a lot of opportunities.

Yeah.

And I guess the point I've been bringing that up earlier is just that what I love about you is you're from the business, you're a broadcaster, you're a journalist.

And so you get this stuff.

And so I think sometimes, you know, we in communication, myself included, who doesn't always do a good job of communicating with others, the fact that you get that and you can instantly on day one,

It's just a huge compliment to our company.

And I'm really, really excited to have you here.

That's really kind of you.

Thank you so

much.

Radio people are the best.

The folks who can run the board, who can be behind

the lights.

Yeah.

The summer is fantastic.

Yeah.

Has he hosted?

Well, I'm

not really hosted, no.

No.

No.

I mean, I've talked on the radio.

I talk on the radio.

Yeah, I talk every day.

But no, I...

I guess I co-hosted with one of our producers who left recently just, that was one day.

I've done one show as a very secondary co-host.

The answer is yes, you've hosted, right?

So they're, they all, knowing each role is so important too, to know what a producer, how much work it takes to produce.

Producers never get enough credit.

You do a very good job, but...

We

try.

Yeah, no, I think that's really important of acknowledging all of the people who...

Work really hard to make a show of success and you do it flawlessly

Well, you're too kind, but I, I'm a big believer in, in team.

And I just come in and do my little part, but you're absolutely right.

Without engineers and producers like Xamarinz, without our engineering team, without, you know, it goes on and on.

This thing's never going to work.

So I'm just very privileged and fortunate to be here and do my little dog and pony show between two and four.

Well, this morning you were on this morning too.

So

you're doing a little more.

Yes.

This morning I got up early and did Pat Krightlow's show.

And that was a lot of fun.

Can you hang around for another segment?

Sure.

You have time?

Because I want to come back here.

I guess we have a couple minutes.

One minute.

One minute or so.

When we come back, this morning, Pat has this great round table on Fridays.

And Mark Jacob, who wrote for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, fantastic guy, as is Jennifer Schulze, who is at ABC 7 and WGN TV in Chicago.

And we had this discussion this morning on...

The what's what I guess I'll say the word mainstream media is missing today and the benefit of having independent journalism and maybe how civic media fits into that.

So we'll ask you that on the other side.

OK.

All right.

Text the word Park P. A. R. K. to the civic media app for those Brewer tickets.

Come on back.

Talk news with Charlie Pittman is the title show across Wisconsin on the civic media.

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Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

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That is the you found the rare versions of the word version.

That's rarely played with the words It's usually used to be that but it's fine.

I'm not criticizing

right usually.

It's like a trumpet not

yeah, it's like the but it's fine, but it's The theme song to mash some breaking news according to CBS news at this hour Lorena Swit who played major Margaret hula hand on the TV series mash

has died.

A representative for her confirmed it to CBS News.

Ms.

Swit was 87 years old.

She died at her home in New York City, according to a representative, B. Harlan Boll, who has sent in a statement to CBS News today.

She is believed to have died of natural causes.

Swit starred on stage and screen, but she was perhaps best known for her long running role as the foil to Alan Alda's Benjamin Franklin Hawkeye Pierce on match, which aired for 11 seasons on CBS from 19.

1972 to 1983 again Lorena Swit better known as hot lips hula hand on the show mash dead at 87 We're here with our guest this half hour.

We're pleased to have her not just this half hour, but here at the company She is the news news director for civic media.

Shelly Pittman.

Shelly your do you ever watch mash?

No, I was going to say that went all over my head, but you seem like you like that.

It was my it was one of my all time favorite television shows.

And the the finale of MASH, which was the title of it is called Goodbye Farewell and Amen, was the number one.

It still might be the number one network show of all time.

It got like eighty seven million people or something watching it.

Now, is it something that you rewatch?

Oh, I have.

Because my dad collected them and I've kind of inherited that I have all 11 seasons on DVD You watch

them on DVD.

I know I haven't I haven't I don't sit down but do it But you're like me TV or something on cable or over there that that and and I think that to me is the Testament to a great television program It's been off the air all these years and I could watch it an episode might have seen a dozen times and I still laugh

And or get that was the magic to match is the writing because it first it was based on a movie a comedy movie and made into a series and the first two or three or four years We're all just comedy.

It was very funny But then it got into this kind of storytelling of telling this story of people in war and it got very emotional as well And they could combine that magically between comedy and drama

which by the way I looked it up mash is indeed the number one

most watched broadcast live if you exclude Super Bowls.

Because if you include those, it's number 12 and the rest of the top 20 are all Super Bowls.

Pretty impressive.

That was a, it was a big, a big show back in the day.

Uh, what do you guys have about four minutes left or so?

Uh, Shali, we talked to this morning on Pat Crichtlow's show, filled in for him with Mark Jacobs, uh, formerly the Chicago Sun Time and, uh, our Chicago Tribute and Sun Times.

And, uh, also, uh, Jennifer Scholesy, who worked in television to ABC seven WGN about the fact that so much of mainstream media is either getting pressure from higher up.

in the case of CBS and ABC, who have either settled or in the process of trying to settle lawsuits from President Trump and are kind of capitulating.

Scott Peleon, 60 Minutes, called his own network out in the series finale this year of 60 Minutes.

And I think one of the great advantages to independent news sources, of which I would consider Civic Media 1, is there ain't no directive from the top that, oh, you can only say this or that.

Our owner, Sage Wilde, just wants us to tell the truth.

That's a great directive to have.

And I think that's part of the challenge of this job is parsing out what exactly are we going to focus in and what are we focusing on for that day.

But you're right.

I also think that there are many talented journalists who work at all of those networks.

I agree.

in particular is a particularly challenging medium to work in where we get lumped in with everyone else at the station because you are the voice behind the mic.

And if people tune in once, then you are representative of the entire station, right?

I think that's a very difficult thing to grapple with, especially when you're talking about news where you get to say your opinion, Ted.

I don't, right?

So I think that is something that has never quite been solved.

But I invite folks to think of radio as a newspaper.

You are the opinion section.

And the newscasts that you hear in the middle of your show are the news section, which are fact-checked and vetted and not that you're not.

Vetted.

What kind of

vetting process did you go

through?

A lot of people say not much.

No, I've said this show many times.

I this is not a journalist news program.

It's a news talk opinion program.

Exactly.

And but you know, having gone through Plattville's communication and journalism school, not proper J school, but communication program, I apply journalistic ethics to this show.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

No, that makes a lot of sense.

But there is a distinction.

And I ran across that at W-O-R-T.

And I think every station and other news sources also face that problem of there are many people who work at one place and they all have slightly different perspectives and procedures and ways and ethics, right?

So trying to standardize some of that too is a little bit...

Part of my goals here.

About a minute left or so.

What have I not asked you that you think people across Wisconsin should know about you or your new role as news

director?

Oh So much and I look forward to getting to know you better.

We

listeners might want to know that we share a wall.

So I

can

hear you

laughing every day.

And it makes me really happy that, you know, so you have a cool energy over there in your kind of producers corner, which I appreciate.

So you're being way too kind because because I travel a lot, my my desk area has got to be quite a nest.

So that's my that's my goal to try to clean that out.

So it's not quite so bad over the weekend.

You know, some of the greatest journalists I've seen, they have very messy desks, so I think

they're

okay.

Thank you.

You're absolutely right.

It's the HGED thing.

Back in the Capitol, my desk would be a mess, and my boss would say, how can you find anything?

I'd say, what do you want?

I don't

have time to find

something.

I just need to do the thing.

Exactly.

I could pull something out of a pile.

I knew exactly where it was.

Shaly Pittman, everybody, our new news director here at Civic Media.

Welcome, Shaly.

And please come back often.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Our pleasure.

Stay tuned.

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