Physical Music and Green Bay Family Night (Hour 2)

On location, it's the Todd Alba Show.

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

Across the Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the synthetic media app.

Good afternoon, everybody, title of all here on location at WRCE in Richland Center along with our producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board at the old world headquarters in Madison.

It is Friday, T G I F the 31st.

Pardon me.

It's Thursday.

Yes, yes, it is Thursday.

That's the idea.

You usually have a dollar late hours, an hour late dollars short.

No, it's

Thursday, the 31st of July, 2025.

It is a great day.

W, Wisconsinite, seven minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

Welcome, everyone.

Zommer's already.

This show is off to a great start.

Oh, absolutely.

You know, just blame the air quality.

There is an air quality alert out today for those who are suffering from those types of things.

So be careful.

But it's a beautiful day in Southwest Wisconsin where we are at.

Always great to be back in the old hometown of the Driftless in Richland Center.

It is a beautiful day here and it is

Thursday, joined by my friend, my colleague of many years, 37-ish years.

More or less, he is the general manager of WRCO.

The host of those were the days, every Saturday night, the all-around utility player for Civic Media, Philip James Knee.

Phil, how are you?

Good afternoon.

It's an honor to be on your show, Todd.

Well, it's always fun to be on with you.

That's a pleasure.

I think I'm a little spacey because I've been traveling around a lot this week, and it throws me awful.

little bit.

I guess I just want to be Friday.

Exactly.

It is the last day of July, which hardly seems possible.

I always say when she gets past the 4th of July, the summer just flies, unfortunately.

And here we are looking at August tomorrow.

Again, I can't believe it.

Yeah, we had Jimmy Cusco on yesterday, a 750 sports director talking about high school sports.

We did our show at Green Bay Preble last week.

And I said, was it legal to have these kids?

It's already that time of year.

He said, yeah, with only helmets are not full pads.

And I know you cover all kinds of high school sports.

here in southwest Wisconsin and I'm sure you're you're geared up changing from home

talent over to back to high school.

Yeah, we're still doing some amateur baseball around here, but yeah, the first day of practice for high school football is August 5th and then the first games can be played the 21st or 22nd in that range.

Just I don't know why it just keeps going quicker quicker every season right

it seems so but this year It's a week later because it used to be the first game would be around the 15th or 16th August so it's it's a week later this year Wow

Well, it's that time of year and here in Southwest, Wisconsin We're here for especially for our first hour folks because yeah I mean it's always fun for me to come back to my home station my hometown gets to fill and family and what not in fact I was downtown earlier I had to get some cash I'll explain that later but I ran into at least four people I knew in about 10 minutes

And you know, it was great to stop and catch up.

So I love doing that.

But the real reason that we came back here to RCE today in Richland Center is because of something very, very special.

It's something that's near and dear to my heart.

And I know to fill you as well, the greater Richland area cancer elimination, better known as Grace in Southwest Wisconsin.

It's done really well for the community for all these years now in our 22nd year.

But it's a community thing that was formed all those years ago.

They had belonged to some other organization.

not to name names, but they kind of felt like the CEOs and they were getting some of the money, not a lot of the money and nothing was being funneled back to the area.

So they formed their own community organization and what Grace does is it provides funding for those that are on a cancer journey, whether it be treatments, maybe they need rides to, from here we have to go to La Crosse or Madison generally for our doctor visits and treatments and so providing those kind of things, helping

phone bills and that kind of thing.

So what Grace does is they kick money back.

They have a committee that meets and they hear the cases and they they're able to disperse the money as they see fit and they've helped a lot of people over the years.

A lot of people and for the reason you just said Phil is yeah there were the national organizations that for various reasons just weren't working out according to local folks and this is again an example of good old ingenuity in Southwest Wisconsin.

Hey we'll do it ourselves and and nobody

griped about it.

They just did it.

The community got involved.

And I think it's a great way because I think a lot of folks when people give money to organizations like, well, how much is the people that run this?

How much are they skimming off the tile?

How much of this stays local?

And with the case of Graceville, it's 100%.

Yes, it does.

They do send some to Carbon and Gundersen, a couple of hospitals that a lot of our patients are helped by.

And our local Richland Hospital as well, they send some for some research, but a lot of it.

over half of it stays in the immediate area.

And for our small area, none of us are millionaires around here.

$300,000 plus was raised just last year.

And that's just a lot of different stands and organizations, people thinking outside the box, broad stands and rummage sales.

They had a quilt gala here this year where they sold these amazing quilts that people made, the auction them off.

And then our radio auction, which we've been doing this week on double

Yeah,

you talk about that in the middle because that's a great part of it, but you bring up a great point fill.

This is not just like, oh, we're going to have this event and it's a long weekend once a year.

Grace is continually doing events all year long around the calendar year and people get involved.

And this is kind of the culmination of all those efforts, isn't it?

It is.

And on the 8th of August at Crossca Park here in Richland Center, they'll have a night and it's kind of a carnival.

It's a celebration of all of those, those blood, sweat and tear efforts that they've put.

together bowling tournaments and golf outings and those kind of things and they announced the money that night that is raised and everybody kind of celebrates they have ambassadors too that speak about

their cancer journey and they'll have a parade of those people.

They'll have a walk around the track and they'll all tell their stories.

I've had the opportunity to interview all four of them and they're all just excellent speakers.

And what we find too, and we feature their interviews on the radio, there's always somebody that checks in with either them or us at the radio station and says, you know what, I heard that.

I was motivated to go get checked for colorectal cancer or to do my

a yearly mammogram, those kind of things.

It motivates people.

It's been, you know, and I think that's one of the things the ambassadors really bring to light is the stories that they have and how somebody else can maybe relate to it.

Couldn't agree more.

It takes courage to come forward and tell, it can be very personal stories, you know, for a woman to talk about doing a self-exam for a mammogram, for a guy to talk about a self-exam for testicular cancer.

These aren't things we normally, you know, hey, let's have a cup of coffee and talk about that.

have this event where it gives people a safe space to come forward.

It's the advocacy field.

It's not just the people who are currently dealing with this, but I think you're exactly right.

It brings awareness to help prevent something moving forward.

Yeah, right.

That's a very positive thing and a lot of family members and our area and I'm sure a lot of areas around the state have been hard hit by cancer, but it seems like we've had quite a share of it and younger people all the time as well.

So we all kind of feel like

you know, we can try to make a difference in this way.

We're talking with Phil Neene, the general manager at WRCO and WRCE here in southwest Wisconsin.

They are a large part of the Greater Richland area cancer elimination, better known as grace or walk with grace.

That's the big culmination event and also the grace auction here on the radio.

Phil, before we get to the auction.

Your wife, Juni, who I know very well, and I'll say she's your better half, because I've known her for a long time, as long as I'm knowing you.

Just a great person and a childcare provider here in Southwest Wisconsin.

But Jun had her own battle with cancer, has been one of the chairs before and is currently the chair of the walk.

If you don't mind, I mean, cancer struck your

family.

It did.

2006, we had three children all at home.

The oldest was in high school, the youngest was

five years old, I believe.

And you know, it was tough because yeah, she's self-employed.

So we lost her income.

And I was fortunate that I had some time I could take vacation days and some insurance that I could use as well for her.

But we lost a lot of income.

So we actually benefited from grace with gas cards because we had to make

Lots of trips to Madison for treatments and appointments and things like that.

And it was a real hardship.

So we were involved with Grace before that, but after that it hit home.

It's like, wow, they really helped us out.

We want to give back.

And luckily, yeah, she's been cancer-free since 2006, so we're very

fortunate.

I've never known a better fighter than Junie, and she's still doing half-marathons or marathons,

but

here, she battles and wins cancer, and then she keeps,

literally keeps running.

Yes, right, and that motivated her even more.

After her cancer diagnosis and treatment, she has been a part of five marathons.

Yes, she's finished them, and countless half-marathons, and she still runs.

And she looks like the...

same as I met her 30 some years ago.

She's the Dick Clark of South.

She never ages.

You can't

say the same about me.

Well, neither me neither.

Look, radio is a hard job.

It takes its toll.

No, you look fantastic.

Phil, come on.

We're young at heart.

We're

still

as goofy and young at heart as we started in the 80s.

That's right.

I'll hit you with my cane if I Well, that's the thing.

Here's the deal, folks.

Phil knee.

Has it been two weeks yet?

it'll be three weeks tomorrow since I had hip replacements.

He had a hip replacement and a week less than a week and a half later he's back at work in the morning at five o'clock and you're calling home talent baseball league games using a walker at the field.

Well this is the kind of community we have so teams actually they want our broadcasts and so Friday night it was two weeks from

my surgery.

And Kaz and Oya said, you got to come do our game.

And I said, well, I just had this.

I said, I'm working, but I'm all on one level here.

And they said, you come to the game.

We'll get you there.

We'll load your stuff.

We'll set everything up.

All you got to do is drive right up to the booth.

So I did.

I drove my car right up the booth.

And they took care of me.

And the same thing in Arena on Sunday, right up to the gate.

Yeah, I have a walker.

It doesn't roll real well on the baseball.

Not real well.

I can sit and talk for three hours.

But you're absolutely right.

That's the kind of community here in Southwest Wisconsin where neighbors are helping neighbors and they're like, we'll just get it done.

And nobody asks for any payment.

They just do it because it's everybody's important one another and that goes back to exactly what grace is.

Most definitely.

We're talking with Phil Knee here at WRCO WRCE Phil a couple of minutes before the first break.

But let's get into this.

So was honored to be asked and was happy to do it was part of the phone answering team here at the studios.

Center today.

This radio auction raises a lot of money and folks, I can tell you, I got the winning bid on the Oakwood Fruit Farm Donuts for the great sponsors at Civic Media WRC Oakwood Fruit Farm and I got three dozen donuts filled.

Wow.

You had to pay up on them though.

I had a little but you know, the late great, there's a lot of great auctioneers across Wisconsin.

But for my money, the guy who did it the best Danny Schaefer, the late great Danny Schaefer now, nobody did it better than Danny Schaefer in my opinion.

And

And we go to sales at my grandparents, my granddad and grandma all the while a lot, and my grandma would be bid on something, and it'd get to a certain price, and Danny looked at her, and she just put her head down, and he'd stop the cadence, and he'd say, Marguerite, it only hurts for a minute.

And she say, okay.

Yep.

And the way they go.

There

you go.

I thought you were going to say they were bent against one

another.

No, that

happens.

That happens too, right?

In auction wise.

Yeah.

But this auction, you know, sure.

I mean, so I've been a little bit more than I normally would for a doughnuts, but it all goes to great cause.

It only hurts for a minute in our checkbook, but the results could go a long, long way to somebody battling cancer.

Correct.

Yeah.

Every dollar goes back to grace and all these businesses step forward and they donate these awesome items.

Individuals, we've had collectibles sold today.

We had a

real more like, you know, the old kind without any more, without any motor.

That went really well this week.

We've had brewer tickets, courtesy of Civic Media.

We've sold those and they've gone extremely well.

And home baked pies, they just go gangbusters.

Over 150 bucks for like one today or something like that.

It was crazy.

But here's the great news.

You're saying, well, Todd, that sounds good.

I wish I could have got in on it.

You can because we're gonna we're gonna come back here in a minute and we're gonna give you an opportunity if you don't live in southwest wisconsin and here on wrco You can still tune in via the civic media app download it on your favorite apple or android device Simply go to your search engine type in civic civic media.

It'll pop up takes less than a minute to download It is free.

It's what cbs is gail king calls a deal

It's a deal.

And you see a download.

Here's the thing.

So you can listen to our show on the Civic Media app tomorrow on our show and others on the talk side.

You can win free ticket Brewer Fridays.

But more importantly for this, you could tune in to WRCO on the app tomorrow morning and you could bid on great prizes.

We're going to come back, preview some of those, tell you how you can get involved.

We're live from WRCE and Richland Center across to Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

you

You know that it would be untrue You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher

Welcome back to the Top of All Show Live at WRCE on location in Richland Center, Wisconsin.

Our show plays out here on the AM 1450 FM 107.7 side, WRCE, the sister station, WRCO 100.9 FM in here in Southwest Wisconsin, Richland Center, along with Mr. Phil Knee, the general manager, my long time friend, my colleague, my mentor, and watching on the Facebook.

You can see us on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter as Jay Matt and Harris.

says our friend, our colleague, Jeff Perry, who also was here working at WRCO, WRCE for many, many years.

Jeff says, what's better than Todd on the radio?

Todd and Phil on the radio and joined the show, guys.

How about that?

Thank you, Jeff.

Absolutely.

We could tell some

stories about him, but we

better not.

We better not.

But a great, great friend, of course, is Dad Rod.

Perry worked here for several years as well.

So lots of history and lots of friends anytime we're back here in in Richland Center.

Phil, we're talking about the Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination, better known as Grace here, organization in Southwest Wisconsin, WRC.

It's been a long time.

I'm a sponsor and kind of a cohort of this entire thing, helping to get it going, helping to raise money for people who are fighting cancer, families, you said at your own family, gas card, sometimes it's food, other treatments, and also to raise awareness so that people can get in for exams, do self-examinations, and hopefully prevent a longer fight

with cancer.

Another thing they do, Todd, is prevention is a big thing.

They've organized an event called Walk Around.

the world with grace it goes all year but people log their miles that they walk or they run or even

you know, around the house.

I mean, somebody that maybe isn't that mobile, but just kind of log in the number of steps that they take and it all comes together and they add up the mileage.

They have a monthly get together with a potluck where they have healthy foods that they serve and they've organized running groups and walking groups and all a part of prevention to get people up and moving.

Oh, that's fantastic.

And you can also, as we said, buy some things, help raise money.

I went down to the grace office today to pay for my Oakwood Fruit Farm Donuts.

Thank you very much.

out here to support one of our fine sponsors.

I also bought this year's t-shirt and feel it's a tribute to Bob Uker.

It is.

It's called Cancer.

Get

up,

get up, get out of here.

And there's the the ball that says cancer on it.

It's leaving the ballpark.

I love this.

It's awesome.

Yeah, they did it in tribute to Bob Euker.

And I think it's wonderful.

And our friend and former colleague, former owner here of WRCL, Ron Fruit, has a quote on the back.

It says, when the bad news is cancer, the good news is grace.

Right.

Yep.

That's the slogan that they live by and they use every year.

Yeah.

Ron is a pretty smart man.

He is a pretty smart man.

Oh, yeah.

I don't mean to talk about him like he's not here.

He's still very much in the community.

You bet.

the auction is going on here, the final day tomorrow on WRCO 100.9 FM and Richland Center.

If you're not in this part of Wisconsin, the Southwest, you can still listen to it tomorrow via the Civic Media app and then scroll down to the WRCO.

Phil, give us the details.

What time does it start?

What's up for grabs?

Well, Todd, it starts at 10 o'clock on WRCO tomorrow, as you mentioned.

Some of the things up for grabs, more donuts in case you missed them.

Tickets

for our local drive-in, which is very unique to our area.

We have some autograph things.

We hosted a country music concert known as Star Spangled Celebration for 20 years, and we have autographed memorabilia.

Toby Keith, the late great Toby Keith.

We have

a picture of that we're going to be selling off.

We have some tickets to a Bucks game.

We have some handmade folk art things.

We have escape room passes for the elusive escape rooms in Wisconsin Dells.

Those always go well.

We have more

We have more cheesecakes, we have more pies.

How about this?

One hour, those were the days, my radio show on Saturday night, you get to be the programmer, you can guess DJ.

It has to fit the format.

You can't come on and play brand new hip hop.

You've got to play the format, 50, 60, 70s, 80s, early 90s, but one hour of the program.

It's one of those things where we kind of think outside the box, it's kind of unique.

And we're looking at selling, somebody can be a guest with Hank and I in the morning too.

So we're looking at selling that.

But yeah, more pies tomorrow.

We have, this is a big one, zero turn radius moor.

Whoa.

Tomorrow.

Who can't use that as grass and be grilled like weeds?

I just mostly have weeds.

At least it's green though, right?

And those club level seats to the brewers courtesy of Civic Media.

And this is a Bob Euker package with a Bob Euker book and a couple of shirts.

That's super

cool.

And there's a raffle going on.

And Aaron Zommers, what could people win at the raffle?

A new car!

Come

on down.

Johnny Olsen

from the Old Days on the Price is Right.

Well done,

Summers.

It's a raffle for a car.

Absolutely.

$20 a pop and we're going to be giving that away the night of Grace, which is August 8th here in Richland Center.

But it's available statewide.

We had a music artist here today and their manager bought $100 worth of tickets.

Wow.

So there you

go.

It's

super cool.

Don't have to be from here.

If people want to get in on the auction items tomorrow, the number to call.

Uh, 6472111.

So 608 is

calling right now.

72111.

It says potential spam.

Oh, I was trying to sell us something.

Oh, well, I'll probably buy it.

Again, the number called tomorrow between 10 and noon is 608647.

2 1 1 1 zomers put that or show notes simply listen on the civic media app to wrco tomorrow between 10 a.m.

And noon 6 0 8 6 4 7 2 1 1 1 eligible to win that zero turn radius more or bid on I should say and these pies are fantastic a personal chef she'll come to your house and cook a meal

yeah exactly a meal for two she'll come and she'll she'll even maybe show you how to do it right so that's one of the things you can bid on

tomorrow that's fantastic and just a shout out to all the great people she'll attract

in particular, but all these businesses who match some of these bids and they're involved on it as well.

They are as well.

They kind of get it.

So if we can get to $100, we'll give you $100.

We've been doing some matches like that as well.

The whole community gets involved.

Yeah, it really is.

It's the Grace Auction tomorrow on WRCO.

Tune in tomorrow if you're not in Southwest Wisconsin on the Civic Media app and dial in 608-647-2111 tomorrow between 10 and noon for these great prizes.

Phil, I can't thank you enough for your friendship.

Can't thank you enough.

what you do for this community.

And thanks for supporting Grace here.

I

absolutely love it.

And by the way, Light My Fire was number one this very day in 1967.

How about that?

There you go.

Yeah, you can hear all kinds of information like that every Saturday night from six into midnight.

Midnight on those were the days.

Come on back.

We'll talk to Island Stevens president of Grace after this on WRCE live location on Civic Media.

She'll eat the truth, wherever you think.

and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to Total Ball Show on location at WRCE in Richland Center.

It's 35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, the 31st of July, last day of July.

I cannot believe August is tomorrow.

Great to have you along here.

Zahra's back, the old world headquarters in Madison on the board.

Right now, we are joined live here at the desk at WRCE by a couple of wonderful people.

First of all, Eileen Stevens, who is the president of Grace again, once again.

stands for Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination.

Talking about the great event, great organization to raise money for this great cause of helping folks who are battling cancer and also raising awareness for prevention.

There's a radio auction is going on all week including the finalizing it tomorrow on WRCO here in southwest Wisconsin from 10 until noon.

If you don't listen or if you don't live here in the area you can still tune in.

anywhere you're listening across the state of Wisconsin on any of our 11 stations by downloading the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, it is free.

Scroll down to WRCO tomorrow between 10 and noon.

Click on that.

You can hear live right here all the programming, including the Grace radio auction, and you can call in and participate in the many great items.

The number tomorrow and summer is going to have it on the screen in the show notes.

608.

647 2111 608 647 2111 in addition to Eileen Stevens the president

of grace that you'd said previously you said 608 247

2111

No, 608-647-2111.

Yeah, if I said it wrong before, I apologize.

Thank you, Zauber.

608-647-2111.

In addition to Eileen Stevens, the president of Grace, we have the co-founder and a current board member, and she also happens to be the news director here at WRCOWRCE and her friend of mine for several years, Ms.

Joanne Kruelotz.

Ladies, thanks for being here.

Thank

you so much.

Well, it's it's our pleasure.

It's a great great to sit down and talk about some of these near and dear to my heart having grown up here having worked at this station for my first job at radio.

It's one of the cool things of what radio does and one of the cool things I says I think it says a lot about the Richland community.

For the

Russian center and Richland County.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean tell us a little bit about yourself How long you've been involved in in grace here and how long you've been president?

I I originally when when grace first started I had come to a couple of the first events.

I lived out of town at that time I've been actively involved in grace now for a little over two years and Currently serving as the president of the organization.

It was

It's been around for 22 years, so it's definitely has a solid foundation.

It has people that built it up and brought it to where it is, and it's just bringing it on to where it was.

I'm born and raised in Richland County, so I'm from the area, and our family does deal with a lot of cancer.

I lost my mom and dad to cancer.

My sister's a cancer survivor.

My brother is fighting cancer right now.

And then I had a niece with cancer and a great niece.

so

well it's uh unfortunately it touches some not as much as your family but i think all of us have had a family member a friend

Somebody that we know that's been touched by this terrible disease, but as I talked about with Phil, a former owner here at WRCO and a friend of mine and a friend of the show, Ron Frue, I love the fact that you put his quote on the back when the bad news is cancer, the good news is grace.

Yes, that's been a very powerful phrase.

And Joanne probably knows when that came along.

But I mean, that has been just an extremely powerful phrase that's just kind of stuck with the organization because it says so much.

It really does because grace has helped so many people.

So many people in our service area.

And it's not only, you know, Richland Center, it is, that's why it's a greater Richland area.

We are all of Richland County, plus any township in the surrounding counties that touch our borders.

So we really reach out there and help a lot of people.

Joanne, what led you to, I mean, you were one of the founders of this.

Tell us a little bit about the origins.

It wasn't a huge group of people that first started this, but it was a really passionate group.

And here it is thriving all these years later.

Well,

An organization that I won't name the name.

You know, we had a we had a walk each year and it was

a national organization.

It

was a national organization and We realized that And I chaired that walk and as people were coming to me with issues they were having because we are very rural area and

They would go to that national organization because it said they could get them equipment.

They could get them different things.

Well, they could get it for them, but they had to go to Walgreens.

Now, in the last five to 10 years, we do have a Walgreens in Verroqua, but we had nothing around here.

Which is still a half an hour drive for those that don't know the area.

Right.

So, and then I got a phone call from a woman who was a big benefactor to the walk.

and she had a friend whose job moved out of the state, but she decided to stay here because her son was a senior in high school, so she didn't want to move him.

And in the meantime, she found out she had cancer, stage four cancer, and they sent a letter to this national organization, what can they do to help her?

Because she was between jobs, she didn't have anything.

They said she got a flyer that said well one of the first things you want is to make sure you have a good job with good insurance Wow It was like who was going to hire a woman with stage 4 cancer.

Yeah

And on top of that in those days you couldn't even get insurance if you had stage 4 cancer so our Community was known for raising a lot of money for this organization in fact for they gave

recognition to areas for that size.

We were recognized and a friend of yours, Rob Brunish and I, were flown to Texas to receive all this recognition, wind and dined, you know, rubbed shoulders with legislators and lobbyists and everything.

And the whole way there, in the whole way home, we started thinking,

What can we do to keep the money here?

Because we felt like everything we raised, $80,000, pretty much paid for our fancy trip and some others.

And so we discussed it and thought we could do the same thing that we were doing, but keep the money local.

And so we thought we'd give ourselves a year, have another walk with this national organization.

And each year we have a wrap-up meeting.

And we got to that wrap-up meeting.

And 90% of the volunteers were burned out.

They didn't want to support it anymore.

And Rob looked at me and he says, should we say something?

I said, go ahead.

And when we brought the idea up, they all stayed on.

Wow, that's

great.

And we just started having town hall meetings to get the support of the community.

So we didn't even wait a year.

The next year, I met, you know, we met with an attorney who gave workforce pro bono to get all the paperwork done.

And that's kind of how it started.

People just got burned out of seeing the money go elsewhere.

And I figured out after I figured it out, we were lucky if we got one cent on the dollar of the money we raised.

Wow.

And now now a majority of the vast majority that money stays right here in Richland County.

It does.

The only money that

that leaves is to carbone cancer in Madison and Gundersen in La Crosse, and that's for research.

And they're very transparent.

They let us know every year what our money went to and the progress they've made with the research.

That's great.

We're talking with Joanne Kroulas, who is one of the co-founders and current board members of the Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination, better known as Grace, and also Eileen Stevens, who is the current president of Grace.

Our own Terry Barr, watching on YouTube, saying thank you for sharing these stories.

So very important and keeping it local.

Wow.

My mom is a 30 plus year breast cancer survivor.

Thanks, Terry, for tuning in down there in Madison.

Always appreciate all Terry's great work here at Civic Media.

Eileen, tell us a little bit about the current iteration of grace, and tell us some of the current services you provide through grace.

Well, basically each year the board looks at the way the money is going to be split up, and our 2025 disbursements, 58%, is going to go directly to the cancer patients here in the Greater Richmond area.

And what we do with that is they may have different needs.

So if they need gas cards, because out here you've got Gunderson on the cross.

You've got UW-Carbone in Madison.

So that's a lot of windshield time every day back and forth for people.

So it's a lot of gas, a lot of time.

So we provide them with gas cards.

Maybe they need help with groceries, personal care items.

We have Walmart gift cards.

We give them.

They may need help with utilities.

And with that, we just ask that they don't pay the bills.

and give us the receipt, they give us their bill, and we will pay that directly for them.

Another need that we have found is, you know, sometimes they have an early morning treatment, so they have to be ready to go at six in the morning at the hospital, so we'll help if, you know, if they have money on their account to pay for the hotel the night before.

So they can get down there, they can get a night's rest and just go a few blocks to the hospital.

And as Joanne had mentioned, 25%

We split between UW-Carbonne and Gundersen.

And like August 6th, we'll have a doctor from each facility.

They will come here to Richmond Center at our August 6th event at the Bowling Alley.

And they will be very clear about what they are, what they've used our money for, and why it's important is, of course, they need a lot of money for research.

What they can use our money for is what they call feeder funds.

So they can do some of this research, see what they can do, and then they can

can chase the bigger dollars with the feeder funds that we give them.

10% we use to support the medical communities within our service area.

We did just purchase for the Richland Hospital.

They had put in a grant request and we purchased a $40,000 piece of equipment for them that they're able to do screening, pre-screening that they may pick up and some preventive testing.

That's

so exciting, not to interrupt, but I just think that's so exciting because as important as this organization, the cause is to help those and support those currently fighting cancer, how important is it to help people to prevent getting here in the first place?

Exactly, yes.

So when we can provide those types of services and get that equipment here locally so people don't have to run to Madison, they don't have to run to La Crosse for these tests, they can at least have preventive screening here.

And we also help pay for their 3D

mammogram several years ago.

And that's something, again, that might not normally be offered in a rural community like this.

And to be able to have that right here.

Because again, as women, obviously I'm not, but as women I would think that's just a more difficult thing to schedule those tests.

If you have to carve out time to get to Madison or La Crosse, I mean, you can't do it in under half a day and probably it takes a full day to

By the time you go there and go through all that, again, to have that opportunity here in the area, I think would be a long way to prevention.

Right, right.

And so any medical facility in our service area can submit a request.

We also have the community or the cancer prevention and education.

There too, they only use 5% of the funds.

And that could be anything.

I think Leif was talking last week about SPARKS, what they're calling SPARKS.

And that's to, people have an idea.

you know bring it to us see if we can help fund that whether it's something in dietary nutrition maybe it's getting together a walking group a jogging group a biking group there's so many different groups that they can have to help get the community active and you know work on prevention.

of cancer.

Yeah, absolutely.

Are you staying around to break Joanne?

Can you stay till the top of the hour?

I can stay.

So Joanne, I know you have to get going, Aline, because you're a busy person.

You got other grace things to

go here.

So

a couple of minutes left, or two minutes before the break here, what have I not asked you that you want to make sure people understand about grace before you leave us?

I mean, it's just a fabulous way to support

And a lot of times people say a community, but we are so much bigger than that.

And that's what I really want to reach out to the outlying communities.

You know, we're reaching people in Evoca, in Casanova, in Hillsborough, Muscaday, Boscabel.

to make sure people know that they are eligible for these services and reach out to

us.

location live from Richland Center home of W R C E our news talk station here in the driftless and W R C O the music station country and community title ball along with you Aaron Zommer is a producer and engineer back at the old home studios the world headquarters in downtown Madison Zommer's here in the driftless another beautiful day sun is out little smoky because of the wildfires in the west how is it downtown Madison right now

pretty similar yeah the sun's out but the smoke is

Very bad, at least here.

Really?

I don't have asthma.

And it was giving me some trouble.

So if you do have asthma, I recommend staying inside if you're in one of the cities where it is worse.

Yeah, probably probably good advice for those listening at WMDX in Madison and for those that might be wondering about the concerts on the square was postponed last night because of the the rainy weather in the city.

So concerts on the square Madison will be tonight.

So get out there and get your blankets on the Capitol lawn beginning at three o'clock.

It's about 10 minutes from now and Capitol or the concerts on the square will be tonight.

Right now we're here in Richland Center talking about Grace the greater Richland area cancer elimination talking right now.

Now to one of the co-founders of Grace, current board member, friend of mine and employee here now, news director.

How long have you been news director joining crew?

Lots at WRCO.

Let's see, I guess about nine years.

Wow.

Alright, we've got a phone call coming in.

No, it's like, you know, a call coming in on the headset here.

Spam, ladies and gentlemen.

Spam.

The people are spamming me even during the show.

No spam when it comes to grace.

Everything is quality.

I want to make sure we get time to get to the auction and plug that.

There's a radio auction the final day here at WRC.

Your opportunity to bid on great items and raise great money.

But Joanne, I want to go back to again.

First, people to understand, we talked about the gas cards before quite a lot, helping people that are fighting cancer.

Money to get to either La Crosse or Madison Richland Center is right in the middle of those two cities in Southwest Wisconsin, if you're not familiar with those watching across the state.

But what other services does Grace provide?

Basically, just about anything that is related to their cancer.

Years ago, we had a woman who had mouth cancer.

And she wore dentures.

And after her treatments, her dentures no longer fit her, which is understandable.

And we helped by dentures.

We've had a couple times where people have been getting our services and they unfortunately die.

They lose the battle.

And with money they have left, we help pay their funeral expenses.

So I mean,

You name it, we've paid for it.

And again, I think that's a real advantage to having a local organization like Grace and not to hate another national organization.

They probably have their place, but have this ability locally for this organization to know almost sometimes, unfortunately, personally, many of the people these monies are going to in helping and then make that quick decision locally.

Hey, you know what?

It was intended for this, but the family really needs that.

And the monies are going right to help immediately.

Exactly.

And, you know, and I don't think all of this would have been possible without the support of the community.

We started out with an office in the trunk of my car in the back of Rob's truck.

And then we were donated office space and for

quite a few years now we have been up you probably know it as the old school district office above royal bank and we get the office space for free.

Wow that's amazing it's just another example of people coming together saying hey what what have I got that I could give and sometimes it's space sometimes it's money sometimes it's time everybody has something and that's the cool part about this

We all have the ability to do something for grace

and you know 22 years later.

We've grown it won't all fit in my car and stuff anymore and

You

know there are we have to keep records.

We you

know for so long we have to do all that stuff so Having an office space is just fantastic, especially rent-free

It really is a blessing and very fortunate here in Southwest Wisconsin.

All right, the fun stuff, Joanne.

Tomorrow, the WRCO, if you don't live in Southwest Wisconsin and can't tune in over the air on 100.9 FM WRCO, you can still participate by downloading the Civic Media app today.

Number one, you can win a free Friday Milwaukee Brewers tickets on our show and the rest of the talk shows by texting in so you want the app for that.

But secondarily, and maybe tomorrow, more important.

from 10 until noon, you can listen to WRCL 100.9 on the app, and you can bid on Milwaukee Brewer's tickets for our Civic Media Club level seats, and the money all goes to Grace Joanne.

That it does.

Yeah, we are so thankful.

You know, WRCL, you know, from day one has been very supportive.

You know, Ron, when he owned it, when I had to leave for meetings with attorneys.

I went.

He was like, very gracious, go ahead.

You need to go to those and very supportive of helping us get everything going and off the ground and has been supportive with all the...

auctions and everything we have each year.

It's a really great Ron Fruit and Beth Fruit.

They own the station.

Really, we're partners in this.

In fact, it's quote, as we said, is on the back of this year's t-shirt.

When the bad news is cancer, the good news is grace.

Ron always has a gift with words and speaking and inspiring people.

And now, very fortunate, Civic Media has picked up on that since buying WRCO and is equally as supportive.

And it all comes back to the local staff here at WRCO and WRCE as well in Richland Center.

You guys just do a great job of

So thank you, congrats for that.

Well, thank you.

And I want to get out there too.

If anybody has questions about grace, just give us a call at 608-604-8255.

They didn't have walk when I went to get the number, so we ended up

with

talk.

So just remember talk, radio and talk.

So 6-0-8-6-4-7 talk.

No, 6-0-4.

It's a cell phone.

6-0-8-6-0-4 talk is the number to call and connect people.

Grace, they might be going through cancer.

They might be having questions about it.

So if you want to talk to Grace directly, 6-0-8-6-0-4

talk.

Yep.

And our website is walkwithgrace.com.

walkwithgrace.com.

Easy enough, Zalbers could put that in our show notes.

And if you want to bid on more of these delicious, awkward fruit farm donuts like I did today and I won three, I won, I bid, I got, I paid for, believe me, but first for a great cause, as Danny Schaefer said, it only hurts for a minute.

So get your wallets out, get your checkbooks out, write the check, a zero to turn radius mower tomorrow on the block, homemade pies, Milwaukee brewers, tickets, and a personal chef call tomorrow.

between 10 and noon.

Listen to WRCL.

Joanne Krulatz, my friend, news director here at Co-Founder of Grace.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Really a treat.

Come on back, hour two straight ahead.

What's words is next?

On location, 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.

Ta-da!

Along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer back at the Old World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

We are live on location as Terry Barr said at the top of the show here at WRCE in Richland Center.

the heart of the Driftless in Southwest Wisconsin.

It's always good to be home.

Welcome into hour number two, everybody, on this 31st of July, the last day of July of Thursday, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along.

Zomers, how about hour one there?

Many thanks to.

our own Phil Knee, WRCO, also the GM of WRCE, here and also Joanne Krulatz, our news director here, one of the co-founders and board member of the Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination Organization, better known as Grace Eileen Stevens, the president of Grace.

Really, really great to be here and talk about.

I mean, cancer is never a fun thing to talk about, but when you

have folks in the community who are so passionate and a radio station like RCO and RCE who are so passionate about raising money was better than that.

Yeah, this organization really is an example of what makes Wisconsin great and it shows true community values like people sticking

up for

each other and sharing what they have extra of for people who need.

Yeah.

Now it is truly you nailed it right there.

And you know, I know that one of the one of the goals of our owner and CEO Sage Weil is to really lean into local community and to your point zomers.

Nobody does it better here than the folks at WRCO and WRCE.

So speaking of Mr. Need, he has slid back in just like on SNL desk on Saturday.

We appreciate you coming back for a second.

Well, yeah, I was almost into my afternoon nap and then I got

that you needed me again.

This man never naps.

I mean, he's on 24 seven nearly.

Well, the reason I, well, number one again, thanks for letting us do the show here today.

And we talked to Eileen and talked to Joanne.

Again, just a great organization.

I hope people call in tomorrow.

Listen to WRCO between 10 a.m.

and noon.

If you're not in Southwest Wisconsin, you're out of the signal range over the air.

You can still participate by downloading the Civic Media app and listening and the call in number for tomorrow.

Oh, the call in for the auction is 608-647-2111 608-647-2111.

Phil, great prizes are not prizes, but items to bid on like the zero turn radius mower, the pies, the homemade pies, the Milwaukee Brewer tickets, those civic media tickets and the club level.

You and I have both been there.

It's beautiful.

Yeah, and I just confirmed some more things after I was on

your show

last hour.

I talked with Tony Johnson, who's one of the co-owners of Center Cinema and Starlight 14 Drive-In in Richland Center.

So they're going to be offering up a family pass for a year.

What?

For any movie.

Any movie.

So if you

buy it, I mean, you could go to three movies a weekend if you wanted to.

family pass for a year.

So

that's gonna be for sale too.

And if you haven't, if you don't know, and they're a dying thing, right, Phil?

This is the legit thing, the drive-in theater here in Richland Center, the Starlight 14.

And the cool thing is, Phil, they upgraded, went to digital a while ago, and they're getting first-run

movies.

They are.

Every weekend, we have the brand new movies.

When I was a kid, you had to wait about six months before the movie came to your town.

You don't have to wait for that anymore.

No, so come on, it's a great opportunity to

if your kids have never experienced a drive-in or if you haven't, a great item to bid on, come out and watch one of these great movies outside or inside at Center Cinema Downtown for a year.

For a year.

Yeah, I asked him like four times, are you sure?

He said, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

I mean, you could

have nine kids and you could

go to the movies every day.

I love that.

Well, that's a great addition.

And then the pie is in a personal chef who doesn't want a personal chef to come to their house and fix a meal.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I get tired of spaghetti-os after a while.

With meatballs.

The

breakfast of

champions.

Every radio announcer's breakfast of champions.

I

remember when I used to do weekends here and on Saturday mornings, you have to be here early and I would have like bad.

That's why I started drinking coffee, bad coffee at the time.

And then I would, I don't know, I'd bring in like a leftover or something.

What was your go to when you first started radio?

Probably pop tarts.

Oh,

pop tarts.

Yeah, pop tarts.

I don't eat those anymore, but it was bad one time, one stuck down.

the toaster didn't pop up and the toaster caught on fire.

Isn't it really?

It's a true story.

And I yanked it out

of the wall, went

running out the back door and through the toaster.

It's like this flame through the night.

But you didn't have to call the fire department.

Nope.

Didn't have to call the fire department.

Did you get burned?

Nope.

I don't think so.

Wow.

Now the sprinklers would probably go off.

Fill me in a flying pop tart.

That sounds like a circus act.

That's fantastic.

Well again tomorrow join fill the entire crew here between 10 and noon for the Grace Richland area cancer elimination auction radio auction between 10 and noon tune in if you're not in the area on the civic media app to the RCO the call and number and they'll give it to you tomorrow 608 647 2111.

That was part of the reason to ask you to come back on.

But another Richland Center native who helps out on this show as our co-executive producer and writer, Mr. Chris Pauls, writes our daily What's Worse.

So Zomers, it is now coming up on 12 past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for What's Worse.

Let's

go.

Time once again for what's worse.

Nothing to give away, no prize money involved, but it is your chance to have your voice heard in all 11.

Civic Media News talking sports stations across the state of Wisconsin.

Phil CP wrote this one especially for you.

And that's why I asked you to come back on.

That's scary.

Oh, no, it's great.

I think it's great because in many, many duties, the hats that Phil Ney wears here at RCO, RCE is the host of Those Were the Days, a great program, great call-in program.

You can still do live requests, Phil interviews people not just from the region, has a national guest song before the music industry.

And what are the, what are the spans of time that you now take requests for?

Because as I have gotten older, the number of the opportunity to

Collin's gotten bigger.

Through 1995, by the way, Todd.

I've through 1990.

Still before I was born.

I was still working here in 1995, playing new music in 1995.

I know a lot of the songs I play were brand new or weren't even born when I

first started.

But you can call this one of those with the days every Saturday night from six until midnight here on RCL.

So in honor of that, CP has dialed it up.

Today's category, what's worse?

Vinyl or CDs vinyl or CDs?

What's worse?

Give us a call weigh in 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 You can also text us on the civic media app or on one of the streams as well.

What's worse vinyl or CDs?

I ask you Fill me

I love them both right to be honest, but I always pick vinyl

over CDs.

I still have lots of CDs.

They're more convenient.

But something about vinyl, it does have a warmer sound.

That is true.

And if you buy a new vinyl, the records are a lot thicker.

They sound a lot better.

They went through a stretch in the 70s and 80s where they were really cheap.

They had something called Dynaflex where you could almost bend them.

And they didn't sound quite as good.

But if you buy a new vinyl now, it sounds great.

Well, I was talking about this a little bit on the show before, but when I first started here at RCO in 87, we had a literally a record room at the original station where you could have walked through the halls and there were records on both sides of

you.

And

drawers?

Absolutely, drawers.

There were probably 545s in each drawer.

They were categorized, alphabetized, and yeah, all the albums on the wall.

And it was a cool time to be in radio.

It was.

Because you actually had the freedom you had to go in and

We called it pulling your records for your show before your shift and you kind of stacked them up a little bit that had at least your first half hour, not an hour done.

And you had a hot clock.

So you had to play like a, a current and then a recurrent one that's been out for, you know, a half, maybe six months or something like that.

And then at RCO, you had to play an instrumental somewhere along the line.

And that's why I was low of that.

I was like, man, I got to pull some, you know, it wasn't a hit instrumental either.

It was always like Lenny D playing black Sabbath or something.

Letty D. Well, Chuck Mangione just passed away.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, he had some hits.

Yeah.

Right.

Letty D. These were like popular songs that had lyrics, but some other, you know, the living strings played, uh, kiss is calling Dr. Love or something.

Well, you remember this when I first started here, we had a program, what, six to seven?

Yes.

Music for dining.

Music for dining.

And the DJ's nicknamed it Music for Dying.

closer to what it was.

But it had to be very calm because the idea was people were all still sitting down together at dinner and they wanted backgrounds.

That was dinner time.

So yeah, you had to take it down a notch.

Yeah, at that.

Music for dining.

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

Let's go to the phone lines.

The aforementioned, our former colleague, still a friend and contributor to this show, Mr. Jeff Perry, on the line who used to work his own shifts for Music for Dining.

I need calling into the line, Jeff Perry, Vinyl or CDs, what's worse?

Well, good afternoon, gentlemen.

I would say CDs are worse.

Things have come around, though.

So I wouldn't have said that back in the 90s when I was replacing all my vinyl with CDs.

And now in the 2020s, when I'm re-replacing all my CDs with vinyl again, I would say that CDs are worse.

so going back to the wasn't the uh music for dining wasn't it called evening musical at one point i

think it was back in the day really that's that's what it said we had paper logs at that time i think that on the paper log it said musical yeah

and so the way things come around so now if i if i'm playing music like when i'm cooking or something yes i cook uh the uh

I'm gonna play like some jazz music or something that would have fit into evening music howl because I'm elderly now Everything has come around CDs back to vinyl, you know rock and roll back to eat back to evening music howl though the whole world has gone crazy, but Yeah, so so in the 90s.

No, I would have said vinyl was worse, but now I would and for my for my elderly eyes When you're trying to read

You're trying to read the print inside of a CD case.

It's maddening.

But when you get a nice, big vinyl album, you know, the cover art and everything, it's fantastic.

So, yeah.

I'll go with that.

All right, John.

Make sure you dial Jeff up.

Great community station.

Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Award winning station and host Jeff Perry on WVMO and beautiful Minona.

What's the time and day for your show, Jeff?

Oh, you're a deer for bringing that up.

Thanks, Todd.

Wednesday

night to

eight and Saturday mornings at nine.

This week in music history.

This week I'm playing the top summer songs according to Billboard magazine.

There you go.

Very good.

Well, see, Jeff's still at the tune in.

He's still spitting vinyl.

Once it's in your blood.

Yeah, that's right.

I got the $100 bill from Perry to do that.

We appreciate that, Jeff.

As always, we appreciate you calling in.

Have a great day.

Thanks, Todd.

Thanks, Phil.

You bet.

Thank you.

But no, I mean, that's the beauty of vinyl right field, to Jeff's point, is

the artwork.

The artwork, absolutely.

And the lyrics sometimes are inside.

You can read all of those as well.

So I'd be curious, Jeff talked about buying and selling and getting rid of how many copies of, say, the Beatles White album he's owned over the years.

Because I think I bought it on cassette because that was pretty popular.

And then bought it on vinyl.

And oh, the CD is better.

And then now I've got it on vinyl again.

Fantastic.

David, listening on WRCE here at Richland Center, says vinyl, you get the lyrics.

CDs are worse.

There you

go.

Lyric inserts on CDs, but they

aren't always

there.

And they're smaller.

Uh, new listener on WMDX in Madison.

We appreciate them saying CDs are worse.

I appreciate the expense and inconvenience of vinyl.

Well, thanks for making a little extra time for us.

Always.

I love to talk about vinyl CDs, especially the vinyl varmint down there in Madison somewhere.

So Bob, Bob Coe, Bob Coe to Bob Coe.

Exactly.

A feral vinyl varmint out there.

Well, look at vinyl.

Come on back for what's worse after this.

We're live in RCE on W on the WRC Universal Center.

on Civic Media's radio network.

Welcome to an edition of Music for Dining in the afternoon.

It's the Todd Albao Show live on location at WRCE Richland Center.

Twenty-two past the hour of three o'clock.

Well done, Zombers.

Yeah, that must have been Lenny D again.

Was that was that Lenny D?

Jumpin' On The Organ by Lenny

D.

or CDs, what's worse, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Heather, watching on Facebook.

Yes, my sister, Heather, is saying vinyl is cooler, but harder to transport.

So I suppose I have to say vinyl is worse.

Oh,

OK.

Yeah, that's an issue I've had in the past.

I'm going to Mile of Music in Appleton again this weekend.

I know last year, one of the record stores had a bunch of free stuff outside.

And I'm like, well, I want to take it, but it's so hot out and I have nowhere to put it that it's not just going to warp.

Well, yeah, I mean, I get the point.

I get Heather's point.

But I mean, you don't you don't have a vinyl player in your car.

I mean, it's just to get

home.

You have to buy a

car.

Yeah.

You have to buy a car before 2017 to have a CD player, too, by the way.

Right.

Right.

So I drive an older car.

I still have a CD player.

Do you really?

Oh, yeah.

Mine's 16.

So I just missed

it.

Oh, man.

Just a bit outside as you used to say Jeff Perry saying I still have dreams sometimes when I'm in the old WRCO studio The records that's playing is running out and I don't have another one queued up panic boy That's that back in the day as well right Phil where

yeah, it took a talent to be like well and the weather and you're changing the record while you're talking and and

Mentioning the weather but you could do it

and you know this back before way before the computers were in were in the studios and You know you're working a lot of these shifts at night almost always alone when nature called You had to you had to find a record that got you through that