High School Sports Are Back – Phil Nee and Chad Holmes (Hour 1)

Transcript

High School Sports Are Back – Phil Nee and Chad Holmes (Hour 1)

The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu Aug 28, 2025

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead,

Here's your host, Todd Alba.

Todd Allbaugh

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

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Alba, along with Mr. Aaron Zomers, our producer and engineer.

It is six past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, August 28th, 2025.

A great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along with us from the World Headquarters of Down Up.

It's the world headquarters of downtown Madison.

It's the civic media world headquarters in downtown Madison on a pretty nice day blue skies some high cumulus clouds I've I've no Britain below, but I believe those are cumulus clouds.

I

think so.

Yeah, but it's it's nice outside.

It

Todd Allbaugh

is hot It is not too hot at all beautiful day lots of people in town talk about that a little bit later Badgers Badgers kicking off their football season tonight at camp Randall

against Miami of Ohio.

So it's not the University of Miami and it's not Ohio State.

It's the University of Miami, Ohio, which in football terminology for a D one program should keyword should translate to a cupcake.

But don't don't say that.

You never know.

That's where they play the games.

You can hear the game tonight.

Across many of our stations in Richland Center WRCE WLAK in Amory WFHR up in Wisconsin Rapids and WPRN in beautiful Rippin hear that game starting at six o'clock tonight two-hour pregame show and then the kickoff eight o'clock

It's a late kickoff tonight.

I believe it's on the big 10 network televised.

And of course, right here on some of those civic media radio stations on the civic media radio network.

So tune in, Matt LePay, back on the air.

That'll be great to hear him and Tauch and everybody else.

Mike Heller is on that broadcast as well.

So broadcast kicks off six o'clock tonight.

Badgers taking on Miami, Ohio.

And right now on some of those stations as on the Brewers Radio Network, the Brewers wrapping up against Arizona at Ampham Field in Milwaukee.

Pat Murphy has a look on his face right now.

Anything but a Murphy pancake is the Brewers are down six to two in the bottom of the third.

Jose Quintana was knocked out already.

I mean, not physically, but just, you know, six runs you're done for the day.

after three innings.

So Brewers tried to get back in it, lost last night, but it was a good game.

It was a good game.

So we'll talk a lot to Filney and Chad Holmes about a little bit about Badgers, but all the high school sports they're covering.

Very proud to have those guys and others here at Civic Media calling high school sports so important to so many of our communities.

So we'll talk about that in hour two.

What's worse today?

Badger is, of course, much to my chagrin, changed over sodas a few years ago, no longer Coca-Cola products.

Now it's, I think it was Dr. Pepper, and now I think they're back to Pepsi.

Well, Dr. Pepper is a Pepsi product.

Is

Todd Allbaugh

it really?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

I'll double check.

Yeah, because Cherry Coke is Coke's response.

Todd Allbaugh

Got it.

All right.

We'll find that anyway.

We'll do a soda edition of what's worse here coming up today in our number two.

Yes, Dr. Pepper

is is

Todd Allbaugh

a Pepsi product.

Oh, there you go.

That's why they got it there, right?

Very good.

Nine past the hour of two o'clock.

Wanted to start out though today, kind of where we left off yesterday, where in covered for two hours, covered the breaking news out of Minneapolis yesterday in that shooting.

Some more information has come in.

There is one additional victim now who is expected to survive.

So up to I believe 18 in total were injured two young students ages eight and 10, I believe were shot and killed as they prayed in that church in Minneapolis yesterday.

The shooter then took their own life by gunshot.

I want to focus most of our time here in this first segment on the helpers.

As Mr. Rogers, Fred Rogers once, so wisely said, he said, you know, when tragedy strikes, my mom always said is how watch TV or listen to the radio, look for the helpers.

And there were a lot of them yesterday in Minneapolis.

But wanted to bring you the latest today, according to CNN, Minneapolis is in mourning after a shooter fired on

through the windows of a church yesterday, killing two children, 18 others are now wounded, most of them students.

As we said, the shooter is dead, was identified as a 23 year old.

Who shared a manifesto on social media was a graduate of the school in 2017.

Investigators believe the shooter likely intended to carry out the attack inside the church.

According to a source, the shooter visited the church weeks ago

creating a detailed drawing on the interior, but the doors were locked once mass began.

So it could have been even worse in terms of casualties, but the shooter was not able to get into the church proper.

What a focus on confirmed reporting.

Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara said law enforcement tried to interview one of the shooter's parents

who lives out of state yesterday as they work to uncover as much information about the attack as possible.

Quote, I'm not sure if that occurred last night.

Unquote, speaking of the attempt to contact one of the parents, my understanding is the mother of the shooter, according to the police chief O'Hara, O'Hara said that quote, while there's obviously a connection between the shooter and the parish, unquote, noting that the shooter was a parishioner there,

and his mother used to work for the parish.

Investigators have not found information about any, quote unquote, triggering events that would have led the shooter to target the school and the church.

Quote, what we have found so far, unfortunately, is what has been all too common in this country, is sort of a classic pathway to violence for an active shooter or a mass shooter, unquote, the chief said.

This is an individual

that harbored a whole lot of hate towards many people and clearly intended to commit an act of violence with as much carnage and trauma as possible for the purpose of their own personal notoriety."

Oh, here are the chief went on to say, investigators believe the shooter intended to enter the church to the main entrance after barricading the side doors.

with two by fours, but was never able to get in because the front door, the main doors were locked.

Investigators have not found any previous arrests or issues that would have prevented the shooter from lawfully purchasing the weapons used in the attack, the chief said, but law enforcement will work to, quote, identify any potential gaps that could have prevented something like this in the future, unquote.

Again, want to be really careful in dealing with what we know to be true at the time.

And I would offer criticism to the federal government, especially Pam Bondi, the US Attorney General, Cash Patel, FBI for immediately rushing to a judgment and calling this a hate crime before the local police who know this best have even been able to

ascertain all of the truthful factual information.

Also, there are reports that the individual who committed the shooting, their mother, let me say that again, their mother filed for a name change of this individual going on three years ago.

And according to the name change, it was on file and it appears it would say, it would be identified as a.

generally a male name to a female name.

There has not been factual information that we know of yet as reported by credible law enforcement that would clearly say that the individual who did the shooting identified themselves as a quote unquote trans person.

We don't know that.

So there's been a lot of rush to judgment here.

and I think cooler heads need to prevail until all the facts come out.

Let's play this clip from yesterday.

I think it's worth re-hearing.

This is Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye who had this to say about rushing to judgment and what the focus should be on at this time.

It's on all of us.

And I have heard about a whole lot of hate that's being directed

at our trans community.

Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity.

We should not be operating out of a place of hate for anyone.

We should be operating from a place of love for our kids.

kids died today.

This needs to be about them.

This needs to be wrapping our arms around these families with every bit of love that we can possibly show.

And I know that our Minneapolis family and well beyond is prepared to do exactly that.

And so my message to everyone out there is again, these families are experiencing some acute pain right now.

But don't just think of these as somebody else's kids.

Think of your own.

Todd Allbaugh

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry yesterday thought his words were really well said and chosen well.

Again, we don't know factually, according to law enforcement investigators, the whole story about this shooter.

We do know this.

After the show yesterday, Zomers and I, in our post-show chat that we do, was going through my socials on X. So what happened was this shooter allegedly created a video the night or day before, and Zomers, you know this stuff better than I do, but apparently you could record it and you could put it on YouTube, but then you schedule it to quote unquote post or go public at a different time.

What appears to have happened is the shooter recorded a video and then scheduled it to go live or to the public Yesterday either at the time they were doing the shooting or slightly thereafter and once it was public and as quickly as it was discovered YouTube in conjunction with authorities took that down or took it off the air for those that don't don't understand the vernacular of taking it down got rid of it

Well, of course, in today's world, there are programs that capture and clip things and save it.

So that video was saved in the online universe before it could be taken down and reposted.

A little over 10 minutes, Zomer and I sat here and forced ourselves to watch it.

I don't recommend doing

Todd Allbaugh

that.

It was not pleasant.

It was atrocious.

It was sickening.

and it was evil, my words.

To say that this individual, the shooter, suffered from mental illness, which obviously, clearly by the book, technically, they were mentally ill, but I think that just saying that, it does a great disservice to everyone who suffers with day-to-day things of, you know, depression issues or bipolar or schizophrenia, things that people can

get treatment for and recover and live with and have very full and quote-unquote normal lives.

If you watch, and again, Zahmers is right, don't do it, as we did.

If you watch this individual's video and all the weapons on the bed and talking in Joaquin Phoenix's character of the Joker voice and the My Precious voice, there's only one word that comes to mind for this individual.

possessed.

This is what someone was far beyond mentally ill.

They were mentally disturbed and possessed, and it was evil.

The individuals said, F the kids that they were about to shoot.

Back after this poor discussion to the all ball show on the civic media right now.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

Todd Allbaugh

Welcome back to the title show of the civic media radio work hour 22 past the hour of two o'clock after the bottom of the hour update agricultural update Pam Yankee gonna talk to our friends Phil knee and Chad Holmes I call them the two hardest working people at civic media at least on the air people for sure They're gonna be covering high school sports this weekend give us an update on that but right now I want to finish up on Again, just catching up on what happened since yesterday on this Minneapolis shooting

Want to focus again on the helpers here, but just to wrap up my thoughts from the last segment Caution urge people to just wait and let the police do their work let law enforcement do their work in Minneapolis not in DC and Let's see where the truth leads It's not rushed to judgment and in the words of Minneapolis mayor Jacob Fry remember that

Everybody's human here.

We're dealing with humans.

And if this individual who did the shooting turns out to be a person who identified themselves as a trans individual, it does not mean that everyone out there who is a trans person is evil or gonna become a mass shooter.

It has very little in my opinion of anything to do with that.

What we do know factually,

From the investigation so far is this individual was obsessed with these online?

Zomers help me.

I mean, I think what I heard it was it was a sub reddit.

So reddit for those that don't know is a social media platform.

It's much more Divided than like Facebook and and that kind of stuff.

Is that fair to say it Zomers?

Yeah, it's like it's very specific Yeah, there's forums.

So instead of just posting on Facebook and everyone sees it It would be like you're posting in a Facebook group, right?

Thank you

Todd Allbaugh

And so there are these social media, Reddit sub-platforms out there.

I talked about this yesterday, where people who are beyond mentally disturbed, beyond mental illness, find like-minded people who are obsessed with killings and mass killings and unspeakable evils.

I mean, when you have an individual recording something on video that Zomers and I saw yesterday, when this individual said, correct me if I'm wrong, Zomers, they said they were sorry for their family, they loved their family, but that was it.

And F, the kids, the kids deserved it.

There was that among many, many other things and a lot of stuff written that it's just... It's sick.

And it's also...

You would think it was done for shock value like somebody just trying to think of the worst things they can say and write it's

Todd Allbaugh

so anyway, what's Because I mean people out there trying to use this against people who happen to be trans Remember most mass shootings happen to be done by straight white Christian identified people So so if you're gonna say oh, well, you know if this person ends up being a trans person if you're gonna say well That was the cause well then you should turn it around and say well

White straight Christianity is the cause.

I mean, you know what I mean?

It's just it makes no sense.

That makes no sense So don't I just urge people let's all hold off with the law enforcement detectives do their job of Minneapolis Let's see where the truth lies Because there were all kinds of reports last night from this individuals dad and apparently stepmom there were interviews with the neighbors who said

that this family was amazing and stable and great neighbors and were shocked that this had happened, that nobody could have seen this coming from this family.

So let's focus on the helpers.

Chief Brian O'Harris and law enforcement, I'm sorry, that was the first story of my year.

Dr. John Gakin.

A trauma surgeon at Hennepin County Medical Center called the response by his organization to yesterday's shooting, quote, inspiring, unquote, describing how staff went above and beyond to care for the victims, many of them children.

In one instance, he said, a nurse manager climbed into a CT or CAT scanner along with a child to comfort the young scared patient, quote, one of the children.

were very scared and alone because everybody was running around and doing their jobs.

And the nurse manager went into the cat scanner with the patient, putting herself basically in harm's way of radiation, which normally we evacuate the room, Geichen said.

She put a little lead on and held the hand of the patient and held her hair while she went through the scanner.

Speaking of the nurse manager.

so she didn't have to go through it alone.

Nurse said, I don't care if I get some radiation, I'm going to hold this kid's hand and help them get through this.

Hero.

Unrecognized heroes from the shooting include a child who was shot while protecting another student and teachers who rushed to get kids to safety.

according to EMS Chief Martin Scherer.

Quote, one had, or quote, we had one kid that covered up another kid and took a gunshot blast to his back, unquote.

Quote, teachers were amazing.

The teachers were getting shot at.

They were protecting the kids, unquote.

The EMS chief said the emergency medical response to the shooting quote went as well as they could be expected We all trained for this and things went well on that part no matter how much you train for it.

It's still really difficult on the team and Finally a neighbor just a neighbor Patrick scalen lives about a block away from the school.

He ran towards the school When he heard the shots come out rang out

He found two who are quote quote quote obviously hurt a bullet had grazed one girl in the forehead He said another student and been shot in the neck quote the girl that was shot in the head I have received a couple of text updates.

She went through surgery.

I think successfully I assume she's recovering well, and I know her surgery has been completed unquote He said he has not heard how the girls shot in the neck is doing the other girl

He said he kept a close eye on her, looking for signs of deterioration.

He said, quote, I don't have medical training.

So I just did the best I could, unquote.

Garrison Keeler said it best.

Love has brought a good many people to safety when competence was exhausted and could do nothing.

Back after this with Phil Neve, Chad Holmes, talking to High School Sports.

It's the All Ball Show for the Civic Media Ready Network.

Stay tuned for a fire-rupting now.

Welcome back to the All Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network 35 minutes now, past the hour of two o'clock on Thursday, August 28th.

Turns out, Summers, we were kind of liars because in the last segment we were talking about Pepsi and Dr. Pepper and...

I didn't know for sure, and then you checked, and we inadvertently told people that Dr. Pepper was a part of PepsiCo, and the phones lit up, the Christmas trees went on, and it turns out, no, no, we are inaccurate.

We were not liars, I was a liar.

I apologize for relying on Google AI summary, which misled me.

Todd Allbaugh

This is my point, you cannot trust AI.

Cameron Appleton and Robert McFarlane texted in to correct me, and yep, Pepsi, sorry, Dr. Pepper.

is its own thing along with some other brands incorporated in there.

It is not a Pepsi product.

It is not a Coke product.

Todd Allbaugh

I'm a pepper.

You're a pepper.

What do you like to be a pepper too?

Wouldn't you like to be a broadcaster too?

We are joined by two of our great colleagues I call them the two hardest working on-air people in civic media the general manager and host of those were the days He has his own talk show and the voice of high school sports in southwest, Wisconsin Mr. Phil knee on the line as well as the general manager has his own talk show and the voice of Central Wisconsin sports from WXCO Chad Holmes now look these

these two guys, they got their own life, they're on the road and they're taking time for our little dog and pony show via the phone.

Gentlemen, welcome to the show.

I appreciate you both having on.

I know you're joining us as you're on the road, so we'll hope our audience just look, they're doing us solid here by coming on via cell phone.

Phil, let's start with you.

I know technically the high school sports season kicked off last week, but this is really the week I think with the Badgers kicking off tonight as well, that everybody's kind of focused in now for many people, at least in public schools, starting next week.

Exactly.

Yeah, this is it.

A lot of schools in our area played Thursday games last week.

While there are a few this week, most of our area teams in Southwest Wisconsin are playing Friday night.

So it really seems like a big night of high school football.

It's the last week of the non-league games for our area teams and they'll start conference play next week.

It's also the first year of a new WIA playoff point system, which they garner points at the end of the year.

They're going to add it up and hopefully do a bit better job of seeding

playoffs coming up in October.

Todd Allbaugh

And Chad Holmes, I know you're literally joining us from a team bus right now on the way to a game tonight.

Is that right?

Yeah,

that's right.

The Wisconsin Valley Conference schools are all playing Thursday night games again this week.

And I'm with the Wausau West football team as we are just past door, heading west on Highway 29, heading towards Hudson port of the game tonight.

Todd Allbaugh

Now, this would be, we won't do it today, but this would be a fun game to play.

Stump, Phil and Chad, because I bet between the two of you guys, there are not many sports fields in this state that between the two of you, you haven't been to.

We've been to a lot of them.

It was fun last Friday.

I actually went to a new place.

I went to Westby for the first time down in Southwest Wisconsin, and it was

From Wausau to Westby is not the easiest track.

There's a lot of two-lane roads, and I was with one of the area football club commentator, and basically the whole time he is looking out for deer.

It's making me very nervous, and it was like a two and a half hour ride on a two-way road, and there were times where I had no idea where I was.

But we fortunately did not have any deer issues and got back safely.

Todd Allbaugh

Now, Phil, Westby is just just outside of WRCO's listening area where you and I grew up in Southwest Wisconsin.

In our neck of the woods, deer, especially when you're an Elroy Pampoo's Driver's Ed class, that's just a day-to-day obstacle, right?

Oh, absolutely.

My, my 2005 Pontiac Vive has hit four of them over the years, you know, so I'm, I'm well aware of, of deer on the roadways.

The other obstacle in the, in the West B area, actually a lot of Amish buggies and bicycles too.

You have to be very careful of.

Todd Allbaugh

But yeah, you get great, great cookies.

That's the trade off.

I'm great.

Great bakery.

You must be with the Amish bankers.

True.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

All right.

Back to the matters of hand, gentlemen.

Chad, what are the hot teams in north central Wisconsin and the WXO area?

I suppose you got to give a shout out to the team you're riding with or you won't get a ride home.

But what are you looking at in the XCO area?

Well, yes, I think.

We had three games last week.

We had three winners last week, so we're three and also far this season.

So it's all been very good.

I

think Los Alamos is a team that will be

in

the upper half of the Wisconsin Valley Conference.

I think there's a lot of good skill.

I think D.C.

Everest in our area, neck of the woods, made it to the safe semi-finals a year ago.

They have some good talent back.

They'll be right there.

Stevens Point is also a team from the Valley that I think has the potential to make a decent run.

But the Valley just needs to

be a little more consistent though.

We've seen the big rivers that were playing tonight.

So with Hudson has had the better of the games with the Wisconsin Valley in recent years and that is closing the gap a little bit.

But I think still in the Fox Valley and also the big rivers, those are the division one schools that have been troublesome for the Valley teams.

And small schools are actually the central Wisconsin that are really, really solid.

You have Stratford, who I think is going for four in a row in terms of state championships.

You got Edgar, who is always there.

They've won a couple of state championships in the last couple of years.

In fact, Edgar and Stratford play a non-conference game tomorrow night that a lot of people are looking forward to in this part of the state as well.

And on the eight-player side, tomorrow night I'll be doing Newman Catholic football.

We do them as well.

And they have won a couple of state championships in the last four years.

And they're always a rock-solid program in the eight-player game.

Todd Allbaugh

We're talking with Chad Holmes from WXCO in Wasaw, Wisconsin and Phil Knee at WRCO WRCE in Richland Center in Southwest Wisconsin.

Phil, in terms of Southwest area of the state, what are the teams you're looking to cover?

Who could make some noise in this year's high school sports area?

Well tomorrow night we'll be on the road with River Valley.

They're taking on Wisconsin Dells.

River Valley is kind of building back up a program.

They have a new coach.

In fact our conference, the Southwest Conference has four new head coaches.

It's kind of unprecedented but a lot of unknowns in the league.

We're looking forward to your old Alma Mater, Richland Center.

I think they're kind of on the upswing.

They

Todd Allbaugh

won an all

right game last week.

Yeah, big win against Baroque last week and they had a running back Brady Dosh who had 247 yards.

rushing, so they're looking pretty good.

And then on the eighth player side, North Crawford and DeSoto look really strong here in southwest Wisconsin.

Todd Allbaugh

Well, in the words, the late, great, a vitous rip, my old high school football coach, that is excellent.

Father, father, yes, my son.

So that's great news.

Here, let's talk, Chad.

You guys brought this up.

Phil did, I think.

What about this points system?

Because I know last year, correct me guys if I'm wrong, you had teams with losing records going to the playoffs.

I'm old school.

If you haven't got a winning record, I don't think you deserve postseason.

But Chad, what's your take on this new system?

Is it going to help?

Well, I think it will.

Don't quiz me on the details quite yet.

All these numbers based on who you play and who you beat.

But I know right here in Central Wisconsin last year, well, Everest won the Wisconsin Valley Conference.

They beat Steven's point in the regular season.

But yet somehow, DC Everest got a very short straw at a number seven seed.

But it showed again that basically those seedings

were way

off because they went and won three straight road games to make it to the semifinals.

They fell right from the very beginning.

They were vastly under seated.

I do think that the way they're doing it.

this time around, has the potential to be a stronger, ultimate seeding process and a better bracket for when we do get to the playoffs.

But again, I'm very curious to see how it does work.

Todd Allbaugh

Phil, your opinion on this new system to be IAA in terms of, I mean, we're not talking, it's not voting or anything.

I mean, do you know any of the particulars on how this works in terms of assigning points, not just wins?

Sure.

And I'm kind of waiting to pass judgment on it before, you know, I think the end of the season will know a little bit more.

But for instance, Richland Center is a little bigger school tomorrow night.

They play Potosi Castfield, which is a smaller school.

The smaller school benefits if they defeat Richland Center because they get more points for the bigger school that they play.

And especially if Richland Center goes on and has a good season, they can use that kind of as a lobby there toward the end of the season.

So it's advantageous for some of these schools, especially in the non-com...

difference to play larger schools and try to get a win to maybe get more points for the playoffs.

Todd Allbaugh

I think that's really cool because for those in Southwest Wisconsin, you know, I as Phil said, went to Richland Center and you know, we play a smaller town like Fedamore, which isn't all that far away, but a smaller school.

So if you know, hey, if it's kind of the David knocking off the Goliath, you get extra points for that then, right, Phil?

exactly.

And the same thing holds true for Richland Center.

Potosi Castle went to state, the state final last year.

So let's say they have a good season.

It also bodes well on the other side for Richland Center, even if they lose to them, you know, that they have played down this year and that could help them down the road.

Todd Allbaugh

Chad Holmes some of these we've talked with our civic media sports director Jimmy Cusco on some of these IAA changes things like you know there is a limited I think that's a fair term to say a limited version of NIL now in high school sports but it's pretty complicated also this new rule that if fans parents start harassing the officials they could be tossed out and have to go basically to like school for it and learn how to be a better fan before they can

Chad, in your opinion, what sort of changes on the WIAA are you watching that you think are good for the sport that fans might actually see a difference this year?

And I do think that the basically having a quota conduct for the fans is important.

I've seen way too often in recent years where there are some fans that just do cross the line and we're

in

an era right now where it's difficult to get officials.

And if you're going to have to be a fan that is constantly writing the officials all the time, the officials are going to say, hey, I don't need this.

I mean, yeah, it's getting a little extra money to get closer to Christmas time.

But at the same time, is it really well worth it?

And if you're so bad that ultimately you have to be kicked out, the fact that they have to go and take a mini class to get back in, I think, is one of the things that is vitally important.

And this NIL, and again, I'm going to be curious to see how it works.

I saw a posting on social media a few weeks ago.

It was an announcement from a stud basketball player.

And now he's going to a school in Wisconsin.

And it had all the earmarks of something like that.

It did not have the normal transfer feel to it.

And in my 10, I kind of perked up.

I don't know all the details.

But I think there's going to be some kind of maybe ripples, not a whole lot.

But I think some of these schools, who knows, may be able to use something in order to get kids coming in.

And I really can't say that it's something I'm looking forward to seeing.

Todd Allbaugh

Right.

Phil in Southwest Wisconsin, have you seen any of those repercussions of the new kind of modified NIL for high school?

And I know your colleague or friend, Henry Bray, their RCO in Southwest Wisconsin, is an official himself.

Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, he's an official and I think he really appreciates the fact of the new conduct rule.

I've seen, like Chad, I've seen a lot of bad instances of fans pushing coaches and refs and things like that after games.

So, you know, that needs to be stopped.

And I think that's a way to do that.

As far as NIL, I'm not sure that the athletes in our area, you know, that affects them that much as far as.

getting endorsements and things like that, but Chad is right.

I think teams can use that as some sort of leverage to get them to come to their area, especially some of the higher populated areas.

Todd Allbaugh

I'm excited, guys.

I mean, you know, for those of us that grew up in a special, well, I mean, football is in high school sports.

It's both urban and country.

But boy, the smell of fall, the fresh grass on the field, it's a little nippy in the air.

It just, there's some excitement about it.

And I'm so happy that both you, Phil Knee at RCO and you, Chad Holmes and XCO are two of the very best in this business.

You've been doing it a long time.

We're fortunate to have you at Civic Media.

And people should download the Civic...

media app because you can hear Phil knee and Chad Holmes on the respective stations for free.

Guys, travel safely.

And thanks for taking time with us today.

My pleasure.

All right.

Thanks so much.

Mr. Pimp.

Mr. Pimp was made by Pepsi, by the way.

Thank you, Phil.

I appreciate that.

Come on back with more after this on the Civic Media regular.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

Todd Allbaugh

civicmedia.us.

And a many thanks to Phil D and WRCO, WRCE and Chad Holmes of WXCO.

And when I say they're the two hardest on-air working people in civic media, I'm not making that up.

Because these guys are getting up and doing morning shows at the crack of dawn, hosting their own talk shows, managing stations,

And then getting in their cars in the afternoon and going and covering high school sports.

Yeah, they are.

You're not the only one to hold this opinion.

I mean, I do too.

Like they are both true old school radio guys in the highest sense of that in terms of work ethic and like, you know, the radio is always on.

So I always need to be on.

Todd Allbaugh

And I think that I know that our owner and CEO Sage Wilde, one of his core missions of this company.

is to have community involvement and to report things in individual communities.

And no one does that better, in my opinion, than Filney and Chad Holmes.

Because at the end of the day, and we look, we appreciate very much everyone who listens to this show, but at the end of the day, it's what's happening in your individual community that's more important than what I'm saying.

It's listening to the games of the girl's softball, the guy's football,

you know, our local stations cover the results of the local forensic meet.

They tell you when the local high school band concert's gonna be, the city council, those are the things that matter in each of our communities.

And like the Kenny Chesney song there says, there's just a certain magic, I'll use the word, on a night like tonight or tomorrow night when it's a little nippy in the air, like I say, you can smell the fresh cut grass.

and these guys go out there and it's a team building thing.

And it's really positive for your mental health to be part of something that's larger than you and to have that camaraderie, to work through adversity, to share highs and lows.

Brady Ewing has talked about it on this show several times.

And so hats off to all the coaches, because so many of these coaches are not getting paid what the, you know, the work they put in.

It's a stipend.

They're not making money on this.

Many thanks to all the officials, the referees working out there, to Chad and Phil's point.

So many of these folks, men and women, are doing this because they want to support young people, support athletics.

And that's what it's about.

As I said,

I was just a manager for a football.

I was no Rob.

We understand.

Weedy or Kevin Monroe or Ron Swigam or, you know, I could keep going on.

Great, great athletes, you know, on our, uh, our football team.

I wasn't out there playing, but, you know, Daniels and I, the two managers, along with David Turk.

Now he's the county board chair at Richelon County, you understand.

Back then.

He was a manager like me, but even for us guys who were the managers, you were a part of the team.

And it's great coaches, great old-school coaches like the late great of Linus Rip, who could, you know, really cut loose when he was angry.

But he'd do anything for you to help you out, give you a ride somewhere, write you a hall pass to get out and study all.

He'd go to bat for you.

And at its best, that's what high school athletics is.

And we're so proud to cover it for you here on the Civic Media Ready Network.

And a reminder again, if you don't live in, you know, in Richland Center proper or Wausau proper, I know we have guys, Don Brown, I believe, down at WAUK, down in the Waukesha area.

We've got folks in Wisconsin Rapids.

We've got folks in Park Falls who are covering high school sports as well.

And so that's the benefit of downloading the Civic Media app.

You can do it today for free.

Just simply go to your app store on your iPhone or your Android device, type in Civic C-I-V-I-C, and it'll pop up.

It takes less than a minute.

It is free.

It's what Gale King calls a deal.

And here's the deal.

Tomorrow, free ticket Friday.

We will be here live.

We're doing it live tomorrow.

Uh, we'll give you a, another word tomorrow and you'll have a chance to win four club level seats to a future Milwaukee Brewers game.

Probably glad you're not there today.

Well, there's time left.

It's the top of the six Arizona six.

The Brewers have come back four.

So six to four Arizona top of the six in Ampham field in Milwaukee will continue to follow that for you.

And also we've stirred up a soda controversy.

because now Phil Knee said while he was on it.

Mr. Pib was a pepsi.

He said it was a pepsi product, which is not

Todd Allbaugh

true.

He said it was a pepsi product.

Troy, one of our great listeners, Troy out in Mount Horrib, listening to the M-D-X says, this is the exact text he said to him, quote, former Coke dealer here.

Mr. Pib is a Coke product, unquote, which we had to quickly clarify on the stream.

Coca-Cola dealer.

Well, I guess Troy himself is not clarified, but I can be pretty certain he means Coca-Cola.

Todd Allbaugh

I've met Troy.

He was a Coca-Cola dealer.

He was not a Coke dealer.

So apparently Mr. Pibb is in fact a Coca-Cola product.

So if you want to know about soda branding, don't listen to us.

It's what I've learned today.

Todd Allbaugh

PJ on Facebook and all on YouTube says Mr. Pibb now known as Pibb.

Extra is a spicy

cherry soda extra.

Todd Allbaugh

All right.

Well interesting We're gonna continue the soda discussion with a little what's worse for you on the other side and preview Badger football they kick off tonight on many of our stations of the Badger radio network is the all balls show for now stay tuned for hour two on the civic media

Kathryn Lake

The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.

With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.

Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.

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