All right, hello.
Hello.
What's your name?
My name is Barbara Wright.
Hi, Barbara.
Welcome.
Hi, thanks.
I wanted to tell you about some of my experiences
with progressive radio.
Yes, exactly.
I had a restaurant for 13 or 14 years,
and I used to advertise on the mic,
which was a progressive radio station in town.
I remember that Ed Schultz was on the mic,
and he came to Madison at the Barrymore here,
and they put up microphones so you could ask questions.
So my friend, while I was standing in line to get in,
had told me a joke.
This was during the Bush presidency,
and I said,
it's too bad that we can't find somebody to give
George Bush oral sex,
and everybody laughed,
and I didn't think anything of it,
and they used it at Schultz Show,
used it as an advertisement,
and so if you were famous.
Well, infamous.
If you ever wanted to know the power of radio,
like my kids,
like everyone who knew me,
had to say they heard that,
so the whole town heard it.
And so I knew that radio was important,
and I believe that the clear channel stations
had the mic on it,
and then all of a sudden they decided to close it down.
And so a bunch of us got together
and talked about it,
who were fans of that station,
because other than that,
there was just a whole lot of right-wing hate talk available,
and it was hard to know what was going on
during the Bush administration a lot of things went on,
and it was a good forum for that.
So we decided to make a funeral for free speech.
So we went from downtown in our cars
to the radio station,
and we were going to present them
with the petitions that people had signed
and do a little ceremony.
But I called the police
because I'd never done anything like that.
For I didn't want anybody to get in trouble,
and they said,
oh, don't worry,
as long as everybody follows the traffic rules, you'll be fine.
But because what I didn't know then
is that the media listens to the police channel,
there were reporters and TV cameras,
and AP, and New York Times,
and whatever, covering our event.
So because of, I think,
because of the increased scrutiny,
they decided not to take it off the air.
But I am so glad to see that there is now
some radio available all over Wisconsin now,
because I just looked at your map.
That is not right-wing hate.
Yeah, we appreciate that,
because we're one of our goals
is to counteract all of that
and model civic discourse.
So I guess you saved progressive radio and medicine
at some point is what you're saying.
Well, I didn't say a good name.
It was a joint effort,
but we did have an impact on it.
And I did, first of all,
I learned way more about how radio works
than I ever really wanted to know.
And what advertising money goes,
and how the station can decide
which programs to fund
with restaurants advertising dollars
that turned out was going to a different station,
not that one.
So there was a lot of sketchy stuff going on.
And they did end up closing it down,
which is too bad.
And I used to listen to radio a lot in my car,
but I had a work from home job for many years,
and now I'm writing a novel.
And so I don't leave my house.
I don't get to listen to radio in my car.
Yeah.
So we also stream it so you can listen to us
on the app or on the website,
and civicmedia.us.
You can catch us there.
I have done that.
The show I like is the one where the two teachers
are talking.
Right.
It's busted pencils.
Yeah.
They'll be happy to hear that.
I like that.
Yeah.
So you're an author, you said,
and do you want to tell us a little bit
about your books and what people could look out for
in terms of titles, et cetera?
Well, I'm trying to finish.
It's been like a 10 to 12 year slog
through three different books.
The first one was a dream I had
that never left my head.
And I would think about it and try to figure out
what's happening.
And it turns out that many authors,
even the woman who wrote Harry Potter,
that's how her started with a dream that she had
or an idea that she filled out,
like, who was the little boy who lived under the stairs
and why was he under the stairs?
And the middle book is a historical fiction
about which means it's about a real person
and might take on their experience.
And it was about the queen of the nomads
in North Africa.
Okay.
Her name is Kahina.
Okay.
She was called her name is Daia
and she was called El Kahina,
which means like the seris
by the Arabs who were trying to take over.
So that's the second book.
And then the third book is just coming together.
So I don't know if you know this,
but writing the books takes a lot of effort.
You're like living in a fantasy world
in your head for a long time.
You mean having the book?
Yes.
But getting it published now
is the really difficult part.
I mean some people are lucky
and they get an agent really quick
and their book gets published.
But the majority of people do not.
And so that's my next challenge.
Yeah.
Getting it published.
All right. Well, you know,
we'll look out for it for sure
because from what you've told me also
outside of the interview,
it sounds like it's going to be a very interesting one,
especially to me.
Yeah.
Well, yes.
And I will love to have you say,
oh, I know just what you're talking about.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, perfect.
Well, thank you so much for telling us these stories
because I think that is exactly what we're trying to capture here.
The truth is, yeah.
And thanks for bringing radio back to Madison.
Well, thank you.
Thank you for listening.
Yeah.
Okay.
Bye-bye.