Welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO Civic media app and on YouTube on the 98.9 WXCO YouTube channel.
I am Chad Holmes in the great to see
back here with us across the table.
The executive director of Wausau's Grand Theater and the Wausau Performing Arts Foundation, Sean Wright.
Sean, great to see you.
Yeah, great to be here.
I want to talk to this baseball with you today.
Exactly.
It's that time of year, right?
It is that time of
year.
Plus, you know, it's always convenient for a Bruce fan to want to talk
about
baseball right now
with a Cardinals fan.
You know, the question is, how much are you enjoying watching my team that's good
and your team that's terrible?
The
thing about it
is, I asked you, you know what about, you know, you're ready for the season?
You said, I'll say no.
I still love the baseball, even though the cards are under 500 and not going anywhere this year, but there's still something that holds your attention.
Exactly.
And I mean, really, it is, even as a Cardinals fan, it's really amazing to see the Brewers run and to see everybody sort of the true fans and also those
who have decided they're
along for the ride and to see where it goes toward October.
The old bandwagon gets very,
very tight.
Very full.
But you got to stay on your bandwagon.
That's the thing I respect for the fans that stay even through the rebuilding and and then I don't want these people jumping on and off where they're breaking their ankles all the time.
No, no.
I mean, you know, for every night I tell myself, oh, there's plenty of other baseball out there.
You don't need to watch the Cardinals.
And then
I'm like, well, I mean, I could watch a couple of things to the Cardinals.
And yeah.
And then I remember, no, there's plenty of other baseball
I could watch.
Another thing is that I know that you are very.
thankful for is the fact that you have your supporters who are not jumping on and off the grand theater band.
They are
not they are not they are they are committed to us you know through through good seasons and bad of ours but yes we're you know it's been a
been a busy summer, you know, and, you know, just with some great shows like Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Wallflowers, and, you know, just this past week, The Righteous Brothers
for a
sold out show for their final farewell tour, you know, Bill Medley, amazing 86 years old and still out there singing.
And
I saw some pictures and the man still looks like a million darn bucks, doesn't he?
He does.
You know, there's, there's,
you know,
You get the chance backstage to briefly say hello to people and you know most of the time I
I've done this for long enough.
It's, you know, they're just people, just like the rest of us.
But when Bill Medley comes up and says hello and wants to chat and does so in that
Bill Medley
voice, like you, you kind of have that moment of, yes, it's great to be here.
Oh wait, no, I work here.
You're great to be, you
know.
And Bill Medley's not like Jim Neighbors was, where he could go from Gormapile to the, to the deep voice.
He's Bill Medley all the way.
Bill Medley, you know, I said, I love that.
I said, you know, I said, it's great to have you back.
that it's great to be anywhere in my
age.
It actually kind of brings up a topic I wanted to talk about real quickly because so early in this season, last number of weeks, the musical acts have been amazing.
You mentioned the wall flowers nitty gritty dirt band.
I mean, it's been, I mean, if you're a music fan,
That's a whole season here in the first month of the season.
Yeah, really, since
July.
No, it's been a really, really great start.
We've been fortunate, you know, having the opportunity to bring in some artists that, you know, that we've wanted to get here for, you know, a number of years, the, like, Old Coral Medicine show or Wallflowers and some artists on their farewell tours, Nitty Gritty, Righteous Brothers, you know, Straight No Chaser was great.
And so, you know, it's always about, you know, sometimes those opportunities present themselves outside of the traditional season window.
And
so
we
just have to be adaptable and find those dates and bring in those artists.
And so, yeah, really, really great couple of weeks over the summer and a couple of months over the summer.
And now we're kind of...
Very quickly, it'll be full steam ahead into, you know, sort of the core of the 25-26 season.
Are we kind of in a little
bit of a breath here?
Yeah, a little bit.
We've got a great show Friday night with Zach Williams, Christian Artists, working with a great promoter that we work with.
But then, yes, we do sort of...
catch our breath until about the middle of September, where we kick off the 10 by 10 season, turn around with here come the mummies and the Mum Fest, and then we are off and running until next May.
What's the closure?
I always have to remember what the exact closure date is.
May 10th of 2026, Mother's Day of 2026, where we will
Shut the doors for five months.
You'll bring the curtain down.
Bring the curtain down.
And then when it comes back up, it's going to be just amazing.
We will take the curtain out.
And when a new curtain comes in place.
Well, you've got to have a big curtain outside the grand.
That's true.
We'll just cover it up for five months.
Exactly.
And then when you raise it up again, people say, wow.
Pipe and
drape it around.
Yeah.
What else would people be thinking about?
Because I know there always are shows that where the tickets go incredibly quickly and people say, oh, I got time.
I got time.
Sometimes you don't got time.
What are some of the shows that people may...
be thinking you know you know that are very popular that the tickets have been going at a pretty brisk place that people should be thinking about trying to get on top of early
absolutely as we get into you know into October illuminate which is a great family show on a Saturday night those tickets are very limited Tusk which is a really fantastic tribute to Fleetwood Mac a week later those are are actually two days before illuminate that that those tickets are going really fast as we get into November Cirque Musica holiday
is just about sold out.
So if people
want
that and we may still have a few scattered tickets left for the Oak Ridge Boys holiday show in December.
And then the one.
Broadway show to really keep an eye on Mrs. Doubtfire, which is the day before Super Bowl Sunday.
You know, we'll all be
getting ready
for the Packers to play the next day.
Both the matinee and the evening shows of Mrs. Doubtfire are going very, very fast.
So, you know, we want people to jump on those as well as, you know, Mannheim Steamroller in December, always a favorite.
You are
talking about the holidays already.
And it's
like, oh, it is.
I mean, that's kind of that.
Time goes by.
We are into September next week, Labor Day, and then all of a sudden, I mean, then the time really starts flying on by, but you're right.
I mean, your holiday performances are always, you know, so popular, and so, and the tickets go by so quickly, and then not only are they popular, I mean, the incredible shows, I mean, the mixture of the shows you bring in and the talent from, you know, of course we'll talk about the annual holiday show that comes right from Central Wisconsin.
From right from here, yes.
We will have more with Sean Wright, Executive Director of the
Grand Theater and the Wasa Performing Arts Foundation at 722.
Up next, it's the top of the hour, so an information update, news, weather and sports.
And then more of mornings with Pat Critello right here on 98.9 WXCO.
And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO FM Both the devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app We are continuing a conversation with the executive director of the Grand Theater of wasp and the wasp performing arts foundation Sean Wright Also something we've been talking about the last couple of visits without you.
It is again that
Especially this time of year when if you're somebody that knows you're gonna be going to half a dozen
shows
over the next no nine months or whatever it may be Becoming a subscriber with is such a big advantage
isn't absolutely, you know all it takes is four shows and You know 40 plus shows on the schedule.
Hopefully you can find four and yeah, you get those
discounts.
You do get discounts depending on how how high you move up.
And, you know, this time of year, one of the real benefits that we remind people of is you get presale access when we announce new shows coming to the grand.
And I believe next week we have to the following week we have
Two and the week after that also, I think too.
So it seems like
you have more and more every year those announcements during
the year I mean,
it's it feels like there may be a number of years back You had a pretty set schedule, but yeah last couple years talking to you it sounds like boy They're always number one reaching out to you because you have opportunities and you're able to fill them in but you're exactly right that
these shows, you get that flyer now, it's going to change.
That's why we follow up the brochure with the newsletters three times a year so that people can still get a printed piece that has all those shows.
It's just the sort of reality of the touring business.
We've got to have a
a core season that people can subscribe to, that we need to sustain our operations, make our budgets work, but then we also don't want to miss on opportunities with artists that we've been pursuing or with shows that it makes.
Financial sense or that there's just demand for you know demand to add a second show or You know we work with a lot of great promoters like outback presents who's probably the leading comedy promoter in the US and so You know certainly when outback picks up the phone and says we can bring you know some of the great artists They have folks like you know Steve o Rodney Carrington Kathleen Mattigan we're not going to say well, you know our schedule is really full so
Yeah, it is.
It's just, you know, and the one other consideration for us this year is obviously, you know, as we were talking about at the top, the the summer window has been good for us over the last couple years with a limited number of shows.
And obviously next summer, there won't be any programming at the Grand.
So so we're
Few of these things that we may have pushed out into June, July, August of 26.
Now it's like we have to find a date in May.
I mean, that's what I was looking at.
I was laughing as I was looking at that May 10th date going, there's a show on May 3rd that literally...
That was the last possible date that they could do that we could do that wasn't a summer date right so
well Let me ask you about again the second century campaign because we talked about this in the past as well And I know that you've had some incredible support, but you weren't quite are you where are you standing
right now?
We we are just over 13 million raised of our 17 million plus you know plus or minus goals So we do still have you know we have some work to do and we
It's a it's a really, really busy time in terms of the project.
In fact, our seating engineers are in town this week doing all the measurements and, you know, how how the seats will be aligned and everything else with the, you know, with the replacement of those 50 plus year old seats in the theater and a lot of those other other pieces that are moving.
So, you know, we encourage people to
to get involved, whether it's a small donation, whether they want to look at a donation that gives you the opportunity to name a seat.
There were leadership opportunities.
You can pledge over three years.
As the project goes out to bid, we have a lot more information on exact construction timelines and exact things.
We'll continue to share it and really, really ramp up as we get into the fourth quarter of this year into our true public phase and the opportunity for the general public to get involved and help us get to that $17 million finish line.
And one final thing
I wanted to ask you about because I know that...
part of what the Grand and the Performing Arts Foundation does is supporting other artists here in Central Wisconsin.
I saw the announcement this week about the Jerry's.
The
students that are just so incredibly talented.
And we saw that the selection of students from all over North Central Wisconsin, Northern Wisconsin,
all
over the place.
And I know that you and the folks at the Grand and the PAF are so proud of these people as well.
Absolutely.
That program is...
just exceptional and, you know, really Katie Lang and Marshall Deloni do fantastic work with it.
And to think we have, you know, we have a 22 member ensemble from eight different schools, as you mentioned, from all across the region.
And, you know, I think back to the first year we did that, back in 2018, and we had 12 people.
And, and literally the first year it was
If you auditioned, you made the ensemble.
This year it's 22, and I know it was by far the most difficult choices that the Cady and Marshall had, because we had almost 50 young men and women audition, and so it's really amazing to see that program, but just the...
depth of talent in our region and musical theater at the high school level and the opportunities that these students are getting with, you know, with other groups from CWCT to Sweden, WCT and the rest.
And it's really, as evidenced by the fact of having, you know, a two-time winner going on to New York on the Jerry Awards.
I don't think any of us ever envisioned when we started this ensemble back, you know, a little less than a decade ago, that it would grow to the point it has.
And yeah, it's really amazing to see.
Keeps the health of the arts in this community.
getting better and better.
Absolutely.
It is.
It's so great to see the talent throughout.
Absolutely.
And for folks again, you want to check out the latest shows, we get the tickets, get information on becoming a subscriber and a whole bunch more real easy.
Yeah.
Grandtheater.org.
And of course, it's always that's ER.
Of
course it is.
Grandtheater.org.
We're to stop by
because the
folks always like to see.
We're
always happy to see people.
Always smiling
faces.
Sean Wright says it's great to see you again.
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend and we'll catch you in a couple of weeks.
Sounds great.
Thanks so much.
Sean Wright, Executive Director of the Grand Theater and the Wasa Performing Arts Foundation.
Coming up, bottom of the hour, so an information update and then more of warnings with Pat Critello here on 98.9 WXCO.
Last night, I was feeling something wasn't right.
There was not another soul in sight.
Good morning.
It is the WXCO morning report part of Morning 2 Pack right low on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.
You can also catch us on YouTube on the 98.9 WXCO YouTube channel.
In fact, if you missed our conversation earlier with Sean Wright, the executive director of Wasa's Grand Theater and the Wasa Performing Arts Foundation, we will have it as a podcast a little bit later on this morning on our news.
portion of the website wxco.fm But you can also go back right now and actually take a look and listen to our interview on YouTube again at the 98.9 wxco YouTube channel The time is 753 58 degrees under overcast guys here in downtown wassup.
It is Thursday morning August the 28th of 2025 Ian Welsh on the other side of the glass.
Good morning.
Ian.
Good morning, Chad Wanted to talk a little bit about a story I saw
yesterday, last night, in fact.
And there was a lot of things that were done in the aftermath of the 2020 insurrection.
We remember in January of 2020, actually, I should say, well, 2020, 2021, in that timeframe, there was a lot of things that were done to try and, I think, say that democracy is important, facts are important, one of which was in late 2020,
after the election, as a lot of misinformation was put out there by folks that were trying to push the election lie that Donald Trump actually won the election instead of Joe Biden.
YouTube took a decisive step.
The company suspended the right-wing conspiracy factory, One America News.
It demonetized its channel and declared that it was not an authoritative source.
And it was the right call.
OAN has a lengthy record of spewing dangerous lies about everything from COVID to the 2020 election.
At the time, YouTube insisted it had a responsibility to protect its users from corrosive disinformation and noted that OAN had repeatedly violated its misinformation policies.
But according to a newsletter status,
which I get.
It's a information and politics and media newsletter.
And it's a very good piece of information to keep track on a lot of the disinformation merchants out there.
Oliver Darcy is the editor and writer of it.
But according to status, Google, their leader, Sundar Pichai and his chief operator, Neil Mohan, basically are what they call
Making a shameless whiplash inducing reversal Yesterday YouTube TV and OAN proudly announced that they had inked a carriage deal catapulting the channel out to one of the country's largest digital pay TV platforms So in effect Google has tossed a lifeline to OAN because almost every other major Carrier in the country had booted it from its lineup.
So now YouTube TV it will become
if not the biggest, perhaps the biggest distributor of this propaganda arm of MAGA.
That's all, oh yeah, it's a propaganda outlet.
They tell you misinformation and it gets people riled up based on lies.
And the thing that Oliver Darcy says that I caught my eye was YouTube is not even pretending to be embarrassed about this.
In fact, they raved about this deal.
The global head of media guy named Justin Connolly said our goal has always been to provide our subscribers with a wide range of content Which is why we're excited to bring one America news to YouTube TV The partnership gives one America news access to our growing audience while also giving our subscribers even more choice when it comes to news and entertainment
Oh, dear.
Basically, the translation is, the company that once declared OAN toxic because of its lies and its propaganda will now help it cash in on that propaganda and dangerous lies.
And basically... You have a hypocrite right there.
Well, basically, it's all because Donald Trump is back in the White House using his power to try to pressure all sorts of media outlets to bend to his will.
He's weaponized the federal governments to try to make these media organizations bow at his whim and There's no courage anymore right now.
There's no courage.
They're afraid of the bottom line They might lose a little bit of money here.
So who cares if democracy goes down the drain?
It's just wrong We need folks to stand up and for YouTube to do this is wrong
It's just wrong.
It's shameful It's what I mean.
They said five years ago Not even five years ago that this was a propaganda outlet It was a dangerous outlet to America and now yesterday they turn around and they're proud to bring one America news out there and to allow them of this platform to reach millions and millions of people
The shame there's no shame.
That's the thing as well.
There's no shame in this either shame at all So again, I thought that was it's actually I think a very important story to say where we are right now because Donald Trump and his minions right now are showing no fear of weaponizing the federal government in any way possible and
many people are showing Courage to stand up stand up to all of this and actually
Fight back right now
and we need people in the Congress people in the government People to stand up to and we don't see enough of that as well So on that note, we're gonna wrap up this hour.
Mm-hmm coming up.
We have an information update news weather and sports
We will be back for our next WXCO morning report at 822 At the end of that segment.
We'll have our number for the day quiz We'll see if you can make it three out of four this week you drop to another fast start but coming up next again after the information update Brittany will be back with a look at the weather and then I will also be joining pack right low as well So that's coming up in the next segment of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXCO
WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crite Low on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app.
The time is 823 again, overcast skies.
We've been seeing so many bright and sunny starts here in North Central Wisconsin recently, but the cloud cover is out here today.
Right now it is 59 degrees here in downtown Wausau, but the sun will be coming.
These calls are going to break up.
We're expecting a almost a pic
perfect day here in North Central Wisconsin.
Look for sunny and temperatures in the low 70s.
It should be a great night for high school football.
Sounds lovely.
I am heading west this evening.
There's the Wasa West Warriors in week number two of the 2025 high school football season.
Take on the Hudson Raiders.
We will have live coverage from Hudson over on the Wisconsin-Minnesota border, starting with the pregame show at 635 in the opening kickoff at 7 o'clock right here on 98.
WXEO online at WXEO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXEO and on the civic media app So if I sound a little cranky tomorrow mornings because I'm gonna be a pretty late tonight It's gonna be a long trek home after the game So be home real late and then back in real early tomorrow morning.
So if I'm a little growly tomorrow just
I completely understand That's also gonna be a late night
for the Badger fans because, of course, my game is tonight and it said.
Eight o'clock actually.
Yeah, those
college football games take forever too.
Yeah, this seems like they always take for such a long time.
So yeah, Badgers at eight, Warriors at seven, lots of other high school football action actually tonight as well.
The D.C.
Everest Evergreens tonight are home at Steam Stadium taking on River Falls.
Other Wisconsin Valley Conference teams in action here in Central Wisconsin include Stevens Point at Superior.
Wisconsin Rapids hosting Rice Lake and Marshfield home against Menominee.
Great Northern Conference team.
in action tonight.
The Wasa East Lumberjacks won it all on the young season.
They have their home opener tonight at Tom Field.
They will play host to La Crosse Logan.
That'll be a seven o'clock kickoff at Tom Field.
Also tonight, the Merrill Blue Jays travel up north to Crandon to take on the Crandon Cardinals.
And in the Great Northern as well tonight, Antigo is hosting a Sturgeon Bay.
So that's pretty much the
Area football tonight a lot of high school football action tomorrow as well Including another game tomorrow night that we will have right here on 98.9 WXEL The Newman Cardinals will be in action against Wild Rose will be a very exciting night over at Newman because it is the first time they will ever be under the lights at Newman Catholic They have renovated their field.
They got brand new lights.
They have a brand new
Turf artificial turfs have a brand new press box for me to broadcast from brand new Bleachers and they're gonna have a lot of alumni there.
They're gonna have some special presentations and it's really gonna be a big big night Tomorrow with Newman Catholic football that will have the game starting at 635 for the pregame 7 o'clock for the opening kickoff But a big project they are undertaking at Newman.
In fact, it's not done yet They do have the field ready.
They have everything ready for the football game, but they are
making some track and field areas.
They're making a brand new softball diamond with lights and artificial turf.
They
have special areas for study as well.
So lots going on over at New Macathic and it's really cool and I would suggest for you folks who have an opportunity to go on over and see it and maybe even see the game tomorrow night.
If not, tune in right here on WXCO.
As we get closer to the weekend, of course, it's a long holiday weekend.
Do you have anything on the itinerary for yourself?
Let's see.
It's gonna be a cool calm Labor Day weekend.
I know you're gonna be at the parade as like I am
Yep, I'm gonna be walking in the Labor Day a parade on Monday with the center stage band and show choir Promoting our upcoming performance But other than that on a Saturday night My friends and I are gonna attack our latest escape room
This time we're going up to Oshkosh.
There's another
escape room, huh?
Whenever I actually been to Oshkosh before I did an escape room up there.
So it's our first time doing one in Oshkosh and it should be...
a lot of fun.
Oh,
right.
No, that'll be fun and we'll get a
report.
Well, the weather
is nice too.
Exactly right.
So, no, that's, again, I hope everybody has an opportunity to really enjoy the Labor
Day
weekend.
It's unofficially the end of summer.
We're gonna still... There's no Packer game on... It's coming Sunday, but there is one...
On the 7th,
yeah, and you families out there realize that it'll be the last weekend without Packer football for a while So get out there and enjoy it because
so many
people will be sitting in front of their television on Sundays Starting next week when they open up against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau field.
All
right.
Let's get into it.
It's time for our Number for the day quiz and you are been on a roll recently.
What's it three weeks in a row?
You've had a passing grade now.
Yeah
Two
out of three, got a chance to make it a winning week.
Yeah, and
I think you had winning weeks the last two weeks, so you make it three straight winning weeks here if you can get the one of the final two correct.
Oh,
that would be nice.
It's
a high school football question.
Okay.
I said DC Everest is in action tonight over at Steam against River Falls.
DC Everest has a storied football tradition.
The number for the day is how many state championships as your alma mater, DC Everest and my alma mater, DC Everest won in high school football.
So how many state championships as DC Everest one your choices are okay two
five
eight
State championships that DC Everest is one so two just a football in football two five or eight.
Yep two
five and eight You know what I'm gonna say And I'm trusting my I got in this one
I'm going to say five.
I'm going to say five was my final answer.
I'm going to say five for my alma mater.
All right.
DCF vs. High School is won five state championships.
Nice.
Three out of four.
Me
and my alma mater
proud.
Go for an A grade tomorrow.
Awesome.
All right.
We will be back tomorrow.
We are again on at 6.52, 7.22, 7.52 and 8.22 with the WXCO morning report.
More of Pat Crichtlow coming up.
And we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Have a good rest of your day, Ian.
You too, Chad.
Take care, folks.
