2026 of 2025 the time is 653 currently there's guys some overcast guys but not a bad start here on this Friday morning here at our WXEO studios in downtown wassup
corner of Washington Street and North 3rd Street, the temperature stands at 56 degrees.
It is the WXCO morning report here as part of mornings with Pac-Rite Low on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.
You can also catch our morning report segments on YouTube go to youtube.com and go to the 98.9 WXCO
channel if you want to see what's happening at 652-722-752 and 8
22 every weekday morning coming up a little bit later on here in the morning during our morning reports at 7.52 We'll be joined by Newman Catholic High School head football coach Paul Mickley talk about the Wisconsin sports weekend It's off week probably a good thing for the Wisconsin Badger football team as they have struggled the last couple of games falling two times in a row to Alabama and Maryland They'll be back next back in action coming up next Saturday when they
take on the Michigan Wolverines who are ranked, I believe, number 19 in the country.
They'll be on the road at Ann Arbor next week, but we may touch on the Badgers and the continuing heat that is on head coach Luke Fickle.
Packers will be playing on Sunday night football, taking on the Dallas Cowboys.
And of course, get the coaches impressions on the Packers meltdown in Cleveland last week that dropped Green Bay to two and one on the season and also the Brewers to the final three games of their
season they have tied their all-time record for 96 wins in a season.
All they have to do is win one of the final three against Cincinnati and they'll set a new club mark for wins in a campaign and then of course get ready for the postseason and will this be the first year for the Brewers to get to the World Series since 1982?
Will this be the first year for the Brewers to win a World Series?
See what Paul Mickley thinks about that as well.
And he'll be with us in about an hour's time at 752.
Also want to note that sports wise this weekend we have high school football both tonight and tomorrow afternoon tonight.
and tomorrow both at tomfield tonight i'll be at tomfield for the wasa east lumberjacks as they take on the medford raiders in a great northern conference matchup we'll have live coverage starting with the pregame show at 635 and the opening kickoff at seven o'clock right here on 98.9 wxco online at wxco.fm mobile devices and alexa by searching wxco and on the civic media app and then tomorrow we will have the wasa west
Warriors, a very rare Saturday afternoon game for Wausau West.
In fact, I can't remember the last time that Wausau West played a Saturday afternoon game.
And I'm talking to the coach yesterday.
He knows it's been a long time as well.
So I'm going to have to research that between now and tomorrow.
But tomorrow afternoon, again, we will have the Warriors and Stevens Point starting with the pregame show at 1235 and the opening kickoff at 1 p.m.
that's.
Wausau East tonight and Wausau West tomorrow.
Newman Catholic is off this week because they were scheduled to take on Menominee Nation, but Menominee Nation has forfeited the rest of their seasons because of numbers issues and competitive issues as well.
So no Newman game this week.
They'll be back in action at Holm against Port Edwards next Friday night and we'll have that one for you on WXC
as
well.
So again, we are
I'm very proud to be the only Wausau radio station that still provides live play-by-play of high school sports during the fall.
It's Wausau West, Newman Catholic and Wausau Eats Football, 98.9 WXCO.
Before we go any further, I need to say hello and good morning to our in-studio engineer and producer, Ian Welsh.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
You had a busy night last night, didn't you?
Yes, I did.
It was the opening night of...
Center stage and what a fun night it was and we had a really big audience last night and they were Full of a great energy just a lot of a cheering and applause and we got some great reactions after the show and everybody had a lot of fun with it Just overall it was a really great a show and a great way to kick off a The weekend
yeah, I believe yeah, so but it's always exciting opening ideas in
it
Oh, yeah, it's a lot of good, a lot of good anticipation, you know, turning those nerves into a positive energy and it really paid off because I think we really delivered a great show for this audience and they were very responsive of it.
And
the crowd was good.
They were.
In terms of a number of folks that came by.
I would say so.
I think the like a bottom session, the grand theater was pretty full.
We had people in the balcony too.
That is good because you can't say that you need to be, because I mean, there's so many seats in that, in that building.
It's very
difficult.
We had a hard to fill the grand,
but
we did pretty good though.
The good news
is
if you missed the show last night.
Like myself we
got
two more chances to see it tonight at seven o'clock tomorrow night at seven o'clock at the Grand Theater I will be there tomorrow night I'm looking forward to it should be a fantastic production and the great thing about it is
It's free.
Absolutely.
Free.
Incredible entertainment for free.
Absolutely.
Wow.
I mean, you don't get much better than that.
Nope.
And hopefully folks
can leave a little something in the donation boxes because I know that your organizations
are always.
Your
organization needs that in order to continue the great entertainment you provide every year.
Absolutely.
So
again, way to go for night number one.
Hopefully.
Thank you.
Tonight we'll go just as well.
I'm sure it will.
Coming up, we have a top of the hour news update and then we'll be back at 722 for more.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Critello on 98.9 WXCO.
morning report part of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXO online at WXO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXO and on the civic media app here at our downtown studios 56 degrees under mostly cloudy skies it looks like it will be another beautiful day in fact a very very nice weekend as well
Just keep tuned in for details on the forecast every half hour here on 98.9 WXC.
Oh, I am Chad Holmstroin by Ian Welsh again again.
Good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
Wanted to talk about a couple of deaths and just wanted to mention because, um, people, you know, that have brought, I think a lot of to our lives here in central Wisconsin.
Oh, one of which is Bill Ferraro.
The former University of Wisconsin Badger and played for a short time for the Green Bay Packers, passed away this week at the age of 47.
He'd also suffered for some some personal issues in recent years, but still.
It's one of those situations where you hate to see anybody pass away at such a young age.
And I've been told that he had to suffer for some injuries after his football years that caused some problems as well.
So condolences to the family and friends of Bill Ferraro.
And also I wanted to touch on somebody that has been a big part of
The radio business here in central, Wisconsin for a long time in fact I worked for him for a few years back in the late 1990s early 2000s in fact had my first full-time radio gig
under this person.
And I found out yesterday that the owner of Muzzy Broadcasting out of Stevens Point, Rick Muzzy, who is the owner of WSPT 97.9 FM and also WPCN out of Stevens Point and B104.9 country radio.
He passed away yesterday and
He is again, I worked for him a couple of different stretches between 1996 and 2001.
It was the first time that I ever had an opportunity to work full time in this business.
And he is somebody that was a survivor when it came to local radio.
And in this era where there's so much consolidation with corporate radio to have folks who are local.
Radio people that do still believe in local radio is is vitally important in fact in addition to owning these radio stations He was on the air late in his career in fact He had his final show on 97.9 WXW 97.9 W spt just two weeks ago
We've had two weeks ago yesterday.
He had been their morning show host for quite a while and He stepped away just over two weeks ago and they had a celebration on the air two weeks ago yesterday and again this I Love radio.
I love what radio is able to bring to listeners and communities and the importance of it even as technology changes but
The idea of the corporate radio is something that has not helped radio.
It has not helped radio in local communities.
So for anybody like Rick Muzzy and others who are local radio operators, somebody who does have feet on the ground in their local communities.
People that do hire folks to be on the radio in their local communities to be out there at events to be part of their communities.
It's vitally vitally important and I don't I mean I was there that back in the late 90s early 2000s.
I think And if I'm not mistaken Rick Muzzy
took charge of those radio stations in Stevens Point back in the early to mid 1980s.
So well over 40 years of local ownership in Stevens Point and and these stations heard here in the Wausau area throughout Central Wisconsin as well.
So it was an important part of our radio ecosystem and personally again to have that opportunity to
get hired there in 1996, first as a part-timer, then moving on into a full-time role, very important in my radio career.
So I heard this yesterday that Rick had passed on.
It was sad news indeed.
I think it's sad news for people that think that local radio is important.
So again, condolences to Rick.
I knew his wife Eva back in the day as well.
The folks that work for Muzzy Broadcasting in Stevens Point and the entire Stevens Point community especially where the radio stations are based out of condolences to all and again just wanted to mention that here this morning as well.
Local radio is important.
Local radio with local ownership is important and Rick Muzzy did a
Good job in terms of keeping radio local for the folks in Stevens Point especially.
And again, hopefully the next ownership of the stations in Stevens Point and the stations of Buncie Broadcasting continue to believe in that mission like Rick Muzzy had.
Absolutely.
The time is 729 coming up in 23 minutes or so.
We'll be joined by Paul Micleg.
He will be talking Wisconsin sports as we head into the weekend.
So make sure you stick around for that.
coming up next it will be information update including the farm report we keep you up to speed on what's going on in farm news in the morning at the bottom of the hour as well plus a look at the weather forecast a very nice weather forecast coming up for this weekend with Ian Welsh I am Chad Holmes it is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXCO
If you want me, you can find me left of center.
And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Cracow here on 98.9 WXCO WXCO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app.
Ian Welsh with us.
I am Chad Holmes.
Sun is shining.
Temperature rising.
We're into the low sixties, I think at this point in time to look ahead to the weekend and talk a little sports.
Paul McLeague joining us again.
New Macathic head football coach.
Good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
Oh, ready to roll here for another weekend.
It doesn't feel like late September.
It feels like more like early September, but a beautiful start here.
Let's talk about the pack first.
We'll talk about brewers and their regular season in the next segment, but the Packers last week.
It doesn't take long for the rumbles of perfect season and the way they had played the first two games and then, boy, I mean, and I'll give you a little credit.
I didn't sort of agree with you Sunday, but you were throughout the day, you were basically saying they were letting them hang around and hang around and kind of game that you lose.
And that's exactly what happened.
I said it in the first quarter.
Yes, you did.
You can see how the tempo was going.
of both offensively and special teams and things like that, and it just didn't have any feel to it that they were going to go out there.
And in the past, and I said it to you, in the past, right away, if you are going to be,
a team that's going to be whatever they would, people say 17 and 0 and going to the Super Bowl and things like that.
People were wrong again.
People were wrong again because you have to go out there and put that team away in the first half and leave no doubt.
And they left a lot of doubts and then come back and that was a bad loss.
I mean, because now you're sitting here and this is almost a must game and game four to go out there and win at Dallas, which Dallas,
I really truly believe it's not who you play.
It's when you play him I will say this Cleveland was 0-1 to they're playing at home They're gonna give you their best shot.
You know the thing about this past week that I was thinking about You gave away the Detroit win because Detroit stole one against a team That's a better team Baltimore Monday night Packers gave one away against a team that you should go in and win again So in a sense you gave away that terrific week one win
Right now you're you're you just so back to zero, but you're right I mean you're back to zero because that low
advantage and they just gave it away for basically nothing I mean because there's there's certain games Hey, I mean if Detroit loses the Baltimore at the start of the year you look at that schedule Oh on the road.
That's a tough game They got that game and now the Packers are out to find one against a team like Baltimore somebody else down the line
to get it back.
So you're right.
I mean, there's not a thin line right on this division.
It's not the old
NFC north that was you know, you could go 10 and seven and feel like yeah, we're gonna be fine.
I mean you got Detroit I still think that Minnesota is gonna be fine when all of a sudden done There's some questions still with the I think with the quarterback position and even Chicago show signs of life this week So so I mean you're right.
I mean this is one that you just cannot lose That's the bottom line,
isn't it because you you had a chance to be for knowing those first four games before the buy Before the year you really wanted to be three and one
And this was one of them that you thought you were going to definitely win.
You better win because
Chicago beat Dallas.
Well, no, I'm talking about Cleveland.
No, but I'm looking, you're talking about playing 4-0 at the end.
So it's like, now again, it's another game where you're going to be losing significant ground to another team in your division if you don't win this game.
And I'm going to go back to their 1-2.
They're playing at home.
Their season's on the line.
They should be 0-3.
They should be 0-3.
So they cannot go to 1-3.
they're going to do, again, it's when you play teams and I don't think this is a good setup for them when they play them because Dallas needs this game.
I mean, I know Green Bay needs this game, but there's a difference about being at home
and being
healthy in the
line.
What about pack?
Yeah, offensively, it, that was, there was no juice offensively, I thought during the whole game and there are times the Packers look really good offensively, but then there's other times they'd look like this and I don't.
What's your
take on the offensive side?
I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be put my Mr. Arod on here and go, this is the NFL, you're gonna have ups and downs.
I mean, they looked fine for against Detroit and Washington.
And those two teams are good teams too.
So, Cleveland does have a good defense and they showed that and they did a good job as Baltimore and Sinsi.
I do love the fact that I've read some articles from NFL writers.
One really good performance.
Cleveland against Green Bay defensively.
This could be one of the best defenses in the league.
I didn't say that.
I didn't say that.
I'm just
finding that in this era, this clickbait era because Baltimore ran it up and down the field the week before against them, put up a lot of offense.
They did play well against Cincinnati in week one.
So, I mean, it is a good defense, but I just find the fact that, you know, Packers win a couple of games and I was like, oh, this could be one of the best teams ever.
I mean, the early
Overreactions are just out of control when it comes to sports.
Yeah, you can't jump.
I will say You'd have a loss like that.
You sure don't read the papers and you don't read the you stay away from all that stuff because it's just Not nothing's good out of it and they have to get back on that horse and they got to get but offensively
When you're talking about and I don't know what they did during the course of the week, but I've said this to you for years and from experience injuries that happen and Then you have a week to prepare for it You could handle right when you have a you leave it lose a guy now I don't know what they did practice wise the week before but when you lose a guy one play into the game and then you lose another guy later on and you're and one guy's not doing black and very well at all and
It makes it, it's tough to run an offense.
I didn't think that they adjusted well to those injuries and the stuff that was there, hey, if you can't block, roll them out.
If you can't, short stuff, the screens were there.
Real
quickly here in the last moments before we have the top of the hour, I know that you still have some doubts about the floor in terms of taking it to that ultimate level.
Is that fair to say?
Yeah.
Why do you
feel that
way?
You go back in the history, they should have beat Tampa Bay at home, all right?
They had the, first they went on the road and they got against San Francisco and said, we need the home field advantage.
Then they got the home field advantage and that wasn't good enough.
Either they lost a couple of years in a row to San Francisco and Tampa Bay at home.
So what is it now?
Do we, because right now they're saying that we have all the talent we can have.
So why are we losing the Cleveland Browns?
So they better do it.
They better do it.
We'll talk
more in 22 minutes here on 98.9 WXCO.
And welcome back.
WXCO morning reports.
Final segment of the week.
Not that I'm counting here on 98.90.
I'm ready to enjoy being outdoors and for some football tonight and tomorrow.
Excuse me.
But joined by Paul Mickley.
And let's talk a little football with the Badgers.
Boy, that was not good last week, was
it?
I was working so I missed the first half and
I
got a lot of updates on that and I watched the second half and you know they're going through some struggles right now and people
Again, I keep on using the word people.
They will compare a situation to a great guard situation.
You know, like, oh, you know, this is kind of what happens.
You know, they ask for, you know, they say, hey, you know, you got to, you know, get rid of him or whatever.
And I'm not, I'm not a big fan of getting rid of people because I just don't think that is always the answer.
But to compare to what great guard did and what Luke Fickle did.
or is doing at Wisconsin is not the same.
Great Guard was underneath it at Wisconsin.
Now, Luke Fickle had great success in his other places, but he did not have the same success at Wisconsin yet.
that Greyguard did at Wisconsin.
And the reality of it is, everything's gotta be a little different.
Now people, two years later, they're saying Greyguard knows exactly how the blueprint of the NIL.
You know, I mean, so they went from saying he's gotta go to, oh, he's got the blueprint of how to do the NIL.
Well, fickle has not yet at Wisconsin, and that's going to be a problem going forward if they don't fix that and what's going to happen.
With the schedule they had this year, did anybody actually think, we sat here last year, I sat
down,
they were never going to win, to even say six games, I think
was a little.
But the thing about, there's nothing there right now.
It's an empty shell.
I mean, you can lose games and still see something being built.
Do you see anything being built right now?
It just feels like an empty shell watching, I guess Maryland.
There's nothing there right now.
And I saw a story this week that it was a claim that they can't fire them because the cost is as prohibitive right now.
But I can't imagine that if it goes in this direction and unfortunately it looks like it may go for the rest of the year that the pressure on both fickle and on Macintosh and on the program is going to get so, so tight that something is going to have to be done.
I don't think so.
I'm starting to think that nothing is going to be done.
I do think they'll win a game here somewhere along the line.
They'll get in there.
If they go 0-1 and 8 the rest of the way or whatever it is, it's got to be ramped up, right?
Oh,
absolutely.
But I sat on this with you two years ago with that schedule.
And I said to you, Chad, if they don't do it now,
Right there in trouble.
They did it and they didn't and that's and so the two years ago I you could see is coming The one thing I'll talk about Ron Wolf is when when he didn't think Ray Rose was the answer He cut bait he cut bait and I think that's a problem,
but I do think that
they had to really pay big to get them.
I mean, again, the cost is a factor at Wisconsin.
You don't want to, that buyout is not insignificant, and it's still not insignificant.
And so it's-
I mean, I sat here and said Luke Fickle, that was a good hire, yeah.
I mean, from, on paper,
it was a good hire.
But would you, are you really saying you would have fired Fickle after the first year?
No, I didn't say that.
Okay, and I'm just, no.
And
I'm saying that I also-
said that was a good hire.
And
to get that good hire and
to get that money, you had to pay him that
money.
Because otherwise he was going to get it from somewhere
else.
I know, exactly.
Sometimes it doesn't work out.
And
I'll be honest
with you, would you think that somebody could come in here right now and fix it anyways?
I think maybe with a
portal now, maybe you could a little quicker.
There's a couple of people with badger connections.
I guarantee you there's going to be somebody with a badger connection that would be the next coach.
Would you agree with that?
Like the guy from New Mexico is doing a nice job.
Okay.
I thought
maybe like a Lance Leopold Leonard could be coming back and depend if he wants to after being snubbed he's doing well with the Broncos right now as
a d-back coach That's
He's been unusual because I do think he's had other opportunities, but he's doing what he wants to do I again
There's questions in the back of the mind in terms of sometimes does he feel is he waiting for something?
I don't know.
It's just because sometimes, you know, as a coach, it's what you want to get that either coordinator job or a head guy.
It feels like he's gonna, I mean, he could have had a head college job, I think.
Somebody would have hired him, but he's decided to go on this route.
I mean, it's his job, it's his life, I mean, but it does seems interesting as the way to put it.
I'm just happy I'm not Macintosh, because I
think that
there's going to be a lot of pressure one way or the other on this whole situation.
In the perfect world,
they just play better.
You know what he's been thankful for?
That great guard has done a good job.
because if Gard had it, he probably would have, he would, off Timbrill fast too, and he could have been real trouble if he had a men's basketball program that was going on.
Two programs like that, yes, yes.
The two biggest programs.
Yes, correct.
Exactly, right.
All right, let's do our number for the day quiz.
We didn't even talk about the Brewers.
We'll have to talk about them next week when the playoffs are underway, but it's a baseball number.
The Brewers have won zero World Series Championships.
The Yankees have won the most World Series Championships.
How
many
World Series championships have the Yankees won?
So your choices are, 27, 32, 37.
The New York Yankees have won the most world championships.
27, 32 or 37.
How many times have
the Yankees won the World Series?
It's very impressive.
I mean any one of those numbers is impressive, but Okay, I'm gonna say 27 is
204 this week.
So this is for a winning week.
He's already got a passing grade
Okay, I'm gonna say 37 37 is my final answer.
I'm gonna say 30.
What
do you think?
I'm
gonna say 27
The Yankees have won 27 World Series Championships.
One for one for you, two for five, two for five over there, so it's still passing Grace.
No problem.
All right, well, I will see you tomorrow for Sully and I will see you on stage tomorrow night.
So again, go out and see Ian at the Grand tomorrow and tonight at seven o'clock.
Thank you.
Happy Friday, everybody.
Have a great day.
More of Mornings with Pat Crite low coming up here on 98.9 WXCO.
