Welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crichtlow on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm Mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app and as always you can always catch all of our interviews on our YouTube channel We post them up there so
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Easy dose and one of those interviews.
I'm sure you'll be watching is as we do every other week every other Thursday able to talk to the executive director of the Grand Theater here in Wasa, Mr. Sean Wright, Sean.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Hey, before we talk about what's going on at the Grand, I always love to get your point of view and on baseball and the like.
And we came in here and I forgot and said you had a very busy.
Sunday as well because
you
were in New York.
I was in New York and had to find my way from Staten Island to Central Park and along with 59,000 other people seeking our way over 26.2 miles.
26.2 miles of New York City Marathon.
Is that the biggest one in the
country?
It is the biggest one.
Yeah, New York and Chicago have kind of been going back and forth for years and this year, New
York.
No, we're just going to
plant our stake as the largest.
How
many?
How many were there?
59,300.
Let me ask you a question that I've had.
And this is a true question because when you have 59,000 plus folks, you know, you can't all start at the very same time.
You can't stretch it out.
How does the clock work?
Like, say for you, because I don't imagine you were at the very front of the line when they start the clocks.
No,
no, you know, the way New York City works is there are the professional waves.
And so you have the
you know, the men, men's and women's and then you have the men's and women's AWD, the the impassisted wheel devices.
And so those act, the clock actually starts, right?
The gun starts when those, you know, the clocks on the course actually start when those
runners
start.
And so when you get out on the course, you know, you see the clock that says, Oh, you know, 130 know
for you, it
might be 45 minutes.
And so yeah, you really have to rely on your own watch.
But yeah, it's it's total elapsed time from the first start.
which is 8 a.m.
So, you know, our wave started at 9 10.
So
yeah, so
we were already at an hour 10.
I
imagine
you have a little watch that you keep track of.
Yeah, you're doing that.
You've got the pace
bands, you know, people are still doing the old fashioned writing the, you know, unsharpy on their arms.
Well, you know, the.
what they're trying to run.
So yeah, everybody's got their own method.
So how'd you do?
I did great.
I ran, ran 351 and change and set a personal best.
So it was, it was a very, very good day.
What does it mean to you to be able
to
do something like that?
I mean, I just can imagine that you have to put a lot of work in to be ready to do that and then to have that opportunity.
And, and for many of us, we don't get that chance to compete as, you know, in the biggest events.
And it really is something, isn't
it?
It is.
And, you know, I've been for.
fortunate to run New York four times and every time is different.
But the training, I mean, the training, it's, I mean, I went back and looked and, you know, I started really July one in the training cycle for both Chicago and New York and, you know, hundreds and hundreds of miles.
And when you didn't want to run in hot.
Cold and windy not too much cold, but you know rain and otherwise and so to have the opportunity and you know in New York It is truly a special race.
I mean 59,000 runners, but the crowd estimate was about two two and a half million across the streets I mean they're they're
everywhere.
Do you feel the people?
Oh, absolutely
Absolutely.
I mean,
in fact, there's really only a couple of places that you don't see spectators.
And that's, you know, on the Verrazano Bridge coming out of Staten Island, out of the Army base, and then on the Queensborough Bridge going from Queens into Manhattan.
And you notice it there.
you notice that you're just hearing your fellow runners and your steps and your breathing because everywhere else there's fans and every borough has its own personality and they're exactly what you expect it to be and that's the thing that really makes it special.
It is a holiday in New York and that's the thing that's really cool about
it.
Congratulations.
That's wonderful.
It's great to hear about stories like that where you're living your fullest life and I just think that's fantastic.
The thing about it is
He has a big baseball fan.
He had Game 7 of the World Series on Saturday night and you had to be prepared for the marathon early on Sunday.
What'd you
do?
I made it through about four and a half innings.
Everything
was great at that point.
Everything was great at that
point and set it so I could watch it on my phone as I was traveling out to grab the ferry to go out to Staten Island because I mean that is the thing with New York.
To get everybody out on the island, you're there about two, two and a half hours before you start time.
So I figured I've got plenty of time to catch up.
And then a nice individual in the line for the ferry goes, oh man, did you see that game last night?
I can't believe the Dodgers came back.
And I said, well, there goes that plan.
And also, oh, no, so
rooting for the Blue
Jays.
It was, you know, you're a big baseball fan.
I'm a big baseball fan.
I think just even if you weren't a huge baseball fan, there was so much drama in that game.
Theater of that game was just incredible.
And you know, on the night before or two, I mean, that's the thing.
Game three, you
had that
game.
Game six, you know, it looked like they were, you know, the Blue Jays were going to win.
You had the trapped ball under the wall.
And then game seven, just the wild swings.
And I mean, the performances, I mean, listen to Dodgers.
Well, obviously they have the payrolls they have, but, you know, Yamamoto to come out and pitch after throwing 98 pitches the night before.
And, you know, the decision by Dave Roberts to put Rojas in the lineup.
It
really was.
It was just.
You hated that the team had to lose and you really hated that that team was the Blue Jays because those fans, I mean, it's been 20, you know, almost 30
years now.
It's hard to root for the Dodgers, but I find myself now being a fan of Yamamoto because I got it guy that through back to back complete games.
I love that.
Exactly.
Yeah, there's the
difference.
You cannot be a fan of the Dodgers, but you I mean, come on, you can't help but.
Marvel is showing out, Tommy.
You
can't
help but be impressed.
You know, you know,
Rojas on the biggest
stage and, you know, I mean, guys, you know, guy like Hernandez almost gets laid out and does get laid out in the outfield and then turns around and
does what he does.
So, yeah, you can you can separate the payroll and everything else with the fact that there's some there's some gamers on that team.
Absolutely.
So much fun.
So much fun.
More with Sean Wright coming up at 722.
But coming up next top of the hour information update to then more of
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with packed right low on 98.9 WXCO.
I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh.
We are talking as we do every other Thursday with the executive director of the Grand Theater, Sean Wright, talking about what's been going on in recent weeks at the Grand.
Yeah, you know, actually, one of the things we've really enjoyed last week, we opened the Arts and Education series, the Espires in Arts and Education series with a great performance from Cirque Mechanics.
So it's always fun to see the kids and the great thing with that show was it was truly an all ages show.
We had pre-cades all the way to sixth graders in attendance.
And so those are some of my favorite ones.
And then we had a great residency with an Indigenous artist group called Baziki.
Did a free performance on Tuesday night, as well as some outreach in our community.
Did a free school show over.
Colby did some things.
It's nice when we have those opportunities to engage regional artists and they were supported.
by the Ruth Foundation, a great supporter of the arts in the Midwest, frankly, throughout the US, but especially in the Midwest.
It was great to be able to have them here and have them spend a couple of days in our community and exposing literally patrons of all ages to music that they may not have heard before or experienced before.
That is one thing that's all of us in our lives.
It's the things that we may not know we'd love.
I mean, it's so wonderful when you find something that maybe you don't even think about, but you just somehow come across it.
And it's like, wow, I never thought that maybe that's something I'd be interested in.
That's one thing that you and the Grand, the PAF and so many people around here do so very well.
Yeah.
And that's a big part of what we try and do programming.
And it's sort of funny because obviously that's a sort of very clear example of that.
But then two shows we have next week sort of play into that realm as well and that they're both first time shows to our theater.
They're artists that people may or may not be familiar with, but they should be familiar with.
Molly Tuttle will be.
here on Thursday the 13th, Grammy winner, bluegrass winner, incredible musician, just incredible.
He's headlined at Summerfest in a blue ox, has a new band, new album.
And it's interesting that when you put posts in the world about Molly Tuttle out there, you see people who comment like, I saw her in...
X, you know, I saw her at Summer Fest, I saw her in Chicago, and they start with, I had no idea who she was.
Oh my God, greatest show I've ever seen.
And I mean, that's the highest of high compliments.
And so comes up on Thursday, 13th, and then on Friday, the 14th, the 615 Collective, this is a emerging country band.
These are all artists, artists as well as writers.
They've actually written.
some of the biggest country songs of the last decade, working with everybody from Lainey Wilson to Dirks Bentley and go down the line of major country stars.
Well, these artists, 615 being national have decided to go out on their own because they're talented musicians as well, playing some old songs, telling some of the stories behind those songs, but also some of their original ones that, you know, they're keeping for themselves.
And so.
Really, I think it's an opportunity for people to come out and experience an artist that, again, they may not be as familiar with, but they are going to walk out and go, they're tremendous.
This
shows
again, the talent that is out there, just generally.
Exactly.
And I have such great respect for anybody that works in the entertainment business.
There's so much competition.
There's so much talent.
It's so hard that even the, I swear that if you had a scientific way of measuring.
the most talented performer that's ever lived.
Odds are nobody's ever heard
of them.
Oh, exactly.
But absolutely.
It's the case.
And I think one of the things I love is when you meet artists and
You find out that they have a skill set that you didn't know because it's not actually something that they that they put forward and to tie it all back to the to the marathon.
One of the leads in Wicked actually ran the marathon on Sunday, ran sub three thirty.
So I'm jealous of that.
And then so that meant he finished about when he was starting to start and start about noon or finished about noon.
So that gave him just enough time to head head down to the theater district.
And yes.
he performed in both the afternoon and evening performances of Wicked.
Amazing.
I can barely walk back
to my hotel.
And then I betcha the performances were fantastic.
I'm sure they were.
I mean, you
talk about somebody that's at the top in terms of mental and physical gifts, that's gotta
be it.
So that's the thing is how many people in that audience that day saw the performance, I'm sure at the end, somebody on stage made a reference to it, but beforehand probably had no idea.
No, they're just seeing Wicked and he's playing his incredible role at his head.
And then they're saying, oh, and by the way, come out and, you know, wear your medal for the bowels because you just.
and the New York City Marathon, it goes to show you, yeah, the skill sets people have and those that they demonstrate and you don't even know that they have.
Every time that you come in here, I take a peek at your Facebook page, the Grand Theater Facebook page.
Man, there's a lot of stuff that you're pushing that's in the future, but
I
mean, it just seems like you got new shows coming.
I mean, it seems like there's been a lot going
on.
There's a lot going on.
Yeah, the rest of November, obviously, besides those two shows, we've got the 11-11 party coming up Saturday night, the 80s prom.
still a few tickets left.
You want to see me in my 1980s best.
And so that's a really fun night.
And then obviously, you know, comedian Dusty Slay is later this month.
We've got a second show of Cirque Musica holiday that has about 200 tickets left.
The first show is sold out.
And then Tina, the Tina Turner musical in about three weeks right before Thanksgiving.
It's an incredible show, Grammy winning show.
And, you know, people should definitely check that out, especially, you know, you got family in town for Thanksgiving.
You want to spend.
enough time with them, but not too much time with them.
A perfect Wednesday night before Thanksgiving visit to the Grand to see Tina the musical.
And then, yeah, as you said, we've announced a bunch of shows.
Gaelic Storm is coming back next St.
Patrick's Day season.
And then the Bodines on their 40th anniversary tour, if you can believe that.
I'm getting feeling old now.
Yeah, that's the response kind of everybody has.
They'll be at the Grand in April.
And yeah, so it's a busy time of shows, events.
and putting shows on sale.
And in fact, we've got our architect in town this week as we work toward getting everything rolling for the second century campaign.
So yeah, there's a lot going
on.
There sure is.
And again, you can get all the information, grandtheater.org,
ER.
And again, you have the special site for
the
second second.
Yeah, grand100.org.
You can see all the content there.
And, you know, as we said, we've literally
are working on getting bids in for the project this week.
So there'll be even some more behind the scenes stuff that we'll be launching there.
Our seating company is back in town.
It's, you know, at the point it's very much starting to feel real that next May 10th our doors will be closed for six months and theater transformed.
Just sent the new seating chart over to our ticketing provider last week and it's very, very exciting.
Is it more seats or less seats?
Less seats.
We lose a few seats.
We've got to have a better experience.
We've got to have wider seats.
Yes, but enough seats that we can still bring the shows we need to bring.
It was very much a talk about that sometime down the line.
It was an interesting experience getting to the number we got to.
Sean Wright, executive director of the Grand Theater.
Congrats on your New York City marathon.
Thank you.
Thanks again for coming by.
We'll catch you in a couple weeks.
Sounds good.
We'll be right back with more 98.9 WXCO.
Good morning once again everyone and welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO dot FM both devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app and again
If you missed earlier today our discussion with Sean Wright, the executive director of the Grand Theater of Warsaw, or any of our interviews, we always post our interviews as well on our YouTube channel.
If you go to youtube.com and the 98.9 WXCO channel, you can...
See and hear our interview with Sean Wright in our previous interviews as well.
So again, our interviews are all posted on the YouTube channel youtube.com and then 98.9 WXCO channel subscribe to that and you won't miss a thing the time is 753
chilly start here in north central Wisconsin.
27 degrees is the temperature weather wise for today does not look again.
It's been pretty calm and we're still waiting.
I think as you get to this point of the year, you never know when you might get that first snowfall of the season could happen any time.
But today look for mostly cloudy skies and 51 some clouds again tomorrow, 47 and then a chilly weekend.
Saturday, mostly cloudy, a slight chance of rain or even a few snow.
Flurries, Saturday's high of 38, and then Sunday, sunny skies, but only reaching 32 degrees.
So again, you may have to bundle up if you're heading out this weekend.
Cross the Ways, our in-studio engineer, Ian Welsh.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
Well, tonight's your final dress rehearsal, isn't it?
Yep.
Very, a last rehearsal before we get our first audience on Friday.
rehearsal is becoming along really great.
I think our last night's rehearsal especially was a good step in the right direction.
So one more night to finalize and lock it in and then we perform in front of an audience and see how our timing comes out and if we get some good reactions.
Because reactions are very important in theater.
If you don't get those reactions, you kind of lose that.
energy and then momentum.
That's the goal for the tonight's rehearsal on the show is to really keep that energy
up.
And if you're interested, you can see the Wausau Community Theatre's presentation of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Leet Street tomorrow evening at 7.30 p.m.
Two chances on Saturday, a 2 p.m.
show and a 7.30 p.m.
show.
And then on
Sunday, another opportunity for a matinee at 2 p.m.
Again, that is at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point in Wasaw, the James F. Venega Theater, and four different chances to see it.
And of course, if you missed our interview, was it yesterday?
I can't remember.
Yes, it was yesterday.
Time does no meaning anymore.
But we had a chance to talk to the director Andrew Spencer.
We also had an opportunity to speak to a couple of the actors of the
The the lead Nick Nuber who plays Sweeney Todd and Vivian no walk who is also part of the production as well So and we add Ian as part of our discussion.
So again, you can go back either to our podcast page or to YouTube and see it and hear it as well.
So A lot of excitement.
So and yeah, and next week we'll have an opportunity as well to hear from Cast members at Wausau West has the Wausau West High School next week
So you can go to the WCT production this weekend and then next week you'll be able to have an opportunity to
see Wasa West Theater and Once Upon a Mattress.
So again, there will be plenty of opportunities to see great theater here in North Central Wisconsin.
That's right.
That will be coming up on Thursday of next week.
We'll have cast members of the Wasa West Theater production of Once Upon a Mattress staging this next weekend.
Next week as well.
I'm on vacation next week.
But here late this week, I am actually recording some interviews that we will have as part of our morning report next week.
Ian will have some segments himself here live as well while I'm away.
But next week included among our interviews, I think some very interesting folks coming up on Tuesday, we'll get a chance to talk to a Brad Hanson.
He's the former WAOWTV9 news director, longtime Channel 9 fixture.
He started off as the sports director, went on to become a news anchor.
then became the news director, and just recently he left television news.
He had for a very long run at Channel 9, but he's still here in Wausau.
He has another job in communications.
He is a communication specialist now at Green Hack.
And we're going to talk a little bit about why he left TV News, his new job at Green Hack, and everything else with Brad Hansen Tuesday of next week.
I think it will be a very interesting discussion with him.
And on Wednesday of next week, we'll have a return visit of Rod
He is the founder of the Wassa area food for hope and with Thanksgiving coming up.
He is giving three Thanksgiving turkeys through his organization to folks who are in need.
So we'll talk about the organization, how it came to be and what he hopes to accomplish here with Wassa area food for hope and the Thanksgiving season.
So Rob Hughes will be with us coming up on Wednesday of next week.
And then of course on Thursday, the cast members of the Wassa West theaters once upon a mattress.
So it should be some really good stuff.
When I am away, we will have great information for you on the WXCO morning report.
Coming up in just a few minutes, we will have our top of the hour information update, news, weather, and sports.
Get up to speed on everything that is going on around the country, around the world, around the state, and around the area.
And then coming up at 8.06, back to mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
But as we do every Thursday at 8.06, Pat Crichtlow's guest is...
me.
Yes.
So I will be on with Pat Crite low coming up in just a few minutes and who knows what we'll talk about.
So stick around for that.
And then Ian and myself will be back at 822.
And of course, we will have our number of the day quiz and Ian is one for three so far.
So that's a work to do.
You have an opportunity to clinch a passing grade with a correct answer.
Yes.
So that's all coming up.
Almost eight o'clock 27 degrees here in downtown Wasa.
It is the WXCO morning report.
part of mornings with Pat Crite Low on 98.9 WXCO.
And welcome back it is the WXCO morning reports part of mornings with Pat Crite low on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO dot FM keep it up for a moment here right there Yeah, I like this because this song always reminds me of the 23rd 2012 Barack Obama re-election campaign
And I still remember his last campaign appearance in that campaign cycle was in Iowa because he knew it was his last campaign appearance.
He was running for reelection and that he would not be eligible to run for another term in office.
And this had been his theme song for that campaign.
And in that final appearance, he had
Bruce Springsteen appear live and sing this song and it was just it was a great event and it was on this date November the 6th of 2012 that Barack Obama was reelected president of the United States so 13 years ago today Barack Obama reelected and You know
I just, I will go to my grave not understanding how this country went from Barack Obama to Donald
Trump.
Because Barack Obama took over this country in the midst of the Great Recession.
And he methodically, and I would say very moderately, and I think there's a lot of folks in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that would have liked to seem even a little bit more,
from that side during the Obama years, but he decided that he had to go down a road, a path that, you know, get things accomplished.
He wanted, I think, a more robust reform to the healthcare system, but people like Joe Lieberman and Joe Manchin would not allow it from the Democratic Party.
But nevertheless, he left office as a very popular figure.
Approval ratings in the upper 50s, around 60%.
Yet this country elected Donald J. Trump now once but twice as president of the United States, and I just don't get it I I and now and I just was talking to Pat Crichtlow talking about where we are right now in the midst of this Absolutely ridiculous government shutdown where the Republican Party is trying to take away health care benefits because Barack Obama brought this law into being and it's just crazy.
I just
And now we're gonna have a travel nightmare potentially during Thanksgiving.
If this thing is not squared away, Sean Duffy, the former seventh district congressperson who is now the Secretary of Transportation talking about, you know, canceling tens of thousands of flights because we don't have the air traffic controllers that are reporting the work who are not being paid during this government shutdown.
I mean, it is, what?
What would want this chaos and that's what it is Donald Trump and his minions led by Steven Miller and again I'm gonna say this over and over again if you don't know who Steven Miller is out there Figure it out because he is the guy that is running this country right now This guy would fit right in those pictures from the 1930s and 40s of Germany you look at that guy He'd fit right in he is the guy that is bombing those boats all over the
Western Hemisphere he is the guy that I am certain is the leader of the of the ice raids and the cruelty being shown by the Ice officers towards people who are more often than not innocent of anything that they're trying to arrest them for He is the one that I'm sure is leading Donald Trump down this government Shut down rabbit hole to try to eliminate health care benefits for millions of people.
So again folks
Keep an eye on this Steven Miller.
You talk about no Kings.
This guy is acting like a King himself right now in the United States of America.
But 13 years ago today was a much better day as Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney.
It was reelected president of the United States of America.
I believe that Barack Obama did a great job as president.
I do.
It wasn't
perfect because no president is perfect.
Every president is going to make mistakes.
But he he put himself out there.
He
There
was not a whiff of scandal in that administration for eight years.
Not a whiff of scandal.
Not a guy that was trying to pat his own in the nest.
Not a guy that was breaking laws left and right.
Not a guy that went to the Supreme Court to say that anything that I do as president should be considered legal.
No, that was Donald Trump.
I mean so again and and he had a party led by Mitch McConnell that said their number one goal was to make Barack Obama a one-term president well Mitch McConnell failed miserably in that goal and they did everything they possibly could to try to not allow anything to be passed during the Obama administration because it was not party above it was not country above party but party above country so yeah all right well let's finish off with our number of the day quiz yes
One out of three so far this week.
That's right The Apollo space mission was the United States of America going to the moon back in the 1960s and The number for the day is okay the number of the rocket Which was the first to land on the moon?
There were a number of Apollo rockets, but which one was the first to land on the moon?
Your choices are
Apollo 8, Apollo 11, Apollo 14.
I'm gonna
say Apollo 11.
Apollo 11 is my final answer.
I say 11.
The first Apollo space mission to land on the moon was Apollo 11.
a
passing week.
So you're two for four and now a chance for a winning week tomorrow.
Yes, that's good.
All right, tomorrow morning we'll be talking to Christine Daniels from the Good News Project and Paul Micley will preview the Wisconsin Sports Weekend.
So that's all coming up.
Have a good final dress tonight.
Thank you, Jed.
Happy Thursday, everybody.
