It is the WXCO morning report.
Part of morning from Pat Critello on 98.9 WXCO.
I am Chad Holmes.
He is Ian Welsh.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
Coming up, we'll give you another opportunity to call in and win with our WXCO holiday giveaway as we are counting down one week away from Christmas.
So we're continuing to be our own version of Santa Claus.
So make sure you keep tuned in.
Make sure you have that number close by as well.
715-814-9333.
We will give you another chance to win from a great local business.
Also, all of our interviews are posted on YouTube at youtube.com.
I'm at the 98.9 WXCO channel.
I mentioned that because the man sitting across from me is way too dapper for radio.
He's a man that dresses to be seen.
Executive director of the Grand Theater, Sean Wright.
I'm always, as a guy, I shouldn't be saying this, but I'm always so darn impressed with your wardrobe.
My wife takes all the credit.
At least once a year, she likes to resurface a photo
of when she met me and
long, tucking long
sleeve t-shirts
into sweatpants.
And I'm
like, I'd go back to that if I could.
So she's
Dr. Frankenstein and you're the one.
Yes, yes.
This is very much so.
It's always good to see you.
It's holiday season and we've taught previously about how busy it gets.
But this last week, I imagine when you look at it, significant shows.
Yeah.
Great crowds.
Good
crowds.
It's got to be an adrenaline rush
for the past week.
Where do you breathe?
Oh, absolutely.
Going from Nutcracker into last week with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Oak Ridge Boys and the Altenberg Christmas Show on back to back to back nights and Tuesday to sold out shows.
I'm Steamroller,
and
so yes, it is definitely that time of year where it's a little groundhog day as you wake up.
It's another holiday show, and then plus, fitting in some of the local events, Wausau West, their holiday concert there, and TC had their fall commencement, while some other community things.
I mean, it is definitely a, there are no dark days in December in the venue industry.
I was looking at some of the pictures you put up, and the one that kind of jumps out to me, and I was just gonna get your impression on...
on Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, because they just look like, I look at you, that classy look, they always come out there and they just look the part.
You just love to be around it.
Oh yeah,
absolutely.
I mean, they have a brand and it
is
100% there and those musicians are so talented and really an amazing thing because...
people forget that that that music, the swing music had a brief moment in the late nineties.
And it's really great that they've been able to sort of carry on.
And the holiday show is just fantastic because it celebrates their musicianship.
But it also puts some twists on songs, you know, in love.
And
the number of people who walked out of that show just said, I think one of the things I enjoyed the most was the number of comments we got that just said, I just walked out with a smile on my face tonight after that show.
And we
need that every single.
day and the farewell show for the Oak Ridge boys.
Was there a was there a sense of emotion there for the fans?
I mean, because I imagine the folks that really have been following them for decades there when something comes to an end, you love that you experienced it.
But at the same time, you probably have a little sadness because it's over.
Yeah, you know, of course, they're down to two of the original Oak Ridge boys, you know, one passed away and one's battling cancer.
And I thought the thing that I really loved hearing from people was that, you know, the two
people they've gotten to step in are great and Find two more great people, you know find let this music live
on like
the sense that the group is obviously the group but it's more about You know what they've done in their career and you know back from I mean they they debuted and made their original name as gospel artists to country artists to I mean
pop stars Elvira was a number one hit on all the charts so was Bobby Sue and then back to sort of their traditional country roots over the last couple of decades and amazing 50 plus years of touring and the sound engineer that night was was saying something we were backstage and he was like you know he's like I've only been doing this for 35 years with
these guys I think we'll figure it out
And then it's not Christmas until the Altenberg Christmas.
It is not.
No, it is now Christmas.
It is now Christmas.
It
is.
It's such a fabulous Christmas tradition.
And, you know, the entire group, you know, John and Mitch and Janet and Brad Manuel, Jerry Schmidt, up and down the list of their guest vocalist musicians.
It's yeah, it is.
It's just it is a an absolute Wausau holiday tradition.
And, you know, it's I was joking with somebody that
who had not a volunteer of ours who had a new volunteer they hadn't.
been to the Altenberg show before, and she said at 7.20, she was like, nobody is in their seats.
Like the show starts in 10 minutes, and I said, yeah, she gotta understand.
This is about, it's about tradition and seeing friends who you haven't seen, or it's the last time you're gonna see them before the holidays, or people who come into town for it.
Like, don't worry, they'll get to their seats, but this is just as much about the experience of seeing friends old and new, and sort of coming together as a community.
And then
Tuesday night, I think,
You talk about shows that you try to bring back very often and one of the shows that comes by During Christmas seasons is manheim and and the people just love it.
Don't they absolutely every other year It's a bi-annual stop at the Grand Park.
I mean every time I'm
working with the great folks from magic space and you know it Talk about the you know the Oak Ridge boys on the road for 50 years.
I was talking to one of the producers of manheim
In fact, probably about this time last year when we were booking the date.
And she said, you know, she goes, I've been booking Mannheim now for 30, 35 years.
And she goes in about a decade ago.
I said, you know, I think we're probably coming to the end.
You know, probably it's we've been, you know,
we've done this.
We've done this.
And she's like, and yet here we are.
And there's no end in sight.
It's amazing.
Two tours, both Chris Cross in the country.
And yeah, as somebody said to me last night, my third time seeing it, the show doesn't change.
And that's okay, because I love the show.
You're like, there's something
to be said for that.
There is a comforting feeling about it.
And I think there's probably no better time of the year to have comforting feelings than Christmas time.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
No, if it was Mannheim Steamroller Halloween edition, I
don't
think we'd
have
the same impact.
I don't think so.
Again, we're talking to Sean Wright, the executive director of the Grand Theater here on 98.9 WXCO.
Well.
I guess now it's all over.
You get to chill out, right?
Still a couple of
more shows
left tonight.
Of course, that holiday, a classic himself, Stevo at the Grand.
It is not a holiday show, it's just Stevo
with still a few tickets left.
But then we jump back into the holiday mood on Saturday night for Jingle Bell Rock the Hall, a really fun show with Michael Bailey, Vic Ferrari, Steam, and Benefits Blue Hearts, which is an organization that supports families of law enforcement.
officers who were killed in the line of duty and so really just a great show for a good cause so.
Moore with Sean Wright coming up at 722 but Moore pack right low next here on 98.9 WXCO.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crichtlow here on 98.9 WXCO.
I am Chad Holmes continuing our conversation with Sean Wright, executive director of the Grand Theater.
And now that some of the holiday shows are past, it's time to start looking ahead to a busy start of 2026.
Yeah,
very, very soon.
And January is a really busy schedule.
We've got two nights of kinky boots coming back.
That's just such an amazing show.
And we're looking forward to having that great show with Colin Ray, the country artist class.
albums live doing lithium so the music of nirvana pearl jam all the grunge era 90s that's going to be a fun night yeah it does the schedule after this break the schedule does not let up until uh till may 10th and then we're closed for six months for just a little
Project that
were taught a lot about your second second second second century of project campaign The second century the big renovation of the grand theater.
Where do you stand here?
I mean, do you
feel
like you're in a good spot because I actually thought about the grand and this whole renovation when I saw a story in last week and It's about the Olympics
coming
up and the NHL players are going over there to play and apparently the arena is not ready.
Yeah, and there and they there's no plan B You got to play on the I play on a pond or something
like
that.
I
So it's like, these projects can be a very
finicky thing.
Very much so, as I had a board member say.
So, you know, we think we're going to be back in the space November 10th, roughly.
And I said, yes.
And he said, so what's the first show you have scheduled?
And I said, November 13th.
And he looked at me and goes, just starts laughing and goes, I'll check back and see how you're sleeping in mid October, which is very true.
But I mean, that's just sort of the reality of construction projects.
And you work with good partners and you hope for the best.
and you make adjustments as needed, but that's really been what we've done in this entire project.
If you look back, it's been almost two years now since we started this journey with our architects.
If you look at some of the initial plans and renderings, we've wound up nowhere near on some things and completely near on others, because that's just kind of the nature of the project.
But no, I mean, I think we're in a good place.
We obviously had about 13.8 million, so we still need to raise about $3 million, a little over $3 million to get us to the finish line.
So there's work to do on that front, and obviously there's work to do on the construction front, and the planning front, and where's the Grand's box office gonna go and preview party, and all those fun questions we have to
answer over the next couple months.
I know that, personally, it's always difficult, even for wonderful causes, to ask for money.
So I'm gonna ask for you here.
It's such a wonderful aspect of living here in Wausau at the Grand Theater.
I work here in downtown,
it's
wonderful to come to work and see the Grand Theater, and it's been part of a very vibrant downtown community.
many people do experience the shows and just I think the general feeling that having a venue like the Grand has here for Central Wisconsin that you have plans and the such when it comes to the raising of the money but I think everybody may would like to make even if there's a small donation to be able to do it what
how do they do it?
Absolutely the easiest way is to go to Grand100.org you can find out all the project details there and make a contribution or you know find the pledge form to mail in all the particulars that you can do and
Yeah, we've got a lot of great things to come.
We'll be unveiling our Name a Seat program coming up here in the new year, which will give people an opportunity to name seats in the theater for a donation, of course, and some other ways for people to get involved at more accessible levels, I guess is the best way to put it.
But yeah, so it is definitely, at this point in the capital campaign, $5 or $50,000 will take
all of it.
One of the cool things is knowing that coming year from now when you're...
into a somewhat normal scheduling and back into having shows at the brand new renovated grand is to know that it's still going to be here for another hundred years now.
Whatever
it's going to be.
I mean, that is so cool that there's something you can really count on that people that future lines of family are going to be able to go and see shows at the grand for many decades to come.
I mean, I just find that to be so incredibly cool.
Absolutely.
I mean, that is truly why for us, it's the second century campaign.
It's not just because the grand turns one hundred and twenty twenty seven.
It's because we're we're setting the stage.
for the next century of the Grand because I have the belief that it's going to be another hundred years that that theater continues to anchor the downtown and so this this campaign is to make sure that it's on the strongest footing possible to hopefully do that for the first couple decades until the second and a quarter century campaign is needed.
One of the things about it as well that I like to think about is the importance of live performance.
I
mean we can sit in our TV and see all the streamers and all this stuff as we get into this part of the history of the world.
I just think still being able
to go into a place like The Grand and see live performance is just, it's so unique and it's so fulfilling.
Absolutely.
I mean, it's the, uh, for me, the holiday season is sort of captures that because you've got shows that are family shows.
You've got shows that are older audiences.
You've got shows that are date night shows.
And I was struck at the, the matinee yesterday for, for Mannheim in particular, how many people you saw bringing their, their kids, their grandkids.
You go, that's, that's what allows our.
our industry and just think a society to continue to thrive is exposing that next generation of arts patrons because sure, maybe those people grow up and like Mannheim steamroller and want to come to the shows 20 years from now, maybe they don't, but they hopefully had an experience and they now understand just how different it is that it's not the same as tiktok or anything else that being in a theater
community.
Yeah.
I mean, you're experiencing the show with hundreds of other people.
And I think you do feel that when you're in the crowd.
Every time I'm in a crowd.
You feel the emotion of the crowd along with the emotion of the of the performances as well.
You do.
I mean, it's funny if somebody said, oh, you know, it was your favorite moment of these holiday shows.
My favorite moment was actually a big bad voodoo daddy.
I had had a donor reception in the the Green Heck lounge.
I was standing up there.
Some of the staff after well after the show had started to young women, you know, nine, 10 years old, walked up money in hand and said, we'll take two kitty cocktails, please.
And there's no bartender.
There's I mean, we're close.
They weren't interested in hearing we're closed.
And so I look and go and test our development director goes, I think we can do this.
And so we jump behind the bar.
I spill everything everywhere, but they managed to get their kitty cocktails.
And then they look and they're like, getting those cookies down there still.
And so we came from some cookies and they're trying to give us money.
And I'm like, I can't take your money because I can't give you change.
Right.
And we just, and it was like, what else things were we, we sent them back in and we went probably with their parents who took them to the show and.
Parents are loving it and they're at the point of they're like how much longer is this show?
And they're like here go get yourself a yeah, and if we had said no, I'm sorry we're closed They would have been disappointed they went back into theater and fueled by sugar by flavored sugar water and cookies They probably decided that the show was so great.
Thanks mom and dad for taking us and yeah You can't get
that
sitting at home watching a screen.
Definitely not
great shows coming up.
Check out Grand Theater ER.org
Yes.
And then, of course, for the second century project, go to grand100100.org as well.
Exactly.
Sean, have a wonderful Christmas.
It's always a pleasure having you.
And we'll see you in 2026.
Absolutely.
Merry Christmas to you and Ian and all the listeners as well.
Merry Christmas.
That's Sean Wright, Executive Director of the Grand Theater.
We'll take a time out here on 98.9 WXCO.
you
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
And on the civic media app, overcast guys, 39 degrees here in downtown Wausau, actually feels warm out there as we start things off this morning, but it's gonna change.
It's gonna change.
It's gonna change sooner rather than later because basically the temperatures are going to be falling.
They'll be down to about 25 degrees by 5 p.m.
There will be rain and snow showers before noon.
A chance of snow in the afternoon.
Daytime total snow accumulation of less than half an inch is expected.
So again, it's gonna be one of those winter like days.
It feels kind of nice and warm now, but by the time we folks are just heading off to work and we'll be heading home during the afternoon drive, it'll be feeling a lot cooler and it's also gonna be a little bit breezy.
Wind gusts will be up to 28 miles per hour.
And then tonight, it's gonna be much colder than it was.
this past night.
Tonight cloudy, turning partly cloudy, then a low dropping to four above zero.
We'll have wind chill factors below zero with the Northwest winds 16 to 21 miles per hour, gusting as high as 34 miles per hour.
The sun does return tomorrow, but it's not going to be very warm either.
Mostly sunny skies and a high near 17.
And then for the weekend, Saturday.
mostly cloudy early, a 20% chance of snow showers in the morning, then turning sunny in the afternoon, a high near 28.
And then on Sunday, sunny skies, sounds great, doesn't it?
But the high temperature only reaching 11 degrees.
So that's a look at your weather forecast here as we get towards the end of the work weekend into the weekend.
And then of course, next week is a short week for work because it'll be a Christmas week.
Yes, Christmas.
will be a week from today next Thursday so be nice that will be a short week and then they have Thursday being Christmas Friday the day after Christmas in fact next week we won't have shows on Thursday and Friday we will be here Monday Tuesday and Wednesday but Thursday Christmas Friday they'll still be Christmas music and if you looking to
Add to the mood of your family holiday get together Starting on Christmas Eve at 12 noon and then going right through the rest of Christmas Eve for afternoon and evening all day and all night on Christmas and then all day and all night on the 26th
be providing Christmas tunes.
Going to go away from the normal talk programming for just a couple of days.
So you can keep it tuned in right here on 98.9 WXCO and online as well to listen to some of your favorite holiday classics.
Yeah, wonderful music.
Are you already got plans for Christmas?
Yep.
My family and I have been working around our work.
schedules, you know, finding the right time that everybody can come up to our house and be together for the holidays and either do some shuffling around when it comes to work hours.
We are going to be able to spend Christmas as a family and then we'll head down to, you know, down to the Burlington and
We're seeing area to visit my mom's side of the family as we As we do every year, you know, just a nice family get together.
It's just a lot of great food and We'll probably even get to watch the Packer game together as well because I know they were talking about it's either gonna be a Saturday or a
Sunday game, but it hasn't been decided yet.
I know this coming backer game is a Saturday game though.
That's
right
Sunday game, which is a little
unusual.
Yep, that's exactly right.
So sounds like the bears again.
They are playing the bears again and a place that you could possibly
Watch the game on Saturday night is one of our partners for our WXCO holiday giveaway.
Oh, yeah, it's time.
Yep.
We are going to give you a chance right now to a win with our WXCO holiday giveaway and it's the Millyard.
The Millyard is located on County W in Wasa, so in County W.
They have provided a $25 gift card for the Millyard.
You do have to stop in to pick up your price.
So the Millyard located at 238-532-
County Road W in Wausau.
You can check them out at themillyardwi.com.
Lots of great food, great place to hang out.
And they are a partner this hour for the WXEL holiday giveaway and a $25 gift card.
So we're going to give you a chance right now to call in and win.
All right, get those phones ready.
Yeah, the number is 715-814-9330.
That's 715-
eight, one, four, nine, three, three, zero.
And, uh, Ian, what color should we take here for this time around?
I wish I had a dice on me so I could just throw a random number.
I'm trying to change up a little bit, but let's go.
How about we do color number five?
That's amazing because I'm sitting here and I was going to open my mouth and I was going to say color number five.
because you were thinking about it.
Great minds.
I guess so.
I guess so.
So call their number five at 715-814-9330.
That's 715-814-9330 to win a $25 gift card courtesy of the Millyard in Warsaw.
Coming up.
We may do it again.
We may give you another chance in our final segment.
I do know that we're gonna make sure that you get a number for the day today after what happened yesterday.
So
yes, we're
gonna make sure we do it right this time.
We'll have that coming up as well at 822 with Ian Walsh.
I'm Chad Holmes again 715-814-9330 to call in and win a $25 gift card from the Millyard in Warsaw.
More to come here on 98.9 WXCO.
you
Welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app again, it's an overcast so kind of a
Wet kind of morning here.
We're expecting some rain, some patchy fog, a little bit of snow.
Temperatures are going to be dropping right now.
We're at 38 degrees.
We're expecting to fall to 25 before all is said and done here today.
Congratulations to a Brian Tomsky of Moseley.
He was the winner of our Millyard $25 gift certificate.
Congratulations.
As we continue the...
terrific WXCO holiday giveaway as we give you an opportunity to win some nice prizes courtesy of great businesses here in North Central Wisconsin.
We'll be doing it through Christmas Eve and in fact we have so many we have to sometimes do it more than one time and
We are gonna do it again right now try
to do it real
early here in the segment And if we get to the point where we're getting close to you know last couple of minutes you put them on hold and Come back here for our number for the day quiz But make sure I learn from yesterday absolutely, but this time around we are going to have Mullins cheese Mullins cheese is the folks that are
our partner here and Mullins cheese is terrific.
I think a lot of folks have gone to Mullins cheese over the years.
Absolutely.
They are located on County Road DB 203 843 County Road DB in Mosini, the retail store.
And we're going to give you a cheese.
gift card, a cheese gift card from Mullins cheese is the prize this time around.
And again, you need to stop in at Mullins cheese store again at 203 847 843 203 843 County Road DB in moseley.
But right now, we're going to give you a chance to do it again.
Call in and win at 715-814-933-0.
Yeah.
715-814-933-0.
What phone caller do you want to hear?
Oh, let's see.
How about we do a caller number, number seven, a lucky number
seven.
Caller seven, all right.
And folks if the phone keeps ringing just make sure that you keep hanging on because we will have to use Ian here for the Actually, let's jump right in.
Let's do the number for the day right now so that will clear the way for you to be able to focus on Entering these phone calls.
Good
idea.
All right the number for the day today is
The number of glaciers that have melted in the past two decades, we've heard about global warming, how many glaciers have melted?
And some,
you
think big, there's small little glaciers too.
So, okay, your total, your choices are, 4,000 glaciers, 6,000 glaciers, or 8,000 glaciers.
How many glaciers have melted in the last 20 years or so?
Yep, two
decades.
4,000, 6,000, or 8,000.
It's a big number anyway, so I said and what do you hope you're over
to this week, right?
Yep.
Hope for two I need to get I need to get back on track here So I'm gonna say You know I'm gonna say 6,000 glaciers final answer I'm gonna say 6,000
the number of glaciers that have melted in the past two decades is
4,000.
Oh,
the smallest number.
I think we're gonna have to find a way to give you two chances tomorrow.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to really.
Because we fell behind yesterday.
We're doing so well this week.
That means
you have to get them both right in order to get a passing grade.
So, the pressure, and you're always good with the pressure.
That's the thing.
You're always good with the
pressure.
That is true.
Anytime there's a pressure you get right, I usually...
And they're pulling it off somehow.
Again, call right now for your chance in the WXCO holiday giveaway.
That's right.
Caller number seven will be our winner of a Mullens cheese gift card.
Mullens
cheese is a really
great place too.
Mullens cheese out of Mosin A, a Mullens cheese gift card, 715-814.
9330.
So call right now.
Ian is your operator.
He is ready to help and ready to give you a chance to win in the WXCO holiday giveaway.
Hey, quick note that coming up tonight, we have high school hockey.
It will be the Central Wisconsin Storm taking on Northern Pines.
We will have coverage of that one beginning with pregame show at 635 and the opening phase off at seven o'clock that storm hockey against North and Pine 635 airtime right here on 98.9 WXO online at WXO dot FM, mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXO and on the civic media app.
And I know Ian just gotta
Take care of the phone calls, but we'll let you know tomorrow about our winter and just keep on calling in.
He is taking the headphones off and is taking care of our callers.
But we'll try again tomorrow as well with the WXCO holiday giveaway and your chance to win as well.
Stick around coming up.
It is a bottom of the hour information update.
We'll get you the news, the weather, the sports and all the information you need always at the top and the bottom of every hour here on 98.9 WXCO.
We will be back tomorrow.
We'll be joined by Carol Lukens talking some
sustainability again tomorrow morning starting at 6.52.
We'll also be joined at 7.52 by Paul Mickley to talk about the weekend in Wisconsin sports.
So a couple of guests coming in tomorrow here on the program.
Ian, have a great rest of your day.
You
too, Chad.
Happy Thursday, everybody.
Have a great day.
And we will be back with you tomorrow for another edition of the WXEO.
What are we?
WXCO
morning
report.
My mind is Swiss cheese here with the Mullins cheese, I think.
But
we'll be there.
Yeah,
it goes.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Keep it right here.
More pack right low.
Coming up after the news here on 98.9 WXCO.
Don't more of the people out there right now, huh?
Okay, grab your microphone You don't have to I oh, yeah, so just like that a little bit closer.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay Very good All right, Ian.
Are we almost ready to roll?
We're all set over here as soon as you're ready.
Have you done this solo before I'm trying to remember usually I don't think so.
This is brand new
All right, Ian, whenever you're ready.
All right.
Stand by.
Okay.
And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report.
It is Friday, December the 19th of 2025.
heading towards the weekend.
In fact, it's kind of the last real Friday of the year because next week it's the day after Christmas and then of course it's the day after New Year.
So a lot of people take it's a long weekend.
So kind of the last work week Friday of 2025 and I don't know how I feel about that or not.
Maybe it's a good thing.
No complaints from me.
Ian Walsh across the way.
Ian again.
Good morning.
Good morning, Jed.
Coming up a little bit later on, we will have another chance for folks to win in our WXCO holiday giveaway.
That's right.
But first this morning, and boy, we've had to work hard to get to this point because Carol Lukens was supposed to be in a little bit earlier this week, but life came forward.
But we're very happy to see her again.
Carol, good morning.
Good morning.
Absolutely.
Again, back with the Iwasa Sustainability Energy and the Environment Committee.
And this morning, we're going to talk about something that is, I think, in some ways, more straightforward than almost anything we've talked about, because it's kind of very, very straightforward in terms of what we're going to talk about as we get into the winter, earlier start, actually, in terms of the snowfall than we've seen in recent years.
We're going to talk about salt.
And there's a number of different areas that the salt that people use on a pretty regular basis when it comes to wintertime can affect us in terms of water, in terms of roads.
I mean, there's a lot of things that are affected by the salt, isn't there?
There are.
There are a number of things.
Yes.
So you want me to go ahead?
No, no, no.
I'm kind of setting the setting the setting the you know what we're going to do.
We're going to start again.
That was so awkward.
I don't want that even airing on the air.
Okay.
Do you want to do a do over this?
Let's do a do over this.
Sorry about that.
No, no, no, no.
I would say setting the stage here and it's like, and you looked at me like, oh boy, what do I say here?
Ian, are we set the roll?
Yeah, take your time.
Whatever you have to do.
Yeah, just...
