The greatest to ever play the game returned to finish what they started. Welcome to Survivor 50. I wanted one more shot to play the game that I fell in love with 25 years ago. I want to win against the best of the best. I chickened out at the Final Tribal.
Season 50, it's an honor. Light your torch. I've got some unfinished business. Be part of history. I have more to play for this time.
Bigger than ever. Survivor 50, new milestone season begins CBS tonight at 8-7 Central. At Capella University, learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programmes teach you relevant skills you can take from the course room to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.
Learn more at Capella.edu. Yeah. Morning, everybody. Welcome into the Wicket verse today. The Wicks and Winkler verse.
That's Mike Wickett. He's on the show. Let's spend some time together. How you doing, Wixie? I'm well, I figured.
Since you had the headliner on your show last week. Freemes was the headliner last week. I might as well throw my ring into my name into the hat here. Be like, well, I'm no Chuck Freeman. In the world of Wisconsin Sports Talk Radio, but.
I if my man's on. And it's your show, I gotta jump on.
So. Thank you. I'm going to hit you with a stat. Are you ready for the stat? Yeah, absolutely.
Can you? It's a trivia question. Can you name? Either. The Packers.
Or the Bucs first round draft pick the last time we worked together. in an official capacity.
Well, when was that? 2016? 10? It's been 10 years since I've been on in Milwaukee. It's been 10 years, 2016.
Can you name either Packers? or Bucks first round draft pick. All right. No. 2016.
Yeah. This.
Well, I know you and I. Did Thon Maker shows together. Thon Maker. Thon Maker was the Bucs pick in 2016. And we were fucking ecstatic.
We were so excited. And he was an Absolute like most of the Bucs draft picks in the last 20 years. He was a bust. He looked good. Like he had all the makings of a guy.
He was like long. He's baby Kevin Garnett. Remember all the Kevin Garnett comparisons? People thought he was older than Kevin Garnett. That was the problem.
Yeah, because we didn't, that's right. We didn't know how old he was. He was from a country in Africa and he was playing here. And it was like, he's fine. He's fine.
And then he sucked. And then they took the point guard. Who didn't want Malcolm Brogdon in the second round, who was actually better? Then Thawn in the Summer League, and then Broggan wanted to get the hell out of Milwaukee as quick as possible. Remember Thawn's first Summer League game?
He had ten fouls. You remember that? Because then you don't fall out in that league. I just remember watching that game because this was back when I was living in Kansas City, and that was that big no-no. Like, you couldn't not be in Milwaukee if you were out in Milwaukee.
Watching a summer league. I want to talk to you about that in a second.
Okay. I don't think we've revisited that enough. I remember watching that Summer League game, and I'm like, This Brogdon cat can play. He was better than Fon in that game. And it turned out he was.
And what's Tawn Maker doing right now? You should get him on this show. I just saw him. I went to the Bucs game last night. He was the one that helped me scan my ticket into the stadium.
I did not know he was still employed by the Bucks, even though he hadn't worked for the Bucks in years. He's actually employed through Pfizer for him.
Okay, my bad. My bad. It's a little different because he works Marquette games too. I think he's an usher at all Pfizer events. He just did the nine-inch nail show.
Yeah. He's going to do all the stops.
Okay. Good to know. Good to know. By the way, that's where I got this hat. Could you comment on my new lid?
What is that? It was a giveaway, and the Bucks had the weirdest giveaway ever. There was like a separate table from where you entered. And they were like begging you to come take these hats. It's a Thanasis hat.
For four, so it's a Thanasis hat, it says champs. It says, remember to always be you. You know, I'm sitting here in my closet doing the show. And I happen to have this hat right here. With The 2021 Champions patch on it.
And then I got another one. I can't. Let me see if I can reach it. This other one is sitting here. This hat's actually really cool.
Bucks finals hat? A buddy of mine sent these to me from when he was in Milwaukee. He was like visiting Milwaukee and he saw them at like a Lids. And he's like, I'm going to send these to Wicket because he doesn't have any. And I did not because I was living in Des Moines.
There's not a lot of Bucs basketball going on in Des Moines. Yeah. I have no comment for that. Um there's the Greek flag on the back in Nigeria. Why?
Does that guy I know why? Because the man's brother runs the town. He's having Ric Flair on his podcast live taping in Madison this week. It is Ric Flair's birthday today. His daughter was on my show in studio.
Charlotte was? Yeah, we've had Charlotte, Becky, you had Seth, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Let's go.
But there were two Bucks. There was a Bucks fan on the elevator. Afterwards, and they were trying to figure out what these were, and one guy goes.
Well, that's the grease flag. I think the other is just. Bucks colors. Yeah, that's it. Nailed it.
Absolutely nailed it. Thanasis hats. Jesus. Good, good job. Kenny Clark was from Bruce City.
Was he the pick? Yes, he was. Yeah. Are we getting people guessing on the pot, on the show? Is that what's happening here?
Yeah, we've got Alan says, let's fucking go, Barden Wickett. What's up, Alan? You need to have Chuck and Wixie on together. I mean, that let me.
Okay, I know it's your show, but let me ask some questions. Let's do that next month. Are you down? Yeah, I mean, I've got nothing going on. We'll do.
Chuckles say yes. He's got nothing else to do. We'll do the week before March Madness.
So, like in a few weeks. That's fine. We'll do a March Madness chuck and wicket. And I'll just be a little bitch boy like I was. I was gonna ask: what was the best part of your radio career so far?
Like, I've seen you post, like, I'm out of radio. Like, I don't believe that. You want everybody wants back in? What was the national show? I want back in, Mike.
Nobody wants me here. The national show. Like the best, like your favorite part. Of being in radio? My favorite part of being in radio I know it wasn't lacrosse.
Well, that was TV. And I still think anything you've done in radio is more fun than anything you did in TV. I don't know. I'm looking back pretty fondly at my Fond du Lac days, or I don't know. Because it was a music station that I ran.
I had say I had I ran the whole thing. Yeah. I ran the. I ran the commercials. I ran the music.
I ran the stop sets. I ran the segments. I ran everything. It was what happens when I own Fond du Lac. When you're in Fond du Lac radio, you have to wear every single hat.
And I think people getting into this business. Should have to do that at some point. I did a lot of that in Ann Arbor. I set up remotes, I board opt games, I answered phones, I produced talk shows. I called around back when I was young, I faxed NBA because I was in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
So we faxed. NBA teams, which Michigan players or NFL teams, we sent 30 faxes to every NFL team to get Michigan players who are playing in the NFL. On our show. And that was just part of the bitch boy stuff you had to do. That was like in the year 2001.
The internet wasn't as a thing as it is now. I would say, I'm trying to answer your question as you. Mike Wickett here is live in front of an updated picture of American Family Field. Yeah, that's all I got saved up. That's the last time I used this program.
And it's saved. The program, which is watermarked right on your chest. Oh, look at that. Yeah. I thought I paid for the premium service.
Anyway, you can see all of these fun things we're talking about: the background, my hat, Mike's face. On the Dan Shaney YouTube stream, check out Dan Shaney. he could be your insurance agent because you know what mike he's He's mine. He's good.
Okay. He's mine. What's up, Dan? Love Dan Shaney. Dan was at my house recently.
He accidentally sent Amazon stuff to my house. That's how you know your relationship with your insurance man. Is a good one when you're getting his Amazon drop-offs. Yeah. They had a good Christmas, it looked like, based on the gifts.
Must be nice. Because I opened them. Oh. They were addressed to me, weirdly. You opened them all, re-wrapped them, and then gave them to your child.
Yes, I did. It was a very good Christmas year. Thanks. Thanks, Dan, for the Christmas gifts for my kid. That's cool.
I took my kid last night to the Bucs game. I saw that. You made some. I mean, I see so much on Facebook from you. We'll talk about your Facebook antics in a minute.
Get, answer my fucking question, all right? When was the best time in your radio career? You and Horby? I don't know. Harvey and I, we were in the pandemic, which is pure COVID.
A whole nother sort of issues. It couldn't have been when it was me and Chuck and you. Oh, I like that too.
Okay. I told you at the time, if you like, if you never left and we were still there, I said, I will do this job. No, I probably would have had to backtrack on that because I was not making any money.
Well, we all would have got COVID anyway. Like we all would have lost all of our everybody. I like to think, and I. I've always regretted leaving Sports Talk. And I learned a lot when I went to News Talk.
I learned a lot doing Rock Now. But I always think man I had more fun doing sports in Wisconsin than any other time. Like that, to me, my answer is the nine years I was on the Phantom Milwaukee. Because What's that? Easy, my guy, working with Gary, hanging out with Gary in a limo.
When I went to Madison is a fond memory. And then I got lost after the Badgers Ohio State game. They all went one way out of Camp Randall. And I went the other way. And that, though, everybody was pretty mad at me when they found me about an hour later in the parking lot.
I was drinking beer, throwing footballs with Badger fans. But get and Gary's like, come on, man, get in the fucking car. Like, we had to get back in the limo and get back to Milwaukee by like two in the morning. Um But I always think like, man, I wish I never would have left the fan. And then I think, well, we all would have got fired anyway because of COVID because that's what that's what the company did.
They canned everybody across the board, across the country.
So I hey, hey, hey. What in God's name? My man, Gary Ellerson, on a plate. Where are you going, Gary? Please have an idea.
We're gonna start moving our way to uh the runway for our turn. Can Gary hear us? No, no, you can't hear. I don't think he's talking. He's not.
He's just Garrett. That's just Gary. Gary, tell him off that limo. Tell them about that later. Gary, I don't think that's really Gary.
That looks like AI Gary on an AI plane. What are you doing? Where are you? He doesn't want to start talking because he's not talking about it. You don't want to be that guy on the plane who's having the conversation like this while everybody else is around on the plane.
You don't want to be that guy. Gary starts doing a sports talk show in the middle of a flight to Santa Barbara, wherever he's going. You're going somewhere warm, though, aren't you, Gary? Absolutely. Yeah, where are you flying to, Gary?
I'm going to Orlando. That's about right. For what? No, and he's going to fly out of Orlando to like Barbados or somewhere else. Yeah, what are you doing there?
But you know what? I love that topic, though. Which was your favorite job that you had? What about you, Gary? What's your answer?
Playing for the Lions. Gary and Cliff. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. That one time they tried to put you with Doug for a show? Oh, that was awful.
And I love Doug, but it's just a good idea. No, no, but just that's just not a good combination. You and Doug is just not a good combination. I tell you what, I give you there's a lot of top five things, but in my top five would be the time That you and I did a show together, and you weren't feeling well that day. I won't say why.
And then another time. Was Bart Winkler, Bart and I drove to where did we drive to? We drove to Kohler to talk to Lindsey Pipkins. No, Canton. No, we went to Canton.
Oh, Canton, our Canton trip. Yeah, Canton trip. Yeah. Yeah, I drove your car. Yeah, yeah, because I couldn't drive across bridges.
Yeah. You don't drive across bridges? No, uh-uh. I got you. My wife is the same way.
When we drive, and she will have like one eye open going across like the Mississippi River. And I'll be like, what, lady, what are you doing, Lee? Come on. Can't do it. Can't do it.
Me and Mike are your favorite memories. I would think, Gary, all right, you take that. We don't want to get Gary busted with that. Love you. Say hello to everybody.
Hello to Gary. Yeah, that looks like a plane that's going to Orlando. Yeah. Wow, Gary Ellerson. They're all coming out now, man.
Should I text? Because I think Gary's favorite answer will be when it was him. And Vern. Josh Vernier and Leroy Butler. Like when the big show was in its prime with Rami.
Like that was probably. Prime Gary Ellerson radio in terms of the team. Hmm. Just a guess. Big thanks to our sponsor, BetterHelp, for partnering with us for this important conversation about mental health.
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So, don't be late. Book your next vacation early on Verbo and save over $120. Rise and shine. Average savings $141 Select Homes Only. I one of the things that came to my head actually was golf outings.
Okay. I like doing the golf outings. Um And then You after you left It was I was so pissed because There needed to be someone to like MC afterwards. That was always your thing. Yeah.
And no one would do it. I'm like, you guys are in fucking radio. You are professional communicators. Yeah. Nobody get up and talk.
And it was like, no, no, no, no, no. You, you're, you, you, you're the new mic now. Did they call you new Mike? No, but that's why it was chucking winkler and not chucking Bart. I know.
I know. Try not to confuse people too much. Just keep the letters similar. And then people always called me a lib because of shit you said. And then over the years, I've tried to outlib you.
I saw your post about the state of the union yesterday when you were in the middle of the day. It was a bucks tweet. I know. So many people. Facebook is crazy, man.
Like, I don't do the only thing you ever see on my own personal Facebook. page. Is my family? That is it. It's my kid.
I only do Facebook because Meta started paying me. Oh, oh, oh, okay. Here we go. Meta pays me. Mark Zuckerberg writes my checks, and so I can pay Dan Shaney insurance.
All right. That's the whole point of this. Actually, Dan pays me to then repay him. That's the system we got going. No, but I was thinking I had to, I wanted to.
Post that I was at the Bucks game. Yeah. Because that's how we live our lives. Yep. And.
Um I thought about putting I was going to put just a random Tuesday because me and Imig and Grant say that all the time. And then I was going to put something else. But then I thought, oh, it's State of the Union tonight. And the buck stocks of the state of the union, because I always think of. I always think of Biden going, the state of the union is strong.
And that was your your box take.
So that the state of the union is not great. And people are like, ugh, I'm like, no. No, people are getting so mad about everything now. It doesn't matter what you do.
So, yeah, the fact that you. Went that way with Facebook. I was just like, God. I don't do anything. But that's a show page.
I don't do anything on my personal page. I just accept friend requests to then make them like my show page.
So So, you're using, so you're basically laundering friend requests. Yes.
Okay. Smart. You got to do what you listen. I get it. You need to get clicks.
You got to get subscribers. You got to get people like Gary Ellerson on a plane to watch stuff like this. All-time Winklerverse moment already. There's no question about it. And that was his first time on.
I've asked Gary to come on like every four months. And he's like, I can't do it. He's like, I can't do it. And then I saw his comment and I. Quickly sent him the text, and he's, and then I didn't think he was gonna come on, and then there he is on a fucking Plane, which did not look real, right?
That did not look real. It looked until he started turning the camera. It looked like it was a background like that. Like I'm like you're in front of Miller Park right now or whatever it's called now. It's always Miller Park.
It's always Twitter. It's always a Sears Tower. It's always Miller Park. But that he looked he looked fake. Until he turned the camera.
So your favorite moment was Just in Milwaukee general? Favorite moment? Or time? I think one of my favorite moments was when Ed Werter. We yelled at him yesterday online, too.
I'm shocked. I we had Ed Werter on, and the whole world was trying to get Ed Werter on. The day Favre retired, the second or third, like I lost track of how many retirements, but nobody could get Ed on who was breaking the story because we had him on. And that was in the old studio too. Like that was a definite highlight.
Um Hacksaw Jim Duggan being in studio was really, really cool. No, before that it was still there. The thing he signed for you is still in the studio. I should come back and get that. I'm kind of.
But I was going to take it from you, but then they stopped. My key card doesn't work anymore.
Okay. And then it stopped working again. It didn't work. I kind of think they're pretending I don't exist right now. I don't know what's going on over there.
Boom. Block. Get out of here. I remember, do you remember when Braun got busted for steroids or the story came out about the Miami program? Oh, yeah.
And I remember I was on, and this is, I think I was still working with Doug. I can't remember if it was Doug or Chuck. And I was like, guys, this smells awful. And I'm just like, I'm not saying it's true, but you got, but Brewers fans are in denial that this is a definite possibility that he worked out with all these guys at Miami and the Miami guy, forgot his name, the head of the program, the steroid program, or whatever. And then like two days later, everything hit the fan.
And I was like, I got one right. I got one right. Like, the, you know, and Braun's Milwaukee's guy, or half of Milwaukee doesn't like him, or whatever, kind of like Bonds in San Francisco. But, like, that moment of. of kind of busting Brian Braun.
Not that I want to get Braun in trouble. But I'll always remember that. I remember living in Green Bay for a week when Farr retired and people were mad. At Aaron Rodgers. I remember them yelling at Aaron Rodgers.
I remember standing in a training camp, just like those moments where like big stuff. happened. Over the course of time, don't have a lot of them for the Bucs, but when the big stuff happened for the Packers and Brewers, like those things always stand out. Oh yeah, the Bucks. I was out in the pit with Rami and then Yeah, I missed that.
I slept at the station and Toby had to wake me up. If there was one celebration, one thing I really wish I would have been around for would have been that run, man. Because I mean, I was watching every game, but I was a stay-at-home dad. It's a real different experience when it's just me sitting there drinking Miller Lights at like 10 o'clock when they're playing in Phoenix. And I'm like, I gotta go to bed because these newborns are gonna wake up pretty soon.
But I it was just so cool to see and I was really happy. Being in Milwaukee, knowing how badly Bucs fans wanted I mean a championship, but just success. You know, now they become spoiled.
Now they want everybody fired every other day and trade this guy, cut that guy. Like Bucks fans got a little taste of success. And they become. Almost entitled. to wanting every year to be a championship season.
And it's just not the way it is. No, we suck. But they gave out sweet hats last night. That's Gattis' hat.
So that's kind of cool. They're all rushing back to me now. The fact that I had a breakfast named after me at Perkins was sick. Yeah. That's how I talk now.
My kid talks that way. Um, I had a bobblehead. Remember the Joe Bob commercials for Bob Menard? Yes.
I remember that. That was a created character, and then it turned into a bobblehead. I know some stuff's gone down with Bob, so we can just gloss over and move on to the next thing. The parade chair bit, I think. I have to.
I thought that was funny. I thought you did a really good job with that.
Well, you know who I want to thank for that is Tony Loreno. Oh, Tody's back in Milwaukee now. Yeah, he does Throwback Nation Radio. I could have him on. I know this is Winkler versus Alex Fanny, but I had it.
So I did that. I really was convinced. That the Bucs were not going to lose the finals even down 2-0. That part is not a bit. That I wouldn't and and my rationale was.
My rationale was when the Cavs went up on the Warriors 2-1, the year that Delavidova shut down Steph. Yeah. And Adela Vadova. Yeah. I think uh Oh, there's one other thing I want to two other things I want to break up with.
I think nine other things, 1800. It's a four-part series. I'll come back and do it again tomorrow. But I Because I was like, I know how to watch the playoffs better than you guys as Bucs fans. As a.
As a sort of Warriors fan, I know how to watch the playoffs. I loved it because your brother worked for the Warriors, right? He does, yeah.
Okay. So. I I know how to watch the playoffs. That was my fault. Yeah.
So I did one chair, and then it got taken away. And um I hadn't talked to Tony in a little bit and he. He Venmo'd me $100. And I like, I was like, what are you doing? Anyway, he's like.
You are taking this money. You are buying more chairs. This bit is amazing. Don't let it end. I think I sent it back to him, and I think he re-sent me the hundred dollars.
He goes, no. I'm doing this for you. He should have just Amazon you some chairs. Yeah, so so I went to Walmart. On Highway 100.
And I stacked up on some chairs. There you go. I thought it was good. I knew the Bucs were not dead at 2-0 when they're all up after they're sitting up there, and it was, I think it was Giannis and Middleton. And it was Drew.
And they're sitting up on the top on the podium, and they're all laughing. Like, they didn't look like they were down 2-0, they looked like they were up 2-0. And like, these guys are fine. Everything's fine. I felt really good.
A day I think about with you a lot is when Brexit happened, and we were like. Obsessed with it? I don't even Did that have any impact? On any of our lives, whatsoever. I don't know.
Like, we were just like, we just want to talk about Brexit. And I think Brexit was going to take down all of Europe and then it was going to come down, it was going to break up the United States. Like, and it turned out, like, I don't know. Does Brexit do what was it? What interrupted Brexit?
COVID? Like, I don't even know. I don't know, but we wanted to talk about it. And I think Chuck was like. Breakfast?
I'll go for some breakfast. Yeah. I will give you credit, by the way, speaking of COVID. Nobody believed in the seriousness of COVID. More than you.
And I remember. I had parade chairs out for COVID. I mean, I remember like you were talking about how it's infecting Spain or these different parts of Europe. I watched a video in Italy.
Well, I was like, Jesus, this guy nailed it. Like, you were right on the number of. people who are going to get sick and all of that about COVID. Which eventually wound up killing a lot of radio careers.
So good job, Bart. And People forget people also were dead. You know what we were doing right before COVID? Right before, was it before COVID? Yeah, it was like right before COVID.
Well, I went to the all-star game in Chicago where the whole world was at, and then I felt sick for two weeks after. Wonder why. 1250 was running a bracket contest. Yeah. Do you remember this?
1250 was running a bracket contest. I remember 12, because I was gone, I think. Yeah, I was gone. And 1250 is running a best like personality bracket or whatever. And was that before?
That was, you were running the bracket, and then they let go of Bill. And Chuck too, right? And they're like.
Now Chuck got let go. Mid 2020 or like March, April 2020.
Okay. Bill got let go. I know the date Bill got let go. Was it written on your hand? Did you have it once?
No, it's January 6th, 2021. Oh, that's my kids are that's my kid's birthday. My twins were born on January 6th. 2021? 2020.
Oh, a year before. 2020, my kids were born on Insurrection Day. Because January 6th. I had taken a nap. And then woke up and watched everything that had happened.
And then I was on my couch. And I got an email. That Bill had got let go. Yeah. And then I was like.
With Was he Was he at the Capitol? That was my first thought. For the record, Bill Michaels was not there. Bill did not get fired because he was not at the moment. And now he's thriving once again on the radio from 10 to 2, where he belongs.
Bill did not get fired because he went to the Capitol. But so that is where. And I think we said half hour. We're going at least 40 now. That's fine.
Like that is that is where Your Career If it was just like moved. Because what what what happened? You moved to Kansas City? 2020, I was in Des Boin. Good point.
But when did you move to Kansas City? 2018? I moved. No, I moved. The Labor Day of 2015.
And we did the show where I was in Kansas City and you and Chuck were in Milwaukee. Yeah, I got promoted to run the board, I guess. Yeah, we did that until. Um The fall, like late summer, early fall of 16.
So we did that for about 11 months. But like It was at a time where I mean, just how different are things now? Because you, we, we had to pretend like you were in Milwaukee, otherwise, it would be like the worst thing in the world. Yeah, I posted a picture of me in my car, and my car had a sunroof, and there were cables overhead in Kansas City for they were building the streetcar in Kansas City. And I was driving, and I took a picture.
And someone said, I think it might have been our boss, Tom. I don't even remember.
Someone said, Where are you? Because it looks like you're like, I'm at home, but there aren't any streetcar wires. That thing wasn't being built yet in Kansas, in Milwaukee yet.
So, yeah, I had to pretend. That I was still in Milwaukee, that I was not in Kansas City. It was a different time. Um, I don't understand why, why, though. I mean, now that we're in what we're in, like, that's so stupid.
I remember when they hatched this plan because they didn't, and I'm grateful that they came up with this idea. Like, the fact that Tom Parker, our old boss, and I was Chuck Sullivan still the GM, I think Chuck was still the GM. And Brian Kelly, who was the operations manager, like. The idea was: I would be in Kansas City, you two would be in the studio in Milwaukee. But no pictures of me in Kansas City, like on Facebook or Twitter.
And there was a weekend where I flew back. To Milwaukee, and we took pictures at Miller Park to put up on Facebook to create a game. We went to a game. Yeah. And then uh you would go to like robert's specialty meets and A month of content.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, and, and I think. Again, it was a different time, like COVID hadn't happened yet. But the idea was he's not. You can't be out of a city and talk about a city, even though I had spent nine years in Milwaukee.
Now. There's not, I mean, nobody's anywhere now. I mean, shoot. I mean, you and I could do a talk show. Daily in Milwaukee right now, and I'm in Des Moines.
And you're in, are you in Whitefish Bay? I'm in Shorewood. Shorewood? I am sorry. I am.
Like after COVID, I did shows while I was sort of unemployed. Uh, I did shows in Milwaukee on a now defunct sports talk radio station. You did a week at the game, yeah. I did it twice actually, and then I was on in Kansas City at my old station on KMBZ, filling in for one of the people with my old co-host. And the funny thing about that was, she was in Florida.
So she was in Florida. I was in Des Moines, and the show was on in Kansas City. I've done shows from Des Moines in Sacramento on a news talk station. Things have changed so much.
Now nobody cares as long as. We're on in Milwaukee talking about the Packers and the Bucks and the Brewers. You know, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter where you are. Like right now, I'm at Miller Park, right?
Yeah. You're actually back in time. I think that. We need Well, that's good. I I think that that you know, COVID, I guess, but that shattered a lot of things, which Yeah, you probably should have just been able to be like, all right, I'm in Kansas City.
I could still do this fucking show. I'm moving back. Whatever. It's not a big deal. Yeah.
But I think we've gone two lakhs. I was watching. I had Goli on the other day, the Golik brothers or dad. Golik, the Golik. Yeah, big Golik is doing the show from his hotel room.
Yeah, that's why I don't. I don't want to see you broadcasting on TV from where, probably 30 minutes prior to you being on the show, you're like walking around naked in your room. What do you think I was doing right before I got to the Miller Park studios? I don't like Adam Schefter's always in a fucking car now when he's on TV. Like, come on, brother.
Back in the day, you would have had to move to do your national show. You would have had to move to New York. Yes.
You know, you can't do that, Ed. You don't have to do that anymore. You can stay in Milwaukee or wherever to do national.
So when you were done done and then I got my job well I got my job Because you did what you moved. Yeah, I'm there. And then I got the job at the news talk station in Kansas City, and then it became you and Chuck. And I became an afterthought. And now You are doing weekends, right?
Can't not quite yet. Not quite yet. Because you're on the schedule when I look at the I know, not quite yet. We're going to wait for an official announcement on some big stuff coming.
Okay. Which, um Just edit this out and post. Come on. I'm not doing that. I think it's alive.
And we didn't say anything. But you're doing what? Music, rock? Yeah, see this? Boom.
Carn. Yeah, yeah. I do, I've been doing mornings on laser. 103.3 here in Des Moines for almost five years. April will be five years.
For me, I've been in the building for over five years because I was doing stuff on ESPN Des Moines. And then Wickets World. Yeah, like. Corporate powers that be ask that I don't do that anymore. and just focused.
On the rocks. One hour of sports you did on Fridays was too much? They requested that I focus Yeah. On laser.
So Just right straight here at the rock, at the rock station.
So, yeah. And it's the same company that runs. What stations Bob and Tom on? Or not Bob and Tom, but what's the rock? Bob and Brian.
Yeah, not Bob and Tom, Bob and Brian. Same company. They own them, they own me. Uh for now. I want to take, I want me and Horvot to take over for Bob and Brian.
Well I know when I got the job at Laser, Horvot messaged me because he's from Iowa. Horvat lived here growing up. And he's from Joliet, Illinois. Basically, Iowa. He moved to Iowa.
And did radio.
Okay, because he was really excited. Like, I don't know if it's a shot. You're a child called like Crescent or something? Creston? That's it.
There's a Creston. That's it. It's about an hour southwest of where I'm at right now in Des Moines. He was excited because he probably listened to Laser for a long time. while he was in Iowa.
You know, it's pretty it's pretty awesome rock station, man. And what's so funny, Bart. I got into radio 27 years ago. to work at a rock station. I turned down a rock internship on the big Detroit morning show to go be in Ann Arbor.
And then Gave up on rock and then focused on sports. And then here I am 25 years later. Working at a rock station. Like full circle moment happened when I got this job five years ago. Big thanks to our sponsor, BetterHelp, for partnering with us for this important conversation about mental health.
This is Steve Smith here, former NFL wide receiver and host of the 89 Show on YouTube.
So, having a counselor and working with BetterHelp that gives you an opportunity to really start to unpack, but people don't understand when you unpack things, you also open up a box that you're not always sure what's inside.
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because a great trip starts with peace of mind. I don't think I'll ever be employed by a radio station again. I can't imagine why. You, you. I mean, there is a phrase, you don't burn a bridge.
You are nuking bridges as you go. I didn't burn Odyssey Bridge. You could still, hey, is your okay. For those that don't know, oftentimes there's a non-compete. Can you still like do you have a non-compete right now?
Could you work at? 1250 of someone died? I think I could work anywhere. I think if I did have a non-compete, it was. The New York metro market.
Okay. All right. Well, I... I don't think you're moving to New York anytime soon.
Okay. No, I I my non-compete is My behavior.
Okay. Yeah. People don't I feel like I've brought a lot on myself. You have. You have to be able to do it.
I was an attack dog. You you have been applauded and Probably derided for what you've done. The way you, you hit your exit went down. Like I I I watch what your boy Barrett wrote about you. And I watched the rebuttal to what Barrett wrote, whoever wrote the other side of it.
And I saw your... Your posts about it as well. Like, this is the full gambit. of of leaving or getting asked to leave radio.
Well, I figured that I was I didn't I figured that. I wouldn't I already thought I would never work in radio again. You still will. Very You're the Chuck Freeman of Milwaukee Sports Radio. All right.
You're going to hang on. They'll be, you go with Fond du Lac, with Madison, somebody in Milwaukee. As long as you're around. You're a candidate, Bart. You're a name.
You were one half of of the the Chuck Freeman show. All right, you've got plenty of opportunity out there. One half of this, bad boy. There it is. Mine's in a box somewhere.
I should put that as the background. Large market radio, news and talk, Chuck and Winkler. Jordy Cutford Graham was the name of the episode we submitted. What was that? Jordi Nelson cut.
And Jimmy Graham signed. Yeah. The fucking day. Hold on, I'm getting warm. I'm taking this off.
I'm in my closet. People don't realize this, man. Go on. Look on the back there. Did you have a bunch of signatures?
What is that? Yeah, I took it around and had people sign it. Is it like a yearbook photo?
Well, because the bit was this is. Your award, not mine. Even though it's in my basement.
Okay. We had the long Jeff Janice thing. Right. Yes.
So you had that guy on your show, right? Um Couple things here. One. He was at Waukesha Sports Cards. And I was producing you and Chuck.
And so I went to do an interview with Janice. And we were going to run it. It was three, four minutes. We were gonna run it every hour. And I was so excited.
The whole show is going to be like a Janice celebration. Right. For a guy who caught two passes in his career, two incredible passes. Do you remember what happened that night? I'll tell you.
Bo Ryan stepped down out of nowhere. Yeah. I remember that day too. And so the next day, I'm like. Guys, I need to play this Janice interview.
No time. You're like. Bo Ryan stepped down. Janice can wait till Thursday or something. I go, no.
So we play at like 9:56, I think. Yeah, that's a good lead into Bill's show. It's what that was. It was just basically: well, when Bo Ryan steps down and there's this. Dark cloud of scandal hanging over him.
It's like, that's your boy, your savior. And I remember like the next year after that touchdown or that game against Arizona. Everyone just said, just let Janice go on fly patterns. It's all like football fans thinking that was the pattern on him. He can be a cornerback.
Yeah, just let him run. It's fine. Like, fair. Janice Janice did somebody paid Janice to give me a cameo once. What is the price of a Jeff Janice cameo?
It was like fifty bucks. That's not bad. I mean, for you. Like, that means that cameo means more to you than probably anyone who's not in the Janice family. I agree.
Oh. Chuck Freeman. I took this picture of Chuck last night from what he did. He doesn't like that photo. I'd send it to him.
I said. Chuck. I am a straight man. But this denim jacket, scruff beard look, this is absolutely the look for you. I love it.
Again, totally straight. Did he respond? Yeah, what did he say? Uh He said LOL. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Chuck probably watched the State of the Union last night. When you were at the bottom of the ball, I bet you he didn't. No.
You don't care. Are you guys talking about the Olympics or how did you cover it? Like, you're on rock. I mean, but did it. I'm very mad.
I'm bringing this up because I'm very mad at sports radio. Oh, I've seen how mad you are at everyone. Or how they covered the Olympics. About everything. We do sports twice a show.
I mean, the Packers carry a lot of it because I scream and yell about the Packers, and then there's five or six teams that. Have fan bases in Des Moines because we're right in the middle. Chiefs, Cowboys, a lot of Vikings north, a lot of Chiefs south. Packers are right there, and the Bears as well.
So I'm either really loud or really quiet during football season during the week, depending on what happened with the Packers.
So we do sports twice a show. And we did some on the Olympics. Like we talked about the win on Monday. Um But from our perspective, sports makes up about. 15% of our show.
It doesn't get. A lot of reaction unless it's Packers football, Bears, those teams.
So we talk. Yeah. We j we're probably about 18. 17, something along those lines. Close to 20 if we go long.
But when I first started, that's the hardest part about going from. Sports talk. to music. Is and everything is recorded. Every call is recorded.
Like in, you know how it is, but in sports talk or news talk, callers are live. Let's go to Bart in Shood. And then you get on, and then we're done with you, move on to the next one. If I was a clown, I'd say Whitefish Bay. I don't want people to know where I live.
In southern Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Bay, south. But we um We would Basically, take the call if it's a 90-second call, edit it down to 40 seconds, and air it as live. And then our talk time, the amount of time between songs we would be on or between a song and a commercial break. We were like limited to three minutes when I first got on the air.
And I said, This is ridiculous because I'm used to doing 10, 12, 14 minute segments. You know what I mean?
So that was like learning a new language, going from talk. Where I hosted talk shows for 15 years, to you got to get out and you got to split the two and a half, three minutes with your co-host and a caller.
So you had to get everything really condensed. Word economy was important. Took me a long time to get used to doing that. And I would ask why. I said, why?
Why can't we go seven minutes, eight minutes talking about a topic? They said, you haven't earned that yet. Especially because my partner Heather and I Brand new show, they don't know anything about us. They have to get used to us. Radio is all about familiarity.
They're much more familiar with hearing Enter Sandman. or something by Ozzy. than they are with us.
So until we became until about a year later, we got to go to like four minutes and then five minutes. And it's been weird, but I'm used to it now. I can still do this. It's like it's easier to talk longer, I think, from Yeah.
Well, I think in music, radio. You have to, I think. You are like why I would listen to. I want to hear you guys. Like, yeah, I like rock, but I want to hear you guys, especially because if I want to understand, man, I can listen to it in 15 seconds or less.
Yeah, that's that's the thing about music radio, man. Like, it's it's hard. The personalities have to drive. you to listen because in today's day and age, I got to enter Sandman right here. I got a whole Spotify playlist of a Kid Rock album or an Aussie album or whatever I want.
I can just play it.
So you got to be entertaining in that time. And that was the other thing. If your segment, if your three minutes is good, why make it four? You know, like if you're good for three minutes, then be good for three minutes. Don't try to drag it out just to hear yourself talk, you know, for an extra minute.
So, yeah, you would have to, we had to get good at it. We had to develop chemistry, and now we really have, so it's cool. What I started doing is, I started playing songs after that connected to what I was talking about. Right. If you're doing a Miley Cyrus segment.
I got it. Did you do a lot of Miley Cyrus segments? She was huge when I she had born in the U.S. Stages came out when I was there. Like today, we did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees.
Came out. For the classic play than the people that were we played a couple: uh, Oasis and Iron Maiden are both on, and we don't play a lot of Oasis, but we play more Maiden.
So we would play we played a couple of those. We didn't play any Wu-Tang clan who have been nominated this year for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh, well, get that on the pod. Yeah, so many people upset. There's two things that piss people off, no matter what the outcome is: the rock and roll Hall of Fame nominees, especially if there's somebody who's not.
It's not Black Sabbath. And then the Super Bowl halftime show, which I'm not sure if you heard, but people were pretty upset about that. Yeah, I watched the other one. I don't know what you're talking about. No, you didn't.
No, you did not. I actually watched it just last night again. I hate who Kid Rock has become. And I say, Oh, he's very hypocritical. I say this not as a political statement.
Okay. I don't care who you vote for. All right. Kid Rock His album, Devil Without a Cause, the one with Baba Taba and Cowboy. It is one of my absolute favorite albums of all time.
but to see what he has become It's just like Man, I hate that I like your music. I don't like any of his stuff now because it's all hyper-political or country, and I don't need any of that in my life. Like the old school. I like when he slows it down and duets with Cheryl Crowe, actually. Like, that was a good song.
I'll put your picture away. Yeah. He played Summerfest, right? About. 15 years ago, and he brought her out.
And he brought her out to sing that song. I was at Dano. Yeah. Yeah. Um Unless I created that memory in my head, but I'm pretty sure he did over at Summerfest.
Yeah, I don't know. I like when he slows it down. When I was in ninth grade, Oh god.
So ninth grade. Our school at the time was ninth grade, was freshman year, no. Tenth grade was freshman year. No. How does that work?
No. The high school started in 10th grade. When you were a freshman, you were still at middle school. Our elementary school goes kindergarten through six. Is that weird?
Yeah, ours too. That's weird to me. Mine was always K through five, and then six, seven, eight, and then nine through 12. They were going to change it here to go K through four.
So any and anyway. Oh, okay.
So there was like a summer party where the three middle schools. Like if because like I grew up in Fond du Lac. There's one high school, but there were three middle schools. And so you know people from the different schools a little bit. Yeah.
So, somebody from one of the middle schools. The summer leading, she had a party. That was like Whoever you know, if they're at this, get them all here. At her house. Yeah, at this person's house.
Yeah, that's what you need. A good old middle school. Mm-hmm. Rager. And a band was playing.
Like one of the ninth grade kids. Was it Twisted Brown Trucker? Was it Kid Rocks Band? And I think so, but but They they took a break. And they left all their stuff on.
And nobody knew me from the other schools.
So I'm out. This is what happened in radio. I feel like. People need to know me immediately. The reason I make a bad first impression is because I make a...
Mm-hmm. So I got up to the microphone and I go. And again, nobody knows me. And there's no music playing. And I go.
My name is King. Ba with the bar the bang the bang diggy diggy diggy said a buggy set up the buggy. And everyone's looking like, who is this fucking guy? But I had to make a name for myself. Did you make any friends at that party?
You know, no, and no one's ever brought it up. Like, weird ever brought that up to me. You need to find some people who are at that party. and have them on this podcast. And then and then you can recreate the moment.
Did you go to that party with anyone, or did you go stag? Did I go stag? Did you go by yourself or did you go with other people to this party? I mean, oh, yo, Katin, it was this party didn't happen in the 1950s, Mike. I'm just asking, did you go alone?
I went with other friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did they w go home with you or did you have to go home by yourself after your kid rock impression? I don't really remember. I don't remember anything after that party.
Blacked out after the Kid Rock impression. Yeah, but then you know I jump on radio and it's like, okay, I'm taking over for Mike. I gotta. I gotta be an attack dog. I gotta yell at these other people.
I gotta. I did not. And I'm trying, everyone like I've ever wronged, if you want to say that. I've tried to have back on the I've tried to hat on this pod to like. Talk it out and nobody will come on.
Did you get Zabin on? He didn't, come on. Any other any of the other guys from the game come on? Did Drew come on yet? I mean, let's not go crazy.
I don't want to. Yeah. My favorite thing, Bart, is the fact that you have beef with everyone. And you let the whole world know about it. It's like rappers having the beef on social media, but you just have it with Drew Olson and Bill Michaels and Steve Zabin.
Did I miss anybody else, by the way? Have you did I miss ah, Willie. Oh. Willie hates me too, so it's fine. Domovsky Schneidman.
List goes on. Yeah, you're really cutting out all your Packers insiders here. I'm an owner. How does Rob Domovsky hate anybody? He didn't like, I made fun of him one time, he blocked me.
Because they did a whole article about how Rogers pronounced the word, I don't think I'll be back. Oh god. But he said the word think weird. And you did a whole video on that and then he shit on me. How many hits did you take?
How many hits you get on that one? Yeah. Not enough to be blocked by Rob Domofsky. Ho ho ho ho ho. Yeah.
That's fantastic. All right. Let's leave them wanting more. You got to take a nap anyway. I do.
I'm getting tired. I've been up since 4, and it's 12:30 as we're recording this. I appreciate you coming on. Yeah, anytime you want, man. If you want to have me on with Chuck next week or sometime, we can bring the whole show.
Get Horvod on, get everybody back on.
Okay. A March Madness preview show. Just like a steel cage match, an elimination chamber match.
Well, that's this weekend. I know, and I'm topical. My kid. Loves it. My daughter likes watching wrestling.
Like, we'll watch old, not old, because she doesn't really want to watch like WrestleMania 4. But She'll love what my my one daughter, she loves Drew McIntyre. Oh, yeah. And I'm like, why of all people, you pick Drew McIntyre? But that's her favorite.
My kid loves Jay. Uso, yeah. We watched the Royal Rumble. He won. Probably no less than 26 times.
Yeah. It's insane.
Well, you have me on whatever you want, man. I'm always here. And yeah, we can, when we get closer to a big announcement, we can have, you know, you can mention it, but. There's, I can't, you know. I've already talked about that.
On other shows. I have not. I haven't talked about it at all. I've been asked not to. Hmm.
Like my mom knows and you know. All you gotta do is look at the schedule on the app. Yeah. It says your name. I know, I know.
I know. I'm excited for it. Anyone want to know what I'm talking about? Send me a DM. I'll let you know.
Wicket, good to talk to you, buddy. Good mark. Thank you for stopping into. The wicked verse. With VerboCare, help is always ready before, during, and after your stay.
We've planned for the plot twists, so support is always available. because a great trip starts with peace of mind. Okay.
