John Patrick, Radio Vet, Golf Enthusiast, Mentor

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I don't know that I think depression is bad. We kind of make it bad because sometimes people do bad and tragic things with it.

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Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I'm your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for following the podcast, downloading, listening. I really do appreciate that. Thanks for the folks that have bought me a coffee at ChewingtheFatBR.com. And also thanks to our sponsor for this episode, the Black Cat Picture Show, it's an international film festival coming to Augusta at Le Chat Noir, August the 19th through the 21st. If you're a filmmaker, you can go ahead and get your films in now

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their late deadline before May 22nd at blackcatpictureshow.com. I'm excited to have back in studio and hopefully all the technical issues are fixed out this time. My friend, John Patrick, welcome again. Sir. I'm trying to figure out I've never done a podcast, but yet this is the second one I've done. Right. Well, John, you know, as a broadcaster, pretty much. Of note.

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of very, very much worldwide notoriety. Pretty much every break you do is kind of like a podcast. It's just a podcast in the moment. And you do have your own podcast with your show, The Augusta Golf Show. Sort of kinda, yeah. I mean, it shows up on Apple Podcasts. And I guess it must be a podcast. So you must have a podcast. Well, this is then the first time I've been a guest on a podcast. On the same podcast. For the second time.

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twice, but never having heard the first one. Yes, had some technical difficulties. That's fine, not the... Because I've never made a mistake. In your illustrious... In my illustrious broadcasting career. And you've been in broadcasting for how many years? Well, 1977, or I guess we'd come up on 45 years this December. Wow. That's a great milestone for any broadcaster

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because as we know from being in industry, you see so many people come and go. Whether of their own volition or not, it is a kind of tumultuous industry to be in. So for you to have made it in radio that long, it is something to be proud of. And I think a lot of that, just to gush a little bit is because of your, who you are, your personality,

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with people, your wit, the voice of course. You know, people don't just keep you around for no reason. Okay. I mean, you know, part of that, I don't really, I guess I've given it some thought, but I don't dwell on it. I just, you get to a certain point in 45 years where it's like, you know, this is who I am and this is what I do and I can't really be

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different or do it differently. So I hope you find value in it. And no, I mean, as an employer, I hope you find value in it because I can't really do it differently. At this point. At this point, yeah, it's pretty well baked in. There's only a few new tricks that this old dog can do. Yeah, and not very well. So I can't do much of it. Here it is. Hope it's okay. Because this is what it's become. This is what it's going to be. Now, speaking of that,

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I mean, I'm sure you've seen technology advance a few different ways in radio over your time from, were you ever an actual music playing DJ? Boy, as I was, Rob, thank you for asking. Yes, I was your platter push and poppa. With records, with 45s. I mean, it's what got me interested in the whole thing.

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They built a radio station in a mall where I was growing up in Norfolk and you could see the guy. And then I'm not gonna go in the weeds here but he could queue up the records. And the commercials were all played on carts which were kind of like eight tracks. I just kind of fell in love with it. So yeah, when I started, that's what I was doing. Yeah, yeah. Were you always, John Patrick was that year? Because that is a big thing in radio as well

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like in acting that you create this persona, you create this name. I know for a while we have a friend who's worked at a station. They were the Froggy stations. And so every, every, oh, sure. Every host had some sort of in amphibian. Oh, yes. I was Tom Croko. Where are you really? Oh, well, that's awesome. Yeah, not so much. Were you doing just the news? Is that why? No, I, they were looking at it. Everything had to have. Right.

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That sort of name. That is so. So for some reason I was Tom Kroko. That is so. And yes, I'm still friends with the amphibian. Yes, yes. So I mean, so I think part of that is kind of, I don't know if you call it kitsch, if you call it nostalgia, but there's just something about that radio as an entertainment industry that does that type of stuff. I think, boy, I don't know if the personalities still do it. I think there's still a froggy

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station out in California, really, maybe in Sacramento or something, but I don't know if the people are based on those names. But I worked for a company that developed that particular one. Really? Yeah. The guy for whom I worked, his name was Kirby Confer. There were three of them. There was Kirby Confer, there was Paul Rothfuss and Donald Alt, and they owned this company. I moved here in 1984.

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to work for a company that owned the radio station that was frequency 1057, and we just called it WFMG, and they bought it a year later, and they turned it into Sunny 105, and they liked that sort of Hollywood, a mascot was created. To this day, I remember Donald Ault, who was one of the owners, sketching out the logo on a piece of paper, and that's the logo we took.

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you know, give or take an artist's rendering of it. It was a really interesting time back then, late 80s, early 90s. I look back on it now, it was a wonderful time to be a part of that company, but what we did for the three or four years they owned us, but what we didn't realize at the time, all of the neat things with which they were providing us was just to fatten us up to sell us.

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But it was a fun, you know, you're like the chicken eating all the food. Hey, these guys are great. I can't say I'm friends with them now because I don't speak with them, but I would be friendly with them now if I saw them because they were really interesting guys. Two of them were former disc jockeys. One was the money guy, Donald. He was a little less fun than the other two.

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But, you know, to come full circle on this story and what a small world it is, I don't know, seven, eight years ago, I volunteer some of my valuable free time to first T-announcing duties for Augusta University's men's golf tournament on the Sunday morning of Masters Week. And there's 16, 15, 16 universities that come to town to play in the golf tournament.

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And so I'm doing first T duties. I don't remember for which school it was, but the young man that was in a group coming up, his last name was Confer. And when he came up, I said, I got a question for you. Anywhere in your family, anywhere in your life, is there a Kirby Confer? And he says, that's my grandpa. And it was just a small world. So now how's he doing? He's great. Where is he? He's up in Maryland somewhere. Okay, good. That's good. It's a,

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It's a big industry, but a small world. Very small world. I found that out in working in radio, in moving from here to like Birmingham, and there were people there that knew of people here. And of course, I started when I was still in high school interning at 96RXR when they were in the Lamar building. And there are other people that I still in touch with, Chuck Williams and some of those

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folks that were there and that, you know, we're still friendly now. But yeah, it is a very small community of some of the best weird people that you will ever meet. Oh, and to the point that you made at the very beginning, after 44 years and you were naming names, there are very few names left, you know, that were in the business when I started that are still in the business. They've even come and gone or they were 20 years

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when I started and they're out of the business now. Right. But it is fun and when it's all over, it will be the people and the stories of the people that I'll remember. Yeah. Because otherwise it's just Michael Bolton records. Right. Right. So you said you started by watching the guy in the mall with the glass panel radio station. Had you been told like...

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You've got a great voice. No, no, no, no. Don't know. Don't know. It was just something about it. I joke maybe to hide the truth that I found it enamoring that I could be in the room by myself as an only child where someone would listen to me and I could emote something that would move them or irritate them or make them laugh or something.

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I was in a room by myself doing it, not on stage, not performing in front of a bunch of people. The only child could be by himself and still do that. That's about as much as I've really kind of thought about why that. I realized, okay, that's as good as answers any because I really don't know. I really don't, like I said, 45 years later, what attracted me to that.

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whom I was married, my former mother-in-law just could not believe that this was the profession I chose. Really? Not that she thought I was bad at it, but that essentially, I don't know, it's hard to tell now 45 years later. Essentially I think I'm an introvert. But now after 45 years of having to be someone else, the turning on and off of being in a

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quote-on is much easier. So I think I'd meet people today who would in no way think that I'm an introvert because again, being in a room, being quote-unquote on has become much easier. Yeah. Depending on your format and what you're doing, I mean, you're, you know, we're originally starting in a music format. Yes, that's right, Rob, I did. Yes, thank you for remembering that. You know, that's what I started. And that's different, that you're just talking in between the song.

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doing the heavy lifting. Absolutely. The music is what people are there for. But they're also there for you. There's a strange bond and connection that people listening to you, they create a familiarity with you, you're part of their day, you're part of their work day or whatever, and you're their friend in the little box on the table or in their headphones, and there's just something about that that they build that bond. Yeah. I mean, I suffer from it myself. In that.

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doing the show that I do now, which begins at 5.30, and I get up at four and I'm out of the apartment at 4.40 and I'm in the car and these days you can listen to an app just about any radio station in the country. Or podcast. Or podcast. And I'm listening to the radio station in Atlanta, WSB. And it's, I like at 4.40 in the morning that there's somebody there. That guy's actually honestly there and all of the people who are doing

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the weather and the traffic and the news, they're all there and they're all talking to me and they're all at work and they're all friendly. I get it, I get that kind of bond that somebody's there. And I would say I don't understand this part of it because I'm always on the other end of it, but maybe I do. There is something about just hearing somebody as opposed to seeing and hearing somebody. Because I'm the guy

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heard, I don't know that I understand it, but I experience it in the morning listening to Scott and all the folks at WSB. I'm just hearing them. Now, I've met them. I know what they look like, which is breaking a wall somewhere. But yeah, there's something comforting. And it's so funny. I experience it on my end, but when he's not there, it's different. It's still a guy.

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because we're Scott. How come you're there? How long is he going to be gone? When does he come back? And yet you're doing a wonderful job and you're fulfilling all of the duties you're required to fulfill, but we're Scott. Right, right. And when you're the Scott, when you're in the box, when you're on the air, you're just talking to yourself. I mean, now you have the advantage you have. You have a guess.

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co-host and things like that. But coming from my side where it was, I was just the guy in the box talking to the walls. Yeah, I became, I don't want them to hear this at work. I became a better disc jockey when I became part of a team because to your point, I'm now finally just having a conversation with somebody. And then when I got back

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the radio to talk up, you know, to do a disc jockey functions. I think I became better. I have, this is the part I don't want management to hear.

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if they came to me and said, hey, we need help, could you do one Saturday, not every Saturday, could you do a shift on one of our other radio stations? I'd kinda like to do that, to just hear, it's been, 2022, God, it's been 15, 16 years since I did a music shift. I'd kinda like to, yeah, I'd like to hear what that sounds like today.

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Just once, I don't want my Saturdays spoken for, but I'll do it once for you if you're in a bind. And I, you know, let's erase this part of the podcast. Okay, Smith, they don't listen to me. No, they don't do a good point. They don't listen to me and I work for them. But yeah, it's a special kind of magic, and that's why I'm really appreciative for something like the podcast now. So I still feel some of that, but I feel, but I love having the opportunity to talk to people. I say now.

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I put this in posts on Facebook from time to time, maybe on National Radio Day or National Disjockey Day. With all the friends I've known that have come and gone in the business and in life, and trying to explain radio, if you've done it, if you haven't done it, no explanation will suffice. If you've done it, no explanation is necessary. Yeah, absolutely.

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your first paying gig. So you got the bug watching the guy in the ball. What was the first paying gig? Or the first chance you actually had to do it? There was, again, in Norfolk, there was a morning show host of the news talk. His name was Paul Hennings. And Paul, because radio doesn't pay, was always looking for extra money, started a broadcasting school. And you could attend the Paul Hennings Broadcasting School,

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on the second floor of some building there in Virginia Beach, Virginia. So when you're fresh out of high school, as any high school graduate would account for today, you're kind of lost and what are you gonna do? And if you know what you're gonna do, how do you go about doing it? And radio was what I knew I wanted to do. I was never, for some reason in the household with my parents, whether it was financial

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was just never on the table for some reason. 50 some years later, I don't know the answer to that one either, but it just wasn't. Never talked about, never encouraged, never discouraged, never pushed upon. But, and I found that I wanted to do this. And in the process of wanting to do this, I did all a bunch of stuff. If there was a softball tournament that needed an announcer for the weekend, I would do that. I'd do a,

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to require me to talk into a microphone. So I enrolled in the Paul Henning's broadcasting school and somehow, some way, and a lot of the folks, because it was Norfolk, a lot of the folks in the school did it through the GI Bill and they were communication experts in the service and they were getting out of the service and they didn't know what they were gonna do either. And a lot of the guys in my class were Navy guys and then 30-somethings

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and stuff like that, and I'm 18 years old. And all I can think is he saw something. He felt something, he saw something, he saw an opportunity because again, to keep his accreditation as a school, he had to get people placed. So, he'd size up a class of 25 people. And if he saw five people that he could get placed, he spent more time with you and allowed you to go in the studio and do stuff.

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So he got me my first well, I'm gonna wait hold on I got me my first job. He got me my first interview With a guy named Sonny Woody in in Martinsville, Virginia Collinsville, Virginia actually which is to say it's a suburb of Martinsville is bogus But I got the interview I got the job I Started on December 27th

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I drove, I packed up everything in the Datsun B210 hatchback without air conditioning, drove to Martinsville, Collinsville, Virginia. Sat with Sonny at a Woolworth at noon for an hour, hour and a half, and he said, ready to go on at three?

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Oh, no, that's what you're doing. You're going on at three. So I was on that afternoon. Wow. And I was there for about four years, wondering if I'd ever get out of there. Wondering again, how do you get the next job? Got one, how do you get the next one? Right. One of the great joys, I have stayed a little bit in contact with my first program director, fellow by the name of Bill Bass.

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radio in Norfolk and he never, we lost touch for a long time, for almost forever. And then somehow reached back out, he found me on the internet or maybe it was the golf show or something and he reached out and we email, maybe talk every couple of years. And he just happened to mention in the last year that Sonny Woody was still alive. And I do you have any way to get in touch

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with him, he goes, yeah, I think. And he gave me a number and I called it and got voicemail and got about doing my life and didn't give it much thought. And I knew, well, I was emotional making the phone call because, you know, I didn't think I'd have the chance to tell the guy 45 years later, you're the one who got me started down this path. I thought I'd missed that opportunity,

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I definitely hadn't thought about it much, but when I did think about it, I thought, well, I'd miss that. And then one day out of the blue, you have your phone, you make a phone call, I got voicemail, but he was then listed in my contacts with his name, so one day his name pops up on the phone. Oh, wow. And he called and we spoke and I got to tell him that. And he said very nice things about me. I mean, I have no idea if he remembered who I was. I don't know how many employees

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he's ever had, how many, you know, why would you remember me? But he said he did, and he was very proud to hear that I'd stayed with it, and he was very proud to hear that I was doing what I was doing. And it was emotional. I mean, it was, God, I never thought I'd talk to that guy again. So I did that for four years. I believe, I think the first check I got was 106 bucks. Yeah, for some reason, that's always kind of

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stuck with me. So that's what I remember from the first, that first stop in radio for about four years. Yeah, and then from there you kind of hopped around? Well, I went, I don't remember how I got the job in Wilmington, North Carolina, but I did. I did mornings at a radio station in Wilmington that was sort of a hybrid radio station in that from the time I came on, in the mornings it was primarily

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a top 40 pop play in the hits kind of radio station. But as the day wore on, it would be a little bit more album oriented, it would play more tracks from albums. And we may be speaking foreign languages to people listening. Deep goods. Yeah. So, and by the time we got to the night lady, Gina, I mean, it was full bore album oriented radio

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sexy sounding siren, you know, from seven to midnight or whatever. So that was an interesting, that was interesting to me. I didn't like the radio station the rest of the day. I didn't care for it much when I was on, but I didn't listen, it wasn't my cup of tea. And it was an interesting dynamic. Again, back to the story of people. Facebook, I think I have to credit Facebook for this. I have reconnected with pretty much

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people, the program director that hired me, and maybe that's how we did it. He unfortunately passed away maybe 10 years ago and he would have been then in his 50s. He unfortunately passed away, surprisingly passed away, and maybe the rest of us kind of reconnected. The fellow who came on after me, I think he's either still in radio, I think he may be still in radio or doing a podcast.

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And he kind of did afternoons. Why I might be missing. Oh, the program director did afternoons. And he's passed away. And the woman that did nights is now a acupuncturist in Denver, Colorado. Still looks exactly the same. The fellow that I really wanna see again is the all night guy who I would come in and replace. He was a young kid.

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funny kid, I really liked him. His father had a very important job, I am with IBM or something like that. He was kind of sort of from money, but you didn't really get a sense of that from him. He's kind of drifted through his life a little bit, but we're friends on Facebook. And we make noise about trying to get together somewhere. You know, it's just hard to get everybody to coordinate and get somewhere. I'd like it to all be in Denver,

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lives and we get to Denver, I would really, really like that one more time. Yeah. I was only there for two years. And then they sold that radio station and the people that bought it lied to us, said it was gonna be great and said, here's what we're gonna do and you're gonna love it. And then the day they closed on the radio station, they got all the folks in the room and said, yeah, it's not really gonna go that way. And my boss, that program director,

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left and came here to work for a company and called me up about six weeks later and said, yeah, would you consider coming to Augusta to do mornings? And I heard Augusta and I liked golf. And I'm like, and that wasn't gonna be a good situation. So I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that. And came here in 84. So essentially, and again, back to the longevity of radio, I wanna get to 50 years and interestingly,

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to 50 years working theoretically, maybe this isn't right and fair. But I mean for like four, at least, well three places, maybe four or five different owners, that kind of goes out the window with some of the years at Sunny when we changed hands a lot. But I look at it as four places. Yeah, four home bases. Yeah. Yeah.

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You came in to Augusta then, you're a golf fan, Sunny 105, I remember listening to that, getting ready to go to school. And then as you're talking about acquisitions and changing hands and things like that, you got, I guess, Sunny, I don't know if it was a frequency, what the whole thing, somehow got entangled

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WBBQ. WBBQ was the 100,000 watt flamethrower of the southeast. I mean, there weren't a lot of places in the U.S. that did not know WBBQ right here out of North Augusta, South Carolina because of the wattage of the station, the wattage of the cottage. And it, at that time in radio, it broke a lot of artists.

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it helped the careers of a lot of artists and things like that. You know, if you were on, you know, a heavy rotation with B.B.Q., that's something to say in the world of music at the time. Yeah. And so how did that transition from your point of view go? Well, I was pretty much in the middle of it all. They decided the folks at W.B.B.Q. Savannah River,

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Valley Broadcasting. The general manager at the time of that radio station thought it would be a good business move to buy Sunny 105. And Sunny 10, I'd probably fair to say it's biggest competitor, it's the one that kind of gave them a headache every now and then. The owner of the radio station, the singular owner of the radio station, George Weiss thought it was a horrible idea, wanted nothing to do with it.

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and went ahead and said, okay, I'll go along with this, but this is your butt. Mr. General Manager's name was Bernie Florey. Bernie, this is your decision. This is not my decision. You're going to make this work, and you're going to make this happen. You're on the line for this. And Bernie thought it was still a really good idea.

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What took place then was both of us had consultants. We had a consultant named Jim Richards from a company named Valley Richards with whom I'm still very good friends today, almost 40 years later, 30 years later. They had a consultant named Randy Cabrick. And so the plan was, since I was in charge of Sunny,

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and Bruce Stevens was in charge of Q, that the four of us would meet. The general manager, Bruce and I, and our consultant at the time, Jim Richards, would meet. And then we'd meet with their consultant, Randy Kabrick. It was essentially to figure out which consultant we'd have. That was really all it was, the meetings were. And so we sat with Jim, and again, at the time, to lay that groundwork, because it'll play in the story later.

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Sunny 105 was an adult oriented radio station playing your Phil Collins, your Mariah Carey's and stuff like that. BBQ to your point was again a kind of a hybrid. It played a lot of everything. Could play anything from Willie Nelson to Ratt to whatever. Known for its news gathering services, known for its news department. It was really very, very different. There was still a radio station for many years in the trades, WJR in Detroit,

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when you would see formats listed by radio stations, WJR was always listed as miscellaneous. And I thought that's a good way to describe BBQ. So we sat with Jim and Jim put out his ideas for what the two radio stations should be. They were both trying to be the consultant. And we listened and we took notes. And so now the official part of the meeting is over and we're having dessert or whatever it is. And Jim says,

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You know, I said what I said because I think that's the most prudent way to go about doing business.

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But if you really want to be successful with these two radio stations.

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You need to bring the adult music that's on Sunny over to BBQ because Sunny will never be able to replicate the news image that BBQ has. You need to bring that music over there and you need to tie that music to that adult image of news and information. And then you just need to make the other radio station a top 40 kids radio station. Okay, well thank you for that, Jim. So then a couple of weeks later,

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dinner with Randy Cabrick and Randy lays out his plan. And again, at dessert, Randy says, you know, if you really want to make this work, what you really need to do. And it was the exact same thing that Jim had said. So when it was all over, we sat and we, why aren't we doing what they say we should do? We ended up not choosing Jim Richards. We chose Randy Cabrick who has had a bit, probably still does, has a reputation in the industry

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very different. Well, I really liked him. I really liked him. I thought he was really sharp. So the decision was made to change the music on Bbq to be in a more adult fair. So it would tie in with the news and information. And the other radio station would be a top 40, 18 to 34 year old driven radio station.

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problem came and and why things Never really worked out as well as they should have is Because of the staffs Yeah The gentleman who ran the radio stations Bernie Floyd it was a good man and he Couldn't really find it in his way to do the things he necessarily had to do to make it work he tried to mold the two staffs at the two radio stations and and he moved

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asked us from Sunny to do mornings on on on BBQ and and he thought

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he thought maybe rightfully so that those adult personalities should go on that adult radio station. The people on BBQ were about our age, maybe even a little bit older. And he couldn't, and he wouldn't let any of them go for the most, and he moved them over to the 18 to 34 radio station. So now you got a bunch of, you know, what are they at the time? I don't know, 30 year olds, 40 year olds, out of their demo on this radio station. Let alone, they stayed.

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confused the listener. The listener was like, why did you just do what you did? We don't like either of them. In hindsight, because he didn't do what he needed to do, what he really probably should have done is made the decision about who should be on BBQ. And he could have easily said, the people that I have on BBQ would have cost me my job, but he could have easily said, these people are ingrained on that radio station, Mark Summers, Dick Shannon.

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Charlie Fox, all of those people, Bruce, all of those people need to stay on that radio station. Okay, they're gonna play Mariah Carey and Phil Collins, but you know what? Every now and then they did play Mariah Carey and Phil Collins, and it would make sense. And then on that other radio station, I need to go get 20 year olds, 23 year olds, 24 year olds, people who live the life, people who understand it, people who wanna be in the bars at night, people who wanna, and it would have been the decision to make, it's not the one he made. And it never really worked.

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because of that. That's why everyone was confused, rightfully so. And I mean, I came in working for, gosh, I guess it was in 99 or so. This whole transition took place in like- Yeah, this was early 90s. Whenever Cheryl Crowe's All I Want to Do is Have Fun was out. I remember that's the song we played. And that was another thing. You know, hey,

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Nothing erupts, but...

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The folks who were on the young station kept playing stuff that we were playing. You know, he kept adding the music. I had a funny demarcation line, and for some reason I remember that demarcation line as being Hootie and the Blowfish. I was not gonna play Hootie and the Blowfish. Hootie and the Blowfish was an artist that should have been on what they've relabelled Y-105. That would have been 93. Okay, yeah, that's what I seem to remember.

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And yet he played all the stuff that I played. You know, if Mariah Carey had something new came out, he put the Mariah Carey into it. I did feel at the time, I was conscious at the time that I was suffering because I thought I was playing by the rules and he wasn't playing by the rules. So anyway, so I always thought, again, more reason to confuse the listener. Right, right. And then now they're both owned by the same company and it's like, well,

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Yeah. They're very similar. Yeah, very similar. And as we sat, and again, we sat with those consultants and they both said to us, no, the way this works is you just totally separate these radio stations. And we did. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It was just too much crossover. By the time I had come along, again, except I think around 99 or so, and I did Overnight's on Y-105. The morning show then was Ron and Mackenzie.

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For me, it was a great proving ground. It was a great chance to have a show work on whatever it is I'm wanting to do in the industry. And then being around in the same building with you and Rebecca and Ron and Mackenzie and these legends that I had listened to growing up. Dickie was such a great guy. And being able to immerse myself again

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It felt like the you know the good part of radio, you know And and I think by that time Formatically stuff had started to solidify and separate more and be more like yes This is the you know the AC the adult contemporary station. This is the top 40 station But yeah great times great memories and again just amazing staff and that was us that was a time when there was radio people on the air live

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24 seven. Right. There was no, none of this, you know, satellite or pre recorded the voice track stuff or anything like that. Nobody piped in from, you know, Poughkeepsie to tell you that there's a wreck on, you know, Washington road in Martinez. You know, that's that was always the bellwether. If somebody was local or not, it's how they pronounce Martin as, but yeah, it's, it's still very fond memories, but I can, I can definitely tell just for

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from how the continent's on your face, that it was a struggle. It was a struggle to get to good. Well, yes. And, as far as what we were doing on BBQ, there was such a heritage. I've never to this day understood, and this, I think, happened just about everywhere. When all of the consolidation went down, and it went from being a mom and pop owner, or a singular owner, to a corporate,

39:49
situation. There was, at least in my experience, maybe everywhere, but there was immediately this this rush to mediocrity. We couldn't have, we couldn't have one of the stations being so much better than all of the other ones. They couldn't take up all of the resources. They couldn't take up all of the best people. We can't really have that. We have to find a way to make these other folks

40:19
acquired, feel part of the organization and a meaningful part of it too. And some... And...

40:30
It decimated the great radio stations and it never really brought up the less than great radio stations. And I've never to this day understood from a business model, screw that, keep the good radio station, go yeah, build up the other ones, but don't destroy this one in order to have this unanimity so that everybody gets along, everybody plays well, everybody likes everybody else. You don't have somebody coming

41:00
saying, you know, how come BBQ always gets the promotions? How come they get the money to give away? We don't get the money to give away. It just right from the start, it went to that scenario. And maybe that's because in those times, those owners, those people did not look at the individual pieces of the product. They just looked at the product. At some point we're gonna sell. Right, we're gonna sell this cluster of stations. So they all need to have some value.

41:30
on the radio station, you couldn't understand how it, why did it have to be so equal? Right, because I mean, there is still, as we talked about the competition part and the ratings part, the ratings are still individual to the station, which is what was supposed to drive all that, so I mean, there's still that competitive nature of the talent that are on us, like I want to be the number one slot, I want to be this, you know. Yeah, I mean, in the end, I would ask these people, I didn't, but I would ask them today, in the end,

42:00
you want your five radio stations for the sake of the discussion to bill five million dollars a month. Isn't that what you want out of this? Yes. Well, not every one of them is going to bill a million. Right. If somebody bills two and a half million and the other ones between them and get 500,000 a piece or three quarter, you know, right, it's still five million bucks. Right. But you've but you've got a bellwether. You've got something that people listen to people like.

42:30
on the money that keep coming in, you've just leveled the playing field and nobody likes any of it. Yeah, yeah. It's that kind of everything's a little lukewarm. Nothing's hot. Nothing's cold. That's kind of lukewarm. Nobody likes lukewarm water. Can you cough on a podcast? I mean, you can. You can hit the cough button. It's too late for that now. It's too late for that. Well, it's all right. So moving on from BBQ and Sunny 105.

43:00
and all that, and you did come to Augusta because you do have a definitive golf. You have, I'm gonna say had the honor because I feel that's how you feel about it as well of reporting from the Augusta National for how many masters now. The one that we just did would have been my 38th. 38th, so almost as long as you've been in radio, you've been on the course. Yeah. That's amazing. I think about that.

43:30
a little something at 40 years. So at 40 years, I'll be 66 years old. It means I started at 26. Wow. The guys that I've seen get the 40 year awards aren't in their 60s. Yeah. Mid 70s and up to 80. Wow. So I'm very conscious of that, yeah. Now, what was it about you? Were you just, I mean, were you in the right place in the right time type of stuff? They needed someone and you're like, all right, we have Mike will travel. Yeah.

44:00
That's awesome. I'm going to get this wrong. I've heard them talk about this on sporting events, baseball games in particular, about people who are the Cal Ripkins of the world. They talk about everybody's abilities and the greatest ability is availability. Yeah. You know, yeah, you were just in the right place at the right time. That's correct. I think once you get into that position, you have to maintain it, earn it. Right. Right. I mean, I would feel like there's a reason that they...

44:30
invite you back and want you to cover the event from year to year. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, you can't not think that. Right. But I do know, and if you wanna get into philosophies and stuff, you know, yeah, I was in the right place at the right time, yep. Was I always going to be in the right place at the right time? Yeah, probably so. That might be the Catholic upbringing that, you know, you get faith and stuff like that.

45:00
So, yeah, I mean, I'm conscious, very conscious of that relationship and how it's grown and why it is what it is. How is the course and the press coverage of that little tournament, the tournament, changed over the years? Inexplicably. I said to you before we went on the air that my 38th Masters, and it's the 38th different

45:30
and the way that it supports technology makes it so. But that place, I mean, when I started, we all parked in a gravel, crush and run, maybe just dirt parking lot, which is now where the range, the practice facility is for...

45:52
five years, I was in an old army, Kwanzaa Hut, which is what they had for all the press. When we did that, there was a delineation between the working press, there were working press badges, and there were TV radio badges, and only the working press was allowed into the interview room to interview the players after the round that radio television people know. But it grew up on newspapers. And then in 1990,

46:22
into a facility we were in for 25 years. Much different, much better, much nicer, much bigger. And then William Porter Payne, Billy Payne became the chairman. And to this day, I believe, here to for a lot of the chairman had kind of noodled with the golf courses here and there a little bit, making it longer, making it different. Billy didn't do that at all. Billy never touched

46:52
all of the infrastructure, creating what we now see as the merchandise shops and and Berkman's place, the hospitality, 100,000 square foot hospitality center, and as people have categorized it, sort of the Disneyland effect of it. And there are some people who used to work for Disney that are now working for Augusta National, so it's not an unfair way to describe it.

47:22
But that, but it's, it, it, you can't even begin. I mean, you know, I say this inside the radio station, we're now the old farts we didn't listen to. Yeah, we're now the old guys who remember the Kwanzaa Hut. Right. And there aren't many of those left anymore. So it's so, so incredibly different. Yeah. Do you have a favorite hole, a favorite spot? When you're, obviously you're in the press box in that new press room. Yeah, I mean, I mean, if you're on the course.

47:52
Yeah, I mean, in the old days, and I remember thinking this, when you could do these sorts of things and it wasn't really a huge problem. It was maybe on the eighth hole or something that was a tree to the right of the bunker that's in play off the tee. You know, behind the ropes, but I used to just sit there, sit on the ground, leaning up against the tree, just watching guys come through, very conscious of how lucky I was to be doing that.

48:22
in the clubhouse. These days, outside on the balcony in the clubhouse on the second level, it's all tables and chairs and dining. There was a time it was none of that. It was just the walkway and there were two chairs that sat next to the door that led out of the second floor. And on two occasions, two different years, I stepped out of that door and sat in the chair and

48:52
realized what you're looking at, the same vista that Bob Jones saw and stuff like that to create the golf course. But sitting on the other side, and again, if you're not a golfer, none of this will matter, sitting on the other side of the door was a fellow by the name of Gene Sarazen. And Sarazen won the second masters in 1935. And we sat and just talked for an hour because you could. There was nobody up there, and there was very few people up there. They'd come out the door and go about their way. There was no place for them to go and or sit because we were sitting in the chairs.

49:22
And then at some point shortly thereafter year or two after the exact same thing happened But sitting across from me was a fellow by the name of Alistair Cook From public radio from public broadcasting from you know people who are familiar with that familiar with him And he was a British broadcaster and and writer. I Just I'll never forget that stuff. I mean, yeah, that's just you don't get to I mean and again I probably had to be 28 years old 29 years old and this

49:52
that Sarah's in at the time, maybe in his 70s and Cook in his 70s, whatever, well, what are they doing talking to me? Right. Oh, yeah, so I love the place. I love the people that work there. They're different than members. I love members, I've got member friends. And everybody thinks about the place as the membership, but the place has workers every day that just go to work like you and me. And I've known many of them through the years and they're good people.

50:22
Very nice people, they're great people, they're just trying to get a job done. So I've been very blessed in that relationship. Yeah, yeah, any, as a golf fan and having been out there, I assume, because I know for a fact that they do have press days, you had a chance to play the course a couple of times? Yeah, yeah, I've been very fortunate there also. Yeah. I have a friend who,

50:52
when we're on the road playing golf going somewhere, meeting people that we don't know, and they find out where we're from, and have you ever had the chance to play the course? He just looks at me and says, just tell them yes, John. You don't need to tell them 40 times. Just tell them yes. Okay, let it go. Let's drop it there. And he's my conscience, and he's making me a better person. Right. But yeah, again, I get that. I get it. I know how fortunate I am. Yeah.

51:22
I also know that my friends and with whom I travel in the golf circles were just complete snobs. Yeah. I mean, we're spoiled. Yeah. And we're complete snobs. I mean, everybody that I, everybody that, and it's different when you live here. Right. It's different. Yeah. You can, a member might call you up and say, hey, need a fourth, we're playing Friday, can you do this? It happens in this town. For the people that live in Des Moines and the people that live in, you know,

51:52
it's not gonna happen. And it's a pipe dream to them. But in this town, it's different. So most of the people with whom I circulate have played out there. They just have, it's just happened in some shape, form, or fashion. So yeah, it's, and that makes it, it makes it special in one way, but it also makes it, again, back to, not normal, but it makes it human. I mean, you know the people, you know? I mean, the people that work there,

52:22
We eat in our restaurants, shop in our grocery stores. You see them. You may be a guest on the grounds and they may say, Mr. Patrick, here's one of the, again, incredibly fortunate. Early on, you're a guest on the grounds and those people who you know, but we're there, called you Mr. Patrick. Right. I'm just, oh, it's not that way anymore. And I love that. What are you doing here?

52:52
You know, I love that. That's my favorite part now is the people that I know. Oh, what are you doing here? That's so cool. Or sitting down to lunch before we play. You know, I'm the last to arrive and they've ordered their ice teas and I sit and the server comes out and what will you have, Mr. Patrick? And we haven't said hello, we haven't said anything. Now, there probably is some sort of internal, you know, here are the four people

53:22
that will be at that table. Right. But this guy goes, oh no, no, I listen to you every day. I know exactly who you are. And I encourage all the people that I know not to listen to the show. Because I talk about them. So I need them not to listen to the show. You want to keep the friendships intact. Yeah, and I gotta have, pay me to have content every day. So I have to keep doing that. So I mean, I did this just the other day to someone that I had no idea listened. Said something to, I said,

53:52
I don't know, I need you not to listen to the program. Right, yes. How is your score out there compared to, you know, the tournament year? I think the first year I was out there, I shot 84 or 85. You don't care, you don't keep score. Yeah, and I understand that completely. I had the opportunity to play once because I worked for CBS and as you said,

54:22
the press day four some. And when someone asks you, would you like to play against the national? You say yes. Do I play golf? No. I've been behind you then apparently. Exactly. So I think I got through three holes. They said I was slowing the field down so much. Just to please stop. Chip and putt. Yeah. Just please chip and putt. Exactly. Exactly. And I was like, yes. That's no problem. It's enough to say that I was there and I played. But yeah.

54:52
down so much. There's a wide variety of people out there that kind of thing. People like you, people that, and every time you play, you have to be conscious of the fact. It may be the only time, the last time you ever get the chance to do it. But you got all kinds of people out. I'm out there to, you know, what's the course record? And getting upset when the course beats them up and all. God, no, I'm just out there having a great time. I'm playing one of the great golf courses in the world. And you know, I don't care. This isn't what I do for a living. Right. You know?

55:22
This is just fun. Although, I will say this, and I've played with a wide variety of people for a number of reasons, radio people who, when there were more availabilities and more opportunities to have people out there to play on those appreciation days. Oh, I've played with a wide variety of corporate types. Owners, owners sons, owners best friends. We played with a guy from one of the companies

55:52
for whom I worked, who fancied himself a good golfer and was a good golfer. And that guy went out there and shot 67. Now, we're member's tees, we're moving the ball in the fairway. It's not the third round of the Masters. But it was really fun. I mean, he missed a birdie putt on 18 to shoot 66. It was really kind of fun to watch. You know, it was that way, okay. Well, that was different. Yeah.

56:22
on, did you see the Dude Perfect video? I didn't see that. Any thoughts on that? I thought it was great. Personally, I thought it was great. I was not familiar with them before seeing that. I've not looked at anything else they've done. So I don't know how normal that was for what they normally do. And I probably should go back and look at that. I mean, I thought it was wonderful. The club thought it was a wonderful idea. The chairman was asked about it in his press conference. And he just thought.

56:52
He danced around the fact that They are the masters and people love the golf tournament and people tune in on masters weekend But they're conscious of what they're trying to accomplish They're they're conscious of the fact that the golfing public for the most part is older Right and can we bring younger folks to the game? Well, and is this a way to help bring younger folks to the game? Mm-hmm. He didn't think it was disrespectful He didn't and you know those guys seem to be like they can't believe they're here. Mm-hmm They weren't

57:22
ruining the golf course. There's a cough switch if you need that. They weren't ruining the golf course, the way they had determined to do what they were doing. Yeah, and part of its appeal was that no one's done anything like that. How the hell, did y'all jump the fence? Right, exactly. How did you do that? Right. And I think the club knows. The club does know it's part of the appeal. And it's just always interesting when they say yes to something.

57:52
Yeah. Because they say no to everything. Yeah. And I think that just ties into like what they're doing with the drive chip pot. Sure. You know, getting those younger folks out. They're getting, now there's a way to even use like that video. It's like, hey, this is the club that did this. Yeah. Look, hey, don't you want to enter in the drive chip pot? And then the personal women's amateur. I forget. I forget. And a program they instituted years ago that still goes on to this day, but it just doesn't affect me. You know,

58:22
I think it's 16. I think you can bring anybody, maybe two people in under the age of 16 for free. You must be the badge holder. This isn't like, hey, Rob, you wanna use my badge. And you can take your two young kids in because you're using my badge. No, you must be the badge holder. But those two kids under the age of 16, get in. And they instituted that maybe 10, 12 years ago, the junior program. I kind of forgotten

58:52
was still going on, but I understand that it is. Wow, wow. Yeah, and that's a whole other thing as far as like getting their tournament week, you know, for, especially for, it seems like there's always Augusta natives that are a little butt hurt by not being able to get out there. I guess, yeah. You know what I mean? My aunt was on the patrons list and she got tickets every year. She passed away.

59:22
at the time when she passed away, they were not transferable. There used to be legacy where you could transfer them and they would be in wheels and things like that, as is not the case now. But I mean, I appreciate the fact that with the way that they do them now with the lottery and you're able to go in and do it electronically in there and you know, hey, this is what I want, hopefully I get it. And when you get it, it's, I mean, it's Christmas morning. If you get that email, it is Christmas morning. I was able to go out to the women's this year

59:52
another thing being able to go and and get in the lottery for the women's get on the lottery for the for the drive chip pot. It's it's accessible. If you're if you're that diehard golf fan that wants to see, you know, these golfers that you follow out there. Yes, you want to be there for the big game, as they say. But for if if you're local and you want to be able to see this, this jewel in the crown of Augusta.

01:00:22
opportunities there. I think. Yeah, there are. I think there are. And there are, again, it's different when you're here. Yeah. You know, there are ticket opportunities from time to time. Hey, you need, I got to, I'm not using it for Saturday. You want to go? It happens. Yeah. But it's different when you're here. Yeah. And I tell everybody that, you know, I'm spoiled again, a snob. If you love the game, if you're a golfer and you've, you know.

01:00:48
just get out and see the place. You know, I'm sorry you're not there Sunday when Tiger's winning, but if you got tickets to the women's AM, just get out there and see the place. You may never get out there to see the place. Get out there and see it. Go walk down 10, go walk over to 11, go see Amen Corner. You know, just experience the place. And then at some point, revel in the fact that still early on, you're getting to see something that never happened out there with the women's AM. You know, revel in that

01:01:18
for sure they do. It's important to them and it'll be important to you. But that's why I tell everybody, just I want everybody to see the place once. I've got a high school friend, a 50 year friend who's never been, couple of my other friends in our group have, I've been, but for some reason, it just, I didn't make him fall his way. He was coming this year for the first time ever, called me about 10 days out and said he was gonna be interviewed for a senior vice president's job

01:01:48
He couldn't come as fate would have it. I think I got a text from him masters. Well, two things. I got a text from him masters week saying the interview had been postponed a couple of weeks. So he could have come, but he would have been here Tuesday and Wednesday and it would have been awful. The weather was horrible. So I said, no, no, no, it all kind of worked. You know, you're on the list for 2023. It all kind of works out. Yeah, yeah. But, but, but, but, and he plays golf. He just, it's, it's not, you're not there for Tiger to win

01:02:18
Sunday, but you're gonna see the place. Yeah, and it is like stepping into a different planet in a different country. It's just, it's amazing. And you, it's really hard to describe. I hate to say this, but it really is hard to describe to be there and to be able to walk those grounds and see the care that's put into that place. Well, anybody, I think this is universal.

01:02:48
maybe it's guys. Anybody that's been to a Major League ballpark, that very first time, you walk through the tunnel and you see the outfield and you see the signs that you've always kind of seen on television. And that's exactly the same feeling because you're seeing all the stuff you've seen on television, but you're there. And I say it, I've say it now for 40 years, it's greener than it is on television and it's hillier than it is on television.

01:03:20
Right, John, this is the second part of the podcast. This is where we dive a little bit deeper into you and maybe your journey with mental health. I think it's very important to talk about that, especially as men, and actually just anyone to know that you're not alone, because everybody deals with anxiety and depression and down days. You know, whether you call it that necessarily or not, but everybody's kind of been there. So for you, how do you keep the darkness?

01:03:50
Bay.

01:03:52
I think I try to be a basically optimistic person. I don't know from where that comes. And I think that's the beauty of it. Don't think about it, just be that way. We have a little something going on now, not, again, the more bad stuff happens to you, the more you can put it at some level. So this is unfortunate, something that we're going through,

01:04:22
through much, much, much worse. So this is really nothing. But I've come to look at these things.

01:04:34
I, you know, my father died when I was 19. My mom died a while back. The woman that I'm with has had breast cancer and MS. So I've been around a lot of stuff. I have not suffered from a lot of stuff. I had parents dying, I remember probably unfortunate that I said that, but I just, I have gotten to the point now

01:05:05
to where when things happen, is there an opportunity here? Is there something, what's good about that? You know, it kind of reminds me of what is it that Fred Rogers would say about when something terrible happens, oh my hoody, find the somethings, find the helpers. Find the helpers, the friend helpers. Yeah, same kind of thing, what's okay, what's okay, this is bad, is there anything good in this? What can we make good from this? And almost all the time, you can make something good.

01:05:34
Right. Of it. You know, I think. I think. I think.

01:05:43
I don't know that I've been through a lot of really bad stuff that has brought me too far down. The only child in me, I live in my head anyway, so I can pretty well compartmentalize and rationalize and figure out something to any situation, but on the other end I can also make, oh, this is really bad. Right. No, it's not. No.

01:06:13
I can talk myself into the other way too. This is horrible, shut up. Now get off my shoulder, get. So I think, and then maybe I'm doing that also. Maybe being an only child, I have found a way to deal with it or cope with it or address it. I don't think, I don't know that I think depression is bad. I think it's a human condition. It's something that everybody kind of goes through.

01:06:43
bad because sometimes people do bad and tragic things with it. But I think it's something that everybody that everybody kind of goes through. Right. It's just, you know, I'll never forget. And it was a simple phrase and maybe it's been used often, but I think it was the first time I ever heard it. I work with someone who does the afternoon show on our radio station. His name is Austin Rhodes.

01:07:13
And there was a gentleman, as we tie in all the conversations, there was a gentleman many, many years ago who found himself in the ticket brokering business and ran into an issue with tickets and didn't have the tickets that he promised people who had paid for them. And he went out in his backyard and he killed himself. And Austin always referred to that as a permanent end to a temporary problem. And I've never forgotten that. I've just, I've never forgotten that for some reason.

01:07:43
I don't know. I don't, again, back to being optimistic. I don't, I try not to dwell on the bad stuff. I don't like negative people in my life. I've really, I think I've just organically, organically stayed away from them. But now when I'm conscious of them, I honestly stay away from them. That's again an only child product that I'm able to do. I don't not like you. I don't feel sorry. I just, I'm done.

01:08:13
for you. I'm sorry, you're not dead to me, but you don't exist to me. I don't have time for that. And that may also be a product of age. I'm on the 14th hole here. I don't have time for you. You kids get off my lawn with your negativity. Yeah. I know you have been working through things over the past few years with your daughter as well. How is that going?

01:08:43
Well, it's good. It's fine. She and I did not speak for the longest time. It was the biggest regret, obviously the biggest regret I have in my life. I was to blame, her mom was to blame, but in the end I'm to blame. And we didn't speak for a long time and then her mom passed away, maybe close to 10 years ago, eight years ago. And she was accepting. That's the best way I can put it.

01:09:13
to think and I saw her as this, I saw her as I was. When my father died, I was left with the one parent with whom I didn't really have a relationship. Well, there she was. Her mother died and she was left with the one parent with whom she didn't really have a relationship. And I didn't really, really rekindle the relationship with my mom. She has seen it in her way because she's a better

01:09:43
to have a relationship with me. I'm, it's at her speed, it's at her pace, it's whatever she wants and what she doesn't want. I think a lot of things, I'm grateful for it. I wonder if she's placating me and humoring me and wishing when the, can we get this phone call over with or whatever it might be. I mean, you think all of those things. Not that she gives me any of that indication. But I think it.

01:10:13
You know, I mean, and we haven't really, we've gone some places, but we haven't really gone deep into therapy. Is it okay that I call? Do you like that I call? Am I bothering you? And we haven't really done that. We had those first, we had that first meeting after really, I mean, she didn't know who I was and I hadn't seen her in years. And we did that and there was some crying and she's pretty headstrong. She's like her mom, you know, she's, she's interested, I mean, it's funny to see that. I mean, she's like her mom

01:10:43
and she's a smart ass like I am, and it's funny to see all of that. But she's a physician. She's in her 30s, she's married. Don't really think there are kids on the way that doesn't seem to be something in her plans. It's fine, again, who am I? So other than the fact that we don't say I love you and she doesn't call me dad, I think if you,

01:11:13
And I'll try to remember to say that. But if you looked at our texts or if you eavesdropped on our phone conversations, you wouldn't really notice that. It seems very normal.

01:11:29
I smile when she doesn't call me dad because in both of my relationships with women.

01:11:41
I've never had nicknames for them. And I rarely use their names. I can't tell you what that is. And I can't tell you why they come when I call because how do they know? Hey, you. You, yeah. In the kitchen. But I'd be, I would really be curious for you to ask, one's no longer with us, but for you to ask both of them, do they notice that? I notice it. Nobody's, you know, snuggle butt. Right. Or snuggle butt.

01:12:11
And nor do I, I mean, I use their name, but not like normal people. Yeah. I, the friends, the friends, I say their name 10 times more than I say her name. I notice it. So I find it so ironic that I'm not dad. Yeah. That's really it. And she doesn't call me anything. We just talk. You know, it's not John. It's not, hey, John, it's, hey. Yeah. It's exactly, it's exactly.

01:12:41
you looked at a transcript. What'd you do this week? Or listened to what we said. You wouldn't think anything about it. I'm very conscious of it though. Really? Yeah. Really? You use her name though? No, I don't think that I do. Not with her. No. No, hey Jess. No, I don't know. Hey, yeah, how you doing? Yeah, we're good. No, I don't think you'll use her name. I'll ask about the husband. I'll use his name. I've probably used his name more than I've used her name. Wow. Yeah.

01:13:11
That's very interesting. Do you think you'll get to the point where you... It's up to her. I don't know if you'll use the name, but do you think you'll get to the point that you're telling your lover? Because it seems like you do. Yeah, it does. And I've thought more about it, again, factor of age. I don't want to die and not having said it to her. But I think I have to show her first. I think I have to

01:13:41
be there as much as I can be there first. Now she's gone on to form her own life. It's not like I'm dealing with a 13 year old. But I think I have to tell her happy birthday, be there on her birthdays, be there on her husband's birthday, you know, happy birthday to Chris. Come see her, you know, whether she wants it or not, I don't expect her to come see me. There's a couple of things coming up in my life that would be

01:14:11
that would be sort of expected for her to attend. I don't know that I'll ask her to do that. It depends on where the relationship goes. There is still, there is somewhere in there, a conversation that has to be had sort of like, hey listen, block out Sunday with me for about an hour. Because we're just gonna, you know, we're gonna do stuff we don't wanna do. Hash out the dirty stuff. Yeah, or at least another level of it. Right, right. I was gonna say, it almost seems like you're still, and this is just in the terminology

01:14:41
operating, it seems like you're still kind of trying to atone for some stuff. Oh, I always will. I always will. I think I screwed it up for 20 years. Let's see if I can get another 20 years to make it somewhat right and kind of balance stuff out. Although, having said all of that, in a cocksure kind of way, oh, I think, again, I do not wear my religion on my sleeve. I was brought up by a couple of people.

01:15:11
especially because my mom was Canadian and we're not really sure she was ever legally here, that my religion and my politics are none of your business. And it's, they would be, he would just be beside himself to see what politics are like these, it's everybody's business. And his attitude was that's none of your business. And I do get fascinated living, I think it's a

01:15:41
down here and we love to tell you about our religion and we want you to know about our religion and I couldn't care less about your religion. Go practice your religion and I'll go practice my religion the way I see fit. I don't care about go to church whenever you want to go. Would you like to come? No. I don't know that it's that way in Iowa. I don't know that it's that way. Certainly you can't be out west in California. They're heathens. Right. Heathrens. Heathrens. But it seems to me to be a Southern

01:16:11
thing. Well, I definitely think that, you know, there's a reason they call it the Bible, the buckle of the Bible at that. We love us some God. Yeah. Yeah. And then I say this, I take this tact on the air all the time. I make enormous amount of fun of my Catholic upbringing, but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world,

01:16:41
in the world. I'm a very damaged person because of it, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

01:16:51
All right, John, this is the third segment of the show. Time now for our Fast Five. The Fast Five, Fast Five, Fist of Fast Five. That's the theme song, I'm working on it, and workshopping some things. I was curious, how did we get to that? How did we decide that's how we're gonna introduce this segment? I mean, I'm working, I asked my music guy. I was gonna say, is there a, I smell a consultant involved. I mean, I have a music guy, I just, he's still noodling some stuff out, we're still working on it. So, it's the Fast Five.

01:17:21
It is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. It's great conversation starters, icebreakers. It's created for podcasters, so you always have something to talk about. But, you know, they have physical decks. You can put a few of those cards in your pocket and ask people some weird questions on your radio show or a few on your podcast or whatever, or just not. Well, why are you creating work for me? I'm just saying, you know, but here's the thing. Here's the thing.

01:17:51
chew the fat br.com slash pod decks and use the promo code chew. You get 10% off your physical decks. Hey, John, you said decks, right? Yes. D E C K S. Yep. All right. So fast by five random questions. No wrong answers. Although folks have challenged me on that, that sometimes there are wrong answers, but they're not. They don't want answers. Whatever comes to the first thing in your mind. And here's question number one.

01:18:23
What's the best type of cheese?

01:18:27
Cheddar. Cheddar? Yeah, and I just like the block. I just give me the block out of the grocery store. Really? Yeah. Just the squirre. I love all cheeses. But yeah, I'm fine with the block out of it. Nothing fancy. Yeah. Put it on a cracker. Okay. And a lot of it. That's, I'm down with that. I like a good cheddar. All right, question number two. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

01:18:50
If you could go on an adventure tomorrow, what adventure would you choose?

01:18:58
Hmm. I'm not supposed to ask questions, I'm just wondering. No, no, no. What are you, an adventure? Is it something exotic or? It could be, what do you consider an adventure? I mean, it could be a trip to publics. I don't know, what adventure? That'd be Walmart. Oh, that is an adventure. You know, at 3 a.m. It's the only thing, it's what I wanna do. I'm in your decision if it's an adventure, but I wanna go play golf at the home of golf, St. Andrews over in Scotland. I don't care if she comes.

01:19:28
I mean, she can come if she wants, but this is for me. And I'll sob on the first tee because of how much I love the game and everybody that went before it. Yeah. Yeah, but that's an adventure, okay. I mean, that sounds like an adventure. I mean, you know, that's- The adventure begins after the first shot. Now it's an adventure. There you go. I like that though. Have you ever been to Scotland? No, no, been to Paris three times, but never been to. And people have told me, you know, again, from the snob,

01:19:58
folks, you going over there to play golf, if you could only go to Scotland or only go to Ireland, go to Ireland. And I'd say, I don't fucking know why I'm doing that. I'm going to Scotland to play St. Andrews. Yeah. I mean, that's- Ireland's probably wonderful, but I'm going to Scotland to play St. Andrews. As I said here in the Ireland shirt, I appreciate that, it's fine. No, but I understand that because that's mecca to you as a golf fan. That's the home, that's the birth spot, that's going to Bethlehem.

01:20:28
That's it. That's the spot you only, I totally understand. Very sacrilegious of you, but that's okay. Is it really? I think. Okay, sorry about that. And question number three, this. What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job? What's the best way to get a job?

01:20:40
What famous celebrity chef would you want to cater your dinner party? Oh, um, oh, only because it would piss her off. Uh-oh. Giada De Laurentiis. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At least it refers to her as a cooking whore. Yeah. Yeah. Giada. Giada. I have no idea if she makes good stuff. It's like, it could be. I don't care. Pot of macaroni and cheese. I could be fine. Cheddar. It's like,

01:21:10
As long as that's cheddar cheese. That's awesome. Question number four.

01:21:18
If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would you pick? Oh, it's got to be my dad. Yeah. My dad never saw me on the radio. Oh, wow. And didn't want to didn't thought that was just foolhardy and what go get a job. Uh huh. Um, I yeah, that's easy. Yeah. Yeah, I just I don't know how you do that and how you, you know, you wish he'd seen the last 45 years. You just bring him right back and he's like, what the hell? Yeah. But no, it's easy. Yeah.

01:21:48
Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. And question number five.

01:21:54
Who was your biggest mentor or teacher this year? Oh, oh. You know, I don't take direction well, Bob. Um. Um. Oh.

01:22:07
Wow, I don't know that I have an answer. Who is my biggest? Someone even learned something from this year.

01:22:14
Well, you know, I have a dear friend. I referred to him earlier as my conscience. You know, in just the way he lives his life, I just, I look and I observe and I see. And, you know, like he's eight years older than I am, all my friends are older and retired. It's kind of pathetic. But in just looking at the way he lives his life and carries himself and does what he does,

01:22:44
he makes me a better person. And so he doesn't know it, he doesn't do it consciously. I'm not doing it consciously, but he probably is. Just observing him, because boy, I can't really think of anybody else. Yeah, it's just him. Do we wanna say a name? No, because he might listen. Okay. He'll know, I mean, he'll know who he is. He'll know who he is, because he's eight years older than you exactly. Yeah, I guarantee this would be the first podcast he'd ever listen to.

01:23:14
Well, it only takes one. It only takes one. Okay. Awesome, John, that's question number five. That's our Fast Five, and that's the show. Thank you so much for being here. When do we reschedule these? Once I find out. Find out in addition of this. This is actually worked. Is this a series now? Is this like the murder series? Am I, we're gonna do a lot of these now? Yes, only John in the podcast. That's the new name of the podcast. Only John in the podcast. John, thank you so much for being here. Folks want to keep up with you

01:23:44
your podcast and your radio show and things like that. Where can they find you? Well, the website for the golf show is AugustaGolfShow.com. It's at Augusta Golf Show. The stuff is on iTunes and iHeartRadio. And then the regular daily show, the new show, is you can go download the app for the radio station, WGAC. Listen, I'm still amazed we got an email from somebody in Florida this week. Obviously complaining about something. All right. Right. But they do.

01:24:14
They were listening in Florida. In Florida. I don't think about that much. I don't think anybody's out there listening. Especially in Florida. Especially in Florida. That's awesome. Well, thank you, John. Thank you, sir. Again, for being here. I'll put those links in the show notes. And of course, you can find out more about John at the website for the podcast at ChewingthefatBR.com. Thank you one more time for being here. Thank you for being a friend and a mentor. I really do personally appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And if you would like to support this podcast, you can buy me a coffee at ChewingtheFatBR.com.

01:24:44
but until next time I look forward to the moment we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.