Thursday morning at 7:20a we said hello to a brand new world, and in all likelyhood good-bye to an old familiar world. Time has a way of creating its own order in the Universe. On Thursday morning we introduced the new Sing & Swing Vol. 1 pre-loaded iPod. Working closely with the Glenn Miller Archive at the University of Colorado we’ve taken 100 songs from various Armed Forces Radio programs that were broadcast exclusively to the troops overseas and out them into this collection. You’ll recognize the names. Miller, Dorsey, Goodman, Shaw. You’ll even recognize the titles. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Chattanooga Choo-Choo. What will be new is the incredible live versions of these songs, complete with great introductions, that never aired on American radio. It is an amazing time capsule that until now was never available as a collection. And it comes on a new Nano iPod, pre-loaded so all you do is push play! A portion of the proceeds benefits the Glenn Miller Archive at the University of Colorado. This is the perfect gift for those you know who served during the war and those that just love good music. As wonderful as this collection is, it’s also bittersweet. Listening to these songs reminds me that we are further, and further removed from WWII and the big band era. 65-years in fact on September 2nd. With each passing day comes the loss of more members of the greatest generation. Time is taking those the enemy couldn’t. Each song in this series reminds me of a WWII veteran I had in the studio, or traveled with in Normandy and Germany, and I miss them. The good thing is this collection gives me those memories, and the opportunity if for only a songs length, to feel they’re back with me. So I encourage you to buy Sing & Swing Vol. 1 and own a piece of history that will continue to open your memory book for years to come. Buy it for a loved one who grew up in the big band era as a gift of their younger days. KEZW has saluted the WWII veterans and their families for 15-years and now the time has come to thank other generations. But not without one final opportunity to say thanks to those I always wanted to be like. I hope Sing and Swing does that.

Consider this a bit of a confession. I’m a collector. Yep, I have collections of things that have caught my fancy over the years. Nothing that’s particularly valuable mind you. Diane would be very happy if I would collect gold, or cash. Instead, I have every Potato Head ever made. They’re all lined up in the windows in my office and they do a great job of making sure no one who comes to meet with me stays in a bad mood. I also have a collection of political campaign buttons; Happy Meal Toy Story toys and WWII memorabilia. I mention this because I suspect we’re all collectors and we’d be surprised just what our friends have amassed. This morning I rode up the elevator with Mickey, the producer for the morning show on our sister rock and roll station. He noticed I had a couple Potato Heads with me and asked if I collected them. I sheepishly said yes, figuring I’d be safe bringing the in at 3:30a and guessing this 20-something cool young man wold now think I was nuts. Instead he broke into a big smile and said, “You know what’s weird? I collect buttons. I probably have 500 of them.” With that the bond that forms when people admit odd things about themselves was formed. Mickey and I will now have each others backs no matter what. He knows something about me… I know something about him…that no one else in the building knows. That’s like a pinky swear times 10. Care to share your secret collections?

When I started at KEZW in 1991 I was 34-years old and didn’t have tons in common with listeners who at that time were near twice my age. Over time we were able to find some common ground and become pretty good friends and almost immediately I began to hear it. “You just wait until you have grandkids!”, or, “Grandkids are so much better than your own kids!” On and on it went and I always politely said, “Oh I bet they are.” Truth is I was thinking, “I can’t wait for my kids to grow up and go and be alone with Diane!” Yeah, we got weepy when our oldest daughter, Sara, went to college. We were happy, but feeling older, when our daughters both married. We were misty-eyed for another reason all together when they started moving back home and secretly shed happy tears when they left again. All along KEZW listeners kept saying, “Just wait until you have grandkids, it’ll change your world.” And then it happened. May 2006, 2001, Larissa arrived and within one-minute I was in love like never before in my life. I was a 45-year old grandparent, the youngest grandparent ever I told people, and I was a blithering idiot. I spoke baby talk. I sang You Are My Sunshine like the record was stuck, over and over and over again. I bought every stuffed animal in Denver that was bigger than me. Damn right grandkids were better than your own kids, especially mine!!! Then came Joshua, and two-years later Ethan, and it got even better. Now I had boys to buy boy things for. We can giggle about body noises and collect rocks. We can see how many cheetos we can put in our mouth at one time AND Poppi can throw peas in the air and catch them in his mouth…at the dinner table when Nanna isn’t looking! It doesn’t get any better than this…until yesterday.
Joshua just turned 7 and Ethan turns 5 next week. For their birthdays we took the boys to the store as a surprise and let them pick out new bikes. For Ethan it’s his first. When we stood in the bike isle and told the boys the look on their face was worth the price alone. After a half-hour of test driving down every row, we settled on the two best looking bikes in the world and headed for the register. The boys pushing their bikes with huge smiles and Men passing by with smiles equally as big remembering when they got their first bikes. Halfway through the store Ethan looked up at me and said, “Poppi, thanks for doing this for us.” I would have bought him a car after hearing that!! We managed to get the boys home with their shiney new rides and pass them off to their Mom and headed to Shady Acres. A little later I noticed a movie on TCM that I was sure Larissa hadn’t seen so I called her into the family room and asked her to watch the start of it with me. It was the 1937 version of Heidi with Shirley Temple. First she told me how she doesn’t care for black and white movies, then she told me how the sound was weird, then she watched as Heidi saw grandfather for the first time and she settled in and watched. By movies end, now three-feet away from the screen, she cheered when Grandfather found Heidi and turned and thanked me for sharing the movie with her. Then she hugged me like she did when she was 3 and returned to her duties as Nana in training.
Bikes with the Boys…Heidi with Larissa. It was the Greatest Grandparent Day EVER!!!
Yep, grandkids are way better than your own kids. For the time you’re with them you have some confidence the world is going to be ok. You feel good that your legacy will be carried on by little ones who love you with outstretched arms and open hearts. There’s nothing as sweet as the feeling of a small hand holding yours and two little arms around your neck. Just don’t tell Nana about the peas!!

Last night was date night at the Crandall House, which doesn’t come often enough at this time in our lives.  There’s no doubt Diane and I are closer than we’ve ever been in our 35+ years together, it’s just a different close now.  Somewhere between the goofy love note, kissing in the school hallway days and now life got in the way.   Raising kids and grandkids; carving out a career; losing loved ones; dealing with health and other personal issues all steal from the innocence we once had.  Back then the biggest worry was whether or not we could make it to the pizza parlor and back on time during school lunch hour.  Or how many kids we could get in the car trunk, and not get caught, at the drive-in.  Well, last nights date night took Diane and me back to those days the two of us shared in high school.  For a couple hours we could  imagine those kids, if not quite become them again, as Carole King  and James Taylor serenaded us at Pepsi Center.  O.K., 13,000 other people came with us on date night and that was ok.  For the time we were there we were all kids again.  We all remembered bell bottoms and guys with long hair.  Many were once those hippie smokers.  Remember when smoking was as rebellious as it got?  As James Taylor sang Fire and Rain I could clearly hear Mom telling me I needed to get to bed so I wouldn’t be late in the morning.  When Carole King sang I Feel The Earth Move I could see Diane with her knit sweater and beautiful long hair.  Please don’t take this as one of those “Oh I Wish I Was Young Again” messages.  I really don’t long for acne medicine and Hai Karate.  Burning incense in my room was fun…then.  And blacklight posters wouldn’t look quite as cool in the living room at Shady Acres.  No, I’m very happy with the road I’ve been on and those who have joined me on the journey.  It was just nice to know, that 40-years later we could go home again.  For a minute it was fun to remember being in front of Diane’s house and kissing her the first time…and waiting an eternity for the second kiss, even though it was later that night.  Yep, our lives have been a tapestry of rich and royal hues.  Thanks James and Carole for reminding us, and for the ride home again.

I love July 4th weekend. Just the fact we celebrate the birth of our nation should be enough, but with it comes more unabashed patriotism than you see the rest of the year. Flags will fly proudly in front of homes in most neighborhoods, a little wrinkled because they’ve been in the front closet for a year, but still gleaming. Picnics and parties will include red, white and blue everything and you’ll reach way in the back of the closet for the stars and stripes shirt you wear once a year. For one weekend it’s cool to listen to Lee Greenwood and be proud to be an American. Too bad it’s not that way all the time, you know? We get bursts of patriotic pride. During WWII the attack at Pearl Harbor and the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima became rallying cries for our country. Neil Armstrong planting the flag on the moon was something we all watched when I was a kid. And who could forget the flag draped around the shoulders of the U.S. goalie, Jim Craig, when USA beat the Russians at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics! The flag waving over the ruins of the World Trade Center on 9/11 may be what my kids will remember as they age. Each generation it seems faces its own time of challenge and Americans often look toward Old Glory for inspiration and burst with pride when it waves as if to say, “Oh yea, we’re here!!” What moments do you remember that gave you great pride to be an American? What one thing made you burst with red, white and blue joy? Share those thoughts with us. And remember, that flag looks better on the pole in your front yard than it does in the closet. Share it with the neighbors a few more times during the year. It’s a shame that we ask one another “what holiday is it?”, or, “who died?” when we see a flag out in a neighbors yard on a day other than July 4th. It would be cool if flying the flag was a more frequent habit, rather than once a year. For now, I’ll take July 4th weekend

On June 17th, 1991, I walked into a very small and very cluttered KEZW on-air studio to do my first shift as host of the morning show. The name Breakfast Club came on the 2nd day so that first morning it was just me and the folks on the other side of the radio. The studio still had turntables in it and I couldn’t really have visitors because there was no place for them to sit. Our audio board was old and so was everything else I was looking at. My shift went from 6a to 9a and then I went down the hall and did 10a to Noon on KOSI. The owners at the time had asked me to do the morning show just long enough for the station to be sold and they didn’t really expect the format to stay the same. I was kind of like the Captain of the Titanic, except something funny happened on the way to the iceberg. We missed it. Yep, we kept the ship afloat and here we are 19-years later still sailing. The first nmorning I was on the air I received 3 calls, all asking where the old guy was. The first contest I did was call-in to win tickets to a concert. No one called. The first remote I did was at a factory glass outlet. I sat out front with a 7-piece German Band for two-hours. Not a single person came by. Gunther just stared at me for two-hours. Well, things have certainly changed haven’t they. In the 19 ensuing years KEZW has gained a reputation as one of the legendary stations in the nation. We have been nominated for radios highest honor, the Marconi Award, eight times and have won the honor once. I was a finalist for national personality of the year as well. We have raised millions of dollars in donations and in-kind contributions to charities across the state. We have become the station of choice for Colorado’s military community and we champion senior causes too. We are the top rated big band station in America and we’re enjoyed around the world on our internet stream. It hasn’t always been easy, but nothing worth having is ever easy. We’ve had our share of naysayers and we’ve been close to extinction more than once. Thing is, you can never underestimate the power of relationships and the one KEZW has with its listeners is unique in radio. We could not have done this without you and I can’t thank you enough. It’s be a wonderful, crazy ride the last 19-years and with your permission we’d like to keep going for a few more. We still have lots to do! Happy 19th Anniversary Breakfast Club fans. I love you all!!!

In Door County, on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, there’s a town of about 800 people called Ellison Bay. Like many of the small hamlets in the County it lives for the summer tour season and the hordes that come from Chicago and Milwaukee to escape the heat and stay next to the lake. Of course all those tourists need to eat while they’re away from home and about 70-years ago the Viking Grill came up with a plan, the Wisconsin Whitefish Boil. Now the fish boil wasn’t a new idea, it’s been around since caveman days, but in the early 1940’s Lake Michigan was seeing a major decline in trout, the fish of preference for boils, so the Viking Grill turned to the second most plentiful fish in the lake, Whitefish. About 30-years ago a young man named Dan Peterson was working at the Swedish restaurant in town, where he had been for 25-years. It was a good job and the restaurant had a built in attraction, goats that grazed on the sod roof. It was a tourist stop for every bus and car that rolled through town and Dan learned a lesson about giving people a full experience with their meal. That came in handy later when Dan set out to make a name for himself and purchased the Viking Grill.

Watching fish boil may not sound like an exciting way to spend an evening, and it probably wasn’t until Dan showed up. He tells a wonderful story and he has a certain flair for the dramatic and people come from miles just to see it. He starts by building a nice fire under a large kettle. He then sets a timer and watches for the exact moment to place the cauldron containing dinner in the boiling pot. The cauldron is layered with new red potatoes on the bottom, sweet Spanish onions above that and then the whitefish. They are joined by about a pound of salt. Slowly the water works itself to a frenzy and oil begins to gather at the top of the water. This is Dan’s shining moment. What he’s been working up to for an hour. He orders the assembled group to back up and when one tourist asks how far he points to a black spot on the ground and says “That’s a tourist that was too close in the last group.” We all back up past the black spot. Dan then walks to the fire and throws fuel on top of it. There’s a huge fire ball that consumes the entire kettle, cauldron and boil. It burns for about 30-seconds taking the fish oil right off the top of the water and goes out as quickly as it started. Dan grins from ear-to-ear. We all move inside to eat and Dan cleans pots in the kitchen. Afterwards, as we prepare to leave, I chat with Dan a bit and tell him how delicious his meal was. He smiles and says “yeah, and how about that boilover? Did you see the kids eyes?” Another lesson for me on this trip. The actual preparation should be just as much fun as the meal itself. Dan Peterson appreciates that people like his food, but he lives for the 30-seconds of roaring flame, just like he enjoyed the goats on the roof. It’s all part of the show. I’m not sure Diane’s going to let me put animals on the roof, or create a nightly fireball, so maybe a nice conversation while cooking dinner, or a friendly chat during breakfast will work. It won’t have the flair, but it will have the impact. Thanks Dan.

We just finished another Breakfast Club listener trip, this time traveling thru the Great Lakes states of Michigan and Wisconsin. My mother was born in Detroit in the 1930’s when Henry Ford’s automobiles were very popular. My grandfather worked for a time as a tool and die man for Ford. On my father’s side our German immigrant ancestors settled in Western Wisconsin and Minnesota. This heritage gives me a feeling of kinship with the people we met along the way. And I was really taken with how much they reminded me of my own grandparents. One lady in particular.
Manistique, Michigan is at the top of Lake Michigan. A couple of gas stations, a Lutheran Church, several lakefront motels and four fast food joints are about all you’ll find. We made one of the burger places our group lunch stop and as we walked in several older women, likely all in their 80’s, walked out. A simple hello from Diane to the departing ladies soon led to a friendly chat and we learned this group of life-long pals meets at this spot once a month to celebrate birthdays and catch up on news. Family and each others health are the most important topics, followed by memories of younger days and then cake. How often do we make it a point to spend that kind of time with old friends, the old ones who we learned to ride bikes with, and shared details of our first kiss with, and held hands at family funerals with? As the ladies were leaving Diane mentioned how good the cake one of the ladies had made looked. It was more a courtesy than anything and as the group left we were happy to have made new friends and went about our business of lunch. About 10-minutes later the door to the restaurant opened slowly and in walked the cake lady with a piece of paper. She strolled over to Diane and proudly handed over the recipe for what is certainly Manistique’s best Pineapple Cake. Hand-written, in cursive, on a scrap of paper found in her car. She was so tickled someone cared about what she obviously loves to do. This was her chance now to pass on something very important and insure her legacy. With a smile, she turned and left. It was a simple act of kindness that gets lost in a big city like Denver. We get so unapproachable, and in such a hurry. For one afternoon in Michigan, I was glad we stopped and noticed. I hope I do it more often.

I love the American flag. There’s just no two ways about it, I love the American flag. I love to see it fluttering in the breeze against the blue Colorado sky. I am moved when I see it drape the casket of a veteran, almost as if to embrace them and keep them safe. I love to see it fly over baseball stadiums and I’m sad to see it at half staff, but love that we do that to honor someone special. My grandchildren know I love the flag so they make me cool flags all the time. I have a flag from Larissa in my office made from beads, and I have a watercolor flag from Joshua hanging on the wall. I even have a flag that was flown on the Space Shuttle that was given to me by astronaut Dick Covey. And if all that wasn’t enough, I love pictures of American flags and take lots of them on vacation. I was thinking the other day about why I have this affection for Old Glory. Yeah, I’m a bit patriotic, but it had to be more than that. Then I remembered the look in Joe Weinmeyers eyes when he told me of seeing the flag over Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. He was a Marine flame thrower who battled on Iwo for all 34-days of the fight. Then I remembered the look in Glenn Berry’s eyes when he talked of the flag he saw on the tail of a Navy plane flying over the onion field he was farming as a prisoner of the Japanese, having survived the Bataan Death March. he had ben a prisoner for over two-years at that time and seeing the American flag gave him hope for freedom. Do you suppose Betsy Ross knew her flag would have such meaning when she first sewed it? Do you think the Second Continental Congress had any idea when they adopted the Stars and Stripes as our flag on June 14, 1777 that Men would die for it and a nation would rally around it time and again? Long may she wave, and may we always be blessed with Patriots who will die for her, and citizens who will swear allegiance to her. She is a GRAND Old Flag!   Be sure to fly your Flag on June 14th…Flag Day!!!  And let me know what the flag means to you.

U.S. News and World Report magazine recently printed their Top 10 Things We Can’t Live Without. They are, in no particular order, Portable Computers; High-Speed Internet Access; Smart Phones; Education; Movies; TV; Music Downloads; Pets; Booze and Coffee. Notice anything interesting about that list? Where are the people? Where’s the interaction with other humans? Nine of the Top 10 don’t include any personal contact at all and Education can be done on-line so even it isn’t 100% necessary to have human contact. And maybe that’s why we’re in the shape we’re in. We don’t talk to one another anymore. We text and twitter and email and voicemail. We don’t hand write notes, or sit and visit. When’s the last time you said, “hey, I’d love to come and sit for a while.”? We’ve forgotten how to be with one another and maybe if we had more hand holding, and talking, and looking into each others eyes and less www dot this and that things would be better. What would your 10 Things You Can’t Live Without include?