September 23, 2025 • 36 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
These are New England’s most picture-perfect fall foliage towns
Guest: Diane Bair - Boston Globe reporter/contributor
The Big E Fair in West Springfield is well underway! What are some of the wild foods featured this year & things happening at the fair?
Guest: Eugene (Gene) Cassidy – President & CEO of the Big E (Eastern States Exposition)
Are we on the verge of a youth unemployment crisis?
Guest: Lisa Miller - senior marketing, strategy and innovation consultant
The 1775 British bombardment and burning of present-day Portland, Maine. A largely forgotten horror of the Revolutionary War.
Guest: Holly K. Hurd, the executive director of the Tate House Museum
These are New England’s most picture-perfect fall foliage towns
Guest: Diane Bair - Boston Globe reporter/contributor
The Big E Fair in West Springfield is well underway! What are some of the wild foods featured this year & things happening at the fair?
Guest: Eugene (Gene) Cassidy – President & CEO of the Big E (Eastern States Exposition)
Are we on the verge of a youth unemployment crisis?
Guest: Lisa Miller - senior marketing, strategy and innovation consultant
The 1775 British bombardment and burning of present-day Portland, Maine. A largely forgotten horror of the Revolutionary War.
Guest: Holly K. Hurd, the executive director of the Tate House Museum
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice with Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, Welcome in everyone wherever you are listening to
night Side tonight. We have quite a listener base all
across the country and actually around the world. You'd be
surprised how many people listen to Nightside in far away countries.
I assume they're mostly New England expats who are living abroad,
but it is an amazing site when I check out
(00:28):
electronically where people were listening in the last few days,
like countries I've never heard of.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Actually, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Maybe there's a lot of people at US embassies who
have some Boston roots.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Anyway, my name is Dan Ray. I got deep.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Boston roots, that's for sure, as does Rob Brooks, our producer.
We don't take any phone calls until beginning at nine o'clock.
We will tonight talk about the president's speech, big address
at the United Nations. I expect that they were going
to be delegates who would walk out. They sat and applauded.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Again.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I don't think he was his favorite their favorite speaker,
but they listened to him tonight. This afternoon I should say,
actually it was early this morning and then later on
tonight we'll talk about the return of Jimmy Kimmel to
his program on his so called comedy show on ABC
and will you be listening or do your care?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
But we have four great guests here.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
We're going to start off with Boston Globe reporter and contributed.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Dian Bear Dieane. Welcome tonight's side.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
How are you very well? Thanks?
Speaker 6 (01:29):
Dan?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
So you have done a piece that I don't think
has been in the Globe yet. If I'm not mistaken,
If it's been in, please let me know when it
was in.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
But I think we're still going to see this maybe
next Sunday. Is that what we're looking at? You think.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
If we're talking about fall color, that was last Sunday?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Okay? Well now, okay, well that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
That's only a couple of days ago. You know, I'm
still waiting through my Globe.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I got to do the sports page and the A
section in the B section and the one Yeah no, absolutely,
but I'll.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Tell you this.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I looked at the piece tonight online and some fabulous pictures.
You have decided to pick New England's most picture perfect
fall foliage towns, and I'm sure you'd get a lot
of dispute on that, and you've actually picked one that
was outside of New England, and I think a couple
(02:31):
of New England states got shut out.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
As well. Happen.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Well, it was on the level, So let's talk about
we're let's go right through them. And I think every
community that is highlighted in your piece is someone places
that all of us. That first picture that I see
is this spectacular picture. This one is up in New Hampshire.
(02:59):
If I'm staken, is it not?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, well yeah, I think we're going to make
some of your global listeners jealous tonight, because I mean
New England and every list of the top foliage places
in the world. You know, New England is number one,
and Vermont also often gets a special shout out. But
people in the Midwest, Smoky Mountains and Virginia have pretty
(03:22):
good foliage too. But you know what New England. You know,
our weather, the kind of trees we have, it just
it just adds up to some incredible fall beauty that
even if you've seen it your whole life, it just
knocks out, you know, every time, every year knocks you out.
And you have Lincoln, New Hampshire.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Well, it's I'm looking at Artists Bluff in Franconia, New Hampshire.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
The guy had.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Parasal which was beautiful and of itself, but the backdrop
of the mountains was spectacular.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah, that's I'll tell you. You know, it's really hard to
beat the White Mountain that you really can't, like talk
foliage in New England without that. And I mean when
you consider you know, and the Cancanegas Highway is just great,
you know, I mean dry. I don't know why we
don't just like fall off that road because driving through
that and having the foliage spring alongside, you know, both
(04:17):
sides of the car is just is crazy. It's you know,
it's just way beyond beautiful. I have a friend who
comes almost every year from Los Angeles and he's he
makes that drive every time. I swear he takes the
same pictures of the same red tree each you know,
each year that he comes.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But they're still there.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I'm looking at one you went up to Maine or
someone went up to Maine and got a great picture
of some leaf peak peeping in Camden, Maine.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, tell us about that one.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
Oh thanks, Well, Camden is so great because it has
that coastal color. You know, it has the contrast between
blue ocean the scarlet leaves. And what's great about Can
is that you can, I mean you can. You can
go out on a schooner and see the color the
schoon there's a schooner that still will take you out
like I think if they go through like early October,
(05:11):
so you're seeing the little pine islands, but you're also
looking back and seeing like Mount Battie in the distance.
And you know, Camden Hills State Park has beautiful hiking
where you can hike up and get the gorgeous overviews
of town and you can stay in a castle there.
You can stay at the norm Baka in which is
very cassolic and cool and it's like towering above the water.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So we can we can't forget western Massachusetts, right, I mean,
pardon me, we can't forget.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Western Massachusetts, Great Barrington.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Oh, I know, well, really, I'll tell you the Berkshires.
You know, it was really hard for me to choose
because I mean just I was just in the Berkshires
a couple of weeks ago, and even though the trees
hadn't really you know, haven't changed yet, that drive is
just so spectacular when you're going up like Route seven
and you're seeing the Teconic Mountains and the Berkshire Hills,
(06:05):
and when both are splashed with color, it's just, I mean,
this is about as beautiful as New England gets. It
really is gorgeous. Almost any town that you choose in
the Berkshires, I think it's going to deliver a real
fall color weekend for you. It's gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
One community here.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
That I've not heard of is called Waitsfield, Vermont, Vermont's
Mad River Valley.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I assume that's probably getting pretty close to peak now.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Right, Yeah, I mean they do get peak earlier. And
what's so nice about that area Waitsfield and Warren Vermont.
On that part, there are two mountain ranges on both sides,
so it's kind of hugged by the mountains. So when
you drive through, there's like a thirty six mile by
way that you can drive through the mad River and
(06:56):
you're seeing these views on both sides of you, and
it's just it will just blow you away. Plus you
can do all these like what I call the hallmark
kind of fall moments. You can go to the Farmer's market.
There are two covered bridges. You know, there are all those.
You know, you can you can actually ride the chair
lift and mad River Green and see the fall foliage.
(07:18):
They operate that so you can get the overview of
the area. But it is.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
This one from Wastefield.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
You get the photo credit, so you you took that picture,
beautiful picture.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Ah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And then you got Lincoln.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
New Hampshire, which is a spectacular picture that is right
out of the I guess the White Mountains of New
Hampshire just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
We talked about that. And then you got a.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Gondola there, and then we do get outside of New England,
and I guess Lake Placid, Vermont is a very special place,
particularly with the nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey victory there.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That's something we all great.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Yeah, big presence, Yeah, bag present. New York is really
it's like to me, I've gone back many times, and
to me, it's just such a it's just such a
wonderful out doorsy town. Between having the two Winter Games,
you know, it's just any outdoor activity you want to
do there you can do. And I sort of hesitated
to call out someplace in New York State, but the
(08:23):
foliage there and they had arondex is unfreaking believable.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Really hated, I really hated to like you.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No apology necessary. It's it is really a beautiful spread.
I assume it's in the magazine section. I haven't hit
the magazine section.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
It's downstairs on a on a coffee table, and I
will be looking at that tomorrow during breakfast and remembering
our conversation tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Thank you for the tour.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
If you should, You're quite welcome. Are you going to
get out there? You're going to put on your plannel
on please and do a little leaf peeping this fall?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
But I'm not much of a leaf paper.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
But I'm in another part of New England right now.
I'm down in the South Coast area, so eventually the
folierser get down here. Might not be that spectacular, but
uh yeah, I for me to go on a Sunday
h during football season. Uh you know I'm sitting Yeah, yeah,
(09:27):
I hear you.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah. We run into that at our host too.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
And uh that's one that that's that's one that I
kind of stand solid on. I stand strong on that one,
that's for sure, Diane. I love the I love the conversation.
I'll be following you and be looking at those pictures.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Thank you much, Thank you great.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
To talk with you. And we get back. We're going
to change topics. We're going to take you out to
western Massachusett and talk with Gene Cassidy.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
He's a general manager CEO.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Of the Big E, Great Great UH annual event and
the Big E in western Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Well, we were talking about the Big E here in
Eastern Massachusetts, Eastern Bank.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Let's talk about the Big E out in West Springfield.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Home with us is the CEO and the general manager
of the Big E, Gene Cassidy.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Gene Cassidy, Welcome to Nightside, sir. How are you this evening.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
I'm doing great, Dan, and I hope you and your
listeners are doing the same.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
We're doing great. You guys have had quite a runout there.
You had zz Top, you have zz top coming up.
I should say you had Foreigner last weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
How long has the Big E been such a fixture
in Western Massachusetts.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
Well, you know, Dan, you know like Eastern Bank, the
Eastern States, exposition that's been involved in lifting Massachusetts for
one hundred and ten years. And and you and I
have a shared history really because at WBZ, your very
first broadcast from WBZ was here on the grounds at
the Eastern States Exposition, way back in nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I did not host that program. I wanted to well,
I was going to.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Say, you've aged really well, but and so has WBZ.
I mean, we're I'm very proud of that shared connectivity
with your your your listeners, and your station. For years,
you guys broadcasted from from this address, and your very
first broadcast was from the fair grounds nineteen one.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Boy, that's that's so, that's one hundred and four years ago.
This is your it is fourth birthday, No, it's.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
Our one hundred and tenth birthday actually. But you know,
we've we've had amazing entertainers here for all those years,
you know, from from W. C. Fields and and Bob
Hope and Liberaci and now zz Top and Destiny's Child
and Peter Frampton and the list just goes on and on.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
So the I know has been under way for a while.
And yes, we still have another few days, including the weekend, right, Yes.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
We'll go through Sunday to twenty eighth. Yeah, and we
run for seventeen days. And everybody in Massachusetts should should
be proud because this is the fourth largest public event
that takes place in all of North America and it's
right here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Well, you know, we often hear about these so called
you know, state fairs in Iowa and all of that,
but this is really our state fair. This is in
western Massachusetts. But it is really something that all of
us in Massachusetts should be very proud and very cogniz enough.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And I appreciate you saying that because we should, as
Massachusetts residents, take ownership of this address. We are a private,
not for profit, public charity. We are the largest fair
in the country that is not supported by the time axpay.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
Yeah, that goes a long way, you know when. And
no disrespect to other affairs, who many of whom I'm
very well acquainted with. I've been in this business now
for thirty two years. But we're unique because because of
who we are and how we do what we do,
and we promote agriculture for Massachusetts, to be sure, but
(13:23):
really for all of New England. And when you come
to the Eastern States exposition. You'll see agriculture from twenty
seven different states in the nation, as well as Canada.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
How many folks will you accommodate this year? I assume
you know.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You have seventeen days, which I guess is going to
accompass three weekends, which is great.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Right, Well, last year we set a record. We had
over a million, six hundred thousand people visit US.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
So in seventeen in seventeen days.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah, that's about Look, there's a lot of Major League
Baseball teams in eighty one dates at home would kill
to get one point six million people. It puts it
in perspective. I mean, you know, the Patriots have sixty
five thousand at Gillette and they play what's at nine
(14:17):
home games now at Gillette, so they do about a
half a million, maybe throwing another one hundred thousand with
some exhibition games. But boy, you guys, you guys are
knocking it out of the park. Not to mix metaphoys here,
but you guys should do it great. Tell us just
a couple of highlights that you that people should be
looking for, maybe who are coming out for the first
(14:38):
time this year, got excited about hearing your interview.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Besides the great food and all of the.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Exhibitions that you have, give us a couple of things
that people should be looking for.
Speaker 6 (14:50):
So we have an amazing plethora of things to do,
and I encourage people to visit the Biggie dot com
to take a look at at who we are, what
we do, amazing talent that will be on our stages.
A lot of it's free, some of it's there's an
up charge to attend some of the bigger shows. But
you know, food, we have a tremendous representation from Massachusetts
(15:13):
based food vendors and concessionaires. What we do, we have
an enormous impact on the economy of Massachusetts, over a billion,
almost two hundred million dollars worth of economic impact on
the region. There's food, there's entertainment, there's celebrity, and most
of all, there's there's agriculture. What we do is we
(15:35):
use the lights and the glitz and the action of
the fairgrounds to raise money to promote agriculture and agricultural
markets throughout New England, providing a mechanism for the next
generation of agriculturists to find a pathway to a future
in their family tradition. In most cases. Here in New
(15:56):
England and without the Eastern States, frankly, you know, agriculture
has a very difficult time, especially here in Massachusetts, a
highly regulated state, but throughout New England and without this organization, frankly,
agriculture would be you know, sorely lacking, even more so
than it suffers currently. So when you buy a ticket
(16:17):
to the Come to the Biggie, you're really doing something
very good in terms of philanthropy into orders to secure
the agriculturists for the future.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
And then my final question is when you close it
down on Sunday the twenty eighth, you probably take a
couple of days off, and I suspect you start planning
for next year almost virtually immediately.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Well, it's a nice thought. There's a tremendous amount of
planning that goes into building a fair. It takes about
eighteen months to build a fair each year. And no,
I don't get to take any time off. As a
matter of fact, I won't have a vacation until probably
next June. So we're very very busy building the next
fair immediately as this fair end.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Wow, I'll tell you you serve a lot of people
and you serve the Commonwealth and I just want to
say again, you know, thanks for sticking with it, for
your career and for what you do for everybody in
New England, and it is just it's such a great
family event. Proud to talk with you tonight, Gene Cassidy,
the President, the CEO, the big guy at the Big Eie.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
That's for sure. Gene, thank you so much for your
time tonight.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Thank you Dan very much. Best swishes to all.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Absolutely when we get back, we're going to talk about
an emerging youth unemployment crisis unfortunately, but we'll get we'll
get a take on that, and it's always good to
identify a problem so you can fix it. I also
want to remind everyone of a really cool way to
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(17:49):
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(18:11):
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Speaker 3 (18:26):
If that simple.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Once again, hit that red microphone button in the top
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(18:50):
regulated radio station, so you have to sometimes make sure
you're using your big boy words in big girl words. Okay,
So we'll take a quick break here at Nightside, coming
right back and we will talk about out maybe an
emerging youth unemployment crisis with Lisa Miller.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Well, the question that is on my prep sheet says,
are we on the verge of a youth unemployment crisis?
And Lisa Miller is a senior marketing, strategy and innovation
consultant with a group called l WM Associates. So, first
of all, Lisa, welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
And secondly, explain to us what l WM Associates are
and then we'll talk about the issue at hand.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
So I'm basically a consumer strategist. I'm one of the
people that does marketing research to really understand what's going
on and with consumers, how they're feeling, what the sentiment is,
and helping companies understand their consumers.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Okay, so how did you get to the issue tonight,
which is the potential influx of gen zs. And let's,
as always define gen Z for our audience.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
What is the birth absolutely gen Z?
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yes, so gen Z today is thirteen to twenty seven
years old, and so that covers kind of a wide
range and a lot of times people might consider the
twenty eight year old's twenty nine thirty. They're kind of
the younger millennials that have more of the mindset of
a gen Z.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
These are folks who were born in the mid nineties
up until about twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
As I understand it.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Exactly exactly when we think about baby boomers, it's kind
of easy after World War Two up until about nineteen
sixty five.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
So gen Z gen X millennials ninety six.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
So they could be as young as a twelve or
thirteen and just going into high school, or they could
be as old as somebody who's maybe out of graduate school,
certainly out of college and in the workforce. They may
be looking at an unemployment crisis because of artificial intelligence.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Correct exactly. Well, it's so interesting is that when I
look at the data. So there's a lot of press
out there about Microsoft and Meta and how all of
these jobs are going away. Early entry coding jobs are
just disappearing, and that is true. But the data that
(21:28):
I want to make sure people understand is that expression
what's the rest of the story, and the data that
if you actually take a thirty year view back about
sixteen to twenty four year olds, what's fascinating is that
that ten ten percent of young people are out of
jobs today, but it's much lower than historical rates. So
(21:50):
while there is kind of this AI looming thing, I
think it's a little bit over hype, a little bit
to say it's going to be as big as people
think it is. So I think that's the positive story there,
which is there's more to the story.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Well, that's that's right.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Thank you Paul Harvey for that that famous line the
old news. Well here's what my thought is that I
can well, I can't remember, but historically, I think when
Henry Ford was inviting creating the uh, the assembly line
and starting to turn out automobiles at a rapid pace,
(22:28):
and a lot of people said, well, boy, there goes
a lot of jobs. What are the the people who
shoe horses going to do? And the blacksmith what's you know,
what's what's up with that? But obviously there's a lot
of jobs in the automotive industry. I certainly hope that
artificial intelligence will also uh. It may cost some people
(22:50):
their jobs, but I'm hoping that it might open up
a Pandora's box of other jobs.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Absolutely about data, and that's where exactly. And I wrote
a book called The Business of Joy, which was about
the economic recovery of the pandemic, and so My filter is,
you know, joy over fear, which is great for the economy.
But if you look at the data, because I have
to say I'm one of those little data nerds, is
again it's unemployment is ten percent for youth today, and
(23:19):
it is higher. So don't get me wrong. Since twenty
twenty three, it's definitely been inching up. But if you
look at the recession in two thousand and eight, it
was actually double that at twenty percent. And during the pandemic,
all those jobs, those hourly waged jobs, it was thirty
percent unemployment. And so young people are very resilient, but
(23:40):
there are some differences. One of the things I'll tell
you is that gen Z today they don't have as
many of those first jobs. Here's a very interesting statistic.
Only fifteen percent of gen Z in a survey that
I did that I just conducted one thousand gen Z,
fifteen percent said they had a job before six team
(24:00):
versus baby boomers of forty seven percent. So think about that,
is that these early jobs of newspaper routes, babysiting, lawnmowing. Today,
like would people hire a thirteen fourteen year old to babysit?
Probably not, And That's one of the things that if
there's parents out there of children, you know, how can
(24:21):
you give your kids these opportunities The lemonade stands, the
newspaper routes, because that's what they need to be able
to succeed once they get into high school and college
and those types of things.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I would think that, particularly during summer is because a
lot of those kids can work during the school year,
it's probably a summer type job. I would think that
if kids wanted to find summer jobs. I know that
in certain parts of Massachusetts a lot of businesses had
trouble filling summer jobs. Restaurants and ice cream shops at
(24:57):
places like that. Those are great jobs, but at least
it's going on work and spending four hours, yeah a day,
But and.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
What is the customer?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, you started to react, so I don't know if
you agree to disagree, but go ahead, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I want to hear what you have to say.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you brought that up.
Because here's the thing is that the again from a
data perspective, the unintended consequences. There's all of this great
technology and online applications and you know it was supposed
to be so much more efficient, Well it's not because
now the hiring managers have thousands of unqualified people there.
(25:37):
It's so easy to apply and then the gen z
gets no response. And my data basically shows people will
go literally go look at that ice cream shop or
that restaurant or that grocery store. There's a hiring sign
in the window. And then the people the managers there
will say, well, I can't hire you. You have to
fill out the application online. And it's just a big
(26:00):
black hole. And so one of my big missions in
life is to actually say what do we need to
be doing differently, because if you have a human being
that's ready to work, but there's a protocol and a
process that then there's like I said, it's a black
hole that gen z never gets a reply. So there's
a fundamental issue with the hiring that you know it
(26:21):
was intended to be helpful, it's really not.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
It just seems to me that that a lot of
small businesses would would help themselves, you know, put put
the ad out there and all of that. But if
a kid walks in and the kid looks, the young
person looks as if they can do the job, and
they're they're, they're they're they're actually at the door ready
to work.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, hire them on the spot, give them a shot.
You're not talking about You're not hiring.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Brain surgeons or airline pilots here. You're you're hiring, you know,
someone to wait tables or someone to scoop ice cream canes.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
So exactly. And I think speak like that, Yeah, go ahead, yeah, no, no, no,
you can tell I'm very passionate about this topic. Which
is the other thing that's so crazy is that I'm
sure like I have three children, of which two are
gen Z, and this whole thing about when I was
a kid or this is what it was. You know,
work harder, just do it, you know, blah blah blah.
(27:18):
And the thing that employee employers need to understand is
because gen Z didn't have those early mowing, the lawn
babysitting paper routes, they actually don't necessarily have all the
skills and the capabilities that maybe the hiring manager had
when they were that age. So there's got to be
even more training and acknowledgement that they're coming in with
(27:42):
fewer skills versus saying they're lazy.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Well, I love.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Your positive aspect and hopefully folks like you can can
help some of these companies take advantage of what if
there is sort of a a plethora of you know, applications,
job applications.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
You know, don't have the way through.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
A thousand applications to find the two best. Pick the
first two kids that walk in the door. Give them
a chance. At least they have the initiative to show
up in person. That's my thought.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Anyway, I love that.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
Yeah, I love that middle.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Old schoolier Lisa Miller. Miller.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
How can folks get in touch with you with LWM
and Associates.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Absolutely, you can just look at the website LWM dash
Associates dot com. But if you do the hashtag the
business of Joy, you'll find on my social media.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Sounds great, sounds great. Lisa appreciates your time tonight. I
really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
Thank you much, Thank you for having me have a
great one.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Okay, when we get back, when to talk about a
long ago and maybe forgotten battle of the Revolutionary War
when the British bombed and burned present day Portland, Maine,
it's a largely forgotten horror.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Of the Revolutionary War. And we're going to talk with
Holly Hurd.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
She's the executive director of the Tate House Museum. I'd
never heard of this. I can't wait to.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Talk to her.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Well, we're all going to become experts in the Revolutionary
War in the next year or so, as we approached
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of July fourth, seventeen
seventy six. And with us now is Holly Hurd. She's
the executive director of the Tate House Museum, and she
is eventually going to tell us about the bombardment and
(29:37):
burning of present day Portland, Maine, back back in seventeen
seventy five by those pesky British. Holly heard Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
How are you.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
I'm good? Thank you.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
Dan.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Tell us about the Tate House Museum where it's located,
and I want to get to the story of the bombardment,
but I also want to sort of give you an
opportunity to talk a little bit about the organization the
museum that you're associated with.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
Sure, the Teahouse museum is located in the Stroudwater neighborhood
of Portland, So it's upriver, up the Fore River, near
the airport that your jetport. And it's actually the reason
that still exists is because it was built in seventeen
fifty five and it was upriver from the place where
the bombing actually occurred in seventeen seventy five, and so
(30:29):
it has survived and is in fact the only colonial
era museum in all of Cumberland County.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Well, so let me ask you this, How big was Portland,
Maine back in the day. Portland is a great city,
anyone who has been up there. We here in Boston
think about Tea in the Boston Harbor, and we think
about what if by Land to if I see Paul Revere,
Lexington and Concord and all of that, and we forget
(30:58):
that they were British troops everywhere in New England.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
And here we have a story out of Portland, Maine.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
How big was Portland at the time, and how did
this bombardment occur? It sounded like it was a tough
few days for the folks up in Portland, Maine.
Speaker 7 (31:13):
Yeah, so at the time, Portland was known as Falmouth
and Casco Bay to distinguish it from Falmouth, Massachusetts, because
of course Portland was then part of the state of Massachusetts,
it was called the Province of Man exactly. That's right.
So at the time in seventeen seventy five, about nineteen
(31:33):
hundred people lived on what's called Falmouth Neck, which is
the area that's served downtown Portland right now. And on
October eighteenth, seventeen seventy five, a British naval officer pulled
in came into the harbor with five vessels, and they
were sloops of war and prepared to take fire and
(31:58):
decimate the town. It was of a dramatic story because
they actually knew Captain Mollett, he had been in the
town sort of six months before that, with a story
that that sounds a lot like the best Boston massacre.
There were people that were pushing back and forth at
each other. They, you know, the people of salm Salmuth, Portland,
were taking a stand. And so anyway, on the sixteenth
(32:20):
of October, he actually came in and anchored his five
ships near the islands, and they just thought maybe he
was capturing some cattle, which the British were doing at
that time, because of course the American Revolution had already
begun about six months before that when with the Lexington
alarm on April nineteenth, and so, you know, they weren't
(32:41):
too concerned until the next day when he actually pulled
all of his five vessels right in front of the
town and pointed guns at them, and he sent a letter.
He sent a man with a letter where he arrived
at one of the piers. There they walked him up
to the townhouse. A lot of people were there to
hear him read the letter from Captain Mowatt, which said
(33:03):
that his intention, which was that he is going to
start cannonating the town and burn it to the ground,
and that they had two hours to remove the human specie,
as he called them. So that you can imagine the
town started panicking because that was enough time for the
people to get out of town. But he definitely didn't
give them much morning to you know, try to remove
their things. And you know, it was very scary to
(33:27):
have all of these you know, ships or cannons pointed
right out the town, so they panicked. They talked about it.
He also demanded that they give up all the arms
and the four little cannons that they had, and so
they actually sent some arms backed and talked to him,
and he said, okay, you know when he talked to
a couple of leaders in the town that he would
give them overnight. So he said, if you don't, you
(33:48):
need to give me your four cannons, which doesn't sound
like much, but of course they could have done some
damage to the vessels that were right there. And so
the town voted over that morning the next morning on
October eighteenth, that they would not in fact give him
the cannons. And so, starting at about nine thirty that
morning of October eighteenth, he began to send cannonballs, bombs, carcasses,
(34:14):
hot shot, anything he had, and he actually bombed the
town for about nine hours.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
And what do you what he was you carcasses?
Speaker 7 (34:22):
Carcass, Yeah, carcass. Sorry, carcass is a kind of bomb
that it's hollow and is filled with a Sorry that's
sounding funny, That's what they were called at that time.
They were a hollow cannon ball that was filled with
gunpowder so that they would explode and cause fires.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
For Wooden, I was afraid that they had taken some
of the animals. They killed them and they were bombing
them with carcass.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
How many people?
Speaker 3 (34:47):
What was what was the battle cost to the to
the good.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
People, Well, one hundred and thirty six houses were burned
in and burned to the ground, and that that included
four hundred and fourteen buildings. And as I said, it
was it was almost three quarters of the town. The
town was literally decimated. And not only that, he wasn't
satisfied with how what he had done with the cannon,
so he actually sent some men to cow and small
(35:14):
boats and hand torched a lot of the town. I mean,
he really was ruining the town. And there were thirteen
ships that were that were docked there and he sunk
eleven of them and took two of them. So he
really was very much trying to teach well, really it
was all of the patriots. I think this is a
series of things that ended up causing this to happen.
(35:36):
He had actually been ordered to go up and down
the coast of Maine and to destroy several towns, like
nine towns. He was actually headed for Machias, but because
of the wind it ends, because Portland is really like
a sitting duck, he was able to pull right in there.
And as I said, it was no problem for him
to decimate the town, and he used all of his cannons.
(36:00):
Some history from you.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
We've learned some history, Holly, and I can't tell you much.
I appreciate it. Folks can visit the Tate Museum when
they're up in Maine and they can learn even.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
More about what went on.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Unfortunately, we are flat out of time, so I got
to let you run. But Holly heard the executive director
of Tate House Museum. You gave a great description of
a pretty tough day for the for the good people
of Portland, Maine, even before it was named Portland, Maine.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (36:26):
Well, thank you so much, Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
All right, we get back.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
We're going to get to the matters at hand of
the day, and we're going to start with the President,
President Trump's address to the United Nations.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
We're coming right back on my shide.
It's nice with Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, Welcome in everyone wherever you are listening to
night Side tonight. We have quite a listener base all
across the country and actually around the world. You'd be
surprised how many people listen to Nightside in far away countries.
I assume they're mostly New England expats who are living abroad,
but it is an amazing site when I check out
(00:28):
electronically where people were listening in the last few days,
like countries I've never heard of.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Actually, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Maybe there's a lot of people at US embassies who
have some Boston roots.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Anyway, my name is Dan Ray. I got deep.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Boston roots, that's for sure, as does Rob Brooks, our producer.
We don't take any phone calls until beginning at nine o'clock.
We will tonight talk about the president's speech, big address
at the United Nations. I expect that they were going
to be delegates who would walk out. They sat and applauded.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Again.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I don't think he was his favorite their favorite speaker,
but they listened to him tonight. This afternoon I should say,
actually it was early this morning and then later on
tonight we'll talk about the return of Jimmy Kimmel to
his program on his so called comedy show on ABC
and will you be listening or do your care?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
But we have four great guests here.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
We're going to start off with Boston Globe reporter and contributed.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Dian Bear Dieane. Welcome tonight's side.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
How are you very well? Thanks?
Speaker 6 (01:29):
Dan?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
So you have done a piece that I don't think
has been in the Globe yet. If I'm not mistaken,
If it's been in, please let me know when it
was in.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
But I think we're still going to see this maybe
next Sunday. Is that what we're looking at? You think.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
If we're talking about fall color, that was last Sunday?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Okay? Well now, okay, well that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
That's only a couple of days ago. You know, I'm
still waiting through my Globe.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I got to do the sports page and the A
section in the B section and the one Yeah no, absolutely,
but I'll.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Tell you this.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I looked at the piece tonight online and some fabulous pictures.
You have decided to pick New England's most picture perfect
fall foliage towns, and I'm sure you'd get a lot
of dispute on that, and you've actually picked one that
was outside of New England, and I think a couple
(02:31):
of New England states got shut out.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
As well. Happen.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Well, it was on the level, So let's talk about
we're let's go right through them. And I think every
community that is highlighted in your piece is someone places
that all of us. That first picture that I see
is this spectacular picture. This one is up in New Hampshire.
(02:59):
If I'm staken, is it not?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, well yeah, I think we're going to make
some of your global listeners jealous tonight, because I mean
New England and every list of the top foliage places
in the world. You know, New England is number one,
and Vermont also often gets a special shout out. But
people in the Midwest, Smoky Mountains and Virginia have pretty
(03:22):
good foliage too. But you know what New England. You know,
our weather, the kind of trees we have, it just
it just adds up to some incredible fall beauty that
even if you've seen it your whole life, it just
knocks out, you know, every time, every year knocks you out.
And you have Lincoln, New Hampshire.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Well, it's I'm looking at Artists Bluff in Franconia, New Hampshire.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
The guy had.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Parasal which was beautiful and of itself, but the backdrop
of the mountains was spectacular.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah, that's I'll tell you. You know, it's really hard to
beat the White Mountain that you really can't, like talk
foliage in New England without that. And I mean when
you consider you know, and the Cancanegas Highway is just great,
you know, I mean dry. I don't know why we
don't just like fall off that road because driving through
that and having the foliage spring alongside, you know, both
(04:17):
sides of the car is just is crazy. It's you know,
it's just way beyond beautiful. I have a friend who
comes almost every year from Los Angeles and he's he
makes that drive every time. I swear he takes the
same pictures of the same red tree each you know,
each year that he comes.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But they're still there.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I'm looking at one you went up to Maine or
someone went up to Maine and got a great picture
of some leaf peak peeping in Camden, Maine.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, tell us about that one.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
Oh thanks, Well, Camden is so great because it has
that coastal color. You know, it has the contrast between
blue ocean the scarlet leaves. And what's great about Can
is that you can, I mean you can. You can
go out on a schooner and see the color the
schoon there's a schooner that still will take you out
like I think if they go through like early October,
(05:11):
so you're seeing the little pine islands, but you're also
looking back and seeing like Mount Battie in the distance.
And you know, Camden Hills State Park has beautiful hiking
where you can hike up and get the gorgeous overviews
of town and you can stay in a castle there.
You can stay at the norm Baka in which is
very cassolic and cool and it's like towering above the water.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So we can we can't forget western Massachusetts, right, I mean,
pardon me, we can't forget.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Western Massachusetts, Great Barrington.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Oh, I know, well, really, I'll tell you the Berkshires.
You know, it was really hard for me to choose
because I mean just I was just in the Berkshires
a couple of weeks ago, and even though the trees
hadn't really you know, haven't changed yet, that drive is
just so spectacular when you're going up like Route seven
and you're seeing the Teconic Mountains and the Berkshire Hills,
(06:05):
and when both are splashed with color, it's just, I mean,
this is about as beautiful as New England gets. It
really is gorgeous. Almost any town that you choose in
the Berkshires, I think it's going to deliver a real
fall color weekend for you. It's gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
One community here.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
That I've not heard of is called Waitsfield, Vermont, Vermont's
Mad River Valley.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I assume that's probably getting pretty close to peak now.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Right, Yeah, I mean they do get peak earlier. And
what's so nice about that area Waitsfield and Warren Vermont.
On that part, there are two mountain ranges on both sides,
so it's kind of hugged by the mountains. So when
you drive through, there's like a thirty six mile by
way that you can drive through the mad River and
(06:56):
you're seeing these views on both sides of you, and
it's just it will just blow you away. Plus you
can do all these like what I call the hallmark
kind of fall moments. You can go to the Farmer's market.
There are two covered bridges. You know, there are all those.
You know, you can you can actually ride the chair
lift and mad River Green and see the fall foliage.
(07:18):
They operate that so you can get the overview of
the area. But it is.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
This one from Wastefield.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
You get the photo credit, so you you took that picture,
beautiful picture.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Ah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And then you got Lincoln.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
New Hampshire, which is a spectacular picture that is right
out of the I guess the White Mountains of New
Hampshire just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
We talked about that. And then you got a.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Gondola there, and then we do get outside of New England,
and I guess Lake Placid, Vermont is a very special place,
particularly with the nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey victory there.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That's something we all great.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Yeah, big presence, Yeah, bag present. New York is really
it's like to me, I've gone back many times, and
to me, it's just such a it's just such a
wonderful out doorsy town. Between having the two Winter Games,
you know, it's just any outdoor activity you want to
do there you can do. And I sort of hesitated
to call out someplace in New York State, but the
(08:23):
foliage there and they had arondex is unfreaking believable.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Really hated, I really hated to like you.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No apology necessary. It's it is really a beautiful spread.
I assume it's in the magazine section. I haven't hit
the magazine section.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
It's downstairs on a on a coffee table, and I
will be looking at that tomorrow during breakfast and remembering
our conversation tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Thank you for the tour.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
If you should, You're quite welcome. Are you going to
get out there? You're going to put on your plannel
on please and do a little leaf peeping this fall?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
But I'm not much of a leaf paper.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
But I'm in another part of New England right now.
I'm down in the South Coast area, so eventually the
folierser get down here. Might not be that spectacular, but
uh yeah, I for me to go on a Sunday
h during football season. Uh you know I'm sitting Yeah, yeah,
(09:27):
I hear you.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah. We run into that at our host too.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
And uh that's one that that's that's one that I
kind of stand solid on. I stand strong on that one,
that's for sure, Diane. I love the I love the conversation.
I'll be following you and be looking at those pictures.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Thank you much, Thank you great.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
To talk with you. And we get back. We're going
to change topics. We're going to take you out to
western Massachusett and talk with Gene Cassidy.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
He's a general manager CEO.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Of the Big E, Great Great UH annual event and
the Big E in western Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Well, we were talking about the Big E here in
Eastern Massachusetts, Eastern Bank.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Let's talk about the Big E out in West Springfield.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Home with us is the CEO and the general manager
of the Big E, Gene Cassidy.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Gene Cassidy, Welcome to Nightside, sir. How are you this evening.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
I'm doing great, Dan, and I hope you and your
listeners are doing the same.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
We're doing great. You guys have had quite a runout there.
You had zz Top, you have zz top coming up.
I should say you had Foreigner last weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
How long has the Big E been such a fixture
in Western Massachusetts.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
Well, you know, Dan, you know like Eastern Bank, the
Eastern States, exposition that's been involved in lifting Massachusetts for
one hundred and ten years. And and you and I
have a shared history really because at WBZ, your very
first broadcast from WBZ was here on the grounds at
the Eastern States Exposition, way back in nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I did not host that program. I wanted to well,
I was going to.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Say, you've aged really well, but and so has WBZ.
I mean, we're I'm very proud of that shared connectivity
with your your your listeners, and your station. For years,
you guys broadcasted from from this address, and your very
first broadcast was from the fair grounds nineteen one.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Boy, that's that's so, that's one hundred and four years ago.
This is your it is fourth birthday, No, it's.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
Our one hundred and tenth birthday actually. But you know,
we've we've had amazing entertainers here for all those years,
you know, from from W. C. Fields and and Bob
Hope and Liberaci and now zz Top and Destiny's Child
and Peter Frampton and the list just goes on and on.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
So the I know has been under way for a while.
And yes, we still have another few days, including the weekend, right, Yes.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
We'll go through Sunday to twenty eighth. Yeah, and we
run for seventeen days. And everybody in Massachusetts should should
be proud because this is the fourth largest public event
that takes place in all of North America and it's
right here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Well, you know, we often hear about these so called
you know, state fairs in Iowa and all of that,
but this is really our state fair. This is in
western Massachusetts. But it is really something that all of
us in Massachusetts should be very proud and very cogniz enough.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And I appreciate you saying that because we should, as
Massachusetts residents, take ownership of this address. We are a private,
not for profit, public charity. We are the largest fair
in the country that is not supported by the time axpay.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
Yeah, that goes a long way, you know when. And
no disrespect to other affairs, who many of whom I'm
very well acquainted with. I've been in this business now
for thirty two years. But we're unique because because of
who we are and how we do what we do,
and we promote agriculture for Massachusetts, to be sure, but
(13:23):
really for all of New England. And when you come
to the Eastern States exposition. You'll see agriculture from twenty
seven different states in the nation, as well as Canada.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
How many folks will you accommodate this year? I assume
you know.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You have seventeen days, which I guess is going to
accompass three weekends, which is great.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Right, Well, last year we set a record. We had
over a million, six hundred thousand people visit US.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
So in seventeen in seventeen days.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah, that's about Look, there's a lot of Major League
Baseball teams in eighty one dates at home would kill
to get one point six million people. It puts it
in perspective. I mean, you know, the Patriots have sixty
five thousand at Gillette and they play what's at nine
(14:17):
home games now at Gillette, so they do about a
half a million, maybe throwing another one hundred thousand with
some exhibition games. But boy, you guys, you guys are
knocking it out of the park. Not to mix metaphoys here,
but you guys should do it great. Tell us just
a couple of highlights that you that people should be
looking for, maybe who are coming out for the first
(14:38):
time this year, got excited about hearing your interview.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Besides the great food and all of the.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Exhibitions that you have, give us a couple of things
that people should be looking for.
Speaker 6 (14:50):
So we have an amazing plethora of things to do,
and I encourage people to visit the Biggie dot com
to take a look at at who we are, what
we do, amazing talent that will be on our stages.
A lot of it's free, some of it's there's an
up charge to attend some of the bigger shows. But
you know, food, we have a tremendous representation from Massachusetts
(15:13):
based food vendors and concessionaires. What we do, we have
an enormous impact on the economy of Massachusetts, over a billion,
almost two hundred million dollars worth of economic impact on
the region. There's food, there's entertainment, there's celebrity, and most
of all, there's there's agriculture. What we do is we
(15:35):
use the lights and the glitz and the action of
the fairgrounds to raise money to promote agriculture and agricultural
markets throughout New England, providing a mechanism for the next
generation of agriculturists to find a pathway to a future
in their family tradition. In most cases. Here in New
(15:56):
England and without the Eastern States, frankly, you know, agriculture
has a very difficult time, especially here in Massachusetts, a
highly regulated state, but throughout New England and without this organization, frankly,
agriculture would be you know, sorely lacking, even more so
than it suffers currently. So when you buy a ticket
(16:17):
to the Come to the Biggie, you're really doing something
very good in terms of philanthropy into orders to secure
the agriculturists for the future.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
And then my final question is when you close it
down on Sunday the twenty eighth, you probably take a
couple of days off, and I suspect you start planning
for next year almost virtually immediately.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Well, it's a nice thought. There's a tremendous amount of
planning that goes into building a fair. It takes about
eighteen months to build a fair each year. And no,
I don't get to take any time off. As a
matter of fact, I won't have a vacation until probably
next June. So we're very very busy building the next
fair immediately as this fair end.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Wow, I'll tell you you serve a lot of people
and you serve the Commonwealth and I just want to
say again, you know, thanks for sticking with it, for
your career and for what you do for everybody in
New England, and it is just it's such a great
family event. Proud to talk with you tonight, Gene Cassidy,
the President, the CEO, the big guy at the Big Eie.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
That's for sure. Gene, thank you so much for your
time tonight.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Thank you Dan very much. Best swishes to all.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Absolutely when we get back, we're going to talk about
an emerging youth unemployment crisis unfortunately, but we'll get we'll
get a take on that, and it's always good to
identify a problem so you can fix it. I also
want to remind everyone of a really cool way to
be a part of the night Side broadcast. You know,
we invite you to call during the nine, ten and
(17:49):
eleven o'clock hours and talk about subjects and issues and
speak with guests and all of that. But you can
be a part of the night Side Broadcast without dialing
six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty. All you
have to do is utilize the talkback feature on the
iHeartRadio app. Make sure you download and have the free
the new and improved iHeartRadio app on whatever device you
like while you're listening to Nightside Live from a to
(18:11):
midnight Monday through Friday, or WBZ anytime during the week
WBZ News Radio. Once you get the app, in the
upper right hand corner, there's a red microphone talkback button.
All you have to do to send us a personalized
audio message about thirty seconds and we will play it
back on Nightside.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
If that simple.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Once again, hit that red microphone button in the top
right corner of the apple. Listening to night Side and
tell us what you like, what you like about the show,
how you think we can do the show better, if
there's some particular guests that you enjoyed. Again, we'll take
critical comments as well as constructive or just plain compliments
as well. Just you keep it clean. It is FCC
(18:50):
regulated radio station, so you have to sometimes make sure
you're using your big boy words in big girl words. Okay,
So we'll take a quick break here at Nightside, coming
right back and we will talk about out maybe an
emerging youth unemployment crisis with Lisa Miller.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Well, the question that is on my prep sheet says,
are we on the verge of a youth unemployment crisis?
And Lisa Miller is a senior marketing, strategy and innovation
consultant with a group called l WM Associates. So, first
of all, Lisa, welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
And secondly, explain to us what l WM Associates are
and then we'll talk about the issue at hand.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
So I'm basically a consumer strategist. I'm one of the
people that does marketing research to really understand what's going
on and with consumers, how they're feeling, what the sentiment is,
and helping companies understand their consumers.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Okay, so how did you get to the issue tonight,
which is the potential influx of gen zs. And let's,
as always define gen Z for our audience.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
What is the birth absolutely gen Z?
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yes, so gen Z today is thirteen to twenty seven
years old, and so that covers kind of a wide
range and a lot of times people might consider the
twenty eight year old's twenty nine thirty. They're kind of
the younger millennials that have more of the mindset of
a gen Z.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
These are folks who were born in the mid nineties
up until about twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
As I understand it.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Exactly exactly when we think about baby boomers, it's kind
of easy after World War Two up until about nineteen
sixty five.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
So gen Z gen X millennials ninety six.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
So they could be as young as a twelve or
thirteen and just going into high school, or they could
be as old as somebody who's maybe out of graduate school,
certainly out of college and in the workforce. They may
be looking at an unemployment crisis because of artificial intelligence.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Correct exactly. Well, it's so interesting is that when I
look at the data. So there's a lot of press
out there about Microsoft and Meta and how all of
these jobs are going away. Early entry coding jobs are
just disappearing, and that is true. But the data that
(21:28):
I want to make sure people understand is that expression
what's the rest of the story, and the data that
if you actually take a thirty year view back about
sixteen to twenty four year olds, what's fascinating is that
that ten ten percent of young people are out of
jobs today, but it's much lower than historical rates. So
(21:50):
while there is kind of this AI looming thing, I
think it's a little bit over hype, a little bit
to say it's going to be as big as people
think it is. So I think that's the positive story there,
which is there's more to the story.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Well, that's that's right.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Thank you Paul Harvey for that that famous line the
old news. Well here's what my thought is that I
can well, I can't remember, but historically, I think when
Henry Ford was inviting creating the uh, the assembly line
and starting to turn out automobiles at a rapid pace,
(22:28):
and a lot of people said, well, boy, there goes
a lot of jobs. What are the the people who
shoe horses going to do? And the blacksmith what's you know,
what's what's up with that? But obviously there's a lot
of jobs in the automotive industry. I certainly hope that
artificial intelligence will also uh. It may cost some people
(22:50):
their jobs, but I'm hoping that it might open up
a Pandora's box of other jobs.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Absolutely about data, and that's where exactly. And I wrote
a book called The Business of Joy, which was about
the economic recovery of the pandemic, and so My filter is,
you know, joy over fear, which is great for the economy.
But if you look at the data, because I have
to say I'm one of those little data nerds, is
again it's unemployment is ten percent for youth today, and
(23:19):
it is higher. So don't get me wrong. Since twenty
twenty three, it's definitely been inching up. But if you
look at the recession in two thousand and eight, it
was actually double that at twenty percent. And during the pandemic,
all those jobs, those hourly waged jobs, it was thirty
percent unemployment. And so young people are very resilient, but
(23:40):
there are some differences. One of the things I'll tell
you is that gen Z today they don't have as
many of those first jobs. Here's a very interesting statistic.
Only fifteen percent of gen Z in a survey that
I did that I just conducted one thousand gen Z,
fifteen percent said they had a job before six team
(24:00):
versus baby boomers of forty seven percent. So think about that,
is that these early jobs of newspaper routes, babysiting, lawnmowing. Today,
like would people hire a thirteen fourteen year old to babysit?
Probably not, And That's one of the things that if
there's parents out there of children, you know, how can
(24:21):
you give your kids these opportunities The lemonade stands, the
newspaper routes, because that's what they need to be able
to succeed once they get into high school and college
and those types of things.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I would think that, particularly during summer is because a
lot of those kids can work during the school year,
it's probably a summer type job. I would think that
if kids wanted to find summer jobs. I know that
in certain parts of Massachusetts a lot of businesses had
trouble filling summer jobs. Restaurants and ice cream shops at
(24:57):
places like that. Those are great jobs, but at least
it's going on work and spending four hours, yeah a day,
But and.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
What is the customer?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, you started to react, so I don't know if
you agree to disagree, but go ahead, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I want to hear what you have to say.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you brought that up.
Because here's the thing is that the again from a
data perspective, the unintended consequences. There's all of this great
technology and online applications and you know it was supposed
to be so much more efficient, Well it's not because
now the hiring managers have thousands of unqualified people there.
(25:37):
It's so easy to apply and then the gen z
gets no response. And my data basically shows people will
go literally go look at that ice cream shop or
that restaurant or that grocery store. There's a hiring sign
in the window. And then the people the managers there
will say, well, I can't hire you. You have to
fill out the application online. And it's just a big
(26:00):
black hole. And so one of my big missions in
life is to actually say what do we need to
be doing differently, because if you have a human being
that's ready to work, but there's a protocol and a
process that then there's like I said, it's a black
hole that gen z never gets a reply. So there's
a fundamental issue with the hiring that you know it
(26:21):
was intended to be helpful, it's really not.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
It just seems to me that that a lot of
small businesses would would help themselves, you know, put put
the ad out there and all of that. But if
a kid walks in and the kid looks, the young
person looks as if they can do the job, and
they're they're, they're they're they're actually at the door ready
to work.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, hire them on the spot, give them a shot.
You're not talking about You're not hiring.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Brain surgeons or airline pilots here. You're you're hiring, you know,
someone to wait tables or someone to scoop ice cream canes.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
So exactly. And I think speak like that, Yeah, go ahead, yeah, no, no, no,
you can tell I'm very passionate about this topic. Which
is the other thing that's so crazy is that I'm
sure like I have three children, of which two are
gen Z, and this whole thing about when I was
a kid or this is what it was. You know,
work harder, just do it, you know, blah blah blah.
(27:18):
And the thing that employee employers need to understand is
because gen Z didn't have those early mowing, the lawn
babysitting paper routes, they actually don't necessarily have all the
skills and the capabilities that maybe the hiring manager had
when they were that age. So there's got to be
even more training and acknowledgement that they're coming in with
(27:42):
fewer skills versus saying they're lazy.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Well, I love.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Your positive aspect and hopefully folks like you can can
help some of these companies take advantage of what if
there is sort of a a plethora of you know, applications,
job applications.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
You know, don't have the way through.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
A thousand applications to find the two best. Pick the
first two kids that walk in the door. Give them
a chance. At least they have the initiative to show
up in person. That's my thought.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Anyway, I love that.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
Yeah, I love that middle.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Old schoolier Lisa Miller. Miller.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
How can folks get in touch with you with LWM
and Associates.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Absolutely, you can just look at the website LWM dash
Associates dot com. But if you do the hashtag the
business of Joy, you'll find on my social media.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Sounds great, sounds great. Lisa appreciates your time tonight. I
really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
Thank you much, Thank you for having me have a
great one.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Okay, when we get back, when to talk about a
long ago and maybe forgotten battle of the Revolutionary War
when the British bombed and burned present day Portland, Maine,
it's a largely forgotten horror.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Of the Revolutionary War. And we're going to talk with
Holly Hurd.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
She's the executive director of the Tate House Museum. I'd
never heard of this. I can't wait to.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Talk to her.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Well, we're all going to become experts in the Revolutionary
War in the next year or so, as we approached
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of July fourth, seventeen
seventy six. And with us now is Holly Hurd. She's
the executive director of the Tate House Museum, and she
is eventually going to tell us about the bombardment and
(29:37):
burning of present day Portland, Maine, back back in seventeen
seventy five by those pesky British. Holly heard Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
How are you.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
I'm good? Thank you.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
Dan.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Tell us about the Tate House Museum where it's located,
and I want to get to the story of the bombardment,
but I also want to sort of give you an
opportunity to talk a little bit about the organization the
museum that you're associated with.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
Sure, the Teahouse museum is located in the Stroudwater neighborhood
of Portland, So it's upriver, up the Fore River, near
the airport that your jetport. And it's actually the reason
that still exists is because it was built in seventeen
fifty five and it was upriver from the place where
the bombing actually occurred in seventeen seventy five, and so
(30:29):
it has survived and is in fact the only colonial
era museum in all of Cumberland County.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Well, so let me ask you this, How big was Portland,
Maine back in the day. Portland is a great city,
anyone who has been up there. We here in Boston
think about Tea in the Boston Harbor, and we think
about what if by Land to if I see Paul Revere,
Lexington and Concord and all of that, and we forget
(30:58):
that they were British troops everywhere in New England.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
And here we have a story out of Portland, Maine.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
How big was Portland at the time, and how did
this bombardment occur? It sounded like it was a tough
few days for the folks up in Portland, Maine.
Speaker 7 (31:13):
Yeah, so at the time, Portland was known as Falmouth
and Casco Bay to distinguish it from Falmouth, Massachusetts, because
of course Portland was then part of the state of Massachusetts,
it was called the Province of Man exactly. That's right.
So at the time in seventeen seventy five, about nineteen
(31:33):
hundred people lived on what's called Falmouth Neck, which is
the area that's served downtown Portland right now. And on
October eighteenth, seventeen seventy five, a British naval officer pulled
in came into the harbor with five vessels, and they
were sloops of war and prepared to take fire and
(31:58):
decimate the town. It was of a dramatic story because
they actually knew Captain Mollett, he had been in the
town sort of six months before that, with a story
that that sounds a lot like the best Boston massacre.
There were people that were pushing back and forth at
each other. They, you know, the people of salm Salmuth, Portland,
were taking a stand. And so anyway, on the sixteenth
(32:20):
of October, he actually came in and anchored his five
ships near the islands, and they just thought maybe he
was capturing some cattle, which the British were doing at
that time, because of course the American Revolution had already
begun about six months before that when with the Lexington
alarm on April nineteenth, and so, you know, they weren't
(32:41):
too concerned until the next day when he actually pulled
all of his five vessels right in front of the
town and pointed guns at them, and he sent a letter.
He sent a man with a letter where he arrived
at one of the piers. There they walked him up
to the townhouse. A lot of people were there to
hear him read the letter from Captain Mowatt, which said
(33:03):
that his intention, which was that he is going to
start cannonating the town and burn it to the ground,
and that they had two hours to remove the human specie,
as he called them. So that you can imagine the
town started panicking because that was enough time for the
people to get out of town. But he definitely didn't
give them much morning to you know, try to remove
their things. And you know, it was very scary to
(33:27):
have all of these you know, ships or cannons pointed
right out the town, so they panicked. They talked about it.
He also demanded that they give up all the arms
and the four little cannons that they had, and so
they actually sent some arms backed and talked to him,
and he said, okay, you know when he talked to
a couple of leaders in the town that he would
give them overnight. So he said, if you don't, you
(33:48):
need to give me your four cannons, which doesn't sound
like much, but of course they could have done some
damage to the vessels that were right there. And so
the town voted over that morning the next morning on
October eighteenth, that they would not in fact give him
the cannons. And so, starting at about nine thirty that
morning of October eighteenth, he began to send cannonballs, bombs, carcasses,
(34:14):
hot shot, anything he had, and he actually bombed the
town for about nine hours.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
And what do you what he was you carcasses?
Speaker 7 (34:22):
Carcass, Yeah, carcass. Sorry, carcass is a kind of bomb
that it's hollow and is filled with a Sorry that's
sounding funny, That's what they were called at that time.
They were a hollow cannon ball that was filled with
gunpowder so that they would explode and cause fires.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
For Wooden, I was afraid that they had taken some
of the animals. They killed them and they were bombing
them with carcass.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
How many people?
Speaker 3 (34:47):
What was what was the battle cost to the to
the good.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
People, Well, one hundred and thirty six houses were burned
in and burned to the ground, and that that included
four hundred and fourteen buildings. And as I said, it
was it was almost three quarters of the town. The
town was literally decimated. And not only that, he wasn't
satisfied with how what he had done with the cannon,
so he actually sent some men to cow and small
(35:14):
boats and hand torched a lot of the town. I mean,
he really was ruining the town. And there were thirteen
ships that were that were docked there and he sunk
eleven of them and took two of them. So he
really was very much trying to teach well, really it
was all of the patriots. I think this is a
series of things that ended up causing this to happen.
(35:36):
He had actually been ordered to go up and down
the coast of Maine and to destroy several towns, like
nine towns. He was actually headed for Machias, but because
of the wind it ends, because Portland is really like
a sitting duck, he was able to pull right in there.
And as I said, it was no problem for him
to decimate the town, and he used all of his cannons.
(36:00):
Some history from you.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
We've learned some history, Holly, and I can't tell you much.
I appreciate it. Folks can visit the Tate Museum when
they're up in Maine and they can learn even.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
More about what went on.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Unfortunately, we are flat out of time, so I got
to let you run. But Holly heard the executive director
of Tate House Museum. You gave a great description of
a pretty tough day for the for the good people
of Portland, Maine, even before it was named Portland, Maine.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (36:26):
Well, thank you so much, Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
All right, we get back.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
We're going to get to the matters at hand of
the day, and we're going to start with the President,
President Trump's address to the United Nations.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
We're coming right back on my shide.
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