February 2, 2025 • 32 mins
On Sunday morning, at 7:40 AM in Marion Ohio, Buckeye Chuck, Ohio’s Official Weather Forecasting Groundhog emerged from his burrow at The Marion County Fairgrounds to a cloudy sky, proclaiming, “Spring Is Just Around the Corner in Ohio!”
Buckeye Chuck was proclaimed “Ohio’s Official Weather Predicting Groundhog” in 1979 by the Ohio Legislature and since then, WMRN Radio in Marion, has held an annual celebration for Buckeye Chuck’s historic announcement. Buckeye Chuck has correctly predicted the second half of Ohio’s winter weather 73% of the time.
This podcast is the complete Buckeye Chuck Show from 2025!
Buckeye Chuck was proclaimed “Ohio’s Official Weather Predicting Groundhog” in 1979 by the Ohio Legislature and since then, WMRN Radio in Marion, has held an annual celebration for Buckeye Chuck’s historic announcement. Buckeye Chuck has correctly predicted the second half of Ohio’s winter weather 73% of the time.
This podcast is the complete Buckeye Chuck Show from 2025!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning, and welcome to the Buckeye Chuck Show.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We have seven.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
People here today, maybe a few more. Thank you guys
all for coming out. This is the annual Buckeye Chuck Show,
and Buckeye Chuck is Ohio's official weather forecasting groundhog, and
you guys have come all the way to Marrying, Ohio
to experience it for yourself. Thank you all so very
very much for being here. We've got a fun little
(00:31):
program for him. Buckeye Chuck will make his official announcement
for the next six weeks of winter and what he
believes the weather will be in the state of Ohio.
Exactly at seven forty that is sun up in Marion,
Ohio today. Not only are you going to meet some
neat people and you're gonna learn.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
About Buckeye Chuck.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
For this year, and you're gonna learn why it's not
Buckeye Chuck from nineteen seventy nine, so you'll learn about that.
Here he comes, our big star. You're also gonna learn
about groundhogs in Ohio. You going to learn about why
we do this show every week. You're gonna every week
every year, you're going to learn why we are here
and who is the namesake of Buckeye Chuck. You're going
(01:10):
to learn all of that today because I've already had
several of those questions posted to me. We're going to
answer them all during this show in the next thirty
five minutes or so. First of all, I want to
thank some folks. I want to thank Pillar Credit Union
and Cool Kids Resale. You guys are the best. If
it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here. And I'm
(01:32):
happy to have a partnership with Pillar Credit Union and
things that I do. They want to be a part
of They want to be part of the community and
making things better, so I appreciate you guys. We also
will have some guests and dignitaries here today, some of
which are standing behind me now. Will be introducing them
in just a couple of minutes. A big thank you
to the Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, a cause
(01:53):
that is close to my heart. For years I have
assisted the Saint Vincent to Paul Food Pantry, and today
you guys are helping it out. So thank you so
much with your non perishable food donations, your cash donations,
which are the best by the way of food pantries
for years my association with the Saint Vincent de Paul
(02:14):
Food Pantry has been to educate folks about what they do.
And one of the big things they need is cash
because they help people with things that they don't get
through the collectives.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And I know several of you have gotten, thanks to
Hesser's screenprinting and more, a commemorative souvenir T shirt to
say iHeart Buckeye Chuck and you should enjoy that today.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That is very cool.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I want to thank the A and M Donut Wagon
for the refreshments today. If you didn't know, they've got
donuts and they've got other foods and hot beverages. Thank goodness.
We love our coffee. Yeah, you can't get up this
early without it.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Do you want to let you know?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You can tune into our live stream going on right
now on Buckeye Chuck's Facebook page. I believe it's running
just fine. We're doing some double checks to make sure
because I know there are several media outlets that are
catching it. Also, big thank you to the iHeartRadio app.
We are all over the world thanks to that. You
can do a search for fourteen ninety WMRN and this
(03:14):
show has been a stable. Chuck's gonna escape.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Hey buddy, Hey buddy, how are you? I love him?
He's got some fun greens. All right, let's get started.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
The first thing we want to do is we want
to meet Buckeye Chuck. We want to learn about our
friend Murray. So I want to have George and James
come up. James is from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History,
and George is where Murray came from. So we're gonna
chat a little bit. I'm gonna give you this mic,
and I'm gonna grab this guy. And you do good
(03:48):
with a mike, so we're gonna be right up here
with it. This is James. He is from the Cleveland
Museum of Natural History. I'll apologize now to anyone shooting.
I do not stand behind a podium. I will move around. James,
Let's talk a little bit about the Cleveland Museum of
Natural History, because obviously you would love for every person
in this room to come out and check out what
(04:09):
you have.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Talk a little bit about the ada. You would love it.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And I'm going to start with our transformation. We'll get
to Murray in a second book. We just put one
hundred and sixty million dollars into our new museum, So
we took every single square inunch of it, renovated it,
updated it, added new artifacts, and we just opened on
December fifteenth of last year. It's two hours and two
minutes from right here, so come up and visit us.
(04:33):
You can spend the whole day learn about all of
the history of the world. But also we focus on
northeastern Ohio and that's where we tie into our animals.
So Murray is one of the animals. That's our ambassador program. Yes,
so he does school programs, he meets guests that are
coming into the museum, and our job is to educate
(04:53):
people about all of our history, including animals in our backgrounds.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I love how he gets to participate in the program.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I understand.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
The museum has interactive type games and activities for families
and kids.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Tons of activities.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
There's a lot of now with new technology, there's a
lot of things going on with video and digital and
you can come there and we have a video monitor
that'll watch you. You can move, do all kinds of
crazy things, and it will match you with an organism
from life. So you might be an amba, you might
be a groundhog, you might be a chimpanzee, you might
(05:26):
be a banana something like that. So there's a lot
of high tech going on. It's a new way to learn.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
How fun. Well, let's talk about Murray for a second.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We're going to talk to Georgie in a minute about
where Murray came from, so we're not going to talk about,
you know, his beginning times, but once he ended up
at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Talk about Murray
for a second. How folks can come see him? What
kind of life he has?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Okay, Well, he lives in our animal room, So we
have an area that's behind the scenes where we do
food prep for one hundred and thirty five different animals.
So we care for one hundred and thirty five different animals.
There's about twenty animals that live in the building with us,
the animals that don't love being out in winter that
he would really want to hibernate, so we keep it
nice and warm and toasty. He actually has an enclosure
(06:10):
right outside of our window of our office, so he
often stands there to see what we're doing and see
what's going on. He sees people going by all the time,
so that's where he lives. And then this cart that
he's on, this is how he participates in our programming.
So he's trained to go into a carrier voluntarily. Every
day he hops onto a scale and then we put
him on this cart. We can roll them around the
classroom and then he hops back into the carrier and
(06:33):
goes back home.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
He's got a pretty good gig. He's got a pretty
good gig.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
He eats lots and lots of good food.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Kelsey is always making them custom food, the things that
he really likes. Sometimes they break up into powder, and
instead of throwing that away, she packs it up into
a little peanut butter ball.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
So he is very, very very spoiled.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So how do folks learn more about the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History so they can learn and go up
and hang out with you.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
You can go to our website seem NH dot org
and you can buy tickets there. You can check out
all of our galleries there. You can see a lot
of our live animals there that we have, so in
case you're thinking about coming up. We have bobcats, we
have coyote, we have red fox, gray Fox, North American
River otters, all kinds of really cool stuff that it's
like a little mini wildlife center.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I love that all of our animals.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Come to us through some sort of rehabilitation where they
wouldn't be able to survive out in nature, and that's
why they come to us, right and then we take
care of them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And that's the story of Murray. Thank you so much
you for partnering with us. I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
George, come on up because we want to talk for
a second about You can stay up if you want
here and chime in. This is George. George, you've been
running around showing people on your phone. You're gonna have
that mic all the way up. You're oh okay, You're
Matt Okay, run that mic all the way up so
we can hear you.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So we're going to.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Talk about Buckeye Chuck for a minute. Buckeye Chuck was
started in nineteen seventy nine, and you're gonna learn a
little bit later from our naturalists that groundhogs only live
about six to eight years. So obviously there is no
more original buckeye Chuck. Matter of fact, we have him.
But the taxidermy people have brought him to us and
(08:16):
he's fragile, so we just keep him on display at
the station. But this animal was rescued from your property.
Talk a little bit about how you found Murray and
the process of getting them to the Cleveland Museum in
Natural History.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Coming home from work, we were driving past and I've
seen something on the side of the road and I
was like, what is that? And my Dad's like, I
have no idea. I was like, it's a little fuzzball.
So I stopped a car, backed up, a little bit,
got out and I'm looking at it and I'm like,
that's a groundhog.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Next thing I know, here comes running right up to me.
I picked it up, and again I have pictures if
anybody wants to see pictures of me just holding this groundhog.
It was, I mean, tiny little thing, and I've had him.
I had him for a year. Very entertaining creature to
hang out with. They'll tell you definitely, personality is incredible.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So how did he end up at the Cleveland Museum
in Natural History.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
In the state of Ohio, it is illegal to be
to possess a groundhog, yes, so you can't technically have
one as a pet. There are ways of getting certifications
to go and you know, be a rehabber for them.
But even if I went through the program to rehab
him myself, I couldn't keep him. Yeah, So I was
(09:32):
trying to find a way to keep him where I
could see him without losing him. Every other like place
I called wanted to euthanize him, and that wasn't gonna happen. Yeah,
So my old man called Jim, and Jim said, yeah,
let's go through and see what happens. And that's how
he got taken to the well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, there are a couple hundred people here that are
glad that you did not have him euthanized because he
is a big star today.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
So I like to say, I'm a proud parent, you know. Yeah,
my kid went from the side of the road with
nothing to being a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I am a proud parent. Yes, you are awesome. Thank
you so much. We really appreciate you. Thanks for having
and I think Jim has there.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
I just need to add my two cents in there,
so go ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So we at the museum don't just take any animal
that happens to be available. Yeah, yeah, we we had
to put the Post family in contact with a wildlife rehabilitator.
They took him and said, okay, could this animal be
reached back into nature because that's our ultimate goal for
every animal that's injured, is to go back out into nature.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
But it just kept.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Coming towards people and coming towards people, coming to their dog,
coming to their porch. So we took it to Lake
Erie Nature and Science Center, which is in Bay Village, Ohio,
and they would.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Assess the animal.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
They said, he is perfectly healthy, but he is imprinted
on people.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
So he's so.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Used to being around people. You let him go, the
first thing he's going to do is look for somebody. Yeah,
so that is one of the reasons that we do
get them. But it wasn't like George said, hey, we
got this animal and we just took it. We have
to follow the proper procedures to bring him to us,
and he.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Was deemed that he was imprinted on people.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Really appreciate that explaination. Thank you guys so much. Guys,
Thank you. You guys can head out and we're going
to continue on with the show and Murray's going to
make his way over I think to his house. He
has a very big appearance coming up at seven forty,
so he's going to get situated for that, but so cool.
All right, We do want to bring up a couple
(11:37):
of representatives here of the City of Marion and Marion
County as well.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I'd like to bring up Michael Bodine.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Michael is a representative of Mayor Bill Collins' office.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Michael, come on up. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You did this a year ago, and you want to
thank Kevin behind us for letting us use the fairgrounds.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Right, absolutely, it was if you guys were there last year,
it was very cold and very windy, so this is
much appreciated.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Thank you Kevin.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Absolutely, I'm gonna go ahead and turn this off until
James comes up. So with that being said, it's been
a winter and I know with the City of Marion,
you guys have been very busy taking care of the roads.
Talk a little bit about how things are going. How's
the salt barn look for the city of Marian. How's
things going right now for winter?
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Well, as you guys know, we haven't had much of
a winter the last couple of years, so we had
quite an extra supply of salt, so this year. Thankfully,
we're getting to use that. We have crews working all
shifts going really well, so it seems seems to be
moving along.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Michael.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I gotta tell you, the crowd that's here, I think
they're they're done with the winter thing. But but yeah,
so I think you're still going to keep that salt
in there if everything goes away.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
These people want, what do you think, as much salt
as we can keep on. Be happy with it.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Spring. I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Michael, Thank you so much for being here as a
representative of Mayor Bill Collins in the city of Marion,
because if it were for all of them, we wouldn't
be here. How about our county commissioner? We have three today.
We have County Commissioner Kevin Davidson with us. We also
have Mark Davis and Andy Applefeller. And I know you
brought a proclamation. I'm not into reading proclamations, my friend.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yes, right.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Kevin and I have been friends for a long time
and it was a pleasure sending you a text to go, hey, keV,
make sure you come on out and hang with the show.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
My Mike Cable, I think is we Oh, I got
it good. It was wedges under there.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
But thank you so much for being here, and tell
us what does your proclamation say?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Without reading your proclamation, my friend, it just.
Speaker 7 (13:32):
Honors on Buckeye Chuck knowing it it's our official state
groundhoul and noticing this is Buckeye Chuck Day, Groundhog Day.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
How's things going regards to the county.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I know we talked about, you know, moving the snow
on the salt and winter and how things are going.
How's things going in the county right now for you
guys as far as everything we've experienced in the last
six weeks of winter.
Speaker 7 (13:52):
Our county guys have done great job.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
We're moving to snow.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
Our township people too that we have, you know, because
the township does our own roads like the county doeser roads.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
All done great.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
No, I haven't had any issues, no complaints of any
snow removals.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I was gonna ask Michael this, but he kind of
stepped away, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You guys have.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Some big plans for the summer as far as roads
and things like that. I mean, is there some infrastructure
in the works around the county that you guys are
ready to get to if we have an early spring?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, we hope.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
So there are some plans in the works, just kind
of getting things moving and going and getting the right
people there and.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, good, well, I want to thank you the Board
of Commissioners, Tish and in the agg board for allowing
us to be here at the Mary County Fairgrounds because
this is a much nicer setup as far as the
guy who's face freezes when we do this show outdoors.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
I've done this many years outside and washing and said,
this is a lot nicer.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Absolutely well, thank you, keV. I appreciate you, my friend.
I'll take that off your hands. We'll set that right there.
That's Kevin Davidson, brand new County commissioner here in Marion County.
Thank you so much for that. I would like to
bring up our county naturalist. His name is James Anderson,
and James and I have been buddies for a long time.
We've done a podcast for a long time and I
(14:59):
spent quality time I'm out at the tall Grass Trail
with him, and James is a good guy. Our county
decided a number of years ago that was important to
our Marion County Park District to have a naturalist.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And he goes into the schools.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
He works with the kids, he does radio shows and
everything you need to be. But he is a wealth
of information when it comes to the world of groundhogs.
First of all, who can tell me what time it is?
Because my watch is seven twenty three, so we got
about five minutes to stay on time. Somebody holler at
me or throw something heavy at me if we get
(15:33):
to seven twenty nine, because we need to take at
a little break. But James, let's talk You have a
groundhog with you right now. Let's talk about the life
of a groundhog in Marion and Ohio.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Yeah, so groundhogs are one of our rodents. So they
are related to beavers and muskrats.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I'm gonna have you take that one, all right.
Speaker 8 (15:52):
Yeah, so beavers, excuse me, Yeah, they're related to the rodents,
and actually, what's quite funny, they are related to our squirrels.
So yes, they do climb tree and to find food
and to also to escape from danger. So yes, within
their name. Yes, they do live underneath the ground, and
they do have their burrows, and their burrows are like
our homes. They do have different rooms called chambers and
kind of like us, different rooms, different functions. They do
(16:14):
have a restroom chamber, they have a bedroom chamber. If
it's a female, she does have a nursing chamber. And
if she gets or excuse me, if the groundhog gets
killed or it moves away, it leaves a home for
a lot of different kinds of wildlife such as coyotes, foxes, squirrels, snakes.
So some my cologists actually differ that groundhogs are what's
called keystone species, so it means they are very important
(16:36):
for some of their local ecosystems. So without groundhog burrows,
a lot of animals would not have a lot of homes.
So also too, these guys, you know, they do dig
pretty deep about six feet deep and can go about
twenty feet wide, and they can move hundreds of pounds
of dirt within their lifetime. Wow, And they only live
for about two to three years as a typical lifespan
(16:57):
sometimes up to six years. It's pretty old for a groundhog.
Fourteen is I think the oldest in captivity that they
have had. But yeah, groundhogs are our best mammal hibernator.
When they hibernate, their heartbreat goes to about forty five
beats per minute and their body temperature goes to about
thirty five to thirty seven degrees fahrenheit two, just above freezing.
(17:18):
So I know when you were learning about hibernation, you
were learning about bears. But bears, yes, do hibernation in
the way, but it's not as well as groundhogs. So
I like to compare bears and groundhogs like diesel and
gasoline engines. So you know how in the wintertime, you know,
with a diesel engine, it takes a lot of time
to get it started. That's what grounds and hogs are
like versus bears is more like gasoline engines. So that's
(17:39):
why if you get warm spells, bears come out of
a hibernational state a lot easier than groundhogs do. And yeah,
groundhogs will start be coming out.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Here in the next few weeks.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
It's typically the males first, and what he does is
he kind of pinpoints where all the females are first
and kind of creates a mental map, because what he'll
do is during late March or excuse me, middle March,
when everybody's out and about, then he knows exactly where
all the females are, so it kind of avoids for
him being out and about and and kind of hunkered
down and not to be eaten by predators.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Absolutely, So that's the reason why we're here today. The
folklore of groundhog Day goes back to long back in Germany.
Talk a little bit about that and why we have
the groundhog in the United States as our weather predictor.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
So actually I think it started all the way back
and was at rum and times with candle.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Miss something like that. Yeah, candle Miss is the middle
point of winter and spring.
Speaker 8 (18:31):
Yeah, so then I think the Germans kind of adapt
or top to that, but instead in using candles, they
use some of the local wildlife over there, which were
badgers and hedgehogs. But then when they got here into America,
they wanted to keep those traditions going. But then the
problem was there wasn't hedgehogs. The American badger is a
lot more meaner than the European badgers. So then they
(18:52):
found this, They found the groundhog. And of course we
know about where pucksatani Feil, that's where the first one
was started and the I forget the eighteen Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
We don't say that city here. Oh that's right. It
is known as he's known as the road in to
the east. James. Yeah, we don't talk.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
We've got to we got a school up north and
we have a road in to the east.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
But anyway, so that's that's kind of where we're at.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And if he comes out this time of year and
the weather seems like spring, he's going to stay out.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Find him mate, do what he's gonna do.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But if we got that blazing sunshine, he has darted
right back into that borough and six.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
More weeks a winter. Correct correct, Yeah, it's good stuff, James.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Tell everybody how they can hook out to the hook
up to the Marion County Park District real quick. Tell
everybody what your parks are and when what you manage.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (19:38):
So I'm the again the nationalist for the park district
in Marion, so I'm charged of the county park So
I'm not gonna talk about all of them. You want
to know more information, I have a table right back
there by the selfie station. But Marion Tallgrass Trail is
our big biking, hiking trail. Go a walking, biking, canoe fishing, kayaking,
and just make sure to follow on our Facebook page
Marion Tallgrass Trail and keep up to date of our programs.
And Family Fund of Fens.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It is a in our community and it is one
hundred percent run by volunteers our parks District. Yes, I
don't think people understand that that is that's how that works.
And our parks are fantastic. The Tall Grass Trail is
a huge I don't need to Yeah, I know there's
a lot with that, So James, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
He's going to head back over to his spot.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
If you want to do a few more things and
check out some of his stuff, you certainly can do that.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
My friend always got some leftover mugs that came from
the litter and recycling people. So that is over there.
I'm going to set that microphone there all right, So
thank you guys so much. Big round of applause to
all of our guests here today, Thank you guys so much.
I believe we also have some members of Charlie Evers'
(20:43):
family here today, and we're going to talk about Charlie
when we come back from a break, and we're going
to talk about why Charlie is so important to this
day and how Buckeye Chuck began and where he came from.
We're going to do all of that before Chuck makes
his historic announcement that happens at seven forty on the dot,
he'll make his proclamation for the next six weeks of winter.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
We are so excited about that.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So we're gonna take a quick break right now, and
we're gonna let the radio do what they need to do,
and then we'll be back in about five minutes on
your radio if you are tuning in. Thank you so
much for joining us on AM fourteen ninety WMRN, and.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I believe we are back.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
It is the Buck Eyed Chuck Show on AM fourteen
ninety double UMRN. Thank you all so much for being here.
We've got a super crowd, one of the biggest crowds
I've seen a Buckeye Chuck in a number of years,
and Randy you can probably vouch for that. Have we
seen a crowd this big? You did this for ten years.
I think Danielle with me and is a good crowd, right. Yeah,
(21:47):
it's nice. It's one of the reasons why we wanted
to move it out here to the Marion County Fairgrounds.
And once again, a big thank you to them for
allowing us to be here. The parking is way way
better here than it is at the radio station.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Especially for this many people.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I want to ask, first of all, who all is
here from Marion, Ohio. I want to show a hands
or hear you. All right, so we have a nice crowd.
How many are here for the first time to witness
and see Buckeye Chuck. That's a lot of people that
are first timers. Welcome to Groundhog Day. Being on a
Sunday about ten years ago, we had an ice storm
(22:21):
and there were eight people there because we did Buckeye
Chuck and I had people. I went to the grocery
store and people went, hey, why didn't you just move
Groundhog Day? Well, you can't. Groundhog Day is candle missed.
It's like Christmas. It is the exact point between the
first day of winter, which, as you remember, was the
day the Buckeyes beat Tennessee and the weather stunk.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
What was it eight? What was it eight? In the
stadium at kickoff for that game.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Those people from Tennessee learned about Ohio weather real fast.
And then of course now we go through win a
national title and here we are sitting at the middle point,
absolutely sitting at the middle point. We have six weeks
until the beginning of spring as far as the calendar.
So let's talk for a minute about groundhog Day. It
(23:08):
has its roots in ancient Christian tradition of candlemss. Clergy
would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles
represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans
expanded the concept by selecting an animal, the hedgehog, as
a means of predicting weather, which is kind of fun.
Once they came to America, German settlers in the East
(23:28):
continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs,
which were plentiful in Ohio, which James was saying earlier.
Groundhogs are also called woodchucks. They weigh twelve to fifteen pounds.
They can live up to about six to eight years.
They eat vegetables and fruits. You saw Murray eating a
lot of vegetables. They whistle when they're frightened, which is
(23:48):
why they're sometimes called whistle pigs. They can climb trees,
they can swim, but they go into hibernation in late fall,
and during their time their body temperature dropped significantly. Their
heart beat slow from eighty to about five beats per minute.
They can lose thirty percent of their body fat. In February,
male groundhogs emerged from their burrows to look for a
(24:08):
mate before going underground again. They come out of hibernation
for good in March. So how does a common whistlepig
become the most beloved groundhog in the state of Ohio?
There was a friendly groundhog living in the woods behind
our WMRIN Radio studios. WMRIN radio personality Charlie Evers befriended
(24:29):
this groundhog and began to talk about him on his
radio show, Charlie's Family is here today. We thank you
guys for being here. Listeners loved the stories that Charlie
would tell on the radio, so he asked the local
school children to submit ideas. Hey, we want you to
name our groundhog. Well, they had this local Groundhog Day
(24:50):
celebration was live on the radio on WMRN, and they
announced the winner of the naming contest. At the time,
WMRN was Ohio's officially designated weather reporting station, so state
Representative Walter Doc McClaskey from Marion put together a resolution
in nineteen seventy nine, along with Charlie Evers, to designate
(25:11):
Buck Eyed Chuck as Ohio's official weather forecasting groundhog, and
ever since then we have held this annual celebration to
have a good time and talk about our buddy. One
of the things that people have asked me is where
did spam come and go when it comes to buck
eyed Chuck. So I want to tell you a little
(25:32):
bit about that. Does anybody in the building actually know
what spam is? It is pork shoulder and ham. Pork
shoulder and ham is. Let's try that again, pork shoulder
and ham is. That's why we would do spam. Marion's
longest serving First Lady Sandra Kellogg, began the tradition as
(25:54):
she reminded Wmrins Terry Cole that spam is pork shoulder
in ham, which is in turn ground hog. So Sandra
began bringing her skillet. She made the spam sandwiches. Well,
the health Department says, you can't have the mayor's wife
making spam sandwiches. Ain't handing him out to people anymore.
So there you go. There's your bugy. Chuck loved it.
(26:17):
I'll tell you what. Let's find out where you're all from,
who came the farthest to be here, who lives outside
of Marion County show hands. All right, that's a lot
of you, so some of you drove for a while?
All right, does.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Anybody live outside the state of Ohio? Hey, we got
a couple.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
All right, we talk in Indiana, we talk in Michigan,
one of the surrounding states. Yes, is that where you're from?
Or farther than a surrounding state to Ohio?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
That's Harriet. Where are you from? You're from Kansas.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I got to ask the question, did you come from
Kansas to Marie in Ohio for this celebration today?
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
My next question is have you gone to any of
the other celebrations on Groundhog Day? And this was just
one of your destinations? This is your first. Well, let
me tell you something. I've heard from people that do this.
They go around every year to a different one. It
becomes addicting, and we do the absolute best show ever.
(27:17):
By the way, that Rodent to the East is only
correct about thirty three percent of the time. And that's
the truth. The Roadent to the East has no idea
what he's up against. Because Buck Eyed Chuck, maybe you
know this, maybe you don't. Maybe you've been listening to
me on the radio. Because I've talked about this quite
a bit. Buckeye Chuck has made forty one Ohio weather
(27:39):
predictions since nineteen seventy nine. Twelve predictions were for six
more weeks of winter. Twenty nine predictions were for an
early spring. So it appears that in Marion, Ohio, about
seven forty on February tewod it's kind of a cloudy day, right.
There were four unrecorded predictions. Buckeye Chuck has been correct
thirty times out of forty one. That is a seventy
(28:03):
three percent accuracy rate. So if you want to know
what the weather in Ohio is gonna be for the
next six weeks, you need to be here and listen
to what Buckeye Chuck has to say.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I believe we are at seven forty.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It is seven forty You guys ready for the historic prediction.
Buckeye Chuck Murray is out, ready to go. It is
seven forty am at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Marion, Ohio, USA.
Today is Candlemus Groundhog Day. February second, twenty twenty five.
Buckeye Chuck, Ohio's official weather reporting groundhog, has emerged from
(28:43):
his burrow to cloudy skies, which by folklore, the Groundhog
Day means spring is just around the corner. Apparently these
guys are happy with what Buuye Chuck had to say.
You guys get some nice shots at Chuck and all
(29:04):
of that. I want to thank everybody for being here today.
I've got several people to thank. A big thank you
once again to the Marion County Fairgrounds for allowing us
to use this room and this facility and this great
parking lot. By the way, you guys may not know
this or not, but Charlie Evers has a building on
this fairgrounds right to the other side of us here,
(29:27):
over to the west. It's called Evers Arena, and it
was named after Charlie for all the great things that
he did on this fairgrounds and all the great broadcasts
that he did.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Live on the radio.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So thank God for Charlie, or we wouldn't be here
today and Buckeye Chuck wouldn't be the guy that he is.
So big thank you to Charlie, his family and everybody.
And thank you guys for being here today. We really
appreciate your attendance and support of what we do.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Big thank you to Pillar Credit Union.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
My friend Steven, Thank you so much, love my partnership
with you guys. You're great people and love them cool
kids resale. We've done stuff with them for a long time.
They're fabulous Hessler screen printing and more. Kim and James
great people. That's where our T shirts came from. I
don't know do we have any T shirts left? Have
we given away all the T shirts? But thank you
(30:17):
if you got one, you have a collector's item. I've
never seen them designed like that before. They're beautiful. Kim
does a great job, so make sure that you tell
your friends they need to be here next year and
come on out. A big thank you to our friends
at the A and M Donut Wagon.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I believe they're from Cresline, is that correct.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
They came over to help us out with the donuts,
the hot coffee and the other stuff. Thank you so
much to the A and M Donut Wagon. And a
big thank you to Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry,
and a big thank you to you for helping to
feed people here in our community here today. I think
with that being said, I think we're ready to resume
(30:57):
regular broadcasting on FOURTEENMRN. The celebration continues, There's lots of
opportunities for you to get selfies on our digital selfie station.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Over here.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You can meet our Buckeye Chuck mascot who's running around here.
Get a selfie with him. So, hey, guys, there's Charlie's
family right over there. Thank you, Amy, Tim read Scarlett,
Thank you guys for being here.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
And if you want to know more about Charlie and
Buckeye Chuck, Amy's a wealth of knowledge. She has forgotten
more about Buckeye Chuck in this Groundhog Day celebration than
I will ever know. I've just done it since ninety seven,
so it's kind of regurgitated, but she knows how that
whole thing works.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Feel free to ask her.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Everyone who's following us online on our Facebook live stream
on Buckeye Chuck's page, thank you for joining us. You
can share that with your friends. Make sure friends become
a fan of the Buckeye Chuck page.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But, like I said, we still got a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
James is going to continue to talk to folks about
the things that he has in the Marion County Park District.
And I'm sure the A and M Donut truck's going
to stick around for a few more minutes. Once again,
a big thank you to everybody who traveled so far
to be here today.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I hope you had an awesome time, and I hope
if you came from out of town that you do
a little business here in Marion, Ohio before you go
back home. Thank you so much, and a big thank
you to fourteen ninety WMRN and everyone listening on the
radio and the iHeartRadio app. We're signing off from the
Marion County Fairgrounds where Buckeye Chuck, our animal ambassador, Ohio's
(32:35):
official weather reporting groundhog, says spring is just around the corner.
Good morning, and welcome to the Buckeye Chuck Show.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We have seven.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
People here today, maybe a few more. Thank you guys
all for coming out. This is the annual Buckeye Chuck Show,
and Buckeye Chuck is Ohio's official weather forecasting groundhog, and
you guys have come all the way to Marrying, Ohio
to experience it for yourself. Thank you all so very
very much for being here. We've got a fun little
(00:31):
program for him. Buckeye Chuck will make his official announcement
for the next six weeks of winter and what he
believes the weather will be in the state of Ohio.
Exactly at seven forty that is sun up in Marion,
Ohio today. Not only are you going to meet some
neat people and you're gonna learn.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
About Buckeye Chuck.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
For this year, and you're gonna learn why it's not
Buckeye Chuck from nineteen seventy nine, so you'll learn about that.
Here he comes, our big star. You're also gonna learn
about groundhogs in Ohio. You going to learn about why
we do this show every week. You're gonna every week
every year, you're going to learn why we are here
and who is the namesake of Buckeye Chuck. You're going
(01:10):
to learn all of that today because I've already had
several of those questions posted to me. We're going to
answer them all during this show in the next thirty
five minutes or so. First of all, I want to
thank some folks. I want to thank Pillar Credit Union
and Cool Kids Resale. You guys are the best. If
it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here. And I'm
(01:32):
happy to have a partnership with Pillar Credit Union and
things that I do. They want to be a part
of They want to be part of the community and
making things better, so I appreciate you guys. We also
will have some guests and dignitaries here today, some of
which are standing behind me now. Will be introducing them
in just a couple of minutes. A big thank you
to the Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, a cause
(01:53):
that is close to my heart. For years I have
assisted the Saint Vincent to Paul Food Pantry, and today
you guys are helping it out. So thank you so
much with your non perishable food donations, your cash donations,
which are the best by the way of food pantries
for years my association with the Saint Vincent de Paul
(02:14):
Food Pantry has been to educate folks about what they do.
And one of the big things they need is cash
because they help people with things that they don't get
through the collectives.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And I know several of you have gotten, thanks to
Hesser's screenprinting and more, a commemorative souvenir T shirt to
say iHeart Buckeye Chuck and you should enjoy that today.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That is very cool.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I want to thank the A and M Donut Wagon
for the refreshments today. If you didn't know, they've got
donuts and they've got other foods and hot beverages. Thank goodness.
We love our coffee. Yeah, you can't get up this
early without it.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Do you want to let you know?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You can tune into our live stream going on right
now on Buckeye Chuck's Facebook page. I believe it's running
just fine. We're doing some double checks to make sure
because I know there are several media outlets that are
catching it. Also, big thank you to the iHeartRadio app.
We are all over the world thanks to that. You
can do a search for fourteen ninety WMRN and this
(03:14):
show has been a stable. Chuck's gonna escape.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Hey buddy, Hey buddy, how are you? I love him?
He's got some fun greens. All right, let's get started.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
The first thing we want to do is we want
to meet Buckeye Chuck. We want to learn about our
friend Murray. So I want to have George and James
come up. James is from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History,
and George is where Murray came from. So we're gonna
chat a little bit. I'm gonna give you this mic,
and I'm gonna grab this guy. And you do good
(03:48):
with a mike, so we're gonna be right up here
with it. This is James. He is from the Cleveland
Museum of Natural History. I'll apologize now to anyone shooting.
I do not stand behind a podium. I will move around. James,
Let's talk a little bit about the Cleveland Museum of
Natural History, because obviously you would love for every person
in this room to come out and check out what
(04:09):
you have.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Talk a little bit about the ada. You would love it.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And I'm going to start with our transformation. We'll get
to Murray in a second book. We just put one
hundred and sixty million dollars into our new museum, So
we took every single square inunch of it, renovated it,
updated it, added new artifacts, and we just opened on
December fifteenth of last year. It's two hours and two
minutes from right here, so come up and visit us.
(04:33):
You can spend the whole day learn about all of
the history of the world. But also we focus on
northeastern Ohio and that's where we tie into our animals.
So Murray is one of the animals. That's our ambassador program. Yes,
so he does school programs, he meets guests that are
coming into the museum, and our job is to educate
(04:53):
people about all of our history, including animals in our backgrounds.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I love how he gets to participate in the program.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I understand.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
The museum has interactive type games and activities for families
and kids.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Tons of activities.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
There's a lot of now with new technology, there's a
lot of things going on with video and digital and
you can come there and we have a video monitor
that'll watch you. You can move, do all kinds of
crazy things, and it will match you with an organism
from life. So you might be an amba, you might
be a groundhog, you might be a chimpanzee, you might
(05:26):
be a banana something like that. So there's a lot
of high tech going on. It's a new way to learn.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
How fun. Well, let's talk about Murray for a second.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We're going to talk to Georgie in a minute about
where Murray came from, so we're not going to talk about,
you know, his beginning times, but once he ended up
at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Talk about Murray
for a second. How folks can come see him? What
kind of life he has?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Okay, Well, he lives in our animal room, So we
have an area that's behind the scenes where we do
food prep for one hundred and thirty five different animals.
So we care for one hundred and thirty five different animals.
There's about twenty animals that live in the building with us,
the animals that don't love being out in winter that
he would really want to hibernate, so we keep it
nice and warm and toasty. He actually has an enclosure
(06:10):
right outside of our window of our office, so he
often stands there to see what we're doing and see
what's going on. He sees people going by all the time,
so that's where he lives. And then this cart that
he's on, this is how he participates in our programming.
So he's trained to go into a carrier voluntarily. Every
day he hops onto a scale and then we put
him on this cart. We can roll them around the
classroom and then he hops back into the carrier and
(06:33):
goes back home.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
He's got a pretty good gig. He's got a pretty
good gig.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
He eats lots and lots of good food.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Kelsey is always making them custom food, the things that
he really likes. Sometimes they break up into powder, and
instead of throwing that away, she packs it up into
a little peanut butter ball.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
So he is very, very very spoiled.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So how do folks learn more about the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History so they can learn and go up
and hang out with you.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
You can go to our website seem NH dot org
and you can buy tickets there. You can check out
all of our galleries there. You can see a lot
of our live animals there that we have, so in
case you're thinking about coming up. We have bobcats, we
have coyote, we have red fox, gray Fox, North American
River otters, all kinds of really cool stuff that it's
like a little mini wildlife center.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I love that all of our animals.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Come to us through some sort of rehabilitation where they
wouldn't be able to survive out in nature, and that's
why they come to us, right and then we take
care of them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And that's the story of Murray. Thank you so much
you for partnering with us. I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
George, come on up because we want to talk for
a second about You can stay up if you want
here and chime in. This is George. George, you've been
running around showing people on your phone. You're gonna have
that mic all the way up. You're oh okay, You're
Matt Okay, run that mic all the way up so
we can hear you.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So we're going to.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Talk about Buckeye Chuck for a minute. Buckeye Chuck was
started in nineteen seventy nine, and you're gonna learn a
little bit later from our naturalists that groundhogs only live
about six to eight years. So obviously there is no
more original buckeye Chuck. Matter of fact, we have him.
But the taxidermy people have brought him to us and
(08:16):
he's fragile, so we just keep him on display at
the station. But this animal was rescued from your property.
Talk a little bit about how you found Murray and
the process of getting them to the Cleveland Museum in
Natural History.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Coming home from work, we were driving past and I've
seen something on the side of the road and I
was like, what is that? And my Dad's like, I
have no idea. I was like, it's a little fuzzball.
So I stopped a car, backed up, a little bit,
got out and I'm looking at it and I'm like,
that's a groundhog.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Next thing I know, here comes running right up to me.
I picked it up, and again I have pictures if
anybody wants to see pictures of me just holding this groundhog.
It was, I mean, tiny little thing, and I've had him.
I had him for a year. Very entertaining creature to
hang out with. They'll tell you definitely, personality is incredible.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So how did he end up at the Cleveland Museum
in Natural History.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
In the state of Ohio, it is illegal to be
to possess a groundhog, yes, so you can't technically have
one as a pet. There are ways of getting certifications
to go and you know, be a rehabber for them.
But even if I went through the program to rehab
him myself, I couldn't keep him. Yeah, So I was
(09:32):
trying to find a way to keep him where I
could see him without losing him. Every other like place
I called wanted to euthanize him, and that wasn't gonna happen. Yeah,
So my old man called Jim, and Jim said, yeah,
let's go through and see what happens. And that's how
he got taken to the well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, there are a couple hundred people here that are
glad that you did not have him euthanized because he
is a big star today.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
So I like to say, I'm a proud parent, you know. Yeah,
my kid went from the side of the road with
nothing to being a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I am a proud parent. Yes, you are awesome. Thank
you so much. We really appreciate you. Thanks for having
and I think Jim has there.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
I just need to add my two cents in there,
so go ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So we at the museum don't just take any animal
that happens to be available. Yeah, yeah, we we had
to put the Post family in contact with a wildlife rehabilitator.
They took him and said, okay, could this animal be
reached back into nature because that's our ultimate goal for
every animal that's injured, is to go back out into nature.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
But it just kept.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Coming towards people and coming towards people, coming to their dog,
coming to their porch. So we took it to Lake
Erie Nature and Science Center, which is in Bay Village, Ohio,
and they would.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Assess the animal.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
They said, he is perfectly healthy, but he is imprinted
on people.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
So he's so.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Used to being around people. You let him go, the
first thing he's going to do is look for somebody. Yeah,
so that is one of the reasons that we do
get them. But it wasn't like George said, hey, we
got this animal and we just took it. We have
to follow the proper procedures to bring him to us,
and he.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Was deemed that he was imprinted on people.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Really appreciate that explaination. Thank you guys so much. Guys,
Thank you. You guys can head out and we're going
to continue on with the show and Murray's going to
make his way over I think to his house. He
has a very big appearance coming up at seven forty,
so he's going to get situated for that, but so cool.
All right, We do want to bring up a couple
(11:37):
of representatives here of the City of Marion and Marion
County as well.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I'd like to bring up Michael Bodine.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Michael is a representative of Mayor Bill Collins' office.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Michael, come on up. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You did this a year ago, and you want to
thank Kevin behind us for letting us use the fairgrounds.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Right, absolutely, it was if you guys were there last year,
it was very cold and very windy, so this is
much appreciated.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Thank you Kevin.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Absolutely, I'm gonna go ahead and turn this off until
James comes up. So with that being said, it's been
a winter and I know with the City of Marion,
you guys have been very busy taking care of the roads.
Talk a little bit about how things are going. How's
the salt barn look for the city of Marian. How's
things going right now for winter?
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Well, as you guys know, we haven't had much of
a winter the last couple of years, so we had
quite an extra supply of salt, so this year. Thankfully,
we're getting to use that. We have crews working all
shifts going really well, so it seems seems to be
moving along.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Michael.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I gotta tell you, the crowd that's here, I think
they're they're done with the winter thing. But but yeah,
so I think you're still going to keep that salt
in there if everything goes away.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
These people want, what do you think, as much salt
as we can keep on. Be happy with it.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Spring. I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Michael, Thank you so much for being here as a
representative of Mayor Bill Collins in the city of Marion,
because if it were for all of them, we wouldn't
be here. How about our county commissioner? We have three today.
We have County Commissioner Kevin Davidson with us. We also
have Mark Davis and Andy Applefeller. And I know you
brought a proclamation. I'm not into reading proclamations, my friend.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yes, right.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Kevin and I have been friends for a long time
and it was a pleasure sending you a text to go, hey, keV,
make sure you come on out and hang with the show.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
My Mike Cable, I think is we Oh, I got
it good. It was wedges under there.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
But thank you so much for being here, and tell
us what does your proclamation say?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Without reading your proclamation, my friend, it just.
Speaker 7 (13:32):
Honors on Buckeye Chuck knowing it it's our official state
groundhoul and noticing this is Buckeye Chuck Day, Groundhog Day.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
How's things going regards to the county.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I know we talked about, you know, moving the snow
on the salt and winter and how things are going.
How's things going in the county right now for you
guys as far as everything we've experienced in the last
six weeks of winter.
Speaker 7 (13:52):
Our county guys have done great job.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
We're moving to snow.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
Our township people too that we have, you know, because
the township does our own roads like the county doeser roads.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
All done great.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
No, I haven't had any issues, no complaints of any
snow removals.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I was gonna ask Michael this, but he kind of
stepped away, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You guys have.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Some big plans for the summer as far as roads
and things like that. I mean, is there some infrastructure
in the works around the county that you guys are
ready to get to if we have an early spring?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, we hope.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
So there are some plans in the works, just kind
of getting things moving and going and getting the right
people there and.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, good, well, I want to thank you the Board
of Commissioners, Tish and in the agg board for allowing
us to be here at the Mary County Fairgrounds because
this is a much nicer setup as far as the
guy who's face freezes when we do this show outdoors.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
I've done this many years outside and washing and said,
this is a lot nicer.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Absolutely well, thank you, keV. I appreciate you, my friend.
I'll take that off your hands. We'll set that right there.
That's Kevin Davidson, brand new County commissioner here in Marion County.
Thank you so much for that. I would like to
bring up our county naturalist. His name is James Anderson,
and James and I have been buddies for a long time.
We've done a podcast for a long time and I
(14:59):
spent quality time I'm out at the tall Grass Trail
with him, and James is a good guy. Our county
decided a number of years ago that was important to
our Marion County Park District to have a naturalist.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And he goes into the schools.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
He works with the kids, he does radio shows and
everything you need to be. But he is a wealth
of information when it comes to the world of groundhogs.
First of all, who can tell me what time it is?
Because my watch is seven twenty three, so we got
about five minutes to stay on time. Somebody holler at
me or throw something heavy at me if we get
(15:33):
to seven twenty nine, because we need to take at
a little break. But James, let's talk You have a
groundhog with you right now. Let's talk about the life
of a groundhog in Marion and Ohio.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Yeah, so groundhogs are one of our rodents. So they
are related to beavers and muskrats.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I'm gonna have you take that one, all right.
Speaker 8 (15:52):
Yeah, so beavers, excuse me, Yeah, they're related to the rodents,
and actually, what's quite funny, they are related to our squirrels.
So yes, they do climb tree and to find food
and to also to escape from danger. So yes, within
their name. Yes, they do live underneath the ground, and
they do have their burrows, and their burrows are like
our homes. They do have different rooms called chambers and
kind of like us, different rooms, different functions. They do
(16:14):
have a restroom chamber, they have a bedroom chamber. If
it's a female, she does have a nursing chamber. And
if she gets or excuse me, if the groundhog gets
killed or it moves away, it leaves a home for
a lot of different kinds of wildlife such as coyotes, foxes, squirrels, snakes.
So some my cologists actually differ that groundhogs are what's
called keystone species, so it means they are very important
(16:36):
for some of their local ecosystems. So without groundhog burrows,
a lot of animals would not have a lot of homes.
So also too, these guys, you know, they do dig
pretty deep about six feet deep and can go about
twenty feet wide, and they can move hundreds of pounds
of dirt within their lifetime. Wow, And they only live
for about two to three years as a typical lifespan
(16:57):
sometimes up to six years. It's pretty old for a groundhog.
Fourteen is I think the oldest in captivity that they
have had. But yeah, groundhogs are our best mammal hibernator.
When they hibernate, their heartbreat goes to about forty five
beats per minute and their body temperature goes to about
thirty five to thirty seven degrees fahrenheit two, just above freezing.
(17:18):
So I know when you were learning about hibernation, you
were learning about bears. But bears, yes, do hibernation in
the way, but it's not as well as groundhogs. So
I like to compare bears and groundhogs like diesel and
gasoline engines. So you know how in the wintertime, you know,
with a diesel engine, it takes a lot of time
to get it started. That's what grounds and hogs are
like versus bears is more like gasoline engines. So that's
(17:39):
why if you get warm spells, bears come out of
a hibernational state a lot easier than groundhogs do. And yeah,
groundhogs will start be coming out.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Here in the next few weeks.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
It's typically the males first, and what he does is
he kind of pinpoints where all the females are first
and kind of creates a mental map, because what he'll
do is during late March or excuse me, middle March,
when everybody's out and about, then he knows exactly where
all the females are, so it kind of avoids for
him being out and about and and kind of hunkered
down and not to be eaten by predators.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Absolutely, So that's the reason why we're here today. The
folklore of groundhog Day goes back to long back in Germany.
Talk a little bit about that and why we have
the groundhog in the United States as our weather predictor.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
So actually I think it started all the way back
and was at rum and times with candle.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Miss something like that. Yeah, candle Miss is the middle
point of winter and spring.
Speaker 8 (18:31):
Yeah, so then I think the Germans kind of adapt
or top to that, but instead in using candles, they
use some of the local wildlife over there, which were
badgers and hedgehogs. But then when they got here into America,
they wanted to keep those traditions going. But then the
problem was there wasn't hedgehogs. The American badger is a
lot more meaner than the European badgers. So then they
(18:52):
found this, They found the groundhog. And of course we
know about where pucksatani Feil, that's where the first one
was started and the I forget the eighteen Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
We don't say that city here. Oh that's right. It
is known as he's known as the road in to
the east. James. Yeah, we don't talk.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
We've got to we got a school up north and
we have a road in to the east.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
But anyway, so that's that's kind of where we're at.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And if he comes out this time of year and
the weather seems like spring, he's going to stay out.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Find him mate, do what he's gonna do.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But if we got that blazing sunshine, he has darted
right back into that borough and six.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
More weeks a winter. Correct correct, Yeah, it's good stuff, James.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Tell everybody how they can hook out to the hook
up to the Marion County Park District real quick. Tell
everybody what your parks are and when what you manage.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (19:38):
So I'm the again the nationalist for the park district
in Marion, so I'm charged of the county park So
I'm not gonna talk about all of them. You want
to know more information, I have a table right back
there by the selfie station. But Marion Tallgrass Trail is
our big biking, hiking trail. Go a walking, biking, canoe fishing, kayaking,
and just make sure to follow on our Facebook page
Marion Tallgrass Trail and keep up to date of our programs.
And Family Fund of Fens.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It is a in our community and it is one
hundred percent run by volunteers our parks District. Yes, I
don't think people understand that that is that's how that works.
And our parks are fantastic. The Tall Grass Trail is
a huge I don't need to Yeah, I know there's
a lot with that, So James, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
He's going to head back over to his spot.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
If you want to do a few more things and
check out some of his stuff, you certainly can do that.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
My friend always got some leftover mugs that came from
the litter and recycling people. So that is over there.
I'm going to set that microphone there all right, So
thank you guys so much. Big round of applause to
all of our guests here today, Thank you guys so much.
I believe we also have some members of Charlie Evers'
(20:43):
family here today, and we're going to talk about Charlie
when we come back from a break, and we're going
to talk about why Charlie is so important to this
day and how Buckeye Chuck began and where he came from.
We're going to do all of that before Chuck makes
his historic announcement that happens at seven forty on the dot,
he'll make his proclamation for the next six weeks of winter.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
We are so excited about that.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So we're gonna take a quick break right now, and
we're gonna let the radio do what they need to do,
and then we'll be back in about five minutes on
your radio if you are tuning in. Thank you so
much for joining us on AM fourteen ninety WMRN, and.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I believe we are back.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
It is the Buck Eyed Chuck Show on AM fourteen
ninety double UMRN. Thank you all so much for being here.
We've got a super crowd, one of the biggest crowds
I've seen a Buckeye Chuck in a number of years,
and Randy you can probably vouch for that. Have we
seen a crowd this big? You did this for ten years.
I think Danielle with me and is a good crowd, right. Yeah,
(21:47):
it's nice. It's one of the reasons why we wanted
to move it out here to the Marion County Fairgrounds.
And once again, a big thank you to them for
allowing us to be here. The parking is way way
better here than it is at the radio station.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Especially for this many people.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I want to ask, first of all, who all is
here from Marion, Ohio. I want to show a hands
or hear you. All right, so we have a nice crowd.
How many are here for the first time to witness
and see Buckeye Chuck. That's a lot of people that
are first timers. Welcome to Groundhog Day. Being on a
Sunday about ten years ago, we had an ice storm
(22:21):
and there were eight people there because we did Buckeye
Chuck and I had people. I went to the grocery
store and people went, hey, why didn't you just move
Groundhog Day? Well, you can't. Groundhog Day is candle missed.
It's like Christmas. It is the exact point between the
first day of winter, which, as you remember, was the
day the Buckeyes beat Tennessee and the weather stunk.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
What was it eight? What was it eight? In the
stadium at kickoff for that game.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Those people from Tennessee learned about Ohio weather real fast.
And then of course now we go through win a
national title and here we are sitting at the middle point,
absolutely sitting at the middle point. We have six weeks
until the beginning of spring as far as the calendar.
So let's talk for a minute about groundhog Day. It
(23:08):
has its roots in ancient Christian tradition of candlemss. Clergy
would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles
represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans
expanded the concept by selecting an animal, the hedgehog, as
a means of predicting weather, which is kind of fun.
Once they came to America, German settlers in the East
(23:28):
continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs,
which were plentiful in Ohio, which James was saying earlier.
Groundhogs are also called woodchucks. They weigh twelve to fifteen pounds.
They can live up to about six to eight years.
They eat vegetables and fruits. You saw Murray eating a
lot of vegetables. They whistle when they're frightened, which is
(23:48):
why they're sometimes called whistle pigs. They can climb trees,
they can swim, but they go into hibernation in late fall,
and during their time their body temperature dropped significantly. Their
heart beat slow from eighty to about five beats per minute.
They can lose thirty percent of their body fat. In February,
male groundhogs emerged from their burrows to look for a
(24:08):
mate before going underground again. They come out of hibernation
for good in March. So how does a common whistlepig
become the most beloved groundhog in the state of Ohio?
There was a friendly groundhog living in the woods behind
our WMRIN Radio studios. WMRIN radio personality Charlie Evers befriended
(24:29):
this groundhog and began to talk about him on his
radio show, Charlie's Family is here today. We thank you
guys for being here. Listeners loved the stories that Charlie
would tell on the radio, so he asked the local
school children to submit ideas. Hey, we want you to
name our groundhog. Well, they had this local Groundhog Day
(24:50):
celebration was live on the radio on WMRN, and they
announced the winner of the naming contest. At the time,
WMRN was Ohio's officially designated weather reporting station, so state
Representative Walter Doc McClaskey from Marion put together a resolution
in nineteen seventy nine, along with Charlie Evers, to designate
(25:11):
Buck Eyed Chuck as Ohio's official weather forecasting groundhog, and
ever since then we have held this annual celebration to
have a good time and talk about our buddy. One
of the things that people have asked me is where
did spam come and go when it comes to buck
eyed Chuck. So I want to tell you a little
(25:32):
bit about that. Does anybody in the building actually know
what spam is? It is pork shoulder and ham. Pork
shoulder and ham is. Let's try that again, pork shoulder
and ham is. That's why we would do spam. Marion's
longest serving First Lady Sandra Kellogg, began the tradition as
(25:54):
she reminded Wmrins Terry Cole that spam is pork shoulder
in ham, which is in turn ground hog. So Sandra
began bringing her skillet. She made the spam sandwiches. Well,
the health Department says, you can't have the mayor's wife
making spam sandwiches. Ain't handing him out to people anymore.
So there you go. There's your bugy. Chuck loved it.
(26:17):
I'll tell you what. Let's find out where you're all from,
who came the farthest to be here, who lives outside
of Marion County show hands. All right, that's a lot
of you, so some of you drove for a while?
All right, does.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Anybody live outside the state of Ohio? Hey, we got
a couple.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
All right, we talk in Indiana, we talk in Michigan,
one of the surrounding states. Yes, is that where you're from?
Or farther than a surrounding state to Ohio?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
That's Harriet. Where are you from? You're from Kansas.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I got to ask the question, did you come from
Kansas to Marie in Ohio for this celebration today?
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
My next question is have you gone to any of
the other celebrations on Groundhog Day? And this was just
one of your destinations? This is your first. Well, let
me tell you something. I've heard from people that do this.
They go around every year to a different one. It
becomes addicting, and we do the absolute best show ever.
(27:17):
By the way, that Rodent to the East is only
correct about thirty three percent of the time. And that's
the truth. The Roadent to the East has no idea
what he's up against. Because Buck Eyed Chuck, maybe you
know this, maybe you don't. Maybe you've been listening to
me on the radio. Because I've talked about this quite
a bit. Buckeye Chuck has made forty one Ohio weather
(27:39):
predictions since nineteen seventy nine. Twelve predictions were for six
more weeks of winter. Twenty nine predictions were for an
early spring. So it appears that in Marion, Ohio, about
seven forty on February tewod it's kind of a cloudy day, right.
There were four unrecorded predictions. Buckeye Chuck has been correct
thirty times out of forty one. That is a seventy
(28:03):
three percent accuracy rate. So if you want to know
what the weather in Ohio is gonna be for the
next six weeks, you need to be here and listen
to what Buckeye Chuck has to say.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I believe we are at seven forty.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It is seven forty You guys ready for the historic prediction.
Buckeye Chuck Murray is out, ready to go. It is
seven forty am at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Marion, Ohio, USA.
Today is Candlemus Groundhog Day. February second, twenty twenty five.
Buckeye Chuck, Ohio's official weather reporting groundhog, has emerged from
(28:43):
his burrow to cloudy skies, which by folklore, the Groundhog
Day means spring is just around the corner. Apparently these
guys are happy with what Buuye Chuck had to say.
You guys get some nice shots at Chuck and all
(29:04):
of that. I want to thank everybody for being here today.
I've got several people to thank. A big thank you
once again to the Marion County Fairgrounds for allowing us
to use this room and this facility and this great
parking lot. By the way, you guys may not know
this or not, but Charlie Evers has a building on
this fairgrounds right to the other side of us here,
(29:27):
over to the west. It's called Evers Arena, and it
was named after Charlie for all the great things that
he did on this fairgrounds and all the great broadcasts
that he did.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Live on the radio.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So thank God for Charlie, or we wouldn't be here
today and Buckeye Chuck wouldn't be the guy that he is.
So big thank you to Charlie, his family and everybody.
And thank you guys for being here today. We really
appreciate your attendance and support of what we do.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Big thank you to Pillar Credit Union.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
My friend Steven, Thank you so much, love my partnership
with you guys. You're great people and love them cool
kids resale. We've done stuff with them for a long time.
They're fabulous Hessler screen printing and more. Kim and James
great people. That's where our T shirts came from. I
don't know do we have any T shirts left? Have
we given away all the T shirts? But thank you
(30:17):
if you got one, you have a collector's item. I've
never seen them designed like that before. They're beautiful. Kim
does a great job, so make sure that you tell
your friends they need to be here next year and
come on out. A big thank you to our friends
at the A and M Donut Wagon.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I believe they're from Cresline, is that correct.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
They came over to help us out with the donuts,
the hot coffee and the other stuff. Thank you so
much to the A and M Donut Wagon. And a
big thank you to Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry,
and a big thank you to you for helping to
feed people here in our community here today. I think
with that being said, I think we're ready to resume
(30:57):
regular broadcasting on FOURTEENMRN. The celebration continues, There's lots of
opportunities for you to get selfies on our digital selfie station.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Over here.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You can meet our Buckeye Chuck mascot who's running around here.
Get a selfie with him. So, hey, guys, there's Charlie's
family right over there. Thank you, Amy, Tim read Scarlett,
Thank you guys for being here.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
And if you want to know more about Charlie and
Buckeye Chuck, Amy's a wealth of knowledge. She has forgotten
more about Buckeye Chuck in this Groundhog Day celebration than
I will ever know. I've just done it since ninety seven,
so it's kind of regurgitated, but she knows how that
whole thing works.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Feel free to ask her.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Everyone who's following us online on our Facebook live stream
on Buckeye Chuck's page, thank you for joining us. You
can share that with your friends. Make sure friends become
a fan of the Buckeye Chuck page.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But, like I said, we still got a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
James is going to continue to talk to folks about
the things that he has in the Marion County Park District.
And I'm sure the A and M Donut truck's going
to stick around for a few more minutes. Once again,
a big thank you to everybody who traveled so far
to be here today.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I hope you had an awesome time, and I hope
if you came from out of town that you do
a little business here in Marion, Ohio before you go
back home. Thank you so much, and a big thank
you to fourteen ninety WMRN and everyone listening on the
radio and the iHeartRadio app. We're signing off from the
Marion County Fairgrounds where Buckeye Chuck, our animal ambassador, Ohio's
(32:35):
official weather reporting groundhog, says spring is just around the corner.
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