December 4, 2025 • 37 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
That seems right, you think, so, yeah, yeah, I don't
like you told me that. It didn't jump out of
me at all, Like I didn't think about it. But
once you told me, I said, yea, that because why
would you want to like, unless you're just an uber
engaged person, why would you want to continually follow a
cesspool of suck?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And it'll just bring your mood down, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It is the Kennel and Casey John Rob, that's Casey.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
You're listening to WIBC, WIBC HD one, Indianapolis. So Americans
are following the news less this according to Pew Research.
They say overall, thirty six percent of adults say they
follow the news all or most of the time. And
that is down from twenty sixteen where that number was
at fifty one percent. So that's a little bit of
(00:42):
a dip over the past nine years.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
What's the update again the numbers?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It used to be fifty one percent in twenty sixteen
and now it is down to thirty six percent.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, okay, And so I think that would be it's
like a TV show right when you're you know, there's
this great and that doesn't really happen in this way
anymore because of streaming and everything's so disconnected. But like
back in the day when there was a somewhat limited
way to consume, you know, entertainment in this country, there
were a lot of channels, but you basically had to
(01:12):
go in a pre streaming world, you had to go
to your cable provider network television to get whatever. And
you know, this news show would come out and it
would be the thing that everybody was talking about, and
everybody would be watching it, and you know, that would
go on. You know, there'd be cliffhangers, and then they
kind of come back for the next season, and then
after about season you know, three or four, you kind
(01:34):
of fall into a group of people that are into
the show, but the interest of the thing had worn off,
and then people kind of get exhausted or over the
characters or whatever. And that's sort of where we're at
in politics where Trump in twenty sixteen was interesting. It's like,
what would this guy actually look like as president? What
(01:55):
would our country? Same thing with Obama in two thousand
and eight. Okay, this guy's totally different, right, we haven't
seen this sort of thing before. And then after two
years of Obama, you're like, well, he's just kind of
a traditional liberal and he's running the country into the
ground the same way that other bad presidents have. And Okay,
the Republicans are going to put some guy who's as
exciting as paint up against him, Romney, I guess we'll
(02:17):
stay with the current ball suck versus the other option.
Same thing with Trump after year two, except Trump is exhausting.
People are like, well, the country isn't all that much different.
I mean, he's done, you know, some different policies. He's
a little but Trump's also always in your face and
you can't get away from it. It's one of the
reasons south park has gone so in on Trump. They
(02:39):
interviewed those guys, the south Stone and Parker about then
they said, look, we're not trying to treat Trump any
differently than we've treated other politicians. The problem is Trump
and his people have made politics a part of the
pop culture. Now.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
They give them so much material, right.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
They're always insisting in being in our face, So we're
going to give it to them, but we're going to
treat them the same way we'd all the other politicians.
They just want the smoke all the time because they
always insist in being out in front of people, and
everybody's mad with this and that whatever. But I just
think people are look by nature, people are not invested
(03:15):
in things, are not interested in let's face it, government,
while very important, is boring. You have to be willing
to sift through a lot of stuff and a lot
of stuff that isn't of interest to you at all
to get to those things. And people are just like, man,
I got other things to do. And then when you
factor in Trump kind of being old hat now not
all that interesting or different anymore and exhausting, people are
(03:37):
just like, well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Well it's like it's the same old thing over and
over and over again. When they just continue to spend
money and it just keeps affecting your life, why would
you want to keep watching that?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It's depressing?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, remember last year, this must have been in the
spring of last year. We had a meeting with our
bosses about Trump, about and Biden, and we were talking
about like, how do we there's a little insider baseball,
But I think this is interesting when we do these
little easter eggs for people. We had a meeting, a
(04:10):
long meeting about Look, what we're seeing is that people
are tuning out when you're talking about Trump and Biden
because it's not interesting. They're seeing it as like two
old guys that they've already seen before, just kind of
running the same show over and over again. And we
got to figure out a way. It was a real
sort of point of interest of how do we cover
(04:31):
politics and government when the two guys aren't that interesting.
Then the assassination on Trump, attempt on Trump happened, and
everybody got super engaged again because that was so much different, Right,
what's gonna happen now? And Biden drops out and after
all those things, then it was like an explosion of interest,
but it wore off again. We got that, we saw that,
I mean, we see then, we know how people come
and go from when they're listening. We saw real peak
(04:54):
of interest through about what April, maybe maybe May, and
then people are just kind of like, well, it's just
the same thing again. I mean, the Doge thing was
kind of interesting. The fight with Elon Musk was interesting,
but now we're just back to big, unaccountable government as usual,
except Trump's always barking at us and they're like, well, thanks, Well, it's.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Not only that he's always barking, but it's just such
the rapid fire of things as well, and you have
to decipher through what is serious, what is real, what
is nonsense, what is hyperbole.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I think the other thing that has worn people out
is kind of what I call the imitator politicians, like
people that are trying to be Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
The imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, and I mean there are so many of these people.
I mean, we've got three of them, the two, three
and four in the state. Now, look, Braun is a
total ass, you know, kisser right of Trump.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Almost I.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Was, I was, I was close Rob Pensifine. But now look,
twenty five years in this business, never never I know
right where the line is. But Trump is not or
Braun is not Trump. He doesn't have the he doesn't
try to be Trump he does.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
He's total he doesn't have the personality. He's not as
flamboyant no no, no.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So I mean he's totally like in bed with Trump.
But he doesn't he can't be Trump because he's again
just incredibly boring person. But are two, three and four
Micah Diego Rokeda on an almost daily basis, are trying
to do their best Donald Trump impersonation. They're not focused
on governance, they're not focused on making things better every
(06:36):
policy position they take in things they take on. See
this ridiculous immigration thing that cost who knows how much
to net twenty one people over an extended period of time.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Who you're talking about the voter fraud.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean we started our show with this today
if you if you missed it, about this report, and
they're touting it to some like great win for the country.
Where they spent who knows, They won't tell you how
much money they spent. Todd Roketa, the Turney General, and
Diego Morales, the Secretary of State in this trying to
purge these voter rolls or catch people in these voter
roles who are illegal immigrants voting in this country. And
(07:09):
they caught twenty one people out of what was the
number four point nine million eligible people. H they I mean,
that's not a rounding air. That's not an anomaly, it's
a it's a it's a speck of grain of sand
on the beach. And they're like, look at this because
they're trying to be one subservient to Trump, but also
(07:29):
they're trying to be Donald Trump and you like you
called it the impostor syndrome. Look at who the most
competent guy in that state House is. It's Daniel Elliott,
the treasure, the state treasure. And he doesn't get any headlines.
He also doesn't really want to be a politician. He
just goes about his business. He just does the job
of treasure in a fine competent fashion. But he doesn't
(07:51):
aspire to be a politician. So he's not trying to
be Donald Trump. But he also doesn't get any headlines.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
He's not attention seeking, right.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
These other guys, because they their whole existence as politics,
They like Rokeita and Diego, avoid real jobs, like the plague.
They always are picturing the next way to elevate themselves.
And thus, and look, it's all over the country, right,
it's the Boberts and the a and the Marjorie Taylor Greens,
and like all of these people see the next elevation
(08:21):
as being seen with or like or of Trump. And
I wonder once Trump's gone, right, because he does become
a lame.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Duc who will emulate.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Effective November of next year, do we finally get a
focus on competency in our government? Can we finally get
back to the nuts and bolts of here's the policies,
better policies, better results, get the personality out of the equation.
It's why the establishment and it's why Danny Lopez filed
that bill State rep. From Carmel to put the lieutenant
(08:50):
governor back under the or put it under the choice
of the governor him or herself the governor's candidate. And
they're going to try to do it with these other offices.
Because it used to be that the establishment had control
the structure of the conventions. The people who went were
more traditional Republicans. Well, especially over the past eight years,
(09:14):
more and more activist type people have gotten involved in
running for delegate. Well, they're driven by personality. They've clearly
shown that. Look at the people that keep electing, right,
they elect these people based on personality, not on their competence.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's like Jim Merritt calls them the TikToker TikTok politicians.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and look, I wanted Micah in there because look,
and Julian McGuire would have been no better for all
these people. Well you supported Micah. Yeah, and he's been
a colossal failure and he's a total fraud. So you
can put that on me, but it's not like you
would have had a different result in the policy if
Julie McGuire had been there. I'm disappointed in Micah because
he hasn't fought for us the way he was supposed to.
He hasn't been the thorn in Bronze side. He hasn't
(09:59):
been the rebel route because he got compromised so he
had to turn into a total ass kisser. But then
the results wouldn't have been any different. It wasn't like
bron would had a better property tax plan if Julie
McGuire been there. So by that center is no no harm,
no foul. But what these what did the politicians are
starting to realize is all of these guys are getting
elected not on their competency, not on their results. They're
(10:19):
getting elected based on personality.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And if they're influencers, yeah, versus so to governing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah. So to bring all this full circle, the average
person doesn't care about that, Like that's a hyper focused,
hyper small, very engaged group of people to the average person.
Look what that poll that came I remember Independent Indiana
amongst others, did these polls on Micah and Diego and
these guys, nobody knew who they.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Were, right because only seven percent.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
And people who did couldn't stand them. But the people
who did, most people had no idea who they were
because they just they're like, no.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It doesn't mean anything to their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
You know, if you ask the average person who has
heard of Micah beck With right now, they would talk
about he is the I who There is an allegation
of AI porn being viewed in his office, and his
office is under investigation by grand jury for ghost employment.
That's what they know. That's it because that's in the headlines,
and that's interesting, right, Oh, that's different. But everything else
it's just like politics as usual. Diego. Nobody knows about
(11:15):
him because he does nothing of value. He does nothing
of value. There's nothing this guy has done or the
average version will go, man, my life is better because
he's there.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He checks on the businesses rob I pay for India
I pay. So the percentage of people who hardly ever
follow the news has pretty much remained steady.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It's at seven percent.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It used to be five percent, so it's ticked up
just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
They hardly, they don't watch.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Them hardly ever, and it's happening across all age groups.
Older adults sixty five plus they still follow the news
the most, sixty two percent of them say they follow it,
although that's down thirteen points from twenty sixteen, and people
who are under thirty follow the news the least, with
only fifteen percent of them saying that they follow.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Okay, be honest with our audience here all right, now,
I get that you watch it all the time. Now
that's your job, right, You're you're that's that's what you do.
I have no idea what we're talking about every day.
You your job is to put all the stuff together
two seconds before we go back out to say what
are we talking about? And talent just carries me the
rest of the way. But before you worked here, and
cause I think you're sort of a pretty good example, right,
(12:26):
Like you're a voter, you're a good parent, you're working,
You're like, how much did you actually like less?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
How much did I follow the news?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
How engaged were you back then?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Well, I mean you have to keep in mind I
was in a newsroom, so I mean it was somewhat engaged.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I worked at a TV station.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, But when you were when you were a when
you were a jock or running the radio station.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
National news much more yeah than local.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, yeah, I like, I don't Before I got involved,
I don't ever remember knowing anything about well, I mean,
I'm talking into my early twenties having any sort of
understanding of how anything local worked or even who most
of the state people were.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Right. Yeah, that's the same.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I can remember when I was younger and all the
Oliver North and Ronald Reagan's story, I would.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And want to turn off the TV. Yeah, because it
wasn't interested. But in regards to the political differences with
watching the news, Republicans actually show the largest drop.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
They used to be at fifty seven percent would watch
the news closely in twenty sixteen, it's now at thirty
six percent, so it's down twenty one points with Republicans
and Republicans trust in national and local news has fallen
more than Democrats.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
What's the Democrat engagement in the news.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
It used to be a forty nine percent, it's now
down to thirty nine percent.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Okay, so they have dropped as well, but not by
as much.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And thirty nine percent for Democrats thirty six for Republicans,
So it's down it's down less, but they're still engaging
more than Republicans.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Okay, to watching, Let's take a break because I have
a very important question off of that for you that
I think would really resonate with our audience, and I
think it would apply to people that are hearing us
right now. So let's take a break and I will
ask you this question. I'm not going to tell you
what it is during the break, and I want to
see what your gut answer is.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Okay, it's Kennell and Casey. It's ninety three WYBC.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
We can't We're never going back, are we. I was
pondering this in our last segment. It's Kennelly, Casey, John
Rob that's Casey. So Casey pulled up this very interesting
story about how few people are engaged in the news anymore.
And you know, one of the reasons Rush Limbaugh was
so popular for so many years, especially in the late
(15:02):
eighties and well into the nineties, was because he was
so much different than what anybody could get anywhere else. Right, Obviously,
he was the greatest broadcaster whoever lived. He was phenomenally talented.
Listening to rushing inball read an ad was more entertaining
than listening to anybody else to a show. But he
was also there at a time where nobody else was there.
He was sort of first right in a weird way,
(15:24):
totally different type of broadcaster, but the same way Stern
was first. Now Rush was great, Stern was just first right,
and everybody sort of emulated Stern afterwards, and Stern has
largely become irrelevant because it's old hat. Everybody else can
do it. But I say all of this because competition
is good. Differences are good. Being exposed to different things
(15:47):
are good. And you should read people you disagree with.
I try every single day to read a whole lot
of people that I disagree with, because it sharpens my
I debate with myself, it sharpens my opinions on things.
It makes me usually ends up making me more wed
to what I had before, but I forced myself into
those things, and sometimes I end up actually changing my mind.
(16:09):
But the point of what I'm saying of that is
difference is good in a limited scope. But when you
have unlimited opportunity, you it's you can so easily find
the thing not that challenges you, not that makes you better,
but is the easy way, which is just simply reinforces
(16:30):
whatever you want. Right, So in the in the world
we're in now, where there's podcasting, you know, the video blogs,
subscription services, you know, we're still here, but there's just
so much you don't have to be challenged anymore, and
most people are not going to challenge themselves, and so
we're not going to bring back the independent thought. Like
(16:52):
I don't see how we bring back independent thought anymore
if people are just being hyper radicalized one way or another.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Or.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Because it's the easy way to do it. Yeah, I
agree with that versus man, I hate that guy or
I hate that person, but I'm gonna listen to it.
And even if I end up disagreeing with what they say,
it's gonna force me to be better at what I think.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I think we get a lot of people who listen
to you even though they don't agree with everything you say.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
But how how long they definitely.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Don't agree with your delivery?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah? Right, right, But and I get that we do
very well. And God bless every person, whether you listen
because you like me or hate me, or everybody likes Casey.
There's nobody who doesn't like Casey. But my point is,
in the ski we're a Indianapolis based radio show. Right,
we have our and it's a big corner, right, twenty
five counties or whatever we cover and we're the voice
of the city. And that's wonderful. But I'm talking if
(17:48):
you extrapolate this across the country. Right, so many people
are just looking for the thing that they agree with,
and once you found that, you can isolate yourself. Right,
it's like the equivalent of not leaving your house anymore,
not seeing the world outside, just your little corner, your
little world is all that exists. And so how do
(18:09):
we get robust debate to get better policy anymore? How
do we get conversations that can genuinely change minds or
mold people into being independent thinkers so that when a
topic comes up, they'll come to the right conclusion, not
the one they're just instinctively, you know, back instinctively drawn to.
(18:32):
I just I don't know if we can ever do
that anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Well, like you said earlier, people will be offended if
you're going against who they're cheerleading for.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, they don't want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, Like I remember in college, it took a history
of Television class and that was like a four hundred
level course in the general Studies program. You're looking at
me like, oh, you poor guy. That totally explains a lot, right.
And in my History of televis class, I had a
super liberal teacher. I had actually had her for another class,
and she was super liberal, but she was very fair.
(19:08):
She was very fair in her grading, the way she
handled things, and we would like fight, like you know,
debate every single day. And she told me at one point,
she said, never be never be afraid to speak up. No,
this was way before I was involved in politics or anything,
but I had my world views, right. I didn't quite
(19:29):
articulate them the way I do now, but I knew
the things I felt. And she told me, she said,
never be afraid to speak out. I think I'm going
to punish you because and she said, in fact, I'm
rewarding you for this, because you are showing these kids
the way it should be, like you should be able
to speak your mind and I should be able to
speak my mind, and the way we do it, it's
going to make them better students. So you're going to
(19:51):
ultimately be And I got an A plus in the class,
but like, how could you fail History of Television?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
How could you screw that up? But the point my
final paper was on alf but you you But my
point is like we need more of that.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, but we're not. You're right, we're never turning back
to that. At least we're trying. But the veil has
been lifted.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And now you can't do that because you.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Have activist professors who will grade against you if they
don't agree with your ideas. So students who are paying
money at colleges where you're supposed to debate ideas, they're
not going to risk getting a bad.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Grade to anger their teacher.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
But they're gonna you're right, they're going to write a
paper knowing what the teacher thinks so that they get
the good grade.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah, but we also have it. It's it's outside of
the classroom too, right, it's it's in our business. Think
about you know people all the time, Like you have
so many Democrats on your show, Yeah, because it's kind
of interesting to hear what they have to say. Like
we're adults, we can hear people we disagree with, and you,
we believe in you that you can hear people you
disagree with. And it's a different point of view, Like
(21:00):
how entertaining at this point.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Is it is you're the same message over and over
and over again.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, Todd Young, Duke of Spendingberg. Hey, did we ever
get it a definitive if that was Fidel Castro and
there was no denying it? Right? I believe it is
so Todd Young. We're now willing to say we think
Todd Young posed it for a picture in front of
Fidel Castro, a painting a Fidel Castro.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah. I don't know for sure, but there was.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
No I mean like that would have been major news
had they come out and liked some swift denial or something. Right,
for those of you who missed this, this was an
incredible story. Todd Young, the senator from Indiana, a Republican,
went to this Harrison County Economic Development Group thing and
they all posed for a picture afterwards, and the picture
appeared to be this giant picture behind them of Fidel Castro,
(21:45):
and everyone's like, there must be something wrong here, this
is AI or it's been photoshopped or something, and there's
been no denial.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I think Kevin brought up a really good point yesterday
about that.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Though. There must have been somebody Young in his communications
staff who didn't know who the painting was.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
But the point is, when you have Todd Jung on,
it's the same, like there's nothing new you're going to
hear from him. There's nothing different. Now. He may talk
about a topic that's of interest to you and that's okay.
People have him on and they talk to him, and
that's fine, But I'm saying, there's nothing about that that's
going to expand a horizon. When you have these democrats on,
they're interesting to hear them talk because we don't hear
that point of view a lot and a lot of
(22:24):
times it's insanity. But sometimes they make some ones and
you're like, Okay, maybe we should be doing that, Maybe
that is a better way to look at things. And
I just until we get back to that, we're we're
just gonna keep getting more and more hyperpartisan, and the
policy and the ideas that are gonna be best for
the country and our states and our communities are going
(22:46):
to totally get left behind.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Well, going back to this Pew Research study that says
Americans are following the news less, they said that they're
getting it passively now, they're not actively looking for it,
and fifty four percent said they mostly.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
See political news because they stumble across it online.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, and there's less people that are out there actively
looking for it, so you're still consuming it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
It's just accidental. Yeah, you're not seeking it out.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
All right, just take a break.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's Kennilly Casey. It's ninety three WIBC.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So you've got a new study that shows main street businesses,
you know, the mom and pops for lack of a
better term, are not doing well.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, there was a federal program.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
It was launched in twenty twenty and it was to
help small businesses and individuals restructure their debts. And the
point it was to help them do it more cheaply
and also quicker than traditional Chapter eleven bankruptcy. But what
they found out was that there was an eight percent
increase from last year, and there are more mom and
(23:55):
pops that are going out of business, they're filing for bankruptcy.
And some of the reasons are because of the high
borrowing costs and weak consumer demand and economic pressures and
decline in small business ownership and optimism towards small businesses.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Now, look are small business owners in this country. You
are the heroes. You are the backbone of this country.
You don't get near the respect or thinks that you
you do. For many, many years, I earned my living
owning various small businesses. Still have a little side hustle
that I do, though not you know, an integral part
(24:34):
of my existence. But still file all the taxes and
all the ever you know, paperwork associated with that. So
I still keep a little toe dabbled in that. But
like I remember when I sold my radio station and
it was like such a relief because it was getting
so hard. Now this is, you know, a couple of
years ago, now whatever, Right, it's been a long time,
(24:56):
but I remember being done with it and just saying,
it's gotten so hard to not only start, even start,
but maintain a small business and the work that goes
into it versus the reward that comes out of it.
I'm done with that forever, right, Like I got the
entrepreneurial spirit out of myself at you know, at a
(25:18):
young age, and I used to have it. I used
to think all I would think of was creativity, creative
ways to do things, new programming, to put on new
things that you know, we could do to broadcast. And
it's just like that was so draining. I think about
that in my twenties and thirties versus trying to do
it in your forties. And there are people who get
up and do that every single day to make this
country work, and they're getting blood drawn.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Well, like going back to the healthcare conversation that we
had earlier, we're with a big company, so they're able
to negotiate on scale. Imagine if it's a small business
and you only have two, three, maybe four employees and
you're still providing health insurance, that cost is even higher.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Well, and it was always like the little things you
had to think about that nobody processes. So if you're
a small businesser and you're right like we work for
a big company. You know other Indus people that own
radio stations, TV stations, in this, in this you know industry.
They're big companies. But as a small entrepreneur you had
to think about things like with the FCC, there were
(26:19):
different reporting requirements based on how many employees you had.
The employee list if it was below a certain level
was way lower. The paperwork, the cost of at the
attorney's fees, all that was way lower. So we had
to be super cognizant at all times of how many
people we actually working for us to stay under the number.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
The actually didn't want growth.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
No, no, I mean like, well, I would have to
do it. Every decision I would make would have to
be okay, how many people who have working for us?
Can somebody do this? If not, can I do it?
Because we have to stay under this number because of
all the things that opens up. You have to do
same thing with like Osha and all these other things.
Right that the average person, and I'm not blaming anybody
goes to work each day. I'm one of those guys
now right. I'm cognizant of it because I've been on
(26:56):
the other end of the paycheck. I've signed checks on
the front. But the average person who gets a paycheck,
and God bless you if you go to work and
you're earning that money and nobody's saying you're not, but
you don't understand a lot of times it goes into
that check and the person behind the scenes on a
small business especially may not have you know, some robust
HR department or or you know robust accounting firm working
(27:18):
for them. It's a war zone out there right now,
and we are not doing anything to help these people.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Some other bankruptcy trends Chapter thirteen Consumer bankruptcy filings. They're
also on the rise. Over one hundred and eighty thousand
cases have been filed through November of this year, which
is a five percent increase from last year.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
And again, the question becomes, if we get into a
world without small business owners, which is the as you're
laying out in great detail there statistically where we're headed,
what does that look like like? What does that what
does our country look like if we just have large companies,
(27:59):
many of them foreign, and those that are here detached
from any sort of sense of humanity or civic pride.
I mean, remember you, you showed this to me. I
think it was you that sent this to me. Some
guy on Twitter did an intense breakdown of the Dell guy. Right,
did you send that to me? I did, Yeah, and
(28:20):
I retweeted it at Rob Kendall. So yesterday Casey and
I did a big segment on Michael Dell. I think
is the guy's name. He's the he's the CEO now
of Dell Technologies, right, the computers, the chips, bl blah
blah blah. And he's getting all this praise because he
has given money to six.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Point twenty five billion dollars to fund the Trump accounts. Yeah,
the these twenty five million kids.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right, these savings accounts that are being set up for
kids that are born during Trump's term, and he's giving
money to part of that. People are like, oh my gosh,
this is so great. And I said, well, wait a second.
I said, I've got a major concern not about philanthropy.
This guy wants to give his money to help kids.
It's great, but you've got a guy essentially buying his
way into the government when his company is a major
beneficiary of government policy and more importantly, government money. It's
(29:08):
Jim Mersay all over again. I've never given Jim Mersey
any credit for his philanthropic nature because a lot of
that money that he earned came by force from taxpayers,
because we had to pay for that stadium, which is
the primary source of his wealth. The taxpayers paying for
Lucas Oil stadium. It's like, we just gave him money. Well,
is see philanthropic If he took money from me and
gave it to somebody else, It's the same thing with
(29:30):
this guy. Dell Technologies has been an immense beneficiary a
recent government policy related to chips and things going on
here and this guy and people were like, well, there
goes rob just pouring cold water on everything again. And
then some guy on Twitter, which we retweeted. I retweeted
Robin kendallby you want to read it went through the
breakdown on how much this dude has actually benefitted from
(29:53):
the government and now he's buying back into Well.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The one thing that stood out to me was after
that announcement was made, Dell stock jumped four percent, so
they gained six billion dollars in market value from these
six billion dollar donations, so that was in net neutral, and.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
He got a tax ride off for all that money
he gave away, So he's made huge amounts of money
by doing this, which is exactly what I said. And
I always find this so funny that people are like
with me when I will say something that is just
it's irrefutable what I'm telling them, but because it doesn't
sound nice, well, it's like he's doing it. What am
I supposed to do? Not act like that's not happening.
Am I supposed to Just not say anything about it?
(30:32):
It was a great business move on his part because
he's buying into the government he's increasing his stock value,
he's getting the tax ride off, and they're benefiting from
these policies that we're paying for as taxpayers. Am I
supposed to be excited that some guy who's boosting his
wealth off of my back is giving some of that
back to the taxpayers. Well, in the select ones, not me.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
The other thing you have to think about is this
isn't tax free, it's tax deferred. So when that money
comes of age, when those children are eighteen, they're going
to be taxed on that money, which will go back
to the government.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
So anyway, I just thought that was fet that we're
talking about this, that we had mentioned that yesterday and
people some people were like getting very angry about it, Well,
nothing will make you happy, And I was like, no,
you have to look at what this guy's doing. He's
using the government to enhance his own wealth and portfolio
and the profile of it, and it.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Comes off as a pr move that he's helping out.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
That was just so great that that dude went into
great detail. But I was like, as usual, Casey least
favorite part of every show.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
It's Kendallly Casey. It's ninety three WIBC.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Did you see the ratings for that Chiefs and Cowboys game.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
The Thanksgiving game?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, believable.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, I was off the chart.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Fifty seven point two to three million viewers on average
watched that football game on Thanksgiving. At one point, there
was like a fifteen minute period between seven forty five
and eight PM where they had over sixty one million
people watching that football game.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
So it's the record, like non super Bowl record, Is
that correct?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It passed the previous Thanksgiving record of forty two million.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Thanks Giving record. Okay, yeah, yeah, so think about that.
You're what was the high point?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You said sixty one million?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Okay, so you're a country of roughly three hundred and
forty million people, three thirty five whatever the number is.
So at one point one out of every five point
five people in this country.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Were watching We're watching the Cowboys game regular season for
the night of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I mean, well, you've got some popular teams there, right,
national brands, You've got star players. It's a competitive playoff situation,
and you had a captive holiday audience, people sitting on
the couch with their tummy's full.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah. But if you to put baseball on the Amara's
baseball didn't play. That would have been a honor right,
or even an NBA game, which there may have very
well been. I don't know if the NBA plays on Thanksgiving,
I other playing Christmas Day, but you're not doing anywhere
near that. And it really does show in this country
how football is the premiere not just sport. It's the
(33:12):
premiere viewing program in America is the National Football League.
And so when people like and I'm one of them,
get upset about the roughing, the passer calls or whatever,
you realize and it has it has changed the game,
and not for the better. I mean that they have
taken a player safety to like a ridiculous level, these
things they're calling on tackles or whatever. But you realize
(33:33):
if you're an owner and you're like, man, I got
this multi billion dollar product, which every team is a
multi billion dollar product, and it's a part of this
organization that is a gajillion dollar product, and our primary
asset are the players on the field, you do kind
of see why they've really cracked down on breathing on
(33:54):
people because there's sixty one million eyeballs and stick.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Well, I mean, it's it just shows the strong interest,
right that you've got.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, and if it's I'm not trying to you know,
salt anybody, but if it were, you know, I'm trying
to pick an old timey quarterback. If it was Dashaun Kaiser,
I'll pick two Notre Dame quarterbacks. If it was Dashawn
Kaiser going to Brady Quinn back. There ain't sixty one
million people watching. It's because it's Mahomes and Dak Prescott
(34:27):
is the quarterback for the Cowboys, like as you said,
two Marquee players in the league.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Right, So we were looking at buying tickets to see
because when we were in Baltimore over Thanksgiving, the Ravens
played and we thought, oh, that that might be kind
of fun. The temperature was really cold, and we decided
we were all too tired. We'd rather just sit on
the couch and watch football anyway. But the tickets were
one hundred dollars each. So we were trying to figure
out the math of the stadium and how much they make. Yeah,
(34:54):
you know per game you got just like here in Indianapolis,
you've got the big, beauty, full stadium, right, and what
there's only six seven home games a year.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Well, are we counting preseason? Are we just kinunting regular
regular season? Yeah? So you've got eight or nine now, yeah, close, Nita.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And you know how much do they have to charge
per ticket to make to make it work financially? Well,
but then when you've got to you can consider the
concessions and all of the merch, and then the TV rights.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
That's a big one.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's it you're spot on, which is it's the merch
and the TV Right now, the merch, I don't know
if the NFL has changed. This came out years ago
when Tim Tebow was playing. That's when it came out
because all those Tebow jerseys were selling and people said, well,
somebody would just want him on their team because of
his merch. And then it came out how the NFL's
merch deal works where it gets disseminated amongst all the teams,
(35:49):
So there's no real advantage other than ticket sales game
day ticket sales to having an attraction on your roster
who doesn't actually help your team because the merch the
way it gets disseminated, it goes to the Colts, the
same way with the Jets or the Broncos or whoever
had Tim Tebow that on their team.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
At the time, they split it up among the entire league.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Sixty one million people. Like, it's hard to fathom how
many people that actually is, Like what that would look
like if you could somehow get an aerial view of
sixty one million people.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Now, let me ask you this. Do you remember the
score of that game? Did you watch it?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Whit?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Were you one of the sixty one million?
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I did, because I've got the Cowboys at sixty five
to one to win the Super Bowl the preseason Betski,
and I know the Cowboys won the game. It was closed.
Now I didn't watch all of it, but it was close,
and I think it came down to the end, right,
there was a field goal or something at the end
of the game that won it. It came down to
the final possession. Yeah, so well, oh, I thought you
(36:54):
were gonna give me the final score.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
I don't have get like this is a test.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
No, I'm just saying it's like, in the moment, Oh,
you're totally glued to it because it's the thing to do.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
But now that it's past, like, you can't even remember
what the final score was.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
You know, this show was so good today. I bet
they give us a fabulous raise.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
You think so, don't hold your breath. Thank you, Rob,
thank you Kevin, Thank you for listening today. This is
being Kendall and Casey on ninety three WIBC
That seems right, you think, so, yeah, yeah, I don't
like you told me that. It didn't jump out of
me at all, Like I didn't think about it. But
once you told me, I said, yea, that because why
would you want to like, unless you're just an uber
engaged person, why would you want to continually follow a
cesspool of suck?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And it'll just bring your mood down, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It is the Kennel and Casey John Rob, that's Casey.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
You're listening to WIBC, WIBC HD one, Indianapolis. So Americans
are following the news less this according to Pew Research.
They say overall, thirty six percent of adults say they
follow the news all or most of the time. And
that is down from twenty sixteen where that number was
at fifty one percent. So that's a little bit of
(00:42):
a dip over the past nine years.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
What's the update again the numbers?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It used to be fifty one percent in twenty sixteen
and now it is down to thirty six percent.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, okay, And so I think that would be it's
like a TV show right when you're you know, there's
this great and that doesn't really happen in this way
anymore because of streaming and everything's so disconnected. But like
back in the day when there was a somewhat limited
way to consume, you know, entertainment in this country, there
were a lot of channels, but you basically had to
(01:12):
go in a pre streaming world, you had to go
to your cable provider network television to get whatever. And
you know, this news show would come out and it
would be the thing that everybody was talking about, and
everybody would be watching it, and you know, that would
go on. You know, there'd be cliffhangers, and then they
kind of come back for the next season, and then
after about season you know, three or four, you kind
(01:34):
of fall into a group of people that are into
the show, but the interest of the thing had worn off,
and then people kind of get exhausted or over the
characters or whatever. And that's sort of where we're at
in politics where Trump in twenty sixteen was interesting. It's like,
what would this guy actually look like as president? What
(01:55):
would our country? Same thing with Obama in two thousand
and eight. Okay, this guy's totally different, right, we haven't
seen this sort of thing before. And then after two
years of Obama, you're like, well, he's just kind of
a traditional liberal and he's running the country into the
ground the same way that other bad presidents have. And Okay,
the Republicans are going to put some guy who's as
exciting as paint up against him, Romney, I guess we'll
(02:17):
stay with the current ball suck versus the other option.
Same thing with Trump after year two, except Trump is exhausting.
People are like, well, the country isn't all that much different.
I mean, he's done, you know, some different policies. He's
a little but Trump's also always in your face and
you can't get away from it. It's one of the
reasons south park has gone so in on Trump. They
(02:39):
interviewed those guys, the south Stone and Parker about then
they said, look, we're not trying to treat Trump any
differently than we've treated other politicians. The problem is Trump
and his people have made politics a part of the
pop culture. Now.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
They give them so much material, right.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
They're always insisting in being in our face, So we're
going to give it to them, but we're going to
treat them the same way we'd all the other politicians.
They just want the smoke all the time because they
always insist in being out in front of people, and
everybody's mad with this and that whatever. But I just
think people are look by nature, people are not invested
(03:15):
in things, are not interested in let's face it, government,
while very important, is boring. You have to be willing
to sift through a lot of stuff and a lot
of stuff that isn't of interest to you at all
to get to those things. And people are just like, man,
I got other things to do. And then when you
factor in Trump kind of being old hat now not
all that interesting or different anymore and exhausting, people are
(03:37):
just like, well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Well it's like it's the same old thing over and
over and over again. When they just continue to spend
money and it just keeps affecting your life, why would
you want to keep watching that?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It's depressing?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, remember last year, this must have been in the
spring of last year. We had a meeting with our
bosses about Trump, about and Biden, and we were talking
about like, how do we there's a little insider baseball,
But I think this is interesting when we do these
little easter eggs for people. We had a meeting, a
(04:10):
long meeting about Look, what we're seeing is that people
are tuning out when you're talking about Trump and Biden
because it's not interesting. They're seeing it as like two
old guys that they've already seen before, just kind of
running the same show over and over again. And we
got to figure out a way. It was a real
sort of point of interest of how do we cover
(04:31):
politics and government when the two guys aren't that interesting.
Then the assassination on Trump, attempt on Trump happened, and
everybody got super engaged again because that was so much different, Right,
what's gonna happen now? And Biden drops out and after
all those things, then it was like an explosion of interest,
but it wore off again. We got that, we saw that,
I mean, we see then, we know how people come
and go from when they're listening. We saw real peak
(04:54):
of interest through about what April, maybe maybe May, and
then people are just kind of like, well, it's just
the same thing again. I mean, the Doge thing was
kind of interesting. The fight with Elon Musk was interesting,
but now we're just back to big, unaccountable government as usual,
except Trump's always barking at us and they're like, well, thanks, Well, it's.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Not only that he's always barking, but it's just such
the rapid fire of things as well, and you have
to decipher through what is serious, what is real, what
is nonsense, what is hyperbole.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I think the other thing that has worn people out
is kind of what I call the imitator politicians, like
people that are trying to be Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
The imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, and I mean there are so many of these people.
I mean, we've got three of them, the two, three
and four in the state. Now, look, Braun is a
total ass, you know, kisser right of Trump.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Almost I.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Was, I was, I was close Rob Pensifine. But now look,
twenty five years in this business, never never I know
right where the line is. But Trump is not or
Braun is not Trump. He doesn't have the he doesn't
try to be Trump he does.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
He's total he doesn't have the personality. He's not as
flamboyant no no, no.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So I mean he's totally like in bed with Trump.
But he doesn't he can't be Trump because he's again
just incredibly boring person. But are two, three and four
Micah Diego Rokeda on an almost daily basis, are trying
to do their best Donald Trump impersonation. They're not focused
on governance, they're not focused on making things better every
(06:36):
policy position they take in things they take on. See
this ridiculous immigration thing that cost who knows how much
to net twenty one people over an extended period of time.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Who you're talking about the voter fraud.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean we started our show with this today
if you if you missed it, about this report, and
they're touting it to some like great win for the country.
Where they spent who knows, They won't tell you how
much money they spent. Todd Roketa, the Turney General, and
Diego Morales, the Secretary of State in this trying to
purge these voter rolls or catch people in these voter
roles who are illegal immigrants voting in this country. And
(07:09):
they caught twenty one people out of what was the
number four point nine million eligible people. H they I mean,
that's not a rounding air. That's not an anomaly, it's
a it's a it's a speck of grain of sand
on the beach. And they're like, look at this because
they're trying to be one subservient to Trump, but also
(07:29):
they're trying to be Donald Trump and you like you
called it the impostor syndrome. Look at who the most
competent guy in that state House is. It's Daniel Elliott,
the treasure, the state treasure. And he doesn't get any headlines.
He also doesn't really want to be a politician. He
just goes about his business. He just does the job
of treasure in a fine competent fashion. But he doesn't
(07:51):
aspire to be a politician. So he's not trying to
be Donald Trump. But he also doesn't get any headlines.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
He's not attention seeking, right.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
These other guys, because they their whole existence as politics,
They like Rokeita and Diego, avoid real jobs, like the plague.
They always are picturing the next way to elevate themselves.
And thus, and look, it's all over the country, right,
it's the Boberts and the a and the Marjorie Taylor Greens,
and like all of these people see the next elevation
(08:21):
as being seen with or like or of Trump. And
I wonder once Trump's gone, right, because he does become
a lame.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Duc who will emulate.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Effective November of next year, do we finally get a
focus on competency in our government? Can we finally get
back to the nuts and bolts of here's the policies,
better policies, better results, get the personality out of the equation.
It's why the establishment and it's why Danny Lopez filed
that bill State rep. From Carmel to put the lieutenant
(08:50):
governor back under the or put it under the choice
of the governor him or herself the governor's candidate. And
they're going to try to do it with these other offices.
Because it used to be that the establishment had control
the structure of the conventions. The people who went were
more traditional Republicans. Well, especially over the past eight years,
(09:14):
more and more activist type people have gotten involved in
running for delegate. Well, they're driven by personality. They've clearly
shown that. Look at the people that keep electing, right,
they elect these people based on personality, not on their competence.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's like Jim Merritt calls them the TikToker TikTok politicians.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and look, I wanted Micah in there because look,
and Julian McGuire would have been no better for all
these people. Well you supported Micah. Yeah, and he's been
a colossal failure and he's a total fraud. So you
can put that on me, but it's not like you
would have had a different result in the policy if
Julie McGuire had been there. I'm disappointed in Micah because
he hasn't fought for us the way he was supposed to.
He hasn't been the thorn in Bronze side. He hasn't
(09:59):
been the rebel route because he got compromised so he
had to turn into a total ass kisser. But then
the results wouldn't have been any different. It wasn't like
bron would had a better property tax plan if Julie
McGuire been there. So by that center is no no harm,
no foul. But what these what did the politicians are
starting to realize is all of these guys are getting
elected not on their competency, not on their results. They're
(10:19):
getting elected based on personality.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And if they're influencers, yeah, versus so to governing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah. So to bring all this full circle, the average
person doesn't care about that, Like that's a hyper focused,
hyper small, very engaged group of people to the average person.
Look what that poll that came I remember Independent Indiana
amongst others, did these polls on Micah and Diego and
these guys, nobody knew who they.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Were, right because only seven percent.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
And people who did couldn't stand them. But the people
who did, most people had no idea who they were
because they just they're like, no.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It doesn't mean anything to their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
You know, if you ask the average person who has
heard of Micah beck With right now, they would talk
about he is the I who There is an allegation
of AI porn being viewed in his office, and his
office is under investigation by grand jury for ghost employment.
That's what they know. That's it because that's in the headlines,
and that's interesting, right, Oh, that's different. But everything else
it's just like politics as usual. Diego. Nobody knows about
(11:15):
him because he does nothing of value. He does nothing
of value. There's nothing this guy has done or the
average version will go, man, my life is better because
he's there.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He checks on the businesses rob I pay for India
I pay. So the percentage of people who hardly ever
follow the news has pretty much remained steady.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It's at seven percent.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It used to be five percent, so it's ticked up
just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
They hardly, they don't watch.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Them hardly ever, and it's happening across all age groups.
Older adults sixty five plus they still follow the news
the most, sixty two percent of them say they follow it,
although that's down thirteen points from twenty sixteen, and people
who are under thirty follow the news the least, with
only fifteen percent of them saying that they follow.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Okay, be honest with our audience here all right, now,
I get that you watch it all the time. Now
that's your job, right, You're you're that's that's what you do.
I have no idea what we're talking about every day.
You your job is to put all the stuff together
two seconds before we go back out to say what
are we talking about? And talent just carries me the
rest of the way. But before you worked here, and
cause I think you're sort of a pretty good example, right,
(12:26):
Like you're a voter, you're a good parent, you're working,
You're like, how much did you actually like less?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
How much did I follow the news?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
How engaged were you back then?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Well, I mean you have to keep in mind I
was in a newsroom, so I mean it was somewhat engaged.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I worked at a TV station.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, But when you were when you were a when
you were a jock or running the radio station.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
National news much more yeah than local.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, yeah, I like, I don't Before I got involved,
I don't ever remember knowing anything about well, I mean,
I'm talking into my early twenties having any sort of
understanding of how anything local worked or even who most
of the state people were.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Right. Yeah, that's the same.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I can remember when I was younger and all the
Oliver North and Ronald Reagan's story, I would.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And want to turn off the TV. Yeah, because it
wasn't interested. But in regards to the political differences with
watching the news, Republicans actually show the largest drop.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
They used to be at fifty seven percent would watch
the news closely in twenty sixteen, it's now at thirty
six percent, so it's down twenty one points with Republicans
and Republicans trust in national and local news has fallen
more than Democrats.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
What's the Democrat engagement in the news.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
It used to be a forty nine percent, it's now
down to thirty nine percent.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Okay, so they have dropped as well, but not by
as much.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And thirty nine percent for Democrats thirty six for Republicans,
So it's down it's down less, but they're still engaging
more than Republicans.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Okay, to watching, Let's take a break because I have
a very important question off of that for you that
I think would really resonate with our audience, and I
think it would apply to people that are hearing us
right now. So let's take a break and I will
ask you this question. I'm not going to tell you
what it is during the break, and I want to
see what your gut answer is.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Okay, it's Kennell and Casey. It's ninety three WYBC.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
We can't We're never going back, are we. I was
pondering this in our last segment. It's Kennelly, Casey, John
Rob that's Casey. So Casey pulled up this very interesting
story about how few people are engaged in the news anymore.
And you know, one of the reasons Rush Limbaugh was
so popular for so many years, especially in the late
(15:02):
eighties and well into the nineties, was because he was
so much different than what anybody could get anywhere else. Right, Obviously,
he was the greatest broadcaster whoever lived. He was phenomenally talented.
Listening to rushing inball read an ad was more entertaining
than listening to anybody else to a show. But he
was also there at a time where nobody else was there.
He was sort of first right in a weird way,
(15:24):
totally different type of broadcaster, but the same way Stern
was first. Now Rush was great, Stern was just first right,
and everybody sort of emulated Stern afterwards, and Stern has
largely become irrelevant because it's old hat. Everybody else can
do it. But I say all of this because competition
is good. Differences are good. Being exposed to different things
(15:47):
are good. And you should read people you disagree with.
I try every single day to read a whole lot
of people that I disagree with, because it sharpens my
I debate with myself, it sharpens my opinions on things.
It makes me usually ends up making me more wed
to what I had before, but I forced myself into
those things, and sometimes I end up actually changing my mind.
(16:09):
But the point of what I'm saying of that is
difference is good in a limited scope. But when you
have unlimited opportunity, you it's you can so easily find
the thing not that challenges you, not that makes you better,
but is the easy way, which is just simply reinforces
(16:30):
whatever you want. Right, So in the in the world
we're in now, where there's podcasting, you know, the video blogs,
subscription services, you know, we're still here, but there's just
so much you don't have to be challenged anymore, and
most people are not going to challenge themselves, and so
we're not going to bring back the independent thought. Like
(16:52):
I don't see how we bring back independent thought anymore
if people are just being hyper radicalized one way or another.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Or.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Because it's the easy way to do it. Yeah, I
agree with that versus man, I hate that guy or
I hate that person, but I'm gonna listen to it.
And even if I end up disagreeing with what they say,
it's gonna force me to be better at what I think.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I think we get a lot of people who listen
to you even though they don't agree with everything you say.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
But how how long they definitely.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Don't agree with your delivery?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah? Right, right, But and I get that we do
very well. And God bless every person, whether you listen
because you like me or hate me, or everybody likes Casey.
There's nobody who doesn't like Casey. But my point is,
in the ski we're a Indianapolis based radio show. Right,
we have our and it's a big corner, right, twenty
five counties or whatever we cover and we're the voice
of the city. And that's wonderful. But I'm talking if
(17:48):
you extrapolate this across the country. Right, so many people
are just looking for the thing that they agree with,
and once you found that, you can isolate yourself. Right,
it's like the equivalent of not leaving your house anymore,
not seeing the world outside, just your little corner, your
little world is all that exists. And so how do
(18:09):
we get robust debate to get better policy anymore? How
do we get conversations that can genuinely change minds or
mold people into being independent thinkers so that when a
topic comes up, they'll come to the right conclusion, not
the one they're just instinctively, you know, back instinctively drawn to.
(18:32):
I just I don't know if we can ever do
that anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Well, like you said earlier, people will be offended if
you're going against who they're cheerleading for.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, they don't want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, Like I remember in college, it took a history
of Television class and that was like a four hundred
level course in the general Studies program. You're looking at
me like, oh, you poor guy. That totally explains a lot, right.
And in my History of televis class, I had a
super liberal teacher. I had actually had her for another class,
and she was super liberal, but she was very fair.
(19:08):
She was very fair in her grading, the way she
handled things, and we would like fight, like you know,
debate every single day. And she told me at one point,
she said, never be never be afraid to speak up. No,
this was way before I was involved in politics or anything,
but I had my world views, right. I didn't quite
(19:29):
articulate them the way I do now, but I knew
the things I felt. And she told me, she said,
never be afraid to speak out. I think I'm going
to punish you because and she said, in fact, I'm
rewarding you for this, because you are showing these kids
the way it should be, like you should be able
to speak your mind and I should be able to
speak my mind, and the way we do it, it's
going to make them better students. So you're going to
(19:51):
ultimately be And I got an A plus in the class,
but like, how could you fail History of Television?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
How could you screw that up? But the point my
final paper was on alf but you you But my
point is like we need more of that.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, but we're not. You're right, we're never turning back
to that. At least we're trying. But the veil has
been lifted.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And now you can't do that because you.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Have activist professors who will grade against you if they
don't agree with your ideas. So students who are paying
money at colleges where you're supposed to debate ideas, they're
not going to risk getting a bad.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Grade to anger their teacher.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
But they're gonna you're right, they're going to write a
paper knowing what the teacher thinks so that they get
the good grade.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah, but we also have it. It's it's outside of
the classroom too, right, it's it's in our business. Think
about you know people all the time, Like you have
so many Democrats on your show, Yeah, because it's kind
of interesting to hear what they have to say. Like
we're adults, we can hear people we disagree with, and you,
we believe in you that you can hear people you
disagree with. And it's a different point of view, Like
(21:00):
how entertaining at this point.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Is it is you're the same message over and over
and over again.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, Todd Young, Duke of Spendingberg. Hey, did we ever
get it a definitive if that was Fidel Castro and
there was no denying it? Right? I believe it is
so Todd Young. We're now willing to say we think
Todd Young posed it for a picture in front of
Fidel Castro, a painting a Fidel Castro.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah. I don't know for sure, but there was.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
No I mean like that would have been major news
had they come out and liked some swift denial or something. Right,
for those of you who missed this, this was an
incredible story. Todd Young, the senator from Indiana, a Republican,
went to this Harrison County Economic Development Group thing and
they all posed for a picture afterwards, and the picture
appeared to be this giant picture behind them of Fidel Castro,
(21:45):
and everyone's like, there must be something wrong here, this
is AI or it's been photoshopped or something, and there's
been no denial.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I think Kevin brought up a really good point yesterday
about that.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Though. There must have been somebody Young in his communications
staff who didn't know who the painting was.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
But the point is, when you have Todd Jung on,
it's the same, like there's nothing new you're going to
hear from him. There's nothing different. Now. He may talk
about a topic that's of interest to you and that's okay.
People have him on and they talk to him, and
that's fine, But I'm saying, there's nothing about that that's
going to expand a horizon. When you have these democrats on,
they're interesting to hear them talk because we don't hear
that point of view a lot and a lot of
(22:24):
times it's insanity. But sometimes they make some ones and
you're like, Okay, maybe we should be doing that, Maybe
that is a better way to look at things. And
I just until we get back to that, we're we're
just gonna keep getting more and more hyperpartisan, and the
policy and the ideas that are gonna be best for
the country and our states and our communities are going
(22:46):
to totally get left behind.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Well, going back to this Pew Research study that says
Americans are following the news less, they said that they're
getting it passively now, they're not actively looking for it,
and fifty four percent said they mostly.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
See political news because they stumble across it online.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, and there's less people that are out there actively
looking for it, so you're still consuming it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
It's just accidental. Yeah, you're not seeking it out.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
All right, just take a break.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's Kennilly Casey. It's ninety three WIBC.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So you've got a new study that shows main street businesses,
you know, the mom and pops for lack of a
better term, are not doing well.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, there was a federal program.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
It was launched in twenty twenty and it was to
help small businesses and individuals restructure their debts. And the
point it was to help them do it more cheaply
and also quicker than traditional Chapter eleven bankruptcy. But what
they found out was that there was an eight percent
increase from last year, and there are more mom and
(23:55):
pops that are going out of business, they're filing for bankruptcy.
And some of the reasons are because of the high
borrowing costs and weak consumer demand and economic pressures and
decline in small business ownership and optimism towards small businesses.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Now, look are small business owners in this country. You
are the heroes. You are the backbone of this country.
You don't get near the respect or thinks that you
you do. For many, many years, I earned my living
owning various small businesses. Still have a little side hustle
that I do, though not you know, an integral part
(24:34):
of my existence. But still file all the taxes and
all the ever you know, paperwork associated with that. So
I still keep a little toe dabbled in that. But
like I remember when I sold my radio station and
it was like such a relief because it was getting
so hard. Now this is, you know, a couple of
years ago, now whatever, Right, it's been a long time,
(24:56):
but I remember being done with it and just saying,
it's gotten so hard to not only start, even start,
but maintain a small business and the work that goes
into it versus the reward that comes out of it.
I'm done with that forever, right, Like I got the
entrepreneurial spirit out of myself at you know, at a
(25:18):
young age, and I used to have it. I used
to think all I would think of was creativity, creative
ways to do things, new programming, to put on new
things that you know, we could do to broadcast. And
it's just like that was so draining. I think about
that in my twenties and thirties versus trying to do
it in your forties. And there are people who get
up and do that every single day to make this
country work, and they're getting blood drawn.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Well, like going back to the healthcare conversation that we
had earlier, we're with a big company, so they're able
to negotiate on scale. Imagine if it's a small business
and you only have two, three, maybe four employees and
you're still providing health insurance, that cost is even higher.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Well, and it was always like the little things you
had to think about that nobody processes. So if you're
a small businesser and you're right like we work for
a big company. You know other Indus people that own
radio stations, TV stations, in this, in this you know industry.
They're big companies. But as a small entrepreneur you had
to think about things like with the FCC, there were
(26:19):
different reporting requirements based on how many employees you had.
The employee list if it was below a certain level
was way lower. The paperwork, the cost of at the
attorney's fees, all that was way lower. So we had
to be super cognizant at all times of how many
people we actually working for us to stay under the number.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
The actually didn't want growth.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
No, no, I mean like, well, I would have to
do it. Every decision I would make would have to
be okay, how many people who have working for us?
Can somebody do this? If not, can I do it?
Because we have to stay under this number because of
all the things that opens up. You have to do
same thing with like Osha and all these other things.
Right that the average person, and I'm not blaming anybody
goes to work each day. I'm one of those guys
now right. I'm cognizant of it because I've been on
(26:56):
the other end of the paycheck. I've signed checks on
the front. But the average person who gets a paycheck,
and God bless you if you go to work and
you're earning that money and nobody's saying you're not, but
you don't understand a lot of times it goes into
that check and the person behind the scenes on a
small business especially may not have you know, some robust
HR department or or you know robust accounting firm working
(27:18):
for them. It's a war zone out there right now,
and we are not doing anything to help these people.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Some other bankruptcy trends Chapter thirteen Consumer bankruptcy filings. They're
also on the rise. Over one hundred and eighty thousand
cases have been filed through November of this year, which
is a five percent increase from last year.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
And again, the question becomes, if we get into a
world without small business owners, which is the as you're
laying out in great detail there statistically where we're headed,
what does that look like like? What does that what
does our country look like if we just have large companies,
(27:59):
many of them foreign, and those that are here detached
from any sort of sense of humanity or civic pride.
I mean, remember you, you showed this to me. I
think it was you that sent this to me. Some
guy on Twitter did an intense breakdown of the Dell guy. Right,
did you send that to me? I did, Yeah, and
(28:20):
I retweeted it at Rob Kendall. So yesterday Casey and
I did a big segment on Michael Dell. I think
is the guy's name. He's the he's the CEO now
of Dell Technologies, right, the computers, the chips, bl blah
blah blah. And he's getting all this praise because he
has given money to six.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Point twenty five billion dollars to fund the Trump accounts. Yeah,
the these twenty five million kids.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right, these savings accounts that are being set up for
kids that are born during Trump's term, and he's giving
money to part of that. People are like, oh my gosh,
this is so great. And I said, well, wait a second.
I said, I've got a major concern not about philanthropy.
This guy wants to give his money to help kids.
It's great, but you've got a guy essentially buying his
way into the government when his company is a major
beneficiary of government policy and more importantly, government money. It's
(29:08):
Jim Mersay all over again. I've never given Jim Mersey
any credit for his philanthropic nature because a lot of
that money that he earned came by force from taxpayers,
because we had to pay for that stadium, which is
the primary source of his wealth. The taxpayers paying for
Lucas Oil stadium. It's like, we just gave him money. Well,
is see philanthropic If he took money from me and
gave it to somebody else, It's the same thing with
(29:30):
this guy. Dell Technologies has been an immense beneficiary a
recent government policy related to chips and things going on
here and this guy and people were like, well, there
goes rob just pouring cold water on everything again. And
then some guy on Twitter, which we retweeted. I retweeted
Robin kendallby you want to read it went through the
breakdown on how much this dude has actually benefitted from
(29:53):
the government and now he's buying back into Well.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The one thing that stood out to me was after
that announcement was made, Dell stock jumped four percent, so
they gained six billion dollars in market value from these
six billion dollar donations, so that was in net neutral, and.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
He got a tax ride off for all that money
he gave away, So he's made huge amounts of money
by doing this, which is exactly what I said. And
I always find this so funny that people are like
with me when I will say something that is just
it's irrefutable what I'm telling them, but because it doesn't
sound nice, well, it's like he's doing it. What am
I supposed to do? Not act like that's not happening.
Am I supposed to Just not say anything about it?
(30:32):
It was a great business move on his part because
he's buying into the government he's increasing his stock value,
he's getting the tax ride off, and they're benefiting from
these policies that we're paying for as taxpayers. Am I
supposed to be excited that some guy who's boosting his
wealth off of my back is giving some of that
back to the taxpayers. Well, in the select ones, not me.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
The other thing you have to think about is this
isn't tax free, it's tax deferred. So when that money
comes of age, when those children are eighteen, they're going
to be taxed on that money, which will go back
to the government.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
So anyway, I just thought that was fet that we're
talking about this, that we had mentioned that yesterday and
people some people were like getting very angry about it, Well,
nothing will make you happy, And I was like, no,
you have to look at what this guy's doing. He's
using the government to enhance his own wealth and portfolio
and the profile of it, and it.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Comes off as a pr move that he's helping out.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
That was just so great that that dude went into
great detail. But I was like, as usual, Casey least
favorite part of every show.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
It's Kendallly Casey. It's ninety three WIBC.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Did you see the ratings for that Chiefs and Cowboys game.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
The Thanksgiving game?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, believable.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, I was off the chart.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Fifty seven point two to three million viewers on average
watched that football game on Thanksgiving. At one point, there
was like a fifteen minute period between seven forty five
and eight PM where they had over sixty one million
people watching that football game.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
So it's the record, like non super Bowl record, Is
that correct?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It passed the previous Thanksgiving record of forty two million.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Thanks Giving record. Okay, yeah, yeah, so think about that.
You're what was the high point?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You said sixty one million?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Okay, so you're a country of roughly three hundred and
forty million people, three thirty five whatever the number is.
So at one point one out of every five point
five people in this country.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Were watching We're watching the Cowboys game regular season for
the night of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I mean, well, you've got some popular teams there, right,
national brands, You've got star players. It's a competitive playoff situation,
and you had a captive holiday audience, people sitting on
the couch with their tummy's full.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah. But if you to put baseball on the Amara's
baseball didn't play. That would have been a honor right,
or even an NBA game, which there may have very
well been. I don't know if the NBA plays on Thanksgiving,
I other playing Christmas Day, but you're not doing anywhere
near that. And it really does show in this country
how football is the premiere not just sport. It's the
(33:12):
premiere viewing program in America is the National Football League.
And so when people like and I'm one of them,
get upset about the roughing, the passer calls or whatever,
you realize and it has it has changed the game,
and not for the better. I mean that they have
taken a player safety to like a ridiculous level, these
things they're calling on tackles or whatever. But you realize
(33:33):
if you're an owner and you're like, man, I got
this multi billion dollar product, which every team is a
multi billion dollar product, and it's a part of this
organization that is a gajillion dollar product, and our primary
asset are the players on the field, you do kind
of see why they've really cracked down on breathing on
(33:54):
people because there's sixty one million eyeballs and stick.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Well, I mean, it's it just shows the strong interest,
right that you've got.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, and if it's I'm not trying to you know,
salt anybody, but if it were, you know, I'm trying
to pick an old timey quarterback. If it was Dashaun Kaiser,
I'll pick two Notre Dame quarterbacks. If it was Dashawn
Kaiser going to Brady Quinn back. There ain't sixty one
million people watching. It's because it's Mahomes and Dak Prescott
(34:27):
is the quarterback for the Cowboys, like as you said,
two Marquee players in the league.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Right, So we were looking at buying tickets to see
because when we were in Baltimore over Thanksgiving, the Ravens
played and we thought, oh, that that might be kind
of fun. The temperature was really cold, and we decided
we were all too tired. We'd rather just sit on
the couch and watch football anyway. But the tickets were
one hundred dollars each. So we were trying to figure
out the math of the stadium and how much they make. Yeah,
(34:54):
you know per game you got just like here in Indianapolis,
you've got the big, beauty, full stadium, right, and what
there's only six seven home games a year.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Well, are we counting preseason? Are we just kinunting regular
regular season? Yeah? So you've got eight or nine now, yeah, close, Nita.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And you know how much do they have to charge
per ticket to make to make it work financially? Well,
but then when you've got to you can consider the
concessions and all of the merch, and then the TV rights.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
That's a big one.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's it you're spot on, which is it's the merch
and the TV Right now, the merch, I don't know
if the NFL has changed. This came out years ago
when Tim Tebow was playing. That's when it came out
because all those Tebow jerseys were selling and people said, well,
somebody would just want him on their team because of
his merch. And then it came out how the NFL's
merch deal works where it gets disseminated amongst all the teams,
(35:49):
So there's no real advantage other than ticket sales game
day ticket sales to having an attraction on your roster
who doesn't actually help your team because the merch the
way it gets disseminated, it goes to the Colts, the
same way with the Jets or the Broncos or whoever
had Tim Tebow that on their team.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
At the time, they split it up among the entire league.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Sixty one million people. Like, it's hard to fathom how
many people that actually is, Like what that would look
like if you could somehow get an aerial view of
sixty one million people.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Now, let me ask you this. Do you remember the
score of that game? Did you watch it?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Whit?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Were you one of the sixty one million?
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I did, because I've got the Cowboys at sixty five
to one to win the Super Bowl the preseason Betski,
and I know the Cowboys won the game. It was closed.
Now I didn't watch all of it, but it was close,
and I think it came down to the end, right,
there was a field goal or something at the end
of the game that won it. It came down to
the final possession. Yeah, so well, oh, I thought you
(36:54):
were gonna give me the final score.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
I don't have get like this is a test.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
No, I'm just saying it's like, in the moment, Oh,
you're totally glued to it because it's the thing to do.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
But now that it's past, like, you can't even remember
what the final score was.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
You know, this show was so good today. I bet
they give us a fabulous raise.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
You think so, don't hold your breath. Thank you, Rob,
thank you Kevin, Thank you for listening today. This is
being Kendall and Casey on ninety three WIBC
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com