The Severeness of Storms: Kory Hartman

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This is one of those interviews that I've been talking about doing for about 4 years now and just never have gotten around to it.  Well the stars aligned just right and now it's in the can.  When I met Kory over 5 years ago, I thought to myself "Now here's an interesting guy, can't wait to find out more about him".  So why did it take me so long to get this interview done?  Well for one thing I am a SERIOUS procrastinator.  Just ask my wife and she will point to the five million, three hundred and six thousand, four hundred and twenty-eight projects that I've started and never finished if you want a better Frame of Reference.  Suffice it to say that BOTH Kory and I are pretty busy doing urgent stuff so getting IMPORTANT stuff done is pretty hard.  BUT here it is.  In this interview, Kory and I go all the way back to his teen years in Iron River Michigan and trace his roots as a radio personality as well as his fascination with storms and a realization that modern technology could allow tracking of them to be done in a way that could and would save lives.  It's a fascinating story filled with Kory's great sense of humor and inside the studio anecdotes.

Kory Hartman started storm chasing in 1997 and created SevereStudios in 2006.  SevereStudios.com has become the leading storm chaser live streaming platform and online source for extreme weather news.  Kory coordinates, dispatches, and represents a team of over 60 professional storm chasers who cover severe weather for local television stations and national networks such as The Weather Channel and CNN. Kory and his team chase and cover tornados, floods, blizzards, fires, and every kind of storm, but tornado chasing and forecasting is definitely their specialty. They do this year-round and there is never a dull day on the job.
 
 Kory worked directly for The Weather Channel for almost 2 years before going back to his original love, radio, in 2017 when he purchased Baraboo Broadcasting Corp.  BBC includes an AM/FM radio station ("99.7 MAX FM"), an online certificate store ("MAX FM Big Deals"), a low-power television station ("TV43"), two cable channels, a bi-monthly newspaper ("The Express"), and a digital marketing division.  Baraboo Broadcasting promotes Wisconsin's vacationland of Wisconsin Dells, Baraboo, Reedsburg, Portage, and Sauk City.  They bring awareness to the area's attractions, both natural and man-made, and support local businesses, non-profit organizations, and schools.

Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.

Episode Transcript

Announcer (00:04):
Welcome to frame of reference informed intelligent
conversations about the issuesand challenges facing everyone
in today's world, in depthinterviews with salt counties,
leaders and professionals tohelp you expand in and form your
frame of reference, brought toyou by the max FM digital
network. Now, here's your hostRauel LaBreche.

Rauel LaBreche (00:25):
Well, welcome to another edition of frame of
reference Sauk County and beyondand we are beyond doing again
today. My guest today is a guythat I've known for, what,
three, four or five years ago,five years. And he is actually
the big kahuna here at WR PQdigital network phi, the max FM

(00:45):
which we try to call out toevery time we do this podcast
because it was his impetus hisdriving me to you know, you
know, what you really should dois a podcast that made yours
truly want to do this thing inthe first place. But I'm talking
about none other than CoreyHartman. Who is the you're the
owner, the president, thejanitor, all of that. Yes. And

(01:07):
more all of that. So, in Korea,how did you come to do this? I
mean, you've told me this storybefore, but just so people know
how, how did this happen? Ah,

Kory Hartman (01:15):
that's a really good question. I stumbled into
my local small town hometownradio station in iron River,
Michigan. And they theybasically I basically didn't
leave until they give me gave mea job. Yeah, and were

Rauel LaBreche (01:28):
that persist? I wore obnoxious. I was obnoxious.

Kory Hartman (01:32):
How old were you at this? Wow, man. I mean,
there's a slightly longerversion of this that the, the
general manager of the station,okay. His daughter was my fifth
grade teacher. Oh, my and sheknew that I wanted to do radio
broadcasting whatever. And so mygrades were not the greatest.
And so she she said was rising.
I know I thought you had to be ascholar to own a radio station.

(01:56):
Right? And, I mean, I knew I wasgonna be a radio DJ from the
time I was like four years old,but my grades weren't the
greatest and so she said, youknow, if you get your grades up,
okay, I will take you for a tourat the radio station. And I
thought, Oh, I got it, I've gotto do this. Right. So you know,
so I raised from, you know, a Cto a B or whatever it was, and

(02:17):
and we, you know, got got a tourgot to meet the owner there.
And, and he went over to theteletype wire, you know, the old
paper now, back in the day

Rauel LaBreche (02:31):
right next to his mimeograph it's

Kory Hartman (02:33):
right next to the media grab was the was the
teletype machine and, and herips me off like this big long
sheet of all the news andweather and sports and
everything that have beenprinting out out of there for
the last like hour. And he saidhe said if you want to be in
radio take this home and readthis. I said read it. Yeah. Out

(02:56):
Loud over and over and overagain to yourself. Sure. And and
pretend that you're on the radioSure. And I said you got salute
Yes, sir. I will. I will dothat. I'm on that I'm so I'm I
am on that I'm all over that soI'd so I took that teletype
piece of paper home. And and Iwould announce it I would

(03:17):
announce it over and over andover again and just read read
read. And you know, and then I'dspend records in my basement and
I had bought a little mixer atone thing I would read a Radio
Shack, you know $5 mixer. And,and and eventually I got I got
sick of reading you know a yearold news. And so I went back to

(03:38):
the radio station I just knockedon the door and the whoever the
DJ was says yeah, come on income on in what's going on?
Yeah, I said I I said I want todig through your garbage can and
and he's a dumpster diverdumpster diving work your
neighborhood teletype paperdiver. And so and so he let me
grab a whole bunch of new copyand then eventually that became

(04:01):
a routine I would come in onceor twice a week and get new copy
take it home and I was I wasdoing radio in my basement here
for almost two years beforefinally one day that guy saw me
in a supermarket and said soyou're going to come work at the
radio station or why you know wegot a guy going off to college

(04:21):
and we've got brewers baseballgames that need to be bored off
and and that's how I started Istarted by running the control
board and doing commercials forthe brewers and this is iron
river iron River up just overthe border is just over the
border my North Eagle River andYeah, and like crystal falls
Yeah, my brother in law it has aplace up in crystal falls. So go

(04:44):
through iron River and iceconfuse that with Iron Mountain,
which is actually much furtherup the pike isn't that wow,
that's yeah, that's closer downtoward like Menominee Marinette,
and then then you have ironwood, which is all the way over
by Duluth, you know, and Ashlandand all that stuff. So there was
a lot of iron and I worked inall three. I've worked in all
three IRS and crystal balls.
your IRA has been to many fires.

(05:05):
Yes, yes. Yes, it has, such ashow it works in broadcast.

Rauel LaBreche (05:09):
So here we go.
You're in small town, smallmarket, all that stuff. And but
you had quite an interestingcareer from that point back to
still do with your your weatherwork that you've

Kory Hartman (05:19):
done? Yeah. You know, I've always been
interested in in severe weather,tornadoes specifically. And I
got a little bit of thatinfluence because I'd spend
summers on my mom's farm inSouth Dakota. Okay, not not a
lot of tornadoes in you know,the up, although we did get a
couple. But, but all summer longin South Dakota, you know, it's

(05:40):
it's country music and tornadowarnings. That's what's on the
radio there. And so, you know, Ithought that a tornado watch
meant a tornado is coming to getme at two o'clock in the
morning, you know, that

Rauel LaBreche (05:53):
tornado, I'm here

Kory Hartman (05:55):
and you're going to be blown away. Exactly. And,
and so so anytime there was anysort of, you know, weather
watch, I would I would hang outin the bay, I would sleep in the
basement of my mom's housebecause I was just freaked out.
And they say, anything that youwant to get over any phobia that
you want to get over, you jumpinto it, right? Like, go for

(06:16):
your own. Yeah, if you're afraidof a plane crashing, you go
learn how to fly a plane or jumpout of a plane or whatever you
do. So I said, I've got to learnmore about the severe weather
thing. And then one of thosegreat PBS weather specials came.
And it was all about stormchasers and what they do and the
science behind it. And, youknow, not not just the thrill

(06:38):
seeking part, which you know,tornadoes, very exciting, but
they also kill people. And soit's a lot about the science and
the warning process. And then,in this particular documentary,
there was a clip from from aradio station in Wichita,
Kansas, and in Wichita, Kansas,this radio station KF di
employed storm chasers to go outand broadcast what was happening

(07:01):
in and around the Wichita metroarea. And I thought that was the
coolest thing ever. I'm like, ohmy god, I can bridge weather and
broadcasting together. I said,I've got to figure out how to
how to do that. So there's

Rauel LaBreche (07:16):
a huge market there. I'm in Kansas, we're
talking Tornado Alley. Right.
Right.

Kory Hartman (07:20):
Exactly. And so and so, you know, I didn't have
the experience to just drive toWichita and start, you know,
chasing tornadoes around. So ittook a few years.

Rauel LaBreche (07:31):
There's a lot of people that want to do that job
though, either was it you know,or

Kory Hartman (07:34):
surprisingly, there's, there's, you know,
there's probably a good goodcontingent of people that do
want to

Rauel LaBreche (07:40):
get a job opening and there will be more
than one apple. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, there

Kory Hartman (07:43):
is so I mean, you know, it's not a full time job.
This tornadoes don't thankfullydon't happen every day

Rauel LaBreche (07:48):
in the offseason you watch Whirlpool.

Kory Hartman (07:52):
I've since learned there is no offseason either. So
I used to think there was butyeah, but when you when you when
you cover things nationwide,like I do now, which we'll get
to in a sec, you know, there'sno offseason but but you know,
so I didn't just like pack up mycar and drive to Wichita just I
started working at other smalltown radio stations, I you know,
I went to broadcasting school,Minneapolis Brown Institute, and

(08:14):
then you know, when you're ayoung broadcast, you just jump
all over the place. In fact, Iwas just on Facebook a little
bit ago, and I was looking at aguy that was that was very, very
popular from like the mid 70s tothe mid 90s. And his entire
resume and he had call letterson there from three different
stations in the same year. Youknow, and so so I thought

(08:37):
staying, you know, like a yearand a half at each place was
bad, you know, cuz, you know,dad's like, are you gonna get
the pension and the gold watchand all that and, and here I am
jumping station to station, youknow, up and down the dial as
the song goes. And, and I butyou know, a lot of it was in was
in the Dakotas in Minnesota. Andso there was a lot of weather to

(08:58):
cover, you know, there. And so,you know, we had a pretty big
tornado in South Dakota in 1998,the Spencer, South Dakota
tornado, it was an f4 killedlike eight or nine people. I was
on the air that night and myradio station covered that the
Spencer area, obviously otherstations covered the area, but I

(09:20):
was on the air. And I knew thatwe had people listening in that
county, and an eight peopledied. And it felt like they died
on my watch, you know? And Isaid there's got to be a better
way to convey the danger andwhat's actually happening out
there because the weatherservice had come out after the

(09:42):
fact and said, you know, thereweren't a lot of spotters
around. There weren't a lot ofthere was there were there were
like some mobile Doppler crewsthat were around scanning the
tornado but they didn't reallycall in the fact that we had
this massive tornado rippingthrough eastern South Dakota.
And so They weren't getting astream of information. And I

(10:03):
said, There's got to be a betterway to do that, you know, and we
were already streaming audio. Wewere doing a lot of stuff with
radio streaming already andstuff in, in 1998 99 2000.

Rauel LaBreche (10:18):
With progressive actually,

Kory Hartman (10:21):
we it was bleeding edge technology, if you
remember, real media realplayer. That's what we were
using. I had, I had a serverthat I had bartered out for the
the connection at a library inthe up, and I'm broadcasting
radio from South Dakota throughthat server, to whoever wanted

(10:41):
to listen. Yeah. And so we'vebeen doing a lot of audio
streaming. And I said, you know,the server can do video, is
there's a video part to this,and it can stream and it's, you
know, it's postage stamp sizeback in the day. But it's live
video, no five frames a secondvery, very poor. Yes, very poor
quality, but it's but it's livevideo. And I said, I said, What

(11:05):
if we can use that server? Andsomehow broadcast from the field
from our car out chasingtornadoes, right? Or whatever?
Right. And and broadcast thatthrough the server and let the
National Weather Service seeexactly what we're seeing.
Right. Right. And I don't haveto call in real time, it's real

(11:28):
time they can see is there atornado? Is there not a tornado?
Right? Is there big hailfalling? Sure, you know,
whatever. The only time theyhave to call me is, you know,
what direction is your camerapointing? So we kind of know and
where and where are you? Well,they

Rauel LaBreche (11:39):
can tell from clouds, what kinds of activity
is going on? Right. So if you'regetting daytime or at least
enough light? Yeah, I'm sure.
Okay.

Kory Hartman (11:45):
Yeah. And you can tell Yeah, is there a wall
cloud? Is it rotating? Is therea funnel coming down whatever
the case is. And so the WeatherService offices, were able to,
to see that in real time. Andagain, I'm still bridging
broadcasting with weather, andalso very, very interesting to
me. And eventually, you know, wewe started a website, we had to

(12:10):
wait for technology to catch upwith us, we had this idea again
in like, late 90s, early 2000s.
And we had to wait till 2003 orfour for the cellular networks
to catch up where there wasenough data, right, that we
could broadcast video over, youknow, over over cellular
internet, a 3g network was even3g it was like 1x or whatever it

(12:33):
was before 3g, okay, you couldwith real player because it was
very, very small and able to bebroadcast so

Rauel LaBreche (12:44):
which is allows it to be postage stamp size.
Exactly.

Kory Hartman (12:47):
Yeah, you can use this was not HD, there wasn't
even HD when we started.

Rauel LaBreche (12:52):
HD wasn't magnifying glass to just go oh,
that's a person.

Kory Hartman (12:55):
Yeah, it was barely SD. So so we started this
off, and we started you know,like I said, we waited till
about 2003 or four. And then westarted doing some tests. We
would, you know, those those bigLogitech eyeball webcams. Yeah.
I had one of those, right.
Everybody did. Yeah, that's whyI found a cool yeah, I dumpster
doh doh for that too. And I ducttaped it to the to the

(13:17):
dashboard, you know, facing outthe front window. plugged in
into my laptop, I downloaded thesoftware that I needed. And up
comes a picture of the road,except it was all washed out. It
was all bright, bright, sunshinyday. Yeah. And those cameras
were not great. They were notmeant for outdoor usage. So I
had to take my sunglasses offand put them in front of the

(13:39):
eyeball camera. So that you callthem Herman or hell or
something. And, and that darkenthe picture enough that you
could actually see it andtransmitted and I had a friend
at the local TV station in SiouxFalls, punch it up. And and he
goes, Oh my God, we've got livevideo from your location. And I

(14:02):
said, Yes, we do. And and thenthe next year we got our first
live tornado on the air and itwas the first time that a
tornado had ever been streamedlive from the field to TV
station in in South Dakota.
They've been doing it inOklahoma City for a couple years
because that's like the Mecca.
But we were doing it with a $10webcam and a free server at a

(14:22):
library and Iron Mountain

Rauel LaBreche (14:26):
I have this idea of a webcam one of those with
like a nose being built for itand the sunglasses,

Kory Hartman (14:32):
Mr. Potato Head or something. Yeah, whatever. But
yeah, you know, it was only youknow, one one lens worth but

Rauel LaBreche (14:38):
potato head to the side. So yeah, whole thing

Kory Hartman (14:42):
run. So uh, so we did that for a few years and you
know, extremely long storyshort, you know, TV stations
around the country as we startedchasing more, you know, we
branched out from South Dakotaand you know, as you get better
and better at storm chasing andfor casting your then you will
go to Minnesota you'll go to,you know, Des Moines you'll go

(15:05):
to Omaha Lincoln Nebraska area,and those stations started
taking notice that we had awebsite and we're streaming and
and they said you know, we'llwe'll pay for your live stream
well we'll you know, we'll giveyou some costs and stuff. You
know first year we did it Ithink I got a coffee mug and and
and a videotape of the of thesevere weather special. But the

(15:28):
second year, probably happyabout that. I was ecstatic. I
love the severe weather special.
And I love the coffee mug timefrom Kelo TV.

Rauel LaBreche (15:38):
Now we're so jaded, I don't even get a coffee
mug.

Kory Hartman (15:42):
Forget that, you know, but but they started
paying, you know, a couple $100per day for the access to the
video feed. And I said, youknow, this is a, this is a
business now, you know, this,this is actually something that
that we could branch out to.
And, you know, we started offwith, with a service where I

(16:03):
think like 25 or 50 people couldwatch at the same time,
concurrently and, and we wouldwe keep hitting that cap,
because people would tune init's, it's, you know, sure, like
today where everybody can streamlive. I mean, this was before
YouTube, right? This is beforeyou stream, right? This is
before any live thing. And wewere doing live video streaming

(16:24):
of tornadoes, you know, so veryexciting for people. So yeah,
you know, call it big, you know,crack content, maybe they
couldn't, you know, theycouldn't get enough. Look at
this guy's got blown, that roofgot blown away, you know, and,
and, but it was also being usedagain at the weather service.
And for people to go, Hey, thatwas my water tower, you know, in

(16:46):
my, in my town, and I live amile east of town, and I better
take shelter, because I'mactually seeing this huge
tornado coming into my town,right. And that's what it helps
the, the, you know, the warningprocess, but, but it was also,
like I said, turning into like acottage, you know, industry.
And, and so we we, we would hitthat that 50 cap, and we'd swipe

(17:07):
my buddy's credit card again,and we'd get like a cap of 150.
And two more storm chases, we'dbump up against that. And then,
you know, a couple chases later,we'd swipe it again. And and
eventually, we got to the pointwhere it was costing us like,
like $300 a month for anunlimited number of viewers. And
we're like, you know, we got toroll our own here, we've got to,

(17:28):
we got to get our own server,you know, figure out, you know,
what we can do and take out themiddleman. And so we had a we
had a friend of ours that thatactually worked at a at a server
farm in Lansing, Michigan,called Liquid web. And we we
said, you know, can we get justa little tiny bit of, of
bandwidth on, you know, somegigantic server that you have

(17:52):
there in the rack. And he said,Sure I can. And because I'm an
employee, I get it at at cost.
You know, it cost me like, Idon't even know what it was like
2020 cents an hour or something.
I mean, it was very, very, verycheap. And we could run it all
the time. And so that's how wethat's how we moved from paying
somebody else to running our ownstreaming service. Okay. But
what we built was so much morethan what we needed, that we

(18:16):
went, Oh, gosh, we could inviteother storm chasers onto our
server, and get them to streamwhat they're seeing now we have
five times right, the number ofcamera views out in the field,
right. And so your annual goaland a bigger scope, that was it?
Well, we couldn't be everywhereall the time. So we started

(18:38):
adding associate chasers so weyou know, we added a guy in
Minnesota, and we added a guyin, in Colorado, and we added
one of those storm chaser tourguys, that you know, would put
it in his van and go out anddrive around driving around
anyway. And, and each one ofthose people would would get
paid through us for the use oftheir video if if a TV station

(18:58):
purchased it. And obviouslytunes for whether it was like
iTunes for weather or like fiberfor fiber for a forecast, you
know, and, and so obviously thethe, you know, Weather Channel,
CNN, Fox News, those types ofplaces started noticing as well,
especially when we would dohurricane chasing. So we've got

(19:21):
all these cameras, they're live,they're on the coast, they're
waiting for, you know, a catthree to come ripping in and,
and so that's when that's whenthe national networks really
started taking notice of whatwhat we were doing. And at first
it was a completely manualprocess. Like if somebody
started streaming live, I wouldhave to go into the server and

(19:42):
turn on their their feed so thatit would pop up on the website
and say live now you know, it'sall automated today with
scripting and you know, all thisback end stuff. But but for for
about a year. Literally somebodywould have to call and say hey,
I'm about to start streamingdown here in Arkansas. And when
I would see them pop up on thescreen, then I'd have to go in

(20:03):
and turn it on for the homeviewer. Right. And that was that
was a crazy year. That was 15years ago now. About the time I
think, in fact, I want to say itwas the day, we figured out how
to do that automatically, whereI would push the button in my
car. And about a minute later,it would pop up on the website
automatically was the day Idrove into a tornado east of

(20:27):
Omaha.

Rauel LaBreche (20:31):
Wow, firsthand experience can't be that

Kory Hartman (20:33):
streaming live streaming live to our channel
six partner in Omaha who's stilla client today. And it was the
day of the little Sioux Iowatornado. And that tornado, I
believe was was a three or four.
And it came across the river andwent into the the bluffs, the

(20:54):
Loess Hills. And it it it had aBoy Scout camp. Oh, yeah, I

Rauel LaBreche (21:01):
remember that.
Yeah.

Kory Hartman (21:04):
After it went over the Boy Scout camp and went over
the hill, and it hit us, myselfin my my Chase partner and
business partner, Kenny Allen.
And so obviously, when you havea tragedy of that magnitude, and
you have film of it, it's justlike, that tornado would have

(21:24):
happened, whether we were thereor not. Right, everybody says,
Well, I can't believe you makemoney off of tragedy. Well,
that's the biz, you know, attimes, right. Um, and we give
back, you know, we did a bigfundraiser for the for the scout
camp and all sorts of stuffafterwards. But, um, but when
you have that, that exclusivevideo of an event, you know,

(21:45):
like look at some of the videocoming out of Ukraine, right?
You know, when you when you seethe the chopper go down, because
it's blown out of the sky, thatperson got a pay day, you know,
for shooting that video, becauseit was the only one there, we
got a pay day, because our videoof that tornado that again, had
gone through the Boy Scout campwith the tragic consequences

(22:05):
rolled on every network in thecountry at 7am. The next
morning, every network, we werein our local TV station control
room, and they got all thosemonitors in there. And across
the top they had ABC, CBS, CNN,Fox, every network, every
network, and at seven o'clock amCentral time on the.it was our

(22:27):
video and, uh, screaming aboutbeing in the tornado rolled on
every single network. Okay,every single network paid over
$1,000 for the use of thatvideo. So we instantly started
our company severe studios, withthe intention that we would make
it better, we would always havefree access for the National

(22:52):
Weather Service and for anygovernment agency that that
needed it, that we would go outand do spotter training, and
that we would serve the publicjust like local radio stations,
just like we had done in radiofor years and years and years.
But that we would use severestudios to also inform the
public of what severe weathercan do, and to be prepared for

(23:13):
it, and to have a weather radioand all of those things that you
need to have to stay safe duringsevere weather. But, you know,
had we not had that experience.
I wouldn't be sitting here todaywith you. Because, you know,
after a while, you know, theWeather Channel hired me
directly, they paid a prettydecent salary. So I was able to

(23:37):
get a few bucks together to buythe radio station here. Right?
Um, had had we not gotten hit bya tornado and gotten video of a
tragic situation at that boyscout camp, right? I wouldn't be
sitting here today doing whatwe're doing right now.

Rauel LaBreche (23:54):
Well, let's face it news is news. Because people
want to know the news and it'syou know, people talk about it.
So you should do that for free.
Well, nothing is free. And youhave your time and you had
personal tragedy and you don't

Kory Hartman (24:08):
have Webmin you have gas you have maintenance,
you know it blew out threewindows in my car. I took my
license plate rolled it up likea newspaper you know, certainly
absolutely nothing what the whatthe poor families, right, you
know, had to go through, butthat's the other that's the flip
side of the coin. You know,storm chasers do not root for

(24:31):
death and destruction. Right Youknow, they're there. To log it.
We're there to to capture whatwhat is going to happen whether
we are there or not. And youknow, there's there's chasers
that get caught up in theexcitement of I saw a tornado
and they don't know what'shappening on the ground. You
know, there's a great video fromthat. 1998 Spencer, South Dakota

(24:54):
tornado shot was one of thefirst tornadoes ever to shot on
35 millimeter film, you know, upclose. Personal widescreen,
whatever. And you know, thatperson had driven from Texas, to
Spencer, South Dakota. You know,it was it was forecast, he was
actually listening to me on theradio giving reports as to where
the tornado was. And I kind ofdirected him to it. And he got

(25:17):
this beautiful film shotsunsetting behind this black
churning mass, you know, thatwas two miles away, or two miles
away, you don't know what'shappening on the ground. Right?
Right. Right. And what washappening while he was filming,
that was eight people weredying. You know, these these
were elderly people at a at arest home that were getting
blown out of their beds. And butyou don't know that that's

(25:40):
happening. So he's cheering thathe's shooting this amazing
footage. And then of course,then you get hit with the flip
side that, hey, people died inthis. People lost their
businesses, their homes, theirlivelihood, their neighbors,
their bank, you know, the bank?
Gram. Yeah, all that was left ofthe bank and Spencer was the the
vault. Yeah, everything else waswiped clean. Right. Um, and so

(26:03):
you know, there was like two,two businesses, two buildings
left standing in Spencer. Andthey moved the City Hall, the
post office and the bank, all tothat guy's house, because it was
the only thing still standing intown, like one grain silo and
that guy's house on the cornerof town, Barneveld, gosh, very,
very, very similar situation.

(26:27):
You know, I thought we weregoing to have a situation like
that a few weeks ago down inIowa, and a big tornado came
very close to Des Moines. Ithought we were going to have a
really bad day, we had a badenough day, in Winterset, Iowa,
that we had some people killedthere from on a day that we
didn't really expect bigtornadoes, right. And so, you

(26:51):
know, it was kind of a surpriseto get a 70 mile long EF for in
early season. And we lost lifethere. But if that if that track
would have been 40 miles furthernorth 30 miles further north, it
would have went right throughthe heart of the Moines. So
think about what an f4 threw thebiggest city in Iowa, what kind

(27:11):
of tragedy that would have wouldhave been right. Um, but but
again, we were there, we werestreaming live video, working
with our media partners, wherewe're tweeting or Facebooking,
or streaming live, you know, orYouTube, and we're doing all the
stuff that we can do to get theinformation to the public.
Through both new media andlegacy media,

Rauel LaBreche (27:31):
I would hope to those situations inform people
in a way that it becomes muchmore real that tornadoes you
don't want to mess around withthis is what happens, you know,
so when when I hear there's atornado warning, I mean, I'm,
I'm a little bit more of a youknow, tornado warning, I think,
yeah. Are you inside? Yeah,you've had so many of them that
it's, you know, warning thismorning, who cares? You know,

(27:54):
but the fact when you can seethat, really, yeah, up close and
personal on the groundexperience you're talking about

Kory Hartman (28:00):
and the warnings, warnings have actually gotten so
good. Over the last decade, thatwe now have over 20 minutes
average lead time, between thetime that your weather radio or
your phone, beeps and buzzes atyou, until the tornado actually
hits your house. It used to bethree minutes. So we've gone

(28:21):
from three minutes average, to a20 minute average. That's enough
time to eat a sandwich and brushyour teeth and then Go change
your clothes. I got my tornadoboots, ready to go? You know,
put the helmet

Rauel LaBreche (28:37):
on and go we joke about something.

Kory Hartman (28:40):
But you think about that you have a you have
17 more minutes than you did in1980. Right? In 2022. Right. So
so so use that time to you know,get your stuff together and get
get to shelter and, um, youknow, so yeah, it is, you know,
we we make fun of it. But it's

Rauel LaBreche (29:01):
part of how we deal with the seriousness of it.
Yeah, it's not meant to get ajob. But social

Kory Hartman (29:05):
science is is one thing, because the warnings have
gotten so good. People arestarting to actually become more
complacent. Just like you said,Oh, we get warnings all the
time. Well, tornado warnings alittle different than a severe
thunderstorm warning or, or, youknow, winter storm warning. You
know, every winter weatheradvisory every time there's an
inch of snow, we get anadvisory. Okay, well, that's,
you get warning fatigue. Right.
So what you just said wasexactly right, because the

(29:28):
social scientists that we'vebeen working with over the last
decade or so have determinedthat it takes four to five
confirmations that something ishappening before you will
actually take action on thatthing, right. So your phone goes
off. That's your first andyou're like, what, what is that?

(29:49):
Then maybe you have a weatherradio, NOAA Weather Radio, maybe
that goes off and you're like,oh, I should really pay
attention to what's going onhere. Then you see it on social
Media and you're like, oh,that's number three. Then your
mom calls you from the west sideof town and you're on the east
side of town. She says, Hey, Ithink something's happening over
here. And then you tune intosevere studios and you see a

(30:09):
live tornado coming into yourtown. That's your that finally,
finally, we're stubborn humans,right?

Rauel LaBreche (30:18):
Well, it's like a marketing ad issue. You have
to get something in front ofsomebody 11 times or something.
Right? From even notice that oh,there's an event going on?

Kory Hartman (30:26):
Yep. But to believe it. Yeah, that is even
more the problem, especiallynowadays, with a lot of
misinformation and, andeverything being political and
everything else. Whether it'snot political, whether, whether
it doesn't care, that tornadodoesn't care, left, right,
center, whatever, whether it'smicrobes, they just Yeah, and
you can you can argue aboutclimate change and make that in

(30:47):
a political thing. But, youknow, here's, here's the deal
that that tornado is comingtoward your house, you need to
do something, you can't beapathetic toward it. So. So it's
our job to give you thatinformation. And that's

Rauel LaBreche (31:03):
what you will.
That's what we do, right? Yep.
Folks, my guest today is isCorey Hartman, the owner and
founder of severe studios, aswell as WR PQ. We're gonna take
a brief break and come back hereon frame of reference, but don't
go anywhere because we're goingto talk about a lot of things I
hope this afternoon and probablyget into two episodes because
the way we're going it's this isalmost an episode right now you

(31:25):
get me on whether it's all over.
The passion comes out like sodon't go anywhere. We'll be
right back here on frame ofreference on WR PQ 99. Seven Max
FM's digital network. Are youdealing with a moody meow or a
whiny woofer or a negative Nayarin your family welfare not

(31:46):
Macfarlanes in sock city hasjust the right pet toys and pet
foods to put spring in any stepand Whoopie in any Wolfer and a
me Wow, in any cat stop by andbring your fur baby with you.
We're pet friendly in every wayat Macfarlanes, one block south
of highway 12, seven at CarolinaStreet in Sauk. City. We're back

(32:06):
here on frame of reference. Andmy guest today is actually a guy
that made frame of referencepossible or at least was the
impetus for getting it going. Soin a way, we're talking with the
guy, the guy that said Terol youknow what I was doing mornings
at Macfarlanes, five years ago,right? And COVID hit and there
was all this craziness withCOVID. And I started having

(32:28):
these longer conversations. AndCory was nice enough to let my
longer conversations go longerthan the 22 minutes I was
supposed to be doing. And alittle while, a little while.
And then it got to the pointwhere I'll get here get back to
22 minutes, and they're cuttingthings out and whatnot. And I
said why don't you podcastinstead. And here we are doing
frame of reference for coming upon two years now. That's crazy,

(32:50):
you know, and, you know,building the listenership and I
hope this show will help do thatas well. Because it's it's fun
talking with Cory, thank you forbeing on thank you for doing the
show. Sorry, it took so long tobecause we talked about this
back on mornings,

Kory Hartman (33:05):
I've pushed you off for like three years. And I
can, Raul said I will not beignored anymore.

Rauel LaBreche (33:11):
And I said I will make you smell my armpit if
you do not do this. So anyways,we started off. And we just
launched into Korea's backgroundon whether and I don't know if
you've noticed that if youlisten to the first part of this
podcast, but Cory is a littlepassionate about weather. So he
just he has got a lot of coolstories to tell. And anyone
that's thinking about maybedoing storm chaser, he's a great

(33:31):
resource for that sort of thing.
Yeah,

Kory Hartman (33:33):
or even storm spotting. I mean, the National
Weather Service does classes sothat you can be part of that,
you know, you're not, you know,chasing them down. But you're
you're, you're stationed at aspecific spot near your house or
a part of the county that needscoverage. And you go there and
you see what's going on andreport the hail and the spinny
clouds and whatever else. Andand so, you know, spotters are

(33:57):
very important to that groundtruth, right? Everybody's like,
well, we have apps and radarsand this and that, well, that's
all great, except the radar beamis you know, 6000 feet above the
ground. It's not going to seethat little tornado spin and
down in that cornfield. So. Sospotters are very important as
well

Rauel LaBreche (34:14):
well I'm amazed at how often that radar is very
deceptive about you know, theirthe storm track or what's really
going sure it's a machine itdoesn't know I mean the
information is pumping out thereyou just don't know what kind of
the quality of the equipment orthe quality and the interpretive
software all that good stuff.
Yeah, we blew right past thefirst part of the show. That's
our nature have to backtrack nowwe're gonna backtrack now.

(34:36):
Normally we start the show outwith our favorite things and I
don't maybe this is not people'sfavorite thing on the show. So
maybe it was a good thing I youknow, just like the tornado,
right? It just blew through andtold you Hey, I'm not doing this
anymore. Right but I want to goback to it. I'm committed to
favorite things. It's it'ssomething that I'm doing this
for me, okay. Because I enjoywhat happens very well. Shakti

(34:56):
and, you know, we're on theradio.

Kory Hartman (34:59):
I didn't cry all so

Rauel LaBreche (35:00):
and we're, you know, we just, you know, please
no vile language that you knowsometimes comes out of our
mouths just when we're not onhere. Anyway, it's okay. So
start out with using onefavorite color.

Kory Hartman (35:12):
Blue, white blue sky. Okay. All right.

Rauel LaBreche (35:15):
Any other variation other times where
you're not feeling blue. You'refeeling No, no blue, is it? I'm
the blue guy is your logo forstorm studios? Is

Kory Hartman (35:24):
that blue? No, it's red. Like alert. Okay,
morning.

Rauel LaBreche (35:27):
Ah, that makes sense. Okay, I'm gonna favorite
bird.

Kory Hartman (35:31):
Favorite bird. I really, I really like eagles.
You know, I can't not likegeodesy or whatever. But in this
area. They're they're a little.
They're fleeting to me. Like myfamily keeps saying, Oh, I see
eagles all the time. And I keepmissing them. You know, I went
to the eagle release. Yeah, insock. That was great. It was

(35:52):
like 14 Bullet zero. That daywas fantastic. Why can't we
release eagles in the summer? Dothey not fly in the summer? No.
Is there something that I know Izone

Rauel LaBreche (36:03):
over Eagles

Kory Hartman (36:04):
should have known what that was. But anyways, he
basking. Okay. Okay, fine. So Iget it. I'm sure it's something
with the mating season andwhatever, but But you know, you
know, 14 below in January,that's when we released eagles.
So, so we checked that out thatwas, you know, fantastic. And I

Rauel LaBreche (36:20):
hate to tell you, but the Eagles don't really
give a darn about when you wantto see.

Kory Hartman (36:24):
I'm just putting that I get that. I'm just asking
the why. Okay, I don't know

Rauel LaBreche (36:29):
why it hasn't.
You're like the kid in class.
This is why are we studying thisstupid material? Right?

Kory Hartman (36:33):
I'm never gonna use this 14 below Eagle release.

Rauel LaBreche (36:37):
Hey, okay, how about a favorite quote? Do you
have a favorite quote? Favorite?
Or do you have a kind of a maximthat you use to go through life?

Kory Hartman (36:47):
I really, I really don't. Um, I mean, I have one
for radio. And that's tightenup. That means no dead air? No,
you know, no sloppiness goodpresentation, that sort of
thing. So I've always beenmaking make it tighter. Which
means no gaps between elements.
Right? You know, right. Keep itgoing. Keep it going, keep it
going. It should, radio shouldbe like a rushing river and we

(37:10):
tune in, you jump in and getcarried along with whatever's
happening. And so that's what,that's what I think our radio
station should sound like, itshould be exciting. And you're
you become part of something.

Rauel LaBreche (37:22):
Well, I mean, media, in fact, is kind of that
way. Now if you can't get themin the first 10 seconds. Yeah.
You know, oh, my god, yeah,what's going on here?

Kory Hartman (37:29):
It's called a stream, right?

Rauel LaBreche (37:32):
Hopefully a stream with rapid, so you really
get them engaged, right? So howabout a favorite place to go
when you need to destress or rerecalibrate your sigh.

Kory Hartman (37:44):
So there's a couple. So I love going back to
the up and going to any numberof lakes and rivers and we have
a little camp little huntingcamp, you know, grab a pasty
and, and go to and go to camp.
So that's that's, that's afamily thing. But, um, but I
love being out on the openplanes in the middle of a field

(38:06):
where you can see the horizon inevery direction. And you're just
there with nature. You know,storms can be a very chaotic, a
very scary a very dangerousthing. But and some people don't
believe me when I say this, butthey can also be beautiful. You

(38:26):
can have this spiraling30,000 40,000 50,000 foot tall
supercell thunderstorm that doesnot produce a tornado, which we
still don't know why. But itbecause because the one the next
day that looks exactly the sameproduces a mile wide wedge or 18
tornadoes. But and and it's theonly storm there and you're in

(38:50):
the middle of Kansas somewhereand the sun is going down and
you can see the stars above thisanvil with lightning in it. And
you're the only person on theside of this gravel road
watching this. It doesn't getany better for me. So when I
need to escape, I escaped towide open space wide open

(39:15):
spaces, not barren spaces likeMontana. But But wide open
spaces with with weather goingon.

Rauel LaBreche (39:26):
There's a lot of metaphorical stuff going on.
There's a little bit going onthere. Yeah, but watching the
storm from afar and and it's

Kory Hartman (39:33):
so weird. The two places that I grew up, you know,
in the up to get out of thetrees you have to go into town,
right? To get to find trees inKansas. You have to go into
town. So it's it's like acomplete chagrin

Rauel LaBreche (39:51):
point. Anyway, that's the question.

Kory Hartman (39:55):
Where do you want to be Make up your mind. Do you
want to be in the forest? Or doyou want to be in the trees?
Yeah. So I'm sure there'ssomething something there
surrounded by never being ableto see the horizon while I was
growing up, right. And thenmoving to the plains for a
while, where you can you know,the, the sun goes down in the up

(40:18):
at like 630 in the summerbecause you've got 80 foot tall
pine trees, right, you know,right. Ah, in South Dakota in
the summer, the sun sets at10:05pm Yeah, you know, and it's
light until 1030. Right. And youcan you saw it go below the
horizon. It's up at four andit's yeah, it's so date days are

(40:39):
much longer, which is great forstorm chasing. Because, you
know, tornado time is 6pm. Youthose tornadoes to hide. Yes,
yes. And yeah, nighttimetornadoes. that's those are
scary. That's a scary thing,because you can't see him
coming. You can maybe I've onlydone a couple of of nighttime
tornado chases. One in northwestIowa. I can't remember exactly

(41:02):
where it was Spirit Lake orSpencer, somewhere in northwest
Iowa. And thankfully, it was alow precipitation, nighttime
storm, because when thelightning would light up, you
could see the funnel. And youcould see that it was a damaging
tornado it was There was debrisand stuff getting turned around.
But you only get that splitsecond to see it and you pray

(41:23):
for more lightning, becauseyou're like I got to see where
that is. So I stay safe. So Ican warn these towns that are
coming up. Right and so so youhad nighttime tornadoes. Those
Those are very, very scary.

Rauel LaBreche (41:39):
So how about a fever doc?

Kory Hartman (41:42):
You have like dogs? Yeah, okay. I like dogs. I
like bagels, bagels. I likebagels.

Rauel LaBreche (41:48):
Ah my daughter and you and I should get
together and exchange Beaglestory. Oh, yeah, and Beagles are
strange dog breed I thinkbecause you Intel you've had a
beagle. I don't think you reallyunderstand how charming a beagle
really

Kory Hartman (42:02):
charming it is and how curious that nosy Oh my god.

Rauel LaBreche (42:05):
Well, in people will say a beagle is nothing but
four legs with a nose, nose withfour legs. Yeah, either way. And
we've noticed with our new dogsthat we have now, a couple of
years, we had three beaglesbefore that and you you could
not have a gate open ever,because they'd be in the next
county, you know, in a couple of

Kory Hartman (42:22):
minutes on their nose. So like,

Rauel LaBreche (42:24):
there's something going on in Columbia
County that I need to snip upclose. Exactly. Yeah, it's just
amazing. And they have a lot ofcharacter

Kory Hartman (42:32):
maybe cuz they're, they're, you know, short to the
ground. And you know, curious

Rauel LaBreche (42:38):
Yeah, was the reason why they're hunting
hounds. Right. You know, there'sthere's that last hounds and
then there's the so

Kory Hartman (42:43):
we have a we have a beagle terrier mix, right?
Okay, that's what our,

Rauel LaBreche (42:47):
that'll get us on. And that made everything we
could do Beagle and personally.
Long Ears, whatever. How aboutdo you have a favorite book?

Kory Hartman (42:58):
Oh, goodness. Um, I'm a radio geek. So everything
that I have is a educationalreal? Yeah, I know. Um, the the
history of American Top 40 AC K,some. Okay, Chatto Stevens

(43:19):
sounds really that whole howthat came to be okay, um, that I
think that's one of the myfavorite favorite books that
I've ever read, because I'm justa big radio geek.

Rauel LaBreche (43:31):
Any anything about that, that inspired you?
Or?

Kory Hartman (43:34):
Oh, sure, there were tons of ideas in there. You
know, everything from how theyfelt a format clock should look,
you know, where the where yourcommercial breaks should land
and, and just to how you should,how you should deal with people
how you should take care of thepeople that work under you.
Casey Casey was great at that.
He had a great team around him.

(43:59):
You know, Don bustani and Tomrounds and all the guys out in
LA that that were were his innercore. Sure. And everybody that
worked under him just had youknow, nothing but the best
things to say about that is sucha gentle standard for that.
Yeah, if you want somebody tolook up to you look up at the

(44:20):
Dick Clark's and the even evenRyan Seacrest Nowadays he's
doing it for so long, right? Um,and and the Casey Katims of the
world as to you know how to doradio but just how to be a good
person

Rauel LaBreche (44:35):
right? When you think it's inspiring in general
to see good people get that kindof success. Yeah, you know, cuz
there's so many jerks that don'thave success throwing things.
Yeah, whatever reasons. And youjust think why, you know, I've
met a lot of that in my work atthe Union theatre Chen. People
that were Gregory pecks,wonderful people that had every

(44:56):
reason to be complete jerks, andwe're still princes. and
everything they did the way theytreated everyone. And then there
were people that were, you know,one shot Mary's or Billy's, you
know music industry and theythought they were just the cat's
meow and

Kory Hartman (45:09):
because they're jaded, jaded well and he didn't
get that next role they didn'tget that next thing you know

Rauel LaBreche (45:16):
nobody wants to work with them you know it's
just what

Kory Hartman (45:19):
and and sadly the the the media business is like
that and the storm chasingbusiness is like that and I
would assume that there's a lotof businesses where where you
have an exciting I don't knowlike backhoe driver I don't know
of how much competition there isin that but when but when you're
competing to get video

Rauel LaBreche (45:39):
14 people apply yeah we're known as the backhoe
people

Kory Hartman (45:44):
or the backhoe kings Yes. But um but but when
you're trying to sell tornadovideo to a national TV network
or even internationally I meanthat's got a little bit uh you
know competition and and stressand everything else there. And
so there's there's a lot ofpeople vying for that one two

(46:05):
minute slot Ron Good MorningAmerica right and and so that
that will bring out you know,the worst in people um, you
know, Internet message boardsand and social media trolling
and trolling and all of that allof that stuff is I like I said
I'm sure it's there in everyprofession. But But media and

(46:27):
storm chasing the two things Itook

Rauel LaBreche (46:30):
it's right out there front and center. It's
over the top

Kory Hartman (46:34):
Yeah. Um, in fact, we even had I'm getting off your
list again.

Rauel LaBreche (46:39):
We want less this was just here for fun
that's No, this is not air wegot the list chamber. That sound
effect that's done EBC soundeffects Oh, we got nothing on
us.

Kory Hartman (46:53):
So um, so I was actually pitched a television
show. We shot we shot a pilotand everything and it was
literally going to be about thethe mile you know, Alaskan Road
Truckers truckers guy and andyou know, they they show like
you know, that person got thepayday and this person got a

(47:15):
little less and this person wentin the ditch or went through the
water and they they lost youknow, $80,000 trucks right they
they blew it that day. They weregoing to do that with me and a
couple other storm chasing videobrokers, you know which team got
the sale and got their video tothe Weather Channel and all that
kind of thing. And it was alljust going to be about the drama

(47:36):
and the behind the scenes.
Because there's literally enoughof it to fill a 13 episode
season easily easily.

Rauel LaBreche (47:45):
Oh, that can't possibly

Kory Hartman (47:47):
possibly be well it is. You know I it's so funny.
Everybody asked me about themovie Twister right how real was
Twister Well, when I first sawit you know I think I think I
graduated from high school theyear it came out I said I said
well there's no way any of thatis true you know these These

(48:07):
people are nuts there's there'sno way that you'd have a tornado
outbreak this big. There's noway any of that you know is is
true wrong. There are crazypeople there have

Rauel LaBreche (48:24):
been that's just evident all around

Kory Hartman (48:27):
but but they're there they're you know you got
to be a little nuts to chase atornado now we've got your wife
would know we've got some crazycrazy people in the storm
chasing community. Um, and soyeah, so this this series was
going to be all about all ofthat all of that drama and back

(48:48):
to Twister you know, then forabout a few years I'm like oh my
god this is like a documentary.
I like this is exactly what goeson the love story The all of it.
Yes. And now I've gone back toit's it's it's more of of a of a
comedy than anything. It's theworld you wished it was right so

(49:12):
right I wish the tornadoeswaited for you to get the
perfect get the perfect angleand at the romance turned out is
when and that not everybody washappy at the end. Yeah. And so,
so yeah, okay, last,

Rauel LaBreche (49:27):
okay. Yeah, favorite things, and then we're
gonna break this episode of it.
Come on back. All right. So doyou have a favorite memory from
childhood, it's something thatif you are reminded of it or
just you're in a place you smella smell that you go back to and
just it's one of those kind ofnice places that you can go to
in your memories and, and kindof change your mood. You know, I

(49:49):
mean, I have things of thosethat I try to catalogue and
remember them when I need thatkind of lift that endorphin
blast that you sometimes need.
There's something like that.

Kory Hartman (50:01):
Boy, I'm I'm sure there's 100 things that I could
I could think of first one off,but you know, it really I
started in, in broadcasting. Soyoung men are 15 years old, you
know, so I'm going on 30 yearsof broadcaster here. And so you
said smell. And there's nothinglike the smell of that coffee

(50:26):
pot at the radio station at 5amon a Saturday morning, and
you're waiting for that, thatcoffee to come out of there so
that you can, you know, hit thesign on card and and start
broadcasting for the day at fiveo'clock in the morning playing
40s and 50s music because that'sthat's what I started start
doing all these radio since theday I was born. So so that that

(50:51):
that smell and that that stationvery special. To me, the I took
a chance on a 15 year old to youknow, I think that that's you
know, that's the age of myyoungest kid, would I put Dexter
in charge of a whole radiostation for 12 hours on a
Saturday morning, I probablywould not do that yet. may know

(51:14):
maybe maybe a year or two downthe road or with Max who's 18
Now, sure why they demonstrate

Rauel LaBreche (51:20):
the kind of commitment that you had as well.
Who what how many kids you know,that go home and read the
teletype? Not that there areteletypes but you know, print
off stuff off the internet? Not

Kory Hartman (51:29):
much anymore. No, no,

Rauel LaBreche (51:31):
we're going right back to the GM shop

Kory Hartman (51:35):
and the news from six weeks ago. But there's
flash, so but those those early,Saturday mornings or Christmas
morning, you know when you'repart time you're in high school,
you work the holidays. And so wewould split Christmas, I think
we were on the air for for 18hours or something and we would

(51:56):
split it right down the middle.
I would do nine hours. And mybuddy Kevin would do nine hours.
And by that ninth hour and yourfifth time of playing Grandma
Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Youstart to get a gist. You start
seeing that you start to get alittle punchy. Yeah. Dad and

(52:17):
then and then you start doingpranks to the next guy that's
coming in to take over from you.
And we had this we had this BurlIves record. And he had just
this weird look on his face whenhe when he did this record album
it was kind of like Oh, likethat. And and it was just the

(52:39):
weirdest looking record albumChristmas album. And I put it on
the end of a big you knowmicrophone boom arm and I
clipped it on there but it wasbelow the window. And as soon as
Kevin started reading we had todo all these live read
commercials. Oh Langenbergfuneral home would like to give
you the feeling of the seasonand I never understood a funeral

(53:01):
home doing Christmas ads bunnyyou know, it pays the bills.
Right? So you know from fromBilly PD, stinky and Joe. We'd
like to issue the all of the thebest of the upcoming season.

Rauel LaBreche (53:14):
You really don't want a guy doing involving.

Kory Hartman (53:19):
That's why he's stinky. Anyway, and and so he
would and we had this bigbinder. It was just full.
Everything on Christmas Day wasa live commercial tour. And so
we put we put this you know,scratchy old piano record in the
background. So we had somebackground music, and he rips
into this commercial and andslowly Burl Ives and his goofy

(53:41):
face raises up over the controlboard. And my buddy lost. He
lost it he couldn't even run theboard. He couldn't get to the
microphone to turn it off. Hewas on the floor convulsing. And
that is one of my favoritememories for being 16 year old

(54:02):
and messing with this 33 yearold guy that's that's taking
over on Christmas day. That wasthe best Christmas present ever.

Rauel LaBreche (54:09):
That's priceless. That's one of those
Kodak commercial prices. Books.
My guest today is none otherthan Corey Hawkman. So which
isn't your real name? But I'mnot going to even go there right
now. No Corey Hartman who is theowner and general manager and
just I

Kory Hartman (54:30):
am director and Sales Director

Rauel LaBreche (54:34):
of WR P seven Max FM as well as the storm
network your storm your studiostudio. I can't get that one
through my head. I get the pace

Kory Hartman (54:45):
that everybody calls it severe storms studios.
Type that in you get all sortsof weird things. Oh, severe
studio

Rauel LaBreche (54:51):
severe students, which makes sense, right? We're
gonna take a break and come backwith a closer for this episode
and come back next week. So youhave to tune in and hear that
have us laugh like crazy people,and hopefully talk about some
meaningful things too at thesame time, so don't go anywhere
your frame of reference and 99Seven Max FM's digital network.

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That's Max FM big deals.comStart shopping and start saving.

Rauel LaBreche (55:42):
You know change can be a scary thing. When
ownership of WR PQ changed fiveyears ago, I have to confess
that I was a bit scared, or atleast nervous about whether or
not my live show at that timewould be affected. Well,
needless to say, I had nothingto worry about. Like most
changes, it ultimately ended upbeing a very good thing because

(56:03):
Corey came in with lots of greatideas, guidance and experience
that I believe just made my showand my work on it better. The
other thing that was evidentabout Cory from the get go was
his passion for radio andpassion for doing it well in a
small market that would allowhim to really focus on serving
that community. It was a perfectfit in many, many ways. And that

(56:25):
passion has been developingsince he was a teenager. But the
driving force of it has remainedthe same to entertain and to
serve the needs of hiscommunity. And now with the
advent of worldwide streamingthat community is in fact
global. And at the same time,our very own local treasure and
then with his other businesssevere studio. We also benefit

(56:48):
from a frame of reference thatallows us to see that severe
weather is not just aninteresting phenomenon, but more
importantly, a life changingevent for the people affected by
its power. Join us next week aswe explored both of these
passions more and celebrateKorea's professional attitudes
toward Sauk County and beyond.
Tell them stay well.