November 6, 2025 • 29 mins
Michael Berry tackles voicemail meltdowns, Cajun rice conspiracies, and Kroger logo crimes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Very Show is on the air the morning after
(00:46):
Imi mcdonny won the election in New York City to
be their next mayor. The guy who has said that
there's no place for jails in prison and replace police
officers with social workers. We've seen what this happens. It's
been done before, and it destroys the city, and the
(01:07):
police officers get put in the untenable position of having
no mandate, and eventually you're going to end up with
a situation where you're going to get a George Floyd
who who throws his drugs down his throat and then
chokes to death and claims he can't breathe because of
the officer, and an officer gets sent to prison. People
(01:28):
don't want officers, don't want to work in this kind
of environment. They're not supported the way they are in Houston.
And so the Houston Police Officers Union put out a
statement that said, Hey, NYPD, want to work in a
place where you'll be loved and adored and supported. Come
(01:49):
to Houston. HPD is hiring. Oh that triggered this woman.
She's lost her mind. Before we get to that, I'm
going to play you a voicemail that was left for
the Houston Police Officers Union by a woman who claims
(02:09):
she's a teacher. Probably be able to identify who she
is based on her voice. Somebody will know who this
crazy lady is. But first you've got to realize that
for her to leave this message, she had to call
the Houston Police Officers Union and hear their phone answering system,
their automated system, which I don't know how anybody after this,
(02:36):
I wanted to take a nap just listening to it.
Just listen to the to the soothing voice of the
guy on here and the music in the background. Is
it not ringing?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh? Here we go?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
All right, Hello, and thank you for coming to the
Houston Police Officers Union. Our regular business hours are Monday
through Friday from eight am to four pm. If you
have reached this recording during business hours, please select from
the following options. Prus one for insurance, Prus two for
(03:16):
legal services, Prus three for all other inquires. Thank you
so much for calling the HPOU. We look forward to
assisting you.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They must have had they must have used the voice
of whoever the phone answering system that they bought that
from because that's not a real person. That's like some
dude from Minneapolis or somewhere right. It just sits in
a booth recording phone messages. That's the whitest dude ever.
And that is a white dude, I mean, hasty, hasty white.
(03:53):
He brings his lunch. Can you play that again? He
brings his lunch to the office every day. Got it
laid out there. He's got everything in its place, everything
is perfectly done. He dresses for no good reason in
a tweed jacket when nobody's ever going to see him.
Probably clip on tie terry cloth clip.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And thank you for calling the Houston Police Officers Union.
Our regular business hours or Monday too, is Friday eight
from eight am to four pm.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
If you have reached this recording.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
During business hours, please select from.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
The following up. You know, my favorite part of this
is this one for insurance.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Cops are all pissed. You don't call them Houston Police
Officers Union, your union because you're in a good mood.
You call because you want to bitch about something that's
going on. So all day, every day people are calling them,
probably getting this message. They're getting this message, and hello,
please take a deep breath and count to ten. We're
(04:53):
your union. We'll get with you in just a moment.
And they're going, hi, oh here it's outh. I gotta
sergeant over. Here's up my ass? He won't give me
time off. I'm trying to go on vacation. I've been
here for fourteen years. It's an idiot.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
He a fair.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
But first they have to listen to that. Maybe that
was the plan. Play it again and turn it up
real loud. Somebody had to choose that music. Somebody had
to say if the musical choices, somebody had to go, yeah,
that that one will do. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Hello, and thank you for calling the Houston Police Officers
Union a regular business hours or money to Friday from
eight am to four pm.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
If you've preached this recording during business hours.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Please select from the following options.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
One element there, what do you think that music was called?
There had to be a term for that music, you know,
you had you had the choice soothing and relax calming,
babbling brook. It had to be something like that, right,
all right? So this woman finds out that HPD has said, Hey,
(06:03):
NYPD officers, if y'all want to come down to Houston,
we're hiring you want to get out of that crazy zone.
And she is very very upset about it, and by
her accent, I think she lives probably here in Houston
or the greater Houston area, and she calls and leaves
this message. We had to bleep it because she drops
some f bombs on it. But what's amazing is the
(06:24):
woman who works used to be Lisa Marino. Now it's Celeste.
Woman who works at the front, who deals with everybody
when they come in is Celeste. Now she's a very
attractive woman. She's redheaded, very very very pretty woman and
very girl next door, very kind, I wouldn't say meek,
(06:49):
but very soft personality. She never hurt a soul. So
I have a little joke that she has to be
at her seat before a clock. So they live so
they off us next door to a church that has
church bells that ring, but they ring a minute early,
so at seven point fifty nine that's her queue to
(07:10):
take her seat. Well before that, she gets in early
to beat the traffic, and she goes into a private
room because she's off duty, and she reads her Bible.
She does Bible study. So this woman finds out her
name and just gratuitously throws in a fu two, Celeste,
listen this.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Your little brother's over there in blue are losing it
on the social.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Media Facebook and bullying people and bulking people and.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Doubling down on this offer for NYPD.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Cult members to come to Houston police and word for Houston.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
What a hold?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
What a bunch of baby boys? Shouldn't a woman be
in charge of the Houston Police union if a bunch
of baby boys are online mad about election night?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
You?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
All cats are beautiful. All cops are bastards.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Even you, Celeste. You and I'm a t keep letting
this bleed out. I'll say it every time the police,
But why say if you, Celeste? That's the one I
(08:16):
don't get. What if she felt better after isis you
know she smells the string to your ears? This is
the Michael Berry Show. Eighty four percent of gen Z
women who voted in the New York election voted for Mamdani.
(08:39):
The idea is that it's foreigners, and there are a
lot of foreigners, and they voted as a block. I'm
sure of it. But young white women are the death
of this nation. They're voting is horrible. They're social media
(09:00):
is horrible. They cannot maintain a relationship. They do not
raise children, and the ones who do will sacrifice their
children to their god of the Democrat Party, whatever the
wind is blowing this week, they're converting their boys to
girls and their girls to boys. It's a messed up group,
(09:27):
these gen Z women, a messed up group. Indeed, I'm
just thinking, you know, no matter what somebody does, I
always imagine to myself. I don't know who else I
would imagine it to, but I always think, to myself,
(09:50):
what was that person think? Oh, we got to call
and let me Yeah, let me get this guy's holding Steve. Yeah, Mike,
I'm good. I'm Michael. I have a brother named Mike.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Cool, okay, true story.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Something that really upset me was when Popeyes cut out
their their their Cajun rice.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
When did that happen?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Jesus, I think it had to happen about maybe a
year ago, year and a half ago.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Why did they do that?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I've got no idea I was. I was in the
drive through. I walked in the store and asked them
and they said, no, they just cut it out. They
were angry about it too, and I even wrote Popeyes
never got a response.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
But do they still have rice? They have they have
the red beans and rice. So the dirty rice was
a side dish, yes, and it was great.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So so.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So they took rice altogether off the menu except for
the red beans and rice.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
We had enough food people who listen as somebody will
email me Matt Bryce at Federal American or Russell le
Barr or Johnny Carroba or Charles Clark, somebody will will
send me a message and tell me. I do know
that it's supposed to be very hard to store rice
for very long. I had a friend that owned Pink's
(11:22):
Pizza and he had always wanted to do a text
Mex restaurant. So at the corner of White Oak and
Stud of Months stood the Wood Stud of Wood. He
he opened something called El Superior and he had the
best zz top collection you've ever seen. And he created
(11:44):
a room in there with all that, and it was
like it looked like the inside of what was the
place that mister Miagi owned before that it was in
happy days, was Al's. What was the name of that place? Remember, Well,
he created a room that kind of looked like that
(12:04):
that that era of the sort of metallic y plastic y.
I don't know what you call that material on the
on the moots, I don't know what that material was called.
But it was always like a reddish or a greenish
and it looked metallic and it was almost kind of
rubbery plastic. But anyway, he did this room and it's
(12:26):
this real weird vibe and it was just amazing, and
he had all his zzy top stuff in there. His
name is Ken. I can't remember kid's last name. I
can't remember anything. But anyway, he told me that his
biggest challenge was how to keep He said, I make
Text Max. People come over and I make Text Mex
(12:47):
and they told me it's as good as any restaurant
they ever been doing. We should do a Text Mex restaurant.
I always wanted to do it, and so he did.
And he said, my biggest challenge is the rice because
it's very hard to store to keep, and so you
make enough rice, if you make too much rice so
you don't run out of rice, and then you can't
you can't keep that rice for very long. And you
(13:10):
have your slow periods, you know, and people come in
at different times, and so food storage after prep is
a big issue. So I called lest Lebarro and I said, Hey,
my guess is, if you can't figure out the rice,
you should not be in tex mex. But I'm just curious,
and I tell him the whole story, and he said, Michael,
that is one of the biggest challenges to doing text
(13:31):
Mex And it is a trade secret that people will
not tell you how to solve, but it is. You know,
so many people that open a restaurant do so because
they cook well at home. And then the commercial application,
you know, to scale and over periods of time and
storing food and all that is where it all breaks down.
(13:53):
But in any case, Phil, you're up. Michael.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I have a problem with kt RH and in saying
that a week ago from last Saturday, there was a
spot at eight thirty and nine thirty that Erica Smith
reported there was a storm out there in the Caribbean
(14:19):
that went through there, and she reported both times. I
had to listen again at nine thirty to make sure
I got this straight, that that storm had killed millions
of people in the Caribbean. And then at nine thirty. Yeah, yeah,
(14:39):
that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Bad reporting.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Because me and you both know that that storm did
not kill millions.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Well, maybe I don't know what's this person's name, Erica Smith? Yeah,
I don't know her.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Do you know who that is?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
It's not local issue? Was one of the was it
one of the ABC reporters on a national feed?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
No, I don't know whom. Yeah, I don't know what
to tell you. You know, when I ran the stations,
I used to get so mad at calls like that
because news junkies and kt HB a a legacy station.
People will call in and they'll say, mister Barry. On
Sunday morning at four twenty seven am, y'all reported that
(15:37):
it was fifty nine degrees, but it was only fifty
eight And I'm wondering, and I'd get so mad, like
with these little picka you in details, And I stopped
and I got a little perspective. How much do people
love this station and obsess over it? That they care
that much? You are in trusted? It was something pretty
darned amazing. I have a friend La Marshall Williams, and
(16:04):
he and Russell Linley started what became the premier live
endorsement ad agency in the country, called ad Results Interesting.
They both started at KTRH as sellers years ago, maybe
twenty five years ago, and they left and they started
(16:26):
this ad agency that would just do live endorsements, and
I don't know how I got to know them, but
they were very supportive. I was doing a Sunday morning
show from ten to eleven am in KTH. It was terrible,
and Eddie Martini made me pay for it. I had
(16:47):
to buy that damn show. It was ten thousand dollars
a month. I was making four thousand dollars a month
as a city councilor so I don't know. Sometimes I
think to myself, Michael, how did you just go ask
somebody for money for a radio show. I don't know.
(17:11):
I've always taken pride in my life at being shameless,
because my mother would criticize businesses and the way go
out of business and where she got to scoff at them.
And I always said that was because she didn't she would.
She never tried anything herself. So I think when you
don't try anything yourself, it makes you kind of bitter.
(17:35):
And I think that happened to her because when you
don't try anything, then you resent people who are bold
enough that they can and so sort of as a
reaction to that. I have always been able to ask
people for things with seemingly no shame, and so I
(17:56):
asked them somehow, some way. It's still crazy to me
to think that I did this, even to me, and
I have very low I don't, but it still still
seems that way to me. I went to Marshall and
Russell and asked them to sponsor my show. We had
approximately zero listeners because I don't think the board op
(18:18):
on the other side of the glass was listening. Ramon
was not my boardop at the time. He was working
for Sam Malone and Chris Baker, and so they did.
They didn't need anything from me. They were just doing
to support me, and that's a lot of money ten
grand a month anyway. So I developed quite a friendship
with the two of them over the years and their agency.
(18:42):
They always would tell Premiere, which was Russia's syndicator, and
Rush and Sean and Glenn and anybody else who would
listen to Mark Levin Man, this guy Michael Berry down
in Houston. Once I had a weekday show and we
were starting to get our legs under us and the
show was getting a little better. They would tell anybody
and everybody who would listen this guy Michael Berry. They
would tell our company at the national level, you ought
(19:04):
to pick up Michael Berry. And you know, when you
got somebody who's pushing for you like that, that's worth
That's worth five hundred people who say they like you
but wouldn't lift a finger for you anyway. They eventually
sold their company to private equity and went on to
now their deal guys. They invested deals and do things
(19:27):
like that. But Marshall's son Johnny, married Jimmy Pappus's daughter.
I think it's Samantha. He has two daughters. I think
it's Samantha. The one she's a chef in San Antone
and Johnny was actually a chef as well, but now
he works for AI company. So they're getting married. He
(19:49):
invited me to the Widdy It's going to be in
a round top and but we're gonna be out of town.
I can't be there. And he said, well, you really
ought to come. I've got the Red clay Strays playing.
And I looked at him with a dog's quizzical look,
you know, And he said, you don't know the red
clay trays. No, I got to introduce you to him.
(20:11):
They just and I said, Marshall, just stopped. I refused
to listen to any new music. And I partly do
that because it draws people crazy, but I partly do
it out of arrogance to make the point that there's
nothing good since two thousand, well since two thousand and five.
But there's nothing good unless it is Texas red Dirt.
(20:32):
You know, Corey and Pat Roger and Ray Willy Hubbard
and Hayes Carl and that sort of stuff. But none
of the stuff coming out of Nashville since I don't know.
There's a few that slipped through the cracks that are
pretty good. But I'm certainly not going to fall in
love with a band today. It's just not going to happen.
So Red Clay Trace kind of interesting name stuffed in
(20:52):
my head. I didn't think anything else of it. He
thought I was an idiot, so he started sending me songs.
I refused to listen to him, cause I might actually listen.
I might like it. So it was a couple of
weeks later and somebody out of nowhere. People know not
to pitch me music because I hate it. Eddie's always
trying to pitch me music. And I hate it. I
hate new stuff, and so he said, whoever it was,
(21:15):
they send me a link. So you ever heard of
Red Clay Trace. They're really good. And I thought, this
is like a Glenn Templeton moment because I had two people,
Charles Clark and who was the other one is my
brother that told me you got to listen to Glenn Templeton.
He looks like bon Jovie and sounds like Conway Twitty
(21:36):
and I had two of them within a week. So
because of the Conway Twitty reference, I gave it a listen.
And then of course we were the first one to
bring Glenn to Houston. And now Texas has become his
biggest market. He's from Alabama, moved to Nashville, but he
plays more shows in Texas, I think than anywhere else.
This has become a big, big market for him anyway.
(21:56):
So just over the ensuing years, I would hear Red
Clay Stras, Red Clay Strace and then Marshall h Marshall's
saying that and a number of other people, and I
still refuse to go hear them. And it was kind
of one of those things that I would hear in
the background, like that song right there, and I'd go,
I wonder who this is. It's new, it's not classic,
(22:18):
but it has a classic, kind of timeless feel to it.
It's Red Clay Stras.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
This is.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
I know, what's the name?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
You say, Michael, Buddy.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I'm trying to get to the root of this issue
with the dirty rice at Popeye's, and I'm betting you
that they can't store it for periods of time. I'm
not a I'm not a Popey's guy. I don't mind
popeye It's just not something I go to very often.
But I know that there are people who are crazy
(22:53):
over Popeye's, just crazy over it, especially Kunas's, especially Yet
New Orleanians love Pipeyes, and they have this thing about
al Copeland that's like I am with Elvis. They will
just tell you things about al Copeland like they're talking
(23:15):
about Elvis, just like what's really really important. And so
when I first went on in New Orleans, one of
my sales reps were going out to meet with some
of our show sponsors. We had people that knew of
the show and want us support the show, and the
minute we went on, they went on, which is always
makes me look good. So we're out calling on on
(23:36):
these folks, and she says to me, you want to
see al Copeland's house. Uh, I think it's going to
disappoint you if I say no. Sure, So we drive by,
we circle around the house a few times. So that
was al Coplandz house. And I think al Copland must
(23:57):
have been married about ten times. And I think he
probably was quite the lithario because there are a lot
of stories and rumors about him and various women over
the years. But in any case, he hit it with Popeyes.
You know what, his first restaurant was wrong, It failed.
(24:20):
It was called Chicken on the Run, Chicken on the Run,
and then he renamed it Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken.
And that's when he decided there would be a Cajun
inspired flair to fried Chicken. What's interesting is I would
(24:41):
not have guessed that that would take off outside the
Gulf of America, outside the coast, the Gulf coast, and
that wasn't enough, you know, to end up taking it
as a big national and get private equity and you know,
go really big. But Popeyes in Houston, well, from Houston
to maybe Mississippi, my guess, would you say it's probably
(25:05):
the most popular fried chicken. What would you say, Yeah,
it's got to be. Uh. What is the other one
that looks like a knockoff of Pope's that uses the
same logo? And I think they're owned by the same company.
You know, I'm talking about churches? Yeah, well, no, no way, okay, No.
Churches and another one have a similar logo, and I
(25:28):
think they actually they were brought onto the same umbrella,
and it's like the same, same exact, fought, same exact logo.
You just replaced churches with something else. I just can't
remember what something else was. But I don't know. Churches
made some good chicken. I hadn't had Church's chicken in
a while. Yeah, you're right, Kroger is good. You know
(25:49):
what I can't understand how has Kroger's not updated their logo?
That is the ugliest logo ever to last more than
a year. In fact, I was watching a football game
and I guess it was Kroger Field. I don't know
whose stadium is Kroger Field, but they had that ugly
Kroger on there. And if you don't remember what the
(26:11):
Kroger looks like, start with the K on the left
and the R on the end. And when you when
you make the K, start with your line, your vertical line,
and then when you go up with your K at
a thirty three degree angle or whatever, that is one
hundred and forty seven degree angle, and you go up
and that kind of arch is over and then comes down.
(26:33):
It looks like something a kid did in second grade.
The teacher gave everybody five minutes and said come up
with a logo, and they ended up with the Kroger logo.
And it's just horrible. It's terrible anyway, you know, they're
closing the Gay Roger. That's not the Gay Roger, the
Kroger on West Gray, the Gay Rogers on Montrose so
(26:56):
named because the k lighting had gone out, so Mantro
called it affectionately the gay Roger. They liked that.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
It was.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
You know, if you want to paint a rainbow, you're
so hell bent to put a rainbow somewhere. You could
paint the parking lot of the Gay Roger a rainbow
and literally nobody would have a problem with it. Nobody,
the people that live in Montrose wouldn't mind the people
who shop in Montrose whether they're gay or not. They're
all gay adjacent ramon, they wouldn't mind. And that's how
(27:26):
that could be done. You could put a rainbow flag,
you know I do. I don't mind gay people. By
the way, I don't care. I'm glad we don't have
to talk about it all the time. Because the whole
gay marriage was how Karl Rove. Karl Rove made gay
marriage into an issue that mobilized social conservative Republicans, and
(27:50):
that's how he couldn't get people to vote for George W.
Bush on the basis that George W. Bush was charismatic,
you know, he wasn't Donald Trump. So in order to
get people to vote for somebody that was just kind
of goofy but not really exciting or anything else. When
he was running for governor, he would he would get
people fired up over gay marriage stuff, and so they
(28:11):
would they would get gay marriage on on referenda and people,
I don't know what's going on in Austin. It probably
ain't no good. But one thing I am not gonna
do is them homos get married. By God, I'll show
up vote I will. And so you got you drove
a lot of people to the polls on that issue.
And that's kind of what Carl Rove does because the
(28:32):
policy of Canadas he supports is contrary to the very
people he's getting to vote. And that's that's the brains
behind the John Wayne mccornyn campaign that they that they're
just blasting all day every day. Oh John Wayne mccornyn,
he's there for you. And he's down there on that
boat on the border. Ah breede, Yeah, well you can breathe.
(28:55):
It's because them illegals, them stinky, dirty illegals aren't coming
in here because John Wayne mccordy won't let him. He
kicked them all out. Well, nothing could be further from
the truth. And then and to hear him kissing Trump's ass,
I would respect him more if he would just come
out and say he hates Trump and and and argue
(29:16):
with Trump. At least he would be consistent. And then
remember he goes over to the on Chimney Rock, he
goes to the Trump Burger, take his staff takes a
picture of him out in front of the Trump Burger,
like Romney on National Hot Dog Day. This tastes a hot.
I like hot, y'all, like Costalks. There's corning with his
burger in front of Trump Burger. Because he wants you
to know who really really likes Donald Trump. And then
(29:39):
the restaurant closed, which is kind of perfect, isn't it.
That's John Cornon went to visit. Now it closed
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Very Show is on the air the morning after
(00:46):
Imi mcdonny won the election in New York City to
be their next mayor. The guy who has said that
there's no place for jails in prison and replace police
officers with social workers. We've seen what this happens. It's
been done before, and it destroys the city, and the
(01:07):
police officers get put in the untenable position of having
no mandate, and eventually you're going to end up with
a situation where you're going to get a George Floyd
who who throws his drugs down his throat and then
chokes to death and claims he can't breathe because of
the officer, and an officer gets sent to prison. People
(01:28):
don't want officers, don't want to work in this kind
of environment. They're not supported the way they are in Houston.
And so the Houston Police Officers Union put out a
statement that said, Hey, NYPD, want to work in a
place where you'll be loved and adored and supported. Come
(01:49):
to Houston. HPD is hiring. Oh that triggered this woman.
She's lost her mind. Before we get to that, I'm
going to play you a voicemail that was left for
the Houston Police Officers Union by a woman who claims
(02:09):
she's a teacher. Probably be able to identify who she
is based on her voice. Somebody will know who this
crazy lady is. But first you've got to realize that
for her to leave this message, she had to call
the Houston Police Officers Union and hear their phone answering system,
their automated system, which I don't know how anybody after this,
(02:36):
I wanted to take a nap just listening to it.
Just listen to the to the soothing voice of the
guy on here and the music in the background. Is
it not ringing?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh? Here we go?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
All right, Hello, and thank you for coming to the
Houston Police Officers Union. Our regular business hours are Monday
through Friday from eight am to four pm. If you
have reached this recording during business hours, please select from
the following options. Prus one for insurance, Prus two for
(03:16):
legal services, Prus three for all other inquires. Thank you
so much for calling the HPOU. We look forward to
assisting you.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They must have had they must have used the voice
of whoever the phone answering system that they bought that
from because that's not a real person. That's like some
dude from Minneapolis or somewhere right. It just sits in
a booth recording phone messages. That's the whitest dude ever.
And that is a white dude, I mean, hasty, hasty white.
(03:53):
He brings his lunch. Can you play that again? He
brings his lunch to the office every day. Got it
laid out there. He's got everything in its place, everything
is perfectly done. He dresses for no good reason in
a tweed jacket when nobody's ever going to see him.
Probably clip on tie terry cloth clip.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And thank you for calling the Houston Police Officers Union.
Our regular business hours or Monday too, is Friday eight
from eight am to four pm.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
If you have reached this recording.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
During business hours, please select from.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
The following up. You know, my favorite part of this
is this one for insurance.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Cops are all pissed. You don't call them Houston Police
Officers Union, your union because you're in a good mood.
You call because you want to bitch about something that's
going on. So all day, every day people are calling them,
probably getting this message. They're getting this message, and hello,
please take a deep breath and count to ten. We're
(04:53):
your union. We'll get with you in just a moment.
And they're going, hi, oh here it's outh. I gotta
sergeant over. Here's up my ass? He won't give me
time off. I'm trying to go on vacation. I've been
here for fourteen years. It's an idiot.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
He a fair.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
But first they have to listen to that. Maybe that
was the plan. Play it again and turn it up
real loud. Somebody had to choose that music. Somebody had
to say if the musical choices, somebody had to go, yeah,
that that one will do. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Hello, and thank you for calling the Houston Police Officers
Union a regular business hours or money to Friday from
eight am to four pm.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
If you've preached this recording during business hours.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Please select from the following options.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
One element there, what do you think that music was called?
There had to be a term for that music, you know,
you had you had the choice soothing and relax calming,
babbling brook. It had to be something like that, right,
all right? So this woman finds out that HPD has said, Hey,
(06:03):
NYPD officers, if y'all want to come down to Houston,
we're hiring you want to get out of that crazy zone.
And she is very very upset about it, and by
her accent, I think she lives probably here in Houston
or the greater Houston area, and she calls and leaves
this message. We had to bleep it because she drops
some f bombs on it. But what's amazing is the
(06:24):
woman who works used to be Lisa Marino. Now it's Celeste.
Woman who works at the front, who deals with everybody
when they come in is Celeste. Now she's a very
attractive woman. She's redheaded, very very very pretty woman and
very girl next door, very kind, I wouldn't say meek,
(06:49):
but very soft personality. She never hurt a soul. So
I have a little joke that she has to be
at her seat before a clock. So they live so
they off us next door to a church that has
church bells that ring, but they ring a minute early,
so at seven point fifty nine that's her queue to
(07:10):
take her seat. Well before that, she gets in early
to beat the traffic, and she goes into a private
room because she's off duty, and she reads her Bible.
She does Bible study. So this woman finds out her
name and just gratuitously throws in a fu two, Celeste,
listen this.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Your little brother's over there in blue are losing it
on the social.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Media Facebook and bullying people and bulking people and.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Doubling down on this offer for NYPD.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Cult members to come to Houston police and word for Houston.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
What a hold?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
What a bunch of baby boys? Shouldn't a woman be
in charge of the Houston Police union if a bunch
of baby boys are online mad about election night?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
You?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
All cats are beautiful. All cops are bastards.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Even you, Celeste. You and I'm a t keep letting
this bleed out. I'll say it every time the police,
But why say if you, Celeste? That's the one I
(08:16):
don't get. What if she felt better after isis you
know she smells the string to your ears? This is
the Michael Berry Show. Eighty four percent of gen Z
women who voted in the New York election voted for Mamdani.
(08:39):
The idea is that it's foreigners, and there are a
lot of foreigners, and they voted as a block. I'm
sure of it. But young white women are the death
of this nation. They're voting is horrible. They're social media
(09:00):
is horrible. They cannot maintain a relationship. They do not
raise children, and the ones who do will sacrifice their
children to their god of the Democrat Party, whatever the
wind is blowing this week, they're converting their boys to
girls and their girls to boys. It's a messed up group,
(09:27):
these gen Z women, a messed up group. Indeed, I'm
just thinking, you know, no matter what somebody does, I
always imagine to myself. I don't know who else I
would imagine it to, but I always think, to myself,
(09:50):
what was that person think? Oh, we got to call
and let me Yeah, let me get this guy's holding Steve. Yeah, Mike,
I'm good. I'm Michael. I have a brother named Mike.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Cool, okay, true story.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Something that really upset me was when Popeyes cut out
their their their Cajun rice.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
When did that happen?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Jesus, I think it had to happen about maybe a
year ago, year and a half ago.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Why did they do that?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I've got no idea I was. I was in the
drive through. I walked in the store and asked them
and they said, no, they just cut it out. They
were angry about it too, and I even wrote Popeyes
never got a response.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
But do they still have rice? They have they have
the red beans and rice. So the dirty rice was
a side dish, yes, and it was great.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So so.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So they took rice altogether off the menu except for
the red beans and rice.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
We had enough food people who listen as somebody will
email me Matt Bryce at Federal American or Russell le
Barr or Johnny Carroba or Charles Clark, somebody will will
send me a message and tell me. I do know
that it's supposed to be very hard to store rice
for very long. I had a friend that owned Pink's
(11:22):
Pizza and he had always wanted to do a text
Mex restaurant. So at the corner of White Oak and
Stud of Months stood the Wood Stud of Wood. He
he opened something called El Superior and he had the
best zz top collection you've ever seen. And he created
(11:44):
a room in there with all that, and it was
like it looked like the inside of what was the
place that mister Miagi owned before that it was in
happy days, was Al's. What was the name of that place? Remember, Well,
he created a room that kind of looked like that
(12:04):
that that era of the sort of metallic y plastic y.
I don't know what you call that material on the
on the moots, I don't know what that material was called.
But it was always like a reddish or a greenish
and it looked metallic and it was almost kind of
rubbery plastic. But anyway, he did this room and it's
(12:26):
this real weird vibe and it was just amazing, and
he had all his zzy top stuff in there. His
name is Ken. I can't remember kid's last name. I
can't remember anything. But anyway, he told me that his
biggest challenge was how to keep He said, I make
Text Max. People come over and I make Text Mex
(12:47):
and they told me it's as good as any restaurant
they ever been doing. We should do a Text Mex restaurant.
I always wanted to do it, and so he did.
And he said, my biggest challenge is the rice because
it's very hard to store to keep, and so you
make enough rice, if you make too much rice so
you don't run out of rice, and then you can't
you can't keep that rice for very long. And you
(13:10):
have your slow periods, you know, and people come in
at different times, and so food storage after prep is
a big issue. So I called lest Lebarro and I said, Hey,
my guess is, if you can't figure out the rice,
you should not be in tex mex. But I'm just curious,
and I tell him the whole story, and he said, Michael,
that is one of the biggest challenges to doing text
(13:31):
Mex And it is a trade secret that people will
not tell you how to solve, but it is. You know,
so many people that open a restaurant do so because
they cook well at home. And then the commercial application,
you know, to scale and over periods of time and
storing food and all that is where it all breaks down.
(13:53):
But in any case, Phil, you're up. Michael.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I have a problem with kt RH and in saying
that a week ago from last Saturday, there was a
spot at eight thirty and nine thirty that Erica Smith
reported there was a storm out there in the Caribbean
(14:19):
that went through there, and she reported both times. I
had to listen again at nine thirty to make sure
I got this straight, that that storm had killed millions
of people in the Caribbean. And then at nine thirty. Yeah, yeah,
(14:39):
that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Bad reporting.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Because me and you both know that that storm did
not kill millions.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Well, maybe I don't know what's this person's name, Erica Smith? Yeah,
I don't know her.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Do you know who that is?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
It's not local issue? Was one of the was it
one of the ABC reporters on a national feed?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
No, I don't know whom. Yeah, I don't know what
to tell you. You know, when I ran the stations,
I used to get so mad at calls like that
because news junkies and kt HB a a legacy station.
People will call in and they'll say, mister Barry. On
Sunday morning at four twenty seven am, y'all reported that
(15:37):
it was fifty nine degrees, but it was only fifty
eight And I'm wondering, and I'd get so mad, like
with these little picka you in details, And I stopped
and I got a little perspective. How much do people
love this station and obsess over it? That they care
that much? You are in trusted? It was something pretty
darned amazing. I have a friend La Marshall Williams, and
(16:04):
he and Russell Linley started what became the premier live
endorsement ad agency in the country, called ad Results Interesting.
They both started at KTRH as sellers years ago, maybe
twenty five years ago, and they left and they started
(16:26):
this ad agency that would just do live endorsements, and
I don't know how I got to know them, but
they were very supportive. I was doing a Sunday morning
show from ten to eleven am in KTH. It was terrible,
and Eddie Martini made me pay for it. I had
(16:47):
to buy that damn show. It was ten thousand dollars
a month. I was making four thousand dollars a month
as a city councilor so I don't know. Sometimes I
think to myself, Michael, how did you just go ask
somebody for money for a radio show. I don't know.
(17:11):
I've always taken pride in my life at being shameless,
because my mother would criticize businesses and the way go
out of business and where she got to scoff at them.
And I always said that was because she didn't she would.
She never tried anything herself. So I think when you
don't try anything yourself, it makes you kind of bitter.
(17:35):
And I think that happened to her because when you
don't try anything, then you resent people who are bold
enough that they can and so sort of as a
reaction to that. I have always been able to ask
people for things with seemingly no shame, and so I
(17:56):
asked them somehow, some way. It's still crazy to me
to think that I did this, even to me, and
I have very low I don't, but it still still
seems that way to me. I went to Marshall and
Russell and asked them to sponsor my show. We had
approximately zero listeners because I don't think the board op
(18:18):
on the other side of the glass was listening. Ramon
was not my boardop at the time. He was working
for Sam Malone and Chris Baker, and so they did.
They didn't need anything from me. They were just doing
to support me, and that's a lot of money ten
grand a month anyway. So I developed quite a friendship
with the two of them over the years and their agency.
(18:42):
They always would tell Premiere, which was Russia's syndicator, and
Rush and Sean and Glenn and anybody else who would
listen to Mark Levin Man, this guy Michael Berry down
in Houston. Once I had a weekday show and we
were starting to get our legs under us and the
show was getting a little better. They would tell anybody
and everybody who would listen this guy Michael Berry. They
would tell our company at the national level, you ought
(19:04):
to pick up Michael Berry. And you know, when you
got somebody who's pushing for you like that, that's worth
That's worth five hundred people who say they like you
but wouldn't lift a finger for you anyway. They eventually
sold their company to private equity and went on to
now their deal guys. They invested deals and do things
(19:27):
like that. But Marshall's son Johnny, married Jimmy Pappus's daughter.
I think it's Samantha. He has two daughters. I think
it's Samantha. The one she's a chef in San Antone
and Johnny was actually a chef as well, but now
he works for AI company. So they're getting married. He
(19:49):
invited me to the Widdy It's going to be in
a round top and but we're gonna be out of town.
I can't be there. And he said, well, you really
ought to come. I've got the Red clay Strays playing.
And I looked at him with a dog's quizzical look,
you know, And he said, you don't know the red
clay trays. No, I got to introduce you to him.
(20:11):
They just and I said, Marshall, just stopped. I refused
to listen to any new music. And I partly do
that because it draws people crazy, but I partly do
it out of arrogance to make the point that there's
nothing good since two thousand, well since two thousand and five.
But there's nothing good unless it is Texas red Dirt.
(20:32):
You know, Corey and Pat Roger and Ray Willy Hubbard
and Hayes Carl and that sort of stuff. But none
of the stuff coming out of Nashville since I don't know.
There's a few that slipped through the cracks that are
pretty good. But I'm certainly not going to fall in
love with a band today. It's just not going to happen.
So Red Clay Trace kind of interesting name stuffed in
(20:52):
my head. I didn't think anything else of it. He
thought I was an idiot, so he started sending me songs.
I refused to listen to him, cause I might actually listen.
I might like it. So it was a couple of
weeks later and somebody out of nowhere. People know not
to pitch me music because I hate it. Eddie's always
trying to pitch me music. And I hate it. I
hate new stuff, and so he said, whoever it was,
(21:15):
they send me a link. So you ever heard of
Red Clay Trace. They're really good. And I thought, this
is like a Glenn Templeton moment because I had two people,
Charles Clark and who was the other one is my
brother that told me you got to listen to Glenn Templeton.
He looks like bon Jovie and sounds like Conway Twitty
(21:36):
and I had two of them within a week. So
because of the Conway Twitty reference, I gave it a listen.
And then of course we were the first one to
bring Glenn to Houston. And now Texas has become his
biggest market. He's from Alabama, moved to Nashville, but he
plays more shows in Texas, I think than anywhere else.
This has become a big, big market for him anyway.
(21:56):
So just over the ensuing years, I would hear Red
Clay Stras, Red Clay Strace and then Marshall h Marshall's
saying that and a number of other people, and I
still refuse to go hear them. And it was kind
of one of those things that I would hear in
the background, like that song right there, and I'd go,
I wonder who this is. It's new, it's not classic,
(22:18):
but it has a classic, kind of timeless feel to it.
It's Red Clay Stras.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
This is.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
I know, what's the name?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
You say, Michael, Buddy.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I'm trying to get to the root of this issue
with the dirty rice at Popeye's, and I'm betting you
that they can't store it for periods of time. I'm
not a I'm not a Popey's guy. I don't mind
popeye It's just not something I go to very often.
But I know that there are people who are crazy
(22:53):
over Popeye's, just crazy over it, especially Kunas's, especially Yet
New Orleanians love Pipeyes, and they have this thing about
al Copeland that's like I am with Elvis. They will
just tell you things about al Copeland like they're talking
(23:15):
about Elvis, just like what's really really important. And so
when I first went on in New Orleans, one of
my sales reps were going out to meet with some
of our show sponsors. We had people that knew of
the show and want us support the show, and the
minute we went on, they went on, which is always
makes me look good. So we're out calling on on
(23:36):
these folks, and she says to me, you want to
see al Copeland's house. Uh, I think it's going to
disappoint you if I say no. Sure, So we drive by,
we circle around the house a few times. So that
was al Coplandz house. And I think al Copland must
(23:57):
have been married about ten times. And I think he
probably was quite the lithario because there are a lot
of stories and rumors about him and various women over
the years. But in any case, he hit it with Popeyes.
You know what, his first restaurant was wrong, It failed.
(24:20):
It was called Chicken on the Run, Chicken on the Run,
and then he renamed it Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken.
And that's when he decided there would be a Cajun
inspired flair to fried Chicken. What's interesting is I would
(24:41):
not have guessed that that would take off outside the
Gulf of America, outside the coast, the Gulf coast, and
that wasn't enough, you know, to end up taking it
as a big national and get private equity and you know,
go really big. But Popeyes in Houston, well, from Houston
to maybe Mississippi, my guess, would you say it's probably
(25:05):
the most popular fried chicken. What would you say, Yeah,
it's got to be. Uh. What is the other one
that looks like a knockoff of Pope's that uses the
same logo? And I think they're owned by the same company.
You know, I'm talking about churches? Yeah, well, no, no way, okay, No.
Churches and another one have a similar logo, and I
(25:28):
think they actually they were brought onto the same umbrella,
and it's like the same, same exact, fought, same exact logo.
You just replaced churches with something else. I just can't
remember what something else was. But I don't know. Churches
made some good chicken. I hadn't had Church's chicken in
a while. Yeah, you're right, Kroger is good. You know
(25:49):
what I can't understand how has Kroger's not updated their logo?
That is the ugliest logo ever to last more than
a year. In fact, I was watching a football game
and I guess it was Kroger Field. I don't know
whose stadium is Kroger Field, but they had that ugly
Kroger on there. And if you don't remember what the
(26:11):
Kroger looks like, start with the K on the left
and the R on the end. And when you when
you make the K, start with your line, your vertical line,
and then when you go up with your K at
a thirty three degree angle or whatever, that is one
hundred and forty seven degree angle, and you go up
and that kind of arch is over and then comes down.
(26:33):
It looks like something a kid did in second grade.
The teacher gave everybody five minutes and said come up
with a logo, and they ended up with the Kroger logo.
And it's just horrible. It's terrible anyway, you know, they're
closing the Gay Roger. That's not the Gay Roger, the
Kroger on West Gray, the Gay Rogers on Montrose so
(26:56):
named because the k lighting had gone out, so Mantro
called it affectionately the gay Roger. They liked that.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
It was.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
You know, if you want to paint a rainbow, you're
so hell bent to put a rainbow somewhere. You could
paint the parking lot of the Gay Roger a rainbow
and literally nobody would have a problem with it. Nobody,
the people that live in Montrose wouldn't mind the people
who shop in Montrose whether they're gay or not. They're
all gay adjacent ramon, they wouldn't mind. And that's how
(27:26):
that could be done. You could put a rainbow flag,
you know I do. I don't mind gay people. By
the way, I don't care. I'm glad we don't have
to talk about it all the time. Because the whole
gay marriage was how Karl Rove. Karl Rove made gay
marriage into an issue that mobilized social conservative Republicans, and
(27:50):
that's how he couldn't get people to vote for George W.
Bush on the basis that George W. Bush was charismatic,
you know, he wasn't Donald Trump. So in order to
get people to vote for somebody that was just kind
of goofy but not really exciting or anything else. When
he was running for governor, he would he would get
people fired up over gay marriage stuff, and so they
(28:11):
would they would get gay marriage on on referenda and people,
I don't know what's going on in Austin. It probably
ain't no good. But one thing I am not gonna
do is them homos get married. By God, I'll show
up vote I will. And so you got you drove
a lot of people to the polls on that issue.
And that's kind of what Carl Rove does because the
(28:32):
policy of Canadas he supports is contrary to the very
people he's getting to vote. And that's that's the brains
behind the John Wayne mccornyn campaign that they that they're
just blasting all day every day. Oh John Wayne mccornyn,
he's there for you. And he's down there on that
boat on the border. Ah breede, Yeah, well you can breathe.
(28:55):
It's because them illegals, them stinky, dirty illegals aren't coming
in here because John Wayne mccordy won't let him. He
kicked them all out. Well, nothing could be further from
the truth. And then and to hear him kissing Trump's ass,
I would respect him more if he would just come
out and say he hates Trump and and and argue
(29:16):
with Trump. At least he would be consistent. And then
remember he goes over to the on Chimney Rock, he
goes to the Trump Burger, take his staff takes a
picture of him out in front of the Trump Burger,
like Romney on National Hot Dog Day. This tastes a hot.
I like hot, y'all, like Costalks. There's corning with his
burger in front of Trump Burger. Because he wants you
to know who really really likes Donald Trump. And then
(29:39):
the restaurant closed, which is kind of perfect, isn't it.
That's John Cornon went to visit. Now it closed
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