March 13, 2025 • 30 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Josh, you're on the Michael Berry Show. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just want to say, whoever put the jingle together
with the cars for Kids and your phone numbers diabolical.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You are the only person who pointed out that you
caught that. There may have been others. Let me tell.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You, Sister Station.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
What's that.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I've listened to you on the iHeartRadio, But when I'm
in the car, man, I swap over your Sister Station
as soon as I hear that that jingle.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Come on, Oh it's uh, I don't.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I don't know why. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, I would, it would be interesting to see. I
love the concept of what you call in the industry,
industry the creative right, so the the the the spot
itself for for cars for Kids. I don't know it
because people tell me that they hate it. But I've
always thought it was insanely cachi. And and the problem is, yeah, no,
(01:04):
you can't help it. And and the problem is it's
like walking the Sunset Strip or Times Square. There's so
much noise, right, There's so many things competing for your attention.
Look over here, Hey, this is here being banged. Sunday
Sunday Sunday, and so in the midst of all that,
it cuts through, and I think it is very effective.
I'll tell you another one that cuts through is Mattress Mac.
(01:28):
When when Mac comes on TV or radio, he has
a very halting delivery. It's it's not a smooth, fluid
uh delivery, it's halting. It's it's like uh staccato. It's
it's like heming Hemingway's writing. It's short, it's clipped, it's punchy,
and it's he goes into that, what's that all right?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Marvin Zella came to mind also actually perfect example, perfect example,
and in fact, it was always so interesting. When Marvin
would complete his report, he was oh, he had done
his presentation, and Dave Ward would say thank you, Marvin,
which my understanding is that was in the contract that
Dave Ward had to do that because Marvin felt that
(02:15):
earlier in his career the anchors may not have always
been sufficiently excited about his story, and they were almost
embarrassed because he got out there, you know, and that
he wanted it to seem that, you know, he wanted
it to he wanted a seamless transition. I don't know
if that's true, and I should ask Sheriff Fryar because
no one would know better than Shara or Dave Ward's wife.
(02:39):
I should ask that so anyway, Yeah, but the answer
to your question on the jingle of the phone number
is Chance McLain and more importantly, his daughter Gunn who
has She has his crazy creative artist Gene and she
comes up with stuff that's just just amazing. Thanks for
(03:00):
the call, my man. It is Let's go to was
it David next? I've lost my list, Jim, you just
tell me who it is.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
David. You're up.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Good morning, Michael. Yes, sir, I wanted to call in
as a father of five homeschooled kids who are now
in their thirties, and those who have children are homeschooling
them as well.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You were ahead of the curve. We already did that
back then.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
We started in Dallas. I was elected the president of
the North Dallas Homeschool Association in the early eighties. We
had eight families, and three years later when we moved overseas,
we had over three hundred and fifty families. At the beginning,
the difficulty was when a child graduated, being able to
get them into college because they didn't have a conventional transcript.
(03:51):
By three years later, we had universities writing to these
kids offering them scholarships and inviting them to apply. And
was because they had learned how to self study. After
their freshman year, they did not drop their GPA. They
kept their GPA up, and they accomplished things that were
really quite noteworthy as students. My kids have gone on
(04:15):
to be My daughter holds a master's degree in choral conducting.
She sings for the Houston Symphony. My oldest son, who
is living, is a drone pilot. He was the first
person in America to earn a degree in remotely piloted
aircraft from Laternal University. Flip side of that, one of
my sons is my partner. We have a precious metal
(04:37):
company and he's the one who created the concept for it.
And then my youngest son just announced that he and
his wife are moving to Arkansas because they're going to
run the family farm of her grandfather. So you get
the whole spectrum.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Did you lose one?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think the most.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Important thing we learned was to one of the things
we learned it was the most important, was to let
each child identify who they are and let them really
flourish in that area. And what your previous caller was
talking about, everything that she said about homeschooling with her
kids is absolutely true. You have so much more time
with them. My son's my partner, sadly is a single father,
(05:15):
and this is a way for him to connect with
his son after they've gone to some real tragedy in
their life. And he's a brilliant little boy five years old.
He's reading anything we put in front of him and happy,
very happy. The last thing I would say is this,
we're a Christian family and we want to control the
moral compass that we teach our kids. And one of
(05:38):
the great things about being in homeschool is you find
a lot of other families who want the same thing,
so that lets you create a network with people to
be with and to help them grow up with values
that are correct.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Mike you today today, Colonial House Apirements and received out
Free and There.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Recorded ninety two years ago today. Michael Stoler was born
a month later, Jerry Lieber was born Jerome liber Those
two were born within one month of each other and
(06:20):
would go on to be one of the most influential
songwriting duos of all time. There are a number of
songs that you or at least your grandmother cut a
rug two back in the day at the Sockhop hound Dog,
Kansas City. Yak a Yak for Elvis, he did Jailhouse Rock,
(06:47):
Loving You Don't King Creole. He wrote along with Benny
King stand by Me Standard Spanish Harlem with Duck Pomas Pornas.
What else did he do? He those two wrote a
lot of songs that would that you would recognize that
(07:08):
you may not have realized who sang them? All right?
Was it Baker?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Baker?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
You're on the Michael Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Go ahead, sir, Hey, good afternoon, Mike. I appreciate you
taking my call. The reason for my call is I
you know, I and I drive musicians around the country.
I drive tour buses, I drive entertainers, and I'm out
on tour right now, and in fact I'm up here
in Iowa. So when when I heard you playing that
(07:36):
oldies stuff there, you know, two days ago, I had
the privilege of going over to the Surf Ballroom, you
know where that was where that winter tour ended, where
they played the last show with Richie Vallens and Buddy
Holly and all those guys, and that was that was
a really neat experience. Went to the craft site, that
was cool. But you know, being abroad, I hear people talk.
(07:58):
I'm hearing people. I guess they're voicing a lot of frustration,
you know, because even like even people that do support
Trump there and they support those they're they're up in
arms because of all these cuts. And I guess from
where I'm standing, I just, man, I support him one
hundred percent, and I I think I do know this.
(08:22):
I'm not a very smart man, but I know this
comfort does not spawn change. You cannot get a better
result if you allow yourself to continue doing the same
things that got you in that into that bad position.
You have to do things differently. So I guess the
(08:42):
reason that was the whole reason that I call it's like,
people give this some time. I mean, it's this is
a problem that has been forty years, more than forty
years into making. It's not it's not going to be
fixed overnight. But I'm just man. I when I watched
his speech, I can tell you, as a forty seven
year old man, I have never in my life, to
(09:06):
my best of my memory, I cannot remember one time
in my life that I was any more proud to
be an American than the night he gave that speech.
I'm gonna let you.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Talk, Baker. Did you say you're a truck driver?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
No, sir, I drive tour buses. I drive entertainers around
the country.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I drive musicians prevosts.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And I'm gonna I'm gonna get you into a show
when we come to Houston in August, and I'll pay
off off air what it is.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Okay, you drive a prevost?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yes, I drive a provo. I'm standing on one right now.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Is that how it's pronounced? I'm sorry, Okay, Yeah, those
are amazing, amazing machines. Well, let me answer your question.
This is going to sound very arrogant, and unfortunately, the
kinds of people who get their feelings hurt by statements
like this are the people who I'm actually talking about.
(10:00):
The hit dog squeels first. So one of the things
you have to one of the things that will bring
a great deal of peace to your life, is to
understand that many people are not very smart. Half the
people have below average intelligence, and many people are really
(10:25):
just not smart. The computer atop their shoulders just doesn't process.
It's a commodore sixty four in an ai world, and
there's a lot they don't get. They should walk around
like that, you know, look that dogs have when they're
not sure what you've just said. They're not high functioning,
(10:46):
and so they don't you bring an understand you're a
truck dover for all intents and purposes because you spend
long periods of time on the road where you can't
be distracted by a phone and a television and a
computer and all those things. And so you fit into
my description of the best callers. If you were to
(11:08):
line up the hundred best callers we've had since I
started in radio twenty years ago, and I don't I mean, look,
I like the crazy ones and all that stuff. But
I mean, if you were to say, these are the
people who had the most the best perspective and they
were prescient in what they observed and how they described it,
it's always truck drivers because you have time to think.
(11:30):
You also have to realize that you have a luxury
that you take advantage of that many people don't have,
and that is long periods of time in the silence
of your own thoughts. If you see a guy who
lives up on a mountain with his family and his
wife's homeschooling the kids, and he's farming the land or
(11:51):
doing whatever else, and he is not constantly in the
throes of lots of people that with with vacuous conversation,
and he spends time on his back porch, like Charlie Daniels,
reading the Bible and thinking and in many cases writing.
That enables you a level of sophistication to be able
(12:15):
to see layers of things that the average person just
going through life and trying to get through it doesn't
make them a bad person. A person can be not
very smart, doesn't make them a bad person. You also
have to realize that a lot of these people are
incapable of coming to a conclusion for themselves. So when
(12:35):
you talk about the people, why you say, why wouldn't
people support what Elon is doing? Well, you have to
recognize or what Trump is doing. You have to recognize
that a lot of these people have no understanding of
what's actually happening. And it sounds very arrogant of me
to say it, and I know that, but that doesn't
make it any less true. These people are, for all
(12:57):
intents and purposes, ignorant or stupid. And I could choose
not to say that because it seems mean, But it's
not a judgment. It's not meant to be a ridicule.
They're not listening to our show, so I'm not saying
it to their face. I'm not humiliating them or demeaning them.
But when you're looking for an understanding of it, you
(13:20):
have to. When an animal does something really dumb, you say, well,
he doesn't know any better. Well, these people don't know
any better America, Michael, And why I can't get it
out of my head? What Chance MacLean wrote, It's always
a little bit odd when Chance is serious, because he
(13:46):
knows I don't want serious, because I get serious all day.
If you read my emails, it sounds something like this, Hey, Michael,
can we do something about Democrats? Just all they're doing
is fighting with Trump, like put them in prison. And
it's just some ver of that. And that's fine. I mean, look,
there's a connection. We meet up every day. People are
mad and they you know, this is what they're feeling,
(14:08):
and they share it and I don't, you know, I
don't want to in any way sensor that I got
it up I'm an outlet. I got it, but Chance
knows I don't want any more of that. So for
him to say something serious as opposed to making jokes
that make me fuck, that make me laugh, which I
need more of, is is rare. And then he says
something like that, and it's just stuck in my head
(14:30):
that that it's important to understand that homeschooling parents. I'll
read you the email again, Zar. A good point to
make is smart homeschool parents don't try to recreate quote
unquote school. School as we know it and as we
remembered it is gone. A lot of new homeschool parents
(14:54):
try to recreate something that doesn't exist anymore. And wasn't
that efficient to begin with. This lady that was Elisa
as he was talking to, is spot on. Read books,
challenge your kids, get them out in the world. It
was terrifying and people judged the hell out of us,
but I'm grateful that we did it. My kids split
(15:15):
time between Northland Christian and homeschool. Gun didn't technically graduate
high school, yet she graduated from A and M easily
with high honors. So that line, smart homeschool parents don't
try to recreate school when people criticize homeschooling. To me,
(15:42):
they're comparing homeschooling to schools. But what's interesting is it's
not actually to real schools that exist today. It's a
school in a fairy tale land of our upbringing, and
it's not the modern school just peruves the headlines. It's
(16:08):
very easy to see the crazy things going on at
school if you're on Twitter, which I don't suggest you
go there if you're not already. Every single day there's three,
four or five videos that go viral amongst conservative influencers
of some teacher with purple hair and a bone through
his or her nose, who has switched genders and hates
(16:32):
America and is wearing a Chegwavara shirt and talking about
how they're going to go home and have sex with
a raccoon or something. I mean, it's just freaky. Well,
do you want your child to sit under the tutelage
of that person? And most of us teach our children
to respect figures of authority until they have earned adulthood
(16:59):
and good judgment, and that includes a teacher. I mean,
I think about my teachers to a person, I think
about my teachers from kindergarten all the way through Clydie Lee,
who taught me English and to love literature. June Hardy,
who taught me to love poetry and prose, and understand
(17:24):
that this wasn't just what some old white man was
writing centuries ago. This was a passionate shepherd to his love.
This is a guy according this is the modern day song.
This is the modern day Elvis trying to get the
chicks man, and once you began to see it like that,
Or Miss Martin, who made history come alive and taught
(17:46):
me debate and traveled with me all over the state.
When I was sent outside of Texas for the National
American Legion speech competition, and I would rack up these
big scholarships at each level, sixteen thousand just for one win,
and I could American Legion local branch and Orange would
(18:08):
send me with one person. And my mom said, I
think miss Martin should send you because she could drill
me before the competition on topics and go through note
cards and do all this. And she did that on
her own dime. I mean they paid for the flight,
but you know this was all her own time she
had to burn. Or Miss Evans, who taught us civics
(18:30):
I remember during the Christmas break she bought me with
her own money a book of the twenty five greatest
speeches of all time. So on Christmas break I could
read that, and I came back with it all marked up,
and you know, I couldn't wait to go in before
school or after school and show Miss Evans you know
these were my favorite speeches. And this is why I
(18:51):
mean that level of who was it was it Kate's keats.
Sorry Jim who said education is not filling a bucket.
It's life a fire once you transform your mind into
the idea of your mind as a muscle, and you
want that thing to be bulging and fit and be
(19:12):
able to pump as much iron as possible with this brain.
I posted something on Facebook the other day and the
comment was, you know you had twelve thirteen years in
the public school that your neighbors paid for you to
go to. You didn't pay for that. I mean, your
parents paid their taxes. But if you just moved into
(19:34):
the state, that school was paid for before you got there,
and as being paid for and now you're only beginning
to pay a little. You don't pay for being in
school like you do in many countries. It's free to you.
So we got all this time, and we got these ripe, young,
fertile minds. Wouldn't you love it if we could find
a way to thrill these little kids? What interests you most?
(19:57):
You don't end up needing all this eighty if you
put a kid doing something that they love to do,
video games or the end of the world, it's a
terrible idea. They're horrible, kids are dying, They're all brain dead.
Video games are the worst thing ever. Do you know
who is the biggest video game addict that you will
(20:18):
ever meet as a grown man? Elon Musk, and he
preaches on the value of reflex the value of focus.
You don't have to like it because you don't play them,
and I don't play them. Ramon is a grown man
that plays video games and if for whatever reason, his
(20:39):
wife's got to travel for work, his kids are going
to their grandparents for the weekend because the grandparents want
time with them, can't. He's giddy on Friday that when
we finish Friday evening, he can stay up all night
and eat bad food and play video games online and
that's his getaway. Well, that's the worst thing ever, except
(21:04):
it's not as bad as going to Vegas. It's not
as bad as horring around. It's not as bad as
doing drugs. It's not as bad as gambling the family's reserves.
Is it really that bad? My point is you could
incorporate things into the educational experience that kids love. Kids
tend to naturally love that. You know what else? Kids
(21:25):
love that they don't get enough of outside time. They
love to go outside and dig in the dirt and
give them projects. Why not have them build things. Michael
t my oldest, took a class in high school on
building theater sets, and we had no idea how much
he would enjoy that. And the pride he took when
(21:47):
they rolled onto the stage, different aspects of the production
you were watching, and he himself, with his own two
hands built back. That's education. Education doesn't have to be boring.
It doesn't have to feel like prisons on.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Cards in and gift sets like Smurf the Michael Very
shoe she sold separately.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Our intrepid executive producer is Chadakoni Nakanishi, the man who
keeps the trains running on time. Ramon and I bow
in his presence, we all actually really work for him.
When you come down to it, when you're if you
were building the perfect I don't want to say employee,
(22:27):
but you were building the perfect team member for a team,
you would just take every trait of Chad, write them down,
and then you would go, yep, that's exactly what. Everything
you need. He is everything you don't need. He's not
never a distraction, never a complainer, never late. Of course
(22:51):
he gets in at three o'clock in the morning, never,
never a problem, never a critic, never anything. I mean,
the show must go on, everything focused on the show.
If he's having a bad day, I don't know. If
he has bad days, I don't know. I literally don't know,
because he wouldn't tell you that. If he's got to
(23:12):
get in extra early because he's his kid has a
game and he's coaching or whatever, you don't even know it.
He just gets everything done. It's amazing. So anyway, Chad
was talking about we were talking about when when Marvin
Zendler would do, what would end his bit and and
Dave Allen and Dave Ward, And this is a conversation
(23:33):
between then sports director Bob Allen and Dave Ward talking
about the thank you Marvin at the end and.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
To the Michellis or Micelles fan.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I knew I was gonna mess that up.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Mitchell Lettis, Marvin Zendler Eye Witness.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
News, thank you Marvin.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
They always say, yeah, I like the way he comes
back and says, hmm, thank you Marvin.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
But I remember they told us a long time ago
here at this television station, because David and I used
to joke.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
About sometimes about what Marvin presented that evening, and we
were told very sturdily, don't make fun of Marvin.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Marvin's off limits, don't make fun of me.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
So thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Marvin is about as innocuous as you can get. I
had a lady come up to me several years ago.
She said, mister war I have to tell you this.
She says, we have twin grandsons. They're three years old,
and they were at our home last weekend and had breakfast.
See anyone's sitting there in their high chairs, and for
no reason or other, for no reason at all, one
(24:40):
of them just pipes up and goes Marvin's lak I
Witnessed News. She said his twin brother didn't miss. Abati
turned to him said, thank you, Marvin.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Sim you know, oh boy, thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
I thought years ago, I thought we should have made
a bumper sticker with our thirteen on it and just
the words thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That's strong right there, that is strong. Dave Ward is beloved.
Dave Ward has been on a victory tour for ten
years and he the guy is is just you'll see
a different picture of you know, he stops by the station.
Everybody wants a picture with Dave. Or he's out at
some of your book signing. Everybody wants to be there
(25:25):
with Dave. He is having a wonderful twilight season. I
can I can see that for sure. We were talking
about well, you know, I will say this, Marvin Zendler
is one of the most memorable media personalities in Houston history,
(25:49):
probably the most remembered. If you were to ask people
to list them, he would be the most. Dolcha Fino
would be on the top ten, and then it would
move more to people that you trusted and loved, like
a Dave Word, like a Sheriff Friar. But what's interesting
is there are no Marvin Zendlers. Now. It's not that
(26:13):
there aren't folks out there willing to do wild and
crazy things such that Don Delouiz would have to play
you in the movie About You. It's that stations and
media generally lost their appetite for excellence. Love him or
hate him, You couldn't turn Marvin off. And the ratings
(26:35):
were there. People wanted Marvin. That's why he stayed on
for so long. I was at Kenny and Ziggie's one
day and I walked in and Marvin was commanding the
center table because Ziggie Gruber is no fool. And there's
Marvin and people are coming up and taking pictures with him.
(26:56):
And he's dressed the role. You know, He's got the
blue glasses and a whole the whole get up, you know,
and you think to yourself, what we're doing as a society,
because nobody wants excellence anymore. Everybody loves Rush, but nobody
wants to put the Rush Limbaugh show on anymore. When
Rush came out, do you remember his anti abortion spots?
(27:18):
Do you remember, though some of you do? Man, that
was that was tough to listen to. You had to
really be I mean, that was. But that's what made
Rush Limbaugh the man. He became so that everybody wanted
to listen to his opinions. He got in trouble a lot.
(27:40):
There were always people trying to cancel him, and that
was the sign of his power and influence. People will
say to me sometimes, you know, can you imagine what
people will say about you when you're not around? I
would be disappointed if they didn't. My friend Jesse Kelly
made the point very well in writing a few years ago,
(28:02):
and he said, stop worrying about people criticizing me. When
they're not criticizing me, I'll be worried. That's when you
should be worried. If you die and they don't care
you didn't do your job, they should be dancing on
your grave because they're glad you're gone. That's my goal.
My goal is that they are celebrating when I'm dead
(28:23):
because I did some good that they didn't want. When
you understand we were in a war, When you understand
the stakes and how high they are and how evil
these people are, that's when you begin to understand. You
don't want their affection. You don't want their encomium at
your death. You want them saying thank god they lost,
(28:43):
you know, their best fighter pilot, they lost their best
navy seal, they lost their best warrior. That's what you want,
that's what you should aspire to. It's a sad week,
I suppose when Southwest Airlines is not being coveted and
applauded but are having to make very tough decisions. I
(29:04):
still have an affection for Southwest Airlines. And by the way,
I after after Gordon Bethune left Continental and United took over,
and it became I hated United, but I would tell
you this, my position has flipped. I love United now,
and people will criticize. I've had nothing but great experiences
I have. I used their app, we use them a lot.
(29:27):
I absolutely love United Airlines, and I feel sad for
the legacy of Herb Keller hair and what has happened
to Southwest Airlines. Daryl Kunda made a funny bit that
I misjudge the time, so we won't get to play,
but we'll play it tomorrow. But that's kind of a
bummer story for me. By the way, if you wanted
(29:49):
to ask a question or share a resource or whatever
else with Elisa with an h who was on the
show earlier, you can email me through the website Michael
veriyshow dot com, Michael dot com, and I will afford
that to her, and we have closed out the account
for our free burnt merch which we sold and he
(30:09):
gets the proceeds. It's you know, it's not going to
pay his legal bill, but it it's something. And I
thank you all for everything you did to make that
happen
Josh, you're on the Michael Berry Show. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just want to say, whoever put the jingle together
with the cars for Kids and your phone numbers diabolical.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You are the only person who pointed out that you
caught that. There may have been others. Let me tell.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You, Sister Station.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
What's that.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I've listened to you on the iHeartRadio, But when I'm
in the car, man, I swap over your Sister Station
as soon as I hear that that jingle.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Come on, Oh it's uh, I don't.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I don't know why. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, I would, it would be interesting to see. I
love the concept of what you call in the industry,
industry the creative right, so the the the the spot
itself for for cars for Kids. I don't know it
because people tell me that they hate it. But I've
always thought it was insanely cachi. And and the problem is, yeah, no,
(01:04):
you can't help it. And and the problem is it's
like walking the Sunset Strip or Times Square. There's so
much noise, right, There's so many things competing for your attention.
Look over here, Hey, this is here being banged. Sunday
Sunday Sunday, and so in the midst of all that,
it cuts through, and I think it is very effective.
I'll tell you another one that cuts through is Mattress Mac.
(01:28):
When when Mac comes on TV or radio, he has
a very halting delivery. It's it's not a smooth, fluid
uh delivery, it's halting. It's it's like uh staccato. It's
it's like heming Hemingway's writing. It's short, it's clipped, it's punchy,
and it's he goes into that, what's that all right?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Marvin Zella came to mind also actually perfect example, perfect example,
and in fact, it was always so interesting. When Marvin
would complete his report, he was oh, he had done
his presentation, and Dave Ward would say thank you, Marvin,
which my understanding is that was in the contract that
Dave Ward had to do that because Marvin felt that
(02:15):
earlier in his career the anchors may not have always
been sufficiently excited about his story, and they were almost
embarrassed because he got out there, you know, and that
he wanted it to seem that, you know, he wanted
it to he wanted a seamless transition. I don't know
if that's true, and I should ask Sheriff Fryar because
no one would know better than Shara or Dave Ward's wife.
(02:39):
I should ask that so anyway, Yeah, but the answer
to your question on the jingle of the phone number
is Chance McLain and more importantly, his daughter Gunn who
has She has his crazy creative artist Gene and she
comes up with stuff that's just just amazing. Thanks for
(03:00):
the call, my man. It is Let's go to was
it David next? I've lost my list, Jim, you just
tell me who it is.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
David. You're up.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Good morning, Michael. Yes, sir, I wanted to call in
as a father of five homeschooled kids who are now
in their thirties, and those who have children are homeschooling
them as well.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You were ahead of the curve. We already did that
back then.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
We started in Dallas. I was elected the president of
the North Dallas Homeschool Association in the early eighties. We
had eight families, and three years later when we moved overseas,
we had over three hundred and fifty families. At the beginning,
the difficulty was when a child graduated, being able to
get them into college because they didn't have a conventional transcript.
(03:51):
By three years later, we had universities writing to these
kids offering them scholarships and inviting them to apply. And
was because they had learned how to self study. After
their freshman year, they did not drop their GPA. They
kept their GPA up, and they accomplished things that were
really quite noteworthy as students. My kids have gone on
(04:15):
to be My daughter holds a master's degree in choral conducting.
She sings for the Houston Symphony. My oldest son, who
is living, is a drone pilot. He was the first
person in America to earn a degree in remotely piloted
aircraft from Laternal University. Flip side of that, one of
my sons is my partner. We have a precious metal
(04:37):
company and he's the one who created the concept for it.
And then my youngest son just announced that he and
his wife are moving to Arkansas because they're going to
run the family farm of her grandfather. So you get
the whole spectrum.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Did you lose one?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think the most.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Important thing we learned was to one of the things
we learned it was the most important, was to let
each child identify who they are and let them really
flourish in that area. And what your previous caller was
talking about, everything that she said about homeschooling with her
kids is absolutely true. You have so much more time
with them. My son's my partner, sadly is a single father,
(05:15):
and this is a way for him to connect with
his son after they've gone to some real tragedy in
their life. And he's a brilliant little boy five years old.
He's reading anything we put in front of him and happy,
very happy. The last thing I would say is this,
we're a Christian family and we want to control the
moral compass that we teach our kids. And one of
(05:38):
the great things about being in homeschool is you find
a lot of other families who want the same thing,
so that lets you create a network with people to
be with and to help them grow up with values
that are correct.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Mike you today today, Colonial House Apirements and received out
Free and There.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Recorded ninety two years ago today. Michael Stoler was born
a month later, Jerry Lieber was born Jerome liber Those
two were born within one month of each other and
(06:20):
would go on to be one of the most influential
songwriting duos of all time. There are a number of
songs that you or at least your grandmother cut a
rug two back in the day at the Sockhop hound Dog,
Kansas City. Yak a Yak for Elvis, he did Jailhouse Rock,
(06:47):
Loving You Don't King Creole. He wrote along with Benny
King stand by Me Standard Spanish Harlem with Duck Pomas Pornas.
What else did he do? He those two wrote a
lot of songs that would that you would recognize that
(07:08):
you may not have realized who sang them? All right?
Was it Baker?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Baker?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
You're on the Michael Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Go ahead, sir, Hey, good afternoon, Mike. I appreciate you
taking my call. The reason for my call is I
you know, I and I drive musicians around the country.
I drive tour buses, I drive entertainers, and I'm out
on tour right now, and in fact I'm up here
in Iowa. So when when I heard you playing that
(07:36):
oldies stuff there, you know, two days ago, I had
the privilege of going over to the Surf Ballroom, you
know where that was where that winter tour ended, where
they played the last show with Richie Vallens and Buddy
Holly and all those guys, and that was that was
a really neat experience. Went to the craft site, that
was cool. But you know, being abroad, I hear people talk.
(07:58):
I'm hearing people. I guess they're voicing a lot of frustration,
you know, because even like even people that do support
Trump there and they support those they're they're up in
arms because of all these cuts. And I guess from
where I'm standing, I just, man, I support him one
hundred percent, and I I think I do know this.
(08:22):
I'm not a very smart man, but I know this
comfort does not spawn change. You cannot get a better
result if you allow yourself to continue doing the same
things that got you in that into that bad position.
You have to do things differently. So I guess the
(08:42):
reason that was the whole reason that I call it's like,
people give this some time. I mean, it's this is
a problem that has been forty years, more than forty
years into making. It's not it's not going to be
fixed overnight. But I'm just man. I when I watched
his speech, I can tell you, as a forty seven
year old man, I have never in my life, to
(09:06):
my best of my memory, I cannot remember one time
in my life that I was any more proud to
be an American than the night he gave that speech.
I'm gonna let you.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Talk, Baker. Did you say you're a truck driver?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
No, sir, I drive tour buses. I drive entertainers around
the country.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I drive musicians prevosts.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And I'm gonna I'm gonna get you into a show
when we come to Houston in August, and I'll pay
off off air what it is.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Okay, you drive a prevost?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yes, I drive a provo. I'm standing on one right now.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Is that how it's pronounced? I'm sorry, Okay, Yeah, those
are amazing, amazing machines. Well, let me answer your question.
This is going to sound very arrogant, and unfortunately, the
kinds of people who get their feelings hurt by statements
like this are the people who I'm actually talking about.
(10:00):
The hit dog squeels first. So one of the things
you have to one of the things that will bring
a great deal of peace to your life, is to
understand that many people are not very smart. Half the
people have below average intelligence, and many people are really
(10:25):
just not smart. The computer atop their shoulders just doesn't process.
It's a commodore sixty four in an ai world, and
there's a lot they don't get. They should walk around
like that, you know, look that dogs have when they're
not sure what you've just said. They're not high functioning,
(10:46):
and so they don't you bring an understand you're a
truck dover for all intents and purposes because you spend
long periods of time on the road where you can't
be distracted by a phone and a television and a
computer and all those things. And so you fit into
my description of the best callers. If you were to
(11:08):
line up the hundred best callers we've had since I
started in radio twenty years ago, and I don't I mean, look,
I like the crazy ones and all that stuff. But
I mean, if you were to say, these are the
people who had the most the best perspective and they
were prescient in what they observed and how they described it,
it's always truck drivers because you have time to think.
(11:30):
You also have to realize that you have a luxury
that you take advantage of that many people don't have,
and that is long periods of time in the silence
of your own thoughts. If you see a guy who
lives up on a mountain with his family and his
wife's homeschooling the kids, and he's farming the land or
(11:51):
doing whatever else, and he is not constantly in the
throes of lots of people that with with vacuous conversation,
and he spends time on his back porch, like Charlie Daniels,
reading the Bible and thinking and in many cases writing.
That enables you a level of sophistication to be able
(12:15):
to see layers of things that the average person just
going through life and trying to get through it doesn't
make them a bad person. A person can be not
very smart, doesn't make them a bad person. You also
have to realize that a lot of these people are
incapable of coming to a conclusion for themselves. So when
(12:35):
you talk about the people, why you say, why wouldn't
people support what Elon is doing? Well, you have to
recognize or what Trump is doing. You have to recognize
that a lot of these people have no understanding of
what's actually happening. And it sounds very arrogant of me
to say it, and I know that, but that doesn't
make it any less true. These people are, for all
(12:57):
intents and purposes, ignorant or stupid. And I could choose
not to say that because it seems mean, But it's
not a judgment. It's not meant to be a ridicule.
They're not listening to our show, so I'm not saying
it to their face. I'm not humiliating them or demeaning them.
But when you're looking for an understanding of it, you
(13:20):
have to. When an animal does something really dumb, you say, well,
he doesn't know any better. Well, these people don't know
any better America, Michael, And why I can't get it
out of my head? What Chance MacLean wrote, It's always
a little bit odd when Chance is serious, because he
(13:46):
knows I don't want serious, because I get serious all day.
If you read my emails, it sounds something like this, Hey, Michael,
can we do something about Democrats? Just all they're doing
is fighting with Trump, like put them in prison. And
it's just some ver of that. And that's fine. I mean, look,
there's a connection. We meet up every day. People are
mad and they you know, this is what they're feeling,
(14:08):
and they share it and I don't, you know, I
don't want to in any way sensor that I got
it up I'm an outlet. I got it, but Chance
knows I don't want any more of that. So for
him to say something serious as opposed to making jokes
that make me fuck, that make me laugh, which I
need more of, is is rare. And then he says
something like that, and it's just stuck in my head
(14:30):
that that it's important to understand that homeschooling parents. I'll
read you the email again, Zar. A good point to
make is smart homeschool parents don't try to recreate quote
unquote school. School as we know it and as we
remembered it is gone. A lot of new homeschool parents
(14:54):
try to recreate something that doesn't exist anymore. And wasn't
that efficient to begin with. This lady that was Elisa
as he was talking to, is spot on. Read books,
challenge your kids, get them out in the world. It
was terrifying and people judged the hell out of us,
but I'm grateful that we did it. My kids split
(15:15):
time between Northland Christian and homeschool. Gun didn't technically graduate
high school, yet she graduated from A and M easily
with high honors. So that line, smart homeschool parents don't
try to recreate school when people criticize homeschooling. To me,
(15:42):
they're comparing homeschooling to schools. But what's interesting is it's
not actually to real schools that exist today. It's a
school in a fairy tale land of our upbringing, and
it's not the modern school just peruves the headlines. It's
(16:08):
very easy to see the crazy things going on at
school if you're on Twitter, which I don't suggest you
go there if you're not already. Every single day there's three,
four or five videos that go viral amongst conservative influencers
of some teacher with purple hair and a bone through
his or her nose, who has switched genders and hates
(16:32):
America and is wearing a Chegwavara shirt and talking about
how they're going to go home and have sex with
a raccoon or something. I mean, it's just freaky. Well,
do you want your child to sit under the tutelage
of that person? And most of us teach our children
to respect figures of authority until they have earned adulthood
(16:59):
and good judgment, and that includes a teacher. I mean,
I think about my teachers to a person, I think
about my teachers from kindergarten all the way through Clydie Lee,
who taught me English and to love literature. June Hardy,
who taught me to love poetry and prose, and understand
(17:24):
that this wasn't just what some old white man was
writing centuries ago. This was a passionate shepherd to his love.
This is a guy according this is the modern day song.
This is the modern day Elvis trying to get the
chicks man, and once you began to see it like that,
Or Miss Martin, who made history come alive and taught
(17:46):
me debate and traveled with me all over the state.
When I was sent outside of Texas for the National
American Legion speech competition, and I would rack up these
big scholarships at each level, sixteen thousand just for one win,
and I could American Legion local branch and Orange would
(18:08):
send me with one person. And my mom said, I
think miss Martin should send you because she could drill
me before the competition on topics and go through note
cards and do all this. And she did that on
her own dime. I mean they paid for the flight,
but you know this was all her own time she
had to burn. Or Miss Evans, who taught us civics
(18:30):
I remember during the Christmas break she bought me with
her own money a book of the twenty five greatest
speeches of all time. So on Christmas break I could
read that, and I came back with it all marked up,
and you know, I couldn't wait to go in before
school or after school and show Miss Evans you know
these were my favorite speeches. And this is why I
(18:51):
mean that level of who was it was it Kate's keats.
Sorry Jim who said education is not filling a bucket.
It's life a fire once you transform your mind into
the idea of your mind as a muscle, and you
want that thing to be bulging and fit and be
(19:12):
able to pump as much iron as possible with this brain.
I posted something on Facebook the other day and the
comment was, you know you had twelve thirteen years in
the public school that your neighbors paid for you to
go to. You didn't pay for that. I mean, your
parents paid their taxes. But if you just moved into
(19:34):
the state, that school was paid for before you got there,
and as being paid for and now you're only beginning
to pay a little. You don't pay for being in
school like you do in many countries. It's free to you.
So we got all this time, and we got these ripe, young,
fertile minds. Wouldn't you love it if we could find
a way to thrill these little kids? What interests you most?
(19:57):
You don't end up needing all this eighty if you
put a kid doing something that they love to do,
video games or the end of the world, it's a
terrible idea. They're horrible, kids are dying, They're all brain dead.
Video games are the worst thing ever. Do you know
who is the biggest video game addict that you will
(20:18):
ever meet as a grown man? Elon Musk, and he
preaches on the value of reflex the value of focus.
You don't have to like it because you don't play them,
and I don't play them. Ramon is a grown man
that plays video games and if for whatever reason, his
(20:39):
wife's got to travel for work, his kids are going
to their grandparents for the weekend because the grandparents want
time with them, can't. He's giddy on Friday that when
we finish Friday evening, he can stay up all night
and eat bad food and play video games online and
that's his getaway. Well, that's the worst thing ever, except
(21:04):
it's not as bad as going to Vegas. It's not
as bad as horring around. It's not as bad as
doing drugs. It's not as bad as gambling the family's reserves.
Is it really that bad? My point is you could
incorporate things into the educational experience that kids love. Kids
tend to naturally love that. You know what else? Kids
(21:25):
love that they don't get enough of outside time. They
love to go outside and dig in the dirt and
give them projects. Why not have them build things. Michael
t my oldest, took a class in high school on
building theater sets, and we had no idea how much
he would enjoy that. And the pride he took when
(21:47):
they rolled onto the stage, different aspects of the production
you were watching, and he himself, with his own two
hands built back. That's education. Education doesn't have to be boring.
It doesn't have to feel like prisons on.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Cards in and gift sets like Smurf the Michael Very
shoe she sold separately.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Our intrepid executive producer is Chadakoni Nakanishi, the man who
keeps the trains running on time. Ramon and I bow
in his presence, we all actually really work for him.
When you come down to it, when you're if you
were building the perfect I don't want to say employee,
(22:27):
but you were building the perfect team member for a team,
you would just take every trait of Chad, write them down,
and then you would go, yep, that's exactly what. Everything
you need. He is everything you don't need. He's not
never a distraction, never a complainer, never late. Of course
(22:51):
he gets in at three o'clock in the morning, never,
never a problem, never a critic, never anything. I mean,
the show must go on, everything focused on the show.
If he's having a bad day, I don't know. If
he has bad days, I don't know. I literally don't know,
because he wouldn't tell you that. If he's got to
(23:12):
get in extra early because he's his kid has a
game and he's coaching or whatever, you don't even know it.
He just gets everything done. It's amazing. So anyway, Chad
was talking about we were talking about when when Marvin
Zendler would do, what would end his bit and and
Dave Allen and Dave Ward, And this is a conversation
(23:33):
between then sports director Bob Allen and Dave Ward talking
about the thank you Marvin at the end and.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
To the Michellis or Micelles fan.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I knew I was gonna mess that up.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Mitchell Lettis, Marvin Zendler Eye Witness.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
News, thank you Marvin.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
They always say, yeah, I like the way he comes
back and says, hmm, thank you Marvin.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
But I remember they told us a long time ago
here at this television station, because David and I used
to joke.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
About sometimes about what Marvin presented that evening, and we
were told very sturdily, don't make fun of Marvin.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Marvin's off limits, don't make fun of me.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
So thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Marvin is about as innocuous as you can get. I
had a lady come up to me several years ago.
She said, mister war I have to tell you this.
She says, we have twin grandsons. They're three years old,
and they were at our home last weekend and had breakfast.
See anyone's sitting there in their high chairs, and for
no reason or other, for no reason at all, one
(24:40):
of them just pipes up and goes Marvin's lak I
Witnessed News. She said his twin brother didn't miss. Abati
turned to him said, thank you, Marvin.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Sim you know, oh boy, thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
I thought years ago, I thought we should have made
a bumper sticker with our thirteen on it and just
the words thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That's strong right there, that is strong. Dave Ward is beloved.
Dave Ward has been on a victory tour for ten
years and he the guy is is just you'll see
a different picture of you know, he stops by the station.
Everybody wants a picture with Dave. Or he's out at
some of your book signing. Everybody wants to be there
(25:25):
with Dave. He is having a wonderful twilight season. I
can I can see that for sure. We were talking
about well, you know, I will say this, Marvin Zendler
is one of the most memorable media personalities in Houston history,
(25:49):
probably the most remembered. If you were to ask people
to list them, he would be the most. Dolcha Fino
would be on the top ten, and then it would
move more to people that you trusted and loved, like
a Dave Word, like a Sheriff Friar. But what's interesting
is there are no Marvin Zendlers. Now. It's not that
(26:13):
there aren't folks out there willing to do wild and
crazy things such that Don Delouiz would have to play
you in the movie About You. It's that stations and
media generally lost their appetite for excellence. Love him or
hate him, You couldn't turn Marvin off. And the ratings
(26:35):
were there. People wanted Marvin. That's why he stayed on
for so long. I was at Kenny and Ziggie's one
day and I walked in and Marvin was commanding the
center table because Ziggie Gruber is no fool. And there's
Marvin and people are coming up and taking pictures with him.
(26:56):
And he's dressed the role. You know, He's got the
blue glasses and a whole the whole get up, you know,
and you think to yourself, what we're doing as a society,
because nobody wants excellence anymore. Everybody loves Rush, but nobody
wants to put the Rush Limbaugh show on anymore. When
Rush came out, do you remember his anti abortion spots?
(27:18):
Do you remember, though some of you do? Man, that
was that was tough to listen to. You had to
really be I mean, that was. But that's what made
Rush Limbaugh the man. He became so that everybody wanted
to listen to his opinions. He got in trouble a lot.
(27:40):
There were always people trying to cancel him, and that
was the sign of his power and influence. People will
say to me sometimes, you know, can you imagine what
people will say about you when you're not around? I
would be disappointed if they didn't. My friend Jesse Kelly
made the point very well in writing a few years ago,
(28:02):
and he said, stop worrying about people criticizing me. When
they're not criticizing me, I'll be worried. That's when you
should be worried. If you die and they don't care
you didn't do your job, they should be dancing on
your grave because they're glad you're gone. That's my goal.
My goal is that they are celebrating when I'm dead
(28:23):
because I did some good that they didn't want. When
you understand we were in a war, When you understand
the stakes and how high they are and how evil
these people are, that's when you begin to understand. You
don't want their affection. You don't want their encomium at
your death. You want them saying thank god they lost,
(28:43):
you know, their best fighter pilot, they lost their best
navy seal, they lost their best warrior. That's what you want,
that's what you should aspire to. It's a sad week,
I suppose when Southwest Airlines is not being coveted and
applauded but are having to make very tough decisions. I
(29:04):
still have an affection for Southwest Airlines. And by the way,
I after after Gordon Bethune left Continental and United took over,
and it became I hated United, but I would tell
you this, my position has flipped. I love United now,
and people will criticize. I've had nothing but great experiences
I have. I used their app, we use them a lot.
(29:27):
I absolutely love United Airlines, and I feel sad for
the legacy of Herb Keller hair and what has happened
to Southwest Airlines. Daryl Kunda made a funny bit that
I misjudge the time, so we won't get to play,
but we'll play it tomorrow. But that's kind of a
bummer story for me. By the way, if you wanted
(29:49):
to ask a question or share a resource or whatever
else with Elisa with an h who was on the
show earlier, you can email me through the website Michael
veriyshow dot com, Michael dot com, and I will afford
that to her, and we have closed out the account
for our free burnt merch which we sold and he
(30:09):
gets the proceeds. It's you know, it's not going to
pay his legal bill, but it it's something. And I
thank you all for everything you did to make that
happen
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.