December 22, 2025 • 36 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Gordos.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We have a bit of a Christmas miracle in the studio.
Be proud. This is the theme song to Drive Time Omaha,
the Tom Becca Show afternoons on news radio eleven ten
KFAB for several years and a couple of different stints,
(00:22):
and the last time he left this building he said,
I'll never go back there. No hell, Hell, that's not
how I remember it, but it's going to be back. Well,
I saw your Facebook post. My friend Tom Beca is
right here on eleven ten kfab and it is wonderful
to see you. He said, Well, Hell is frozen over.
(00:45):
I'm gonna jump back on kfab for a moment.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It's been fifteen years since I've been in the building.
It's funny because I rang the doorbell to get in,
and one of the new sales guys you know, opened
the door for me, and as he lets me and
he goes said, I'm going to be an Scotch show.
He said, Oh that's nice. He said, do you know
where the studio is? I said, yeah, I think I
know where it might be able to find it. I'm
been here before.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It hasn't changed in any really way, shape or form
since you left here. I can't believe it's been fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, that's been about fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, yeah, you've you've done a few different things since then.
You're doing a few different things. Now, what do you have?
People want to know what's Tom Becka up to.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Here's a thing. I'll let me preface it with saying
what I learned from my dad. All right, my dad
had to reinvent himself a few times with his career.
He was in insurance and he was in the home
office and he was a sales rep and all that,
you know, an agent and all that. And then when
he retired for two years, he did like nothing. He
sat around, went to the Legion Hall, you know, had
(01:46):
a few beers with his buddy's there at the Legion Hall,
and that was about it. And after about two years
he had a part time job with the Enterprise runner
Car where he was the person that was picking up
people dropping him off all that, and everybody in the
in the office was on like these twenty twenty three
year old kids. And I could tell the difference in
his attitude on those days, you know what he was
(02:07):
working with Enterprise then when he was just hanging out
with his old war buddies, and I just determined that
I was not going to just retire and do nothing.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Doesn't eve mean good or bad. You could tell a
change in his attitude much better. He was doing better
when he felt like he was doing something rather than
just hanging out with this buddy. Everyone thinks they get
into a retirement situation and like it gonna be great.
I'm gonna work on this hobby every single day. I'm
finally gonna paint that bathroom. Maybe I'll learn how to
do something or cook something. And then you do that
(02:36):
and after a couple of weeks you're driving your spouse insane.
Now you would you gotta do something?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Oh no, no, you see now you got a few
years ahead of you. But you'd be good at retirement
because you would play golf seven days a week. I
do that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Now at some point I'd be like, I kind of
go do something. So are you announcing that you're working
at enterprise rent a car or is it APIs budget?
Which one? No?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, no no. For by the past five years. For
the past five years, I got my real estate license
with Better Homes and Gardens real Estate, the Good Life Group,
and I got my real estate license, and I've been
working with people to buy and sell homes. And I
love it because, much like being on the radio, I'm
helping people, you know. I mean, that's one of the
things that I loved about the time on the air
here was that I could go and you know, I
(03:18):
knew that we were doing some good, whether it be
tornado coverage, reduced coverage, you know, just making somebody laugh.
I knew that we were doing good with this. And
that's what I loved about this job. And that's what
I love doing the real estate is that I'm helping
people out, you know, and and the whether they're buying
or selling, and I love doing that. And but the
nice thing about it is that, thankfully I'm in a
(03:41):
decent situation, right don't I don't need that to pay
all the bills, you know what I mean. So I'm working.
I'm working, but it's not like, you know, I'm working
with people that I know and people that I trust,
the people that like me and that and that, and
when I want to take time, I don't have to
(04:01):
fill out any forms get approval from corporate. I don't
have to, you know, I just you know, say hey,
you know what I'm thinking taking a few days off,
but I'm also writing an article two articles a week
for the Omaha Daily Record. So I'm writing two commentary
articles a week on that, and then up until recently,
I was also doing a podcast with Channel six, which
(04:22):
I stopped doing here about two three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Okay, that was that was always really good. Maybe if
they decide, if everyone decides to pick that back up,
but I always like that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well yeah, thank you. But I'm right now I'm doing
a Facebook live night that's like a ninety day experiment.
I'm doing a Facebook live every day at eleven. And
I picked eleven because there's no local talk during that time,
to be honest with you, so I, uh, you could
pick nine. There's no good local talk on at nine today. Notwithstanding,
I didn't want I didn't want to say that, but
(04:51):
since you bought it up, nah, so I I just
do a half hour you know, commentary, interact with the
people on Facebook and as an I did any experiment
to see if I really liked doing that. Uh, and
if I do, I may then go and it's you know,
invest in you know, all the equipment and do the
YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and just blast it out there,
(05:13):
because I know people that were in radio that are
now currently making money digitally, and I don't know that
that's what I want to do, but I'm, you know,
just sort of messing there might toe in the water
on that.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I really enjoyed the thought of you like going to
work at like the rental car counter and Enterprise rent
a car though, because honestly, what in the world else
could Tom Becka do other than be Tom Becka in
some way, shape or form. I mean you, you couldn't
do anything else whatever allows you to go out and
(05:45):
be Tom Becky. You got to go out and be
Tom Becka.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Well, it's interesting to say that because actually that was
a conscious decision that I made years ago. I was
looking like the old old sports guys like Mickey Mantle,
and I'm saying, Mickey Mantell's job just being Mickey Mantle
won if I could make that happen.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know, I don't think you could be Mickey Mantle,
but you're a hell of a Tom Becka.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
My athltic ability is, you know, my athletic ability is
just like Mickey Mantle's.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Now now, yes, yeah, you know you posted on Facebook
the other day and said, well, hell is frozen over.
I'm gonna go back on KFAB. When I asked you,
do you want to be a guest in the studio
when you come hang out, you had to think about it.
I mean, I understand, we all in this business understand
what it's like to show up at work one day
(06:35):
and not know, oh, this is my last day here.
And obviously there's some anxiety that goes with coming back
in here now as a guest on this radio station.
How are you feeling about it? Uh?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
This is fun. I'm enjoying this. I'm enjoying this. Uh.
But you're right, there's a lot of apprehension, you know.
I mean, uh, there was some animosity with previous management
here that didn't you know, that didn't go all that well.
And uh, you know, so I had some I had
some hard feelings. I'll be honest with you. I had
some hard feelings about the place. But you and I
(07:10):
always got along, you know, you and I, You and
I always got along. I'll say this that during that
time that Scott and I would meet for lunch occasionally,
maybe a drink after work, and you know, stocks of
good day. So we always had a long but you
know what happens, and this happens with any any line
of work. You got people that you work with that
you just work with, and you have people that you
work with that you think are friends. And there were
(07:31):
some people that I thought were friends turned out to
be people that I just used to work with, and
so I you know, just you know, I had apprehension
about coming back, but I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, your voice deserves to be heard, Okay. I would
love for you to be a regular guest here, and
he was Radio eleven ten kfa B.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I'd be happy to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, And I already got people emailing going, are you
guys going to save the cranberriers? Today?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
But head of the week? It's only Monday. I mean,
I want to talk to you about some of your
favorite memories of being on this radio STA, because I
hope your experiences since the last time you were sitting
in here with that microphone in your face haven't tainted
all of the fun that we had and that you
had and the good you were able to do with
the station in the community.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I mean, jeez, I'm very proud of my time Herera kaetheby.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, the shows during Lent alone, going out to various
fish fries around town were amazing, and we tried and
found we couldn't duplicate him in the same way that
you did. So I want to talk about all that,
But there was one other feature of the Tom Becka
show that I was really thinking about, and this is
one of the bigger reasons why I wanted to have
(08:39):
you in, and that is Tom was the leader and
I don't know if he still is because I don't
know what happened to this group. It was something that
Jim Rose and I said on the radio last week.
He was talking about, well, all these people in the middle,
all these these people who are nonpartisan, like who are
these people anymore? Every ones like hyperpartisan. I don't know
(09:02):
whatever happened to the mad Middle. Tom Beca was the
leader of the mad Middle. We'll talk to them about that. Next. Here,
our guest in the studio is none other than Tom
Beca on News Radio eleven ten kfab Scott. It's a
topsy turvy world. Nicki Minaj is speaking at the Turning
Point USA event. Tom Beca is here in the studios
on news radio eleven ten kfab Dodgs and cats living together,
(09:25):
mass hysteria. Tom and his years on this radio station
was the leader of the mad Middle. This is a
group of people conservative on some things, liberal on other things,
but really just looking at both parties and saying, how
come you guys can't get anything done? Am I characterizing it?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah? But I started at long. I know I started this.
I started this when I was down in Kansas City
or by the way, I just had a text from
Bill White. Bill White was the program director in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
One of the one of our former boss, one of
our former.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Boss is one of the best times I've ever worked for.
But anyway, he's listening online anyway. So anyway, so I
started this bad middle thing. But this is before social
media really took hold, before you know, Twitter and Facebook
and all that stuff, and so you can still have
a dialogue and stuff, whereas then I still try to
do the mad Middle. And what I wound up getting
(10:17):
was hateful, uh, hateful posts on Facebook from the left
and hateful post Facebook posts on the right. You know,
I mean what I'm getting now, I think I'm still
pretty much the same person I was when I was here.
What I get now I get people's in what did
you become such a liberal? And it's always been, well,
what's the topic, Because on some topics, I am liberal.
(10:38):
On some topic topic time very conservative, you know, and
and that I think is how it should be. And actually,
since you brought this up, I was thinking about this
on the way over here. If if if I was
doing a show here, could I do a show where
I was criticizing Ice. Could I do a show where
I was criticizing Trump's uh tweet about Rob Reiner? Could
(10:59):
I do a show like that? Because I mean, I
listened to some of the syndicated shows you have here,
and they're all kissing the president's but and I'm not.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You know, sweet criticize the president's tweet about Rob Reiner.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Well that's pretty much a no brainer. But there's other
other other policies that are maybe a little bit more
nuanced and uh, you know, and so I don't know
that I could even do it in today's environment.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah. Well, I I see this happening with some talk
radio hosts, and that is they they might have an issue.
And I've dealt with a little bit of this because
there are certainly some things that the president says and
some things that he does where I say, I don't
know that we need that. Would President Reagan have done that?
And immediately you do get the response from this president
(11:46):
could do no wrong crowd, and then they started like, oh,
you and David all the rest of this stuff. Well,
I'm not one of those people that says, all right,
let's let's see if we can be friends. How do
you feel about that? How do you feel about that?
I love having good conversations where people don't things, don't
take things personally, and have a difference of political opinions.
I love that. I need that. Yeah, you want to
(12:08):
bore me out of my mind? Tell me how much
you agree with everything I say all the time the
way I say it, I will be so bored. I mean,
God bless you, but I'll be so bored. But anymore,
you got people that say, all right, how do you
feel about these things? They'll lay out ten things. You
agree completely on nine of them, but that last one, Oh,
I didn't know you were a rhino. And there are
(12:30):
some people that look at that and roll their eyes,
and some people that they take it personally and they
use that to then degrade bimane or or decide they
don't want anything to do with that whole group that
they could otherwise be friendly politically with.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know what really frustrates me is I've got you know,
I've got people in my life, people that I know
they are mag of people, you know, and I will
say them. I will tell you three things about Trump
that I like. Name one if you, Tay will tell
me three. Here's the But you tell me three things
about Trump you don't like. And I'm talking Poula. See,
I'm not talking well, I don't like the way that
he talks. I'm talking policy. A person rather high profile
(13:06):
conservative here in town. I did that to him years ago,
and he said, well, I don't like his hair because
there's just so ingrained in this And that's why I
think is very scary, you know. That's why I think
it is so very scary. I mean, I think that
there are things that President Trump has done that I
agree with. I'm glad that he's shut on the border. Okay,
I'm glad that he's shut down the border, you know.
(13:29):
But you know, on the other hand, I don't like
that he's got something even our American citizens that he's
you know, detaining and trying to ship off. I don't
like I don't like that he wants to get run
of a birthright citizenship. This country was founded on immigration.
If you go to my house, which you know you won't,
(13:51):
but they need to have.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I've never.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You know what, I I don't I don't you know what,
I don't entertain. I'm actually I'm actually kind of you know,
for a person that's been out here like this, I'm
actually kind of just a hermit.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Otherwise I can imagine what your house looks like.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Basically, my office look like, Yes, well.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I'm in your office. And by the way, I still
got your sign in there. Oh yeah, yeah, I don't
know drive time omaha, you know Tom Becker's show whatever.
That sign still in my office. And I tell people,
they're like, this is your office. I'm like, it is
Tom Becka's office. I just hang out in here.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
But that's very kind of you. But no, it's your office.
And you've done some great stuff here, you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Know, name one, you had me on the show. All right,
it's a new beginning. But politics, why do we have
to fight each other all the time? So all right,
so let's say you have some thoughts on the president
and I have some thoughts on the president. Can either
of us do anything about anything? Why it seems like
(14:54):
you have always enjoyed, though, getting in the middle of
that battle and either stoke the debate or rolling up
your sleeves and being a part of it. Why do
you like to fight with people?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't like to fight with people.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't want to fighting with me right now? About
fighting with you?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, I just said that you did a great thing
about having me on the program, and you see, I'm
agree with you. I agree with you on that. Uh No,
I like I'm like you. I like good discussion. I
like good discussion where you can talk about things and
see things differently. I have changed my opinion on a
few things over the years as I get more information
and my life situation has changed. Uh you know, I
(15:29):
I've changed my position on things. I think too many
people get into whatever that mindset is and they're afraid
to change. They're afraid to adapt. And that's one of
the things when you asked earlier about like what I'm
doing now and all that stuff. I've been able to
reinvent myself a number of times, whether it be here
on the radio, whether it be doing the stand up comedy,
whether it be doing the real estate, whether it be
doing I've been able to reinvent myself a number of times,
(15:52):
and this, well, I was wanna say something, but I
think I'll be misconstrewed and then come cross wrong. But
I'm editing myself.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I say that you are a new Tom Becka.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I'm editing I've learned over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, shoot first and asked questions later. Was not part
you know that that used to be how you were.
Now you're asking questions before you fire.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Well that was but that was actually but that was
actually again somewhat of a radio persona. I mean you
know that, you know you put on this the show.
This is a radio show, you know. And I told people,
you know, back in the day. I was dating woman
one time and she she never listened to the show.
She had no idea. We were introduced by a mutual
friend and after about like you know, dating for about
(16:35):
a month or two, and she says to me, he knowes,
I don't get it. I tell my friends I'm dating you,
and they all tell me what a jerk you are.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Back to the original question is does the mad middle
still exist or is everyone now in their camps or
they've decided I'm apathetic to the entire thing.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I'm out. I think, well, I think part of the
mad middle of people that are apathetic and rout. I
think that's part of the mad middle. I think though, actually,
if you get right down to it, I think that
the mad middle does exist out there in the real world.
I don't think it exists in the political world, and
I don't think that it exists in the media world,
(17:20):
you know. I mean we had we just have this
thing with CBS with sixty minutes where there was a
story that the president wouldn't have liked, and so they
just scrunched it, you know. And this is a very
dangerous thing, you know. I mean, we are supposed to
be able to have differensive opinions, and you know, there
(17:41):
should also be a story then the president would like,
because that's, you know, how it's supposed to be. And
I think in the real world that's sort of how
it is. But we end up I also do it.
I've done a few continued education classes out at Metro
on media literacy, and I started off the class by
(18:01):
asking the people, I say, okay, look at me. How
many of you see an old, fat guy. A few
chuckles on that, right, He said, Okay, now look at me.
How many do you see a person that's been involved
in the media for forty years and has a perspective
on what is going on in this world media wise?
(18:21):
Then they think for a second. I said, now, what
story are you going to write? And what story are
you going to read? You know, I mean everybody talks
about bias of the media. What about the bias of
the consumers of the media.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, but here's how I see that CBS thing. So
they were going to do a story and then they
pulled it because they said, we didn't get anyone from
the Trump administration to speak out on the other side
of it. And people are like, you pulled a story,
and now Trump knows how to get you to pull
your stories because all he has to do is just
not say anything about it. And you're not going to
run the story I think. I mean, you see this.
(18:56):
All the time we reached out to this group, they
have not yet responded for comment. That happens all the time.
You give people fair time to be able to respond,
they don't do it. We're running the story. What CBS
did is Had they run just another story about deportations,
people would have ignored it, like, yeah, we know this
is going on here. But by pulling the story, by
(19:17):
making you think, oh, Trump is responsible for pulling the story, now,
you got more people paying attention to the story. Then
if they just run the thing and said we reached
out to the Trump administration, they did incline to get
back to us. I'm smelling a rat on the CBS deal.
How so I can restate everything I just said, that's
(19:37):
not a rat. I think yeah, I think they get
more attention if they say, well, we decided to pull
the story, and then we all know what the story is,
cause they told us what the story was. They just
didn't put it out on sixty minutes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You are aware of the person that now owns CBS, right, but.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
They still told us what the story was. If they
told the story, they didn't tell us the reporter told us.
The reporter told us, and and you know it was
like CBS did it as a publicity stunt. It's like
the reporter said, this story had passed and it had
passed the muster with lawyers, and it passed the muster
with the fact checkers and uh, the owners uh pulled it.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So yeah, it was not it was not corporate saying I.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
No, No, I'm just saying I I we wouldn't be
talking about it if they just run the story.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
But I don't disagree with you. I don't disagree with
you on that. I don't disagree with you on that.
But uh, but if you take a look at what's
happening and that that goes back to what I said before,
could I do a mad Middle show on this station today?
You know? I mean that that's I think that's a
voutid question. That's I'm not saying that to you know,
criticize the station. But if you take a look at
(20:43):
the other programming on this station is matter of fact,
matter of fact? Well no, I mean, look, matter of fact.
There was a a former host of a show that
was lectro, and a mutual friend of ours said to you, Hey,
you want to hire Tom Becka, to which you allegedly
(21:04):
said you allowed to said Tom doesn't really quite fit
into the format here anymore. You I'm paraphrasing, but that was.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I can't. I have to now say that I am
a member of management here and hiring and firing decisions,
you know, laid out on the radio. I'll put it
this way, if Kat one of three our country station
suddenly like threw in a rap song in the middle
of their country music, people would think, I don't know
if that's the format, that's that's all.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, that's that and that's valid. I mean, that's why
I asked the question, you know, could I could I
do the show that I did? Could I do it today?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I I By the way, I'm the same one that
invited you in the studio this morning, and I'm telling
you I would like to have you on in the future.
Right now, I got to get to a news update
from Fox, so Grinn and Barrett. Through that, I want
to also look back a little bit at your career
on this radio station, because this is a station that
just this month is wrapping up our one hundredth year
(22:07):
on the radio. Tom was here for like seventy seven
years here, and we got to look back at some
of the stuff that happened during his tenure. That's coming
up after a Fox News update.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Next Scott's News Radio eleven ten kfab. I was I
was on a walk one day and I had the
Don Henley album. I was listening to my walkman, you know,
because on your.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Walk Wow, yeah, now you didn't take your record player
with an extension court.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I take it back, I take it back. I might
have had an MP three player.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
That might have been a track. Yeah, I couldn't hear
the entire song. The quad faded out and then started.
Yeah yeah, but and I I.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Had never heard that song before, and I'm listening to
it as I'm walking. I'm going, oh, yeah, that's my
theme music. Yeah, that's my theme music.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, that's perfect. I Tom Becka. I mean when you
meet people who don't know like, oh your time Becka
a long time radio guy and all that stuff, and
you're talking to someone in their life. So tell me
about yourself. What do you say about your time working
on this radio station, Because even though you haven't been
a part of the station for fifteen years, and I
can't believe it's been that long, you're still very closely
(23:17):
aligned with the station.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I and this is going to make me sound more
self important than I mean for it too, But I
think it's the same way forget about everything that Paul
McCartney has done over his career, he's still beat.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Paul McCartney, I like how this is starting.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
But you know what I mean, but that I just
mean that I'm always going to be associated with this station,
you know, always be associated with the station. And it
amazes me that, like people just recognize my voice. You know, wow,
a little bit harsh, a little bit horse today, but
you know, just stroll with the voice. I had a
(23:55):
person one time, We're just having our conversation and actually, actually,
you know, I guess it was he heard me talking
and he said, hey, you're Tom Becca. I know, yeah, yeah,
And he just goes on to tell me how he
doesn't listen to the radio. And I said, well, if
you don't listen to the radio, how the hell did
you recognize my voice?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
You know, as I you know, but well you used
to do a bit like tell call in and tell
me why you don't listen anymore. And all these people said,
I'm never gonna listen to your show again. Just it's
always like someone else in the office had it on.
I happened to be walking past. They'd never admit they
were listening to you.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, well that's the whole PBL thing. Probably beca listener
came from you know, because we know you're matter. I
would love to see your emails right now, because I
know you've got emails and people saying, what the hell
is this idiot doing on the air.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Uh. Yes, that's the first one up here from Jamie.
Uh let's see. But not every single person. Yeah, better
question how many people meet you someplace or hear your voice. Goh,
he you're Tom Becka and then proceed to tell you
I listened to your show every day on KFAB And
you have to tell him like, I haven't been on
the in fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
There are people that say, yeah, that that that that
has happened. That has happened. The other thing that has
happened is that I was out one night and this
very attractive woman in her thirties comes up to me
and says, hey here, Tom Becka, Why yes, im right, Yes, yes.
When I was a little girl, my dad and I
used to listen to your show all the time. And
(25:22):
I'm thinking, ah, that's right, I'm old. I got that
like ten years ago. Uh college girl, I I agree.
She said I grew up listening to you, and I'm like, well,
I've been on the station at that point for about
nine years. Yeah, I guess that math checks out. It's awful,
isn't it now. I mean, like I said, I'm I'm
very proud of, you know, my time here at the station,
(25:43):
the things that we did, you know. I mean, when
Darry retired, they had a big story in the World
Herald and Dearry talked about when the power went out
all throughout the city. At the time, I didn't live
like four blocks from the station. I woke up like
fourth thirty five o'clock in the morning to go to
the bathroom, and I noticed all the lights were out
all throughout and I saw the snow. So I crawled
(26:06):
into the radio stations. At that time, they had you know,
overnight hosts and everything over overnight board ops crawled the
radios and I said, oh yeah, powers out all over town.
So I walked through the snow. And there is nothing
more quiet. You don't realize it, nothing more quiet than
when the power is out, because there's always a hum
of the electrical wires. But when the electoral wires ain't there,
(26:28):
it is deadly quiet. Plus the insulation from the snow.
Walking through the snow here at like four point thirty
in the morning or whatever, and all I can see
is the red KFABE lights because we had a generator
on the station was on the air, and all I
could see was that the glow of KFAB came on
the air, and we went on the air, started telling
people what was going on, and we went NonStop, and
(26:50):
Jerry mentioned Mike Shane, who was the engineer at the time.
Our generator went out, and Mike Shane figured out a
way to run this radio station on an old shur
mitzer with three nine volt batteries and we had no light,
no lights in the studio, but a phone line to
the transmitter site, and so we could talk on the air,
(27:13):
and we knew we were getting calls, but the phones
weren't lining up because no electricity, so we're just like
randomly going to the calls.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
It was one of the most amazing times in my
broadcast career, and I know that we were helping people.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
How many nights have you spent where you slept here
in this building?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Was that because I had spent too much time across
the street at the Dells.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
There could be any number of reasons.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
No, no, no, there there were there were nights when
there was you know, a big storm coming in. When
we slept when that power went out, pretty much an
all staff slept here, you know what I mean that was.
That was the thing is we had everybody was working. Everybody,
all hangs on deck, the salespeople, the management, if anybody
had a uh, you know, a jeep or a four
(27:58):
wheel drive that could get through this. Though they were
out delivering people, you know, groceries and stuff like that.
We got calls from people that had like life saving
medical devices that needed power and we were taking you know,
generators to them and everything like that. I mean, it
was truly and.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's been what what was ninety seven October ninety seven snowstorm?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Has it been that long? Yeah, Yeah, that's one of
the that's one of the fond memories. But you know,
there were a lot of them. There a lot of
rig times.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, you and I go back when I first met you.
I was working for a radio station down the street,
as it were, with Chris Baker, and you and Chris
had a bit of you know, work on two different
radio stations, both doing fun news talk radio shows. You
had a bit of a battle with one another, both
stand up comics. That was kind of fun to watch
(28:50):
from all of that, but I never really got a
chance to get to know you until you and I
were working kind of together, and for a while they
were different radio stations and in the city, but we
go back so long. We used to go out and
get drinks and chase girls together, and I was.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
At your wedding and everything, so yeah, we did.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
We shouldn't have gone to chase girls on the day
of my wedding. I admit that was a bad idea.
That idea for you worked out great for me, yes,
So but you started on this radio station. What was
your first day like here on KFAB, especially because let's admit,
your voice is not the traditional Hey everybody, it's a
(29:31):
great radio voice. It's good to be it's a little different.
So how did that go for you when you started here?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Somebody once subscribed to it sounded like a pekingese and heat. Uh, Well,
how it started was probably Honestly, I'd been on the
road doing stand up comedy and a lot of the
comedy clubs were turning into karaoke bars. And I was
not a bad, you know, mid level comic, but I
knew I wasn't you know real, I was not Jerry Seinfield.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Material you worked with all those great guys worked.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
As Seinfeld and Sam Kinderson, I worked with Drew Carey,
opened for the band Chicago. I mean, you know, I
had had a decent career doing stand up, but I
also knew, you know, you're on the road all the time,
and every time town starts to look the same. I mean,
that's you know, it's a cliche of rock bands and stuff.
I decided I want to come back to Omaha have
(30:21):
more of a normal life. Uh And as luck would
have it, I just was able to talk my way
into a job. I tried, and I did a I
quit a little audition on a Saturday here and the
next day, next Monday, the guy that was working as
Kevin Cooper's partner on kg o R got into a
big argument with Paul Erin and he was let go.
(30:43):
I get a phone call from Paul Aaron said, well,
you're we're not gonna use you on the AM, but
uh yeah, you want to be uh on the morning
show on kg o R. Get my foot in the door.
I'm in the building. Yes. So I did about a
year and a half with Kevin Cooper and then Jerry
Hudson went on a three week vacation. So during those
three weeks, I filled in for Jerry Hudsons. I'm doing
the morning show on kgU Are. Then I'm doing the
(31:04):
three weeks with Jerry Hudson. And I learned a very
valuable lesson. Never go on a three week vacation, because
at the end of three weeks, they like me more
than they like Jerry. And that's how I got That's
how I got the job doing Todd Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I mean, I think about some of the personalities that
have been associated with this radio station, and we were
trying to we kind of quickly tried to slap together
a mount Rushmore of KFAB and it's impossible to do
it with some of the personalities, not just from the
talk radio hosts like yourself, but the news personalities. I
(31:41):
mean Lyle Bremser, Walt Cavanaugh, Jack Paying, Gary Sadlemeyer. That's
kind of my Mount Rushmore. But and you'd be down
there screaming at how come I'm.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Not out there put another face on there. Yeah, yeah,
wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute. But
you know another guy that you mentioned maron Milhaven. There's
another one, Millven, He who was now naturally syndicated.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
He does a nighttime show for uh for Tumulus, and
he's on some LIKEW and twenty radio stations or something,
you know, so you know, so, yeah, there's been a
lot of time that has come through here. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yeah, so you look back here. You did butt Head
of the Week to save the Cranberry Show on Thanksgiving.
That was a staple, the leader of the Mad Middle
the shows during fish Fridays during Lent. What am I
leaving out that you're really proud of that you were
able to do on this radio station.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Oh well, I said that the news stories. There was
a friend of mine when there was the tornado that
wiped out the boy Scout camp north of here. Uh yeah,
and her son was at that camp, and she went
(32:52):
and was driving to the camp, not knowing the condition
of her son, and I'm talking through the whole thing,
and it just really you know, she thanked me profusely
on being you know, that voice that helped her get
through that, and thankfully her son was okay and everything.
But you know, so things like that. There was another
person one time who I had never met, and he
(33:17):
contacts me and says, Tom, I got to buy your lunch.
I gotta buy a lunch. Okay whatever. So I wasn't
met you know, a.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Free lunch was always in my food. But yeah, it's
free lunch.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
So we go on Crosstreet to the Dell and he
just said, Tom, I was at my wits end. I said,
you know, my wife had left me, my daughter and
I were fighting, I'd lost my job. I was in
I was in a field in my pickup truck in
a field with a loaded gun, about to you know,
kill myself. And you're on the radio and you made
(33:48):
me laugh and I said, if I can laugh, I
can't do this. And so I went and got counseling.
And he's, you know, alive and well today things like that,
I don't think people realize the connection that a that
are good no radio host, if somebody has a favorite
(34:09):
radio personality, A connection that you make with those people,
I mean, you know it, you know. And having done
TV radio is more of a friend relationship with the audience.
TV is more like a visitor relationship. You know. The
connection that I made with the radio audience I was
much stronger and much more personal than the one with
(34:33):
the TV.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, it's different because the TV reporter is going to
tell you what's happening. We're going to tell you what
we think about it, and you're either going to enjoy
it or you're not, and you can communicate.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
But I was doing commentary over that pot forty too,
so I was doing commentary then, but it was different. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, the things you're saying that are the more bittersweet
moments that you think about in your history. We all
have those because this is part of the fabric of
our community. Tom Becker, You're part of the fabric of
kfa B. And as we were wrapping up our one
hundredth year, I didn't want to let that go by
without acknowledging your huge role and what we've done here
(35:08):
on this radio station and in our community. That means
a lot to me, Scott, and I appreciate it, and
I want you to come back anytime. I'm not gonna
pay you. I want you to come back any when
I worked here. So yeah, it's the great if you
can bring your own money, Tom Beca, What are you
doing now? Where can people find you?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Oh? Well, there's on tom Becka dot com. Also on
Facebook lives. I'll be doing a Facebook life in about
an hour I'm talking about this, Am, what a terrible
mistake that was? No, No, it was great and I'd
be doing that and then uh, like I said, a
real estate with better homes and guns, real estate the
Good Life Group, so you can contact me through them,
or like I said, I'm on Facebook and no all
the other turtis.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I love it, Tom, It's good to see you in
my friend Merry Christmas. Tom Becka always elicits a reaction.
Half of you said that was great, the other half said,
never have him on again. But my favorite email comes
from Ryan. We were talking about the Mount Rushmore on
KFAB and says Tom Becka is a better fit for
crazy Horse.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Thank you for that. And thanks to Kim Naberty, Dave
Naberty's much better half. She brought us the tom or
the Donald Trump talking clock we were talking about on
the radio the other day. This is going in the studio.
Thank you so much, Kim, thanks for hanging out with
us and Merry Christmas. Scott voices our news radio eleven
(36:29):
ten Kfab
Scott Gordos.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We have a bit of a Christmas miracle in the studio.
Be proud. This is the theme song to Drive Time Omaha,
the Tom Becca Show afternoons on news radio eleven ten
KFAB for several years and a couple of different stints,
(00:22):
and the last time he left this building he said,
I'll never go back there. No hell, Hell, that's not
how I remember it, but it's going to be back. Well,
I saw your Facebook post. My friend Tom Beca is
right here on eleven ten kfab and it is wonderful
to see you. He said, Well, Hell is frozen over.
(00:45):
I'm gonna jump back on kfab for a moment.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It's been fifteen years since I've been in the building.
It's funny because I rang the doorbell to get in,
and one of the new sales guys you know, opened
the door for me, and as he lets me and
he goes said, I'm going to be an Scotch show.
He said, Oh that's nice. He said, do you know
where the studio is? I said, yeah, I think I
know where it might be able to find it. I'm
been here before.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It hasn't changed in any really way, shape or form
since you left here. I can't believe it's been fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, that's been about fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, yeah, you've you've done a few different things since then.
You're doing a few different things. Now, what do you have?
People want to know what's Tom Becka up to.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Here's a thing. I'll let me preface it with saying
what I learned from my dad. All right, my dad
had to reinvent himself a few times with his career.
He was in insurance and he was in the home
office and he was a sales rep and all that,
you know, an agent and all that. And then when
he retired for two years, he did like nothing. He
sat around, went to the Legion Hall, you know, had
(01:46):
a few beers with his buddy's there at the Legion Hall,
and that was about it. And after about two years
he had a part time job with the Enterprise runner
Car where he was the person that was picking up
people dropping him off all that, and everybody in the
in the office was on like these twenty twenty three
year old kids. And I could tell the difference in
his attitude on those days, you know what he was
(02:07):
working with Enterprise then when he was just hanging out
with his old war buddies, and I just determined that
I was not going to just retire and do nothing.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Doesn't eve mean good or bad. You could tell a
change in his attitude much better. He was doing better
when he felt like he was doing something rather than
just hanging out with this buddy. Everyone thinks they get
into a retirement situation and like it gonna be great.
I'm gonna work on this hobby every single day. I'm
finally gonna paint that bathroom. Maybe I'll learn how to
do something or cook something. And then you do that
(02:36):
and after a couple of weeks you're driving your spouse insane.
Now you would you gotta do something?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Oh no, no, you see now you got a few
years ahead of you. But you'd be good at retirement
because you would play golf seven days a week. I
do that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Now at some point I'd be like, I kind of
go do something. So are you announcing that you're working
at enterprise rent a car or is it APIs budget?
Which one? No?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, no no. For by the past five years. For
the past five years, I got my real estate license
with Better Homes and Gardens real Estate, the Good Life Group,
and I got my real estate license, and I've been
working with people to buy and sell homes. And I
love it because, much like being on the radio, I'm
helping people, you know. I mean, that's one of the
things that I loved about the time on the air
here was that I could go and you know, I
(03:18):
knew that we were doing some good, whether it be
tornado coverage, reduced coverage, you know, just making somebody laugh.
I knew that we were doing good with this. And
that's what I loved about this job. And that's what
I love doing the real estate is that I'm helping
people out, you know, and and the whether they're buying
or selling, and I love doing that. And but the
nice thing about it is that, thankfully I'm in a
(03:41):
decent situation, right don't I don't need that to pay
all the bills, you know what I mean. So I'm working.
I'm working, but it's not like, you know, I'm working
with people that I know and people that I trust,
the people that like me and that and that, and
when I want to take time, I don't have to
(04:01):
fill out any forms get approval from corporate. I don't
have to, you know, I just you know, say hey,
you know what I'm thinking taking a few days off,
but I'm also writing an article two articles a week
for the Omaha Daily Record. So I'm writing two commentary
articles a week on that, and then up until recently,
I was also doing a podcast with Channel six, which
(04:22):
I stopped doing here about two three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Okay, that was that was always really good. Maybe if
they decide, if everyone decides to pick that back up,
but I always like that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well yeah, thank you. But I'm right now I'm doing
a Facebook live night that's like a ninety day experiment.
I'm doing a Facebook live every day at eleven. And
I picked eleven because there's no local talk during that time,
to be honest with you, so I, uh, you could
pick nine. There's no good local talk on at nine today. Notwithstanding,
I didn't want I didn't want to say that, but
(04:51):
since you bought it up, nah, so I I just
do a half hour you know, commentary, interact with the
people on Facebook and as an I did any experiment
to see if I really liked doing that. Uh, and
if I do, I may then go and it's you know,
invest in you know, all the equipment and do the
YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and just blast it out there,
(05:13):
because I know people that were in radio that are
now currently making money digitally, and I don't know that
that's what I want to do, but I'm, you know,
just sort of messing there might toe in the water
on that.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I really enjoyed the thought of you like going to
work at like the rental car counter and Enterprise rent
a car though, because honestly, what in the world else
could Tom Becka do other than be Tom Becka in
some way, shape or form. I mean you, you couldn't
do anything else whatever allows you to go out and
(05:45):
be Tom Becky. You got to go out and be
Tom Becka.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Well, it's interesting to say that because actually that was
a conscious decision that I made years ago. I was
looking like the old old sports guys like Mickey Mantle,
and I'm saying, Mickey Mantell's job just being Mickey Mantle
won if I could make that happen.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know, I don't think you could be Mickey Mantle,
but you're a hell of a Tom Becka.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
My athltic ability is, you know, my athletic ability is
just like Mickey Mantle's.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Now now, yes, yeah, you know you posted on Facebook
the other day and said, well, hell is frozen over.
I'm gonna go back on KFAB. When I asked you,
do you want to be a guest in the studio
when you come hang out, you had to think about it.
I mean, I understand, we all in this business understand
what it's like to show up at work one day
(06:35):
and not know, oh, this is my last day here.
And obviously there's some anxiety that goes with coming back
in here now as a guest on this radio station.
How are you feeling about it? Uh?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
This is fun. I'm enjoying this. I'm enjoying this. Uh.
But you're right, there's a lot of apprehension, you know.
I mean, uh, there was some animosity with previous management
here that didn't you know, that didn't go all that well.
And uh, you know, so I had some I had
some hard feelings. I'll be honest with you. I had
some hard feelings about the place. But you and I
(07:10):
always got along, you know, you and I, You and
I always got along. I'll say this that during that
time that Scott and I would meet for lunch occasionally,
maybe a drink after work, and you know, stocks of
good day. So we always had a long but you
know what happens, and this happens with any any line
of work. You got people that you work with that
you just work with, and you have people that you
work with that you think are friends. And there were
(07:31):
some people that I thought were friends turned out to
be people that I just used to work with, and
so I you know, just you know, I had apprehension
about coming back, but I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, your voice deserves to be heard, Okay. I would
love for you to be a regular guest here, and
he was Radio eleven ten kfa B.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I'd be happy to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, And I already got people emailing going, are you
guys going to save the cranberriers? Today?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
But head of the week? It's only Monday. I mean,
I want to talk to you about some of your
favorite memories of being on this radio STA, because I
hope your experiences since the last time you were sitting
in here with that microphone in your face haven't tainted
all of the fun that we had and that you
had and the good you were able to do with
the station in the community.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I mean, jeez, I'm very proud of my time Herera kaetheby.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, the shows during Lent alone, going out to various
fish fries around town were amazing, and we tried and
found we couldn't duplicate him in the same way that
you did. So I want to talk about all that,
But there was one other feature of the Tom Becka
show that I was really thinking about, and this is
one of the bigger reasons why I wanted to have
(08:39):
you in, and that is Tom was the leader and
I don't know if he still is because I don't
know what happened to this group. It was something that
Jim Rose and I said on the radio last week.
He was talking about, well, all these people in the middle,
all these these people who are nonpartisan, like who are
these people anymore? Every ones like hyperpartisan. I don't know
(09:02):
whatever happened to the mad Middle. Tom Beca was the
leader of the mad Middle. We'll talk to them about that. Next. Here,
our guest in the studio is none other than Tom
Beca on News Radio eleven ten kfab Scott. It's a
topsy turvy world. Nicki Minaj is speaking at the Turning
Point USA event. Tom Beca is here in the studios
on news radio eleven ten kfab Dodgs and cats living together,
(09:25):
mass hysteria. Tom and his years on this radio station
was the leader of the mad Middle. This is a
group of people conservative on some things, liberal on other things,
but really just looking at both parties and saying, how
come you guys can't get anything done? Am I characterizing it?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah? But I started at long. I know I started this.
I started this when I was down in Kansas City
or by the way, I just had a text from
Bill White. Bill White was the program director in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
One of the one of our former boss, one of
our former.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Boss is one of the best times I've ever worked for.
But anyway, he's listening online anyway. So anyway, so I
started this bad middle thing. But this is before social
media really took hold, before you know, Twitter and Facebook
and all that stuff, and so you can still have
a dialogue and stuff, whereas then I still try to
do the mad Middle. And what I wound up getting
(10:17):
was hateful, uh, hateful posts on Facebook from the left
and hateful post Facebook posts on the right. You know,
I mean what I'm getting now, I think I'm still
pretty much the same person I was when I was here.
What I get now I get people's in what did
you become such a liberal? And it's always been, well,
what's the topic, Because on some topics, I am liberal.
(10:38):
On some topic topic time very conservative, you know, and
and that I think is how it should be. And actually,
since you brought this up, I was thinking about this
on the way over here. If if if I was
doing a show here, could I do a show where
I was criticizing Ice. Could I do a show where
I was criticizing Trump's uh tweet about Rob Reiner? Could
(10:59):
I do a show like that? Because I mean, I
listened to some of the syndicated shows you have here,
and they're all kissing the president's but and I'm not.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You know, sweet criticize the president's tweet about Rob Reiner.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Well that's pretty much a no brainer. But there's other
other other policies that are maybe a little bit more
nuanced and uh, you know, and so I don't know
that I could even do it in today's environment.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah. Well, I I see this happening with some talk
radio hosts, and that is they they might have an issue.
And I've dealt with a little bit of this because
there are certainly some things that the president says and
some things that he does where I say, I don't
know that we need that. Would President Reagan have done that?
And immediately you do get the response from this president
(11:46):
could do no wrong crowd, and then they started like, oh,
you and David all the rest of this stuff. Well,
I'm not one of those people that says, all right,
let's let's see if we can be friends. How do
you feel about that? How do you feel about that?
I love having good conversations where people don't things, don't
take things personally, and have a difference of political opinions.
I love that. I need that. Yeah, you want to
(12:08):
bore me out of my mind? Tell me how much
you agree with everything I say all the time the
way I say it, I will be so bored. I mean,
God bless you, but I'll be so bored. But anymore,
you got people that say, all right, how do you
feel about these things? They'll lay out ten things. You
agree completely on nine of them, but that last one, Oh,
I didn't know you were a rhino. And there are
(12:30):
some people that look at that and roll their eyes,
and some people that they take it personally and they
use that to then degrade bimane or or decide they
don't want anything to do with that whole group that
they could otherwise be friendly politically with.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know what really frustrates me is I've got you know,
I've got people in my life, people that I know
they are mag of people, you know, and I will
say them. I will tell you three things about Trump
that I like. Name one if you, Tay will tell
me three. Here's the But you tell me three things
about Trump you don't like. And I'm talking Poula. See,
I'm not talking well, I don't like the way that
he talks. I'm talking policy. A person rather high profile
(13:06):
conservative here in town. I did that to him years ago,
and he said, well, I don't like his hair because
there's just so ingrained in this And that's why I
think is very scary, you know. That's why I think
it is so very scary. I mean, I think that
there are things that President Trump has done that I
agree with. I'm glad that he's shut on the border. Okay,
I'm glad that he's shut down the border, you know.
(13:29):
But you know, on the other hand, I don't like
that he's got something even our American citizens that he's
you know, detaining and trying to ship off. I don't
like I don't like that he wants to get run
of a birthright citizenship. This country was founded on immigration.
If you go to my house, which you know you won't,
(13:51):
but they need to have.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I've never.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You know what, I I don't I don't you know what,
I don't entertain. I'm actually I'm actually kind of you know,
for a person that's been out here like this, I'm
actually kind of just a hermit.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Otherwise I can imagine what your house looks like.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Basically, my office look like, Yes, well.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I'm in your office. And by the way, I still
got your sign in there. Oh yeah, yeah, I don't
know drive time omaha, you know Tom Becker's show whatever.
That sign still in my office. And I tell people,
they're like, this is your office. I'm like, it is
Tom Becka's office. I just hang out in here.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
But that's very kind of you. But no, it's your office.
And you've done some great stuff here, you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Know, name one, you had me on the show. All right,
it's a new beginning. But politics, why do we have
to fight each other all the time? So all right,
so let's say you have some thoughts on the president
and I have some thoughts on the president. Can either
of us do anything about anything? Why it seems like
(14:54):
you have always enjoyed, though, getting in the middle of
that battle and either stoke the debate or rolling up
your sleeves and being a part of it. Why do
you like to fight with people?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't like to fight with people.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't want to fighting with me right now? About
fighting with you?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, I just said that you did a great thing
about having me on the program, and you see, I'm
agree with you. I agree with you on that. Uh No,
I like I'm like you. I like good discussion. I
like good discussion where you can talk about things and
see things differently. I have changed my opinion on a
few things over the years as I get more information
and my life situation has changed. Uh you know, I
(15:29):
I've changed my position on things. I think too many
people get into whatever that mindset is and they're afraid
to change. They're afraid to adapt. And that's one of
the things when you asked earlier about like what I'm
doing now and all that stuff. I've been able to
reinvent myself a number of times, whether it be here
on the radio, whether it be doing the stand up comedy,
whether it be doing the real estate, whether it be
doing I've been able to reinvent myself a number of times,
(15:52):
and this, well, I was wanna say something, but I
think I'll be misconstrewed and then come cross wrong. But
I'm editing myself.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I say that you are a new Tom Becka.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I'm editing I've learned over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, shoot first and asked questions later. Was not part
you know that that used to be how you were.
Now you're asking questions before you fire.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Well that was but that was actually but that was
actually again somewhat of a radio persona. I mean you
know that, you know you put on this the show.
This is a radio show, you know. And I told people,
you know, back in the day. I was dating woman
one time and she she never listened to the show.
She had no idea. We were introduced by a mutual
friend and after about like you know, dating for about
(16:35):
a month or two, and she says to me, he knowes,
I don't get it. I tell my friends I'm dating you,
and they all tell me what a jerk you are.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Back to the original question is does the mad middle
still exist or is everyone now in their camps or
they've decided I'm apathetic to the entire thing.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I'm out. I think, well, I think part of the
mad middle of people that are apathetic and rout. I
think that's part of the mad middle. I think though, actually,
if you get right down to it, I think that
the mad middle does exist out there in the real world.
I don't think it exists in the political world, and
I don't think that it exists in the media world,
(17:20):
you know. I mean we had we just have this
thing with CBS with sixty minutes where there was a
story that the president wouldn't have liked, and so they
just scrunched it, you know. And this is a very
dangerous thing, you know. I mean, we are supposed to
be able to have differensive opinions, and you know, there
(17:41):
should also be a story then the president would like,
because that's, you know, how it's supposed to be. And
I think in the real world that's sort of how
it is. But we end up I also do it.
I've done a few continued education classes out at Metro
on media literacy, and I started off the class by
(18:01):
asking the people, I say, okay, look at me. How
many of you see an old, fat guy. A few
chuckles on that, right, He said, Okay, now look at me.
How many do you see a person that's been involved
in the media for forty years and has a perspective
on what is going on in this world media wise?
(18:21):
Then they think for a second. I said, now, what
story are you going to write? And what story are
you going to read? You know, I mean everybody talks
about bias of the media. What about the bias of
the consumers of the media.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, but here's how I see that CBS thing. So
they were going to do a story and then they
pulled it because they said, we didn't get anyone from
the Trump administration to speak out on the other side
of it. And people are like, you pulled a story,
and now Trump knows how to get you to pull
your stories because all he has to do is just
not say anything about it. And you're not going to
run the story I think. I mean, you see this.
(18:56):
All the time we reached out to this group, they
have not yet responded for comment. That happens all the time.
You give people fair time to be able to respond,
they don't do it. We're running the story. What CBS
did is Had they run just another story about deportations,
people would have ignored it, like, yeah, we know this
is going on here. But by pulling the story, by
(19:17):
making you think, oh, Trump is responsible for pulling the story, now,
you got more people paying attention to the story. Then
if they just run the thing and said we reached
out to the Trump administration, they did incline to get
back to us. I'm smelling a rat on the CBS deal.
How so I can restate everything I just said, that's
(19:37):
not a rat. I think yeah, I think they get
more attention if they say, well, we decided to pull
the story, and then we all know what the story is,
cause they told us what the story was. They just
didn't put it out on sixty minutes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You are aware of the person that now owns CBS, right, but.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
They still told us what the story was. If they
told the story, they didn't tell us the reporter told us.
The reporter told us, and and you know it was
like CBS did it as a publicity stunt. It's like
the reporter said, this story had passed and it had
passed the muster with lawyers, and it passed the muster
with the fact checkers and uh, the owners uh pulled it.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So yeah, it was not it was not corporate saying I.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
No, No, I'm just saying I I we wouldn't be
talking about it if they just run the story.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
But I don't disagree with you. I don't disagree with
you on that. I don't disagree with you on that.
But uh, but if you take a look at what's
happening and that that goes back to what I said before,
could I do a mad Middle show on this station today?
You know? I mean that that's I think that's a
voutid question. That's I'm not saying that to you know,
criticize the station. But if you take a look at
(20:43):
the other programming on this station is matter of fact,
matter of fact? Well no, I mean, look, matter of fact.
There was a a former host of a show that
was lectro, and a mutual friend of ours said to you, Hey,
you want to hire Tom Becka, to which you allegedly
(21:04):
said you allowed to said Tom doesn't really quite fit
into the format here anymore. You I'm paraphrasing, but that was.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I can't. I have to now say that I am
a member of management here and hiring and firing decisions,
you know, laid out on the radio. I'll put it
this way, if Kat one of three our country station
suddenly like threw in a rap song in the middle
of their country music, people would think, I don't know
if that's the format, that's that's all.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, that's that and that's valid. I mean, that's why
I asked the question, you know, could I could I
do the show that I did? Could I do it today?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I I By the way, I'm the same one that
invited you in the studio this morning, and I'm telling
you I would like to have you on in the future.
Right now, I got to get to a news update
from Fox, so Grinn and Barrett. Through that, I want
to also look back a little bit at your career
on this radio station, because this is a station that
just this month is wrapping up our one hundredth year
(22:07):
on the radio. Tom was here for like seventy seven
years here, and we got to look back at some
of the stuff that happened during his tenure. That's coming
up after a Fox News update.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Next Scott's News Radio eleven ten kfab. I was I
was on a walk one day and I had the
Don Henley album. I was listening to my walkman, you know,
because on your.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Walk Wow, yeah, now you didn't take your record player
with an extension court.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I take it back, I take it back. I might
have had an MP three player.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
That might have been a track. Yeah, I couldn't hear
the entire song. The quad faded out and then started.
Yeah yeah, but and I I.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Had never heard that song before, and I'm listening to
it as I'm walking. I'm going, oh, yeah, that's my
theme music. Yeah, that's my theme music.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, that's perfect. I Tom Becka. I mean when you
meet people who don't know like, oh your time Becka
a long time radio guy and all that stuff, and
you're talking to someone in their life. So tell me
about yourself. What do you say about your time working
on this radio station, Because even though you haven't been
a part of the station for fifteen years, and I
can't believe it's been that long, you're still very closely
(23:17):
aligned with the station.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I and this is going to make me sound more
self important than I mean for it too, But I
think it's the same way forget about everything that Paul
McCartney has done over his career, he's still beat.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Paul McCartney, I like how this is starting.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
But you know what I mean, but that I just
mean that I'm always going to be associated with this station,
you know, always be associated with the station. And it
amazes me that, like people just recognize my voice. You know, wow,
a little bit harsh, a little bit horse today, but
you know, just stroll with the voice. I had a
(23:55):
person one time, We're just having our conversation and actually, actually,
you know, I guess it was he heard me talking
and he said, hey, you're Tom Becca. I know, yeah, yeah,
And he just goes on to tell me how he
doesn't listen to the radio. And I said, well, if
you don't listen to the radio, how the hell did
you recognize my voice?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
You know, as I you know, but well you used
to do a bit like tell call in and tell
me why you don't listen anymore. And all these people said,
I'm never gonna listen to your show again. Just it's
always like someone else in the office had it on.
I happened to be walking past. They'd never admit they
were listening to you.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, well that's the whole PBL thing. Probably beca listener
came from you know, because we know you're matter. I
would love to see your emails right now, because I
know you've got emails and people saying, what the hell
is this idiot doing on the air.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Uh. Yes, that's the first one up here from Jamie.
Uh let's see. But not every single person. Yeah, better
question how many people meet you someplace or hear your voice. Goh,
he you're Tom Becka and then proceed to tell you
I listened to your show every day on KFAB And
you have to tell him like, I haven't been on
the in fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
There are people that say, yeah, that that that that
has happened. That has happened. The other thing that has
happened is that I was out one night and this
very attractive woman in her thirties comes up to me
and says, hey here, Tom Becka, Why yes, im right, Yes, yes.
When I was a little girl, my dad and I
used to listen to your show all the time. And
(25:22):
I'm thinking, ah, that's right, I'm old. I got that
like ten years ago. Uh college girl, I I agree.
She said I grew up listening to you, and I'm like, well,
I've been on the station at that point for about
nine years. Yeah, I guess that math checks out. It's awful,
isn't it now. I mean, like I said, I'm I'm
very proud of, you know, my time here at the station,
(25:43):
the things that we did, you know. I mean, when
Darry retired, they had a big story in the World
Herald and Dearry talked about when the power went out
all throughout the city. At the time, I didn't live
like four blocks from the station. I woke up like
fourth thirty five o'clock in the morning to go to
the bathroom, and I noticed all the lights were out
all throughout and I saw the snow. So I crawled
(26:06):
into the radio stations. At that time, they had you know,
overnight hosts and everything over overnight board ops crawled the
radios and I said, oh yeah, powers out all over town.
So I walked through the snow. And there is nothing
more quiet. You don't realize it, nothing more quiet than
when the power is out, because there's always a hum
of the electrical wires. But when the electoral wires ain't there,
(26:28):
it is deadly quiet. Plus the insulation from the snow.
Walking through the snow here at like four point thirty
in the morning or whatever, and all I can see
is the red KFABE lights because we had a generator
on the station was on the air, and all I
could see was that the glow of KFAB came on
the air, and we went on the air, started telling
people what was going on, and we went NonStop, and
(26:50):
Jerry mentioned Mike Shane, who was the engineer at the time.
Our generator went out, and Mike Shane figured out a
way to run this radio station on an old shur
mitzer with three nine volt batteries and we had no light,
no lights in the studio, but a phone line to
the transmitter site, and so we could talk on the air,
(27:13):
and we knew we were getting calls, but the phones
weren't lining up because no electricity, so we're just like
randomly going to the calls.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
It was one of the most amazing times in my
broadcast career, and I know that we were helping people.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
How many nights have you spent where you slept here
in this building?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Was that because I had spent too much time across
the street at the Dells.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
There could be any number of reasons.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
No, no, no, there there were there were nights when
there was you know, a big storm coming in. When
we slept when that power went out, pretty much an
all staff slept here, you know what I mean that was.
That was the thing is we had everybody was working. Everybody,
all hangs on deck, the salespeople, the management, if anybody
had a uh, you know, a jeep or a four
(27:58):
wheel drive that could get through this. Though they were
out delivering people, you know, groceries and stuff like that.
We got calls from people that had like life saving
medical devices that needed power and we were taking you know,
generators to them and everything like that. I mean, it
was truly and.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's been what what was ninety seven October ninety seven snowstorm?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Has it been that long? Yeah, Yeah, that's one of
the that's one of the fond memories. But you know,
there were a lot of them. There a lot of
rig times.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, you and I go back when I first met you.
I was working for a radio station down the street,
as it were, with Chris Baker, and you and Chris
had a bit of you know, work on two different
radio stations, both doing fun news talk radio shows. You
had a bit of a battle with one another, both
stand up comics. That was kind of fun to watch
(28:50):
from all of that, but I never really got a
chance to get to know you until you and I
were working kind of together, and for a while they
were different radio stations and in the city, but we
go back so long. We used to go out and
get drinks and chase girls together, and I was.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
At your wedding and everything, so yeah, we did.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
We shouldn't have gone to chase girls on the day
of my wedding. I admit that was a bad idea.
That idea for you worked out great for me, yes,
So but you started on this radio station. What was
your first day like here on KFAB, especially because let's admit,
your voice is not the traditional Hey everybody, it's a
(29:31):
great radio voice. It's good to be it's a little different.
So how did that go for you when you started here?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Somebody once subscribed to it sounded like a pekingese and heat. Uh, Well,
how it started was probably Honestly, I'd been on the
road doing stand up comedy and a lot of the
comedy clubs were turning into karaoke bars. And I was
not a bad, you know, mid level comic, but I
knew I wasn't you know real, I was not Jerry Seinfield.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Material you worked with all those great guys worked.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
As Seinfeld and Sam Kinderson, I worked with Drew Carey,
opened for the band Chicago. I mean, you know, I
had had a decent career doing stand up, but I
also knew, you know, you're on the road all the time,
and every time town starts to look the same. I mean,
that's you know, it's a cliche of rock bands and stuff.
I decided I want to come back to Omaha have
(30:21):
more of a normal life. Uh And as luck would
have it, I just was able to talk my way
into a job. I tried, and I did a I
quit a little audition on a Saturday here and the
next day, next Monday, the guy that was working as
Kevin Cooper's partner on kg o R got into a
big argument with Paul Erin and he was let go.
(30:43):
I get a phone call from Paul Aaron said, well,
you're we're not gonna use you on the AM, but
uh yeah, you want to be uh on the morning
show on kg o R. Get my foot in the door.
I'm in the building. Yes. So I did about a
year and a half with Kevin Cooper and then Jerry
Hudson went on a three week vacation. So during those
three weeks, I filled in for Jerry Hudsons. I'm doing
the morning show on kgU Are. Then I'm doing the
(31:04):
three weeks with Jerry Hudson. And I learned a very
valuable lesson. Never go on a three week vacation, because
at the end of three weeks, they like me more
than they like Jerry. And that's how I got That's
how I got the job doing Todd Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I mean, I think about some of the personalities that
have been associated with this radio station, and we were
trying to we kind of quickly tried to slap together
a mount Rushmore of KFAB and it's impossible to do
it with some of the personalities, not just from the
talk radio hosts like yourself, but the news personalities. I
(31:41):
mean Lyle Bremser, Walt Cavanaugh, Jack Paying, Gary Sadlemeyer. That's
kind of my Mount Rushmore. But and you'd be down
there screaming at how come I'm.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Not out there put another face on there. Yeah, yeah,
wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute. But
you know another guy that you mentioned maron Milhaven. There's
another one, Millven, He who was now naturally syndicated.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
He does a nighttime show for uh for Tumulus, and
he's on some LIKEW and twenty radio stations or something,
you know, so you know, so, yeah, there's been a
lot of time that has come through here. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yeah, so you look back here. You did butt Head
of the Week to save the Cranberry Show on Thanksgiving.
That was a staple, the leader of the Mad Middle
the shows during fish Fridays during Lent. What am I
leaving out that you're really proud of that you were
able to do on this radio station.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Oh well, I said that the news stories. There was
a friend of mine when there was the tornado that
wiped out the boy Scout camp north of here. Uh yeah,
and her son was at that camp, and she went
(32:52):
and was driving to the camp, not knowing the condition
of her son, and I'm talking through the whole thing,
and it just really you know, she thanked me profusely
on being you know, that voice that helped her get
through that, and thankfully her son was okay and everything.
But you know, so things like that. There was another
person one time who I had never met, and he
(33:17):
contacts me and says, Tom, I got to buy your lunch.
I gotta buy a lunch. Okay whatever. So I wasn't
met you know, a.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Free lunch was always in my food. But yeah, it's
free lunch.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
So we go on Crosstreet to the Dell and he
just said, Tom, I was at my wits end. I said,
you know, my wife had left me, my daughter and
I were fighting, I'd lost my job. I was in
I was in a field in my pickup truck in
a field with a loaded gun, about to you know,
kill myself. And you're on the radio and you made
(33:48):
me laugh and I said, if I can laugh, I
can't do this. And so I went and got counseling.
And he's, you know, alive and well today things like that,
I don't think people realize the connection that a that
are good no radio host, if somebody has a favorite
(34:09):
radio personality, A connection that you make with those people,
I mean, you know it, you know. And having done
TV radio is more of a friend relationship with the audience.
TV is more like a visitor relationship. You know. The
connection that I made with the radio audience I was
much stronger and much more personal than the one with
(34:33):
the TV.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, it's different because the TV reporter is going to
tell you what's happening. We're going to tell you what
we think about it, and you're either going to enjoy
it or you're not, and you can communicate.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
But I was doing commentary over that pot forty too,
so I was doing commentary then, but it was different. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, the things you're saying that are the more bittersweet
moments that you think about in your history. We all
have those because this is part of the fabric of
our community. Tom Becker, You're part of the fabric of
kfa B. And as we were wrapping up our one
hundredth year, I didn't want to let that go by
without acknowledging your huge role and what we've done here
(35:08):
on this radio station and in our community. That means
a lot to me, Scott, and I appreciate it, and
I want you to come back anytime. I'm not gonna
pay you. I want you to come back any when
I worked here. So yeah, it's the great if you
can bring your own money, Tom Beca, What are you
doing now? Where can people find you?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Oh? Well, there's on tom Becka dot com. Also on
Facebook lives. I'll be doing a Facebook life in about
an hour I'm talking about this, Am, what a terrible
mistake that was? No, No, it was great and I'd
be doing that and then uh, like I said, a
real estate with better homes and guns, real estate the
Good Life Group, so you can contact me through them,
or like I said, I'm on Facebook and no all
the other turtis.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I love it, Tom, It's good to see you in
my friend Merry Christmas. Tom Becka always elicits a reaction.
Half of you said that was great, the other half said,
never have him on again. But my favorite email comes
from Ryan. We were talking about the Mount Rushmore on
KFAB and says Tom Becka is a better fit for
crazy Horse.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Thank you for that. And thanks to Kim Naberty, Dave
Naberty's much better half. She brought us the tom or
the Donald Trump talking clock we were talking about on
the radio the other day. This is going in the studio.
Thank you so much, Kim, thanks for hanging out with
us and Merry Christmas. Scott voices our news radio eleven
(36:29):
ten Kfab
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