Retired newsman Dave Hager shares memories and adventures from more than fifty years on the beat in Michigan and Indiana. New episodes every Friday.
Dave and a college accomplice try to smuggle hard cider into a dry Illinois town.
Dave was working at WIRE Radio one Sunday in downtown Indianapolis when he decided to make a quick run to the post office ... and found he couldn't escape.
Dave reminisces about his childhood friend Jimmy Moreno and shares a perilous journey he made to deliver an Easter egg.
Every Friday evening for 26 years, Dave and his friend Garrard sat down in the studio to record a jazz radio show called The Jazz Scene for the local NPR affiliate. In this episode, Dave remembers how his love of jazz and the connections he made through the show changed his life and, in one case, helped a grieving son reconnect with his jazz clarinetist father's lost interview.
Love blooms at the Silver Star Skating Rink when a farm girl goes on a blind date and meets a wonderful man. Dave remembers Dick and Dottie and shares the story of their 56-year marriage.
Dave's work didn't always make people happy. In this episode you'll hear about cranky, furious, and homicidal readers ... and even a whole town that got a bit irritated.
Dave discovers a vanishing island ... and a monster to go with it.
Dave recalls how getting kicked out of a high-school math class led to a radio wonderland, and reflects on how reporters are sometimes excluded from things just when it's getting interesting.
In 1974, Duke Ellington was scheduled to play in Kalamazoo. Dave was all set to cover it, but it didn't happen as intended.
Of all the cases ... criminal and civil ... that came through the Kalamazoo County Courts, there was one type of case judges hated hearing the most. Dave remembers a custody case that's stayed with him for many years.
Crawfordsville Journal-Review City Editor Mac finds himself plagued by starlings.
Dave reminisces about Kalamazoo County Court judges ... and a mysterious letter exchange between two prisoners. (Bonus cuckoo clock ambience!)
Locked up in the Kalamazoo County Jail, prisoners tried ingenious escape methods. Dave shares the stories of two jail breaks that may have suffered from lack of forethought.
Remembering Crawfordsville, Indiana's unique "carousel" jail. See photos at https://bit.ly/rotaryjail.
Special guest Phyllis Rose joins Dave and Karen to remember a victim, a hero, and some near misses as the May 13 1980 tornado raced through downtown Kalamazoo.
Dave describes what he heard, saw, and felt immediately after the tornado of 1980 cut a destructive swath through downtown Kalamazoo.
In May 1980, an F3 tornado tore through downtown Kalamazoo. Dave was at ground zero.
Dave's filling in for a vacationing news editor, with responsibility for putting together that day's paper. As the clock counts down to his deadline, the bells in the wire room go crazy and Dave finds himself part of a major historical event.
Dave volunteers to take part in a police lineup in Crawfordsville ... and wishes he hadn't.
A bank robber takes a wrong turn, and Dave's colleague Lane picks up a suspicious-looking hitchhiker.
Dave shares his memories of the strongest cop on the Kalamazoo police force. Kid caught in a tight space? Bad guy running amok? Just call Rock.
Dave gets a chance to interview jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald ... but she's got a toothache! Can Dave help her out and still get a story?
Dave covers a barn fire, then meets a stubborn pig and uses a time-honored secret word (and a helpful dog) to get it moving again.
City boy Dave finds himself alone in a paddock with some horses. One of them just wants to play.
A phone call in the dead of night brings Dave into a search for escaped convicts.