WGTD's The Morning Show with Greg Berg

From 2023- Sharon Price John, author of "Stories and Heart: Unlock the Power of Personal Stories to Create a Life You Love."

We talk about the narrated musical work "Lovers of Liberty" that will be performed as part of the dedication of the newly refurbished Ceremonial Courtroom in the Kenosha County Courthouse this weekend. We speak with Julia Nowicki, who had primary responsible for putting the work together, Ben Woods, who is serving as its narrator, and Jesse Gomez and Heather Kamikawa, who are two of the string musicians participating in these performances. Sunday afternoon at 1:30 is the public's primary opportunity to experience this work.

We connect with singer/Songwriter Nellie McKay, who is returning to Kenosha's White Lilac on Thursday evening, October 1st - at 8 p.m. McKay has enjoyed a wide-ranging career that has run the gamut from singing in intimate cabarets to starring in a show on Broadway. The White Lilac is located at 5029 6th Avenue. Their phone number is (262) 515-1967 .... and their website is whitelilackenosha.com.

From 2020 - Dr. Clyde D. L. Wynne, author of "Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You."

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly reocrded and archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11." We share a 2002 interview with Cathy Trost, co-author of "Running Toward Danger," a book from the Newseum in which more than 100 journalists talk about the challenges they faced in trying to cover the chaotic, painful events of September 11, 2001.

We speak with Deborah Roberts, a Senior National Affairs Correspondent for ABC News- and co-host of 20/20, which begins its newest season Friday night, September 25th.

We preview the performances of "Elegies: A Song Cycle" by William Finn with director Molly Fuller and with three students who are part of the cast: Brayden Follett, Dom Luzwick, and Maria Romero. The performances will occur over the next two weekends in Carthage's Wartburg Auditorium.

We are resharing a portion of a 2025 conversation with two-time Grammy Award nominee Laura Strickling, a classically-trained soprano who is singing a recital tonight (Tuesday) at 7;30 in Carthage College's JAC Recital Hall as part of the school's performing arts series.

We talk about LAUNCH KENOSHA with Joseph Tenuta, who is Rogers Palmers Distinguished Professor in Business, Department Chair of Management, and Assistant Professor of Management.

From 2025- Kevin Wade talks about his novel "Johnny Careless."

From 2006 - As the Metropolitan Opera celebrates the start of its 20th anniversary Live in HD series, we replay a 2006 conversation with Julie Borcard-Young , who at the time was acting director of marketing for the Met .... and the primary coordinator of the Live in HD series both then and to the present day. This special anniversary season of simulcasts is being celebrated with a special program featuring highlights from some of the 185 simulcasts that the Met has shared over the past 20 years. This special will be screened at hundreds of movie theaters across the country, including Racine's Renaissance Theater., at 1:00 today (Saturday, Sept. 19th.) (Kenosha's Tinseltown is not screening today's special but will be participating in the remainder of this special anniversary season.)

We talk with best-selling novelist Ryan Steck about his latest suspense thriller, "Target Down."

The Metropolitan Opera is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its groundbreaking Live in HD series .... in which live performances from the Met are beamed to hundreds of movie theaters across the country. This interview with Met general mangers Peter Gelb was recorded in the fall of 2006, right before the first of the 185 simulcasts that have been seen over the past two decades. This 20th anniversary season of simulcasts is actually beginning with a special program featuring highlights from past simulcasts. Beloved soprano Renee Fleming is the host. The special will be screened at Racine's Renaissance Theater on Saturday, September 19th, at 1 pm. (Kenosha's Tinseltown Theater is not showing tomorrow's special- but will be showing the simulcasts comprising the rest of the season.). More information is available at metopera.org.

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center on September 16, 1966, we replay a portion of a conversation with Susan Froemke, who directed and co-produced a documentary film titled "The Opera House". that chronicles the long and complicated story of how the Met found it necessary to find a new home, the arduous process by which the location and design of that new home, and the monumental challenges involved with the world premiere production of Samuel Barber's ANTONY & CLEOPATRA that opened the house with Leontyne Price. (The film can be view via the Met's website, metopera.org.)

We talk about the Lakeside Players' production of the hilarious musical "Something Rotten" - with stage director Katie Gray, music director Chase Portner, and cast members Austin Gordon-Hill and Brian Dean. The production, which opened this past Friday, runs until September 27th at the Rhode Center for the Arts in downtown Kenosha.

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded and archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11.*. Today is a newly -recorded conversation with attorney Kenneth Feinberg, author of "What is Life Worth?" Feinberg was appointed to the official position of Special Master to administer the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. His memoir, which has just been re-released in a new edition, chronicles the experience that he calls the greatest challenge of his long law career.

Jennifer Clemens, a member of the political science faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, talks about an important event coming up next Wednesday at Parkside ... called "An Imperfect Union," which examines what it means when a country seeks to create a constitution for itself.

Doug Instenes from the Racine Theater Guild talks about the RTG's. current production - a wild comedy called "The Play That Goes Wrong" which runs through September 27th.

BONUS: In honor of actor Walter Koenig's 90th birthday .... and the recent 60th anniversary of the network premiere of Star Trek: the Original Series, we replay my 2020 interview with Koenig in which he talks about his memoir "Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek."

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded and archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11.*. Today we listen back to an interview with best-selling author William Langewiesche, author of "America Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center." Langewiesche's book (which began as a series of articles for Atlantic Monthly, chronicles the story of how the immense mountain of debris was removed ..... a project that was utterly unprecedented in its scope and complexity, requiring incredible cooperation, ingenuity, improvisation and persistence to be completed. Langewiesche was granted largely unfettered access to Ground Zero in order to tell this compelling story.

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded as well as archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11.* This conversation from the fall of 2001 is with the late Dr. Jack Keating, who was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from 1998-2008. Dr. Keating's professional background was in the field of Psychology, and the primary focus of his own research efforts had been on the topic of people's behaviors in the midst of disaster- including high rise fires. In fact, Dr. Keating was actually in New York City and at the World Trade Center at the time of the car bombing there in 1993.

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded as well as archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11.* This interview, from late 2001, is with Jan Sjogren, an officer with the Salvation Army- talking about what it was like to be on site with the Salvation Army in the wake of 9-11.

From 2005- Tom Downey, author of "The Last Men Out: Life of the Edge at Rescue 2 Firehouse." Brooklyn Rescue 2 has been long renowned as one of the finest fire-fighting units in the country. It was very hard hit by the events of 9-11.

Best-selling author Jeffrey Robinson discusses his new book "Ash and Honor: The Untold 368 Minutes of 9/11."

From 2025- in honor of the 60th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: the Original Series ...... Adam Nimoy discusses his book "The Most Human: Reconciling with my Father, Leonard Nimoy."

In memory of a marvelous guitarist named Jack Grassel, we replay an interview from 2019 with Jack and his wife Jill Jensen - who were a highly-regarded entertainment duo known affectionately as Jack and Jill. Jack passed away in late August.

We get a preview of the Patio Pops Concert coming up this Sunday, September 13th at 2:00 that will feature the school's Wind Orchestra and Concert Band in a program of all-American music to celebrate our country's 250th anniversary.

Tatiana Bush, flute instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, talks about Parkside's Flute Day coming up this Saturday, September 12th.

Today is the first visit to the Morning Show of Dr. Veronique Tran, the president of Gateway Technical College. She assumed the presidency of GTC on July 1st. This interview aired on the first day of class for this fall semester.

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded as well as archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11." Today- Jim Dwyer, a Pulitizer Prize-winning writer and longtime reporter for the New York Times, talks about the book "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers." He co-authored the book with Kevin Flynn, which was published in 2005. Dwyer passed away in 2020.

From 2004 - Richard Thieme, author of "Islands in the Clickstream: Reflections on Life in a Virtual World."

From 2020 - Matt Richtel, author of "An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System."

From the archives (2003) - Todd Gitlin talks about his book "Letters to a Young Activist."

We speak with Camille Busette, a representative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, about their new initiative titled "One Nation - Overcharged," which is meant to raise awareness about the plight of Americans who have difficulty coping with the high cost of health care.

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded as well as archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversry of 9/11.*. Today- Gwendolyn Bounds, former Wall Street Journal reporter, talks about her memoir- "Little Chapel on the River." She was one of the thousands of people living in Manhattan at the time of 9/11 who suddenly found themselves homeless. Bounds ultimately resettled in a small community in the Hudson River Valley .... where she lives to this very day. She says in the book that this was an instance of "not just figuring out where to live... but how to live."

One week after the start of classes and a new school year, we speak with Dr. John Swallow, the President of Carthage College.

*Intermittently through the month of September, we are airing newly recorded as well as archival interviews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11*. Part One- Dave Dunbar, co-author of "Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts." The book, which actually grew out of an article in Popular Mechanics, methodically examines the many conspiracy theories that sprang up in the wake of 9/11. Part Two- A 2005 conversation with the late Dr. Jack Keating, who was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from 1998 to 2008. His academic field was Psychology, and the primary focus of his research was on how people behave during disasters and other kinds of crisis- and what sort of trauma do they experience and carry with them in the aftermath.

From 2011 - Ethan Trex, author of "Mental Floss-The Book: Only the Greatest Lists in the History of Listory."

We speak with Dr. Lynn Akey, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, at the outset of a new school year.

From 2016- Dr. Joseph Burgo, author of "The Narcissist You Know: Defending Yourself Against Extreme Narcissists in an All-About-Me Age." [The Morning Show airs every weekday morning between 8 and 9 o'clock on WGTD FM 91.1. We are an affiliate of Wisconsin Public Radio and National Public Radio, broadcasting from the Kenosha campus of Gateway Technical College."

From 2005- Fred Watson, author of "Star Gazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope." [The Morning Show airs every weekday morning between 8 and 9 o'clock on WGTD FM 91.1. We are an affiliate of Wisconsin Public Radio and National Public Radio, broadcasting from the Kenosha campus of Gateway Technical College.]

Part One- We speak with best-selling author and motivational speaker Chris Tuff about his latest book, "Save Your Asks." He will be one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming Inspire 2026 Leadership Conference on October 16th that is sponsored by KABA .... the Kenosha Area Business Alliance. The deadline for early bird registration for this exciting event is this Monday, August 31st. More information about the event is available at kaba.org. Part Two- from the archives- "How to Raise Self-Disciplined Children."

My guests are Kristi Helmkamp, assistant director of the Kenosha Public Library System, and DJ Hanson, who is KPL's Marketing and Communcations Manager. We focus most of our conversation on the library's summer reading program, which culminates in a celebratory party in Library Park (outside of the Simmons Library) tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.

We speak with Luke Mickelson, founder of the national charity Sleep In Heavenly Peace (which has a Racine-Kenosha chapter, as well as several hundred other chapters across the country), will be one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming Inspire 2026 conference on October 16th at Journey Church in Kenosha. Part two features a brief interview from 2002 with former journalist Chris Matthews.

We speak with Robb Woulfe, executive director of the Racine Art Museum, about recent renovation at RAM Downtown, changes in admission fees and hours of operation, expansion of their studio art program, and an exciting multi-arts festival opening on September 18th titled "In/Between" in which RAIM will be extending itself into some intriguing places in the community.

We speak with writer Joel Dinerstein about his new book "The Last Jews of Ellis Island: a Brooklyn Memoir." Dinerstein's parents were among the last European Jews to enter the United States through Ellis Island- and they had Joel when they were both in their mid to late forties. Consequently, Joel was at the very end of that generation of children of so-called Ellie Island Jews. In his engrossing memoir, he not only chronicles what life was like in his particular family, but also the dramatic changes he saw in the Flatbush neighborhood where he grew up.

From 2005- John Grogan, author of "Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog"

From 2018 - Laurence Bergreen, author of "Casanova: The World of a Seductive Genius."

Tiffany D. Jackson talks about her novel for young readers titled "Ghost in the Night." From the archives- we hear from Tim Federle, author of "Better Nate than Ever" - and John Feinstein, author of "The Walk On" - both of these books also intended for young readers.

Part One: Jim Zondlak, a board member with the Kenosha Sportfishing and Conservation Association, talks about the group's Pike River Clean-Up on Saturday, September 19th. This is the group's 19th annual clean-up event - a massive event that involves hundreds of volunteers. Part Two: from the archives- David Coggins, author of "The Believer: A Year in the Fly Fishing Life."

We begin the program with Gary Gronke, who is chairman of the board of Kemper Center, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a plethora of events coming up this Saturday, August 22nd. We fill out the hour by replaying a portion of a conversation from 2022 with three women (Barb Axelson, Susan McMinn and Anna McGuire) who were students at Tremper Hall, the girls' school that operated for a century on the grounds of what is now Kemper Center. The occasion of that conversation was the 150th anniversary of the founding of Kemper Hall.