WGTD's The Morning Show with Greg Berg

In honor of my 40th anniversary with WGTD (my first day at the station was May 27, 1986) I'm replaying some noteworthy Morning Shows this week. This interview aired in 2006 to celebrate my 20th anniversary with the station. It was the idea of Mick Burke, who then was a reporter with the Racine Journal Times as well as a faithful Morning Show listener, for him to come to our studios and interview me about my work at the station. This is most of the interview. (I hope at some point I can track down the rest of it so the interview can be shared in its entirety.). I thank Mick Burke for coming up with the idea to do the interview and for doing such a good job with it.

In honor of my anniversary with WGTD (my first day was May 27, 1986). the next seven days are devoted to seven special high points in the history of the Morning Show. Today is the interview that in many ways I value above all others. If I could only have one single interview as my legacy, it would be this interview from 2003 with Alexandra Zapruder, author and editor of SALVAGED PAGES: Young Writers' Diaries from the Holocaust.

From 2017- Scott Raab, author of "You're Welcome, Cleveland. - How I Helped Lebron James Win a Championship and Save a City."

We speak with two representatives of Advocate Health - Dr. Jonny Macias .... and Ann Gallo .... who will be the keynote speakers for the 35th annual Aging Well Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside next Friday, June 5th. They will be talking about the model of Age-Friendly Health Care and its attention to the 4 Ms..... What Matters Most, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility .... to safeguard the well-being of older adults and to provide them with the most effective and sensitive care.

Nationally-syndicated columnist Dr. Art Cyr, a retired Carthage College professor, joins us to offer his commentary and analysis of various current issues and events.

We speak with attorney Meg Groff, whose memoir "Not if I Can Help It" recounts her experiences in the first years of her career (in the mid-1980s) when she was a Legal Aid attorney in rural Pennsylvania, working with mostly poor women who had been the target of domestic violence or abuse.

2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Route 66, one of the most iconic roadways in North America. In honor of that centennial, we are replaying a 2021 conversation with Brennan Matthews from ROUTE magazine, talking about its and what fun and amazing things can be seen and experienced by traveling Route 66.

For Memorial Day. (from 2018) Patrick O'Donnell, author of "The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America's Unknown Soldier and World War One's Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home."

From 2016 - Scott D. Sampson, author of "How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature."

From 2013 - Ian O'Connor, author of "Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry."

Victoria Hetherington talks about her latest book ...... "The Friend Machine: On the Trail of AI Companionship." The book examines how tens of thousands of people around the world are utilizing AI for companionship, friendship, and even romance. The book discusses what there is to celebrate as well as what there is to fear in this technology.

We speak with author and journalist Phyllis Karas about her book "Curse of the Blumenthals," in which we talks about two very unhappy events in her family's history - "The Tragedy," a car accident in the 1930s involving a drunk driver in which six of Karas's relatives were killed ...... and "The Incident" from the early 1950s in which one of her relatives purportedly committed a horrific murder that became a sensationalized news story. Karas found herself obsessed with uncovering as much information about these two events as she possibly could.

We speak with entertainment writer Scott Ryan about his latest book- "Twin Peaks: Through the Red Curtain." The book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this groundbreaking series by David Lynch and Mark Frost .... a series that helped pave the way for all kinds of series that have come in its wake, including "The X Files," "Lost," and "Stranger Things."

We are sharing Thursday's Morning Show a couple of days early because it concerns a performance coming up this Friday night at the White Lilac in downtown Kenosha: Storyteller, actor and singer Tom Kastle is presenting his one-man show "Dan Seavey: Confessions of a Great Lakes Pirate." Seavey is someone how actually engaged in piracy on the Great Lakes during his long and colorful life.

We speak with Marcus White, President of the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, and Alexandria Smith, Program Officer, about their Safety and Well-Being Collaborative, an enormous project involving nearly three dozen organizations from around Racine - seeking to address some of the most pressing concern confronting the city around the issue of racial disparity.

From 2008- John Broughton, author of "Wikipedia: The Missing Manual." This book was published at a time when Wikipedia was a relatively new addition to the internet, and many people were still unsure of what it was and how it functioned.

Yesterday, May 15th, Racine native Zachary Scot Johnson posted his 5,000th "Song a Day" on Youtube. That's 5,000 consecutive days that Zach has posted a song . In honor of the milestone, we're re-sharing the interview we did with Zach back when he passed the 3,000 benchmark. That interview was done during the period when COVID had basically shut down Zach's live, in-person performance activity and the Song A Day project was an especially important means to remain connected with his fans. Zach is now busier than ever as a musician based in the Twin Cities.

We speak with Nick Greene, author of "How to Watch Soccer Like a Genius: What Architects, Stuntwomen, Paleoanthropologists, and Computer Scientists Reveal About the World's Game."

For Kailyn Palomares's monthly visit to the program, we hear from Ben French, Vice President of Propogation, Production and Product Development at Johnson Nursery in Menomonee Falls ..... one of the largest providers of native plants in Southeastern Wisconsin.

We preview the Racine Theater Guild's production of the musical PIPPIN with Doug Instenes, managing and artistic director of the RTG and the stage director for this production. We also talk about his long time connection with this particular show.

We preview this coming Sunday's concert by the Kenosha Chamber Choir .... "Songs of the American Heartbeat," an all-American program in honor of our country's 250th anniversary. We speak with Michael Gutierrez, director of the group, and Agnes Gray, president of the ensemble and a member of the soprano section. The concert will be performed at Bradford High School thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Pauline Steinhorn, author of "Dreaming of the River: A Mother and Daughter's Fight for Survival during the Holocaust." The two people named in the book's subtitle were the author's mother and grandmother- and this book is based extensively on journals written by both women shortly after the end of the war. It allows Steinhorn to tell many of the same stories from two different perspectives.

Note from Gregory Berg: One of my favorite television programs is CBS Sunday Morning. Today, for Mother's Day, they ran a moving story about a series of retreats across the country for women who have lost their mothers and are trying to cope with the loss. I immediately recognized the name of the woman responsible for organizing the retreats- Hope Edelman - because she had been a guest on my Morning Show many years ago (2007) - talking about her book "Motherless Mothers: How Losing a Mother Shapes the Parent You Become." The book was a followup to her 1994 best-selling book "Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss." I am replaying this interview today in honor of Mother's Day and because I am mindful of all of the people for whom this day includes sorrow and some sense of loss.

As Willow Newell ends her reign as Miss Wisconsin (she crowns the next Miss Wisconsin on June 20th) we decided to re-share this interview that was recorded shortly after she became Miss Wisconsin in the summer of last year.

We speak with David King Dunaway about his new book "A Four-Eyed World: How Glasses Changed the Way We See." It's a look at the history of how eyeglasses were developed - and what may be ahead as technology advances. The book also touches on the author's own relationship with glasses- which he has worn for more than 70 years. During the course of researching this book, the author elected to spend a week without wearing his glasses to see how well he could navigate with his very serious myopia uncorrected.

We speak with Russ Johnson, director of the Jazz Ensemble at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, about Wynton Marsalis's Abyssisian Mass: A Gospel Celebration, which is being performed at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening in Frances Bedford Hall. This is a collaboration between the Jazz Ensemble and the choirs at Parkside, conducted by James Kinchen.

We speak with David Anderson, artistic director of the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra, about the concert this weekend that finishes out their 25th anniversary season - a program that will include Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture.

Sister Janet Weyker, a well-known advocate for environmental concerns in Racine, speaks about the importance of composting.

Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a teacher at Harvard Medical School, discusses his book "Feeling Better with Cannabis: Feel Better, Sleep Better, and Live Better with Marijuana and CBD. " Grinspoon's father, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, was a forceful advocate for medical marijuana a half century ago.

From 2025 - Michael Lombardi, author of "Football Done Right: Setting the Record Straight on the Coaches, Players, and History of the NFL."

We speak with Dr. James Ripley, director of instrumental activities at Carthage College, about the wind orchestra's final concert of the year - Sunday afternoon at 2:00 - titled "Flutissimo." The program will also feature the world premieres of two pieces written by student composers - Hope Johnson and John Cargille.

We talk to two members of the art faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside - Carey Watters and Lindsay Larsen - about print-making ..... in anticipation of Print Day in May. (May 2nd.).

We speak with best-selling author and former attorney William Bernhardt about his latest book, "The Superman Wars: A Battle for Truth, Justice, and an American Icon." The book explores how Jerry Siegel created the iconic character of Superman ..... lost creative control of it .... and sought to regain it - a struggle that went on for decades.

We preview the production of SHREK: THE MUSICAL that will be performed May 1- 17th by the Lakeside Players at the Rhode Center for the Arts. We speak with Natalie Colgan (music director and choreographer), as well as two members of the cast: Norgie Metzinger (Shrek) and Abby Miller (Fiona.)

We preview the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's production of CABARET, which opens this weekend. Our guest, Brett Olson, is director of the production.

We have two conversations about Print-Making. The first is with Robbyn Smith, Professor Emeritus at California's Monterey Peninsula College and founder of Print Day in May - created in 2007 to occur on the first Saturday in May - in which tens of thousands of print-makers from around the world gather and collaborate virtually to celebrate the joys of print-making. After that, we hear from Lisa Bigalke, a 1996 UW-Parkside graduate who teaches print-making at Carthage College. (We will be hearing from two UW-Parkside art instructors on Friday's program.).

We speak with Vijay Limaye, formerly a scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency - and now based in Madison, WI with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The NRDC has grave concerns for changes that the Trump administration is making with the E.P.A.

From 2006- TImothy Gilfoyle, author of "Millenium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark."

In the wake of the release of the film MICHAEL, concerning the life and career of Michael Jackson, we replay a 2010 interview with photographer Todd Gray, responsible for a book titled "Michael Jackson: Before he was King." Gray was one of Jackson's personal photographers, and this book includes candid photographs taken of Jackson over the course of ten years.

Scott Kurashige, author of "American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism."

We speak with Alvaro Garcia, Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and conductor of their orchestras- and soprano Laura Strickling, a two-time Grammy Award nominee, who is serving this week as the Howard Brown Artist-in-Residence at Parkside. She will be performing Mozart's Exultate Jubilate with the Parkside orchestras this Saturday afternoon in a concert that will also include Schubert's so-called Unfinished Symphony.

We speak with Nancy Reese, Director of Nursing at Carthage College, about the grand opening for the college's School of Health on Thursday, April 23rd. (For more information on the schedule of events, go to carthage.edu and click on the link for the grand opening that you'll find on the main page.)

We talk about Carthage College's production of the musical BRIGHT STAR. with Matthew Hougland, director of musical theater at Carthage and the director of this production, and three of the students in the cast: Hannah Duda, Brayden Follett, and Colin Campbell. The play will be performed over the next two weekends.

We speak with Christi Geidner, a theater teacher at Bradford High School in Kenosha, and the stage director of a production there of the musical "The Hello Girls." The show is based on the true story of the hundreds of women who served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as telephone operators who played a crucial role in keeping lines of communication open during critical battles.

From the archives- Evan Ross Katz, author of "Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born- How Buffy Staked our Hearts." It's a look at the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series and how it became such a phenomenon.

Veronique Tran, vice provost of the School of Manufacturing and Industrial Technology for Dallas College, is a finalist to be the next president of. Gateway Technical College. Go to gtc.edu and find the presidential search page to offer your input.

Phillip King, executive vice president and provost for the Milwaukee Area Technical College, is a finalist to be the next president of Gateway Technical College. (Go to gtc.edu and find the presidential search page to offer your input.)

Caron Daugherty, president of Flint Hills Technical College in Emporia, KS, is a finalist to be the next president of Gateway Technical College. (Go to gtc.edu and find the presidential search page to offer your input..).

Diana Du Pont talks about her new memoir "Fur Mama: How I found my Best Life Adopting an Ex-Racehorse and a Shelter Dog."

From the archives- Rebecca Sheir, veteran storyteller and public radio reporter (WBUR) - talks about her podcast "Circle Round" that celebrates folktales from around the world.

We preview Saturday evening's concert of the Choral Arts Society - a program titled "Fantasia" - with founder and artistic director James Schatzman, associate director Pat Badger, and guest concert pianist Randy Bush. The concert will include favorites like J.S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D minor, Pavane by Gabriel Faure, and Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Greensleeves. The program's finale is an extraordinary rarity by Vaughan Williams- his Fantasy on Old 104th. The concert also marks the unveiling of First Presbyterian Church's newly restored pipe organ. (Nick Renkosik is the guest organist.)