Hey, it's Jennifer Jones Lee. You're listening to kf I am six forty
wake Up Call on demand on the iHeartRadio app. She likes to call it
Friday. There's Jennifer Jones Lee with your Thursday morning wake up call. I
tell him, week after week after week, I call it Friday Eve because
that's what it is. Uh just feel like every time he's wasting his breath
pointing out the obvious hattie. Everybody, Welcome to a Thursday, the eighth
of June. I want to start the show by saying how sorry I was
yesterday. I think the whole crew was. And Tyler, I actually want
you to jump in here. When we heard that Jeff Ba had passed away,
it was I don't know if it was a shock for me. Tyler.
I know you and I were texting back and forth yesterday. I mean,
the news was devastating. It was he I think too, you guys,
so Jeff Ba the KFI in the sky and actually KNA if you could
bring Nick up here too. The one thing that Jeff Ba was a consummate
professional, But the thing that I think I always loved about him his kindness.
He was truly one of the kindest men I had ever met in my
life. And Nick, I know you got to work with him more closely
than we did, but I just feel like I need to start the show
with a tribute to him. No, I agree with you, and I
think that he is if you think of one of those classic gentlemen as you
would see on I don't know, a classic movie like a Carry Grant kind
of character. Granted, let's be real, behind the scenes he would he
could keep up with the best of them for some fun activities, but for
on air, he was that classic. You know, if there were such
a thing as like you know, fred as Stair with his amazing dancing,
that would be Jeff Ball with his you know, coverage of the fires and
of traffic here in southern California, being an airborne not just with us here
at iHeart, but with other stations throughout his career without other companies throughout his
career. So yeah, he is one of those people that really covered a
lot of basses and made a lot of friends. He was highly respected in
the you know, airborne community across the board with news reporting as well being
a former well being a marine. I guess you're never you're not a former
marine, but being a marine, as he would say, Hurrah. He
would just you know, that was a like he you know, Veteran's Day
was a big thing for him. Doing all the air shows here in southern
California was also a big thing for him. So yeah, he definitely will
be missed. He was a very very much so a class act. Absolutely.
He would text me a lot in the mornings when I'd be giving him,
you know, I don't know the weather forecast or something like that,
and you know, I'd say low clouds and he'd send me a picture of
the clouds. Or I'd say, you know, something over Dodger Stadium and
he'd send me a picture of what it looked like over Dodger Stadium. And
you're right, Nick, if there was breaking news or a story that we
were following up on, you could text Jeff and he would be over that
by the next report. I mean, he was just such an integral part
of our team. And we found out a few months ago that Jeff had
been diagnosed with cancer, and you know what the thing was he I would
ask him, you know, how are you doing today or whatever, and
he always would be like I'm doing fine. You know, I've got another
treatment, but I'm going well. I'm tired, but other than that,
I'm doing great. So I think when we found out this week a lot
of us were like, wow, things must have been worse than he let
on. But that's the kind of guy he was. He was gonna just
keep it all inside, keep it positive, and move on. So,
Jeff Ba, I just want you to, if you're listening to us from
the heavens this morning, as I'm sure you are, just know how much
we love you and miss you. And yeah, you rest in peace,
my friend. That's all I think. He is the ultimate airborne now truly.
Yes, you know you can't get you can't get a better ride than
that. So that's right, He's got the wings now his very own.
This is your wake up call again for Thursday, June eighth, and some
of the stories we're watching in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A worker
has been killed by a cinder block wall that collapsed at a construction site in
Pacoima. A former USC football players have been arrested on charges of raping two
university students, and the Nuggets are back in the lead. You talk about
it back and forth on this one in the NBA Finals after beating the Heat
in Game three in Miami last night. Let's start with some of these stories
coming out of the KFI twenty four hour news room. The Sisters of Perpetual
Indulgence have celebrated Pride Month with the Angels Now. Conservative and Catholic groups who
oppose the group dressing as nuns also showed up at the game to protest.
Anaheimayer Ashley Atkins tells KTLA it's important for the nuns to feel included and invited
them to yesterday's games. Some people don't like the way they deliver their message,
but I believe that they spend a lot of time in the community ministering
to the sick, the elderly, the poor, and that's really what our
faith is about. The Dodgers uninvited the group to Pride Night celebrations. When
it got backlash, The Sisters say they used humor to address bigotry and complacency.
A car has driven onto a sidewalk and into a chase bank in Pico
Robertson, hitting a family. LA City Fire says one family member was killed.
Two others were treated at a Hospital officials say Cruz responded to West Pico
Boulevard near La Sienega yesterday. They say they found at least two of the
people pinned under a black HOUNDAI Sedan. Please say the drivers stayed at the
scene and cooperated with investigators. A worker has been killed by a cinder block
wall that collapsed at a construction site and Pecuoimap. More than a dozen La
City firefighters were sent to the site near the one eighteen yesterday. La City
says. Fire says two people were taken to the hospital, but that third
worker died at the scene. The local daughter of a woman kidnapped in Mexico
says the US and Mexico aren't doing enough to get her mom back. Zoey
Lopez says on February ninth, her mother, who's a dual citizen, was
taken by men in a van from her home in Pedlo Nuevo, and hours
later they got arrangement demand. Then communication suddenly stopped. President Biden. President
Lopez, the world is watching. The legacy of your leadership will be defined
by the actions you take in this critical moment. Lopez says her mother retired
to Mexico ten years ago. And believes her mother was targeted because she's an
American in downtown La Steve Gregory King if I knew Karen Travers, Good morning
to you. So the President was briefed on the wildfires in Canada. He's
been regularly updated. But what did he kind of show yesterday that these wildfires
are an example of that might help him to sort of further one of his
causes. Yeah, I mean, he talked to the Canadian Prime Minister,
Justin Trudeau yesterday and offered additional US support. So far, the US has
sent more than six hundred firefighters and support personnel and the other assets to Canada
to help them battle these blazes, which are a lot of them. Use
the three hundred right now are still out of control. They've sent water,
bomber, aircraft and other things that Canada has needed, and the White House
says that they'll continue to send assets that Canada has said that they might need
from the United States and anything else of federal firefighting assets to help them suppress
these fires. The President in Trudou also talks about the health impacts that these
fires are having, because that's what really the focus is on here in the
northeast about how bad this smoke is that people are inhaling, how bad it
is for your eyes. Right now, I have to say I was outside
for like fifteen minutes here at the White House, and I came inside and
like you can hear it a little bit in my throat. My eyes are
burning quite a bit. And they're really telling people like don't go outside.
The air quality of code read. School activities are canceled outside. They don't
want the elderly, anybody with health conditions, children, they want everybody to
stay inside. There's an event at the White House tonight, a big Pride
concert. About two thousand people were invited, and it's on the schedule still.
It was officially put on the daily guidance, but they're kind of taking
it hour by hour to see if they're actually going to have it. And
interestingly, yesterday we heard from the White House. But this is like a
clear line to climate change, Kareem said, it's an alarming example of the
ways in which the climate crisis is disturbing our lives and our communities. All
Right, Karen, thank you so much for your time this morning. Man,
And I mean California is you know, no stranger to the wildfires.
But the smoke that you guys have is just choking there. The pictures are
unbelievable. Yeah, it's bright orange skies right now and very very smoky haze.
And I tweeted a photo of the White House with the sunrise coming up
and kind of regret not being out there with the mask on to take that
picture. Yeah. Absolutely, all right, stay safe, talk to you
soon. Have a great day. Thanks you too. That's ABC's Karen Travers.
Okay, you guys, I've been dreading doing this, but it's important
that I do it. I want to. Everybody's been alluding to it.
Handle actually mentioned it yesterday, but today is my opportunity to tell you I
am leaving KFI. So tomorrow will actually be my last day on the air
after thirty years. Tomorrow is my last broadcast. Last year when I told
you guys that I almost lost my dad, he's got a heart issue,
my grandma died, Scott and I got a divorce. I mean, you
talk about a year where you're like, wow, there's been a lot of
change, sold a house, bought a house, crashed a car, bought
a car, all of a sudden. There was a time right after the
holidays where I was sitting on my bed with all three dogs, and I
started thinking to myself, Mom and Dad left, they'd come down to visit
me. Mama, dad left yesterday, and I need to be home with
my family. After my dad got sick, it definitely changed my priorities.
And even though my heart has given me this incredible opportunity for the last seven
years to not only do this show, but also to become friends with all
of you. And I know that probably sounds strange, but every time that
I go to an event or something like that and you guys are there and
you come up and you tell me about how you listen to the show and
what the show means to you, I hope. I hope that I've been
able to convey to you how much I appreciate you and how much I have
loved my time here at iHeart. And there's nothing that went wrong at the
station. There's nothing, There's nothing. It just is all about my family.
And so it was kind of the first part of the year that I
threw out there, you know, kind of into the universe, like,
hey, you know, I need to go home. And I actually got
a job in radio up north and I'm not going to be on the air
anymore, which is wild. Thirty years in my career and now I'm pivoting
into management, which is crazy. But now I get to live less than
ten minutes away from my mom and dad. And yes, you have seen
pictures of a new boyfriend on there. His name is Jason, and he's
not really a new boyfriend. He's my old boyfriend from college actually, and
we reconnected after I started kind of throwing this out into the universe. And
so you see, you know when I say this all the time, when
you get those godwinks over and over and over and over and somebody is telling
you you're sad, you miss your family, you have a job opportunity.
The thing that was the worst part for me was leaving my family at I
Heeart and leaving all of you. So I want to make sure you know
how people say, oh, let's stay in touch. You hit me up
on social media all day long. I don't care. I'm gonna try and
respond to you. I've had I don't even know. I think I'm close
to a thousand comments right now from people saying goodbye who have seen it online.
I'm gonna try and respond honest to God, to every single one of
you, because that's how much you guys mean to me. So thank you
to my heart family, thank you to my wake up call family. I
even think handle because for God's sakes, that man and I have been a
team for seven years now, and Wayne and Tyler and Michelle and now Anne,
who I wish I had more of a chance to work with, to
Kevin, Lagrette and Robin and Chris. I will never be able to thank
you for the opportunity to come down here. And when people say, oh,
aren't you happy to leave LA, I say absolutely not. LA has
been incredible to me. But I need to go home and be with my
family. So that's it tomorrow, hanging up the headphones. It's wild look
at goosebumps telling you guys that, But I love you all and I'll never
be able to repay you for being a wake up call listener, but more
importantly letting me come into your homes and be your friend. All Right,
I have to stop, the tears are coming, all right. When we
come back, I've got more news for you. We've got a person with
a knife who stabbed at least four kids in the Alps and Ai is fixing
a ducking problem. Oh Crozier, I know you're trying to get me in
trouble with this one. That's all coming up in just a second. Nick
pally O'KENI, let's get back to you now. Find out what it's slow
on the fifteen and to you. You have made me laugh on this show
between you and Tyler. I don't know how I would have had I don't
know why I get up at two forty five in the morning, but Nick
PALLYO'KENI, I can't say I love you enough because you are one of my
best season. I'm gonna miss you like crazy. Well, it just save
a reason to come up and enjoy the reading rodeo. And also Reading has
a pride event, so I will definitely be up there, and then I'll
take you out on the lake shaft as full. We'll go Instagram live and
have some silly goofy fun, and it'll be away from a microphone, so
you all can hear the actual things that we've been. You can all hear
my potty mouth exactly. My dad says he's putting a cuss bank at his
house because he said, wow, when you left thirty years ag you didn't
sound like this. I said, Dad, this is thirty years in radio.
Please kidding, Now I sound like this. And I do have to
say real quick, you are maybe hanging up the headphones, but I know
you will not be far away from a mic no matter where you are.
Oh, I've got a lot to learn on the other side of the business.
But you know that's it. Hey, you never know, right,
maybe I'll do a commercial here and that you never know. We'll see what
happens. Absolutely, wildfire smoke from Canada has consumed New York City skyline.
Health officials are encouraging everyone across the state to consider wearing masks. Let's see
if it plays. Oh, apparently it's not going to play. Acting State
health director doctor James McDonald says people should put on those N ninety five masks
if they go outside. If you've seen the pictures, I swear it looks
like you could cut that like cut the air with a knife. It is
so thick. And they say that the fine particulate matter, as we well
know in wildfire country, is that that's the scary part. It can be
smaller than hair and it gets right into your respiratory system. As Karen Travers
was talking about officials expect the conditions to continue over the next few days.
Let's say good morning now to ABC's Jim Ryan. Oh, Jim, I'm
telling you, I hate these freaking spam text messages, and I feel like
I'm getting them more more often, and it'll be something like just random,
Hey, sorry, I can't make it today. Can we do it tomorrow?
Yes? And it makes me go, well, first off, what
I'm getting old obviously, so what did I forget? But then secondly,
I'm like, wait a minute, is this spam right? Well? And
it probably is. Yeah, you know why because the overwhelming number of messages
out there that you're receiving, random messages, if you're getting in your text
to inbox, probably are the robo killer, which is a spam blocking amp
said that there were four hundred and seventy five million robotext sent not in a
month, not in a week, in a day, four hundred seventy five
million robotexts. That's why you're getting so many of them. That's data from
just last month. And some people do it, they buy it, they
click the link that's in there. Yeah, here's a pretty typical example.
They came from Netflix, or purports at least to come from Netflix. It
says, hey, there's a problem with the billing on your account. If
you want to recovery your account, you need to click here on This's like,
okay, first, there's a problem with the grammar, right, or
with the usage there. There's this sense of urgency click it now. You
got to click it now, ye, because your Netflix account is in danger.
Okay, Well, first of all, is it really that big at
crisis? If your Netflix account is in ten there's a problem, Well,
go to your Netflix account, go to your you log on to your account
and see if there is a problem. You'll find out there before you're going
to find out from some random text message. I've got that Netflix text message,
and I literally I just thought, oh, well, it's you know,
my ex husband. He's I think he's still paying for that specific service.
And I thought, well, he didn't pay it this month. I
didn't think twice about it, but I love how Yeah, I just automatically
assumed he was a deadbeat and didn't go straight too. I bet this is
spam. Yeah, Well that should be your assumption, not that he's a
deadbeat. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. I don't know, but
you can pretty much assume that that message is going to be a fake,
and so don't click on it. I mean, you've got a couple of
alternatives here. You can either click on it, you know, delete it,
block it. Certainly, you can also forward it onto the FCC by
texting it to spam spam and that may put the FCC onto whoever is responsible
for them, and probably not, but I mean, they get so many
of these, yeah, and they're they're luckily now at least the FCC has
decided to take on some uh, some legislation related to this, some rules.
First rules focused on scam texting. It will require mobile service providers to
block illegal robottext great problem is, Jena, it doesn't take effect until twenty
twenty four. Oh see. And here's the thing. I always figured that
Congress might act more quickly if it's happening to them. It can't just be
us. So I assumed, like, oh, hey, if they're getting
screwed by this, so are we, and maybe they'll do something a little
quicker. I guess I was wrong in this assumption. Seems like it sure,
I mean, and the FCC is the one coming up with the rules
now, and you know it wasn't necessarily Congress, but I suspect they're getting
plenty of text messages too. But you're right, and less constituents start,
you know, flooding their email in boxes or or flooding their text messages with
complaints, not much as likely to get done. All right, Well,
at least at least in this report. I feel like you're telling me it's
not just me. So at least misery loves company, and somebody's doing something
about it. Maybe not as quickly as I would like, but still,
Hey, I appreciate that somebody's trying to do something right. You know who
just died, Jeff ba our traffic guy, Pat Robertson. Ah, you're
kidding me, just now, oh, first to find out? Wow,
Oh my gosh. All right, well, man, I'm telling you,
this is a this is a tough morning. So um, Jeff Bob passed
away. We just heard Pat Robinson passed. Pat Robertson passed away. And
I would like to say to you, Jim, because I don't know if
I'm going to talk to you tomorrow. I'm leaving KFI. Tomorrow is my
last day. No you're not. I am. I'm going home. I'm
going to Redding to be with my family. All right, Well, good
luck. I loved you all these years. Seen caf I come upon my
list in the morning, it's like, all right, I get chat today.
Oh my gosh. If I could give you a giant hug, I
would you are. Don't tell your colleagues you are my favorite interview. Really,
I love you. I'll talk to you on Facebook. All right,
sounds good. Jim Ryan A basis, Jim Ryan, This is hard,
you guys. It's harder than I thought we were talking about Netflix. Netflix
has asked to judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a family claiming an image likely
take another home in the Hollywood Hills for an ad is a safety can certain
so. The family says the ad for the series Buying Beverly Hills violates the
state's false advertising and privacy laws. Netflix lawyers said Tuesday that the case should
be tossed because it violates the company's right to free speech. Amazon Prime could
be adding on ads. The Wall Street Journal says Amazon is considering an ad
supported tier for its streaming platform, like several others, including Netflix and Hulu.
Already have Prime videos currently included in an Amazon Prime membership, or people
can pay a ninety nine a month. One option would be to add the
advertising to existing subscribers and give them an option to pay more for an ad
free alternative. The journal says ad buyers are all for it because they want
more access to premium movies and programs that have remained largely ad free. Amazon
has said if it does add the ads, the ad breaks would be short.
Amy King kf I knew crazy story. Out of Sudan. They rescued
three hundred infants, toddlers, and older kids from an orphanage in Sudan's capital.
Officials say they were trapped when the fighting started in Sudan. Seventy one
kids died from hunger and illness inside the facility because they were basically locked in
there since mid April for their own safety, but they couldn't get food and
things in there. Uni SEF says it's been taken to all the kids have
been taken to a safer location and they've received medical checks. Thinking of medical
doctor say. Pope Francis is doing fine after undergoing surgery at surgery yesterday on
his abdomen the Vatican says the procedure was planned by the Pope's medical team and
they were I guess he had hernia and it was giving him all these recurring
pains, so they went in to fix that for sure. Coming up at
five fifty this morning, we've got a special tribute to kfis Jeff Ba,
who we lost this week, and he just you know what, he was
just a bright spot we all. I don't know one person who didn't love
Jeff Bah. Anyway, Neil Savedra did an interview with Jeff a few years
ago, I believe, and Jeff wrote a book and he was interviewing about
this book, and I want to bring it to you in its entirety just
so you can get one last glimpse into the kindness and the depth and the
intellect that Jeff Ba had. So that's coming up at five fifty. Hi,
Jason Middleton, good morning to you. Good morning Jennifer. All right,
can we start with Lulu Lemon? Sure? Why not? Because I
feel like Lulu Lemon is what you seem KG on this idea for you said
sure, yeah, no, I mean there's this We're going to talk about
a zero tolerance policy and those always kind of like raise flags for me,
because the whole point of human existence is nuance, right, So zero tolerance
seems really silly. But they fired two people because people broke into the lu
Lemon store, grabbed a bunch of stuff by the front door, and left,
and then two employees chased him out, and then those employees got fired,
and Lulu Lemon is is standing by their They don't want they don't want
their employees to engage in theft because of safety issues. Totally understandable, right,
right, totally get that. I mean, just in San Francisco last
month at a Walgreens on Market Street, you know, somebody tried you know,
there was a shooting involving something like that, and that's being looked at
too, So I understand that they're standing by it. They don't want to
encourage this behavior. At the same time, I mean, zero tolerance just
kind of bugs me. I guess I agree with this because here's the thing.
We're all human beings, and to me, what that stresses is that
they love their jobs and that their knee jerk reaction was to be loyal and
protect the company they were working for, Right, Yeah, I mean,
it's it was probably a visceral muscle memory kind of reaction, like that person
is doing something I'm not supposed to do. They're taking our stuff, our
merch I'm gonna go get it now. Maybe there needs to be more training,
Maybe that needs to be more of a culture thing. If this is
a new, new ish policy, and it seems to be rather new ish,
then maybe that needs to be reinforced from the corporate level down. And
just like their first muscle memory should be to just let that happened, because
the CEO says, look, that's just merchandise, it's not people totally understandable
there too. There's no wrong side to this necessarily, but firing two people
for trying to do something like this might might I think maybe a probation or
some retraining. Maybe that's what I was going to say. Why not just
tell them like, hey, that's not what you're supposed to do. Here's
what you do. But high five thanks for thinking about the company? Yeah,
yeah, I mean that that would have made a better headline. I
think I think so too. It would have made the company look like it
really valued its employees. In fact, this one just kind of makes it
look like, well, we have a corporate policy. We checked the box,
you did it wrong, see you later. So anyway, it's a
high profile example for other you know, employees, obviously, but at what
cost, right exactly? Okay, speaking of costs, all the crime that's
going on in San Francisco, you and I were there for a bazillion years,
and I think when both of us left, I don't know, seven
years ago. I guess that when we left the city was getting bad,
but not to the point point that it is now, Like people will not
go downtown or they go downtown thinking like, oh I'm going to get this
experience. And I've talked to people who have said, we left our kitten,
you know, like we found needles on the street. There was you
know, human worst on the street. I mean, it's bad down there.
And now, speaking of leaving, you have this major hotel company who
says, nope, we are not going to make payments on this loan for
our San Francisco Union Square location. That's huge. So it's huge, and
it's it's such an iconic building. So we're talking about the Hilton Hotel.
We're talking about two hotels. The big one is the one right next to
Union Square, right at the foot of Market Street, right across the street
from the Ferry Building, yep. And it's a huge icon quasi brutalist kind
of look, and it's it's no small shakes. It's got like, what's
got almost two thousand rooms right and then and then if you go Upmarket Street
about six blocks or so, up close to the Westfield Shopping Center, that
one up there called the Park fifty five, that's got a thousand rooms.
They're not going to pay the debt on that one either. This is a
large publicly trade real estate investment company. It's the biggest one in the country.
This goes towards I'm doing some notes for my show this weekend about commercial
real estate because if we do tip into a recession, commercial real estate maybe
the tipping point. We've been dealing with this stubborn inflation for a long time.
We've been dealing with a really hot labor market, and then nobody wants
to go back to work, and so corporate real estate is cratering, especially
in Los Angeles. And now we're seeing in San Francisco. Yeah, exactly.
And I think the reason is you see it more, I think in
San Francisco because in the city. I mean, for everybody who doesn't know
it's seven miles by seven miles, it's dinky when you look at it that
way. And when you have this much crime and the homelessness issue packed into
this tiny little city footprint, you really see things on the street that maybe,
where La is way more spread out, our issues might be just here
and there. In San Francisco, it is consolidated. Yeah, everything is
kind of boiled down. It's San Francisco as an urban region. Because you
said seven by seven, right, so everything is a tip of the peninsula
and getting across the gate, that's a different thing. Oakland, different thing.
But in San Francisco itself, when you have the tech company diaspora and
then you have hybrid work and people not wanting to come into the office downtown,
this is a compounding problem. They're in a doom cycle when it comes
to the downtown San Francisco, which is sad to see. And I think
that that's a valid argument for people who were like, hey, when the
pandemic started a few years ago, maybe things weren't quite as bad, but
it has been such a snowball downtown. I'm not coming back to work.
I don't want to put myself in that situation, and I don't blame them
for it. I think I want to let it go. Right. San
Francisco started advertising another city saying, hey, come visit us. Yes,
yes, And I mean that's just proof right there. Can we talk about
Genesis? So this is Undai's luxury brand. And for anybody who says,
I don't really know what that looks like, it was the car that Tiger
Woods was driving when he went too fast and lost control and almost, I
mean almost lost the use of a leg. So is this luxury brand now
that seems to really be pushing itself And I mean this is a sexy look
in suv. It is, indeed, and it has really sexy standard safety
equipment that actually saved Tiger woods life. Apparently they have these cool airbags in
between the front driver's seats, so the driver's seat and then the passenger's seat
in the front, so their air bags on either side of that, and
that was specifically called out by the transportation authority to say that is probably the
reason Tiger was able to well survive that wreck. And it was a it
was a massive wreck. I don't know if you've seen the video, it
happened like in February twenty twenty one. But the video of it, I
mean that was that was no tumble. That was a big, big deal.
Oh my god. Yes, And so the so the seventy and the
eighty both have these have these eight standard air bakes, and so the the
seventy and the eighty now will be the Genesis is shifting its production now to
the US, and I guess they're going to put in this plant in Alabama.
Yeah, but Alabama for now. And then then they're also well that's
that's the first part of it, and then the electric part of it,
the electric model. In order to qualify for the federal tax credit, they
have to have the batteries made in the US, and so they're going to
move a factory for battery making to Georgia. Okay, makes sense. I
mean you put them right there together. Sure, that absolutely makes sense.
All right. What also makes sense is since tomorrow is my last day at
kfive, for anybody who missed my announcement at the start of the show,
I'm I'm moving back to Redding to be with my family, and Jason Middleton
is stepping in at least for a couple of weeks and I you know what,
Jason, I was telling Robin yesterday, I said this, the hardest
part of this is like this show has been my baby. You know.
They when I got brought in, they were like, hey, can you
fix the show and see what you can do with it? And so when
you get to create something kind of from the ground up and you get carte
blanche and they're like, we just trust you figure something out. You take
so much pride in it, and I, honestly, it's like I kind
of feel like I pe on my territory, like this is my show.
But you guys need to know. I have loved Jason since we what are
we on, like twelve or thirteen years at least? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, And when we were together in the Bay Area and we both were
part of this massive layoff, And when I got the job at KFI,
I immediately had Jason on the show. If you guys remember early on,
because this is one of the smartest men I've ever met in my life,
and you are a freaking amazing broadcaster. People love you. I love your
sense of humor. I love your sense of humor off the air even more
because it's just as crazy as mine is. And so yeah, so I'm
going to hand you the baby for a while and please take care of it.
I know you will, and you're going to do an amazing job.
Well, thank you. We will take care of it. We will keep
it on the rails. I've got Kono, I've got Tyler, Rob got
and I've got Michelle will we will keep things moving down here, but we
will. We're just going to miss you terribly. I know why you're moving
back, and I can't wait to meet the parents. I can't believe it's
been thirteen years. I haven't met the parents yet, but that's going to
have to happen soon too. So well, they're coming down next week to
help me pack. So why don't you come over. Yeah, that sounds
perfect. That sounds perfect. And by the way, you're a goodbye bag
that my daughter and wife and I gave you is here in the office too.
Oh man, I will get that tomorrow for anybody who doesn't. I
don't think I told you guys. This morning, I was halfway to work,
so I made it from Fontana to Glendora, and all of a sudden,
I went, I forgot my phone, and we have that stupid two
factor authentication, and I'm like, I can't get into my email. I
won't be able to pull up OURCS where all my news is. So I
had to call Once I got home, I had to call Tyler and Michelle
and be like, Hi, guys, so, hey, guess who's broadcasting
from home today? Thank god I still have the emergency studio pop Quiz hot
Shots. I'm doing it from home. Jason, You're amazing. Thank Katie
and Margo for me and love you, love you more than you know.
Thanks. All right, sounds good? All right. When we come back,
I want to do a special tribute to Jeff Baugh, who, as
you know, we lost this week at the age of eighty one. He
had been battling cancer and unfortunately it looks like this week was really the week
that things took a turn. And he will be missed so much. His
warmth, his aggressiveness, like when it came to like, hey we've got
a breaking news story, boom, it was right over the top of it.
He will be missed so much. And Neil Savedra had him on his
show a few years ago. Jeff wrote a book and Neil still had the
interview that he did with Jeff and um, you know, we as a
team really want to highlight how much we loved him, and so we want
to play this next segment the entirety of the interview that Neil did with Jeff,
just because we want you to remember him just like we did. So
that's coming up in just a second, Nick Palio, Kenia, No,
you're gonna take care of Jason Middleton two and boy between the two of you
and both of your wicked sons of humor along with Kono and Tyler. Good
luck, Anna Michelle. Yeah, but we to cover taken care of.
That's a great way to I will listen because you guys are going to be
a rack up team. We can't wait. We will miss you terribly.
But yeah, there'll be a definite new chapter here for wake Up Call on
Camp five. Absolutely, we got sad news this morning about Pat Robertson,
the televangelist, died at the age of ninety three this morning and so we
want to pass that along to you. And also it's I guess they say
it was half a century. I did not know that he was on that
long on the seven hundred Club. Remember that's where you'd share stories about the
Bible. You'd talk about God's judgment on everything you know, from homosexuality to
the teaching of evolution, like there was no topic that that man would not
weigh in on. Again. Pat Robertson, the televangelist who created the Christian
Broadcast Network, has died at the age of ninety three. All Right,
I want us to in your mind. I don't want you to be sad
when we play this next clip. I want you to be happy for Jeff
ba. I want you to celebrate his life if you would with me,
please, Jeff Bob passed away this week at the age of eighty one.
First of all, that man looked amazing. When I found out he was
eighty one, I was like, wait, what, it's gotta be a
type of But Jeff battled cancer. He lost his battle. And the thing
about Jeff that we all loved was his optimism and his positivity. And you
would ask him how you feeling, Jeff, and he'd I feel good.
I'm tired, but I'm good. Let's go, and he would just move
on. And when we found out that he lost his battle with cancer this
week, it devastated all of us. Yesterday, Neil savedra interviewed Jeff back
in December on the twenty third. He happened to be filling in in four
Conway and Jeff wrote a book recently and Neil was able to interview him about
this book. It's a little tribute to Jeff this morning, So hit it
please if you would. Jeff ba is with us. Of course, you
know his voice from being the Kyfi in the sky here on Kyafi and when
you hear mornings, you know, okay, I'm in good hands. Well,
it's it's fun for me. It's it's an unusual position, that's for
sure. You can count on one hand how many people make a living being
an airborne reporter in the country, that's for sure. But it's been it's
been very been fun and very satisfying personally to be able to actually speak,
not just traffic report format yet yeah, but actually speak to someone that's driving
a car and help them. That's what it's told about. I used to
get a kick before I got into this. I was actually I was a
DJ at El Provado there in Hollywood for a long time before I got into
this. That's a whole other story. But when I was getting ready for
this, I can actually remember being on the Hollywood Freeway and the traffic reporter
came on the air and said, yeah, South Hollywood had Vermont bad crash
back to Vermont, backed up to Sunset, and that's exactly where I was,
and I went, G you no kidding, Why don't you tell me
something that can help me? So that's what kind of set it all off.
And then after that I can remember flying up and down the Harbor Freeway.
This is the early nineties, mind you, and looking down at the
Harbor Freeway, which is just a straight shot, you know, into downtown
from South la and packed with cars, nothing but break lets, all the
whip and on either side of the freeway you had Figure Oa, you had
from Watch had and I'd always say, why don't you take Frodway Main Figure
instead of sitting on the freeway. It wasn't long after that, maybe a
few months, one of the city council members grabbed me at a meeting and
said, Jeff, I really like your traffic reports, but would you please
stop telling people about Figure. Oh that was his way to downtown? Were
given my secrets? Yeah exactly, So, I mean la Is it does
have horrible Harbor traffic, and the freeways can't handle it, and YadA,
YadA YadA. You have to just allow a lot of extra time for a
normal drive. And then when we have these horrible crashes, I mean,
all bets are off and things really, really really get bad. Yeah,
that's when you say, hey, call the office. Yeah. Well,
I frequently will say, and also put on some of the Twitter things that
that Chris has had me doing, and then Robin of late, I would
say, look, make the call. You're going to be late. Yeah,
there's no question about it. Yeah. And so you have the bird's
eye view though. That's still a powerful thing, and I think that a
lot of stations television or otherwise, radio or otherwise don't have. Yeah,
airborne support is what it's all about. That's what I learned, mind you.
When I first started, I was the building we were working out of.
It was and now those days it was metro traffic going way back.
You might remember that name. And we worked in the Motown building and I
don't even know how we got our information, but I realized that I,
you know, people would call me and say, Jeff, that overturned rig
that you just talked about, it went away about an hour ago. You
know, so I kind of realized that, you know, it wasn't quite
set up right, and once I got the shout to do airborne report,
and I went, oh, here we are. Yeah, there is something
even with the tech and there's so much more now with cameras and everything else,
meters, magnetic readers in certain areas, whatever it might be. That
still there's something about eyes on that's powerful. Yea. And and also lets
you see the flow of the day different you know, because I've heard you
say it today is moving differently than most Thursdays, most Fridays, most whatever.
Oh yeah, there's there's no substitute for actually looking at this stuff.
A lot of those studios, of course, where we depend on the California
Highway Patrol, they have you know, media units that will tell us about
things and stuff, but you just can't be looking at it. The big
thing for me, I mean, and it really rings true with listeners to
be over something a horrible problem. Say all lanes are shut down, and
during the report lanes was starting to open, and you can actually say that,
look right now, lanes are opening, So why don't you just do
this or do that? You know, But here's what's actually going on right
now. So there's nothing better than actually seeing what you're talking I got a
question, yeah, you you know, everybody has kind of that same opinion
of oh my god, it's it's just getting worse, and no matter what
time of the day it is, it doesn't matter what day it is anymore,
and you've got that unique perspective of seeing it all from above. Can
you talk about that sort of difference between earlier, a few years ago or
even when you started in now, Well, the volume of traffic just keeps
going up every year, they're telling them because more people come to live here.
Why not, you know, it's warm and sonny and what have you.
The way that freeways have been designed in the get go, they just
weren't designed to handle the volume that we have. There's no question about the
fact that we've got to go pre COVID, because COVID really kind of screwed
things up as far as patterns and stuff. But pre COVID, Thursday was
always you'd always hear us talking about the busiest day of the week, and
it was really mainly because we believe that Hollywood is kind of a kind of
let's wrap up the week on Thursday. Town. No, it's very true.
With a lot of board meeting and studios especially, they wanted to wrap
things up on a Thursday, and that's what it was all about. And
sure enough, Friday morning was a whole lot lighter. We talk about Friday
light and what have you. But to answer your question, I think that
the volume just keeps going up every year, and now with people getting back
into their workplace and studios and what have you, the volume of traffic is
going right back up again. I know it's going to change here in the
new year. With sales folks and our marketing teams and things like that,
they're going to be coming in probably more. Yep. So you expecting to
see another layer of traffic come the new year, Oh, no question.
It's not back to a let's call it a pre COVID. It's not there
yet. It's getting very close, and sometimes really some mornings really surprised me.
We'll get flying around and you'll go the first thing I see in the
morning is the four or five coming out of across the San Fernando Valley.
And there are someone I even put that on Twitter the other day. We're
up at six o'clock, our first report of six to thirty, so we
get up early and get a look at stuff. I'll look at the four
or five. It's six am, it's still dark. It's jammed from the
one eighteen down to the one oh one. Wow, and that's all people
coming out of the new Hall Pass and a carrido showing up in Palm Delancaster
and all that. So it's really bizarre to see that there are some interchanges
are my favorite things in the freeway system. There are some interchanges that are
just beyond belief is why did they do it this way? And the thing
that they've They've added carpool lanes and what have you. Some of that is
wonderful stuff. But the big problem as far as and I'm no engineer,
that's for sure, and there's a lot of smart people that are doing this
stuff. But the main problem in LA I believe anyways, you cannot change
the interchange itself. That is a huge piece of work there, you know
what I mean. And that's where we have all these bottlenecks is around interchanges.
Now, people that drive the West one on one in the morning,
West one on one to the south four or five into West LA you've got
six lanes of traffic approaching the four or five, and most people believe it.
And I go to the south four or five and it's one lane.
Rest in peace, my friend Jeff Boh passed away at the age of eighty
one. You've been listening to your wake Up Call with me, Jennifer Jones
Lee, and you can always hear wake Up Call five to six am Monday
through Friday at kf I Am six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.