Speaker 1: By Billy Cunningham. The great American workings glorious appen in
Speaker 1: the tri State. A little bit frosty, a little bit cold.
Speaker 1: I think winter is coming slowly, but nonetheless get ready
Speaker 1: for that and so much more. And of course once
Speaker 1: again the Bengals play Sunday against the Brown He's like
Speaker 1: two and eight the last ten games. Not too good.
Speaker 1: But we'll see what happens this Sunday actually starts about
Speaker 1: nine am with pregame shows, etc. But Jonan, you and
Speaker 1: I now is the great Brendan Call cu Ll Brendan Call,
Speaker 1: who was the chief of staff, the Haldeman and the Erlickman,
Speaker 1: friend David Axelrod to Charlie Lucan for so many years.
Speaker 1: Now he's with the Chamber the last ten or fifteen years.
Speaker 1: And first of all, Brendan Call, do you miss the
Speaker 1: good old days with you and Lucan controlled things with
Speaker 1: then on grip or are you're happy to be in
Speaker 1: your plushy job? Which would you prefer.
Speaker 2: I've got a great job. I get to work with
Speaker 2: my good friends at City Hall, and Charlie is still
Speaker 2: a very good friend, and we remnants about the good
Speaker 2: old days A lot.
Speaker 1: In other words, you don't answer the question the question,
Speaker 1: which is good, but nonetheless, if you thought about a
Speaker 1: bloodless coup. Segment suggested yesterday that you and Charlie get
Speaker 1: a tank, maybe from Butler County, and take over eight
Speaker 1: to one Plump Street. This or a chance we're getting
Speaker 1: ready for.
Speaker 2: We're getting ready for Blink right now, which is I
Speaker 2: think what we're going to talk about. And I got
Speaker 2: a golf cart. Do you think I could? Do you
Speaker 2: think I could take over a city hall with a
Speaker 2: golf cart? Or do you think I need to be
Speaker 2: more heavily armed?
Speaker 1: More heavily armed? I talked to side leasey still as
Speaker 1: the Navy and the Air Force ready to go, but
Speaker 1: we got major problems. We'll leave that off to the side. Blink,
Speaker 1: as I understand it, correctly helped me. Melissa Powers may
Speaker 1: weigh in and open up the jail cells. Charmaine McGuffey
Speaker 1: will be there making sure everyone is tied to the wall,
Speaker 1: beaten to death if they don't go with you where
Speaker 1: you want to go. But we have nothing but issues
Speaker 1: at eight to one Plump Street. I like the good
Speaker 1: old days.
Speaker 2: Street. I got to give him great credit because we're
Speaker 2: working really closely with the city right now to reduce
Speaker 2: blank blank, which is an absolutely spectacular event for this
Speaker 2: community and the city. My good friend Mayor Puir Ball,
Speaker 2: the city manager Surel Long have done an unbelievable job
Speaker 2: supporting this both financially and with the great police and
Speaker 2: fire departments of the City of Cincinnati. This event, there's
Speaker 2: nothing like this in the country, and people are coming
Speaker 2: from all over the world to see this event. And
Speaker 2: it is really great that Cincinnati and Newport and Covington
Speaker 2: have this free public art event that inspires people and
Speaker 2: brings them downtown phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's great. I don't understand it. I
Speaker 1: was there one time. I saw these projections of light
Speaker 1: on the sides of buildings and like mainly women walking
Speaker 1: around taking photographs going ooh and ah. My good friend
Speaker 1: Sean Donovan has a flower pod out in front of
Speaker 1: his brickstone and they're on court straight, but he puts
Speaker 1: flowers in there and women stand next to it with
Speaker 1: pictures taken. I don't understand it, but I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't understand a lot of things. As I understand.
Speaker 2: If you go to hang out with me, I'll drive
Speaker 2: you around it's going to be awesome. Here's what you guys.
Speaker 2: You have an unbelievable listening audience, and I bet a
Speaker 2: lot of them are going to be down here for
Speaker 2: Blink and I want to tell them three things that
Speaker 2: I think they should absolutely see. Do you want me
Speaker 2: to do that?
Speaker 1: Let me write that time? I got one? What's number one?
Speaker 1: Write this time?
Speaker 2: Number one? Do not miss music Hall. Many people remember
Speaker 2: Luminosity from ten years ago. We are going to relte
Speaker 2: music Hall for the first time since Luminosity. Four different
Speaker 2: artists who are local with sound. It's going to be
Speaker 2: absolutely magic. You can't It's a can't miss part of Blink.
Speaker 1: Number one is music number number two. What's number two?
Speaker 2: Yep, number two. I'm going to give you four. I lied.
Speaker 2: Number two is at the corner of sixth and Walnut.
Speaker 2: There is an awesome mural of Neil Armstrong, perhaps but
Speaker 2: one of the greatest Americans. No clue, I agree.
Speaker 1: And five hundred years from now, forget about the Taps,
Speaker 1: forget about Pete Rose, forget about Joe Burrow. The only
Speaker 1: name known from the century will be Neil Armstrong. That's
Speaker 1: the only name known.
Speaker 2: In Neil Armstrong's mural on the back of the fifth
Speaker 2: third building. Another general sponsor. We're going to light the
Speaker 2: Neil Armstrong mural. It includes sound that has him talking
Speaker 2: to you know, mission control, talking to Richard Nixon. It
Speaker 2: gives me goosebumps every time I see it. It's going
Speaker 2: to not it's gonna not your socks.
Speaker 1: Off number one music call number number two, sixth and Walnut,
Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong number.
Speaker 2: Three, yep, number three. I think kids and families are
Speaker 2: going to absolutely love the Newport on the Levee mural.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: It features dinosaurs and animals. My good friends, it's the
Speaker 2: Cincinni Museum Center helping us produce it. It's it's total magic.
Speaker 2: If you've got kids and your coming down, check out
Speaker 2: the Newport area. The ovation development Newport on the Levee
Speaker 2: is where that mural is, and it's really phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Got that down. I watched number four, the four Bag
Speaker 1: of four Bager go.
Speaker 2: Up to Finley Market area at sixteen six Race Street.
Speaker 2: Now it's a little further up, but it's in the
Speaker 2: heart of over the Rhine. There is a mural, a
Speaker 2: brand new mural. Part of the cool thing about Blink
Speaker 2: is that we fifteen new murals from all over the world.
Speaker 2: Artists come here to paint on walls. We now have
Speaker 2: one of the largest collections of public art murals in
Speaker 2: the world. Two artists from the Netherlands I met yesterday
Speaker 2: painted an image of a payphone on this building. It
Speaker 2: is huge. It looks like it's coming out of the
Speaker 2: building and it will. It's it's so cool. It's just
Speaker 2: so cool, and you'll be up in your friendly market
Speaker 2: and there's a lot to do up there.
Speaker 1: So you're saying a picture of a payphone.
Speaker 2: I can't describe it to you, Bill, but it is
Speaker 2: it's it is a okay, the entire side of a building,
Speaker 2: and it's magic. It's so cool.
Speaker 1: I could tell my grandkids about that and they would say, Poppy,
Speaker 1: what is that?
Speaker 2: I know, but that's why I think. That's why. I
Speaker 2: think that's why people are gonna love seeing it. It's
Speaker 2: it's gonna be great down here, you know. I would
Speaker 2: tell people all four nights, you come back multiple times,
Speaker 2: make sure you see Newport and Covington. That great partners
Speaker 2: that meet nky you know, helps this happen. Thank you
Speaker 2: police and fire officials who are down here making sure
Speaker 2: everyth's safe because it's you know, it's one of the
Speaker 2: best weekends to be downtown or in Newport and Covington.
Speaker 2: You know, I encourage people to try and ride a
Speaker 2: bus down here because you know, parking, you got to
Speaker 2: park and everything. But it's we've got it all worked out.
Speaker 2: So if you go to our website at blink Cincinnati
Speaker 2: dot com, all the informations there.
Speaker 1: Let's deal with facts. I don't want to deal with
Speaker 1: hyperbole and depictions of payphones. I understand that two million
Speaker 1: people are going to come, which is if you take
Speaker 1: the Taste and october Fest together, they're half a blink.
Speaker 1: Is that true?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's really difficult to do crowd estimates,
Speaker 2: so we work with police and fire about this, and
Speaker 2: we know we count people, you know, if they're here
Speaker 2: multiple nights. But we we have an enormous crowd. It is,
Speaker 2: you know, in the past, definitely more than a million people.
Speaker 2: We will release official estimates after the event, but I
Speaker 2: think what's most important is just the economic impact from it.
Speaker 2: I was talking to a friend of mine who owns
Speaker 2: The Pony, which is a bar up on Main Street,
Speaker 2: Great Wings, Great Beast Sandwich, and he said, this is
Speaker 2: like the best weekend for them. They just they love it.
Speaker 2: And that's true for the guy to own not I
Speaker 2: mean this is this is a small business boost in
Speaker 2: the arms. So if you're down here, you're running a
Speaker 2: restaurant or bar or an art gallery, this is this
Speaker 2: is the hottest weekend. Your hotels are full. I saw
Speaker 2: one hotel had a room. It was probably the last
Speaker 2: room left. It was fifteen hundred dollars a night, which
Speaker 2: is bonkers but awesome. And you know that's great. That's
Speaker 2: awesome for the economy in the city.
Speaker 1: No question. So at It starts tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Speaker 1: I think Sunday too. It'sday night to Sunday night.
Speaker 2: Just ro tip. Sunday Sunday is a great night to
Speaker 2: come because you're going to be My pro tip for
Speaker 2: your listening on it, Sunday is a really great night
Speaker 2: to be down here.
Speaker 1: All right now, As far as admission, Tony Bender's cheap.
Speaker 1: He's from Boone County. It's kind of a rural kind
Speaker 1: of a guy's got chickens, rose, carrots and peas. He's
Speaker 1: a farmer. Why should someone from the hinterland, from the
Speaker 1: outreaches of Boone County or Butler County or Wilmington come
Speaker 1: to Blink.
Speaker 2: Well, people are coming from all over the world. I
Speaker 2: think the guy the family who's in Butler County who
Speaker 2: will make a trip downtown is gonna if they haven't
Speaker 2: been in a while, they'll rediscover how fortunate we are
Speaker 2: to have this urban core with so much to do,
Speaker 2: so many great restaurants, buildings that are you know, architecturally beautiful.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a great city. We are very
Speaker 2: lucky to live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not every downtown urban
Speaker 2: core across the country has fared as well as Cincinnati has.
Speaker 2: We have, you know, thousands of people living down here
Speaker 2: in apartments. There's four apartments within a block of where
Speaker 2: I'm sitting right now that are turning into residences. It's
Speaker 2: the greatest collection of art and culture probably in the Midwest. Uh,
Speaker 2: You've got stadiums down here, so people come down here
Speaker 2: for that, but to be able to walk around and
Speaker 2: be Fountain Square and you can ride the street car
Speaker 2: for free all weekend and see much of Blink. We're
Speaker 2: so lucky to live in a place where whether you
Speaker 2: live in Butler County or Boone County at night to
Speaker 2: come down here and experience this economy in our city.
Speaker 2: This is this is great, it's great for for us.
Speaker 1: Why doesn't it exist somewhere else? Because I watched this
Speaker 1: interview on Channel nineties too, this couple from the Netherlands
Speaker 1: who come here. I'm thinking, what are you? What are
Speaker 1: you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, why can you explain? I don't get blank.
Speaker 1: I walked around a couple of years ago, looked at
Speaker 1: some holographic images on old buildings, and women are taking picture.
Speaker 1: Who look at that? Look at that? Hey, look at that?
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking. I kept saying, where in the hell's blank?
Speaker 1: Where's blank? And blank is everywhere? What the hell is blank?
Speaker 1: I mean, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: Blank? You want me to get super You don't make
Speaker 2: it super corny with you, Like there's a spirit of
Speaker 2: blink too. So you know people are down here, You're
Speaker 2: standing with your friends and neighbors. I don't tell people,
Speaker 2: you know, Billy, I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, moved
Speaker 2: here in nineteen ninety five, and you you got to
Speaker 2: come down to Fountain Square when the Reds won the
Speaker 2: World Series. Who's a great, great moment in Cincinnati history.
Speaker 2: There have been other moments with our sports teams. Going
Speaker 2: to the Super Bowl was really awesome. But there's a
Speaker 2: whole generation of people who are going to remember coming
Speaker 2: downtown and being a part of blank and seeing the
Speaker 2: art and seeing the buildings. That will be a lifelong
Speaker 2: memory for them. Standing with their friends and neighbors. The
Speaker 2: guy from Boone County is going to stand next to
Speaker 2: the person from Butler County, and next to them will
Speaker 2: be somebody who lives in over the Rhine, and they
Speaker 2: will feel this great spirit that we have of living
Speaker 2: in Cincinnati, and it's a pretty special thing. And you know,
Speaker 2: these people come in from all over public art murals.
Speaker 2: To me, that is as high form of an art
Speaker 2: as somebody who paints on a piece of canvas. And
Speaker 2: you could sit in your studio and paint a piece
Speaker 2: of canvas and sell art for you know, twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars to some collector, or you could paint the
Speaker 2: same quality art on the side of the building and
Speaker 2: over the Rhine and we all get to see it
Speaker 2: for the next one hundred years. That's pretty lucky that
Speaker 2: we get to have essentially a city that is an
Speaker 2: art gallery.
Speaker 1: I said the other day that we're blessed to have
Speaker 1: the town we live in compared to other towns our size.
Speaker 1: But I said three c DC, the Reds, the Bengals, FC,
Speaker 1: Proctor and god fitth Third Bank, that Joseph Automotive Group,
Speaker 1: Western and Southern, John Barrett, the tennis tournament. We got
Speaker 1: a little bit of a hockey going on, U C
Speaker 1: Xavier NKU. You could take fifteen miles from downtown Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and there's not a town anywhere in the country that
Speaker 1: does the kinds of things Cincinnati does well. And one
Speaker 1: of them was Blink, which I don't understand. We also
Speaker 1: have music Hall with all the dancing and the orchestration
Speaker 1: and the symphony and the ballet and all that kind
Speaker 1: of crap, none of which I like it all. But nonetheless,
Speaker 1: a lot of people aren't like me. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Brandon, People of differentations, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Many people think I'm not normal, Brandon, call are you normal?
Speaker 2: You know, I think that's a debatable question. I would
Speaker 2: probably say there people like you who say I'm not normal,
Speaker 2: not normal. But that's the best part about this city
Speaker 2: is that you know you might be the biggest Bengals fan.
Speaker 2: And maybe art doesn't mean anything to you, but I
Speaker 2: promise you if you walk around downtown, walk around, you're
Speaker 2: gonna see something that catches your eye. And it's funny thing.
Speaker 2: By the way, for a person who doesn't care about
Speaker 2: the Bengals. No, they get swept up in the Super
Speaker 2: Bowl spirit. And we're you know, you're right built Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 2: There's no other city that I can think of who
Speaker 2: can put it all together like we can.
Speaker 1: I lived in Toledo a long time in law school
Speaker 1: and practice law there with Schnorf, Snorff and Schnorf, and
Speaker 1: I watched the death of Toledo. It's really not come
Speaker 1: back except for Ohio state and state government. Columbus doesn't
Speaker 1: even exist. Dayton's got problems. And comparing us to Indianapolis
Speaker 1: or Milwaukee or Kansas City, I'd live here in a
Speaker 1: heartbeat because of large numbers of individuals that make this
Speaker 1: city work. I take it the Barrett and fit Third
Speaker 1: Bank and take three C D C unbelievable stuff being
Speaker 1: done that doesn't happen anywhere else. Once again, what's the website?
Speaker 1: People can go there look at blink maybe down looking
Speaker 1: a stare at a wall somewhere on a holograph. I
Speaker 1: don't know. You can go from Newport to Covington to
Speaker 1: Findlay Market. It's probably two or three miles walk. You
Speaker 1: can't take it all in one night. What is the website?
Speaker 1: Tony Founder wants to know he wants to bring the kids,
Speaker 1: the chickens, he wants to bring the farm animals and
Speaker 1: marching around. What is the website?
Speaker 2: Blink Cincinnati dot com. All of the information you need
Speaker 2: is there, follow on social too. I hope to see
Speaker 2: all of you down there this weekend.
Speaker 1: And should new council members be picked upon qualifications or
Speaker 1: purely upon race? What do you say?
Speaker 2: You know, Bill, I've been I've been reading about this.
Speaker 2: I want to say, I know I wanted that wish wish.
Speaker 2: Evan Nolan quite a lot of luck. I've gotten the
Speaker 2: chance to work with him when he was at the
Speaker 2: city and good man. He's a good city man, cares
Speaker 2: a lot about the neighbor of Oakley, which is where
Speaker 2: he and his family live. And like all of the
Speaker 2: nine folks down there, I think you know, go ahead.
Speaker 2: There are things that you could talk about no I
Speaker 2: talk about on your program like you do. But that
Speaker 2: group comes together to support the big things that matter,
Speaker 2: whether it's three CDC, the convention Center, Blink, housing in
Speaker 2: our community. And so I'm focused on, you know, working
Speaker 2: positively with the folks who are down there.
Speaker 1: You're staying out of politics until you seize power once again.
Speaker 1: It'll be Axelrod and Obama is going to be calling
Speaker 1: Lucan at some point ruling for a thousand years.
Speaker 2: Golf cart the golf cart brigade.
Speaker 1: We have an M fifty on top, just letting it rip,
Speaker 1: all right once again, Brendan Call, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: You're the head of the chamber. You're in charge of
Speaker 1: all things happening, including the taste in Octoberfest and Blinking
Speaker 1: so much more and get my best to all the
Speaker 1: folks at Blink.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 1: God bless Blink. Let's continue and Brendan Call, thank you
Speaker 1: very much. You can't talk about politics. I often do
Speaker 1: and I will. A person should be judged by the
Speaker 1: not the color of their skin, but the content of
Speaker 1: their character. And someone out to tell Joe Mallory at
Speaker 1: the NAACP that's the way it ought to be. You
Speaker 1: can't be a civil rights group concerned about racism when
Speaker 1: you practice it yourself. Let's continue with more Bill cunning
Speaker 1: and the Grant Americans speaking truth to power on news
Speaker 1: radio seven hundred WLW