Speaker 1: Aero dot net. It's more than just a podcast. It
is a collection of podcasts, twenty of them so far,
because I believe in the power of choice. And speaking
of the choice, one of those podcasts is called The Choice. Sure.
Every day we start off with a prayer. Everybody needs
a prayer, right, If not, okay, well maybe one day
you will. And then we get into things that really
do affect our lifestyle. It is a choice. We get
one of those every single day. The Choice on Aero
dot net a R r Oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration, Steve,
what are you doing today, dude? Yeah, I'm down here
in Carolina or we got ten inches of snow. Oh
my god. We're not used to this kind of a mess.
Speaker 2: You know, it always gets cold.
Speaker 3: But like this is just a streak of every day
where it's signal digets. Man, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, I just described you as somebody. You're
the one that starts the conversation and we're the ones
that continue it. What is it like to be the
origin or or the seed of that opportunity to really
get involved in social conversations.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I remember when I was on the Spring
Show and I would be sitting in the front row
there and you know, Jerry B. Holstler Shaw want to
be interviewing somebody. And I always always sit there and
I thought, boy, I would ask this or I would
ask that, because you know, the number one thing you
do is a polacement, is you're interviewing somebody, right, You're
interrogating or interviewing. And so when I was on the show,
I'd always be like, oh, I would have done this,
I would have done that. So when you get that
opportunity and you get the control, you know, the narrative,
the format, it's a good.
Speaker 1: Feeling to be able to have that courage and confidence.
Is it really all owed to the to the police department,
Because I mean even as a regular everyday person, I
mean you come across as somebody who really gives it
damn about honest to god people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of reasons
to get into place work. And I always thought, you know,
my father was a Chicago policeman, and you know, I
wanted to be one because I liked I liked the
action of it. I never wanted a job where I
sat behind a desk. I wanted to be you know,
it was exciting to be a policeman. And one of
the great things is you just meet, you know, different
people every day of your life. And it was a
great training ground because you do learn a lot of
people's skills, You learn how to extract the truth out
of people. So it was it was a really unbelievable
training ground for me to take out to the stage
when I got my own show.
Speaker 1: How are you able to keep your thoughts fresh and aware?
Because I know that every time that I tune in,
every single season, you've always been at the helm of
your game, in other words, right there where we need
to be talking about.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm very fortunate to have a wife that runs
my show and probably the best producer on TV, and
she gets stories that are interesting.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I'm always good as the people and the stories they bring.
So my staff, my wife does a great job of
changing things up, not being too repetitive with certain storylines,
so it keeps things interesting and listen, you know, and
I have to realize I'm aging. You know, I've been
a TV for thirty two years, so I'm going to
be sixty two, so you know, you have to keep
that in mind too. But one of the things about
staying young is you know, staying active, staying engaged. Yes,
And the show provides me with that, right because when
you're talking to people, I'm listening to stories. I'm trying
to figure things out. So it's a good thing for
me to keep doing the show.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm so glad that you credit your wife with
helping you out. And the reason why is because there
are many times that my wife will say something and
if I don't get it written down and start doing
the work, then I've missed out on a major situation.
Like I did. I did a big thing today, the
research on how illegal it was for single women of
the nineteen fifties to own a home, and it's like,
what the what the what the? And you know what, Steve,
that comes directly from you, because I know that you
have planted a lot of courage inside my heart.
Speaker 3: Well, that's nice to hear it because I tell the
story all the time about when I was on Spiritual,
which was the fallest time of my life. But the
drawback was when I was on public or I would
get correspondals and people are like, you know, just to
a soul cliche, Oh, where did what trailer.
Speaker 2: Park did you get these people.
Speaker 3: Out of it?
Speaker 2: Well, it's not just get got old. And I never
liked that.
Speaker 3: But when I do my own show now, people say, hey,
you know, I was involved in a domestic violence situation
and when I watched your show, it gave me the
courage to leave. Or I was being sexually assaulted and
I was watching your show and it gave me the
courage to speak up and you know, you know, get
out of that situation. So then when you hear people say,
because you know, when you're doing the show, you might
might impacting one or two lives, but you forget that
when people are watching the show, you're impacting thousands of
people's lives.
Speaker 1: Yep, please do not move. There's more with Steve Wilcos
coming up next, celebrating thirty years of his own TV show.
We are back with Steve Wilcos. Do you feel like
a preacher sometimes or a psychologist? Because I mean, once
you open that door, man, those real people with real situations,
they come a run and they don't mind just opening
up those floodgates.
Speaker 2: No, I feel like a policeman. That's it.
Speaker 3: I mean, even there, you know, even after doing nineteen
years of my show. If you ask me, why do
I identify as all my careers, it would be a policeman.
I mean, I certainly wouldn't say talk show host would
be the first thing out of my mouth, even though
it is the longest job I've ever had. But when
I look back in my life, I really enjoyed being
a policeman. And It's been a long time since I've
been a policeman, but it was probably the job that
I've had that gave me the most satisfaction. Now, the
job that I enjoy the most is the television show
because it provides me with a great life. I've got
to do a lot of great things because of the show,
experiences that I never would have had if I, you know,
it wasn't a TV. So I do enjoy the perks
of being on TV, but as far as you know,
personal satisfaction and just the excitement of being a policeman,
the pride of putting on the uniform, nothing about that.
Speaker 1: See, this is every bit the reason why I think
You've got this innate ability to be able to fit
into any city, any country at any time, because you
freaking get it. You understand that we are real people
out here. And that we are really watching you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean everybody, you know, A lot of life
is what you make of it, right, But sometimes things
happen and you know you're behind the eight ball. And
I just always when I was a policeman, when you
got back Missus Smith's stolen car, or you track down
Missus Smith's runaway teenager, when you stop somebody from robbing
Missus Smith on the street, there is no better feeling
in the world when.
Speaker 2: I tell you that, when you help somebody.
Speaker 3: Where they thought, you know, everything's just gonna go away,
or they don't know where to turn to, and you
can affect that person's life by doing your job, there
is no better feeling in the world.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what's the one show that you're
still wanting to do. For instance, like people will say,
do you want to talk to Paul McCartney, No, I
want to talk to Paul McCartney's guitar tech. That's the
person I want to talk with. Who do you want
to have on that show one day that people go,
oh my god, only Steve could have done this.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we're a show that we deal with
regular people. We're not a celebrity driven show. When you know,
that's what a lot of success in the show is
because you know, daytime viewership, like daytime viewing ours is
a big pie, right, and everybody's got to stick their
hand in there and grab their slice of the pie. Well,
nobody's grabbing for my slice because everybody else is doing celebrities,
they're coming on to promote there the next movie or
you know what relationship they're in, or whatever the case.
And I'm dealing with just regular people that are just
trying to get to the next day. They're not going
back to their Beverly Hills mansion or getting on their
private jet. So you know, I'm interviewing your next door neighbor.
You know I'm interviewing your cousin. Yeah, so there's nobody
that I say, hey, you know, when my show is over, someday,
would I love to have a sports show, like basically
a baseball talk show and talk to like some baseball
players and.
Speaker 2: Managers and like, That's what I would.
Speaker 3: Like to do because I'm a huge baseball fan. But
as far as my show goes, you know, we're the
champion of the underdog, and underdogs you will get.
Speaker 1: Well, I can't thank you enough for what you have
done with this nation in the way of serving in
the Marine Corps. Then you served the nation and the
city in a police department, and now you're doing this
show hitting thirty. So therefore, mean everything about you has
been about the community. Is that coming from your mom
and dad or who planted that seed inside that heart?
Speaker 2: Well that that definitely comes from my mom and dad.
Speaker 3: You know, like I said, my dad was my hero,
and he served in the militaries in the Korean conflict
and was a placement himself. So when I when I
was a kid, I looked up.
Speaker 2: To my dad. My dad was superman. And you know,
you know my parents they.
Speaker 3: Were married a long time, sixty five years, and they
just you know, they they went to work, they came home.
I remember, you know, we lived in my grandmother's building,
and it was always a sense of family. You know,
we had all my aunts and uncles were you know,
they would always come to my grandmother's building. And you know,
we didn't have a lot of money, and you don't
need a lot of money. You're happy and you know,
and and there was a sense of always doing the
right thing. Uh, you know, if I was goofing around
and my neighbor doing something I wanted I shouldn't. Some
you know, adult down the street told me to do something,
knock it off. I didn't talk back. I listened to
him because I knew if I didn't, he'd go to
my father and I'd get my buttwet.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So those just those just good times and good lessons.
You know, I was very fortunate to grow up when
I did and where I did.
Speaker 1: Wow, dude, you got to come back to this show
anytime in the future. The door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate that you'd.
Speaker 1: Be brilliant today. Okay, Steve, all right about it, you too,