Transcript
The Jacobsen Group with Jon Jacobsen · Tue Feb 14, 2023
Who used all the Wi-Fi?
Ah, apartment life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments, furnished in-unit washer and dryer.
Internet included a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station Apartments, now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.
Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?
Hello,
this is John Jacobson and welcome to this podcast of The Jacobson Group.
We're on the radio on News Talk 1540KXEL each weekend and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the podcasts of the program.
Prepare to be informed, entertained and amazed right after this.
Who used all the Wi-Fi?
Ah, apartment life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments, furnished in-unit washer and dryer.
Internet included a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station Apartments, now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.
Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?
Department?
Welcome on this great Saturday morning fire to our super bowl tomorrow.
You're joining the Jacobson group with the regular cast of characters.
John Jacobson here, Scott Corey.
David Overholds are the lovely and gracious Naomi Corey and our special guest star, the one, the only, the inimitable, the Dean of Iowa Radio, Jeff Stein, who commands the KXEL Empire, America's first.
We're a hundred years in, Jeff, the first 50,000 watt clear channel broadcast.
from Iowa right from your studios and Jeff of course I can tell you I've known this guy for over a third of a century when we were law school classmates at University of Iowa as a matter of fact the great barrister Nick Cratelli sends his greetings to you Mr. Stein he's a great admirer has another wonderful continuing ed class coming up that should be fascinating but Jeff how are you we've asked you to join today because you've been so gracious in affording us
this vantage point while 50,000 watts on 1540 plus the 1067.
What is it to be in command of a legacy like this, Jeff Stein?
Well, I would like to say that we're raising the bar by having this program on.
I would like to say that.
I'm not sure it's accurate, but I would like to say that
As we fire up the blowtorch at AM 1540 and then the still new FM signal at 100.5 throughout the Cedar Valley and then of course it's the dot com and it's the app and basically it's our goal to just take over the media landscape one set of ears at a time.
Jeff Stein here Dr. Jeff Stein.
JD 1988 from the University of Iowa.
So I think he's still a secret Hawkeye, although he always plays it right down the middle as a very objective.
journalist, but Jeff, we're so proud to be a part of this.
I grew up in Marion Seed Rapids listening to KXEL during the Watergate years.
Back then, I would always listen to that top of the hour NBC chimes and newscast, which was what KXEL had.
And Gene Klosson, of course, was a bit of a Hawkeye play by play man in his own right.
And we're just, you know, we started this project back in July.
You had us on half hour.
Then you gave us a half hour on Sunday to compliment the Saturday half hour, mornings on Saturday, afternoons on Sunday.
And then we expanded to our one hour format.
And Jeff, it's great to be with you today.
Jeff, I want our listeners to know, obviously they know you very well.
We've got a lot of listeners there, like Tim Grover, who think that they love your political broadcasts.
on Politics with Jeff Stein.
You've also got Iowa Almanac, Iowa Business Report, which are played into Nebraska and are heard in western Iowa, southwest Iowa.
Jeff, a question I've always wanted to ask you on air is, you were the fill-in for Jim Bohan and that great, which started as the mutual radio Larry King overnight show that I used to listen to while I was doing college term papers.
You were the sub for him on evenings when he had his show.
May he rest in peace.
And also, you're the go-to guy for Todd Starnes, the great former Fox News legend who now has done beautifully since he spread his wings from Fox News.
You got him to be a keynoter at our Iowa Broadcast News Association Awards.
I think he was the best guy we ever had in.
And Jeff, what's it like to toggle from local radio to national radio?
Well, you're very kind.
Jim Bohannon, because it was tied up with the Westwood One syndication, he did not have the ability to place guest hosts.
That all came from corporate.
And so while I was not able to host the show, I was a guest many times, including on Iowa Caucus Night and talking about Iowa history.
And I think the first time that Jim had me on was just after the passing of President Reagan.
And so we spoke about Reagan's Iowa
radio experience and one of the things that that has had always impressed me about the Bohannon program and he was such a gracious individual he would try to take angles on the program that were not predictable so for example president Reagan died you could have done any manner of Reagan retrospectives but he said let's talk about the earlier days that helped form who Reagan became
And so that, you know, that's the kind of attack, if you will, that he took toward all of his interviews.
He was kind enough to talk to the IBNA three different times.
I had him out for a separate event.
So four times over the 20 years I knew him, he came to Iowa to speak to broadcast journalists and never once charged a fee.
He asked for expenses, which of course, but his stepdaughter lived in Wisconsin.
He and his wife would leave their home base first it was Washington DC then South Carolina and then in the Interconnect in Chicago she'd go north he'd come here and then he'd go fly up and meet her and and I think it has to do guys with his Missouri upbringing Midwest upbringing he was Genuine he was gracious he I mean truly was a gentleman of the air so witty so sharp
and it is such a loss that he was taken from us at this time.
Todd Starnes is someone I have great admiration for because here he is hosting a nationally syndicated radio show on the Fox News Radio Network, which isn't as big a player as some of these others, but it's still Fox.
And he then had a regular program on the then new Fox Nation streaming channel.
That big bucks people like you know overholster probably pays for I don't but but I'm told that there is such a thing and So so he had that He was on the Fox News Channel as a guest many times and as a reporter and said you know what I'm 50 years old and I don't want to live in New York anymore and So he and Fox parted ways he set up his own media company and
bought a station in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
And so he does the national radio program from Memphis.
And I say of all places because we don't think of that, right?
We'll now throw the technology into place.
Here's, you know, this monkey behind the microphone in a studio in Waterloo.
We send the signal to Memphis.
It merges with what they're doing there with commercials, et cetera.
It goes up to the Westwood One satellite.
And there we are on 125 radio stations across the country.
And so the technology is amazing.
But your specific question is what's it like to toggle?
The shows I do here on KXEL, they're not talk shows, right?
You don't hear me give a rant.
I don't have callers.
It's not opinion.
It's an interview program.
And so it's really an interesting pivot from
Let's have extended conversations with people you should know.
And then flip the switch.
Literally, I get off the air at 11 live and then the starring show is at 11 live.
KXL has it in the evening, but it's live at 11 in the morning.
And then we're into the mode of commentary and take the phone calls and it's
You need to switch from coffee to strong tea.
I think at that point it's just a very it is a little little schizophrenic Sort of dynamic if you will
here with the dean of Iowa radio
Jeff Stein, Dr. Jeff Stein, Jack Shelley Award winner at a very young age, actually.
And we know you've got some questions coming up for Jeff from Scott Corey, Hawkeye Scott Corey, and David Overholzer, but want to say thanks to one of our sponsors, Barbara Hames Bryant from Hames Homes.
When I was a young kid in 1970, Kurt Norma Hames, Kurt Norma, he was a Sergeant Major.
She was a
a nurse there over in World War II.
Kurt was actually advisor to the King of Siam, except he wasn't Anna, he was advisor to the King of Thailand.
And when he came back, he decided that affordable, beautiful, safe homes for Americans were a calling that needed to be filled.
He started with Ames Mobile Homes, with Cracklin Rosie from Neil Diamond playing as their
background music until Neil Diamond wrote and said, you have to pay for this.
Now, fortunately, we've got the fair use doctrine.
We can still play a few strands of that, but Curt Norma, their legacy Barbara, one of their children, Barbara, her siblings and their children now, a beautiful expanded, actually villages of these beautiful, safe and very affordable manufactured homes in Southwest Cedar Rapids.
And of course, in this time, Dave, it's really great to be able to be able to get into a couple of square thousand feet for a hundred thousand dollars at the financing that they
provide.
You know, absolutely right, John.
We talk more than more than once about, you know, the interest rates and the impact they're having.
I've got kids that are trying to come back to the council bus area and truly housing is going to be a challenge for them.
I just had a plan in my office this morning and we were discussing, you know, rental and
And I've heard numbers that Council Bluffs in Iowa are 60,000 units short of what there should be as far as rental or housing opportunities.
And so the fact that here is somebody that has an affordable option for housing, what a tremendous opportunity.
During the derecho, they lost no
roofs.
They had no exterior damage, did much better than some of the homes in my hometown of Marion and my poor Indian Creek Country Club.
tree that I grew up wit twig.
Um, let's go b in mobile unit one scott or comment for the gre were on our election cove is always good to be b any questions or
comments
Jeff Stein and it's great to be a part of the program and you can actually hear the damage that we can do on the radio waves firsthand.
But talk to us a little bit about where you think everything is going with the technology and media moving forward.
We're seeing the advent of podcasts.
We're seeing serious exam taking off.
We're seeing iHeartRadio dominate kind of the stream right now.
But there's always going to be that niche for local
Radio local programming.
I'd like to get your thoughts on that and how you see things progressing moving forward.
That's such a great smart question, Scott.
And I guess the first thing I should say about this program, usually I see a computer file come in and I put it into the machine and I then have plausible deniability about anything that Jacobson does.
I've lost that because I'm sitting here recording it and so I'm
I'm a little nervous, but that's all right.
Well, you made us nervous with that scary disclaimer.
Boy, you must think I'm a real dangerous
man.
It's a standard procedure for all dangerous men.
But this is the thing about technology.
And I don't want to get into a full history lesson, but radio came about 100 years ago, literally 100 and 101 years ago.
And then television came along and everybody said, well, that's it.
Radio's gone.
and then cable television came along and they said well that's certainly going to be the end of radio and probably television and then satellite and then the internet everybody was saying it was the death of radio so far not so much to the point that even the youngest demographic I just saw this number yesterday the 18 to 24 year old demographic listens to audio at a larger level higher level
than the predecessor generation.
Now that audio might be AM radio, it might be FM radio, it might be a podcast, but they're listening to audio.
And what we're finding is that audio, like podcasts, they're not taking away from radio listenership.
It's actually enhancing the whole cohort, if you will.
Because that's the first thing you think of, right?
If you've got a finite amount of time, are you going to listen to a podcast?
Are you going to listen to the radio?
Well, as it turns out, the time that people are taking to listen to podcasts is coming out of something else.
I hope it's not coming out of, you know, free time with family and, you know, good conversation, but it's not the death of it.
Okay.
Now that having been said, there are a lot of challenges out there.
I don't know how familiar you folks are with the electric vehicle issue.
and AM radio.
But by definition, and I'll take one step back, if you're used to listening to AM radio, the difference between AM and FM essentially is AM signals can travel like KXELs literally coast to coast.
I got an email the other morning from somebody in the upper peninsula of Michigan and they weren't listening on a fancy radio as the radio in the car.
Okay, I mean the signal can travel.
FM has better quality but a shorter signal range.
So you, you know, you're lucky if you your signal covers in Iowa, you know, half the state.
OK, my company owns two 100,000 watt fms.
They cover good territory, but it's nothing like a 50,000 watt AM signal.
All right.
So you're listening to AM and there's a thunderstorm.
What do you notice?
It's crackly, right?
You know, every
time.
Yeah.
OK.
Every time there's lightning, there's an electrical impulse and it interrupts the signal.
Imagine if your AM radio is in an electric vehicle, okay?
Now, you can have filters put in, manufacturers can put in filters that would cut down on this interference.
But those cost money, so they don't want to do it, so what they're trying to do is make it so that AM radio is not standard in these vehicles.
And we've heard from folks on the farm.
They just went out and bought a new pickup.
What's a new pickup cost?
I mean, Jacobson buys new vehicles all the time with $75,000, I think, right?
Scotty's in one right now, I think, aren't you, Scotty?
Yeah, I mean, some of the newer ones, if you go with the three quarter ton or well over 80, 85,000, I mean, it's not heard of.
I mean, it's just crazy what you could spend today.
And that's without the gun rack.
That's extra.
OK, so then that makes it even more.
But the point is that here are people who bought seventy five eighty thousand dollar pickups and they can't listen to the AM radio because it didn't come with it.
And we all assume that radios come in in vehicles.
Now, you can you can suggest that it's just an oversight.
You can say, hey, you guys ought to put the filters in.
But if you want to.
Adjust your tinfoil hat for a moment.
I'm already ahead of you.
I know.
I know.
You were nodding.
I can see on the Zoom.
You're nodding on this one.
What's the predominant program format on AM radio in 2023?
Talk
radio.
Conservative talk radio.
It's some sort of spoken word.
And so it might be sports or it might be news talk.
And again, to David's point, most of what you hear in talk radio because that's what draws an audience is conservative leaning radio.
You're just a little footnote.
Programmers are not partisans generally.
I mean, if liberal talk radio attracted an audience, they'd put that on.
So the idea that the industry is this right wing industry, you know, if polkas and shodishes drew numbers,
I would be playing polkas and shodishes.
The industry is a bunch of capitalists, and that's what's deciding what's on the radio.
That's it.
Well, it's a for-profit business.
Yes, when you hold a broadcast license, it's in the public interest, but other than quote-unquote public broadcasters.
If we don't make a profit, there's no stations like any business you operate.
Okay, so if in fact you
concede that most talk radio is political and most of it is conservative and now all of a sudden at the same time the administration wants electric vehicles we learn that electric vehicles are bad for AM radio I don't know there are not that many coincidences in life and so I'm
You know, I hate to
throw stones.
At 62 years old, at 62 years old, Dr. Stein, there are no coincidences.
You're listening to Jacobson Group here, but we're giving a tip of the fedora to the Dean of High Radio, Jeff Stein, Jack Shelley Award winner with David Overholzer and Scott and Naomi Corey.
Jeff, folks listening on the AM and FM band won't be able to see this, but just as the testimony to you, a couple of books that you and I read together.
Jeff, over a third of a century ago.
I can attest to Jeff Stein's legal bona fides when it comes to mass communications.
The First Amendment and the Fifth Estate Regulation of Electronic Mass Media.
What volume is that?
Or what edition?
What edition
is that?
Cases and Materials by Franklin.
Nick Johnson, a good liberal LBJ FCC commissioner.
How do we still end up, let's just say, right of center, Jeff?
Because of the fact that
Capitalism prevails and I think he even understood that right I mean Nick Johnson was the one who was an FCC commissioner on the cover of Rolling Stone wasn't it and he had a Bushy mustache and they had dollar signs in the mustache I mean because he knew what this was about I want to know what editions of those books are because here's what's the scary part as a college professor for 25 years I was stunned at how many editions of the book
I was teaching out of, removed from when I had them in college.
I guarantee, it's frightening that I was, I think I took mass media law in the third edition.
By the time I left, I was teaching out of the 18th.
You did.
You're in the
third edition.
That's yours and mine.
I've got it all highlighted.
I don't need that aggravation, just
knowing
that I took the third edition and they're in the 18th.
But again,
You're far more senior than I am Mr. Jacobson and so if I need to speak up let me know.
Ah,
apartment
life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments.
Furnished, in-unit washer and dryer, internet included, a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station Apartments, now leasing from Four Lakes
Properties.
We have a washer and dryer in the apartment.
We're listing the Jacobson group Naomi Corey, the super sports mom, a question or comment for Dr. Jeff Stein.
I was just going to comment on the radio and the listeners and the age group categories.
Yes.
By middle child is currently he's a para educator at a high school and he's
to doing the parrot a teacher pathway and studying to be a math teacher.
But currently he's reading this sci-fi book where most of the planet is wiped out in a nuclear war.
And then the only way people can communicate with each other is through the radio.
It's just
it's just an interesting, interesting concept.
So
well, I hope they don't label that science fiction.
You know, it's that this is this odd communication platform.
But, you know, the broad answer to what you just mentioned into what Scott had asked, what's the future of it?
I think the future is just fine if those who are in charge of the medium, programming, etc.
take care of it, right?
I mean, it'll go away if we don't take care of things.
If you don't put on a good show, you won't have people listening.
But to to the earlier point about podcasting,
when Mr. Jacobson gathered you all together for the program.
And we first started airing it in, was it July, I believe, of last
year?
It was, right before the 4th of July.
We were on the July 2 Saturday
show as our debut, Jeff.
And so pretty quickly, we were seeing two, three, four hundred people a week listening, not on the radio, but on the podcast.
Now, that's a pretty good number for a program that
is on weekly that doesn't have a big promotional budget.
I mean, this was all either social media posts saying, hey, go here to listen to this or word of mouth or whatever.
So you've got this large audience on the radio and then people either are listening a second time or they're not able to pick up the station or does not convenient for their lives.
And so they go to the podcast.
So I really think the future is great because
For example, the program that was on KXEL before this one today, the Iowa Business Report, that's my weekly syndicated program.
So it's on 24 radio stations, including KXEL.
But I also post the podcast and so anybody can subscribe on 19 different platforms.
We do interviews, but we can't necessarily put the whole interview on the radio program.
So
the interview is a standalone podcast.
So this is the great thing in the past.
I had to worry about, you know, let's say I'm interviewing Scott and know me about their lives and things that they're doing.
Oh, geez, I only have time for six minutes, but there's so much good stuff.
I
just
post the whole 15 minutes as a separate podcast.
It's efficient.
It's in essence, the radio station can become the buffet line and the podcast is where you go back for seconds.
Right,
right.
Here with Dr. Jeff Stein.
You'll listen to the Jacobson Group on KXL 1540 AM, 100.5 FM, Claire Channel.
And as Jeff alluded to, you can listen to the podcast on all these different platforms.
Just find kxl.com slash Jacobson Group or type in on these platforms and you will find us.
We're going to talk about Iowa's sports.
and the Iowa legislature in the 25 minutes we have remaining, but I want to give a salute to Dr. Ted Fogarty and Dr. David Hartsuch, who also helped underwrite our program.
Now, the Eastern Iowa folks are closest geographically to David Hartsuch.
He's in the Quad Cities with his Hartsuch medical practice down there.
Some of you will remember David as a distinguished
Iowa State Senator who served as a GOP member of the Iowa State Senate.
He's also a CPA like you, David.
He's a man for all seasons.
He's an MD.
He's a magnificent emergency room physician because he's so multitask oriented.
He catches all sorts of the variety of things that you'll see in an ER.
And he is one of the fellows
that had an almost 100% COVID cure save record.
And he's been tussling with the Iowa Board of Medicine as have I about some of their interference that arguably cost lies by not allowing these doctors to use without threats of license revocations or suspensions or warnings.
Early, effective, plentiful,
not costly, very affordable front end anti-viral preventive treatment.
And Doc continues to do this.
We've had his patients on testifying to the way he turned around some of those folks that were in deep trouble.
And we appreciate him sponsoring the show.
He uses hyperbaric as well, which
or even used for our veterans with PTSD and other disorders.
And his friends over in Spirit Lake by Okuboji, which also get this signal at the aeronautics with an ex aeronautics clinic, Ted Fogarty from Omaha originally and Brad Meyer.
These were top of their class residents in the Omaha metro area.
They also are turning things around with hyperbaric.
incredible successes in turning around stroke, dementia, concussion injuries, long-term COVID.
And they have some outstanding protocols such that they've earned some CARES money grants because they've been so effective.
So I'd advise you to give David Hartsich a look up.
Just Google them.
David Hartsich in Scott County in Davenport and talk to him in his clinic.
or type in Aeronautics, A-E-R-O-N-A-U-T-I-X Aeronautics Clinic up in Spirit Lake, Okabogy.
Guys, let's talk about some Iowa football.
Now, Jeff, you're an Iowa alum, but you're playing Panthers stuff there.
Sometimes we even get preempted.
We don't mind that with the Panthers there.
We love Kurt Warner and we love
All the great Panthers and now he
doesn't play anymore.
You're aware that Kurt Warner doesn't play for the Panthers anymore, right?
Yes.
But remember, I got to grill him with the test before he got to take my sister out to homecoming.
So I've had my interactions with Kurt when I was the grizzled older brother.
But I know that we've got.
Oh, let's just bring up nepotism, not that there would ever be nepotism anywhere in.
Iowa, certainly, we don't have political families that have had strangleholds for years, such as Grassley's Brandstads, Fitzgerald's, Miller's, you know, we won't talk about that, but Brian Farrance did get a contract extension.
And Scotty, I'd like you to weigh in on that.
Kind of interesting, Kirk is still holding very tightly onto
the offensive coordinator of the 130th best offense out of 131 division one, FCS offenses.
Yeah, it was quite a week in Hawkeye Nation.
And I will say this, it seems like when the announcement was made on Monday of the new contract for Brian Farance, it almost seems like a month ago, just based on everything that's taken place this weekend in sports.
But for listeners, what happened was Brian Farance, the offensive coordinator,
Under Iowa law, technically has to report to athletic director Gary Barda.
That way it gets around to nepotism laws.
But at the end of the day, we all know that Kurt Ferrance calls the shots at the University of Iowa.
And so he released the contract.
If he exceeds any of that, he actually gets some of his bonuses and he took a $50,000 pay cut.
Well, the problem with that Hawkeye Nation has been is that the offense is just laughable.
It gets roasted weekly on social media as well as ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, so on and so forth.
And a lot of the opinion of the fandom is, is if we even had a top 50 or a top 80 offense to go with Phil Parker's amazing defense, we'd be in the college football playoffs, probably the last three out of the last six years.
And
so
there's just, sitting that low bar has really set a lot of fans off.
I know Ray Gunn Sports came out with a t-shirt that said 25-7, the Hawkeye way, you know, in reference to 25 points and seven victories.
Now, in current fairances, 24 years in Iowa, he has averaged eight wins.
But this year,
had he had an offense, we probably would have picked up another three to four wins off.
Absolutely.
And you know, one of the biggest issues that Iowa has faced is with Underfield Parker and the way that defense has played the last seven to eight years.
If Iowa scores, I believe it has 17 points, they have a probability of winning that game by 96%.
Right.
So we're not asking for a whole lot.
But what really got a lot of people going was that the question was raised, is the 25 points just on the offense or is that a team effort?
That was my first question.
I
was my first question.
I had a hunch.
Yeah, and Gary Barton said, no, it's a team effort.
Well, my buy point is, is if the defense and the special teams get a count for that, well, if Phil Parker needs some money because his defense is
sitting records by pick sixes every year and safeties and everything else.
So I mean, it's just laughable that here we are 24 years in the current parents and all the good that he has done at the University of Iowa and basically Brian has undone everything with the perception of nepotism and the way that offenses has performed last three years.
Dr. Jeffstein, I don't expect you to wait in this with any editorial comment.
You're the objective journalist here, but
There is chatter on the ground in eastern Iowa.
We're hearing a lot out in the western part of the state.
What is the zeitgeist out there if you can wander into that obliquely for us?
Well, I stopped really following most sports when they became so darn woke in 2020.
So bring on NASCAR, bring on ProRodeo.
That's what I pay attention
to.
Good man, Stein.
I love you, baby.
But let me because I know that that none of you have an opinion on this issue.
So let me just roll this grenade out there and see what happens.
Given the issues with the Iowa offense, do you think that Brian Farance has been looking for another job?
In other words, this is how you get that off the hot seat.
He's off to become his own man, etc.
if you believe that that's reasonable because when half, I mean, they were even getting other coaches, you know, they were punking other coaches to make comments, right?
I mean, in that, in that pay.
The cameo, the cameo,
whatever it is.
You can by the way, I endorse Livy Dunn on cameo.
Just want to say I endorse Livy Dunn.
And for the record, I did not have anything to do with these Bob Stoops cameo.
That was outright brutal.
Yeah, but what about the Fran McCaffrey one?
I had no comment.
There we go.
That's what we were looking for right there.
So if in fact the heat is hot and you decide, well, maybe I should look for another job.
He hasn't found one.
Has he?
Does that suggest to you that employability is now a factor?
Does it suggest to you that what he is actually doing is trying to win his way back into the hearts and minds of Hawkeye Nation so he can succeed his father?
Because again, it's the Iowa political way, so perhaps it's also the Iowa athletics way.
I just throw those out there and see what you think.
So you're just saying you're thinking all of this is Kurt trying to keep a sense of moving back into basement.
Well, let's see, at least he's got income.
I don't know what the rental is, but obviously there's nobody who owes Kirk a favor to take Brian off his hands.
I was hoping Bill Belichick did.
That's a great point, Scotty.
Yeah, that's a great point.
There was a lot of chatter this last few weeks thinking that Bill Belichick would bring back Brian Farrance, who coached under Belichick at the Patriots, but Belichick has gone a completely different way.
And so those options were dried up.
And that's a huge concern as well, Jeff, that you raised because Kirk is at 67 or 68 years old.
He's been in Iowa for 24 years.
And the whole issue is, at the end of the day, do we trust Gary Barda to make the right call for the next head football coach?
And there's a lot of donors out there and a lot of fans that say no.
And so the University of Iowa is going to be under a lot of pressure.
the next two years about what's going to move moving forward.
Well, if you want to analogize, and I'm sure John would analogize what you just said, Fort Scott, to woke Iowa school districts.
We don't have to listen to parents.
We know better about how to educate children.
So maybe it can be we don't need to hear from fans.
We know better about how to staff the athletic department.
Wonder how that would work out.
Yeah, you know, Jeff, that's amazing.
Sitting as vice chair of the oversight committee last year to see the curricula that was being promulgated, including through BLM, Marxist right down the pipe in the grade schools, middle schools, high schools, and then looking at the literal suppression of speech by regents universities.
I mean, that's not just a First Amendment issue.
That's a 14th Amendment issue.
Section 1983 of the U.S.
Code literally allows you to sue individually for personal liability any school official or administrator that violates the free speech rights of students.
That was from our own.
We made that landmark history, Jeff, as you know, with the Tinker versus Des Moines Public Schools case during the Vietnam War era.
This is Iowa set the national
uh uh landmark for the law in this area and we had Iowa schools violating it
well that's absolutely right and you recall last year when um the hidden camera videos surfaced after the legislature passed laws saying no crt in schools and so then there was hidden camera video of administrators bragging about how they got around it by not calling it crt now my first thought is
with all due respect to the former representative didn't you guys think of that that somebody would try to work their way but again the idea you would like to think people you would like to think people who are entrusted with educating the next generation would not as a first resort say hmm we don't like this law let's try to find a way around it but you know to scott's point about you know succession at the university i am
I don't know any of the Farron's family, but it sure would seem that Brian came back for a reason and it's not panning out.
And at some point, how does that play out?
Because let's say Captain Kirk says, I have one more year left in me and Gary Barty introduces Brian as the new coach.
How do you all react?
I don't care, but how do you all react?
Well, it would be unacceptable, clearly.
And again, the whole way to end run around the nepotism.
question is troubling.
But in our next segment, we're going to talk a little bit about the whole idea of ethics and conflicts of interest, even in legislative situations.
We see this occurring all the time.
Remember, you're listening to Jacobson Goup on KXL.
We're with the Godfather, Dr. Jeff Stein, the station dean and Iowa's dean of radio, the multiple award-winning Jeff Stein, Jack Shelley Award National, syndicated radio,
co-host here with David Overholster Scott Corey Naomi Corey on 1540 the blowtorch the clear channel well guys i'll tell you what i've loved those hawk eyes since i was listening to Ralph Miller and the six pack and that great undefeated big 10 team from 1970 71 and uh jeff stein here with us dr jeff stein on the jason group jeff
Who's your favorite play-by-play Hawkeye announcer of all time?
I grew up with Ron Gonder, Tate Cummins, I grew up with Frosty Mitchell, Bob Brooks, Jim Zabel, Gene Clausen, and of course Scott and Dave have their favorites such as Matt McCausland and Charm Sherman, Bob Hogue, and Jeff, who's your favorite
of the bunch?
Well, first of all, by you mentioning that you remember the Ralph Miller team, I'm again realizing just how old you are as
opposed to
any of the rest of us.
But I got to tell you, I probably would say Bruxy.
And the reason is he had such a fondness for the game, but it was also just very much down the middle.
You know, Zabel, by his own admission,
was broadcasting some horrible teams.
And so he had to keep people listening.
Gondar, excellent.
Gondar is solid.
But I'm thinking because there's just something about the Brooks story.
And I don't know if you folks really know it.
He was a high school kid during World War Two.
Yeah.
And volunteered at WSUI radio, the non-commercial station at the University of Iowa,
where you got your
stars.
Well,
I started a little before that, but again, at a young age in Marshalltown.
Yes, I was at WSUI for seven years during college and law school, but there were no males because the males were off fighting the war.
And so
he
started doing Hawkeye games as a high school kid, just driving down the road because he was from the area and then
built that up to just such dominance and the fact that he was doing it literally every single day of sports report until the week before he passed away.
He did my sister's high school games well into the 90s, Jeff Stein.
And what I thought was great about Bob Brooks, the tapestry he painted for those basketball games was really unmatched, fadeaway jump shot.
three point, you know, there wasn't a three point lane, but he was able to talk about the, you know, the kind of size up the court you knew where you were.
And you knew if it was a baseline jumper, as he was Fega Bank, fadeaway jump shot, baseline jumper.
And he was just, you know, he could speak rapidly, but he loved the high school games.
Oh, yeah.
For him, a high school game was just as big as covering a big 10 game.
Well, and, you know, Gonder and Zabel were the same way in that.
they do high school games, they do college games, it would just be a different, you know, it's a different court, but knowing, and I had the occasion to know each of them not very well at all, but having met and talked to and having some correspondence with each of them, they understood that while to some of the audience, it's like, well, you were just doing a Hawkeye Bowl game, why are you doing Kennedy High School?
Because to the players and the fans,
That is like a bowl game, right?
I mean, you have to have that sense of I don't care who's playing.
It is important.
And this is the distinction between radio and television.
You don't have any pictures with radio.
And so you have to give the audience everything.
And it is such a different, a different and more difficult game to call on radio as opposed to television.
Television, take a break and let the pictures fill the time.
Can't do that
in radio.
Jeff, my wife and I were listening to the radio version of the Bengals chiefs game last week as we're coming back from visiting the grandchildren.
And those guys were so superior on both the Westwood one or Mutual, whatever you want to call that network nowadays.
And also we actually caught for a change of pace, the Bengals announcers.
Usually we listen to the chiefs announcers.
It was so vastly superior.
to the TV that we watched.
Scott, Corey, I'm going to kick it back to you and Naomi and Dave.
You guys are kind of Western Iowa.
Is Jim Zabel the gold standard?
I fell in love with Jim Zabel once I got out of Eastern Iowa, went over to the Omaha area and heard Zabel so much in those latter years.
What say you?
You know,
absolutely.
Jim Zabel kind of has set the gold standard for Hawkeye Nation when it comes to the radio.
Gary Dolphin has done a lot, and we really appreciate what him and Ed Podolac, you know, it's gonna be a hard issue to hear, we talked about what the University of Iowa is gonna look like with Ference.
Yeah, it's gonna be tough when we lose Ed and Dolphin.
Both are not terribly far away.
I mean, I can't believe Ed's gonna
stop.
And now, Gary Dolphin, and so, you know, he's gonna be stepping down at some point too.
Yes, Scotty, I agree with you.
You know, you've got
a situation there where I can't believe I got any Pollack's autograph when he was a 21 year old and now he's going to be 77 years old.
And Jeff, we're losing some of those iconic giants, the likes of which we will never seen because Dolphin and Pollack are kind of classic throwbacks in a good way, aren't they?
Oh, sure.
Absolutely.
And to a different degree with basketball, Bobby Hanson, because again, both of those color commentators cut their teeth with Zobel.
And so they each worked with Zabel, they each worked then with Dolphin, and it's the same thing at, you know, any generation.
You know, I'm sure that our parents lamented when certain entertainers or broadcasters left the scene.
It's just part of the evolution.
But the thing that is striking about the University of Iowa experience is the longevity.
because you had, at one time, seven different originating broadcasts for football.
I didn't remember those days, I really do.
Well, and because it was until, what, the 90s?
And so then you've now had Dolphin for two generations.
I
mean, it's
just amazing, but you go back to the old press row at the old Kinnick Stadium, and you mentioned, so you'd have Gene Clausen at KXIC, Gondra at WMT, Brooks
at
K-Hawk.
Zabal at W.H.O.
you had Braverman at KCJJ, Bloom-Cockins at KWPC, I mean, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And it was just amazing kind of stuff.
And so it's a very different landscape now, but you're the longevity.
I mean, that's the huge thing.
And Iowa State, if I can mention the phrase Iowa State on this program, it's the
same one.
It's the same thing.
I mean, for many years, it was Pete Taylor and now John Walters.
I mean, it's just amazing track records of longevity.
All righty, guys.
Once again, the Jacobson Group on KXEL.
Thanks to Barbara Hames Bryant with Hames Homes.
Look them up in Southwest Cedar Rapids off of Wilson Avenue.
Safe, beautiful, affordable.
homes for you and your family, and also the aeronautics clinic in Spirit Lake, Lake Ocoboji, Doctors Fogarty and Heartsuch with hyperbaric therapy to help you with stroke, concussion, dementia protocols.
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These guys are the best.
Look him up in Davenport.
Guys, we're going to talk politics, because if we got Stein on, it would be a crime not to talk politics.
And I'm going to pull up that great Henry Mancini music, Stein.
We used to watch those election returns together at Iowa Law School.
And the Gipper had won 49 states and was in his second term when we were there.
Jeff, I gotta tell you, we got a spotty record so far in the Iowa legislature this year.
Is the trifecta the panacea or do we got a few bumps in the road here?
What say you, your interview on everybody?
Well, it's more of a steamroller of taking care of things.
I mean, when you can count the votes and you know that you have a majority, let's get down to business, right?
I mean, between
the medical malpractice non-economic caps between the education savings accounts of the the public school funding they've got the budget they've got the the votes and they're moving it right along and some might say some on the left of course might say well this is ridiculous this is a travesty okay then go win elections because that's how we got to this point right i mean if it and i'm i'm trying to be empathetic
But but the bottom line is when you've got election results like you had last November and you've got majorities like you have in the House and Senate and they don't do the things that they ran on
That makes no sense they obviously think they're on the right path They've been reelected or others have been tossed out and so that the numbers are what they are the trick for Republicans given the weakened state of the Democrat Party in Iowa the trick for Republicans is to not overreach and Not do certain things that go too far well so far I don't know that they have gone so far that all of a sudden
It's going to be a speaker conference in 2025.
I don't see that.
And you knew her father, of course,
so
Jen Confer's father was on a rival media outlet for many years, but they had to be subsidized.
They couldn't pay for themselves.
Well, the Associated Press, but no, I knew her at public television.
And of course, her father, Mike Glover.
But, you know, this is where
I'll give you a great example of bias at the Associated Press.
I can find any story about the legislature and they will refer to it as the Republican controlled legislature.
But when Democrats have the majority, it's the Democrat led legislature.
Now you can tell me that's an accident.
But I'm not going to believe it.
That's why we love you, Stein.
Your doctor objectivity.
Scotty, Naomi, weigh in your thoughts on sessions so far.
I do think it's noteworthy that when leadership really wants to roll a bill through, they can get it done in no time at all, even before first funnel.
It is interesting that there's no pro-life bill and that there's still no medical freedom bills.
So, you know, how dedicated are they to their base?
I still raise that question.
Scott, Naomi, any takers there before I shift it to Dave?
You know, that's a great point.
That's actually what I was gonna bring up because when the Republicans control the legislature, they have no problem taking people off of committees, creating brand new committees in order to get a gas tax increase passed or the governor's education bill.
But when it comes to pro-life issues that they have campaigned on for the last 30 years, and now we've been giving them the trifecta of the governor's office, supermajorities in both chambers and a brand new attorney general,
nobody can seem to be bothered to bring up a bill.
And it's kind of disheartening.
And it
almost makes you wonder what we've been led to believe the last 20 years.
Just the Republicans surely believe what they say they believe when it comes to the life issue.
Yeah, salient point.
Naomi Corey, sports supermom.
I was just going to bring up the changing the speed limit to 75 on the interstates.
That's the one I'm watching because I have to sit in a car where someone
likes to go a little faster than the speed
limit is
currently in the state and That's one.
I'm watching Are
you
know are you sure that
the that the kids college funds are taken a hit because of speeding tickets?
I don't want to get in anybody into trouble here
No comment
there's a lot of no comment out of that car.
Well, I I'm wondering though now
You know, John, you you live this for a half dozen years.
The people in Des Moines, the people part of the trifecta say, we don't want to put another heartbeat bill in until we see what the Iowa Supreme Court is going to do because it's a waste of time.
The chance of them adopting an existing piece of legislation isn't very great, but they might get guidance.
That doesn't sound, though, Scott, and Naomi, like that that's going to pacify you.
Well, Jeff, it's not going to passify me.
And here's why.
The Dobs decision was clear cut nationally.
And I know there's the, well, let's wait and see on the Iowa bill.
To make it clean, you're probably going to have to repass it anyway, just on the argument that was made earlier that when it was in place, the law was different.
And so you'd still have to re-qualify it.
with a new law subsequent to Dobs.
There's no downside to doing that.
Clearly the votes are there.
The other issue is that was a much, much different Iowa Supreme Court that found some abortion penumbra's in the Iowa Constitution.
And why wait past the bill?
I believe that it is law that will be confirmed by the present composition
of this new Iowa Supreme Court, which frankly is now a six to one, seven to zero conservative court when just four years ago it was a five to two or six to one liberal court.
I think you've got to pass at least the heartbeat bill because that's held up nationally everywhere.
And it was a specious comment by a dying judiciary to find these numbers in the Iowa Constitution.
So
I say go for it.
I think some of its political cowardice to just not want to get involved with a bill that inflames emotions.
But the Republican mantra has always been, well, we want to help you, but just wait until rogue gets overturned.
There's nothing we can do.
Now we've overturned it half a year later.
Nothing.
No leadership bill.
So it's interesting.
The malpractice bill was also interesting, Jeff, as an attorney.
You know, Iowa came up with a great compromise to solve all the issues four years ago when they did that hybrid rule that has the thresholds to sue for larger damages.
It seemed like it was a solution in search of a problem with this most recent bill that was passed.
And here's the irony, Jeff, for the conservative base that wants justice for the medical malpractice done
during this COVID terror at the hospital level and at the physician level and at the possibly board of medicine and pharmacy level.
Now you've denuded yourself of causes of action to render justice against those despots.
So basically what this Republican bill did unwittingly fell right into what the big pharma and big hospital folks
wanted to further immunize them from the liability protections that they already have to such an extent that they're basically immune from any assault.
That's the problem I have
with it.
Well, look at the governor's statement following passage saying Iowa is open for business for medical professionals.
We welcome you to come here, et cetera, et cetera.
I mean, the tourism department couldn't have done any better.
But
she's wrong and here's why.
Her medical board is persecuting the top two dozen doctors that saved everybody during COVID.
They're having to flee to Nebraska where Attorney General Peterson wrote, we're not going to attack you for prescribing good front end antivirals.
And we've got guys fleeing to South Dakota because Iowa isn't friendly to these physicians.
It's very duplicitous, Jeff.
And the headlines read one thing, but what's going on sometimes is the other.
Well, there's no question.
And that's why first one with the news release out gets to set the agenda on it.
But the the issue that I had with to a degree with the tone of the governor's statement was, you know, again, come on in, you know, the economic waters are fine.
Well, that's fine.
But that almost seems like.
you were just doing the bidding of business.
You
know, I mean, I'm
not sure that was the point, you know, maybe that's the time to say, um, this legislation, uh, make sure that those who are adversely affected are appropriately compensated and fully,
you know, et
cetera, et cetera.
But, you know, the Chamber of Commerce approach, I thought was, was not quite appropriate in that setting.
I will give her great credit.
The tax decrease was wonderful.
I know Dave is a proponent of a 3.9% tax in Iowa, plus the retiree in the capital gains.
You think
it was a good tax bill, right Dave?
Oh my gosh, you know, it's early in the tax season, but the conversations, I have a typical earlier.
early people coming in for appointments or the retirees.
They've got their dad pretty real easy.
And I can tell you that's a topic practically every one of my client conferences that I have.
That's a topic that comes up.
What do I need to do for 2023?
You're not telling me you don't have to have Iowa with holding on your retirements anymore, things like that.
I mean, that's that was a great thing.
That was absolutely a great thing.
Well, we got just a couple of minutes left.
I want to go back to Scott Naomi for just a second.
Scott Naomi and David and I, and talking to some of my Democratic friends, these parties are not monoliths.
It almost seems like we have de facto four to five subparties within each major political party, almost like Israel or Italy, where we could go to a parliamentary system.
What is causing the angst among the bases?
in all of these county part is there a disconnect betr the rank and file?
Do we s you do.
I
think you know party has been thrown arou especially regarding to e going on in D. C. But a l also be said here in the s in the republican party w a lot of marching orders co
Republican State Central Committee and it seems like it's taking a lot of the grassroots input away and you're starting to see some people bubbling up now do I think we'll have a insurrection like we did in 2012 where you know the Ron Paul faction took over no I don't think we'll see that but I think you will see more of you know where are we gonna be at in the next three to four years because the party is changing in my opinion and it has to it has to
because right now the old guard is getting older and grayer and you have to start seeing these new, the so-called new church take more positions of power.
Great take by Scott Curry.
Scott, you get the final word.
Want to thank Dr. Jeff Stein for this edition of the Stein Jacobson group with David Overholzer, Scott Curry and Naomi Curry.
Super Bowl predictions in a second, Dave.
AC.
Scotty.
Kansas City by seven.
Naomi.
Kansas City.
KC by three.
Stein, the final word.
I think Chris Stapleton wins in a walk away with the national anthem.
That's a great point.
Be safe.
Be smart.
Be good.
Be strong.
Love Jesus Christ.
God bless us, everyone.
Watch us on the podcast or at least listen to us on it at jamesgroup.com till next week.
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Bye.
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Play it safe and
be careful.
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