Billz Buzz: Recent Episodes
WTKS (WTKS-AM)
Have you ever read a great book or gotten hooked on a book series and felt like the favorite characters were friends of yours? Did you want to actually speak to the author to find out about how such a great story or stories were created? How did he or she come up with the characters, their names and personalities? What about amazing plots that kept you turning the pages? That's how I feel about one of the greatest and most prolific authors of our time, David Baldacci. His books are so well liked that they become New York Times best-sellers before they are even released. Baldacci is not only a NYT #1 best-selling author he's a #1 global best-seller and one of the world's favorite storytellers. He's been published in 45 languages in more than 80 countries with over 130 million world-wide sales. Well, he's done it again with the second episode of his newest main character, Atlee Pine, A Minute to Midnight. In my podcast Billz Buzz I get a chance to ask David those questions personally and here for you to enjoy and share.
The CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority, Griff Lynch, spoke with me about business-as-usual at the ports in Savannah and Brunswick and the importance of keeping them open. He explains the unique way and precautions they're taking to make sure the fastest-growing port in the world stays up and running.
John is a Savannah native who attended Savannah Christian and BC and now lives in beautiful Hermosa Beach near Los Angeles. John has about 15 staffing agencies around the country and he and his company are hurting over all this Corvid-19 mess. He believes he, his family and thousands of others got Coronavirus in L-A shortly after Christmas before we knew what it was. After a few days of discomfort, most all recovered. He believes it would be the same everywhere if we'd just live our lives--and reopen America.
Anson Williams had the honor of being part of one of the greatest comedy shows in the history of television back in the 1970s...Happy Days...he was "Potsie" in the series. But since then he's enjoyed a wonderfully successful career as a director of over 400 movies, mostly made-for-television. But a life-changing incident that almost cost him his life may have lead to create one of the best life-saving inventions with the help of his uncle--the famous life-saving gentleman Dr. Heimlich himself--"Alert Drops." So enjoy, as I did, my interview with an incredible human being, Anson Williams!
Brian Mudd and I started what is now AM Savannah on the 19th of February 2002. We had an instant connection like we'd worked together for 20 years which would have been impossible because Brian was only 20 at the time but he has always been mature and intelligent far beyond his years. We co-hosted the show for just over three years before he was promoted to operations manager at our West Palm Beach stations in Florida. Nevertheless, our friendship has continued long distance and he's always my "go-to" guy for financial anything. He's forgotten more about investment and finance than most people know. He's been very successfully investing since he was 11 (that's not a misprint). Brian is nothing short of brilliant and you'll often hear him sitting in for Mark Levin weekday evenings 6-to-9 (eastern). He's awesome and it's an honor to call him a colleague and a bigger honor to call him a friend.
Nathaniel Panther is the Senior Engineer for the Chatham County (Georgia) Department of Engineering. Panther discusses a major project in Savannah called The Truman Trail.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was attending the National League of Cities in Washington, D. C. this week. I spoke with him about the topics discussed about Coronavirus and whether we were going to have our St. Patrick's Day Parade this year. We also talked about other things of interest too.
On early afternoon Thursday, February 27th, one of the new luxury apartment complex under construction in downtown Savannah, Georgia suddenly erupted like the proverbial roman candle. It took place in the multi-million-dollar development Eastern Wharf on the Savannah River. Had it not been for the skill and heroics of the Savannah Fire Department and other first responders and agencies, it could have been much worse. Savannah Fire Chief Derik Minard came in Monday (03-02-20) morning on my radio show, AM Savannah, to talk with me about it.
Mikki Sodergren is a former Gold Medal winner of the American Traditions Vocal Competition in Savannah, Georgia which is unique in the world. It begins February 17th and runs through Friday February 21st. Mikki is a talented and highly-accomplished soprano who now lives in Manhattan and performs in a variety of venues. Here she discusses with me her work here this week including the work she's doing in the schools.
Derek is a Savannah native who was raised by his grandmother who ruled with a fur-coated iron fist. It was her way or the highway and Derek learned his ethics and morals from this wonderful woman who made sure he became a Scout. It must have worked. Derek is now Field Director of the Boy Scouts of America's Coastal Georgia Council. Derek discusses his upbringing, his experiences as a Scout and how he's helping to bring Scouting to more kids here.
KT McFarland was President Trump's first Deputy National Security Advisor. She's just released a book on her experiences there and elsewhere. She is one of the nations prominent conservative foreign policy experts. She was part of the Trump Revolution from the beginning. After a long absence of talking with her, I told it it's been "too long between 'drinks'...enjoy!
Back on December 23rd last year, these two young ladies, Claudia Birthisel and Belle Jackson, two best friends who are freshmen at Savannah Country Day and St. Vincent's Academy respectively looked in their closets and decided they had way too many coats and thought with the weather turning colder, Christmas just 48 hours out that there were lots of needy citizens who could use coats. They decided to have a special Christmas party and began contacting their friends asking them to attend. The price of admission? Bring all your old coats! Their friends showed up in droves and no one came empty-handed. They had coats galore running the gamut from toddler to adult. So on Christmas Eve they headed downtown with their treasurers only to be thwarted by Mother Nature in the form of rain. So they began going to some churches and other social organizations and before long all the coats were gone. Our television partner, WTOC did a wonderful story on these two wonderful young ladies and I wanted to follow up to see how things went and if they were planning on keeping it up. Here is their appearance on my morning radio show "AM Savannah" on News Radio 97.7/1290 WTKS today (01-31-20). Feel free to share this story with all your friends and contacts.
It's been 18 years since the D. C. Sniper was terrorising the Washington, D. C. area. But a new question has arisen in this case. The shooter was only 17 at the time of the murders. He was heavily influenced by his mentor. That doesn't excuse what he did but can those who have committed horrible crimes when they're underage be rehabilitated and even released? Tony Harris discusses it on his podcast and with me recently.
Sorry ladies...here's one "glass ceiling" you won't be able to crack. You might be able to be Jill Bond and Double-O-7, 2-point-O but you can't be James Bond. Fox News reporter Tonya J. Powers and I discussed it on my morning show, AM Savannah on News Radio 97.7 & 1290 WTKS recently.
Dr. Rick Roth, M.D. is a infectious disease specialist who has now retired from that practice to pursue his passion of flying. He's founded Roth Aviation Medical Services and is now a senior FAA medical examiner. He also trains Gulfstream pilots in Savannah at Flight Safety International. Here we discussed the Coronavirus on Monday morning January 27th showing that the media is once again blowing the story way out of portion to the facts. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
One of the reasons John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) lost his bid for President may well be attributed to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. These American heroes collaborated with author Jerome Corsi in the best-seller "Unfit for Command" exposing Kerry's fraudulent claims of his "heroism" in Vietnam. Among those veterans was Commander Tom Wright, USN (ret.) who passed away in late December 2019. Wright was a lieutenant in Vietnam and commanded a Swift Boat group when John Kerry was assigned to captain one of his boats. It didn't take Tom to find out quickly that Kerry was the proverbial "loose cannon." Kerry was reckless, foolhardy and would not follow orders. Wright went to his superiors and demanded Kerry be removed--and they complied. Kerry served in 'Nam for a mere four months yet he somehow managed to be awarded three Purple Hearts without spending a single day in a hospital, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. This is Guiness Book of World Records stuff that would have impressed Audie Murphy would be impressed. Yet Kerry came home and managed to get himself in front of a Congressional committee stabbing his fellow Vietnam vets in the back with manufactured stories of atrocities. But when he ran for president about 40 years later ironically he began touting his service in Vietnam as one of his accolades. That was too much for Tom Wright and some of his fellow vets. Wright settled in Savannah and he was kind enough to come on the air with my co-host Brian Mudd and me on August 29, 2004 during the heat of the presidential campaign when Kerry was challenging George W. Bush. Here is that interview with a TRUE naval hero.