Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

From 2021 - Livia Blackburne talks about her beautiful children's book "I Dream of Popo."

We speak with Eddie Williams III, a corps officer and pastor with the Salvation Army Racine Chapter and Community Center, about their famous Red Kettle Campaign. We also learn a little about the history of the Salvation Army.

From 2023- April Genevieve Tucholke talks about her children's book "Merry and Hark: A Christmas Story." It's based on the true story of a small owl that accidentally traveled into New York City with that year's Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.

In a startling role reversal, Gregory Berg is the guest .... interviewed by his longtime colleague Dave McGrath, WGTD news director - talking about the next Signature Spotlight Concert at the Racine Theater Guild which is co-hosted by Greg and his wife Kathy ..... called a Berg Christmas Special. Some family members as well as some of Greg's former voice students will be joining in what will be an evening of both secular and sacred Christmas music.

From earlier this year- Best-selling author Earl Swift talks about his book "Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings."

From 2010 - Doug Stewart, author of "The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare- A Tale of Forgery and Folly." It's the story of a frustrated young writer named William Henry Ireland who (beginning in the spring of 1795) produced a large number of Shakespearean fabrications that were widely accepted as authentic- for a while.

Kailyn Palomares joins us with two of her colleagues from Racine County Land and Water Conservation Division - Chad Sampson and Jon Grove - to talk about what conservation is and what it takes to conserve two of our most precious resources: water and topsoil.

We speak with Craig Gall, director of the Kenosha Pops Band, about their Christmas concert coming up this Saturday evening 7 pm at Carthage's Siebert Chapel.

Debbie Slevin, author of "Unpregnant Pause: Where are the babies?" The book is a very thoughtful exploration of what goes into a woman's decision about whether or not to have children - and why more and more women are delaying having children, choosing not to have children at all, or choosing to have fewer children then was once common.

We preview the Christmas concerts of the Belle City Brassworks on December 11th and 18th with Doug Johnson, director of the group .... and Katie Humphrey, president of the board (and member of the french horn section.)

We preview the Candlelight Christmas Concert coming up this Saturday night at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Racine with Pat Badger, co-producer of the event, and Mark Paffrath, one of the musicians who will be performing.

Joseph Tenuta, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Management at Carthage College, talks about his book "The Starting Bluprnt: What you can expect when you start your own business." This is a book that Tenuta wishes would have been available for him to read when he was first launching his own small business. The book offers up a lot of suggestions and guidelines for anybody who is contemplating the possibility of starting their own small business.

From 2002 - Dr. Linda Harper talks about her book "Give to your heart's content - without giving yourself away." The book explores how one can be a giving, generous person without compromising your own well-being.

From 2015 - Jane Bryant Quinn, author of "How to make your money last- The Indispensable Retirement Guide."

We preview the two performances this weekend of Handel's MESSIAH at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside ... performances that are dedicated to the memory of Frances Bedford, longtime member of the UW-P music faculty who played harpsichord for every Parkside Messiah performance for more than two decades. Frances Bedford passed away in February 2023 at the age of 98. Monte Bedford, who will be playing oboe in the orchestra for these performances, offers reminiscences about his late mother. Also joining us is Dr. James Kinchen, director of choral activities at Parkside, who will be conducting this weekend's performances.

We preview this weekend's performances of the Carthage Christmas Festival - billed this year as the 150th anniversary festival. We speak with Matthew Hougland and Maggie Burk, co-directors of the festival. They talk about all that goes into coordinating this massive production and talk about some highlights from the program, including an exquisite new work commissioned especially for the occasion. We also hear from Polly Amborn, a Carthage graduate ('89) who is now the conductor of the college's Treble Choir. Polly reminisces about attending the festival more than 40 years and reflects on how the event has changed in the intervening years and what it is like for her to now be a part of it in a very different way from when she was a student at Carthage.

Curzio Caravati talks about his non-profit KUFI Farm .... KUFI stands for Kenosha Urban Farm Institute, a research farm that explores how we can raise crops more effectively and sustainably to better feed the world.

We preview Sunday afternoon's concert by the Spirit of Racine Music Makers with board president Laura Sumner Coon as well as their new artistic director, Margaret Stetka Girdzius. We also talk about the scholarship that has been created in memory of the group's founder and former artistic director, George Baumgardt, who passed away earlier this year.

We preview this weekend's holiday concert of the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra- which will also feature the Kenosha Chamber Choir.

Lawrence Spinelli discusses his new book "Watergate's Unexpected Hero: The Life of Peter Rodino Jr." Rodino was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey for forty years- and was chair of the House Judiciary Committee for the impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon in 1974. Those televised hearings made Rodino one of the most famous men in America for a time. This is the first full-length biography of Rodino, who chose not to capitalize on his newfound fame in any way. Rodino is widely praised for the sense of restraint and care with which he chaired the committee during that tumultuous time in our nation's history.