Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

On the eve of a new school year, we speak with Dr. Lynn Akey, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. We talk about the dramatic reorganization of the school in the hopes of allowing it to offer more cost-effectively ..... new offerings from the school .... and the challenging environment within which the school is still managing to flourish.

Nicole Terrizzi discusses her book "Learning in Free Fall: A Testimony of Mental Health, Poverty and Race in American Education." The book is a memoir of her experience as a young teacher in a struggling inner city school.

We talk with Anna Barrington about her novel "The Spectacle" - which is set in a world she has worked in for a number of years .... high-end, luxury artwork.

Chris Paulson, director of the Racine Heritage Museum, talks about a new project in which they are digitalizing the diaries of Racine's George Horlick.

Andrew D. Blechman, author of "Leisureville: Adventures in a World Without Children." The book explores the rise of retirement communities in which children are expressly excluded. What does it mean to live in such an environment? What is attractive about that for so many seniors? What is gained? What is lost?

Two KUSD teachers - Kristen Singer and Nic Cicerale - and two KUSD students - Dallen Arendt and Stephen Stockholm - have just returned from the Festival Fringe (or Fringe Festival) in Edinburgh, Scotland ..... the largest performing arts festival in the world. Over the course of three weeks, more than 3,500 plays are performed in several hundred different venues by actors for sixty different countries. KUSD presented Mary Zimmerman's theatrical treatment of Ovid's "Metamorphosis."

In honor of Dave McGrath, longtime morning anchor at WGTD, who retired this past Friday after just over 25 years at the station, we are resharing a memorable interview with him and his wife Guida Brown in which they recount their experience of following the so-called Buddy Holly Tour. This involved retracing the final concert tour of Buddy Holly, which was cut short by a plane crash in rural Iowa on February 3, 1959 that killed Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper.

In honor of Dave McGrath's retirement from WGTD (his last day with the station was yesterday, the 15th) we are resharing this memorable Morning Show conversation in which he talks about his book "Gene Pitney: The Singer, The Songs, The Songwriters." Dave McGrath and his wife Guida worked with Gene Pitney for many years selling his memorabilia. In this very interesting book, Dave looks at the stories behind some of Pitney's greatest hits.

Today was the last day for Dave McGrath as WGTD's local anchor for Morning Edition ..... something he has been doing for more than 25 years! (Dave has opted for retirement.) With the help of his wife Guida Brown as well as assistance from WGTD general manager Dave Cole, we were able to round up some very special guests from Dave's long professional career in radio broadcasting to help give him a fitting send-off.

Kailyn Palomares joins us for her monthly visit to the program- and her guest is Laura Holder with Conservation Dogs Collective. Her dogs are trained to detect both invasive and endangered species - plants, animals, insects, even nests.

We preview this coming Saturday's HarborPark Jazz Rhythm and Blues Festival - a fundraiser for the Mary Lou and Arthur F. Mahone Foundation - with Tim Mahone ..... and with the musical headliner for this year's event, Grammy Award-winner Kirk Whalum. (He performs Saturday evening at 7:30.) The event occurs in Celebration Place adjacent to the Kenosha harbor.

Dr. Robyn Koslowitz, author of "Post Traumatic Parenting: Break the cycle and become the parent you always wanted to be." This book is intended as a guide for anyone who has experienced trauma in their own childhood and in how they were parented- and hopes to rise above that hurt and trauma to be the best parents they can be. - After that, from the archives (2014) is an interview with author Alan Rabinowitz in which he talks about his children's book "A Boy and his Jaguar." The book stems partly from his real-life experience as a stutterer.

On the eve of another school year, we speak with Dr. John Swallow, the president of Carthage College. He tells us about the record-breaking freshman class that is about to begin studies at Carthage - the creation of a School of Health - and the offering of a new Biotechnology major/minor.

From 2008 - Former Carthage College president Dr. F. Gregory Campbell remembers Alan Anderson, a 1950 Carthage graduate who went on to serve the college in a number of capacities .... including acting president .... over the course of 35 years. He is fondly remembered as one of the most beloved figures in the history of the college. This interview aired right before Homecoming that year - several weeks after Anderson's death on September 28, 2008. [NOTE - Tomorrow, Monday August 11th, we will air a newly recorded interview with the current president of Carthage, Dr. John Swallow.]

From 2007- Acclaimed actor Alan Alda talks about his memoir "Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself."

We speak with Dr. Samuel Jay Keyser, an emeritus member of the faculty at MIT and author of "Play it again, Sam: Repetition in the Arts." In this book, Professor Keyser explores how and why we experience pleasure and satisfaction when we encounter repetition in music, poetry, and visual arts. What exactly is going on in the brain? What is the nature of the pleasure we experience?

From 1999- more from Michael Schumacher, talking about his book "Francis Ford Coppola: a Filmmaker's Life." Earlier this year, Coppola became the 50th person to receive the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.

Earlier this year, Francis Ford Coppola became the 50th person to be granted the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award- and the star-studded ceremony where he was presented the award was recently telecast on Turner Classic Movies. In honor of that, we are resharing our 1999 interview with Kenosha author Michael Schumacher in which we talk about his book "Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life." Coppola is renowned for directing and/or producing such films as "The Godfather," "The Godfather II," "Apocalypse Now," "The Outsiders," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "American Graffiti," and "The Cotton Club."

We preview a fun event planned for this Friday at the Uptown Library in Kenosha to celebrate its 100th anniversary ..... a video game competition.

We speak with best-selling author J. Randy Taraborelli about his most recent book- "JFK- Public, Private, Secret." It is, in many ways, the culmination of several decades of research that he has done into the Kennedy family in the course of writing half a dozen books about the Kennedys. His previous book, crafted in a very similar fashion, is titled "Jackie- Public, Private, Secret." Taraborelli has also written best-selling biographies of Frank Sinatra, Princess Grace, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and - perhaps most famously- Diana Ross with the book "Call Her Miss Ross."