This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind, and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform. Today and every day we honor the people who really have done that, and it's the reason we're here, including D Day, so we'll have some really compelling D Day sound throughout the show, but with us right now, and I feel so privileged because I think it's the only interview she's agreed to today. Is a woman who has written the first draft of the history of the state of Colorado, and that is Kathy Walker, who's been news director at eight fifty KOA
and the station group for a very long time. If you're new to the area, she is the quintessential journalist in this area and has been an absolute rock of integrity and tremendous reporting for thirty five years. And your last day, and at least your last day full time as news director hard to imagine.
Hi, Dan, Yes, it's my last day as news director and I'm still going to hang out part time, but I'm really thrilled to be at this place where I'm choosing where to leave. We know that so many people in broadcasts don't get that option.
No, I remember the day I was fired here, but I'm glad to be back. I've never been.
Fired, and we have worked together off and on obviously through my whole career here really, and I'm so appreciative of you talking about the truth telling. I think if there, if I want when, I would leave the door tonight. I've always just sought the truth. I've always tried to tell the truth. Sadly, not everyone told the truth to me, Dan, but I've always tried.
To tell you right and again. If you're new to the area, Kathy is one of those people you can't find a single bad thing written about. I've never heard a bad word sad about you. I mean, it's just true, and it's remarkable because you have been this absolute rock of integrity, fair and balance. As we sit here right now,
thirty five years roughly together. Right because I've been with this station group for almost the entire time you've been here, I can't remember anybody ever saying a critical word about you. I can't remember you ever getting anything wrong in a story. Wow, I mean, it's almost been like you were AI decades before AI was invented.
You know what, though, I think what we have all learned, I don't know that I love the word multitasking, but certainly you can look at legal documents and synthesize them quickly. I can look at all types of documents and synthesize that information quickly. It's a skill. It's something you'll learn by doing.
Yeah, but for you and Kathy Walker, a news director, our guests, for you, it goes way beyond that, because the point is all those years together right here, however many they've been, I have no idea what your politics are. I couldn't tell if you lean left or right or middle because you have been in appso loot down the middle journalist.
Well, I was told and taught and believe that my politics didn't matter. And you know what it's like having a job like this, You get to know politicians as people. I'm so honored that every governor of Colorado I've had at least one great conversation with throughout the course of my life. And what a great thing. I'm the girl in high school Dan who told Governor Lamb I wanted this job.
That's so you would have done it way.
Back, right, But I don't think my politics do matter. And I guess if there's anything about the political climate we find ourselves in now, I wish I could just share story after story of the statesmen that I've met in politics throughout my life, and I don't mean that in a sex way, but gender neutral, who were invested in being in politics because they cared about Colorado so so much.
He's your favorite. Wow.
Governor Owens was so good to these radio stations. I mean, he was just wonderful to deal with. I adore Governor Roamer. I thought he was the guy that at least you knew the role he would play in every kind of political debate. I remember covering an all night long negotiation of Denver Public schools contract that he got in the middle of, and I was standing there, going, what good as a governor in the middle of like a very local political problem like this just seemed like a waste
of his time from my point of view. And he was so concerned about, you know, driving to the capitol every day and seeing teachers on picket lines that he wanted that to end, and he was willing to do whatever it of his own political capital if you will to make it end.
So yeah, I guess I've.
Had really great conversations with a lot of our governors and I'm grateful for that.
Yeah. Hey, Kathy Walker, our guest her last day as news director, thirty five years at eight fifty koa and for the station group. And so you have you have been news director through an era of what I consider to be some giants in politics on both sides of the aisle. And uh and I think we went through a phase there, whether there's a Democrat or Republican, there were some some very larger than life, very talented people who would just step up and tell you what what
they truly believed and why whether or not. I think another great one.
Sean Sothers, just a rock star of a lawyer. I loved it when he was attorney general. He could explain the most complex legal thing and a fifteen seconds.
A talented guy. Which story and obviously one of the most powerful memories of my life is having the privilege of being on your Live with You on nine to eleven through as that horrific day was unfolding. We anchored the coverage together. Obviously you were lead, But what are the most powerful memories you have? The most powerful story experiences.
Columbine has to be there, because it's really even hard to explain to people how we get so much information now within three hours of some terrible tragedy like that happening, and even the headlines on the newspapers the next day after Columbine said there were fifty people dead. That was
never true. But I mean the amount of time it took for us to find out the truth of what had happened at Columbine, by today's standards, was so slow, and because of that, it made the coverage so scary and terrifying and heartbreaking, heart breaking to cover.
You were telling a story earlier about the initial reports you were receiving as to how many children may have been.
No, we thought there were fifty.
And I thought at one point there were even some reports because Kathy's always getting access to information first. At one point, didn't they think there might be one hundred children?
Yeah, I mean we were told horrific numbers. Yeah, people that we thought were dead at Columbine. And that does not mean to mitigate that thirteen people lost their lives that day in Columbine, that one of them was a teacher, that twelve of them were students, and Dan I covered all the Catholic kids funerals from Columbine, right and only once during a prayer service that I attended, and I went to so many things in the week after, only once did we talk about the fifteen people who died
a college right. Only once? Yeah, yeah, Wow, the Youth Day, I just I don't even want to go away without thinking about.
We had the light wear I got to go to another news do you home? But we had the Pope, don't you last one?
You know?
We had the Pope here. We had this amazing influx. People kept telling us the World Youth Day was going to be this really great thing for Denver, and most of us are like, going, what is it? We don't even understand.
What it is.
And they were like, well, Pope John Paul will be here and all these kids from all around the world will be here. And then pretty soon everyone you knew was either helping out, feeding a kid, running people all over town, doing security, working extra because their company was somehow involved. Everybody in this whole community played a role in World Youth Day. It was such a beautiful thing.
It was beautiful. Do you feel a Katy, because I think it changed this area forever because remember how violent the summer had been before that and then all of a sudden that turned around.
But just in case you take.
Off, because Kathy never likes talking about Kathy, I want to mention two powerful experiences I've had with you, and so many more than that, but one makes me laugh, one makes me cry. The one that makes me laugh is I'll never forget walking in here during COVID with a guest of mine without a mask on, and the look I got from you, and I thought they are going to list my death as COVID related, and I guess it would have been in one way but the other.
And I'll be eternally grateful to you because when my mom passed away, When my mom passed away, you reported it on eight fifty KOWA as news, and that was that meant so much to our whole family. And my mom deserved that because she wasn't in the headlines, but she was one of those great people who did great things that nobody ever heard about. So for Kathy Walker at eight fifty KOA to report her death as news just meant more than you'll ever know. So, but that's just how you are. But that's the.
Life sperience of being a human lives in a community who wants to be responsible to a community. And it's been my privilege, am I honor and I'm so grateful. I'm just so grateful.
Well, you've got to write a book. And that's why I open the segment by stealing a ligne. Somebody else came up with that. You've written the first draft of the history of this state. So I really hope you write a book because you are and I've had the privilege of knowing is you have some really outstanding people in journalism. I can't think of a single person who has shown more absolutely rock steady integrity down the middle
journalism year after year after year. You're the person who should write a book.
Wow, that is so kind of you to say, Dan, and with your knowledge and your expertise in your life story here in Colorado, right, Well, I.
Mean, but thank you. There many of those what she does.
I've lived here for an appreciable amount of our adult lives, Like there just aren't that many of us, and it's such a gift.
It's it's so nice. We're all better off because you are you and you did what you did for thirty five years. Wow, thank you and I'll buy the first copy of the book.
It's been awesome. Thank you for your encouragement.
There you go, I thank you, Jenny Walker, go get him. Yeah, just one of a kind. We've all been so lucky to have her. Three or three someone three eight two five five tags d A N five seven seven three nine.
And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Thank you to Kathy Walker for joining us the only interview she's agreed to give today, and such a privilege for me because we've been here a long time together. She longer thirty five years as news director, but right down the middle and truly as we sit here today, I don't know her politics. Think about that talk about a true journalist. So great stuff. If you missed it, you can get it off the podcast. In the last segment,
Scott Jennings joins us at five oh six. I've talked about him a lot on the show because I think he's obviously by far the best can conservative on air, particularly since he has to do battle right. It's one thing to have a conservative talk show and I have a lot of respect for a lot of these guys and ladies, you know, people like Jesse Waters, et cetera. But it is uniquely difficult to go on and do battle with other smart people who have opposing political points
of view. And so Scott Jennings does that so incredibly well on CNN. And because he is opposed and he has to give and take and do it on the fly, I think he gains even more for conservatism and persuades more people and helps more people be able to go out and defend what they believe. So a true talent. I also think he's presidential material, and I'll ask him about that when he joins us at five oh six.
Got a great text here before I play some very compelling sound for you on this D day, But this text D and I moved to Colorado in nineteen ninety four. Kathy is all I've ever known is the voice of news. Since I arrived there, I still listen eight hundred miles away and pursue voice of reason at the top of every hour. Has kept me up to the moment every news story that matters for the last thirty years. Cheers
Kathy from Gina in Springfield want a cool text. So you know, you sit here right now and d day, you know, you don't even hear much talk about it, right, And then you go back and you know, we're lucky, right because we can just YouTube stuff and we can see some of the newsreels from that day and hear some of the sound and everything else, and it's almost impossible to wrap your mind around, you know, what people were willing to do then, to save others, to save
foreign countries, to save Europe, to save the world. And just you know, obviously I never have so many odes, so much to so few, but I just I just wonder if America is going to remember are the kids being taught this? Do the kids remember? But I did want to play some of that sound today, Ladies and.
Gentlemen, the President of the United States, my fellow Americans, last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer.
Almighty God, our sons pride of our nation. This day have set upon a.
Mighty endeavor, a struggled to preserve our public, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering human manity.
Plead them straight and crue.
Give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard, for the enemy is strong.
He may hurl back our forces.
Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return.
Again and again. And we know that by Thy grace and by.
The righteousness of our cause, our suns will triumph. They will be soret tried by night and by day, without rest, until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men.
Are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end the conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all thy people.
They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these father.
And receive them thy heroic servants into Thy kingdom, and for us at home, fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and.
Prayers are ever with.
Them, Help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in THEE in this hour of great sacrifice. Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer.
But because the road is long and.
The desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer as we rise to each new day, and again when each day.
Is spent.
FDR. It's like that was divinely inspired, absolutely perfect. And then you think about today, and I don't mean this as a shot, just the reality. You think about today, how fast he would be sued by how many different groups because he used that broadcast to push religion, to push prayer, to push God. Obviously, the world doesn't survive without that deep faith and without that commitment to faith. You're on the Dan Kaplas Show.
And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Certainly I was.
Sailors and airman of the Allied Expeditionary Force. You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months.
The world are upon you.
The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you, in company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppessed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle hardened. He will fight savagely. But this is
the year nineteen forty four. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of nineteen forty forty one. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats in open battle.
Man demand.
Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and place at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.
The tide has turned.
The freemen of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory, good luck, and let us all be seeks the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Wow Ike's D Day's speech June sixth, nineteen forty four is so inspiring, and we started with FDR's prayer to the Nation, with the nation his prayer to God on D Day, and we'll play that again. It's just so inspiring and obviously raises a lot of questions about where we're at today. Somebody out there fighting a good fight every day. Aaron Lee, Protect Kids Colorado. Great to ever back.
Aaron.
How you doing, Hey, Dan, thanks for having me.
I'm doing great, good, good well. I wanted to get you out and talk a little bit about the measures. I know you've cleared the first hurdle and just fill folks in and let them know how they can help if if they want to.
Yes, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to talk about protect Kids. So I'm the executive director. We started last year so people may remember our girls sports and parents must be notified. Initiatives that circulated and we actually on Wednesday just survived challenge at the title Board, and so we are the green light to print our
three initiatives. And the three issues are stopping trafficking, making it a life in prison sentence no chance of parole if you buy or sell a child for sex in the state of Colorado, and that's chaired by Mark Ozgeist, the ben Gazi Hero. And then our second issue is again keeping boys out of girls sports and locker rooms, which is shared by Jennifer Say who started XXXY Athletics.
She's a tremendous champion on this issue. And then our third issue is preventing making it illegal to perform these barbaric, irreversible sex change procedures on minor children and I am hearing that issue myself, and so we will be printing here in the next few weeks. We're looking for every Colorado who's interested in doing something, you know, especially with thirteen twelve, I've had so many people reach out and say,
what can we do? The state is it's in trouble and we all want to take part, and this is such an easy way of being part of the solution. Take a petition, get forty people or more to sign it, and we all just do a little bit, we absolutely will win at the ballot.
Well said, how many signatures do you need?
So we need roughly one hundred and thirty five thousand.
We're shooting for two hundred thousand on each issue. And I should mention that you know, last year we had eighty days because we had because of legal challenges, our timeline was shortened, we had no money, we were an all volunteer effort, we were just starting out, and in about eighty days we got nearly eighty thousand signatures, which is almost quadri ruple what has ever been done with an all volunteer effort with a full six month timeline.
So it really speaks to how hungry Colorado's are to make change in this state and how agreeable these issues are, these eighty twenty, you know, even ninety ten issues on the trafficking front. The people don't agree with what's happening at our capital. And so we're so blessed to have this Citizen's Baalid initiative process where we the people can make change in past law.
Absolutely aerinly, our guest, how again can people plug.
In so protect kids?
Colorado dot org encourage people to sign up just to volunteer to carry a petition or help out anyway they can and follow us on social just protect kids Colorado.
Great work, great work, Aaron. I hope we have you back off, and we will have you back off, and I hope you get all these past.
Thank you so much, Thank you.
You take care and de boys. She's doing great work out there, Erinlee and the initiative process is a real opportunity in Colorado, right, because we see that all the time. You know, anything in a red Jersey often gets shots. Politically speaking, on election, you know, Republicans are losing these state wide races way too often, including a lot of really good Republican candidates. But yet in those same elections you'll see ballot measures pass that obviously are favored by
the GOP Conservatives, et cetera. So there is still hope, and I think there's hope statewide as well. Right candidate, right campaign, everything comes together well three all three seven to one three eight two five five the number techs d A N five seven seven three nine. Scott Jennings joins us at five six. Looking forward to that conversation. I you know, there have been some really talented conservative warriors on national TV over the years. I'm trying to
think of anybody better than Scott Jennings. Ryan. I cannot right now. And you know, it's not like globetrotters v. Washington generals. They throw them up against every now and then some pretty intelligent, eloquent people on the left, bad ideas, but smart talented people, and Jennings handles all of them, and so it'll be great to have this conversation. I really do think. I expect he'll be in the US Center from Kentucky, but I'd love to see you on that presidential arena over the years.
So certainly the Senate seat would be a tremendous get for him, and I think for people that are of our political persuasion, You're right, he is a uniquely talented voice. But I'll say this too, dan Abby Phillip is smart in the sense that she has him on the show regularly. I think she is by far the highest rated show
on CNN. Sure as a result, but wouldn't it be a harbinger or an indicator to executives at CNNMSNBC that if you have a smart conservative voice on there, you're gonna get twice as many eyeballs.
If not more so, why not do it?
And I'll ask him, But they were talking about giving him his own show.
Right, well, you can ask him that too. I don't know.
Yeah, And then the question is is it would be great right because he's obvious you retwent it, But would it be as compelling if he doesn't have the point counterpoint? And that's one of the things that's so impressive to me is that he's able to engage in that battle
day in and day out and do very well. And I know how hard that is because for what's seven years on air here, you know, I'd go up against a really smart guy in Craig Silverman, and it's it's a lot more work, you know, it makes you better, it's a lot more work. But very few people can do it as well as Scott Jennings does it. So he'll be at five oh six Texter to d An five seven, seven, three nine. It's incredible how much more eloquent yesterday's leaders were compared with today. Thank you for
playing FDR's address to the nation after D Day. My grandfather fought in the South Pacific and he wasn't there on D Day. But I always think of him on sixty six and twelve seven. That's some DK in Broomfield. It really is striking. I'm going to play that sound throughout the afternoon. First, FDR's addressed to the nation, which was a prayer and a call to join together in prayer, which in and of itself is so telling, right, because you see the modern day left FDR obviously the leader
of the Democratic Party at the time. The modern day Democratic Party is so rabidly secular and so rabidly hostile toward faith, particularly Christianity. And yet you see one of the greatest Democrat leaders of the nation ever in FDR. You know who got it. He understood, He understood the pay grades and the pecking order, and he understood, hey, we need God, and this starts and ends with God, just like the Founders, right, I mean the last line
of the Declaration, with reliance on divine providence. We pledged you our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor. Yeah, they got it too. But today's modern Democratic Party do you think you'd ever hear anything like that going into war? Do you think the modern Democratic Party? And I don't mean Democrats, because there are so many patriotic Democrats God loving Democrats. I'm talking about the people who own and operate the party. Do you think they'd ever support going
to war for anything? I mean, no matter how noble the cause, but certainly not with the prayer in an appeal to God. They'd file lawsuits over that. So yeah, it's worth remembering, as the texture says, how much more eloquent and how open about reliance on God and commitment to God that leaders from both parties were in the past. And so when we come back, I want to do a punch of that sound in the next segment. There's nothing I can say that can rival this sound. For example, Yeah,
we'll do FDR's Addressed to the Nation. We'll do Eisenhower again. We'll do Eisenhower's Address to the Troops, which was shorter but I think so compelling. As so often as the case right, Ryan, so often it's the shorter statements, Gettyberg's dragon, Gettysburg attrass that lived through history. I'll blame that on the peanut butter, but it's probably Friday of Trial. Weak brain three or three five takes d An five seven, seven,
three nine, Scott Jennings at five six. You're on the Dan Capla Show.
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese government. They interplied to the message forward to that government by the Secretary of State on August eleventh. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the reply, there is no qualification. Arrangements are now being made for the formal signing of the surrender terms at the earliest possible moment.
General Douglas MacArthur has been appointed the Supreme Allied Commander to receive the Japanese surrender. Great Britain, Russia and China will be represented by high ranking officers. Meantime, the Allied armed forces have been ordered to suspend offensive action. The proclamation of VJ Day must have waited upon the pharma signing of the surrender terms by Japan.
Wow.
Can you imagine Can you imagine being alive then and hearing that with all that had been sacrificed and suffered through, you know, to win that war, that the war obviously for the future of civilization in the world. On this D Day, On this D Day, anniversary, playing a lot of sound from that day and related to that day,
and none better. I think, well that tie right between Ike's addressed to the troops and FDR's addressed to the Nation, which was really a prayer, Fdr leading the nation in prayer. But I do want to squeeze I do want to squeeze this one in. In the meantime, President Reagan part of his epic speech at Normandy.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France.
The air was soft, but forty years ago.
At this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn on the morning of the sixth of June nineteen forty four, two hundred and twenty five rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion, to climb these sheer
and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance. The rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades, and the American rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one ranger fell, another would take
his place. When one rope was cut, a ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon one by one the rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty five came here after two days of fighting, only ninety
could still bear arms. Behind me as a memorial the symbolizers the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs, and before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Puentejo.
Wow.
These are the who took the cliffs.
These are the champions who helped free a continent, And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you, and I think of the words of Steven Spender's poem. You were men who, in your quote lives, fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.
Wow, just blows you away, doesn't He left the vivid air signed with your honor. Man.
That was neat because there was a little over forty years ago, so about half the time ago that it was, and Ronald Reagan delivering that address, and many of those veterans were still surviving at that.
Oh yeah, they would have been young guys, they would have been in their sixties, right. But then you listened to FDR, you listen to Reagan, you know, you listen to Ike's address on D Day, and you think, you know, where have the giants gone?
Yeah?
Yeah?
Wow?
And will we get more? Because you you know, obviously we faced and will face some existential challenges to civilization. But I don't think you can get through those without giants like that. And it's one of the things here. Remember the founders, they said they were relying on divine providence. That was their big bat. They truly believed that they could win because of God, because they couldn't win any
other way. Right, You look at the odds when they started out, and I think one of the ways, right, I think one of the ways that has played out very concretely, is it seems like, and maybe I'm forgetting something, but it seems like at every true watershed, crossroads moment when it was all on the line for this nation and beyond that, you know, God has provided that great leader, sometimes the Democrats, sometimes a Republican, but that God has
provided that great leader. And you hear some of them here, right, sometimes Democrats and Republicans at the same time. It Yeah, and it brings you back to today. Listen Trump, And I know he's polarizing, but he's a larger than life figure and a figure who is a force of nature shaping events dramatically in the world. But how many truly great leaders are there right now, locally, nationally, worldwide. Yeah,
I would love you're taking that. But Scott Jennings after the break, it's going to be so cool to talk to him. I just think he's one of the best to have ever done what he's doing right now, which is going on air, not just commentating, but doing battle with these on the left and some pretty sharp people on the left. He joins us after the break on the Dan Capsule Show.