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Electricity Prices

Feb 05, 202542 min
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Episode description

Gary Tanguay Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea

Right now the Canadian tariff on energy imports has been paused for 30 days, but if that does go into effect, it could have a broad impact on New England energy costs. Nearly 10 percent of New England’s electricity is imported from Canada. How can businesses and residents save money on electric bills this winter? Demorian Linton, the CEO of Inertia Resources, Inc. joined Gary to discuss.

Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!

Transcript

Speaker 1

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Choston's Radio.

Speaker 2

Okay, welcome back. You know I do I just I look. I got the electric build the other day, and I swear to God, you know my father, my father used to look with the with the thermostat would turn it down like two degrees like.

Speaker 3

That makes it different.

Speaker 2

But the laughter is coming from Demoria and Linton, the CEO of Inertia Resources. Uh talking about the price of electricity. Okay, let's start within the home and then we'll go and we'll talk about all the tariffs and all the crap that's going on with Canada and all that stuff. Does it really matter? Like, Okay, this is what happened. You know, I lose weight shutting off lights. I do laps around

my house. I lose, you know, shutting off lights bathroom, one daughter's bedroom, another's daughter's bedroom, in one daughter's bedroom. It's not just one set of lights, it's two. I have two switches, two switches. There are these crazy like lamps and then there's the regular lights. Both are on and you have to shut them off. Correct. Does that really save a lot of money or is it just peace of mind?

Speaker 4

For me?

Speaker 3

It actually really does save your bottom line. What a lot of people don't understand that what really kills, or we call it ghost energy inside the house is things that are actually plugged in that are actually not being used.

Speaker 2

Oh wow, so.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so like if you don't have anything plugged into the wall, we ternment like ghost energy, were that actually that device, whether it's an air fryer or a microwave or television or something that even if you just left it in and you turn it off, those devices still use electricity. And that's probably one of the most common things that we see that people just don't know about.

Where you have something plugged in, you're not using it, you're saying, hey, it's off, that device is still using electricity.

Speaker 2

How much.

Speaker 3

You're talking about probably five to maybe eight percent of your bill typically a month. One of the other things that people don't know that can really reduce the amount of energy that is being used in their home is understanding the difference between on and off peak times. Most people don't know that your house has to work about eight times harder between eight am and five pm every day.

So if you're using the dishwasher or washer and dryer during that time, it consumes a ton of energy and just makes your energy will go up a lot.

Speaker 2

Why why eight to five? Why would like seven o'clock at night be any different than eight to five.

Speaker 3

Because that's when typically most businesses are That's when the grid's working the hardness. Because typically when most businesses are using a lot of the electricity, so the grid is working harder to get energy out to everyone, so it makes it more expensive. So if you want to actually use less electricity or have to b the lower you would want to actually wash your clothes, run the dishwasher, do those things before eight am, after a PM, or

on the weekends. Off peak time is typically anytime where business to business day to day are not consuming a lot of energy. So that's also the weekends after five o'clock before eight am.

Speaker 2

So I'm a stay at home dad. So my wife comes out of the office and she says, how can you're not doing the laundry? I think after five? Got to do it after five?

Speaker 3

Yeah, now you have an amazing excuse to do it after five.

Speaker 2

I gotta do it after five. I'm please. I'm watching Sports Center. Of course the TV's on. The TV's on, you know, so if I okay, well, I'm not going to unplug everything in the house. Obviously, I'm not going to go I'm not going to go unplug the TV. But we are so guilty of that. I have phone chargers, computer printer, my laptop when it's charged, you know, the stupid you know band I use at the gym to tell me that I've burned five calories. You know, that's

all over the place. That's amazing. So if I stop doing that with things that are accessible, I will see a difference in my electric bill.

Speaker 3

Oh. The other common thing that we see a lot of times, especially in the New England area because sometimes typically homes are older, is not having and this is maybe a larger project, but not having well insulation. And that's the biggest that's one of the biggest things we

see across the board. Just sometimes a home, whether it's the summer or the winter, if there is energy or heat escaping your home through the windowsills or through anything throughout the house, your home has to work harder to keep everything warmer, to keep everything cool. So one of the things that I don't know, if you remember my grandmother, you su sin to they I always close the door because you're not air conditioning me entire neighborhood.

Speaker 2

A lot of time your heat no mine was My dad used to say, stop heating the g D outdoors.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so actually grandmother and grandfather were actually correct. You want to try to keep as much energy inside your house as possible. So if if it's in the wintertime, one of the biggest things that we see is when the window sills aren't properly insulated and let's like there's that cool air that you can still feel. That means that your home is having to work harder to keep keep the house warm, and so the bills typically go up during the wintertime during that if they're using natural

gas or you're using all electric. And the biggest, the biggest culprit is in the summertime, where that that that cool air that air conditioning is getting out and it's warming, it's it's not keeping the house warm. So that's why a lot of times electricity build skyrocket in the summer because the house isn't well it's insulated.

Speaker 2

Yeah, plus the AC's cranking. You know, if you have a you know, and my dad would he would, I'll never forget, like we have a central a see, and because we're spoiled, and we're Americans and we can't live without it. And I remember my dad refused to buy an air conditioner with not just a simple air conditioner that you put in the window, it's say, for the fifteen days out of the year or the ten days out of the year, you open up the windows, you just deal with the heat. Refuse to do it, would

not do it. And now those of us, we can't live without central air or some sort of ex Yeah, it's nuts. Now, my my, well, my family room is a money it's a money pit. I mean I got oh it's gorgeous. I got beautiful windows, I got high ceilings, and now I'm talking to you, and I just see money going out the window. I mean it's no doubt. I mean it's great, it's beautiful. But you know, I thought that the construction costs were enough, but it's there's

no doubt about it. It's and you know, the baseboard heat is beneath the windows, and but it's and you have high ceilings and that's that's tougher to heat as well. You know, forget about it. It's a nightmare.

Speaker 3

Yeah yeah, led light bulbs will also. I mean that's kind of like well known that'll knock down the bill another ten fifteen percent if you do replace everything that's most commonly now that everybody knows. But the things again that most people don't know is you know, turning off your devices that you can that aren't like a headache to be able to you know, access and take out.

And then also just trying to fix any leaks and make sure you're homes well in solely we're no heats getting out or no cold air is going out.

Speaker 2

That a really really have about a.

Speaker 3

Lot of people don't sometimes realize how hard their buildings are working or their homes are working to try to keep everything cool or warm.

Speaker 2

Well, I'll tell you what I was told by some contractors. And my house was built in nineteen seventy nine. It sucks. I mean it's a great house, but I mean as far as the insulation, I forget about it. It's terrible.

And it was there was a time. I mean, if you take a look at homes that were built in the thirties and probably I don't know about the forties, but it's built in the thirties, they are better insulated and better made than homes that up in the late seventies and probably in the fifties after the boom after World War Two, because they were putting them up so fast that people could move in.

Speaker 3

That is correct. Yeah, the homes were built a lot better back then when they started, when we started popularizing new major cities, they were just really talking, really worried about getting the home up there and not doing what they were doing before to keep i mean, using the best products. So yeah, you're you're one hundred percent correct.

Speaker 2

All right. And also as far as the heat goes, you know, put on a sweater, you know what I mean, just put on a sweater.

Speaker 3

You could do that. A lot of people will have the smart thermosets and they will try to set them accordingly to like when their home and when not. A lot of times when we do these energy audits and we look at someone's thermostat, you know, it's running the same as it would run if they were home or not home. And believe it or not, I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's a huge

culprit as well. Or someone just keeps the ac running whether they're home or not home, just so they can have that cool five minutes when or they come in from the first time in the house. But that just waste and waste tons of energy when you do that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I need a new thermostat, you know, because right now the only way that works is if I keep it on in one section, in one zone.

Speaker 3

They have Yeah, they have great ones now. So like what I see a lot of people's, especially in the summer, they come with apps now, so you can literally be at home and say I'm gonna be home in five minutes, have it off all day, and just click it on before you get home. That way when you walk in the house is cool, But a lot of times we do energy on it and we go back and look at the thermostat and you say that you've been running the same cycle seven days a week for the last

six months. That's one of the reasons that your bill is probably more expensive. Like there needs to be vacation mode, it needs to be also things where you can set timing is based on where you're going to be home, and you're not going to.

Speaker 2

Be home, there's an app for that. Oh my god, you have just made this. You have just made this interview worthwhile. You have earned your money though you're doing it for free. I have some more questions for you. Can you hang on no, of course, Okay, Morian Linton joins us. By the way, if you have a phone call, you have you a question for the more and you want to don't call and ask about politics. Don't call

and ask about Trump or don't do that. If you have a question how to save money energy wise, just give us a call at six seven two four ten thirty. The Moran can answer your question. This is Nightside on WBZ.

Speaker 1

Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studio on WBZ News Radio.

Speaker 2

Okay Darien for day tonight, CEO of Inertia Resources, the Morian Linton, talking about saving energy and the things you can do that really just aren't that time consuming and quite simple in order to lower your electric bill, like unplugging things, which is something I'm going to start doing. Now. Let's I don't want to get too political here, but what's going on in Canada. We understand ten percent of our of our energy in New England comes from Canada

from Maine, so I think I can understand this. So how does what's going on with Trump and Trudeau in the negotiation for these tariffs, how does that possibly impact our energy situation.

Speaker 3

So it's more or less the tariffs you would think it's actually the energy consumption or generation. The energy is more the traded commodity versus where it's actually coming from. The tariffs are more or less going to affect the you know, steel and aluminum that crosses over for the

infrastructure for our grid. So let's just say, for instance, anytime there's down wires a lot of times, we'll get things from Mexico, We'll get things from China, we'll get things from you know, Canada where and we import those things, and creating a tariff will increase not on the actual electricity rate, but our distribution costs, which are the other

fifty percent of the bill. Wherever source and National Grid go out and fix things when everything goes down, they have to get the they have to get the steel and the aluminum and the copper and everything from somewhere. So we do tariffs and we put tariffs on that. That will increase infrastructure pricing, which it's typically voted on by the Department of Public Utility or here in the state,

and they regulate those things. So it's not anything that's going to be an immediate impact on like our bill, Like the first day, people think that, hey, their tear goes in on the twenty fifth hay with armageddon rate, they're about to go up twenty five percent tomorrow. It doesn't work like that. It takes a long time for those things to go into effect.

Speaker 2

So how does brokering energy work?

Speaker 3

Well, what virtually happens happens is a lot of times small and mid size you know, customers don't understand what their rights are as far as you know customers. And I'll tell you now that we see it based on because mass dot gov does an amazing job of letting us see computer loa data of people that have switched and have not. And when it comes to residents, over forty one percent of the state of Massachusetts still does

not switch. They haven't done anything. Thirty percent of that as aggregations where the cities have now said, you know, we can see energy price increasing, we're going to lock everybody in, and about fifteen to twenty percent of homes do it theirselves.

Speaker 2

Now.

Speaker 3

When across the small businesses, those numbers change dramatically. Where you know small businesses they say, you know, it's thirty percent of them they take care of themselves. I would say about seventeen percent don't do anything, and another fifty percent let the city do it. But if you're talking to like your large billion dollar companies Fortune one hundreds that are publicly traded, ninety eight percent of them are

managing their energy. They're locking it in because they understand that regardless of like who's any administration or what natural gas prices are those that's actually the biggest factor. Energy has been increasing since nineteen eighty two to four percent based on inflation every year. So I tell people that when we have these conversations, the only thing that will really ever drop energy pricing is a recession, and nobody

wants that. So just expect that this is always going to be a cost that's going to increase a little bit, like a like death by apout and cuts. So we tell a lot of people to make sure that your rate's locked in for the low longest period of time that you possibly can, to make sure that you protect yourself from future increases, because it's not an if, Like if I had the charts, I would show it to you, but it's not if the rates are going up or if they're going to get a down. It's dramatic trend.

Every single year two to four percent it increases.

Speaker 2

So I can I call ever lock in.

Speaker 3

Well, there's a bunch of sites where you can actually go to mass dot gov and you can go on the website and they can give you all the options that you can do to You can lock in for a year, you can do two years, three years, you can do one hundred percent green products. Solars A a majing option for homeowners as well if they qualify. So there's a bunch of different options to protect yourselves from energy. But that that's what we try to tell most people.

Just not doing anything and just paying your electricity bill is not the way to do it. Like if you look, if you just looked at your if you could find a bill from like twenty ten or twenty eleven, like in your filing cabinet, if you did, if you looked at it, you don't notice the rates of energy in Massachusetts have increased one hundred and fifty four percent in the last ten years, and a lot of people don't realize that because it's happening slow. Over a certain career.

Speaker 2

Death by a thousand cuts was very appropriate.

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, so you need to make sure that you're protected that your rate's locked in. But the biggest issue that we have in Massachusetts is that when people lock into an energy rate, they don't understand that you have to renew it after it's over with, and that's so that's that's what we see. The biggest confusion we see people and that's the biggest complaint that we get from new customers, like, Hey, I locked in my rate and

then it's shot up. I'm not doing that again. Where it's like, no, when the energy supplier locks you into a year, two years, three years, yeah, you have to renew it, and if you don't renew it, they have to start purchasing a month to month and that's super expensive. And even the state of Massachusetts, the attorney generals here have done an amazing job to say, look, if you're going to lock in rate, the energy suppliers, by law have to send you a little letter at least ninety

days prior saying that you have to renew it. But a lot of times homeowners, business owners, they get the leaf live and they throw it away.

Speaker 2

Yeah, they don't right, they don't think they have to do anything right.

Speaker 3

They don't think they have to do anything, so they say, oh, I got this low rate, it was really great. It worked for a year and then it shot up. So that's what we see is just understanding that, hey, if you lock in for a year, lock in for two years, set a little note, set a little reminder, make sure that you have to renew, and all these things that we talk about in regards to getting your bill lower. These are very very small, five second things that it

takes to do. It's just a lot of people won't go through the motion of doing it. Because in Massachusetts we have it's I think we're ranked forty seventh in the country with it regards to the electricity usage, but we have the third highest energy third highest energy rates in the entire country. So it's very important that people just make sure that they understand that you're getting charged

a lot. The City of Boston has tried to do a really great job of making sure that every one's locked in for at least the next year and a half, because if they didn't do that, people would be paying even higher. But people need to understand that you do have options. Small businesses seem to understand that you can actually get better rates on your own. If you're demanding

your capacity tags are pretty high. So homeowners and business owners just need to understand that this is something that you just don't want to do nothing, because a lot of times when we come across business owners every day, they're like, well, I wasn't doing nothing, and they look and see that their rates seventeen cents and they drop it down to twelve and they're like, oh, this is great. So it's just giving people the information and understanding what their options are.

Speaker 2

How can we be forty seventh in usage.

Speaker 3

The infort it's what you said before, the central air conditioning, because we're so high up, you know, that's fifty sixty percent of most people's bills, and everything lower than us just consumes more energy because of heat. So the other two states I believe are believing or not our main and New Hampshire, which is I think forty eighth and fiftieth. It's just where we're located in regards to latitude.

Speaker 2

So it's cooler.

Speaker 3

Basically, it's a lot cooler, so we don't use as much electricity, but we also have the third highest I believe energy rates in the country because of all the renewable all the renewable things that we have baked into our rates. The state of Massachusetts is very proactive and making sure that we're as renewable and as green as possible. And because of that, I mean, it's amazing for the environment, But it does the outcome of that is the rates are a little bit.

Speaker 2

Higher when it comes to solar. Are there options now so you don't have to have quite frankly, those ugly panels on your roof? Correct?

Speaker 3

So yes, what.

Speaker 2

Can you do? Because I think it's cool, but I said, I'm not putting those on my roof.

Speaker 3

Well, it just really depends a lot. I mean, Tesla has a really great product right now. And I don't work with Tesla or anything like that out there, but a minute, you know that, I don't know. I don't mean to give him any credit at all for anything, but he's.

Speaker 2

Too busy firing everybody in Washington.

Speaker 3

Yeah. I think they're right. He's doing a lot of stuff right now. But I think that a lot of people just have to understand. You can get a lot of times. I'll even say my mother was really arguing with my own father because she would she didn't want the solar panels on the back of the yard, and he told us, like, how often do you go in the backyard anyway? I'm usually the one cutting the ground. So a lot of people don't like it, but it's in the front. It's more of a you know, cosmetic thing.

But a lot of times that people start to see the bill drop you. It's one of those things where you get used to it after two weeks. It's not something that you think of and you look at once the bills start to go down.

Speaker 2

So how to you how much can solo save you?

Speaker 3

Oh? At first, if you're a business, we have we do projects all over the world. Just really depends on the amount of roof space that you have contingent to your bill. You can look at over twenty years, saving fifty sixty percent on energy costs over a twenty year period. Sometimes businesses can get up to seventy five eighty percent on just the supply costs. Because what happens is, if you ever look at your energy bill, it's broken up into two separate parts. The first part is your supply

and the second part is your delivery. Yeah, so the delivery. So I'm just to give you a little bit of a why they do that. Ever, Source and National Grid are what a lot of people think of them as generation electricity companies, and they're not in our business. They're called service providers, which means they don't make energy. They just do the metiorating, the servicing, and the maintenance. So that's why the bill's broken up into two separate parts

because they really don't make money off the supply. They kind of buy it at costs, so that's why it's broken up like that. So whenever you do whenever you do solar, solar not only saves you money because you lock in a kilowire rate for twenty years versus one year, but it draws that delivery usage down dramatically depending on

your roof space. So if I can get seventy percent offset on my house, that means my bill is going to go down, my usage is going to go down seventy percent, and I'm gonna lock in my rate for twenty years. Because a lot of people just don't understand. They think they have to pay for it a lot of times. You know, the industry has changed where you can get a lot of time solar. And again I don't sell home solar panels at all. So I'm not

trying to plug anybody to do solar at all. But when you can lock in your rate for that long and you know that you're going to be in that home right when you're in your four, you're five or six, and you're paying a rate from five or six years ago, you're way ahead at that point. There's a lot of people right now that do that have solar in their homes where you couldn't pay them to take it off.

Speaker 2

Would you be confident in New England living with just a solar house?

Speaker 3

Oh, because I have a crazy thing in my mind that's some way your energy would run out. No. No, No. A lot of times they they do all that when they're building out the unit, so it's very easy for them to look at your electricity bill. They typically sit it in the order where we call a letter of authorization where we go back and look at your last two, three, four, five years of usage. So they kind of plan with a little bit more to make sure that that energy

is covered. And now, if it's a certain type of customer with a huge home, you can even put a little battery storage unit on there that actually and that's if you really want to get aggressive where you can concurtail energy where you can remember what I talked about earlier, where electricity prices are higher between eight am and eight p r. Yeah, so what a lot of people that are really really advanced, what they'll do is they'll take the energy from the sun and then turn that battery

on from eight to five a clock and all the energy will come from the battery and not from the grid during that and then that gets the bill really, really, really really low. So that's another option that a lot of commercial like those are things that you're your your

your fortune one hundred. That's what they do. They'll store the energy, they'll collect the energy, store, use the energy between peak times so they're not getting deemed during that point in time, and then turn the energy back on and get the energy from the grid during off peak times when it's a lot cheaper.

Speaker 2

You know, back where I grew up in Maine, one house, my dad's house where he grew up, I heard these wookoo wooh woooh wooko, and I looked up and literally up the road on a mountain was a windmill. And I looked like something this is twenty years ago, maybe at Ago, I said, Dad, that looks like something from out of space.

Speaker 3

What what is.

Speaker 2

Going on here? And it's like three or four of them and you start to say, now, obviously it was a whole thing with nantucket. Does that work?

Speaker 3

So the virtue of the way that energy works is that think of energy like being created like a boiling pot of water. What they virtually do is that they they have to get the water that creates steam that steams, then hits a turnbine, knocks off all the protons and then at what all the things you got left at that point is electrons, goes into a copper wire and

then it goes into the grid. What the wind farm is doing is doing the same thing is getting that turbine moving and then knocking off the protons, creating more electronics. So it's just a cleaner way to do it without using natural gas.

Speaker 2

So could we could we as a society survive on solar and wind?

Speaker 5

Uh?

Speaker 3

You probably won't believe this, but I could probably power the entire United States with about a quarter of Utah with one hundred percent solar.

Speaker 2

What no way? So you're telling me if you put solar panels in a quarter of the area of Utah.

Speaker 3

You could power I could probably power most of the USS that's crazy.

Speaker 2

But we don't do it. Why because the because oil and lobbyists.

Speaker 3

I mean, there's a bunch of different reasons why, Like oil and gas lobbyists are always going to and it's actually true. I don't I don't not agree with it. You need to have a backup, Like you can't just do it. So you got to have a backup. You know, natural gas is not a horrible way to create energy. That's like sixty percent of the way that we do it now. But as a society, what we've started to do is we've tried to import other things like nuclear.

We've tried to and it's not like Bart Simpson like everybody thinks it is. Actually nuclear is one of the cleanest versions of electricity that you can have, and they're they're working on different things right now where they can use that energy to be sure that we can create more renewable energy around the world. And I worked with some of the largest energy suppliers in the world, and so it's just making sure that you can understand what those things are. But we do need to have a backup.

It just can't some one hundred percent come from solar panels. We could move to that like one day, but just right now probably it's not foreseeable that would happen in our lifetime, but is it possible. Yes, if Elon got to open up Mars, I'm producer. He's not going to open up natural gas. He's going to use all solar panels and then we find.

Speaker 2

Well listen, So the more I give yourself a plug CEO of a Urtier Resources, why would somebody call you? What do you do?

Speaker 3

If you're smart? We represent some of the best brands in New England. We've marketed for, We've consulted for the Boston Celtics, the Boston Bruins, New Balance Corporate. People that own businesses would reach out to us if they were looking at lowering costs and be able to come up with a better purchasing strategy to lower their cost and we've done that for We've been in business for over six years. I've been in the business for twenty over

twenty years. We have over forty five hundred clients in twenty thousand meters in Canada, the United States and in Mexico. And the reason I actually live here in Boston now is because I moved up here just because I really believed in this market and I saw that a lot of people were taking advantage of and that's one of the reasons we've done so well here.

Speaker 2

Well the Celtics League Cleveland right now in ninety five eighty four, Well quick late in the fourth quarter, and I do have to let you go. We have to break. But I do remember I think when you were building the new arena for the Warriors that the escalators were powered by solar.

Speaker 3

I think or I didn't hear that, but I would not be surprised. We're about to partner with one group that does most of the stadiums around the world, and then that's what they're all looking at doing, just because getting energy from grit is just super expensive and solar long is just going to save, you know, save money.

Speaker 2

Well, my kids are gonna yell at me when I go home and I go on this tangent, and I'm just gonna blame you. I thank you Morey Linton, CEO of a nursing Resources Google them check it out. Good stuff. I appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 3

No problem. I have a great day.

Speaker 2

I have a good day. Okay, things you can do to save on your energy bell. I mean, I mind the other day I got it and I was like, holy crap, and you just gotta pay attention, unplug stuff. Let's you know, and see what you can do. I'm not gonna put a windmill on my backyard, and I'm not into the solar panels, so I'm kind of shooting myself on the foot of that. Okay, coming up at ten o'clock here, ladies and gentlemen on WBZ examining political polarization.

It's just a fancy term for why can't we just use common sense? That's a ten on WBZ.

Speaker 1

NI Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.

Speaker 2

Gary Tangling for Dantonight. Uh six point seven, two, five, four, ten thirty is the number if you want to jump on board here for a second. I'm gonna do a quick little turn into sports, but not in the way you think. The Celtics lead the Cleveland Cavaliers. They are on the road and I just had the app up here on my phone a minute ago, but they are up by like nine points. I mean, that's Cleveland's one

of the best teams in the league. I think maybe they have the best record in the league right now. So the Celtics lead in ninety seven eighty nine with six twenty to go in the fourth on the road in Cleveland. So I find that infuriating. You may say, Garret, why are you pissed off that the Celtics are winning? Well, I'm pissed off because the way professional sports is right now is that not every game counts. Not every game, And I understand from a fan, not from a fan perspective,

from a coach perspective or a player perspective. And even my friends in the media, see, I don't consider myself part of the sports media anymore. I'm not even part of the media. I come in here and I shoot my mouth off when Dan wants to take a day off, and I talk to some people I think could be interesting. That's it. I'm not in the media. I'm out. But even friends of mine in the media, when I say, man, the Celtics suck last night. They didn't even look like

they wanted to be there, you know. And I've talked to my friends Jeff Goodman and Bob Ryan and they'll say, well, you know, but they'll be there in the end for the playoffs. So yeah, but I watched the game tonight. I watched the damn game tonight Sunday night, six o'clock. I tune in watch the game Friday night, seven o'clock. They take on the worst team in the league, New Orleans. They win by two. They take on teams that they should blow out, and they don't care. I'm gonna, you know,

load manager, and I'm gonna arrest people. I mean, the Celtics have lost to teams this year that there's no way in hell they should be losing to. But what I hear as well, you know, okay, they'll be all right, they'll make a run for the playoffs. I don't care about that. I care about the game I'm watching now. And my daughter said to me, Dad, can we go to a Celtics game. Well, I'm not gonna lie to you.

When I worked for NBC Sports Boston, and there were certain privileges, and my kids got to sit in the front row, and they got to sit in suites, and they you know, they got the meat players and all that stuff. I have nothing to do with them anymore. I'm a regular citizen. I got to pay for tickets. I'm not paying five six, seven, hundred bucks to go to an NBA game when the teams might not show up. And I remember with the Red Sox once a year we would come down from Rumford, Maine. And I had

an uncle, my uncle Billy Maher. He lived in Foxborough in the shadows of the old Shaeffer Stadium on Moore Street as a matter of fact, and he worked for Kodak and he would get tickets to a Red Sox game for us, and we went when they played the Oakland A's and Louis Tiant was on the mound. And at the time, my favorite player was Reggie Smith. Yes, Reggie Smith did play for the Red Sox before he was traded to the Cardinals, and I think the Red

Sox got John Tutor in return, is that right? And then Smith went on to play right field for the Dodgers when they were taking out of the Yankees. It seemed to have a year for the World Series. But he started in Boston and I wanted to see Reggie Well, Reggie Smith had the day off. I was pissed. I was pissed. It was my one time to see the Red Sox that year, and I was gonna see Reggie Smith. Reggie Jackson, by the way, hit a home run in the third ending off of TIAT that still hasn't come down.

Oh my god. So when I look at this now, at load management, it really pisces me off. It really does. The average working family cannot afford to go to a professional sports game. They can't. I mean, I looked at it. Look I've done. Okay, my daughter wants to go for a Celtics game and to sit in the seat, you know, I have to a lot of them. You have to go to the second market, and you can pay eighty bucks, ninety bucks, you're up to two hundred bucks probably. Oh

with parking, forget it, that's fifty bucks. So I'm probably up to two hundred and fifty bucks to sit in the final five rows of the garden, right, And I've been spoiled, I gotta tell you. You know, I had a great yeah, a great run on Bend to ten, Super Bowl, on the field, after the Super bowls parades, access to everything. I just can't. I'm not gonna spend two hunred and fifty bucks to sit five rows back, you know, and from the from the top row. I'm not gonna do it. I don't know how people can

do it. Families save money. We're gonna go to this game. We're gonna go to see the Celtics and the Lakers, or we're gonna go see the Celtics. Maybe they got tickets to the Pelicans. They show up, Jalleen Brown's not Jalen Brown's not playing that thing or such and such as sitting out that game, or maybe the team just doesn't care that game. I don't follow the Bruins enough.

Somebody would have to help me out with that. The NFL, it only happens at the end of the season when they want to rest players in week seventeen or whatever. The NBA is, it's a scam. It's it's embarrassing. You've got somebody that goes to a game and the star players not playing, or Lebron needs to sit out or Lucas you know, load management tonight, or they don't feel Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? If I'm a parent when I buy tickets like that, I'm like,

which team's gonna show up? Is this gonna be worth it? It sucks. It's say I won't do it. I will not do it. I'm not gonna spend that kind of money to go see the Celtics, a team that I still love, a team that I still follow, because they might not show up that night, or they may not play, and nobody's saying anything about it. The media around here, my brethren, they don't say anything. Well, you know, it's a long season. They need to take time off just

as long as they're ready for the playoffs. Well, there's eighty two games where people pay a lot of money to see, and the players don't care, and neither do the owners. They don't gotta take a break. I gotta, I gotta breathe Who. By the way, we will lighten up at eleven o'clock talk Super Bowl lads. I promise I'll be in a better mood to it by then. Gary Tank away for Dan Ray on Nightside.

Speaker 1

Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World night Side Studios on w b Z the news.

Speaker 2

Radio, and welcome back. Who would have thought that the mayor race between Michelle Who and Josh Kraft would turn into a mud slinging event. Oh this is gonna get good. I mean, these are two very nice people. I know. Josh. I said this last night. I have not met Meriwu. It seems that she has very good intentions. As a matter of fact, according to public record, Josh has donated to her campaign in the past, but now he's not

happy with what's happening. So he said when announcing his campaign that Mayor Wu has not risen to the challenge. In fact, what he wants to do to make MBTA free for Boston residents, to put in place of rank control program, to put in place a green new deal for Boston schools, and he says she's oh for three, says the number one challenge facing our residence is access to housing that regular people can afford. Production under Mayor Wu has ground to a dead hault. Well, he real

estate's nuts. I mean, it's just it's crazy, and a lot of people will pay a lot of money to live in Boston, and for just regular folks that just grew up here maybe generationally live here, they get priced out. There's no doubt about it, there's no question. But I mean, Josh Krastf is a very smart person. They're smart, they both ought, they're both very listen. Like I said, I know Josh, I like him. I'm not voting, so I'm

not going to tell you who to vote for. But I did find what mahor Wu had to sit in rebuttal to Josh announcing his candidacy. I found this very interesting. Go ahead, rob Bro.

Speaker 5

You know, I'm a little surprised that someone who's never even voted for mayor or city councilor before in Boston feels like he's ready to lead the city. But we will get into more of that as we go, and eager to engage on all that the city needs and represents and highlights.

Speaker 2

Ding ding baby, the gloves are off. But what will be nice to see in this race, and I'm sure they will debate and I will watch, is we will have two political candidates that actually discuss the issues, as opposed to some dude running around Washington Batman and Robin there wanting to shut down every Tom Dick and Harry agency. You know, Josh have to man, Michelle. They're not going to go out and say, hey, you know what, let's take over the Gaza Strip and put up a parking

lot or a holiday inn or a Trump casino. We're actually gonna have two political candidates that are smart people, and I think of doing it for the right reasons. I mean, we all know Josh. He doesn't. It's not like he't worried about where his next meal is coming from. And I think that the Woos are fine too. I don't know her financial situation. They're both very smart people. I think the city is lucky to have both of them. All Right, let's get Jack and Newton. I think is

something to say this Jack. You're gonna make it quick, buddy, what's up?

Speaker 4

Well, the question is he has to prove to the citizens of Boston what why is different from her? What separates him?

Speaker 2

That's a good question, man, I don't you know. They seem to be very similar in philosophy. I mean, Josh is a guy that's pro educ I think he wants for the school board as opposed to being appointed. You have to run for school board. Uh. He's definitely pro charity. He wants to help housing, he wants to help people. That's a good question, Jack, I mean I think I think what he's what he's saying is that Mayor Wu hasn't been able to get things done that need to be done. Why will he be able to do it?

I don't know.

Speaker 4

Well, you know, he kind of be like Trump you know, he didn't have any experience either I'm doing. But he was able, he was practical, and he said he's just let's get the job done. I think that would be his strongest suit is I'm going to get things done. I'm going to deal with the White Stadium and I'm going to deal with this. I think taxes, commercial problems, empty buildings downtown. I think he's probably got a better handle on and he knows how to talk for the business.

Speaker 2

Well, Jack, you just when I got to cut you off, and and and thank you. Okay, I'm it's a very good call. I don't want to get into who you should vote for because I don't know mariwou well enough. The only thing I can tell you about Josh is he can talk to anybody. And there is ties to the business community there through his family. Well that help. I don't know, Vote for who you want to vote for.

I am going to talk about something I am very passionate on, and it is the political swings in America, from generation to generation, from decade to decade, from term to term. It drives me crazy and it's the reason we're in this mess today because we have a guy running around Washington, say that he's going to buy the Gaza strip, and his boy Wonder wants to shut down the Department of Education. That's next on WBZ.

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