Do you want to be an American? It's only here seven.
I love doing these self serving things right here, these self service serving things today are my friend and our news director of the last twenty something thousand years. Jack Crumley is scheduled to die, So he will. Yeah, it's on the schedule, Jack Crumbley won. This is his exit interview. So after how many years your news director here? Since twenty nineteen when Jeff Henderson took over for the late Jeff Henderson. Now he's about to be the late Jack Crumley. Wow,
that's been that long. And you've been there for twenty something years, and so you're leaving for greener pastures. I'm not sure what BUCkies you're going to work at. Maybe the one in you brites, I'm not sure. But yeah, And every time someone leaves of prominence, and I would say, you're fairly prominent here at this radio station. Well, I've been a voice on the station for such a long time. In wanting out, my goal here than the segment is to you to tell stories. So by the end of it,
you don't leave on your own, you're actually fired. So to have someone from management come in and go, okay, you're out. This is like an HR hat yeah yeah yeah. But also the so you but because if we do that, then you get on climate for a couple of days.
Start your nerd.
It sounds like a win win, sounds like a win for everybody here too, So in your tenure. So first, how did you you ended up at LW. You were in Toledo and you came down here.
I was in Toledo and I came down here, and I have you to thank for that. Twenty years ago, in October of six, I had been up in Toledo doing airborne traffic Wow, back at a time when broadcast companies thought spending money on a little airplane flying around in Toledo for traffic reports was money wells.
Sure, sure.
And then on top of that they realized, well, wait a minute, Toledo, there's no traffic here.
Which is why then we all got laid off. Correct.
And I knew a guy, one of the guys that I knew up in Toledo by the name of Jeremy Baumhauer let me know about you down here, and that there was an opening in the newsroom, and that is how I got my foot in the door.
And I will always be grateful to thank you. I appreciate that. I just it was luck.
I knew I was gonna ask that because I get a commercial for me made me look like a good guy for a change anyway, So too, I'm just surprised you're dumb enough to hang around that long.
So it was fun long be.
Prom it was we have a good time, fun, We have a good The funniest story was though you had just started at l W and I was doing nine to midnight, I was doing two to ten, and I get this phone call going, hey, are you watching the Sopranos finale this weekend?
That's right, that's how I last It was the that was the last season of that show. And I had someone who was taping it for me and mailing me a videotape because I didn't have HBO when I moved down here. Yeah, and I and I didn't want to miss the finale. It was going to be the biggest thing in the woods. And so yeah, you you and your wife were nice enough to have me over at your house to watch that finale live.
Yeah.
Yeah, well i'd like it was the big screen, which was like probably forty inches back then. Yeah, and the funniest do you tell the stories. We're sitting there watching it, and if you don't know how Sopranos ends, it's a really weird ending to the show.
It's a very abrupt cut to black.
Yeah, they're they're playing Journey Don't Stop Believing, and they just stopped the song and TQ as black. We're all look at It's like, ooh, I'm looking at the remote yelling at my wife. Well, you thought she did something.
You shot off the.
Couch like someone had blasted you within like an ejector seat, and you were running for the TV because the immediate assumption was that something had gone wrong technologically, so you're running for the TV to try to make an adjustment. Michelle's screaming at the top of her lungs, and then after like ten seconds, the credits started to rolling. You're like, oh, that was on purpose, and it was I will always room.
Yeah, that was very funny. We looked at You're like, oh, that was kind of dumb. It's gonna gone in the middle of the show. That's but technology was that iffy back in the day. You don't know what's going on.
The sheer terror that the show cut out right at the end, we lost our.
Mind and that was like one of the most controversial endings to achieve show probably in history, indeed, I think for the end of the Sopranos. In your ten yearde news, what are the most memorable stories news stories you remember?
Most memorable news stories you know? Early on when I was here is when Cincinnati was in the aftermath of the whole Marcus Faisal case, which, as you recall, was a little boy who I believe had autism and was being fostered, and the people who were fostering him ultimately were charged with killing him after they had lied about the fact that he had run away. And I remember hearing stories before I got here, of people out in the community, like doing searches.
It was a big public thing.
We got to find this kid, right and then come to find out he had been very tragically he was he was gone, and all the uproar of the trial, Liz Carroll's trial, and then the that was I mean, that was that was the biggest story of the year here for like three or four years.
Yeah, that was two thousand and August of two thousand and six.
I remember, I remember that it was such a horrible story because they took his remains and burned him and they locked him in a closet so they could go to a family room.
And it was August. It was just a nightmare, and they had a.
Fan in there, and they thought that, you know, I just came back, well eve him in there like a I don't know, like a like a cat, like I will leave the food out or something. Just thought in the closet, a poor baby. Just just horrible circumstances. One
of the worst stories I've ever heard. But I remember vividly at the time because the the foster mom was on camera at Juli's Park, and normally when there's a family member we're looking for, you know, okay, we gotta we gotta find him, and he's missing, and there were nobody behind her normally like you see police officers and prosecuted,
like people will stand behind you. And like we watching that press com was like, man, something's missing here, and somebody in the room put their finger and go, yeah, there's no police standing about it. When you when you stand up by yourself, yeah you know that she was the suspect. And that was like literally a day after that happened. But of course they're both buried underneath the
jail right now as well, well you should be. And there was another woman involved who was like the girlfriend, right and it was crazy just.
Just she was the one that flipped and took the plea deal.
Crazy horri It seems like, you know, because you're kind of a news junkie, that Cincinnati and I we always joke about this, but we have the most bizarre thing. Like I don't think any other city has the weird stories that we have happen like they do here.
There's there are a lot of unique headlines that come out of this town that are rooted in like the history of the city and like it's there, whether you're talking about like shocking tragedies or just sort of weird quirks.
Uh.
Yeah, there's a lot of this to this listen, Cincinnati's got a ton of personality.
It really does.
We have like the weirdest and it's a horrorle another horrible story, but the right the hint and the hinting thing. Oh gosh, the kid gets shot, the dad goes and runs over a deputy. To me, I don't know where else in the world that happens, but Cincinnati Ohio and it's not. Sometimes they're laughable, Like we had to stretch. Remember when cows are getting loose all the time.
Two pops a moo and another pop shout out to uh, the former Rachel Murray.
Rachel Murray, two pops a moo and another shot was her teas before this is the then thirty report. I'm Rachel Murray, what the hell Cole's got loose on the interstate and that it was a stretch where that was happening often, like every few months, Like I don't know something.
That overturn or I can't believe. We didn't have a we didn't have a sounder. That was just live stock loose.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had I remember like I was re loose at at what the Home Days and Chevy It we had a tractor trailer full of pigs that got loose, and it was just it was this weird thing that was going on, although no one could figure out why it was. Uh. And then for a stretch we had like before they fixed it was a litle tunnel. It would be shut down every couple of minutes. I felt like because some idiot would be would be driving around and you know, roll through the tunnel and block
it for a day and a half. And yeah, we just got weird stories here. And it's a good news town. I think it's a great news town. It's a great town for it's a great town period. But it's a great news as you grew up in Cleveland, just outside of Cleveland is where I grew up, and yeah, moved here twenty years ago, and this is this is very
much home. Yeah, And I think everyone who moves to Cincinnati goes and not everyone, of course, but yourself is like, this is home now, this is home, this will always be home.
I felt, and I felt that way the minute I got here. I was not very happy in Toledo, and getting to move out of there and come here was what I felt to be at the time, and even still was a big upgrade.
For Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just there's a there's a great sense here at the station. There's a lot of town to people here. There's some untalented people. Let's start with them. That's part of the exit. This is the exit interview for Jack Crumley. Here. This is the last day at seven. Who's the worst person you know that works in this building? There is no worst person I get at that's fine. I know, but I know, I know You're probably gonna say Matt Reese, and I'd agree with you.
Oh, come on, that's that's one of the best. He's out there right now, producer stores doing stuff.
I heard him the other day and it was a couple of we always will have like a text chain going, and he started with like, yesterday, okay, Pam BONDI gets fired. We've got a war. We got all the stuff gone, and like the first it's it's a what four minute newscast. The first three minutes we're all about, well, we're going to pray the steps, and then tomorrow's good Friday. I think you really had to sit down and talk with him, because if I flipped over to the to the Catholic station,
they did more news than he did. Listen like that was even the lead for the Catholic station. It is always the policy to lead local. We want local as our bread and butter, and praying the steps is a century old tradition. We talked about just a minute ago, how much personality and history this city has. The steps is a big thing. Well, are you going to miss most I'm gonna miss you a lot. Well that's not true. Well I know, but even what do I bring to
the table. I'm talking about your news like news wise, who back in the news room.
I mean, listen, I you know you talk about when you're when you're at work and the sort of the day to day grind of doing things, whether that means putting together a schedule or finding stories or getting people on the phone or writing a newscast like all that sort of fades off into into the distance, and the important stuff is the people. You know, seeing Brian and Rick in here every morning, and and and Sandy, and you know, maybe somebody given Matt a hard time about
something and Matt giving it right back. It's it's it's a really wonderful crew here. And I am going to miss the people.
I will say this, and I think it's probably to anyone listening in their workplace, it's the same thing. After a while, you realize it's like, yeah, you maybe maybe you love your fortunate love what you do, maybe you love who you work for, maybe not whatever, but it's always it's the people.
It's not the job. Always, it's always the people. And it's it's hilarious.
So you can never recapture that moment if you leave or if you're or you know, whatever it might be.
It's it's really hard to do that.
But that's what you cherishes, the people and the memories and and the camaraderie and things like that. What is the funniest thing you ever remember happening off the air? Oh, my gosh, off the I'm gonna put you on the spot here, oh boy, because there's lots of lots of stuff I said, you know would be a great podcast. Is the stuff that happens off the air that you're
not allowed to talk about on here. Yeah, but then but often we talk about the stuff on the air and that that happens behind the scenes.
But there's always some funny stuff.
Boy, you know, the back when having video, like you know, before we really had uh phones that had video cameras on them and we're taking it like back when video was kind of a novelty still. Yah, I remember there was a prank that got pulled. It ended up being on the air because it was a part of a promotion. But like there was footage of like William Seig getting into a fight in the hallway which led to like some kind of suspension because somebody was going on vacation.
Was Darryl was a big fan of doing goofs like that to mess with people. And somebody was in a hallway shooting a video and then like all of a sudden, you saw this ruckus in the background and that led to something else, and you know, stuff like that was always really fun.
Yeah, the funniest thing is and and Jack Crumley's here.
I was gonna say, you know, the late Jack Crumley, and I made a mistake because last time I did it was Bill Cunningham when he fell off the chair on a Sunday night showing Oh my god, it's hilarious, and I was goofing on the air about it about him, you know, the late Bill Cunningham and a head injury and close head injury, and as he died, literally died behind the mic in the Inquirer it Cincinnati com had actually wrote a story about Bill Cunningham not dying, like
I've never I've never remember a story coming out where somebody's written not an O what was the opposite of an obituary.
I don't know, a birth announcement. I suppose it is.
Yeah, it was like Bill Cunningham is not dead, right, and then tomorrow we'll have another person who's also nice. Back in the day, Willie used to kill off the truck and Bosoll all the time, like he'd be late or something on Bozo's dead, long lived the Bozo and U. Now it's like we take everything so serious. I think
it's something else that's changed. We take everything today so seriously when it comes to news and talk, right, it's like, you know, I don't know why we are And even in real life, like social media, everything is you know, we just had April fools Day, remember April Fol's jokes for some of it really good people are afraid to do that stuff anymore.
Well, and uh yeah, listen, I mean you can be professional and you can have it's possible to be professional and have fun. But I mean, I don't know, people get when it's written down. When something's on the Internet, that's the same thing as writing it down and then it's there forever. And the idea of say it, forget it, write it, regret it is still kind of a thing.
Yeah yeah, And it just seems like the stay everyone's just looking to get you too, But I'm not too And you know, a lot of good memories of your job too, But is it gotten harder to do news because of the scrutiny that that everything because of the filter of left and right and politics of course is a big part of the of the station, even though we're not at political station by any means, because there's all other entertainment on there versus politics that in that
in this realm, it's you feel like people are scrutinizing more listeners, especially or other media sources. Do you uh, yeah, I don't think so. There's you know, because you're always accused you're bias. Like I got an email yesterday from saying I said, you know I was because I said, you know the advantage of taking I ran out is maybe you just got to wipe the slight clean every ten years instead of boots on the ground, this is what you do. And some have disagreed and said, you know,
typical boomer. But then I'll I'll tack Trump on something and get the well, you're a liberal and disguised And it's kind of funny because I don't remember any point in history of like doing that, of just speaking your mind, and it's like you must be part of some secret agenda, you know what I mean.
And you guys in news know what I'm talking about.
Yeah, I mean, I think there maybe on a cultural level, there is a bit of a rush to want to put something in a category. We want to see something, categorize it, and then move on to the next thing. And people are maybe a little bit more complicated than that. Sometimes it's not always as convenient as well, you fit into this one category and that's what you are, and
then we move on. People are complicated. I don't know that if the scrutiny is any worse, necessarily you might get it from a new angle as far as the Internet goes. But I mean, you know, going back twenty years when I started here, the phone would ring, and if somebody didn't like what they heard in a newscast, they'd let you know about it, or you know, here's something else I think you should check out. You know, back in like eight when gas prices everyone was going crazy,
when gas was hitting like two fifty a gallon. I remember answering a ton of calls from people that were all upset about the price of gas and what are you going to do about it? It's like, guys, it's a global commodity. We live in a global.
Nothing you can do about it, right right? Yeah?
Jack Crumbley's on the show Jack cours Oar newsguy, news director, and today is his last day and he's moving on to something else. He will not disclose that. So the speculation was that you're going to be the spokesperson for the Amy Acton campaign or Tiger Wood's new limo driver.
I don't think he's hiring. I think that's something that's a job he should have filled along.
I don't know.
It's what about can you pitch because and are you're prone to blisters?
No? But you know, we had a great night with the dart team last night. I am on a dart team and we won ten to five. The Sticky Bandits beat the Sticky Bandits. That's our team name, the Sticky Bandits. We beat the Silverton Cafe read up ten to five last night. So I'm actually here to announce that I am joining the pro the pro To. There's a lot of nil money and darts and I plan on.
It's kind of old news actually, because I heard seg sportscast this morning.
He included in.
That that's sticky sticky fingers.
Jack probably and he got he threw up a bull's eye. You know.
One of the best things, one of the best things that Seg ever did when we were doing darts, you know, because I would talk about what sort of I was
having with my dark people. And the one year when the season was getting started, it was the first week of the season and Seg got on with Willie and the Stooge Report and talked about how well we're getting ready for the darts Opening Day parade and they're they're going to close down Montgomery Road in Norwood and bronson Arroyal is going to be the Grand Marshall and like so many guys from so many teams, week after we kept saying, did you guys really do a parade?
It was like the eb N Fools Parade all over again. It is, and once a while you'll do something like that. Because speaking of final memory here too back in the day, because I was doing Nine to mid Night, you are also I was ton in the same time, and you can never do this anymore to show how long ago this would I did this spoof on War of the World something.
On Halloween, one of my all time favorites yeah, yeah, yeah, and you go ahead lay it out. You did a bit on Halloween for the first hour of your show where you constructed this entire false thing that you were presenting as real. This was a War of the World's homage, and you know, the idea was that they had declared
the city of Cleveland was bankrupt. The entire city of Cleveland was declared bankrupt, and everyone in Cleveland was going to have to come south on I seventy one, and people in Cincinnati were going to have to put them up in housing they were going to have to live.
Enter the idea of this. It was a Northeast Ohio invasion.
Cleveland was in vasa, coming down the highways, and it was the first hour of your show. We even made sure we talked with management ahead of time, and I had my nine to thirty News, which would have been halfway through your bit on this had their like, I pulled a clip from a fake press conference that you would aired earlier, and we again we made sure this was all weird ahead of time, because this is a
little better on it. Yeah, yea, and I remember the phone was ringing off the hook from people saying, yeah, what in the heck are you guys talking about about And I was getting them on tape to saying, yeah, what do you think about it? If you have to put up somebody from Cleveland and then they get mad and hang up the phone. And I remember, in the midst of all this, the phone's ringing off the hook and it's wild.
I was.
I was full of adrenaline with how wild this was. And I remember asking you, well, what are you going to do for the other two hours of the show, And you just looked at me and you said, pick up the pieces.
Pick up the pieces. Well, every act boy, that was a hood. It was fine.
And it ended with the as I recall, we P and G got involved and dropped soap flakes. It's kind of like a repellent ye to keep the people from Cleveland, and Cleveland News picked up on us.
Soap flakes drove the clevelanders away.
And that's why I want to believe it was much much more entertaining and finier than the description we just gave it. But I'm telling you know, at this point, I don't I don't remember much, but I was a lady, Hey, we're going to miss you tremendously, so good luck and what it is you do, whatever that is you're going, I'm sure you'll be in touch. And Jack Crumley leaving his news director but twenty years here at the station is remarkable, so thank you on your next adventure.
I'm here because you got my foot little.
Okay, there you go, Jack Crumley heard of your first going into soft core porn starting on Monday.
I gotta go.
All right, there he goes. He's yeah, the management's waiting outside for you right now. See I I did it. Finally he's gonna get fired. This is I was just believing to take a new job, and now the Inquiry is going to run a story that says Jack Grumbley has been and now it screws up his new job and he has to stay. This is great. This is the best bit ever. Seven underd WLW Austin's next thing on