Hey, it's Jennifer Jones Lee. You're listening to KFI, a M six forty wake up call on demand on the iHeartRadio app. She likes to call it Friday. Here's Jennifer Jones Lee with your Thursday morning wake up call. So I keep checking the forecast because if you thought last weekend was gorgeous, this weekend maybe even a little hot. If you're inland as will be in the mid eighties to maybe the low nineties. But that also means that those
beach temperatures are in the seventies. So again my advice to you, if you are going to Huntington Dog Beach, what happens is there are three parking lots and if you get you everybody gets in a line on the shoulder. So they've got all these cars and then you whoever the first car in the parking lot is they're waiting for somebody to pull out and take their spot. Right. But I was talking with Oscar Ramrez yesterday. Are is Oscar Operations
manager? I never know everybody's title anyway, And he said brilliant idea that he and his wife Kat, when they go to Huntington Nog Beach, they go ahead of time and get sandwiches somewhere and then they sit in the car while they're waiting in line and eat lunch. Then by the time lunch is over, they found a parking space. Anyway, my point is, if you are headed to Huntington this weekend, just give yourself like an extra half hour because you have to sit there in the line. It's crazy, but
it's I guess it's a thing. And normally I guess I don't go on days that are super crowded, or I haven't gone on weekends necessarily, but yeah, I just have a feeling. That's my public service announcement for you this morning. You're welcomes Kofi Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is your wake up call for a Friday Eve. April twenty seventh, the La Kenny Sheriff's Department says a woman seen on video being assaulted and forced into the car and commerce this is the story that Blake was doing all yesterday morning has been found. The woman has been found, and the guy has been arrested. Also a judge. Now Lay says journalists can continue to distribute photos of LAPD officers, including those on undercover assignments. Five oh five,
we're going to talk with ABC's Karen Travers. We've got a couple of things that we will talk to her about. First of all, the President talking about his run for reelection and his age. He says he respects people taking a hard look at his age and that he's done the same thing. And also, we'll get the latest on the debt ceiling negotiations. And Mitch McCall has essentially wiped his hands of being part of this debate over the debt
ceiling. So we'll get into all of that in just a few minutes, but let's start with some of these stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The Lakenny Sheriff's Department says that woman's seen on video being assaulted and forced into a car, and commerce has been found and the guy who allegedly took her has been arrested. Security video showed the woman on a sidewalk
just talking on her cell phone. All of a sudden, guy drives up, gets out of the car, hits her with a gun pistol, whips her, and then takes her. The man was arrested yesterday afternoon I'm dying to know if this was random, did they know each other? Was there some motive in this? How old was she? How old is the guy? So much like to this one? The backstory on this one's big, I think or maybe. A judge in La says a journalist can continue to
distribute photos of APD officers, including those on undercover assignments. The city had filed for an injunction to stop the photos from being further downloaded, but a judge ruled Tuesday night the city cannot unring the bell by trying to reclaim thousands of photos that are already out there. The journalists obtained the photos through a public records lawsuit. The more than nine thousand images were posted in March on
an anti police website, including those undercover. The city said it was trying to protect the undercover officers, but the journalist says the injunction is nothing more than retaliation for posting the photos. Steve Gregory Campine News I Wanted fell In has been fatally shot by Riverside County Sheriff's deputies during a pursuit in Paris. Deputies were serving a warrant yesterday when they saw a guy driving away. They tried to stop him, but he took off. Officials say the guy lost
control of the car, ditched it, and then shot at deputies. They fired back. Santa Monica has agreed to pay more than one hundred twenty two million dollars to settle claims against a former youth program volunteer accused of sexually abusing hundreds of kids. The payment will go to one hundred twenty four people who say Eric Ohler sexually assaulted them as kids from the late eighties to early two thousands. Attorney Brian Claypole says the city has now paid out about two hundred
and thirty million dollars to more than two hundred and twenty accusers. How can we have such a colossal failure from top to bottom? Claypole says reports made at the time of the attacks were not taken seriously. Uhler committed suicide in twenty eighteen after being charged with molesting four boys in La Blake trolley. K if I News and after we've talked with Karen Travers, we've got the story of the former gynecologist at UCLA who was once the highest paid doctor there,
who's been sentenced to prison. For sexually abusing his patients. So that's coming up. Karen Travers, Good morning to you. So let's talk about the president's age and what he has to say about the fact that a lot of Americans are taking a hard look at his age and how old he will be if he runs for press or when he runs for president again and at the end of his turn. Yeah, so you know, there was a poll out this week that said seventy percent of Americans don't believe he should run again,
and that included fifty one percent of Democrats. So my colleague Mary Bruce asked him yesterday about that poll and what he says to those people who hear him say, watch me when they question his age and they're watching him and still aren't convinced and don't think he should do it. And he first started out by joking, he said, I can't even say how old I am.
I can't say the number. It doesn't register with me. But then he acknowledged that he respects people taking a long hard look at it, his age, him jumping back in for a reelection race, because he said he took a long hard look at it before he decided to run. He said he feels good, he feels excited, and he respects that people are going to judge whether or not he says, I have it or I don't have
it. Now on his polling, he says, you know, people get caught up in the job approval ratings, but when you drilled down into what he has done, he says, Paul show the people like what he has accomplished and that he has a strong record to run on. I think the
most interesting thing was how reflective he was on the Donald Trump factor. He was asked by Mary if he believes he's the only candidate who can beat Trump, because he had previously said, you know, that was a big driver of why he ran in twenty twenty, and he said he may not be the only one, but he knows him well. And she said, you know, you say you know him well. Would you be doing this if he weren't running? And the President said he thinks he still would be running
even if Donald Trump were not running again for the White House. But he says he basically is doing it because he wants to finish the job. But all that was really interesting, right right, well, And I did think that that was interesting. I think I want to finish the job. Part is what you hear every president say when they want to run for a second
term. But in the case of the Donald Trump portion of it, that's what I thought he would be more like, hey, I beat him once, I got to beat him again, kind of go on that mantra. So I too was kind of surprised by that. And when it comes to the debt ceiling, I feel like Mitch McConnell yesterday sort of just wiped his hands clean of it and said, hey, guys, this is on you
McCarthy and President Biden, you to figure it out. And that's going to be a common refrain over the next year and a half of like, you know, hey, I'm in the Senate, this is up to you guys. You're in charge over there, and you're the president. And McConnell had limited power, he's a minority leader, but saying you know, you guys have to work this out, and saying the president has to negotiate with Kevin
McCarthy. The President made it very clear yesterday again, and he hasn't been this explicit because he hasn't addressed this in sometime, even though his presecretary has. He said he's happened to meet with McCarthy, but not on the depth ceiling that has to be raised. Then they can talk about budget cuts and overall the deficit and things like that, but he is not budging on those other things on the depth ceiling. Yeah, not even a little. All
right, Karen, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Kay, high five Mary Bruce when you see her. She asked great questions. I love that anytime that you get well started to say, your guy, your lady, your person, your reporter. I don't know. I I get so caught up, and am I supposed to call them that they how PC? Am I supposed to be? Who cares? It's wake up call? I can be me. But you get your reporter to ask the questions.
Or if you're watching a news conference or something like that and it's your reporter that you can hear or that you see or the hand gets raised, it's like, heck, yeah, we're the ones who get the scoop? Do you hear about this? Wildfire in the San Bernardino County Mountains kind of felt like our first one of the fire season. It started just after ten yesterday
morning in a remote area and your lytle Creek south of right Wood. Fire crews had to fight it from the air because the terin was so steep and the brush was so thick. Some roads were closed, but no evacuations were ordered. A former gynecologist who was once the highest paid doctor a UCLA, has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for sexually abusing patients. Ex gynecological
oncologist James Heaps was convicted of abusing two patients. Lawyer Jennifer McGrath represented almost one hundred former patients of Heaps, who she says are pleased with the prison sentence imposed. Thus far, we look forward to when Heaps is held to account for the nine charges that hung. At least now with the sentence imposed, our clients can finally find some closure. Hundreds of lawsuits against Heaps and
UCLA were settled for almost seven hundred million dollars. Prosecutors yesterday said they could decide in August to retrive the charges involving two other patients. In La, Corbin Carson k if I knew LA has commemorated Denim Day to raise awareness for sexual violence. Denim Day is the longest running sexual violence prevention and education campaign. Director of peace over violence and founder of Denim Day, Patty Giggins says, sexual abuse can happen to anyone, and it can happen to children,
to cappen to boys, it could happen to girls. It we know that it can happen to trans people. Giggins says Denim Day was founded after Italian judges overturned to man's rape conviction in the nineties, saying his accusers jeans were so tight she had to have helped him take them off. Advocates and survivors gathered yesterday in jeans outside of city Hall. Chris ADLERKFI News and remember the story of the murder of a fifteen year old boy in Rancho Cucamonga at a
Halloween party last year. Well, a nineteen year old now has been arrested. Investigators say it guy and a girl started fighting and video shows Robert Pliley stepping in to stop it, but that's when he was shot. Detectives worked with the US Marshals and Homeland Security to find the alleged shooter in Mexico Israel. Diaz was arrested Tuesday, and he tried to cross the border coming back into the US. Jim Ryan, Good Morning, to you. I've actually
got a couple of stories about the military. This morning, coming up at five fifty, we're gonna talk with a major about the armies. Be all you can be bringing that back. But what this whole new strategy is for bringing that back now. I know that that will probably coincide with the story that you've got for us right now. But tattoos, facial hair. I mean, you know, you used to see just these kind of squeaky clean men and women in the military, and now things are changing and it's not
necessarily just because we're changing with the times. It sounds like it's necessity. Well, it is because so many people, for example, have tattoos now, Jen, I mean, if you walk around the mall or whatever, you're going to find people who have tattoos, yeah, on their arms, on their hands, on their necks, some of them have them on their faces. The military is longhead prohibitions against the tattoos that showed beyond the uniform.
If you're wearing your uniform, your army combat uniform for example ECU, the tattoos you had could not show. Well, they started relaxing those rules somewhat in the various branches the air Force, for example, now is allowing neck tattoos. That tattoo can only be one inch by one inch, and it must be behind the ear. Draw a line straight down from your ear. It can only be behind that line on your neck. Air Force recruiters,
in fact, are keeping a list of places. If a recruit comes in and has a neck tattoo that doesn't meet standards, the recruiter will say, you still want to join up. You know you have this neck tattoo. It's going to disqualify you. But if you go to this place, they will remove it for you. Their force won't pay for it, but at least you'll know where to go. Interestingly, tattoos previously were the third highest disqualifying factor for Air Force recruits. Yeah so, I mean a bad
bum, leg, bad heart that was number one. You know, a medical history, well, the felony violations in the past that that was going to disqualify you, and in third place tattoos. Interesting. I know,
it's it's funny. After I booked you for last night, or after I booked you last night for this morning, I happen to go run some errands and I saw it was I was at the gas station and there was a guy standing there that you know how you'll just chat up the person next to you at the pump, and so we were talking and he had a tattoo on the back of his neck and I thought, oh, look at that,
he'd qualify. But then I went in to the convenience store and the woman at the counter had a giant butterfly like under her chin down her neck. Yeah, And I thought, oh, right there, she couldn't do it unless she went and got that removed. But I've I've heard that the removal is a expensive but also that it hurts, right, and it's only
partially effective to right take away all signs of the tattoo. And you know, they were going to go back to the recruiter and say, okay, there's this qualify now that this big blotch on yeah, where it's going to be just sort of faded, yeah, right right, So yeah, it's you know, I think that a lot of folks in the in the military, they're they're recognized that they have to be a little more flexible. The Marine Corps is even more relaxed than that. You can have tattoo sleeves in
the Marine Corps. Interesting, Yeah, when it comes to recruitment, though, I feel like that because we know that recruitment is down, they're forced to change these policies, right, if they want to keep numbers up, they want to, they have to do that. They have to be a little more flexible. And what's more, they've kind of changed policy somewhat. The army is saying, and it's the same as the be all that you can be. They want people to come in and feel comfortable expressing themselves.
And if that means having a small tattoo on the neck, okay, fine, or a small tattoo on the back of the hand, that's going to be okay too. But yet they need to maintain what's called good order, a military order and discipline. But at the same time, let these folks express themselves at least in a small way. Well that's and that's what I think is so interesting is that I think before the whole idea of it was, hey, we are going to be one unit, We're going to be
all the same. And then now to see it like, okay, you be you, but you be you and be a part of this unit is just an interesting change in it just it shows the sign of the times. Yeah, absolutely more women now in the army they can if they have medium
lenked hair, they don't have to wear it in a bond. Now if you picture of a military woman in HERR B tous or her a cull walking in her grocery store with a bun, they can now wear them in a ponytail, or they can wear their hair as short as a quarter inch. So yeah, they're they've started modifying some of these regulations, but trying to maintain that sense of a uniformity and be good order. Right, all right, thank you so much, Jim, I appreciate it. Wait, have
a question. Do you have any tattoos? No, me, neither, really, No, you would have had a bunch of them. I don't want. You know. What's funny is I've had more people say that. I think because I'm a wild child and so people just assume that I would. But yeah, I think it's a fear of ammitment. I can't commit to anything. I'll get an idea and I'll be like, I'm gonna get a tattoo of you know, you would think dogs or something, right, that I'd get a paw or something. No, No, I just I
can't imagine it. I changed my hair up all the time. I can't immagine it would be a commitment thing. And my daughter has somebody, you know. I talked to my son. I thought he would be more inclined to get a tattoo. He was. He came to me one time and he said, you know what he was about eighteen nineteen. You said, I'm thinking about getting a tattoo. And mine must say, really, I wish you wouldn't do that. I mean, it's gonna look bad. And if you were, I said, what what? What would be so important
that you'd want to get a tattooed on your arm? And he says, I was going to get our family crest. Oh what do you say to that? Punch exactly like, well, oh man, all right, so did he No, he did it? Oh okay, hey, I like it though, Way to go, and you know, high five to your son. Yeah, all right, thanks Jim ce Later that's ABC's Jim Ryan Tyler Anny tattoos. Two. What do you have on my right arm? Like upper arm? I have Fenway Park Oh okay, that's cool. And
then on my back I have a guardenia flower and some Hebrew. What's what's the significance I get fenway quickly. My grandfather used to give my grandmother guardenia flowers on their anniversary, and on birthday he proposed to her. He gave her the usual guardinia in a box, but he put the engagement ring in the box, and she had gotten so used to taking the flower out of the box and throwing the box away that she chucked the box away with the
engagement ring in it. But anyway, past that, my mom would always have guardenia bushes in our gardens somewhere in our home and they would always bloom when she wishes her parents were around. So like my way of taking that and carrying it with me. Okay, I like that. That's very cool. I don't know. I mean I thought about getting So we have a
family, I know, so redneck. We have a family brand. So I actually have our family's branding irons from when we had cattle, and so it's a it's called Roland and J. Nate Jones was like the family patriarch back in the day, the Roland J Ranch, And I thought, oh, I could get the NJ Ranch on me, and then somebody said I should do it Yellowstone style, where they brand the guys on the chest. No, you know what, all ride a bowl all day long? That
sounds fine, but getting branded, No, Nope. Stats showed the snowstorms of the last few months around so Cal did not break a record, which I was shocked. State water officials have said this year's snowpack tied with that in nineteen fifty two, but there's a new analysis by the Bay Area News Group that shows the largest snowpack actually happened in nineteen eighty three. I don't, well, great night, I was what eight, so I guess I
wasn't paying attention, but I don't remember that. Research from the last seventy four years shows that nineteen sixty nine and nineteen fifty two tied for the second highest snowfall, and this year's snowpack comes in fourth place, which is a shock to me. The research also shows the way the information is gathered and analyze has evolved. Now. The big concern is this heat wave that we've got moving over California. It's expected to bring some of the state's warmest days
so far this year, and concerns about runoff from melting snow. Highs this week and much of the Central Valley our forecast to hit the nineties and one hundreds by Saturday, but it is expected to cool down on Sunday. Of a friend who works for the Bureau of Reclamation up in Redding, and he was talking about Shasta Dam. I know, they let open one of the doors for like about a half an hour or so yesterday, which is a big deal. Not one of the big, big drums, but one of
the smaller doors. And that's huge. That just shows you how much. And he said he thought that the lake Lake Shasta was five feet from full and so Tyler, I know you and I were both up there last year where the trees were sticking out of the water, and I mean you could see the ring around the basin. Now it's five feet from the top. Oh, man, I cannot wait for no switchbacks. Yes, it's been years of switchbacks. Yep, it can't wait. Yes, Oh it's gonna
it's gonna be great. So but then also in Yosemite they've had to evacuate parts of it because what they're worried about is not just the heat wave. I didn't even think about this part, but apparently it's going to be windy this weekend. So you've got then the wind on top of it, which is just gonna blow that heat right over it and melt it kind of. You know, I don't know hair dryer style. So that's what we're looking for this weekend. Let's say good morning now to kfi's business reporter and news
anchor. He's also the host of macro Here on Sundays two to four on KFI. Hi, Jason Middleton, Oh my goodness, on me. I always forget to put you up. That's okay, I turn you on. That's all right, you'll find your stride eventually. I knew. Hey, I want to start. Can we start with Elizabeth Holmes? Sure, just
because I think this is the weirdest thing. How in the world do you get an eleven year prison sentence, so you're sentenced, and then you still get a delay with a last minute appeal, and when your boyfriend gets a thirteen year sentence and went to jail last week. Yeah, she doesn't have to go now because the judge is going to review an appeals request from her lawyers. I think a large part of it has to do with she does have a relatively young new baby. That's what I was going to ask if
that's playing into this at all, or it has to, right. But I do think that, yes, there is a conviction on the books. There's a sentence in the books, and sure she's beene through everything. This might just be a momentary, momentary lapse before she has to go back and start start that thing. Because she's very hard to read, you don't get anything. I've only interviewed her twice. Once was for radio, once was
for television, and she's really hard to read. She seems like she was kind of a stamped out of I wish I was Steve Jobs kind of thing. Ah, but she's very it's very veiled. She's she's very good. I'm sure that's why investors really, you know, trusted her and liked her and everything, because she seemed very stable and looking forward looking. And it turns out that she was really really good at fraud. Elizabeth Holmes the one who ran therapies where they said, you know, just give us one drop
of blood and we can test for eight million things. And the reason this sentence I think is so high is because she was able to hoodwink Walgreens, uh testing that remember that. Now it never came to fruition and Uh. You take a multinational corporation like that on uh and then you defraud them. I'm sure that that that has a high profile to it, which adds to the sentencing. All right, let's talk about the good news for Meta.
The stock jumped yesterday after you had the revenue growth. But this is following news that I've been keeping up on obviously about layoffs in the company. H you have you know I do that's I do my job a little bit some research. Yeah. Look, this is a weird time for tech because usually tech is expected to lean into innovation, right, which means costs you have to put the billions up in order to innovate, the infrastructure, the talent
you have to hire. But so instead right now, everybody's doing an AI flex. So Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta all did earnings this week, and earnings calls last about an hour, okay, and about ten minutes of that it's just crap. And then the rest of it is like where where where actual earning stuff comes out? More than two hundred times? Was AI used in those three earnings calls this week? No way, so that's counted. Well, I didn't. I only watched one, but then I looked
at some transcripts of the others. So and then but it shows that like they're trimming workforce a talent because usually tech companies higher talent that they don't need, so other their competitors can't have that talent. Yeah, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. So the whole industry seems to be maturing in that way. So when they cut those costs and then they add a little less spending on AI than everything like, looks good. Look Meta failed,
it's earnings last three times by three quarters. Yea, so this one's very positive. They're flexing. Zuckerberg says, it's the year of efficiency that seems to be working for investors. After market after the earnings call, stocks stocks, share prices for Meta, we're up twenty percent. Now they're up ten percent. Yeah, still, I mean still good. Still in uphill climb for Meta. But hey, in the right direction. He's going to focus a little less on the metaverse and more on AI, and the revenues are
up. Look, his two billion daily active users, three billion monthly active users. A lot of that, some of that is a little bit of a spillover from the Twitter dumpster fire. That's happenings where people are going to face back to Facebook. But it's usually Gen X and older that uses Facebook. But they also had the discretionary income to buy stuff they see on ads. Absolutely, okay, can we I want to pull the car over for half a second year? What the hell is your fascination with Chipotle? Because
it's real food? Oh wow, Chipotle is delicious. It's headquartered in Newport Beach, and I'm a fan of the locals. I don't care too much about that, but Chipotle's delicious. Tyler bringing the heat. Okay, So it has clearly gone past all of the like crazy equal I crap that we went I didn't mean that, but it worked well. But that we went through, I mean, it's still in my mind, and yet I do love Chipotle. Hey, as an investor, you up the prices and you
up your in store sales at the same time. Yeah, that's a win win. Yeah the business. I hate to use such a jargon as win win. Right there you go. All right, So their profits were up, and I guess that the traffic has been growing visitors in the story. Yep, there there cheese. Yeah, the cheese dip with the chips. I what if it's real. It's real. Oh my god, it's so good. Finally, Newport Beach Headquarters. Good for you, Newport Beach. This is one. Okay, I have to ask you before we start this
one. Um, do you remember going to Wendy's probably in like the eighties, and they had that bar like the salad bar, but you could get chili and potatoes and at pudding. Those terrible lights, yeah, I made everything look kind of blue. Yes. And then also you would sit in
like the sunroom. Every Wendy's had sort of that like sunroom area and you would sit there and sort of sweat because that was back in the day when I was up in reading and it was one hundred and fifty degrees outside, and yet we were like, we're going to the megabar at Wendy's and we're gonna get some chili on our I mean, it was the stupidest thing. Looking back, however, Wendy's chili has always been amazing. And in fact, when we were doing Katerina's Club, the guys at Wendy's down here in
Southern California, which are huge helpers of Katerina's Club, brought Conway. I swear it was like a It reminded me of like a witch's cauldron full of chili. Now Wendy's is going to start selling its chili in grow Shree stores. I think it's a brilliant move. Why not, right, expand that customer base, maybe get some people back into the you know, sitting under the pergolas and the hot lights. One hundred and fifty in Redding, And the first thing you think of is I need some chili and sit in the
sun. Yes, perfect idea. And we would go like once a week. It was a thing with my family. That's awesome, and look and it'll it'll work. It will definitely help. But they did. They put out all of the ingredients except for a few. And I think there's a secret ingredient that must be in there somewhere. I think I think it's I think it's turmeric. No, I'm just kidding it. Salt. It's got to be salt. It's lots of salt, you know what. And I
think, what is it? Wiener Schnitzel sells it's chili. But I think you have to go to Wiener Schnitzel. I don't think that that's on store shot When I didn't know. I don't know about that. Yeah, I know about it only because I put it in everybody's stockings for Christmas, which was stupid because it weighed down the stocking and then the stockings fell down. So you used a container though you just didn't put No, I just dumped the whole I can. Well, that's good because that Christmas as may have
been unpleasant. Well you know, and it smelled really good. I love you too, all right. Jason Middleton host a Macro two to four on Sundays here on KFI. He'll be on with Handel at eight o'clock and he anchors. I don't know what Jason doesn't do. Still figuring that out, Well, they haven't asked me. If they asked me, so I'll figure out a way to do it. Can you be an engineer? Can you? Oh? No? No? Non? Fill in for me? No? No, no. Tyler has ten screens going at once in there if
you count his phone ten screens. Think you true? All right? Jason tuc two Sir Santa Monica has approved to pay out to settle more than one hundred twenty sexual abuse claims against a former youth program volunteer. They say that the city is now paid about two hundred thirty million to more than two hundred twenty accusers. This settlement is more than one hundred twenty two million dollars total. The alleged attacks started in the nineteen eighties and went on into the early
two thousands. The youth volunteer was charged back in twenty eighteen with molesting four boys. He killed himself that same year, and Vice President Pence is closer to testifying before a grand jury investigating the efforts to undo the results of the twenty twenty presidential election. An appeals court yesterday rejected a bid by former President
Trump to Blockpence's testimony. The order from the three judge panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals was filed days after a lower court judge directed Pence to testify over objections from Trump's team. All right, let's say good morning now to Major General Alex Fink Major, Good morning to you. Should I call you major? Should I call you general? I honestly, I'm not one hundred percent sure you can call me Alex my first Alex. Okay, You're
awesome, whatever you like. All Right, Well, I don't know what part of me wants to call you General Fink, just because I don't think I've ever spoken with a general before. Oh well, if that makes your day, then HI have very little going on. General, thank you. All right, So let's talk about be all you can be. So I must say, actually I am a soon to be former army wife, but it was being part of the military community there for all the years that I
was married. I loved it. I was so into it. There was such a camaraderie about it. There was such a feeling of we're all on the same team, you know, we're just all spokes in a wheel kind of thing. It was wonderful and the be all you can be. I think when I saw that go away, I was like, wait, that was the thing, that was the thing that got you, you know, excited about being in the military. Why are you Why did it go away?
First off? And why is it being brought back? Sure? Well, first of all, I couldn't help but think when I when I when you had the opening the song from Hall and Oates man Eater of the eighties, you know, the h and I was I was thinking, how appropriate for this for this conversation exactly? Um, And so when you think about the All you Can Be of the eighties and nineties. Uh, and you know, and that's and you know, we're talking about the time I decided
to join the Army as well. It was a very different time, you know America and where we were, where youth were, Uh, there was the shining light you know on the hill. The country was full of optimism, and Bell you Can Be was really more of a reflection of what people thought today. It's not like that. In fact, today, youth when we pull youth, they're the first generation in our history that actually thinks that
they are they are not going to do better than their parents. Uh. And so this is this is a different The Bell you Can Be of twenty twenty three is more of more of a way to inspire people to to do something. You know, what I thought was something different and so okay, go ahead, Sorry I was I was going to say. I was on the go Army dot com website and looking at the Bell you Can Be section, which is sort of the spotlight portion of the website. What's interesting is
the way that things are laid out. You got a section on enlistment bonuses, education, money and pay, skills and training, healthcare. It is so transparent. I love that about this. And so what you're seeing is really how we bring the positioning of bil you can be to life. So we didn't start off saying, Hey, we're going to bring back bl you can be. What we started off saying is what is the army uniquely deliver? That is that it can own. And when we think about great brands
like Disney, it's magic, Volvo, it's safety. The Army can deliver possibilities. And so the way that we've laid this impossibilities is multidimensional. Possibilities can be expressed in the types of jobs you can do. It can be expressed in the types of places you can go travel, It can be expressed in the types of things that motivates you, whether that's leadership, whether that's
adventure, whether that's UH finding finding out what you want to do. I mean a lot of you don't exactly know what they want to do, and so the you know, the Army offers possibilities to help you discover that. And so the way we try to lay this out is UH is kind of multidimensional. Uh you you know, and how and how do you think about
what possibilities means to them. We're not necessarily trying to define it. We just have We've just used this positioning as a way to to show youth, you know, the multifaceted possibilities that the Army offers across the whole weather dimensions and the the um I guess the website itself, the go Army dot com
website is so sexy. I mean, it makes you want to be a part of that team and maybe maybe while you're trying to figure out what you want to do and that sort of thing, this gives you a chance to I mean, it makes you feel when you go to the website, there's a power about it. You know, there's a there's a kind of a
pull I guess that makes you want to be part of this. And then when you kind of dig start digging deeper into it about one of the things that was so interesting was this new two year enlistment option, and I thought,
when did that change? I thought it had always been four years right now, And again, back to possibilities, There are all kinds of different things, you know, and part of this is about the challenges that we have with recruiting these days, and it's trying to broaden that you know, maybe that that twentieth century approach about what things should be and try to make
sure we're seeing a touch with what youth are looking for today. And so that to your enlistment is an option for certain types, and you know there's also there's a variety. There's also first duty station of choice, which has been a very popular option as well among you. But back to the website, I will make sure I pass on your comments to my website team. And when you said sex, that may go to his head, so to make sure I positioned that correctly. Thank you. Curbed that a little bit
for me, all right, thank you. So when you when some of the bonuses, these enlistment bonuses, holy cow. I know that there's some that are get up to fifty thousand dollars, get up to forty thousand dollars. I know that recruitment has been an issue. I was actually talking with one of my ABC reporters earlier this hour about you know, changes to the
tattoo and facial hair policies, those kinds of things that have changed. And I know that with these bonuses, you put that kind of money out there, you're gonna be drawing more people in especially if they're just getting out of high school, you know, before they go to college, that sort of thing. Now they've got an option to not only make money, but also then get their education paid for it. I mean that's a huge win win, yes, And the bonuses are a tool. There's lots of other thank
you. As I mentioned, you brought up the two year end listen of bonus, first duty station of choice. Um depends on what types of mos is that youth are looking for as well, kind of fits into that. And so it's really about trying to ensure that our recruiters who are out, you know, out with you know, in in with the public every day,
have a variety of different tools that they can use. Because a bonus may appeal to one youth that may be something that really is a difference maker, but for someone else it might be it might not be as big a deal. But having that opportunity to say the first duty duty stations of choice or say, you know, I'm not one hundred percent sure I want to do this for four years, but two years it feels just kind of like a gap year for me, you know, it's sort of like a gap
year, which is popular amongst youth these days. Um, then that kind of feels like this and this is kind of like my gap year. So there's um, you know, the bonuses are good that that appeals to a certain type of youth and who's willing to do the thing you have to do to get the bonus. The bonus isn't just a you know, there's certain moss that applies to and if they're interested in that the bonus, certainly, I'm sure no one will turn it away. But there's a variety of different
reasons people serve. It's not just because of money. Okay, when it comes to the recruitment, I noticed that my soon to be x you know, he was in the military from Georgia, and it seemed like when we would go back there, you know, whatever the bases were that we would go to or anything like that, it was it seemed like being in the military was just kind of what you did. I mean it was his uncle was Claire Chenult. I mean, it was just like you have that in
your family, that's what you did. And then in California, though I know that it just seems less prevalent, and do the recruiters have a harder time in certain areas versus others. So I think, Jennifer, what you've just done is nailed the challenge that we have, which is can be sort of encapsulated in sort of the civilian military divide that we have in this country.
And so you know, back in the eighties and nineties, we closed a bunch of bases, to include some in California for all good, sort of logical efficient type of reasons, and we consolidated a lot of activities into sort of these mega bases, and many of those are in the southeast United States. So and and what that did over a period of years is somewhat disconnect us from from the American public. And so you know, what you what you experience, What you just indicated is the challenge that we have.
And so do recruiters have a harder time in California, of course, and they have a harder time in Chicago, and they have a harder time in New York City in places where we just don't have the presence. So the campaign bl you can be is a piece. It's a part. It's a way that we can help reintroduce America to its army um. But it's it's not going to solve every challenge, right, we simply cannot replace the presence of having soldiers walking walk in the streets, you know, in uniforms and
things like that. And so it's going to be this is a multifasceted problem that we have to that we have to work through in order to do that. And we really do need our army to come from America, not just from a particular you know, few states, and so we we we uh, we want America's army to reflect America and and that diversity across a variety of different dimensions, to include where where people are coming from. So these are the challenges that we have to work through, um and um. And
you've you've sort of nailed probably one of the biggest ones. All right, General, I appreciate your time this morning. And the fact that you just said I nailed it. It's like, Okay, look at that a general said, I'm I'm on point on this one. This makes me feel good. Thank you so much, Alex fair time. All right, see you later, be all you can be. Go. Army dot com is where you can see some of the new stuff. It Honestly, this website,
even if you're not thinking about going into the military. The website is amazing. You can just see all the time and effort that they put into it. This is KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles. There is talk about AM radio being removed from new cars and trucks, and some people say you don't need radio because you can get alerts on your phone. Aliz, a text alert on your phone is no substitute for what broadcast radio provides in time
of need. There's a one line text alert cannot take the place the voice on the radio talking to you twenty four seven until the emergency passes. And that's assuming the cell networks are even up and running, which they often or not. When emergencies occur, your local broadcast radio station as they're providing wall to wall coverage, life saving information and a live connection in crisis, and then radio stays in the aftermath. So you need to make your voice heard.
Don't let them take AM radio out of the cars. Text the letters AM to five to eight, eight to six, and tell Congress to keep AM radio in all of our cars and trucks. On Jennifer Jones Lee, this has been your wake up call. You've been listening to your wakeup call. With me Jennifer Jones Lee, and you can always hear Wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday at KFI AM six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
