You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with Me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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It's time for your morning wake up call.
Here's Amy King.
Well, here's what's left of Amy King. This is your wake up call for Thursday, May twenty second. I'm Amy King. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, thanks to Heather Brooker. Now, I just heard that she was feeling sick too. Yes, And of course I blame it all completely on Deborah Mark. She started the whole thing. No, she was sick before me. She was sick before me. My friend Debbie had this a few weeks ago, same thing, she like walked me through and I went, oh my god, that's exactly what
I am. Yeah, and I will tell you that this cough is relentless. So if during the show there are long pauses, it's because I've turned off my MIC and I'm.
Hacking have a long They're used to it now.
Yeah, Okay, the good news is I am caught up on everything. I spent five days on the couch because they started to feel really bad last Friday and then spent the whole weekend, uh, just at home hold up, and then of course most of this week, so I'm caught up on all of my shows. All right, let's get caught up on what's going on in the world. Here's what's ahead on wake Up Call. The House has passed President Trump's so called Big Beautiful Bill. The vote
this morning came in after an all night session. The President went to Capitol Hill yesterday to try to get holdouts to vote in favor of the massive bill. To vote two fifteen to two fourteen. A stretch of PCH that's been closed since the Palisades fire in january's about to reopen. The highway has been restricted to businesses and residents in the burn zone and repair cruise for the past four months. It's supposed to reopen to the public tomorrow.
Two hundred and sixty five people have been arrested. Twenty seven young children have been rescued in a two week crackdown on internet crimes against children. The LAPD says operations Spring cleaning last month targeted predators using social media to exploit miners across five counties in southern California. Always fascinated by jail breaks, aren't you. Yeah, How they do it, how they get away with it. We're going to take a deeper look into how that group pulled it off
in Louisiana with ABC's Brad Garrett. That's coming up in just a couple of minutes. The happiest place on Earth for me Disneyland, of course, but in the real world, where are the happiest places on earth? Can't if I's Rory or O'Neill is going to tell us, he says, you're going to be surprised by some of them. We're going to check in with him at five twenty. Here's
something to make you happy. Strawberries the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival celebrating at sixty fifth anniversary this year getting underway. We'll be talking about all the deliciousness that's coming up th five, and if you're in for a good laugh, we're going to be talking with longtime TV weatherman Fritz Coleman. He's such a delight. He's stepped out from behind the TV camera and stepped onto the stage for his stand
up comedy show called Unassisted Residency. That's coming up before the top of the hour, and we've got some tickets for you to go see the show too, so stick around for that. See I told you lots coming up on Wake Up Call. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A small plane has crashed in a neighborhood in San Diego. The plane went down just before four this morning in the area of Murphy Canyon near the fifteen and the
eight freeways. There's no word yet on injuries or how many people were on board. A stretch of PCH that's been closed since the start of the fires in Pacific Palisades set to reopen tomorrow.
For the past four months, the highway has only been open to repair crews, essential businesses, and residents who live in the burn areas in Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Governor Gavin Newsom has previously mentioned reopening pieced one lane of traffic in each direction in May. Hundreds of thousands of people use the highway, Mark Mayfield KFI News.
Thela City Council's heard its final round of public comment on the proposed budget for the new fiscal year.
With the city facing around a billion dollar budget shortfall. The original proposal from Mayor Bass was to cut around sixteen hundred jobs, but that's been modified. The Budget Committee says it's made other cuts, move some money around and reduce that number closer to five hundred. Firefighter John Harper says some of the cuts, though, would have put more EMTs on the street.
Without funding and the constant supply of new firefighters and paramedics, our current crisis will only get worse and this will have deadly consequences.
The full Council is expected to vote on the budget today. Michael Monks KFI News.
State Senator Brian Jones says gas prices could go up by about sixty five cents a gallon this summer because of Governor Newsom's policies. The minority leader in Sacramento says he has filed two public records requests for information on the new low carbon fuel standards that kick in July first. He says, overregulation is the problem what.
The Governor's been using it for lately as a hammer to continuously drive up prices of fuel in California by overregulating the refineries, overregulating the retailers, overregulating the oil drillers and extractors.
Joan says the governor and the California Air Resources Board, or driving oil companies out of the state. Californians with student loan debt are among those most responsible at paying it back. A new analysis by the San Jose Mercury News finds eighteen percent of borrowers in the state were laid on loan payments. That's lower than the twenty three percent national rate. California ranked tenth for the percentage of
borrowers paying back responsibly. Student loan accounts for about five percent of all debt in California, averaging about forty six hundred dollars per person. Let's say good morning to ABC's Brad Garrett.
Hey, Brad, good morning, Amy, Good morning.
Now.
I want to talk about this escape because I'm absolutely fascinated by jail breaks. I know you and I have talked about him before. But before that, I do want to get a quick update on that awful shooting in Washington, d C. Last night outside the Jewish Museum. Can you give us the latest information that you have.
Yes, it's called the Capitol Jewish Museum, not to be confused with the Holocaust Museum. They're both here in d C. But there are two separate entities. So the museum had some event last night and a couple walk out and literally are gunned down or right by the entrance to the museum, and the shooter was immediately taken into custody.
He didn't run. In fact, some reporting is he actually walked into the museum, but either way, he was immediately handcuffed by DC police and identified as a thirty year old from Chicago. But the last day I believe in Rodriguez. Now, you know, there's always second guessing amy at these like, you know, should he have been able to be there
with security adequate? I mean, I don't know, how do you defense against, you know, picking a busy street in Los Angeles and people walking around and people coming out of movie theaters, restaurants whatever.
Right, because the shooting happened out on the street, right, it wasn't inside.
The building exactly, So you know, gunning people down unless you know about it, it's pretty difficult to defends against, no matter what your security might be.
So to be.
That what it may, you know, it just sadly maybe sheds additional light on what's going on in Gaza, And I think as it gets more and more, particularly humanitarian side of it gets more and more depleted, you're going to get people more and more angry, and usually when that happens, granted, a small percentage of them will act out violently.
Yeah. And this guy apparently had said that he did it for Gaza when he was taken into custody and then was yelling free, free Palestine. So he's not making any bones about it. It basically like you said, he waited around for police to get there, wasn't trying to get away.
Exactly right, Yeah, exactly right, able to make a statement, yeah, you know, and so we're fortunate that we don't have more of versions of this, just based on what's going on over there.
And so you know, it's.
Even in a tight security I suspect up even more at anything that involves Jewish communities, synagogue, you name it. I mean, this stuff just tightens everybody up and rightly.
So.
Yeah, and what's scary to me, Brad is that this is happening half a world away. This is a young couple that had nothing to do with what's going on in Gaza, I mean except that they're Jewish and Israel's a Jewish state, so they are the innocence in it, and that somebody in their warped minds is this is going to help fix it.
So you have to look at it this way that this couple is probably symbolic. I'd be shocked if he knows anything about them, but you know, and maybe just guess because he's standing in front of a Jewish museum that the people coming out would be Jewish. My guess is it's just that simple and sad, of course, but it's you know, you are right. I mean, they're just here trying to do their job and apparently we're going to get married. Yeah, and very.
Sad, very sad. Okay, and now we're almost out of time, but okay, can we talk about this the jail break really quick, because they sure they got out. There's ten
of them, and I'm fascinated with jail breaks. What where are we now with the group that got away, Like ten of them got away and they've got half of them back, and let's sten give them back how they got away and the system failures that enabled them to get away, because this was not a, like you said, a Shawshank redemption moment, which, by the way, mister Dufrain was innocent. This disgust didn't take years and years to do. They basically had to break out a wall and off they went.
Well, yes, but to remove the toilet Saint combo would not be an easy thing to do, so they had to have somebody smuggle tools into them. They had to create the hole that they went through, they had to have inside help, which they did. And you also have to have a prison that's understand by almost forty percent, and maintenance apparently, according to sheriff, is in really bad shape of doors that you can break open, they can
slide them off the hinges, whatever it might be. That so you've got all of the elements in my view, that lead to escapes, and they'll probably get the other five. But because it's very hard to stay on the run and most of these people don't have the means to do that in a way that they won't get caught.
And then they also made a couple of arrests of people who have helped them since they broke out.
Right right, there's at least one guy apparently has admitted that he was told by i think, for lack of better terms, the leader of these ten that he was going to get shanked if he didn't shut the water off because once they yank the toilet and to think there would just be a flood, And so he shuts the water off for them. And now we'll see where that is. I think they've suspended some other employees, but
we'll see how far this goes. Corruption can be a real big issue, and particularly in prisons that are so understaffed and and the other it's going to be probably underpaid.
Yeah. Well, and hey, I watched the mayor of Kingstown. Prisons are nothing to be rifled with. It's amazing to me that that kind of violence and corruption goes on inside that. Like you said, the guy inside said they told me that they would kill me if I didn't turn the water off, and he took that as a credible threat instead of like cracking down on the guys who made the threat.
Well, other than he may not have felt comfortable in going to anybody. We'll have to see. I mean, on this level, if you have a prison that this has this number of issues, there may be all sorts of other corruption involved here. So so we'll have to see.
Yeah, absolutely, And then I'm going to be watching for the movie because it's it's a fascinating story. How it all comes together.
Yeah, right, Like I said, it's it's not Escape from Alcatraz, but it does. It does have its elements.
Absolutely, Brad Garrett, ABC's crime and Terror analysts. We appreciate the information as always. Have a great rest of your day.
You shaidn't take care of Amy.
Okay, let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four our newsroom. The Republican led houses approved President Trump's Big Beautiful Budget bill after a second all night session.
On this vote, the Yaser two hundred and fifteen the Naser two hundred and fourteen, with one answering present.
The bill is passed, and more than one thousand page package includes tax cuts, trims the government's social safety net, and adds new Washington spending. Democrats were unanimously against it. The legislation now heads to the Senate, which is expected to take it up after Memorial Day. House Democratic Leader Jakim Jeffrey says the bill is anything but beautiful.
It's reckless, regressive, and reprehensible GOP tax scam.
This is one big, ugly bill.
Jeffrey says, it's a broken promise from Republicans that will close hospitals and nursing homes. The bill includes changes to Medicaid and the food stamp program, largely by imposing work requirements on many of those who receive benefits. There's also a rollback of green energy tax breaks. Security has been increased at sensitive locations connected to New York City's Jewish community following the murders of two Israeli staff embassy members in Washington, d C.
Suspect's in custody and shout at Free Palestine while being arrested after the shooting outside the Capitol Jewish Museum Wednesday night. Authority say two embassy staffers were shot and killed during a night out and they were about to get engaged. New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he's directing the NYPD to step up security at sensitive places. New York has the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel.
Adam says anti Semitic violence is no place in our country. Skeppringle, NBC NewsRadio New York.
The US militaries accepted a luxury jet from kat to be used as Air Force One. Eventually, The Defense Department says the acquisition of the Katari seven forty seven is in accordance with all federal laws.
The Air Force now says it's preparing to award a contract to modify the jet to serve as a presidential aircraft.
The details of that agreement, a spokesperson says, are classified.
ABC Stephen Portnoy says the DoD says it will work to ensure proper security measures are considered. Hey, angel City FC is hosting racing Louisville FC on Saturday, May twenty fourth. That's this Saturday at Beimo Stadium. It's an aam HPI Heritage Night. Get your tickets now at Angelcity dot com and you can also listen to every game NHD on the iHeartRadio app keyword angel City FC. More than one hundred thousand pounds of illegal fireworks have been seized in commerce.
CalFire in the Office of State Marshall or the State Fire Marshal say the fireworks found yesterday were loaded onto about a dozen trucks that have been taken to a secure storage facility. Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, a young couple on the verge of becoming engaged, have been shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum Polissa. The shooter apparently said he did it for Gaza and yelled free, Free Palestine after he
was arrested. Southern California continues to bake under a late spring high pressure system. The heat advisory that was in effect has expired, but higher than normal temperatures they're still expected today. Parts of the San Fernando Valley, Calabasas, se Gore Hills, and the Santa Monica Recreational Area still expected to see tempts in the mid nineties. It's going to cool down from Memorial Day weekend. Let's say good morning now to kfi's Rory O'Neil So, Rory, the happiest place
on Earth is in my humble opinion, Disneyland. But outside that, there's a new study showing where the actual happiest places on Earth are.
Yes, and the study goes global, right And by the way, as a person who's based in Orlando alf like you on that Disney's.
Land, that's fighting words, Rory.
And we're getting a new Universal theme park today.
But anyway, yeah, so, the happiest place is on Earth according to this study. Copenhagen Denmark comes in always do well, all we do it's the bicycles. I think that it's all on bicycles and they're all very tall. Zurich, Switzerland is number two. Singapore comes in number three on the global list. Now, when you want to look at just the happiest cities in the US, New York City comes in at number one, because who doesn't think every New York City resident is a happy person?
That's really Okay, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to discuss methodology in a second. What else you got in the US?
Yeah, Minneapolis. San Diego comes in at number thirty four on the list, LA seventy out of the top two hundred. By the way, Orlando wons seventy six.
See, so we got you beat there.
Because we're all working hard at the better theme parks that are oh my god.
Okay, course you and me, we're getting in to it. Rory. Okay. So who determines who's happy?
Well?
This list is actually from a group that looks at They do this Happiest Person's list every year, and it is from a group called the Institute for Quality of Life, and they have a bunch of different metrics including economy, health, mobility meaning transportation, governance, and citizens are their efforts to promote equality, get education to every person, inclusivity, things like that.
So does it actually take into effect? How do I put this? I mean, like whether people are happy. It says it takes all these factors and says, oh, you know, there's equality, Oh, transportations easy. But does that actually make people feel happy or they just should be?
Right?
I guess you're right. I guess it is more of a should be since they're taking off all the boxes. But you know, Copenhagen is also one of the greatest, cloudiest, gloomiest cities in the world.
Right, but they still ride their bike everywhere.
You know, Zurich is just splendid but terribly expensive for anyone who's living there. And Singapore, yes, well yeah, and Singapore Nita is a pin You won't find a piece of litter anywhere.
It's like being in Epcot, but.
Again, hot hot, hot, being essentially right on the equator.
And then like Minneapolis, I think it's beautiful for like two or three months of the year, but otherwise it's fricking freezing there.
It is, uh yeah, but yeah, let's see it was it Columbus, Ohio beat out LA on this survey.
I'm not sure LA residents are all that happy, are they.
I don't know. We're a mostly happy bunch. I mean, it's gonna be sunny in eighty five here today.
Well, Baltimore comes in at number eighty four on the list, Boston one point thirty one.
We know how lovely and happy.
Bostonians are all the time, just with showing the love country.
What are the unhappiest places?
Well, all they did was ranked the two hundred top happiest, so they didn't necessarily say these locations are unhappy. So they actually break it down into gold, silver, and bronze category. So even the bottom of the barrel is still a place that most would consider to be relatively happy. This is me talking as I scrolled down to Pula, Croatia number two hundred.
Oh, Croatia's beautiful.
In Pula though in particular Houston, Texas one ninety eight. Uh okay, y for Ankara Turkey. All right, I think that this I think you're right. I think this is checking boxes. It's not actually people feeling happy. I want to know where people feel happy. Oh that's okay, I can go day to day as well, right, okay.
If i's Rory O'Neil, thanks so much for the information.
Thanks Art you soon all right, by bye.
Two story apartment's been evacuated and one person was seriously injured in an explosion in the Westlake district. ELI Fire says the explosion happened yesterday afternoon and there is structural damage to the apartment building. LA Fire says it may have been gas related. Sheriff Robert Luna has pushed back against efforts by the County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission to
turn over confidential deputy personnel files. The commission says a sheriff isn't being transparent about investigations into what it calls systemic problems in the department. Lunas is turning over those confidential files is prohibited by law. President Trump has met with the President of South Africa at the White House. During the meeting yesterday, with reporters in the room, Trump confronted the South African leader about his government allowing the killing of white South African farmers.
We have documentaries, we have news stores, and that is Natalie here, somebody here to turn that I could show you a couple of things, and I would I have to.
It has to be responded to.
Trump showed video during the meeting that included far left politicians playing an anti apartheid song that includes the lyrics about killing farmers. The South African government and other observers say no such genocide exists. He's for accused Idaho college student killer Brian Koberger have been asked or have asked the judge to delay the trial. The lawyers say a story on NBC's Dateline promoted a narrative of guilt, and that information leaked about the case to Dateline where a
violation of a gag order. They also say a book by James Patterson about the subject could prejudice the jury. The trial is set for August. Prosecutors in the Shawn Combs trial in New York have presented evidence gathered from a raid on the music Moguls mansion in Miami. ABC's Aaron Katterski says investigators testified about guns, drugs, and sex supplies found in the home last year that I.
Think helps federal prosecutors with a visual representation putting the guns in the same proximity as the freak off materials.
Katersky says the display helps prosecutors arguments that Combs used violence and the threat of violence to coerce women into sexual performances with male escorts, which Combs has denied. Spain is fighting against Airbnb.
Spain's consumer rights ministry has ordered Airbnb to remove more than sixty five thousand listings in the country. Spaniards have been complaining about over tourism and a growing housing crisis. Spain says Airbnb was violating short term rental rules, like using fake license numbers or not saying if a property was owned by a person or a company. Airbnb says it's appealing the decision and a shortage of housing is
not its fault. Many European countries have been dealing with rising rents, housing shortages, and increasing anti tourism protests as holiday rental licenses have increased. Michael Krozer KFI News, I.
Love a good Airbnb house. Republicans stayed up all night and it paid off for them, as lawmakers passed a multi trillion dollar tax and spending package that President Trump has called his Big Beautiful Bill. To vote was two fifteen to two fourteen. It heads to the Senate next A house that made it through the Palisades fire in January has been destroyed in a fire. LA Fire says
the house burned early yesterday afternoon. The cause hasn't been determined, but LA Fire says the fire started near an electrical panel. Home prices in California have reached record highs California Association of Realtors data shows the median price for a single family home across the state was more than nine hundred ten thousand dollars for April. San Francisco at the highest
median prices at nearly one point five million dollars. In Southern California, the median price is eight hundred eighty seven thousand dollars. Let's say good morning now to Wendy Ellis with the sixty fifth annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival. Morning Wendy,
good morning. Okay, So I have to tell you I was I'm so bummed because I was planning to do my out and About segment for this week at the Strawberry Festival, and so you and I were going to meet up yesterday and we were going to show off all the cool treats that you're gonna have this weekend, and then this stupid cold came along, so forget that, but we still get to talk to you and you can tell us what is going on this weekend and why people need to include the Strawberry Festival in their
Memorial Day plants.
Ah, well, thank you for having me on, and of course we totally missed miss Nut seeing you yesterday. So but let's get people to come on down. Joy Strawberries
have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend. It's the sixty fifth annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival, doing it for sixty five years, raising money for nonprofits all over the region, and we wanted people to have people come on down enjoy the rides, the games, the contests, lots of live music at the Garden Groves Amphitheater and it's just a really fun time, a real great family time and a great way to spend your Memorial Day weekend.
Okay, so it sounds like it's a full on festival. You're not just going down to eat strawberries, which of course is a key element of that. So there's a full on carnival, it was, right, okay. And then there's music on sound stages and stuff that going on throughout the day.
Definitely lots of bands performing.
Okay, and then let's talk about the treats, because I mean, it's the Strawberry Festival, and fresh strawberries just picked are like the best thing in the whole wide world. So what are some of the things that some of the concoctions people are going to find.
Well, we've got a lot of new ones this year. We really wanted to amp up the strawberries. You can't get enough strawberry. So we have food vendors and they're all nonprofits and so we have some really great companies come in and work with these nonprofits to help to help create and showcase a fabulous strawberry item. And some of the new items we have this year is we have a strawberry watermelon aquafresca that actually Wahoos came in
and it's their Aqua Festa. It's fabulously amazing and you can get that at the Garden Grove Lions Club food booths. We also have Crema Cafe coming in with a strawberry hand strawberry and cream handpie, like a glorified pop tart. You can find that at the Rancho awl Amidos High School band food booths, and we also have strawberry frozen yogurt from yogurt Land and they're coming in with their toppings. That's a build at the Santiago High School band booths.
So all these food booths are located around the carnival. Bribes are really convenient, fabulous strawberry items. And we also have a great partner at the Higatt Regency, Orange County and they're featuring strawberry items in their Tusca restaurant all month long, celebrating and supporting the Garden Grows Strawberry Festival.
So they'll be out at the Strawberry Festival and then also at their restaurant they're featuring it.
Yes, and they have a strawberry briushetta and a strawberry doughnut cheesecake that's just out of the world.
Okay, I love this strawberry broshetta. Whendy, I'm reading what it is, Grilled ficasha with whipped barata cheese, strawberry brushetta, and then it's drizzled with aged balsamaic. I bet that that is a fabulous sweet and savory treat.
It is amazing. I went and I tried it two days ago. I needed more.
I'm already think love how much I need to go get that.
I love it.
Okay, it's fantastic.
And those are just a few of the things that you're going to get. And the weather this weekend, I know it's been a little bit hot at the weather this weekend is going to be absolutely fabulous. It's going to be perfect to go hang out and listen to some music and ride some rides and try some yummy strawberry treats. And I love too that, Like you just mentioned it, it's all for nonprofits, so it's raising money for organizations in our community. What are the the What are the hours and times?
Well, the hours are We kick off on Friday at one o'clock and it goes until eleven o'clock. But the rest of the weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday it kicks off at ten in the morning. But we do have a special ceremony tomorrow night at six pm on Main Street. It's the opening ceremony and all we have a huge strawberry chocolate, a strawberry cheesecake, and strawberry cake and we'll be cutting that short cake and two thousand free pieces of cake for everybody who comes down.
Gotta love it, okay. And then for more information tickets and all that stuff. Where do they find that information?
I go to Strawberry Festival dot org. Real easy.
I love that. Wendy Ellis good luck with this sixty fifth annual Garden Groves Strawberry Festival. It's deliciousness all the way around.
Thank you. I love you so much, love listening to every morning.
Oh thanks for all right, thanks so much. Time to get in your business now with Bloomberg's Courtney Donaho. Good morning, Courtney. I'm so glad you're backing. Okay, we missed you well, thank you. I just when things go quiet, I just have to warn people that I have a relentless cough. So if it gets quiet for a couple of seconds, that's why that turned off on my microphone. Okay, So let's get right in your business. Big retailer is doing
big cuts. Yeah, pink slips are going out of Walmart. Oh, Walmart really.
Yeah.
The retail giant is said to be eliminating some of its corporate staff. We're talking about fifteen hundred workers are affected. So they're specifically targeting it's global technology team, the group that handles digital orders. They say it could be a a lot more efficient and also its advertising business. Now, Walmart was pretty clear about this because President Trump was kind of angry at them last week, especially when they
said the price hikes are due to tariffs. They say the changes reflect the company's future strategy and they are not related to tariffs. So they were very clear on making sure that they noted the reason.
Okay, gotcha, I'm surprised that Walmart. That's you know, restructuring is part of what businesses do, right.
So yeah, what they say is there was just too many layers of management and too many people going in the wrong direction for things. So that's why they said, you know what, let's make it more efficient and this is a way that we're going to do It makes sense. Okay, Nike, you have not been able to purchase them for years on Amazon, but that's changing. Yeah, since twenty nineteen, you couldn't purchase any Nike items. But Nike is now running
back into the arms of Amazon. They've been working to revive. It's really Nike pretty much has been working to revive its relationship with its retail partners, so they abandon a lot of them in a bid to boost their own sales channel with their old management. Now they have new management that came in because then they realized that when they got away from retail partners, it completely backfired and
it contributed to a sales slump. So independent merchants have sole Nike products on Amazon in recent years, but those goods didn't come directly from Nike. So now they say, all right, we're going to hook up with Amazon. Hopefully this is going to boost our sales, you know.
And it makes sense because when I go to go to buy something online, my go to really is Amazon. I don't necessarily go to the company website because I'm like, oh, maybe I'll get a better deal. Whether you do or not, that's just sort of my mentality. Because a lot of it is just so easy. You already have it set
up in your phone. You don't have to enter in your own information or enter in so a lot of people are doing exactly the way that you're doing just because of the efficiency and knowing that they could get it maybe within two days. Yeah, So okay, let's move on to the really important stuff. People who make toilet paper and toothpaste, are saying that they need to figure out a new way to sell their products.
Yes, they have to innovate, innovate, innovate, because in past economic downturns, these companies, these consumer product companies, either lower their prices to get folks to buy more, or they raise their prices to make up for the lower volume.
This time around, it's a completely different story because consumer goods companies who're talking the Procters and Gambles of the world Chlorox, they've been squeezed by a double whammy of the weak consumer demand, plus they have the high cost of tariffs.
So the sector is trying new things.
First of all, they're trying new packaging sizes to appeal to shoppers. So this is likely going to mean smaller packs that lower the upfront cost or expanded bundles that decrease the cost for each item. But this is interesting. Mentions of innovation by top consumer goods companies on their earnings calls so far this year that has more than doubled compared to a year ago.
Saying they know to make some changes, and they exactly because it's not the old playbook anymore, all right, Getting in your business every day with Bloomberg's Courtney Donaho. Thanks Courtney, We'll talk to you tomorrow, See you later. A small plane is crashed into a neighborhood in San Diego. Authority say the plane made a direct hit to multiple homes. There is a fire. It's in the Murphy Canyon area
near the fifteen and eight freeways. A miner has been arrested in connection with hundreds of fireworks explosions in Santa Clarita. Residents say fireworks have been going off at a house during all hours of the night for the last five years. The La Zoo's two Asian elephants are settling into their new home at the Tulsa Zou Zoo. Officials say the zoo in Tulsa has more space, more staff, and more elephants for Billy and Tina to interact with. Let's say
good morning too, Fritz Coleman. Good morning, mister Coleman, doing fabulous. Thanks for getting up early with us today.
Hard here.
So, Fritz, you did TV weather for years and now you make people laugh while I'm.
Trying to That's true.
I started my career in stand up and I got my job doing the weather from doing stand up at the Comedy Store.
So it's full circle for me.
Wait, that's how you got discovered.
Yes, I was working at the Comedy Store in nineteen eighty two and the news director from NBC was in them.
Was in the audience.
And then I had mentioned during my show that I had done the weather when I worked for Armed Forces Radio and Television in the Navy, but I didn't know anything about it, and I had some many notes to tell about not knowing.
Anything about the weather and doing it, and this is an absolutely true story. When my show was over, I went.
Backstage to meet these people, and this man, Steve Antonetti, god rest his soul, said to me, this is a weird question, but do you have any desire to come to Channel four and do some vacation relief fill in weather for me? And I said, you did hear me say on stage that I don't know anything about the weather. He's perfect, there's no weather in California. This will work out great. So I auditioned. I got the job doing
fill in for a couple of years. Then my predecessor left and I got bumped up to the main job and I was there for forty years.
It's an honest to god miracle.
Isn't that fun? So now did the You said that the stand up gig gave you some fodder for the weather gig? Did it work in reverse? Two?
Yes, it is. It was. They were mutually beneficial experiences.
From playing to drunks at one o'clock in the morning and comedy clubs. There was no emergency situation on TV that I couldn't react well and not lose my cool. And the reverse of that was true. Being on television doing the weather helped me to get booked around in shows in southern California.
So it was, it was. It was a mutually beneficial experience.
And now you're just doing this. This is your job. Now you've left my job. The weather is gone. And I know we've talked before and you said you don't miss it at or lick.
Well, no, I mean I tell people, even if you love what you do, forty years is long enough.
And I'm glad to be retired.
I get to do this show at the elports Ole Theater, which has been going on for a year and a half. It's called Unassisted Living. It's a show for people of a certain age. So I get to go on stage and wine for an hour and twenty minutes about the joys the euphoria of being old and people who are in that similar circumstance have a good time. I say, if you have a Medicare card and you appreciate being home by dark, you need to come and see this show because it was.
Built for you.
Okay, So then let me ask you this, Fris because I remember I used to have a friend who was several years older than me, and I'd go, oh, I don't feel that way yet, or and she kept saying, just you wait, just you wait, you'll get there soon enough. Is there some of that in your show? Because there are certain things.
That's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. It's the common experience. Some of the topics we talk about are having grandchildren during the pandemic, what happens to your body, men and women, how you perceive the world, your lack of energy, how you assess how you were as a parent, all the common experiences of being old, and not all of it is bad. I closed the show out with
a whole block on being grateful. The one thing that's happened to me since I got older is I find myself being more grateful for everything I have and everything I've experienced, and I sort of close out on a positive note, and it's fun. I have found that a comedy these days, with the darkness and the division in the world, is really very therapeutic. I don't do any politics.
It's a relatively clean show. So my job is to just take people's heads out of the rest of the weirdness in the world and allow them to understand what's common among us instead of what divides us.
It's what's common among us.
And if you're given the gift of being able to get to a certain age, then these are all the typical experiences. And there are people who have been back two and three times to see this show, and so I think it's working okay.
And then, Fritz, all of your shows at the El Portal Theater are matinees.
How come well because people in my particular demographic, which is old people and their parents, like to be home by dark. So we start the show at three in the afternoon on a Sunday. It's usually the last Sunday of every month, and we just find that that's a good fit for the people that come to see this show.
I love it. And then there's a special for the summer to two for one.
That's true, and we're really excited to announce this. If you buy a ticket at Elportthaltheater dot com anytime between June first and June fifteenth, it's two for one. You'll buy one ticket, you'll get one free, and those tickets are good for any show in the summer all the way through September. So we'd love to see you. It's the Marilyn Monroe Farm is part of the Elportal Theater and it's just small enough for me to come and hug everybody after the show.
I would love to meet you. Come on out and see us.
I love that, And so we've got when's your next? Is the next one?
This Sunday? Were this Sunday?
If you want to come to Sunday, I'm not sure where there are any tickets left, but you can try Sunday the twenty fifth at three o'clock Elportsoaltheater dot com. And it's a Memorial Day weekend, so you may or may not be able to fit us into your schedule, but if not, come and get a two for one deal and come and see you sometime this summer.
I love that Fritz Coleman Unassisted Living. It's such a fun show. I actually I got to watch the special that you recorded. It's a lot of fun. And in fact, Fritz, we're going to make it fun for a couple of week up call listeners because we have two pair of tickets to give away, so we're going to do that right now. Fritz Coleman, thank you so much, and we look forward to seeing the show. It sounds like a lot of a great time.
Thank you enough, Amy, thanks for having me.
All right, take care, all right. As I mentioned, we have two pair of tickets to give away to go see Unassisted Living. It's Fritz Coleman, a lot of fun and I love no politics, not a nasty one, just a feel good comedy show. I love it before dark and you and you're home before dark. It's lovely. Okay. Here are the numbers to call. One eight hundred five to zero one k F. I again, one eight hundred
five to two zero one k FI. And we'll take callers number eight and nine because you're going to be home before eight or nine when you go see this show. One eight hundred five to zero one KFI again callers number eight and nine to see Fritz Coleman's unassisted living Such a delight, loves that. Okay, this is KFI and KOST HD two and that means our time with wake Up Call this morning is up. Thanks again to Heather Brooker for filling in for me this week, and thanks
for your patients. I made it through the first hour. Now I got a face handle and he's coming up next. Live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your wake up call, and if you missed any wake up Call, you can listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app.
You've been listening to wake Up Call with me, Amy King. You can always hear wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.