You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio.
App kf I and KOST HD two Los Angeles, Orange.
County and your host Amy.
Okay, good morning, it's five o'clock. This is your wake up call for Wednesday, July thirty, first last day of July, said Captain Obvious. So you know what that means? Less than six months till Christmas? Actually is it five months to Christmas? Well, that's right, less than six month? Was technically I was right? Yes, yeah. Having so much fun watching the Olympics. Are you guys watching? I mean it is I just dig it and of course basking in the glow of the gold for Team USA. So much
fun to watch. We're getting our Olympic update from Paris with ABC's Ennez de la Catera. That's coming up at five twenty. Don't want to miss it. She's got some great fun insights from Paris. Here's what's ahead on wake Up Call. Two fires burning in the Inland Empire are growing. A fire in Iguanga has burned more than forty nine hundred acres now there are evacuation warnings up in the areas. The fire burns in steep rugged terrain. Another fire has
broken out and is threatening homes in Apple Valley. That fire started yesterday afternoon and has been fanned by winds. It's zero percent surrounded. Hamasa's top political leader has been killed in an airstrike in Tehran, Iran. The assassination of Ismail Hanaya increases the risk of the conflict in the Middle East escalating to an all out war. Iran's supreme leader has vowed revenge against Israel, and I was in Iran to attend the inauguration of the country's new president.
The FED is meeting today and could signal that it's ready to lower interest rates for the first time in four years. Inflation has been falling steadily, closer to the fed's two percent target, and the job market has cooled, with the jobless rate up about a half percent this year. The rate cut could come at the fed's September meeting at six oh five. It's handle on the news. The director of the controversial Project twenty twenty five has stepped down.
Bill's going to tell you why. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. LA County has weighed its options following an executive order to remove homeless camps.
The Board of Supervisors talked about the issue for several hours with homeless agencies, the Sheriff's Department, and County staff.
Supervisor.
Hilde Sally says it remains clear to her LA County won't be able to arrest its way out of homelessness.
Our jails should never be used as an alternative for housing.
We've said that for many, many years on this board.
Instead, county leaders have said they will engage all eighty eight cities on adopting uniform policy on homeless camps so communities aren't left fighting with each other on what to do in downtown La.
Michael Monks KFI.
News I Guaranteed Basic income program in LA that offered one thousand dollars a month for a year to low income families has been called a success by the city. Participant Ashley Davis says it was life changing for her and her son.
Times where I probably didn't know where the extra money would come from, or if I had an emergency that income helped me. I wasn't stressed about it like I probably usually would be.
Two City Council members have pledged an additional two million dollars to kickstart a second round of the program. In the first year, thirty two hundred families were chosen out of more than fifty thousand applicants. More than a half dozen smash and grab robbers who hit stores across southern California have been sentenced to years in prison.
Yeate We're given anywhere from one year to more than ten year prison terms. Attorney General Rob Bonta says the group stole more than one point five million dollars in items from high end retailers in La County, Orange County, and Riverside County.
It appears that the stolen goods were divided among those involved.
Five of the members are part of a viral mob that ransacked the nord Strums at the Westfield to Penga Mall and Canoga Park. A ninth person who took part in the thefts last year is awaiting sentencing. Downtown La Blake Trolly k if I News el.
Hamber police say somebody's been putting fake parking tickets on cars around town. The tickets have a QR code on them, and if it's scanned it leads to a malicious website that officials say may end up with somebody having malware downloaded onto their devices. The al Hamber Police Department says the fake parking tickets don't look anything like the real ones the city uses. Well, what a treat for us. We get to talk to Rich d'murro early this morning. It's the host of Rich on Tech on KFI and
KTLA Tech reporter Rich Jamiro. Rich, thanks for switching your schedule up so we can get our Olympic updates this week.
Absolutely, I don't want to get in between those athletes and their gold medals.
Oh no, who would? Isn't it fun? Are you watching it all?
We've been watching a little bit. We've got the Peacock service so we can watch you know, on demand, which is kind of fun.
Except you know what, I have an issue with the Peacock service because it's so hard to navigate that thing.
Oh yeah, yeah it is.
I want a list of what's coming up. I don't want all the little icons that you have to search around to find. It's really confusing to me.
Yeah, we found the same thing, So I feel like the Olympics is always confusing, except when it was just linear on TV, it just played, you know.
Yeah, but it's fun to be able to kind of dip into some of the things that you might not normally see too.
So yeah, like breakdancing or what was the thing? Yeah, whatever I watched, it was like the new thing.
I haven't seen the break dancing yet. I watched a little skateboarding the other day.
Yeah, see it's fun.
Yep.
Okay, So you have to tell us about California putting car titles on the blockchain, and I would love to know what that even means.
Yeah, no, it sounds really I mean, this is actually pretty groundbreaking. So they're digitizing forty two million car titles putting them on the blockchain. And if you're familiar with the blockchain, this is basically like the foundation of bitcoin. So the blockchain is sort of this like ledger online, a ledger of record that anyone can see, anyone can verify.
And so the point of all of this is that if you want to transfer your title, it's immediate and you know, it might take two minutes versus going to the DMV. There's less fraud because anyone can verify who owns this title, and it's not a piece of paper anymore. So you know that little pink slip that you get that's your title. You got to remember where you put it. You know. Now you could literally just have this on an app and transfer it to someone. It's not going
to happen overnight. Still got a while before this actually is going to be you know, consumer facing. But California took the first step of digitizing those titles, and then sometime next year we'll be able to actually access them and claim them and use them.
Okay, So you know me by now, I'm always skeptical of technology, and so you said it's going to be safer, but doesn't it kind of open the door, Like what if there's some big hack and somebody starts taking your titles?
Yeah? See, I actually trust this more than anything else because it's on the blockchain, and the blockchain, I mean, it's it's very complicated, but the blockchain is just basically an open ledger that anyone can verify, so it's verified by a network of computers. Like think about this. The DMV has a server somewhere that stores information, right and in this case, it's really just paperwork, So there's really
you have to go for a backup whatever. So by the blockchain being you know, publicly available and publicly verifiable, it means that this is kind of taking this into the future. And I actually think it's safer than just one system sitting in a basement somewhere storing all this information. Now it's stored on the blockchain, which I think is a huge move actually by California.
Okay, and it's not available right away, but be watching for it.
Yeah. I think that this is a move for other states to look at as well, to see how governments can incorporate this new advanced technology into their systems to make things more efficient for residents.
Okay, if you're feeling a little lonely, you can get a friend for ninety nine dollars.
Yeah, this is so wild. You have to watch the video. This is a new AI powered necklace called Friend. And I don't know if this thing's a joke or real or what, but it's ninety nine bucks. It's going to ship next year. It literally just sits around your neck listening to everything that's happening around you, and it sends you to messages so you can talk to it. You can be like, wow, that was a great you know thing I just watched in the Olympics and it'll be like, yeah,
don't you love skateboarders, Like it'll text you that. Yeah. This is so wild. It was created by a twenty one year old Avi Schiffman, and basically they said that they wanted to cure loneliness and it's so wild. You have to watch this this like this video they put
on there on their website, this Friend video. It's just it. Yeah, well it's actually the website is interesting because they they bought the website friend dot com for like apparently like a lot of money, like eighteen million dollars or something crazy, So you can just go to friend dot com. But you have to watch the video because it's really like it looks like something out of like a sci fi joke, but apparently it'll be real.
Uh.
It sounds like the movie Her kind of a rudimentary version of it.
Yeah. I think that's what they're going for. But you know, people are already knocking this thing because you have to kind of for any like it may text you automatically, but you can like talk to it. I don't know. It's just really weird. It's like this pendant that has a light on it. It's just like I'm watching it last night and I'm like, wait, what is going on here?
Like is this real? But I will tell you, I do think that this idea of AI companionship is a real thing, and it will be something that we have in the future for sure.
Okay, if you're not very good at taking selfies and I'm pointing at myself, AI can help.
Yes, you have to try this feature. It is now built into Instagram. So go to Instagram, tap into your messages, tap into the meta AI and then type in imagine me, and it will say, okay, can we take a few pictures of you. It'll take a few selfies of you, and now you can imagine yourself whenever you want in any scenario. So you can say, imagine me as a superhero,
imagine me. And we just had so much fun with this over the past couple of days because you can literally say I did like imagine me as an old timey president, imagine me and Bridgerton, imagine me in Jurassic Park. I mean, I'm telling you, any you gotta try this. It's so much fun, and everyone that's tried it says it is wasted half their day. Really, I've got the instructions on my website because it's kind of tricky to figure out where it is inside Instagram. But there's no
extra app you need to download or anything. It's really slick and you can use it over and over for free.
Okay, I definitely I'm going to try that and for more great tech tips. You can listen to Rich on Tech right here on KFI every Saturday from eleven to two. You can also follow Rich on Instagram at rich on Tech and his website where you can find useful information like how do to find out? How to do that Instagram selfie? Is richontech dot tv. You can also listen to Oh I already said, you can listen to them every Saturday from eleven to two. Hey, how's your TV show going?
The TV show is going well Sundays at eleven am. So yeah, real. We find that you can watch it on KTLA plus the new and improved app by the way, so you can download it for Roku, Apple TV firestick to search ktla and you can find our app. You can watch the show for free eleven am. And you know, people seem to like it. So Radio is fun show on Sunday, Saturday Sunday.
We got you covered, okay, perfect, Thank you so much.
Rich.
I gotta go figure out how to do this selfie thing that sounds so yeah.
Do it on a break. You're going to waste your day, I'm telling you, all right.
The union representing LA police officers has defended an officer caught on a viral video punching a black man who was being taken into custody. The LA Police Protective Lea says the portion of the encounter seen on video is misleading, lax context, and is being exploited by some for political reasons. The man's family is suing. Eighty two suspected copper wire thieves have been arrested after a massive raid in downtown La. The LAPD says two one thousand pounds of stolen copper
wire was recovered. Copper wire theft has cost the city tens of millions of dollars in repairs in recent years. The City of La is giving restaurant owners more time to apply for the city's Alfresco dining Program permit. Today was supposed to be the last day for owners to apply for the permits to be allowed to permanently offer outdoor dining on sidewalks and streets and other spaces, but Mayorbaths announced yesterday the new deadline is December thirty, first,
at six oh five. It's handle on the news. The acting head of the Secret Service kept it simple. He says, secret Service screwed up. Right now, let's say good morning to Inez de la Katera in Ferry Bojouriness.
Oh sure, we did it, we did it.
We did it. Yeah, okay, and we got it. And we're talking about the women's gymnastics team and you were there for it. You got to see it in person.
I did it was absolutely amazing. I did have to leave halfway through, sadly I had live shots to get too, but I did catch the first half, so I got to see vaults and uneven bars and it was absolutely electric in there. It was BacT with kid flags everywhere anywhere you looked. And when they walked out, you know, into the room at the start of the competition, the crowd went absolutely wild. So you know, it was really fun to see that the crowd going even crazier, of
course than they actually won the gold. So yeah, really a fun vibe here in Paris for the women's all around final in gymnastics.
So cool and the best part of all of that. Okay, the best part is the gold, but the second best part is there so much more gymnastics to come. We're not done with gymnastics yet.
That's right.
Yeah, We've got a lot, a lot more to look forward to. So the men, of course, just won the bronze tm USA, the women winning the gold. We now have the individual competitions to look ahead to. So this is, you know, individual athletes coming face to face. The men's
happening tonight for the all around. The women's will be I believe it's tomorrow, and that one's going to be especially interesting to watch because you've got Simon Biles up against Sony Lee's so they are two all around champions, both coming face to face, both from from tm USA, so that's the first time that's happened. Another one to watch during that competition will be Rebecca and Rade, the Brazilian who is a total star as well, and she's the only one who really has a chance of challenging
Simoon here who is favored to win the gold. So that's going to be an interesting matchup. It will be interesting to see how they challenge each other.
Yeah, okay, and as now I have a question for you, since you were there and you got to see it and feel it and all of that. Are the other teams having fun or are they just like going, oh God, here comes the US. I mean, what what what does that feel like to say it?
So, I love fan base that was there as well, and they were they were very loud. They were maybe you know, there were fewer of them, but they were certainly very loud. The Brazilians you knew where the Brazilian fans were, and they're very, very good as well, So I think they were having fun. They had a bit of a scary moment where one of their as one of their gymnasts, injured herself during warm ups and she actually saw that black guy she yeah.
Off the uneven bars and like they were doing something and she was in the background and you went, oh my god, she just yep, and it happens.
Yeah, she split her eyebrow open. Yeah yeah, but she powered through, you know, and they still did well. They I mean, it was exciting for them. They won the bronze here and this was the first time they've ever medled. They typically finished last in competitions, so it was really a historic night for them as well, and Italy getting their first podium since nineteen twenty eight. They got the silver, so they did well and then you know, I mean everyone,
it's crazy to go. I had never been to a competition like this, and that they're competing on all the different you know, rotations at the same time, so you've got you know, Brazil was on uneven bars, you know, say their poor routine, while someone else was doing the beams, so there's so much going on all at once, and yeah, it's really fun.
I think one of the most amazing things is when ever the crowd's going wild when somebody comes off the uneven parallel bars or or they finish a floor routine and everybody goes crazy, and then there's somebody up there on a four inch beam doing backflips. I'm like, how do you tune out everything to stay on that beach?
It's amazing, exactly, exactly, No, it's really incredible, and as a viewer you're not really sure where to look, but it was, it was. It was really cool, continuous say, you know, this is their big redemption after the Tokyo Olympics, where they won silver. They had been favored to win the gold. They won silver, which is still amazing, but they had their site set on gold, so they had called this their redemption Tour and they certainly didn't disappoint.
Their floor routines were amazing. All three of them had very dynamic, stunning routines. Someone Biles pulling off her move Toning Lee did something that was, you know, even more complicated than than the routine she she did for qualification. So she really outdid herself.
It was so fun to watch, and I have it recorded so I can watch it again and again. Okay, a little bit of a shocker. Our flag bearer Coco Golf is out.
I know, such a bummer. I'm a big Cocoa golf band, so I was a bit bummed. Yet she so she was one of our flag bearers that were high hopes for her. She was eliminated from the women's single portion of the of the Games. She was defeated in the third round by Donna Beckich of Croatia, and she kind of lost her cool. At one point she had a
lengthy argument with the umpire over a call. She was clearly getting more and more frustrated she was in tears by the end of it, and she later said she feels she always has to advocate for herself on the tennis court, so you know, that was a disappointment. But she does continue to compete in doubles, so we'll keep an eye on her during doubles.
Okay, and tam Usa is even doing well in soccer.
They are yes, moving to quarterfinals for the first time in twenty four years, Skinna, so that was a big deal, would be against Guinea.
Oh okay, you dropped out for a second.
They're sorry, Oh gotcha?
Got so?
And they I mean yeah, they're I mean tem say, racking up the metals and a bunch of different disciplines. So that's you know, from the getting medals and gymnastics of course, fencing, swimming, skateboarding. We're doing very well in basketball, so lots of I think we're also a great start. We now have we've we've we've been in the lead in terms of the total number of medals, but that continues. We are now at twenty six medals total with four gold, eleven silvers, eleven bronzes.
Not too shabby and we still have twelve days to go. Uh and are are you going to watch competition today?
So today I ran down to the send the triathlon was happening. Is they did go? You know we've been talking about this, how there were everybody was very skeptical. I was very skeptical as to whether.
It would happen.
The swimming portion of the triathlon was set to be held in the seen. The men's triathlon had to be delayed, was supposed to be held. Yes, it was delayed to today because of concerns over poor water quality. And they went ahead on today. So that was really something. I mean, it was historic. And no one's swimming in the set has been banned for over one hundred.
Years due to poor water.
Quo, let's do athlete.
There we go exactly, all right, exactly, so hopefully they're all okay.
Okay, perfect And as Dela Katara, thank you so much for giving us the latest from Paris and sharing the excitement that you're feeling so much fun to hear you. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Thank you.
Okay, all right, wall a congressman from Orange County, has joined a task force of Democrats and Republicans to investigate the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
This is not the first time I've heard that there's tension between a presidential campaign and the SUCOD Service.
Congressman Lukearea says he was astounded and shocked at the security lapses he saw when the task force visited the shooting site in Pennsylvania.
I'm hearing rumors about the Obama campaign having similar to.
He says, that was a long time ago.
But if I see the Trump campaign having these challenges, and we do see them, then it tells me that we need to revisit the Secret Service, how they do the job and what they need to do right.
Corra says the task force announced Monday is nonpartisan because this is about protecting democracy, not.
Looking at pointing any fingers, but rather making sure we have a system that reduces the possibility of another successful assassination of TAMP.
The task force is required to report its findings to Congress by December.
In Orange County, Corbin Carson k if I News, the.
Man accused of starting the massive fire in northern California that's burned more than three hundred and eighty thousand acres, said in court it was an accident. He says his car rolled down a hill and caught fire. A witness says forty two year old Ronne Stout pushed a burning car down into a gully. She's or He's scheduled to be back in court tomorrow. Nearly two hundred homes and buildings have been destroyed in that fire. Israeli military says it wants to avoid a wider war with Hesbola, but
it's ready for any scenario. Military spokesman Daniel Hudago says Israeli fighter jets eliminated a senior Hesbola military commander near Beirut, and a Hamas leader has been assassinated in an airstrike in Iran. Israel has not claimed responsibility for that one. How's this for a medal count? The US has become the first country in history to win more than three thousand Olympic medals. The US had twenty nine hundred and seventy five headed into the twenty twenty four Games. Team
USA won its twenty sixth medal yesterday. That makes it a record three thousand one. There are twelve days left of competition at six oh five. It's handled on the news, ammunition vending machines may be coming to California at five point fifty, We're going to go dig into Southwest new policy that they just announced to have assigned seats and find out how much that's going to cost you.
Amy's on it, AMI's on it, as on.
It, Aami's on it? What am I on? I'm on the stream? And uh, the reason that I'm on the
stream is because there's so much content out there. You know, there's the shows that we all hear about, but then there's so many other shows, and so I dig around and try to find some stuff, and a lot of times I take recommendations from friends and family and co workers, and then I pass my recommendations on to you, maybe get you to watch a really interesting show, or maybe save you a little time if it's really bad, and say, don't even bother, but this one is a really interesting show.
So it's on Netflix. And it's a documentary called I Am Vanessa Geehan And I can't remember where I found out about this, but it's a it's a documentary about a woman who disappeared, and you probably have heard the story. She went missing in April of twenty twenty. She was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. She's twenty years old, and I'm going to tell you out of the gate, this is not a hate on the military piece. I am a strong supporter of the military. I always have been,
always will be. But I think what this brings to light is that there are bad actors in pretty much every sector of our society, and sometimes the darkness spreads and sometimes a lot of people look the other way. And as time change, hopefully people change and organizations change, and maybe this story can bring about change. So Vanessa Gian's family was like, where'd she go? What happened? She just disappeared one day. They couldn't get any answers from
the military, and they tried and tried and tried. So Vanessa Gian was a small arms artillery repairer in the army, and this shows how she loved her country, she loved her service, her struggles with being sexually harassed on base, her disappearance and then the search for her. Her sister posted that her sister had been sexually assaulted, and then other people started coming forward to share their stories about what was going on. And apparently this happened to both
men and women at the base. And again, this is not an attack on the military. It's just the reality of what happens sometimes, and it's just a tragic story of Vanessa and how hopefully her tragedy leads to a safer, better world for the people who come after her. Vanessa's remains were found, and her story doesn't really end because history was made with Vanessa and some changes are coming because of what happened to her. And it's a beautiful
and it's a heart wrenching story. But it's called I Am Vanessa Geean Documentary on Netflix, and I think it's definitely worth your time. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Huntington Beach says a court granting the city a year to zone for more than thirteen thousand affordable housing units is a win.
Huntington Beach has fought the state affordable housing mandate since the plan was due in twenty twenty one. City attorney Michael Gates says, even though a judge ultimately ruled the city violated state law, pushing back against unrealistic housing mandates is worthwhile to protect against urbanization.
The state wanted the court to penalize the city and basically order the city to update his housing element within one hundred and twenty days, and so it's been almost a year and a half since then, and then now we get another year.
He says.
The city will work on a zoning plan as ordered by a judge this month, but a lot can change in a year.
In Orange County, Corbin Carson Kepi.
News, prosecutors say the father of a teenage girl from Monterey Park has been charged with faking her disappearance.
It's convicted on all charges.
The La County Deanie's office says Jeffrey Chowell could get fined years in prison. Prosecutor Saint Chow's been accused of filing the false missing person's report and concealing his fifteen year old daughter. On July sixteenth, the girl was last seen on home surveillance video riding her bike. Chow had said she was head to do a relative's house, but never arrived For more than a week, people put up
flyers and searched the area. Finally, on the twenty third, the girl was seen in front of a TV station in Glendale and was picked up by police. Prosecutors say Chow convinced the girl to go along with his plan Steve Gregory Tayafin News.
He is brought to you by American Vision Windows. A twenty five year old woman who posed as a nurse and snatched a new born from her mother at a hospital in Marino Valley has pleaded guilty to kidnapping. In exchange for the guilty plea, the Riverside County DA dropped three other charges against Jessinia Mirren Miren tried to take the baby from Riverside University Medical Center in July twenty
twenty two. Hospital staff confronted her and she was not able to leave the hospital with the baby, who was not hurt. A brush fire in Apple Valley and San Bernardino County is threatening homes. The fires burned about three hundred and fifty acres since it started yesterday afternoon. Evacuations were ordered for a neighborhood south of Roundup Way and Bella Vista. A brushfire near Temecula has grown to over
forty nine hundred acres. It started Monday. Riverside County fire officials say it's been pushed by the wind and the terrain. Four buildings were damaged, one was destroyed yesterday afternoon, and evacuation order was issued for homes south of Highway three seventy one north of the San Diego County line. The Rose Bowl and the Rose Parade are a big economic
boon for LA. An economic report from the Pasadena Tournament of Roses says the two events pumped two hundred forty five million dollars into the Greater LA area and generated almost thirty six million dollars in tax revenue. The report says visitors didn't only spend money in Pasadena, but also in downtown La, Hollywood, Santa Monica, at Universal Studios, and of course Disneyland. Okay, we've all heard of going for the gold, but have you heard of going for the glade.
Krispy Kream is encouraging fans to go for the glaze during the Summer Olympic Games. Yesterday, yesterday they had dollar donuts. Today they have dollar donuts. If you are a Krispy Kream Rewards member, I'm guessing it's pretty easy to sign up. You can get original glazed one buck no limit in shop, and you can also get them on the app and the website while supplies last. So Krispy Kreme is going all in for the Olympics. They've got the go Usa donut,
which is very cute. It's an original glazed donut, hand dipped in white icing, decorated with patriotic red icing stripes and blue and gold sprinkles. It looks like a flag. It's very cute. And then also for the Olympics, they have their Passport to Paris collection, a Crem Bru lay donut, a double chocolate Eclaire donut, and the raspberry and Vanilla Krem donut. They'll be around for the duration of the games. Always a good excuse to go to Krispy Kreme and
go for the glaze. Two fires burning in the Inland Empire are growing. A fire in Iguanga has burned more than forty nine hundred acres. There are evacuation warnings up in the area as the fire burns in steep rugged terrain. Another fire broke out yesterday afternoon. It's now threatening homes in Apple Valley. The fire is being fanned by wins and is zero percent surrounded. Vice President Harris is at the presidential campaign trail. She had her first real rally
in Atlanta. She accused former President Trump of refusing to debate despite as she said, Trump and his VP pick jd Vance have a lot to say about her. Harris also went on to call out Trump on immigration, saying she will put her record against his any day late night hosts Jimmy Kimmel not returning to host the Academy Awards for a fifth time, entertainment outlets say turned the gig down, So for now, there is no host yet for the ninety seventh Academy Awards, which will be presented
March second at the Doby Theater in Hollywood. Let's take good Morning now to aviation specialist Jay Ratlifte. Jay, we wanted to talk to you because Southwest is making some changes and I figured if anybody knew about it, it would be you.
Good morning, well cleanly good morning. Yeah, we saw this com It's not like I'm a great profit here, but we knew Southwest was going to have to make some changes because coming into the year they were had a profit or achieve me a quarter where they didn't make money. And for Southwest Airlines, who prints money, they do better
than anybody. They've been having some problems and we knew from a standpoint of from revenue they can make more money if they assign seats, and there's been a lot of pressure on Southwest to make that move, and I thought by the end of the year they would announce that they're going to do that, and they did it early,
and I'm glad for it because it's long overdue. Because the thought is this, if we can give passengers assigned seats, it's going to change the boarding process at Southwest, which the best I can describe it for those that haven't flown Southwest, which is an incredible airline, it's like Black Friday. At the gate, it's open seating. You've got all these different groups, people are shoving all but before we can board them, we've got forty eight wheelchairs with everybody traveling
with them. Most of these people don't need wheelchairs. They put forty eight wheelchairs on because that allows them to board early. And then at the other end, only three people need wheelchairs. We call those Jesus flights. But apparently everybody got healed during the flight. So now that it's assigned seating, we're going to get away from that. It's going to allow the process to be a lot more
enjoyable and relaxed. And Southwest is going to need it because they're also going to bring in premium seats, the larger, a little bit more plush coach seats, more leg room, something that passengers have been screaming for at other carriers. Now Southwest is going to maybe third of their flight with these. It's going to make the travel experience so much different and so much better, and I'm glad to see it. And again I think it's long overdue.
Okay, so are they putting in an actual first class or they're just going to do premium seating.
Premium premium. In other words, it's still going to be coached seats on their Boeing seven thirty sevens, and they're going to have I think a third of the aircraft at most that's going to have the more extra leg
room where they can charge more money. And the thought is that we've seen this with Delta American United, where they put in these economy plus seats, we'll call them so much in fact, that some of these airlines have actually got rid of a couple of their first class seats to make room for more of these coach seats, which is unthinkable that never would have happened before. But those are the seats right now that are in the
highest demand. So Southwest is saying they're talking to a lot of their customers that haven't flown them much of late, that have gone to other carriers. They said, if we could have something similar to this on Southwest, we would come back. Southwest is look, we've listened, this is what they want, this is what we're going to do, and in the process go to this assigned seating, which means they can also charge the premium seats of Oh, you want an aisle seat, that's more money. You want a
window seat that's more money, you want an ext row bulkhead. Yeah, yeah, they're gonna they're gonna think this.
So Jay, everybody's doing it. But at some point are people going to fight back against this because I mean, you're saying it's a great thing. I hate that there's these oh I can buy that seat for thirty nine dollars, and I can buy that one for forty nine dollars, and now the airlines will go, oh, if you want to sit next to each other, that's going to cost you extra. I mean, it just seems like they're it's just more fees and more fees.
Well for the for the families traveling together that the they it should be and the way they've been pressured by the government to do so. They're going to make it where it's not going to be cost prohibited for a family to do so. And I'm glad to see that being the case, because you never want to be penalized just to have your family of four or five that's going to be sitting together. But airlines look at it this way. The option is yours. If you want
to spend more on a nicer seat, you can. If you just want to pay for basic transportation and you're okay sitting in the middle seat, that's okay as well. Airlines are all about a telling us that we have options, which again be to your point exactly, is this just an excuse to feist to death? These ancillary fees raise billions of dollars of money for airlines and beyond just
the cost of basic transportation. So they've started this maybe twelve fifteen years ago, and they started with a few fees with bags, check bag fees and other things which used to be free. And they have gotten to the point now where every time you turn around there's a oh, you want to make your seat assignment in advance I'm sorry, that's a fee too. So it really just it wears you out when you travel. And that's why you and I've talked before, you endure travel. We no longer enjoy travel.
We endure it just to get to our destination.
Yeah.
The last time I flew on one of the low cost carriers, it's a Vello. They charge if you want to pick any seat, they charge you for it because their basic their basic fare is very low. So I I didn't and I said, I'm not going to do that. It's just a two hour flight. I'm not going to pay for it. And so I didn't, and then I lucked out and I ended up with a whole road to myself. But that doesn't always happen.
So Georgia said, what do you think of that airline?
I think they're great. I mean, for a low cost airline, they just charge you for absolutely everything. They charge you for carry on, they charge you for luggage, checking luggage, they don't have anyone.
I'm sorry, that's an extra fee too, I know, and user a discount this this week.
So yeah, no, they were very nice and and yeah, it's I mean it's a like you said, you're enduring the travel. I was just going from point A to at point B. It wasn't a big deal.
So real quickly, if I may on Southwest, the next shoot drop is going to be bags fly free. Eventually that's going to go yeah, And that's why we're on the same page here. They because they're going to say, look, rising fuel costs, we really hate to but we're gonna have to charge ten dollars a bag, and they're really going to just make it sound like it's the worst thing in the world. It's still going to be cheaper than other airlines. And believe me, they're loyal following is
going to say, look, we understand. Of course, then that ten is going to go to fifteen, that's going to go to twenty. But it'll eventually get there. But they're leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table right now, and investors are pushing hard. Look, I don't want you to be like every other airline, but we've got to
make some changes. And now that they've gone to assigned seats, anything is on the table and bags fly where you'll be A policy that I suspect in the next six months to a year is probably going to be amended some way where they can start seeing a little bit more revenue on the check bag side.
Well, we'll definitely have to talk then to see if your prediction is correct. When are they going to roll this out, Jake.
The sign seat sometime later this year. I think maybe September. It'sh October. They've got to reconfigure some of the planes so that they've got the premium seats available. That's going to take some time, and certainly before the end of the year we should see it, and then by next year across the system. And again I'm very excited about it because at least it gives us options and you
have assigned seats. You can sit with your wife, husband, whoever you're traveling with, and at least if you're running late, you don't have to panic because you're the last person on the plane and you get whatever seats it's left over.
All right, Jay Ratliffe, always a pleasure to talk to you and get your insights and your information. And again you predicted this one. We'll see if baggage claim or baggage fees are next.
If it doesn't, call me back and say, Jay, you were wrong and I'm certainly.
Okay.
In thirty some years, I've gotten a lot of things wrong, but I've been a few things right.
All right, Thanks so much, Jay anytime. All right, let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Simone Biles and the US women's gymnastics team have secured the gold medal in the Olympic finals. The Americans total of one hundred and seventy one point two topped Italy and Brazil. The crowd chanted Usa USA as biles so called redemption tour ended with her becoming the most decorated American gymnast of all time. She says she knew the tea was fine once her
vault routine was over. The twenty twenty four Olympics are competing with a heat waves. Temperatures in Paris hit ninety seven.
The National Weather Service says the heat wave is worse than the Mediterranean cities of Marseille and Nice that are hosting Olympic competitions like soccer and sailing, with attempts they are hitting the triple digits. Air conditioning is less common in French homes, shops and restaurants than here in the US and the athletes are feeling the heat. Simone Biles posted a video on Instagram saying the bus carrying the athletes has no AC for a forty five minute ride.
Paris twenty twenty four. Organizers have aimed to cut the event's carbon footprint with measures like turning to an underfloor cooling system and insulation instead of using air conditioning units. Some countries, like the US, brought their own AC units. Other Brooker KFI News the.
US was smart. Olympic triathletes in Paris have jumped into the River sin following some concerns about water quality. The women dove in today following an early morning drizzle, followed by the men a few hours later. Organizers say the DESI to move forward with the competition was a big win after the races had to be delayed for several days due to high bacteria levels in the Sene River. They say the latest water test showed compliance with quality standards.
Swimming has been banned in the River Sene for like one hundred years until the Olympics. This is KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles, Orange County. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour Newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your wake up Call, and if you missed any of wake Up Call, you can listen anytime on the iHeart Radio app. You've been listening to wake
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