EP:031 John Young KUIC Radio

John is a LCSW and premier radio personality for KUIC radio in Vacaville.  John has a passion to help the community and offers informative segments that highlight different people in the Solano County area that are the home town heroes!

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Transcript

Carl Fessenden: 1:20

Hey guys, are you looking for a backstage pass? How about behind the scenes look at this podcast, I have exciting news for you. Starting October 1, we will be opening the doors to the drunk and warm podcast and letting our listeners join in the fun and conversation. Check out the different ways that you can support the show and gain access to exclusive content, such as free drunk and warm podcast merchandise for one full year. Join an exclusive community where you can talk to other members vote on upcoming show topics. Here exclusive audio footage from interviews each month, receive a personal shout out on an upcoming episode. And stay up to date with the drunk and warm podcast monthly newsletter so that you can stay informed about upcoming guests, show topics and community. With four different pledge options to fit any budget. You can flex your power and become a superfan today. Good afternoon, good morning. And I hope that everybody is doing well today and happy Friday to everyone. We are very happy to be in the studio today. I have a wonderful guest joining us today. But I want to take care of a little housekeeping that we do at the beginning of the show. I always like to remind our listeners that if you are enjoying the content that we're bringing you on these shows, please It's very helpful for us if you can go on to your streaming app, and you can go down and give us a rating. Also, if you want to leave a comment, let us know how we're doing. Let us know if the content that we're bringing to you is informative if it's helpful for you. If you have any suggestions about upcoming show topics that maybe you would like me to cover on the drunken worm podcast, please let me know. Also, you can visit our website at thedrunkenwormpodcast.com. And there I have a section where you can leave comments as well. And you can include your email address, and I will do my best to get back to you. If you have any ideas for an upcoming show that you would like to hear about or maybe you would like to come on to the show if you have a background of substance use disorder or maybe you're a clinical background so that we could talk about substance use disorder or mental health type of topics. I'm always interested in finding new ways that we can approach these topics with different guests. And right now, we are still doing our GoFundMe fundraiser, we are trying to bring the drunk corn podcast on to a video platform. So if you can go over to the show notes. And if you would like to donate every little bit helps, but we're going to be starting our new YouTube channel and I want to make sure I do things right. I want to make sure I have the right video equipment, so that we can bring you the best the best quality videos, and really allow you guys to be interactive, we're going to be doing some live shows. So it's really going to be put back into the community and back into the production of the show. Also, if you'd like to catch us on recovery revolution live, we're doing that on Thursdays at 5pm. So if you would like more information on that I do have the description in the show notes. So you can click on that. And we are listed right now is a live show on YouTube. And we bring guests on with three other hosts and we talk about recovery. We talk about mental health, and we just have a really good time on the show. So if you'd like to join us, please visit us on Thursdays at 5pm. Today's guest is going to be coming into the studio. So without any further ado, let's move on with today's show. Welcome to the drunken worm podcast. Each week, I will be bringing you dynamic content that will educate and inspire. This podcast was created to talk to mental health professionals about addiction recovery and their own personal stories that can help inspire us to become better people and live healthier lives. And again, I want to welcome everybody to the drunken warrior podcast. My name is Carl, the host and the creator of this show. And you're listening to episode number 31. And like I said before, I hope everybody is having a great day today. If you are out at the gym, maybe you're driving to or from work, or maybe you're on the treadmill listening to the show, I hope that you're going to enjoy the content that we're going to bring to you today. On today's show. We have John Young, who is a disc jockey with 95.3k UIC radio, John also holds a Master's of Social Work and is a licensed clinical social worker. So we want to welcome John into the studio today. John, welcome to the show. My friend,

John Young: 5:50

brother Carl, thank you so much for having me.

Carl Fessenden: 5:52

Absolutely, man. And you know, I we were talking before we launched the show just now and I am so excited to have you in the studio man. I've always admired the work that you've done on KUIC radio. And recently when I reached out to you to share information about addiction and mental health, you had disclosed that you are a licensed clinical social worker and I really found that fascinating, man. So can you tell us a little bit about what that journey was like for you and why you chose to get into social work? And then we can talk a little bit about also why you chose to get into the radio broadcasting?

John Young: 6:29

Absolutely. I know it's a very odd combination of vocations, isn't it? As it is, I also teach. I'm fortunate enough to do online teaching at UMass global in their social work department. And that's one of the first things students will ask me, you're How did you get to be a like a radio disc jockey and an entertainer, but you're also a social worker. And my quick answer to that is, I was a social worker first. Because I had to make money to support my my artistic, you know, endeavors, being a musician and being on the radio and doing different things like that. So I'd always wanted to do radio full time. But as you well know, Carl, and you've been you've dabbled in and out of it, and you've been a board up for KUIC, you've, you know, as much about studios, probably more than I do. It can be a tough business, you've got to have some type of a, have a steady income stream, if you've got a family or you've got, you know, some type of financial goal, which I did, which was, you know, to move out of my parents house. Ultimately, I was able to cobble together a social work career starting working with people with developmental disabilities, that's kind of gotten me into the door of the social work world and then expose me to the master's degree programs. I've got my Master's from Long Beach State, where they specialized in working with with communities of color, and women in particular, people who are underserved communities, I think it was what they called it back in the the late 80s. It exposed me to all kinds of different things, including working with folks who had substance abuse issues. And that's really where I got that connection. Ultimately, radio came along, and I was shifting gears. And so I took a full time job at a KUIC lo those many years ago. But I've kept my license current, because not only did was it hard to get, and I thought I'm not just going to let it lapse after all that education and all that effort. But I still feel like giving back to the community is part of who I am. And by continuing to keep my license current and continuing to practice here, and they're continuing to teach. I feel like I haven't haven't lost my social work edge.

Carl Fessenden: 8:28

Yes. And, you know, you mentioned all the hours that you have to put in to obtain your I mean, let alone all the schoolwork that you had to go through to obtain a master's degree, but also all the clinical hours and the different types of populations that you had to put yourself into in order to achieve the long term goal of being a licensed clinical social worker. And so how do you find that balance with doing the social work, and then also working as a radio personality. And then you also mentioned that you have a joy of music, and also bicycle riding? So tell me a little bit about that balance for you?

John Young: 9:10

Absolutely. Well, I think the bicycle riding and working as a session musician getting a chance to play gigs, still to this day, I'm really fortunate to have that opportunity is really my therapy. To some degree. I know a lot of people in your audience have, like you mentioned people listening to this podcast on their treadmills or coming back from the gym, going to the gym, doing healthy things to take care of you. Those are some of those things that I do. But the balance between being on the radio and being a licensed clinical social worker, what I think I've been able to do in the 22 years, I've been distilling, that's a terrible phrase. But I've been, I've been trying to find a way to blend entertainment and social work together without being just like a radio therapist. And one way I've been able to do that, and combine the two is by being a community based guy on the radio or person on the radio, if you will. In other words, I spent a lot of my show interviewing people like you, Carl, clinical supervisors who are working directly with populations who need our help populations who do have substance abuse disorders, and diagnoses, and bringing that attention to my audience. So I'm still having fun, I'm still goofing around and doing impressions and you know, interviewing musicians and whatnot. But I'm also interviewing those changemakers. And those people like you in the community who are actually doing direct service. So I feel like I'm kind of a macro social worker. Right now. I'm doing some social work via the radio. So I'm trying to combine the two. That may be a clunky answer, but I think that's kind of how I'm how I'm trying to achieve what you just described.

Carl Fessenden: 10:39

Yes. And, you know, John, I really have to say, Man, I'm really kind of envious of you because it has always been a dream of mine to get into broadcasting and part of the story that you don't know about after I left KUIC radio is that, you know, and and I, I work a program now of honesty and you know, the past that I've had, I think that it's good to be honest about my path because I can try to minimize and say, you know, well, you know, they didn't need me or you know, something like that, but I really kind of messed that job up because I was in a deep addiction. When I was working at KUIC radio, and I really enjoyed working there, and it wanted, I wanted to get on the air, but it wasn't the right time for me, man, you know, and it wasn't that I it just it didn't work out and so I got let go at KUIC radio and it wasn't until I got clean that I started listening to Brian, two podcasts and thinking to myself, Man, you know, you could get back into doing this. And without any broadcast experience besides working a board off, and I also DJ it for years, you know, just kind of taking that leap of faith. And it sounds like that is something that you did when you decided to get into broadcasting as well as working as a social worker. So what did that feel like for you, man? Well,

John Young: 12:04

it was a leap of faith. I think like you, I've had to believe in my ability to do the job. And I'm hearing what you say is once you got clean, that belief was much clearer for you, you you had some doors open, your mind was uncluttered, you were able to say, Wow, I do know a little bit about boards. And I did do some DJing there's no reason I can't do this now that my now that I'm no, the addiction isn't holding me back, right? I had to just believe in myself. And honestly, it was not the KUIC was not the first door I walked in and got a job right off the bat, there was plenty of in fact, I'm, I'm in my home studio looking at one of the rejection letters I have framed from the zone, which is a now defunct radio station in Sacramento that sent me a sorry, you're not our type, you're not what we're looking for. And that's not the only one that's just the one I saved and framed as a way to motivate myself to keep on trying to get out there and take that leap of faith that you described. And ultimately, I was able to impress a program director who said, I think we're gonna hire you even though you don't have a ton of experience as a radio person. But you've got this weird, interesting background as a social worker, and you know, you're a musician, and, you know, you seem funny enough, and you'll catch on quickly. And I was lucky, I had good mentors, I know, you probably would bring that up. That's important to have those folks in your life in your circle, that can advocate for you and help you understand things you don't understand. Recovery isn't that much different, I think than some of those other things we go through right where we need those. We need those power people, we need folks in our circle and in our community that helps support us. Ultimately, I got lucky enough. And then once I had that job, like you, Carl, I said head down, get this done, stay focused, and 22 years later, I'm still doing it.

Carl Fessenden: 13:44

Wow, that's, that's incredible. And you know, the work that you guys do it KUIC radio for the Solano County, and also, you know, reaching out to Contra Costa County. And when I worked there, we were under the umbrella of coast radio. And now Now I think you guys are under Alpha media fire. If I'm

John Young: 14:04

reading a fairly recent acquisition, the the time you're talking about is very much in the in the public conscious. We were coast radio forever. Yeah. And their whole point was making it a hometown radio station. That was the owners of the coast radio conglomerate really wanted us. We're in a unique position geographically, you know, between Sacramento and San Francisco, there's this giant market that doesn't always get served appropriately by Sacramento or San Francisco. And I applaud that previous ownership for recognizing that we have an opportunity to really speak to our audience because we're right there in their towns with them.

Carl Fessenden: 14:38

Yeah. And it's, it's so important to bring awareness to these issues. And to have a platform with a morning show where you guys can highlight the struggles that are prominent within our communities, because I think a lot of people like to just either minimize, or they're they put themselves in a state of denial, where they don't want to have to look at things and deal with them. But you know, John, they're really right there on our doorstep. And if we don't start talking about things like this on your show, and on my show, the problem isn't going to go away. But what we can try to do is we can try to come up with some better solutions on how to deal with our feelings and how to deal with our emotions. Rather than picking up drugs or, you know, addiction is in so many different other facets also, you know, it's not just a chemical addiction, it can be a sex addiction, it can be a food addiction, it can be a shopping addiction, it can be a gambling addiction, you know, so many different things.

John Young: 15:39

And I agree with you 100%. And you bring up a really important point, which is a lot of morning shows unless they are absolutely focused on recovery or they're focused on mental health. Only regular morning shows, we're just playing the latest carried Katy Perry tune or in doing contests. I see I see an opportunity and I try I really do Carl try to make this part of of what I do on KUIC is to address that other part you just talked about. I have people from executive director from opportunity house who is a wonderful person who I've worked very closely with. I'll have her on the show often. And sure we'll talk about At some of the fun fundraisers, they're doing like their cookies for a cause or a really cool Golf Tournament that's going to feature some celebrities that live here in Northern California. But always the message is, there are homeless people in our community that need us to empathize, not to ignore them, just like you talked about not to pretend those things aren't happening. And I really, you're really tapping into something that I feel strongly about. And I feel like is the one thing that makes the morning show and KUIC different than other morning shows is we care about that stuff. That's part of my show prep. It's not just about comedy, it's not just about concert tickets. It's not, you know, just about fun giveaways. It's about we've got a voice let's use it for good, let's use it to to lift up the people that generally are sometimes are pushed to the side, or we pretend to ignore them, because it's more convenient.

Carl Fessenden: 17:05

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, and a lot of people don't even realize that they're ignoring things because you know, denial is such a dangerous thing that happens to us. It's our brain's automatic defense, to protect ourselves against something. But what we can try to do is we can try to start to realize some of the early warning signs of denial. And I'm not telling everybody that they need to go out and be Superman and start, you know, helping homeless people try to get into hotels or, you know, try to get into funding opportunities. But you know, when I started my career as a clinician, I was going through school, and my instructor at Woodland Community College told me, she said, What is one thing that you are going to be uncomfortable with, and the number one thing that I was going to be uncomfortable with, and that time was homelessness. I had a different view of homelessness until I started working with that population, and having a better understanding of their struggles and a better understanding of their mindset, and what they go through. I just thought, you know, these are people that want to annoy me, asked me for money, they don't try hard, you know, and they're just not doing anything with their lives. And so why should I make the effort to try to help them. But it wasn't until I got into the industry, that I learned that, you know, they are trying, and it's not just a homeless problem, it's a system problem as well, because we don't have adequate resources to assist these people. For the long term.

John Young: 18:36

You make such a good point. This is what happened to me when I began working with people in the in the addiction community, if you will, that inpatient was really where my work was done at a place called charter hospital. What I know is now changed, the name is different, but it was up here in the Roseville area where I live. And I come from a family with what's with an alcoholism gene in there. My my mother's dad was an alcoholic who died from a liver failure and other organ failure when he was 67. He also smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, that didn't help. But ultimately, I thought I had a very early on, I thought alcoholics are just people who couldn't, you know, they just couldn't resist, they weren't very strong willed. I know a lot of people come from that school. Ultimately, my social work training led me to understand that's not the case, it's an addiction. It's a you know, it's a disease that needs to be dealt with. But I still never really appreciated what people who suffer from addiction go through until I worked with the population, just like you described, it opened my eyes to some of the struggles, the the lack of individuality that comes from having an addiction, whatever it is, whether it's alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, food, some of the things you mentioned, a lot of the patients that I worked with, were resentful of being just given here's a, here's a list of a meetings, you're cured, or I'm done working with you now, right? What if I don't see myself this way, and I want to get treatment, and I want to get better? Do you have some other choices, and that's what opened my eyes a little bit to, um, to working with that population, and realizing you need to be a little more creative than the average bear, if you want to get through to some folks who may need something different than a sheet of resources.

Carl Fessenden: 20:12

Right and I, John, I totally agree with you with that. Because, you know, working with this population, now, I would say probably 80% of the people that I work with, or maybe even higher, are in the homeless community. They are, they are either coming out of incarceration, and they don't have a place to go, or they're coming off of the street looking for treatment. And they in there don't have a place to go after treatment is over. And so that's why it's so important to have the sober living environments that are connected to the treatment centers, the outpatient centers, and these community resources that we can use, but it's also up to the clinician, the clinician needs to have the awareness to place a client centered treatment plan in front of that person that that person has helped develop. It's not just a treatment plan that we're going to slap down in front of them and say, Hey, this is the plan that we've made for you. Because that is not going to be effective enough where it's going to get the client or that person involved with the way that they approach their own treatment. We have to have clients in our treatment plans. And the first step of that is by taking that assess spent that we do. And now we're utilizing the assessment to build a plan that is built together with the client and the clinician,

John Young: 21:26

you really hit that out of the park, because building with the client is I'm going to guess I don't know what the numbers are, but your success rate is going to be quadruple what it would be if you have somewhat of a cookie cutter, almost, you know, triage approach to treatment. And Carl, you're working with a population that I don't have that much experience with, which is homeless population with the addiction, disease diagnosis, maybe at the incarceration piece as well. That's a challenge. And I had impatient folks, but a lot of impatient folks who had insurance, whose family said, Will you please go get treatment, and we'll love you again. So off, you go to, you know, please spend 90 days at the magic, fix it place and come back to us with everything fine. And so that that was my watching that happened and fail in real time in front of me was what motivated me to try to, to understand to be a more helpful clinician working in that population.

Carl Fessenden: 22:23

Absolutely, John, and you know, those areas that we get to work with, where we are now teaching people life skills, pro social skills, and all the things that come along with that, to place them back out into the community for the best chance for success. This is the goal. And it's a goal that we come up against where the odds are highly against us. And it's unfortunate, because that is just the rate of which people are going to go back out. Not all of them are successful, you know, the success rate is relatively low. For people going through treatment for the first time. It takes multiple times for them to come through that door. And each time, they're now gaining a little bit more of themselves. And we're building upon that. And we're using that to say, You know what, you came back. And it's okay. Because it's okay, that you relapsed. And, you know, in a lot of the rooms and the groups that I'm involved with, they say relapse is part of the story. And I agree with that to a certain extent. But I also think that relapse is can be the final part of the story. And once you come into treatment, you know, you have the ability now to make those changes. But it all starts again with that client relationship that that clinician builds with them, to get them on board to, you know, get them to buy into the idea of treatment.

John Young: 23:49

Absolutely. That the client clinician relationship is, is something that, I guess with my artistic background, and a little in that the humor that I bring to those relationships, whether it's individual or group, I think that was helpful for me, you talked earlier about or asked me earlier about how I kind of synthesized radio and social work together. And believe it or not, there's there's some overlap there when you're especially when you're when you're presenting and you're trying to connect in a way that doesn't put you in that power position where you are the weak patient, I am the strong savior. And you're always going to be looking up at me, there's when you can use humor and relational kinds of things to to bring someone closer to you, when it comes to accepting and reframing some of the things that are going through, I think your success rate can go up. So I've been I've been lucky to have that in my toolbox, if you will.

Carl Fessenden: 24:42

Absolutely. And that success rate can happen. You know, it doesn't have to happen only at these high end places. Because I've worked at both John, I've worked in the trenches, like I'm doing now with the population that I get to work with that comes directly out of incarceration, and directly off of the street. And you know, we have a probation officers that are bringing these folks into treatment. And a lot of it is court ordered. And but I've also had the other side of the coin working in the private industry, where, you know, it was the they call it the 30 days spin dry. And these folks will come into treatment. And these folks have a lot of money and they're paying a lot of money to come into this treatment center. And it doesn't have to be the high end places that have the great success. A lot of times, it's these Mom and Pop community built organizations, these nonprofits that are there that have a really high success rate. But it's also what the nonprofits like the opportunity house are doing for the community to raise awareness, and like what you're doing for the community on KUIC radio, to bring awareness about these issues that plague our community currently.

John Young: 25:52

And you know what else I think is important about what you just touched on there. When you say the word community, we hear that word a lot. And it connotes say a wonderful closeness. It's usually a warm, fuzzy feeling when we say it, but I think the way you're saying it is is even more critical community means we're all in this together. I'm not better than you are client or person who is coming out of incarnate Looking for a place to go or opportunity house, they've done so much to normalize themselves within the community. They're not just the homeless shelter where homeless people go, they have a commercial kitchen, where they're making amazing cookie patter that you can buy as a fundraiser. I bought tons of I've eaten way too much of it, frankly. But it's it's those things where there's nothing wrong with seeing the mayor hanging out at opportunity house to go pick up a thing of cookies, there's nothing wrong with seeing me talking to anybody at a Starbucks, I'm not the idea of, you know, sounding like a communist, but that this idea that we're, there's, there's a level of equality and community that I think helps people who need that lift who need that boost need not to see themselves as lesser than, and when you talk that way, it's very encouraging to me, because I hope that's what I'm doing. When I'm on the radio, I'm not above you, because I'm on the radio, I'm speaking to you and I work for you, I just happen to use the radio, because that's kind of how it's how it's fallen in, in line for me,

Unknown: 27:15

Right, and you know, and like you said, the radio, you're working for the people, you are working to bring awareness about the about all of these issues that plague our community and, and bringing awareness and bringing the community closer to organizations like the opportunity house, like the house of Acts where I work. And by placing them on to shows like this, it's so important, because now we get to highlight those programs. And you know, the opportunity house has been around for so long in the community. And a lot of people might have heard about the opportunity house, but maybe they don't understand what the real mission for the opportunity houses are for the house of x, right. So these programs that we have out there. I mean, it's so important for your show to continue in the way that it does. And to be able to bring these these segments to the community, along with all the other stuff that you guys do on the air. You guys are funny, you play music, you have the morning show, you do news reports, you also do your traffic reports, you talk about the weather, and all the different aspects of all the people that work on that one show. I mean, it really does kind of encompass a hometown show, that is just truly probably, I would say one of the best in the Bay Area.

John Young: 28:36

I really appreciate you saying that. And I really hope that that's true. I hope that most of the people who listen get that and if all you get from it is hey, we do play music we like and that's all you need. That's fine. But if you're somebody who was maybe just moved to this area, or one of the clients that you're working with Carl who just come out of incarceration or trying to put their life back together, I hope you'll listen to our radio station feel like well, hey, I got something I heard about something that might be good. Or, heck, I'm finally reunited with my family, I've got a, I've got a supervised visit with my kids, I want to take them someplace place fun, you can go to our community tab, a KUIC, calm and find tons of that kind of thing. Safe, sober, family friendly things that are going on all the time. In fact, I tried to feature those things, not just on the show you were kind enough to come on in and talk about House of x and the great work you do. But in our PSAs under the Community tab digitally on our social media channels. I feel like yeah, I want to I hope it's what you described. And you said it more eloquently than I'm trying to say, which is this idea that we're we're your community radio station. There's, it's it's not just NPR. And it's not just news. And it's not just one thing. It's something for everybody. And hopefully not a lot that alienates a lot of folks, you don't I mean, yeah, it's a good thing.

Carl Fessenden: 29:45

Yes. And you know, one of the things that I really appreciate about your show, and John, I'm gonna have to be honest with you. I do listen to another morning show that is on the, on the air, not just your show, but I was evaluating Why do I like this show so much. And it's because of the shock factor that they bring to the air. And I was looking at that the other day, and I was like, Why do I like this so much. Why do I like it when they call the the boyfriend that they think it's cheating and and trick him to, you know, admit that he's been cheating by offering him flowers and we have a lot of Perrier listeners. So if you listen to the radio in the morning, you might know which show I'm talking about, but I'm not going to call them out on on my show. But, you know, you guys have kept your show. So appointed and centered and the focus has never shifted. And I don't think you guys have any segments like that where you do, you know, kind of a shock episode. You know, maybe with the news a little bit but there hasn't been a segment on there just to get ratings by shocking people with other people's responses. Would that be a correct statement?

John Young: 30:56

That would be and I and I don't want to knock that type of radio it's very successful. Howard Stern built a career a gazillion dollar career out of that out of out of doing shotgun that type of entertainment. I don't have a knock against any contrary to what folks might think I'm not like a T totally minister who's who doesn't you know, doesn't believe in it, you know, in a certain amount of crazy artistic stuff, right. However, I think for long haul ratings, which do matter, I mean, it gets kept me employed for 22 years in the same market in the same slot. But we've done kind of we've looked, we're more of the the tortoise, I think, than the hare. If that's right, yeah, the tortoise is the slower one, right? We're Yeah, our ratings have stayed consistent, because people get what they expect to get. And our, our advertisers understand what they're buying when they buy airtime with us. Right? That's not to say there are not other entertainment, entertaining radio shows out there. And frankly, there are times I wish I could think of something a little more clever to do. I do a lot of theater the mind stuff, I do impressions, I you know, I do my best. But we've been given the the edict that you are still a family friendly show. And our program director is quick to remind us, when I've gone a little, maybe I've gotten a little political, I feel very strongly about certain things, and I will oftentimes let that slip out and he said, Hey, remember, you know, we're not here to, to trigger folks or make them angry. We're here to serve them. And so, and I understand that, but you know, I'm human like you are Carly, like you said, every now and then it's funny to hear about why is the boyfriend cheating? What's what's happening here, you know, the prank phone call to the bakery? You know, I get it. I've been Yeah.

Carl Fessenden: 32:33

And you know, and other radio stations in the Bay Area have actually been shut down because of some of these type of approaches that they've taken for on air content. And, you know, KUIC radio has been tried and true. And you know, you guys are just pushing through with the slot that you're in. So tell us a little bit about the morning show what is kind of the basis behind it. We've talked a lot about kind of the overall thing, but it's a really a focus for the morning show. When you go in on a daily basis.

John Young: 33:05

There is and before I forget, I just want to let you know that I that I haven't been a saint completely at KUIC. I will share a very quick story of the one and only time I was ever reported to the FCC by a listener, a KUIC listener, who was a grumpy older woman who called the show on St. Patrick's Day. It's kind of you know, timely since we just passed St. Patrick's Day. Yes, she called requesting a 1930s St. Patrick's Day song called who put the clam chowder in somebody's long johns there's some somebody will have to look that up. There's a Google that there is some like Mrs. Mrs. Lowery's long johns who put the clamshell it's something ridiculous and hilariously stupid. And she she got mad at me when I said I couldn't find that song that we don't have that song in our library. And she went on this tirade. Well anyway, I thought the tirade was so funny. I taped it, I recorded it and made a promo out of it, and played it all St. Patrick's Day, this woman yelling at me because I couldn't find this ridiculous Irish song anyway, she didn't think that was funny, and reported me to the FCC. And there was an investigation and they decided that, that I didn't break any, any rules that would get the station in trouble. But my bosses said, you can never play that audio again, you got to destroy it, which of course I didn't I send it home and play it for my kids to make them laugh every now and again. But that's an aside. So even even in our efforts to try to be funny, sometimes we can step on our toes a little bit.

Carl Fessenden: 34:28

That's fantastic. I wish I had it for you, right?

John Young: 34:32

Oh, my God, I was angry. I'm looking at me not with us anymore. So I should be I should be more respectful. But any who would you would ask me about the theme of how the show was constructed. Initially, my boss has told me when they hired me back in 1999. We are a music focus station. We do music and traffic in the morning. That's why people listen, don't get in the way of that as long as you don't, you'll have a nice long five to 10 year career here. And I took that to heart. And so I in three to four minute breaks of which I have one or two to three an hour, I tried my best to be as funny and relevant and just shine quickly. I did learn very, very quickly how to be funny, you're in more compact moments. Because I wasn't given a lot of time this wasn't talk radio. And that probably helped me a little bit helped me narrow down what I thought was funny for 10 minutes was now had to be funny for two minutes. But ultimately, the show is designed to be informative, to provide traffic to provide today's best mix. And because the audience has become one, we become one together the audience myself, we've grown up together for 22 years, two decades plus, that I get to insert my take on things or again have a great guest like yourself on the show to talk about something important. And that really is become the theme. It's a combination of information and entertainment, I guess is the best way to describe it.

Carl Fessenden: 35:55

Absolutely. And John, while you were talking about that I actually found the song on YouTube. It's a real song, right? Dream this it is. So it's called Mrs. Murphy's chowder, written by George L. Great griefer performed by Ben church and it's called who through the overalls and Miss Murphy's chowder and You know I would we get in trouble if we played this on we play

John Young: 36:21

just a snip? I've never even heard it. Yeah, of course we didn't have it. So this is you know, this is 2004 or five I couldn't have even found it on on YouTube at that time.

Carl Fessenden: 36:29

Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, so we're gonna play this and again, this is who threw the chowder in the overalls and Miss Murphy or hit through the overalls and Miss Murphy's chowder. Remember it either? Oh, man. Oh, maybe I got it muted because it was coming on. And I didn't want it to over

John Young: 36:46

I'll probably probably edit that in that's that's Yeah, yeah. What Carl,

Carl Fessenden: 36:51

man, you know, maybe I should get into radio surfer dancing shows? Well, we'll have a link to that in the show notes. So if anybody would like to, it's on YouTube. And it has one like with no dislikes. So real popular song there for any song that got John sort of in trouble with the FCC?

John Young: 37:12

Yeah. years ago. Thanks, Mrs. Murphy. Yeah, your overalls or whatever it is.

Carl Fessenden: 37:18

Exactly. Exactly. And happy Sam paint that can't even talk right now. St. Patty's Day. So that's going to be our we should make that our theme song on paint. St. Patty's Day, that would be great.

John Young: 37:30

Well, and I also appreciate that you were on the program the day before St. Patrick's Day, if you'll remember I one of the themes we had, again, not to bring it back around to to addiction and people who can use our support and our help. But I thought it was important to have that discussion we had the day before a day, which is, is often a trigger for a lot of people who struggle. And you were kind enough to we sort of touched on that a little bit. And I said, Let's have everybody it's a great get put your green on have a lot of fun. But we understand that this can be triggering, and it can be hard on folks. And you were kind enough to have resources available to you know, not only just to say during the interview, but also to post on our social media. And I'm sure that helped folks. So thank you again, for that.

Carl Fessenden: 38:13

Well, you're welcome. And you know, those resources are so important to bring people because the more awareness that we can bring, and the more things that we can place in front of people, the better opportunity, they might have to seek help, or even to gain resources or knowledge about topics. I mean, you don't have to have a substance use disorder, or being having an addiction to learn about these things. Because one of the things I was always taught was Knowledge is power. And so that's why I always like to seek out information about things and to better my education, when I'm talking about things and bringing topics up with other people.

John Young: 38:49

Yeah, absolutely. I think the minute we think we know everything about a subject, I think that's when we're in trouble keeping that intellectual curiosity high, has kept me I think that's one of the reasons why I continue to teach, I don't do it for the money I where I continue to keep my license current, it's not because of the money at all, it's because of I don't want to become stagnant and something that's so important community service, it's something my kids have had drilled into their poor little heads for their entire lives. And they've all become wonderful adults who care about other people, I think, the minute we start thinking, we've got it all figured out, I think we're in we're in trouble, we need to continue to, to seek knowledge. And If knowledge is power, that's great. But it's also an internal power, it's a sense of you having having having a reason to continue to, to care and to serve.

Carl Fessenden: 39:41

Absolutely. And that is just so important. Because in addiction, a lot of people are stagnant. We talk about the process and the brain, the way it is developing, when somebody comes into an addictive state, we are now taking that process in the brain. And we're now starting to cut the ties where we are developing further. So a lot of times when people come into treatment, what we see is that we see them, or they have stopped developing in their brain from the time that they started using substances heavily. And so you know, you might have somebody that is 43 in front of you, but still has the mindset of maybe a 25 year old. And so there's a lot of catching up that we have to do. And so that's why I like to use a lot of different clinical approaches with clients in order to re engage those brain cells for their firing so that we can start to get the brain active again, and start to the development process a little bit quicker.

John Young: 40:38

Right talk about a wonderful clinical tool that that people who are not clinicians can understand this very well, I think, which is education, learning new things. Talk about a reason to continue to work on your sobriety because you're there's all these new doors that get opened you ever wanted to learn how to rebuild an engine, you love cars, you grew up with them, but by the time you were 23 and really involved in your addiction you didn't all you did was drive them you didn't work on it. We'll look at now that you're now that you're sober and you're and you're staying sober and you're working on it. Now you're rebuilding motors or you're you're you're taking electronics to another level you're you know, you're creating podcasts you're doing I would think there's a, there's clinical value in the idea of not just education, like book learning, so you can get your degree in astrophysics, but learning things that actually create joy and give you give you purpose. And I mean, what, that's just a powerful clinical tool in my mind.

Carl Fessenden: 41:33

Yes, and absolutely. And that's why it's so powerful do get them engaged with doing hobbies, and art, and, you know, music and all of these other avenues that are often overlooked, because maybe the clinician, or the program doesn't have the expertise or the staff on hand to facilitate bringing these type of programs to their clients. But it's so important that we do that, because we are now re engaging the brain, and we're making those synapses fire, and we're making our brain become active again, you know, if you play somebody down and tell them, you know, hey, I want you to work on maybe a creative writing project, I want you to work on some poetry, maybe you like to write music, maybe you're an artist, you know, all of these things are now taking the brain and we're forcing it to start to work again. And it might be hard at first for that person. But over time, it becomes easier, and the process becomes more enjoyable for them.

John Young: 42:31

And you bring up another great point, this is great point number 25 that Carl has brought up. But it's important to recognize why those Community Links are so important. Because if you don't have somebody on staff who can help somebody to explore their art, explore their music, explore their mechanical dreams that maybe want to build their own house, maybe they want to build their own boat, whatever it is, if you have connections to community members who can get those services to a client, you win, which is why getting the word out letting people in the community know what you do. I can't tell you Carl, how many amazing people I've met through our helping your hometown program that we do, like you mentioned earlier, there's a there's a group in town that's designed to work with veterans, it's called veterans, in the name of it, veterans build boats. And it's it's all about sailing and boat work and working on wooden boats, with veterans teaching them that skill. And it's a bunch of former sailors and boat builders who work directly with veterans, I never would have known that if people hadn't heard us talking on the radio about, hey, let us know what your community organization does, we want to know, then you create those links. And pretty soon you can offer clients things that even if your staff doesn't know how to do it, somebody in the community does.

Carl Fessenden: 43:41

Absolutely, and you know, those those community outreach programs, and all of that is so vital to build a productive community and a healthy community. And again, your show is there to support those people to bring awareness to bring the community closer to these organizations, so that they can get more involved. And involvement is so crucial within the community.

John Young: 44:06

And when you see what it does when we have everybody invested, when people are healthy, when people can contribute and give back. Look what you're doing Carl, look at met many people like you who have been in one space, they do what they need to do, they continue to work on themselves. Now they turn around and they give back and it's a talk about healthy communities. When we leave people behind, you are cutting out a source of ultimate, ultimately a source of health and growth for your community. You're not doing yourself any favors by sweeping people under the rug or pretending they don't exist, or, you know, moving to a gated community where you don't have to look or see any, any anything. That's I think that's the wrong approach. I think the right approach is let's get everybody healthy. Let's get everybody feeling like they can contribute to and watch what can happen.

Carl Fessenden: 44:52

Absolutely. And it's it's so great to see how the community has come together and how the we have grown and Solano County Fairfield Vacaville, Vallejo, Dixon, Woodland, you know, all of these different areas out here winters, you know, all of these different areas have come together to try to bring the community closer and KUIC. For me, I view K UIC as kind of the leading beacon that allows all of these resources to be distributed within the community. So again, John, thank you very much for doing that. I want to move on to a segment that we do with all of our guests on the drunk and warm podcast. And I didn't tell you about this on purpose, but if you've listened to a few of the episodes, you might have heard it at the end. But we're gonna be doing a little rapid fire questions for you, John. How are you feeling?

John Young: 45:45

I feel like I'm ready to set the rapid fire.

Carl Fessenden: 45:48

Alright, sir. I am looking right now. Okay, we're gonna do this right here. Okay, what has been your favorite age so far?

John Young: 45:57

My favorite age? I'm gonna say 50 Because I got it. I gotta answer quickly, right. That's the that's the conceit.

Carl Fessenden: 46:03

Yes. Yes. rapid, rapid fires. Could be my favorite age. All right. What is your favorite lazy go to dinner?

John Young: 46:11

That is my wife's man. Ducati with root beer. Hmm,

Carl Fessenden: 46:14

that sounds good. To be honest, what is your favorite thing to do in the summertime?

John Young: 46:22

ride my bike. Okay, excellent. How long would be second but you didn't ask but that's bad. Yeah, that's that's one

Carl Fessenden: 46:28

a so bicycle is going to be your first one. You get a bell for that one. Thank you very much. And how often do you floss? And we're not talking about dancing here. We're talking about an in between your teeth, man.

John Young: 46:38

Oh, you know, my mother was a dental hygienist before she became I am not lying to you. I floss once a day. I know that seems like you're lying. No, it's true. I've got I've got my mother is always over my shoulder screaming at me in my mind. My teeth are not perfect. So it's once a day.

Carl Fessenden: 46:53

That's excellent. And you will receive a bell for that one, sir. Thank you very much.

John Young: 46:57

deserve one for that. That's that's a lot of floss. It is. It is a lot of it. Yes, man. All right. So when you take a picture, I got to look I can't have bad teeth. So it's got to work.

Carl Fessenden: 47:06

All right. What What story do you tell the most often and it can't be the one about Mrs. Shirley's long John's

John Young: 47:15

Murphy's Long John's. You know, I probably tell the story the most of when I met my wife. We've been together almost 27 years and we met a social workers funny enough. And it's one of these things where my wife and I were with other people at the time, we both were planning to get married to other people. And we invited each other to our weddings, respectively. And we couldn't because we were busy at it just in other words, she invited me to her weddings, we were friends not knowing I was getting married on the same day. That is kind of funny that we had the same wedding anniversary with different people. But seven years later, we worked it out.

Carl Fessenden: 47:47

That's great. I know. What never fails to make you laugh.

John Young: 47:55

Robin Williams. Yeah, that's fair.

Carl Fessenden: 47:58

That is absolutely fair. As a genius. You you you get a bell for that one, too. Thank you. All right. Where do you prefer to go on a date?

John Young: 48:07

Wow. Jumping in my own pool with with Meg is probably wrong. You know, we are we are actually we prefer to go on Kayak dates. Believe it or not, we're Yeah, we'd like to be on some kind of a water a body of water in the kayaks.

Carl Fessenden: 48:19

I love that. I love I love the water. Man. I worked on a cruise ship as a chef. And however in Hawaii. Oh, it was. It was just awful. Absolutely

John Young: 48:30

terrible. Our daughter lived in Hawaii for two years. And we've kept saying we got to go. We should go check on her. Think she's alright. Your visit again.

Carl Fessenden: 48:37

Hey, hey, don't worry. We're just coming over to check on you, sweetie.

John Young: 48:40

Yeah, just daddy to look at the car. That you couldn't figure it out yourself. We J We're here. Exactly.

Carl Fessenden: 48:45

We brought your cell phone charger. You weren't answering your phone. So we got worried.

John Young: 48:49

You're your favorite sweater. Yeah, we got it. Right in Hawaii. But we brought it anyway. Exactly.

Carl Fessenden: 48:53

Now which way to the beach? Okay, and the last question that I always ask all my guests on the drunken warm podcast, who is your favorite Disney character.

John Young: 49:03

grew up going to Disneyland. I grew up in Southern California. Disneyland was a big part of our lives. And as much as Mickey Mouse is a default character for a lot of folks. I actually was a Donald Duck fanatic. And it was because at a young age, I could do a fairly decent Donald Duck impression. do is do I dare say like, Thank you, Carl. Is Donald Duck with

Carl Fessenden: 49:23

that? Yes, that would that would give you another bell.

John Young: 49:32

And I don't know if that was Thank you. Wasn't really Thank you Carl. Carl's a tough word for a duck to say it. I was a big fan of Donald Duck. I always thought he was kind of the everybody picked Mickey. So Donald needed somebody to, you know, be his favorite. He was mine.

Carl Fessenden: 49:47

That's That's great. And like I said, you get a bell for that, sir. Somebody picked Scrooge once Scrooge McDuck. Really? Yeah. And I was like, wow, that's

John Young: 49:58

a good character, man. Yeah, yeah. No,

Carl Fessenden: 50:00

I want to unwrap that one with you.

John Young: 50:03

Yeah, easy, does it? No.

Carl Fessenden: 50:05

Yeah. Right. So Well, John, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the drunken Warren podcast. And like I said, I hope that this is going to be the start of a, a nice relationship where, you know, we can reciprocate, coming on each other's shows and helping to bring awareness to the community of Solano County, about mental health issues. So I'm looking forward to working with you again. And if anybody would like to get a hold of you or listen to your show, what's the best way that they can go about doing them?

John Young: 50:38

Well, I appreciate that we are we you can stream KUIC if it's easier if you're listening at work on a computer or you happen to be out of the area and still want to stay connected to your hometown that's what we recommend. Maybe people are traveling and like I want to find out what's still going on in Solano and Contra Costa counties in Yolo County and Napa you can go to kuic.com and click on our Listen Live tabs you can take us with you wherever you want. If you've got Alexa or your Google smart speaker on the kitchen counter there next to run the you know the bedroom. I guess you'd have it on the bureau maybe in a nightstand. You can say Alexa or Google Open your hometown station KUIC. And if you do that, there we are. We also were on the Odyssey app if you download the free apps you can take us with you on your smartphone or your tablet. And of course, we're on terrestrial radio. They're at 95.3k UIC.

Carl Fessenden: 51:24

Excellent John. And you know, man I love I don't know why I love the call scientific UIC radio so much. Maybe it's because I worked there. But I used to practice that in the car on the way home, and I've noticed something on air, you guys have changed a little bit, you no longer put the 95.3 You just call it 953,

John Young: 51:47

the point was removed. I want to say it's been about 10 years now we had a consultant come in and say, you know, nobody's saying point anymore about stuff. And I thought, well, we've been seeing the point since 1973. Why are we stopping this now? It took me many months, Carl. And I actually had some drops my daughter when she was 17 left me a drop saying, I'm Nicole, John's daughter and I listened every morning to 95.3. And I had to go in and edit the point out so I could still play the drum. Yeah, so um, for those of you who grew up with KUIC, no one is going to chide you for continuing to say 95.3. But that's been erased out of all of our it's off of our gear. It's off of how we say it on the air. Yeah, we're 953. But it did take me a while because like you pointed out, you know the station's been around a long time you were operating the board and practicing those same calls. But yeah, we got rid of the point but we kept the hometown.

Carl Fessenden: 52:37

Wow, that's that's incredible. Did you guys remove the point on the outboard side of the building?

John Young: 52:43

I believe that the point is gone. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a squiggly there. I've got to take it. You know, Carl, you're gonna force me to take a deeper dive into my merchandise and our, our labeling and our branding, because I don't know if the point is physically on any of our stuff anymore. I don't think it is. Yeah, but I will. You know, we'll we'll figure that out. And then we'll, we'll follow that up the way we did with Mrs. Murphy's chowder. And please,

Carl Fessenden: 53:04

please do that would that would be greatly appreciated. And if you ever want to send me that audio sample, that would that would be good stuff. So, again, everybody if you would like to get a hold of John or listen to the 95.3 KUIC. Radio morning show, John, what time does the show start? And what time does an end? Good question.

John Young: 53:24

We start at 530 in the morning, and we run until nine than I stay on from nine to 10 playing music and giving you an update on weather and other little bits. But the main show the main body of the show is from 530 to nine I hope folks will tune in, you can always reach out to me to you know we're on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at your hometown station 953 KUIC, if you go to our website, there's a social tab there. You can click on there and communicate with us that way. That's always cool too. All right.

Carl Fessenden: 53:53

Well, again, John, it was wonderful having you on the show. And if you guys would like any of the information we've talked about on today's show, including the YouTube link to Mrs. Johnson's overalls in the chowder II that will be posted on the show notes below. And I want to thank everybody for listening this evening.