Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
From Roundabouts to Rock Legends: Dublin's Biggest Moments From Link Ahead
We’re closing out 2025 with a 'Top 10 Countdown' of our most popular episodes of the year! A blending of big-stage moments, behind-the-scenes storytelling, and the everyday work that keeps Dublin a local, regional and national leader. From rock legends to roundabouts, wellness shifts to waste tech, this highlight reel shows how a community grows when people, ideas, and partnerships align.
We revisit a State of the City address that centers on strategic planning and resident relationships. Then, head straight to the table at Dublin Village Tavern and why it gets more mentions on Link Ahead than anyone or anything else! Recreation and wellness leader Mollie Steiner helps us trade brittle resolutions for durable intentions and reframes wellness as a daily investment—physical, mental, and social. Director of Engineering Paul Hammersmith always makes safety a priority with roundabouts, shared-use paths, and a new pedestrian bridge that knits neighborhoods together.
On the culture front, Kansas frontman Ronnie Platt and 38 Special’s Don Barnes share how bands stay sharp, tours stay joyful, and crowds sing back the hits. The Abbey Theater's Joe Bishara celebrates a big award streak while pulling back the curtain on how a small venue builds big credibility. And sustainability takes center stage as Rumpke’s Columbus facility—the largest and most advanced in North America—expands recycling to include clamshells and uses AI to supply Ohio manufacturers. But you'll have to tune in to find out which episode was THE most popular of the year!
Thanks for fueling a record year of Link Ahead downloads and conversations. Follow the show, share your favorite moment, and drop us a note with the guests and topics you want in 2026.
Hello and welcome to Link Ahead, the City of Dublin podcast. And wow, wow, wow, where did the year go, Bruce?
SPEAKER_13:I have no idea. I have no idea. But here we are again doing the year-ender episode. And what a year of topics, guests, and listenership from our loyal, loyal podcast audience. And we'll share some of those numbers with you a little bit later on our tremendous growth.
SPEAKER_05:You are absolutely right. Our our listeners keep growing and growing, and we're just glad we get to keep doing this. It's a lot of fun. We learn so much. And uh because 2025 was such a big year, we're doing another year-ender episode. But this year we decided to make it a top 10 list.
SPEAKER_13:That's right, Lindsay. Now think about our guests and topics for a second for the year. People like Barbara Nicholas, lead singers from Third Eight Special and Kansas.
SPEAKER_05:We talked about your biggest investment, your house, with Columbus Realtor CEO Brent Swander. Our friends at Rumkey joined us for another monster episode talking about some new expanded recycling services in Dublin.
SPEAKER_13:You know, plus our listeners got to meet new executives here at City Hall and every council member to hear directly from them about all the exciting things that are happening in Dublin.
SPEAKER_05:Speaking of exciting, heck, we even talked about taxes. And you know what? People loved it, Bruce.
SPEAKER_13:Just a huge year, but hey, did these episodes make the cut for top 10 in 2020? In 2025, it's time to find out.
SPEAKER_05:All right. Drum roll, please. Coming in at number 10, this will make our city manager, and frankly, us too, Bruce, very, very happy.
SPEAKER_09:Good evening, members of City Council, neighbors, and guests. Thank you for joining us for this year's State of the City Address. Tonight, I am honored to reflect on our achievements, share our vision for the future, and demonstrate how Dublin is leading the way in innovation, service, and community excellence. Dublin has always been a city that looks ahead, driven by strategic planning, sound investments, and a commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all who live, work, and visit here. Our success is built on the strength of our relationships with residents, regional leaders, and entrepreneurs. Together, we are not just keeping pace with change, we are shaping it. With that, I am proud to share with you this evening that the state of our city is strong.
SPEAKER_05:What an awesome episode. What a great state of the city. And kudos to our listeners to hanging in there because that was a pretty hefty long episode and they stuck with us till the end.
SPEAKER_13:That's a very long one. Okay, on to number nine. And here's a giant hint. We often ask our guests in rapid fire segments what their favorite lunch or dinner spots are. And there's one place and one place only that people always give a shout out to.
SPEAKER_05:So let's welcome DVT's general manager, Jerry Zimba. Jerry, welcome to Link Ahead. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_13:Absolutely. All right, Jerry, most mentions on a podcast isn't an official award or anything you can hang up at the back at your location, but uh you get serious props here. And knowing the people of our city love what you're all about has to be a great feeling.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, it's awesome. We have the best customers ever. We really are really fortunate.
SPEAKER_05:Well, we're so happy to have you. And we also have a second guest with us today, City Scene lead editor, Rachel Karas. Rachel, welcome to you. Hi, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Well, you are an editor and a writer for Dublin Life magazine and also other suburban publications. So you really have your pulse on the foodie scene around central Ohio. Tell us what makes Dublin's restaurant scene so special.
SPEAKER_07:I would have to say it's the range of options. You know, you've got things like Dos Hermanos, Cap City, Mezzo, Cafe Istanbul, and you know, so many other places, you know, no matter what cuisine or flavors you're looking for, there's going to be something in Dublin that you can find and enjoy.
SPEAKER_13:Awesome. Now, at the heart of our awesome food scene is the DVT. Jerry, you opened on Valentine's Day in 2000. What were those early days like and how have things changed over the past 25 years?
SPEAKER_04:Wow. It's changed all at once. Back then, 25 years ago, there was, I think, three other restaurants in historic Dublin when we opened. So it was more of a sleepy kind of town. Sure. And now today, 25 years later, this place is popping. I mean, the city is awesome.
SPEAKER_13:Plus, we learned the secret to cooking a great burger at home in that episode. Bonus.
SPEAKER_05:Right. That episode made me hungry. Okay. The countdown continues to number eight. This episode is proof our residents are active, seek purpose, and take care of themselves. This was our first episode of 2025 where we said, hey, forget those New Year's resolutions. Let's be honest, the holidays are stressful and they can disrupt our normal day-to-day routines. Maybe that's the reason New Year's resolutions came to be because people were looking for a reset.
SPEAKER_13:That could be it. Well, whatever you call it, a reset, a resolution, or just looking for ways to stay motivated. But here, the kickoff of 2025, we have the perfect guest, Molly Steiner, Dublin's recreation administrator of corporate and community wellness. Welcome to Link Ahead.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you so much for having me. We have so much going on here at the city and over at the Dublin Community Recreation Center. But let's begin on a broad theme, especially coming off the holidays.
SPEAKER_13:Yeah, no doubt. So we've heard it said time and time again self-care is not self-fish. Let's start there. I think we can all agree in concept, but it really seems to be harder to put into practice. Wouldn't you agree, Molly?
SPEAKER_02:I do agree that it is hard. Um, but I also believe giving yourself permission to invest in yourself is vital to your health and well-being. And I think a lot of times people think self-care means you have to indulge in manny petties or spa days. Hey, what's wrong with that? Nothing. I love that myself. I can use my HSAs for that. There you go. That's absolutely right. But I think giving yourself time each day just for a few minutes to focus on you allows you to be your most authentic self. And by helping yourself first, you can better help serve, teach, and care for those around you.
SPEAKER_05:Wow. And this is why she's our uh administrator of corporate and community wellness, Bruce. Um and it also starts with awareness, right? There is uh hard data that the holidays bring both joy and stress because there's high expectations, financial pressure of that gift giving, family dynamics, not naming any names, uh, travel complications, pressure to create the perfect holiday. So recognizing all these factors and plenty of others is a good first step to possibly making changes in the new year and resetting all together, right?
SPEAKER_02:I think we can all agree that making New Year's resolutions is hard. We've all been guilty of making them, and then they don't last more than a day or a week, and then we get frustrated. Um, so I think it's important to know the difference between intention and resolution. And to me, your resolution is a specific behavior that you commit to, but your intention is the why behind your goal or what you believe you will get in exchange for completing the resolution. So to me, intentions focus more on the process of creating the outcome rather than the outcome itself. For example, take a typical resolution of wanting to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year. The pressure and the rigid nature of that goal can lead to extra stress and disappointment if you don't get there. But in contrast, an intention under that same value might be I'd rather focus on living an active lifestyle. So if you focus on living an active lifestyle, you still might lose those 10 pounds, but the success comes from the act of living the active lifestyle.
SPEAKER_05:I love that episode because we talked about so much more than getting out and exercising. It was about wellness as a whole. Physical, mental, you know, community, all that stuff is so important to Dublin.
SPEAKER_13:Let's keep the countdown going on number seven. And wow, are we gonna name drop here? The Memorial Golf Tournament. It's such a signature event here in the city for all of us. And we know the family name that's driven it for half a century, Nicholas.
SPEAKER_05:Dublin Life magazine put it this way: the 2025 Memorial Golf Tournament has plenty of highlights, but nothing shines brighter than this year's tournament honoree. This year, the first lady of golf, Barbara Nicholas, is that honoree. And she joins us now on Link Ahead. Welcome, Barbara. Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_08:What a nice introduction. I'm having trouble believing that.
SPEAKER_13:Uh, this year marks the 50th plane of the memorial tournament presented by Workday. Can we ask how you found out that you were this year's honoree?
SPEAKER_08:Well, I think it was at the Captain's Club meeting last year. And uh I had walked out of the room for some reason and I was coming back in and sort of helping them clear plates. So I picked up a plate and started walking. And Jack said, wait just a minute. We want you to know you're next year's honoree. And I about dropped the plate and fell over and was in a state of shock. So kind of heard it casually from the captains.
SPEAKER_05:Well, let's go back to in the way back machine here and give our listeners some perspective and maybe a couple nuggets that uh they didn't know. So, Barbara, do we have this right? You and Jack met the first week of freshman year at the Ohio State University on the steps of Menden Hall Lab. That was in 1957. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_08:Exactly. Well, I was uh walking along on campus and was just going past Menden Hall Lab, and I looked up and I recognized a girl that I had known from high school. We kind of had little sororities in high school back then, and she was president of her sorority at her high school, and I was president of my sorority at my high school. So I stopped to say hello to her. She was talking to Jack, so she introduced me to Jack and she had to go to class. So she walked me to the working to pay my way through college and called me up that night.
SPEAKER_13:I still can't believe we talked to Barbara McNicholas. I mean, that was amazing. And in 2026, the memorial will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and we can't wait.
SPEAKER_05:All right, on to number six. And there's two words for this episode Hammer time. Uh, we had Paul Hammersmith, our director of engineering, and he's such a rock star because everybody loves him and he can break down the most complicated engineering projects in a way that people can understand. Uh, here's just a little bit of our convo with Paul.
SPEAKER_13:All right, Paul, talk about the traffic flow and the safety of roundabouts in general.
SPEAKER_11:So, as we know, roundabouts tend to reduce accidents uh in terms of about 35% and then severity uh and injury accidents by about 75%. Uh so much, much safer. Um, slower speeds, less conflict points. Um, you only have to look to the left to know who you know you're gonna possibly conflict with. Um so that's been a huge advantage of the roundabout.
SPEAKER_05:I love that piece. Someone mentioned that you just have to look one direction to the left, and people thought about that. Yeah, shouldn't be anyone coming from the right.
SPEAKER_11:Yield to the left, not that hard.
SPEAKER_05:You know, I've heard states like Virginia and New York have adopted roundabout first initiatives where uh roundabouts are considered the first choice for new intersections and reworking old ones. Any talk of that in Ohio? Because I can start that petition, actually.
SPEAKER_11:Not that I know of yet, but I will tell you for Dublin, we always look at the roundabout as our first alternative for intersection improvement. And if for whatever reason it doesn't work, then we fall back to a signal, uh a traffic signal.
SPEAKER_05:All right, I'm watching our producer Scott over there to see him perk up because he loves our shared use paths. And we are adding some some this year, right? So Riverside Drive West, more shared use path.
unknown:Correct.
SPEAKER_11:Yes, along the west side of Riverside Drive from Emerald Parkway going north up to the Dublin Arts Council will be a new shared use path. Um we're working right now with AEP to get some electric facilities moved. Uh there is also going to be a pedestrian bridge over um Billingsley Creek that goes underneath Riverside Drive. It's a rather long bridge. I think it's about 100 feet long. Uh so that's on order presently, and we'll get to the code.
SPEAKER_13:Where do you order a bridge?
SPEAKER_11:Um, you get on Amazon pedestrian bridge. We're not sitting that overnight, Lindsay. Putting that on your front porch and how do I get it off of there?
SPEAKER_05:Paul has so much experience, four decades of professional experience, three in municipal government, and we're just so lucky to have his expertise and leadership here in the city.
SPEAKER_13:He's the best. Now let's keep counting down the hits. At number five, proof our listeners love music and love stories behind the music. You remember of VH1 Behind the Music?
SPEAKER_05:I was more of the TRL generation. But yeah, we all love music.
SPEAKER_13:Okay, I'm dating myself here with you, Lindsay. All right. At number five for 2025, another first for Link Ahead. Lindsay, I am very excited. So please welcome lead vocalist and keyboardist from the band Kansas, Ronnie Platt, to Link Ahead. Hello, Ronnie.
SPEAKER_10:Hi, kids.
SPEAKER_13:We are beyond excited to have your band and 38 Special join us for our Independence Day celebration. How did the stars align for you to be here with us?
SPEAKER_10:What a great lineup, Kansas and 38 Special. What a great matchup. We can't wait to get there. And on July 4th, are you kidding?
SPEAKER_05:Well, we throw quite a great party for the fourth. And this is part of your 50th anniversary tour, and you're playing all over the country. What can your fans here in Dublin look forward to in terms of the set list and the show itself?
SPEAKER_10:Well, not only from 38 Special, but from Kansas also. You're just gonna hear some some crazy intense music. It's a good time. Uh, you're you're gonna see some of the best musicians in the world. We bring our show to to everyone, and uh everyone's always uh satisfied customers by the time they leave. Yes.
SPEAKER_13:Let's run some numbers here. Kansas has sold 30 million albums, and eight of them went to gold, plus uh two one million selling gold singles and Carry On My Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind. What's kept Kansas so popular over all these years?
SPEAKER_10:It's the quality of the music. Uh, and you know, it it's something to see uh, you know, our our audience, uh just in the time that I've been in the band, which now I'm now working on my 11th year. Wow. Hun, can you bring the Geritol in? Uh uh but uh yeah, it really is the quality of the music. Uh and it's I I like to rebrand it uh uh as you know, it's called classic rock, but I like to call it timeless rock.
SPEAKER_13:Ronnie Platt was such a storyteller, so humble, so gracious, and Kansas rocked our Independence Day celebration.
SPEAKER_05:They really did. I'm still starstruck from that episode. It was so much fun, and our first rock star, like actual literal rock star guest. So uh now the entertainment theme continues, Bruce, uh, with this next guest, and he is in very exclusive company as one of our very few three-peat guests. And he knows we don't extend that repeat invitation to just anyone, Bruce.
SPEAKER_13:So please welcome back to the show, Joe Bashara, theater supervisor for Dublin's Abbey Theater.
SPEAKER_12:Thank you both. It is an honor and a privilege to be a three-time member of this club.
SPEAKER_13:I wish we had like a velvet jacket or something to give you, Joe. I would receive that a crown, a scepter, something. Very theatrical.
SPEAKER_05:Maybe on his fifth time.
SPEAKER_13:Yeah, like so. All right, and not just a three-piece guest, a three-time and four-time winner of the Broadway World Columbus Awards. Congrats. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_05:That's right, Bruce. This is kind of breaking news, and I cannot believe our luck. We had Joe scheduled to record this podcast today, and would you believe it? The Broadway World Awards were announced this morning. And you guessed it. The Abbey Theater and Joe himself are big winners once again. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_12:Thank you very much. It was really uh, I have to tell you, it's it's it's it's it's so uh it's humbling, but it's also just really it's it's it's a testament to how the space is operating, serving the needs of Dublin residents as well as also the artistic needs of artists here in this community. And so for Theresa receive that type of recognition, it's it's it's an honor. Thank you. Well, don't sell yourself short.
SPEAKER_13:You need leadership when it comes to those awards. So congratulations, because you're a humongous part of that. So thank you. Let's start with the two biggies. First off, favorite local theater. Now, this award has been given out throughout the past three years, and our Abbey Theater of Dublin has been the recipient all three years. So, Joe, congratulations and talk about that award in particular and what it means to you.
SPEAKER_12:Well, it means a lot. Um, you know, it's something um we have uh in the past year we've been able to expand our staffing, and so we now have a a theater specialist who's working alongside me, and uh and his name is uh Daniel Rodriguez Hio. And Daniel and I were discussing this when the nominations first came out. Um we were actually the recipient of 43 nominations across all 16 categories this year. Wow. So that's amazing. Right? And so Daniel was like, well, you know, hey, look, in your mind's eye, what would be the greatest thing? And I said, I want the three Pete. I want us to be named Favorite Local Theater. Because I think that that's all encompassing, because it speaks to how not only what we are programming and producing, but how we're interacting and collaborating with the other arts organizations that we call resident arts groups. It's also uh speaking to how we are trying to elevate even, you know, the people that are trying to host events in our space. And I think that that's how the Abbey is different than some of the other organizations that were up for that nomination. We are more than just a theatrical production entity. We are truly trying to make sure that anything that in our in our space is being put in the best possible position to succeed.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, well, congratulations on that three, Pete, and the other biggie best director, and that has gone to you, Joe Bashara, four years in a row. So talk about that one.
SPEAKER_12:Well, this one was extra special. Last time I was joining you on LinkedIn, um, we were talking about American Idiot, right? And American Idiot has been a passion project for me. It was something that when I even first came here, when I walked into the Abbey when I was having my second interview, I'm like, this is where American Idiot is supposed to be. It's a perfect fit. And we had to wait to roll that out. We wanted to, you know, if you build it, they will come. And we did some things that I think were more familiar with the community with our pre-professional programs first. Makes complete sense. Crawl before you walk, before you run. Sure. Well, you know, American Idiot was quite the undertaking. It was the first time we were we were introducing a live band to be accompanying our pre-professional artists. We also brought in a graphic designer to create graphics specifically for that production. So it was a huge undertaking. And so for that piece to be recognized, it's it's incredibly gratifying. And again, also just like it's very humbling. And it's also something that I would never have even considered doing in some of my prior stops along my career. It was because it was the perfect fit, it was the right space, and we had the right technology to make that piece come to life.
SPEAKER_05:So it was so good. I mean, it honestly was just so well done. And that cast of characters that you have, I've seen several of them year after year, you know, in Rent and Greece, and then in American Idiot, and they're just really talented, and uh the show is fantastic.
SPEAKER_13:And Joe Basharo. Will join us soon again in 2026 to give the scoop uh and the slate for the next set of performances at the Abbey Theater.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, I can't wait. I haven't even heard any of the new uh shows that are coming out this year. So I'm always, always, always looking forward to that episode. All right. We are down to the medal rounds here and our top three podcasts of 2025. Can we say we're giving the bronze medal to Mother Earth? I think we can.
SPEAKER_13:We're dedicating this episode to the Earth for this month's official Earth Day recognition, which is Tuesday, April 22nd.
SPEAKER_05:And our guest is all about sustainability and efforts to recycle, reuse, and reduce. Amanda Pratt, senior VP of Communications at Rumkey. Welcome to Link Ahead. Well, thanks for having me. Happy earth day. Happy earth day. And Rumkey has nearly a century of service, which is amazing. Today you have 4,000 associates and serve customers in five states headquartered here in Ohio. In fact, you recently opened a new material recovery facility, affectionately known as a MERF, here in Columbus. And we had Andrew Booker from Swaco on Link Ahead in the fall, and he said it's the biggest Murph in North America. Is that right? Tell us more about this facility.
SPEAKER_14:It is. It's the Ramke Recycling and Resource Center. And we opened it last August. We officially opened it. And it is the largest recycling center in North America. It's also the most technologically advanced recycling center in all of North America. So it has the very best recycling technology available anywhere inside the plant, and we're using it right here in Central Ohio. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Which is great news because that means we get to recycle more.
SPEAKER_13:Absolutely, absolutely. So we know when the new MERF opened. Rumkey expanded the recycling items to with the list of plastic clamshell containers, which was super exciting. Because that was the one thing we were always like, do I get rid of this? Do I don't? So tell us more about the new facility's capabilities.
SPEAKER_14:So the new facility is the reason you can now recycle your clamshell containers. And those are those plastic containers that everyone has wanted to recycle for so long.
SPEAKER_13:I recycled one this morning. The raspberries were done for the members.
SPEAKER_14:That's what I'm talking about. As soon as you finish your berries or salad or what have you, you could go right to the recycling bin with it. And the reason that it works is because at our new recycling center, it's about 262,000 square feet. And we're able to process the recycling that you put in your recycling cart at a rate of 60 to 70 tons per hour. So what happens is though that material is collected at the curb, we're bringing our trucks full of recycling to our tipping floor, which is 30,000 square feet. That is also the largest tipping floor in the United States. And we're unloading the materials onto the floor, loading them onto a conveyor system, and then the sorting process begins. And that sorting process happens very rapidly, but it also has a lot of redundancy to it. So the first thing that happens is the material goes onto the conveyor, it goes through a series of traumals, and those traumels act as a pre-sorting mechanism. They sort the materials according to their size. So we sort according to three different sizes, and then the material travels along and it meets up with Rumkey employees who are stationed near the conveyor system, and they stand there and they remove things like clothes baskets, maybe large rigid plastics like buckets, or maybe they're removing things that shouldn't have come to us in the first place. We see things like blankets and sheets and clothing. A really big hazard for us are batteries. So electronic batteries from cell phones and computers or power tools, even those e-cigarettes have those batteries. Even greeting cards that play music have those batteries. So those are, those can't go to recycling. They actually are a they pose a big fire risk to our plant and to the people working around them. So those people stand there, they remove the things that shouldn't come to the recycling center in the first place. The material travels along and we sort the fiber materials, the cardboard, from the container materials. So we do that using a system of traumels and ballistic sorters. So the ballistic sorters are like an elliptical, and we move the fiber material into one conveyor system and the containers onto another conveyor system. And then we use about 19 infrared optical scanners that have AI in front of them to sort your materials into the separate commodities. And we wrap up using steel magnets to separate steel and aluminum and an eddy current. And then we have neatly sorted commodities that we ship to manufacturers. Most of those manufacturers are right here in the state of Ohio. Wow, my mind is blown.
SPEAKER_05:And I mean, you want to talk about an operation. And we know Rumkey is happy to have residents, school groups, anyone just come tour the facility. How do people do that? Because this is really something to see.
SPEAKER_14:Yes, absolutely. We want people to come in and see for themselves what happens when they take the time to recycle. So school groups, anyone age 10 and up is welcome to come and tour the facility. The tours do have to be pre-scheduled, so it's important to go to rumkey.com, click on that community link, and then you can schedule your tour online. And it's more than a tour of a plant. There's a little bit extra that our groups get to see why they visit.
SPEAKER_05:You know, it is partnerships with organizations like Rumkey and Swaco that really make Dublin a state and national leader in sustainability.
SPEAKER_13:Absolutely. Now the Metal Round continues with the silver and our number two podcast episode. The next three words will give you the clue and the cue, the song in your head. We're ready to rock the night away with the man, and we're ready to make that happen with our guest today. So please welcome co-founder, lead singer, and guitarist for 38 Special, Don Barnes. Welcome to Link Ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. I'm glad to be here. How's everybody doing here in Dublin?
SPEAKER_05:We are getting excited. We're ready.
SPEAKER_13:We are ready. So we talked to Kansas frontman Ronnie Platt a couple weeks ago. Uh, and first, how did this tour, you know, how did this come to be?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it was from last year, uh, our agent, William Morris Agency, they said, well, we're gonna have to do something special for the 50th anniversary. And and so they put some package tours together. So we we ended up, I think it started out like 15 cities, and then it kept adding more and more, and tickets for selling. We're like, well, now it's up to 30 cities. So uh, you know, we like we still do 100 cities a year, but that particular portion of it was is Kansas. Well, 30 30 cities, but uh, they're all a bunch of great guys, and they really come in, they throw down, they play all the great songs and everything. But great guys, great guys to hang out with.
SPEAKER_05:And yeah, if I was gonna tour the country, I think Ronnie Platt would have would be one of my top people to do that with. He was he was a lot of fun. I've prepped it.
SPEAKER_01:Ronnie is a great guy.
SPEAKER_05:I listened to it again and I just was laughing. He's so he's so funny. He's always cracking jokes and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, he's a Chicago guy.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that. So you said um you play more than a hundred cities a year, and uh, we found several great quotes from you. And here's one. You say we never wanted to be a band that had maybe gotten a little soft. We're a team, and it's an unspoken rule that we don't slack up, we stack up. What a quote. So, how do you keep stacking up year after year?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we've always looked at it as a team, you know, and a team of musicians can be uh, you know, like factions of each other, but we always we went out there as a team every night. And it's it's kind of like an old coach term. All right, guys, this is a winning, you gotta be winner winners here tonight. We don't we don't slack up, we stack up. We don't we go out there and and win 100%, you know. So we've always kind of carried that unspoken rule that that uh you know we we walk out on stage and and uh we have luckily fortunately we have a uh a catalog of hit songs that we just bang them up against each other and take them for a ride. We do we take them through all the history of the band, everybody from through the MTV years and just you know, everything. So my my sound guy, John, he he says sometimes we got to turn it up louder because the crowd is singing louder than you are, you know.
SPEAKER_05:So not a bad gig, huh?
SPEAKER_01:It's a joyous occasion, it's a it's a real celebration of that that brotherhood that we've had all these years. So people can feed off of that too. They see that we're we all we all still like each other, which is pretty rare after all. Right.
SPEAKER_13:All right, let's talk about that ride that you've been on with 38 Special. So together for 50 years, sales exceeding 20 million units, and since 1976, the band has released more than 15 albums. So, Don, what is the secret to 38 Special all these years?
SPEAKER_01:Uh we were all young boys with a dream, just like anybody else. We we had day jobs way back there in the 70s, and you know, uh Donnie Banzan, who is still my partner, he's uh he he and I own the trademark. And he uh you know, we would we played in, I've known him since he was 13. We played little teen club bands and dance bands through the teen years. We came from Jacksonville, Florida. So Jacksonville's a Navy town, so uh there's five four Navy naval bases there in Jacksonville. So everybody who came from that area, uh people think was it in the water or something, but uh Dwayne Almond, Greg Almond, Ronnie Van Zamp, all the Skinner guys, Molly Hatch, everybody at 15 years old played sailors clubs. They played all the cover songs of the day at a young age. And it was it afforded us an opportunity to learn the foundations of songwriting. We had to, you know, had to go to the practice in the garage or somebody's living room, or whatever, and learn the new songs of the day, Young Rascals and Three Dog Night, and all those old adult guys, and and uh playing for sailors. We were underage, you know. We cover songs, and they're out there, you know, 22, 23, they're drinking and fighting and everything. But kind of like the Liverpool of the South, you know, Liverpool was a port town as well, and uh that's where all the Beatles and all the uh groups came from because they had that absorption, I guess, of all the cross-section styles of music and everything. Uh so yeah, it I guess we all owe our careers to the Navy.
SPEAKER_05:Well, that's incredible. And you are the remaining original member of 38 Special. Um and making music has changed a lot over the la last half century. What's been good about the changes and what's maybe challenging about them?
SPEAKER_01:There's been some good ones. I mean, the fact that social media, you're able to reach out to more people and branch out. Uh, and just from a click of a button, you know, you get it all around the world. Uh the MTV days was a that was a real uh plus. We were in the 13th video on the first day of MTV. Wow loosely.
SPEAKER_13:And you have to give it to 38 Special. Again, not if you would have told me we'd talk to two rock stars, then no way. So they've been rocking and rolling for 50 years and still going strong. They crushed it at Kaufman City and back in July.
SPEAKER_05:Right. And they both made the top 10. So I think we have a theme here. We're going to have to have Allison make sure that we get this year's Fourth of July entertainers on the show again.
SPEAKER_13:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05:All right, we are here. The most popular episode of 2025. I'm not going to ask you if any of guesses. But these folks joined us from different countries to do an episode to preview our most popular event, one of the biggest events that we host every year. You know it as the world's largest three-day Irish festival. And the gold medal episode for our most popular episode this year goes to the Step Crew.
SPEAKER_13:We're just pumped to have three members of Step Crew joining us. They are longtime veterans of the Dublin Irish Festival and be performing every day this year. So please welcome the link ahead. John Pelotsky and Kara Butler joining us from Toronto, and Nathan Polotsky joining us from Ireland. Welcome all of you.
SPEAKER_05:Hi there. How's it going? We're doing great. There are a lot of tents outside of our building ready to welcome you. And uh, we're so excited to have you all here. Well, we're excited to be back, that is for sure.
SPEAKER_03:It's we've been looking forward to this for a long time.
SPEAKER_05:Well, great. Well, we will talk all about you guys here in a moment, but first, let's talk about us for a little bit. The Dublin Irish Festival won Best Cultural Festival in the USA Today Reader's Choice Awards and claimed the number one spot for the best suburban festival in City Scenes Best of the Bus Awards. 100,000 people or so come to this festival every year. So let's hear from you all. Why do you love coming and performing here year after year? Kara, why don't you start us off?
SPEAKER_03:Well, it's quite simple. You just said it. You were voted the best. And, you know, I have to say, Dublin was the first festival to hire us as the step crew way back in 2007. We had just put the our little big show together, and we really, you know, kind of it was like our we were just taking our first steps out there as a group. We had all three of us had performed um with various bands and obviously with the chieftains for a really long time, and we decided to put together this show, which put dancing at the front, front and center, as opposed to being, you know, dancing with a band per se. And uh yeah, Dublin hired us in 2007. We've been back five times. This is gonna be our sixth time. So not only do we have fans there, we're big fans. So it's really exciting.
SPEAKER_05:All right, John. I know you said Cara speaks for you, but if you have anything else to add, why do you love coming here to Dublin, Ohio?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, some of the best Irish musicians in the world uh all congregate that one weekend. There is, you know, sessions, tunes to be had uh all around the festival, even in the hotel. Uh it's a big, you know, reunion of tons of friends, um, whether they be spectators or or uh performers in the festival themselves, uh, a chance to see all our our I won't say old friends, but um all our longtime friends. Yes, uh, and we're all you know, we all tend to be on tour all the time. So uh we don't get to meet up um uh all the time. So it's it's such a wonderful weekend and just the vibe of the festival itself. It's very organic yet very professional. Somehow they manage to bring both of those things together. Um, just the the grass, the nature of it versus like a concrete uh uh you know, grounds or something like that is just so lovely. And uh, you know, the committee, they make it so very, very easy to be a performer there.
SPEAKER_05:Wow, I'm glad we're recording this. That was a great answer. Professional and organic. That was that was a great ad for us. All right, and all the way from Ireland. Nathan, how about you?
SPEAKER_06:Uh yeah, well, I was just going to add uh just the organization of it all. It's all um very well taken care of. The artists are taken care of, the crowd is taken care of. It's very well done, very uh professional, and uh everything goes very smoothly. So uh looking forward to doing it again.
SPEAKER_05:What a year, what a year, what a year. And you mentioned this at the top of the show. Uh we had a really great year. We had more downloads uh in 2025, in fact, thousands more downloads in 2025, and 2024 wasn't too shabby either. So so what a great year, and we can't thank you enough for listening. You're the reason we do the show. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know who you want to hear from, what topics you want us to discuss in 2026. Looking forward to another great year, Bruce.
SPEAKER_13:Absolutely, Lindsay, and thank you for taking the time to connect with your city. Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many personalities and experiences that make Dublin a thriving place to live, work, and grow.