Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 345 Today's Peep Pivots From Fun, Sunny Small Talk to Medevac Crashes, A Rogue Buck Garden Raid, Band Practice Audio Samples and Beware of a Redistricting Bad Ballot Design that Shows Your Vote

• Pat Walsh

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Plans are great—until real life knocks on the studio door. Today’s show starts with sun over the Northern California foothills and takes a sharp, necessary turn when a medevac helicopter crashes onto Highway 50. We drop the light banter and shift into service mode: clear updates, listener calls with firsthand details, and a steady tone while neighbors lift part of the aircraft to free a pinned woman. That on‑air pivot is the heart of live radio—informing fast, staying human, and trusting the community to help fill in what officials can’t yet confirm.

When the dust settles, we lean back into the everyday stories that keep us connected. A weeklong deer guest turns garden villain, stripping bark and toppling a beloved palm. We talk humane deterrence that actually works—hello, motion‑activated sprinkler—and the comic humility of forgetting it’s armed. Creativity gets its turn as we share band‑room moments: a tight take on UFO’s Rock Bottom, the shaky courage of posting a vocal clip, and the surprising discipline behind a “simple” groove. I also pick up the harmonica and relearn the basics—draw, don’t just blow—chasing that first clean train‑whistle bend.

Civic trust threads through the back half, thanks to a listener who discovers a ballot envelope window that appears to reveal his vote choice. It’s a small design detail with big implications for confidence in elections. We widen the lens to California politics, weighing real‑world outcomes against online theatrics on addiction, homelessness, and public order. And to close, we cue a pristine 45 of Neil Diamond’s Cherry Cherry, tracing the session players, producers, and the magic of a perfect three‑chord song that still jumps from the speakers.

If this mix of breaking news, real life, and music resonated, tap follow, share with a friend who loves radio that shows up when it counts, and leave a quick review—what part kept you listening?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, here we are, Pats Peeps, Pats Peeps. Podcast number three hundred and forty-five, three forty-five. Twenty podcasts away from literally saying. We've done one year solid of podcasts. Even though we've been doing this for two years. I don't work weekends and holidays, so sorry about that. How are you? Hey, happy Tuesday to you. And as I look out my studio window into the beautiful foothills of Northern California today, it is a sunny day. I don't know. We're probably in the 80s again. I notice we're going to be in the 80s for a little bit. And then it looks like Monday through next week, maybe we're going to have some rain and some cooler weather. Wherever you are, whatever you happen to be doing on this Tuesday, thank you so much for tuning in. Greatly appreciate you. My name is Pat. I am the host of the Pat Wall Show. As heard on KFPK Radio, Monday through Friday, 7 to 10 p.m. KFPK 93.1 FM and 15.30 a.m. If you were listening to the podcast yesterday, or actually last night, is when I posted it. Or if you listen to my show last night, you know, again, we had best laid plans. We had all of these stories, you know, we, you know, literally were talking on the podcast yesterday about stuff we couldn't get to. Well, then if you listen to the podcast last night, we still couldn't get to it. So there. Couldn't get to it. What happened was, and I think it was a great demonstration of the power of radio, the flexibility of radio, the flexibility of my radio show, quite frankly. And of KFPK, and also the good work of the team there at KFPK, because as we talked about, you know, here we are at 7.10 into the show. And we were talking about a number of things. High school reunions. I was asking everyone because I know a lot of people are either deciding whether they're going to go or not go to their high school reunion. So I was throwing that out there to my listeners. And then uh and then the next thing you know, uh, I think it was Robert called from Chico, and he brought up the fact that Rite Aid had closed all of its stores yesterday. And so we got off on the tangent of Thrifty Ice Cream, which of course was sold at Rite Aid. But anyhow, so we're starting the show, and I the phones are flooded with fun calls. And right about that time, as we discussed again on the show, uh the podcast yesterday, last night, then we get news of this helicopter crash. And that is where radio again shifts gears. I mean, you can go from having this fun show planned to then being serious and being a lifeline, or at least be in a connection to those who are experiencing what is surrounding this helicopter crash. I mean, it's gotta be pretty traumatic to see something like that. You know, and then yeah, people that that are stuck in traffic, but the but the real concern, of course, was the was the crew of this Medevac helicopter who had just saved lives. As we talked about on the show and last night, uh, we don't have to go deep into that again, but yeah, of course, they save lives. So, but here we are. We shift gears. A lot of you called in last night, gave us very relevant information, and I greatly appreciate that. Made the national news actually, that medical helicopter crashing onto Highway 50. And then there was a woman pinned underneath, rescued with the help of the motorists, lifting the uh part of that aircraft off of the ground, but it landed upside down last night, leaving debris scattered across State Route 50. So uh we will be back at it tonight, and I'm sure that uh as as it warrants KFBK, the radio station I work for, will be given they of course they will be giving you updates all day. That's the main story, obviously. So KFBK will keep you updated on that all day, and uh, of course, through our show, if we learn anything, 7 to 10 p.m. You know, on another note, uh I am gonna go off for my out my walk today. I'm becoming addicted to that. But I woke up this morning, I went out in my front yard. I read where it's very important for people when you wake up in the morning to walk out and get a little bit of sunlight. They say that people who do that live longer. And I read that, I actually read that. I I don't know if it's true, but I don't know. And you're looking for any advantage, right? So I get up in the morning and I love to walk outside, either onto my back deck or out in my garden out on my front porch. And being that it's a beautiful morning, I went out there and in my garden, I noticed I have this beautiful palm growing, given to me by Darlene with a Y, such a sweet friend she is, and she gave this to me a couple of years ago, and this thing was becoming beautiful, really prominent in my garden. I couldn't believe how beautiful. And I wake up this morning, the thing is completely destroyed. Every single palm leaf on this thing is now on the ground. Something got into my garden and not only took every palm leaf off to the ground, but then chewed the top of the plant and then rubbed all the bark. And then I noticed my my tree in my front yard. This animal did the same thing, well, not quite the same thing, but you could see where it rubbed up against the bark and rubbed all the bark off of my tree, my beautiful tree that I planted four years ago. And now the tree is kind of bent over slightly. I'm just so disappointed. And then I realized what it was. I'm trying to figure out what could have possibly done this. I know what it was. I think I know what it was. I'm not sure, but I have the sneaking suspicion. For the last week, I come home at night and there was a huge buck, big antlers, sleeping on my property. As soon as I pull up after work, gets up, looks at me, and then Mosey's off of the property into the night. Next night he's there again. I think that he came up there, wanted to rub his antlers or whatever on uh on something, and found those two trees, and now they are both devastated, gone. Well, the one is my my other tree. Hopefully, it won't be too damaged, but it is damaged, and I don't know how that's going to affect it. But geez. So then, and I used to have this out there, and then I forgot to put it back up, unfortunately. Uh I have a yard enforcer sprinkler. This thing is so cool. So it's motion detector, a sprinkler. I don't know if you've heard of this, and it's a way to prevent deer and other critters from coming into your property and destroying things without hurting them. It is a motion detector sprinkler. And when they come up and that thing goes up, they don't like that, they're gone. And if it happens enough, they'll go, they'll be leery about coming up to that property again because they know you know they remember what happened before. But I didn't have that up. Now I went out and installed that bad boy. And of course, right away it sprayed me right in the face. Because that's what it did. If you forget and you're walking up the pathway by the garden, all of a sudden you're you know, you're totally forgetting and you know, carrying groceries or coming home from work late at night, and you get to the walk pathway, the stone pathway, and it just starts spraying you in the face. No, God, stop! But I put it back up. I'm sure I'll forget about it as I go out to work and come back tonight and get sprayed in the face again. But you gotta do what you gotta do. I also wanted to mention uh a little something about my band practice. We have I'm in a band, I'm the singer in a band. I posted something the other day. I was very uh I really debated whether to post that. I don't like posting stuff like that for some reason. I I don't like listening to myself. I don't I don't like hearing myself sing or anything. I just I mean a lot of people are like that. They don't like after I listen to it, then I'm not so bad. But initially, to listen to it, uh, I don't want to hear myself. And then I think, gosh, you know, that's not so bad. I mean, there must be something to it. Uh um I have a show, I have a podcast, and I'm singing. So, anyhow, once I got past that, I um I posted just a little snippet of our band practice. We have band practice every Saturday night. Before you ask us what the what is the name of the band, we're working on it right now. We should have that nailed down here pretty soon, and then I'll let you know. So I thought, you know, and then my brother, what this is cool. My brother is a drummer, but we have a drummer, so Steve is an excellent percussionist as well. So I thought I'd share just uh just a wee bit of the band practice, beginning with my brother. This is from this past Saturday night. Uh, this is Steve playing percussion, cowbell, tambourine, and I don't know what he's playing with his foot there. I mean, it's amazing you do three things at once. As uh you'll hear Steve and Scott on guitar, you will hear Brian on keyboards, Thomas on bass, and Herb on drums, Steve on percussion. This is we're doing some UFO rock bottom. We're huge UFO fans, we're doing UFO rock bottom in this clip. Our band doing UFO Rock Bottom. I'll give you a little uh I hesitate to do it, but I'll give you a bit of my singing as well. In this particular case, we are playing Stone Temple Pilots, a song called Cracker Man. All right, here we go. Pat's peeps. Three hundred and forty-five. Be fun to finally get out and go play somewhere, you know. Really, really looking forward to that. Uh I'm I'm also trying to learn harmonica. Is that is that as if I don't have enough things enough things going on that I'm trying to do, but I'm gonna try the harmonica here. But I can't play it. All I'm doing is messing around with it. I've got this beautiful set of harmonicas. And, you know, I was learning from Mick Martin before his passing recently, a legend of Sacramento, legendary blues guy. And he taught me one thing, you know, all these years I thought that, you know, you're supposed to blow into a harmonica. He says, No, you're supposed to draw. You're supposed to draw. It's not inhale, exhale, it's blow and draw or something like that. Anyhow. And then he told me that D is a good one to practice in. I I don't know how to play it, but I do pick it up. And I'm trying, I'm trying to practice. You know what I taught myself how to do is like this train whistle sound. Here we go. You know, that's I don't know. I love it. Again, I I don't know that I'm making any music. I don't know that I'm making a song, but I like just trying. I just try. Oh well. Something like that. I'm just learning. I'm having fun doing it. You know, we always love providing listener content here on Pat's Peeps. And here on Pat's Peeps number 345, we will do just that. Of course, we have the ridiculous redistricting effort going on by Gavin Newsom. Uh, very embarrassing, by the way. This guy is embarrassing. And Elijah, who was one of our listeners, shared this with us. And either I was gonna share it on my show last night or maybe I shared it yesterday. I can't recall now because I was so into sharing this, but I don't remember if I did because of, again, what went, you know, the change in the uh in the radio show last night. But either way, it can't hurt to play it again. So Elijah was gonna mail in his ballot. He was gonna mail in a big fat no to the redistricting in California when suddenly he saw a little window in the envelope, which could reveal and did reveal exactly whether or not he was voting for the measure or not. Here's from Elijah on Patch 345.

SPEAKER_01:

Look at these polls. Okay. Look how they align almost perfectly with my vote. I wonder if somebody's gonna throw my ballot, if they gonna see that it's a no on 50? It's it's very puzzling. And it makes me question, does my vote count here in this liberal California? Is somebody gonna throw my ballot away? Now look, I'm gonna stuff it in the envelope. Right? Look at that. Look at that. Through that hole. Somebody could read what I voted. Yes or no? They can even read the ballot through this hole. So pray for California. Pray for wisdom. I mean, they could have placed that hole anywhere else. They could have hole punched it somewhere on the corner or whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

They don't even need a camera. Watch out for this. Stick a probe in here.

SPEAKER_00:

Make sure to watch out for this.

SPEAKER_01:

A camera that you buy from Harbor Frey or something to read the ballot. Make your vote count. They can easily with naked eye see what I voted.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

And throw this ballot away. So I would say hand deliver.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, hand deliver. Absolutely. Thank you, Elijah. Speaking of not being able to trust the California government, Gavin Newsom is facing mounting public criticism from a fellow elected Democrat in his own state. According to Politico, Democratic San Jose Mayor Matt Mahon has repeatedly rebuked Newsom this year, including lambasing the governor over trolling Republicans online and his approach to California's drug addiction issues and the homelessness crisis. The Democratic mayor's public critiques of Newsom have greatly vexed some of the governor's advisors. But Mahon did write August 30th on a post on X that the way we win the fight for a better California is by solving problems in the real world, not by stopping President Donald Trump's level, not to stooping, I should say, to President Donald Trump's level online. And moreover, Mahann wrote August 30th, op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, that instead, there's a quote, instead of modeling themselves after a governor focused on these important issues, our politicians are instead watching our governor, Newsom, succeed by making a ton of noise online, even sometimes that is at the expense of our state's reputation. It is not, I would argue, a winning strategy for a presidential campaign. Most people are not buying into this. Believe me, they're not. And certainly the rest of America is not going to buy into it. Okay, so that's that's wishful thinking. You know, today I plucked a record, a couple of records actually on my rare 45 shelves. So this song is recorded in February through March of 1966. Uh, it was originally intended just as a demo. It was arranged by Artie Butler. It was produced by Jeff Berry and Ellie Greenwich. It was issued on a 45 single in 1966, where Greenwich came up with a chorus and can be heard as the prominent background voice accompanied by Jeff Berry. The song was inspired by an early relationship with a significant older woman. This one actually, this is uh not 1966. This is on MCA Records, a white label, promotion copy, not for sale, absolutely mint condition. It has a radio station stamp on it, which it appears to say it looks like it's kind of March 16th, 1972. Same song on both sides. One side is stereo, one side is mono. Uh session guitarist Al Gorgoni, who uh later played on The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. He played on Brown Eyed La Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. He contributed to this song. And later, Rolling Stone labeled this song as one of the greatest three chord songs of all time. That's pretty cool. Billboard described the single as exciting production featuring bass piano backing, choral support of this artist's vocal work. Cashbox saying that it's a lively, pulsating chorus-backed romancer with an infectious repeating riff that is a surefire blockbuster. And then Record World called it a groovy, called it groovy, saying that nifty piano and guitar backing will get teeny boppers dancing. It was this artist's first big hit, and this artist had a lot of hits. Went to number six on both the Billboard and the Hot 100 chart in October 1966. In 73, a live recording of this song was issued on a 45 single for this artist's live album. You'll get it here. Hot August Night, 1972. Live version went to number 24 on the cash box chart, number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. So without further ado, let's put it on. I like this song, Neil Diamond, Cherry Cherry. Pat's Peeps, 345 on a beautiful sunny Tuesday.

SPEAKER_03:

All the girls outside here.

SPEAKER_02:

We got the web to move the chair. We got the work to move back.

SPEAKER_00:

By the way, again, I gotta say it. I don't own the rights to the music, blah blah blah. And there's just something about Neil Diamond. I thank you, my friends, for listening to the Pat's Peeps today on this beautiful Tuesday. Pat's Peeps 345. Please check out PatSPeeps.com. We also have merchandise there. You're gonna love it. I think you're gonna love it. Sam's Hop Brow, Tower Records, Pat's Peeps merchandise, t-shirts, polos, hats, the Pat Wall Show Classic with the lamp. See you on the radio.

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Pat walsh

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