Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 377 Today's Peep Brings Sunshine, Music, and Memories of Mark the "Voice Guy" from Studio Windows to "Spill The Wine": NFL Surprises and a Lost Cover Tune

• Pat Walsh

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Sunlight in the foothills, a rare record on the desk, and a voice that still echoes through our studio—this one brings together sport, memory, and music in a way that feels both tender and alive. I’m off the air until January 5, but the stories didn’t take a vacation, and neither did the community that keeps this show beating.

We start with the shockwaves rolling through the NFC West: the Rams slipping from top-seed contention, the 49ers lighting up the scoreboard despite turnovers, and Bears fans daring to feel proud again. Football is more than standings; it’s a mirror for resilience, timing, and how quickly fortunes can turn. From there, we lean into something more personal—the life and legacy of Mark “The Voice Guy,” a friend who turned our commercial breaks into moments listeners waited for. His liners were quick, clever, and oddly comforting: a tiny lift after a long day. When cancer closed in, the studio became his escape. I drove him in, dropped the Mustang top, and we cranked music because joy is a medicine you take with both hands.

Community came through at American River Flooring, where we rallied for Mark and for Kendall, our longtime technical producer who faced leukemia and fought her way back. The fundraiser was messy, loud, and beautiful—exactly how real help looks. Mark turned even the hiccups into jokes, the way radio pros do, and reminded us that humor and heart can share the same mic. To honor that spirit, I dug into my rare 45s and landed on the Isley Brothers’ Spill the Wine, a cover that proves a great song can be reborn without losing its soul. The Isleys’ run of fearless covers—Ohio, Fire and Rain, Lay Lady Lay, Love the One You’re With—felt like the perfect soundtrack for memory and momentum.

If you’ve ever needed a voice to get you through a tough night or a song to make the room feel warmer, you’ll feel right at home here. Join me for football sparks, a friend remembered, and a groove that still turns the page. If you enjoyed this, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review—then tell me your favorite cover song and why it still moves you.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we are bad. I am back, yeah. Yeah. Pat's Peeps. How are you?

SPEAKER_02:

Pat's Peeps Podcast, that is, on December 29th, 2025. Pat's Peeps 377. And as I gazed out of my studio window into the beautiful foothills of Northern California today, we're back into that situation where it is delightfully sunny and beautiful. Up in my neck of the woods. I know the uh down there in the valley, the fog's got them all bogged in again. So, well, there we go again with that. But I'm enjoying the sunshine. Wherever you are, I hope you are enjoying your day. And I appreciate you listening as always to my podcast. Uh, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Pat Walsh. I'm also the host of the Pat Walsh Radio Show, heard on KFPK Radio in Sacramento. And it's 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 93.1 FM, 15.30 a.m. Streaming, of course, everywhere on your streaming platforms. And uh man, I'll tell you what, again, big thank you to those of you who have been listening uh during vacation. I'm on vacation right now. I'm sure many of you have had a bit of a respite from work as well. Uh, but I'm off through the 5th, and I look forward to getting back to my show. But between now and then, we are gonna continue to podcast. Um, I'll start off by saying it's um it's a it's gonna be a big year for the podcast because and for the Pat's Peeps business as a whole. I mentioned that last time. Uh it's just a little tease, but big things are happening, and uh we'll begin doing that here at the beginning of 2026. Heck, it's almost a new year. A couple of days to go, I cannot believe it. Can you believe it's been we're coming up on 26? That that'll be six years ago since that year. You know, that year. 2020. Anyhow, I don't want to get into that, but it it's a m if you really think about it, 2020. We all remember what was going on, and now it's gonna be now we're coming up on six years ago. Dang! Time flies, doesn't it? Maybe it's just me. I got a good record today. I pulled out I actually pulled like four excellent records off my rare record collection shelf today. One, I had to make a decision, so I'm gonna play one of those for you. This band, by the way, really, man, they did some, they had their own hits, but you know, they they had some great cover songs that they did, covering other people's work back in the day, so we'll get to that. Man, they the NFL season, just real quickly, it's getting exciting, particularly the NFC West, where I was locked, I mean, it was a lock, the Rams. I thought everyone thought the Rams would get the number one seed in the uh NFC. Now, apparently that can't happen. That is just a weird twist of fate. Last night the Bears and the Niners played. It was an incredible game. Niners won. Congratulations to the Niners fans. You know, they can still get the number one seed. It's gonna be between them and Seattle. I can't believe it. You know what? Congratulations to the Bears. They looked really good last night. Coming off of a, they've just been a miserable team for years. My brother Steve's got to be happy. And congratulations to the 49ers fans because you know what? You've had a a year of injuries, just like, you know, Arizona is another team. They're not as talented, but you know, they had a lot of, I think they had the most injuries, but uh, you know, the Niners were up there on the list. So either way, it's it's exciting. I still believe in my team. Of course, I of course I do. But uh, yeah. So really interesting back and forth game last night between San Francisco and Chicago. And the 49ers, who scored what? What did they score last week? 48 last night, 42. So think about that. It's pretty good. Purdy had a couple of picks, but he also had five touchdowns in that game. So you know, today, as I was thinking back, you know, over the holidays, you think about people that aren't with us anymore. And boy, do I have a list. Man, I hate that, but I do have a list uh, you know, which is unfortunate of friends and just people that I really loved and cared about who, in the last few years, we we've lost them. And I got to thinking about a guy, as I mentioned, you know, my radio show, a guy who was a big part of my radio show almost from its inception. He joined the show not that long after I really got going on my talk show. Uh and that is Mark the Voice Guy. For those of you who listen to my radio show, you I'm sure many of you remember Mark the Voice Guy. Mark the Voice Guy would come up with wonderful liners for my show. Like, you know, we'd be playing music on the show. You come back from a commercial break, and Mark would add these liners for the show. Let me see if I can try to give you one here. Give me uh uh just an example. So we come back from a commercial on the Pat Walsh show, and you might hear this for example. This portion of the Pat Walsh Show brought to you by Seaweed. Now fish can smoke their cares away. It's Pat Walsh, KFBK, news radio. You know, goofy stuff like that. I loved this portion of the Pat Walsh show brought to you by Corduroy Pellos, making headlines since 1971. You know, and we had worked together for years prior to me getting a show. I mean, but this was like uh almost a couple of decades prior to that. We hadn't seen each other. And I get a show and he calls me. We had worked at KSTE Radio in Rancho Cordova, Sacramento. And it's not like we were really close friends back then. This would have been in the oh, that would have been oh 93, 4, 93 into 94. And yeah, we weren't hanging out, we weren't best buddies or nothing back then. So you fast forward many years, so going on into 20 uh 2013, I got my own show. And Mark got a hold of me. His name is Mark McKee. Say hello to his wife, his widow, the lovely Denise, his daughter Grace, his mother Carolyn, his sisters, his brother. I got to know the family very well. Because years later, when I got my own show, so that would have been, what, 20 years later? He gets a hold of me and says, Pat, I'm so proud of you. I couldn't believe I heard from him. You got your own show. That's what you always wanted. You used to always talk about that. He says, Do you he asked, Do you mind if I come in sometime and just kind of watch you do your thing? I said, sure, come on in. So he comes into the studio. I talk to him for a little bit. This is probably in the beginning of, I don't know, year one of my radio show. And we're having a conversation. He was always very creative. And he says, I've come up with some like liners for your show. I go, liners? So he gave me a couple of examples of these liners that he'd written, which he ended up writing hundreds of these liners. And I said, Well, you know, why don't you uh let me hear a few of them? He does him. I started laughing. I go, Okay, here's what we're gonna do. When we come back from the commercial break, I want you to say one of those liners, and then I want you to say, like, this portion of the Pat Wall show, like you've got it written out, and then do the you know the the ID, which is the station ID. New KFPK, News Radio, News Radio, KFP K at the time. He's like, all right. And so with that in mind, we come back from a commercial break and the music comes on. Mark says, Lisp portion of the Pat Walsh show brought to you by Vizine. We know why your eyes are really red. It's Pat Walsh, KFBK News Radio.

SPEAKER_04:

Well don't I give you tonight? Ha ha! I got to feel the sun.

SPEAKER_02:

And so he came up with all these great liners. And I got to thinking about him, and I missed him. From that point on, he was a regular on my radio show, and we became great friends. And as I'm going back in time, my little my little Monday time machine here on the 29th of December, 2025. I'm looking back to a s to tw October of 2019. October 26th, 2019, when we had a big benefit and a big showing for one of my sponsors, one of my endorsements on radio, American River Flooring. They have transformed my home, done all this incredible work, paint floors, window coverings, and on and on and on. And so we went there, we went there, we had a benefit for Mark the Voice Guy. I have these, it was hard for me to look at these for many for a long time. Because I just missed him. So I thought today, if you are a listener to my show and you remember those days, or maybe you don't remember Mark the Voice Guy, I thought I would share just some of these random videos I have of Mark. I started to listen to one, I got just so far into this video, and I thought, you know what? Maybe I'll save this for my podcast. So here we are in the parking lot on a beautiful sunny day in the summer. I've got my hot rod there. Mark McKee, Mark the Voice Guy standing in front of my 54-40 truck F-100. And he's being asked about working with the show and a lot more. So let's take a listen. I have not listened to these, so let's listen together on Pat's Peeps 377.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh worked with Pat about 25 years ago. We've met friends ever since. And he got his talk show at KFBK 93.1. Um never imagined that putt us here in front of uh American Florida doing a free take because of the really loud truck.

SPEAKER_02:

He had a great sense of humor right in the middle of that. Jensen's talking to him, Jensen Rader. And he's answering the question. He goes, Never did I expect you to have to take his do a second take because of the really loud truck here in front of American River Flooring. So he was perfect for radio because he had that quick sense of humor.

SPEAKER_00:

So how have you um been involved with the Pat Walsh show since you started? What's your experience been like?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh it's a blast. I look forward to going in there uh every night. And it's such an escape right now from cancer. All I do basically is I have uh running around in my head. You've got to stay for cancer, you've got to stage for cancer. Try to think about other things and have a positive attitude. Um get bigger and get better, of course I'm trying to get better, but uh going in and uh work and uh speed for it's it's a good skate uh can be in a fight and uh Kenfall certainly is uh having her battle with Kabia now and uh so we're we're really praying for her as well. Can't wait to get the bands back together again.

SPEAKER_02:

There's Mark the voice guy uh talking also about excuse me, about Kendall, Toby, Kendall Tobay, who was my technical producer for many, many years with the Pat Wall show, who I also miss dearly. Love both of these folks very much. Very dear friends. I got to select both of them to be a part of my show. I see I I I still hear about them all the time to this day. It's coming up on a few years with Mark now. Kendall had leukemia, as Mark mentioned there, and Kendall, thank the Lord, is better now. She's okay. Mark is, of course, gone. You know, and when he talks about coming into work and it really took his mind off of things, I mean, I can only imagine. You've got a daughter, you've got a wife, you have your life, you have your your your family, and you have to wake up every day, I would imagine. You have to wake up every day thinking about this. It would occur to you, oh God, I'm going through this dreadful disease. It it seems remarkable that there would be anything to take your mind off of that. So I made sure, because Mark, of course, could not drive for for a long time there, that I would pick him up, drive him to work, we'd have a great conversation. I'd loved putting a top down in the GT, my Mustang, we'd just talk, we'd talk about music, we'd crank up the music, he'd even though he was sick, we would laugh, we would I don't know. It I could tell that it was helping to take his mind off it, although, albeit just for a brief moment or brief moments, it gave him something to look forward to. And as his widow Denise has told me before, boy, I didn't think he was gonna make it in tonight. You know, he didn't have enough strength or anything, but as soon as we mentioned, hey, you're gonna go in the show, was able to do the show and do it do his part and always be good at it. All right, let's listen to some more. Now, again, I don't know what he's gonna talk about here. Same event.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, hi, I'm Mark the Voice Guy here at American River Flooring and Fair Oaks at the intersection of Kenneth and Madison Avenue. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate American River Flooring for holding the fundraiser today for myself and for uh Kendall, uh, who of course was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Um, they had gotten word here at American River Flooring that Pat was going to sell his hot rod uh in order to help Kendall and myself out. And despite us trying to talk him out of it, he's decided to go ahead and sell it. And uh he's really got the heart of a lion and uh lifetime ban from the zoo. Uh uh thanks. Working with Pat has been so encouraging and uplifting uh throughout the last five and a half years on his show. It started out with me just coming in and s observing, kind of watching what was going on, and then one night I tried a liner. Uh that was kind of the catalyst for Mark the Voice Guy, and uh so I'm able to still go into the show a couple nights a week and uh really enjoy it. It's a it's a good escape from what's going on. Um Kendall right now is facing her own battle, and we certainly would wish her the best, and uh we miss her. We uh we didn't didn't realize the chemistry that we really all had until uh one of us was missing, and then two of us was missing, so wow. That's for sure. I was off work with an injury and uh asked Pat if I could come in one night just to watch the show and went in and um started going in more frequently and uh started seeing the liners coming back in from the commercials and Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02:

So there you go. Rest in peace, my friend. Love you very much, miss you very much. Kendall, thank thank God, like I said, that you are that you're doing better and that you're healthy. And I always hear about both of my friends in regards to my show. Uh again, the Pat Wall Show, KAPK News Radio 93.1 FM, 1530 a.m. I will be off until the 5th, and then I'll be not long after that, breaking some really good news about my podcast. Please support local business. Please know. I've got merchandise at patspeeps.com, along with my podcast, is there as well. Also, exclusive deals and more and more businesses signing up all the time at Pat's Peeps. So, like I say, I pulled four, inadvertently got four instead of one record out of my off of my rare 45 collection shelf today. And I thought, well, which one am I gonna go with? They're all very good. I'm gonna do this one today. Because I already teased it, that this band is really good cover songs, even though they do they did their own great songs, you know, their own material, they also do great covers of songs. For instance, Love the One You're With, Steven Stills. They do a great cover of that. There's a few of them. But I thought I would uh play this one today from this from this artist. It's the ninth album released by this group on their T neck imprint, September 25th, 1971. And after years of having other acts covering their most famed material. Neil Young. And among the songs that they covered was this song I'm gonna play for you today. They also did Ohio. They covered Ohio by Neil Young. They did Machine Gun from Jimi Hendrix. They covered Fire and Rain by James Taylor. They did Lay Lady Leigh from uh of course from Bob Dylan. And their perseverance paid off when the covers of uh Love the When You With and Lay Lady Leigh and this song became short and the album I love the sound of the dog. Every time we cut off the dog bark, the dog shut the dog. And he was on a twenty-three CD box set. RCA Victor and T-Nack album masters 1959 to 1983. Without further ado, you heard Eric Burden and Ward do the song Spill the Wine. The Isley Brothers do a very cool version of it.

SPEAKER_05:

Pat's Peeps 377 was a baby. When I thought I'd lay myself down to rest In a big field of charges, I laid it there in the sun and I felt it caressing my face. As I fell asleep, I dreamed that I was in a Hollywood movie And that I was the star of the movie This really blew my mind But there I was for the house I was taken to the place Taken to the ray The hole of the mountain key of the mountain keys the high of the mountain top naked to the world Oh wow so different in front of me Oh yeah was it every kind There was long one tall one sharp one is brown ones ones round one big one of the middle Chamberlain She whisper in my ear something Ronald Isley leading backing vocals Oh Kelly Isley Jr.

SPEAKER_02:

Rudolph Isley backing vocals Ernie Isley lead guitar rhythm guitar drums Marvin Isley on the bass Chris Jasper on the piano Am I going crazy Jester Wooded on the lead and rhythm just the truth Bill Withers on a lead I know I'm lying and I feel a breath somewhere So it's all in my head and then I heard Milton Wesley on that organ John Mosley on the flute George Morelon on drums and percussion Gary Jones on the Tungas Buck Clark on the Tungas She returns Thank you for listening There's Mosley on that flute a wine Hope you enjoy your your Monday just before she drink it I hope I do too Rams are on later come on that way that way Thanks for listening See on the radio Feel that way spill spill that way Come on and take that spirit

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