WQSB Morning Show with Barry and Holli
Broadcasting to you from Northeast Alabama! Your Hosts are Barry Galloway and Holli Mostella. From Alabama's Country Giant, WQSB.
WQSB Morning Show with Barry and Holli
Episode 216 ST JUDE RECAP
Hey, this is Barry. With the Barry and Holly Morning Show on WQSB. You can get behind-the-scenes chat, exclusive giveaways and more content from us.
Speaker 2:Hey, if you love the podcast, join us live every morning from 6 to 9 on the WQSB Facebook page.
Speaker 1:Oh, this sounds, Sounds crazy, but something told me to turn on the radio.
Speaker 4:It's time to rise and shine and get your morning started with Alabama's award-winning morning show. Good morning, good morning, good morning. It's a tradition. Let's take the time today to really get to know each other, broadcasting live from high atop Alabama's beautiful Sand Mountain. Now here you go. Can you say we want your freedom. Please welcome your hosts, barry. He's a crazy man. I can't eat, I can't sleep. All I can see is that giant red sun in the shape of a chicken and Holly.
Speaker 1:It's not fair that people are seated first come, first served. It should be based on who's hungriest.
Speaker 3:Who can drop you like a bag of dirt? I?
Speaker 2:wonder only who can't lose when it's raining? Why are the pretty ones always insane?
Speaker 3:Players only love you when they're playing. I've got to tell you I have no idea where this is going.
Speaker 2:Say when they will come and they will go WQSP.
Speaker 1:Good morning, it's 6 to 10. They weren't done. I'm sorry I was. I'm still working on two hours sleep.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I got two hours.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll be honest, Honestly, it was a normal night. I don't sleep much anyway, and you don't sleep much anyway, and we got home later than usual. I got home and you and your mom got home. I tossed and turned this. What's?
Speaker 2:the rooms get darker I know I was trying to. I was trying to like clear my mind, but it was such a big day with so many stories I couldn't I think oh, but then this happened and oh, but then this happened. And then I was so proud. Mom came and worked and that meant so much to me Because her whole purpose in life is to help other people and she's a retired nurse and retirement is really hard for her.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine doing it, because all that, we stay active and she was active.
Speaker 2:She's active. She worked circles around me.
Speaker 1:She had a busy day and I was so glad she was here, but I've got to get to the total real quick. If you didn't get a chance to tune in last night, it's the Country Cares for St Jude Kids Radio. What an amazing day and many people were talking leading up to it, the month leading up to it, that you know the economy is tough and times are tough and yeah, you're correct, they are. Don't be surprised if it's maybe not as good. The whole point is not to break records. We want to make more than the year before because we know how much Sage U needs this money. That's why we do our best to beat every year, but it's not. The goal is to break records. But actually we broke a record last night.
Speaker 2:We did, we did. That's amazing. We broke many records yes we did wagons. We broke our total go ahead let me find the crowd here.
Speaker 1:Uh, here we go, but go ahead and give them the total well, you gotta give me the drum roll let me find the drummer. The drummer's wore out, but it is $223,156.
Speaker 2:Wow $223,156.
Speaker 1:I never dreamed of it, because some people were listening. You got about lunchtime and we were still 20.
Speaker 2:Hold on. At 8 o'clock we were at $8,000. Okay, at 2 o'clock we were at $32,000. At 6 o'clock we were at 8,000. Okay, at 2 o'clock we were at 32,000. At 6 o'clock we were at 103,000. At 8 o'clock we were about 180,000.
Speaker 1:So we looked at moments like, okay, we probably won't hit last year's total, but that's okay. Every single dollar is going to help fight cancer and that's okay. Everybody's trying, everybody's helping. And it's just like part of the reason why the totals took so long to get to where they were. There was so much money coming in, people were donating and their money counters took a while to catch up and it took a while to get all that money counted oh, our computer lagged too yeah, because they think it was smoking I think it probably was vaping or something yeah, um, it really was lagging like because people were donating so quickly in that last couple hours and getting it in and 747 red wagons and our goal was we talked about this about a month ago
Speaker 1:last year we had right around 300 last year. We're guessing, we didn't have an official, but that's what saying. You guessed how many Red Wagons were bought last year, which is great. Yeah. When you consider there's about I figured how many new patients a year. I have to go back and find the number, but with the amount we collected yesterday of money, pretty much every new patient for the next year is going to have a little red wagon.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it's around 800 new patients a year and I had a lot of messages last night on what is the red wagon, what's the significance of it, what does it mean?
Speaker 1:well explain it to them because, uh, you've been the same jude, and if you go into the hospital, it's unique that most hospitals, if a child is there or an adult, you go into a wheelchair to go have tests done or have surgery. Down the hall you go in a wheelchair or they put you in your bed and just wheel you in your bed, which is what they do. That's fine, yeah, but they wanted those kids at St Jude. We were talking to some of the doctor, dr Justice, the dentist, Dr Ticola.
Speaker 1:Because he had been there and he noticed that the the red wagons and he said, yeah, that's the thing, because his nephew is a patient there and says that is the thing and that's why he came in and purchased 10 red wagons. But the kids at saint jude, most of the time, if they fill up to it, they get to ride in a little red wagon to go do uh, chemo or do anything. Sometimes, if they're, you know, not feeling well, they get to ride in a little red wagon to go do chemo or do anything. Sometimes, if they're not feeling well, they will put them in and leave them in their bed because they don't want them to sit up. But most of the time when you see these videos, these commercials asking you to donate, that's not just something they throw in there for the commercial. That's the way. It is the same as you.
Speaker 1:They have little red wagons, the radio flyer which, by the way, the giant one is still in the parking lot. It's going to be there for a few more hours today. If you want to come in and get a picture in the parking lot, you're welcome to. Yeah, but the red wagons, it takes about $100 to buy one. We have people offer to go buy one and bring it to said. That is a great gesture, but St.
Speaker 1:Jude has to buy them from the company that when they come completely sterilized and ready to go into the hospital germ-free, as germ-free as you can get. That's why we have to give them the money. Then they will purchase the red wagons, which cost about $100. And we were hoping to maybe raise enough money, get enough donors to get at least 300. Our goal was 336. 300 to do what we did last year, and 36, so this is the 36th year of Country Cares Radio Time 747.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So 336 times 2. If you look at that, we almost doubled what we were shooting for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did. What is that?
Speaker 1:I'm doing some math here. I never thought math would be important when I left Crosswalk. I don't think it is really. 672 is times 336, so we doubled. We doubled what our goal was. Wow, I can hear the redbird out there again talking.
Speaker 2:You can hear it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. Cool because yesterday morning we were doing a break, was it the first hour and I kept hearing a bird. I looked over when the sun finally come up and I said there was a red bird sitting on the satellite dish right behind us it seems that one follows you yeah, so anyway. Anyway, yesterday was a record-breaking day. The most we had was last year, $213,000. And now it's $223,000.
Speaker 2:Yeah, $223,000. And it's overwhelming because we had so many people come in that had been affected by cancer at some point in their lives or have been affected, like you like, with the loss of a child. They don't all have happy endings, and for people to open up and share their lives with us means the world.
Speaker 1:And there's a lot of stories we're going to tell. It's I'm with you. Last night I went home and when I walked up there I was tired. I was so tired, but it was a good tired and not the kind that you like when you work actually work physical labor, work when you've been digging a ditch or something and you know it's an emotional. It is mental, yeah, because you're trying to think of everything you can think of that might digging a ditch or something.
Speaker 1:No, it's an emotional, mental yeah, because you're trying to think of everything you can think of that might click with somebody and make them say, you know, I get it. Now. I want to become a partner in hope and it's $19 a month and, by the way, you still can all this week. You can call that same number, yeah, and you can still become a partner in hope and join us for our record-breaking. But even if you don't do it this week, if you find out, maybe in a couple of months, that you'd like to do this, you can go to the St Jude website anytime. We're not just trying to get credit for this. We want you to consider doing it and help St Jude win this battle against cancer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I said last night, this is something that we fight for 365 days a year, not just one. That we fight for 365 days a year, not just one, and it's a place that we all support year-round. We all have different merch from their store, because 100% goes back into the hospital and we're proud of that.
Speaker 1:We wear our St Jude shirts proudly and we're proud to be a part of something that is curing children yeah, because we saw two examples when, uh, tyler reeves came in, john gladden came in, fathers here in this area both have children who were at saint jude at one time and were both treated and are now cancer free. Carolina sat behind us, our new friend from Slim Chickens. She too, st Jude had a little baby boy.
Speaker 2:Do you know she had brain cancer.
Speaker 1:I didn't know what exactly. I couldn't remember because it's been years ago when her mom, Lindsay, came in and would join us because she was with Mark Bricky at Santa Monica Toyota one time, I didn't know that. And that's how Mark part of the reason why he got involved because he's got many reasons but different people he knows fighting cancer, wow. And that's how the whole thing kind of started, with Sand Mountain Toyota becoming a big part of this. I didn't know that yeah, so it's weird how it all comes back around.
Speaker 1:It is weird and how Rhonda, who was unable to be here this year, her husband's battling she was at belk years ago and we happened to be doing one of their van stops in the parking lot she came out from belk and helped. This happened. She went to san montoyota later to be motor market sales and then she took the idea of part of it too. So it's just weird how all this it takes one person to take an idea and run with it and you get so many people. Then their kids get involved and it makes you wonder how many kids that came in here yesterday like we have so many children will keep going as they get older and take the idea with them that I want to help other kids yeah, and we had so many of the important business people donate around Albertville big names but we had people come in with literally holes in their clothes and their shoes and gave us the last pennies they had.
Speaker 1:Every one we saw come in means there's a story behind it, and it means a lot to me, yeah. So whether you gave a handful of coins or you gave a big check, thank you. It all goes into the same bank account at St Jude, where they can use that money to buy things they need to find cancer and find a cure.
Speaker 2:We raised almost a quarter of a million dollars. Wow, thanks to our listening area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this morning we're going to be telling you stories, the things that happened and special stories, some of these like last night I was next door telling Dave and Russ. One of those we'll talk about was the painting, and that shows you that I still believe God had his hand on this in so many ways and we'll prove it to you. I think we can show you how and why coming up. So I encourage you to watch Facebook Live. You can see you need to see the wall behind Holly. This is something I wish Mrs C would let us keep. I don't know how to do this, but it's special.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we started this last year. Addie, it was her first year and it was my first year and we were kind of doing this together and she would come in and bring Post-it notes and I would sit them in front of me, put them on the computer, put them different places. I started putting them on the wall because I ran out of space over here and I couldn't see the computer anymore. And this year we loved it so much. Last year Will took them all and put them around the WQSB logo out in the main lobby and we loved it so much. We said first thing in the morning we need neon post-it notes, we don't want those ugly yellow ones, we need neons. And Rachel said if we don't use them we've got to take them back. We use them, buddy, we use them. Ain't no getting money back from this rach well, that was a great idea.
Speaker 1:Just regular post-it notes is fine, but that it's something special well, it kind of represents the different diversity of our community.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's all walks of life, it's all ages, it's it like I said. There's people coming in with babies on their hips. There's a class of pre-K four-year-olds that are bringing buckets in. We had Mr and Mrs Branchwater assisted living king and queen, that was sweet. I mean we had from ages zero to over 100 and everything in between, and then we had Addie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, her St Jude rep, her St Jude patient, and we've got a lot of stories about her too, which are all good. So stick around, we'll come back with more stories, but if you missed it, again a brand new record for QSP $223,156. And there's more still coming in. Yeah, and that's unofficial. They're going to go back and re-add again thousand dollars and one hundred and fifty six dollars and there's more still coming in. Yeah, that's unofficial. They're going to go back and re-add again today. Be sure they didn't miss anything.
Speaker 2:I have three hundred dollars in my cash out that I saw this morning that said for little red wagons. I don't know how to get it. I guess try to check, but there's more coming.
Speaker 1:there's more coming, so you can still be part of this, but we'll give you more uh details on all the stuff and more stories coming up on there. Country Cares for St Jude Kids Radio. It's 624.
Speaker 4:Mornings with Barry and Hall here on Alabama's country giant WQSB.
Speaker 1:Cody Johnson and Carrie Underwood, I'm going to love you, and number one song in the country this week. Congratulations, it's 639. It is a good-looking Wednesday morning. I had to think what day for a minute, because it's like I don't think yesterday ever ended.
Speaker 2:We're on like a drunken bender. Yeah, I don't know what day it is.
Speaker 1:But, man, it's a great day If you missed us talking, if you didn't stay around to the end of the radio time. $223,000. $223,156.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm not used to saying those numbers because I $223,156. I'll never have that much in my bank account.
Speaker 2:No, I don't have that many commas.
Speaker 1:But that is. It's touching. It's amazing, and we've got so many amazing stories to talk about it's hard to even think of which one. But if you made a donation in any form whatsoever, we go back to the very first donation. Shane Saylor's, a friend of mine, walks. He does it every year On his way into work. He has a sack full of change that he'll start today collecting. If he goes to a drive-thru anywhere at all with change involved, he puts it into something, then eventually into a bag, then counts it and brings it in.
Speaker 1:It's about roughly $200 every year.
Speaker 2:The best part was that he counted it.
Speaker 1:Yes, Thank you, Shane. Thank you Shane.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:We mentioned Shane because he was the very first one to walk in. There. We were still getting ready, preparing. Yes. We were actually talking to Addie, our St Jude rep, who is a former St Jude patient, and we knew that we wanted her to do something. What we thought was going to be special and it turned out to be. I think it's one of the probably the most special things we've ever done on the radio. I wish there was a way we could kind of cut that piece out.
Speaker 2:There is, we've already had it.
Speaker 1:Oh, with her singing, and just oh, is it posted. Oh, wow, it's posted. So they need tell them how they can find this.
Speaker 2:Just go to our Facebook page Tell them what she did. So she sings, Addie sings, and she sang with Brad Paisley at the St Jude's Seminar this year and we asked her to play her song for us last year and we played it. It was a recorded studio song but after the prayer that we opened up with with about daryl ross comes in daryl at non last few years with marshall dekalb.
Speaker 1:Uh, daryl and kelly horton come in and daryl's been so supportive and kelly too. And marshall dekalb, yeah, and daryl. Two years ago we were talking I thought you know the. It seemed like the radio time. It really we were barely hitting our hourly goals first two hours and it was like it was struggling.
Speaker 1:And I asked Daryl, would you mind saying a prayer? And he prayed and the St Jude rep that year walked in about 30 minutes later and said I don't know what y'all just did, but the phone's been going crazy. It's like the rest of that day. We went on to set a record. We asked him to do it again last year, same thing, prayed, and then the phones the rest of the day were consistent. And so yesterday we were talking before and then we asked addy and I said would you mind doing something for us? We're going to ask daryl to pray, which I know he will because he's so good at it and his prayer is so uplifting. And we said would you mind singing something after? And we were all your mom was in there and Val we were talking about which song would be perfect. I don't know if you mentioned how great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said, do you know? Do you just happen to know how great thou art?
Speaker 1:And that's a tough song to sing.
Speaker 2:She said I've done it, I can she blew it out of the water Standing?
Speaker 1:here in the room.
Speaker 2:We had church in this building.
Speaker 1:There was about 10 of us at the time. Daryl prayed. Then I told Addie, I said, Daryl, you got something special coming. Then she did the first part of it and it was amazing.
Speaker 2:I tried to record it and I was shaking so much from violently crying that I had to just drop my phone. I recorded the second time. She sang it in the afternoon too. Right, I recorded it then, but Carson cut it from the live stream. He recorded it and cut that piece out and posted it on our Facebook page and you can find it on there. Just got our videos. But uh, you can, you can hear addy sing and it it was.
Speaker 1:it really was like a church service in this building it was, and you, you saw what happened after she finished and we hit that goal, hit every goal the rest of the day. On how many we need 10 partners to know by 11, things like that. Everything seemed to just come into place.
Speaker 1:The red wagons. We were shooting for 336. And thank you again to Bobby Ledbetter and Twin City Used Cars for sponsoring a red wagon tote board and we had 747. You can see the tote board we kept using during the radio time. We doubled that. It's like everything. It's like God had a hand over everything we were doing yesterday and took care of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even down to like last minute, things like you had the idea to auction off one of our donors' artwork and keep ball Talk about this Molly.
Speaker 1:She's a little girl. She came in last year and she paints and she's so talented. I don't remember her last name, but I didn't recognize her at first because she was so much taller. This year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's big.
Speaker 1:But her new mom walked in.
Speaker 2:She's 11.
Speaker 1:11. Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:She's so good I know, and she mentioned that she'd been painting again and hadie said yes. So after we finished talking to molly, molly went outside in the car to get them and she come back in with them and there was a bag and I saw you out in the lobby and you're tell them what you did I just was looking through them and I was kind of in a hurry and I was kind of rushing through and you said pick one, pick one and we'll auction it off.
Speaker 2:And I said okay. So she was pulling them out and I was like, oh, I love all these, I love this one, I love this one. And then she pulled out this sunset and I said that one, I was just walking by, I said that one, I'm pointed, and everybody agreed, like rachel and addie, and they all said yes, that's, that's the one. And she said I think I'll name this one Dreamer. And she came inside and Describe the colors.
Speaker 2:It was purple to pink gradient, it was faded into pink and it had white puffy clouds all over it with a crescent moon. And what's crazy is that I brought it in and I put it next to my computer and I was like, wait a minute, this is the same colors as our St Jude logos this year. Carson did these logos about a month ago and they're purple and pink. They're still up there right now.
Speaker 1:You can see them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Molly's painting matched it perfectly and it was kind of like the perfect closure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, andlly painted this a year ago yeah carson designed a logo a month ago. Yeah, and then, about the time that she was getting ready to leave, we looked outside and she kind of imagined a sunset. As to how she painted, it and last night, if you looked outside and saw the, the colors in the sky, were purple and pink.
Speaker 2:Yes, and what's crazy is that I thought of when you told me that you and Reed used to go down, and when she said sunset, I thought I wonder if that'll resonate with Barry, because you've told me before that you and Reed, even if you had troubled days, would go down and watch the sunset at Guntersville. Even if you had troubled days would go down and watch the sunset at gunnersville. And yesterday reed was your reason why we were doing what we were doing. And people ask us I don't know, I don't know how you do it 16 hours. I don't know. You got to get up the next morning at three and we all have a reason why reed was yours yeah, and.
Speaker 2:And there are so many little signs that Reed was present and that's why I'm telling you I don't think that Reed's story will go in vain. I don't think that his story is one of death and that's it. I think that his is one that is going to carry on to help others.
Speaker 1:And because there was the red bird, Very first hour yesterday morning we were talking. I had the window open because it was hot in here and I kept hearing this bird and addy was over there. So you and addy were talking. I looked around and there was a. Because we've talked about red birds, people say that sometimes there's a saying that red birds, you'll see them a lot. They'll come visit you, someone who's passed away recently. You may have a redbird who comes by and sits, and I've seen more redbirds in the past three years and as I looked out the window, there was a redbird.
Speaker 2:Right there, yeah, by the window yeah.
Speaker 1:You can hear it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's out there this morning. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's just wild. It's wild the things that lined up and then, like I said, with the sunset she painted that and that was your reason why I was your son and that's what you guys used to do together, and it's just crazy.
Speaker 1:It is, but I'm convinced God had his hand over yesterday and we ended up having a record-breaking day and all this money is going to help kids at St Jude and it's just amazing. So if you're a part of that in any way, we thank you. Yeah. And $223,156. That's right and it's going to grow. It's going to continue to grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have $300 dollars, that's the rate it's going to grow.
Speaker 1:It's going to continue to grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have three hundred dollars to give somebody cash.
Speaker 1:At me some money to buy some red wagons yeah so you can still be part of this if you'd like to. It's going on all this week. Uh, the phone number is still active. It'll be active throughout through the weekend. So just you know, maybe think about it, maybe you'd like to do something, be part of this. We appreciate everybody who did something. Oh, yeah, yeah, we'll be telling you more stories coming up. It's at 648.
Speaker 4:WQSB Mornings with Barry and Holly yeah.
Speaker 1:This has been a weird first three months of the year weather-wise.
Speaker 2:I know, thanks, sam. You know I was thinking about the word done. You know what my favorite part of the whole Radiothon was yesterday? Yeah, the whole radiothon was yesterday. Yeah, when we signed off, it was you and me in this room by ourselves.
Speaker 2:It makes me want to cry. And you said we're getting off air. And you said see you tomorrow. I said see you in the morning and it was like we've done so much today and tomorrow we go back to our normal lives and I'll never forget putting that time and effort in and then just you and me. See you tomorrow, I'll be here.
Speaker 1:Well, you deserve a huge pat on the back, because you had a procedure last Thursday and everything came out fine. You did have just a slight scare. They had to check, of course, to be sure there was no cancer involved, and I know you didn't want to talk about it yesterday, but you did get some good news. You found out that you are without cancer. There's no cancer. It all came back good. But they told you it was going to take about two weeks for you to get back to full speed and you were really struggling.
Speaker 5:Monday, monday you're having a bad day and I told you.
Speaker 1:I said and if you feel like you can't do this, it's okay. But you told me you said no With what those kids go through at St Jude. If I can get up and get out of the bed, I will be there. And you weren't just here. You were here from beginning to end and you took very few breaks at all and we kept encouraging you to eat, rest, do whatever it took, but you were right there in that chair and you're a huge part of why we set a record of over $223,000. And the things you were talking about, how you talked about how many great things that happened yesterday. It happens when you've got a group of people here in this radio company that come together and they all have one goal in mind, that's to help kids yeah it wasn't about we're going to get overtime, we're going to get extra pay, we want to pat on the back.
Speaker 1:It's I don't nothing. None of that matters. No, it don't matter who is talking, who we don't get that we don't care, it's I mean.
Speaker 1:That's not why I did what I did. I know because 223 000 is going to saint jude and part of that money could be what one doctor or scientist is waiting to use to buy something that could help find a cure for one of those cancers or all of them. That's what matters to get those kids out of the hospital so they can get out on 75-degree sunny days and have fun. That's what matters. It's not about the other things. But yeah, there are some great memories and stuff that I'll always remember. That happened yesterday.
Speaker 2:If you could narrow it like mine was our sign-off. What was your one moment?
Speaker 1:The painting was huge. But there was a couple who came in. It was about eight. I could see everybody who came in. It was about eight and I could see everybody who comes in.
Speaker 1:And I noticed she walked in and she had a shirt on and it was pulled up and she had. I didn't know why she had her shirt pulled up and you could see her belly. I thought, okay, I'll see what happens here, I'll look curious. And I guess my husband boyfriend I couldn't hear, but he was beside her and your mom said that she walked over to the table and said have you got something? I can put this in? And it was change that they had gotten every single penny out of their car and when the bucket was there she dropped all the change out of her shirt. That's what she was holding her shirt up for. She didn't have anything to put it in. So she put it in her shirt and walked in to the radio station, not caring about here's my belly. That wasn't the point. The point was I've got to get these chains into that radio station so they can use it and help kids. That was special.
Speaker 2:They gave us literally their last pennies.
Speaker 1:They did. It's stories like that. That's what means the most. But I'm with you. When we finished, I knew that we'd been here. We started the day, we finished the day Just like we are now, and that's important. We got people here who care and it shows $223,000.
Speaker 2:People trust us enough that they will make donations to go to saint june. Yeah, and radio personalities, you know, like us and you and I, mike allen, ron, cisco, trey, avery, we're, we're all different people, we're, we're all, uh, we're all weird people. If you're in radio, you're weird, you just are you got to be weird Creative.
Speaker 1:You have to.
Speaker 2:And you know, no matter what, we all believe in different things or value different things, we're all our own people, but on the day that we have St Jude Radiothon, we all are one person with one mission. Yeah. And that's to help these kids fight cancer.
Speaker 1:I forget the line in Friday Night Lights that the coach would always tell his players there was a line by Clear Eyes. If you can find that line, it makes me think of this he would always, before they went out on the field, he would say this I forget clear eyes, maybe clear heart, you can find it. It's the line he would always use.
Speaker 2:Clear eyes, full hearts can't lose. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's kind of what we did yesterday. Yeah. So, anyway, thank you all for being a part of this. It was was a special day and it's going to keep getting better. 223 156 dollars yeah it's going to keep going around. 659 stories we've been talking about. Another one I want to talk about is, um, the group alabama. Uh, greg fowler reached out to us. Greg's been the manager and friend of the girl of the group for years and he reached out it's probably what after around lunch, before lunch somewhere in that area.
Speaker 2:It was after.
Speaker 1:After lunch and said hey, because Randy Owen is the man who started Country Cares for St Jude kids and Danny Thomas basically had a talk with him and said I'm getting older, would you like to pick this up and carry it on? And Randy said yes, and that's why country radio stations and now it's not just country stations, stations like Power 107.5 also do radio times. And he said would you like for Randy to call you? I thought, well, greg, that's not even a question. Yes, we'd love to have Randy call. So Randy Owen was finishing a walk a beautiful day, walked into the house and called us and did a break with us and you're in here.
Speaker 2:That was special. That was special. We got to speak with randy.
Speaker 1:We got to speak with teddy gentry teddy called later yeah, I think teddy found out, would talk to randy and said okay, I want to call too. He said he had called twice. Nobody would answer the phone.
Speaker 2:We weren't answering the contest contest lines, because they were closer the day and we didn't know that Valerie was orchestrating this behind the scenes the whole time because she couldn't get to us. It was just, it was madness.
Speaker 1:It was.
Speaker 2:It was a good madness it was.
Speaker 1:So Teddy called and you're talking to Teddy and you reminded him because we went up to see him. It's back before the June Jam of last year Because we were talking about the June Jam getting everything going. By the way, they did autograph the guitar which we're going to use coming up and we'll tell you when. We're going to have a special auction to auction off this signed guitar from Randy and Teddy very soon. You can bid on this. The money goes to St Jude, but anyway, and Teddy that day gave us some coins from Buffalo Nickel, his coin shop in Fort Payne, and you even had a picture made with him and when you mentioned that to him, yeah, I said, remember, when I acted real weird and I was awkward and I said, hey, can I get a picture of you to show my dad that I met you?
Speaker 2:He said, hey, can I get a picture of you to show my dad that I met you? He said, well, that was okay, that was okay.
Speaker 1:You're acting weird, that's all right, you weren't the first one to act weird.
Speaker 2:No, you're not weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then Greg Fowler called later and we talked to Greg.
Speaker 1:He congratulated us he did and then Greg called back at the end of the radio time and talked about what a good job we did and, greg, that meant a lot for you to call and for Randy to call and for Teddy to call we love you so much and you've meant so much to QSP over the years and for you to call and help us with the radio time. I think that's another major part that we were able to collect a record amount of money and, like Greg said, that's like almost a quarter of a million dollars. Your area collected for pain, where they're from included, stepped up big time and set a record for radio times. For us yesterday it was a special day.
Speaker 2:You know what city? I saw a lot of that. I was surprised about Collinsville. I saw a ton of Collinsville.
Speaker 1:Collinsville did great. I saw where Caroline's Cafe just commented on it. They still have some wristbands, oh great.
Speaker 2:So Just saw where Caroline's Cafe just commented on it and they still have some wristbands. Oh, okay, yeah, so you can go by there, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I encourage you, if you go to our Facebook Live and check out the video right now or check out the live feed and look at Holly, because beside Holly we have her wall and the wall has Post-it notes all over it and any time that our Addie from St Jude would get a person who was a partner in Hope, she would bring it to us. We'd get it announced on the air, she'd put it on one of these post-it notes. Then you place these all over the wall and it's covered with beautiful neon-colored post-it notes today and names from the people who became either a partner in Hope or made a one-time donation for Little Red Wagon. It also had the totals for each hour and that's a special wall. Yeah, we're going to ask Mrs Currington if we can actually get a saw and cut that piece of wall out and take it home.
Speaker 2:I don't think it would take. And leave a hole, you could probably just get like a jigsaw.
Speaker 1:That's all we need.
Speaker 2:Just a, maybe like a, Like a.
Speaker 1:That's us all right. She's considering redecorating anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll just cut this part of the wall off.
Speaker 1:Because we don't want to take the post-it notes down.
Speaker 2:No, we don't want to take the.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Mrs C, we don't want to take the notes down.
Speaker 1:No, please don't make us. Yeah because it's special. Yeah, if the notes, I, we're both walking, we're done.
Speaker 2:Where are we going?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Where are we going to walk to?
Speaker 1:We'll go to Fort Payne. I think Teddy will let us work at the Buffalo Nickel.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll do that. We have a plan B set up, mrs Z. Yeah, already so you take the notes down and we're gone.
Speaker 2:I like all of our decorations. Valerie did a beautiful balloon arch in the room across from us with a photo booth. We got WQSB in bubble letters. We got St Jude in bubble letters. We have the Big Red Wagon out front. We got a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so go to our Facebook page. There's a lot of pictures and videos from yesterday and it was a special day, and thank you all once again.
Speaker 1:Mary and Holly on Alabama's Country Giant WQSB day and thank you all once again, mary and holly on alabama's country giant wqsb, this usb parmalee and gonna love you at 7 49, just like we love our listeners. And I don't just say that lightly, that we're just saying because we want you to listen and give us good ratings and things like that we do. Yesterday means so much to not just me but you, to our entire staff. Will doesn't even need walk-up music here, will's already in the room.
Speaker 3:Good morning Will. Good morning y'all. It looks like y'all got a little bit of rest, or just kind of sitting there with your eyes open all night.
Speaker 1:But can you imagine $223,156? It's a record for QSP.
Speaker 3:It really does leave you speechless. I mean the fact that you know our little corner of the state uh can go so far, uh, and and the people that's committed and and this radio station's committed. You know it, it's a team effort. You know we're committed to the uh, the listening audience out there, the business owners that are out there, and they're committed to us. And then that just makes a formula for for what happened yesterday, and I think yesterday speaks volumes of what this area has.
Speaker 1:You had got a chance to witness a lot of stories people walking in or there, one or two things that stood out that you thought you know, wow, and there were so many, we talked about them. Um, that little girl that I don't't know if you're here, molly had the painting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was here.
Speaker 1:Yep, that was amazing. It was how that all came around. And then Addie singing how Great Thou Art twice in a year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know it gives me chills this morning, but seeing the dedication of the younger kids Because when you look at it, the ones that are in the hospital are actually their peers and their friends and that's going to go a long way whenever you get, when they get into adulthood, and it teaches a life lesson that even at the age that they are, those moments you've got to cherish those. Those are precious moments and I think it just sets a standard within those kids that, hey, you know being selfless and there's something greater than yourself, yeah, and that's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's hard to pick out one or two different stories, but there are so many to talk about.
Speaker 3:And I don't know if you saw something because I didn't get to see. Did you have any moments where you were just like, wow, uh, you know, of course, talking to the takola family, just because you know behind the scenes that was, that was such a connection, uh, in and of itself, uh, but you know, seeing kids from oxford, alabama, driving all the way up here and say, hey, I didn't, I didn't know the travel ball, oh, I didn.
Speaker 2:and saying, hey, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:The travel ball. Oh, I didn't realize they were from Oxford.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize they were from Oxford. They were from.
Speaker 3:Oxford. And then y'all remember the kid that I think he plays second base from Jacksonville that you know had.
Speaker 2:The prosthetic eye Teenage.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and coming up here and hanging out.
Speaker 2:His mom was just so inspirational.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and just seeing as many people that came in, you know having the CrossFit kids out here was a huge thing.
Speaker 2:You got to bring your wife and son.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they got to experience that and it just, you know, there was God winks all over the place, of course, with Molly's painting that she had was one had to experience that and it just, you know, there was god winks all over the place, of course, with molly's painting that she had, uh was one and um, just like when addy was in here singing to the house family, you know there's somebody looking down.
Speaker 3:I will tell you and I text you last night about it. Uh, the experience I had, uh late in the evening standing behind you and and the presence that I felt and I know it's tough for y'all to sit here all day, it's easy, but it's also tough physically uh, the experience that I had that. I do feel that uh, reed was looking over you and I I do know that he was proud of you yesterday, barry, for for having to go through yesterday, because I know it's tough experience and that loss is tough. But just know that uh, he's looking down and he's proud of of what you do and the impact that you have, and you know you're still carrying on not only his legacy but your legacy as well.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate that and it means a lot and, and I'll be honest, the break we did with you I think even Chandler reached out later that was effective. I wish we had phone lines where we could see what you're doing and how it affects the listeners, but I'm convinced that when you were talking with us and you shared that with us about your daughter and what you had wrote, I bet the phone went crazy. Yeah, I feel the same way. I think your daughter was part of this.
Speaker 2:She was. She was. Somebody said to me yesterday. They said Will lost a child and I said yeah, and they said when? And I said next month will be a year and they said no, next month will be a year. And they said no, like that's just. It's just something that you're, you're so young.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know that's not something you should have experienced no, but you know at the same time and and I'm sure barry can attest to this as well is that when, when you do experience loss, loss, not everything shines as bright or you're having to adjust your daily things emotionally and physically but it kind of sets up a platform to help those.
Speaker 3:And I know, with your experience, when you were going through that which I was a listener, then I wasn't working here it really impacted me and it really does make me want to be a better person just because of you know you profound in your faith during that time and it made me want to do the same thing during my loss.
Speaker 3:And you know, yesterday getting all those donations, everybody out there in the listening audience, I don't think you realize how precious that money is going to, because that money's going to. If you could think back to losing somebody, how much would you pay to get that extra minute, to get that extra five minutes, to get that extra birthday or that extra christmas, or how much would you pay to do it? And that's what that money yesterday does. It helps buy those moments. We had Mark Bricky mention something about a kid that he was associated with that was going to St Jude's throwing them a birthday party. That raised money to throw them a birthday party. You know you're buying those precious minutes that some people can't get back and that holds weight to the world yeah.
Speaker 1:I know yesterday was tough on you in a way that Reed wasn't in the hospital like the St Jude kids, but your daughter, I know. I kept thinking that Will's going through something that's very similar to the stories we're talking about. She had her battles and her struggles, and she was in a hospital, spent a lot of time in the hospital.
Speaker 2:And treatments and research.
Speaker 1:He can relate to this a lot better than I can. I knew it really had to be affecting you and what you were watching and going through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, you kind of get two sides of the coin with that. You kind of get two sides of the coin with that. You're sad because you don't have that special person there, but also, at the same time, you know what they battled through is only helping and setting the stage of what's to come. Because there for five years we were going to treatments every other week Well, to Maryland for two and a half years every other week, and then to Birmingham every other week for two. Well, to Maryland for two and a half years every other week, and then to Birmingham every other week for two and a half years and she was doing a lumbar puncture and getting pricked, prodded, tested, you name it.
Speaker 3:But you know, thankfully the good Lord gave us the strength to get through that. And it was a struggle and you know, some days were harder than others. But it's places like where we went to St Jude and St Jude that helped calm that. And you've got people that have such passion it's not just a job, I mean, it is a passion and they see the fruits of their labor, especially when they get to ring that bell and and all that. And sometimes, you know, like with my daughter's case, unfortunately, she. She was overcome by that sickness but she was healed. For her, her eternal body, yeah and um, I always tell people especially a lot with cameron's experience uh, try to make this world as close to heaven as possible, so when that transitions there, the only difference is that she gets to be in eternity with Jesus, and yesterday attests to that. You know, we have all this stuff going on in the world, all this negativity, all this battling, but it stays like yesterday.
Speaker 3:You put that stuff to the side everybody comes together as one yeah, and and think of a world that we would have if it was like that every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, parts of the world, like even our leaders in washington, if they could put differences aside and come together for what? The one cause of making the world better. Yeah, it would be such a better place, a better, better country and a better world. If we could just look at the big picture Yesterday. The picture was kids. These are kids. These are children who are fighting for their life, and we can help if we choose to join together and help in our company. I'm so proud of everybody here. It wasn't just one person, it wasn't two or three. Everybody stepped up and did their part yesterday and it worked, yeah.
Speaker 2:I wish I could paint, because I can see a world where I don't know what heaven looks like. But I can see Cam just dangling her little feet on a cloud and Reed coming up behind her and being like hey, that's our dads, yeah, that's our dads down there. Look what they're doing for us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, really special, yeah, really special, really special, so it was a great day.
Speaker 1:If you missed it $223,156 in one day and it's still growing.
Speaker 2:Holly got a $300 cash out this morning for more red wagons. Yeah, I'm really stressed out about it. I don't know what to do. I guess I'll write a check.
Speaker 3:Just let it sit, just let it simmer.
Speaker 1:So actually we'll have three more wagons added to the 747.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we will, oh, 78910, 750.
Speaker 1:750.
Speaker 3:Isn't that cool. Wow, what if we had a goal for next year for 1,051?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think so. Oh, I see what you did there for the 105.1.
Speaker 1:And you do realize that during the radio thought about lunchtime, we crossed the $3 million mark for the history of QSB Radio Times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know Greg said last night. He said y'all raised almost a quarter of a million. Y'all do that four times, that's another million.
Speaker 1:He said that's mind-blowing. Yes.
Speaker 2:In one day and I do have to kind of pump us up a little bit I think I heard that there was a station in a bigger city, I think, out towards Birmingham, that had a two-day event.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They raised 11.
Speaker 1:It was Montgomery. Yeah, you were right, Montgomery.
Speaker 2:Montgomery 11,000 in two days Top country station. Yeah, two days Top country station.
Speaker 1:It goes back to what do you want to put into it? Yes, you get out of it what you put into it. Yes, we put everything we've got into it.
Speaker 2:We put our heart and soul yeah.
Speaker 1:And we get it back If you halfway, do it, then you're going to get results that aren't very happy, yeah, or very good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, like I said, you know all the people listening out there. You know just your average day listener. You know Our advertisers are huge and big supporters. We're some big supporters of them. We get behind them just as much as they do us. Going back to what we said. If it's all a team effort, there's limitless possibilities.
Speaker 1:when that happens, We'll talk more about that. Thanks Will. Thank you all. I appreciate you all.
Speaker 4:News and weather is coming up Mornings with Barry and Holly here on Alabama's country giant WQSB.
