This is Entrepreneurship in Society.
It is a course that is offered
Wisconsin School of Human through tEcology.rsity of
I'm Jeanan Yasiri Moe.
extend thanks to our partners in As we begin today, I'd like to
College of Engineering for their helping produce this class, the
of Corporate Relations for their technical support, the UW Office
Kauffman Foundation which has provided financial support for
this course over eight
Additionally, we'd like to thank semesters.
Public Television, and their our media partners, Wisconsin
today's lecture. University Place crew for taping
able to introduce to you a It's my special privilege to be
Feldman, host of the wildly popular national radio program
"Whad'Ya Know?" Michael was born and raised in
Milwaukee, graduating from the
While teaching at an alternative UW in 1970.
volunteered his services at a hilocal public radio station,he
WORT, back in 1977 and soon landed his own Friday night
call-in show called "Thanks For Calling."
That experience eventually led
host their afternoon drive slot, him to Chicago's WGN radio to
the Wisconsin Public Radio and in 1985 Michael returned to
a weekly talk show. netwoToday, "Whad'Ya Know?"ow?"
is produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and broadcast across the
US to 200 public radio stations and broadcast on Sirius and XM
satellite radio.
archived, and available on The show is streamed, podcast
I knew that Michael's story was an interesting one and one that
really does speak to
innovation, risk-taking, as well entrepreneurial thinking:
especially for those in his as greataudience.reation,
So it is my pleasure to introduce and to welcome, as our
last speaker this semester, Michael Feldman.
[APPLAUSE]
Well, thank you. >> Ah, geez.
I don't know about the Well, some of that is true.
truth. innovation, to tell you the
you've never heard it. I do a public radio show so
grandmother might like me. I would say probably your
doesn't. Your grandfather probably
splits, public radio. Some of you might be familiart
with me.
where we actually raised We've been on long enough now
to about age 25 or so. children in the show from birth
kids that was raised on So you"Whad'Ya Know?"f those
but it doesn't look that way
getting. just from the reaction I'm
The show is called "Whad'Ya AnywayKnow?" that I do.ldman.
I used to be high school
other forms of vocation. teacher, but it drove me to seek
in education, but you might find I don't know if any of you are
So I taught here at Shabazz High that same thing happens to you.
alternative high school, School in Madison, which is the
like, every other time. Actually, my first radio show I,
had a show at a greasy spoon
Williamson Street. called Dolly's Fine Foods on
Crystal Corner bar, which you It wamay already know.om the
If you don't, you probably will.
6:00 to 9:00 in the morning each And I'd do a show there from
teach at Shabazz, and that week day, and then I'd go and
for a while. worked out pretty good
I got a job, actually, on Wisconsin Public Radio which itd
turns out the guy who runs
the time, heard my show from the Wisconsin Public Radio, ran at
work on public radio, and I grepretty much proved that ituld
couldn't. But I did several shows there.
Then I got the call to go down
WGN, which I found out actually tstands for Who Goes Next int
terms of personnel. And I lasted there the worst
part of a year, actually, I like
They teamed with a co-host, and I had actually never worked with
anybody before. For me radio is me.
You have a microphone and due to
have, kind of a nervous disorder certain dysfunctions that I
associate and just keep talking that about nothing.free
It worked very well in teaching high school, as you can imagine.
[LAUGHTER]
endlessly, but working with someone else, they interrupt you
flow. And they teamed with this woman
who had been a traffic copter reporter.
So she had a very loud voice
above the props of the because she had to be heard
So I would go off on one tangent helicopter.
It was horrible. and she would just chop it down.
anyone. TI shouldn't really be in ah
relationship with anyone. [LAUGHTER]
I shouldn't really
myself and just stay in a bubble, and I'm okay in the
bubble. Eventually, it got so bad,
actually, we had to do the
person, we'd switch off the pots engineering for the other
stuff, and she kept potting me and all that, the levels and
her down and me up. And finally they super glued the
controls on the control board,
station. WGN, World's Greatest Newspaper
she was so loud on show that I And they super glued them, and
pounded on it with my fist until was doing that I actually
down so I couldn't hear that in they bled trmy ears.move her pot
So that's my history in commercial radio.
Oh, and one weekend at WMAD in
Prairie which didn't work out either because I didn't know you
couldn't play what you wanted to.
I'd never been on commercial
On WORT we played pretty much whatever we wanted to and some
pretty obscure things and a lot of strange music.
But on commercial radio you don't do that.
There's actually a play list, I was told by the program director
the next morning. So I had an overnight in the
cornfield there, and it was very
would call in and say my sister just had a newborn baby, could
you play Hells Bells by AC/DC for her.
Sure, okay, whatever, commercial
So I played that but it's very radio, do that.
you're in a cornfield at WMAD, bizarre because, literally,
Does it? if it still exists.
It's called something else Probably does.
And so you have a window there, and all you see are corn, stalks
of corn in the dark.
it's very scary. This is the overnight show, and
and that was the end of And commercial radio for me.nds,
But public radio is a good thing
long as possible because no one becanotices you're there.t as
I have flown under the radar
show alone. fAnd people don't even realizeis
that I'm still here so it's perfect.
You really couldn't ask for anything better.
I don't know if any of you are
Anyone here radio oriented? thinking aboutTV?reers in radio.
No. Comm arts?
What's your thing?
TV and film? >> Comm arts, TV and film.
I will say that, in terms of Okay, cool.
arts, radio, TV, or what have pyou, I never took a course inmm
it. And I'm not bragging about that.
It just never occurred to me. I never really thought I was
going to do that. I took English because I could
speak it and write it.
So I had an advantage, I So that's cool.
and I liked reading. thought, taking English courses,
figured I didn't see any ads for And then I graduated and I
So it was a question of what am I going to do for a living.
You may run into this shortly.
teach. So I thought I could always
can't, teach. Those The old saying.se who
And so I took a year of education here at the
university, teacher education,
open up in Kenosha at Tremper anHigh School down in Kenosha.at
It was opened because the kid who had gone there to intern
from Madison, these were the
welcome dance at the country days, had shown up at the
And they sent him home. They sent him packing because
this is not going to work in
So I took his opening. Kenosha.
asked me, would you ever During my job interview they
posture on your desk while consider sitting in the yoga
And I said it never occurred to teachinme. class?
Which, of course, I did for the following three or four years.
It was just those days. The war at home was going on in
Madison, and in Kenosha some
the war against the factory. other sort of war was going on,
universally, all they wanted was My students in Kenosha,
It was American Motors at that not to work in the factory.
And they were great kids and time.
get out of Kenosha. That was their one consideration
not the war or politics or
But when I came down there, my anything else.
there was smoke rising from first Tremper High School.ampus,
As I came down highway 50 and I see that smoke was rising.
And I thought, my god, the war
And it turned out it was senior at homebratwurst day.enosha.
That was my first indication
maybe some other places you'll that Madison is different from
So take that for what it's run into.
As far as being an entrepreneur, worth.
can't actually say? can you be[LAUGHTER] that you
I've been practicing, entrepreneur.
I don't think I would be
begin with. anyThat's a French word. to
I don't think there's a French
Unless it's je ne sais quoi. word for me.
That was possibly me. I'm more of a contra-preneur or
something.
I got the list things, take Irisks, think innovatively, ande
create wealth.
have made some money, but I've Now, just looking at wealth, I
wealth, to me, is bigger than money or making a decent living.
It's like creating wealth,
I'm not sure what it is, to tell something really big.
wealth stream, a stream of you the truth, but like creating
into. wealth You know, wealth. can dip
Producing wealth, making wealth available.
That, I don't do that.
Taking risks. I don'tI'm not a type A.ould be.
Well, it depends what that
I occasionally take risks but usually not intentionally.
So there's that.
my life, getting up in the I think, for me at this point in
[LAUGHTER] morning is a risk I take.
Well, you're not there yet. I won't even tell you want's
going to happen.
me. You wake up each morning sort of
surprised that you're still here.
That's different. So that's taking a risk, I'd
say, to get out of bed and go into the world and so forth.
But I'm not a type A. I can't imagine somebody wants
to sailboard off of Jesus' arms in Rio there, off Sugarloaf
Mountain, wherever that is. That would be cool, but I
wouldn't do it. Or any sort of sport that's
those sports they have now, those extreme sports.
For me, getting out a chair is
Do I take risks? an extreme sport.
didn't know what I was getting I take risks because I probably
So, for example, my career is not a typical career.
There is nothing you'll see anywhere that is what I do for a
living. So I had to invent it.
So there's that.
it was desperation. BuThere's a slight differenceas
between being desperate and doing anything and taking a
calculated risk.
might take a risk and so forth, So I'mI don't do that.vestor
Thinking innovatively.
subjective. Once, when I was a kid actually,
I came up with the idea for The Clapper before it existed.
You know, The Clapper, where
and the TV goes on or off. your granny can clap her hands
her husbands hearing aid and Unfortunately, it also shuts off
[LAUGHTER] pacemaker, but that's another...
good thing for her. I don't know, it might be a good
thing.
unless it is the fact that I But I never had an innovation
into a career. could make basically being me
way because, really, there's not So that's pretty innovative in a
wouldn't think there's much of a much of a use, initially you
I can see you agree. use for a Michael Feldman.
So if you're doing [LAUGHTER]
radio they have things that are called radio personalities but
usually they're not.
radio, I won a contest in high In fact, they told me on the
time. I was shooting my mouth off and
talking and play weird, Louie Louie and songs like that, and a
guy afterward told me, it was Bob Berry, who was a very big DJ
in Milwaukee at the time, rock
the five millionth and fifth DJ, the fifth Beatle, actually
himself, he said just play the Beatle but that's what he called
get out. records, give the weather and
consider that as a career. He told me not to really
personalities, and there's some leeway in terms of actually
expressing something you feel about or something you think
about and playing music that you
perhaps isn't being played and think should be played that
But they don't encourage it. that sort of thing.
anywhere. IThere's Rush Limbaugh now andst
guys like that and Howard Stern.
they're very few and far They do have that leeway but
So maybe that's innovation. bLuck.n.
I would advocate if you're going
Have good luck. You may, in fact, now for me the
problem was teaching was cool but it wasn't going to be my
life work.
Maybe you are as well. I was an artistic type.
an art in the worst way, and all In the sense of I wanted to have
could ever see. Anything I would do artistically
was terrible. I couldn't paint.
I couldn't draw.
I couldn't play an instrument. I couldn't sing.
admired. All these things that I really
looked like something would have Just to draw something that
And I appreciate all those been a great thing for me.
And music, I love music but I've things.
anywhere. tI don't have the knack.t
I don't have an ear, and I don't
And I have a mouth. That's about all I have.
And maybe something that you've run into too is if the need to
express yourself is sort of important to you, than you are
quite possibly and artistic type.
You may not be an artist. That's something that you have
to establish. But it's sort of a problem
because if you don't immediately
You have to come up with have an art, that's apparent.
So you try a lot of things, and I think that's probably the best
thing about college is you could
you never even thought of before go off in a lot of areas that
well, this is cool, maybe I can't do this or maybe something
that really turns you on in a whole new way of looking at
things or a way of expressing yourself.
If expressing yourself is not important to you, then you don't
have this problem at least. You may have other problems.
So it's a question of how are you going to do that.
Photography, I tried photography
I tried ceramics. So I was very desperate.
I had wheels throwing terrible
All my friends are musicians or artists, and I was like the odd
man out and I really wanted to
So the only argument that I could come up with is that what
I do on the radio is an art form.
It may not be high art, but it
I'll say that. certainly is low art.
thing about radio and how that So that's just sort of the whole
I've volunteered at WORT. That's how I got on the air in
the first place, and I found
that work in terms of doing that I have radio.basic skills
That is I can speak in front of a group of people and free
associate.
have. It'sSo if you can make yourhat I
dysfunctions pay, this could be very important for you.
I can free associate. I used to do it in my classes
all the time. Kids would get me off on
tangents, and I'd just keep going.
I'd be talking about one thing
I'd go that and I would never aget to what I was going to doo
because that's how I think. And it's a dysfunction based on
nervousness.
I made pay. So it's So that's cool.der that
Otherwise I would be
therapy. tranquilized and years of
with a lot of this stuff because I probably should have therapy
or whatever they do, it could have been therapized,
have had a career. therapeutized, but I wouldn't
example, doing my show from the greasy spoon, and it was whoever
came in including people off the
work with all of them because I was just free to talk to people
and so forth and get something
Someone called in one day and said, you know, you're really
messed up.
have a lot of problems, and he You're very neurotic and you
So if I had therapy I wouldn't said don't ever change.
would have been at peace with be able tomyself.t because I
But you can't be at peace with
of yourself at the same time, so yourself and make a complete ass
didn't do that. I do want to say something about
old media and new media because I'm definitely old media, so I
wish you guys a lot of luck with
I'm making forays in it. the new media.
whatever the verb would be. I do twI do that.tter or
And now that's part of my nervous disorder now.
It's a very strange thing.
history will be divided into First of all, I believe that our
Or BC and AC. That will be our generation.
Before cell and after cell. Now, I am before cell.
For me a phone is black.
There's a cord. If you want privacy, you drag it
into the bathroom and lock the
it the whole time trying to get door and yourin it.er knocks on
But that's a phone. You didn't take a picture with
it, for example, and there was
We didn't social network in my no social networking.
We didn't have social media. day.
That occurred. We had social diseases.
We definitely had social Social studies.
You probably had one of those three things, but that was all
the social we had.
rotary and your elks and so forth, but there was no social.,
And, frankly, I feel I'm sort of
of all, I have a phone. reliWhere'd I put it there?first
And I'm supposed to leave it on my daughters tell me, one of
whom is there actually. I wasn't going to mention her
but there she is. I finally got the phone.
Dad, take your phone with you,
Alright, I don't want to be that leave it on.
See, now, that's the difference between your generation and
mine. Why would you want to be that
available?
Facebook now. Everyone knows what you're doing
every step of the way, and why
It's none of their business dwhere I am now.?
Unless I'm expecting a call, but
even know on Facebook to know Iwhat I have just done which is
probably trivial anyway and none
So that's why I'm not of this of theigeneration.overall.
It wouldn't work out for me.
Occasionally I turn it on. But I do use my phone now.
They're cool devices. Now, I'm Android simply because
I'm sort of anti-Apple simply because I don't know why.
[LAUGHTER]
a TV set, I thought it was Since that Mac that looked like
those old Macs, and then they came out with a laptop that
looked like a toilet cover and
I keep thinking about that that was it for me for Mac.
Who invented that? toilet cover Mac.
design-wise and so forth. To me, the whole Apple thing is
such a closed system. They control all the content
going in, the content coming
And to me that goes back to my out, and so forth.
That's the man. UniversApple's the man. days.
Of course, Google is the man
There's a lot of men now. [LAUGHTER]
Amazon. The whole cloud thing now is
very scary to me as a member of the old media because you've got
your Amazon cloud, you got you
cloud, and eventually there's Apgoing to be warfare betweengle
these clouds. [LAUGHTER]
And ships of
another in the clouds, in the various clouds, and it will be
the end of the world as we know it.
But that's new media, what can
In my day, you have AT&T, but in you do?
Telephone & Telegraph. my day it actually was American
Just left the telegraph behind So that's it in a nutshell.
wonderful thing. and we had the telephone, a
your cell? Now you actually make calls on
My youngest daughter is shocked when her phone rings.
It doesn't ring, it plays some
Phones don't ring anymore. heavy metal anthem.
there's no dials. YBut anyway, if it rings, she's
shocked because all she does is text.
She's a different creature from me, as is Ellie.
Ellie has gone totally Siri.
talks to now. Siri is t[LAUGHTER]rson she
Because that's the
I can understand that. one person who always responds.
is not real. It's a wonderful thing, but Siri
I don't think. She's not real.
Maybe there is someone there Maybe she is real.
Siri, but I don't think so. So I guess all I'm saying is I
don't get all this stuff, especially Facebook, I think,
more than anything. Facebook is interesting because
here is a guy, Zuckerberg, who
[LAUGHTER] had no social skills whatsoever.
thing because of that. And invents this
Talk about my lack of access to what's really happening.
He's totally asocial. He just didn't have any social
skills. Terrible social skills.
You saw the movie, right? I think that's pretty accurate.
Total lack of social skills.
of dollars? HeThat's an amazing story forons
someone with social problems. So that's interesting and, once
again, this is all new media
Radio is probably the only stuff.
media. surviving thing of the old
different, high def and Even telewhatever.w has gone
Soon television will be more
It will all be one big thing and interactive.
Radio is still there hammering so forth.
I'm on the AM here in Madison, away.
With the basketball games, the so how cool is that?
and "Whad'Ya Know?" In my day, the basically the big
innovation in radio was we got
made it possible for the first the six transistor radio which
conceal a radio in it. time to gouge out a textbook and
work best I find. You take a [LAUGHTER]tory books
And you make a little thing in there and the rest your
little six transistor radio.
state of the art. And then you run, there was a
single thing that goes in your
aid basically, and run up here ear, it looked like a hearing
And you just sit like this and and stick it in there.
whatever. lisJust for special events.or
You can't do it all the time. So that was it but that was a
big deal. Suddenly you're portable and
that, all portable devices now, that was like the first portable
device. Suddenly we've got that six
transistor radio. That's a life changer.
But you couldn't do much with it.
You couldn't take pictures with it.
You couldn't find out where your
weren't and summon them all. friends were and where they
[LAUGHTER] I do like flash mobs.
I use the term wrong, but this Ellie always told me
because we used to, in the days here when the revolution was on,
say the revolution will be
The idea that everything that was happening on campus, all the
riots and protests and kids getting beat up and all that
stuff, was all on television. So they said the world is
watching, the revolution will be
It didn't quite work out that telway.ed.
But now I think the revolution
one, it will be called Facebook. will be on Facebook, if there is
where to show up and so forth. You'll all know where it is and
thing where everyone gets together and has a revolution
instead of a dance thing, actually stage a revolution.
And then they go away and do
I don't know. I think that's pretty cool.
There's that sort of social aspect of it, which I think is
very cool I got to admit, which didn't exist before.
It's possible if you look at
where there's been a total Egypt and countries overseas
made possible by this new technology which didn't exists
before. So that's pretty amazing and
that's a pretty powerful tool.
for that end of things. SHowever, radio is still AM.t
[LAUGHTER]
doesn't reach very far. They have tried to do
innovations in radio. They have an HD radio now.
I don't know if it stands for high density.
I don't know. Hound dog.
I have no idea. It's really not high def or
anything. And no one has it anyhow.
Now you can get Sirius and so forth.
That's cool but it's expensive. So it does offer more options
though. For us, the main thing we had
were records and the stereo.
invention. The stereo was an amazing
And amplifiers, someone figured out that you can get, like, 100.
watts and up and build speakers that were really huge.
Somewhere in the '70s, I think, this occurred.
And so maybe a student such as
the biggest damn speakers, and yourself or yourselves could get
space. suddenly you dominate your
this technology. That's the cool thing about all
dominating your internal space. But you could really work the
whole block with the right
And that was kind of powerful because the music also is part
of it.
The Beatles somewhat but also Bob Dylan and all these people,
and they weren't exactly calling
whole new way of doing music, for a rand it was veryt was a
anti-establishment. So that was the cool thing about
it. And it was everywhere.
It was on the radio everywhere, and it was blasting from your
dorm. That was sort of the one
unifying social factor that we
If we had anything going for us, had going for us.
This Twitter thing is, I've gotten, it's addictive in that
on my show I have a monologue,
the one speaking it, so I start each show with a news monologue.
All the news that isn't I call
And it's basically what's happening, what I think is
funny, and trying to put a spin on it and sometimes
successfully. But I've been doing that on
Twitter.
Travolta, okay, let's get something out on the John
Travolta masseur thing. Not too hard to do.
So I do it almost, sometimes I
I'm actually tweeting, if that think I'm doing it in my sleep.
is an odd feeling. is the verb, in my sleep which
of composition because you're It limited to 140 characters.ms
And that's a different way. I always wrote, and I try to
write humorous pieces and stuff,
about a page and a half maximum. and they always end up being
Usually I would take a one-liner That's all I could say.
page and a half out of it, and and expand it, and I get about a
column out of it or something sometimeslike that.ewspaper
So that's cool. But now with Twitter, you're
limited to 140 characters.
no literature will ever be And if you look at it, perhaps
the norm for writing in 140 characters because that's like,
what, 20 words maybe. And if you think about it, I
looked it up and the bible is 774,746 words in the bible.
That's both books not including book of Mormon.
Figuring it's seven letters a word, words were longer in those
days because they had, like,
You always had the eth endings speaketh, sayeth.
So that comes out to 5,423,222 on everything.
would require 38,737 tweets. characters in the bible, which
more doable. However, the 10 Commandments are
Commandments. I can do them in 51 characters.
Here they are.
killing, sex, steal, covet, NSundays, honor folks.g,
10 Commandments.
[LAUGHTER] It doesn't have the same impact.
tweeted, I don't think it would have the same impact, and I
think today our entire western
different because I don't think people would have thought this
was necessarily the tweet of
[LAUGHTER] God.
I just thought about that so I Okay.
Let's see, I've got a couple thought I'd tell you.
Okay. Feldmaneurship, I actually felt
under a lot of pressure because Jeanan is so into this and she's
so good at what she does and she
Do you know about her? is all these things.
way. She's absolutely amazing, by the
many areas, and she has got the business acumen but she uses it
for the good of people. It's almost never been done
before. She's an amazing individual.
And she is so organized and so
follow-through on everything goal-oriented and so
of me because my approach to that she is the exact opposite
something, and then as you're getting up you see if it
actually works for you or not,
again. and maybe you'll stumble over it
The opposite of Jeanan. J-Moe as she's now known.
[LAUGHTER]
what would Feldmaneurship be? I came up with a few things
here, and I'll just give these
they're of no use to you. to you qu[LAUGHTER] because
Number one, no goals. [LAUGHTER]
How can you have
you're doing? goals when [LAUGHTER]o idea what
Goals are usually somebody else has foist it on
you anyway. People like to pretend that
whatever they may have achieved in life is what they intended to
but they're delusional. They're rationalizing what may
have been some pretty bad choices along the way.
It's like Toddlers and Tiaras,
Those kids are out there because right?
The desperate needs of their of their mothers' needs.
to have been a beauty queen. overweight, overbearing mothers
to pay for it. So these poor little kids have
rule of thumb is to do nothing Unless you're a Manning, a good
[LAUGHTER] that your parents have done.
many interesting, even profound, Goals are limiting
have taken. In Feldmaneurship, we get out
there and stumble over things.
wrong path, start over, and Take the stumble again.n on the
Eventually, you stumble over
Then it's a question of how I can keep having the same happy
accident over and over again. And, really, because you try
things and this doesn't work, that doesn't work, and to find
something that I could do then, and then the question of
actually doing it.
because I can talk, I can hold a So for me I said I can do radio
phone. microphone, and I can answer the
for doing a radio show. But then it's really a question
of actually developing the
come naturally. sYou have to have the talent.t
There has to be some talent there.
And that's a problem I've had in
There's stuff I really want to a lot of areas.
talent. Finally you find something, this
is something I can do.
talent. Then So that's the thing.p the
Number two, no ambition.
ambition I don't mean to be a stoner or whatever they're
called now. Are there still stoners?
What do you call someone who's
A stoner. l>> A stoner??
Cool. [LAUGHTER]
I'm down with that. By the way, in school, myself,
in high school in particular, I was very, not conservative but
just kind of... [LAUGHTER]
What does this mean?
A kid who's like this? What's a word for this?
I used to wear turtleneck dickies and white shirts, and
you could see the dickie outline
[LAUGHTER] underneath.
don't know what those are but they are little shoes that
actually had pennies. I'd take the pennies out because
I was cool. [LAUGHTER]
Black stay-press
eventually went to hush puppies. pants and penny loafers, and I
And white shirts. II looked like a junior.
accountant. My dad was an accountant.
Maybe I got it from him.
And I had a sense of humor and I don't know.
and stuff, but I was pretty stuff, anclosed off.tty funny
Whatever. That was me.
But the guys that I admired, we called them greasers in our day.
We had these greasers because of
They were the coolest guys in the world because they would
talk back to teachers and stuff,
my heart I wanted to do that. and II hated high school.ep in
It was all abuse of authority,
You needed a hall pass. No protests in our high school.
It never occurred to us to do that.
So the greasers were my heroes. They were pretty cool guys.
But anyhow, no ambition, don't
have to be just not to have be a stonerambition.hatever you
I don't know if we're all here
here and we can make up reasons. for a reason, but we are all
an overriding ambition. Those are usually imposed on you
anyhow. Rich and famous are the two
absolute worst ambitions you can
I think maybe you could be rich or famous.
That wouldn't be so bad, but if you have them both, it's not a
good thing because they sort of take over your life.
Ambition should be to do
if you do something you love to sdo then you'll never feel likee
I've wasted the past 30 years of
Motor Vehicles. Good job, probably gratifying in
some sense of the word, but it's
You wanted to dance. not what you wanted to do.
would say. So go for the love thing, I
your ambition is to make the Forgot the ambition thing unless
That's a good ambition I think. And there's no reason that
shouldn't pay good money. Ideally, you'll do something you
love and get paid for it. That's the only ambition.
Make mistakes.
constantly, repeatedly, same Very important to make mistakes,
You should have a wife there to onesconfirm all that.ain.
[LAUGHTER]
Or a husband who can tell you that, in fact, you're making the
same mistake. Of course that was a big mistake
in the beginning but never mind.
You think Edison [LAUGHTER]
inventions? didI bet he came up with handid
buzzers and nose hair trimmers
the light bulb and the and stuff, but he came up with
Of course he stole all those phonograph.
Without mistakes you never get ideas but still.
So make mistakes. anIt's normal..
Don't try to make them. That'd be weird.
But you'll make them. Roger Clemens even would hang
the occasional fastball in the
needle in his butt. letters and[LAUGHTER] occasional
So everyone makes mistakes is what I'm saying.
Still a great pitcher.
And I always think Columbus, Hope he gets off.
Big mistake. remember, was looking for India.
Money is only a problem when you Only a couple more of these.
Okay. It can't be money-oriented.
Definitely I have been broke, and it's a good thing to be
broke just to know what it's
And to know that you don't care likfor that feeling.ey.
At one point here, a low point
driving cab, I quit my one radio in my life, actually I was
by the way, don't ever do that job for some reason, on the air
[LAUGHTER] if you're on the air.
driving cab and was a terrible And so I ended up
Definitely not my life work. cab driver.
mile in Union Cab because I turned off the radio because I
didn't want to be bothered. [LAUGHTER]
Plus, I grew up on
grew up, and I didn't know there campus here, grew up, I guess I
Tetons. were sDid you know that?Grand
On the west side of Madison?
They'd say number 24, pick up Grand Tetons, and I had no idea
we had Grand Tetons in Madison. On the far east side of Madison
there are streets named after the developer's daughters.
So Donna. You've got to know developer's
daughters to know what street you're on.
It's a very confusing thing if
Broom Street, Bassett, cool. you've never been off campus.
By the way, Mifflin Street block party, Mayor Paul
Soglin was the first guy
Street block party. arrested Where was he?al Mifflin
I'm sorry.
Our motto was the streets belong It really bothers me.
We were wrong. to the people.
But why were there [LAUGHTER]
people were on the sidewalks, it horses in the street and the
situation, scenario. was the worst possible
happened than arresting Montee It's amazing nothing worse
[LAUGHTER] Ball.
Montee Ball? And who turned in
to, I'm not saying hurt him or We've got to find him, we've got
[LAUGHTER] anything, I'm just saying.
little bit. You know what I'm saying?
[LAUGHTER]
event of all time, I think. Do something you love.
I covered that one already. Finally, this is the last one in
Feldmaneurship, learn how to
It may seem inappropriate with dance.
mainly to the guys out there the other ones, but I guess
probably already know how to because most of the females
For women it's innate. dance.
It's an acquired skill. But it's a tremendous advantage
to you. You guys, you're still in the
sifting and winnowing, the great
mating game or whatever, and if you can dance it gives you, how
many times have you stood up in front of a band there while the
only girl there that you would
asked to dance by some guy who have wanted to dance with gets
Now, I'm not saying that would knows how to dance?
you know what I mean. have bLearn how to dance.u, but
Take some lessons.
it. Don'tThat's humiliating. doing
[LAUGHTER]
not learn how to dance unless he Because I guy does
and I had three older brothers. hNone of them taught me how.,
They taught me how to defend
to breathe with my neck being mypressed against the floor.ow
[LAUGHTER]
So I would say it's a tremendous But no dancing.
And that's what I would advise advantage.
So that's pretty much me in my to you.
It's not much but it's my life. lif[LAUGHTER]s.
So I would be happy,
so much about me but about, let's say, radio or broadcasting
or how do I get into this sort
If I can help you, I'd be surprised, but I'd be glad to
entertain any questions you might have.
The students know that they put their hands up, and then I
go ahead and hand off the mic.
I see one at the back. Do I see any hands?
She moves so well. >> So I'm watching her move.
your backpacks aren't in the way >> If you guys could make sure
Public Television there. of my running through.
I know your daughter Ellie, and I know she went to West.
I went to Memorial. Which high school did you go to
in Madison? >> I didn't go to one.
I taught at one.
I taught at Shabazz. >> Oh.
I'm from Milwaukee. I went to Milwaukee Washington.
Okay. I was just wondering.
Just curious. [LAUGHTER]
West has been our school here, though.
Both daughters went to West.
down front. >> Right here>> Hi.hen I'll come
My name is Michael. >> Hi.
I was just wondering, if you
one piece of advice while you were in college, what would that
be? >> Don't get married.
[LAUGHTER]
ever gave me advice, and Alright, okay, no one
expect you not to pay any attention to because I wouldn't
have either.
21, I was living with a certain person, and I thought I'm going
to get married because my brother Clayton got married when
he was 21 and he was still
now. married and he's still married
didn't marry the person that I But that was Clayton, and he
So I would say, for some reason I thought that I had to get in
line, in step, with expectations.
Get married, get a job. So I would say don't do that.
Are you crazy?
Hi. My name is Justin.
Hey, Justin.
coming. >>It was really enjoyable.r
Oh, thank you.
between old and new media. >> So you made the distinction
Your radio show is on the internet, how do you make that
connection, I suppose?
old media? How do you reach new people with
throw it through a window if >> I would tie it to a brick and
of the material. that's all, in terms of delivery
traditionally delivered. The material is very much
the internet and so forth. It's sort of repackaged through
friendly in the sense that it's not interactive, which would be
nice for me to do that more.
available in terms of I woubroadcasting.er is
We do have podcasts and so
listened to a podcast. forth, and I have never actually
you need. I don't kn[LAUGHTER]rt of pod
I think it's like a body snatchers thing where the
pod comes and takes over your body.
Replica of you kind of thing. But I'm not sure what the
technology is there.
interesting for all the reasons I fI said earlier, I guess.ery
It's sort of beyond me. Especially all the social media
part of it I, personally, don't get.
For you, I'm sure for all of you
You think about the cell phone it's like second nature.
long ago, but you grew up with thing really didn't hit that
So that's really totally that.
Michael, "Whad'Ya Know?" different orientation.
obviously gone through a lot of itransitions over the course of
the last 25 years.
riskiest thing you've ever done with the show when you think
back? >> Risky?
Yeah. >> I think showing up is the
biggest risk. Honestly, it's not a risk sort
of show.
No one's life is in danger by Do ythe doing of it.ean?
[LAUGHTER]
impact on some people listening for one reason or another.
I know that people have told me that their mother in the home,
she listened to the show and she
things that were happening back loved here in Wisconsin.r into
That sort of thing. So that's risk exactly but it's
sort of having an effect of some
So that does occur. And, really, what I like is not
so much the risk of it, it's
So I say all that stuff about social media, but for me radio
was maybe the original social media in that you go on the air
and you're talking to people
have the same point of view as around the country who maybe
funny, they're interesting, they you, or similar, and they're
are and where they're at, and I love that sort of connectedness.
To me, that's really what makes it interesting.
That's not really a risk thing. It's sort of a risk to put
yourself in that position.
You went through a lot of different positions, jobs,
careers, and, obviously,
very popular. Was there ever a point when you
realized you'd made it? >> No, not yet.
[LAUGHTER]
And I'm already in my decline. No.
feel like. It's sort of slipping away I
That's why it's an arch I guess. It's hard to maintain and arch.
Making it? But no.
Surprised that I'm still on? No.
So there's that. Yes.
long enough, you become grandfathered in, especially inn
public radio. Commercial radio, you probably
have a two-year life span before
format of your station. I've worked with commerciale
guys. They're always reformatting
stations. So you go in and it's jazz one
day, the next day it's Spanish
that jump comfortably. language, and you may not make
Public radio just goes on and on But that's commercial radio.
Any final questions for anMichael before we close?n.
Well, I know you all join me in thanking Michael Feldman.
[APPLAUSE] >> Thank you guys.