Michigan Golf Live 25th Anniversary – Origin Story

Michigan Golf Live is celebrating our 25th Anniversary season throughout 2024 and over the years, we’ve been frequently asked how it all got started.

Here, in long form, is the answer.

You’ll hear from MGL creator and host Bill Hobson, MGL alum (and now the radio voice of the Phoenix Suns) Jon Bloom, MGL TV Production Director Gregg Hall, and Michigan Broadcast Hall of Famer Art Lewis as we tell the story of a crazy idea that is still going strong after a quarter century!

0:00 – Introduction
4:22 – How it all began
18:50 – Jon Bloom on MGL Radio’s early days
48:22 – Thanks to Dad
49:19 – The launch of MGL TV
52:41 – Gregg Gall, MGL TV Production Director
1:39:53 – The days ahead, what’s next for MGL
1:50:04 – Final thoughts from Bill Hobson
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Today we’re bringing you a most unique story it’s not about a destination or a piece of equipment or innovation instead it’s The Story of Us and how Michigan golf live has been blessed to be here for 25 years celebrating the greatest game on earth we’ll share with you the

Key moments talk about some of the key people and have a lot of laughs along the way as we fill in the answers to the question I’m asked most frequently how did all this has come about Straight [Applause] Ahead hi friends Bill Hopson here and right at the very beginning let me say that if you’re a fan of long form storytelling then these next few moments are going to be right up your alley this is not one of those quick hit Top 10 three minute videos that you stumble

Across and are in and out of quickly because this is the backstory or the origin story of how Michigan golf live has been around now for 25 years still blows my mind to hear those words come out of my mouth and I start thinking how different was my life a quarter century

Ago and I’m wondering if you’ve asked yourself the same question some of you may very well have been with us throughout this entire 25y year Journey and there’s probably more than a few of you who have no idea what I’m talking about because you weren’t alive 25 years

Ago whatever the case what I want to lay out for you in the moments ahead is a story of gratitude of heartfelt thankfulness for all of the people and the key moments and the key lynchpin decisions that came about that helped launch our original Flagship program our radio show and the

People that said yes yes to that when it made no sense and then a few years later bringing in the television program and the Partnerships that have formed because of that over the last couple of decades and just really being able to tell that story from the standpoint of

Why did we do it what is it all about how does it work and how much longer do you think you’ll go right so we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and I I thought about a couple different approaches to bring all of this together one of them was I could

Just kind of put together a bullet point outline and walk in a monologue fashion through the entire history of mgl but I think that might even put me to sleep and so you’ll hear from a variety of voices as we move through the timeline a bit together we’ll talk to my original

Co-host John Bloom who is now the NBA voice for the Phoenix Suns we’ll talk with my director of production Greg Hall who has watched every swing I’ve ever made on camera and edited every show we’ve ever done the poor guy deserves some sort of recognition for that uh we’ll talk with

One of our crew members who just came on board with us the last few years but has some really good stories to tell and what we’ll try to do throughout the entirety of this storytelling exercise is say thank you to everybody who had a role in where we are today from our

Families to our crews to our partners and everybody else we can think of this is really fun this is really a special moment at least for me to realize how richly blessed I have been to be a part of this game and a part of Storytelling

For so very long so instead of taking the monologue approach I have asked one of my friends a member of the Michigan broadcast Hall of Fame by the name of art Lewis who has over 50 years as a radio host and is one of the preeminent interviewers that I’ve ever met I’ve

Asked asked him if he would kind of interview me asking the questions that many of you have asked over the years and maybe still are asking so we’ll start things off with my conversation with art and then you’ll hear from some of the other guests interspersed amongst

That interview I hope all that makes sense it’s the best way I could think of to tell the story of 25 years of Michigan golf live all right so Bill Hopson you’re sitting around in the late 90s assume earning a living for your family you go to your wife and you say

You know I think I’ll quit work and start a golf program tell us the history of the beginning of Michigan golf live which is going into its 25th season now yeah um well I didn’t quit work in fact work was never really busier at the time I was

Just doing lots of little broadcasting things along with a full-time job at the fox affiliate in Flint and I was um I was doing my 40h hour week job as part of promotions and programming I was uh hosting a daily Sports Talk show called Bill overdue on the

Radio uh was calling Sagen Valley football games play byplay and on Thursdays hosting the coaches show and for some odd reason this idea struck me about a golf show on the radio so I did I did have the conversation with my wife I hope so yeah I said I said well here I

Have an idea what I’d like to know what you think about it and she said I have two questions do you think you’ll get free golf and do you think we’ll go broke or both yeah and I said well I I think the golf part will work out okay

And I I kind of think that down the road this this might turn into something but the the original idea to talk about golf on the radio raised a few eyebrows as you can imagine because the concept on the surface really doesn’t make a lot of sense and thankfully we we didn’t just

Talk about golf we talked about people who happen to love golf and that’s kind of what launched us so this is you know 24 years ago going into your 25th season now it’s one thing to have an idea it’s another thing to sell the idea and find

That first radio station and you weren’t even in TV then you weren’t thinking of TV then right you have to find a radio station to put you on the air how’d you do that when you’re an unknown yeah completely unknown with a bizarre concept and I’m I’m eternally grateful for a gentleman

Who has since passed away but Roger bearwolf had been my general manager at the TV station I had gone through more general managers than the Lions used to go through quarterbacks uh but Roger was one of those guys that I really just really appreciated and admired and trusted and

As you know art having been in media for a long time not every manager meets those those key criteria well he left the TV station to go buy a couple of small radio stations in lington Michigan and manisty Michigan hardly major markets but I when I started to put some

Meat on the bones of the idea he was the first call I made in the professional realm and I said what do you think about this he gave me some really good advice and then he said and I believe in you enough that I’ll sign my two stations up

To be your first two Affiliates and it meant the world to me uh to have somebody say we’ll give you a crack and the first season of the show we had five small stations uh we had the lington manast markets we had Flint we had Lancing um and I can’t remember

Where else but they were relatively small signal stations I used to say that you could yell out your window and maybe reach as many people so we then you know we we had the foundation for a cobble together network but let’s all remember 25 years ago we were not dealing with internet

Smartphones apps social media right when we were talking about doing it live I then had to figure out how do I do this how do I get a show to any of these stations and then began to kind of do that research and learn that there are

Pieces of equipment you and I are talking on something right now that’s light years more advanced than what we had back then we we went out and purchased thousands of dollars of gear uh called a tie line which you plugged a phone line into and it upgraded the

Quality of the signal and sent it back to a an Uplink facility in Columbus Ohio called radio Sound Network and then they put it up on satellites which then distributed it to each of our stations who had to have a receiver uh needless to say when we got

Off the ground um we had a few dollars of technical expenses baked into all this and um so then then the search began for sponsorship to get see that’s the next question first you have to decide how you’re going to distribute the product now you have to tell your wife

How you’re GNA make money with it or at least not lose money or at least not lose money so what do you do I made a phone call to a guy I had never met before he was the uh marketing director for the Buick open PJ danhoff I will forever be grateful PJ

And I said we’ve never met I have an idea I’d like to run by you can I have you know 10 minutes of your time and we were on the phone there was no Zoom back then we were just talking on the phone and I described to him where I thought

It could go and I said here’s here’s my proposal to you I have figured out that it’s going to cost to me hard up just straight out of my pocket costs $400 a week to do this show to pay for the satellite time that was it that’s not me

Getting anything that was just doing it and I said if the Buick open will sign on to be our title sponsor I will never change your price and I said for the first few years that’s probably not a great deal for you I think after we get established it

Probably turns into a good deal for you and your price will never change and for some reason uh PJ said we’ll do he probably said it because it didn’t mean that much MoneyWise to them but to me again this is a pretty big deal he said

We’ll do it yeah and we began a relationship until the end of the Buick open that every spring we would have a phone call and he would say how much is it this year and I would say same as it was the first year and he would look at

He would say to me you know you’re crazy right I said no we made a deal and um that deal then became a good deal for them and thankfully other partners joined in and we began to actually turn a profit instead of just covering our our cost for satellite time and the joke

Here is 25 years later you’re doing the show and the PGA eliminated the Buick open because Buick went away yeah for sure and that was such a heartbreaking 2009 when Congress began to demonize golf during the auto bailouts and they how dare these companies sponsor things like golf tournaments so the bwick went

Away and along with three others because they had four tournaments if I remember right yeah they did um and to this day now we fast forward to 2024 the PGA Tour is at risk of losing a lot of its corporate sponsors because of all of the the dollars that are flying around but

Back then it was an innocent time there was a young guy by the name of eldric woods coming on the scene yeah when he made his appearance in Warwick Hills uh it was the Beatles landing on the Ed Sullivan Theater stage it was crazy um and those are some of my favorite times

That we’ve had over the years all right so let’s talk about a couple of things over these 25 years first of all let’s talk about the game because without the game you don’t have a show how has the game changed and how have you had to adapt to it over these 25

Years you know most of what we have done as a show features and focuses on places and people um and occasionally we weave in tournaments and professional tour coverage but that’s not really been our lifeblood we haven’t been the place you would go for for breaking news really

Until social media came about so the game how it has changed really is it went from a minimal connection to the professional world to the tiger era where the majority of the conversation was centered around the professional world world and then in these last two

Years it has started to go back on the other side of that scale to where most of the conversation is disgusted with like dis just being disgusted with the way that professionals are handling all of the money and all of these things with live golf and the PGA Tour whether

Or not tournaments are going to be able to continue at these elevated purses and the and the conversations have gone back to hey where do you like to play where do you go with your with your buddy’s trip where do you like to get away well

That’s kind of always been our core um and I think part of that stability and storytelling of these special places and um trip memories and that kind of thing I think that’s stayed uh a connected point to a lot of our audience and um I’d like to think that as we head into

24 with this really turbulent world of professional golf that we’ll keep doing what we’ve done which is yeah Hey listen the pros are really really good they’re playing for Monopoly money none of us can relate to that yeah so let’s celebrate them when they’re here but let’s not Center

Our joy of the game on what they’re doing because if we did that we’d all be miserable one of the things that I’ve noticed over the years of course when you started out in the first many years of your program it was all about men’s

Golf the lbga has come on in the last few years and come on strong and uh you’re doing a little more inclusivity when it comes to the women in golf now aren’t you yeah well for for several reasons number one when we first uh came

Into being 24 years ago uh the LPGA had a minimal presence in the state of Michigan they did a tournament in Lancing the olds classic old mobile classic but then it went away for a long time and it wasn’t until Meyer brought back the LPGA um over in Grand Rapids

For the Meer LPGA classic that our state was once again back on the regular rotation and then of course in the middle of the state at at the Midland Country Club the dowo Great Lakes Bay Invitational became the lpga’s only team event and it you couldn’t I mean you

Talk about writing a script for success and corporate involvement and Community Support it’s great and here’s my favorite part art you can talk to the ladies you you can’t absolutely cannot talk to the guys on the PGA tour right now until you go through a the tour for

Permission uh their agents for Access and then if you get the player after he shot a 75 he doesn’t want to talk to you anyways and it just it became such a drudgery to try to just have a conversation um I remember back in the

Old Buick open days we could go out to the range we could go up with a microphone and if not while the guy’s practicing but before or after he’s in his rhythm you can have a five-minute interview you can sit down with him for a while we we’ve had some Great

Encounters over the years but in the last 10 15 years PGA Tour guys they they they are not that enjoyable to talk with at least during the tournament yeah you happen them outside it’s better and the champions tour guys are great because they’re just grateful for the chance to

Play for a living but you’re right we we’ve really turned our attention a lot to the ladies game and and a lot more ladies are playing the game these days and and through that and you and I have done this uh at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational one of the Dow ambassadors

Is Corey paven yeah sat down with him for an hour at a time just chatting and you probably couldn’t have done that in the old days no uh you couldn’t and it wouldn’t necessarily be because Corey wouldn’t have wanted to but it would have been because the tour has somehow

Decided that its role is to control and limit communication from players um well you see how well that’s working for the they’re a disaster right now and part of it is uh they they manage they micromanage every utterance that comes from a player or every picture or every

Little video clip and my favorite example of that bizarre Big Brother ask approach by the tour is that if you if you go out to the rocket mortgage classic at Detroit Golf Club as a fan you take your phone with you of course because they used to try to stop that

But you can’t do that anymore you can take any video clip you want you can post it to your social accounts you can have all the fun you want but if you’re wearing a media credential you have already signed off on a form that says the tour owns anything you capture and

You can’t post any of that stuff of actual players or actual competition you can’t post any of that to your account in other words we don’t want the exposure you might provide we want only the exposure we have orchestrated and people can kind of see through that and

It’s just silly the way that they’ve done it so um again LPGA is is so much more enjoyable to work with with your permission or even without your permission I’m going to jump in here for just a quick moment and interrupt my conversation with art Lewis to bring

Into the story line another key figure from the early days of Michigan golf live when we launched the radio show 25 years ago John Bloom was a key part of that effort back in that day he was working in Detroit radio and has since gone on to become the radio play-by-play

Voice for the Phoenix Suns Bloomer and I have remained friends all these years and it’s really a cool part of our history to hear how he and I came together and then kind of poured ourselves into getting the radio show off the ground here’s John Bloom any time I reflect on the origin

Days of Michigan golf live I have to get in touch with my buddy John bloom who for at least a few seasons would make the drive from Detroit to my home studio which was about I don’t know Bloomer an hour and 45 minutes away in the dark of

The early morning hours at I don’t know 45 a um I don’t know why you did it but I’m I’m glad you did and and now you know we look at Bloomer now he’s the voice of the Phoenix Sons it’s so fun to see how your career has moved along

Let’s let’s go back though and fill in some of the origin story blanks um on Michigan golf Live’s early days including your memories of how you and I ever even met yeah absolutely and and this is exciting and fun for me Bill because you know while you’ve continued

To broadcast uh all over the Midwest and to everybody who is smart enough to listen whenever they have a chance uh to improve their golf game or just be entertained uh because you do it as good as anybody does and I’m not just saying that to to rise you up because you asked

Me to join you in this Venture years and years ago uh it’s just the truth uh and so uh I remember when I first got to Detroit uh I had graduated Syracuse you know it was 97 um in the midst of uh the the absolute Heyday of hockey town and the

Red Wings winning cups uh Barry Sanders and the Lions the tigers being a dumpster fire and getting ready to finish off Tiger Stadium uh and uh the Pistons were kind of just middling they just were not in a in a great place your Michigan Wolverines were destined for

The Rose Bowl to win a National Championship this was painting the picture of when I entered Michigan for the first time in my life to take my first job in radio with sports radio 11:30 the fan in Detroit and at that point in time I had no clue how in love

With this sport of golf the people of not just Detroit but Michigan in general were and still are obviously uh and I quickly found out to the point where I begged the program director at the time it was named Greg Hensen you may recall

He had a show of his own the Jamie and Greg show very popular show uh rest in peace Jamie samon every time I get a chance to mention that man I like to uh he was an amazing individual great broadcaster even better person and we

Miss him uh we miss him di uh but on Greg Henson’s part he hates golf still hates Golf and I begged hey can we get a golf show in here this is an all sports radio station in a golf hot bed let’s talk some golf and it took months and

Months and finally he’s like all right Bloomer I’m gonna let you have a show it’s going to be Saturday mornings from 6:00 to 7 am and I said okay I’m in 600 to 7 am so when you mentioned bill that I got up at 4 or 4:30 or 5 to drive to

Millington which I believe was the mailing address if I’m not mistaken yeah back in the early days lived in a on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and broadcast from a studio that was built into my home crazy yes by the way this is back before podcasts this is back

Before smartphones this is back before websites really were were very commonly uh associated with programs we were doing live radio I mean like the live kind of radio that is not done as much anymore we had a tiine that’s the name of the piece of equipment that we would

Use from my studio to dial into a Distribution Hub in Columbus Ohio Ohio I remember it being Ohio yeah radio Sound Network and that facility would then send the signal up to all of the mgl radio Affiliates around the state of which at that time there were seven or

Eight and um it was a technological tight RPP walk every single week because it didn’t didn’t really take much wrong it was all analog it was all phone lines and if something went wrong you were just dead you just had dead air and and you would drive this is this is before

We started to take the show out onto the road every week now you know right goodness for the last 20 years I don’t do any shows from a studio we do them on location at different Resorts and destinations but back then Bloomer is pumping some coffee in this is pre Red

Bull this is pumping the coffee in this is driving up to Mill inton at o dark 430 and if I was there we’d do it together or if I was out on location you’d be back in the studio to handle all the connections and all that stuff I

I don’t know what I paid you but it wasn’t nearly enough to do what you did Hey listen for me at that point in time all things considered uh it was probably my best gig because I got paid with what I love I got to go play golf with you

And go get to go have these experiences which was fantastic and playing a whole bunch of outings but I want rewind the tape a little bit back to when all this stuff started because we didn’t connect the dots I was doing the first te as we

Called it that was before the the first tea organization had even been built so I thought I was all creative 6: am in the morning it’s got to be the first tea that’s name uh so I I have not taken my royalties since they’ve started the organization based on my trademarking

And patenting uh mishaps yeah uh but so then you and I meet at a Buick open media day and uh and and that’s when kind of this all started germinating because we were sharing uh not just a a really fun round of golf and Outing at Warwick Hills uh

Which was such a fun place and I had no idea all the memories that I would end up having there uh in the coming years after this initial meeting with you uh but I know we shared a common uh Foe on the golf course that we quit that I

Quickly uh understood like how these events would go and there would normally be a a sim a similar name would would make his way to the top of almost all the leader boards and so that initially bonded us because we have a you know even though bill is just such a calm

Like generous kindhearted Soul he does have a little competitive fire in him I don’t know if you know this about him there’s a little competitive fire in Bill Hopson and I love that part of you bill because you know there’s a little bit more than a little of fire inside me

And I certainly have leted it out over the years with you but in this case we got to share having a common Foe and I think it it initially forged this Bond I was so excited to hear about the possibility of joining forces with you not just because I felt like it was

Going to expand my horizons and what I was doing but uh you know look the the idea of driving a couple hours through and by the way there was some crazy fog that would develop over some of the like little ponds and lakes on the way to

Millington I would have a lot of fun and sometimes not all the time but sometimes there wouldn’t be any sleep at all uh for your boy on his way to your studio I would have been out because consider I was 25 years old I wasn’t necessarily singling and mingling but I was not

Necessarily married yet and we were having some fun in our young 20s with my wife you know she was in the picture but we had a group of friends we would go out and sometimes I’d be like you know guys I got a golf show in the morning uh

I this is the threshold I’m either going home now and getting three hours of sleep or let’s just run it and and I’ll leave straight from here and I’ll go to Bill Studio well okay so let me back up first of all uh to to paint the picture

Of what media days used to be like um when a PGA Tour or an LPGA event comes into town about three weeks to a month prior they would have a media day where there would be a press conference featuring the corporate sponsor and the club uh leadership and they would

Basically hpe up ticket sales for the event about a month out and as part of that day you know you would be wellfed and then you’d get to go play the golf course and in those earlier stages of this show which turned out to be kind of

The final decade of the Buick open uh the Buick open media day was also a very Loosely run competition there would be like Pro shopped Pro Shop gift certificates for the work but they wouldn’t they would not vet anybody’s handicap you would just give them handicap when you registered for it you

Could tell them whatever you wanted to well I I just gave them my number back then I don’t know what it was but it was it was probably nine or 10 or something I don’t even know Y and every year I don’t mean a few years I mean all of the

Years all of the media days were won by the same individual who by the way is still active in the media and it was a foregone conclusion when you pulled into the parking lot at Warwick Hill Hills you already knew who was going to win

The event and we began to call it using that person’s last name if it was Bloomer which it wasn’t it would be like the bloom invitation and we were all nice ring to it yes all just part of this guy’s day as we’re all coming through and then on those rare occasions

Where you would um because Warwick Hills is an old school design where the nines kind of parallel each other so you can see a lot of golf while you’re on the course and every once in a while you look over at this guy’s group and you’d

See him hit a shot you know a grounder or some sort of a hle rocket and then later on he’s turning in a net 61 and you’re like what’s going on out here and so that’s really what kind of bonded Bloomer and myself together I should also point out that when he

Mentions uh the fan wdf fan 11:30 a.m. in Detroit at that time it was the only Sports Talk Show in that town in a Major Market they had the run of the shop that’s changed in the years since because a competing company got smart enough to put Sports Talk on the FM and

Then went and bid for a lot of live play-by-play rights back when people wanted to listen to more Detroit teams than just the Lions and but in those days Bloomer I mean that was the place to be uh that was lineup and you were and still are the the the guy who would

Do anything that was asked of him to be a an incredibly reliable team player but B because I I think you realized then and you still do all the way up till now when you got this gig as the voice of the Suns that reps count reps matter you

Know Gladwell says 10,000 hours he’s not kidding it takes it takes reps to get your your skills home to find your own voice to where you’re not just imitating somebody else’s voice and all of those things to let your own person personality come out and so way back

When we were doing the show we were both still finding what that sounded like and what that what that was going to end up being like and I think now that we’ve both arrived at not just our voices but I I try not to be a whole lot different

On the air than I am in real life and I know you’re like that too but it wasn’t like that at the beginning we’re we’re always trying to figure out how all this works together and for some reason the Lord blessed me with a partner who was

Who was just ready to fit right in like a glove and and tirelessly help grow the pirate ship I remember doing some Buick open um special shows I remember one time we were set up out on the patio of what then was a VIP Chalet they’ve

Changed a lot over the years since then of course but back was kind of a Cutting Edge thing and I remember Fred Funk walking by our location this would never happen in today’s PGA Tour we would all be tasered in dragged out by our feet if

We attempted this but as he walked by I think you went over to him and said would you mind joining us for a couple moments on our show and this guy comes up plops down doesn’t know either one of us from Adam and spends I don’t know how

Much time but a lot of time just talking to awesome and it was one of those moments like I think this might work I mean this is kind of fun it’s not just the two of us talking about destinations or or news but I think this could work and

Here we are 20 2 years later and it still works because it’s all part of Storytelling and um I I I don’t think we would be at this place had you and I not been able to kind of get it off the ground no dud I’m and and it’s I’m

Having so many uh great memories kind of flash uh through my head as you’re talking bill because you taught me so much about enabling people to tell their stories and even people who are the most uncomfortable people on a microphone that you can imagine and a lot of those

People happen to find themselves into the golf industry somehow but but you get into these places and you meet these general managers and these head professionals and I watched you work and I learned so much from your approach to these folks because I’ve had to deal

With that all through my career as a reporter as a host as a broadcast play-by-play guy whatever it happens to be a lot of times you’re going to be in a situation where the person that you’re with whether it’s you’re interviewing them whether they’re your partner at the

Time whatever it happens to be they’re just not comfortable and you know uh you happen to have that Comfort level and and it took a while for me to create that Comfort level especially on camera that’s where you really taught me a ton you were so smooth and comfortable on

The camera as if it wasn’t there so I kind of tried to feel like it wasn’t there because I didn’t have those reps when you talk about reps I had a lot more radio reps still do than I have TV reps but when I have done TV I credit

Bill a ton with getting me to be comfortable yeah I went through you know uh classes for it at Syracuse and I interned at TV stations and I I you know done uh onair work but it’s not the same when you don’t do it for a living uh and

You don’t get a ton of reps and I started getting reps and then of course I make a trip to Costa Rica without my partner bill doesn’t even go and we film a half hour TV show with Greg and the crew and I wanted to touch on that too

Because the crew that you put together the team you had I don’t want to take all the credit it’s it’s the fact that we came together when we did and people were in on it not looking for a big paycheck we all kind of wanted to have the experience and sometimes when you’re

Building something that’s what it takes it takes that people are on the same page with a common kind of goal it’s not that we’re all in it to get rich and a lot of businesses are built with that really the sole purpose that had nothing

To do with this we were in love with the sport of golf we wanted to share that love with the people of Michigan and and around the Midwest we knew loved the sport because we saw it with our own eyes and our ears we heard it whenever

We talked to them and whenever they would open up and share those stories that bill would be so great at getting out of them and then I just try to be the goofball and that’s the other thing I picked up from you is Bill’s a little

Goofy too he’s goofy in a different way than me but’s he’s got a great sense of humor and whenever we finally did get out on the road or playgrounds of golf or travel I think you know there was a lot of moments where I felt like wow

This is great off the air it’s got to be great on the and and eventually we did kind of take those personalities that we both were creating ourselves and brought it on the air and I love doing it I absolutely that that’s why I got up to

Drive the couple hours every Saturday or stayed up all night and pulled the all nighter to do it it wasn’t you know because of the money or anything like that it was just so much fun I was just having a conversation uh two weeks ago

With a young man from my church he comes up to me after the service is over I’ve never met him before he’s 19 he’s got a YouTube channel that has like 50,000 subscribers to it which makes me very jealous and it’s all about golf but it’s

Just he and his buddy and basically it it looks kind of like they’re just out with their with their iPhones just taking pictures of each other hitting shots and then making comments to the beverage cart girl it was just really weird stuff but maybe it’s a different

Generation but anyways he says to me how do uh how do we kind of break through to the Next Level and I said well how long have you been at it goes oh we started the channel about about 6 months ago and uh our we just want to we just want

Really want to get free off and I said well how many reps how many hours would you say you’ve got into this he’s like well you know make an hour a week or two hours a week maybe I said okay first of all get in touch with me when you’ve got

About about 10,000 hours in and you’ve finally figured out what this looks like because it’s it’s not just about free golf and and you and I both in those early days would have been pretty darn uh happy content with just invitations to play wherever we wanted to go and

Play I remember when I started the radio show I asked my wife beforehand what she thought and she said I have two questions do you think you’ll get to play a lot of golf for free and do you think we’ll go broke and that it you

Know and I said well pretty sure the golf thing will happen I I don’t think go broke I have an idea on maybe how this can grow and back then I had TV kind of off in my distant thoughts but um you know it’s funny it’s it’s not

Just about the transactional nature of all of this it’s about the relational nature uh you’ve built that over the years everywhere you have gone which is why so many people still call Bloomer their friends in in Detroit even though he hasn’t lived here for 20 years um and

Where we go now I like to think that a lot of the destinations that we broadcast from both on radio and TV I think they’ve become friends over the years when somebody leaves or loses their job I I send them a note I feel it it’s it’s more

Than U it’s more than just the invoice being sent but over all this time if I have asked you to share your story that’s because I care about your story well that doesn’t just stop if we don’t do business together right that’s that’s got to got to continue and here you know

Bloomer you and I have not really done a broadcast together in in a couple of decades and yet we still have this friendship that will go until the end of time because we care about each other’s story and that’s kind of to me that’s why we do this and that’s why you do

What you do down there yeah and and I think it’s great because I remember when we would uh go out and meet with uh different courses or course operators or Resorts and we would share the story of Michigan golf live uh and obviously the goal at that

Time was to really you know uh get another partnership uh lined up and we would look to you know whether we were going to the Golf Show or the Expo Center uh to to you know make our way from tent to tent I remember those days

As well and sometimes we would be seeing familiar faces where we’d already done shows and they would be like hey guys the M jail guys and they would want us back and immediately sign up for the next year well that told me all I needed to know okay when I saw the response

That bill would get uh from you know people that had only done the show once or twice because again I joined pretty early in the days of mgl uh and and how they would react and then not just from the standpoint of maybe they felt like

They got the bang for their Buck because that’s a lot of things when it comes to sales is we we feel we we we have to have the value but I think it was the relationship and it was the fact that they felt so special that they were able

To share their story in the way that you gave them the opportunity to do so Bill it’s the truth it’s the platform for it and and part of that is the the way you built the show we w we weren’t really rigid with like having certain elements

Have to be in certain places through the couple of hours that we were on the air so if a guy was available at the beginning of the show to join us and talk about his story then that’s what we’re going to do and I think your

Flexibility is big and that’s a that’s a message I think if you’re young and you want to get into broadcasting and you’re listening to this take that it’s not just the hours and the Reps but it’s doing those hours and Reps with purpose and understanding what works and what

Doesn’t work and I think you had a really good feel for that when it comes to just making people comfortable and that that’s the best way I can put it making people comfortable making the listener comfortable at home or whether they’re driving a truck or whether they

Happen to be tuning in and making the people that we’re broadcasting with often times the most UNC again I want to stress this for some reason Golf Course operators might be the most awkward humans okay I know Bill’s laughing but I know he knows I’m not lying with this

Yeah yeah and and I I appreciate the investment they’ve made I find the same thing often similar with superintendent these guys have a skill set and a work ethic that I am extremely jealous of but in front of a microphone it’s not always very good fit I can remember talking

With one of the best known uh superintendents in the entire Midwest and I won’t give his name here because um you you’ll see why um I was leading into a question about how he does what he does but I asked it probably in too flowery it just took me forever to ask

The question and by the time I got to the actual so how do you do it he looks at me and he goes what no I he wasn’t paying the least bit of attention throughout all of that and U there is a responsibility on the part of the host

Whether it’s me doing what we do here or whether it’s you doing the pregame show with the Suns or whatever it is um there’s a responsibility on the host to get to the Comfort level of the person you’re interviewing I kind of like to say that Michigan golf live just sounds

Kind of weird we’re not really a show about golf we’re a show about people who enjoy Golf and the more that we can tell those stories to them the better the feedback and the better the stories are going to be coming out on the other end

So that’s kind of where where we go uh with all those interview moments and um I’ve got I’ve got to run a moment by you Bloomer and see how well you remember this moment this had this had no microphones this had no cameras we were just out playing golf at a course I

Believe it was Moose Ridge yeah which is in the for those sou elsewhere it’s a South Lion sort of an hour outside of Detroit area and we rep paired with a just a random guys this’s three of us we didn’t know this other gentleman and Bloomer has got a I think a three-wood

In his hands or some he’s going big he takes the fullon swing just flushes this ball and about six and a half seconds later like a bean bag dropped from the heavens Falls a robin Just As Dead As a doorknob I be just it somehow in in the infinite possibilities

Of the universe Bloomer’s rocket takes out this bird and we are unable to stand upright I am I am doubled over I am I’m dead I am crying I’m laughing so hard Bloomer is just dying laughing and this guy that we repaired with was a gas at our

Insensitivity to the loss of this precious creature and ah Bloomer I don’t know how well you remember that moment but whenever I think of playing golf with Bloomer I have that moment and one other that I’ll share in a moment do do you remember oh I’m a little concerned

I’m concerned about the second moment but at the same time I do remember it vaguely uh one of my better birdies uh and at the same time uh I was somewhat surprised at uh the reaction of our uh playing partner because yeah you and I had a similar response uh was that pre

Randy Johnson hitting the bird off the mound I think I did it first yeah I think you were first and clear clearly you did it on purpose that’s why this gentleman was so offended because I’m just that good I mean you see me I don’t

Use a gun in ski shooting I just tee up a ball and a three-wood and that’s I pull and I’m that accurate the the other moment that I think of pretty Qui quickly is we’re playing at Oak curst with your friend and now now my friend Aaron oberholzer yes Golf Channel who

Was playing on the PGA tour at the time um I was playing like a beginner that day it was horrible I was probably trying to impress the tour pro I don’t even know but I could I was terrible and uh Bloomer holes out from a million

Miles away from the woods out of the rough holes out just just cans it and for that one moment in time won the hole from the guy who was about to play at the Buick open and anytime I connect with oberholzer uh we revisit that moment and yes me too except I

Connect with him a little more often so I can’t do it every time but I do like to to fold it in because I stole the tea he was actually playing great I think he birded maybe three holes in a row including that hole but I pulled out for

The deuce it was an eagle on the par 46 that o curse which is I think a 450 460 yard hole from where we were playing I had about a buck 60 out of the rough and I looked at him I’m like this is going

To be a flyer isn’t it and he’s like yeah I think I think it will be so I clubbed down hit a little less club and there was a group up by the green they started yelling we didn’t see it Go in uh and when they start yelling I’m like

What really that that went yeah let’s go that’s I think I consider that my best shot I do have one hole in one in my life and that was at Tanglewood so apparently I love South Lion courses that’s where I hit kill birds and also

Make my only hole in one uh and uh that was not nearly as good of a shot that was lucky this one was a one of my finest moments on a golf course and just the company having you and and Aaron there was was what made it so good oh

Man Bloomer we could go on for a long time thank you for being part of the formative years of this show and uh we’re we’re proud to see where you are now man keep it going and we will connect hopefully on green grass next

Summer oh I can’t wait to do it I can’t wait to play golf with you uh Michigan golf live fans if you’re listening uh and you come out to Arizona and you’re at a Suns game come find me maybe we’ll get a round of golfing out here in the

Desert and then in the summer times the plan is always come back to the great state of Michigan you know uh we we eventually find our way back there and hopefully we will do so for more extended periods of time over the course of the years and we’ll continue going

Down memory lane keep mgl going bill it’s needed out there I know the golf fans of the Midwest not just Michigan of all over the Midwest uh have a connection with this show just like I do and thanks for uh bringing me down memory lane today I almost forgot you’ve

Got a prop next to you in your Zoom window for those who are watching the video version of this hold that flag up you want to see the the evolution of branding this is logo from year one made in some sort of software program that thankfully went away many years ago but

This was the script red green blue mgl logo that yours truly just carved out of some bizarre 190 Windows one hey I’ve kept it in pretty good shape my man it looks pretty good you might want to get that right over to uh to the new Hall of Fame location at

Pinehurst they won’t want it but try to hide it in there somewhere so I can say we have something in the World Golf Hall of Fame how’d you like my prop work with the duct tape didn’t that go pretty well it’s pretty good I mean you talk about

Resourceful if it wasn’t play byplay for you it would be astronaut I’m sure exactly definely that that’s the next uh logical step well I uh I honestly feel like Michigan golf live is a big reason why I have had any success in broadcasting and it’s not uh blowing

Smoke it’s because of those hours of time spent and doing different things and trying to be comfortable when I wasn’t necessarily comfortable and helping other people do the same and it is all skills that can uh help in so many different ways not just broadcasting patients is a dad of two

Teenage daughters that helps in that realm as well sometimes our new motto making people uncomfortable for a quarter Century there no you’re making them comfortable you’re taking them from uncomfortable to comfortable you don’t flip it I love it hey thanks buddy much appreciated thanks Billy be good my best

To the family hey before we completely leave behind the radio chapter of Michigan golf lives history just one more note of thanks to a very important person that’d be my dad in each home that I have lived in he has actually built for me a broadcast studio it’s

Really quite remarkable he’s got an amazing set of skills and even though he doesn’t really know the technical nuances of what broadcasting entails at every step of the way he has been one of the best cheerleaders for what we’re doing so I just want to take a moment to

Say thank you for all the hard work uh I don’t possess any of those skills I can talk but you don’t want me with a hammer in my hands uh and he’s got that ability and it’s truly a gift from from above so thank you Dad for all of that

Hard work now let’s resume the conversation I was having with art Lewis leading us now from the radio chapter of Michigan golf live into the launch of our TV program you started out in radio when did you decide that you needed to put a picture with it

Um about five years in so our TV show is coming up on its 20th year um again let’s think about the different landscape that long ago uh we had in the in the Detroit or in the Michigan region we had like um pass that was the the

Network that the Tigers were on it was pass out of Detroit it later became uh Fox Sports Detroit which is now balet Sports Detroit but that was the original iteration of it but there wasn’t really an all pervasive outlet for local programming unless you wanted to be on

PBS and one of the guys who was so kind to me who had a show on PBS for a couple decades Larry aderly since has passed away um he spent a lot of time talking with me about how you can put these things together um I didn’t really have

The desire to go the PBS route because I wanted to to have it be a bit more commercially supported uh but we started thinking about how fun would it be to take a half hour program and start featuring destinations both in Michigan and then all over the place all over the country

All over the world um and so we had our first couple of shoots I was just looking back through some pictures and talking with um our production director one of our first shows ever was in New Mexico in Albuquerque and when you go back and look at the video clips from that

Show there was no such thing as high death it looks like we shot those things on a Seventh Generation VHS tape that had the wrinkles in it that had all the the funky colors but at the time art we felt like we were you know Brent

Musberger at CBS in the network Booth it was the coolest thing ever um we didn’t have drones then we had we used a helicopter we were terrified we were leaning out the passenger door of a helicopter to shoot aerial footage but at the time it was all that was possible

Nobody else was doing it and it started to kind of open some doors for us when other destinations started to see hey there’s some there’s some cool things happening with this little little group out of Michigan when I hear myself say the phrase that little group out of Michigan

I’m reminded of how our television Journey actually started and that was really on a wing in a prayer we really had no idea if anybody would watch a show that we would put together but fortunately I was blessed by getting to know and working alongside a young man

With a sincere and serious dedication to producing quality video content he has been responsible for capturing basically every swing I have made on camera at every destination and editing every one of our television shows over all these years so I take this moment to interrupt my conversation with art Lewis to

Introduce all of you to our director of production for the show Greg Hall and hear his stories from the other side of the lens well there really is no way to tell the story of Michigan golf live without including our director of production since day one when we did

Television uh Greg Hall uh when I say 25 years to you what first comes to mind I can’t believe it’s been that long we just started didn’t we I know yes we were both kids you were well often when we’re out on shoots people will come up and ask us various

Questions and one of them is almost always U how did all this come about or how did it start or where did it all come together and they’ll ask where did you guys first meet um so the answer to that question because Greg has has captured on video every swing I’ve made

For the TV show and edited every show we’ve ever done which I don’t know how you’re still upright after all that uh but we actually met back when you were a teenager right so why don’t you fill in the blanks uh yeah so we uh as I see we

Get this straight so I always wanted to be in television from grade school and uh so I uh went to to a local televis station they kind of some Engineers took me out the wings and taught me all the uh basics of how broadcast works I met

You there at the TV station and then uh um as I learned my skills and from there and you wanted to do a TV show that’s uh that’s when I said I said yeah I says I think we can easily make this happen and just to kind of color that in

A little bit more um I was working at the TV station when Greg as part of an Explorer troop which is sort of like I guess Boy Scouts would come in maybe every other week I’m not sure and you were earning or you were at least investigating and learning all these

Engineering and broadcast related little bits of knowledge and you just never left right yeah that’s it’s a great story I don’t want to get too much into you know it’s all about me since this is about mgl but uh yeah years back uh I I couldn’t it before I can even drive so

My parents would drop me off uh this was like an it’s it’s called the Explorers Group which was in older boy scoop so Boy Scout so this is the next level uh if you continue down and uh and the idea is is to learn a skill trade and uh and

This you know and this skill trade would be broadcasting um I would come in every other week uh and then we would sit down and we would learn the equipment uh eventually what would happen is that that class would dwindle down as the as uh the students would you know they

Would they do what they need to do and they’re gone yeah I stuck around and I wanted to do more and I wanted to do more and uh it got to one point where the engine the engineers or the staff knowing that I can drive would come over

To the house during the summertime pick me up go do you know go and take me somewhere we would do that job they would come back drop me off and then they would go back to work uh my parents were full they’re like on board they’re like this is great he is learning

Everything about broadcasting and we don’t have to pay anybody they’re just doing it and uh so yeah so when I got when I got went through grade school and when I started able to drive I actually came in and started doing a temporary uh help at once at at first and then I

Became temporary to part-time still in school still in high school at this point still violating all the child labor laws no command there may be some child labor laws in there but I will say again my parents were like very on board uh and uh okay so there there were times

I just want everybody to understand this and it’s not this way anymore at all in any broadcast stations but back in the day when everything was analog and you were using actual tapes and it was um you know commercials and programs were often triggered literally By Hand by

Hitting a button watching a clock U there were times when Greg as a teenager before getting driver’s license was the only human being in the station running what what really was a multi-million dollar broadcast entity by himself like on the weekends in a in a room called

Master control so to say that you were a a pretty observant student and earned the trust of everybody I think it’s borne out by the fact that they just left you to your own just kind of just sitting in the building by yourself for 12 hours at a time I still remember my

Dad when he picked me up and there’s nobody in the parking lot and my dad goes who’s in the building I’m like no one just me my dad was just like I don’t get how do they just let a teenager just run around a station he goes it’s got

Expensive equipment I’m like oh yeah yeah fair question very fair question um and so I was working at the station at the time um we won’t name the station because we don’t want to get anybody in trouble but I was working there at the time as well and that’s where Greg and I

First connected but this is far before Michigan golf live was even a glint in anybody’s eye but over a number of years uh as Greg began to develop he got out of the master control room he got you know he moved into production and started to learn all the intricacies of

Shooting video editing and how cameras literally work like the hardware side of things from an engineering perspective and even though um even though we have we have long since lost the two Engineers that were a part of that educational process I’m thankful for them to this day because you have had to

Fix things that I’ve broken so many times and I think they were part of that that instruction so to to John Grover and John Proctor and their families you know thank you for taking the time to Mentor a young guy who who showed a passion for all things production and

Engineering the passion that he still has to this day I don’t know Greg if you are where you are today without those two guys I I it wouldn’t be and uh the funny thing is since you mentioned them uh they uh you gotta remember when I got

Into that program you had to be in high school but I wasn’t I was in grade school and I lied about my age to get in so that that was another thing so when if we talk about so and then of course I tried at some point I had to explain to

Him that uh yeah I haven’t gone through I haven’t gone through I’m sorry High School in six years uh you know it didn’t take six years to go through high school so uh I I had to find finally pass up to him I was like I lied and I

Remember I remember Grover’s exact words was yeah we know and uh and and I was just like you know and he’s like he’s like yeah uh he says he goes you were passionate know exactly what I’m to do you you know he says not every student

In here that came and want you know had the the drive that you wanted he says we’re not going to say no to that and uh I like I said So yeah thank them uh my my whole career is set you know sets on the the generosity of those two

Gentlemen oh that’s really cool do you have any recollection of when I first talked with you about doing a television show about golf destinations I I really don’t remember the conversation but obviously it took place within the walls of the TV station yeah if I recall uh

You were you were dabbling the radio uh if I recall and uh well it does it does go back to even summer swing michig summer swing so there was times we did that but I remember you daelin radio and uh and then you made a comment about you

Know I think we can do this in TV and I says yeah I can now still back then cameras were expensive I mean we’re talking editing equipment cameras we’re talking 30 you know 30,000 plus and uh I just knew that at that time we could

Actually I when I I thought about it I was like yeah I think we can do this cheaper uh and we don’t need to buy the most expensive equipment uh which is kind of funny because now that’s like today’s thing yeah you know I mean people’s got their phones and and and

They’re they’re doing live streams and and they’re doing it on the cheap that was not a case you could not do that without some type of knowledge and uh so we would actually that was the goal was to use more inexpensive in inexpensive equipment but fake it in a sense and uh

That’s what we kind of did at first do do you remember where we went first was our first shoot in Albuquerque first shoot was Albuquerque uh we shot on a and I I still remember the camera we shot on something called it was called the Canon gl1 little palm camera yeah uh

So it wasn’t like we showed up looking like we’re professionals um but the video was spectacular shot shot on tape uh we posted on something called at the time uh people now use it every day but back then it was not even known it was called Premiere Adobe Premiere but this

Was days before it was called Premiere Pro it was actually just Premiere it was a really basic watered down program what it is now today and uh which is uh kind of shows you know like I said how technology has has grown but yeah it was

We were on the road we it was something called the Santa Fe Trail yeah gol Santa Fe Trail in fact I recently went back to their website to look at maybe how it has grown over the years and to talk with them perhaps about a return trip

And the website that I just saw just now is the same one I saw 20 something years ago which means I don’t think Trail is doing very well as a Marketing Group because with the construction sign still on there saying construction pretty much I mean you talk about making it out of

Microsoft front page that thing is a disaster right now but yeah we that’s where we went first and we felt like hey this is this is pretty big Time stuff now you all should know Greg keeps everything there he’s he’s got that show and uh recently sent me some of it and

It is stunningly hard to watch both from the talent perspective which would be yours truly and then just from the difference in between HD and and where we were back then but at the time of course we all thought that this was cutting edge state-of-the-art it’s like

It reminds me of when I watch uh old highlight of Barry Sanders running he’s as good as ever but the presentation is brutal it’s just really really bad well here we are fast forwarding now a couple decades later you’re not using tape anymore and everything has gone digital

Um and the quality of it all is so much better but I do remember uh there was a breakthrough moment for our presentation that actually got its start in the parking lot of a golf course in the thumb of Michigan where there happened to be a helicopter

Parked and it turns out that there was a gentleman there playing golf that day a farmer named Doug who had a when I say a tiny helicopter I mean a tiny helicopter um if you watched Mash you know what the bubble helicopter is the cockpit um Greg

Why don’t you take it from here and how our World changed with the death defying Adventures of shooting from the helicopter uh coming from my fear of flying and mixing that with yeah we can do that and we’ll just take the door off and we’ll just hang you out the window

And hold and you’re and you can’t hold on to something because you’re holding on to a camera uh these are days way way before we you know there was a drone available uh so again this is nowadays it’s it seems to be you know you know a

Common practice but yeah uh Doug would show up in this bubble helicopter that Lit could park itself in the back of my truck yep uh really small and uh and uh I just remember when I brought the camera I brought the battery and the camera wasn’t big at the time brought

The camera battery uh if we were traveling possibly a tripod inside if we could put it somewhere there was no room the batteries were there’s no room I had to put the batteries underneath the seat so once I sat down I could not get back to the battery uh I can’t explain how

Small This was um she leave the door on the ground right I think there was more room in a in a Volkswagen Beetle yeah than there was in this but yeah and he would take the door off and then he would uh fly us around and and I

Remember during those that during that time that was the first time I get you always think about when you’re up in the air you can see everything and you can but you get a sense of of you lose where you’re at in the course and I just

Remember saying okay where is hole one and then as we do it we’re like okay here’s hole one this must be hole two and then once in a while you’ll get a golf course that kind of throws you off where they’ll have two you know two tea

Boxes side by side and you’re like is that three is that four you know and so yeah we would we would just uh uh just fly around and just get all 18 holes in in one take and it’s it’s it’s a lot different nowadays I can tell you that

Yeah I remember uh there was one time when you were not able to be there so I I decided I would go up and shoot uh with Doug and as we were getting strapped in I said to him uh hey is there a is there like a weight limit on

This Chopper and his answer was we’ll see we’ll see yes that was not the answer that I was looking for and this Chopper was small enough that instead of like you see in the movies where the chopper just goes straight up I mean it could have somebody hanging off of the

Runners it doesn’t matter it’s going straight up and it’s it’s moving Doug’s Chopper is a move forward at a very low height towards to build up some speed and to get some lift and in the case of the first flight he and I took together our our will see moment was flying

Towards a stand of pine trees which I was just seeing come directly close up to me and lifted up at the last last moment second and I don’t know if he was doing that for effect or not but I also remember asking him when we were up

There uh I said hey by the way just you know not that I’m trying to put any negative thoughts in anybody’s mind but what happens if the the engines die and the the rotor just stops turning and his answer was we’ll Glide down gently in that point I thought oh I’m

Not believing anything else that I’m told the rest of this TR there’s no way we’re going to Glide down gently and he tried to explain to me the aerodynamics of all that and I still wasn’t buying it however there was a time when Greg got to experience firsthand the gentle gliding

Down um I set the scene for what was happening and then you could take us into the moment uh we were doing the radio show live on a Saturday morning on the west side of Michigan at G Lake View uh Golf Resort um while I was on the air

On Saturday morning it was a beautiful day so uh we decided to make the most out of those two and a half to three hours that I was tied up by having Greg and Doug capture the aerial footage uh they had four golf courses at that time

Three or four at that time so I’m on the radio they’re up in the air and they’re not terribly far away so you can usually off in the distance hear the sound of a of a chopper not necessarily that loud but you you can kind of tell when

They’re up there especially if you’re listening for it um and then we got to a commercial break and I took my took my headsets off and I realized that I didn’t I didn’t hear the chopper I’m like oh maybe they went to get some fuel there’s no way they’re done yet it was

Only like the first half hour or so um and imagine my surprise to see Greg come walking by my broadcast location looking a little peaked I must say why was that uh it was very windy that day although start with that as a placement and uh uh we were flying just above tree

Line and uh we were we were doing really well and at one point of course we started coming we started going with the wind and for some reason the wind when that wind came up with a gust and and uh at some point the winds uh was about the

Same speed as we were traveling and we lost lift and we just started coming down and there’s no one around us so gol course was pretty much empty it was still early in the morning and we came down uh thank goodness we came uh came down below the tree line uh near a

Fairway or over a fairway and we just kind of like came down we hit the Fairway and we just shot right back right back up you bounced off the Fairway we bounced off the Fairway and came right back up so we got below the tree line where the winds kind of was

Not as bad and we went right back up and I was like oh okay and I just remember Doug just saying he goes hold on and I was just like yeah Ian where we going I mean there’s nowhere to hold on to and uh we bounced and went back up uh it

Happened so fast um and I just remember when we got back up there I was like congratulating him I’m like you know great job he kept it he kept it perfectly straight never hit the back uh of the tail uh I was just congratulating him left and right saying dude that was

Great flying and he’s like it was out of my control he’s at that point he’s and I he goes he just but he leans over he goes even though we got headphones on he leans over and he goes how about we go a little higher this

Time well the good thing about dog is he never panicked he was a smooth he’s smooth smooth he never ped when you came walking by my broadcast table I said hey what you guys all done and you just said we bounced we bounced like I don’t know

What that means he goes well I was in the air and then we bounced off the Fairway and I was like oh that can’t be good and I don’t think you were really excited about going back up in the Choppers which means as we talk about

The evolution of the show we were both uh Overjoyed with the innovation of the drones and we had the very first Phantom from DJI our very first place to use it was at pilgrims run uh north of Grand Rapids on the west side of Michigan and the very first moment that

We decided to use it now let’s let’s set the scene a little bit the early iterations of those drones nothing like what we have now no no monitor um you would attach a GoPro camera to the bottom of it you would shoot upside down and then flip the footage later in post

You didn’t know what you were shooting you didn’t have any sort of a gimbal that would smooth out the footage all these things that are commonplace now have any of it but we still felt kind of like we were on the set of star trekers I mean we were Space Age with this

Little drone people would would crowd around to see this little spaceship kind of a thing and the first flight that we ever took was was by Greg and he took it straight up maybe 20 30 feet and then just brought it right straight down right down and I’m standing right there

I’m like what are we doing here and we were all nervous to use it uh you know there’s a couple Grand at the time and and those early ones you had to buy a million batteries because the batteries only lasted about 12 minutes um and I said hey I didn’t buy

This thing for it to be a ladder so give me that you guys you guys to he he and the and Dave the other Gentleman on our crew I said you guys go shoot ground footage I’ll take care of the ARs right yeah yeah so at pilgrims run they assigned to me a

Ranger who is still there and is still telling the story and we drive out to one of the long Par Four holes that is surrounded by pine trees all the way down and I’m because I have this guy as my audience I’m being an idiot and I’m acting as if I have

Thousands of flight hours on this thing I do anything I want I I have never flown it at all it’s like fresh out of the wrapper take it up in the air you know hit hit record in the GoPro take it up in the air and slowly start taking it

Down the Fairway well this thing by the time it gets I don’t know 150 200 yards away it’s just a little tiny white dot on the horizon there’s no visual anything other than I think that’s where it is and he says to me hey what by the way

What happens if the the bird becomes disconnected from the remote in your hand and instead of me saying I’m not really sure I repeat to him what I’ve read in the manuals and in the online reviews I go oh as soon as that thing disconnects it it turns around and it

Flies directly back to my feet I’ll show you have no idea why I decided to show him this I actually turn off the remote and there it goes it just kept going it goes not towards me it’s going further away and it is steamrolling towards a a stand of pine trees

And we see this little dot I mean it’s not moving slowly it’s going hard towards those trees and I go oh no we better let’s go let’s go let’s go so we jump in the cart we race up there we don’t know where it is I’m pretty sure I’m one flight and

Done with my new toy I’m pretty sure I’m never going to hear the end of it from the guys who I said I’ll take care of this and it’s laying upside down deep in the woods and I oh only know all of the rest of this because the GoPro was still

Recording recording the thing had tumbled through the trees landed on its belly landed on its back upside down and just happened to be pointed towards the cart path so you could see our cart pull up you could see me kind of aimlessly wandering around then you see me see it and point to

It um somehow that bird survived yeah it continued flying unlike some later iterations of the bird but at some point I knew I was going to need to tell Greg about these Adventures because I knew for sure the ranger was going to um and then later that night in the

Hotel I be I I believe if I remember correctly you and uh Dave began sort of a frame byf frame replay oh yeah we it was kind of like a like say ntcb or whatever call it there you know kind of like react me we’re like oh and then

We’re slow motion like there goes the battery yeah I can see it come shooting out the door everything and here comes the tree stand really slow and then see it tumbling over and over again uh and that was the I I’d like to think that was the

Final time that I ever acted like I knew how to fly the thing uh better than I actually did now you know all these years later I think between the two of us we’ve probably each got you know 3,000 hours of flight time on the

Various Birds but uh what what kind of a game Cher was that bit of technology for the TV show oh it’s huge one of the things uh I I because I remember go back to that first drone we did and we joked that we I went up and kind of drifted

And brought it right back down I had people that knew I did the show call me up and they’re like where did you how did you get that shot yeah because it was unique shot because again uh helicopters don’t we we were staying below the tree line cuz you don’t need

To go way up in the air to get a good view of a hole right and I had people ask me like you know where you know how did you get that shot and because it was unique helicopters always went above the tree line and we wanted we didn’t want

To go above the tree line we wanted to just stay elevated shot great view of the hole kind of track it and uh so that was the big game changer uh when it comes to uh doing the right frame getting something unique that no one’s

Ever seen before and uh and do it with the new technology stay on top of it which we’ve done you know from day one every time new you know new camera comes out we’re there a new way of shooting a camera if if it’s you know gimbals now

And you know and Miniatures mination with GoPros and taking them underwater and water parks and all that stuff yeah we’re always on that edge and that and the go and these uh these drones was the same way uh and of course back then you know uh it was more of like people like

Well you know what’s the what’s the rules with the Drone there is no rules right now with the drones uh you know it says no one no one knows the rules it’s just more of being made up as we go along which which is why now there’s a

Bunch of rules now now there’s a bunch of rules and yeah and that’s the problem is yeah then you have a bunch of people out there who are just literally doing stupid stuff with those drones uh that’s just ruin it for you know for the actual

Industry um but yeah that’s uh it was it was a game chamber that going from that that first one the phantom phantom one uh which uh shockingly enough did not get crashed as much as the Phantom 2 yes uh I got plenty of calls from Bill uh Hey crash drone bring tools uh

So and somehow the the the body on the Phantom 2 was very rigid and I remember uh showing up uh one day into the hotel and Bill was able to hit concrete just right and bent it up so bad where I had a I sat there with a heat gun and warmed

Up the plastic and reshaped it warmed up the plastic and reshaped it so we at least finished the uh the uh the shoot for that particular property yeah the the call was a catastrophic collapse or crash somehow and and the the the drones now have obstacle avoidance sensors

Built into them but they didn’t then so without a monitor you you would think perhaps you had more room before the trees but sometimes you didn’t and your best Hope was that it would hit gently and fall on soft grass and this particular incident that I think Greg’s alluding to which is

Uh I think I caught up with him in Traver City um it landed directly on the cart path and just shattered I mean it was a catastrophic collapse and that drone made it through the shoe but it didn’t make it much longer than that you

Know and I was thinking about um one of the things that we’re I’m often asked is how do you decide where where you’re going to go for the TV show and my answer usually is we go where we’re invited um sometimes we’ll come up with

A creative idea for like uh a theme um on you know the 10 hardest holes or great values under $50 or something like that but quite often it’s because a destination has said we’d love to be on your TV show and we work out the budget

Side of that because we we do have a cost and um for production and for airing all of the shows but it was when we added the visuals from the drone at places like Arcadia Bluffs and at places like Grand Hotel where all of a sudden um National exposure became a part of

What we were doing because those were visuals that at that time nobody had been presenting and it really it really is eye popping when you see the introduction of kind of an Innovative new way of presenting and like we’ve said a few times there are a lot of

People doing some of those things now but I have I have made the point and this is a credit to Greg that anybody and I mean literally anybody can walk into Best Buy and grab a Dr yeah you can buy right now just go right ahead you can get the same one we

Use but not very many can do with the footage what uh what Greg has been able to do it’s not just a matter of shooting it and in fact every once in a while you’ll stumble across the website for a golf course that asked us if we would do

Some Aerials for them to use on their website and when I give them a price they’ll they’ll Decline and say well my uh my neighbors nephews cousin son has a drone we’ll just have him do it and you can go to the website and you can see

The end results of that where they’ve not edited anything it’s literally the from taking off on the ground to shaking all over the place to it’s just horrible they’d have been better off without it U there’s an art to the presentation side of of all of this stuff that we do which

Includes U some of the moments with the host on camera um with Golf Club in hand with microphone in hand uh one of my favorite social media slams that I was on the receiving end of a few years ago with some guy from a golf course on the

West side of Michigan his name is Michael card I’ll put it out there um he thought that he was really scooping the World by saying on maybe Twitter I’ve seen those guys on a shoot before and Bill Hobson requires multiple takes not sure if I’ve heard Greg laugh harder

Than when I first showed him uh that tweet so go ahead Greg uh confirm or deny the reality of that statement from the gentleman who was I guess trying to hurt my feelings yeah news flash television is not a complete real life tele even your reality TV the non-scripted programming you see on

Television it’s somewhat still scripted that’s those people don’t act like idiots all the time uh but yes no it uh there is that’s the best part and a matter of fact I would if you watched a whole season maybe two seasons I would put those bloopers at the end of the

Show right uh so if we had some time to fill and it if there was some good time I would I would love to have extra like minute to add all the bloopers to it y uh but yeah I would there was there was times where you know you would it would

Take you know it’ be eight takes just to get the right you know the right shot in between these two trees or or something it it wasn’t a secret we did not make it a secret and for this guy to like you know somehow like you know drop this you

Know this large bomb you know like I’ve seen those guys like dude it’s television we we actually have fun with this it’s it’d be pretty hard for us to hide it when we were putting it in the end credits but hey it takes it takes

All kinds to to operate in this world um quite often when people are watching us do what we do on location uh they will wonder where the script is um if I’m doing a standup or an introduction and you’re following along as I’m walking in some area or we’re sitting sitting at a

Table surrounded by food and everything they’re always wondering well did you did you memorize this or did you have this written is there a teleprompter somewhere let everybody know how how we do these these moments these hosting moments yeah there’s no teleprompter it’s Lily like I say okay we need to

Talk about this okay let’s do it and we’ll do a run through just a quick little dry run and you’re like oh yeah we forgot we got to add that that and that and that okay let’s go let’s do it goad and record let’s do it and then we

Just we just make it happen uh but that skill on your side like you’ve been doing that like I said going back 30 plus years to the TV station uh you know even back then teleprompter were expensive uh we didn’t you know they don’t have funds for that even at a TV

Station at the time right uh so uh I think about I mean even Engineers back then made a fake teleprompter with a Commodore 64 or I think an Atari not to go really crazy into that but uh because they they were they were pricey uh

Nowadays you can just use a you can just use a tablet but uh but no yeah it’s uh it’s just the skills with you knowing you know what to say you got it down uh and and we’ll do it it might take two three takes uh but yeah I mean I’m

Always blessed when you get it down in one well would would you rather have to endure the multiple takes for one of my introductions or capture a useful bunker shot oh that’s challenging uh I probably do the multiple takes kabon can be very dangerous if you skull one out of the

Especially if I’m in the line of site has been known to happen once in a while um you know we we’ve also had a great deal of fun with our different uh Partners at these destinations where we’re interviewing you know director of golf and general manager and sometimes

The chef or maybe the marketing director and that kind of thing um and we often encounter um interview subjects who were extremely sure of themselves and confident until the camera comes out right I mean you see we see that all the time uh one young lady who’s no longer

Part of the golf industry but it was just a sweet lady that we would interview her name is ran um I remember her nervousness had her literally shuffling out of the shot while we were standing on the on the deck at the at the golf resort where she was to the

Point where I had to uh inter interview her while standing on one of her toes just to keep her just keep her there and it’s a reminder to me that for a lot of people the fear of public speaking is a real thing it’s it’s a very real thing

And they can sit around uh the table with you for for lunch and talk and talk for hours and hours and then when we say we’re going to put this mic on you and then you’re going to stand here and you’re just going to talk to bill and

It’s just going to be a conversation it doesn’t matter what we say the sweat starts the nervous fidgets start and there’s a there is something to be said for having reps having practiced and having spent a lot of time in front of the camera uh we’ve had some we’ve had some pretty fun

Moments with our interview guests over the years I I can remember one right now uh I think his name was Ron I’m trying to remember his name uh and we were uh he set it up the shot we introduced to him he was supposed to be like the

Local um you know the local guy who was like you know wants people to you know supposed to want people to come to the community and uh he just kind of like right there on camera like okay go ahead you ask him a question he’s like I don’t

Know why we want people to come here you know we’re building fences and making things look beautiful why Why move here for that yes and just so you all know when we’re invited to a destination we allow the host of the destination to arrange the people we talk to on camera

We’re not just randomly going up to somebody for the most part and saying you know on your home or brag on your Resort in this particular case we were on a we were on Beaver Island Michigan had never been there before you’re not going to go there either we’re not going

To go back but one of the people they arranged for us to talk to made it very clear he did not want us there he didn’t want us there it was really quite an awkward moment where I had to stop and go hang on guys hang on hang on Ron we

We want you to invite people here and talk about I don’t want people here I don’t want be all right well this is not going to work out terribly that interview didn’t make the cut shocking enough it did not make it into the final show oh man there are so many moments

That just kind of re resonate in in our memory banks um from the first moment that we got to capture Arcadia Bluffs on camera um and what a game changer that was uh to those times when we were able to partner with unique destinations that we didn’t really think we would ever go

I mean we did a a handful of shows in Jamaica um which was just a blast to do but we also have some of these Cutting Room floor moments and I reminded of one in Jamaica and one in the Dominican Republic where something was taking place in the

Background that um certainly could not make it onto uh to our show or probably any other show that’s on basic cable uh Jamaica water aerobics what comes to mind oh I I you know what’s funny is I didn’t even catch that until I was

Posting it and I I was like I I remember I’m watching and and because I remember the time if and there’s a picture if you want to show it on on b-roll but there was a picture where I’m actually up over my waist holding a very expensive camera

On my shoulder instead of shooting from the beach Greg’s walking out I’m in the water it’s very dangerous and of course it’s not the first time I’ve risked a camera and lost a camera to water to Ocean salt water and cameras don’t mix but um but I I yeah there was they’re doing

Water aerobics and uh I I mean after I was I was sitting there editing the footage and I’m like wait a minute what is going on there and I look back and this poor lady lost her top while they were doing the exercise and thank goodness we had two takes because I had

To go back to the other take because that was a good take and I had to so I had to like take you off camera because you you didn’t mess up and I kind of piece those together but yeah it was I felt bad for that lady I was like I I

Mean and she never realized ized it and uh but I mean I say things like that happened um but yeah I lost another I lost a camera uh doing the Carl bad shoot in the Pacific Ocean we were out there for tailor made shooting at their world headquarters and we wanted to get

Some nature scenes to kind of set set the picture of the geography of where we were so of course you’re at the Pacific you’re going to go get some shots of the Pacific um we were with Tom wasy who at the time was working with us as in sales

And kind of helping produce and he and I were standing back quite a ways as we watched Greg go over to these giant Boulders on the edge of the Pacific and I thought oh that’ll be a cool shot he’ll get the boulders and he’ll get the water and the waves were crashing nope

Greg’s going down on a knee and he’s lowering the camera down to basically water level to get that perspective not realizing the waves were going to come in hot and they were going to take over everything and they did ruin the camera they just completely swapped over the

Camera as we were standing back there ways I’m like oh that can’t be good because this was on tape back in the day and uh yeah that camera I don’t believe was was ever part of our world again no salt water and and tape path does not go

Together it was funny because I kept it I kept running like it’s good it’s still good it’s still good and it’s like no it wasn’t it decided all a sudden boom dead and I was like yeah once it got into Electronics uh but it to be fair The

Rock I was looking at it was bone dry I’m like yeah it’s not wet it’s now the waves hit that rock so I kind of lowered the camera down to that level and then Lally the very next wave just took her right out oh that’s so funny we should

Also spend a moment or two talking about the crew members that we’ve had with us over the years uh I want to start with Dave Van Biber who is such a kind and and wonderful guy he and his wife Shirley and Dave for years was part of our crew

Tirelessly um helping not just carry things but set up uh think of ideas that were creative to incorporate into the show we used to have what’s called a boom or a jib that was gigantic and took forever to set up but when it was set up the shots from it were

Fantastic Dave would lug that thing around and the weights that went with it and the risk of losing a finger every time you set it up and did that for a lot of years and um just had a he’s just he’s just one of the great guys um and

We always be thankful for Dave’s role in in what we do um we’ve had your son with us I I named Miles the director of sustenance and nutrition which means he’s in charge of snacks on the road uh I’ve been a little disappointed in his performance there

Recently there’s still room for growth I think is how you would say it in the annual review I mean you’re you work in the corporate media world is that is that kind of the the term we would use as room for growth oh absolutely yes yeah there’s there’s always room for

Growth and you know you know uh what do you want to say a lot of room for improvement Improvement if we have if we ever get into a speed eating contest oh boy against other Golf shows I’m putting miles up there as our leadoff batter and probably right after him we’ll put a

Young man named Josh who did a few shoots with us uh because we’re going to win we’re going to be the gold medalist hands down without a doubt uh thank you to uh uh well Bryce Howard’s helped us a little bit we’ve had Matt Felton help us

We’ve had Matt shnick help us uh we’ve had my son Bo help us on shoots before in a in a little bit we’ll hear from Sha Irish who’s a little bit more recent member of our crew and has some uh some fun stories to tell about all that but

Um i’ I’ve tried Larry hemly and Steve mnes also helping us on a lot of shoots my nephew Ian um I’ve tried to describe to people what the responsibilities are of a member of our crew when coming on a TV shoot and here’s what I tell them you work for

Greg on this shoot you’re not working for me I’m busy thinking of things and trying to produce the show and basically your assignment is wherever he goes you go that’s really kind of how it boils down what would be your description of what somebody should be prepared for if

They’re working on the crew don’t screw up uh don’t drop anything don’t drop anything uh which has happened many times believe it or not still this equipment is still little pricey and we like to keep it around for at least a couple shoots yeah uh but yeah that that

Was a typical thing is like don’t screw up and just uh don’t break anything um is a you know it’s it’s not that hard U but as I it’s like my like said I I’m sure you’re same with with with Bo but with my son miles uh you know he you

Know when the job’s done he doesn’t get to go home but with me so there’s like criticism when I come back especially when I’m editing I’m like I’m editing the video I’m Ed the show I lean over I’m like hey you screwed up on that audio do that in miles’s case that would

Really bother him because he’s oh it does very much a perfectionist which I certainly appreciate um he wants he he pays attention to details which is unusual for someone his age and I’m really glad for that because you and I get wrapped up in a lot of other things

That are going on what people don’t understand mostly is that for most other television project s whether it’s the guys at no laying up whether it’s the guys at bar stool whether it’s whatever it when they come in to do a shoot or a show they have a minimum of 15 to 20

People with them um I know that because a number of the destinations where we have been have turned them down and said we just don’t want to put up with all the people or we don’t have room for all of them we’re too busy how many do you

Bring and I’m like well bring four or five usually and they look at you like wait wait what how how do you guys you know we watch your show how do you get all that done I don’t I don’t know what we would do with 20 people right I I I

Never yeah I never understood that I even day to this day with technology getting more and more easier so you can narrow those those down we’ve done that from day one uh when somebody someone tells me that they’re like oh it’s going to cost uh $80,000 to do this or

$100,000 this job we got to bring out you know 15 crew uh at first and then we got to bring another 10 additionally later and I’m just like why why do you need to bring so many people yeah and so yeah I don’t I don’t

I understand don’t get it um and our our viewers have seen her show why why you I mean that right there you look at the credits you’ll see how many people are rolling that did that show for that or did that show I I said five would be the

Max I me I can’t imagine we did more than five at one point yeah five is when we bring like a a a different drone pilot so we’re not having to fly with right right um I’ll say this without adding names in here but back near the beginning there was another television

Show in the state of Michigan a golf show that largely was in the Metro Detroit area and I would often be challenged by a potential destination that says well we’re considering either you guys or that show and I’ll say to them have you ever seen that show no

Because I’m not in Detroit so I don’t get to see I said well how about if I send you uh a VHS of that show back then it was a VHS I said I won’t add any commentary I’m not going to badmouth anybody I I’m very proud of the product

That we put out and I think when you see both shows side by side your decision will be pretty simple and I can’t tell you how many times I sent out that show and shortly thereafter I would get the call that said oh man you’re yeah you’re

Right um and that’s a credit to the work you you do as the as producer and editor and all that stuff I don’t know how you can even see straight after all these things because it’s not your only gig in your in the world so Greg’s a busy guy

But uh um let’s uh let’s keep going and I don’t know if we’ve got 25 more left in us but we’ve got a few more for sure and uh we as long as it’s still fun and I think that’s the note I’d like to close on uh neither of us I don’t think

Have ever come to the end of a project or a shoot and just said well that was just miserable and horrible I can’t believe we had to do that this is this is still playing in life’s candy store uh especially compared to people who have um more taxing uh jobs that they

Dread going to every single day um and I think part of the reason for our longevity is that we just we kind of get along so um thank you for that for putting up with me I guess is the way I would say it I said you you got the

Passion for golf uh like I said my my passion is always like said creating something that looks good in video and yeah they they both come together well um and I said and and it’s and it’s great to see these these golf course I

Used to golf when I was a kid uh I always told myself I can’t afford it um but uh it’s uh it’s one of those great things to go see a golf I mean like right now my my son when he comes with us uh during the short times before he

Graduates from school it’s just uh he’s he he gets he looks at he’s like looks like Bluffs when he when he hears that we have a triple Arcadia Bluffs he’s is like oh I’m I’m I’m there that’s you know he loves just to see the place yeah

Um and uh that right there alone is said it’s not a not a Shabby job when you get to see those I I I envy the people who work at Aria BL that call that their job you know and they get to see that every

Day so yeah and we eat well too yeah the the ruthies are Delight you know a bonus good stuff all right thanks for uh looking back with us and uh we’ll look forward to some fun and the days ahead sounds great thanks guys so I have to ask

Bill from the day you first conceived the idea at what point in this journey did you finally say this is g to work um I had a I have a very good friend Tom wasy who was with me at the very beginning to help with sales he was

Also the one who hired me to do the sagona valley football broadcast so in in one sense he was my boss and in the other sense I was his boss and as we started to as we started to have more conversations with potential partners and destinations what originally would

Happen was we would have to explain to them who we were and what we were doing and then at some point along the way and I wish I could pinpoint it but let’s say five six seven years in we found that we didn’t have to explain that quite as

Often um in fact sometimes every once in a while the calls were coming to us saying hey we’ve seen this would you consider doing that for us it wasn’t very frequent but we could see this kind of a shift in the momentum and you know we had some Partnerships early on that established

Credibility um instead of doing business with what normal Sports Talk Radio business is um I call it beer and boobs radio cuz it’s usually male oriented only it’s adult uh establishments it’s alcohol it’s gambling it’s all those things we just didn’t take that route and instead uh we partnered with

National brands in the early days Ashworth for our apparel Nike was our clubs and later it would become tailor made then it would become Callaway and now it’s titlist but we would deal with places like Arcadia Bluffs Grand Hotel and one of my promises to all of our partners was

This you will never have to apologize to your customers for something they heard on any of my programs we’re not trying to be edgy we’re not we’re not trying for clickbait in this era back then there was no such thing as clickbait yeah um and we just

Wanted to do a dignified but fun presentation of the story of each place um and having some of those National brands on with us was a big stepping stone in that direction because once you start to establish oh okay so the the names that really are are well known in

This industry they’re partnering with these guys that must mean something so we were really really blessed um early on and a lot of that credit goes to Tom for the hard work he did in opening some of those Partnerships up have to ask this personal question because I’ve

Known you for the better part of those 25 years when we were both a lot younger what role did your faith have in all of this and how the show is presented yeah um I really this this is going to sound very preachy and I don’t mean it to be that

Because or you know me I am very far from perfect very far from perfect welcome to my world but I really want to do everything that I do uh with the approach of honoring the Lord um I don’t want to embarrass the cause of Christ

Um I like I said I’m not perfect but we have um some standards that we’ve established through the show and it’s not because I’m trying to earn some sort of a certificate for piousness it’s just because this is kind of how I do things t i my are yeah my business isn’t really

That different from how I conduct my normal life so somebody says to me uh why aren’t you advertising for this brand and I say well because I just don’t I don’t believe in that brand being a positive influence on our society uh a good example of that would

Be these days if we wanted to are we could do business with any of a million different cannabis shops I’m not GNA do that we could do business with a boatload of casinos and advertise their big Pro it’s just not what we do uh if if that’s if that’s something that

Others enjoy absolutely fine with that that’s not my business I’m not trying to live anybody else’s life I’m just trying to stay true to kind of my core and I’ve been told a few times that I I I live in the wrong decade and that’s probably

True we still do things on a handshake basis we very rarely have a written contract with anybody um I’ve been burned a few times by that but it’s okay I we’re doing okay the lights are still on so that’s a good sign and it’s interesting the way you

Handle that because if you go to say Brimley where there’s a casino ATT attached to a big beautiful golf course in a resort yeah your focus is on the golf course yeah and the other Focus you have which is your other passion food yes if you could see my uh my

Organized folders on my computer you will see that there’s a folder for pictures from destinations from radio from TV crew from listen and then there’s a folder just called food and I was just cleaning some of that up a couple days ago and oh my goodness the

Fact that I haven’t yet had a quintuple bypass is is a Real Testament to to the Lord’s kindness because uh most places that we go uh they want us to sample their very best and we are all but happy to oblige and uh we really have been

Quite spoiled over the years well Bill we spent these 20 minutes looking back I think in conclusion we ought to start looking forward 25th season is coming up in 2024 what’s it going to be like for you I was approached by a man in the

Parking lot of a resort last summer um I didn’t know who he was but he watches the show and he said some very kind things and at the end he looks at me kind of squinty eyed he says hey when are you going to retire and I said and I’ve heard that

And go play golf I mean what what am I gonna retire for and so we came to this you know you have these Milestone moments like a 25th anniversary and you do have some time to kind of reflect and say all right here’s where we’ve been

This has been an amazing ride are we done or do we keep Ono um and as you and I speak the finishing touches are being put on our brand new TV and and golf simulator Studio that will serve as a hub yearround for Content like equipment reviews and different fun tutorials and

Some instructions that we’ll have with PGA pros and um our we’re I decided it’s either go big or go home and we’re going to keep going we’re going to go big our our calendar for 2024 is already almost all filled in and um the love of this game

Still runs strong in me but but probably more than that the love of telling stories still runs strong and that’s something that I think you and I share in common we just love to hear what makes people tick and what’s brought them along the way to certain points and

Then we talk about my crew like Greg Hall his son miles and Shan Irish uh Dave Van Biber who was with us for so many years just helping carry stuff around and come up with creative ideas and then I think about uh the chances that I’ve had to go out and make

Memories with my son bo uh with my wife coming along with me whenever she can or whenever the destination is especially attractive we were just in Mexico a couple weeks ago um how could I ever not want to keep doing that um so my if if

Here here’s the deal I’ll make with you um if if my fast ball is currently at 100 miles per hour and maybe it’s in the low 90s now if it ever gets into the you know the low 80s and I’ve lost it you tell me okay uh and until then I think

This is kind of the the chapter that we’ve created and we’re going to keep on going and and have a lot of fun in this game yeah it’s interesting you say that because that’s what I tell people when they ask me when are you going to retire

Right my answer is never but in reality I know that if the Lord says it’s time because I can’t do something then I’ll know it’s time right till that day comes here we are friend on the other side of my studio there’s a poster front page of

The Detroit Free Press the day Ernie Harwell was fired oddly enough by Bo shamb Beckler but it reminds me when I look at it number one we’re all Expendable although Ernie wasn’t because he was brought back number two it reminds me of a quote that he said on

The air many years ago he was giving the injury lineup before a game and he said so and so is listed as dayto day but then again aren’t we all and that’s kind of the approach that I take so U if you don’t mind me quoting uh Coach Harbaugh

He believes in attacking each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind I I’m just grateful for every day uh you know before you and I started talking today another big box of stuff arrived for us to open up and do a review of and and the the impact of our

Audience continues to make our show um I what’s the word I’m looking for valid I think is the word I’m looking for Relevant as long as people are interacting with us we’ll we’ll keep going and being thankful for all of it but well Bill you know how much I

Respect you even though we get each other Merc unmercifully sometimes yeah uh I do have a great deal of respect for you and congratulate you on 24 years and can’t wait to see the 25th well now you’ve heard the majority of the story I’m sure there are things

I’ll think of later that I wish I had said and if we did not personally Thank You by name but you are one of those key people that have come along during these last couple of decades to help us thank you just know how much I appreciate that

I do believe strongly in something I said in my conversation with John Bloom that Michigan golf live has never really been a show about golf it’s been a show about people who love golf and their stories and we’ll continue telling those stories I can’t wait to see what comes

Next we’re nowhere near being done and as long as the Lord grants me the health to do it and the Partnerships to make it all possible we’ll continue plugging along celebrating the greatest game on earth Earth finally thank you thank you whether this is the first time you’ve

Ever encountered what we do at Michigan golf live or whether you’ve been with us throughout this entire Journey all of it comes down to those who are watching those who are listening those who are then going to play at the destinations we feature or buy the equipment that

We’re reviewing you’re engaging with us through this game is what makes it all possible so thank you for doing that here’s to as many more years as the Lord has for us cannot wait to see you throughout season 25 of Michigan golf live let the party [Applause] Begin