I was not the target audience for the halftime show (02-09-2026--Hour3)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to vpetecleanershow dot com and make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, rite to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. You know what, I think, I'm going to do this entire hour and Espanol in honor of the Malevolent Rabbit and his performance at El Supero Bolo. Yeah, I think that. No, I can't. I did Yo Tango Singo Anyo's de Espanol. I did have five years of the Spanish training, but it was never really immersed in it. If I like, you give it to me in a written format, I can like, it'll take me a while, but I can translate it. But like the conversational Spanish, I was not very good at I was always like my brain never heard the words and then automatically knew what was being said. I was always like translating it back and forth in my head, And I don't think that's the way you're supposed to to learn a language. You're just supposed to learn the language and then it just becomes second nature. And I could never do that, but I could read it, and then I could translate if I had, you know, a Spanish to English dictionary or AI nowadays. But all right, So I had a bit of a unique experience watching the Big Game yesterday. I was at a friend's house watching the game, and he and his wife, they are Puerto Rican, and there extended his extended family, like his mom, his brother, his brother's girlfriend. They all came down from the Northeast to visit, so they were all there too. So there's a whole bunch of and they're all Patriots fans. Okay, so they're all Puerto Rican, they're all Patriots fans. There was another friend who was there also from the Northeast, a Patriots fan as well. So I did a lot of therapy for the Patriots fans after, you know, during the game. Yeah, and look, I know for you Patriot fans, I know it stinks to lose like that. They were completely underwhelming, But honestly, like as a Panther fan, we have been to the super Bowl twice in thirty years. You guys have been there like a hundred times. Okay, So like let's just kind of keep this in perspect you have, like you have patriot privilege if you will. Okay, you have been so many times, you have won so many times, and you have not won all of them, to be sure, but you've been so many times. And remember, every single year, every team in the NFL except for one will lose. Every other team, all the fans of all those other teams, they all lost like you did yesterday. Okay, So like let's just put it in perspective. And I know like you wanted to see a better performance. I mean I did too. It was really boring the first half. But I mean there's a reason why they say offense wins games and defenses win championships. There's a reason why that axiom exists. And also I would point out you know that if you like as a I know people hate on Chris Collinsworth, but he was correct. Like, if you can't stop a four man defensive front from getting to your quarterback, like every play, you're not gonna have anybody open and you're gonna take a lot of sacks and that's exactly what we saw. But it's a young team, right. You got the two blind side offensive linemen, they were both rookies, and so they're gonna get better. That quarterback is gonna get better. And I'm sure the Patriots will be going to like a bajillion more super Bowls in the future. Okay, So like just put it in perspective. So that was so I had to do some bit of the therapy, you know, for them like that. But it was a very interesting dynamic because like the family from Puerto Rico, they knew who Bad Bunny was. They know who he is, they listen to his music, they like him. I was not aware of who this individual was prior to the announcement that he was going to be playing the Super Bowl, and even then I was like, I don't know who this is. Oh and one of the so the the brother from out of town. He's also a huge Trumper. He loves Donald Trump. And so it was a very interesting dynamic. Watching the game and watching the halftime show as I did, is very unique. It was a very unique experience. Here's what I took away from it. This is what I told Christy after the halftime performance, I recognize that I was not the target demo. I'm not the target audience for that show. And chances are if you are a football fan, particularly a dude, you were not the target audience either. Okay, because they already got you. The NFL's already got you, right, If you're watching NFL games, then you're already part of their audience. You're going to watch the games no matter who the halftime show is. You're going to watch the super Bowl. What they're trying to do is get people who don't watch football are tuning in to see the Bad Bunny Show. They want them to try to start watching football. So I recognize, like, I was not the target demo for that show, And to be fair, like I don't really feel like I've been the target demo for many years. Their halftime shows are not meant to attract me to watch football because I already watch well, I only watch the Panthers games, Like, I don't spend my whole Sunday watching all of the games. If I got nothing going on, I'll put it on in the background whatever, especially towards the end of the season. Then I start watching the late season games. I'll watch some of those. I used to watch a lot more football than I do now. Now it's basically like for the first three quarters of the season, I just watched the Panther game or try to. But that's about it. What has been interesting is the way that and look, I think Jim Garretty, I think it was I saw he called uh yeah, he called bad Bunny became a litmus test before he even performed a single syllable. Bad Bunny became a litmus test on the Trump administration's immigration enforcement. He stepped onto the field as a human rorshack test, right, So everybody already had sort of an idea of how he was going to transgress Trump voters because of his statements that he has been making, right, because this is what he has made part of his public persona. He attacked Ice during the Grammys, so like people were like waiting for this, you know, overt resistance type of performance, which it really wasn't, although it was kind of odd that I felt like he was kind of celebrating the colonizers, which was weird, right, because the Spaniards they colonized like the whole like southern or a South America and Central America and the Caribbean. Right, they colonized all over the place. But that was what they seemed to be celebrating. People were upset that he did the entire performance virtually except for like one line in Spanish. And I thought Jim Garrity had a national review, he had a I thought he had a good point here he says some object because the he raps in Spanish, and thus they cannot understand what he is saying. And that is a big part of this is because you don't know what he's saying. And they provided no subtitles so we could know what he's saying. So we have no idea if he is engaged in political rapping or what, or he's you know, he could be calling us all sorts of names. Right, That's part of the problem when you bring on somebody to perform in a language that you know eighty five percent of the audience does not speak. So and I did, I did go and I found the stats. It's a forty five million people in America speak Spanish at home, which is about fourteen percent of the US population. And so that's who they were catering to. That's the target audience they're trying to get those people that speak Spanish and that know who bad Bunny is, who is like and I didn't realize like the's guy, like all of these YouTube downloads and all this stuff. Some people went over and they watched the alternative programming over on the Attorney Point, USA. They did a halftime show too, which is also not new that that has been done before. Counter programming during the halftime show. That has occurred many times over the years. So I don't object to that either. If people wanted to go over there. Here's a great idea. How about making escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call her text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins Offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. All Right, So Jim Garretty writing about this, you know, this complaint that people didn't understand what the halftime show singer was singing because he was singing in a language that you know, more than eighty percent of Americans do not speak. Okay, and I point out that you were not the target demographic for this show. Okay, I'm going to get into that. But he goes on to say and I think this is a very astute point is as you can say, you can say the same about plenty of hip hop performers who are rapping in English, or depending on the song and performance, you could say the same of Bob Dylan or Tom Petty or Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. With Willy Bully, there are those of us who will go to our graves insisting the chorus on Creden's clear Water Revivals, Bad Moon Rising is informing the listener that there is a bathroom on the right. So if you don't understand what bad Bunny is saying, you're just following in the footsteps of a proud American musical tradition. There is some truth to that, right. The concern, though, is that he's saying stuff that you would disagree with. I have seen some of the lyrics translated, and the lyrics to some of these songs are gross, and I'm not a fan of taking the halftime show and having women towerk their butts into the camera. I don't think that's an appropriate, family friendly type of entertainment. But they've been doing that for a long time too. Thing to know is that this guy has a massive fan base. These fans may or may not be NFL fans, but they likely tuned in because they wanted to watch his performance, and so that would boost the Super Bowls already massive ratings even higher. The NFL has maxed out its audience among people who actually, you know, enjoy watching football. One survey last year, he says, estimated that approximately seventy percent of American men follow the NFL to one degree or another. Okay, so they've already they've already captured that demo seventy percent of American men. So how do you get the other thirty And how do you get a larger female base? How do you get an international base? NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is determined to make his league important, relevant, and worth following among the portion of the population that does not like football. There was a report from the ad company Apex Marketing about Taylor Swift between her first appearance at a Chiefs game in late twenty twenty three and then through the AFC Championship contest in January of twenty four. Okay, so like, over the course of about four months, she generated somewhere north of three hundred and sixty six million dollars for the NFL across all equivalent brand value. That figure is measured across social media, TV, radio, digital news, and print news. That's what you call earned media. In the league's most recent season, her appearances drew and estimated six hundred thirty four million dollars from equivalent brand value through the AFC Championship game. Much of that came through social media and digital news, right. Because the Swifties, people who love Taylor Swift right, they are now watching the game in order to see her in the in the suite, to see the cutaway shots. That's why I know, Like, like football fans were just rolling their eyes. They were so sick, like, oh my gosh, they keep cutting away to Taylor Swift right. But the Swifties love it, and the NFL loved it because it gets people who don't want to watch football. It gets them to watch in order to see something that they want to see. Then, whether you like it or not, the NFL is trying to sell its product overseas, right, They're going to try to sell the game to people who are not that into football. Next year, the NFL is going to play nine regular season games overseas. Melbourne Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Mexico City, and three games in London. Roger Goodell, seemingly with the consent of the owners of all the teams, is determined to turn the NFL into a global game. And that does not just mean geographically. He means across all demographics and corners of society. I think Jim Garretty is exactly right on this. You can see the vision that Goodell is pursuing. And so if you're going to try to attract new people to the sport, then you go for this guy who has this massive fan base and following. Guy's got billions of downloads for his songs all online. So there's obviously a massive demand for what he is doing. And so the NFL sees that and they're like, let's put this guy in the halftime show because you're not the target demo. I'm not the target demo. They've already got us watching. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season, But tell me if something like this happened at your house, your family and friends are gathered around, maybe y'all are in the living room, you're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then somebody says, hey, Dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on Dad, who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to but I just having gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless memories sit in a box for another year. All right. Create a Video has been helping families in the Charlotte area preserve their history since nineteen ninety seven. Simply bring in your old camquarder tapes and Creative Video will transfer them to a USB flash drive for just fourteen ninety five per tape. You have a big collection, they've got a discount for you. And next year, instead of talking about those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch them together. Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Creative Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill right off Io four eighty five, and online at create a Video dot com. Speaking of Kid Rock, he was part of the turning Point USA counter programming that occurred during the halftime of the Super Bowl. They did their own streaming event called the All American Halftime Show with quote no Woke Garbage. It featured Kid Rock along with country singers Bramley, Gilbert and Lee Brice. This is the story from the New York Times. They had let me see here one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen fifteen reporters that were doing the coverage of the Super Bowl at the New York Times. Okay, so fifteen contributors to this New York Times piece. Kid Rock headlined the show, and he had said in a statement that the performers planned to play great songs for folks who love America. There were sets by Brandley, Gilbert, Gabby Barrett, Lee Brice. Right around the moment that the Bad Bunny performance ended, Kid Rock took the stage with an abbreviated rendition of his nineteen ninety hit ball with the dab dab dab Dicky Diggy all of that Yeah. For a second song, he was reintroduced as Robert Ritchie, which is his real name, and he performed Cody Johnson's song Till You Can't. Kid Rock then changed one of the original verses and concluded, you can give your life to Jesus and He'll give you a second chance. He first performed that verse last year and indicated that it had been inspired by Charlie Kirk, which people are seeing this perform Men's as an affirmation of Kid Rock's faith. He starts the show with his hit song and Look. His original songs were very vulgar, much like Bad Bunnies were, but nobody knew because he spoke in Spanish. He wrapped it all in Spanish, so he was saying very vulgar things while grabbing his crotch, and the chicks were twerking up onto the camera lenses, but he was he was saying it all in Spanish, and so people couldn't tell. This is, by the way, this is a big deal in uh Spanish speaking radio as well that the FCC like we say something in English and it's going to get caught and we're going to get fined. But the Spanish stations they have they have less enforcement against them. So this is and this has been going on for a while anyway. So same same dynamic at play here, but the Kid Rock performance where he comes out as Kid Rock, he does that song, then he's reintroduced by his given name, Robert Ritchie. He does this song and says you can give your life to Jesus. He'll give you a second chance, sort of like his his finding Jesus, his own personal journey to God. So that's how that's being interpreted. I did not watch the Turning Point. I did not have control over the TV. I was at somebody else's house and they all wanted to watch the Bad Bunny halftime show, which I've seen described all over the place as joyful. It's about the vibes. It's about the joyful vibes. We're back to the vibes thing. I thought we had. I thought we had dispensed with all of that with the flame out of the Kamala Harris campaign, but apparently not. We're still We're still dealing with the vibes. A joyful celebration of Latin heritage, which is a lot of it is Spanish. So again like for this, like, there was another piece over at Time magazine Time dot com. I don't even know if they publish a magazine anymore, but they had their guy Andrew Chow or Chow correspondent. His headline was exuberant act of resistance. See. So, for some reason, people on the left have deciphered all sorts of political messaging that came out of that halftime show, which is what people on the right feared it would be. Right, and so, you know, how dare you, you know, prejudge the show before it airs. You know, you don't even know what he's going to do and all of this, and so you're a bigot, you're a racist or something, right because you you know, have heard about this guy, his comments about Trump, his comments about ice, right, and then like he goes and performs and they're like, oh, but look now, what a unifying, joyful message. He said God Bless America, and he did. It was the only English he spoke during the entire performance. He said God Bless America. However, he then started listing all of these different countries, which I think he's counting as America, which is part of a larger project. I'm not sure people on the right are aware of this. Right, when you say God Bless America and then you make it clear that you are referring to all of these Central and South American countries, that that is a political message, and it's a message that the left understood, but they're telling you, no, no, no, he only meant the United States of America. Right, But then why did he list all of the other countries. He said, God bless America and then listed all of these countries. It's because to the left, that's how they're viewing all of the Americas. Although he did list Canada too, which was especially nowadays. I don't think the Canadians are very happy being conflated with America, you know, so a joyful celebration. This is from again, This is from the New York Times, all the fifteen reporters. The lead up to his performance was weighted down by speculation, culture war controversies, and the overall solemnity of this tense moment in American politics, but the performance itself was a kaleidoscope blast of merriment, a showcase of some of the most ecstatic and celebratory aspects of Latin culture. Bad Bunny delivered a message in English, God Bless America, but went on to name countries across the Americas, leading a parade of flags, and before he ended with the spiked football, the football have having the words together we are America. So he lists all of these other countries, shows the football together we are America, and then he says in in Spanish, we are still here, and then he spikes the football right, So he injected politics into his performance precisely as people on the right had predicted. Because it's who he is, that's his shtick, it's part of his it's part of his act, it's part of who he is. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. From Twitter, mcdellinger says Kid Rock's performance on the Turning Point USA show was testiment. Was his testimony that he had Jesus in his life. Now, yeah, I think that's accurate. The most cringe response came from John Kasik, whose father was a mailman. If I recall correctly, this is the guy I remember he ran for president. He refused to get out when Trump was knocking off all of the other Republicans, and Casks stayed untill the very end. He said on Twitter. Love the halftime show, which celebrates the wonderful Latino culture, great pick and great show. Bad Bunny hit a grand Slam home run, which it's like, I'm not sure, like I could say this. I'm a white guy, Like that's the whitest guy white guy ever. Like he's doing the meme of Steve Buscemi sidling up to the high schoolers like he's an undercover narc. Hello, fellow, students. Aj Ziegler, a writer, said he was He's amused by elderly white guys who actually did not enjoy the halftime show but feel they must fake it because they disliked Trump very much. And of course everything must be political. So sometimes you fake liking music you actually find bizarre or even terrible. Yeah. Andrew Colvett from Turning Point said that the All American halftime show pulled in over twenty five million views on YouTube alone. Oh sorry, YouTube and rumble with a lot of large groups watching together, so the numbers of viewers is likely much higher, and the numbers are still climbing. They got broadcast partners, fast channel partners, Final counts in coming, he said. Based on the success, they've already committed to doing it again next year. It'll be back in twenty twenty seven. Nellus, welcome to the program. Hello, Nellis, Hey Pete, how are you? Hey, I'm good? What's going on? Hey? Good? Just quick comments. So last night, after the TPUSA halftime show, I posted or shared that video of Kid Rock singing the Cody Johnson song, and this morning when I woke up, it had magically disappeared. So I think they're trying to hide how well the concert went and how much people loved it and that testimony. Where did you post it on Facebook? On Facebook page? And they took it down? Oh, is it like a copyright violation or something? I mean it was. It was from the Turning Point website. I just shared their post. I didn't take it off the TV or anything. No, it doesn't matter though. It was a Facebook post and they just suddenly said the content is no longer available. Yeah, well I don't know about that. They yeah, because like you run a foul of copyright uh law if you're sharing stuff like that sometimes. Yeah, I mean, if it's a musical performance, they guard that stuff. So I mean that that that was. I shared it from Facebook to Facebook. So it's something that they had on there originally. Right, right, But if they're if you were sharing it from their source, their source may have locked it down and that therefore your video isn't isn't available now because the post was still there, just said the content's not available. Yeah. Yeah, so I think that's what happened, and it's probably due to copyright. Trust me, man, Like the music industry with this stuff, it's like there's a reason why we say the Big Game, you know, because we can't. We can't say the s B words if it in relationship to like any kind of like promotional event or anything like that. Like I can say the Patriots lost the Super Bowl, I can say that, but I cannot use the words when it comes to like any kind of promotional event. So anyway, so like they do guard that stuff. I think that might be what happened if the if the post is still there but the content isn't, it sounds like they locked it on their end so to protect the copyright infringement. Good, thank you, Yeah, man, all right, appreciate the call. Now, if they had deleted the whole post, like if your post was just gone, that would indicate that Facebook deleted your post. Let's see here, what else? Oh, Ali Beth Stucky, she's a conservative pundit, she said, doing an entire show at an iconic American event in a language most of the country does not understand feels like a humiliation ritual. I saw this, this sentiment expressed by a lot of folks too, right, Like this is like they view it as the equivalent of the the Muslim prayers in the middle of the streets. Right where they take over a street, right, it's a show of force, it's a humiliation, right, that kind of a thing. But then again, Puerto Rico is part of America. I don't know where do they stand on the uh on the independence thing. Didn't they have a chance to, Like I kind of feel like it's something that pops up every couple of years where there's like, yeah, we need to be independent, be our own country or something. I did find it kind of funny though, the part of the performance where they had all of the power polls that were like blowing up basically, which like like this is a problem. Do you know? They had a blackout in Porto ric Go like Christmas Day or Christmas Eve or something, and the US government has apparently like given them somewhere in the neighborhood of like one hundred billion dollars to fix their power system their power grid, and for some reason they just can't figure it out or something. I don't know. I'm not really clear as to what's going on with the power system there. But I mean, obviously was a Hurricane Maria that that plowed through the island several years ago, is probably about five years ago now, left everybody in darkness and all that. So, yeah, I don't understand, but I mean it's obviously a problem. I don't know if I would highlight it in the Super Bowl show, but uh yeah, but I'm not. I don't know this from Johnny who says, Pete, why doesn't good old Roger Goodell for nothing change the field to meters too? Oh that would be interesting. So if he's going to play more games, if the idea is to make it international, but all the international measurements are in meters, right, that we're gonna go to the metric system for the football field. It's like, all right, okay, unpopular opinion, Okay, the meter system is better. The metric system is better. It is. I mean, it's just from a math perspective, it just makes more sense. Now that being said, I am not a proponent of going to Celsius, Like that's stupid, Like one degree Celsius changed. That feels like a big difference. You know, Like you look at like the weather forecast and it's like today is twenty five, and so is every day for the next month. That doesn't tell you anything because it could be like it could be pretty chilly, it could be pretty warm. All within that twenty five degrees or whatever, like one degree celsius change feels like a lot more. That's why the fahrenheit that we use is much better. But I do kind of feel like the metrics system is better just as a system. I'm not saying we convert, we're Americans, but I do feel like it's a superior system. And by the way, my favorite ed, of course was the Mayo ed obviously, and Neil Diamond Mayo and Neil Diamond one, I mean somebody that played him, but a Neil Diamond song in a Mayo commercial for Hellman's Like, that's obviously the best in my opinion. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.