John Hancock drops by. Plus, Arctic Frost gets ignored (09-18-2025--Hour1)

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 dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. The Little Heroes Blood Drive, the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive. We are along with the one Blood Big Red Bus, taking your blood donation at Watson Insurance. I meant to get the address from Vince. I heard five something as the street number, but the. Corner of Kataba and two seventy. Three, Kataba and two seventy three. Now that voice sounds familiar to you, it's because that's John Hancock, formerly of WBT Radio midday evenings, mornings and now Fridays with the Morning Show. John, how are you my. One hour a week job? Hang on, he needs more volume. Okay, all right, there you go, you one hour a week job on the morning show. But I do enjoy it. It's great. I do enjoy it. It's uh, I think Bo and Beth for allowing me the opportunity to go do that. Uh and uh, it's it's it's kind of getting my weekly fixed. I get to put the headphones on and hear my voice going back at me, and uh, I'm not dying to get back into the arena necessarily. But I dream a lot about doing radio. But the funniest thing I literally dream, like when you fall asleep and you have dreams. About Yes, but I'm queuing up records and grabbing cart machines. You know, I'm doing stuff that you haven't done in years. All right, So that's you know the old radio. Do you ever have the nightmare that you're going on air but you have no show prep done, or you have no records to spend. Do you have still have those? No, that was not a nightmare. That was a real life experience. Yeah. I get those every now and again. Well it gets me out of bed. But the secret, finally, I think I finally figured it out, and that was to go into that studio where you could sit there and do three hours without taking a phone call. And you know, back in those days used to almost judge your show on how many phone calls you take, and then you started to find out that not all the phone calls were great for your show. And then they. Started coming up with phone screamers, and hopefully that alleviated some of it. But we started taking fewer and fewer phone calls. And if you notice, that's the trend that an awful lot of shows don't take calls at all anymore. Some might say I don't take a lot of phone calls, and they would be correct. I forget because I remember Keith Larsen telling me his advice when I became a host was book a lot of guests. And I did that for a while, and I still do my book guests and stuff, obviously, but there was an I don't remember if it was you or Bill White that told me that you don't need phone calls. It's just one element of the show. And that may have been you that told me that. I don't want to insult the audience, no, but you generally taking calls drives down the show. And John said that I did not say that. Well, for the record. The other thing that I think is hard for even some of the biggest egos in the business to understand is. People tune in for you. And it took me a long time to understand that because, oh, come on, right, but it's true. Well, so do you think that has something to do with Have you ever heard of imposter syndrome? You ever heard of this term? I don't think so, not in the terms that you're Yeah. Imposter syndrome is when people self doubt because they don't belie that they are actually qualified to do the thing that they are doing, when in fact they are. But it's one of the things that keeps people, you know, nose to the grindstone, trying to make sure they're prepared, like doing all of that stuff. And a lot of times it's in a field of practice that doesn't require credentials, right. It's not like, oh, you're now a doctor, right because you pass the medical exams and all of that. Are now you're a lawyer because you pass the bar. It's like there so people who are in these lines of work where it's hard to measure whether or not you are good at what you're doing because there are no metrics for it, they view themselves as imposters. Oh maybe I had the yeah, I think I do and honestly, I think it makes you a better host. I do, like I've thought along about this stuff, and it's like, I think it makes you a bit of a better host because you always want to make sure that you deserve to be where you are. Well, I remember somebody said Hancott goes through more material in twenty minutes than most of us do in the last in three hours. Yes, and I've heard other radio people do that, and some of them driving me crazy. So I'm not so sure that it took a compliment, but it was. It finally occurred to me. I had a program director one time, and this is back when I was doing rock radio, and I so obviously came out of a song to go into the next song and had no idea where I was going. And as soon as I got into the second. Song, he came in opened up the door and he says, are you trying to sound like a moron? Don't You don't ever open up that mic unless you know where you're going and hopefully how it's going to end. I don't ever want to hear this indecisiveness that you just did, because it makes you sound like an idiot. And I've never forgotten that. So I walked into the studio literally with three or four hours worth of material, and I could I could do a three hour show and never take a phone call, and in fact many times. Did right, No, most I don't think. I think I took one call yesterday, for example, because well, when I started, I started on nine to midnight on BT and at that time of day you don't get a lot of phone calls. There just aren't there, and the spot load was so light that I had to have, Yes, I had to be able to fill like forty forty four minutes in an hour because otherwise, like there's nothing else to play. So it, yeah, that trained me. And then going to do the podcast, same thing. It's like there are no phone calls because it's a podcast, so you better be able to fill all the time. Of course, on the other hand, the phone calls that shouldn't be discounted entirely, because how many times have you gone in with the idea of what the show is going to be that day and you take a. Phone call and it somehow or another morphs. You into a completely different direction than what you had planned on going. And sometimes those turned out to be your best shows. I did three hours one time on the superiority of mayonnaise as condoment as a condoment, because I believe it. I believe that because and that started with like a phone call somebody called in made some I think I made a joke about Mayo. They called in to challenge me, and it turned into three hours of me defending my position that Mayo is the superior condomy and Dukes or well, that's a side that's a side issue, Like I don't want to get into picking the favorites, like because I am equal opportunity for Mayo. All. I like all of the Mayo except because it's not Mayo miracle wib that's I grew up on miracles. Well you're from Colorado Western, Yeah, that's I don't I've never understood it's even they don't admit to being Mayo, so I don't put them in the category they call themselves what sandwich dressing or something like that. I need to go taste it again just to see what it is I haven't had in forty years. Well that's good, that's good. Yeah, So, uh, you are correct. The the the expertise also of the audience is super helpful. You get onto a topic and you're like, yesterday we were talking about our illustrious sheriff in Mecklinberg County. I call him Gary not my fault McFadden, because nothing is ever his fault when people die in the jail, right when he gets bad pressed, people quit like it's never his fault. And so he put out a video statement and I got a call yesterday from a former Mecklinberg County Sheriff's office employee and so, and he got on the air and we talked a little bit about, you know, his opinion of this sheriff. And he had worked for all these other sheriffs before. You remember all of those guys from Sheriff Kid through Irwin Carmichael and Pendograph and so and Chip Bailey, right, so all these other sheriffs. And so that's the benefit also is like no one person can be smarter than the entire room full of people because they have information and knowledge that no one person can amass. Now, we used to have McFadden on when he had that short I Am Policy show, and if you'll recall when we did the big send off John from the air routine, he showed up, Oh, good for you. So I still consider him to be a friend. I would love to sit down and talk to him because he's us. He's gotten this fair amount of bad press, indeed, and he's always been good to me. Well that's good. And look, I know he's talked to brag Jensen over the years as well, and that's all. That's all fine and good. My opinion of him is not very high, just because of the way he's managing the office. Well, different relationships. I don't really judging him as a sheriff. I'm judging him more as a as. A friend or a guy who had an association with And. You also fled Mecklenburg County, so we're here in Belmont now. So that's the other thing. And every time I see the traffic jams that they put up on TV every week, I say to my wife, you sure you want to. Go back to that, right, and and that shuts her up for about or another week. Well all right, just a week, okay, yeah, because it's pretty brutal. Game on week one starts now and every touchdown brings you closer to a payout. With Draft Kings sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL. This isn't just football, it's first touchdown fireworks anytime. TD rushes live bets that ride every momentum shift that DraftKings every play is your next shot to win. Will the Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? New customers bet just five dollars and get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly, plus get over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your season starts now. Download the Draft Kings sports book app and use code Pete to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you place your first bet of five dollars or more plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. But you got to use promo code pete in partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for a problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org play responsibly on behalf of boothill, casino and resort Kansas. Fees may apply in Illinois twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Se Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot Com slash Promos NFL Sunday Ticket offer for new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket terms or at YouTube dot com slash go Slash NFL Sunday Ticket Slash terms Limited timeofer with me is John Hancock here. Let me give you peach cell phone. Hey, hey, so you know I don't even think you have my You do have my cell phone? Never mind, because I will say the day I got let go. Actually I think both times I've been let go. You called me the day I got let go and the last two times I got riffed. That's a reduction in force, or, as the CEO of iHeartRadio called it at the time, an employee dislocation. With a thousand names for it and for for anybody that needs to know out there if you ever read that they wish you the best in all your future endeavors. That means you've been fired, yes, and escort it out of the building with a box. I had to come back. They told me don't come up in Asheville, and then I had to go back on like a weekend with with my boss as my escort. Like really, because they don't have security up there. It's just like really, like what do you think I'm going to do in here? But somebody told me a long time ago, and maybe it was you that said this, is that they do that because that's they think that that's what they would do in my situation, and so that's why they wanted somebody to escort me. Yeah, so they used to tell you that one of the reasons that they escort you out and have somebody stand over you as you pack up your desk, and they want to make sure that they protect their station secrets. And as somebody who did this for about fifty years, let me tell you, they don't have a lot of secrets. No, not a lot of secrets. So all right, so let's talk about this event here. You've got a little flyer because you know, John would not you would not beat John Hancock if you weren't pitching something. Well, the blood drugs being handled by the Chamber of Commerce today and they called it the Mont Cross Area Chamber of Commerce, and they're doing kind of something like the Mallard Creek Barbecue. They're doing a fifteen dollars a plaid barbecue meet the candidates. It'll be on October tenth, and it'll be at the Point Church, which is at sixty seven hundred Wilkinson Boulevard. But it gives you a chance to talk to and grill and connect and meet these guys and get them kind of one on one. Candidates will be there from eleven to three, kind of like the blood drive. But anyway, I thought that's a long time to wait, but it's October the tenth, and it's essentially from eleven to six, but the candidates will be there from eleven to three the Point Church on Wilkinson Boulevards. So these are local candidates running for your local offices in the Belmont area. So I'm assuming you're going to have local Belmont races, maybe some guests. In County and Cramerton. Yeah, and so this is I'm looking at the date October tenth, right, so I'm trying to remember ten ten. I'm thinking that's so that would be the general election. I don't know. I don't remember when. I guess we already did our primaries for the municipal races, so I guess, yeah, that'll be general elect I know you did in Mecklenburg. I don't remember whether they've done that here. Yeah, I don't know if they've got their own ability to set those calendars for themselves. But so, yeah, so fifteen bucks barbecue plates meet the candidates. I always wonder like, like what draws? So it's like the barbecue, does that draw the politicians? Because the barbecue draws the people, and then the people draw the politicians, and then the media follows the politicians. It's like a daisy chain of moths to flames, you know, like the Mallard Creek. I am ceed the Mallard Creek one year, one thousand years ago, and I remember Mel Watt. Yeah, it was just as nice on the air to me as he could be. And that was the last time that ever happened. And Anthony Fox and yeah, but it was an interesting place to. Be and to interview the candidates, and get to know them, and especially at that particular time in my career, because I didn't know who any of these guys were at the right. So it was really an introduction to me as to who would be the players in Mecklenburg. County for the next ten, fifteen, twenty years. So they would always do they would have the h the Mallard Creek Barbecue. They started separating the lines to the barbecue stand if you did not want to talk to the politicians, because they because in the original days, the politicians would be all they would stand along the line and they would just work the lines. But then some people were like, I don't want to talk to any of these politicians, so. They here for the barbecue. So they separated the lines out the Brunswick stoo which they're famous exactly, and so you could go get your food and not have to talk to any of these people running for office. But if you did want to hear their pitches, then you'd go to this other line, and that's where the politicians would line up. So somebody's thinking, yeah, no, it's a it's a it's a pretty good office. There's somebody that's never been in radio before. All right, So, uh, all right, So what else are you up to these days? Are you doing any traveling? Are you doing woodworking or something? I just got back from California and Colorado. Spent a few days out in California. A friend of mine out in the Sacramento my best friend of all time, and he's got cancer, and I already go. Out and see him. And then I flew back and stopped in Colorado for a couple of days, and spent some time in Boulder, and went up to my hometown of Vesta's Park. So Susan and I managed to, you know, get a little short trips, so on and so forth. Seems like every time we booked something major, something major happens with my health. Oh no, so but you're doing well now as far as I know today, what day is it? Yes? Today I'm doing fun. Never ask a guy named calendar what day it is? That's well, and never ask a retired guy what day. I have learned that with my HOA fellow volunteers, I have learned that as well. They never know what day it is. It's like these meetings are always on the same day every month, and I have to remind one or two of them every single month. Hey, this is the day. Yeah, thank god it's Friday. Right, every day? Yeah, every day Friday for you. All right, Well, John is down here. Are you gonna how long you're gonna be around here? I'll be hanging around. And if I'm not here when you get here, I'll be here before you leave. You've got me run down and run an error or two, but for the most part, I'll be around. So come by and say hi, and and and really we need some people to come down here and donate blood. I want this to be the biggest success. I want Belmont to be the biggest success that. They've because right now rock Hill leads the location in rock Hill is that they lead in the amount of blood collected from last week. Yeah, week, So Belmont needs to represent here. We can we can beat rock Hill. I don't just we'll see, we'll see times running out. So if you want to help kids fighting childhood cancer, Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month is this month. That's why we're doing the Little Hero's Blood drive. And so if you want to come down help make John not a liar and out to donate rock Hill, I'll. Go down to downtown kidnap a couple of people. All right, he did not just communicate a threat over FCC airwaves. I just want that for the record. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. But things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's and I'm leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash walk and then you could search for my team name Pete's Pack. There's also a link at the petepod dot com. There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh. Then, so you can make a team and join that one too, or make a donation and help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it. There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas. You can go to alz dot org slash walk for all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you walk with me? For a different future, for families, for more time for treatments. This is why we walk. So do you know anything about arctic frost? It's not a flavor of gum? No arctic frost. If you get your news from like CNN, MSNBC or what was it called now, miss Now or something, ABC, CBS News, NBC, The Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, like all the legacy media outlets, right state media, if you will, you will not see this story. You will not know anything about arctic frost. Because this story broke about now almost two days ago. And before I left to come out to the remote here, I went and checked website ground News, which tracks media coverage of all these different stories and gives you a breakdown of, you know, which outlets are covering it, and they they rate them or rank them based on, you know, sort of partisanship, factuality, that kind of thing. And what's interesting is that this story has received absolutely zero coverage from those legacy media outlets, from any Actually, there's only been two stories outside of conservative media about Arctic Frost. The only two outlets that have covered this outside of conservative media The Independent, which the US version which I think the UK Independent is the actual paper, and so the Independent US version, and then a left wing blog site called empty Wheel. That's it. So what is this story about. Well, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, when he had Cash Battel in front of him and the committee the other day, which you know, all those legacy outlets covered cash Betel's appearance, but they did not cover any of this. He revealed that the FBI's election related investigation into Donald Trump at the time president that was launched in twenty twenty two. Sorry, so he was out of office at this point. Twenty twenty two launched the bureau called this Arctic Frost, and it swept in dozens of Republican entities, including the late Charlie Kirks Turning Point USA. Speaking during a hearing focused on oversight of the FBI, Grassley said the investigation Arctic Frost was partisan in nature and that its expansive scope was evidence of that fact. Grassley said, quote, Arctic Frost wasn't just a case to politically investigate Trump. It was a vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. Since January, Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, have been publishing records related to Arctic Frost, the investigation launched during FBI Director Chris Ray's tenure that served as the basis for former Special Council Jack Smith to bring those criminal charges against Trump related to the twenty twenty election. Numerous Republican affiliated organizations and people were targeted with subpoenas during Arctic Frost, but the basis for targeting all of these groups is not clear. That's according to Fox News's report on it. The Washington Examiner. The Biden administration's FBI placed at least ninety two Republican aligned individuals and organizations, ninety two under federal scrutiny, they sent out a batch of subpoenas demanding financial institutions that had bank accounts for these various groups and people. They sent out subpoenas to all these banks, these financial institutions. This is according to whistleblower testimony that was provided to Congress by the FBI. During an interview on Fox News's America Reports, Chuck Rassley pinned the origins of the probe on former FBI agent Timothy Tibault or Tibau to bout Thibeau whatever he said, Thibeau violated every FBI protocol when launching Arctic Frost. As a pretext for Jack Smith to build his case against Trump, it was initially framed as just a narrow inquiry into Trump's post twenty twenty election conduct, right where he was going around saying it was stolen, it was rigged, and all of that, and then the Democrats were like, threat to democracy. Oh my god, you can't be saying these things. Just take the l you lost, right, But the whistleblower disclosures show that the investigation quickly expanded under Thibeau's direction to encompass dozens of conservative aligned people and organizations. Chuck Grassley, along with other Republicans, argue that by the time Jack Smith formally inherited the case, the groundwork had already been laid for a wide ranging operation that effectively criminalized political opposition. Later on in this story which I think this is Washington Examiner, DC Examiner, the FBI's Arctic Frost inquiry originally opened in twenty two under Christopher Ray, then the director of the FBI, later used as the foundation for Jack Smith's indictment on Trump, and sent dozens of financial subpoenas to all of the banks JP, Morgan, Chase, Wells, Fargo, Bank of America. They targeted Turning Point USA, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Attorney's General Association, the American Or the Republican Governor's Association, Conservative Partnership Institute, America First Policy Institute, just basically everybody. They went after Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Stephen Miller, dozens of consultants, political action committees. The revelations surrounding Arctic Frost could form get this the political predicate for the Trump administration to initiate its own investigations into progressive networks, including left wing donor organizations like George and Alex Soros's Open Society foundations. Trump has called for the Justice Department to explore racketeering charges under Rico laws against Soros and related protest networks, citing their alleged role in promoting civil unrest and politically motivated violence. Open Society Foundation has openly contested, saying these allegations are totally baseless, and for people who may not remember, I'm old enough to remember this. If it sounds a lot like a previous scandal under a prior administration, it should because it sounds a lot like what was done to the tea party groups under then IRS director Lois Learner. All Right, so you've heard me talk about creative video for almost a year, But did you know they also offer a game changing app for businesses that reward their teams with incentive trips. Well, they do. It's called Incentive Trip Kit. If you want a business or work at one that offers these incentive trips, this is a must have. It maximizes the impact and value of these motivational trips. It's a super easy to use app built just for your group, with private messaging, shared photos, important trip documents, even a find the group locator just in case somebody gets separated. And when I say it's private, I mean it. No personal emails, no phone numbers, no ads, no account sign ups. Everyone uses one shared login, so it's super easy, no hassles. During the trip, everybody can post their best photos and short video clips, and folks back at the office can even follow along. And then after the trip, incentive trip kit turns those memories into a professional storytelling video you can use to motivate, inspire and get people fired up for next year's trip. More fun, more memories, more ROI check it out now at incentive tripkit dot com or call Eric at eight eight eight five three three seventy six thirty seven Extension two O seven for the details. I do need to test something here because we are out on remote in belmonted Watson Insurance along with the one Blood Big Red Buss. I need to test something. I got this probably about a year ago, maybe from Russ who came to one of our news and bruise events, and so let me make sure this works here that's kind of faint. Let me say here, all right, it'll do in a pinch, because I don't have the rim shot SoundBite here. But he gave me this handheld, this handheld little rimshot maker, and so I will attempt and I will attempt to use it today because I remember to bring it on the location. Alrighty, So, Chuck Grassley. Senator Chuck Grassley drew a parallel between the Arctic Frost investigation that was launched under the the Biden administration's FBI with the Obama era IRS scandal involving Lois Learner, who targeted conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny and did so after President Obama at a State of the Union speech, ripped the Supreme Court decision while the justices were sitting there. And that's the famous you know, Sam Alito, Justice Alito sitting there shaking his head saying not true, where he mischaracterized the ruling on Citizens United, and that then gave the permission structure for the IRS to start targeting the Tea Party groups that were ascendant at that time. This would have been around twenty ten. And along those lines, President Trump also announced last night that he is designating Antifa as a quote major terrorist organization. Now, in case you are curious, there is in fact no such designation as a major terrorist organization. There are foreign Terrorist organizations or fto's, those are designated by the US Secretary of State under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and there are specially designated Global terrorists or sdgts or citigates as I call them. But there is no major terrorist organization status, so I'm not really sure what he's going to do. He also said that this will result in other investigations, but again we shall see what that means. It is unknown what kind of terrorist organization Trump would want to designate it as. This is according to Kerry Pickett and Jeff Mordock at The Washington Times, the Antifah movement is global but is not a single, unified organization. It is a decentralized collection of autonomous groups and individuals across the world. While domestic terrorism is defined in federal statute, the term domestic terrorist is not used to officially label any group, they say. Mister Trump said that the groups could face racketeering charges under the Rico Act, which allows prosecutors to target organized crime activities that arise from the existence of criminal criminal enterprise like a gang or corporation, or like the mafia. Right, but he said he has been speaking to the Attorney General about bringing RICO against some people that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation purposes. And he specifically called out George Soros and his son Alex Soros for participating in this, accusing them of supporting violent protests. The soros Is deny those claims. Now, I will also point out that the Corvallis, Oregon Antifa cell has published an after action report on the fallout from Charlie Kirk's assassination. This is according to reporting by Andy no Where in the report and you can read it, they admit that they fear the loss of their ability to mark conservatives for death with no pushback, especially as some a political institutions and groups and businesses now feel safer expressing sympathy to Charlie Kirk's family and supporters. So they're saying, hey, we have attempted to counter several of these rallies in Portland and Seattle, but rallies that we have held targeting this Christian church have backfired. And so we should probably not be getting in the face of you know, suburban moms and kids. It's not a good look. And then they say, we got to find more creative ways to counter this political moment. And so they have identa to fight a wedge issue that they may be able to use, which is Israel. That's right, one possible useful wedge issue in this context is Israel. Conspiracy theorists have jumped in to blame Kirk's assassination on the masade, and so we should take that as the opportunity to drive a wedge among conservatives. So be aware when you see this stuff online and people are just asking questions, right, this is what Antifa is going to be driving as well, because the reaction to them after Kirk's assassination. They recognize that this is not good for them in this moment. So let's just lend our voices to amplify this woke right schism around Israel and the Jews. 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.