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Our Town podcast Season 4 through a millennial’s eyes. Liz Bubes shares her views on Season 4 of Our Town podcast interviews~
“Well, as a millennial and for someone who had never heard of a vast majority of these people but learned way more than I thought. . . I think that the highlight of Our Town podcast for me was having Monique Samuels on and getting on the Real Housewives of Potomac. . . Getting all the cameras all set up, and getting mic’d up and you know, being near a celebrity.”
Andy Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town podcast and unfortunately this is the last of our Season 4. Our Town, we’ll be starting Season 5 sometime in this late Summer, early Fall. But this has been a wonderful, wonderful ride for us, especially since Janice has been in charge of the whole program. But to have Liz Bubes take over and work with us as sort of our finding producer. It’s just been a great, great Season and I’m so glad that the three of us . . . the four of us with our extraordinary producer Ken.
Ken Hunter: Can’t forget me, that’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: We’ve been trying to forget you, but it still works. But Lizzy, thank you for being here and Janny you’re the best, honey.
Highlights – Season 4 Our Town Podcast Guests
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah, so what we wanted to do is we wanted to do a Season wrap up, and during this wrap up we just wanted to give our impressions, all of us, Liz, Andy, Ken, and I, about what was meaningful and what we learned in this Season, Season 4. So, I just wanted to start with Liz because she had a great impression…
Andy Ockershausen: What was that great impression Liz, in Season 4?
Monique Samuels
Liz Bubes: Well, as a millennial and for someone who had never heard of a vast majority of these people but learned way more than I thought. . . I think that the highlight of Our Town podcast Season 4 for me was having Monique Samuels on and getting on the Real Housewives of Potomac, Andy, that was definitely a thrill. Getting all the cameras all set up, and getting mic’d up and you know, being near a celebrity.
Andy Ockershausen: All of us being on Bravo was a big hit, it was amazing.
Liz Bubes: I kept waiting for that episode to come out.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I remember that day because they brought their camera crew and they took over the studios, both studios.
Liz Bubes: We had to get a bigger studio, just for Monique Samuels.
Andy Ockershausen: And her part.
Liz Bubes: And her 9 producers who flocked along with her.
Andy Ockershausen: And the amazing thing about Monique, she’s not the biggest celebrity. You would think so because of Bravo, but her husband is a much bigger celebrity. But nevertheless, she was so great and great to have and Janny who impressed you in the beginning of this thing?
Steve Buckhantz
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: A couple of people that stand out because we’re in the broadcast business and they’re friends, but I remember Steve Buckhantz. I listened to Steve occasionally when he was doing the Wizard’s games, what was most impressive was his personal journey, the journey he went from town to town as he was developing..
Liz Bubes: I agree he is a very inspiring person.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes…
Andy Ockershausen: He worked to get where he is at.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: He certainly did…
Liz Bubes: And now he kills it at what he does.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: But he’s a good storyteller, so when you hear the clips of him talking about the Wizards game, it’s play by play, that’s something else. But he as an individual storyteller was excellent.
Liz Bubes: Right.
Al Koken
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Al Koken is another example, hard working guy, worked his way to Washington, has got a great role now.
Liz Bubes: and the Caps and the Stanley Cup, I mean he was a success.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Big year for him.
Monsignor Salvatore Criscuolo – Father Sal
Andy Ockershausen: Hey you guys forgot the clergy, remember we had Father Sal?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I loved Father Sal.
Andy Ockershausen: Father Sal is trapping for the DC People Fire department, the fire and police department, but the fire now has their own chaplain, now he’s a chaplain for the police department and his motorcycle.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Right, his Harley Davidson, that was a fun episode.
Fred Smoot
Andy Ockershausen: Didn’t we have fun with some of our athletes. Nobody was better prepared than Fred Smoot because Fred Smoot was himself and as long as he was himself, he couldn’t fail.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, he’s an astronomer, and I urged him to do that, that’s a great, great thing to have that ability and something to transition from football. I also want to remark on WTOP, was so great…
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah, that was an interesting session.
Andy Ockershausen: As a leading broadcast company in the greater Washington area to open up their studios to us, to allow their performers to be on Our Town podcast.
WTOP :: Hillary Howard | Neal Augenstein | Dave McConnell
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We had Hillary Howard, Neal Augenstein, and Dave McConnell.
Andy Ockershausen: Dave McConnell, these are big names.
Liz Bubes: Dave McConnell blew me away.
Andy Ockershausen: And WTOP, to me that was as big as Cathy Hughes opening up her studios and her building to us for us to record. And Liz is the one who did that, she got Cathy.
Cathy Hughes
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Liz, really wore her down. We had been trying for three Seasons to get the queen of Radio One, Cathy Hughes.
Liz Bubes: She was an hour and a half interview, these are thirty minutes, and she was three interviews altogether.
Andy Ockershausen: Yes.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And one story she told us off mic which was so interesting was that she had the creator of Empire in her house, who lived with her and she…
Andy Ockershausen: Empire, a lot of people may not know, Empire is a great story about an African American Music business, the Empire they were creating.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That was Cathy’s story and she told a great story.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my, she missed out on all that money, she admitted that.
Tyler Balderson
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We also had a tree doctor, we had Tyler Balderson.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s right, the tree hugger.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Tree hugger, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: I don’t think you can be a doctor of the trees unless you hug them, there’s more to trees than just looking at them. And we had so much fun with the people who are new to it, we had sports celebrities, but again, nobody better than Smoot, wasn’t Smoot fabulous. And we’re going to talk about some other people and we’ll be right back on Our Town podcast.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town podcast.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: This is Janice Ockershausen, Andy Ockershausen, and Liz Bubes, and we are…
Andy Ockershausen: Did you identify yourself as the executive producer of Our Town podcast?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I’m the executive producer, Liz Bubes is our associate producer, Ken is our creative director and technical director, and Andy Ockershausen our host, welcome to Our Town podcast.
Andy Ockershausen: It’s a pleasure to be with you on Our Town podcast, it’s a pleasure to be with you anywhere, Our Town, the beach, the sky, whatever it is, it’s always a pleasure.
More Highlights – Season 4 Our Town Podcast
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Today we’re taking the time to acknowledge our Season 4 guests.
Robin Ficker
Andy Ockershausen: I want to say the surprise guest that we had that is fabulous is a different kind of human being, his name is Robin Ficker, and Robin has been a gadfly for 30-40 years and so different, and he’s still a politician, he’s still doing it, and he does kooky things.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: What amazed me about Robin Ficker was his energy level, he would have been such a great county executive, he’s got so much energy, so many ideas, he’s so persistent.
Andy Ockershausen: And he sues so many people, if something happened that wasn’t right, he’d go to court, he’d go to federal court or whatever he’d do, out of his own pocket to defend the people. That’s such an unusual case, I think.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: So, we salute Robin Ficker.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely, and Robin will never forget it. Who did you impress Liz, you live in a celebrity world, your father has been a celebrity, your mother is another celebrity in Georgetown, so you’ve had a lot of people, who impressed you?
Lew Strudler
Liz Bubes: I was impressed by everybody, but I liked the sports people a lot. I really enjoyed Steve Buckhantz, and I liked Lew Strudler.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, Caps and what he did.
Liz Bubes: Just Monumental Sports overall, it’s so big in DC, you know, the Wizards are doing so well, the Caps won the Stanley Cup, we’re just having a great year.
Our Town Podcast – Season 5 Discussion
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: You just gave me an idea, because we haven’t had anyone from the Nats on, we really need to have, maybe you can start working on that idea.
Andy Ockershausen: Who?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Someone from the Nationals, baseball for Season 5.
Liz Bubes: Yeah, we have Fred Smoot from the Redskins.
Andy Ockershausen: Let’s get Bryce Harper.
Liz Bubes: We had Steve Buckhantz from the Wizards, Al Koken from the Capitals, and Lew Strudler just wrapped it all for us.
Andy Ockershausen: Wasn’t he great, Lewie.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Very good. I want to bring an idea to the table for Season 5.
Andy Ockershausen: Yes dear.
Our Town Podcast Hall of Fame :: Sonny Jurgensen | Cathy Hughes | Jim Vance
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I want to create a hall of fame, an Our Town podcast hall of fame and my inductees for the very first hall of fame would be Sonny Jurgensen number 9, Cathy Hughes…
Andy Ockershausen: Radio One.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Radio One, and Jim Vance, so that would be my pick for the Our Town podcast hall of fame.
Andy Ockershausen: What am I, chopped liver? I’m not in the Hall of Fame?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: It’s the Andy Ockershausen Hall of Fame for Our Town podcast.
Andy Ockershausen: No, my Hall of Fame is being married to you. One of the things that you did and pointed out that the law enforcement people that we have talked to and some of them couldn’t tell everything, but most of them are just great.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I think some of the best stories that were told were off mic, that’s always the case.
More Memories :: Dana Lawhorne | Mary Gavin | Pat Burke
Andy Ockershausen: Always. You pointed out to me, Liz, that Dana Lawhorne called you today to thank you again.
Liz Bubes: He was so pleased, it was the highlight of his life that we had, we had invited him on.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: He was such a non typical police officer with a great sense of humor, he was so funny.
Andy Ockershausen: He was a sheriff right? He had been a cop, then he became a sheriff of Alexandria, but who else did we have on?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We had Mary Gavin, she was great.
Andy Ockershausen: She was really something else.
Liz Bubes: To get a woman police officer on Andy was really a great idea.
Andy Ockershausen: She was armed too, did you know that?
Liz Bubes: Oh, I saw, how could I have missed that.
Andy Ockershausen: She had an active weapon.
Liz Bubes: She showed me her belt, alright.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh and Pat Burke, who was an MPD, but retired to run the association. And how about those secret service guys who couldn’t tell us anything, like Tom Quinn.
Liz Bubes: That souvenir he gave us, that was neat.
Tom Quinn and Season 2 Dave Carpenter
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I think Tom Quinn was cool too, because Tom looked exactly like Clint Eastwood and was so reminiscent of that movie.
Andy Ockershausen: He had boots on too.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah, protecting the president of the United States, so he’s very memorable to me. Dave Carpenter [Season 2] was very memorable.
Andy Ockershausen: Carpenter told me a story, he was the head of the White House Detail, he was number one taking care of Clinton and he lived with him for like 8 years as the head of the detail, and they lost track of each other, but they were with each other, he was more time with Clinton than his wife was, he was stuck to him. But when he retired, he got out of that world, he went to work for Pepsi Cola, but somebody ran into Clinton, he said he was a friend of Dave Carpenter. And said the president went nuts and said, “What Dave, how? What’s he doing? Where is he? I haven’t thought about him…” Clinton was so very familiar with what he meant to Carpenter.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: You know, he saved his life for 8 years. He didn’t save him from Hillary.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: No comment Ken.
Andy Ockershausen: I was, remember Hillary Howard at WTOP, I was calling her Hillary.
Tycely Williams and Eshauna Smith
Liz Bubes: And I think that two women who were overall a huge success to have on Our Town podcast were Eshauna Smith and Tycely Williams, I know that the Junior League is huge in DC and all over the DMV area, and I think that they were just such powerful women and to be African American and really powerful to this day…
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely, it means so much.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Up and coming, girl power.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely, and brown girl power, it’s so prevalent in our community, you’ve got the mayor, but all these people around her are getting power because they all should have had it for years, but women are being recognized in DC in Our Town, for the first time. And I’m glad to hear it from Liz, because she is a millennial, she talks about it all the time, I’m a perennial, see I ain’t going anywhere. That’s my plan. This is Andy Ockershausen, we’ll be right back with Our Town podcast.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town podcast with Andy Ockershausen, brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
More Memories – Season 4 Guests – Sue and Joe Palka
Andy Ockershausen: It’s Our Town podcast, with Andy Ockershausen, wrapping up Season 4, which reminds me, we failed to mention a fabulously talented, wonderful, dear friend, Sue Palka, Sue and Joe Palka are very dear friends, they’re WMAL alumni and she didn’t work here, but she should have, and her husband was part of us 30 years ago, so the Palkas are great, Channel 5 has been great. All their people, going way back last year with Ernie Baur and the people we have that make Channel 5. But, Liz you’re a little young to remember those glory days, they used to be a powerhouse in sports, was the local Channel 5. Janny, who did you forget? Anybody?
Bill Lord
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Well, I wanted to address Bill Lord, I thought Bill Lord was one of our great guests.
Andy Ockershausen: Another broadcaster.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: He wrote a book about Vietnam, he was also a broadcaster, he worked in local TV in Washington DC.
Andy Ockershausen: And 7.
Steven Portnoy
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yup, and also wanted to do a special mention to Steven Portnoy. Steven Portnoy, I worked with Steven at WMAL Radio.
Andy Ockershausen: He’s a dictionary, isn’t he? A catalog, he knows everything.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: He’s a radiophile, he loves anything to do with radio, he loves radio history, and he came in and took over.
Ken Hunter: Yeah, he took over the show.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes he did, he was wonderful, he was so enthusiastic, we were so excited to have him.
Chief Tom Manger
Andy Ockershausen: How about Chief Manger?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Oh Chief, Tom.
Andy Ockershausen: Montgomery County, but he had been chief in Fairfax, so he was Our Town’s chief of all time, he missed DC. But we had him on too.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We did, he was great. You know what, we didn’t mention because we didn’t know, I had reached out to Johnny Holliday after the interview, I said, “Johnny, the chief mentioned your name during the interview.” And he said, “Did he mention that he was a great song and dance man?”
Andy Ockershausen: No.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: So yeah, see, that’s one thing that maybe we’ll have him back so we can talk about this.
Andy Ockershausen: Manger, that would be great.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Off Broadway talent.
Our Town Podcast Season 5 – Who’s Next?
Andy Ockershausen: Who else do you think of that we’re going to have in the future that we’ve talked about, future stars, let’s say.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Well, I think that we ought to definitely try for Mayor Bowser.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, you know it’s been…
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: With the wharf and it’s expansion… PN Hoffman, Monty Hoffman, we’ve been trying to get Monty.
Andy Ockershausen: We’ve been trying to get him, I got a contact with him now, I’ll get working on that.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We want Joe Theismann.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We want Larry Hogan.
Andy Ockershausen: But Theismann doesn’t have much to say.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Oh, that’s a joke right?
Andy Ockershausen: He never stops, that’s what I’m worried, he’ll take over the show.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We want Maury Povich.
Andy Ockershausen: I can get the governor if we get near him, but Larry would do it for me.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We want your old friend from panorama, Maury Povich.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh God yes.
Liz Bubes: I’ll work my strings, I’ll get him to DC.
Andy Ockershausen: He’s not going to do that unless he’s here, but he’ll do it if he’s in town.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And don’t forget Tony Kornheiser who won’t do our podcast because he does a podcast.
Andy Ockershausen: No, that’s not why.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That makes no sense.
Andy Ockershausen: He doesn’t think we’re big enough for him.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Oh, okay. Well, we’ll have to get big enough.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And also, I want to mention to all our, Our Town podcast listeners, everybody. We’ve got thousands and thousands of Our Town podcast listeners, because they come up…
Andy Ockershausen: What did you say, we had 100,000 likes?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Downloads, yes we have a lot of people that are listening to Our Town podcast. Pat Malone was one of them, he always tells us. Margo Jurgensen is a big fan, from Florida. If anybody has any suggestions…
Join the Our Town Podcast Community on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
Liz Bubes: Please feel free to log on to OurTownDC.com or Facebook, we are on Twitter, we are on Instagram, I’ll make sure to get your suggestion. We love feedback, it’s always welcome. We are looking forward to a brand new Season 5, with great guests and…
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Interesting topics.
Liz Bubes: More to come, this is just the beginning.
Rate and Review Our Town Podcast on iTunes | Stay Up to Date on WTOP and DCRTV
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes, you can find us on WTOP.
Andy Ockershausen: Even so called competitors now support us and do it all the way.
Liz Bubes: You can’t get away from us.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: You can find us on iTunes, Apple iTunes, and also WTOP, they have us on their website.
Liz Bubes: We’re also on DCRTV, if you want an update on the weekly guests, that is always being updated, so keep in touch for Season 5.
More Great Season 4 Interviews :: John Lyon and Peter Abrahams
Liz Bubes: We want to mention one more person who really had a bold story to tell, that was years ago, but you can’t forget stuff because it was years ago. A guest who really had all of us emotional on the podcast and I know that we wanted to acknowledge him in the most in depth way because it was such an important topic. Janice, I think you want to take it from here.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah, our good friend John Lyon, we invited John back to the microphones. And we brought him back into the studio. We walked him around and showed him around, we noticed we all had the same microphones we had all those twenty years ago when he left WMAL, but it was great seeing him.
Andy Ockershausen: Forty years ago.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Great seeing John Lyon, we salute you John, and we’re going to the Limericks to see him play, he plays once a month at Limericks in Silver Spring, so we salute you John Lyon, it was great seeing you.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, what a wonderful man and Mary, don’t forget Mary. How about Peter Abrahams, we welcomed him back to town. Peter was here, working and suddenly he left, and now he came back to run the Business Journal, and he’s going to be a big help to us with Our Town, he promised that. So between the two of you guys, you don’t need me anymore, so I’m going to say sayonara, and start Season 5.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Well, there are a few people that work behind the scenes, never get mentioned, that I want to say, and that is Rose Caplan from NextPage Web Design. We also want to thank our dear, dear, dear Ken Hunter, who is with us during every podcast.
Ken Hunter: Oh shucks. You can thank me by getting Charlize Theron on.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Oh, there you go, Charlize Theron, anybody else? Any other impossible dreams?
A Special Thank You to Our Sponsor GEICO
Andy Ockershausen: There is no impossible dream, remember that. We impossibly started out without a sponsor and didn’t care, we were doing it out of pocket and thank God we were able to convince GEICO how important this was to Our Town and GEICO is Our Town, because this is the only place their headquarters has ever been, and we thank GEICO and all their employees for being Our Town people. And they’re the best and thank you Bill and all your people, and sorry about Ted, but we don’t miss him much anymore anyway, that’s Ted Ward. But, it has been a great ride, we started this thing in 2016, riding to the beach in August of 2016. We’re coming up on three years. It feels like yesterday.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We have over 180 interviews…
Andy Ockershausen: Of good people, no stiffs.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yup.
Liz Bubes: We want to thank everybody for listening and tuning in and giving feedback and just following and subscribing to us.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And don’t forget to rate and review because that’s important to us, the rating and review of our podcast.
Our Town Podcast Transcripts
Andy Ockershausen: When I came in, one of our associates and technicians here, engineers said, he just finished reading the transcript of Our Town and he finds that he has time to read without listening because whatever he’s doing, and we’re available on transcript, people can read what we talk about to these celebrities. I didn’t know that Lizzy, thanks to you. So this has been a wonderful session, we sort of looked back and looked at people and we got so many great names coming up that Our Town podcast will continue to live. And don’t forget the party we’re going to have at Tony’s and Joe’s, we get in a plug for Tony and Joe, Liz because Tony loves that. And we will have our big 5th introduction of our Season at Tony and Joe’s, I hope. We invite back everybody we’ve ever had on. Janice, you’re giving me the word and we’re not bound to this time table, please. But this has been wonderful, and last words Liz.
Liz Bubes: Tune in to Season 5, thanks for listening everybody, and have a great 2019.
Andy Ockershausen: That says it, how about you dear?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Ditto.
Andy Ockershausen: This has been Andy Ockershausen, and the wrap up on Season 4 of Our Town podcast.
Announcer: You’ve been listening to Our Town podcast, Season 4, presented by GEICO, our hometown favorite, with your host Andy Ockershausen. New Our Town podcast episodes are released each Tuesday and Thursday. Drop us a line with your comments or suggestions. See us on Facebook or visit our website at OurTownDC.com. Our special thanks to Ken Hunter, our technical director, and WMAL Radio in Washington DC for hosting our podcast. Thanks to GEICO, 15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance.
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