03-03-2026 MetroNews Hotline Presented by Salango Law Hour 1

0:00This is Metro News Hotline, presented by Salango Law. Metro News Hotline is a three-hour audio tour, navigating the world of sports, news, entertainment, tech, and more. From a mountain-state point of view. For your entertainment, Hotline is a no-politic zone. You can join the conversation. Text the show at 304-825-5304. 304-Talk 304. Or call 800-765-8255. Here's the host for Metro News Hotline. Dave Weekly. All right, hello, West Virginia. We're back for more. Was there ever a doubt? We're back for more in the 304. Time to get it done in the 681. Time to start this three-hour audio tour for Tuesday. March 3rd, 2026. Metro News Hotline comes to you from the Salango Law Studios.

1:02Visit salangolaw.com. Coop, you probably would have gotten your walk in today. But darn that pesky rain. Darn that pesky rain. Yeah, spring showers, may flowers, yuddy, yuddy, yuddy. It keeps a little cold, too. I'm not interested in all that. Oh, well, it's... Oh, contrary, I'm on for air. I mean, it's Lawrence Taylor degrees out there. I mean, it's in the eye of the person that would be taking the walk, which would have been me. Well, that's fair enough. That's true. I mean, there's no objective reality here. It's too cold for me. There you go. 56 degrees. Yeah, you know what? It's kind of rainy and I don't know. I'm old and it gets in my bones. And I just say now I was doing some work and just didn't feel like it. Hey, man, there's a lot of people doing work here today. This is the second day in the like the last four days where the parking lot is absolutely full. Is there food in a green room? Is that what's going on here? Don't you believe I checked before I came in here? And the answer is no. Oh, wow. You can't come with them all. Did anybody would like to make amends for that?

2:03Oh, wait a minute. You better answer the phone that I think that might be Stephanie. She might be calling. She knows we're here. Stephanie. Hello. Hello. Hello. How are you doing back there? I'm doing good. I just wanted to explain to Cooper that you're not old until you're 98 and then down. And then it's downhill from there. There you go. So there's that. So there's that. Stephanie, I got a question for you. Yes, sir. Listen, I come in to do my little day, my little show here, my little entertainment thing I do every day. And here's Ryan's got a big bag of popcorn. And he said he got it from you. It was Concord University down at, actually up at the Capitol. Okay. And then he handed out popcorn to the senators and the delegates and they had left the order so they handed it out to other people. What about your old friend Dave? I mean, what about your old friend Dave who did like a spot for you on the midday song and dance today.

3:03So I only gave a three. So for one for me, one for Dave, one for TJ. I don't let me, let me shift the focus of this conversation slightly and say that the first thing that I said to Ryan and he's like, I got popcorn from Stephanie and it was really good and you know what I was going to do with it? I was like, save me some. And he laughed just like that. Yeah. In here, I still have some. You do? Yeah. Okay. Oh, I don't want any backwash popcorn. Oh, backwash popcorn is still in the bag. Backwash popcorn. You should have, you should have seen what Ryan offered me. He ate like 99% and all that was left with like the broken pieces in the car. I was like, hey, you want this old man? With all the finger oils all over the finger oil like that. Finger oil. But hey, the popcorn came with a ticket to the Concord Bluefield state game. What did they call that? The Battle of Blue Ridge. That's it. Yeah. Battle of the Blue Ridge. I like that.

4:03Yeah. That's a fantastic name. And the ticket is good for two people. There you go. I don't throw that ticket away. I may want that. I got one too. Okay. Yeah. I kind of like that. It's a really snazzy ticket. It is a nice ticket. Well, let's get back to what we were doing before. Like giving Stephanie and Ryan a hard time because they didn't bring stuff to us. This is just one of those days that I didn't eat a lunch. You know, so I was like, no, you know. I'll bring you popcorn. No, I don't want popcorn for lunch. It's all right. I'm good. I have no shame. Yeah. You ate the whole bag, man. I have no regrets. Yeah. We don't have the water calorie boys. How many calories do you think was a gigantic bag of kettle corn popcorn? Yeah. The way how it was made, I don't know. Popcorn is generally like, not that terrible, if it was made in some sane way or if it has tons of butter, it's said, I got some tricks. I got something on it too. That adds some calories. Yeah, Stephanie, if you still have the bag in there, there should be, like, a, there's like a, oh, you don't have the bag. I have the bag that I had. There's something on it. I just like that. And it's Mountain lion mixed. Yeah.

5:03that I had, it had like a little tag on it that's like no trans fats, no peanut oils, the yada yada yada. Okay. So hopefully it's healthy. Well, if you haven't noticed, almost everything is packaged to be, I don't know if these are pretty packaged or not, but almost everything is packaged between 140 and 160 calories per serving. So, whatever size you get out of that serving is generally what you get, but with popcorn it's usually a lot better. It's like 120 per cup or something like that. I'll share this with you Coupe because, you know, we can keep a secret between us. I'm not that big a fan of kettle corn, you know, just not that big a fan, but you think that's disgusting. You're the one that shade it. Should not be the one that should be saying you're disgusting? I'm saying your opinion is disgusting. Oh, God. That may be true. That's what I can say. Brian, you just say the whole bag of kettle corn. Yeah. You know what's, by the way, we just got a phone call from, or a text from the three or a four, two, eight, two text messages. It says Hills had great popcorn and I just want to say, oh, yes, it did a big long sleeve

6:06if I remember correctly. Yeah. Yeah. The one on the one on the Bridgeport Hill, you would go in and you remember the counter would be there before you go into the main part of the store. So you were either. You're gonna have your snacks to shop. Yeah. Or you'd like do whatever you were doing in Hills or, you know, and then you would buy it on your way out and you would eat it out of the gigantic sleeve. You know, boy, this is going to be hard to bring this conversation full circle. But you know how in Friday, how I talked about how we were living in like subscription fatigue, however, there's like a, you know, the one thing we don't have anymore. And I think that we were better as a society when we had it was the layaway program when when you could get like your, your Christmas gifts or whatever. It wasn't credit, you know, it wasn't a bond, it was sort of like bond out, pay later, but they held your stuff for you. You paid it off over the course of a couple of weeks or months or whatever it is. And you wouldn't pick your stuff up and you owned your stuff, you know, it was nice to own that stuff. You had to go pay for it. Yeah. I hear pay here. You're like, well, I've already got my stuff. I don't have to pay for it.

7:07Hills. Man, that was pretty much all I knew. That was like the only department store I really knew. We had came art. I had grown up in Bridgeport unless you, you know, wanted to go into Clarksburg and go to look like the working man's store or whatever that was, that was, that was basically that's all we had. You know, back in the day when I walked up, you know, up hill, both ways to school. You know, I forget what day it is, but occasionally in the on this date file for like, I think it was Orville Reddenbocker's birthday. We get a little commercial and he's like, I'm Orville Reddenbocker and there's my gourmet popping corn. And that's right. Not pop corn, popping corn. And then you'd see his whole fam. Yeah. And I'm like, man, this guy was a real person. Yeah. You think he was a real person? I don't know. There comes a point where like a founder of a, like a brand or a fast food chain, like Colonel Sanders gets like mythologized and it's like, what's the real Colonel Sanders like? Is he as cartoony and over the top as the mascot Sanders or is he like a completely different

8:10person? Supposedly he was a little over the top in a lot of ways. Did Dave Thomas just wear like some khakis around with like his shirt was like untucked in the like his butt, glasses. I just wonder about McDonald's, I mean, was the guy dressed as a clown while behind? Oh, right. I mean, did the hamburger really have a record, you know, I mean, Ray Crock, what? I just said to the hamburger, we really have a record. I mean, 82, do hard time. Is that what I'm talking about? He might. He might. The hamburger. Yeah. So once you've any friends, right? Yeah, once whenever. But, you know, my dad actually met Colonel Sanders. Colonel Sanders was like 80 at the time, but he met him. I think Chris Lawrence has got some good Colonel Sanders stories. Wow. But now, you know what's underrated as far as popcorn goes? Is cheese popcorn? Would you agree with that? Like, maybe sometimes the parmesan. Now, I'm all about the hand stuff, man, I like popcorn because you can eat it. Generally speaking, the stuff you get in a bag, like pre-pop or whatever, you can eat

9:11it and you don't get anything dirty, you know? Cheese popcorn is filthy. Man, you just get everything filthy. I know, but it's so good. It's so good. I can't do that. I mean, I went to Kroger and they had a close out of cheese popcorn. I bought a bunch of it. Don't wear a dark shirt. No, I suppose that's true, but I know I'm not a fan of the kettle corn, but a big fan of the cheese popcorn. If you're a new listener to the show, you can probably tell we had all the topics. Yeah, man. We had all the topics. You've been listening to talk radio all day today. You're like, probably hot and bothered, ready to go. This wall is like running. Or this shows like running straight into an ice wall. Yeah. So true. That is so true. Oh, I guess I can kind of transition to what they were talking about on midday today. Cooper, are you the kind of person that's obsessed with gas prices? Absolutely not. Are you obsessed? You're not an obsessive gas price person. Not even a little bit at an early age. I was a, not early, but at a middle age, middle young age, I was exposed to someone who

10:12was absolutely obsessed with the gas prices where they would drive across town to save two cents. Yes. Yes. And I'm like, son, you realize that that that you're, you got an 11 gallon car that most you can possibly save is 22 cents and that ain't worth my time, son. And so yeah, I don't do that anymore. So today gas prices had the biggest single day jump in four years. Now that might get my attention. Okay. Okay. That's not like I'm an idiot. So yes. That's a little factoid. Okay. And my reaction to that was, oh, well, you know, we're at war in the Middle East. You should have anticipated things like that were going to happen. The other thing is I never really understood how, and I don't want to get into the politics things, but people seem to think that the government controls gas prices. Oh yeah. They don't? No, they don't. No, traders control gas prices. And we're getting a little bit of a, getting a little bit of a break on gas prices this

11:13after. Not that that means it's any better. No. Of course not. Of course not. Yeah. I'm with you. I used to know a guy when I was living in Florida who this was his thing. He would put his wife in the car and he would go out cruising around looking for the lowest gas prices. I remember back. I don't know. When I owned the bookstores and stuff, I ran across this book with this reporter that like snuck into an OPEC meeting and got to sit through like a bunch of stuff and like wrote the book about it. Man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you really dig down into it, the things we think, is anything real, is it, you think AOS fake? Man, it has been. The things have been fake for many years. Yes. Yes. Yes, they have. Ryan, can I transition to the sporty sports? Or do you have any more comments you'd like to make about potentially a gas prices or popcorn? You know, I was actually, before the show started you and I were talking. And I played a bit of armchair psychologist. Oh, yeah. He's done the psychological profile on me, Koop. We had a guy that used to work here to do that all the time.

12:15Yeah. Well, he said like, oh, I like cheese popcorn and I'm like putting two and two together in my mind and I'm like, do you also like Cheetos and he's like, man, I love Cheetos. And I'm like, maybe it's not the popcorn that you like. It's just the cheese you like. No, well, that's your profile is wrong. I mean, I enjoy popcorn as well. Yeah. There is a, there is a texture that has been taxing the show number one who agrees with me that the cheese popcorn is terrible. So from the three zero four six seven one thing, we can't be friends earlier today, separate from this show, they were texting into midday talking about how much they hate Cheetos. What? I'm just saying, maybe, maybe you don't want to need to meet this particular listener. Well, wait a minute. What Cheetos do they dislike? I mean, do they like old school hard Cheetos or the more cheese poofs Cheetos? Oh, no, never mind. I'm sorry. Yeah, this was a, this was a different type of commentary. It was how Cheetos were part of the, the banned foods because of the food dye thing. Oh, that was my fault. Yeah, that's kind of interesting too, isn't it? Yeah.

13:15I got a whole closet full of the food dye if you need any. Well, I'm good. Sometimes I sprinkled on my food when I miss it. But I mean, Cheetos are orange, right? Cheetos are orange. What's, what's that mean for a guy like Carly who does our show every Monday at five o'clock? He won't eat orange food, you know? I think you need Cheetos now. That's what I mean. They got, you know, they're missing, but Carl should be good to go with this non orange Cheeto. I think it's just a different kind of way of originating the orange. I don't think you're going to get rid of the colors. I thought they were like, you know, very bland looking. And by the way, I have not had somewhat the house they seem fine. Well, really? You'll see, I have not bought a bag of Cheeto since this went down. Now, and this has been like months ago, right? But this whole thing is years in the, it takes years to filter through, right? I don't think it's something that they just flipped off switch. I think it was like 20, 20, 20, simply, assembly line, which has really no color because like the Cheetos, they look like they're missing like they're black and white Cheetos. I mean, they're white, but they're like a black white movie. Yeah. There you go. She's right on it.

14:16Yeah, they're white. They're white. Is that what you have at the house? No. They're yellow. They're yellow. Yes. Controversy. Controversy. That's a controversial statement on our show. Sporty sports stuff. WD's got a basketball game tonight. Yeah. You got a basketball game tonight at K state. Should be a game they should win. I'll see. We'll see. We're going to do a couple of segments on it today. Maddie Honor College basketball insider is going to be here at 4.33 today, earlier than usual. 4.33 today, because we had to block out a little bit of time at 5.33 today because Coup, guess who's back? Richrod. Oh, Richrod. He's coming in? Not, he came out of the hole, saw a shadow and now they're going to start spring football. Oh, I thought you mean he was coming into the studio. No, he's not coming in. No, he's not coming in. Yeah. You can't get him in the same room. Yeah. Oh, history. So I wanted to know that. They do? No, you got to hear the story. Oh, my goodness.

15:17Okay. Well, I do want to hear that story. No, but Richrod's had a press avail today at earlier today. So we'll hear some of that at 5.33 today, including his comments about his brand new shiny quarterback from Oklahoma. So we'll talk about that. That'll be at 5.33 today. Anthony Lewis is going to be on the show today. That'll be at 5 o'clock today. No reds baseball today. I'm reminded to talk about reds as Jeff walks in. I think all the MLB teams are playing the the world baseball teams. WBC. Now, you got a, you got a smattering against today. For example, the pirates are playing like the, they have an exhibition, get more or all exhibitions, I guess, in the spring against the Columbia national team. So they're playing them today, but the reds are off the, the ozer off, the gnats are off. They're all off. Um, South Stewart, did you play, listen to that clip? Oh, I saw, yeah, I saw the highlights last night. Oh, you did? Yeah. That young man. He did over the batter. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I really wanted him to keep the mustache, but he's going to hit like that without it.

16:17Then he can, he can keep it shaved. That was crank, man. That was crank. Yeah. I mean, he, he looked a good last year when he, once he got locked in and his pedigree is pretty good. I have a feeling that he's going to be a good piece of that team. baseball today, you got Marshall's playing Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, WVU's playing Radford later this afternoon. Those are in both in our broadcast window. We'll keep you updated on that. You see where WV is going to come to Marshall and play a game tomorrow night, five o'clock. Jeff, when you think the last time was that WVU played another team in the regular season in baseball. Hit in the referee series, get canceled. That's why they're going to Marshall. Oh, is that canceled? Or didn't even know that? Yeah, I think so. Yes. That's why they're going to Marshall. That's too focused on our popcorn conversation. It's okay. That's all right. Yeah. Let's see. The other thing that's happened in today, we're about 40 minutes away from the expiration of the franchise tag, franchise tag deadline is at four o'clock this afternoon. And we know this that Trey Hendrickson is not going to be franchise tagged by the Bengals.

17:18So at four o'clock, he will be officially a free agent. And there will be a host of teams. We think that'll be after him. He only played in a handful of games last year. But the two previous years combined, he had more sacks than any other defensive end in the national football league. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens. He's been going back and forth, trying to get a big contract from the Bengals. He had the holdout at the beginning of camp last year. He wanted to stay with the Bengals. But now he is, well, they got 40 minutes, but it's being reported that the Bengals are not going to franchise tag him. I can almost guarantee you that Jill Burrow is not happy about that. Not happy about it. All right, Jeff, what do you got in the news? What's going on in the news today in West Virginia? Well, busy, busy day, Dave, National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for about two dozen counties through tomorrow afternoon. And heavy rain through the midsection of the state. So we'll watch that. Hopefully everything will stay in its banks over the next day or so. The House of delegates today, Dave, passed the bill after a long debate that would repeal the transfer rule in West Virginia.

18:19Really? The three year old transfer rule. It would basically repeal the rule that the SSA see passed. And so this would send it back to the SSA see to come up with another rule. It was a long debate. We've got a story at the website. You can read about that at www.matchiners.com. And also, Dave, I know you would want to know what would happen with the machine gun legislation. Yeah. Yeah. That appears dead for the session on a procedural situation after a past committee last night didn't get to where it needed to go in time. So it looks like it's going to be dead for the session. How much support did that have, Joe? Well, I had enough support to get out of a committee. So we'll see if we don't know though if it would have passed the Senate floor or not. But it did have enough support to get out of the committee. But just put this down in your little file. It will be back next year. All my files are little frankly. Why don't we come into the end of this, uh, this magical session anyway, uh, 10 days

19:22for tomorrow. 10 days from tomorrow. But the, once the session ends though, the Capitol report continues on for another week. For one week, Dave, we, yes, we, we allow you to have the Capitol report through the next week. So, so it'll be the, uh, whatever that Friday is following the 14th, I don't know, 20th. Yeah. The 20th. All right. So the Capitol report runs on our program every day at 540, Jeff. Thank you. See you, Dave. All right. Are you feeling uneasy about recent stock market volatility schedule a financial check up today with John from 4th Avenue financial more info at 4th Avenue financial.com. Retire right. This is a Bloomberg bunny minute stocks are all session lows, but there's still a sea of red as the war in the Middle East intensifies and crude oil futures and other energy prices skyrocket. Meantime President Trump is directed Treasury Secretary Scott Besson to cut off all trade with Spain. The AI war is intensifying. Now, open AI says GPT 5.4 is coming sooner than you think.

20:22That's after rival Claude maker and thropic made more capability available for free for customers. After users flocked to Claude recently, as it stand against certain Pentagon plans for its technology, car dealers say the economy is putting a dent in carbine. Cox Automotive in USA today says automakers are estimated to have sold 1.19 million vehicles last month, down almost 3.5% from a year ago. But consumers say high auto prices are what's hurting auto sales. And Taco Bell launching the chocolate fudge and also the caramel empanada on a limited addition basis. Denise Pellegrini blubber. The start of a new year means even more savings at Walker Chevrolet in Nitro. Now, you're not going to find better deals on four wheel drives anywhere in the Canau Valley this winter than at Walker Chevrolet. The lot in Walker is stacked with inventory right now to get you ready for that snowy west Virginia weather. From Silverado to Tahoe, Blazer Equinox Trail Blazer Colorado, Man Walker has got them off. And you know you're going to get the best deal possible on those four by four said Walker

21:24because Jean and Ryan built their business the old fashion way by making friends. There are no gimmicks or games here just honest fair deals and if you've got an old car you want to get rid of, Walker is still buying cars too. Some makes and models are welcome and you're going to get paid top dollar for it even if you plan to buy somewhere else. But don't wait until those winter weather advisories go up and you're stuck in the house. Get that new four wheel drive trucker SUV today at Walker Chevrolet. In the shadow of the interstate bridge just off the Nitro exit of I-64, Walker Chevrolet making friends one deal at a time. It's the way Charleston says good morning. First watch on Summer Street is this week's 50-55 day. First watch takes the freshest ingredients, spices and herbs, creates a unique menu and serves it with a smile. Try their delicious seasonal offerings like the Million Dollar Bacon, Avocado Toast or Power Rack. Enjoy fresh breakfast, brunch and lunch, all made to order at First Watch. Friday at 9 a.m. Visit wchsnetwork.com and click the 50-50 Friday button to get 50% off gift certificates for First Watch, courtesy of the WCHS Family of Networks.

22:27The latest in news talking sports when 580 WCHS is brought to you by Jarrett Construction Visit Jarrett-construction.com for more information. Looking for smart talk with a shot of fun? Tune in to Metro News hotline with Dave Weekly and Coop. Weekdays from 3 to 6. It's a fast paced mix of sports, pop culture, tech, music and trends with recurring guests like Chef Paul Smith, Kristian Bird and Germain Lucia. From the always riotous in or out game to wild by or sell face offs, it's never the same show twice. Your drive home can be a whole lot better. Weekdays on 580 WCHS. Start your Saturday morning at 706 with West Virginia Outdoors on 580 WCHS. Join Chris Lawrence as he explores the wonders of our state's great outdoors. From fishing to hiking, hunting to conservation. It's an adventure you don't want to miss.

23:36Alright, we're up and running on a rainy Tuesday in West Virginia Metro News hotline. Thanks so much for tuning in. Tell you what, let's take a break here for news that the bottom of the hour get caught up on stuff. This is Metro News, the voice of West Virginia. Good afternoon, it's 330 and 58 degrees in the capital city. I'm Morgan Pemberton inside the 580 WCHS radio newsroom. Rain's still coming down in Charleston, we'll have more on Accu other after the news. A bill that would have allowed state troopers to sell machine guns to the public is now dead in the legislature. The machine gun bill passed Monday afternoon by the Senate Judiciary Committee, however the bill was not received by the full Senate during a Monday evening four session, which is required. When Galia County Senator and sponsor of the bill, Chris Rose says he's disappointed they ran out of time, but he's not discouraged.

24:36It was kind of a race to get it done. And unfortunately, the time has ran out here in West Virginia for this year, but we're already whipping the boots for next year and trying to get general consensus behind it in both bodies to address the concerns that came up this year with the bill. Senator Mayer Dave K. Spolt signing an agreement today with West Virginia American Water Company to finalize the sale of the NITRA Regional Waste Water Utility to the Water Company. K. Spolt stated the water utility has plans for upgrades to their facility that the city wouldn't have been able to afford. You can read more at wvmetronoes.com. Students from across the state are competing against each other today and Wednesday in Charleston for the Pro Start Invitational. Pro Start, which is supported by the State Department of Education, provides high school students with an introduction to the food service and hospitality industries. Unnamed in high school, Pro Start instructor Amy Lynch says through the program students grow as chefs and as people. They become friends along the way. I love watching their growth that they have from this and it's just really inspiring to see how it helps them grow as a chef and what their potential future could be.

25:42During today's competition, students were tasked to make a three-course meal in 60 minutes to present to judges. Metronoes act with a forecast says flood watch remaining in place as rain showers continue throughout the afternoon. It's 332 and 58 degrees in the capital city. I'm Morgan Pemberton and you're listening to 580 WCHS, The Voice of Charleston. Why does it matter to members that Etnav was named a Best Medicare Advantage Company by US News and World Report? Because they chose a plan that gives them real support, real people, and real care. We show up on calls with members and doctors offices when needed. We show up with access to convenient care options and coverage that fits everyday life. We don't show up for awards. We show up for you. And showing up for you is how healthier happens together. With an update of sports, I'm Joe Vercato on 580 WCHS, the UW baseball team has altered

26:42their midweek schedule. The Mounts nears were scheduled to host a two-game series with Radford. However, the Radford program is mourning the death of one of their players. Freshman Joey Rakuya died in an automobile accident last week. WVU head coach Steve Sabin's tried to pick up a game on Wednesday and Marshall head coach Greg Beals will welcome the Mounts nears to Huntington for a game tomorrow. And then he actually came back a few hours later and said, administration said, we'll take you, but the only catch is you've got to come to Huntington again. So I said no doubt, we just want to play baseball. We want our team to stay in rhythm and get better and be in a good environment with passionate fans, so we're into the working out wealth for us. Rolls high school regional basketball tonight on WCHS. Jeff Jenkins has the call of Winfield and Nitro at 7 p.m. With this update of sports, I'm Joe Vercato on 580, double at UCHS. Hey, it's Dave Allen coming over to the next show, Tim Brady from the Charleston CVB will stop by, plus West Virginia Secretary of State Chris Warner, your calls to text too. I'm the voice of Charleston WCHS. All right, welcome back to the show.

27:46We get into the sound of sports in just a moment. Cool. With a listener send me a text in the break about the WV baseball team in a shakeup on the roster and involving Chase Meyer, who was on the the preseason, all big 12 team. I went over and looked at the roster and he is no longer on it. And within the last 60 seconds, we have a quote that has come through 24 seven regarding the the Meyer situation has and he has, in fact, left the team. So I think this is a breaking news. Oh, so let's get a little breaking news center going here. So Chase Meyer is no longer on the team. If you remember, it was kind of a weird situation where you led West Virginia and wins last year, but then had a kind of unusual injury around Thanksgiving that delayed his development

28:46into this season. He was going to be worked out of the bullpen until he was ready to start. Well, now he's not going to start any games for West Virginia because he's off the team. And 24 seven has got a quote from Steve Sabin's WV baseball coach who led the team to super regionals last year. He says, quote, that Meyer is no longer part of the program. The quote continues. I feel like it's my job to make sure we put 18 to 24 year olds in a good position to be successful talking about the details of someone's life and the decisions that have to be made. Obviously, it's an unfortunate situation in my opinion. I don't think I'll ever find it appropriate to go into detail, but so we wish Chase Meyer the best. Obviously, he is a talented player with a future ahead of him in baseball. So there you go. That's the quote. And it was delivered to a 24 seven about the breaking news WVs. It's hard to say who is quote unquote the best, but it is a fact to say that he led West Virginia and wins last year.

29:50So Chase Myers off the WV baseball team. We'll see what happens and I'm sure we'll we might get an official statement from WV to athletics later today and when we do, we'll pass along a couple of other things. Well, we didn't even get a chance to reach to set the question of the day. Let me fix that right now. Let's go ahead and do that question of the day, question of the day Burger King is piloting an AI chatbot called patty an employee headsets to monitor customer service interactions and assist with operations. The open AI powered system listens for phrases like welcome to Burger King, please and thank you to evaluate worker friendliness. The AI assistant helps employees with meal prep questions, equipment, guidance and inventory management through the BK assistant platform. Managers can ask patty how their location performs on friendliness metrics.

30:51The system connects to drive through orders, kitchen equipment and inventory systems automatically updating menus when items run out within 15 minutes. So the question in the day and it's sponsored by Salango law is AI impacting your job right now and how important is customer service to you to partner, unlike the three party yesterday Oh, yeah. Uh, is AI impacting your job right now and how important is customer service to you to respond text those in 304 talk 304 304 8255 304 tweet me. I'm on exit weekly w e e k le y one were three ease w e e k le why could what do you think about that? What do you think about that? You go to work. Yeah, you put a headset on and uh, it monitors what you say to the customer. I don't have, okay, I don't have a huge amount of experience in that space, probably what I remember most is when I worked in AT&T for a while, worked for their business office

31:52and we had customer service incoming things like that. However, I've worked for some corporations where they, uh, they were highly invested into technology to track customer service. So I have worked under those pressures before where promotions and so forth were tied into a customer to a one score customer service score that you had to do well on. The thing about this at least in my experience is people find ways, more ways to try to get around it than they do to actually provide the good customer service. So like, so like, like, it may take like a seven effort to, to, uh, provide, uh, you know, standardized quality customer service somewhere. If somebody can get around doing that and do an eight effort, they absolutely will just for the point of it. So I don't know. It seems like it's always like a, uh, it seems like it's always some sort of a warfare where it's a company is trying to put these things in place and the people that work if they're trying to find ways around them. So I have no idea what the, the end result here's going to be eventually if you're going to have computers and people's on their, on their faces and, uh, and you're watching what

32:57they're doing and you're tracking all of that stuff. I mean, eventually they're just going to put the robot in there. Uh, well, yeah, that's right. And some fast food places are already looking into that. I don't think that's a good solution either. I, I mean, I don't know. I mean, supposedly, you know, people look down or maybe not generally speaking, but, you know, forever when I was growing up, it was like, oh, you know, uh, you'll be flipping burgers when you're growing up or something like, I mean, at this point, it's like, that's like, uh, the end of a clockwork orange, you know, it's like your Alex to large and working at McDonald's with the thing being on your face and the thing in your eye and they're, and they're, they're monitoring you all day long. I don't know. Man, that's just, I mean, can we just have somebody make a good burger? You know, I mean, just, just make the burger, don't put anything bad on it and give it to me with a smile and things would be okay. But they want to see, but that's the part of the system here, they're, they're trying to make sure you smile. Make sure you smile. I know, that's just it. And that's just it. If you make somebody do that, that person will never be happy again in their life. If you like tell them that they have to smile all day long and they're getting like smile bonus points or something like that and, and at the end of the day, they're like,

34:00well, you know, we, we aim for you to be 37 minutes smiling and today, you're really smiling for 34 minutes in customer facing interaction. That person will never be happy. They're never going to want to smile. There's some comic things here too. It's like, you're the assistant manager and they, they can, come on in and sit down. I'm looking, I'm looking back at your log and what did you really mean last Thursday, 345 when you said, if you don't go to the back and get me more frozen fries, I'm going to stab you with this pencil. What did you, what did you mean by that when you said that? Right. I mean, it is great as that is. That is quite possibly things that could happen. I mean, the types of things you can, I mean, imagine the chatter just about management among them. Oh, exactly. I mean, it's going to, it's going to turn into surveillance, you know, or, or the hookups that happen within the, within any business that, that takes place, you know, and if there is a little power dynamic, their managers are going to be creeping in on, on, on, it, man, I don't know. How about the idea that they had to have a system like this to force people to say, may

35:00I help you? All this is, is forcing people to be pleasant to other people in a, in an interaction. And that's all that it is, you know, it's like, we have, it's like, it, it, it, it seems like, unless you're tipping a lot, there's no such thing as customer service anymore. Like, unless you're in a situation where someone is, and, and people expect to get tipped for the weirdest, and this is a whole, this is like a big boomer conversation. But, oh, what do you see the, the thing I've got free and, I was, the tipping thing, I was radicalized a few months or the last year or maybe it was even longer ago than that. It was a normal retail transaction where I handle it, handed a cat a 20 and was expecting $11 by, and he just asked if he could keep it as a tip. Oh, my goodness. That's something. It was just a retail transaction. I was like, and his, the owner of the business who I knew was standing behind him. I was like, brother, are you out of your mind? Hey, a couple of quick things. First of all, the name of this chatbot, patty, got to admit, that's a good name, right?

36:02That's a good name. That's all right. We were just talking about the breaking news story about the WV baseball pitcher who's left the team. Koop, 10 years ago, nobody even knew who played on the team. Is that fair? Oh, okay. Nobody even knew who was even on the WVU baseball team. Hard truth there, folks. Sometimes we say that stuff. Now we're doing breaking news when a guy leaves the squad. The sweet side of that truth is that how much more attention that team gets now. I mean, it's incredible that it's become, you know, a real sport that it's celebrated in the same way as men's and women's basketball and football and things like that. I mean, you played in a, you're playing in a bright, shiny new ballpark. It brings the people in. People talk about it on sports radio. I mean, yeah, absolutely. And that was definitely not the case 10 years ago. No, not at all. Not at all. And going to the super regionals two years in a row will raise the profile as well. So as, as we reported at the beginning of the segment, Chase Myers off the WVU baseball

37:06team, we have a quote that's attributed to 24 seven if we get something. And obviously they got the story first. So they need to be created. But if we do get any more details on that from WVU sports information, we'll let you know about that. So let me get a couple of responses to our question today. We'll push the sound of sports into the next into the next segment. So Burger King is piloting an AI chatbot called patty and employee headsets to monitor customer service. Managers can ask patty how they're doing in friendliness metrics. So the question the day and it is sponsored by Selenco law is AI impacting your job right now. And how important is customer service to you? All right. We're starting to get a lot of responses to this. Here's Andy on X Dave. I'm retired. I can't answer the first question, but I recently went into a Burger King and could not even get an employee me employed even look at me. They were preoccupied with the drive through lane.

38:08So I left and sought sustenance elsewhere. Take that patty. Okay. Okay. I mean, hey, there you go. I'm talking about you are kind of looked at as a vagabond if you walk into a fast food restaurant anymore. Yeah, that's true. Who is this? Not the fact when you go to one of those places and the drive through line is like around the building. But when you walk in, there is absolutely nobody in there sitting down. See, back in the before times, the pre-COVID times, that was your shortcut to getting your food. Yes. Exactly right. It doesn't work like that anymore. You just take your number and it takes forever for you to see like anyone. Hey, you know what? 30 little secret man. I still like to go in those places. You can get your own drink refills half the time and by the way, then you don't have to worry. Wow. You're talking about sitting in one. Okay. Wow. They have chairs? Yeah. Get in there and then you eat your meal there. And so your car doesn't smell like pickles for like the next hundred miles. You know? A couple more responses. Let's see. Here is pastor Sonny Crafty goes, Dave, not affecting much by AI yet.

39:13That's an interesting take on from a pastor, right? And he continues. He said, good customer service is a must for me in any transaction. The best way to keep most customers is relationships, not transitional, transactional. That works for me anyway. That's a very good answer. I think that's absolutely true. We have a bunch of response to this. Tell you what, let's do this. Let's take a break and we got a lot of good stuff in the sound of sports today. We'll pay that off when we come back. Stay tuned. Worried about paying for college? Metronuz is proud to present the 19th annual West Virginia scholar program where one high school junior in West Virginia will win a full scholarship to West Virginia, Wesley in college, including room board tuition and fees. For details, go to www.metronuz.com and click the Apply Now button. Deadline is May 3rd. The 2026 West Virginia scholar program presented by Greer Industries and the West Virginia Hospital Association. Go to www.metronuz.com and apply today by May 3rd. The Mountain East Conference Mids and Women's Basketball Tournament presented by the

40:14Health Plan is back at Wheeling's West Bank Arena. March 4th to the 8th. Past Mids, Basketball, National Finalist, West Liberty and Fairmont State. And 2022. Women's Basketball National Champion, Glidville State, will be featured from the highest scoring NCAA Division II Basketball Conference in the country. Visit westmancoherena.com for advanced tickets and tournament central at mountainease.org. Return of it information, stories, results, events schedule, dreaming and television broadcast information. Join us for the Mountain East Conference Basketball Championships presented by the Health Plan. Go to the 8th at West Bank Arena in Wheeling. Starting March 10th, Metro News brings you the 2026 West Virginia SSAC High School Basketball Championships presented by Chick-fil-A. First title, first spring mills and boys basketball. The best teams in the state will once again meet at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to compete for the title in their respective classes. The girls tournament runs March 10th through 14th. The boys play March 17th through 21st. Catch all the games on the Metro News Radio Network and at wvmetronews.com where you'll also find up to the minute scoring stats and brackets, the latest tournament news and

41:17game recaps. Also, you can watch the live HD video streams of the class championships, both Saturdays on Metro News Television. The luck and skill of the Irish they win the double-aid championship. For the 2026 West Virginia SSAC State High School Basketball Championships beginning March 10th, presented by Chick-fil-A exclusively on Metro News, the voice of high school basketball in West Virginia. Metro News hotline brought to you by Salango Long, we'll return right after these messages. Americans can't get enough more coverage and the days leading up to the February 28th attack. Box News registered 35% more viewers than CNN and MS now combined. But there is one place to ignore for honest and factual coverage. Can you guess what it is? I'm Kim Camano for ExpressVPN. When you're online, you're tracked. Keep your activity private and secure. Get four extra months for free at expressvpn.com slash cam. Within minutes after the news of the attack, Elon Musk's ex-users were literally plastering

42:21phony war videos, AI generated sloppos everywhere, and it still is. And so our old videos labeled as new. One user posted a fake clip of a rocket strike taken directly from a video game. Four and a half million watched, believing it to be true. And virtually every account pushing this garbage has a paid blue check mark, meaning the ex-algorithm boosted it, with war news, stop, wait, verify, and then don't share it. Get my free newsletter at getkim.com Who really knows you best? Your spouse, your kids? If you use a smartphone, a computer, or any internet-connected device, thousands of companies are tracking what you do online. Big Tech makes billions every year monitoring sites you visit and the things you buy. A lot of that activity is tied to your IP address. They build a profile about you, which is searched for, which you like, and use it to target you with ads. That's why I use ExpressVPN. To hide your real IP address and encrypt your internet connection, so what you do online isn't visible to companies, your internet provider, or anyone else trying to snoop.

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44:26There are no gimmicks or games in Walker just honest, fair deals. So what's the old up? Walker has something for everyone this winter, so get moving. Get that short 20-minute drive from Charleston or Huntington to Walker Chrysler Dodge, Chief Ram. Just off the Hurricane exit of I-64, Walker Chrysler Dodge, Chief Ram, making friends one deal at a time. Start your weekend journey Saturday mornings at 7-1-580-WCHS with West Virginia outdoors hosted by Chris Horns. Next, enjoy the melodies and stories of sounds good to me with Aristotle Jones. Then expand your horizons with ABC perspective, followed by the tech insights from Kim Commander-Litt Tim. In the afternoon, travel the globe with Rudy Maxson and avoid costly home mistakes with the money that Saturday evenings delve into science fantastic. It's a day of discovery only on via the WCHS. High school basketball tonight, a girls tournament play-in game, Winfield at Nitro at 7 on 580WCHS.

45:34All right, welcome back to the show. Let's jump into the sound of sports and we'll start with a little college basketball. WV meets Kansas State tonight in a little apple. According to most projections, the mountaineers are still on the outside looking in for a possible NCAA turning booth, a birth, but are technically still alive after upsetting BYU at the Hope Coliseum on Saturday. WV Coach Ross Hodg says West Virginia had to move quickly on from that win to tonight's assignment at K-State quickly. We talked about Kobe Bryant, we watched a little clip of him yesterday, you know, and he did. He said, hey, you know, you play the game, you're going to win, and that's good when you win. He's like, but you got to wake up the next day and you've got to do it all over again. Sometimes you lose, it really sucks, but you've got to wake up and you've got to do it all over again. So, it kind of started right after the game, those guys got to get treatment, they got to get rest. And the Wildcats fired Jerome Tang three weeks ago, Matthew Driscoll is finishing out the season as K-State's interim coach, WV won the first meeting between these two teams

46:37on January 27th, 5954. In Morgantown, last night in the Big 12, in Tucson's second ranked Arizona, clinched the outright Big 12 regular season title with a 73-57 win over sixth ranked Iowa State. The Wildcats led by a dozen at the half and then poured it on after that. Rebus, hey, we told you he can do that, he looks to be back, almost to steal, he picked up Bradley. He's Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd pushing back on how winning the pushing back on the idea that Arizona is soft. I think the narrative that we were soft is lazy. I mean, look at our stats, look at our analytics, we've always been a great rebounding team,

47:38we've always pounded the paint. So if you want to just be lazy and not pay attention and say we're soft because we're on the west coast, be lazy and I'd love to play against you. Arizona's Tommy Lloyd got his 140th victory last night, that's the most in NCAA history for coach in his first five seasons. Marshall's wide fricks was named to the all Sunbelt Conference first team yesterday. Jalen Spears got second team honors, the herd, they're the second seed in the Sunbelt tourney in Pensacola later this week, getting a double buy to the tournament semis. Courtney Jackson says early March is go time for the green and white. Huge opportunity for us and we're fortunate, obviously to get the number two seed, so we have a few days off to get ourselves right following the loss for it at home against towards the Southern, but you know, you win, you win two games, it's a two game season for us, you know, it's one possession at a time, one game at a time. All right, on the ice, the pens are embossed in to take on the Bruins tonight.

48:39Last night in MSG, the Blue Jackets, Carl Marchenko scored his second goal of the game, just over a minute into overtime and Columbus edge the Rangers, five four after nearly blowing a four goal lead. Trollcheck, out of pass, Perot, here comes Camperot moving in with a shot of that spot by the stick of Fantilly, Perot looking for his third, now Marchenko with Fantilly, Marchenko shoots, he scores. The Blue Jackets win it in overtime, after the Rangers came all the way back and scored four third period goals. All right, spring training baseball, the Reds pounded the Cubs in Good Year on Monday, 17 to 9, South Stewart, four RBI's three on this shot over the batter's eye. So you're going to have to reach down, centerfield, McCormick looking up. That is crushed, the bet goes over the batter's eye.

49:41He fell off five pitches, he works a nine-pitch count and he cloppers a ball, a projected 410 feet. That's his second 410 foot homework of the spring. Stewart's hitting 429 so far this spring, let's take a break, we're coming back to wrap up our number one in a minute. Metro news hotline presented by Salango Law will return right after these messages. Piggly Piggly Wiggly on Spring Street has served three generations of shoppers since 1955, as the largest locally owned independent grocery store in the area. The Joseph family owners grew up here, so you know they're invested in the community. They provide the biggest variety of choice meets the freshest produce, in-house deli bakery, great wine selection, and more of your favorite brands. Every purchase gives you gasoline points so you can save at our pumps. Order online or pick up at www.bigglypigglywiggly.com. Not just any Piggly Wiggly, Biggly Piggly Wiggly. 50% 50% Yearids is on sale for 50%.

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52:56This week on 580 WCHS is getting you ready for tournament time. In high school hoops, Winfield, Nitro, St. Albans, and South Charleston are all featured as the postseason heats up. In college basketball Saturday night at 815, Auburn visits Alabama in a rivalry showdown. Sunday at 515, Michigan host Michigan State plus Reds Cactus League Baseball NBA action and more. Check the full schedule and stream at WCHSnetwork.com slash sports. It's all right here on 580 WCHS. When an unfiltered take on sports and society, join NFL All Pro Carly on Let's Talk. No holds barred discussions on hot topics with surprise guests you won't hear anywhere else. Sunday afternoons at 103 on the voice of Charleston 580 WCHS. 1045-965 and 580 WCHS. 580 WCHS am 96.5th at the Charleston 104.5 cross lane on WPRC media station.

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