03-03-2026 MetroNews Hotline Presented by Salango Law Hour 3

0:00This is Mekronu's Hotline, presented by Salango Law. Mekronu's Hotline is a three-hour audio tour. Navigating the world of sports, news, entertainment, tech and more. From a mountain-state point of view, Hotline is a no-politics zone. You can join the conversation. Text the show at 304-825-5304. 304-talk-304. Here's the host for Metro News Hotline, Dave Weekly. All right, it's 506 in West Virginia. Time to start the third and final hour of our program today, Metro News Hotline. Thanks so much for tuning in today, folks. We've got a lot of stuff to do here before we move on out of here. Add six o'clock and make room for the boys on sports line tonight. The BVU's got a basketball game tonight at K-State, Anthony Lewis. One of our mountaineer insiders is going to join me here in just a bit.

1:01We'll play in or out. That'll be coming up at 25 this afternoon. Retreat Regues had a media availability earlier today. Believe it or not, Spring Football is on the topic list today. Marshall Spring Football actually began today in Huntington. WVU begins on Saturday. So Rich Rod, both are trying to end Tony Gibson coming off losing seasons. And respectively, no, no bull trips for those teams last year. Both schools trying to turn it around. Rich Rod met the media for about 30 minutes today. Had some pretty interesting things to say. We'll hear him talk about the quarterbacks. And I think there was a lot of interest in what's going on with Michael Hawkins, who's coming in from Oklahoma to try to battle for the starting job that Scottie Fox had at West Virginia last fall. So we'll hear Rich Rod's early comments on that. Spring practice at WVU begins this weekend. Another big story regarding the Mountaineers today is this is something that has been kind of percolating under the surface, but came to fruition today.

2:05That right handed pitcher Chase Meyer has been dismissed from the team. So Meyer, who led the West Virginia Mountaineer baseball team, which went to the Superregionals last year in wins, was injured around Thanksgiving that put him behind a little bit in his preparation for the season. He was going to come out of the bullpen early in the year for West Virginia before he got slotted back into his weekend rotation spot, but that's not going to happen. He is off the team. And we now do have a statement, an official statement from WVU's baseball coach, Steve Sabin said it goes as follows, quote, junior right handed pitcher, Chase Meyer is no longer with our baseball program. I want to thank Chase for his contributions the past three years to our team and wish him the best in his future endeavors. I always got to watch out for those future endeavors. That's a phrase that usually gets dropped into these types of messages. So this does not sound like a suspension. It doesn't sound like he'll be returning to the team, moving him on and wishing him the

3:09best with his future endeavors. With that being said, with that being said, future endeavors, some might say future endeavors. So there you go. The team and is it a loss? Yeah, sure it is. Is it devastating loss? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not. We'll see. We'll see what goes on with West Virginia baseball. By the way, WVU baseball was supposed to play Redford, but that's that two game series has been scratched. And so WVU is added Marshall. So the mountaineers will play in Huntington tomorrow. So that'll be really interesting to watch the progress of that game. Marshall is playing this afternoon, by the way. The herd is in Blacksburg taking on Virginia Tech top of the fourth inning. The the herds at the plate. They've got the lead off man aboard, but they trail the Hokies three to one. So I'll keep our eyes on that. Let me do a quick reset on our question of the day. Question of the day. Burger King is piloting an AI chatbot called Paddy, an employee headsets to monitor customer

4:15service. And the jurors can ask Paddy how they're doing and friendliness metrics. So the question of the day is this is AI impacting your job right now. How important is customer service to you? Once again, the question 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. I'm on X. Oh, yeah. At weekly WEEK. Why one were three ease WEEK. We have a bunch of responses to this 304, 421. Hey, Dave and Coupe. This is Jennifer from tornado. Hey, Jennifer, how you doing? She says Dave, all Burger King needs to do is model their plan after Chick-fil-A. They do everything right, including customer service. I gotta tell you, their customer service is pretty good. And a lot of people have kind of mentioned them in regards to this story. Thanks for sending that in. Let's see. Here's another one. 724970, Dave.

5:16I think we've been using forms of AI for quite a while. Think how does my phone know the next word I want to type? But many companies are just trying to eliminate jobs. And my job is accounts payable. AI can only be successful if we input correct information. My company is implementing AI automation of our group. And all we do is clean up the messes AI is causing. The company may end up being cut off by suppliers that don't get paid. So I'm not sure AI is the second coming that many promote it to be. All right, we have a lot of response to this. So we'll get into more of those in a bit. But you know what? Let's get Anthony Lewis into the mix. Where are you, Anthony? Are you in the car? Are you at home? Where are you? And hey, Dave, I'm actually here at my studio in St. Olvitz. All right. Well, let me ask you this. So how much input does AI have in your job? I actually use AI 50% of the day and actually train businesses

6:22to use it and implement it in different things. So AI is very important for what I do. I use it a lot, especially in the marketing world for writing just different things. But there's always a human element. You know, I have to double check everything. You just, I use it more as an assistant than I do a crutch. Hey, you know what? I wanted to, you've had some pretty interesting baseball experiences here recently. But I want to get your take. How big of a blow to Mountaineer baseball is Chase Meyer leaving the team, do you think? Yeah, so I've been kind of locked in here the building all day working on some other stuff and my sister taxed and was like, hey, what's up with this? And I had not really heard much leading up to this. I do know that he was hurt and wasn't playing much, but the dismissal, you know, on paper, when you look at an all-be-12 player being dismissed from your program, that could be signs of, well, let's just say that it's not a good thing. I don't know what it would be a sign of,

7:23but it's not good. But, you know, they've been moving right along with Adam so far this year. So I don't know if you'll miss him, but it never helps when you dismiss somebody that comes in as a preseason all-be-12 pick. Hey, let me ask you this. I mean, you worked for the Mountaineer Sports Network for years, WVU basketball this year, Men's Basketball has been okay. I mean, they're on the outside looking in with a couple of games to go and still the big 12 tournaments coming up in Kansas City, but it hasn't been a banner year, but it looks like West Virginia's probably going to win 20 games this year, but it really hasn't been a spectacular year. Despite that, I mean, here we are. It's the, well, it was the end of February and the Hope Coliseum was absolutely packed for the game against BYU over the weekend. I mean, you can criticize the team for their shortcomings, but men, the fans have still continued to come out for the big games. Hey, salute to the fans, West Virginia fans,

8:25especially, you know, I was in, I host out of town with my sister this weekend and we were talking and we were just talking about how much of a drought there's been on the football and basketball side as far as tournaments and bowl games and just big seasons and the fans continue to show up and football they continue to show up at basketball, even the Josh Isle of the year, the, you know, which was a four year on the weekend games, there were great crowds. So people were coming out to support the team and I think the basketball team sent in the right direction. We could probably use back and I had a feeling that this could be a problem, but we could probably would love to get back to Clemson and the Xavier losses and even a higher state, you know, and even the couple of these games here recently that you thought were W's should have been W's because you're looking at a team that could potentially have had 23, 24 wins heading into the big 12 tournament. So they're going to be sitting there, like you said, they're outside looking in, but if they can win and then maybe

9:25put something together in the tournament, it might be enough to get them over the hump. Yeah, you never know. You never know. Right now, Lunardi's gone him out, but we'll see. I just had Matt Hanar basketball insider on in the last hour and I just mentioned to him on a let you react to this as well that, you know, you're not going to really gain too much more than just another big 12 winning. You're trying to stack as many as you can, but I mean, K states are really a lightly regarded team, but it lost and I would be devastating at K state. Oh, that would be, yeah, that's going to be, it would be 10 times, the effect is 10 times magnified if you lose versus a win. You don't gain much from a win, but a loss would basically, you know, a couple of these losses, and if you finish it out with a loss to K state, that would almost start to even signal like a bad season, right? You're on the cusp of getting 20 wins, which on paper, considering what's happened over the last three or four years with new coach, new coach, new coach.

10:26You know, if you can finish with 20 wins, I think people will be okay with that and then look to build next year, but if you lose this game, that's not a good look and people are going to kind of have a bad taste in the mouth going into the tournament. WV by the way is favored by two and a half points. And I did K state against the Wildcats who have lost three straight and nine of their last 10 games. All right, spring football, believe it or not, starts this weekend. That's hard to believe first of all. It's crazy, right? So Rich Rodd met the media for half an hour today and he seems pretty positive talking about the, he thinks he has more depth. He thinks this is going to be a better team. He likes his coaching staff. Next year, this is hard to believe too. Next year begins the eighth year since the last time WV was ranked. I mean, is he feeling pressure to produce a winning season or, you know, take the temperature of the fan base on WV football right now? Yeah, so I know he's,

11:26he's feeling pressure because he's putting pressure on himself. He knows what he was brought here to do and if you know Rich, the way I know him, he, you know that he does not like to lose. So I think, you know, they knew what their limitations were going into last season with coming in late and not having enough time to recruit football or the high school ranks and then even missing the first portal. But they've had the full, the full run. And he, and you could tell by his demeanor today that he feels like they're bigger, stronger, faster. They've upgraded in size, you know, one of the things that he harped about a lot of last year was our D-back to be too short, you know, and he won the taller D-backs. So, you know, I feel like he's putting, he's feeling the pressure a lot of it is the pressure he's putting on himself. Yeah, but again, I just had this conversation, you know, W football has not been ranked and not been too much of any type of real bowl game in a long time. So he knows what year one for him the first go around was like and I think people are expecting him

12:29to have the same turn around like he did. His first time here from 01 to 02, you know, we don't have time to play the entire presser today, but we're going to hear a little bit about the quarterbacks at 533 where you've got, you got Michael Hawkins coming in to push Scottie's fox and you know, he made some comments. You know, we're going to hear this question about would he be interested in playing to quarterbacks and he seems to be open to that. You know, I think that's the, the right thing to say right now. Personally, I don't really think that's such a great idea. The other thing is, and I think this is a pretty interesting point that he says he has about half the number of players who are in their final eligibility coming up this season where he had about 40 seniors last year and this year he's got about 20 of the 100 plus players who are going to be reporting what's we get into the fall. Yeah, I kind of like that idea that, you know, get some guys into your into your program and try to develop them. You're going to lose a few, but you're going to gain some two. Yeah, and I think with this, with this strategy

13:31he's playing chess instead of checkers. You know, he feels like if he can get a lot of guys in, learn the system and then keep him. He's looking already looking at next year, right? Like development guys that they really liked out of high school that they can develop and start laying the groundwork for a nice run in the big 12. And then you never know what could happen, but you know, especially with the portal they could go out and get a couple guys out of electric and then they've already got the groundwork laid for the team. So I think instead of continuously trying to bring in 50, 67 guys, he wants to next year have a smaller recruit, a smaller transfer portal class and keep the graduating classes that like 20 to 25 guys, which I think that with signal success in the program. All right, gotta leave it there. Hey, man, hopefully we'll get you back in the studio soon. Thanks for jumping on with us, Anthony. Hey, it's great talk to you. We'll see you soon. Great Anthony Lewis, one of our Mountaineer insiders. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll play in a route in just a moment. If you have a child who's a junior in high school in West Virginia

14:32or knows someone that does, please listen up. Here's your opportunity to win a full scholarship from West Virginia Wesleyan College, that includes room, board, tuition and fees. The 19th annual West Virginia Scholar program is presented by ZMM Architects and Engineers and the West Virginia Farm Bureau. The deadline is May 3rd. For details, go to wvmethrinus.com to apply. That's wvmethrinus.com. Remember, application deadline is May 3rd. The bout to these conference bids and women's basketball tournament presented by the health plan is back at Wheeling's West Bank Arena. March 4th to the 8th. Past men's basketball national final is West Liberty and Fairmont State. And 2022, women's basketball national champion playful state will be featured from the highest scoring NCAA division to basketball conference in the country. Visit westmancoherena.com for advanced tickets and tournament central at mountainease.org for tournament information, stories, results, events schedule, dreaming and television broadcast information. Join us for the mountainease conference basketball championship presented by the health plan. March 4th through the 8th at West Bank Arena in Wheeling. You can call us at 800-765-8255.

15:34Text us at 304-825-5304. Or tweet at W-E-E-K-L-E-Y. This is Hotline, presented by Salango Long. On Metro News, the voice of West Virginia. This is a Bloomberg money minute. Day four, the US's rally attacks in Iran and already the average price of a gallon of gas in the US jumped 11 cents higher overnight. That's according to AAA. Prices at the pump topping three bucks of gallon nationwide for the first time since November. On Wall Street, a steep, broad base sell-off in stocks eased up late in the day. After President Trump assured oil tankers and other commercial vessels of US naval escorts through the Iran-controlled straight-of-war moves, if necessary, that's where 20% of all global oil passes. Now, that also lessened the spike in the price of oil, which still rose about 4% while on Wall Street. All the major averages ended about 1% lower. The Dow down 404 points, the NASDAQ down 232,

16:36the S&P lost 65. And a new survey by the AI resume building site. Resume now says two and five adult workers say they've cried at least once at work. One in four say they've broken down. At least twice. Tom Busby, Bloomberg Radio. I'm John Carruthers, the owner of Best Virginia Heating Cooling. I'm born and raised right here in West Virginia. I've got three daughters, so I absolutely care who comes into my home. Every technician we send to your home has been drug tested in background check. I guarantee the best client experience or your money back. We have the best team and the best processes that go to around a five-star experience. Call Best Virginia today at 6-8-1-655-1-655. 1-2-1-4. It's the way Charleston says good morning. First Watch on Summer Street is this week's 50-50 Friday. 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 wrap. Enjoy fresh breakfast, brunch, and lunch.

17:38All made to order at First Watch. Friday at 90M, good to WCHSnetwork.com and click the 50-50 Friday button to get 50% off gift certificates for First Watch. The courtesy of the WCHS Family of Networks. Why do people trust Peyton Law Firm for personal injury claims in West Virginia? Simple, Tom and Harvey Peyton are lifelong West Virginians. They live here, they work here, and they're proud to stand up for their neighbors. If you've been hurt and want no nonsense representation that gets results, you want the Peyton Law Firm. Call 755-5556 or visit PeytonLawFirm.com to learn more. The attorneys referenced in this ad are lifelong residents that are licensed to practice law in the state of West Virginia. According to Feeding America, over 7 million seniors nationwide were food insecure in 2022. West Virginia is no different. Hi, I'm Jason, President and CEO of Union Mission Ministries. For 113 years, Union Mission has focused on helping people in need. Right now, our senior citizens need our help.

18:40That is why Union Mission is partnering with local senior living facilities to get food delivered directly to those in need. Will you help us reach more seniors? Visit UnionMission.com to learn more. Keeping you informed on your drive home, here's the latest traffic update from 580WCHS. With your traffic update, I'm Ryan Nicholson. There are two accidents to report on. The first one is on I-64 West at the Westbound Dunbar Exit. The second is at the intersection of Washington Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Charleston. Once again, from the WCHS traffic studios, I'm Ryan Nicholson. The voice of Charleston on Facebook at the WCHS Network. The voice of Charleston on I-64 West at the Westbound Dunbar Exit. The voice of Charleston on I-64 West at the Westbound Dunbar Exit. The voice of Charleston on I-64 West at the Westbound Dunbar Exit. The voice of Charleston on I-64 West at the Westbound Dunbar Exit. Who's driving this thing?

19:41Come on back, Koop. What do you think the show drives itself? We got caught out in the hallway. It's all right. It's all right. All right, let's play it around. Every day at this time we focus on this stuff, you talk about at the office we call it in around. The set up simple three categories. Food of beverage got reaction. Finally, this one's about a celebrity in the topic, so which changed daily. Let's get started with Food of beverage. Koop, are you ready to go? I am now. With St. Patrick's Day on the horizon, Dairy Queen trots out the mint and launches the new mint crunching cookie dipped cone. All right, now. So what do you think about this? The mint crunching cookie dipped cone at DQ in or out? Something tells me this is one of those things that eventually my daughter is going to get me to change my strong opinion on, but I don't like soft-simmered ice cream. I'm just like, I like everything else that DQ has, but I'm not a fan of soft-surf. I like regular ice cream more, so I got to kind of be out on this ice cream product

20:42with the shell and stuff on it. I got to be kind of out on that. You know, I shouldn't know that. I shouldn't know now. How do you feel about mint? You okay with mint? And within reason, yeah. I'm okay with mint within reason. All right, Macatarmurphy, what are your thoughts on this? DQ's mint crunching cookie dipped cone in or out? I don't think I would eat a lot of these, but you know, I don't know. Say Patrick Stase's coming up. I might have one for that, so I'll be slightly in. Yeah, you know what? I'm slightly in on this as well. All right, gut reaction is next. Generation Z men are following a virtual TikTok trend called Boy Kibble, eating simple combinations of ground beef and rice up to seven times a week for cheap protein intake. The trend serves as the male equivalent of the girl phenomenon a couple of years ago. Fitness influencers promote the bland, low calorie meals as reliable muscle-building fuel skipping vegetable sauces and often seasoning to avoid unnecessary purchases.

21:44Boy Kibble, Coupe, Boy Kibble, in or out. This is just you, you wear a sign that says, I hate myself. Man, I did all that without having to sacrifice like common sense. And yeah, I don't know. A pro tip from a guy that actually did it, can't attune a man. Can't attune it will serve you very, very well, and you don't have to worry about the carbs that the rice is giving you. So anyway, yeah, I'm out on this. It's like there's like protein and creatine and everything now. It's like the Luke Perry sideburns of the 2020s. Like everybody's got to have them. Matt, what are your thoughts here on Boy Kibble? In or out? Look, the premise of the simplicity is fine, but chicken still sees and stuff. Yeah, I like that. That's right. You can have some salt. You can have some salt and spices. For that, I gotta be honest. Boy Kibble, no, no way. And Ecuador, they had this with chicken and ketchup. Or chicken and ketchup. Oh, there you go.

22:45Finally, this one's about a celebrity. Kyle Murray. Kyle Murray needs a job. Released. He's gonna be released by the Arizona Cardinals. Kyle Murray. In or out? Since I obviously don't know him personally, I can only know him as an athlete. That whole thing, like what you talked about with Dave Bryan with with like the video game clause or whatever his contract. I can't take anybody like that seriously. I gotta be out. Kyle Murray. In or out? Yes. Yeah, coop with the nail on the head there. It's all I can say. I'm out. I'm gonna surprise you guys. I'm gonna be slightly in. Oh, that does not surprise me at all. It's just he's not a bad enough person. It's the only question. I mean, you know, you can't teach talent, okay? You can't teach talent. You know, I meant, you know, the stock market man, by low. By low. That happens with retread quarterbacks all the time. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I guess it has recently. Kyle Murray, slightly in. Slightly. He needs to abuse something and then you'll really be in it.

23:45I really like him. This is Metro news, the voice of West Virginia. Good evening, it's 5.30 and 57 degrees in the capital city. I'm Morgan Pimperton inside the 580 WCHS radio newsroom overcast skies over Charleston. We'll have more on AccuWeather after the news. A bill that would have allowed state troopers to sell machine guns to the public is now dead in the legislature. Machine gun bill was passed Monday afternoon by the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, the bill was not received by the full Senate during a Monday evening floor session. Mon and Galia County Senator and sponsor of the Bill Chris Rose says he's disappointed they ran out of time, but he's not discouraged. It was kind of a race to get it done. And unfortunately, we've time is right out here in West Virginia for this year, but already with the votes for next year and trying to get general consists behind it in both bodies

24:46to address the concerns that came up this year with the bill. Nitro Mayor Dave Casebolt signing an agreement today with West Virginia American Water Company to finalize the sale of the Nitro Regional Waste Water utility to the water company. Casebolt stated the water utility has plans for upgrades to the facility that the city wouldn't have been able to afford. Read more at wvmetronuse.com. Institutes 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. Huntington 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. During today's competition students were tasked to make a three-course meal in 60 minutes to present to judges.

25:47But your news accurate the forecast says tonight, cloudy skies with possible passing shower or two, low 52. It's 532 and 57 degrees in the capital city. I'm Morgan Pemberton and you're listening to 580 WCHS, the voice of Tarleton. Get ready for the March State Basketball tournaments with Metro news TV. Download for live games. Highlights and recaps. Plus episodes of our exclusive interview series, State of Minds and your favorite daily programs right on your smart TV or streaming device. Get more information at wvmetronnewstv.com. Metro news television is powered by the WV Department of Tourism, Dan Kava, GMC, the WV HTC Foundation and WVU Medicine. With an update of sports, I'm Joe Vercato on 580 WCHS. The WV baseball team has altered their midweek schedule. The mountaineers were scheduled to host a two-game series with Radford. However, the Radford program is mourning the death

26:48of one of their players. Freshman Joey Rakuya died in an automobile accident last week. WVU head coach Steve Sabin's trying to pick up a game on Wednesday and Marshall head coach Greg Beals will welcome the mountaineers 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 being a good environment with passionate fans who are into the working out well for us. Girls High School Regional basketball tonight on WVU CHS. Jeff Jenkins has the call of Winfield and Nitro at 7 p.m. With this update of sports, I'm Joe Vercato on 580 WCHS. 1 0 4 5 96 5 and 5 80 WCHS. All right, welcome back. It's a lot of work to do before we get out of here at 6 o'clock.

27:50We're going to hear from Richard Rodriguez in a minute about the battle at quarterback in spring drills for mountaineers when they begin practice this coming Saturday. Hey, global tensions are dominating the headlines and yes, markets are reacting this Thursday at 345 on Hotline Mad Harris from Huntington Bank joins us for money minutes. We'll talk about how geopolitical shocks have historically impacted markets, what tends to happen in the short term. And what long-term investors should keep in mind, get perspective, not panic, money minutes from Huntington Bank Thursday at 345 here on Metro news hotline and our flagship affiliate 580 WCHS. Cooper talking about AI, this is sort of related to that. I saw this tweet a couple of moments ago, somebody posting rage against the machine, never specified what type of machine they were furious with. But I'm guessing it was probably a printer and I think

28:51that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That is pretty, pretty good. Speaking of the question of the day, let me do a quick reset on this because for whatever reason, this one has pulled the scab off quite a few people. They've found this to be pretty interesting and I like when we do that. So Burger King is piloting an AI chatbot called Paddy in 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. No, it'd be funny as if they gave you like a little electric shock if you didn't say welcome to Burger King. Don't give them the idea, man, because it's probably coming. Yeah, I'll be like next. I mean, welcome to Burger King. The AI assistant helps employees with meal preparation, questions, equipment, guidance and inventory management through the BK assistant platform.

29:51Managers can ask Paddy how their location performs on friendliness metrics. The system connects to drive through orders, kitchen equipment and inventory systems automatically updating menus when items run out within 15 minutes. So the question of 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 respond. Text those in 304, talk 304, 304, 8255, 304. You can tweet me, I'm on X, yes, still there. Weekly, W-E-E-K-L-E-Y, one or three E-E-S-W-E-E-K-L-E-Y. And we have had some pretty interesting takes on this. Let's see. Here's Jeff on X, Dave. I'm retired. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Dave. I'm retired. So my day to day is not affected by AI. As far as customer service, it's very important to me and always has been.

30:54Unfortunately, it's another victim to COVID mentality and has fallen off everywhere. Chick-fil-A is the lone exception. You know, Chick-fil-A is getting a lot of love here. Here's Jim on X. Geez, Dave. This is a real horror show. Oh, my brothers. Ordering fast food workers means monitoring all workers. We have a bunch of text messages on this particular question. He's got to write on the money, too. Yeah, absolutely true. Yeah, he kind of nailed that. We have a bunch of text messages today from listeners as well. Let's see. Oh, we were talking about popcorn in the three o'clock hour. We probably had as many responses today about popcorn as we did for the question of the day. Maybe. You know, about Hills popcorn, how you would buy the, you would go into the Hills location. And the popcorn vendor would be right there in front and you would get the, the big Hills

31:55popcorn sleeve. Right. Right. Yeah. So you would either hit it on your way in or hit it on your way out. I can't be the only person from Harrison County, who remembers this, where you would get your Hills sleeve of popcorn and eat it about halfway down and then kind of roll it over and save it for later in the kitchen. Well, yeah. I mean, we always brought ours back. Yeah, we would, we would munch one it while we were shopping and then save the rest to bring home. We always did that. Absolutely. Uh, 304669. Hey, Dave. Oh, Coup, tell Dave. Okay. Okay. Tell Dave, he forgot about Hex and the Rosebud Plaza in Clarksburg. I didn't forget. I, I, I knew, but I mean, where I lived in Bridgeport, Hills was so much closer than the Rosebud Plaza. There, we were lucky here that there was, well, actually, I think Hills took the place of where Hex used to be, um, in Canal City, if I remember correctly, I think that used to be Hex and then Hills moved in at least the same closet, I think when I hear Stephanie back there, oh, she had Hex and Hills that, that, you know, that, that was big.

32:56That's big for West Virginia. Have them both. A couple more here. 3044549. Dave, the best popcorn I've ever eaten was when I used bacon grease instead of oil. If you haven't tried it, you should. Everything is better with bacon. Uh, what do you think about that? Who man? I don't know. It seems like it would be. Now, the one thing I do know that works, a buddy of mine, a good friend of mine in Michigan taught me this is, uh, you put, uh, Tabasco sauce in your bag of microwave popcorn and you mix it around and then you put Parmesan cheese in it and mix it around again. That Tabasco makes the Parmesan stick to the individual pieces. Pretty next level stuff. Very nice. Very nice. Uh, let's see. 3044542. Hey, Dave and Cooper. There was a department store that was on the South Charleston end of the Patrick's rebridge named Arlands in the mid 60s. A fire burned up the back room and where the layaways were kept. Oh, yeah. Oh, thanks. Giving day. Yeah. You were expressing the layaway concept as a, as a workable or I'm just saying layaways were character building without going into real debt.

33:58You know, uh, it was, it was a, it was a useful thing for people to be able to buy something they needed to save for and we don't do that anymore. You know what? Uh, we're going to have to wait until after the capital report to, to hear from Richrod. Is that okay with you? Well, whatever you want. I got them all right here. All right. So we're going to, uh, we're going to talk about Mount near quarterbacks, but first things first, it's 540 and that means it's time for Jeff Jenkins with today's capital report. This is the Metro news capital report brought to you by AARP West Virginia. AARP is your ally for real possibilities in the mountain state. Based on social media at AARP West Virginia and learn more at AARP dot org slash WV today's report in 60 seconds. AARP is your wise friend and fierce defender as you age. Life changes fast and so do the challenges. Scams are getting more sophisticated and caring for loved ones can feel overwhelming. That's why AARP is here. We're working to help you protect your hard earned money, sharing tips and tools to help

35:01you spot frauds and scams. Every day we're supporting family caregivers and fighting for things like expanded affordable high-speed internet service and ensuring access to home and community-based services that are so critical to family caregivers with a quarter million members and abilities throughout the mountain state. AARP is your trusted advocate at the state capital and beyond fighting for policies that make life better for older adults and their families. Everyone in the mountain state needs someone in their corner. That someone is AARP. For more information connect with us on social media at AARP West Virginia or find us online at AARP dot org slash WV. The day long buzz created by the bill that would allow state residents to purchase machine guns from the state appears to be over the bill past the San Judiciary Committee Monday evening. But there was a mix up and getting reported to the Senate floor and sent to its second committee reference. The longer short of it is the bill ran out of time to get three readings before tomorrow's crossover day deadline. One in gay County Sandra Chris Rose the bill sponsor says it would take a special vote now

36:04to move the bill. Sir, it's probably too late. I would say so unless the caucus comes back and changes their opinion on it. I mean, you'd have at this point you theoretically to get the bill out of the Senate in time. You'd have to suspend constitutional rules, which would take over two thirds of the Senate to do so. So I would say traditionally speaking this bill would be dead at this time. The San Judiciary Committee chairman Tom Willis says he still wants to do it someday returning to what used to be allowed before 1986 in his special operations and have enjoyed shooting machine guns. Anything from an MP5 to a saw to a 240 bravo, I think they're 240 mic now and to a 50 cow. So I've got a lot of experience with machine guns. I've got no problem owning one personally and I don't trust my fellow West Virginians to own one personally as well. I'm Jeff Jenkins on Metro news for 40 years, the voice of West Virginia. Starting March 10th, Metro News brings you the 2026 West Virginia SSAC high school basketball championships presented by Chick-fil-A, the best teams in the state will once again meet

37:08at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to compete for the title in their respective classes. The girl's tournament runs March 10th through 14th. The boys play March 17th through the 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 game 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-eight championship. 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. This is Hotline, presented by Salango Law on Metro News, the voice of West Virginia. I'm Christine Leasey on this NFL franchise tag Deadline Day, the Jets place the franchise

38:09tag on running back Breeze Hall. First time in five years they've used the tag, he'll play the 2026 season for just over $14 million, unless the sides reach a long-term agreement by July 15th. The Bengals aren't tagging defensive entry, Hendrickson, and he now becomes an unrestricted free agent. ESPN's Adam Shafters reporting the Vikings are open to trading one of their top defensive players outside linebacker Jonathan Grenard as they work through a salary-cap deficit that could have a wide-ranging impact on their roster. Baseball, the Braves, their designated hitter, Jerks and Profars facing a 162 games suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug for the second time in the last year. It's unlikely the suspension is overturned on appeal. It is a significant blow for Atlanta and leaves the team in an interesting place. Explains ESPN MLB Insider, Jeff Passon. While they lose a guy who they thought was going to be a big part of their lineup, they also now have $15 million to go out and potentially spend on free agent pitchers or get

39:12someone in a trade. They have opportunity to improve on a team that at 78 wins last year, missed the playoffs, and just coming off maybe the most disappointing season in baseball. In addition to forfeiting his entire $15 million salary, Profars in eligible for the Major League baseball postseason and the World Baseball Classic, where he was set to represent the Netherlands. Metz pitcher Nolan McClain, who's arrived at a training camp ahead of the World Baseball Classic, has been delayed due to vertical-like symptoms, says he's confident he'll be able to join the rest of Team USA and Houston later this week. He's scheduled to start game four against Italy. Number 19, Miami, Ohio, the lone unbeaten men's division one college basketball team remaining takes on Toledo tonight, 70-stern on ESPN Plus. Honey, our credit card bill came and it's higher than last month. How? We haven't charged anything. Getting the minimum isn't enough, it will keep getting higher until we take control.

40:13We need to go to 47fastcash.com. With our bad credit, 47fastcash.com can help any credit type get a proof of up to $5,000 in minutes. Take control and get the money you need at 47fastcash.com, 47fastcash.com. I've been telling you all about the secret war on our cash and the free report you can receive a copy of by contacting Swiss America at 800-289-2646. I'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to their podcast on YouTube, just search Swiss America Trading. The podcast can provide you a ton of vital information and financial news in the challenging and uncertain times we're in. Subscribe today, learn more about BRICs, industry leaders and their market predictions for the future along with what you might expect to see in terms of precious middle performance in the weeks and months ahead, messaging data rates may apply. Happy Wednesday evening, this is Dale Cooper with the Check of Traffic on no accidents

41:14report right now. Things are looking pretty good on the major roads and highways earlier. Occursives have been cleared away and we're just running into some traffic density and some of those hot spots but otherwise major roads and highways ended around the greater Charleston area and the Canaw Valley are looking pretty good. You just see it, be careful, head it, wherever you're going. Stay up to date on Canaw Valley issues. At the Dave Allen Show on 580 Line week day mornings at 9 when the voice of Charleston 580 WCHS. All right, welcome back to the show about 12 minutes till the hour. We're going to get a little bit of the press conference with Rich Rodriguez earlier today signaling the started WV Spring football practice on Saturday and they'll be covering this on sports line and probably much more detail at the top of the air. So stay tuned for that if you're interested in Mountaineer news. Up college baseball, Marshall will be hosting WV tomorrow in Huntington. It's a game that's been added after the Redford series with WV got scrapped this week. Marshall is playing Ad Virginia Tech this afternoon and the Hurts has put up a crooked

42:18number. Five runs in the top of the fourth inning and they lead Virginia Tech now of six to three in the top of the fifth inning. Jackson Halter with a two-hour double down the left field line, a cracked it open for the herd. A long way to go. Six three Marshall there in the, I'm, excuse me, now in the top of the fifth inning. So we'll keep our eyes on that. All right, college football WV open spring practice on Saturday, Rich Rodriguez, back at West Virginia now for year number two. First year didn't go as well as expected losing season, but it looks like West Virginia may have more talent in the program right now. We'll see. We'll see. Rich Rodriguez making some comments today about players who are going to miss spring practice because of injury, only a handful of those and how many players will be on hand. But obviously, you know, when you're talking about college football or any kind of football, probably the most thing, though one thing that gets discussed the most is the quarterbacks. And so as Scotty Fox emerged as West Virginia starter last year after a variety of injuries,

43:20Fox got the job did a pretty good job in the second half of the year. And now Michael Hawkins is coming from Oklahoma. And there should be a pretty interesting battle in the spring between these two guys. And here's Rich Rodriguez talking about the, the battle he's got at quarterback coming this weekend. Yeah. I knew about him from watching him a little bit. Obviously, we have some guys that were at Oklahoma that saw him in person and, and who he was as an athlete, who he was as a person. You know, he was, you know, we wanted somebody to come in and compete with Scotty and Max for the job. And you know, somebody that had the skill set that we thought could be special in it. And Mike has that, you know, and he's, he's shown that so far, you know, he's a smart guy. It's really important to him. He works hard. You know, he, he and Scotty and Max, too, have done a really good job of taking another step, I think. And, and Mike's only been here a couple months. So this spring is going to be really important to him. But he has all the, all the skills that you want in a quarterback. He can run. He can throw. He's competitive.

44:22And that was a big target for us to find a guy in the portal that we thought it could compete with Scotty and Max and the rest of them to be our quarterback. And we're hoping that at every position, not just a quarterback, that we have at least two guys that are good enough to win with. That's what kind of a kind of coach speak, but that's what we want. And if we can get three guys that we can win with at every position, boy, we're going to be, you know, we'll be a whole lot deeper and can sustain any bad luck or overcome bad luck, I should say. You mentioned having two guys, and you talked last year going to the season that you wouldn't be against kind of having a 1A1B thing if it worked for the team. You have a similar mentality that if both quarterbacks are good enough to win with, that you could play both them regardless of injury. Sure. Yeah, we could play both. I think all quarterbacks, they want to, you know, all good players, they want to be the guy. They don't want to come out at all. But if you're good enough to win with, you're going to play. Now we, you know, you could do some two quarterback stuff, and I've done that in the past.

45:22But inevitably somebody may, you know, search to the front, we're kind of, again, practices going to tell, practices now and practices in August, we'll tell that part of it. But, you know, I think, you know, we targeted Mike, we had a bunch of quarterbacks on the board. We evaluated a whole bunch of them and Mike had all the things that we thought we wanted, and he's been what we thought he would be so far in workouts and some meetings. And so spring practice is going to be important, obviously he's going to be his first practices. But he's, he and, and we got those young guys, those young quarterbacks we got, I'm pretty excited about too. So, you know, last year, who would have thought that we would have three quarterbacks go down on injuries last year on me, you know? So you better have more than one, and hopefully you don't get to, to your third or fourth quarterback cause of injury, but I like where we're at right now. All right. There you go. That is Rich Rodriguez, talking to the media earlier today, specifically about the quarterback

46:23battle. That'll obviously be something we'll be watching once spring practice begins this weekend at WVU. Speaking to WVU, big 12 honors for women's basketball coming out earlier today because you've got the, the, the women's basketball tournament for the league coming up this weekend, player of the year, women's basketball, Olivia Miles from TCU, coach of the year, Christa Gerlich from Texas Tech, defensive player of the year, Jordan Harrison from WVU, she's a senior guard, and she's the only member of the Mountaineers who was named to the all big 12 first team. And she led the league and is ranked 11th in the country, 3.24 steals throughout the season, earned a spot on this year's women's college defensive player of the year late season team after helping WVU rank at top of the league with just under 12 steals a game. So West Virginia, Jordan Harrison, congratulations to her. Also, you know, it's not going to be that much longer for before the, the Mountaineers tournament

47:25begins. And Metronus is going to be your home for that. And earlier today in Bridgeport, the men's basketball all conference honors were announced and trace Simmons from Frostburg State is the player of the year in the, in the mountain east led the league averaging almost 24 points of game is also top 10 in the conference and assists leads the league and minutes played plays almost 34 minutes of game. That is impressive. So that is coming out today. So Simmons is the player of the year, Aidan Gal from Wheeling is the freshman in the year and Chris Richardson of Wheeling is the coach of the year. So it's not going to be that much longer before we start talking about MEC basketball and is the MEC tournament basketball. And of course, Metronus is going to be your home for that and the tournament is coming up in Wheeling, world baseball classic coming up later this week. And that's impacting today's schedule of games in spring training. The reds have the day off the pirates, though, in Braydenton played against the team

48:29from Columbia and the Bucks one in Braydenton this afternoon, final score of seven to one. The United States will play their first game in the world baseball classic that will be Friday night at eight o'clock and that game will be on Fox. So for many of the, as I said, a lot of teams were playing games today against teams that will be participating in the world baseball classic. I think the reds get back to action tomorrow. The reds have a schedule game tomorrow, but the parts didn't play a game against the major league team today. They played against the Columbia Nationals and they won that game seven to one. All right, we'll take a break and we'll come back and wrap it up for the day in just a moment. If you have been in a car accident in the past and have settled your case, I may have some good news. Some unethical lawyers have people known as runners who come directly to your hospital room or home and solicit your case. It's a disbarrable offense. Anyone that would hire these scumbags needs to have their heads examined.

49:31I'm John Morgan, I'm Morgan, I'm Morgan. Now for the good news, if this happened to you, we will sue these low lives and fight to get all your fees back and then look and see if these bottom feeders also malpractice your case and sue them for that too. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Visit forthepeople.com for a free consultation or call pound law on yourself pound 529. If someone does this to you, call the bar association and report them, let's fight these bombs. Morgan to Morgan. Office 222 Capital Street, Charleston. Hases will be handled by West Virginia licensed attorneys. The attorney in this ad is not licensed in West Virginia, Morgan and Morgan for the people.com. Disaster strikes sometimes, but it doesn't have to be the end of the world. Rainbow restoration of canon button counties can take the worry and stress out of putting your home back together when disaster does strike. After its fire or water damage, mold removal or even full service reconstruction, the train professionals at rainbow restoration can help make it home again.

50:31Call 304-201-01-01. It's not the end of the world with rainbow restoration. The latest in news talk in sports when 580 WCHS has brought to you about geric construction call 304-344-901-40 for more information. Sports this 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. Stay at 515, Michigan host Michigan State, plus Red's 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. In 2025, our listeners streamed nearly half a million hours of 580 WCHS.

51:35That's more than 18,000 days over 50 years of local news breaking stories live sports elections in the daily programs you trust. You, for listening to our award-winning programming wherever you are, stream us anytime, anywhere or download the WVRC media app at WCHSnetwork.com. However you listen, we are the voice of Charleston 580 WCHS. 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, Kristen Burton and your main 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. From pole season to national playoffs, 580 WCHS is your home for college football action. Join us as we follow the journey to the championship from thrilling match-ups to underdog stories.

52:39Experience the passion of college football on 580 WCHS. Since 1927, the voice of Charleston 580 WCHS. Alright folks, that is going to do it for today's show. We thank you so much for listening, sending your answers to our questions the day and more. We had a lot of great responses today. That stuff's going into the follow-up file. We do that every Friday at around 350. Stay tuned for the news at the top of the hour. Sports line is on the other side. My name's Dave Wheatley. I'll talk to you tomorrow, beginning at 306. Right here on Metro News, the voice of West Virginia. Visit the site or your favorite podcast service for past shows and features.

53:43This has been Hotline, presented by Salango Law on Metro News. The voice of West Virginia, WCHS AF, W243 DRFM Charleston, and W283 ACU CrossLanes, a WVRC media station. We're proud to live here too. We're proud to live here too. We're proud to live here too. We're proud to live here too. We're proud to live here too. We're proud to live here too. We're proud to live here too.