12-10-25 - Rock Wars - Song Playing When Suicidal Hiker Called For Help On Camelback Mtn

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Holmberg’s Morning Sickness (98KUPD)

Episode: 12-10-25 – Rock Wars – Song Playing When Suicidal Hiker Called for Help on Camelback Mtn
Date: December 10, 2025
Hosts: John Holmberg, Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, Dick Toledo

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Overview

This episode of Holmberg’s Morning Sickness centers around a particularly unusual Rock Wars challenge inspired by a recent local headline: a hiker stranded—and reportedly suicidal—overnight on Camelback Mountain. The game? Each host must pick the song playing in the head of the 911 dispatcher who, rather than sending immediate help, told the caller rescue would wait until dawn. Packed with the group’s dark humor, candid banter, and infectious irreverence, the episode highlights both wild speculation and creative takes on disaster response.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene — Camelback Mountain Incident

• The hosts recap the local news item: a hiker is left stranded overnight on Camelback Mountain. Despite a distress call (the hiker’s wife called 911), dispatchers choose not to send a rescue team until morning due to safety concerns.
• The hosts question the thinking behind such a decision, riffing on the perceived bureaucratic apathy.
  • Holmberg: “All emergencies must be between sunrise and sunset. That’s a new rule.” (06:14)

2. Defining This Week’s Rock Wars Challenge

• After a bit of comedic procrastination and bickering over possible topics, the group lands on a morbidly playful theme:
  • Bret: “How about the song that was playing when the hiker that got stuck on the mountain called dispatch?” (05:08)
• The challenge evolves: What song is in the dispatcher’s headphones, motivating their “meh” response to a very serious call?

3. Recollections & Tangents

• Holmberg recalls a personal story about previously seeing flashing lights on Camelback Mountain and calling it in, marveling at the rescue effort back then compared to the lackluster response this time. (07:40)
  • He humorously classifies “atmosphere girls” involved in his story: "Escorts. Eventually, they become prostitutes. Up until you... once you put your wiener in their hand, they’re just atmosphere girls..." (08:23)

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Rock Wars Song Picks & Banter

Brady’s Pick:

• Song: “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” by Brian Setzer Orchestra
  • Brady imagines the dispatcher essentially ignoring the severity, in a peppy, swing-music trance:
  • Brady: “We’ll send a drone up, drop a blanket, some food, a cell phone… If you survive to morning, we’ll come and get you. Until then, listen to Brian Setzer Orchestra—‘Jump, Jive and Wail.’” (08:56)
  • Holmberg’s Reaction: “Why ‘jump’? Oh, the jump… Just go with Van Halen, for God’s sake.” (09:19)

Holmberg’s Pick:

• Song: “Wait” by White Lion
  • He envisions 1980s adult-contemporary in the background of a jaded, middle-aged dispatcher:
  • Holmberg: “The whole song’s about just, ‘whoa, just wait.’ We’re not coming for you tonight. Here’s a blanket.” (10:57)
  • He expands the scenario with character-building: “The 80s lady that’s a little overweight doing dispatch, probably was listening to this. She’s 52, recently divorced. She’s working on her hips…” (11:10)

Bret’s Pick:

• Song: “Die M*****F****r Die” by Dope
  • Bret takes an even darker comedic line, proposing the dispatcher is totally apathetic:
  • Bret: “Jay Cutler’s... doing a little dispatching. Somebody calls him, says, don’t care. So he was listening to Dope’s ‘Die Mother— Die.’” (11:47)
  • Holmberg: “I don’t like a guy who listens to this in dispatch... If you think the dispatch guy was actually rooting for him to pass…” (12:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Holmberg, on legal complaints over Rock Wars punishments:
  “We’re supposed to have Brady have sex with that doll at the U-Fest show, and the company’s lawyer somehow got involved. Would have been awesome. Brady, 69 with a sex doll. I would have had to buy it.” (01:45)
• Group Satire on Bureaucracy:
  “We’ll try when the sun comes up. When it’s safe. This is dumb. We don’t do things at night. It’s crazy.” (06:14)
• Holmberg, lampooning dispatchers:
  “She’s 52, recently divorced. She’s working on her hips, but they’re not going anywhere because she sits for a living.” (11:10)
• Shot fired at the city’s PSA humorlessness:
  “We were trying to make a PSA. Meanwhile, the over-the-road signs are jokes all the time. Even when missing people go pop—Pop’s gone Silver Alert!” (10:02-10:22)

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Rock Wars Judgement & Outcome ([12:48])

• Judge: John Gordon
• Winner: Holmberg’s pick – “Wait” by White Lion
  • John Gordon: “It’s White Lion, everybody. There’s no question about it.” (12:49)
• The group riffs on obscure 80s band trivia and the state of White Lion’s hands before trailing off in trademark offbeat style.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 05:00 – Official Rock Wars topic is set
• 06:04 – Breakdown of the Apache decision to wait until morning
• 08:56 – Brady gives his song pick
• 10:26 – Holmberg gives his song pick
• 11:47 – Bret gives his song pick
• 12:49 – Judge John Gordon delivers the winning verdict

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Tone & Style

The episode runs on a mix of deadpan delivery, cynical wit, and affectionate ribbing. The hosts are irreverent but smart, taking morbid or absurd premises and mining them for groaner puns and unexpected tangents. Their banter is peppered with local references and recurring in-jokes, making even gallows humor sound like a club you want to join.

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Summary:
This episode showcases the unique, often twisted humor of Holmberg’s Morning Sickness. The hosts use a real, troubling news story as the prompt for a Rock Wars battle that’s as much about their personalities as it is about music. Along the way, listeners are treated to personal stories, sharp gags, and a parade of classic rock detritus—ending with a (darkly appropriate) White Lion anthem of waiting it out.

Transcript

[Brett]

You're listening to the HMS Podcast, brought to you by MMP Guns.com, your most trusted online marketplace for firearms, ammunition, and accessories.

[Holmberg]

Holmberg's morning sickness. The old method of treatment for a person in this condition was to throw him in jail.

There you go. Tap, tap, tap, tap that app right now. Offspring is the artist of the week. You can win the KUPD Concert Pass. I'm hearing a lot of people talking about that concert pass. It's a good thing, and you can win it just by tapping on the featured artist. And this week's featured artist is the Offspring. So you got it right there. If you're on the app right now, you're making our Bob super happy. Tap it right there. If you're web streaming, you can do the same thing and knock that out and win a ticket to every concert CUPD tells you about in 2026. If it's on the Core Institute concert calendar, you get tickets to it if you win the KUPD Concert Pass. Pretty cool, I think. Pretty cool. Who won Rock wars last week? No, I was looking at Brett. I'm sorry about that. Are you still here?

[Toledo]

Wait, I think you got it because JG picked you.

[Brett]

No, I think it was me because it was Ozzy.

[Holmberg]

It was you. I think it was you.

[Brett]

Rock and roll rebel.

[Holmberg]

He did. He got you, then. Yeah. Okay. Oh, by the way, they got the guy off the topic, guys. Off the mountain. Oh, I got him down off the mountain. So the story will be good. Where do you go? It's Brett. Yeah, it's Brett. Brett's the one. All right, we'll get you a topic during this.

[Brett]

Yep.

[Holmberg]

Come out of those, and we'll get you one vote.

[Toledo]

Oh, yeah.

[Holmberg]

You got 18. 17 to Brady. We're very close. He's on the comeback trail. Could be. We'll see. And we need to put something big on it. In the beginning of the year. We're supposed to, like, come up with horrible things to make the losers do, but we haven't done it. I think we need to.

[Brett]

It never pans out.

[Holmberg]

It never pans out well because, yeah, we're supposed to have Brady have sex with that doll at the you Fest show, and the. The company's lawyer somehow got involved. Would have been awesome. Brady, 69 with a sex doll. I would have had to buy it. That was going to cost me a couple thousand dollars, and it would have worked out just fine. I was more than willing to do that. Lawyers are like, we can't have him doing a sex act. I'm like. It's like doing a sex act on a cardboard box. No, it's more than that. Like, only to you perverts.

It's because the lawyers were half hard thinking about it. Anyway, we'll figure something out, but. All right. Brett's gonna have a topic for Rock Wars. We'll get that going. Next. It's 98.

Disgusting. They say things that are horrible.

Holg's morning sickness.

Kind of. You're late. Get a topic. Get a thing. But I want to play a game real quick.

[Brett]

Let me just postpone on next week, too.

[Holmberg]

Doesn't matter. Watch this. Okay. I want to do something here.

Big green baby. I want everybody right now. I'm just going to turn everything off. I want everybody right now to picture. I've seen this on Instagram, and it works so good. Picture. How do I play that? How do I play a preview on the air? Can I, John? I mean, you can't. Ah, nuts. All right, well, I have to play the whole song again. All right, next time, you pull it up. Yeah. The last 15 seconds. Last 15 seconds of big Bang Baby by Stone Temple Pilots. I want everybody just kind of sit, relax for. Take a couple breaths. Just. I saw it on Instagram. This guy does things where he changes the song for you forever. Now, I've done this for people with Volbeat, where I said, picture share, and now you can't unpicture share. I've done this with Dave Drain. Offspring. Well, no Offspring. I've made you a picture.

Name threw me off. Weirdo Yankovich. Weirdo Yankovic. And then people are like, you've ruined Offspring for me. I want you to take a deep breath. I want you to think for a second. Picture SpongeBob.

It's spongebob.

It's spongebob. You can't help yourself.

[Toledo]

That's crazy.

[Holmberg]

It will change it forever and it ruins it for you. And I apologize in advance, but it's what I do. It's a great song, though. It's a great song, Brett.

Does anybody know? It's the same thing. You have a topic for us? No. Why are you being so lazy?

[Brett]

I don't know.

[Holmberg]

Like the one I gave you.

[Brett]

I don't like that. All right, go ahead, because I can't think of anything. All right, how about the song that was playing when the hiker from that got stuck in a mountain was playing in the background when they called dispatch the. Okay, so, like, dispatchers listening his AirPods, and this guy calls up. What song would he have been listening?

[Holmberg]

Dory would have been that the guy called. Well, he didn't call. Somebody called and said, you got a guy up there?

[Brett]

Well, whatever.

[Holmberg]

And they left him there all night.

[Brett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Holmberg]

So the dispatcher in your. Okay, so explain this one more time. Dispatch.

[Brett]

Kind of like dispatchers. You know that. What song? With the dispatcher. Been thinking about when this call came in. And he said, nah, we'll be there tomorrow.

[Holmberg]

The one that says, okay, all right.

[Brett]

We'Ll be there tomorrow.

[Holmberg]

The dispatch guy says, we'll get to it when we get to it, because the song has motivated him to be in a certain mood. Okay, that's strange. That's putting me in a. Now. It's like being high, Brett. But I like it. All right, we'll get that together. The dude stuck on the mountain last night. They didn't even go after him. They waited till today.

My husband's suicidal. He climbed the mountain. What time? Nine. It's dark out. I know, but we gotta get him back.

We'll try when the sun comes up. When it's safe. This is dumb. We don't do things at night. It's crazy. All emergencies must be between sunrise and sunset. That's a new rule. All right, let's see. I just thought of what. Got one. That's so dumb, though. It's 9. 41. If you got any suggestions. [e-mail] you can text us 97936. I kind of like this one. It's 98 KUPD. We'll do rock Wars Next. Morning sickness. Disgusting. They sink things that are horrible. 98. 98 upd. Holmberg's morning sickness. Moscow rock Rock wars Rock, rock war. Now it's officially begun. It is time for Rock Wars. Late.

We'll make this round worth 10. This is a 10 point round, Brett.

[Brett]

You're only doing that because you picked.

[Holmberg]

A John Gordon song. Brady. No, I'm doing it to help Brady get back in the m. No, I.

[Brett]

Thought that was next week's attempt.

[Holmberg]

No, we do 10 to get him back in, and then next week can be worth 10 again. Guaranteed winner. Brady so far behind. He needs to help.

[Toledo]

Well, it won't happen today, boys.

[Holmberg]

What do you mean?

[Toledo]

Oh, nice. Nice job, Toledo.

[Holmberg]

You got Toledo before the whole thing. Maybe not. You don't know. Why is he the arbiter of everyone's taste?

[Toledo]

Very true, Very true.

[Holmberg]

He just doesn't like it. And history is his guide. He's right. But still.

The theme song for the dispatch person that chose to just say yeah. You go figure it out from the guy who got trapped on Camelback Mountain. I've never heard of that. Lived here a long time. Every time I was one night, I called because I saw flashing lights on top of the mountain. When I used to live over and see the mountain from my house. And I'm like, hey, pouring rain, horrible monsoon. And I called the fire department and I said, or 911. I said, there's lights flashing on top of Camelback. And I mean, it is a monsoon downpour. Heard the fire trucks go down 44th street, got in the car and followed them. They're in these space suits with lights on the inside. They're hiking up the mountain in the rain. There's a couple Chinese tourists and some atmosphere girls they drug up the hill, and they got lost. The lights, pretty great. That's what those were called. But they're also known as prostitutes, escorts. Eventually they become prostitutes. Up until you. Once you put your wiener in their hand, they're just atmosphere girls, but they're flashing their lights. These guys were truly scared. The fire department went on rescue him last night. Guy calls up wife, said, he's stuck on the mountain. We'll get him when the sun comes up. Now, I've never heard of this. The dispatch person was on a different plane. Brent, who would you like to go first? Well, I'm intrigued by Brady's now. Yeah, me too. Cause it's so horrible, according to Toledo Brady. What's yours?

[Toledo]

Well, the guy gets a phone call. He doesn't want to deal with it. We'll send a drone up, drop her off a blanket, some food, and a cell phone. Until then, if you survive the next morning, we'll. We'll come and get you. But until then, listen to Brian Setzer Orchestra jump, jive and wail until he does.

[Holmberg]

Right.

Why? Jump. Oh, then jump. Oh, just go with van halen, for God's sake.

I think the whole jive thing in there, I'm just so happy. Everything about it so upbeat.

I rewrote this in 1998 called Drunk Drive, go to Jail. I tried to make it for a PSA for the state.

[Toledo]

Pick it up?

[Holmberg]

No, they got mad at me.

The Zone. My boss said, hey, we need to do something. We should do that. And I'm like, drunk drive, go to jail. And you drunk drive, go to jail. And my boss thought it was funny. And he gave it to somebody at the city, and they called back, said, we don't think this is funny. It's nothing to make fun of. I'm like we weren't. We were trying to make a psa.

[Toledo]

Meanwhile, the.

[Holmberg]

Over the road. I know.

All they do is.

[Toledo]

Too early.

[Holmberg]

Yeah. Evidently was ahead of the curve on that. I thought it was a great idea. They told me there's nothing to be funny about. Like, Jesus Christ. Sorry. And then 10 years later, they have their joke billboards for every single. Even when missing people go pop Pops gone. Silver alert. Ha ha. All right, Brett, you want me to go next?

[Brett]

Yeah, do it.

[Holmberg]

John Gordon is going to be the ultimate judge today. And I figured that. The person behind the counter answering the calls at 8 o' clock announcing your plea to. Oh, yeah, it's him. And he's going to love it. I've got my bow and arrow out, and it's aimed directly at the heart of John Gordon. I'll just. Toledo.

[Brett]

Hit it.

[Holmberg]

White lions.

[Brett]

Wait.

[Holmberg]

He already loves it.

Which plays into your theory as well.

They just tell the guy, hold on. The whole song's about just. Whoa, Just wait. We're not coming for you tonight. Here's a blanket. They took the time to shoot a drone up to the guy and give him a snack and a blanket and go, good night. How disrespectful is that? There's a drone. I'm suicidal. Yeah, well, we're not. So we're not coming up. We're not suicidal. It's dark out. We'll trip and fall. It's dangerous. Idiot. So they made him wait. And the 80s lady that's a little overweight doing dispatch probably was listening to this.

She's 52, recently divorced, she's working on her hips, but they're not going anywhere because she sits for a living. It's not a bad song. And John Gordon's here. I draw back my bow.

[Toledo]

Cool.

[Brett]

So what are we doing tomorrow?

[Holmberg]

Game over.

[Brett]

To beat that.

[Holmberg]

What suicidal song did you.

[Brett]

Well, I'm thinking that, you know, Jay Cutler's been out of the league for a little while. He's doing a little dispatching on the side. Somebody calls him up, says, don't care. So he was listening to dope. Die, mother effort.

[Holmberg]

Oh, Jesus.

[Brett]

Yeah, because he don't care. I'm not sending anybody up there. Screw you in this.

[Toledo]

One win this year.

[Holmberg]

I don't know. Maybe we gotta do a better job and keep track. Yeah, we don't do a job of any of the rules. I like this song, but if you think the dispatch guy was actually rooting for him to pass.

[Brett]

We don't care. He's not sending anybody up there.

[Holmberg]

Obviously it didn't matter. That's true.

I don't like a guy who listens to this in Dispatch.

Which goes hand in hand with what you're saying. All right, John Gordon. Will it be Brian Setzer's orchestra, Jump Drive and Whale? Toledo might be right. Will it be my White Lion? Wait, what? Or Brett's song? He chose John Gordon, the ultimate chooser. This is a mic. That's right. Yeah. Mic drop. It's White Line, everybody. There's no question about it.

[Toledo]

Great win, John.

[Holmberg]

Thank you, buddy. Why are you crotchety? It's because Toledo wrecked it. No, no.

[Toledo]

He's in the Christmas mood.

[Holmberg]

That's. Well, I guess he doesn't do that anymore anyway. All right, White lion has to even perform anymore. No, no, he can't. He's got something wrong with his hands.

[Brett]

Because the stray cats were getting back together doing stuff.

[Holmberg]

Yeah, he can't play guitar like he used to. There's something going on with his hands. But we don't have to worry about that with the people are in White Lion. Who is it? Vito? Brad. I knew I answered. You asked John. Only John and members of White lion can answer that question. We should play Chris Cottero. We should play 80s music trivia with John Gordon or Jeopardy. And just no one would win anything. It's worse than super genius. It's crazy. All right, well, anyway, you'll have to wait for that too. And White lion will tell you how. Hey, it's not weird. It's pretty cool actually. No membership fee. I have heard enough of this.

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