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Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | What Does It Mean To Be A Progressive In 2025? | w Richard Chew
00:49:07
On this very special episode of Truth In The Barrel, Amy is joined by political radio talk-show host, Richard Chew about what it means to be a progressive in 2025. How do democrats compete with the grifting media eco system of right wing...
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Amy McGrath
Welcome to Truth in the barrel. I'm Amy McGrath. This week's edition of Devil's Cut, I talk with Richard Chu, host of the morning show on WCPT 820 radio in Chicago, which runs 6 to 8 Central Time. We talk about what being a progressive voice means in 2025. Welcome, Richard.
- [00:50]
Richard Chu
Amy, great to be with you. It was great having you on my show last week. I had so many people that were like, that's Amy McGrath. And they were sending me text messages. That was Amy McGrath. I know her. You don't know her, but you know of her. So it was really, really an honor to have you on last week.
- [01:08]
Amy McGrath
Well, and you know, it's been really fun to do these podcasts, to do this video show with people, because a lot of times I'm the, I used to be the one getting interviewed and now I, I get to do the asking of the questions. But I still enjoy being, being on other people's shows because what you do in talk radio in Chicago, I think it's really important. And we'll talk today a lot about talk radio, a little bit about progressive talk radio and politics. But I want to start out by just asking you a little bit about your story. You did not start out in talk radio. You, you started out in like, financial wealth management.
- [01:54]
Richard Chu
So. Yeah. Yeah.
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Amy McGrath
What, what happened? So are you originally from Chicago?
- [01:59]
Richard Chu
Yep.
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Amy McGrath
And, and how did you get into radio?
- [02:03]
Richard Chu
Well, the. There is a long story and there's a short story, so I'll come somewhere in the middle. I'll give you the, the, the, the partisan, the middle of the road answer. I, you know, I'm a person that started building a career as an advisor, financial advisor, and wealth manager almost 30 years ago now. And it was a thing that I was very interested in, coming from the perspective of helping people. And, you know, I'm a native Chicagoan, grew up here. I lived all in different parts of the country. I've visited all 50 states for at least three days. So I mean that I think that qualifies.
- [02:46]
Amy McGrath
So stopping in the airport doesn't count?
- [02:48]
Richard Chu
Well, for me it didn't count. I won't say that for somebody else, I don't want to pass any judgment, but for me, I said, all right, if I'm in a. If I'm in a community or city or a state for three days, and I should have learned a little bit of something about it. And so that was one of the things that my dad really made clear to me. He said, make sure you go to all 50 states before, before you die, you know, no matter what's going on in our country. This is a man that grew up in rural Mississippi. So for him to have that perspective said a lot about his character and what he believed in the country. So I made that one of my goals and tying that to my career. I got to meet so many different people in different places and their stories are similar and dissimilar. But ultimately there were stories that I found that if I came from a perspective of helping them, Amy, then I was doing the right thing. And so that career has been a great career. I've loved it. I've helped lots of people do something that I believe is important and that's build some sort of future financially which also affects so many other parts of their lives, as we all know. And that was what happened. I mean, I got out of college, went to graduate school for a bit and just started working, started doing the thing that I thought I would be reasonably good at and became pretty good at it over time. Met tons of people as we all do in our career. You and I have a sort of a slight parallel of, of, I won't say careers, but interests. My brother in law and sister were in the Navy and Marine Corps respectively. There was a point in time where I was going to go to JAG school, go to, go to OCS basic school, and go to jag, become an attorney. Didn't happen. But believe me, I was right at the tipping point of that back in the early 80s. So a lot of great things happened, met wonderful people, built a great career in and planning. And then in 2014, I met a guy who we had a conversation about a couple things, back and forth. Turns out he's an advisor and planner. His name is Eric Grant. And we were sharing stories and one thing led to the next and we realized that he was saying some things that I was saying, not about planning, but just about life and stories. Turns out through some questions and conversations and this, that and the other, that we, our fathers knew each other growing up in Biloxi, Mississippi. Wow. Small, small world. And both moved to move north as part of the great migration. It turns out even more. We are literally cousins. We're third cousins. And he invited me to be on his radio show here on wcpt, which is called a Family Meeting. So I came on a couple times and hung out. We had great conversations. And then in the summer of 2017, we were having a conversation and I said, you know, my Sundays are free. I'd be happy to, you know, hang out with you more and come in on a regular basis. And that's what happened. And I started coming in and being a part of the family meeting on Sundays, 4 to 6pm here on WCPT. And then I met some of the great people here at the station, the station manager, general manager, and other folks that are part of the team and just became just in love with the folks that are here and all the engineers and this, that and the other. And then fast forward to probably 20. Sometime in 2019, I was asked to sit in for a legendary broadcaster here in Chicago, Jonas Esposito, who has a weekday show, 2 to 5pm and I was asked to sit in. And it was an honor to sit in for her a couple of times and for other shows. And I guess I didn't spill the water too badly. Sitting in for them.
- [06:35]
Amy McGrath
Did pretty good. Hey, here's your morning show.
- [06:38]
Richard Chu
Here's a guy that can kind of, you know, he can handle it a little bit and listen. And then I got that phone call that said, come up to the big leagues. And, you know, that happened In January of 2024, right in the middle of this last election cycle. And the opportunity to be the morning host from 6 to 8am came upon me. I felt it was a blessing. The unit, the stars aligned, the universe, said, it's your time.
- [07:04]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [07:04]
Richard Chu
And I was. I've been honored ever since. Am I'm very humbled by it. I do. I get sometimes choked up about it and. And all that because I realize the moment that we're in that I have the opportunity to do what I'm doing with WCPT and Heartland Signal and meet people like you and people who I follow, people who I've been like before we met last week. I'm like, I know her, you know, because it's folks like you that I've been blessed to be able to interview and talk with and help them get their message out, whether they be an elected official, someone that's running for office, someone that is running an organization that's politically adjacent, a local organization that's helping children have food on the weekends, whatever it may be. I've been able to be in that role and I don't take it lightly. I'm very committed to this. And I still have my practice, it's still in place. I kind of manage both. And I've always been a reasonably good manager of time and planning, except when it comes to getting, you know, microphones to work and getting, you know, technology.
- [08:11]
Amy McGrath
To get to do what you love. I mean, that's the thing you, you get that, that passion. Somebody, somebody once told me, and it had to do with what major to major in in college because I was sort of flailing between aeronautical engineering and, and, and in history or political science. And somebody once told me, my sponsor at the Naval Academy, I think once told me, major in something that you love, that you're going to spend. It's not an issue for you to stay up past midnight working on. You will not even notice that you're past midnight working on because you love it so much because you're so interested in that thing. And I feel like I've taken that advice throughout my whole life for like, what do I really want to do? And so if you're passionate about it and you're passionate about progressive talk radio and telling the truth and interviewing people, you're going to love it. And so it's because it's not work anymore. And the same thing I can imagine for financial management, that's not true for me. Financial management is not something I want to spend past midnight doing. But I think that, you know, if you love it, it's not work. But I want to ask you, because we have a lot going on in the political landscape right now and there's of course a ton of conservative talk radio out there. It's everywhere, right? Less so on the progressive side. How do you define progressive in 2025? How do you define that?
- [09:55]
Richard Chu
Well, first of all, you're right about the number or the lack of progressive media across the board by comparison to that which is on the right in terms of, I won't even call it conservative media media at this point, you know, I think just hardcore right wing ideology. So what, what's the determination or my definition of a progressive, I think that and progressive media, I think that it's got to be something that is encompassing the conversation that people don't have or don't want to have or maybe are afraid to have. And it gives it a platform to have that conversation. It gives people the ability to talk because. To talk about what their concerns are, what their feelings are and how they can be resolved, how they can be. Be moved forward. As a planner, as a financial person for these number of years, one of the things that I became good at, I think I had a baseline of skill set when it came to planning and looking at kind of the full windshield and saying, okay, how are we going to get from A to B to C? And candidly, Amy, in answering your question, one of the reasons that I looked strongly at going in the Marine Corps is because I felt that that was going to be a perfect fit for my brain when it came to logistics. Okay. And that was one of the things that I was even. That's. I tested high in that, in that area. And so when I look at that in relationship to where we are with progressive conversations, we need to have more, or as I define it, we need to have more of an eye on fixing and moving forward and what is our problem? This is what the issue is. Okay, so now we've got tool. What are our tools? Okay, These are the tools we're going to need. All right? Now how are we going to implement those tools and who's going to implement those? Who's going to be responsible for implementing or using those tools to then get to a solution? I'm built that way. And I think that in progressive conversation and voices, we need more of that. We need more of that sort of strategic way of getting things done. And that then forces us from a voice standpoint and from a who's on the team standpoint, to have people that are critical thinkers, but also big thinkers. Yeah, and that's, that's the thing that, that I think defines sort of progressive conversation. It is about. It's about where are we right now and what are our tools to get us to where we say we want to be. We need more of that. We need more of those voices. We need more tact and strategic implementation of those values. And the more we have that, and of course it takes money. I was talking with the gentleman on Friday at a fundraising golf outing, and he was asking me questions in that space. And I said, at the end of the day, we've got tons of great voices, tons of great ideas, tons of great people. We just need the folks that have stupid money to say, I got to get involved with them. And I could list 10 of them off the top of my head that if we got their dollars, just 5% of their work, of their net worth. 5%. Amy. I've done the math so many times. 5% of the 10 of 10 progressives. So folks that call themselves progressive liberal Democrats.
- [13:29]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
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Richard Chu
To say I'm going to give up 5% of my, my wealth, my worth to this effort, we could change the messaging game almost overnight. I'm not exaggerating. Yeah.
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Amy McGrath
It's almost like make America think again, you know, and it's interesting when you, when you say you define progressive as sort of looking at a problem in holistically and then having, you know, important, sometimes big ideas, sometimes just smart ideas to, to into the future as opposed to, you know, always constantly looking at things and complaining and labeling and, you know, pointing fingers at the other and saying, you know, and quick fixes. It's not a quick fix. And so I feel like that resonated with me, like, because a lot of people think of progressive, at least where I live, as being a bad word for some reason, you know, and so I'm always asking people how they define it. Do you think progressive talk lands differently on radio than it does on TV or social media?
- [14:46]
Richard Chu
I think by virtue of who the audiences are, that the answer would be yes, probably because of. But at the same time, see, that's part of the challenge. We don't know. Let me, let me rephrase that. Or put. Approach it differently. I wouldn't really say we have any progressive voices on mainstream media, on television. I mean, we probably have two or three that come to mind and they'd probably be part of. Just. If we can say this on your show msnbc, there's probably ones that would define themselves as progressive, but it has become kind of a dirty word in some ways to say that you're a progressive thinking person or you're of woke mindset. And one of the things that I think we've got to be willing to do and not, not tippy toe around. This is as nice as I sound on, on these issues and topics. Amy. I'm a sledgehammer. I just, I just wield it with precision and, and with a certain amount of, of surgical application. Because the big ideas things come for me comes from. We've always got to be looking at how do we grow our base in terms of political voices. And I hear the phrase a lot, you know, big ten, and I use it myself. But at the end of the day, what I think we have to do is recognize our ideas, whether they be labeled as progressive Liberal, Democratic, whatever, are better for everybody in the country. They're even better for the most hardcore right person that can't stand the idea of abortion. They can't stand a whole bunch of. They can't stand or they're not behind. At the end of the day, allowing people to have the flexibility and the freedom to do the thing that we say we believe in as a country actually. Actually is the best thing for the most amount of people because it's not taking from. It's giving to. And that's what I believe is the other core part of being a progressive or voices around it in media, social, mainstream, traditional or radio, is that we really are about advancing thinking, advancing ideas, advancing a position that's more encompassing, giving rather than taking from folks.
- [17:03]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. Are there any positions, political positions the progressive movement needs to talk more about? And are there any. Is any in your. This is all your opinion. Obviously, the, the progressives need to talk less about, you know, do you feel like what. What are your thoughts there?
- [17:26]
Richard Chu
I think sometimes when we get into an election cycle, it. That it becomes. That becomes more prevalent and that we. What are we going to talk about? What's our message? You know, you know, the line of questions that come down. So I don't. In terms of what we should talk less about, I think if we want to talk less about anything, you know, I'd have to probably come up with some things that I. That I think are probably just topical things that frustrate people that. Why are we talking about that? But proportionality. I think to take it to the positive side, Amy, we should always, always, unapologetically be talking about what have we done to help the community. We should always be talking about that. If there is a. And I've said this on my show, I've said this in private, I've said this in public. If there is a thing that I wish that the Democratic Party would grab on as progressives, as liberals, as Democrats, whatever, and hold on to it for dear life is what we've done to help the society. I think that. And I've used this before. Laundry list daily. What we. I wish during the second half of President Biden's term they would have spent just taking a team. I even said this. Get the 10 Best Voices and create a team, a messaging team that goes out all over the country and talks about, you know, the reason that those roads are better. Yeah. You know, the reason that that's better over here. It's because us. Yeah. We're being selfish and telling you that. But don't you want to know that that's what we've done? So is there a singular thing? I don't know if there's a singular thing, Amy, but I will say that the singular opportunity or action, again, this is being, you know, strategic and tactical at the same time, is to talk more about what we've done to help the country so that we're not always on our heels when we get hit with something that someone says that we shouldn't be talking about.
- [19:18]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [19:18]
Richard Chu
Does that make sense?
- [19:19]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, it does. I mean, I've often thought the same thing, that we're not out there. We have to sell the things like the Infrastructure and Jobs Act. What did it really do? It's not just a word. What did it do? What did it do for the state? What did we. What did it do for this community? How many jobs did it create? All of that stuff, the Inflation Reduction act, even the Chips and Science Act, I mean, that's kind of in the weeds. Bringing folks, somebody who is a national security person the way I am, that was a big deal. Yeah, but people don't get it. They don't connect A to B to C to D and that. And that goes all the way back to the Affordable Care Act. You know, we didn't do a great job of, Of. Of selling that.
- [20:05]
Richard Chu
No, we didn't. And I think that sometimes is part of our. I won't say it's part of our nature because that means. I'm saying that for everybody. I think that we sometimes slip into. We just want to get the work done. We just want to do the job. We want to do the TAs from some. In some ways, kind of keep our head down, just make it happen, get it done, and not be out in a grandiose way about what we've done. But the thing that made FDR successful, part of it, part of. One of the things that allowed FDR to galvanize so many people were those fireside chats. I mean, it was a hugely. And you know, you and I weren't even around that. But we know the stories. We know our history. That was a hugely important part of conveying because we were at war. We weren't thinking about. We were at. So him being able to say those things and bring people in. People looked forward to it. They were. They were excited about it. You see the pictures of families sitting around the radio, etc. Yeah, that's.
- [21:00]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
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Richard Chu
So it's not a singular thing that we should talk about more, but the thing we should talk about more is what we have done, and that's massive and. And then own the dialogue. My mother taught me something years ago, and she said, Richard, because I was on the debate team. She said, when, when you're going into debate, into, into a debate with one of your competitors, you should know a little bit about them before you have the debate as best you can, or a topic that they might be covering so that you can take away their thunder before they even have a chance to ring that bell. She used to say, snatch the rug out from under their feet before they have a chance to step on it. And I want the Democratic Party to do that. So it may not be a thing, Amy, a single point, but to do start being on offense when it comes to the things that we have to do to preserve our message is to go on offense daily. Right after the election, Amy I said this, that, or shortly after the election, I said that, you know, 215, whatever the real number is, back and forth, it seems, of House members that are Democrats and the 47 senators and every governor and every state legislature that's blue. We had enough people that every day we should have a press conference about what we're doing and what the Republicans are doing to hurt the country. We should have. Our message should be, here's what they just did today. Here's what we're doing to fix that. Here's what they did today. Here's what we're doing to fix it. I know that seems maybe very juvenile. Not juvenile, but pedantic. But we should be doing that every day.
- [22:41]
Amy McGrath
It's hard to get all the cats I know in the right direction.
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Richard Chu
But.
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Amy McGrath
From being a mere candidate on the, on the outside, I can, I can see. But, you know, you're in Chicago and, and I'm here in Kentucky, and the view of urban America from places outside of urban America tends to be, like right now, sort of New York City or Los Angeles, and you don't see a ton coming out of Chicago. And maybe that's a good thing. In other words, the stuff that's in the front pages out here about places like Chicago and New York City is not always good. So I wanted to ask you, tell us about something good, good that's coming out of Chicago. Tell us about, you know, the progressives in your community, because I feel like that story isn't. Isn't being told in the rest of America.
- [23:41]
Richard Chu
It's interesting that you, that you asked that question or pose that. That conversation. The first thing that I'll. I'LL say in responding to that, and I promise you I will, is I always ask who's the one that's, who's creating that message or mismessage or misinformation and why? Okay, so it doesn't look good for parts of America to think that Chicago, Louisiana, New York, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, metropolitan Atlanta and D.C. the list goes on. We take the top 10 cities in the country, population wise, to look good because then it doesn't fit the narrative, the Republican messaging, that the big cities are good. And that's because in most cases the big Cities, the top 10 are run, if you will, by a Democratic message, brown skinned people and women like you that doesn't favor the other message.
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Amy McGrath
Right.
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Richard Chu
So we have, we have to recognize that that's part of where a lot of this comes from. So one. Now, nobody in their right mind is going to say that a big city doesn't have its challenges, but by virtue of density of population, you're going to have that. And it's, it's all, it's all something that you can create a graduated scale based on the size of a community anywhere in the country. Des Moines, Iowa, is a small state by population, but if you go into Des Moines, you're going to see some issues in Des Moines because it's the biggest city in the state. It's just a virtue. It's by virtue of the size of the city and the density.
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Amy McGrath
Yeah.
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Richard Chu
Now, to answer your specific question, Chicago's got so much great things, so many great things going on. Our mayor, the best thing, the best thing about Chicago is not its politicians, it's the people that are here. Our people are fighters. We have, we stand up, we stand up to the bullies. And again, that's another side of it that people don't like, is that Chicago stands up for its people. People in Chicago, we got our issues in terms of segmented communities and segregated parts of our, we have that, however, and we've got people that don't like our mayor's success in areas that he's succeeding. He's got a lot of work to do and I've said that to him when he's been on my show. But we have people in our city that are committed to it being a better city and being a city that people can come to and have a great time. We just came off of Lollapalooza, one of the biggest events on the planet, and we pulled it off in the great city of Chicago. Two weeks prior we came, we just came up in NASCAR in Chicago. In downtown Chicago, three years in a row, we've had NASCAR in Chicago. We're about to have one of our other big events, Taste of Chicago, where we've had Beyonce, we've had Taylor Swift, we've had Elton John. We have all that great stuff happening here in a city that is moving at the speed of light. And so the great things that come out of Chicago, first and foremost in my mind, are the people here. We are a hodgepodge of diversity and inclusion and just building for the. And we're inclusive because we want people to come here. We know what the city has to offer. We have so much diversity in our city. We've got folks that have migrated here from all over the globe. And that, to me, is something to be proud of. Also, one of the things that a lot of people don't know. I speak about this on my show. I've asked this question, and I've kind of tipped my hand, so you probably would know the answer is Chicago is also the base city for the second largest county in America. Cook county is the second largest county in America. When I've asked that question, people, they said some, you know, New York, they said, very few people get it right. Los Angeles county is the largest. Cook county is the second largest. That means something because it says that ours are not only our immediate city, but our metropolitan area is growing. It's strong, and has a lot of people that want to be a part of it. And to me, that just speaks so loudly and strongly. We have a strong LGBTQ community. We have an unapologetically supportive governor. Mayor Charles.
- [28:06]
Amy McGrath
Well, Richard, who is. Who is the most famous. Do you call it Chicagoan? Is that.
- [28:14]
Richard Chu
It depends on which is. It depends on what you're talking about. I'd say the most famous Chicago right now. Right?
- [28:20]
Amy McGrath
Right now.
- [28:21]
Richard Chu
Oh, right now, right now. Oh, boy. The most famous Chicago that still lives here?
- [28:27]
Amy McGrath
No, just in general. Yeah.
- [28:28]
Richard Chu
It's gotta be Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is going to be the most famous Chicago in December.
- [28:33]
Amy McGrath
More so than the Pope.
- [28:35]
Richard Chu
Yeah. Yeah. I would say that the Pope's probably. His scale is probably increasing, but nobody. I mean, he's maybe the most noted right now is the Pope, but still, I say the most famous Chicagoan, even though they may. I mean, he doesn't live here any longer, is Michael Jordan. He still has, you know, owns property here, restaurants and all that. But Michael Jordan is Chicago. And we, you know, so many for such a long time, and there was a period of time where everything Chicago was Michael it was Oprah. It was, you know, our political ecosystem, the Bears, the Cubs, the white. You know, people come to Chicago to take advantage of some of that notoriety that we've been afforded. One of our other, you know, one of, I think, is one of our most. Most famous parts of Chicago is our lakefront and our skyline. They're absolutely beautiful. 365 days, even on a cloudy, gloomy day. Chicago skyline with the lake is beautiful on a snowy day. It's one of the best in the. In the world, frankly. And we just have been blessed with a great topographically laid out city. You know, we've got miles and miles of coast on. On. On Lakeshore Drive.
- [29:48]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
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Richard Chu
Going north.
- [29:49]
Amy McGrath
It really is beautiful. I. I took my son, so I haven't. I have an older son. And a couple of years ago, we went to New York City, and I took him to New York City and we went to Yankees game and a. And a Mets game. And then his brother, who's two years younger than him, was super jealous, and he was like, I want to go to big city. And I said, okay, well, where do you want to go? And I'm going to go to Chicago. So we. We packed up, you know, for the weekend. Just. Just he and I. Yeah. Left the other kids with my husband and we drove to Chicago. And we did it as much as we could in one weekend. I mean, it was awesome. We did. We swam in. In the lake. We went to a Cubs game. We did, you know, that. That downtown kind of area where you can go to all the restaurants. It was. It was just amazing. And he loved it. And he still talks about it. He's like, chicago is my favorite city.
- [30:43]
Richard Chu
We. Saturday, I went to the gym to work out, and I. I heard a gentleman talking, and he said, yeah. He said, this place is. This has just been crazy. It's been wild. We've been having such. And I work out at a facility that's right across from. Right near Grant park, which is where Lollapalooza was held. And I heard him say that, and I wasn't trying to be nosy or get in his business, but I just turned to him and smiled, and he smiled back. He said. He took up his earbuds. Am I talking too late? I went, no, no, no, no, no. I said, I'm just glad to hear that you are having a good time. And he said, yeah, we're having a great. I said, are you here for Lollapalooza? He said, yes, we are. And so then he hung up the call with whoever he was talking with. And he started the conversation with me. He said that he had. He and his twin son and daughter were here, 15 years old. He came as a dad to, you know, obviously be their escort. And I said, right on. For you for doing that, because that's how it should be. And he said, yep, I'm loving it. And they are enjoying me being with them, but they're from Toronto and they were. He said, I've been to Chicago a couple times. Said my kids had never been here. They are loving it. They. It is their new favorite big city over New York and over Los Angeles.
- [31:56]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
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Richard Chu
The thing that doesn't happen, Amy, when it comes to messaging, not messaging, but just how people want to perceive Chicago, is that, yeah, we got some knucklehead kids that are jumping on cars and they should have the behind spank. Excuse my language for that. But it's also, that's a systemic problem about youth not having things to do. And the mayor is working on that diligently. We got that stuff going on. We have craziness with our children.
- [32:21]
Amy McGrath
Well, that happens in rural America, too.
- [32:23]
Richard Chu
Yeah. But those conversations with this gentleman, his name was Sean from Toronto, are the conversations that don't get presented by the media that covers our city. And that's true for a lot of big cities because if the phrase goes and you know this, if it bleeds, it leads.
- [32:44]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, I know.
- [32:45]
Richard Chu
You know, at the end of my show on Fridays, I take a couple of minutes and just talk about things, you know, 10 things for you to do this weekend in Chicago, whether you're here as a resident, you're visiting from the suburbs, or you're visiting, come out of town. Because I love our city and I love the fact that we've got such a diverse amount of people and thoughts and that Amy McGrath could come to Chicago with her youngest son or one of her sons and he would have a great time. And that, to me, is what's meaningful. And in a political sense, that's the thing that I think we have to take back as progressive liberal Democrats, we have to take back the messaging about what it is that we're trying to do to make the country better. And I'm committed to that. And it is one of the blessings that I have with the show that I have on wct.
- [33:32]
Amy McGrath
Well, I want to couple more questions on politics real quick, and then I want to get into your show a little bit behind the scenes, because I'm kind of fascinated as to how talk radio works and how you figure out the topics and all that stuff. But on the state politics, the state of Illinois. So your governor, J.B. pritzker, he's emerged as sort of the, a very effective Trump critic right now who a lot of people think could be a serious contender for the White House. So I'm just kind of your views as somebody who is from his state, how do you see this?
- [34:16]
Richard Chu
He's a great dude. I had an opportunity to meet him right when he was first running for governor at an event with Representative Chance Member who's retiring. And I'd worked on our campaign and done some stuff and he was there and I walked up to him and I leaned over to him and I whispered it in his ear. I said, you're going to make a great governor. And he turned and he looked at me, said Richard, he said. And so we started talking and one thing led to the next. He ended up being on coming on the station. I didn't have my show at the time, but he ended up coming on the family meeting which I was a part of and he's been on other broadcasts. Why am I saying that? Because J.B. pritzker is a real dude. He's a down to earth real dude that just happens to be a billionaire. Okay. And, and I say it that way because he is that first. I see it. I, I know that from my experiences with him. That's who he is. He's got a great team. The Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton who's now running for Senate and the in the soon to be vacated or Dick Durbin's not going to run again for that Senate seat. We've got great leaders in our state and yeah, you got a lot of.
- [35:21]
Amy McGrath
People running for that, that Senate seat, right?
- [35:23]
Richard Chu
We do. And I'm fortunate. I've had each, I've had the top three, you know, names or at least ranking wise on our show, Robin Kelly, Congresswoman and Congressman Rajakrishnamoorthy. But to stay on point with your primary question, your initial question, I'm really proud of our governor. I'm proud of his team and the work that they've been doing and that they will continue to do if he decides to he announced a few weeks ago that he's going to run for a third term as governor. But if that changed radically and he said I'm going to run for president, I'm going to work my tail off to get him elected and I'm going to do everything in my power to get him elected, he'll make a great president for all of the country because he believes in all of our country. He's in a state where there's a lot of people that don't like him and didn't vote for him. But everything he's done has been to try to help them. And I go back to the earlier question about progressives and progressive leadership and voices now on that. That's the simplest I can put it as relates to J.B. pritzker and what he's done and what I think he will do going forward. And I'm excited about him if he remains governor, I'm going to do everything I can to promote what he's doing. I mean, listen, twice in the last couple of years he's been faced with something that's pretty harsh. Well, really three things. One of them is a governor from another state, Texas, sending human beings.
- [36:48]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [36:49]
Richard Chu
In the cold of night to Chicago, to Illinois. And JB stepped up to make sure that those people were cared for in the best way he possibly could. And his whole team as well as Mayor Johnson here in Chicago. The issue with, with women's right to choose and women's health care. He stepped up unapologetically.
- [37:10]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [37:11]
Richard Chu
To make, to make it so that women could come to Illinois, families to come to Illinois and be cared for or at least not be treated poorly after the election, this 2024 election, within, within a couple of days, a couple weeks maybe. He made it clear, Donald Trump, you come from my people, you got to come through me. He made it clear. Unapologetically, full throated. And then just yesterday he made it welcoming for the folks in Texas, the state legislatures, legislators who are being mistreated by their governor who has bent the knee to Donald Trump. So Jamie Pritzker has stepped up when people were in need. I can't find a reason why someone wouldn't want to get behind. You have to agree with everybody on everything. That's foolishness. But he stepped up to make sure that nobody was left behind. You as a, you as a former fighter pilot, and I'm not going to speak for you, but I'm going to speak for what I know. You know that you've got to do everything in your power to make sure that one of your squadron, one of your squad members does not get left unprotected and that they make it back to that, that aircraft carrier or if it's a land based right, take off. Am I right or wrong?
- [38:27]
Amy McGrath
Absolutely.
- [38:28]
Richard Chu
That's what J.B. pritzker does, I believe, for the state of Illinois.
- [38:32]
Amy McGrath
That is awesome. And you Know, I look forward to hearing more from him, you know, as, from, from the national perspective because I feel like we don't, we don't always see these things outside of Illinois. That, that shows tremendous leadership and we need that right now. So that's really interesting to hear that. I want to talk very briefly and we don't have a ton more time, but I'm very interested to know sort of a little bit about behind the scenes. When you do talk radio, how do you decide on topics? Have you ever been. Because we don't. This isn't live, right? You're live. We do one live show, but most of our stuff is taped and we can edit it to some degree. Have you ever been on a live show and breaking news has happened or you just. That the guest was so, I don't know, crazy is not the right word. But like how do you, how do you get through those really awkward moments?
- [39:38]
Richard Chu
Well, the first thing that I have that I remind myself of is that stuff's going to happen. Things are going to happen that are, you know, out of your control. But I have to first give credit to the team here at WCPT and Heartland Signal. We have a phenomenal team of folks very well trained, very good at what they do, whether it be our board engineers that keep the show running live in the moment, to our producers, executive producers as well as our station manager, our general manager. These are folks that are committed to our little ragtag station, doing a great job. And we have that. That's the team that we're a part of. And we just celebrated 20 years back in May, on May 3rd, and that's saying something to be able to do what we do in a big market. And I think that to that end it starts there for me as it relates to me and my day to day show. I do everything I can to be as prepared as possible so that I've got current events, topical issues, things that are going on. And I really work hard at making sure that my show is a good quality show. Candidly, I say my prayer every day that I do a good job because I want the listeners to benefit from that happening and to not take anything for granted. So I'm pretty serious about that. On a day to day in terms of preparation. I listen to people and what they want to talk about. Can't always cover everything. I get people that are constantly throwing flames at me about why don't you talk about this more? Why don't you talk about that? You didn't say this to this guy.
- [41:15]
Amy McGrath
To be a political candidate. That's all I heard for many years.
- [41:19]
Richard Chu
Right.
- [41:20]
Amy McGrath
You didn't talk about things.
- [41:22]
Richard Chu
I know, but I also realize that it, it keeps me humble. And I use this phrase often. Amy, clean up on aisle seven. And that's me. If I say something wrong, I've told people, you can text, you can text the show, you can email me, you can call in live. Richard, that wasn't right or on point. And I don't take it. I don't take it personally necessarily. I look at it as saying, okay, well, clean up on aisle seven. And I've gotten some things wrong. And I, in real time, if I could, I apologize for it. And when I say wrong, not offensive, but I stated something, maybe out of sequence or whatever, but I just say, hey, guys, I didn't mean it that way. This is what I was talking about. I just do it real time. And I think that my audience, our audience, trust that I'm going to always deal with them that way. I'm always say, listen, that's my bad. I messed up. Or I didn't mean to say it that way. I have, I have no problem apologizing, Amy. What I have a problem with is head faking on something that I could have very easily fixed it in 30 seconds by saying, that's on me.
- [42:23]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [42:23]
Richard Chu
And I think that the listeners respect and expect that of our station, but I know that they do of me because I put it out there that that's how I want my show to roll. Now, on the fun side, when silly. What stuff happens? Like, you know, we have a technical issue. We had one last week and we've had one. We've had them before where, you know, I, I use, I, I always use the phrase, Richard stepped on the wrong cord this morning because I, I love and respect our engineers. I never want anything that may happen behind the scenes to be perceived as, you know, because it's, it's stuff happens. And so I just let everybody know, hey, guys, I stepped on the cord the wrong way this morning. That dead air for 20 seconds was because Richard forgot to take his foot off the court. Because that, to me, allows us to stay together as a team. And nobody gets outed in public. You don't out, hey, hey.
- [43:16]
Amy McGrath
It's the, it's the same with high performance flying in the military. You know, at the end of the day, you're the pilot. If the stuff doesn't work, you know, you don't, you don't go around and come back after you land and say, well, it was, it was their fault. Or that, you know, we're a team.
- [43:32]
Richard Chu
Right.
- [43:33]
Amy McGrath
It didn't, you know, the bombs didn't hit the target. Let's talk, you know, let's figure out as a team as to why. But it's all of our responsibility.
- [43:40]
Richard Chu
Yeah. And I embrace that. And that's, that's allowed me to do a better job, I believe, on the show. And, you know, and every now and again, you know, what. What does happen that's kind of funny when I have a person that calls into the show that might kind of go off the rails, you know, we. We have the luxury of dropping the call so that, you know, they don't go too far off the rails. Real time.
- [44:03]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [44:03]
Richard Chu
Or they don't say something that's offensive to the listeners, because I won't, I don't tolerate that. I, I would rather cut someone off that I feel is about to go down a dark path than have to listen to that and have the listeners feel affronted. So I'd rather just drop the call, move on to the next call, and that way, no, you know, to the best of my ability. And then the other thing is, I just say this. We've had great guests on the show, and I look forward to having more great guests on. And so that's made it really, really great for us to be able to present a product, a message to the audience. And when things go a little sideways, I think everybody understands that we're working hard to do as good of a job as we possibly can.
- [44:50]
Amy McGrath
And that's kind of the fun part. I mean, live shows are really fun.
- [44:53]
Richard Chu
Yeah, they are really fun.
- [44:54]
Amy McGrath
You get. They're sort of unpredictable at times. I really enjoyed this conversation. Before we go, I need to ask you, because truth in the barrel, you know, the name of it, is about whiskey. I know Denver, who I. Who I started this with, who's my co host for most of the shows. He is a distiller himself. He and his wife, they have a distillery. And of course, I live in Kentucky and I don't have a distillery, but I love bourbon. So I have to ask you.
- [45:25]
Richard Chu
Yes.
- [45:26]
Amy McGrath
What do you. Do you like bourbon? Do you like whiskey? And if so, what is your favorite?
- [45:32]
Richard Chu
Well, here's the quickest answer I can give you. It's layered. My dad grew up drinking Jack Daniels and Ezra Brooks. Okay. So those are names that were familiar to me as a kid, and I remember those. They come right up to the tip of my tongue. My wife has actually been to the See I don't, this is how. Well, I don't know the distilleries, but what's the one? Makers. My wife has been to the to Makers. I haven't. And so she's, you know, it's not.
- [45:58]
Amy McGrath
That far of a drive from where you're at.
- [46:00]
Richard Chu
Oh, man. Yeah, I know. No, it's, it's, it's, Believe me, it's on our list and we're going to do it together and, but the other part of. When it comes to bourbon, this is going to sound so crazy, but it's one of my favorite stories. Whenever I've been blessed to travel out of the country, particularly to the United Kingdom, I've, I've, I always have made a point to have on my, on the schedule is to go to Scotland's. Some of the most fun, you know, places there that I've experienced. I've gone to some of the actual distilleries in Scotland, and I'm telling you, it is one. I, I, I don't even really drink whiskey or bourbon, but I love going there to see the process and, and to take that all in. One of my favorite little towns in Scotland is called Pit Lockery. And there is a distillery there that I've gone to probably three times. And it's, I just like going there because it's such a cool little town with its own little erdogan. Is, is, is the, is the, is the bourbon. So there, there's, there's my answer. There you go.
- [47:05]
Amy McGrath
I love it. I love it. Hey, and I gotta tell you, the best Old fashioned. So Old fashioned is sort of like one of my favorite drinks. It's, it's made with bourbon, right? The best one I ever had was in downtown Chicago. See, the best, the best one now was, was Kentucky Bourbon.
- [47:22]
Richard Chu
What made it? What made it, what made it so good?
- [47:24]
Amy McGrath
I don't know. I don't.
- [47:27]
Richard Chu
You probably just, you probably just needed it. It was one of those days where you were like, I need this.
- [47:31]
Amy McGrath
You're right. I think it was, it was late at night. I was with my husband. We had come back and we were just sort of relaxing and we went to this bar and it was just the best I've ever had. I don't know, it had this huge cube, ice cube in the middle, like this very large. And it was just the best I've ever tasted. And I always remember it was in downtown Chicago when we were there. So.
- [48:02]
Richard Chu
Yeah.
- [48:02]
Amy McGrath
Thank you so much for being on Truth in the Barrel. This has been awesome. It's wonderful to talk with you.
- [48:08]
Richard Chu
Thanks for having me on. Amy, you are phenomenal. I have such respect and admiration for you. I truly do. And that our worlds pleasantly collided is really just made me really proud of the fact that I could interview you and then be on your show. So thank you for everything that you've done.
- [48:26]
Amy McGrath
I appreciate that. Richard, you know, we're out there doing what we need to do in different ways. And you're out there. Your talk, your guests, your message, your truth is out there where it needs to be. And what I'm trying to do here and in the future is similar, and we do it in different ways, but we have to be out there speaking the truth and moving our country. Our country. Our country.
- [48:58]
Richard Chu
Our country. That's right. We have to. And we have to keep propping each other up, so let's not be strangers to each other. Let's make sure we're working with each other on each other's shows and broadcasts. And I know that the more people. I mean, let's just. Let's just. Let's just look at this realistically. Amy McGrath and Richard Hsu never met, but now these two people have come together to bring a message. They come from two different parts of the country, but they've come together to bring a message that's good for everybody. How cool is that?
- [49:26]
Amy McGrath
Very cool. Let's do it again.
- [49:29]
Richard Chu
Absolutely. My pleasure.