Speaker 1: The GNC News Blitz with Rady Wang starts No, No, No.
Speaker 2: It is the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk
Speaker 2: Radio seven ninety KABC. This is your daily rundown of
Speaker 2: everything you need to know that's going on in California,
Speaker 2: that Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and
Speaker 2: the Central Valley. I curate a list every single day
Speaker 2: of all the stories that I found that you may
Speaker 2: have missed at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. So check
Speaker 2: out the list of today's stories. If you'd like to
Speaker 2: call in and participate, the phone number is eight hundred
Speaker 2: two two two five two two two.
Speaker 1: You can send me.
Speaker 2: An email at Randy Wangradio at gmail dot com. And
Speaker 2: of course check out our YouTube channel for all kinds
Speaker 2: of on demand content and the live John Phillips Show
Speaker 2: from noon to three at Johnny don't Like dot com,
Speaker 2: or you can also use Randywang radio dot com. I
Speaker 2: bought both domain names. I'm not totally sure why, but
Speaker 2: might as well. Might as well buy it before somebody
Speaker 2: snatches it up and I need to buy it.
Speaker 1: Do you know?
Speaker 2: I found out from a friend of mine today that
Speaker 2: the website absolutely absolutely dot com is for sale. But
Speaker 2: as much as I would love to have.
Speaker 1: That, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2: I am not stupid enough to spend three thousand dollars
Speaker 2: for a domain name for a joke. I spent sixty
Speaker 2: dollars for a three year registration for the cashier is
Speaker 2: dummy dot com or excuse me, cashier is dummy dot com.
Speaker 2: Me that was worth the joke, and that is where
Speaker 2: you have the soundboard to all the little drops that
Speaker 2: we play for free. But I'm not spending three thousand
Speaker 2: dollars on absolutely absolutely dot com. We start in the
Speaker 2: San Fernando Valley and for once a not upsetting story
Speaker 2: about the San Fernando Valley. But one of the nice
Speaker 2: parts about being in the San Fernando Valley is Burbank Airport.
Speaker 2: Burbank Airport is just two months away from the big
Speaker 2: unveiling of the brand new terminal, the replacement terminal, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, if you don't know the backstory here,
Speaker 2: the FAA said that Burbank needed to get a new
Speaker 2: terminal because the current one was so close to the
Speaker 2: runway it was scary and something bad could happen. And
Speaker 2: Burbank Airport, which is an airport that I love and
Speaker 2: use frequently and would use more, but sometimes you just can't.
Speaker 2: They notably have a very short runway, so when the
Speaker 2: Southwest plane lands at Burbank, they got to hit the
Speaker 2: brakes real hard to make sure they get down without
Speaker 2: hitting anything. And so because the runway was so close
Speaker 2: to the terminal, and because that could mean an accident,
Speaker 2: they had to move it. And they decided, why don't
Speaker 2: we go ahead and class up the joint because the
Speaker 2: Burbank Airport looks almost exactly as it has for what
Speaker 2: over fifty years, maybe even longer. This airport has been
Speaker 2: around for a very long time and has had way
Speaker 2: too many name changes. It was a Hollywood Burbank Airport,
Speaker 2: the Burbank Airport, there was that era of the Bob
Speaker 2: Hope Airport. I think now it's kind of is it
Speaker 2: still known as Burbank or is it known as Burbank Glendale, Pasadena.
Speaker 2: Let's see what happens when we go to Burbank Airport.
Speaker 2: What are they calling it right now? They're calling it
Speaker 2: Hollywood Burbank Airport again. All right, we keep going back
Speaker 2: and forth, but ultimately, like when you're a frequent flyer,
Speaker 2: what really matters is the airport code, and the airport
Speaker 2: code has always been b UR, so call it whatever
Speaker 2: you want, which is why it must be very confusing
Speaker 2: for people in Orange County that want to go to
Speaker 2: John Wayne and they type into the airport code JNA nope,
Speaker 2: JN nope, SNA oh, because it's Santa Ana Airport. That's
Speaker 2: you know, So it didn't matter what they turned it.
Speaker 2: It's not like they changed the airport code to Bob
Speaker 2: when it was the Bob Hope Airport. So I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of this airport and i am excited about
Speaker 2: this transformation. I'll be honest, the renderings look a little generic,
Speaker 2: and if you listen to some of the pieces from
Speaker 2: some of the architects and the designers, it's just a
Speaker 2: little esoteric, like, yes, it is the Hollywood Burbank Airport
Speaker 2: because the Burbank Airport is on Hollywood Way, and yeah,
Speaker 2: Burbank has the movie studios, but it's still not Hollywood.
Speaker 2: And do we really need the airport to harken back
Speaker 2: to the era of old Hollywood. There's going to be
Speaker 2: a big silver screen when you walk in, and we're
Speaker 2: going to have all kinds of little nods to the
Speaker 2: eras of old Hollywood as you know, a museum, because
Speaker 2: Hollywood is now in Toronto. But that being said, I'm
Speaker 2: very excited about this because Burbank Airport, especially as you
Speaker 2: get older, it leaves a little to be desired. Now,
Speaker 2: there are some major benefits. For one, you don't have
Speaker 2: to deal with LA traffic. For two, you don't have
Speaker 2: to deal with Lax traffic, and number three, you don't
Speaker 2: have to deal with Lax traffic. It is very simple
Speaker 2: to get in and out of there, even on the
Speaker 2: busiest days of the year, and we have flown Thanksgiving
Speaker 2: weekends and it's still doable. It's never been that crazy.
Speaker 2: Getting a ride share is pretty darn easy at Burbank Airport,
Speaker 2: and getting a it's funny distance wise. And let me
Speaker 2: actually map this out right now. Okay, Burbank Airport, how
Speaker 2: far is that from where I am broadcasting from?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 2: I am in the same Fernando Valley and I'm gonna
Speaker 2: put my address. Let's see what it says. I am
Speaker 2: ten miles from the Burbank Airport. Okay, how many miles
Speaker 2: am I from Lax good question, I am twenty two miles. Well,
Speaker 2: you would think that would mean that the ride share
Speaker 2: would cost twice as much. No, it costs three times
Speaker 2: as much because of course you have to factor in
Speaker 2: surge pricing.
Speaker 1: And all the other nonsense.
Speaker 2: By the way, ride Share when you go to Burbank
Speaker 2: Airport drops you off at the curb. There's no laxit
Speaker 2: lot and they pick you up right at the ride
Speaker 2: share which is right next to the curb. So it's
Speaker 2: practically the same thing, and it's it's very easy. Also,
Speaker 2: if it's a short trip, Burbank parking is great. I
Speaker 2: am a big fan of the valet parking at Burbank Airport.
Speaker 2: If you're doing a quick whirlwind trip, it's like forty
Speaker 2: dollars a day, which again at the minimum, because we
Speaker 2: get a fly, we're going to do black suv if
Speaker 2: we're taking a lift of the airport, because we got
Speaker 2: dogs and we got bags, and you know, I would
Speaker 2: like to have an There's something about it. Just there's
Speaker 2: these little things in life that make you feel fancy.
Speaker 2: And there's a big difference between getting picked up in
Speaker 2: a big black Chevy Suburban and getting picked up in
Speaker 2: a Kia Soul.
Speaker 1: There's just a little bit of a.
Speaker 2: Difference, and sometimes you get a spring for that just
Speaker 2: so you can feel kind of fancy. But if you're
Speaker 2: only going for two or three days, it might make
Speaker 2: sense because if you're talking about it's seventy five dollars
Speaker 2: each way, that means it's one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2: And if it's only forty dollars a day to park
Speaker 2: valet at Burbank, well, then just park valet at Burbank.
Speaker 2: If you're only going for two or three days. And
Speaker 2: by the way, we did a trip to San Francisco
Speaker 2: where we flew up and it is the greatest flight ever.
Speaker 2: It's a flight that I hope to do a lot
Speaker 2: more often, as we hope to do more remotes and
Speaker 2: stuff in San Francisco, and I want to visit San
Speaker 2: Francisco more. And you know, someday, if we do well
Speaker 2: enough with this little radio venture, I'd like to have
Speaker 2: a condo in San Francisco. That is the greatest flight
Speaker 2: because it takes twenty minutes to get to the airport.
Speaker 2: You're in the air for like forty five minutes and
Speaker 2: then you get to SFO and you can weigh mow
Speaker 2: till your heart's content. But when we did a quick
Speaker 2: little weekend trip. It's like, why are we ride sharing?
Speaker 2: I can just do the valet cost me forty bucks.
Speaker 2: It was great, and the valet is right there. It's
Speaker 2: all at the curb. So it's a wonderful airport, but
Speaker 2: it is a small airport. It is in the first terminal.
Speaker 2: There are nine gates in the second terminal. I don't
Speaker 2: know how many gates there are because I've only used
Speaker 2: that terminal once. I don't actually know what's in the
Speaker 2: other terminal, but I know that there's even less food
Speaker 2: options than the regular Burbank terminal. So that's the number
Speaker 2: one issue is the amenities that are at the Burbank airport.
Speaker 2: If you happen to be waiting for your flight, you're
Speaker 2: connecting to another flight, or you know what, inevitably happens,
Speaker 2: your flight gets delayed, there's not really a lot to
Speaker 2: do to kill time. Now, they do have free Wi Fi,
Speaker 2: so you find a little seat with power and you
Speaker 2: plug on your Nintendo switch, you'll be good to go.
Speaker 2: But although Lax is the worst airport in the country
Speaker 2: by a long, long long mile, well not by a
Speaker 2: long shot. Hartsfield Jackson is pretty awful too, but Lax
Speaker 2: does have if you know what you're doing and you
Speaker 2: have the right credit cards, amenities that can make life
Speaker 2: a little simpler. I will say there have been times
Speaker 2: where I do look forward to lax when we're flying
Speaker 2: on a Saturday and we know there's not gonna meet traffic,
Speaker 2: when we're doing a little Santa Fe flights. Going to
Speaker 2: those Admirals clubs really really really pays off that credit
Speaker 2: card that I have, the American Airlines World Elite Master Card.
Speaker 2: It's like six hundred dollars a year, but it gets
Speaker 2: you Admirals Club for you, and like it does definitely
Speaker 2: does for my wife. I think it gets you for
Speaker 2: your whole group if you have up to like four
Speaker 2: or five people. I'm not exactly sure, but because we
Speaker 2: never travel with just more than the two of us,
Speaker 2: I have gotten more than my money's worth, and just
Speaker 2: Margerita is on that. And when you're at Burbank Airport
Speaker 2: and you didn't already eat, there are very few options.
Speaker 2: They just finally put in a Starbucks, which it's the
Speaker 2: funniest thing. It is like one of the saddest stories
Speaker 2: of capitalism. But you're going through Burbank Airport and there's
Speaker 2: not that many options to get anything to eat drink,
Speaker 2: let alone coffee, And a couple of years ago they
Speaker 2: put in a PiZZ coffee and it would do okay.
Speaker 1: Then they put in the Starbucks.
Speaker 2: And the Starbucks is like at Gate two, and the
Speaker 2: Pietz Coffee is at like Gate five. And guess what,
Speaker 2: Nobody goes to the Pietz coffee. And I'm sure Pete's
Speaker 2: coffee is just as good as Starbucks.
Speaker 1: It might even be better.
Speaker 2: But one thing that Starbucks has and I don't drink
Speaker 2: a lot of coffee because I only drink DCAF. I
Speaker 2: do buy a lot of coffee when I'm traveling because
Speaker 2: I want to support local vendors and I want to
Speaker 2: try local experiences, and I like the taste of coffee.
Speaker 2: But there's no reason to have it decaf coffee. I'm
Speaker 2: just doing it. It's like decorative glasses, you know. But Starbucks,
Speaker 2: with the convenience of that app, it does make things
Speaker 2: a heck of a lot easier, especially when you go
Speaker 2: into the airport. But outside of that, and yeah, you
Speaker 2: can get breakfast there. There's that little restaurant that nobody's
Speaker 2: ever eaten. There's the sandwich stands that those sandwiches look
Speaker 2: pretty darn old like they came out of a vending machine.
Speaker 2: And then there's the Guy Fieri bar right in the
Speaker 2: middle of Gates five and six, and yeah, I've had
Speaker 2: a drink or two. My wife and I have enjoyed
Speaker 2: a cheese fries from Guy Fieri and it's it's not bad.
Speaker 2: But it'll be nice to have some new eateries. It'll
Speaker 2: be nice to have some new experiences in this new,
Speaker 2: beautiful reframed. We're doing an ode to old Hollywood Terminal. Now,
Speaker 2: there are some things that are not changing that I'm
Speaker 2: very excited about, because I'm sure the initial fear that
Speaker 2: a lot of people had about them updating and redoing
Speaker 2: the Burbank Airport is that that would mean you no
Speaker 2: longer have the old school staircase boarding. Don't you worry.
Speaker 2: You're still boarding on the tarmac. You can still board
Speaker 2: in the front of the plane and the back of
Speaker 2: the plane, which means you can also dplane in the
Speaker 2: front of the plane and the back of the plane.
Speaker 2: That's not going anywhere. Apparently, when they did community meetings
Speaker 2: and they did community outreach, it was like the most
Speaker 2: requested thing to keep. It's something that people love. And
Speaker 2: when Southwest had, like you know, before they had a
Speaker 2: sign seating and Southwest was just this wild, wild West
Speaker 2: free for all, there was always something you felt like
Speaker 2: you were in a part of a club when you
Speaker 2: were like one of the few people that knew that.
Speaker 2: Like when you're coming back from Dallas what.
Speaker 1: Have you, You're.
Speaker 2: Sitting in the back of the plane even though you're
Speaker 2: in Group A, and the flight attendants look at you,
Speaker 2: and you look at them and like, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: you're going to Burbank, You're going to get out of
Speaker 2: here real quick. Don't really need to do that anymore
Speaker 2: because now Southwest has a sign seating and if you
Speaker 2: have the credit card, you'll they'll automatically bump you up
Speaker 2: to an extra leg room seat if they have one available.
Speaker 2: And if you're taking that Southwest flight from Burbank to
Speaker 2: San Francisco on a Saturday morning, there were a lot
Speaker 2: of open seats.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what goes on with that.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited to see this airport get a facelift.
Speaker 2: It is a very special place to me. I remember
Speaker 2: the very first flight I ever took at a Boroughbank Airport.
Speaker 2: It was in two thousand and eight, I hadn't Okay,
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1: It's about eighteen years ago. I'm forty. I'm about to
Speaker 1: be forty one and a week and a half.
Speaker 2: Or two weeks from today. Yeah, two weeks from today.
Speaker 2: That's no next week.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: I should really do the math here, Yes, it's next week. Okay,
Speaker 2: anybody working at the radio station, listen right now.
Speaker 1: I'm never in town for my.
Speaker 2: Birthday, and there's a specific reason because I don't want cake,
Speaker 2: so I specifically try to be out of town. But
Speaker 2: I'm actually in town this time because the wife's in Toronto.
Speaker 2: I don't want any cake. Do not get cake. I
Speaker 2: will feel guilty and then have to shame eat it. Okay,
Speaker 2: we got that out of the way. But in two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, I had only been on a plane once,
Speaker 2: and I don't even remember it because I was seven
Speaker 2: and my family flew to Orlando to go to Disney World.
Speaker 1: And the only thing I.
Speaker 2: Remember about Disney World at the age of seven was
Speaker 2: that it rained a lot and we had ponchos, so
Speaker 2: money well spent on that vacation. I really wonder at
Speaker 2: what point kids like retain information because I don't remember
Speaker 2: any of those trips. So that was the only time
Speaker 2: I had ever been on a plane. And then I
Speaker 2: had been working at ninety seven point one for many years,
Speaker 2: and I had made quite a bit of money because
Speaker 2: I was so busy, I wasn't spending it on anything
Speaker 2: except for fast food four times a day. And I
Speaker 2: get a hanker in to do something that I would
Speaker 2: never do, get on one of those Burbank flights to
Speaker 2: Vegas and do a quick little weekend in Vegas. And
Speaker 2: I flew on a Jet Blue plane and it was
Speaker 2: a Jet Blue plane in that forty five minute flight
Speaker 2: from Burbank to Vegas that had and this was the
Speaker 2: rage technology that all the airlines needed to have. We
Speaker 2: need to invest millions and millions and millions of dollars
Speaker 2: to have a television in the back of every seat.
Speaker 2: And I remember flipping through the TV and thinking this
Speaker 2: was pretty cool. I actually remember there was some game
Speaker 2: show that Regis Feldman was hosting. I think it was password,
Speaker 2: a celebrity password, and Adam Carolla was the celebrity guest,
Speaker 2: which is funny because I worked for Adam Carolla at
Speaker 2: the time, Like Huh, that's interesting. I'll always remember that flight,
Speaker 2: and I always remember, Wow, we spent so much money
Speaker 2: on everyone getting a TV in the back of the seat,
Speaker 2: not realizing that in a few short years all people
Speaker 2: really want is a plug so they can keep their
Speaker 2: phone going in free Wi Fi. Boy, how the world
Speaker 2: has changed. By the way, that was a wild trip
Speaker 2: to Vegas because I want a thousand dollars. I also
Speaker 2: spent way too much money on all kinds of things
Speaker 2: I don't need to get into right here, and on
Speaker 2: the way I want a thousand dollars On a Monday morning,
Speaker 2: on playing six hundred dollars on roulette and two hundred
Speaker 2: dollars slot polls, I was so convinced I was going
Speaker 2: to lose all of it that I immediately went to
Speaker 2: the airport and just wandered around, rented a mobile DVD
Speaker 2: player and watched the DVD of You Don't Mess with
Speaker 2: the Zohan. Because I knew this way I wouldn't spend
Speaker 2: any money. Of course, little did I know they have
Speaker 2: slot machines at the airport. But it was on that trip.
Speaker 2: As I'm sitting in McCarran Airport, I get a phone
Speaker 2: call from the program director and the general manager of
Speaker 2: ninety seven point one saying, hey, we might go out
Speaker 2: of business in a month, so it was a really
Speaker 2: good thing that I didn't blow that thousand dollars. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Burbank Airport's getting a facelift. How exciting is that? It's
Speaker 2: the News Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC.
Speaker 1: It's the News.
Speaker 2: Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC.
Speaker 2: All Right, you tuned in at the perfect time. Boy,
Speaker 2: do I have something exciting for you. Seven ninety KABC
Speaker 2: welcomes Gypsy Kings featuring Nicholas ray Is at the Greek
Speaker 2: Theater on August seventh, twenty twenty six. Tickets are on
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Speaker 2: We have so much on demand video content for you
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Speaker 2: You can go to Johnny Don't like dot com, You
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Speaker 2: you the exact same place. But we have the YouTube
Speaker 2: channel that has our episodes of the Accountability Podcast. We've
Speaker 2: done five episodes so far, so if you've missed any
Speaker 2: of them, you can watch them right there. You can
Speaker 2: also listen on Apple Podcasts by searching for Accountability Podcasts,
Speaker 2: but I like to play the stuff on YouTube, even
Speaker 2: if I'm just gonna listen to it. That is how
Speaker 2: I consume ninety nine percent of all of my podcasts.
Speaker 2: There's also video rebroadcasts of this show, segments and clips
Speaker 2: from the John Phillips Show. It's all there, it's all
Speaker 2: on demand, and it's all free. Of course, you can
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Speaker 2: from noon to three right there at Johnny Don't Like
Speaker 2: dot Com. It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on
Speaker 2: Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. It's the News Blitz with
Speaker 2: Randy Wang on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. This is
Speaker 2: your daily rundown of everything you need to know that's
Speaker 2: going on in California, Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento,
Speaker 2: San Diego, and the Central Valley. Check out my list.
Speaker 2: I put it together every single day. Of all the
Speaker 2: stories that I found interesting. It's my show prep visualized
Speaker 2: for you at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. Our phone
Speaker 2: number is eight hundred two two two five two two
Speaker 2: two and my email is Randy Wang Radio at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com. You can follow me on the socials at
Speaker 2: Randy Wang Radio and check out all the on demand
Speaker 2: and live video stuff that we're doing at Johnny don't
Speaker 2: Like dot com or Randywangradio dot com. I really love
Speaker 2: this story because it shows that there is hope in
Speaker 2: the future. There is hope in the next generation because
Speaker 2: dumb phones are making a comeback. The generation that was
Speaker 2: raised on smartphones, the generation that was raised on social media,
Speaker 2: the generation of girls that became bullymic because of Instagram
Speaker 2: and idiot boys stuff tidepods in their mouths because of TikTok.
Speaker 1: They are now.
Speaker 2: Purposefully and on their own terms, trying to back a
Speaker 2: way from this digital life, trying to back away from
Speaker 2: everything being about social media, and thank goodness, there is hope.
Speaker 2: The whole touch Grass movement is a wonderful, wonderful thing
Speaker 2: because even though these little devices in our pockets are
Speaker 2: little miracles and we're all more connected than we ever
Speaker 2: have been before. We're also a lot lonely and than
Speaker 2: we have been before, and we're all antisocial, and we're
Speaker 2: all strange, and it's because we're staring at these screens
Speaker 2: all day long. Now, I like to say that, well,
Speaker 2: I'm an exception because I have to do so much
Speaker 2: of this stuff for work, and if I wasn't working,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be doing any of it. And you know
Speaker 2: what that is true if I looked at my screen
Speaker 2: time usage the ten days that my wife and I
Speaker 2: were traveling through Europe. Outside of using the maps, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, one of the things that's one of
Speaker 2: the best parts of having a cell phone and having
Speaker 2: a watch app or having metaglasses is directions when you're
Speaker 2: walking around when you're trying to find a specific place,
Speaker 2: or you can just go to Madrid and you shouldn't
Speaker 2: put in a map for anything, because the fun of
Speaker 2: Madrid is to turn a corner, find some random, unassuming
Speaker 2: looking taberna, have the best wine and harmon that you've
Speaker 2: ever had, and it costs.
Speaker 1: You almost nothing.
Speaker 2: I miss Spain, and yeah, that week, outside of using
Speaker 2: the maps, occasionally checking in with family through text, and
Speaker 2: using the pictures and video cameras, so we had some memories.
Speaker 2: I wasn't checking social media, I wasn't paying attention to
Speaker 2: what was going on in the news.
Speaker 1: Twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2: It was a beautiful, beautiful time, but I'm not in
Speaker 2: Europe right now. And even when I was in Toronto
Speaker 2: last week, even though I had the most fun, and
Speaker 2: I can't wait to go back to Toronto, Canada. I
Speaker 2: also I want to go to Vancouver, and I want
Speaker 2: to go to Victoria. I'd like to do a lot
Speaker 2: of Canada traveling. It is just beautiful up there and
Speaker 2: the people are friendly. And we'll get back to the
Speaker 2: smartphones for a minute. But I just I need to
Speaker 2: say this because I haven't had an opportunity to say this.
Speaker 2: When you go to our kind neighbor to the north,
Speaker 2: you immediately see how unbelievably stupid the tariff wars are,
Speaker 2: because you know what the tariff wars have led to.
Speaker 2: If you're in Canada, you cannot buy American alcohol. You
Speaker 2: can't buy American whiskey, you can't buy American beer. Not
Speaker 2: that I was going to buy American beer, but you
Speaker 2: can't buy American wine. And one of the splendors of
Speaker 2: the state of California is California's wine industry. We produce
Speaker 2: some of the best wine in the world, but you
Speaker 2: can't buy any of it in Canada because that's how
Speaker 2: they retaliated against us for all of these tariffs against Canada,
Speaker 2: which again is our ally And that also has meant
Speaker 2: a decimation for the tourism industry of Wine Country because
Speaker 2: a lot of those tourists were Canadians.
Speaker 1: Who came down here to spend their money.
Speaker 2: A lot of the reason Vegas has lost so much
Speaker 2: money in the last couple of years is because tourism
Speaker 2: is way down because the Canadians are like, screw you,
Speaker 2: We'll go to France. We'll go to Monte Carlo instead
Speaker 2: of going to the Monte Carlo hotel on the strip.
Speaker 2: So when you actually go there, and by the way,
Speaker 2: the nice thing is the real people.
Speaker 1: Not only one person.
Speaker 2: Asked me about politics, People like, oh, you're from Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Fun.
Speaker 2: Everyone was just so friendly, And I think all of
Speaker 2: that stuff is nonsense and it is stupid. But yes,
Speaker 2: in Toronto, I did use my phone plenty because I
Speaker 2: was working. It still says my usage was down thirteen
Speaker 2: percent from usual. But if you ever, you know you
Speaker 2: every Sunday morning you get that update on your phone
Speaker 2: and it tells you how much time you've been staring
Speaker 2: at it. You might look at just the banner where
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, you used your phone on an average
Speaker 2: of four hours.
Speaker 1: A day this week. Good for you.
Speaker 2: It is when you actually open up that app. And
Speaker 2: by the way, you can do this right now. You
Speaker 2: can go to your settings on your iPhone, scroll down
Speaker 2: to where it says screen time, and it will tell
Speaker 2: you things that will it'll just make you feel sad.
Speaker 2: For instance, it shows you not only what you're doing,
Speaker 2: but how you're using your time. Now again, I like
Speaker 2: to think that I get a pass here because I'm
Speaker 2: using my phone a lot for work. I wake up
Speaker 2: in the morning, I start scrolling through YouTube. So yes,
Speaker 2: obviously it makes sense that on average I use YouTube
Speaker 2: for six hours and fifty eight minutes a day. What
Speaker 2: that can't be, right, Well, maybe that counts what I'm
Speaker 2: also uploading stuff on YouTube. That's a lot. It says
Speaker 2: I'm on X for an hour and forty four minutes
Speaker 2: a day. It says I'm on YouTube Studio for an
Speaker 2: hour and forty one minutes a day. Okay, that's a problem.
Speaker 2: So YouTube studio, if you're a content creator, is where
Speaker 2: you can see how many likes your videos are getting,
Speaker 2: how many views your videos are getting, how many comments.
Speaker 2: And I'm trying to be respectful and polite and you know,
Speaker 2: respond when people are commenting. But it's also it is
Speaker 2: another one of these things that the phone does to us.
Speaker 2: It creates a really addictive dopamine trip. And it can
Speaker 2: have high highs and it can have low lows. We
Speaker 2: post a video and it starts getting all kinds of clicks. Well,
Speaker 2: this is so great. I post another video. It doesn't
Speaker 2: get as many clicks.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 2: I don't know, And so I probably it makes sense
Speaker 2: an hour and forty one minutes a day. I'm just
Speaker 2: hitting refresh on that now it says I use the
Speaker 2: Maps app for an hour and thirty eight minutes a day.
Speaker 1: That makes sense.
Speaker 2: I have Apple Maps while I'm driving. I don't know
Speaker 2: why I don't ever change my route because I don't
Speaker 2: know about you. I happen to believe that when Google
Speaker 2: Maps or Apple Maps or Ways tells you don't take
Speaker 2: the freeway, take this instead. I'd rather be the sap
Speaker 2: that sits on the freeway than one of the ten
Speaker 2: thousand people trying to do exactly that, because they're not
Speaker 2: just giving you that advice. And I have found more
Speaker 2: often than not, it's always slower. Just sit on the freeway.
Speaker 2: We'll all suffer together. Message. I'm texting an hour and
Speaker 2: thirty eight minutes a day. Okay, that makes sense. Text
Speaker 2: a lot with my wife. I'm on Instagram for an
Speaker 2: hour in fifteen minutes a day. I'm on Gmail for
Speaker 2: forty minutes. It feels like there are more minutes in here. Oh,
Speaker 2: this is an average for the week. Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: it's not as bad. That's how much I was using
Speaker 2: it for the week. Let me go to day yesterday.
Speaker 2: I spent an hour and thirteen minutes on YouTube, thirty
Speaker 2: six minutes text messaging, twenty three minutes on X, seventeen
Speaker 2: minutes on YouTube studio, fifteen minutes on the phone, ten
Speaker 2: minutes on Instagram, and then I was doing some searching
Speaker 2: for flights so Avianca and American they got some love too.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's a lot of time that I am spending.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't just tell you little things like how
Speaker 2: often you're using your apps. It also tells you how
Speaker 2: many times and this one is this one freaks me out.
Speaker 2: On average, it tells you how many times you pick
Speaker 2: up your phone, whether that's it's on the desk and
Speaker 2: you pick it up to look at it, you have
Speaker 2: it in your pocket, you pull it out to look
Speaker 2: at it. Yesterday I pulled out my phone one hundred
Speaker 2: and nine times, and that was low. The day before
Speaker 2: I pulled it out one hundred and fifty five times. Now,
Speaker 2: it also tells you how many notifications you're getting, whether
Speaker 2: that's text messages, direct messages on Instagram, DMS on X
Speaker 2: messages from Twitter. Also another thing that I hate about
Speaker 2: this device. We have so much technology at our fingertips.
Speaker 2: We pay these telecom companies. Probably everybody listening is paying
Speaker 2: like one hundred dollars a month for their cell phone.
Speaker 2: But what's the one thing that the cell phone cannot do?
Speaker 2: It either can't or doesn't want to block all the
Speaker 2: unwanted calls or go after all the spammers and the
Speaker 2: scammers out there. Every single time I pop open my phone,
Speaker 2: it tells me about the fifteen missed calls that I
Speaker 2: have from numbers that I'm never going to know because
Speaker 2: they say it's spam risk. Well, if the iPhone knows
Speaker 2: that it's spam risk, then why oh why aren't we
Speaker 2: figuring out how to shut that down? Why is it
Speaker 2: that these international companies cannot shut down the big farms
Speaker 2: where you have slave labor pretending to be somebody else
Speaker 2: and masking phone numbers to scam people. The people that
Speaker 2: service all of this, the people that own the telephone lines,
Speaker 2: how do they not have any kind of a say
Speaker 2: in how to shut that down. Maybe it's because they
Speaker 2: make money on every call. I don't know how it works,
Speaker 2: but I feel like we should be able to shut
Speaker 2: that down. So the fact that kids are now actually
Speaker 2: gravitating towards phones that just have like text messaging, just
Speaker 2: have maps, just have ride share, which is a great
Speaker 2: thing to have. It's great. I love that, and I
Speaker 2: love that. You know, more young people than ever do
Speaker 2: not have a Facebook. More young people are getting off
Speaker 2: of Instagram. And again, I use these things because you
Speaker 2: need to for this job. But if I did not
Speaker 2: do that, I don't know if I would be posting
Speaker 2: nearly as much. You know, for a long time, I
Speaker 2: stopped posting food pictures on my social media because I
Speaker 2: would get weird comments and I was like, what am
Speaker 2: I doing this for? But I still like to share
Speaker 2: my cooking, so I would just share it with you know,
Speaker 2: my group chat. I will say one of the best
Speaker 2: things the iPhone has done in the last few years.
Speaker 2: Love the group chat feature, although sometimes it can annoy me,
Speaker 2: but I love to share a picture with like my
Speaker 2: family or my wife's family. Hey, look at this meal
Speaker 2: we made. We'd love to make this together with you
Speaker 2: when we're all together. There are benefits to having all
Speaker 2: this technology, but there are many, many, many drawbacks, and
Speaker 2: it is a lovely thing to see that the generation
Speaker 2: that was raised on this very well understands how toxic
Speaker 2: it is. And this is as we're going into AI
Speaker 2: changing everything, whether it really will or not, more people
Speaker 2: wanting to live IRL. I am all for it. It's
Speaker 2: the News Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC.
Speaker 1: It's the News.
Speaker 2: Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC.
Speaker 2: There's always these perpetual stories that sim to never ever
Speaker 2: ever get resolved, and one of them is in San
Speaker 2: Diego in a project called Midway Rising. Midway Rising is
Speaker 2: a planned major development at the old San Diego Sports Arena.
Speaker 2: And you're wondering who used to play at the San
Speaker 2: Diego Sports Arena. Well, it used to be the home
Speaker 2: of the NBA's San Diego Rockets. It also used to
Speaker 2: be home to the NBA's San Diego Clippers. It was
Speaker 2: also home of the American Hockey Leagues San Diego Gulls
Speaker 2: and the National Lacrosse Leagues San Diego Seals. It has
Speaker 2: not really been used for anything in quite some time,
Speaker 2: which is why there was a plan. In fact, the
Speaker 2: whole area was bought by Stan Kronki. Stan Kronki the
Speaker 2: owner of the Rams and also of You're Upper Up
Speaker 2: and Wine Country. The Kronky's own one of the most
Speaker 2: expensive tasting rooms. It's not that I mean, it is
Speaker 2: expensive to taste there, but it's more just they spent
Speaker 2: a lot of money that they'll never make back on
Speaker 2: the tasting room because they won't need to. It's a
Speaker 2: place called the Hilt on Santa Road. It's beautiful, they
Speaker 2: made great wine, but yeah, the Kronkis own that. And
Speaker 2: of course they also own a whole bunch of woodland
Speaker 2: hills right now. The Kronkis own the Tepega Village, which
Speaker 2: hopefully when they build a new RAMS training facility, won't
Speaker 2: have so many vacancies inside there. It makes me sad
Speaker 2: because that's such a beautiful development. Well, the Kronkis bought
Speaker 2: the old San Diego Sports Arena because they wanted to
Speaker 2: turn it into a brand new sixteen thousand seat arena
Speaker 2: for a non existent sports team, and of course have
Speaker 2: shopping and dining and residences and.
Speaker 1: Think you know this is going.
Speaker 2: This is one of these projects that has been bogged
Speaker 2: down in sequa hell for years and years and years.
Speaker 2: Part of the fight has been that even though the
Speaker 2: city of San Diego approved changing the zoning for how
Speaker 2: tall buildings could be at the Midway Rising development, the
Speaker 2: local neighbors sued and one and got an injunction and
Speaker 2: apparently nobody can come to an agreement because I guess
Speaker 2: you can't make your money back on this development until
Speaker 2: you have a certain height. And there's people in the
Speaker 2: neighborhood where they don't want the height because it's going
Speaker 2: to block their view whatever you can call it, neighbors
Speaker 2: trying to protect their character, you can.
Speaker 1: Call them nimbi's what have you.
Speaker 2: So now what's going on is there's going to be
Speaker 2: a bill that goes to the legislature that will specifically
Speaker 2: exempt Midway Rising from certain aspects of SEQUA to get
Speaker 2: it through. It's almost like we do this now. We
Speaker 2: have specific carve outs for specific projects in state law,
Speaker 2: like when Steve Balmer, the owner of the Clippers, got
Speaker 2: the California legislature to author a last call extension to
Speaker 2: four AM, not just not for Englewood, not for La County,
Speaker 2: for just the Clippers arena the into a dome, which
Speaker 2: is a beautiful place. So they're going to exempt certain
Speaker 2: aspects of SEQUA so the locals can stop suing over
Speaker 2: this project, which I mean, ultimately I wish we could
Speaker 2: all come to some kind of an agreement here, because
Speaker 2: what we want these sports arena to just sit there
Speaker 2: empty and at some point the yimbie crowd has a
Speaker 2: point when you have people suing over and over and
Speaker 2: over again to stop any kind of development, especially one
Speaker 2: where there there's already an empty sports arena there. But
Speaker 2: I think ultimately we need to stop cutting around the
Speaker 2: edges of Okay, well we need to exempt this from SEQUA.
Speaker 2: We need to exempt this from SEQUA. At what point
Speaker 2: do we say it does not make sense to have
Speaker 2: an environmental protection law that has a private right of action.
Speaker 2: What does that mean? Well, the tricky thing with SEQUA
Speaker 2: is that anybody can sue to stop any project in
Speaker 2: the name of SEQUA, just like how there's a private
Speaker 2: right of action in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which
Speaker 2: there have been several troll attorneys have taken advantage of
Speaker 2: where even if you are not directly harmed, even if
Speaker 2: you are not directly victimized, like you're not a disabled
Speaker 2: person that cannot get to the towel rack in the
Speaker 2: bathroom of the mom and pop restaurant, you as an
Speaker 2: attorney can sue on behalf of a non existent person.
Speaker 2: You can also sue for any reason to block a
Speaker 2: project under SEQUE because you want an environmental review.
Speaker 1: And it seems that if we really.
Speaker 2: Really really want to solve the housing crisis, we've got
Speaker 2: to stop these kinds of nonsensical delays. But everyone should
Speaker 2: be able to come to an agreement, get into a
Speaker 2: room together. Maybe that's what we need. We need forced
Speaker 2: mediation because these lawsuits take so long, the projects take
Speaker 2: so much longer, and then inevitably, whatever housing gets built
Speaker 2: there is going to be that much more expensive. Now
Speaker 2: that all being said, as we talk about California's housing crisis,
Speaker 2: I have to talk about the Coyote squatters. We did
Speaker 2: cover this on The John Phillips Show, but it is
Speaker 2: something that I want to really drive down and drill
Speaker 2: down on. We're in a housing crisis in the state
Speaker 2: of California, That's what everybody tells us. But then why
Speaker 2: are there so many abandoned buildings, abandon construction projects, abandon developments,
Speaker 2: the Tagger Towers, the Coyote Hotel in West Hollywood, all
Speaker 2: the vacant homes that burn down on Hope Street. Why
Speaker 2: is there so much vacant abandoned property in California? And
Speaker 2: before we need to build everything else, shouldn't we figure
Speaker 2: out how to utilize that property?
Speaker 1: Just a thought. Thank y'all so much for listening.
Speaker 2: We got tons of on demand content for you, so
Speaker 2: go to the website Johnny don't Like dot com, Randywang
Speaker 2: Radio dot com. You can watch all kinds of stuff
Speaker 2: from this show and the John Phillips Show. So watch it,
Speaker 2: give it a like, and give it a comment. We
Speaker 2: love hearing from you. That's Johnny don't Like dot Com,
Speaker 2: Randywang Radio dot com see u