What does one do when blizzard-like conditions and biting cold take hold outside? I recorded a 50-minute Saturday Night fantasy Grand Ole Opry ‘radio broadcast’, that mimics the tone and sound of what was heard each weekend in my teenage years growing up in Hancock. I loved working in radio broadcasting as my first job as an adult and I have constructed a studio in my Madison home. Another love is the classic country sound that my Dad and Mom always listened to and which was featured on Saturday nights at the Waushara County Fair when I was a kid. A long way of saying my heart can be found in this production. It will be available on the link below for 90 days starting Jan. 14, 2024. I trust this makes a smile. Listen here below or head to my linked podcasting page.
My podcast, Doty Land, has a little victory to note. If you want to sample what I do in my third-floor recording studio here is an example, with a Tribute To Classic Country Music, WSM Radio, Grant Turner, And More!. I have fun using these decades later what I learned from my radio broadcasting days. That large soundboard that I worked behind with a studio microphone at WDOR is now a computer application on my laptop, a computer dedicated solely to podcasting. But, with downsizing due to technology, I do get to keep the microphones!
Ronald and Delores Disher, and Charles Jost (Only one of them was ruled to be insane in court.)
A long-time reader from Stevens Point who knows my interest in the mysterious dirty dealings of Ronald and Delores Disher wrote to me this weekend with a heads-up about a podcast dealing with this cold case. I had posted several stories years ago of the twisted and dysfunctional family and how events had evolved in court and through the investigation by law enforcement. At our Madison dinner table, and quite unexpectedly, we even were treated to a conversation by someone who had insight into the Portage County investigation.
It all started with a simple question about social security benefits and a welfare check to be conducted by local law enforcement. At the time when I was writing about this matter, I had my own words of choice to use about the crime and cover-up but find the podcast writer summed it up even more succinctly by calling the whole affair “a messy and deceitful family tree”.
First, let me bring readers the fast version of what transpired. Like others who have followed the criminal saga of Ronald and Delores Disher, I want to know what happened to Marie Jost, the mother of Delores.
Marie Jost
Delores Disher from Almond, Wisconsin was accused of helping her husband, Ronald, and brother, Charles, steal $175,000 in Social Security benefits from Jost, who vanished in 1980 and was presumed dead. How she died and where she is buried has never been determined. Most doubt that the suspense over ‘who shot JR’ is the reason her heart stopped ticking. At the time this all was percolating in 2012, it should be noted, that Marie would have been more than 100 years old, and had not used her federal medical benefits since 1982. I have heard that dandelion wine is favored in that area of the state and has many medicinal purposes, but even those old legends could not account for Jost never requiring any doctor over the decades. Clearly, she had been dead for a very long time, likely aided by someone she had trusted.
It also needs to be noted that Marie’s son, Theodore, who would have been about age 75 at the time this story broke wide open in the press had also been missing since the 1980s.
Delores’ husband Ronald, and his involvement in this matter remains in question, but all the accounts of those who knew him as the press reports made clear during the trial painted him as the dullest ax in the barn. A dolt. If one supports such a view then Delores held the keys to the information. Included in this brain trust of a family is Delores’ brother, Charles, who was found not guilty of the crimes….for reasons of…..insanity. One cannot make this stuff up. It’s worth noting that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cited Charles himself saying he only had a first-grade education level. This is why the lieutenant feels that it was likely Delores and Ronald who were the masterminds of this alleged scheme.
After all the facts about theft by fraud, forgery, unauthorized use of others’ personal documents, and mail fraud are laid out on the table there remains topic number one that needs to be resolved. What happened to Marie?
The authorities started their investigation on the property was about three acres in size in Amherst Junction, roughly 15 miles east of Stevens Point. It’s where several members of the Jost family once called home, including Marie Jost.
Where police focused their search was honestly comparable to a dump.
“We got out there, everything was locked up, we had to cut locks off the doors off the sheds to see if anything was in there. And then that’s when we saw that. For lack of better terms, it was like a hoarder property,” Lt. Kropidlowski said.
Eventually, an agent was sent out to 3658 Alm Road. When they got there, they met Charles, Marie’s youngest son who wasn’t the most friendly. Which is why Social Security called the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.
Today the property is mainly covered by trees and is owned by two different people, but back then, tucked yards away from the road was something, well, unappealing to say the least.
“Well, first off, the most noticeable thing was the odor. It was horrific,” the lieutenant said.
After questioning neighbors and family, the police learned that not only was Marie missing, but no one had seen her son Theodore in decades.
Marie had five children. Three girls and two boys. Her oldest daughter was Marie, then Theodore, Patricia, Dolores, and Charles.
There isn’t much known about Theodore. The last time anyone saw him it was back in the 1980s when he was about 42 years old. He was also an Army veteran, but that’s about it. When police sat down with Charles and his sister Delores, they had similar stories.
Now get this story, super-sleuths!
“The theory, what we were told was, is that Marie and Teddy were on a cross-country road trip in a motorhome for 30 years,” said Lt. Kropidlowski.
Obviously, there are a lot of problems with this. Including the fact that neither Marie nor Teddy had a driver’s license.
As the investigation continued detectives found what we consider to be truly heartbreaking. In the mountains of trash, investigators discovered mail addressed to Marie.
Things like recently sent Christmas cards, letters, money, even a card for her 100th birthday.
“A couple of them got responses back, thanking, you know, thank you for sending the photographs. It was so nice, you thank you for the money, those sorts of things,” said Lt. Kropidlowski.
Here’s the problem, Marie couldn’t write. In the late 1970s, she had a stroke, and as a result, she usually just wrote an ‘X’ instead of her actual signature on everything including her social security checks. That would make it very unlikely that she was writing back and her family, who took the time to send letters from the kindness of their hearts were lied to for years.
Charles was found not guilty because of mental disease or defect, Delores had her charges dismissed because of her medical problems, and the judge declared a mistrial on the fraud charges for Ronald.
In the years since, both Delores and Ronald have died.
When this story first broke in 2012 I was back home following an early morning colonoscopy. I noted from writing that day, that my love for a good mystery was in full swing as I came home and crashed while reading Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci. I termed it a great page-turner. But then I noted it paled with news from Almond that the State Crime Lab was involved with cadaver dogs being used in connection with the Ronald and Delores Disher case. I wrote that “no human remains have been found thus far”.
Each weekday while growing up my parents received the Stevens Point Journal in our mailbox in Hancock. Starting when I was a young kid I would follow Buz Sawyer as he solved all sorts of mysteries and mayhem on the cartoon page. If only Buz Sawyer could have been in the cell for an hour with Delores and Ronald we would have had all the details the prosecutors needed.
The mystery continues and clearly has not been forgotten.
Listen hereor Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and many more places where you listen to podcasts.
The softer tone of our politics is recalled from the days when a young WDOR radio reporter (Trevor James) put on a shirt and tie to cover national politicians. Driving a Chevet to the Labor Day rally with Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro or thrilling to the enormity of President Ronald Reagan stumping for this tax policy, there is a reminder that our politics while still rough and tumble, allowed for less bombast and meanness among the electorate. If you yearn for politics the way it once was, this professionally produced podcast by Gregory Humphrey is your free trip to the mid-1980s.
With fondness and laughter Bruce Miller, George Manesis, and Gregory Humphrey trek back 41 years to reminisce about the Wausau, Wisconsin broadcasting school. From how these young men saw themselves at the time, to how radio impacts their lives today, this podcast episode surely mirrors the hundreds of graduates over the years. From the school owner, Ray Szmanda, to the iconic Scott Street Pub these three guys regale memories that will transport all those who once harbored ‘radio fever’ to a place of youthful nostalgia. An episode that has a professional touch, a human connection. Darius Rucker, The Knack, and Connie Smith add the melody.
George Manesis, Bruce Miller, Gregory Humphrey seated.
Gregory, Bruce, and George coming up to the third-floor studio.
Doty Land is not the biggest or the best podcast, but it is mine and it makes for lots of smiles and hours well-spent on the Madison isthmus.
Radio and broadcasting was my first love as a boy, working at WDOR was a thrill for years, and my home studio for podcasting now is the perfect niche.
I am super pleased with how my Alzheimers episode has landed with listeners, which is what is reflected in the downloads. I used contemporaneous notes from the time and recorded the episode in under 30 minutes. Adding the bumpers and editing and the project was completed in a couple hours.
I find the tone of what I hope to achieve on my podcast episodes mirrors what I heard coming over the radio airwaves while growing up in Hancock. Respect your audience, be professional, and have fun, too. Check, check, and check.
I reject the long-time undermining of standards in our nation. From the way people dress without care regarding how they look (well, it was his good T-shirt for the funeral home visitation), or the often-boorish language that is usually shouted loudly for added impact inside a mall. Everywhere one looks there are fewer guardrails being employed for how people act in society.
I read today on a Facebook page for podcasters the following about a Joe Rogan episode. A listener took the time to hear the long episode, and upon finishing offered the following comment.
I heard countless plosives, breaths, and bangs on the table… even a glass being knocked over at one point. Long pauses between thoughts… so much so that I checked my phone to see if something went wrong. Studders, stammers, and even talking over each other at points. So many things that we often view as faux pas and no-no’s,….
That is how Rogan, a ‘successful podcaster’ presented himself to his audience. Now, I could challenge the conversation Rogan recorded or the ‘facts’ he tossed to his listeners. But my post here is about something larger than all that.
I have a far different perspective on what an audience should expect from podcasters. Perhaps old school, even. And as such, I offered the following as a reply on the page this evening.
First and foremost, always respect your audience. We are basically asking folks to allow us into their homes, cars, or ear pods via a podcast. Our behavior and demeanor ‘on air’ should echo how we would act if in person, or how we would want others to be acting if knocking on our door to have entrance. Being abrasive for impact—not that most podcasters desire that—should not be the goal.
We would wish for our best delivery if face-to-face, so when recording a podcast aim for breath control, do not play with water glasses, and stem cursing, if that is an issue. I would suggest that while ‘anything goes’ seems to be a way to podcast, is that really how you want others to hear you? Perceive you?
For instance, it can be very effective in conversation to have a pause but to have a span where a listener checks the connection is not what most would wish their podcast to sound like. Again, our podcasts reflect on the person behind the microphone.
Next, the pacing of delivery is something that does not get mentioned much, but it matters. Most people in our nation speak at about 160 words per minute. Just as an aside, and a weird trivia point here, but Walter Cronkite trained himself to speak only 124 words per minute as he felt that pace allowed for understanding whatever was being imparted to the listener.
Finally, try placing a photo of your parents or some person you really respect in your podcasting area and talk to that person as you work behind the microphone. How would you make your episode sound if that person pictured was the one to hear the final product?
Having higher standards does not mean perfection will result, but it will ensure quality control for what we love to do.
For my blog readers, I should state I do not take time out for each instance where ‘anything goes’ raises its head. But broadcasting, and its cousin podcasting, do merit some response when the lessening of respect to listeners and just sloppy production values are deemed to be acceptable.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 