As “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” week moved around town, we were moved and inspired by all of the great things happening all over Baltimore. On Day 5 at Kooper’s North, Nestor was joined by “No One Listens” documentary pal Gregg Landry of Towson Transfers and local media guru Chris Forhan, formerly of The Baltimore Banner, whose new local project spotlighting the “news you can use” approach of the new Towson Torch was a great way to discuss community and positive news right where WNST and Baltimore Positive reside.
Nestor Aparicio, Chris Forhan, and Gregg Landry discussed community and positive news in Towson. Chris, founder of Towson Torch, highlighted the newsletter’s mission to counterbalance negative media coverage with positive local stories. Gregg, owner of Towson Transfers, shared his business’s focus on digitizing old media. They emphasized the importance of local journalism and community engagement. Nestor also mentioned his documentary project, which took 36 minutes to complete and featured narration by Keith Brewer. The conversation also touched on the positive changes and businesses in Towson, aiming to shift the narrative from crime to community success.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Towson Torch, Towson Transfers, Baltimore positive, community news, local businesses, positive stories, crime perception, Towson mall, local journalism, documentary project, media digitization, Baltimore Banner, Towson newsletter, local advocacy, Baltimore icons
SPEAKERS
Chris Forhan, Gregg Landry, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I am elated because I am with this segments bad, it’ll be 15 minutes. If it’s good, it’ll be longer than that. I think it’ll be longer than that. I am that close to my bowl of gumbo here at Coopers. We’re wrapping things up. This is the final segment of cup of Super Bowl. I began a couple Super Bowl with you last year. Greg Landry came down to faith, Lee’s and joined us. Last year, I bonked on faith. Leaves this week, will be at Faith les two weeks from now, doing one more cup of Super Bowl. We’re gonna do one more couple Super Bowl two weeks from Tuesday at fatales. We’re here at Coopers north. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. I have the lucky magic eight ball that I’ve been rubbing. I had a $2 winner here today. I’m hoping someone wins $8,888 on the magic eight ball. Also our friends at wise markets, wise conversations. It’s all for the Maryland Food Bank. Wrap things up. I’ve got 1-234-567-1011, bags of canned goods. Here. We’ve had lots of great stories this week, and a great Towson story here, by law, we are. I know who’s running the FCC now, so I gotta be really careful. We’re a Towson radio station, so we are legally bound every hour, at the top of every hour, within five minutes to say you’re listening to wnsg am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, so we’re Towson station, and these are Towson guys. Greg Landry runs Towson transfers. He is buying that big liquor store on the lock Raven Boulevard. He is also my documentarian, as opposed to my conscient Chris foreign is here. I’ve known him for well over a decade. He worked at a place called groove commerce with my good friend Ethan, given a million years ago. He also ran digital for the Baltimore banner. Nice scoop from your former colleagues. He is now put into work something that people in Towson are trying to put together. And I was very fond of Ted venetoulis, who founded the Baltimore banner and was Towson times. I’ve been a Towson company for 28 and a half years now. Towson torch is a new newsletter. Chris has a background in media and sales and in digital and and you live in Towson, right? You live in the building. And I almost moved into that downtown Towson. It’s good to have your board for the first time. How are you good? Fantastic.
Chris Forhan 02:23
Yeah, lived, I think, with some short stints in between past 20 plus years in Towson. Originally from Massachusetts, but Towson is home, and, yeah, you want me to talk a little bit about the torch? Well, this
Nestor Aparicio 02:36
guy’s from Connecticut, and you’re from New England, and boy, but you’re both right. You’re both baseball nerds. Like, he was a baseball player. I’ve known him 20 years, and he finally admitted he played baseball in college. I’m like, Cool. We went to a baseball game. You’re a baseball guy. Luke’s a baseball nerd. Baseball brings people together, especially people from like New England that move here it is the commonality of every New Englander I’ve ever known before the football thing happened up there, but people would come down here and be a part of the baseball thing. My wife is from New England. She’s from New Hampshire. We got married when the Red Sox were playing the Orioles, and all of her family came down and had chowder, crabs, all that stuff. And so, you know, come at it. Naturally your baseball nerd, right? 100%
Chris Forhan 03:19
I think I came down to visit right after college, and the first thing the company that was recruiting me did was taking you a game at Cannon yards, being a baseball fan. Fell in love with Charm City. The guy recruited me stayed six months here. I am, almost 30 years later, still living in the Baltimore area. But, you know, still have all the family back up in New England. And yeah, it’s just a huge baseball town from Worcester, Massachusetts, but
Nestor Aparicio 03:44
hometown of Phil Jackman, yeah. So, you know, good stock.
Chris Forhan 03:47
We know, just Case in point, right? They, they got the triple A team from Kentucky, the Worcester they’re called the woo socks. Woo
Nestor Aparicio 03:56
socks, my buddy is the general manager and owner and principal in that. Charles Steinberg runs the woo socks. Charles Steinberg of Pikesville, who ran the Orioles Larry Lucchino, was instrumental in getting the late great Larry Lucchino, but they set just 45 minutes outside of Boston. They set the attendance records for all m, I, L, B stadiums in the country. So that’s, you know. Just think of like, you know, buoy, or some of these other towns, like close they steal the eye, cannibalizing sports. But people just love baseball that much. You can get to an awesome brand new well, they were the Pawtucket ball socks. They were paw. So, yeah, I always pronounced it wrong. I would call it paw tuck it, because that’s how I learned how to say because, you know, when Cal Ripken played the 32 winning game, it was in paw, tuck it. And my wife would say it’s put talk it, yeah, it’s not paw talk it. It’s Pawtucket, yeah. And I said, we live in Towson, Tosin, Merrill, every town near Bowie, impossible to pronounce, but she has a town called co ops. And I’m like, I don’t know how to pronounce that in mass, it looks like coups, but I don’t know kowas, so you play these games, yeah? Yeah, I play his games with John Martin every so Greg did my documentary. Greg goes a thing called Towson transfers, which is really one of the cool companies to talk about. You talk about the torch and local businesses and local people. What you basically do is take old media and digitize it’s right. You’ve done this for me for 20 years in some sort of amateur capacity before we started doing professionally. But I had all of these video tapes, high eight, all the things that went into the documentary, I think you were the original 115 years ago, that had these machines that I didn’t even have. You know, channel two would do these tapes back in the day, when I’d be on a Scott car, so and they’d be these weird beta, Matt, big little, you know, all this, you take anything, pictures, digitize those, video, digitize that, and you’re right here. And unlike these lock box, send away things like you’re a dude in Taos and you’re gonna take good care of these are people’s treasures,
Gregg Landry 05:53
right face to face service. That’s what people want. They feel nervous about sending out their precious memories out in the mail. And they, you know, just come and meet with me and and to see our operation that, you know, it’s a local Win Win story. So
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
you’re Towson. I’m Towson. My wife gets her Towson news, like on that thing where, when, like a scanner, it’s like a neighborhood watch thing next. And it’s not usually like, we’re having a bake sale, or there’s gonna be a, you know, a garage sale, or, Hey, we’re all getting the kids together for Halloween, and we’re gonna march and give it’s, it’s literally like a police blotter report. Yeah, and my wife sees it. She’s on this alert thing that, like, her phone went off with an it’s almost like the W, N, S, T tech service, but it’s for like, crime. And I’m thinking to myself, a I don’t think of Towson as a crime center. Let’s start with that. But her thing went off like we were here at Cooper’s having dinner a couple three weeks ago, and her thing went off, and it was like, about where we live, near lock Raven, there was like, a thing and a blockade and a police thing, and I’m like, must have been a shooting. That’s me being a jerk, right? Turned it was a fire. It was, it was an apartment fire that it closed down a road. Hope everybody’s okay from that, but like, you’re trying to do the anti Fox, 45 blotter news bleeds, leads, there was a shooting in 1000, right? Okay? And maybe there’ll be one or two a year, three a year, and they all get blown up. We talk about them like they’re happening 10 times a week, and we have the city’s image and all that. But Towson is like, where I live, it’s where my radio station is. It’s in the name of your company. It’s in the name of your newsletter. It’s even though we’re in Timonium, right? It’s Towson. You know what I mean? Towson, Timonium, Cockeysville, Ruxton, lock Raven, Hampton, it’s all Towson, right? I mean, you feel like this is underserved, right,
Chris Forhan 07:50
yeah. And I think you’re talking about the citizen app, which is like a crime app, which you can get alerts like the crime in your area. But aside from that, when I was at the banner, I saw kind of the the power of, you know, local news had kind of dissipated in Baltimore City. I don’t think any surprised, anyone the banner kind of reinvigorated, like, what local news can do to move the city forward and, like, you know, challenge leadership and things like that. And, you know, as I’m watching and I’m like, Well, really, like, living in Towson, I just always felt like I was missing out on things. And, you know, you
Nestor Aparicio 08:22
who’s got a happy hour like, that’s what I want. My wife and I were like, who’s and then Nacho mama closed. I mean, places are closing down. New businesses are going to come in there. New businesses have already come in there,
Chris Forhan 08:32
right? No doubt, there is a perception that Towson is the most dangerous place in the world. At times ridiculous, because the only coverage you get is, is the headline grabbing crime related, which, you know, not to diminish the seriousness of some of those crimes happen, like maybe two, three times a year. But you know, us living here, working here, you know, going out to restaurants and things like that, Towson is great and, yeah, the whole purpose of the torch was to kind of counterbalance a lot of that negative talk that’s going on out there with positive stories about businesses. I mean, that’s why there was connection between you and I. Nestor, Baltimore, positive. It’s like we’re both trying to do positive things. Talk about positive people, positive businesses, doing great things in the area. And you know what? If we can get that news out there, you know, people looking into Towson are going to see the full story? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 09:18
good. I mean, that’s and I’m a part of the Towson story, right? And I just think of Nancy Haffer being on the show and feed on how much I could talk about Towson outside of the mall or outside of places I eat, or getting a slice of pizza, pasta. Me start going over to poppies and getting tacos. I’ve been going there since it was Razorbacks. They were one of my sponsors. So like, Nacho mamas was a sponsor the CVP I’ve had Melanie on. I mean, I gravitate toward you in it, because it’s my home, man, it’s my it’s my business home. It’s where I live now, and I’m Baltimore positive and everything we do around the beltway, but I can’t believe Towson has gained a stigma. And I think there’s also a part of living there. I feel. There’s a need. There’s something missing there, right? There’s something missing about what’s going on on York Road, you know, just in a general sense, and
Chris Forhan 10:07
by no means are you know, should you expect this is called the Towson torch, but you expect it to be like this, investigative reporting really, just in the beginning, you know, finding out ways to keep people informed, rounding up everything that’s going on in one place, interviewing small businesses really just giving people a voice to get the again, get that full picture. I remember
Nestor Aparicio 10:27
the Towson patches and those other little things that came out. There is something about and this is my kick at Odyssey radio and their new PD, I’ve listened twice this week. I don’t know why, but like and to hear Justin Tucker stuff quite for see what they’re doing and how they’re covering it, quite frankly. But I I think there’s this Towson voice that if I were to get in my car, let’s say at the at the city line. So let’s say we go down by the Senator. I start thinking about heritage barbecue, and I start working my way up past the swallow with this is just York Road, yep, just going up York Road. The amount of good places to eat, the amount of good places to go. They got the little chicken place going on there. Now about
Chris Forhan 11:09
Nara? What is this? Carlos Raba of Clavell fame, oh, I know. Carlos, okay, owns Nara, which is right where, what’s the hardware store on York Road, right around the Rosedale federal just as you went to Towson near the royal farms. Okay, so right across the street. He’s got right by the university. How do you say it to Kira
Nestor Aparicio 11:33
tequila, they serve to kill. It’s like a, like a taqueria. Taqueria, okay, chicken, sure. I’m not real Spanish, so
Chris Forhan 11:41
he’s right there. There’s a fantastic ice Baker right there. And you know that you’re already in Towson. Then you go further up, and then you hit uptown, as they call it, and there’s just as much as there’s been some closing, there’s amazing new restaurants and stores opening. There’s a Japanese market where the Urban Outfitters been there. Love that. It’s it’s incredible. It’s really cool. Great place to go in your kids are like, Pokemon. Fans and stuff. They’ve like characters, like a French bakery coming there too, right? Yeah, absolutely, across the street. So all right,
Nestor Aparicio 12:07
well, Towson tour, tell me how they can sign up for this. It’s a new thing, right? Yeah, if you haven’t heard of it, it’s okay. We’ll be talking about it a little bit more, but, but it is new, and you’re emailing every day, daily, couple times a week.
Chris Forhan 12:19
So it’s a, it’s a newsletter that’s gonna be coming out three times a week right now. It’s, you know, we started, she’s only about 45 days ago, going out once a week, but we’re moving. What kind of paywall Do you times a week? No pay wall. Just check free content. Well, you worked at the banner, Towson torch. Calm.
Nestor Aparicio 12:36
I mean, listen, you formerly of the banner. We all need the banner to work. I mean, this story, the Tucker story, we can go all night with that, whatever we’ll have all summer. But you worked and sold with real journalists down there. When a story like that happens, you’re not the guy saying, shoot the journalist, it’s tabloid. All the things that Tucker did, tabloid journalism, all of that crap you were these are people that are working hard the banners doing a good job.
Chris Forhan 13:03
And just obviously, there’s kind of that Maginot Line, or whatever you want to call it, between the, you know, the business side of things, and in the editorial side. I was on the business side, helping build out the newsletter business and the advertising side of things. But I can tell you this with the new CEO, Bob Cohen, who came in from the Economist. And, you know, people like Justin Tucker having that name on their name on that article. I mean, there’s just no chance that they’re gonna, you know, take a risk of on here. My point
Nestor Aparicio 13:29
on Tucker is, Bao would never write that story with it. That’s how we get killed at Bao would never make it. It would and so are they a juror? I mean, seriously, are they journalists, or are they not? If you’re not doing these kinds of stories, who is so if the banners not their son, certainly ain’t gonna do it. I’ve seen what the sun is at this point, so I keep thinking about journalism and citizen journalism, right? I mean the torch and what you’re doing and getting words out to people, the things that we do here with an FCC license, one of us has a credential, the other doesn’t. He’s nicer than me, no doubt, a bit smarter than me, younger, better looking. But there is a point where journalism is really important, really maybe not bad. I’m patronizing. You are. I’ll forget the last part, but, but the part where journalism is important and there needs to be journalism, I’m, I’m bullish on the banner for that. And look, they don’t. I invited them on the show like Chris comes on sometimes Chris a corpsman. I need it to work. We the citizens need good journalism. The citizens need more things like torches. They need more well voices, more community voice, not more Odysseys and clear channels, no offense, but more people on the street here, doing street things in places like Towson,
Chris Forhan 14:43
yeah. And it definitely loved everything about it. It definitely inspired me to do what I’m doing now. And, yeah, I mean, and seeing that balance, right? Can we create some sort of balance between what is a, you know, a negative narrative that is, you know, formulated by very little coverage, right? We get well, that
Nestor Aparicio 15:00
affects 1000. Traffic, affects the liquor store, affects everyone. I mean, there was a shooting not far from your place, not far from where I live. This happened a month or two ago. I thought of you, right, because, but okay, what am I not going to drive down lock Raven, Bull, mmm not going to go over to Sonic and get a shake. I mean, am I not going to Conrad’s? Am I not getting my back adjusted by Dr Steve. He’s a place I drive by every day. My wise market just enter my ROFO that I get my gas at is the one on chopper road. So, I mean, I pass these places every day, and they are Towson, and they need advocacy for everybody, for all of our businesses. You know, absolutely, that’s what I feel about it.
Chris Forhan 15:37
Yeah, see there. And, I mean, you know, some of the articles that were written was like, oh, crime is way up, and nobody’s going to the mall. Like, actually, the police did a great job in crime around the mall dropped around 12% year over year. And the mall had, like, record, you know, revenues, yes, there’s teenagers going in through there, you know, there’s, there’s, like, shoplifting going on. You know, it’s equivalent of, like, one shoplifting incident a day, right? You had that up. That’s like 365 a year. But at the end of the year, that looks like a crap load of crime, for lack of better word, right? But again, there are some serious crimes that have happened in Towson in the past few years that cause for serious concern for anyone, if they happen anywhere, but you
Nestor Aparicio 16:17
can report on that, but then you also have to say, we’re open for business here. Yes. And good things are happening in Towson too. Because good things are happening at Towson. I know this because Towson transfers it. What is up with this shirt? Landry, what is you like it? Show everybody this shirt. Where can I get one man? Oh, you just a superstar. That
Gregg Landry 16:35
is superstar. Billy Graham, yes, the
Nestor Aparicio 16:37
late, great, Paradise Valley, Arizona. Yep. Arizona station. If
Gregg Landry 16:41
you’re nice to me, I’ll make you one. So I made this myself, so I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 16:45
want one. I just want to admire yours. Mine would be a dusty road to fly an elbow. Is that
Chris Forhan 16:49
an actual iron on? Just check how it is. Oh, Ocean
Nestor Aparicio 16:53
City. Iron on spotted a mile away. I don’t feel too much, but yeah, it’s got that. That the same thing when I had the fair faucet shirt in 77 and the Fonzie shirt I
Chris Forhan 17:02
had the hit, I had the A team. You know, I think it was a little glitter on there.
Nestor Aparicio 17:06
I have a picture of me like in my eighth grade birthday in 1976 and I’m wearing a Fonzie shirt that I got Jason, and it’s Fonzie going a
Chris Forhan 17:15
so I had found the picture of it. Would Fauci be canceled nowadays? I’m pretty sure he probably here’s the problem.
Nestor Aparicio 17:21
Fauci was canceled, and you saw this on my Facebook. I only bought I have one. I have two tickets in my whole possession, in my little chest at home, and they were to see Henry Winkler do a speech down in montgomery county. He’s doing like, this library thing. And I bought the tickets for they were like 40 bucks, and I got really good seats, and I got them, like, in August, and I printed them out. They like printed tickets, you know, with barcodes, and I put them away. And I’m like, I’m looking forward to this. I went to dinner with Brian pool Monday night. He came Wednesday night. We were at Cocos Wednesday night, and he’s like, his family owns heritage barbecue, by the way, another great place down on York Road. And Brian’s my high school friend. We lost a friend this week, so we’re kind of all getting together and mourning a little bit. I’ll be doing a lot of that tonight. And he said to me, what are you really looking for? You got concerts, concert people got a conscious looking forward to and I’m like, yeah, man, I’m going to see Henry Winkler give a speech. And he’s like, Well, that’s cool, man, fonts, whatever. And then they canceled it yesterday, so I got my refund, literally, canceled, literally, so you’re like, joking about whether Fauci would be canceled. And, like, right? I thought you read my Facebook Yeah. I’m crushed, Henry. I mean, like, call me,
Chris Forhan 18:31
snapped his fingers, and two girls would jump on him. And okay, I like, when he hit
Nestor Aparicio 18:35
the jukebox and made it play. You’re a child of the 70s, right? Yeah, pains that doing my documentary and what it’s like to really work for me, Chase, Chase Chris away from me, please. Yeah, this is how we were, elbow to elbow for no side of you. Mr. Coffee involved. Yeah, lot of coffee. Yeah.
Gregg Landry 18:53
So if, if you think he’s hard to work with on other things, try putting together his life, you know, and how important that is to him. So it was a lot of fun. I think we did a good job. I think we I loved it. It was
Nestor Aparicio 19:05
36 minutes and 36 seconds, because 36 has always been my favorite number, my lucky number. And once we got it to like, 36 something, I’m like, we’re gonna edit this to 3636 and he nailed it, because I thought it would be good luck.
Gregg Landry 19:16
Yep. And it was so tell us. Tell us about now that it’s done, I’m sure it’s something a year ago we wanted to do it now it’s done. Tell me about how it’s worked out in your career now that it’s done,
Nestor Aparicio 19:28
every time I go out that somebody has seen it, they walk up to me and they say the same thing, I didn’t know why you did rock and roll. And I’m like, well, they at least made it through five minutes of it. You know, at least they got to the genus shock part of it. Um, it. Everybody tells me it’s too long for a corporate video. And I’m like, I didn’t, I just wanted to put it all out there. So a couple 1000 people have made it through all 36 minutes and 36 seconds. I guess I just wanted a toll, you know, the right way. And you. It the right way, so that in case I die, people would know, and in case I live, people would still know. And I’m 56 and there’s so many misconceptions about me my career, the rate just I recall fake news, I just would say either bad information, no information, missing information. So I just wanted to put it all in one place, that’s all and I wanted to do it one time in my life while I was still well enough and I knew, you and we could do it right, and I somebody I could trust, and it’s only good because of him. I mean, like I had the ID. He called me two summers ago, and he said to me, you know, I Blue Rock productions, and, you know, I’ve done commercials, you know, I’ve done short features, you know, I’ve done photography. He does all of this stuff. And he’s like, I’m thinking of getting into the documentary business, right? He calls me and said, and I’m thinking my whole I’m thinking, Who would want a documentary, Don and I’m thinking the same people like Ed Hale had a book written about him, right? People that would want that kind of media, their story told. And I said to him, are you talking about me? I’m not doing a documentary. I’m not vain enough. I don’t I don’t have time. I got a cell. I got radio. Luke’s waiting on me. The pitching is fixed, the Oriole. I don’t have time for documentary. Just not interested. Look at the pictures. And then in December, I was at Costas, and Pete said to me, this group came in from Vice, and they did this piece. You should see it. It’s pretty good. And I like vice in general, because they cuss a lot. And, you know, I work blue off the air. I mean, I’m not afraid to admit that when my comedy act happens, I’m gonna work blue, really, blue. Little boy, blue, you you know, you know the punchline, so you need
Chris Forhan 21:52
the money.
Nestor Aparicio 21:55
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the part of this that I guess for me in putting this thing together was I watched the vice thing at home with my wife, and it was Christmas week, and it came on. It was 14 minutes. Everybody should watch Google, Costas and vice on YouTube, it pops right up. It’s professionally done. It featured Dundalk, and it told the story. And when it opened, it was Mr. Costas, who would who loves me, buys me beer. He has an accent from the old country. He won’t come on the radio with me. No, no one will listen to me. I talking Creek. No, no one Listen to me. So he will never come on. And it’s a joke with he and I, when I wrap the equipment up. Now, Acosta’s, I am ready. I am ready, and I’m like, All right, so, so I didn’t think anybody would ever sit down with him, but the beginning of that video, and I want everybody to watch it, it fades to this Costas sign that I’ve sat in front of many times, and it’s, it’s Pete and his father sitting there, and he says, and I hope I can, I don’t pronounce their last name the right way, so I’m gonna butcher it. And they’re coming right down the road here. They’re gonna be in a race track April 1 or April 30, somewhere around there. But it begins He says, My name is Costa triantophilus. I come to America 1967 with $5 in my pocket. This is my story. I’m like, pool, honey. We need some tequila. We need to get some drinks here. So I watched it for 14 minutes, and I got emotional about Dundalk and about them and Steve Cho who’s who runs eco bin, who’s one of my favorite restaurants in town, was the narrator in it. I’ve only met Steve once in my life, but I’ve eaten his broccoli 1000 times, and then I had a couple of sales calls in January with people who had never heard of me, like they just weren’t from around here. And there were sponsors that should be sponsors, like royal farms wise the Maryland lot, they should be sponsoring me. And inevitably, I wind up with a woman from out of town who’s never heard of me, right? Like, literally. And that’s was frustrating. And then I did a cup of Super Bowl last year, and I called you, and I said, All right, documentary. Tell me more. I mean, that’s literally how this happened, yeah. And I hit and I said, I know a guy that can help me do this. And it was like, is it gonna be eight minutes? Is it gonna be 12 minutes? It’s gonna be 15 minutes to be 15 minutes? We cut and I’m like, Well, let me just get everything together and let me work on a script. And we worked on a script, and he loved the script, and he saw you, you were overwhelmed by the pictures and the videos and a lot of the stuff that wound up in the end was only because he beat me up and said, You need transitions. I know you have video. You’ve done charity stuff. We need that. Yeah, I know you’ve been on national tel we need that. I We need this. We need Yeah, video, free the birds. Of course you do, because he shot it. He came to free, the birds shot video, handed me the video, and I it’s why it’s and I’m like, why are we gonna put that in? Free the birds is gonna be 10 seconds. If this thing’s 30 minutes, it’s gonna be 10 seconds. Of my life. So you take the story from here. God even wanted like because it is what it is, and I do want people to watch it. I love when my son finally watched it.
Gregg Landry 25:09
Yeah. So 36 minutes, and we had over 2200 pictures that we put in there. So it was quite dense with images. You were not shy about documenting your life over the years.
Nestor Aparicio 25:21
Somebody wants to be cut out, yeah? Me and I fought. Oh, my God, we fought, yeah. Oh, it was terrible. So we did the best direct your marriage. Your wife’s looking at me, she’s like, Yeah, yeah. He came home some of those nights. I’m glad only took like, two, three weeks. I mean, you know what? I mean, like, we
Gregg Landry 25:36
condensed, because it was very it was a hard fought there for a while. Man, he even
Nestor Aparicio 25:39
went on vacation in the middle and said, I’ll come back. You need to find some music, and we can’t. I did a pretty
Gregg Landry 25:46
good job with the music. Yeah, we found the right found the right music, everything. So
Nestor Aparicio 25:49
why did we find the right narrators?
25:52
Because, you know, people No, because you
Nestor Aparicio 25:54
refuse to do it. I did this documentary, and I had it. We wrote it, he edited it. I didn’t like his editing, and I kept it. You’re wrong about one thing, and I’m if we fix it, I’m going to fix it. He edited out the part of no one listens. Everyone hears that part because he didn’t think it would like, corporately be the best thing for me to say that no one ever listened. But that was the whole point. The whole point is for 20 years, Mickey Coachella, Jerry effing Coleman would come up the music. You got a zero in the ratings like, and meanwhile, the bars pack, like, all of that. So no one listens. He thought so we fought. And so don’t ever say that I had my way in the movie, because I do look at it sometimes and I say I would add, and then the minute I go add, I realize I’m pissing you off, and I love you too much to piss you off anymore. Thank you so. But like Fonzie, you were about that part of it, but you were so right about a lot of other things, you know what I mean? And the thing you were right about was I was done the whole thing, and all I wanted to do was get it done and not have him hate me. That’s true. I wanted it to be what I needed, what I wanted, but I didn’t want him to hate me, and it was really hard, because he hated me when this was going on. Everybody does when they’re making the baby with me.
Gregg Landry 27:20
We got through it. We did
Nestor Aparicio 27:21
get through it, but there was the point where that night, I said to you, all right, we’re done. Let’s do it. Let’s get this done. Let’s make this movie and add edit. Let’s go edit. Let’s make this movie. We have the script. Let’s do it. And he calls me panic, and he’s like, Well, who’s gonna be the narrator? And I said that, he looks away you, and he’s like, Oh, no, I’m not doing it. I’m like, Listen, you say something,
Gregg Landry 27:51
yeah. So he’s got a great voice. Listen, I was, I would have been happy to do it, but you have so many voices. You have so many voices in
Nestor Aparicio 27:57
it. Good narrator. He would have, thank you. Thank
Gregg Landry 28:02
you. Thank you. Part two, no, you just have so many professional voices in your life. We had to tap those. And you know, we ended up getting we ended up getting patronized.
Chris Forhan 28:12
Means what he did, celebrity friends. I think he was right again.
Nestor Aparicio 28:16
I don’t want to do it. Call your celebrity guy. I like this guy. So then what happened was, and this is going to be the fourth time we brought up the band the ravens, because Rob Fahey is going to play right here on Valentine’s night from the ravens, right? So Keith Brewer, that’s k y, f. Brewer begins with a K y. I should give him a hard time for that. He’s up Philadelphia root for the Eagles this weekend. So Keith was in the Brewers, or it was in the Ravens. Keith Brewer, and I knew him from a rock star 30 years ago. We’re Facebook friends, so about 25 years ago, because I met my wife, 22 years ago tomorrow. So it’s before I knew my wife. I lived in White Marsh, and there was a show on VH one called before they were rock stars. I remember. You remember that show? You’re old enough to remember that right before they were rocks. And so it wasn’t the show where the bands broke up. It was more of a documentary of how awesome Sheryl Crow’s life was in Missouri, and she was a music teacher, you know, and they talked to people in their life that knew her, and talked to Don Henley because he hired her, and Michael Jackson because she’s saying, like, so it was a story. And I watched it because I’m, I love rock stars, right? So it’s 25 years ago, and I remember watching it and thinking it was a great show, and it wasn’t as caustic, is the stick story, or how bands break up, right? And the drugs, and it didn’t have much of that. It was more of a happy story about Michael Bolton writing songs. And, you know, at the end it said, narrated Keith Brewer, KY F and I’m like, could that be my Keith? I never spoke to Keith Brewer about this. I don’t know that we’ve been in a room a lot, because he’s lived in Philly lately, but we’re friends. He when. They wrote the song that’s in the movie, in our documentary, I’m a raven maniac, that song that came out in 96 Keith Brewer called me because I didn’t really know Rob. Rob was a listener. Keith was a friend, right? Keith called me in 1996 he’s like, Hey, dude, we’re doing a song with the Ravens. Man, you got to come down. I want you to sing some backup on a thing. And I’m like, Well, that’s nice of you that you want me to sing. I don’t know that I’m a singer, but I’ll sing for you. They’re like, No, we want you to promote it. We want local people to be a part of the Raven maniac song. So they wrote this song. They actually played in harbor place the night before the Raiders game in 96 because their name was the ravens, they reunited. They did a free concert at the harbor. You’re
Chris Forhan 30:45
just so that wasn’t a wrap at this point. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 30:47
it was. It is those things? Well, rocking, you know, has a big chorus and a big guitar hook. It’s in the documentary. So Keith was in it, in this show, and I turned to my wife when you turned me down because I was a little pissed at you. I’m like, Come on, just read the damn thing. It’ll be fine. You have a beautiful voice
Chris Forhan 31:10
playing hard to get. Should have just like, recorded your voice. So he
Nestor Aparicio 31:14
says to me, get somebody professional to do it, somebody famous, is what he wanted. And I’m like, well, Keith Brewer, like, he made me think all night, how I am, man, I start writing stuff down ideas, and I’m like, Well, maybe John Allen will read something, and maybe Ray Bachman, who’s battling and doing well, would read something. And I’m like, I wonder if I could get Gina shocked to play sort of the role of my mother’s voice in Dundalk and do my Dundalk stuff. So then I started like, Landry, you’re a genius. You’re a genius. Towson transfers and blue, you’re a genius. So I then thought about Keith Brewer, and I walked into my wife. My wife was working late that night because you you, and it was dark. I remember, was winter. I remember walking to my wife, and I said to her, I’m like, well, Landry turned me down. This damn movie’s never gonna get done. And I said, I’m gonna text Keith Brewer right now. And she said, Who’s Keith Brewer? So I told her the story about behind the music. I said Keith was the greatest guy, and then I Googled him, and and it said he reads all the books for Danielle Steele, James patter, he is the books on tape. Author. Is what he does for a living these days, right, besides strumming the rock and roll
Chris Forhan 32:33
that makes or break breaks a book for me, barley juice. The narrator sucks on a book. I’m an Oddy, big audio. Oh, are you? I’m out if the marriage
Nestor Aparicio 32:40
okay? So I text Keith, and I said to my wife, if Keith Brewer will be the voice of God for my documentary telling my life story, this is going to be awesome, and it’s a great idea. If Keith Brewer turns me down, Greg’s going to be the So, and he didn’t want to do it. So Keith wrote me back, I swear to you, before I hit send, he replied, and I can read it, it’ll make me cry. But he said, of course, anything for you send it over. And I sent it over that night, and the next morning I called him, and I’m like, gold, gold. We got gold. And I sent it over to him, and he’s like, Oh my God. And an hour later, he had the first two minutes done, and he said, What do you think of this Quick Edit? And he sent it over to me, and I’m like, All right, you’re a genius. Greg Landry, so I just want to say that in front of your wife, in front of the Spirit of your Father in law, who’s Harvey, who is here judging me on all of this and making sure that I don’t screw it up, right? So that’s it, right? So that’s the whole story about the documentary that’s in Baltimore, positive and trying to help us get new sponsors and tell our story. Because inevitably, I had a 58 year old woman from Cincinnati sitting on the other end of a zoom during Christmas week who had never heard of me whose boss called me? What’s in that deck? Iconic, like all of those things I had a CEO say you’re a Baltimore icon, You’re a legend, you’re like all of this stuff. And now I’m on with a marketing woman who’s never heard of me in her life, and says, So tell me about yourself, and I’m like, so, you know, so that’s why we made the documents, right? So that’s it, you know, really interesting for me, it was made to save Baltimore positive is what it was made to do, yes. So it was, you
Chris Forhan 34:33
know, although I wasn’t along for the ride and all those things and learning about all the fun stuff that you’ve done in your life, but like, where we are today, like, as a society, with all the content creators like, I think it’d be very inspiring for younger people to like, I mean, you were out there creating content when there wasn’t even a platform for you, started creating your own place, and no one listened, yes, but everyone heard, right? I mean, I think I heard something somewhere like, I mean, there’s tons of stories of content. 10 creators out there right now where they would, you know, they would blog for 10 years, and only 100 people would read their blog. But now they’re making like, $30 million a year. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 35:07
Joe Rogan came up to me in Phoenix wanting to be on my radio show at the Super Bowl in 2008 Joe Rogan hung out at the table. I think he had a crush on my wife. She was beautiful, and Joe Rogan hung out around the table. He invited me and my wife to his comedy act. We went that night in Tempe Super Bowl week. And he’s just a dude, dude, you know, trying to do shit dark, really dark comedian. He got involved with all the muscle heads beating the hell out of each other in cages that he was into that John Rallo, like all of that, and the pocket he’s made that work in the same way that Howard Stern left terrestrial radio because the government was chasing him around and moved like you have to move in the same way that I stopped taking phone calls and for just this reason. Do I want to take phone calls about Justin Tucker this week, or do I want to talk about things like Reed’s rescue and the greater Chesapeake fan and local businesses and businesses like you getting started and trying to make a difference in an impact in the community, you know, and and Greg, you’ve been a brand maker for a lot of different brand. And this guy shot more commercials for the last 30 years than anybody in the city with all he did. Free the birds. All those commercials. Free the birds. He’s the one that shot them with me back in 2006 and positioning companies is what everybody wants to do. And you’ve been really good at doing that. You were great at doing that for me. So I’m very, very grateful. It was a pleasure, even though you hated me. It’s over with. It took him a year to even come over, right? I mean, haven’t seen him. He’s like,
Chris Forhan 36:39
Well, I mean, also I think nowadays it’s like, you don’t create a commercial as much as you are telling story, like authentic stories that connect with people, right? That’s what it should have been all but for so long, people were just like, Okay, we’re gonna put up a logo, we’re gonna put up a jingle and make it all about us, right? But like, you really capture those stories, and, you know, obviously a mountain of information woven into a 30 minute story and which you’re gonna whittle down to 30 seconds. Was that
Nestor Aparicio 37:05
your worst project ever? It
Gregg Landry 37:07
was one of the most difficult ones I have had because, because the timeline we were working on and the amount of information we but we did it. We were both professionals. We made it happen. It was great.
Nestor Aparicio 37:16
The only thing I would change is a little verbiage from no one listens, and have Mickey Coachella cut it, and there were a few swipes where I felt like we should zoom in or out, and that’s all artsy stuff. But other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing. I love you. Greg, thanks, man, appreciate you. Thank you. All right, I don’t hug too many people. Chris, you’re good. Towson torch, tell me how to
Chris Forhan 37:35
find him. I’m good. Towson torch, calm, sign up. It’s free, and stay in touch with everything good going on in Towson.
Nestor Aparicio 37:41
Chris foreign, my dude at Towson torch, formerly the Baltimore banner, and been my friend for a long time. Greg Landry, also here, Towson transfers Blue Rock. Is Blue Rock. Tell me what you do and how they can do their thing with you. Because it’s been 30 minutes. The guy takes media and makes and digitizes it, if you have video tapes, pictures, any of that stuff, but you do a whole lot more than that. So it’s two companies.
Gregg Landry 38:02
It’s Towson transfers. We do transfers of old media. And so if you have those tapes and films and slides at your home where you transfer those to digital, then the blue rock side been doing that for 30 years. That’s the side we did the documentary with. That’s video, professional video and photography. I’ve got a studio right there in my office, and a hell
Nestor Aparicio 38:20
of a drum kit, from what I can tell, that’s right, he’s trying out for me to the drummer in the cars, which all it was, right, nice. That would be great. You working on that?
Chris Forhan 38:29
Yes, I am. Every day there’s a cars documentary coming out. I heard here. Well, here’s
Nestor Aparicio 38:33
the problem with the cars. If you and I do a cover band, unless I could get Greg hawks in it, it won’t be as good as the band he’s got, because he’s got a great band. I’ve seen Greg hawks go out. We had him on a show last year of Maryland. Yeah, all right, I think he and I are gonna go see the cars band at daryl’s house. Yes, it’s in your homeland, in Connecticut. In Connecticut, yep, we’re gonna do it. All right, hope I got a free play say, Where’s where are we eating dinner? Up there after Darrell, is there? Like a great place to eat in Connecticut. You have a spot. What town steak loft there? See, perfect. That’s it. Mr. Connecticut. We’re gonna go to is that Mystic Pizza. Mystic near near Mystic Pizza. Mystic Connecticut. My dear friend Clark judge lives in New Haven. He has promised to take me on a pizza tour of New Haven. Okay, we’ll do a little a pizza. Do it. Let’s do it. Yeah, I love pizza. All right, we’re here at Cooper’s pub. I’m gonna wrap it up. Chris foreign is up Towson torch, my dear friend, Greg Landry of Towson transfers. He of the No one listens. Everyone hears documentary. He’s still wrong about the editing part, but really brilliant about the rest of it is that fine. I’ll take it. Gonna go to a ball game with me this year. Yes, we’re gonna haze the Yankee Soto is there to haze anymore? Who had more fun than us at that baseball nobody, nobody. Oh, my God, Luke, you would have been ashamed of us. Dude, you were at the game that day. It was 115 degrees or plenty of Yankees and Soto struck out. We beat them early in the game. Man. Curio Wallace, I love you. Wendy has seats. Curio has seats, right on the second row, right off the onto. Circle, visiting side. Oh, I hazed there and judge. So this is when Soto was staring who did he stare down? Who was the pitcher He stared down? I don’t know who it was, but it was like the day after he stared down a picture, who hit him? He does it literally, Kramer. Was a Kramer every time he’s up, but he stared down a picture, and when he got in the box, the place was quiet. I’m looking at you. Soto I’m staring, yeah, I got the stink eye from he struck out looking, oh my god, walking back to the dugout, there was one Puerto Rican dude the next section who was who was heckling in Spanish, but heckling the Orioles. Oh, he was heckling Santander, the English speaking Orioles. He was heckling them. But everything that came out was Spanish. He was yelling at the Yankees. It was a hoot. I want to go back and let’s do it again. Packed house. Yes, beat the Yankees. Awesome. All right. Greg’s here. Chris is here. My thanks to everybody here, including Terry Beck. Luke came and he hadn’t even any gumbo yet. You didn’t get some gumbo. All right, it’s not dark yet. Can’t have gumbo till it’s dark. It is. It’s New Orleans weekend, so I thought bringing my friends together for the best gumbo in the world, right here at Cooper’s North would be a great thing to do. My thanks to all of our sponsors, the Maryland lottery, also wise markets, everybody that’s put up with me this week, our friends at fates that I screwed up and locked my equipment in the car Tuesday and had to cancel the show. We’ll be back at fatales two Tuesdays from now, and we will be on Wednesday at libs grill in Bel Air with Republican county executive, Bob Cassidy and Joe slipka, who Joe’s very special. Joe owned the barn. Joe was a part of all of my barn shows. He now works directly with Bob Cassidy and republican government up in Harford County. He is bringing bobcat. I’ve never met Bob Castley, so I’m looking forward to meeting him. That’ll be on one that’ll be on Wednesday. I also have a whole bunch of great guests at libs grow on Wednesday, including Nick we’re gonna talk about the community up in Bel Air as well. Signing off for Cooper. Is it happy hour? You know it Super Bowls past. Luke will admit this, we always got done at five o’clock on Friday, Super Bowl weekend. And when Roger, he’s going like this, when Roger Goodell, when he liked the media, back in the day, they would have a really wet location right off the convention center with unlimited complimentary beverages. I think he and I drank six or seven every night in Houston, every night like five or six, six or seven, where the guys from Pittsburgh, yeah, the guys from Pittsburgh were drinking the wine, but we this was where we would get together as journalism Bros and all like, make our way to the media lounge, where some great restaurant like Coopers would be serving its world famous Gumbo and little cups. And then we get beer, and we would just drink our faces off on the Friday night of Super Bowl week. So you’re saying it was your Super Bowl as well. I’m saying that I’m here very purposely and intentionally at five o’clock on a Friday afternoon where the best gumbo in the world is during Super Bowl week. So we’re Coopers north. Come on out. My thanks to Chris, my thanks to Greg and all of our guests here. Gabby Rigo, so we had Katie Caple, we had Monique Spagnola. We had Jessica Normington. We’ve had Luke Jones. We had Terry Beck. And if I forgot anybody else, I love you. Back for more. We’re Baltimore positive. I’m signing off and getting wet. We’re Cooper’s. You.
