The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Court Clash: Joe Thomas v Monticello Media; Thomas v MM: Who Won Broadcasting Brouhaha?

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Court Clash: Joe Thomas v Monticello Media Thomas v MM: Who Won Broadcasting Brouhaha? How Will CVille City Handle Homeless Population? San Fran Arresting Homeless People 303 Alderman Dev + Impact On Lewis Mountain 303 Alderman Dev + Impact On City Of CVille 303 Alderman Dev + Impact On Albemarle Co CVille’s Crush Pad Gets National Recognition Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Thursday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. We enjoy connecting with you through our studio in downtown Charlottesville on a show that airs Monday through Friday, 1230 to 130, on just about every social and podcasting platform possible. Today's program I'm jacked up for. We had this week in particular a news cycle that is loaded with quality content that applies to the city, to Albemarle County, and to Central Virginia as a region. We'll talk about a broadcasting brouhaha,

a broadcasting brawl. Do we have another synonym, Judah, for brawl or brouhaha that starts with a B? I don't right now. Brouhaha is one of my favorite words out there. I love brujaha and I love the word scuttlebutt. Anyway, Joe Thomas against Monticello Media. Viewers and listeners are saying battle or bickering as options. A broadcasting battle.

A broadcasting brujaha and a broadcasting brawl. Battle Royale. Thomas being sued by George Reed and Monticello Media. Full disclosure, Monticello Media, my former employer. Also full disclosure, I Reed and Monticello Media. As part of that sale and that transition, we were all asked to sign non-competes. I was very low man on the totem pole there, fresh out of the University of Virginia. I saw the non-compete. Even then, in my early mid-20s, I realized I should not sign this

because it was going to diminish my leverage and my options. I never signed the non-compete, and Monticello Media never followed up asking for one. And about a year and change later, a few years later, I was recruited and courted by the Sports Attic Radio Network, which had affiliates in North Carolina, across the Commonwealth, into Tennessee, and into parts of D.C. They offered a compensation package, benefits and perks that far exceeded what I was getting at Monticello Media, and I took the job.

Then I had a syndicated radio show, the Jerry Miller Show, that aired on a bunch of affiliates across Virginia into North Carolina, Tennessee, and D.C. Kevin Quigley, the man in black, was the director and producer of that talk show. They talked to me, Monticello Media, about that non-compete. I said, show me where you have a signed one. And they could never produce it. So a lot of perspective I can offer on the Joe Thomas versus Monticello Media brouhaha. A broadcasting brawl, a broadcasting battle royale.

We'll talk on today's program, Alderman Road, 303 Alderman Road specifically, and how it's going to impact the Lewis Mountain neighborhood, the city of Charlottesville. And ladies and gentlemen, we have to be very frank here. This is going to impact Albemarle County as well. If you can take single family detached lots and you can raise or knock down the house and replace them with what could be six $1 million townhomes, as Deep Throat outlined yesterday, what he anticipates the pricing structure to be when they come to market. That's going to impact traffic flow down Ivy Road, Lewis Mountain, right on the city-county line. On today's program, we're going to have Judah Wickhauer, we're about to hear from Judah,

offer his perspective on the Carlton Avenue Mobile Home Park and how Habitat for Humanity, Piedmont Housing Alliance, the city, and all parties involved are handling it, as Judah Wickhauer has said, the wrong way. We're going to talk San Francisco. I say it's safe to say this, Judah. San Francisco, California, one of the most liberal cities in America. Is that safe to say, Judah? I think that's safe to say.

I haven't been there in... Are you on a two-shot? Yeah. I haven't been there in 20 or so years, but yeah, it's a very liberal city. public service workers to go after homeless encampments, take their belongings, throw them in a dumpster truck, arrest the homeless folks,

or cite the homeless folks with citations. If one of the most liberal cities in America is raising and destroying homeless encampments fresh after the Supreme Court ruling that offered jurisdictions autonomy when it comes to the houseless sleeping outside? How will the city of Charlottesville respond, Very liberal, but not as liberal as San Francisco. This is a question about local government

and how City Hall and our council will handle the houseless population. This is a topic that's going to gain momentum, ladies and gentlemen. We'll highlight the downtown mall and crush pad getting national recognition. A lot we're going to cover on today's talk show. We'll give some props to partner of the program,

Pro Renata in Crozet. We love Dr. John Shabe and the team at Pro Renata. You'll see them on the talk show next weekend, or excuse me, next Wednesday, as they expand their team, as they expand their footprint. Pro Renata is becoming one of the big boys in beer. Their hop drone, one of my favorite IPAs, Pro Renata in Crozet, Disney World basically for Crozet,

with live music, with fantastic food, with great beer, with axe throwing, stuff to do for kids, and that view at the base of the Blue Ridge. Oh my, oh my. Pro Renata does it absolutely right. Judah Wickhauer, evidently the word on the street is you were pontificating on the think tank about the Carlton Avenue mobile home part. I'm glad you pontificate on the think tank as well. Where do you want to begin with this?

I don't know if I was pontificating or think tanking, but I just, I was, I don't know if I was pontificating or think-taking, but I was thinking about who actually wins in any of the provided scenarios. And it doesn't seem like anybody really wins. Okay. Because in the best case, I think we can say that within three years, all those people are going to have to do something with their homes. And it's doubtful they can sell them. And I think it's questionable that they to find the funding to acquire the six acres and preserve a mobile home park for what will most likely be a three-year period of time, that's the extent of the commitment. And then Habitat is likely going to do something with the space. Similar to Southwood, like we just saw Southwood cross the street from your parents, down Fifth Street extended. A lot of the residents of Southwood said that they were tricked or bamboozled. Some were able to preserve a position in the redevelopment that is now Southwood.

Others were certainly pushed out. Many of the folks, if not the very, very large majority, lower income and from an acquisition or deal flow or development standpoint, probably not the most sophisticated with seeing what could be coming 36 months plus down the road. Oh, definitely not the most sophisticated. Sour grapes. I think a lot of people would say you made a bad investment sorry because you didn't buy you didn't buy the the dirt underneath your underneath your home you can't you can't do that but the folks in a mobile home park can't buy the

dirt under their home i know that they can't buy the pad i know that that's why i'm saying a lot of people might say that they made a bad investment. But the fact of the matter, what we have to remember is that these are people. And insert the name of any friend or family member and I think we'll see that nobody

is happy about the situation these people are in. And nobody would wish it on anyone else. And as I was saying i think the uh the best case scenario for those people what we're looking at right now is for you know is they've got three years before uh before their places are either getting moved or torn down. And the likelihood of them being able to sell their trailers, as you so astutely pointed out, is very slim,

especially with an additional 36 months plus of wear and tear to the trailers. The resale value just is not there. Okay, keep going. I think you're on to something here. So what I kept coming back to was there's a big, the unknown is one of, it's a giant question mark. We don't know what they, we don't know who placed the first offer. We don't know anything about them. We don't know what their plans are. But we have to, I think it's safe to assume that they do have plans. The people who made a $7 million

offer, you're saying it's safe to assume that they do have plans for the park? Yeah. Yes. There's $7 million of plans. Yeah. You don't invest $7 million without having a plan. Exactly. Okay. I don't think that's an assumption. I think that's a fact. Yeah, I'm sure it is. And I think the likelihood of it staying as a trailer park is not great either. Yeah, exactly. If they buy it, they have to, what is it, like $5,000 they have to put towards moving each of the trailers? You'd have to look at the details yourself. I don't have those off the top of my hand.

Whatever the number is, I believe they have to provide some amount of financial assistance to help move the trailers, no matter what happens, no matter what they decide to do. So I was thinking the best case scenario would be finding a place for these people that isn't going to end in three years. So what if Piedmont Housing Alliance and Habitat worked out a deal with Albemarle County, bought some land? I mean, the property that these places are on is not enormous, right? It's not. Six acres. Yeah, six acres. Six acres in the city is pretty significant. Yeah. That's it. Assembling Six acres in the city is pretty significant. Yeah. Assembling six acres in the city is extremely difficult. Right, but what about out in Albemarle?

There's much more likelihood of finding six-acre assemblage in Albemarle County. Build them a road off of some place out in Albemarle County, buy a piece of land, get it set up, ready for these mobile homes to move in there. And then after this company buys the property in Charlottesville, they have to pay to move them all to the new spot. So they're covering that. And we have to assume, as we've already covered, they've got plans. So there's your density, hopefully some housing affordability. And all of these people get to keep their houses at a new spot. I mean, not all of them are going to want to move. They're trailers. But they get to keep the trailers. And Piedmont Housing Alliance and Habitat can work out a 99-year deal like CIVO loves to do and make it so that these people can't be moved off that land.

A 99-year lease? Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's pretty much it. I don't know. It may be a horrible plan. I obviously don't know housing like you and some of our viewers do. But it seems like more people win in that configuration than what we're currently looking at.

Can I push back on it? Yeah, of course. I'm not claiming that this is a great idea. Don't marginalize your ideas. Go ahead. Always lead with confidence. I'm going to push back on it. Sure.

Who's going to pay for the dirt in Alamaro County? You could ask the same question of who's going to pay for the dirt in Seville. Okay. Who's going to pay for the site work in Alamaro County? Who's going to pay for the roads? Because the site work and the roads and the infrastructure already exist on the Carleton Mobile Home Park currently.

Who's going to pay for the infrastructure? Okay, but $7 million, would $7 million cover six acres in Albemarle County? Depends on where the six acres are. Right. If you did six acres in Farmington, $7 million wouldn't cover that. Yeah.

If you did six acres in Greenwood, maybe. I think we can safely say that I wasn't suggesting that they buy six acres in Farmington. I'm going to offer more pushback for you. So the first piece of pushback is what you're proposing is going to be significantly more costly than Habitat for Humanity finding $7 million to purchase the Carlton Mobile Home Park. Why significantly more? Because there's no site work. There's no infrastructure.

There's no roads. You would have to build those. You'd have to coordinate with VDOT. You'd have to get the Virginia Department of Transportation involved. You'd have to talk taxpayer money. It would have to go through the Board of Supervisors. You'd need to do a joint venture with the city of Charlottesville and Alamaro County. The last time the city of Charlottesville and Alamaro County tried to do a joint venture was the courthouses.

And the removal of the Alamaro County courthouses from downtown Charlottesville to some location in Alamaro County to spur or stimulate economic development. That was a train wreck of significant proportions. I'll take it a step further. We talked last week on the program that the planning commissions of the city of Charlottesville and Amarillo County have not met in five plus years. You're proposing a suggestion that involves the planning commissions to work in joint fashion, the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, and those same commissions have not met in joint fashion in over five years. I'll take it a step further. Maybe it's time we rise up.

I'll take it a step further. Take up arms against Albemarle County. I'll take it a step further. How are you going to handle this? Judah Wickower wants to take the population that is a step or two above being houseless, away from the epicenter of employment, and compartmentalize them on the cheapest dirt in a vast county called Albemarle, and make them figure out a way to get to their jobs in the city? How are you going to manage the political outcry and the political fallout from activists and livable Seville if you make that move? That's kind of a fool's argument though. No? Yeah. You're taking the marginalized family, the marginalized population, and you're saying you have to go to the furthest corner of Albemarle

County, put them in Woodridge, put them in Afton, put them in Greenwood, put them right on the Barbersville line. I never said the furthest corner. Well, that's the cheapest dirt. It's not going to be in the urban ring, six acres. Okay. Well, then let's stick with the original plan where they get three years, and that's it.

I mean, if somebody seriously wants to argue, again, I'm not saying that it's a great idea and I'm not saying it would work, but if you're just comparing the idea of moving their houses to somewhere that's, you're right, not the center of Charlottesville, I would think that's still a better alternative to having a house for the next three years and then figure it out.

Good luck. I appreciate the pontification. I would see it playing out this way. Activists up in arms that're compartmentalizing a marginalized population in the furthest corners of our community, forcing them to figure out ways to get to employment, and pushing them into areas where public transportation does not exist. That's fair.

I think they would say, who's going to pay for the project? I think they would say, are Albemarle County taxpayers going to have to float the bill for city residents in a city problem? I think they would say, are we sending city problems to Albemarle County to manage in perpetuity with our taxpayer resources, with our utilities, with our water, with our electrical lines, with our relationship with the Virginia Department of Transportation? You're basically taking a population from Charlottesville and jettisoning it to Albemarle County and saying, Albemarle County, this is now your conundrum. How is it their conundrum?

What do you mean? Right now, it's Charlottesville's conundrum. I would say it's not really Charlottesville or Albemarle's conundrum. It's definitely Charlottesville's conundrum. Local government's about to loan money to Habitat for Humanity to buy a trailer park. Yeah, but we both know that Albemarle County is not going to lend anyone money to do anything about it.

Just push them back. Yeah. I appreciate your idea. You're probably right that that would be the argument. It's, you know, I think we can both say that those arguments...

If you're going to get outraged, I think the time has passed for that. These people are getting pushed out of their homes one way or the other sometime in the next three years. Can the studio camera pick up the guy on Market Street right now walking around with a cape and a wand? Do you see him? Do you have the studio camera on? No. There's a Market Street cam. There's a man with a cape and a staff.

I think we just missed him. That's all right. We'll get back to the Joe. Let's go back to the Joe Thomas here. No need to get it out there. Lower third on screen, the first one. Joe Thomas versus Monticello Media. Paul Spencer has excellent reporting on this.

Joe Thomas, I need to offer some disclosures here. And we have some comments that have come in here. I'll get to Deep Throat's comment here in a matter of moments. Deep Throat's comments are excellent. Bill McChesney, I'll get to your comments here in a matter of moments. Logan Wells-Claylow and Vanessa Parkhill, thank you for watching the show.

Viewers and listeners, like and share the show. Vanessa Parkhill, I'll get to your... Vanessa Parkhill says, as an Alamo County taxpayer, I have no desire for my government to do a joint venture with the city of Charlottesville. They already get a chunk of our tax dollars via the revenue sharing agreement, and I have no vote on how those dollars are spent since I don't live in the city. Elmira leadership needs to not enable more poor decisions made by city

council. Just pushing back a little bit on there, Judah. I appreciate that. Deep Throat says this. I know not a popular opinion in Charlottesville, but Habitat is not what it's all sized up to be. There's a woman who worked for us in Austin, got a home via Habitat,

it was falling apart within two years. She was great with our kids and didn't have a lot of options. We ended up giving her several thousands of dollars to deal with urgent repairs to shift what was not done right the first time. This was also the argument made in the Charlottesville Tomorrow article who quoted residents of the Carlton Mobile Home Park who pointed to the park that was next to the mobile home park, Carlton, formerly the Sunshine Mobile Home Park, that was

converted to apartments and condos. And the residents quoted in the Charlottesville Tomorrow story said that structure is not of good quality. Yeah, and there were other problems as well with dealing with habitat. Then he makes a joke, well if we trust Bo Carrington and Justin Schimpf, the land by the Rivanna on High Street is perfectly safe, put the

trailers there. That's obviously a tongue in cheek joke. The community would not allow that. The Joe Thomas story. Put them on stilts. The Joe Thomas story. Put the mobile homes on stilts? I think he's also, I hope he's joking.

I think he's joking. The Joe Thomas story is one that hits close to home. I need to offer some disclosures as you're rotating lower thirds on screen. Joe Thomas was my one-time boss at Monticello Media. I worked for the Daily Progress as a staff writer and editor while working as an on- WKAV, an AM station. That show started on a 30-minute slot on Saturday mornings, and it got very popular very quickly.

The 30-minute slot on Saturday mornings turned into two hours on Saturday mornings, and that two hours on Saturday mornings turned into Monday through Friday, drive time, talk radio, sports wrap with Jerry Miller, and a Saturday morning show as well. While working for this station, before it was clear channel communication. That's who the owner was and who was signing my checks, Clear Channel Communication. I took the talk show from 30 minutes on Saturday to five days a week, while Clear Channel was the owner of the stations and the cluster that Monticello Media owns now. George Reed, a fantastic business person, believe he lives in Florida, knows the radio business inside and out,

owns stations elsewhere, including Blacksburg, also out of the state. He puts an offer on the table when Clear Channel Communication was just in the crapper from a business model standpoint. So Mr. Reed buys these stations. It was,

let me see if I can do this, if memory serves. 99.7 WCYK, the country station, which is the flagship station of Monticello Media. 107.5, two AM stations, including 1400 WKAV where I worked and an AM talk station conservative where Joe was working 102.3 and Hot 101.9

Hot 101.9 and 99.7 WCYK are the drivers of revenue for this 6 radio station cluster by far when Monticello Media and George Reed acquired these six stations from Clear Channel Communication, they immediately came in with any acquisition, and they tried to figure out how to make the model more efficient.

They have debt service tied to the acquisition, and they need to optimize what they're buying to help cover the cost of the debt service tied to the acquisition and they need to optimize what they're buying to help cover the cost of the debt service. That includes laying off personnel, expensive personnel or personnel that's not performing. That includes finding built-in, you know, creating efficiencies to make the model run better. That includes driving incremental revenue by incentivizing the sales staff to reach higher goals or pressuring the sales staff to reach higher goals or pressuring the sales staff to reach higher goals. One of the other things they also did when acquiring the station, the stations from Clear Channel, made everybody sign non-competes, non-compete agreements.

You had to do it if you were to keep earning a paycheck. At the time, 1400 WKAV, the sports station, was the red-headed stepchild of Monticello Media. Red-headed stepchild. And they asked me to sign a non-compete. I was in my early, mid-20s. I realized at the time, I definitely don't want to sign this. Didn't do anything about it. Didn't bring it to work. It was a low man on the totem pole. They forgot about me. Everybody else signed one. I

never did. They never asked. I kept getting the paycheck every two weeks. Then the show that I was doing, Sports Rap with Jerry Miller, took off and advertisers followed. And when the show that I was doing, Sports Rap with Jerry Miller, took off and advertisers followed. And when the show took off and advertisers followed, another radio group, the Sports Attic Radio Network, owned by a family out of Roanoke or Blacksburg, they had sports affiliates all over the Commonwealth, ESPN affiliates in North Carolina, in Tennessee, and D.C. Pretty large coverage footprint for this family-owned radio network. Their vice president randomly reaches out to me and says, We want to make you an offer. We want you to come to our network.

We're going to give you this signing bonus. We're going to give you this signing bonus. We're going to give you this base salary. We're going to give you this percentage for sales that are associated with your show. Anytime you suppress this barometer, you get a taste. We'll give you medical. We'll give you health care. We'll give you a BlackBerry. Remember when BlackBerrys were a thing?

I used to love the BlackBerry. The actual keypad where I would push the buttons, I was a wizard on that BlackBerrys were a thing? I used to love the BlackBerry. The actual keypad where I would push the buttons, I was a wizard on that BlackBerry. An absolute wizard. And I said, wow, this is a pretty good package here. I negotiated a little bit, got the signing bonus a little higher, got a little bit more base pay, and I said, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to move.

Joe Thomas is literally my boss at this time. He's the program director of WCHV and the program director of WKV, the sports station I'm working for. And I go into work and I say, here's my two weeks notice. I'm not going to be working for you anymore. I'm going across the street. Really, it was Green County where the local transmitter was situated. And I'm not going to be doing a show on Monticello Media afternoons anymore. And they said, what?

What are you talking about? You can't do that. Sign a non-compete. You can't do that. I said, I'm doing this. They said, we'll be in touch with you. Came back later and they said, where's that document that you were supposed to sign to stay on air? And I said, what do you mean?

What do you mean, that document? And they pulled it out. They're like, you need to sign this if you need to stay on air. I said, I just told you I'm taking a job elsewhere. Why would I sign this that says I can't take a job elsewhere? They said, you need to sign this if you want to still stay on air. I said, I'm not going I sign this that says I can't take a job elsewhere? They said, you need to sign this if you want to still stay on air. I said, I'm not going to sign this. And that's when we parted ways. Prior to the two-week window, my two-week notice, that's how the marriage divorced with Monticello Media and yours truly. Joe was sour with me. George Reed,

certainly sour with me. The sales staff, sour with me. The folks, we built a brand here, a five-day-a-week brand that was doing a lot of revenue, the Sports Wrap brand. Long story short, I go do the show over there, get some advertisers. That ends up being a television show. The Jerry Miller show on these radio affiliates ends up being a TV show on Sunday with NBC 29 and a TV show on Saturday with the CW, which is also part of the NBC affiliate. I was able to parlay radio on air, syndicated in three states and into the DC area, into two TV shows as well, while writing for the newspaper, the Daily Progress. So we were doing print, radio and television all at the same time, mid early twenties. I think it

was like 75, 80, 85,000 in salary, mid early twenties. Ands, and then finally I said I'm going to start my own business. That was 16, almost 16 and a half years ago. 16 years ago in May, so 16 years in change when I decided to start my own business. I've told that story before. I won't get into it today. The point is I offer that perspective to you because I have first-hand perspective on what Joe is going through now, what Monticello Media is going through now. Joe signed a non-compete. I know what the non-compete looked like. I probably still have it somewhere at my house. That non-compete clearly says you can't work for a competitor in broadcasting. You have to take time off the air before you can work somewhere else. Why they want you to take time off the air before you can work for else. Why they want you to take time off the air

before you can work for another station is because they don't want you to take the advertisers with you because the advertisers are tied to your brand in a lot of circumstances when it comes to radio. Furthermore, the radio station, with its commercial programming, with its liners, with its spots, it builds the brand of the broadcaster. The broadcaster's brand is being built by the radio station.

So Monticello Media can legitimately say, we built Joe's brand. One of the reasons Joe is able to buy this station in Stanton is because we built his brand over these years of him working here in Charlottesville and Central Virginia. And that's true. That is 100% true. They paid for Joe to go to political conferences, political events, out-of-market events, and they created commercial inventory around Joe Thomas, the broadcaster, an award-winning

broadcaster, fantastic broadcaster, all-around great guy. Here's the problem. And this is a perspective from somebody that's in the industry, worked in the industry, loves media analysis. With the suing of Joe Thomas in court, Elliot Harding, Joe Thomas' attorney, by the way, did you catch that? Yeah, I saw. Friend of the program, Elliot Harding, great attorney, Elliot Harding.

The suing of Joe Thomas makes Monticello Media look bad here. It's a David and Goliath situation. Yeah. It's as if Joe Thomas has a slingshot in like four or five rocks and is swinging his rocks above his head to try to defend himself with this slingshot. And one of those rocks is Elliot Harding, the Esquire. One of the rocks is this, this, I'm not going to air my show in the morning. I'll air it in the afternoon.

One of the rocks is Joe Thomas doing the GoFundMe, trying to ask his most loyal fans to pay for his legal defense. He asked for $10,000 in GoFundMe revenue. I don't know if he hit that goal or not. Last I checked, he was below it. So here you have a husband and wife. I've met his wife, Elaine, who bled for Monticello Media, who were CHV.

And thought they were creating a deal that was going to work with Monticello Media until Monticello Media got cold feet and said, you're fired. And then everything from Monticello media sounds like a bunch of whining to me. They're angry that they lost ad revenue.

They said $25,000 in ad revenue has gone off the air in the court room since Joe left. That's a lot of money for an AM radio station. But there's no proof that he had anything to do with... Elliot Harding makes the argument

that it's not like Joe's trying to recruit these advertisers. The reality is the advertisers choose to advertise with the personality, not the station. Yeah. Joe is the station. Exactly. Monticello Media makes a very strong argument that we have a contractual

arrangement on paper that says Joe cannot do a show or cannot broadcast on a competing outlet, a competing station in this footprint and he signed it. Monticello Media's attorney makes the argument that if you don't

enforce this agreement, you're basically diminishing or marginalizing or pissing on contractual arrangements in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yeah. I think it's good that they're doing away with a lot of the non-competes. But yeah, you're right. Contractually, it's in there. Again, it comes across to me as a lot of whining. At a time when radio broadcasting is... Struggling. The platform or medium of yesteryear

going by the way of Morse code or the carrier pigeon, the last thing you want to do is create a perception of being a Goliath, a bully, that's trying to stomp on the Davids of the world. Because it's the Davids of the world that are the listeners of the medium. And it's the Davids of the world that are the listeners of the medium, and it's the Davids of the world that are willing to support the advertisers on the medium. And if the Davids of the world feel that you are mistreating or not acting in good will or in good faith, or you're using corporate tactics to squash or crush the American dream,

that's going to backfire on you. And sometimes in business, just like sometimes in life, when I get home from work, I get to go to work. I work my ass off. You know I work my ass off, right? But I've built a job around a line of work that I love to do. You know I love my job. I love my job. I love what I do. I get to go to work and do what I love to do. When I go home, my wife, a stay-at-home mom, the best one out there in the whole world,

our two boys, fantastic sons, but absolute lunatics. Our sons. When I go home and I can tell my wife, who's been all summer with two lunatics, keeping them alive, keeping them reading, learning, and trying to be less loony, and she may be a little snippy or a little short or curt at that moment i choose to bite to be reserved bite my tongue go with the flow in business sometimes you make the decisions in business to not pursue something. Not every dollar is the same value. You make decisions in business that are for the betterment of the business in totality,

where you may lose the battle today, but you do it so you win the war tomorrow. And Monticello Media is coming across as being so focused on winning the battle today that they're going to lose the war tomorrow. And Monticello Media is coming across as being so focused on winning the battle today that they're going to lose the war tomorrow. And the war that they're going to lose tomorrow is the war of perception and goodwill and community equity. No doubt. And all they're doing is strengthening or fortifying the Joe Thomas brand and keeping Mr. Thomas in the news cycle even more, making him come across as a... Cause celeb? As someone we should feel bad for.

Yeah. A cancer survivor and his wife, in their 60s, spent $275,000 to buy an antiquated medium and now corporate out-of-market structure is bullying them in court forcing them to pass the digital hat

the digital panhandling asking for help hat, the digital panhandling, asking for help to save their chance at pursuing the American dream. Yeah. John Blair offering some perspective.

I don't know the particulars as non-competes aren't my practice area, but the Federal Trade Commission's recently enacted a nationwide ban on non-competes with certain exceptions. I don't know if that will come into play in this litigation or not, but I thought I'd pass this along to you. Thank you, John. Hall Spencer reports on the non-competes in the article. Do you have the article in front of you? Yeah, he basically says that after 2020 they're pretty much defunct. There's not really much you can do with a non-compete. But since this was signed in 2007, the judge, who clearly, based on Haas Spencer's reporting, seemed to think that this was a little bit frivolous, but I think he sided with the law.

And I think the judge was looking at this and being like, what are you guys doing? His station may have a little bleed over into your area, but you're basically being... A bully! You're being arses. You're utilizing the court system and wasting taxpayer resources to bully a cancer survivor in his 60s and his wife,

who spent $275,000 that they did not have to buy an antiquated medium, and you're trying to slice and dice the American dream. And bought it thinking that they were going to coexist with Monticello Media until Monticello Media changed their minds. You know what they say about partnerships in business? What's that? You know what they say about partnerships in business, right?

They make interesting bedfellows. No, I don't know. They don't work. Yeah. They don't work. Anyway, it's a mess. An absolute mess. And I feel and I empathize for Mr. Thomas.

Yeah. He's a human, but as a businessman, and say what you want about me. I come on this show and do relay content to you five days a week. This is a

portion, a small sliver of what we do professionally. We love this community. We read and know a lot of people in this community. And our previous profession was broadcasting where we were able to deliver media in the spoken word, the written word, and the broadcasted form on TV or radio. And we're using those experiences to raise awareness for our business endeavors, whether it's the business brokerage, the real estate holdings we have, the consultation we offer businesses to drive, to increase market share

or drive incremental revenue, the funding raise we help businesses do where they're looking for funding from folks in the community. That's how we make our living. And it's not this. But we're most known for it. So the businessman in me says this. The person, the humanitarian in me, empathizes for Joe and Elaine. The businessman in me says he made his own bet. He had a non-compete signed. He tried to do a joint venture with a radio cluster. That radio cluster, non-compete, joint venture all imploded, went ahead with the $275,000 purchase on an antiquated medium, had investor money, and now is in a tough position. I kind of think he's going to come out all right. You think

you're going to kind of come out all right in the AM radio business stratosphere? What's the problem? What are the carrier pigeons doing right now? What's the problem? What are the carrier pigeons doing right now? What's the Morse code doing right now?

Where's the evening newspaper right now? Where's the morning newspaper right now? Where's the 11 o'clock news right now? Where's the 6 p.m. news right now? Where's the sunrise news right now? Where's the dial-up telephone in the kitchen with that stretchy cord that I used to be able to... Can you go to the studio camera? Remember this, guys? Wall, kitchen. Pick the phone up off the wall. 434-766-3200. Hey, Amy, how's it going? What are you doing?

Yeah, I'd love to get some beers. I got a fake ID. Should we go to Paul's Deli in Williamsburg? Would love to do that. Where's the dial-up phone, Judah? That's not the media medium. It's this. It's this.

It's social. And you know what one day this, the phone and social media and Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat and TikTok and YouTube, Apple Podcasts iTunes, LinkedIn Fountain, where else are we airing I'm missing some of the platforms we're airing on

one day all those platforms are going to be the carrier pigeon and the yellow pages and the carrier pigeon and the yellow pages and the evening newspaper and the 11 o'clock news and the AM transmitter I want them to come out ahead I really really do

I really really do but when you get into a vehicle, you're listening to Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, and streaming. Just like when you go on your couch, you're watching Prime or Netflix, HBO Max. All right. We got to talk about the next topic here.

Put the San Francisco headline on first, if you could. What? San Francisco is using San Francisco-branded utility trucks and dump trucks and using San Francisco police and San Francisco public service workers to go to various homeless encampments, picking up tents and personal belongings and throwing them into the dump trucks and arresting or offering citations

to the houseless who refuse to leave the encampments and the places they've lived for years. This is the most liberal or one of the most liberal cities in America. And it's happening right now. It's the I Love Seville show, so we localized it to Charlottesville. Charlottesville is extremely liberal, but I would say it's not as liberal as San Francisco.

How is local government, City Hall, going to manage this storyline? And are they already starting to do it? Show is yours, Judah B. Wittkower. Show is mine? Good grief. Okay. Okay.

No, I don't think Charlottesville is going to do anything. I think the situations are so different as to be almost unrecognizable as the same problem. I think part of what's going on in San Francisco is likely, what's his name? Newsom. Newsom pushing to get some of this done. I think he's lived under a cloud of a miasma, if you will, of the problem of homeless people in California for years. And he's finally got the ability to do something about it. And he's pushing for localities to do something about it.

And I would imagine that the government in San Francisco, as liberal as it may be, has probably had enough of some of these encampments. And now they've been given the go-ahead, and not just the go-ahead, but the push by Newsom, they're going to do something about it. I don't think that we have... I'm going to push back on this. I don't think that we have the type of problems that you see in California. And frankly, I don't think, even if we did,

I don't know if Seville would do anything about it. I'm going to push back on this. Unless it was in a park. Okay. Well, there was one of the points I was going to make. We had an encampment at Market Street Park. That was the first problem Sam Sanders, the newly minted city manager, had to deal with. A problem Sam Sanders created himself.

A problem that was monikered and dubbed by this show, Sandersville. The modern day version of Hooverville. He was lambasted by media and taxpayers and stakeholders. And he looked bad with that decision. And then he made the police the fall guys as the folks that had to clear the encampment in the park. The police had to evict the park houseless population. On downtown Charlottesville, across from City Hall,

with the bus station, earlier this week, fencing was positioned. Yeah. Wrapping around the area specifically where half a dozen to a dozen homeless folks live. I know. It's a very intimidating barrier. A barrier that did not exist last week exists this week.

A barrier that exists freshly in the shadows of the Supreme Court decision that allows jurisdictions the autonomy to evict the houseless from public spaces. I'm making a bold prediction that that is the first step in the city making an effort with the houseless in 10.2 square miles. Supreme Court decision influenced and complimented by Friends of Seville, the lobbying group of stakeholders, real estate owners, and small business owners in downtown Charlottesville, is going to be a perfect storm

that pressures and influences council to take a different stance on the houseless population in this city. Time will tell. to take a different stance on the houseless population in this city. Okay. Time will tell. Yeah.

Time will tell. Did you find the fencing around the transit station formally the visitor's bureau odd? What was your reaction to that fencing? Humor. Humor? Let's take fencing, let's take the area where six to twelve people

have slept for years and keep them from sleeping there and it's funny? It's a three foot, it's... No, I don't find it funny. I find it humorous. I'm not laughing at the situation. I'm not laughing at Seville not allowing homeless people to take up residence under that overhang. But the fact that they put up a three foot you know probably not even three foot fence

around that small area when you're not even doing anything on the three foot tall that fence if you stretch it out it's probably like 20 to 25 feet it's more than one gate yeah so you're probably looking at 20 to 25 feet of fencing there. Oh no. Someone told them to do that. Right? Somebody decided to put it up there. Who made that decision? That's a good question. Was it the head of neighborhood development services? Did city council make the instruction?

Was it Sam Sanders? Who told them to put 20 feet of fencing around the train station? Around the transit station, not train station, the bus station. Who made that call? You're blocking off the entrance to the bus station. I don't think the upstairs doors are even unlocked anymore. I'm pretty sure you can get through the upstairs by going in through the Water Street entrance. We should figure that out. The Water Street entrance is a floor down. Yeah, I know. And I think you could go upstairs after coming in the Water Street entrance. Okay. You're saying to go out through those doors?

You used to be able to enter the transit station through the downtown mall. There's stairs there. I understand that. Now you can't enter that way. Right. You would have to jump over a fence. They've closed off...

As if the doors were even unlocked at all. They've closed off... I'm not convinced they were unlocked. They've closed off the That's if the doors were even unlocked at all. They've closed off... I'm not convinced they were unlocked. They've closed off the entrance to the downtown mall entrance by putting 25 feet of fence there. Yeah, if the doors were ever unlocked. I mean, that's an assumption. There are doors there.

They were unlocked at one time. We have gone through those doors. They were the visitor center. If you can go through the Water Street entrance and go upstairs to the second floor, then you've just created an inconvenience. Or have you created a convenience for downtown? Depends on how you look at it. Next headline, my friend, what do you got? Alderman. Oh, this one's... You got some perspective on this.

We were talking about this off air. And then we'll give Crush Pat some national recognition. The Downtown Mall Wine Shop. Great place, right there by Christians. How do you think it impacts Lewis Mountain, the city of Charlottesville, and Alamaro County? First, Lewis Mountain. How does it impact Lewis...

I mean, you've talked about this. You're saying it's going to, it's going to. Do you want to take city of Charlottesville then? Which one do you want to take? City of Charlottesville, Lewis Mountain, or Alamo County? You're saying which one do I want to back? Lewis Mountain, city of Charlottesville, or Alamo County. Which one do you want to offer commentary on? I don't know. I don't care. I mean, you know a lot more about this than I do. You're up to speed on it. Yeah, I'm up to speed on the details of this particular deal. Okay, so which one do you want to offer some commentary on?

Lewis Mountain. I mean, you've talked about the fact that it's going to affect their taxes. There are probably going to be people saying, why are we building townhouses here in our fine and wonderful neighborhood? They're going to say, are we getting a bunch of UVA students whose parents are going to buy these townhouses for their kids? You've mentioned the fact that rather than one house, you've got six. That's at least the possibility of six more vehicles coming in and out of the neighborhood.

John Blair liked your what was the word you used? I think it was the first time I ever heard it miasma? what's the definition of that? miasma is a kind of a low hanging

cloud of generally badness. It doesn't necessarily have to be an actual cloud. It can be more figurative. It's hard to explain. He says, bring back the Judah word of the day. We'll use the word of the day. At one time, we were using the Yiddish word of the day.

All right, I'll offer some perspective on this across the board. After seeing 303 Alderman Road and what the plans are going to be with the six townhomes, I think you've got more people incentivized to sell at Lewis Mountain because they see, A, the value of what could be their property, and, B, the impact a development like this could have on quality of life in the neighborhood. Could it also be that they want to get out before their neighbors do? I want to highlight this, the uniqueness of 303 Alderman Road. Having frontage on Alderman Road and on Minor Road.

They're able, if you saw the ship engineering plans, and Sean Tubbs posted that on his community sub stack, they're able to build three units on Minor Road and three units on Alderman Road. For those that think that they can cash out in Lewis Mountain because someone's going to buy it and slab six townhomes on there or more density on there, this is a unique lot. It's got frontage more density on there, this is a unique lot.

It's got frontage on two different roads. It's a unique lot. This can't happen with every lot in there. It's important to highlight that. I think you have a neighborhood that clearly is going to go through some gentrification here, clearly going to go through some redevelopment here. You've got a Tony and Posh neighborhood that is primed to change quickly because of the new zoning ordinance. I think you have to look at this from an Albemarle County standpoint as well. The fact that planning commissioners for the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County have not met in a joint fashion in more than five years is terrifying. Especially with the new zoning ordinance in play in Charlottesville and the fact that you are now seeing

one house become six. And that house that's becoming six is probably closer to, is a hot skip and a jump from Alamaro County. You could walk across the jurisdictional line. The jurisdictional line is right there at the car wash in the Papa John's, the University Shopping Center. Alderman Road, I can walk from this house The jurisdictional line is right there at the car wash in the Papa John's, the university shopping center.

Alderman Road, I can walk from this house to that jurisdictional line in less than 10 minutes. The planning commission is not meeting to discuss this traffic flow, development, impact on Albemarle, impact on Charlottesville, impact on the future. What if all the houses in Lewis Mountain or a percentage of the houses of Lewis Mountain head in this direction? It's concerning. I've been told by an Albemarle County Planning Commissioner, we have tried to set up a meeting with Seville Planning Commissioners and they are refusing. An Albemarle County Planning Commissioner reached out to me and said, we have tried to set up a meeting with city planners, and

they have refused the meeting. That's crazy. Exact words. Exact words. Welcome to the madhouse. We've got a special jacket just for you. Deep Throat makes the point,

you've had a number of $5 homes in the last six months have hit the MLS, including the head of the Lewis Mountain Association, who spoke before council. She did a talk show on this network, Hillary Lewis Murray. I hope she watches this show. Give major props to Hillary Lewis Murray, A-plus person. Spoke before council about the development at the Truist Bank site.

The Truist Bank site is going to be an apartment tower. She spoke on behalf of Lewis Mountain saying, this neighborhood and the infrastructure around the neighborhood is going to be an apartment tower. She spoke on behalf of Lewis Mountain saying, this neighborhood and the infrastructure around the neighborhood is not ready for an apartment tower at the site of a former bank location. She doesn't live in the city anymore. She sold her Lewis Mountain home. She made bank. Like I just said, she got out before her neighbors could do the same thing

with whether or not they're able to. First to market. In this particular case, in business, often first to market gets slaughtered. In this particular case, first to market is going to get top dollar. First out of market. Well played.

Miasma. Steve Throat. Also wonder about whether there is demand for this price point and property type here in Bozeman, Montana people will spend millions on a house somebody did an 8 pack condo next to the bakery I go to

1.5 million price point which is not above market price for houses here these have been sitting on the market for 18 months no buyers I think there will be a demand for the 6 townhomes in Lewis Mountain. You can walk to Moe's. You can walk to Vivace. You can walk to Foods of All Nations. You can walk to Ivy Provisions. You can walk to the Boar's Head. You can walk to Lou Stevens Tennis Shop. God,

I love that place. You can walk to the Spanish restaurant, the Latin restaurant of the University Shopping Center. If you haven't tried it out, you should. You can walk to the farmer's market. She was walking her kids to the farmer's market from Lewis Mountain. I've been told my asthma, a noun, a highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor. Stink, reek, stench, smell, odor.

With an oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere which surrounds or emanates from something. Definition, position on one of the Facebook feeds. Yeah. And multiple people asking for the Judah Wickower word of the day to return. You're going to have to return the Yiddish word or just a word in general to the day. We can turn it into a lower third that we put on screen if you'd like as well. That's a lot of pressure on you. A word of the day. You already gave one. You don't have to think about it now.

Yeah, I know. But I've got to think about how long this is going to go on before I'm sick and tired of coming up with interesting words that I feel nobody is well aware of. You sick and tired? No. No. I can already feel the miasma forming. Well played, Judah. And as the Russians would say, it's not my asthma, it's our asthma.

As my wife would say, here's my inhaler, do you need it? Crush pad. I'll close on the Lewis Mountain thing. Can we get the planning commissioners to meet? And I'll close with this. If you're a homeowner in Lewis Mountain right now and you're thinking about selling I would do it sooner than later because on Alderman Road

you think traffic and parking and congestion is bad now wait until you have construction equipment knocking down a rancher to build six townhomes and that construction equipment lingering for 10 to 12 months because that's heading your way. Yeah.

Close the show with Crush Pad. Please, sir. Thank you kindly. Kevin Higgins, I think my asthma just hit a Google record from your viewers searching it. I heard Judah and thought he was having a medical event. Bill McChesney says the word of the day is fine. Just don't bring back the great bubini.

I lost my wands. Thank you. You didn't like the bubini? Why didn't you like the great bubini? It's a terrible name. How about the great giupini? It's a terrible name. How about the Great Giardini? That's pretty bad, too. You're in a cheery mood today.

Crushpad, close us out. Just telling it like I see it. They've been voted one of the best wine shops, not one of the best wine shops in Charlottesville. Cause we have a lot of those. Not one of the best wine shops in Virginia. We have a lot of those. But apparently one of the best wine shops in the United States.

That's impressive. Kudos. Very impressive. They are the team behind Bizu. They are the team behind Luce. Noodles. What? Luce does noodles, right?

Pasta, yeah. I think it has pizza as well. They are the team behind the space, the event space on Water Street. Are they the team behind Bang Tapas? I should know this. I know for a fact they're the team behind Bizu, Luce, the space on Water Street. I am not sure if they're the team behind Bang.

Oh, they are the team behind Bang. They're the team behind Bang. Oh, they are the team behind Bang. They are the team behind Bang. So you're talking Crush Pad, Bizu, The Space, Bang, and Luce. All the same family tree. USA Today ranked them number five in the top ten wine shops nationwide. Number five. Wow. That's impressive.

That's very impressive. I thought you were impressive today. Miasma. I'll never forget that. That's literally the first time I've heard that word in my life. Our asthma. What? Our asthma.

Come again? I'm joking. Pass me the inhaler. Yeah. That's all she wrote. It's the Thursday edition of the show. It was pretty good. I thought it was going to be better.

Judah was great. I was so-so. We'll see you tomorrow at 10, 15 a.m. with Real Talk. Keith Smith's in the house. I'll be here. Then the I Love Civo show to close it out. So long, everybody. Thank you.