- [Narrator] This program is made possible through a grant from the Greater Peoria Leadership Council, a coalition of business and civic leaders working together to shape a stronger, more connected region through the Choose Greater Peoria Initiative.

(bright music) ♪ Well no matter what the question is we'll say ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ And if we wanna find some trouble ♪ ♪ We'll say yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ You're amazing ♪ ♪ Baby you're amazing ♪ ♪ You just remember ♪ ♪ You just remember ♪ ♪ You're amazing ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ (audience applauding) - Listen to that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Incredible.

Good evening, Greater Peoria.

Welcome, divine 309.

I am your host, Blake Wirth, coming at you from the WTVP studio corner of State and Water, downtown Peoria in front of another terrific studio audience.

Give it up once more if you could.

(audience applauding) We got a full house tonight and for good reason.

Tonight's guest is the voice of Peoria.

For over 20 years, he's been waking this city up every single morning.

He's the co-host of "The Greg and Dan Show" on WNBD radio.

And yeah, he's got himself a great larynx, but trust me, he's a lot more than just a radio guy.

He's a community connector at his core.

A go-to mc, a proud husband and father, one of the best storytellers you will ever meet.

And I'd argue he has the best shirts in this city.

His motto is simple.

Do good, be kind.

Go home, repeat.

He's an absolute legend in the 309.

I'm proud to know him and we're all grateful he is here with us tonight, undoubtedly up past his bedtime, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Greg Batton.

(audience applauding) Hello sir.

- Hi buddy.

- How you doing?

- Good to see you.

- Welcome.

Welcome.

- Good to see you.

- Please have yourself a seat.

- Look at this crowd.

Look at this crowd.

It's unbelievable.

- This crowd, who do we have live in the crowd tonight?

Any special people?

- Well, my kids are in the crowd.

I got Ginger and Justice.

My two youngest kids over here.

- Ginger and Justice.

- They know all the dirt.

They have never said, no one has ever said to me that I had a great larynx.

- You like that?

- I do like that, I'm gonna start using that.

- I mean, listen to it.

- Yeah, no, I'm aware that what I got, - It's like a lawnmower.

- But nobody uses medical terms like you do.

But you're a master of that.

- [Blake] I appreciate that.

- That's why you're the host.

- Can you see your office from here?

- Yeah, probably, oh yeah, I can.

- Yeah.

- Left of OSF.

- Oh yeah, there.

- See that light in that building?

- Yeah.

- That literally is the studio.

- Wow.

Incredible.

- That's cool.

- Yeah.

- I'm probably in there right now.

- You probably are.

Okay.

So before we get into the life of Greg Batton, you grew up on the other side of the river?

- I did, man, I'm a Pekin, born and raised.

- [Blake] Okay.

- I lived in Pekin for 36 years.

Been in Peoria for a little bit after that.

30 years, I guess.

31 years, so.

- Okay.

So you're first- - I'm a Tazewell County guy.

- You're a Tazewell County guy.

And your first job, I believe was at the age of 13, painting oxygen tanks.

Did I read- - How do you know that story?

- I did a little research.

- My dad owned a welding supply company and all of us boys, and I was the youngest boy, we would have in the summer, take hundreds of green oxygen tanks.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- And with a paintbrush and a five gallon bucket of paint stand all summer long and paint.

- [Blake] You didn't get to sit.

- Oh, no, you gotta stand to do it.

I mean, that's the only way to do it.

You gotta spin 'em.

You get the juice down in there and you spin it real fast and it goes quicker that way.

But it is a terrible job.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- I did that until I could drive and then after I could drive, I could add some other jobs.

But yeah, that was my first job.

- That sounds terrible.

- [Greg] I'm impressed you know that.

- That sounds terrible.

- By the way you do not have copyright on that shirt.

- No, I don't.

- I just wanna say that.

- I just wanna, this is gonna cost.

- I thought you were paying me to wear this.

- Oh, okay.

- How does this- - I don't know.

I don't know.

- Well call to wash.

- Anyway I grew up at Pekin proudly.

I love Pekin to this day.

I like getting, I don't get back as much as I used to.

- Yeah, it's far away.

- Yeah.

- You can't get over there too much.

- Yeah, it's 30 miles from everywhere.

- Yeah, so you got into radio 1987.

You started your career.

- I started my career in actually '87 with a part-time job at an old radio station that doesn't exist anymore.

1350 AM at that time was WXCL, that desire was burning a hole in me to do it.

I was in the Quad Cities.

I was selling welding equipment for my dad.

I was on my lunch break.

I pulled up to a then payphone that was lower so you could do it from your car.

Do you remember those at all?

Anybody remember those?

- No.

- And I answered an ad in the "Journal Star" for a part-time job.

I started working two weeks later.

I did Saturday night, midnight to midnight Saturday night to 6:00 AM Sunday morning.

- Is that what brought you to this side of the river?

- Let me think about that.

Not yet.

- Not yet.

- I was still living in Pekin at that time.

- [Blake] Okay.

- Yeah.

- So you met your wonderful wife, Yvonne.

- I did.

- [Blake] On air, did you guys work on air together?

- Well, we did, this way she is a TV reporter.

- Yeah.

- And Anchor Yvonne Greer.

- [Blake] Sure.

- And she was at WNBD television.

I was at WNBD radio, at that time, we were the same company.

We're not and haven't been for 20 years.

- [Blake] Okay.

- But she would come on my show to talk about the news stories of the day.

Right when she started, she was the reporter that covered the Cat UAW strikes of the late eighties, early nineties, whatever that was.

So that was a very intense story.

She would come on my show to explain what was going on.

- [Blake] Love that.

- That's how we met.

- Love that.

- Yeah.

- I love that.

You are like truly one of my favorite people in the city.

- [Greg] Oh, that nice.

- You have such a warm presence about you and I want to go back to the motto I referenced in the opening.

- [Greg] Yeah.

- Where does that come from?

How do you live that every day?

- I have a story that is way longer than this segment can do.

- Yeah.

- But I met a guy a number of years ago who I did not know, and he reached out to me via Messenger and said, "Hey man, keep doing what you're doing.

We need it, come see me."

And his name is Cornelius Howard.

Corny.

And he, six months later, do you know him?

- Did he have a little West Peoria corner like car wash place?

- Well, here's what he used to do.

He used to be right across from Sugar where that new Brewery Pub is located.

- Yeah.

- Rented U-Haul.

He also detailed cars.

- Yeah.

- And sold used appliances.

Still does two of those things.

Anyway, six months into a agonizing time of my life.

And that's the part I'll condense.

I went to see him for reasons I can't explain.

And he spent two hours talking to me about what I was doing.

And he didn't know anything about the anxiety I was feeling, this is about nine years ago.

And he said, "You have been given a platform that most people don't get a chance to have.

Use it for good."

And it really killed me.

And I go out to the car and Yvonne has texted me.

She said, "You okay?"

'Cause you know, I was having some, you know, anxiety about some things.

And I said, "Yeah, I'm just driving around South Peoria looking for God."

And she said, "Did you find him?"

I said, "I did.

He'll sell you a U-Haul of an appliance and detail your car."

I felt that Corny had talked to me in a divine way.

I didn't know the man.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- Never met him.

- Do you keep in touch with him?

- Not much.

I've seen him once since that all happened.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- And when I told him that story, he got very emotional about it, 'cause he didn't realize what he had done.

He was just talking words.

- And there are probably so many people out there, you have no idea that you've done this, to or for, just this.

- Well, he did that for me.

- I know, but you turn around and you do that on a daily basis for your work.

You get to help people tell their stories.

And I think that's awesome, man.

So let's fast forward a little bit.

- So that's how that good thing started.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Blake] I love that.

- Do good.

- That's the root of it, do good.

So then you start with Mr.

Dan Diorio.

- Dan Diorio 21 years ago and about a month from now.

- Okay and tell me how like that started.

You guys were friends before that?

- Yeah, we met back in '87.

He was working at WNBD.

He would be celebrating around about the time this show airs his 40th year on that morning show.

- Wow.

- 40.

That is- - Can we give it up for Mr.

Dan Diorio real quick?

- Please, please.

(audience applauding) - I wanna say, battling a little health setback.

- Yeah, he had a little injury.

He fell down some steps.

He's not on the show right now.

- Yeah.

We send our best our thoughts, prayers to Mr.

Dan Diorio.

- So Danny's other partner, or prior to me was leaving and they asked him who he would like to work with.

And he said, the only person I can imagine doing it with is Greg Batton.

I was living in Chicago.

I was doing completely other things by that point.

I was selling real estate.

Yvonne was doing something else because we had moved to Chicago to do radio together.

She was my partner for 10 years.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- And we were like, okay.

We came back.

I still have a 708 area code, 'cause I thought I'd only stayed two years.

And it was 21 years later.

I'm still here, so.

- That's amazing.

So you and Dan, and you do, there's a show, you've done a couple shows called "Life in Boxes".

- "Life in Boxes".

Can I say something about Dan real quick?

- [Blake] Yeah.

Please.

- Dan and I don't hang out.

That is one of the things that everybody freaks out about.

We are friends, but we don't hang out.

- [Blake] Because you have enough of each other at work.

- Absolutely.

We are on-air spouses.

- [Blake] I love that.

- And we also want to keep it fresh.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- So we hung out all the time.

We do the show anyway, and then we'd ruin it.

- [Blake] I like that.

- Yeah.

- I'm gonna start seeing my friends less.

- Yeah.

- Oh, it works, no, it works.

It's great, it's great, it's good.

It's healthy for you.

"Life in Boxes" though, you asked about.

- Yeah, I did because I gotta be honest, that was, I came to see you perform at ICC and it really inspired me and was kind of the kickstarter to this show.

- Oh, cool.

- And it was such an inspiring thing to see you up on stage.

And you think you're an elite storyteller, but the meaning behind it is even more special than that.

- It started, because if you were to come over to my house tonight for dinner, before you got there, I would scoop everything off the counter and the table and put it in a box and have you pretend that I live a very pristine life.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- I don't, I got stuff everywhere.

(audience laughing) And it dawned on me one day that my life is in a box somewhere, in a basement, a closet garage, whatever.

I have so many things of my life in a box.

So I do this show where I grab about 25, 26 stories.

There's an item in each box that relates to a story.

The audience gets to choose which box I pull.

So it's never in the same order.

And it's never, sometimes I don't get to all the boxes, but they're all things that mean something to me, my family, my friends, you know, all those kind of things.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I haven't done it for a while.

I gotta get back at that.

- Well, you should.

You absolutely should.

And I'll be there rooting you on.

- [Greg] All right.

- It's a beautiful premise 'cause there's all these boxes and you've got, there's history in each one.

There's stories and there is also history and stories in downtown Peoria's architecture.

This is where we're gonna hit pause and go do a vibe check.

The Todd father and I recently went to Hidden Peoria put on by the Peoria Historical Society.

They opened the doors to some of Peoria's most historical and notable buildings.

We had an absolute blast.

So go ahead and check it out.

Run it.

(birds chirping) What's going on everyone?

Here we are on top of the Murray building, visible from the Robert Michael Bridge, right behind me at Hidden Peoria, put on by the Peoria Historical Society.

For the first time ever, they are unlocking some of the most notable and historic buildings right here in downtown Peoria.

To learn just a little bit more, let's go talk to my friend Liz Klise.

(lively music) As promised Liz Klise, executive director of the Peoria Historical Society.

Thank you for joining us.

- Happy to be here.

- Hidden Peoria.

Tell me about this.

- Hidden Peoria is a look inside the doors of 13 downtown Peoria buildings.

We are so excited.

Our mission is to preserve, share and celebrate the stories of Peoria.

So this is the perfect example of how we do that for the public.

- And we're on the second floor right now of the Murray Place Building.

- Yes.

- This is what business is this?

- This is a Farnsworth Group, an architectural firm.

So it was originally a tinware factory, as you can see from the brickwork and the industrial feel of it.

But it's been renovated into a modern day architecture firm.

- I love it.

I think we're gonna go to the mill next.

What do you think?

- Oh, awesome.

Full of artist studios architectural interest.

You're gonna love it.

- Let's go.

Here we are at the mill, the creative heartbeat of the city here.

Let's go inside and check it out.

This building's got some character.

Built in 1891, used to be a woodworking business called Wahlfeld Manufacturing.

A good old fashioned 6,000 pound freight elevator.

Works fine.

Up here on the second floor.

More than 40 artists work in this building.

Painters, photographers, sculptors, you name it.

Good bones here.

Original wood floors and beams.

Good lighting.

There I go up the stairs.

There's nothing up there.

We're just doing a bit.

Having fun.

Onto the next spot.

Pop-A-Shot.

Look at this space.

Used to be a carriage factory built in 1875.

Now it's hoops paradise, baby Pop-A-Shot.

You've heard of it.

In 2020, they moved their headquarters here from Salina, Kansas.

These nice people are getting a tour here and I'm gonna shoot out.

Don't even know this guy.

Anyway, they now sell 60,000 units a year thanks to partnerships with ESPN and national restaurant chains.

Onto the next spot.

416 Main, 17 stories, including six stories in the upper tower.

Lemme get the door tied.

Completed in 1920 at a cost of $1 million.

Construction began in 1918, but was halted due to World War I. Hundreds of safe deposit boxes from the days when this was First National Bank, then Commerce Bank.

Designed by Architects Hewitt and Emerson.

Little Neoclassical design more than 164,000 square feet.

Let's go ahead and cross the street to the Janssen Law Center where one name says it all.

Built in 1990 by the Becker Brothers.

You see that chandelier?

It's 3000 pounds.

Pure brass.

And here's me acting like I'm holding court in the China room telling everyone they have to stay late.

Okay, that's enough.

Last stop, City Hall.

Completed an 1899, Lake Superior Red Sandstone.

Each floor actually has windows of a different design.

Little Tiffany style stained glass skylight up there.

Up here in the chambers, this is where decisions get made people.

This mural here was painted in 1912.

Incredible.

In 2017 it was named the Country's Best City Hall.

What a day in downtown Peoria.

That's gonna do it from us, from Hidden Peoria.

Thank you to the Peoria Historical Society.

We will see you next year.

(audience applauding) - Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

Love it.

- Hidden Peoria.

Peoria Historical Society makes history fun.

They really do.

I wanna give a shout out to Elizabeth Clyde.

She's in the audience tonight, as you just saw, she is the executive director of the Historical Society.

I loved the event.

You had so many people walking around downtown Peoria.

It was a beautiful day.

We hit a few spots as you saw.

But the one spot that really stuck out to me was City Hall.

I had never been in City Hall, which is embarrassing to admit.

- That's a good thing.

Means you haven't gotten in trouble.

- That's the courthouse, Matt, you spent a lot of time at the courthouse.

Oh, it's, by the way, we are here with Blind Stein.

I was gonna get to that in a minute.

Give it up for Blind Stein.

(audience applauding) He is a West Peoria native, a standup comedian, and a comedy promoter here in the 309.

Thank you for joining us Blind Stein.

- Thank you for having me, brother.

- Do you prefer to go by Matt or Blind?

- It depends, the paychecks are- - [Blake] Okay.

- Blind Stein.

But, you can call me Matt on this show, man.

- [Blake] Okay Matt.

- Yeah.

- Well, Matt, I appreciate it.

- Free show, free show.

- You know, quick story about Matt, and you probably don't remember this, I don't know if my mom remembers this either, but there was, you were one of the first people I ever saw moon somebody else.

- Oh, probably, yeah, that tracks.

- You and a posse of your friends, probably a Nick Heath coat.

- Nick Heath coat, Matt Welch.

- Matt Welch, the whole, the whole gang walking down the street making too much noise.

And I know my mom and a couple other neighbors told you to keep it down and you pulled down your pants and you showed 'em your buttocks.

- I was just saying hello to the neighborhood.

You know what I mean?

- Do you remember this or did you do that a lot?

- It's more than once.

- Greg.

- By the way, by the way, that explains perfectly the moment about 30 minutes ago when you met his mom.

- Yeah.

- Because the look on her face was horrified.

- Well, yeah, if, you know, I feel like she was, it wasn't until I walked away, she was like, that's who I was.

- Now I remember.

(group laughing) - That's the kid who shows his butt.

- Were you about to ask me if I ever did that?

- Have you ever seen his butt?

- No.

- [Blake] Okay.

Well, I'm just making sure he doesn't do it to everyone because- - Yeah.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- No, I've known him a long time, but no.

- Wait to the outtakes of this show, you know.

(laughs) - Have you guys ever done a show together?

- Oh yeah.

- He's a long time caller into your show.

You guys have teamed up.

- Now we've done a lot of shows together, right?

- Yeah, lot of charity events and.

- Some of them go, we did a show at the now Defunct Field House.

- Yep.

- I remember, long, long time ago.

- Yeah, that would've been seven years ago.

- You were mad at me in that night.

- No, that night I didn't even show up.

- [Blake] You didn't come?

- Oh yeah.

Oh, that's right.

That's what it was.

This is how great of a fan I am of Matt Blind Stein.

- [Blake] Oh.

Are you, you're not gonna show him- - I'm taking my shirt off.

- Okay.

Okay.

- No, you don't do that.

(Matt laughing) I'm an official, I don't know if we can get a camera shot of that, but I'm an official member.

Can you read it?

- [Blake] Oh, that's awesome.

Blind Stein service dog.

- Service dog.

I'm his service dog.

DAWG by the way.

- Leave it unbuttoned.

- Yeah, which, that was uncomfortable.

- Leave it unbuttoned.

- Which is also why- - Get comfortable.

- With like the entertainment stuff that I do, I normally go by BS Entertainment and me and Greg can switch that up, which is Batton and Stein.

It just (indistinct) Property.

- We have a whole career ahead of us in live auctioning.

- You guys are live auctioning?

- Yeah, he's the spotter and I'm the auctioneer.

- I describe everything.

- We raise a ton of money.

- Yeah, I think, well last time for the Illinois Cancer Care Foundation we raised almost $10,000.

- [Greg] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Blake] Okay.

- One night.

- No, we're pretty good at it actually.

- [Blake] I love that.

- Yeah.

- And you guys are both people, I would, I mean, and I would pay to see.

So tell me about some of the stuff you started doing around the city to promote events, 'cause I know Matt, you've been a comedian for a long time.

I reached out to you when I was in the Peace Corps.

- Yes.

- I looked back at our Facebook mess and like, this was 2014.

- Yeah, 'cause I had started back in about 2012.

- Yeah.

- And I'm on the road at least nine months outta the year touring.

- [Blake] Wow.

- Across the US.

And then because of that, it's like I've generated this Rolodex of like, nationally comics that like I work with on the road, like across 26 different states.

So why not bring them here to Peoria?

You know, there's a great comedic, you know, history in the Peoria area with, you know, prior and Kennison and you know, the jukebox had a good run.

It's kinda falling apart now.

- [Blake] Yeah, it's just PBS man.

- Yeah.

(laughs) And so it's like, yeah.

So it's like with having that opportunity of just like other comics that I work with, you know, we're always trying to connect different routes and stuff.

So it's like, what better opportunity to bring people from like, other major markets into Peoria than doing so, and we just team up with a bunch of different local businesses, 'cause I'm all about sharing the wealth.

- Love that.

- You know, it's like, if you gotta, there's too many good people in this area that like work really hard.

And like sometimes, like in Peoria, we tend to silo ourselves.

We have our favorite places.

But it's nice to be able to kind of be the mortar between the bricks and like use those, you know, Peoria connections, 'cause I love that.

I always joke Peoria, the motto as you know, is if it plays in Peoria.

- Sure.

- I think it should be Peoria where everyone's Kevin Bacon.

- Oh.

- [Blake] I like that.

- Because we all know each other.

You're six degrees from separation of anybody.

- Yeah.

You know, so that's why some people hate it.

And if the ones that do, it's because- - It doesn't roll off the tongue as well as plays in Peoria.

But I like it.

- Yeah, but some people don't like the connections because that means they've done some shady stuff.

You know what I mean?

But, I love it, 'cause you know, I mean, I can moon your mom 27 years ago and she shakes my hand today and goes, don't you know my daughter?

- Yeah.

(group laughing) - Well so you, I know you, I read something that you said a while back.

You like, great comedians come out of like the Midwest.

There's a reason for that.

- Yeah, I think it's because like, especially in Peoria, it's like we got an edge to us.

- [Blake] Yeah.

- You know what I mean?

Like it's, yeah.

You have one percenters and no percenters.

- [Blake] Yeah, what's Greg?

- Shut up.

(audience laughing) - I think that's a good stop it's point to do what I like to call the rapid fire section part of the show.

- We do rapid fire.

- Yeah you ready?

- [Blake] You ready?

- This us, we're in this.

- [Blake] You're both in it.

- Okay.

- I will ask you, we're gonna start with Greg on the far side of the couch here.

You ready Greg?

And you're gonna get the same question, Matt.

- [Matt] Oh, okay so I get- - By the way, shout out Mark Grawey, I see your pin on the hat here.

- Yeah, much love.

- Shout out Mark Grawey.

Rest in peace.

Okay, you ready?

- [Greg] Yeah.

- Favorite place to eat in the 309?

- Oh my God, you know how much trouble you're gonna get me in?

- [Blake] You can name many.

- Here we go.

Connected Alexanders, anything in the Heights?

Ardor, Sugar.

The new Analytical, I like that place.

I'm gonna make somebody mad now.

Oh, Frank's my buddy, Frank Abdnour get a beef up there.

- So I haven't been to Analytical Brewing yet.

What's a good thing to eat there?

- They have really, this is gonna sound dumb.

Dave's chicken wing or Dave's chicken tenders.

Those are the best chicken tenders I've had in a long time.

- Done.

Matt, what about you?

Favorite place to eat?

- Well, since I don't have to like appease sponsors I'm like.

- [Greg] Yeah, I do, I have to (indistinct) sponsors.

- Le Peep for breakfast.

- Nice.

- Olympia for lunch, Schooners for dinner.

- Done.

Easy.

Those are three home run choices, as were yours.

But you were doing the- (Matt laughing) - [Greg] Well, I do eat at all those places.

All right, go ahead.

- Let me ask you this, Matt, let's start with you.

You look like an outdoor music kind of guy.

This summer, where's the best spot to catch an outdoor show?

- Oh, I know.

Oh, this is definitely the Friendly Valley.

- [Greg] Oh.

- [Blake] Yeah?

- Yeah.

- [Greg] Oh, I was gonna say summer camp.

- Oh no, that's canceled.

It's not happening.

- That's right.

- Breaking news here.

Summer camp is canceled.

- Nobody got that joke in this crowd.

Not one person knew that I knew summer camp was canceled.

- It is the best place to go hiking this year.

- Yes it is.

- Because no one - [Blake] Friendly Valley?

- Friendly, no- - I would say Friendly Valley.

- I would agree with that too, Family Valley music.

- For a show?

- Yeah.

- I like stuff on the riverfront, to be honest with you.

- Yeah.

- It's always fun.

- It really, I mean there's, it depends on the weekend, you know what I mean?

Like that's a nice, that's why comedy, we shut it down in the summertime, 'cause there's too much beautiful things to do outdoors.

Like, especially here in Peoria.

Like the trails, the music.

I mean it's all way more free.

- Yeah, summertime in the 309's elite.

All right.

One local business.

We'll start with you Greg.

- Yeah.

- One local business you think deserves more love.

- Okay.

This is gonna be weird 'cause I've only been in place twice.

- Okay.

- I've only been in it twice.

I've looked at it a thousand times.

I believe the name of it, it's right next to Dixon's on North University.

I think it's called Nature's Heaven or Nature's Haven.

- Can we get confirmation?

- Is that nature's Havens Haven?

Haven.

- I thought you were saying- - That is one of the coolest, calmest stores I've ever been in.

They sell stones and jewelry and things.

I love it.

- [Matt] Oh, you're a crystal kid?

- No, I'm not a crystal kid.

- Okay.

- No, no, no.

It's like, no, I'm not doing woo woo stuff, it's just.

- All right, that's a great question.

What about you?

A local business you think deserves more love?

- Local business that deserves more love.

Oh man.

Well, I mean, I'm a WP boy, so I'm gonna say Haddad's.

- [Blake] My man.

- [Greg] Oh, yeah, Haddad's.

- Best grocery store.

This side of the Mississippi.

- Yep.

- Alright, that's gonna do it for the Rapid Fire.

Real quickly, where can they learn more about you Matt?

- If you search anything online, Blind Stein comedy at all, my Tiktoks, Instagram, Facebook's website, just blindstein.com for all touring events and upcoming shows in the 309.

- Love it.

I got a hat for both of you.

Everybody give it up for Blind Stein and Greg Batton.

- Thank you so much.

(audience applauding) - Did you guys know this episode Marks the end of season one of "Vibe 309"?

- [Audience] Aww.

- Thanks guys.

You didn't have to do that.

Truly, we've had some remarkable guests, incredible people.

People who represent the very best of this city.

People who wake up every day and choose to be a positive force in the lives of others.

And honestly, there may not be a better example that than my guy Greg Batton.

Greg's one of those people, if you run into out in the wild, he's gonna shake your hand, look in the eye and make you feel like you matter.

And that sticks, man.

People will remember that sort of thing.

On the radio, he does the same thing, but at scale brings in voices from all over Central Illinois, all walks of life, gives people a chance to tell their story, do good, be kind, go home, repeat.

That's his motto.

And if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for a good motto.

I've got a motto of my own, a guiding principle, if you will, I try to live by, I think Greg embodies this one too.

And that is to widen the circle.

I genuinely try to make people feel included, not excluded.

I want people to feel like they belong, like they're part of something.

If there's one idea behind this show, it's that.

It's to widen the circle.

We've been able to do that through live audiences here at WTVP.

Shout out, give it up one more time.

(audience applauding) Amazing audiences, people from the community coming in, being a part of the production and seeing how, as the Todd father says, "The sausage gets made," which that's actually a pretty disgusting process.

I like to think this process is a little more fun than that.

We've also been able to do it in our vibe checks, during those outta studio segments, you hear from people all over the region, different backgrounds, different stories, all adding to the bigger picture.

This show is meant to lift others up, to make people feel proud of their hometown, to highlight all the good stuff happening around here, just like Greg's been doing on his show for over two decades.

If we've done that even a little bit, then I'd say season one was a success.

But we're just getting started.

Season two picks up right on schedule next month.

Great guests, great vibes on deck.

And that is a promise.

And that's my take.

Thanks for tuning in ladies and gentlemen.

It has most definitely been a vibe.

(bright music) (audience applauding) (bright music) (bright music continues)