The Big K Morning Show
Pittsburgh Oktoberfest
coming up on Tuesday night we will for the 12th year celebrate our hometown heroes. Our lifetime achievement awardee is Jim Leland who's having an incredible year inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame and Cooperstown this summer and also into the Pirates new Hall of Fame and we're honored to have Jim Leland as part of this and we'll also recognize five hometown heroes and we want to introduce you to one of them is Clarence McCallister Clarence good morning. Clarence good morning I got you. I can hear you are you I didn't catch you at work did I yeah I'm at work but that's okay I'm thinking of the time I told my boss I take it he gave me some time off so I can talk I got a good ball. Well I appreciate that so Clarence is a hard worker at Pittsburgh Public Works recognized by city leaders for his heroics and we're gonna recognize him on Tuesday night at the Lamont and for those that don't know take us back to Jesus is dwelling place church on a Sunday in May where you are a deacon and kind of tell the story from your perspective. Okay of course I'm the cameraman there so I'm I'm filming the camera but before this even happened there's a young man who's coming to church and he walked you know around the church and walked in and out the church couple only three times anyway and so meanwhile we're having praise and worship having a great time I praise and worship lasted a lot longer than what it usually does we're having such a great time so when a pastor Glenn decided he gonna start preaching a man walked up and put the gun at him I didn't say important to gut at him until he gets it up and into his face and as he gets the good point to gun into his face I'll tackle things down to the ground and Pastor Glenn helped me remove the gun from him. Many people have seen this video where yeah he pointed a gun at Pastor Glenn the gun jammed you could call it divine intervention and then that's when you leaped into action you you jumped over the railing there and tackled him and subdued him yet and held him till the police arrived and do you remember what he said to you or you said to him? Well actually Pastor Glenn is going to the police arrived after I had him pinned Pastor Glenn grabbed his wrist so I can snatch the gun from his hand. And what was he saying at the time why was he doing this? At the time Pastor Glenn was talking to him about you know basically yeah why he was doing it and you know he I don't know what he was mumbling he was mumbling something because I was too busy trying to tell the congregation that somebody needs to call a police. And obviously you were able to successfully hold him until the police did arrive. I don't know too many people that would have done what you did that day. Clarence how has this changed your perspective or changed your life? It just makes me more cautious you know you know who comes in the church and who comes out in church and it makes me more alert that make sure that I think that if any and everybody who comes into the church and you know be more watchful to see if they're like he had a he had a bookcase I mean he had a book yeah one of books that you carry on your back right so he had one of those you know that's what he had his gun in so you can now on you know if you look to see if anybody's carrying anything in the church you know that isn't but you don't need to be carried in the church. You know you need to be carried in the churches as a person of Bible. And I'm sure there's nobody more grateful than Pastor Glenn and his family. Oh, Pastor Glenn is very grateful you know I mean it took him some time to really get over what happened you know because that was never to be expected. We keep our doors open at all times you know and we welcome everyone and everybody. Well Clarence we appreciate you being able to join us for a hometown heroes event on Tuesday night. I hope you're as excited as we are to get together and meet face to face for the first time. Well I can't wait to meet you Larry face to face and you know me and I'm invited my mother so she's coming with me you know me and I'm just glad that you know she's coming to with me for some some moral support because you know always I tried to get my mother to come to all these other events but she was feeling under the weather but this time she's she's feeling a lot better now so she'll be with me. Well your mom's got to be pretty proud of you and what you've accomplished in your life and this this is only one flash of a moment but it showed extraordinary bravery and heroism. So Clarence thank you. Oh you're welcome. We'll see you Tuesday and thank your boss for letting you take a few minutes to talk to us. I'll tell you Larry I'll tell you. All right. Go ahead. No go ahead. Oh I was going to say my boss name is Evan you know and like I said he told me go ahead take the time say what I need to say. Well we appreciate it Clarence. We will see you Tuesday. Clarence McAllister one of our hometown heroes and we're looking forward to a very inspirational night. Paul do you say in this on Pittsburgh today in life? Yes I am. They're getting on that Ferris wheel that's on the Roberto Clemente bridge. Looks like they're the only passengers on the Ferris wheel at this time. Wonder if it tips because it'll be out of balance. Beautiful shot to there on the bridge itself on the approach to the bridge with PNC Park in the background and you can see the sky is starting to get better. We're going to start to get some sunshine after all this fog burns off from the Roberto Clemente bridge to market square Pittsburgh's October fest celebration and we have our own resident October Fester. Yes we do. As opposed to Uncle Fester. Where is he? Hey Pat. Hey Pat come here a minute. You know by the way I can't do that Ferris wheel stuff anymore. I have got serious agrophobia. Ferris wheel. Yep I'm scared of heights. Agrophobia. Agrophobia. I thought it was what is that? I don't know Pat what is the fear of heights. Is it agrophobia? I thought agoraphobia is agoraphobia when you don't want to leave the house. I'm not sure. I don't know. Okay Pat he's a performer. That's right. You think he would know this? He's supposed to be a he's supposed to be acrophobia. Yep. Acrophobia. Yeah he's supposed to be the expert in the newsroom. He's the editor after all. Agoraphobia is when you don't want to leave the house. I get that too. Meanwhile Pat Septak is our news editor but he's so much more. He is this is his Super Bowl week. It is. Really the whole month. The whole month and yeah. Yeah pretty much. You are an accomplished accordion player, a master. You have purchased last year a new set of leader hosen. Or is it later hosen? Later hosen. Later hosen. Later hosen. Konnicking in Helfenbitham, but home busosotrauig. So you saw it, Oktoberfest Pittsburgh underway. Yeah it was a big Ferris wheel. Yeah we just saw it and you can't miss it if you're in it around the city you'll see it on the Roberta Clemente Bridge at its peak across the river. Correct. And you have Oktoberfest celebrations all over. I do. I do. Yeah I'm playing after I leave work today I'm playing tomorrow night and Saturday night as well. So are you allowed to speak of that? Yeah of course. I might need Sam's out here. I think today I'm playing at Atria's Cranberry Woods. It's a senior home. Yeah that's a private one. Private yeah that one's private. Yeah and then tomorrow is it B.R.T's own Saturday. It's 11th hour brewing. I can't 11th hour brewing. 11th hour brewing. Thank you. Thank you. It's like near Lawrenceville and then I'm sorry I know Pat can't hear me. Let me pull up the other. The other location is B.R.T. Yeah B.R.T. the Becca Ringland Tavern and scenery hill brewing. scenery hill that's right. Yes. Wow yeah you're book solid. Yeah yeah and those last the one tomorrow and Saturday those are both public so come on out. Is Sam your booking agent? She is. She does a terrific job too. She knew she knew right where he was. Yeah yeah well I would imagine what's the go-to song that people want to hear at Oktoberfest? Usually roll out the barrel. Okay. You're Baron Polka yeah. How about the Steelers? Of course yes absolutely. You've done that for us many times. We opened the season with Pat. Yeah. Do you have a he doesn't have his apparatus with me. I don't want to have it with me. I mean it's in the car but Aida Weiss is another one you know. Oh sound the music Julie Andrews birthday was earlier than we. That's right. Oh yeah remember the mother. Oh mother superior. Okay so you're not participating. Why don't we get you to get up on the top of that ferris wheel and play. Oh you won't you won't take my accordion on the ferris wheel and your later hosin. And my later hosin okay. Is it later or later? I've heard it's later hosin later hosin later hosin yeah. I think it's later hosin. I didn't know you were an expert. That's the snitchle. All right well good luck this weekend. Thank you. Daphne turn her up in Slippery Rock for all your every move. She does yeah yeah in fact she contacted me last weekend. Once I know where you're going to be. Oh yeah. Well we we shared that Sam thank you for being Johnny on the spot. Patrick thank you. Good luck. Thank you. You look stunning today in your outfit. Well I thank you. Yeah. He's not really wearing later hosin. No no. I'm not going to wear it to works but I have to look presentable when I play today so. Understand. Yeah you're good. You got to pay if you want to see the later hosin Larry. He doesn't just wear it for free. Oh she's looking like a true agent. Thank you. All right thanks. Thank you Sam. I didn't know you took it that serious but apparently she does. Meanwhile Steelers are hosting the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night and that Ferris wheel will be open late Sunday night. So if you're coming down to the North Shore this weekend I think it's like five bucks. Well that's not bad. You want to ride the Ferris wheel. I wonder how long you get to spin. I don't know. Remember it by the time they load people and then you go up one. Yeah they load another car and they go up one. Yeah they spin it for a while then. Yeah. It looked like it could hold maybe I don't know. Two in a cart. Yeah so you probably get 20. Anyway that's where we're at. Leader hosin. October fest. Schnitzel. Ferris wheel and Schnitzel. Sauerbroughton. Sauerbroughton. Yeah I went to Germany once. My son was playing American football there. I remember that. And I went into this little town in a pastry shop and they were dressed just like October fest but it wasn't dressed. I mean that's how they dressed. Right. And the woman that nobody hardly anybody spoke English in the whole town because it was in eastern the old eastern Germany. And I started trying to order a pastry and speak German and within 10 seconds my son said dad please stop. Please stop. Coming up this half hour we'll check in with Marty Griffin who's getting ready for his 10 to 2 midday radio broadcast and thinking about here in our own Tamara Rush Paul just moments ago the Red Cross effort here to get volunteers among other things including a blood supply too to help people who are victims of Hurricane Helene. And besides the people who are now on their way this emergency response vehicle with some volunteers disaster volunteers. They're also still recruiting volunteers and what struck me most about this was the two-week commitment. They need somebody who can deploy for a couple of weeks that takes a special kind of person to be able to do that. It does. I don't know many people that can do that but if you can or are willing they need you. Meanwhile let's get an update. One of the hardest hit areas was Asheville, North Carolina. Here is CBS's Skyler Henry. It is astounding the scope of Helene's path of destruction especially in western North Carolina. The United States the nation has your back. President Biden got a firsthand look flying over a region where roads have washed away. The basic needs like food and water are in short supply. While floodwaters may have receded the level of desperation keeps rising. In a moment like this we put politics aside. Our job is to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can. That includes the search for the hundreds still missing. What's that process been like in terms of working with search and rescue crews? Very painful you know it's just like you know we have these first responders who are working so hard and you know and they all live here too. I can't overstate how much worse this is than anything that's ever ever happened. It's catastrophic. In this once vibrant now devastated river art section of Asheville the 12-boned smokehouse once drew throngs of barbecue lovers including former president Obama. Owner Brian King says it's not just the physical damage Helene's emotional toll is staggering. You know you're hugging and you're crying and just happy that they're okay and so yeah it's just the whole thing is just unimaginable. And since we've been in Asheville some progress power to certain parts of the city are starting to come back. This roadway is now open in both directions. It's the main thoroughfare in town. Utility crews are working as quickly as possible to restore services. Skyler Henry CBS News, Asheville North Carolina. You know actually she's Larry sorry listening to the people from Asheville talk. You hear them saying the same kind of things that people were saying after Hurricane Andrew wiped out Homestead Florida. The same kind of things that people were saying in the New Orleans area after Katrina. It's really something and and the damage is you know so widespread it's not just it's not just the western mountainous region of North Carolina. Go over the state line into eastern Tennessee and that's where floodwaters swept away 11 people at a plastics factory in a town in Tennessee. Last Friday water started to rise outside the Tennessee plastics factory. Robert Jarvis says his manager initially told employees they could not leave. He says it wasn't until the plant lost power and the water kept rising. They were finally told to go home. What were the conditions like? It was water without my waste and everybody was in pure panic mode not knowing what to do. We're looking we're looking for instruction on how to get out of here. We had no evacuation plan whatsoever. Six of his coworkers are missing after a truck they were in tipped over in the raging flood waters. Two of the 11 are now confirmed dead there and the state's bureau of investigation is looking into possible crimes in this thing. Suggesting that a manager again told them you can't leave and you'll be fired. They said that the company came back and said no that wasn't the case in the fellow that was interviewed by Manuel Borjo-Kez here. Said they're lying. Yep. Meanwhile I looking down along the Gulf Coast of Florida so basically some of the areas that were hit by the last big storm down there. We talked to our really good friend Elliot Felcioni down in Bradenton who's the executive director of the convention and visitors bureau. He told me yesterday that after he toured the island there were a couple of businesses. Now you can't get on the island unless you're a you know official or worker or own one of the properties and they're trying to assess what to do whether they wait 30 days kind of a moratorium before people would start to be allowed back on the island or whether the businesses that are able to open are allowed to open and they would allow people to come back on. So that's the kind of thing that's just a microcosm of one little area but really important. I mean this storm made landfall 250 miles to the north of Sarasota Bradenton and here's a couple of the comments that he made in the interview with you this week. L.A. Felcioni with the Bradenton area convention and visitors bureau. The south side of the island from the public's that shopping center south is buried in sand. He's talking about Anna Maria island. I actually walked into the beach bistro that's getting dug out right now and I almost hit my head on the ceiling because I didn't realize I was standing on four feet of sand. So all that sand that they had put on the beach just replenished the beach not long before the storm went over the road and then into these homes and businesses and similar stories are coming out of Longbow Key, C.S. to Key Fisherman's Cove. It's something. Yeah and for those areas the tourist areas in particular they're coming up on their season which really after the holidays here a lot of Pittsburghers area of people go south for either a week two weeks months through the winter and it's mostly mom and pop businesses on Anna Maria right? Yeah they have it's they they call it you know Florida old world Florida where they haven't allowed any building to go in excess of three stories so you don't have the super high rises on the island like you do in other areas and they've tried to maintain kind of that old Florida feel and there are many many just mom and pop places. Think about all the bed and breakfasts that won't be available all the the hotels that are not going to be or restaurants that are not going to be able to serve customers and again this is just a microcosm and then you go up along the Gulf and as you travel north you reach Tampa which was really hit hard. They had hundreds of deep water rescues in the coastal areas there and then you go up to the Big Bend that's where the impact of Helene went directly in and moved rapidly up into the mountains. I have not heard I've seen reports about the landfall spot in and around Perry and what was it Cedar Key I think? Yes. But I have not heard or seen much about any of the destruction in Tallahassee if there is any to report I don't know and I think one of the problems we have here is there's only so many national reporters to go around so they send them to the places that are hit the worst which obviously right now is is western North Carolina. Yeah there are towns in the mountains that have been obliterated. They're gone. There's nothing there. There's a lake up there I was looking at a picture this morning. There's a lake up in that area that is full of the debris from this little communities that it is destroyed and the storm destroyed it all wound up in a lake. It doesn't even resemble a lake. It looks like a big pile of lumber. So if you can help one of the resources is Red Cross and brothersbrother.org an organization here that's really good at what they do to mobilize help in this case two phases helping get people basics like water toothpaste toothbrushes and there are still hundreds of people unaccounted for at this hour. Coming up 10 until 2. Marty Griffin is in the house getting Marty along with Patrick O'Connor. I heard your breakdown with Corio Conner speaking about Conner's on finances. He's running for mayor. He'll announce right after November. Oh really? Yeah he's not raising money. He needs 1.5 million dollars. 1.5 million. Yeah that's what they're saying. That should be easy to raise with people like that you know. I'm raising money for Corio Conner or anybody. I'm raising money for Larry. You got the vest going again. It was 47 degrees when he went through this period of his life where he wore a vest every day and then we shamed him. It's a security. Yeah I didn't and then I didn't wear it for like six months. The first time I wear it he's right on me. I love it. I love this weather brother. I love it. Crisp in the morning. Crisp. That's just crisp. Larry I want to show you this. Hey did you get these garbage can liners? Oh yeah. These stupid mailers. Do you ever read it? No I never even read it. Ever. So I have two piles from the mail. Yeah. And one is junk mail. You just immediately just put it on a second. It all goes to the trash. Right. Did you hear razz? There's a free service where you get to get a picture in an email of all your mail. Free. Why would I want that? So that you could see the junk coming. What the who cares. But but but unless you're like convalescing right somewhere you're in some sort of a coma. Or you have a bird cage. Who the hell would read this crap? Seniors need a break. Send Bob Casey to jail. Do you know Bob Casey was responsible for the Lindbergh baby. More supposed to fire him. And then Dave McCormick has a disastrous record. One spot shows Dave McCormick brought prosperity to Pittsburgh. Another spot says he brought us down like the pirates. How about the moth loading everything that's evil on Bob Casey. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Hey I want it to be over man. Hey in my career and I'm an old guy. I have never. Hey Larry first time in my life. I had to block on on my cell phone to my close friends because they were so obnoxious. One guy saying I sold one of my boys that I've helped like 800 times. You sold your soul to the left. Yeah I did. I don't understand the madness of these people but it's real man. I would. How about this debate tonight. What a sleeper that is. You're going to be watching test pattern. C-SPAN reruns of the stealer Super Bowls from the 40s or this debate. Hmm. No I'm not watching. I refuse to watch that drone. You know what most people are saying what debate. Although I'd like to see an actual video of Bob Casey talking so yeah sure maybe I will. I don't know. I can't wait till it's over brother. But here's what'll happen. If Trump wins we have to hear from that lunatic every day and if he loses we have to hear from his lunatics every day. We can't win Lawrence. Patrick's in the I mean Larry's in the Kings Club. You see this. So are you. Well I've always been you've been kind of you were given like a special exemption. You know I'm saying I saw your name on the list. Hey I am talking to John Federman today live. One o'clock. My man is going to go off. How did you get him. We go way back. Well I know you do but he's. Well well Patrick sitting there actually Larry asks a very relevant question brother in that because of John has issues in terms of communicating by the way he's kicking ass in terms of how he's doing it now. But there's a process and you have to work through it Larry actually to get it set up and really your question is very relevant. But we are talking about it. Yeah we're set up we're good to go. You know he needs to have essentially live close captioning which is so that he can see that it's you know the conversation that's happening right to in real time bond properly and I just want to tell everybody that we are out of toilet paper in the Pittsburgh area except at Larry's house. Where his wife Cindy is giving it away free and right at 10 o'clock I'm going to go Larry's home address and tell you where his wife will be a curbside throwing toilet paper people. Oh she just texted me it's it's used toilet paper. I'm sorry take that back. Wow here we go. The rush on toilet paper. How about these idiots. They're storming. Honey we have no beef. Can you imagine going into Walmart and saying I need a pallet at toilet tp people looking at my booties leaking and they need to clean it up. That's happened. I gotta admit that's a quote on the air. There's nothing worse than a dire need for tp and when you have kids and you go into the middle night you're wandering around you sit down and you got them blowing out and you look over to your left and that little roll is empty. You want to snap on one of them because this is what they do they they they think that's funny. More coming up with Marty. In-depth coverage. His poll question this hour is what brand of tp do you go with? People buying toilet paper shipped across the Mexican border with the fentanyl.