In the first half, investigative reporter Steve Gregory discussed his fascination with true crime, and how it led to the launch of Unsolved, his new show on KFI AM 640 radio. He also noted that the show is often contacted by the families of crime victims whose cases have gone cold. State and national forests are the settings for some of Gregory's favorite show ideas, often involving arsons as well as homicides. Among the crimes he most wishes to see solved, he continued, is the recent case of two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies who were shot point blank while sitting in their vehicle at a train station.
Gregory also talked about the challenges and rewards of his work on the show. Initially, he related, he anticipated having more unsolved crime cases to cover than he could keep up with. However, he soon learned that police and sheriffs' departments were often reluctant to discuss ongoing investigations. In addition, conducting interviews can be awkward when key figures in unsolved cases are not accustomed to speaking in front of the camera. Despite such obstacles, the show continues to do well, with a good response from audiences and law enforcement and dozens of cases under consideration for future episodes, said Gregory. "If you want to be good at this, and you want to make a difference, you have to be tenacious. You can't give up," he explained.
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Open Lines followed in the second half. Doc in California called to warn listeners about a report he heard that the pandemic set the stage for a large-scale conversion to digital currency. Worse, he went on, citizens who fail to show proper evidence of vaccination could be cut off from their funds. Louise in Kentucky said that in honor of Black History Month, she was informing George that the continent of Africa was originally called Nigritia, a fact that, she claimed, has been obscured by history and even made illegal to talk about. The Lone Ranger was the subject of two calls: Cornelius in Louisiana shared the theory that the masked man character was based on Bass Reeves, a former slave turned deputy US marshal, while David in Maryland argued that the Lone Ranger was modeled after Texas Ranger John Reid. Hoping that the COVID pandemic would "go away dramatically" by March of this year, George led listeners in an impromptu intention experiment, encouraging them to concentrate on this possibility in the hopes that it would end soon.
In the final part of the show, George played a recording of a past broadcast, when astrologist Leslie McGuirk explained some of astrology's concepts and history.
News Segment guests: Heidi Hollis, Kevin Randle