The annual conclave with the CANUSA team is as always a riotous good time! The CANUSA games pit Americans from Flint against Canadiens from Hamilton, Ontario Canada against each other in an international friendly Olympic style athletic competition. It's the 66th year the two cities have met and the fellas are all here to break it down!

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

Segment three of Fish's two hour show on Flint's music scene is an explosion of energy coming like a blow torch out of California in the persona of the legendary Peter C. Cavanaugh, Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame radio deejay. Cavanaugh's ebullient personality filled the airwaves of the Flint area for two decades. Like a ringmaster, he hosted wild and infamous concerts held at local sites like Atwood Stadium, Sherwood Forest and Mt. Holly. Acts that he worked with read like a who's who of rock 'n roll royalty included The Who, Grand Funk Railroad, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, KISS, and George Clinton with Parliament and the Funkadelics. It's CRAZY. His unbelievable and colorful stories keep you wanting more! TIME IS WAAAAY TOO SHORT with Peter C.!

"In Flint it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission." --Peter C. Cavanaugh

This episode is one of the show's earliest, recorded at WFNT radio station in Flint, Michigan. Fish is joined by co-host, Jim Hargrove, "The Voice of Reason".

Original air date March 13, 2019.

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

A product of Montrose, Michigan, Dan Severn was an absolute legend in the Flint area. Known as the “Baddest of The Bad Asses’ he stood as a man among boys in one of the toughest sports in the world.

His amateur wrestling career started in high school and according to many was an "absolute machine" at 191.5 pounds. Dan won both sports' national championships in 1976 and was named the "Outstanding High School Wrestler in the entire United States". Before his 18th birthday, he was already ranked top six in the nation in the open division and placed in the Olympic trials. He was also a two-time NCAA Division 1 All American, and Olympic alternate on the United States wrestling team in both 1984, and 1988. He won a gold medal at the 1985 National Sports Festival, and a berth on the U.S. World team. He also held the US national record for victories by pin for an incredible 16 years, from 1976 to 1992. Severn was inducted into Arizona State University's wrestling hall of fame at the end of his collegiate career.

His professional career took him to the Mixed Martial Arts where he found equal success. Severn is also a legend to to all fans of the fighting sports all around the world. He is a UFC Hall of Famer, the sports only Triple Crown Champion, and a 2 time NWA Champion. He also pursued a career in the World Wrestling Federation, and ultimately he became an actor appearing in numerous feature films, and television programs.

There is just way too much to list about this man's list of accomplishments, so you’ll have to listen to the episode where Dan and Fish throw down in the Aquarium (figuratively-- not literally--luckily for Fish!!)

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

Tredale Kennedy has been on “Fish and The Flint Chronicles” several times, and each time it’s a different topic. But in fairness, he’s never been on board to participate in a story quite like this one. It’s close to home too, because it involves a close friend, fellow North Ender, and Flint Central Indian Michael Gatewood. In fact Gatewood and Fish go back almost as far, from their early days as 12 and 13 year olds at Whittier Junior High (where Gatewood challenged Fish to a daily wrestling match in gym class). But there was a big interlude after high school when everyone went their separate ways, and during that time Gatewood found himself making some very bad decisions, landing himself in a federal penitentiary.

What transpired there led to his transformation in to a cross country community leader in both Denver, Colorado and his hometown Flint, as well as being a highly acclaimed pastor and member of the T.D. Jakes national ministry and organization. His literal ‘Come to Jesus’ moment in the penitentiary would be an incredible story on its own merits if it only involved a seismic personal change. But the fact that it involved two of the leading members of American organized crime with the last names of Gotti and Gambino take the story to an entirely different level.

It’s another day of incredible storytelling in The Aquarium of “Fish and The Flint Chronicles.” Believe us when we tell you that you will not want to miss this one!

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

Growing up in Flint, Kevin Conroy was offered the opportunity to experience diversity on a scale most kids in America never get to know. That was all an elemental part of his early years at Civic Park Elementary, and exploring the neighborhoods of the city. Not only did he get the chance to participate in sports at a high level, he met kids from backgrounds as wide as the city limits and beyond.

This exploration informed forays in to the competitive landscape of Flint in the late 1970’s. And that ultimately led him to compete in athletics with and against some of the city's very best in a variety of endeavors. This included the ultra competitive Flint youth soccer leagues alongside Fish while a member of the Flint Heddy Decorators Soccer Club, and then on to his high school career at Flint Carman High School.

From there, he took his estimable academic talents on to Michigan State University, and prepared to take on the world in the same manner he took on and embraced his own youth growing up in Flint and Genesee County.

To say he did so with tremendous success would be to understate the reality by magnitudes of order. Conroy is now the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Exact Sciences. You might not recognize that name, but you will likely recognize the product that his team developed: Cologuard. You've probably seen the walking, talking box on the ubiquitous TV commercials.

If you’re of a certain age you most assuredly have some familiarity with the product. And if you don’t know, understand that it is a vanguard product that is the very first medical device or diagnostic to receive simultaneous FDA approval and national Medicare coverage. Since that approval in 2014, millions of Americans have used Cologuard to screen for colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of death in the United States.

That’s an incredible achievement and legacy, and one that was propelled forward with maximum velocity when Conroy became CEO in 2009. His tight knit team transformed Exact Science in to the premier world class cancer diagnostic company it is now, with more than 6500 employees worldwide.

The early detection of cancer has been a major driving force and passion in Conroy’s executive and leadership career. Before taking over at Exact Sciences he was CEO and President of Third Wave Technologies, a molecular diagnostics company that developed a breakthrough cervical cancer screening test before being acquired by Hologic in 2008.

In many ways Conroy is like several super successful business stars from Flint. He’s surely reminiscent of William C. “Billy” Durant who saw a problem with transportation and created a solution first with carriages and then with automobiles by creating General Motors, Chevrolet, and reinventing Buick. Durant then did the same thing with keeping food fresh and healthy when he created Frigidaire. Durant was laser-focused on making average people’s lives much better. In many ways large and small, so is Kevin Conroy.

Like a true Flintstone he is doing it with focus and grit, and like so many of our cities favorite sons, he remembers where is from and the city and community that helped craft him in to the kind of a man that can leverage his unique gifts and talents to improve our world.

Today he is telling that fascinating and dramatic story with Fish in the Aquarium on “Fish and The Flint Chronicles!”

Originally aired on 6/15/2022

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

A real live Motown-to-Flint connection visits the studio! Flint's very own Norma Fairhurst, of the Velvelettes, dishes with Fish about Motown "in the day", Little Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, Berry Gordy, and more, and how the Velvelettes got their start, and kept Motown in business early on.

Norma went to both Flint Central and Southwestern, graduating from Southwestern.

This is one of our earliest shows recorded at WFNT radio in Flint. Fish is joined by co-host, Jim Hargrove, and a guy drilling on the roof. Audio quality is a little suspect...

This episode originally aired on January 16, 2018.

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

It’s a truly epic day in the Aquarium! Flint has produced so many incredible athletes in virtually every sport, and we’ve had a ton of them on “Fish and The Flint Chronicles” over the years. However, we rarely have more than one at a time, and only occasionally two. But today we have a truly special moment. We’ve brought four of the GOAT’s together for one show today. This is pure Flint sports history at its finest!

Jo Lake – Arguably the greatest ladies high school coach in Michigan high school history. A genuine ground breaker, pre Title 9 pioneer, she led teams at both Flint Kearsley and Flint Holy Rosary to multiple state titles in three sports (Basketball, Volleyball, and Softball). The story of Jo Lake’s life is the stuff great screenplays are made of though. Her journey from mom and housewife, to nursing school, to becoming one of the most prolific coaches in Michigan High School athletics is one that can only be labeled as unlikely and amazing. Her stat line includes leading Holy Rosary and Kearsley to eight state high school championships. In the 1975-76 school year, her Holy Rosary teams incredibly won state Class D titles in basketball, volleyball and softball. She also had two more state titles in each of those sports at Holy Rosary and two state Class A volleyball titles at Kearsley. In 1979, Lake was named National High School Volleyball Coach Of The Year.

Sue Novara Reber - One of America’s greatest female cyclists, she was Senior Woman’s National Sprint Champion in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980. In 1982 she won the Senior Women’s Road National Championship. She also won three silver and four bronze medals in the Senior Women’s National Championships. She won seven Amateur Woman’s Sprint Championship medals: two gold, four silver, one bronze. She also served as coach of the USA Women’s National Team from 1986 to 1988. She was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1991.

Pam Stockton Brady - She is a member of the United States Badminton Hall of Fame, elected in 1981.Brilliant in every aspect of the game, she won twenty United States National Championships between 1972 and 1985; four in singles, eleven in women's doubles, and five in mixed doubles. She represented the USA in team matches including Uber Cup which was the women's world team in '71-'72, '77-'78, and '80-'81. In 1981 and 1982 she teamed with husband Danny Brady, to win The United States national mixed doubles titles in 1981 and 1982. She only failed to win a National Championship once between 1965 and 1983 and that was 1975 when her daughter was born. It’s a run that has included dominating performances around the world in addition to the states, Canada, and South Africa including England, Germany, France, Denmark, Peru, Bermuda, Japan, New Zealand and many others.

Linnell Jones McKenney- Flint’s first female professional basketball player, Senior Olympic Champion, local legend, and Italian athletic folk hero for scoring 84 points in a game in Italy, Jones-McKenney is a ground breaking, barrier shattering, positive force of pure energy. In 1980, Jones-McKenney qualified for the U.S. Olympics, but it was boycotted that year so she couldn’t compete. After college, she was drafted fourth overall in 1980 by the St. Louis Streaks of the Women’s Basketball League. She was named the Italian league’s Most Valuable Player three times, earned five All-Star nods, and scored 84 points in a single game.

Although each has been on the show individually the synergy of all four in the same room, at the same time is nothing short of magic. It’s another one of those incredible moments that only happen in the Effervescent Aquarium of “Fish and The Flint Chronicles”!

8/31/22

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/

Kim Crawford discusses his book "The 16th Michigan Infantry", and it's a classic. Kim was here previously to talk about Jacob Smith, the first white settler and generally acknowledged founder of Flint, Michigan. Now, he moves us forward about 50 years to the American Civil War, and the role the 16th played. The story includes soldiers from around the state, but it all starts with Flintstone Colonel Thomas Stockton.

It's a fascinating look at this incredibly historic unit, fighting a war whose outcome would shape the next century and a half. The characters in this drama represent some of the major players: Rebel Colonel James Longstreet, Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, American General U.S. Grant, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and President Abraham Lincoln.

The story also includes some of the seminal events in American history, including the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, battles at Malvern Hill, and Fredricksburg. Most famously of all all the battles they participated in, though, was a place called Gettysburg, on a hill called Little Round Top, where the fate of the Republic hung in the balance and relied, in part, on the actions of the Flintstone-founded men of the 16th Michigan. After the battle, President Lincoln delivered perhaps the great speech in American history, at an event commemorating the battle:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

It's almost too big to wrap your head around, but Kim does it with skill, grace, and a true historian's gift for story. It's a monumental tale, and book, and the storyteller is a 30-year veteran writer of The Flint Journal, Flint, and most especially our heritage. Fish and Kim break it down in an unforgettable way on this episode of "Fish and The Flint Chronicles".

This episode originally aired on November 19, 2019

You can also visit this episode at Fish's website: http://www.flintchronicles.com/