Milwaukee has turned blue and gold, and 620 WTMJ afternoon host John Mercure has a front-row seat. The Milwaukee Brewers are playing in the World Series for the first time in 44 years. Meanwhile, Mercure hasn’t seen the city like this before.
Mercure hosts Wisconsin’s Afternoon News on the station alongside Julia Fello and Debbie Lazaga. He’s worked in the market for more than two decades. Still, he says nothing compares to this run.
“It’s nuts here,” Mercure said. “It’s incredible. I’ve never seen this energy. It’s the smallest market in baseball. We haven’t had a World Series in 44 years, and we’ve never won one. I flew into our airport yesterday, and everybody is wearing Brewers stuff. As you walk through the concourse, you just hear random ‘Go Brewers,’ ‘Let’s do this,’ and ‘Go Crew.’ It’s pretty amazing stuff.”
Bigger Than the Packers
Notably, Mercure thinks this run tops even the Packers’ Super Bowl appearances. The reason, he explains, comes down to location and patience.
“I think that makes it different because it’s truly in Milwaukee,” said Mercure. “I think the other thing that makes it feel a little bigger is that it’s been so long. Even when the Packers went on their runs, like the Brett Favre Super Bowls in the mid-’90s, those were Super Bowls that we hadn’t been to in 30 years. Then (Aaron) Rodgers won a Super Bowl, which was another 15 or 20 years later.
“This has been over 40 years. The Braves left Milwaukee in the 1950s. Some of those people are still here. They remember that World Series, and that was almost 70 years ago. The buildings are all lit up in blue and gold. The bridges have Brewers flags flying from them, and there are big banners at City Hall. It just really feels unlike anything that we’ve experienced here, including when the Packers went to the Super Bowls.”
Balancing the Brewers and the Ballot
Meanwhile, the timing creates a unique challenge for a news/talk station. Election Day arrives Nov. 3, and Wisconsin’s open governor’s race looks like a toss-up. In most years, that story would dominate Wisconsin’s Afternoon News.
“If this was any other year, the biggest story of the year would probably be happening this week,” Mercure said. “It would be who’s going to be the new governor. The polls show our governor’s race is basically dead even. I look at our rundown for the show today, and we’re doing no politics. It’s all Brewers. Even our regular guests on health segments and political segments, we’re starting every segment by talking about the Brewers. So it’s completely upended the show.”
However, Mercure calls the program a news show, not a talk show. As a result, built-in touchpoints keep other headlines on the air.
“It’s fun, but it’s tough,” the 620 WTMJ afternoon host shared. “As the station of record, we have a real responsibility to cover the news. We need to let people know how the candidates feel about funding for education and that sort of thing. The World Series will be done a week from now, and then it’ll be Election Day. We have to live with the governor for the next four years. So it’s important to try to balance both. Every morning, we go into our morning meeting and say, ‘Ok, we know we have these eight Brewers segments. What else is happening today?’ The default right now is to lead with the Brewers. It’s what everybody’s talking about.”
A Rare Positive Story
Additionally, the story offers a rare break from the usual headlines. Usually, news consists of the bad. Murders, fires, tragedies.
But the run by the Milwaukee Brewers, where 620 WTMJ serves as the radio flagship, has been nothing by positive for the market and for Mercure’s afternoon show.
“To have the biggest story be a positive story just doesn’t happen very often,” admitted Mercure. “That’s one of the beautiful things about a story like this: it brings the community together. Protests and negativity aren’t what’s bringing the community together. It’s rallies and excitement. And it’s energizing to have the biggest story be a really positive story.”
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, planning for a possible championship celebration has already begun.
“When a city puts on a parade or a rally, you can’t do that on one day’s notice,” Mercure said. “The planning has begun. We don’t talk about the details publicly, because you don’t want to jinx it or get in front of it. But there has to be planning, and if the Brewers become champions, it will be the biggest story.
“If they win the World Series in the next couple of days, it will be everything,” he continued. “This is a city that hasn’t had a baseball championship in almost 45 years. The energy will be off the charts. And I think a lot of people probably won’t go into work the day of that parade.”
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