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Want a career in healthcare but don’t want to spend years in school? Train to become a medical assistant through Stark State College in less than a year - 3 semesters to be exact! Medical assistants are the heartbeat of your doctor’s office and many other outpatient facilities. AND, there’s a ton of local job openings. Visit starkstate.edu/in-demand-health to request info.

The song list has been released for the CMA Country Christmas TV special, hosted by Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood.

Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood -"Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
Amy Grant, Trisha Yearwood and Lindsey Stirling - "Joy to the World"
Amy Grant - "Grown Up Christmas List"
Trisha Yearwood and Lindsey Stirling - "O Holy Night"
Jordan Davis - "O Come All Ye Faithful"
Lady A - "What Christmas Means to Me"
Ashley McBryde and Lindsey Stirling - "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
Jon Pardi - "Beer for Santa"
The War and Treaty - "Baby, Please Come Home"
Zach Williams and Lainey Wilson - "Go Tell It on the Mountain"

CMA Country Christmas airs December 14th at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and will begin streaming on Hulu and Disney + on December 15th.

Box Office Results - The Boy And The Heron   -  13 million

#2 – Hunger Games

#3 - Godzilla

New This Week - Wonka

Barbie - Will premiere on Max today

Barbie – Leads list of nominations for the Critics Choice Awards - 18 nominations - A Record

Showtime – Is over 40 years old, but as of January 8^th will be renamed - Paramount+ With Showtime.

Netflx - Leave The World Behind - caused a big stir

Production - On the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is set to begin in early January

Sheesh - Last week's top movie, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, - fell to sixth with $5 million, In 10 days, the music documentary has earned $28.1 million

This Weekend – Check out my Country Music Memory Lane (link)

Also - My 50 Favorites Over 40+ Years This Week #2  (Link)

With several blogs on the topic, it's no secret I love the Grand Theft Auto series, and this Tuesday was huge in the timeline of events towards a new game as the official trailer for GTA 6 was released! This comes a decade after the release of the current game, GTA 5, and the new game itself won't even hit shelves until 2025. 

Rockstar has the potential to produce the greatest game ever made thus far in their hands here, so long as they do it right. I'm so incredibly nervous about it all. They had 12 years, so it had better be glorious. I'm especially worried about the online aspects of the game. I really hope they don't have any subscriptions or passes or pay-to-play features beyond selling Rockstar Points or whatever it is in GTA Online. The online part of GTA 5 is toxic and overwhelming and a shell of what it was originally, as it stands. It goes way too deep with the heists and missions and stuff, let alone the gangs and the businesses and whatnot. It's a real mess, so I stick to playing story mode and will do that again on 6 if it's equally unpleasant online.

I just hope they focus on the game itself more than adding silly missions and endless content. What I want more than anything is for each and every car you encounter to be different, just like in real life. In all the prior games, the cars come in packs, and the only differences among them are the paint colors, generally. I want to see bumper stickers, custom wheels, scratches/dents/rust, and completely unrelated vehicles spawning instead of just the same three at a given time in a certain area. I want to see roads with potholes and untrimmed grass in yards and unique NPC's too. That shouldn't be too much to ask with a decade plus of development going into GTA 6. 

With all this said, the GTA 6 trailer looks sick. I'm loving all the Florida references with it set in Vice City. Years ago, I prayed the new game would be Vice City (from GTA Vice City), since 5 was San Andreas (from GTA San Andreas) and 4 was Liberty City (from GTA 3). I'm anxiously optimistic about this new video game, but what do you think? Check out the trailer below! 

Hardy's "Red" with Morgan Wallen is the Theme Song of WWE Friday Night Smackdown's 'Tribute to the Troops' on Friday Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

Hardy is no stranger to the event as he performed at the event during Covid.

 Or this guy back in 2018....

 Maybe these guys...

 Or him...

 There are plenty more...  WWE, Troops and Country go hand in hand...

The month of December is a BIG month of gift giving for the family of Luke Bryan. They have plenty of reasons to celebrate and give those they love a special something this time of year!

First of all, of course there is Christmas! Who could forget that?! Gifts galore there! lol. But not only that, Luke and Caroline are about to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary this Friday (December 8th)! So more gifts and a fancy dinner are a must there...am I right?

As if that wasn't enough, Caroline's birthday happens to fall on New Years Eve! If Luke's a smart man, gotta get the lady a little somethin' somethin' to kick off the new year in style for her birthday!

Good luck with all that purchasing and have fun paying the bills in January, Luke! :)

This week Country Music Legend, John Anderson is having a birthday.  If you are not familiar with him, he's worth knowing. His run in the 80's and then again in the 90's was great, and I feel his absolute "country" sound during the Urban Cowboy craze was highly influential to the future stars that would take the reins years later and become the new traditionalists.

Anderson was loved for his sound and his "defiance" of pop country when it was the rule.  He is one of the most influential artists we have had in my 40 plus years.  Many future stars point to him as their favorite, including Alan Jackson. 

MY FULL PROFILE ON JOHN ANDERSON

The Influencers (Part One)  

Brad Paisley made an appearance last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he sang "Son of the Mountains". He also sang another special song, one he wrote for his wedding. It's pretty real and honest and special, watch the performance in the segment below.

I'm stoked to announce: I bought a new car! Well... new to me that is. 

She's a '98 Chevy Blazer 2-door with a 5-speed manual transmission and relatively high mileage that I scooped up for a good price out of Kenmore. It was a California truck for most of its life and is stupid clean. Aside from some dents, dings, and sunspots, she's just gorgeous. There are little things that need addressed inside and out on the vehicle, but overall, I'm in love. 

The best part of it all is that the Blazer has 4x4! I have to keep telling myself, "Joe, you just bought this. Do not go mess it up mudding immediately. Keep it nice." I at least need it to make it through winter in one piece. It's not the Zr2 package either, so I need to do a couple things before she's ready for 'ffroading. At a minimum, I'd one day like to add a 2" lift, some meaty tires, mud flaps, skid plates, a bash bar, and a winch. It's cool to have a daily worth putting money into! 

I'm really excited to have it for transporting my powersports, especially. I just had a pressure washer in the back and it fit with room to spare, and the whole car just feels like it's a better size for me. I'm 6'3" in my cowboy boots, and never in my life have I owned a car with ample headroom. From my Valiant to my Monte Carlo SS, I've had to lean the seat back further than I would like to so as to avoid bumping my noggin. This Blazer however, just feels right to me, and even the backseat is roomy despite it being a coupe. I actually grew up riding in the back seat of a similar Blazer and I feel like it's all come full circle back to me now. 

Prior to purchasing the car, I had never really driven a standard shift. With almost no idea exactly what I was doing, I kind of just went at it with a sink or swim mentally. I managed to drive her home though, grinding gears and stalling the whole way through! While we're on the topic, I want to take the opportunity here to remind you that there are still people out there learning to drive a stick shift! Please, give me a little grace at those green lights; I swear I'm trying! I know it's green!!!

I'm back in that spot again where I have three vehicles in my name, so I'm selling the old daily and praying the gas money on this bigger car doesn't beat up my bank account too badly. My master plan is to use the Blazer as my daily, have the El Camino as my Sunday cruiser classic show car, and ride the motorcycle as much as possible otherwise. Not only do I love cruising around on the bike, but it's amazing on gas, so that'll all work out well I think. I can't wait to take the Blazer when I go out fishing, on little road trips, and even camping! 

I really could go on and on writing about my new set of wheels, but I wanted to ask, what should I name her? My Monte Carlo SS was named Carly, my Civic is Vicky, and the Elky is Eleanor. I'm leaning towards Whitney since she's white, but I'm very much open to suggestions. If you have any, I'd love it if you would drop a text in on the WQMX Studio Text Line (sponsored by Cricket Wireless) at 330-370-2000. Although I work overnights, you can do that any time and I'll be sure to see it. Thanks for reading this and for tuning in to WQMX!

I stayed up quite late Saturday night (3am) watching a miniseries documentary I found streaming about the start of the Chicago Mob. I think it was a total of six episodes at 1 hour each. This was extremely interesting to me as someone who finds historical events interesting to learn about.

The show started all the way back into the early 1900's and followed the upward movement of Al Capone and how he came to his full power. From there, it continued with how the people under Capone tried to keep things afloat after his death. The show explained how they were able to keep things going for quite a few years (couple decades in fact), before it started to really have trouble. 

The series ended with mentioning Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance in 1975 and the last of the main Chicago gangsters retiring from business around that same time. A very late night for me, but well worth it fo such an interesting docuseries.