Janice Ockershausen, and Host Andy Ockershausen – Look Back at Season 3, On to Season 4

Our Town with host Andy Ockershausen - Homegrown History

Janice Ockershausen, and host Andy Ockershausen, on scheduling Joe Theismann as a guest~ "And don't forget, speaking of Charles, we've had Charles Mann, we've had Shawn Springs, we've had Mark Moseley. We're hoping to get Joe Theismann so if anybody knows Joe Theismann and can get us Joe Theismann for Season 4 that'd be much appreciated." Janice Ockershausen, with host Andy Ockershausen, in studio Our Town DC Podcast How and Why Our Town? Andy Ockershausen: This is Our Town, this is Andy Ockershausen. I think back to that wonderful, beautiful summer day we were driving down to Rehoboth Delaware to visit some very dear friends for a weekend and Janice said to me, "Honey we're losing touch and we're losing track of a lot of good things going on. Why don't we do a podcast about Washington?" I said, "What is a podcast?" That was the first time, Ken, I ever heard that word, podcast. I know it had been in our vocabulary somewhere, but I hadn't paid attention to it. Janice started me thinking and made my life, we have really established something that I never thought possible and that was we started all over again. Radio without a transmitter. Janice Ockershausen: We liked the idea of the intimate one on one conversation between two friends, whether it's at a bar or over dinner that you haven't seen somebody in a while. So that concept of sharing a relationship with either people you know or people you used to know or people you want to come to know. Andy Ockershausen: Well the thing that made it so possible was your ingenuity in planning this and planning WMAL in the picture. But because of my years in the business and because of all the people I've come in contact with it was easy for me to talk to people because I knew so much about them, maybe things they didn't think that we knew about, but we knew about. The other side of it is they were comfortable with it because they knew who I am and who I was and who I am now is you. Janice Ockershausen: Well a lot of the people that we talked to over Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 we've had relationships with. You've lived through the news stories with people. We had Maurice Cullinane on in Season 1. You lived through the ... It was just the 50th anniversary of the Resurrection City and the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Andy Ockershausen: Well and being part of what happened and the shooting at the Blair House because of WMAL, way back where I was fortunate enough to start at WMAL and live through all of these things and all these talented people. People in the audience would come and say, oh I know your name because I hear it, I hear it on Harden and Weaver. I hear it on Trumbull and Core. Occasionally Ken Beatrice will talk about you. I hear you during the Redskin games, they drop your name in. So, I was known as WMAL without being a performer. WMAL Always a Breaking News Channel Janice Ockershausen: Still to this day people come up to you and say, "What's going on with WMAL?" It's been what? 30 some years. Andy Ockershausen: Who was it that was just asking me the other day? He said, you're the radio guy? I said yeah. He said, I used to- Janice Ockershausen: That was your doctor. Andy Ockershausen: Yeah and I said, this is my wife Janice Iacona. He said, oh I know that name. I remember listening to Harden and Weaver talk about Janice. I mean this was out of the blue. Janice Ockershausen: Right. I guess the biggest compliment I ever had being the producer for the Harden and Weaver show was an operator, I was calling 411 for information. Or somebody was calling to find out, getting my phone number and they said, "Oh you mean Janice Iacona? The one that works for Harden and Weaver?" So that was the C&P operator I think that it was. So that was my biggest- Andy Ockershausen: That wasn't about the Air Florida crash was it? Janice Ockershausen: No the Air Florida crash was something we both lived through. Andy Ockershausen: Right.