(upbeat music) ♪ Well, no matter what the question is we'll say ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ And everyone who's had some trouble will say ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ You're amazing ♪ ♪ Baby, you're amazing ♪ ♪ You just remember ♪ ♪ You just remember ♪ ♪ You're amazing, yeah ♪ - Oh, CEFCU Center Stage is packed.

Must be a good show tonight.

(audience chuckles) Hi there.

Welcome to "Vibe 309."

I'm your host, Blake Wirth.

Thanks for stopping by and before you ask, no, 309 is not my credit score.

Not anymore, anyway.

It is the greater Peoria area code though, and in my book, the heartbeat of Illinois, probably the Midwest, if I'm being frank.

We have it all here, exceptional schools and employers, world class healthcare, the biggest park district in the state, a criminally underrated food scene, breathtaking views as you can see behind me, affordable living.

The list goes on.

But you wanna know what the real secret sauce is around here?

Why I'm proud to call Peoria home?

It's the people.

I'm serious.

They say the people make the place.

In other words, a city's vitality and identity is directly linked to the individuals who inhabit it.

And this entire region is full of some of the most talented, brightest, caring, down to earth and delightfully weird people I've ever met.

The good kind of weird, not the kind that collects toenail clippings in a jar.

Look, I want everyone to see this place the way I do, not through a negative social post or from someone who's been here once in the dead of winter.

That's what this show is all about.

We're gonna shine a spotlight on the people, places, and personalities that make the 309 special, a vibe, if you will.

We're gonna show you why we're the greatest city in the Land of Lincoln.

And nobody does that better than our very first guest on "Vibe 309," one of the most intelligent and charismatic people you'll ever talk to, President and CEO of the Peoria Riverfront Museum, John Morris.

Welcome to the set.

- Honored to be here.

- Thank you so much.

- Good to be here.

- Please, have a seat.

Have a seat.

- "Vibe 309."

I can feel the vibe.

- What do you think of the digs?

- I feel the vibe.

Congratulations.

This is terrific.

- You see the view?

- The best view of any city in America.

- They said that's- - Right out your window.

- They said that's the greatest river in America.

- Well, it is a special river formed by the Kankakee Torrent some 15,000 years ago.

The glacial meltwater built up.

We got the Great Lakes out of it- - Sure.

- But it was so high, Blake, held back by these glacial moraines.

That's what we have up on Grandview Drive.

That's a glacial moraine.

- Sure.

- Kind of the bathtub of the world, that when those bathtubs broke, it just carved out the Illinois River in a geological instant.

Overnight, like 72 hours, geologists believe.

It is a special river.

- Incredible.

- I've had many- - And ever since then, human beings occupying, native peoples, French settlers.

It's remarkable.

Our river is special.

- It is.

It really is.

Something else that's special, the Peoria Riverfront Museum recently got some big news.

I want you to talk about the Art Bridges Foundation Bridgemaker Prize.

That's a big deal.

- Blake, thank you for noticing that.

Alice Walton happens to be the wealthiest woman in the world.

She grew up in a little town called Bentonville, Arkansas.

And her dad started a company called Walmart.

The late Sam Walton and Alice's mother, Helen, left Alice and her two brothers in a position to do some real good in the world.

And Alice created a foundation.

After starting the Crystal Bridges Museum, she created a foundation called Art Bridges.

And this helps now more than 300 museums around the country.

She buys art and lends it.

It levels five levels up from what we would've ever been able to afford in a smaller town region.

Her belief, having come from Bentonville, Arkansas, is that just 'cause you're from a small town doesn't mean you don't have access to the great artists.

- Right.

- And so just recently, we were recognized as one of the first inaugural three Bridgemaker Prize recipients in the whole country by Art Bridges Foundation.

We were pretty proud of- - Incredible.

- That recognition.

It's the best partner, too, her foundation, so.

- It comes with a $50,000 prize, I believe.

So what can the people expect?

How can that be put to good use?

What can people expect?

- Well, we're gonna apply that prize.

We're a $6.7 million a year operating budget.

So it takes a lot of money- - Sure.

- In donations.

We're completely privately funded museum.

And we live in a county owned house, so the people's house.

But we are everything from salaries to striping the parking lot to mowing the lawn is privately funded.

We're gonna apply that 50,000, this new Bridgemaker Prize grant to help us with our Achievement Passport program.

That's where kids can come in, families can come in, adults can come in, they get a little passport lanyard they wear around their neck.

They can get pins on the lanyard.

And the top 10% of the achievement point earners are entered into a drawing this year.

It'll be the end of this year, 2025, to win a trip for their family to New York City.

- Oh wow.

- Which is quite a prize.

- The Big Apple.

- The Big Apple.

They'll get to go to the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum.

- Wow.

- The 9/11 Memorial Museum.

So, pretty amazing that we're building this bridge to New York from Peoria.

That's one of many ways we've been able to bring things in from the Big Apple.

People ask me, Blake, why the Big Apple to Peoria?

Right?

Why not the Windy City?

Which I think is a fine city.

It's upstate Illinois but it's- - Sure.

- Not the Big Apple.

The Big Apple, they don't have access to that sort of stuff in Chicago.

So we're bringing things in that nobody here in the Midwest has access to.

So they're now coming to Peoria to see things from the American Folk Art Museum, films from the Museum of Modern Art, - Impressive.

- Contemporary photographs from the Whitney, the dinosaurs from the American Museum of Natural History.

- Sure.

- Anyway, I digress.

But it's kind of part of our plan.

We think Peoria is worthy.

- Yeah.

- To partner with the single largest museum community anywhere in the northern, you know, in North America, so- - I love that.

Something you always say, I've heard you talk many times about it.

You talk about FBO and it doesn't stand for foul body odor.

(audience laughs) What does it stand for?

- So I believe that all of us here in the greater Peoria region need to look for first, best or only.

So you don't wanna characterize yourself if you're a business as being one of the ten businesses that sell widgets.

You wanna characterize yourself as being the only business that sells widgets made of titanium, the only one.

So in our case, we're the only museum of art, science, history and achievement in the nation.

- Multidisciplinary.

- The only.

Now there are other museums that may be art and science or something, but there's only one that has this vibe.

- Sure.

- Of art, science, history, achievement when playing into the new- - Yep.

- The hot new show in town.

- Sure.

- And so we don't do that just for the description of our museum.

We do that for the description of every exhibition, of every program that we do.

And as a consequence, people are starting to pay attention.

They're thinking this is the only place you can go for that or this.

One of the ways we did this recently was not an FBO, but was actually not a first, best or only.

It was a last, and here's what happened.

Jim Henson, Imagination Unlimited.

- Sure.

- National traveling exhibition, been to nine major cities.

We're the smallest, but we were the last place for that exhibition to visit.

Came outta the Museum of Moving Image outta Queens, New York, another New York relationship.

And by making sure everybody knew this was the last place to see this exhibition, they came in droves, four hour waits over the holidays.

They came from Dallas and West Virginia and Maryland and all over the place.

- That's incredible.

- You see what I'm talking about?

- Of course.

- So I'm always telling everybody, FBO.

For example, there is only one "Vibe 309" program in America.

(audience applauds and cheers) - There you go.

- And I'm here and- - Cheers.

- Cheers to "Vibe 309."

- There's not a better first guest we could have on here because this show, from the opening monologue we heard, it's about shining a spotlight and showing everyone why this is such a great place to live.

And there's no one who does that better than you.

You do such a good job.

I've seen you at 9:00 AM.

I've seen you at 9:00 PM.

You've got the same infectious, positive energy.

And I just wanna thank you for that.

I know, and off that note, too, one of the exhibits you had was the classic car exhibit.

It was- - Yes.

- You had it recently.

I brought my dad by and you were very kind to my dad.

I wanna thank you.

- My pleasure.

- You kind of took him as a personal tour, took him on a little personal tour.

My dad's a big gearhead.

So it meant the world told him.

He still asks about you.

Calls you- - Tell him I said hi.

- Yeah, he calls you Jim Belushi 'cause he thinks you look like the guy from "According to Jim."

- That's great.

- But yeah, he asked about you.

He just said the other day, 'cause I told him you're gonna be on the show.

He's like, "You know what?

You can tell he really loves his job.

You can tell he really cares what he does."

And I thought that was, not only is that true, it just comes off.

And that is the reason this region is a vibe because we have people like you who care so much and you can feel that, so.

- Well, thank you.

- One of the next, I know there's a really exciting exhibit opening up any day now, very soon.

It's the Titanic exhibit.

- This is amazing.

- You wanna talk to me about that?

- Right, so September 1- - Okay.

- 1985, the US Navy had assigned an officer named Robert Ballard, Dr.

Robert Ballard, as a naval intelligence officer.

They'd assigned him to try to find a lost sub at the bottom of the North Atlantic, but they couldn't put the word out that we had a lost sub at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

So they put the word out that Dr.

Robert Ballard and then the team was searching for the wreck of the Titanic.

- [Blake] Okay.

- And sure enough, Ballard found what he was looking for with the Navy and had ten days to spare.

And he said to the Navy, "Would you mind if I actually take these last ten days on the time that I had been allotted to try to find this and actually try to find the wreck of the Titanic?"

Which had been down there for nearly a century.

- Yeah.

- He found it.

September 1, 1985, Bob Ballard found the Titanic.

It was the greatest maritime discovery in history.

And of course, the Titanic itself had been this unbelievable tragedy.

- Yeah.

- Some of the wealthiest people in the world on board, the indestructible maiden voyage coming over from Europe across the Atlantic.

And so what has transpired since, of course, is a further lore to not only the tragic loss of the Titanic, but the rediscovery of where it was on the floor of the Atlantic, how deep it is, incredibly deep.

- [Blake] How deep was it?

- So it's more than two and a half miles deep.

- Wow.

- And so what happened, right.

And of course we had a tragedy last year.

- Yeah.

We did.

- Involving a guy who came to Peoria.

One of the scientists was lost in that implosion who had spoken in Peoria just when I came to the museum eight years ago.

We had a Titanic exhibition about the artifacts of the Titanic.

This exhibition, first location, international debut for this exhibition, Dr.

Robert Ballard's personal exhibition of the story of how he found the Titanic, what tools he used, what the now declassified naval intelligence is.

It's unbelievable that Peoria is the international launch pad for this exhibition.

So opening September- - Incredible.

- 27th, Saturday and running through the holidays, we will have "Finding the Titanic" will be the international premier, so thank you for asking.

- I can't wait.

Yeah, I cannot wait for that.

- And Dr.

Ballard's coming here personally, speaking at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on September 25.

And so, we're excited about that- - Incredible.

- And also will make appearances at the museum, of course, and the opening for our members, so very cool stuff going on at museum.

- That really is.

We have a few more minutes here.

I wanna do a special segment here with you.

- Okay.

- A little rapid fire questions here.

- All right.

- I don't know if you're ready for this here.

- You got your own cards.

That's big time, Blake.

- You got the "Vibe 309" cards right there.

- Big time.

- Are you ready?

- I'll do my best.

- Okay.

All right.

Name three greater Peorians you'd want in an escape room with you.

- Oh, goodness.

(John chuckles) Well, I've never been in an escape room, so it's hard for me to know, but I would absolutely put my guest curator and foundation board member, Bill Heidrich, who's one of the most brilliant people I've ever seen.

- Okay.

- He is incredible.

- We got you, Bill.

- Bill Heidrich in there.

I think I would put my wife in there 'cause she has all the common sense in the world.

- Okay.

- And I don't.

I'm museum sense.

- Okay.

- But she would figure some things out from a common sense standpoint.

And you know, I'd put you.

- Me?

- Yes, Blake because you have the vibe.

- I don't know if we're getting out.

- You've got the vibe.

And I think it would be very cool to see what, you know, what you'd come up with 'cause you've come up with this show.

- Yeah?

- You're an innovative guy, so- - That's fine.

I lose focus on tasks, so I don't know if I'd be an asset, but we'll see.

Thank you for including me, though.

- Well, sure.

- I think I know the answer to this one.

I've heard you say this, too.

If you were tasked with writing Peoria's tagline, what would it be?

- Well, City of Gratitude.

You knew that.

A couple of years ago, the Chamber of Commerce holds an annual event here in the greater Peoria area for the Thanksgiving luncheon.

And I was asked to be the keynote speaker.

It was a great honor.

And typically what you do in that is you go through and you express gratitude for a lot of the things that are in Peoria.

But in preparing for that speech, it occurred to me that the moniker for our city, which we've never officially given it already kind of existed in the vibe of the city.

- There you go.

- "Vibe 309."

The vibe of the city is that we're very giving people and giving is the action that comes out of gratitude.

When you're grateful for something you tend to give.

And Peoria, we've always heard, whether it's the healthcare or the St.

Jude runs and races or the support for the Peoria Riverfront Museum, incredible support for our universities like Bradley and Eureka College and Illinois Central College and all the education we have.

So I put out there that I wasn't making it up.

I was simply describing what I thought the city already was, which is the City of Gratitude.

- I love that.

And it's caught on, too.

People say that.

In one to two words, what's the most underrated thing about living in the 309?

- You already mentioned it.

Food is great here.

- The food is great.

- Yeah, we've got- - We have great food - Some of the greatest restaurants in America.

- All right.

If the Peoria Riverfront Museum had a time machine, what year in Peoria would you visit?

- Oh wow.

Fascinating.

- Yeah.

- Look, I think when we discovered the mass production of penicillin, we saved hundreds of millions of lives.

It's one of the most underappreciated things about- - Yeah.

- What Peoria did.

We didn't just change the world.

We saved, the mass production of penicillin, antibiotics- - Yeah.

- Saved, since that time, hundreds of millions of lives.

It would be kind of interesting to see what happened with the ag lab.

- Yeah.

- You know, the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research.

We drive by it across, if you know, by Interstate 74 across from Bradley University up there, but people don't necessarily realize that what happened there changed the world, saved- - Yeah.

- Saved the world.

- It really did.

Last question, in your expert opinion, is the Peoria Riverfront Museum a vibe?

- Of course.

(audience cheers and applauds) - Well, there you go.

There you go.

- "Vibe 309," Blake.

- There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

John Morris has confirmed the Peoria Riverfront Museum absolutely is a vibe.

It's one of the stars of our region.

Another star of the region, just a few blocks away from the Peoria Riverfront Museum is Dozer Park, home of the Peoria Chiefs.

I stopped by there recently to check out if it's a vibe, if people are having fun.

And don't take my word for it.

Why don't you see for yourself?

But don't touch that dial, as they say, because we're gonna be right back here with John to close up.

Thank you.

(logo swishes) Hey, man.

You wanna go to the Chiefs game?

Yeah, it's a total vibe down here.

All right, cool.

Meet me at Dozer Park in five minutes.

Five minutes.

Obviously, that phone call was fake, but the vibes behind me are very much real.

Welcome to Dozer Park, home of the Peoria Chiefs, affiliate of the St.

Louis Cardinals and easily one of the best places to be in the 309 on a summer night.

Why don't you follow me inside and find out?

(bright music) Ah, what's up, Pete?

Pete Vonachen, former owner of the Peoria Chiefs.

The first thing you guys gotta know about us is we're a big baseball town, always have been.

So it makes sense we have a minor league baseball team.

Joe Girardi, he's from here.

Albert Pujols, he's played here.

Yadier Molina, Mark Grace, Placido Polanco.

I'd keep listing names, but I'm late.

I'm throwing out the first pitch.

(bright music) Hope I don't need Tommy John surgery after this.

There it is.

Two seam fastball, baby.

Are you going side arm?

(group laughs) (bright music) (bright music continues) It is warm.

(bright music) (bat hits ball) (bright music) Give me your best umpire strike three call.

- I got you.

Strike three.

- Strike three.

- Huh.

(child laughs) (bright music) - [Blake] What's your favorite thing about Dozer Park?

- It's just a great place to see a ball game.

It's right in the heart of downtown and you know, where else can you get this kind of value for your entertainment dollar?

(bright music) - Are you having fun?

- I'm having fun right now, bro.

(bright music) - Strike three.

(dog barks) - Oh.

Whoa.

(Blake and dog owner laugh) (bright music) Ah.

All right, Edison, what's your favorite thing to eat at Dozer Park?

- I've never been here before.

I don't know.

- Definitely the hot dogs and the food.

It's all so good and I love it so much.

- How many hot dogs could you realistically throw down during one game?

- Probably just one.

- They're saying a lot.

You won a hot eating contest?

How many did she eat?

- Had to be at least 50.

- You ate 50 hot dogs?

- Apparently I did.

- That's a vibe.

- It is a vibe, a great one.

- That's a great vibe.

Nobody is sweating more than me right now, I can guarantee you that.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (crowd cheers) (bright music) All right guys, vibe check complete from Dozer Park, the Chiefs walking off from ten.

Very exciting.

That's all for me.

Let's take it away with the fireworks.

Enjoy the show, ladies and gentlemen.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - It's a vibe here.

(audience cheers and applauds) - Well, you heard the kid, it is a vibe there at Dozer Park.

Have you been to a Chiefs game recently?

- I was there at the opening game of the Chiefs game.

- Okay.

Did you play a little baseball?

- Yeah, maybe in grade school.

- Okay.

- But baseball is the American game.

And I have to tell you, Blake, about a year and a half ago I had the great privilege of having dinner with Ryan Sandberg.

- Oh wow.

- Who of course, we lost this year, but we spoke about how baseball really is the American game.

It's both individualistic 'cause you're up pitcher, batter and it is the collective.

It is the community, as once that ball goes in the field, it all becomes a team- - Sure.

- Sport.

So it really is the only sport in which you have this sort of dynamic like America where you have individualism.

Every day of your life, you have to be self-reliant.

You have to be responsible.

But when Ryan Sandberg was here in Peoria, managing that team, and actually here in this studio right here, he came and recorded some things.

It was pretty cool for Public Broadcasting at the time.

And may he rest in peace.

But man, we've got a good baseball history here with the Chiefs and- - Yeah.

- And Peoria in general, so.

- You're a gentleman and a scholar, John.

I have something for you before we let you get outta here.

Your own "Vibe 309" hat.

- Well, thank you.

- That's for you.

- Very nice.

Look at that.

Look at that, everybody.

- Could look good on a shelf, on your head.

John, I wanna thank you for coming in and for being the leader in the community and the human being you are.

We are a better city because of you, so thank you for stopping by.

- Congratulations.

- Appreciate you.

- Thank you, Blake.

- Thank you.

(logo swishes) All right, we're gonna close the show with a little segment called "Blake's Take."

Title's pretty self-explanatory, so I'll jump right in.

Sometimes I go on social media and I see people being all negative, just going at each other in the comments, making all kinds of asinine remarks.

And sometimes it's even about where they live, their own hometown.

Can you believe that?

Here's what I think.

I think we all have a hand in telling Peoria's story.

It's already one hell of a story, one with a rich past.

It's still being written line by line every single day, too.

Now, no city's perfect.

Every place has something to work on, its own set of challenges.

I get it.

But dragging down your own hometown?

That doesn't help anyone, doesn't lift anyone up.

Whining in the Facebook comments is easy.

What's harder and what actually matters is stepping up, pitching in, doing your part.

Big or small, it all counts because when you help build the place you live, you're not just making your city better, you're making your life better, too.

So maybe the move isn't tearing it down on social media.

Maybe the move is seeing it with fresh eyes and maybe, just maybe this show will help you do that.

That's my take.

Thanks for tuning in, ladies and gentlemen.

It has most definitely been a vibe.

(bright music) ♪ You're amazing ♪ ♪ Baby, you're amazing ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ You're amazing, yeah ♪ ♪ Well, I thought that I knew it all ♪ ♪ Thought I was standing pretty tall ♪ ♪ Then you came in ♪ ♪ You turned my life on its head ♪ ♪ How rude ♪ ♪ And I thought I was pretty wild ♪ ♪ I had the spirit of a child ♪ ♪ So I with you ♪ ♪ Sometimes I struggle too ♪ (bright music fades)