On Tuesday, May 4th, the 50th Ben & Fitzy show will stream live on Facebook. Spooner Health CEO Mike Schafer and Shell Lake Police Chief Dave Wilson will be joining the boys for what is sure to be a very fun show. We will publish more information about Tuesday’s 50th episode on Monday ($50 gift card giveaways anyone?), but for now, we thought it would be fun to look back at our 49 previous shows w/ Ben & Fitzy.
Below you can stream the video slideshow (or click here to view on YouTube). Below the slideshow is a little more information and some fun facts. We hope you enjoy this look back and can remember some of the shows?
Note: Screenshots of each show were selected at random points of the recordings. We thought it would be funnier that way.
“Bat & Men”
Episodes 1-2
What many don’t know (or forgot), is the “Positive Tuesday” moniker didn’t officially come into existence until episode 18. DrydenWire.com launched October 1, 2015. It wasn’t until 2 1/2 years later that the first live show was aired. It was called The "Bat & Men” show with hosts Ben Dryden and his brother Matt Dryden with the idea of having a different guest for each episode. The very first guest? Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald. It aired on April 13, 2018.
Fun Fact: 13 people were asked to come on and be our first guest. Of those, only 2 agreed: Fitzy, and Romaine Quinn (Romaine was our 2nd guest on the show).
Episodes 3-5
Due to audio issues (reverb) with Ben and Matt being in the same room, Matt moved his setup to his house. Episodes 4 and 5 featured both Fitzy and Brian Cole for what we called our “Cops & Robbers” episodes. It was a blast.
Fun Fact: The “Bat & Men” shows started with 2 small Logitiech webcams, and 2 Blue Yeti microphones. Those were the days.
“DrydenWire Live”
Episodes 6-10
Matt became too busy to continue the shows so it was rebranded as “DrydenWire Live.” We invested in different microphones and a mixer and began doing the shows in our small studio with guests coming to the studio instead of doing them remotely. Terry Dryden, who was still the Sheriff of Washburn County until his retirement 2 years ago, would often be a co-host for our shows. During one of our live shows, we held a “Sheriff Off" (watch here via YouTube). It is still one of the most requested segment to bring back. We should do that.
Fun Fact: Episode 7 was not supposed to happen for several months after it actually did (we were in the middle of a redesign to the studio thus the bare-bones look). It was done due to the Jayme Closs case. She was still missing at that time.
Episodes 11-17
When COVID-19 hit we switched back to doing remote chats. During this time Fitzy first used the words “Positive Tuesday.”
Fun Fact: The fist 10 episodes w/ Ben & Fitzy were over a 2 year span. The next 39 episodes were in the span of 13 months.
“Positive Tuesday”
Episodes 18-30
“Positive Tuesday” officially became the name of our Ben & Fitzy shows. Although there are so many great memories shows during this time, one stands out the most. Terry Dryden, now retired, suffered a heart attack during this time. It was on a Saturday. He was still in a medically-included coma 3 days later - which was a Tuesday - and after a lot of discussions, we decided to still do our show that day. It was an emotional show.
Fun Fact: Fitzy showed his dedication to the show in episode 28 where he did the live show from his quarantined bedroom after testing postive for COVID.
Episodes 31-49
Terry Dryden, now full-recovered, joined the Ben & Fitzy show as a guest. What a great success story that was. This is was also when Ben & Fitzy decided to occasionally have a guest on for a discussion. During this time the boys were joined by:
- Terry Dryden - Former Washburn County Sheriff, Ret.
- Mike Schafer (x2) - Spooner Health CEO
- Tracy Finch - Burnett County Sheriff
- Tim Bassett - Director of Pharmacy at Spooner Health
- Romaine Quinn - Former 75th District Representative
- Shell Lake Superintendent David Bridenhagen
- Brent Waak - Polk County Sheriff
Fun Fact: Ben & Fitzy have been live for 2,081 minutes over the course of 3 years and 49 shows with the average show lasting 42 minutes.
There is so much more we can get into about our past shows, and we will certainly discuss some of those on Tuesday. Let us know what were some of your favorite memories of the show on our Facebook page or during our 50th episode!
Last Update: May 03, 2021 1:09 pm CDT
