Takin A Walk/Episode Twenty with former Treasurer of Massachusetts Joe Malone in Scituate

Speaker 1:

On this episode of Taking a Walk, we’re in the beautiful south shore suburbs of Boston, the sea coast town of Scituate, a beautiful little hideaway in Plymouth County. I’m here to take a walk and reconnect with an old friend. Joe Malone is a Boston fixture, American businessman, former treasurer and receiver general of Massachusetts, and all around good guy for the Taking a Walk series.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Taking a Walk, an excursion to converse, connect, and catch up at a cool location with some of the most interesting people you can find. Here’s Buzz Knight

Buzz:

Well, Mr. Malone, thank you for taking a walk with me.

Joe:

The pleasure is mine, Buzz.

Buzz:

It’s so great to see you. It’s been a long, long time. How have you been?

Joe:

I count my blessings every day. I have a great wife and four wonderful kids who are now grown up and out of college and doing exciting things in life.

Buzz:

So before we get into in a walk here, what are you wearing? I’ll tell you I’m wearing something new. I want to … what are you wearing there on your tootsies?

Joe:

I’m wearing my New Balance shoes, my sneakers from New Balance, which I absolutely love. I think I’ve been wearing New Balance shoes going back to, geez, got to be at least 1980. So it’s been a fixture on my feet, other than when I have to get into a dress up pair shoes.

Buzz:

Well, they’re pretty snazzy, I got to say for taking a walk.

Joe:

Thank you very much.

Buzz:

Yeah. So check these out. These are new. I just got them. They’re out of the box. These are Nova sneaker mocks.

Joe:

Wow.

Buzz:

Made by the Merrell company.

Joe:

Oh, cool. Nova, huh?

Buzz:

Yeah.

Joe:

Wow. I think of Merrell and I don’t usually think of something that looks as comfortable and casual as those. That’s terrific.

Buzz:

So we can say Merrell as much as we want, because maybe someone from Merrell will hear this and-

Joe:

Absolutely. Good idea.

Buzz:

You never know. They’ll be the first charter advertiser for the Taking a Walk series.

Joe:

I like the way you think.

Buzz:

It’s always about commerce, right Joe?

Joe:

That’s right. Somebody’s got to pay the bills. Electricity is expensive these days.

Buzz:

Even though they say charity begins at home, but no. Anyway, so let’s paint the picture here where we’re taking a walk. This is a beautiful area. The Taking a Walk series has taken place at a lot of different spots. Like in Boston, I took a walk with Doris Kerns Goodwin at the public garden in the Boston Common. The series started with a couple episodes at Walden Pond, one with the curator of the Walden Woods Project, Jeffery Kramer. And then the other with an old character. I think you probably remember Wally Brine from the Loren and Wally show.

Joe:

Absolutely. A legend.

Buzz:

A legend. We just had a blast taken a walk. So I haven’t been to the south shore. So paint the picture where we’re taking a walk here.

Joe:

So it’s interesting because back in my days of being on Fox 25, when Scott Harshbarg and I used to do something called Monday morning quarterbacks.

Buzz:

Sure.

Joe:

From time to time, I would mention my beloved Scituate and how beautiful the Harbor is and our iconic lighthouse. I’d run into people in town, and they say, Joe, please don’t be telling people. This is the best kept secret. It’s the hidden gem. Don’t mention Scituate as much. We don’t want it to be overrun by tourists. But it happens to be just that. It’s a place where my wife and I wake up to every day and kind of pinch ourselves because the sun sunrises are beautiful and the moons are … we have on our beach in front of our house. When there’s a full moon, it’s not unusual to have a dozen professional photographers with their tripods out there, snapping photographs. Then you see them online and you say, yep, that’s the beauty. So, it’s a fabulous place. Scituate is a community of about 18,000 people. It’s grown from a place that was mostly a summer beach community to now it’s a full year community, but the natural beauty is beyond description.

Buzz:

Dear friend of mine named Brendan Kane, who works for the Nielsen company, actually lives down here. He’s the Nielsen rep, one of the best guys. So if we see Brendan walking by, we’ll have to acknowledge him, for sure. I love seeing a bunch of people taking a walk here too.

Joe:

This is one of the main drags that we’re on here in terms of walkers. It’s always heartwarming, whether it be in the midst of the winter or in the summer, the people are out there getting their exercise, walking their dogs, strolling with their young children. It really is a very cool spot.

Buzz:

I like how more and more I’m seeing articles. You might be seeing them where people are talking about the benefits of walking, obviously for health reasons. But I also think walking is great to sort of break your log jam of your little stuck on an idea or something like that. How do you use walking to help yourself?

Joe:

So my wife is usually the one saying, Joe, come on, let’s go for a walk. As we go on our way, my mind just drifts into things that aren’t part of my rat race life, but it’s an opportunity to reflect, and it’s an opportunity to maybe grab onto an idea and just flesh it out a little bit more. Mostly when I get back, I feel invigorated as a result of it. I can remember particularly right after the sad beginning of COVID 19.

Buzz:

I was going to say, don’t even mention that. We’ll call it that thing.

Joe:

Yeah. That thing. We would go to walk in the park that’s close by here and just spend an hour walking. I think more than once we thought to ourselves, well, if there’s a silver lining to this horrible, horrible affliction, it’s that we now at least get a chance to slow down our pace of life. It’s a sad commentary that that’s what it takes to slow down. But I guess that is the silver lining. But a nice walk, I love it. There was a day when I’d put on those New Balances and go out and run a couple of miles, but now a walk to me it’s just as good.

Buzz:

Yeah, for sure. I do think that, since the thing started, many people say that they rediscovered places that they maybe had forgotten about, or they discovered new places. In fact, talking to the people over at the Walden Woods Project, they said for the Walden Pond area, the growth in terms of visitors was tenfold or something during the thing.

Joe:

I’ll bet.

Buzz:

Because people just wanted to just get out and get fresh air.

Joe:

Oh, absolutely. Again, it’s a chance to get a little bit of exercise, get your mindfulness flowing. But in addition to that too, just feel as though things aren’t as depressing as we might think they are by simply watching the news every night. To be around nature, it’s kind of a way in which to recharge the emotional battery in a positive sense.

Buzz:

And we live in such a special area.

Joe:

Oh my gosh, absolutely.

Buzz:

Very, very grateful for that. So the reconnection that we got is courtesy of our dear friend, Steve Sweeney, because Steve took a walk around the fresh pond area with me. So we were able to reconnect from that experience, you and I were able to reconnect. So tell me how you first met Steve. Obviously he’s this iconic comedy figure, talented man, sweetheart of a guy. How did you guys first meet?

Joe:

I met Steve Sweeney through a fellow by the name of Jerry Williams, who you will know of course.

Buzz:

Sure.

Joe:

To some of your younger listeners, Jerry Williams basically invented Talk Radio and nationwide was respected immensely because he had a talent and he had a gift for understanding what was on people’s minds and then continuing to feed that content to those people who thought that issue needed to be brought to a higher and higher level. So anyway, it was probably about 1986 when I met Steve and then I ran for us Senate in ’88. Steve helped me then, and we’ve been fast friends ever since then.

Buzz:

He’s a brilliant mind when it comes to comedy, obviously, but the side of Steve that people don’t know is this thoughtful giving side in terms of what he does for prisoners, as an example, and for other folks to support recovery. So he’s just an amazing guy. I’m grateful to have gotten to know Steve from the time that I hired him over at ZLX.

Joe:

Yeah. Steve and I did a show first on WATD, which is the radio station down here on the south shore, and then on Boston Herald radio. We were probably together for at least 10 years. It was, to me, pure joy because he would make me laugh and we would jab each other a little bit. He had this standard routine with me where, if I sang a few bars of a song, he’d say, “Joe, they really should send you to Guantanamo Bay. You could get those prisoners to talk in a minute just by singing for about 30 seconds. It’s pure torture.” He had a whole package of lines. Steve, to your point, you get a fellow who is not only funny, funny, funny, but he is the salt of the earth in terms of being goodhearted. Just the other night, one of my nieces was reminiscing, sadly I guess, about her dad passing away few years ago. She goes, “Yeah, I look up and there’s Steve Sweeney waiting in line to pay his respects.” That’s Steve. He’s an old school guy. He got in his car and drove from Quincy to Waltham to do that. He said, “Can’t stay long. Got to go do a show up in the North Shore. But that’s Steve.

Buzz:

Yeah, he’s a good man. But we first met though through another guy who’s a bit of a legendary character around these parts, who also worked for me over at ZLX. That was Charles Laquidara

Joe:

Oh my God. Again, love Charles, love Charles. I think about him a lot. He’s out in Hawaii now, of course.

Buzz:

Actually, he moved from Hawaii to California.

Joe:

Wow.

Buzz:

To where his kids are actually.

Joe:

Holy smokes.

Buzz:

Yeah. I never thought he’d leave Hawaii.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah. I know it. He invited me out there too. As it turned out, we were conflicted. We were actually going to Italy at the time and our kids were still in school. I said, ah, geez. If we didn’t have this trip, we’d come visit you in a minute. But can’t speak more highly about Charles. What a legend.

Buzz:

What’s so amazing about Charles is he left radio in, I think it was like 2000.

Joe:

Sounds right.

Buzz:

Sounds about right when he retired, but the guy is so passionately engaged around media, around content, a place to get his views out that I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody like him so active, on Facebook live and just other ways to distribute his view of the world, his Charles view of the world. I just adore the guy and I’m very grateful for the time that I had with him. How did you first meet him?

Joe:

That’s interesting. It’s a fabulous question. I can’t quite remember for sure. I’m trying to think. There was some mutual old friends, one being Chachi Loprete

Buzz:

Yep.

Joe:

And of course it was part of the show. There might have been someone else who I can’t remember now, but Charles was as far to the left. Of course, he made the famous statement about Reagan that I won’t repeat, but somehow, someway, he took a liking to me. Here I am a Republican, running, and we just hit it off. We share the Sicilian heritage. That was part of it. But he came to my house, he did a show from my house. He tried to punk me one morning that he was a lottery winner. Joe Malone, where do I pick up my money? This and that.

Buzz:

I do remember that actually.

Joe:

Then we knew we were going to name our son, our youngest son, Charles. I said, as we’re driving to the appointment, because it was a C-section at Mass General, we’re trying to think of a middle name. So I said, let me call Charles and I see what his middle name is. He goes, “You’re going to the hospital?” I said, yeah. “And Linda’s given birth this morning?” I said, yeah. “Will she get on the air?” I said, oh no, Charles, come on. We can’t. Well, sure enough, next thing you know, he’s asking Linda about, “Okay, well, you ready for this birth and this and that?” We got to great conversation. But Charles is someone, when I think about him, I miss him so much because it was like on a daily basis, just tuning in with all the characters, of course.. It was so much fun, Tank. But yeah, Charles is someone who, when I count my friends and of people who have been so nice to me over the years, he’s way up there on the list.

Buzz:

He was probably looking to get something free from you.

Joe:

Yeah. Well, it’s funny because-

Buzz:

Kidding Charles.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah. If you’re listening Charles. No, Charles was a great storyteller.

Buzz:

Oh boy.

Joe:

If there was ever a guy who should be back on the air, just reminiscing about the old days, he’d be my man.

Buzz:

I got to get Charles to take a walk when he is back in the area or something like that.

Joe:

Sure.

Buzz:

That’ll probably be a three hour episode.

Joe:

Right, a series.

Buzz:

Yeah. So, Joe, what are you working on these days?

Joe:

So these days I raise money for selective startups. And again, it’s a process because there are lots of people out there with, with exciting ideas. Some can make it over the goal line, others, for whatever reason, you vet them and you say, this just strikes me as not something that’s going to come to fruition. Because when you’re asking people to invest in those startups, which is the role I play, you want to make sure that there’s a good story to tell and that, here’s what the idea is. Here’s why it’s going to be a positive change for the world, and here’s why it can and be successful.

Joe:

So there’s step one, which is the vetting. Then step two is the reaching out to angel investors, sometimes venture capital investors. But then step three is the coaching that goes into it because, on almost every occasion, it evolves, where some investor will say, I think they got something there, but here’s my problem with it. Then you go back to the entrepreneurs and you say, you know what? You really need to make an adjustment here. Or, when you were making your presentation, you said, we hope to do this. They need to know that you are feeling you’re going to do this. So, it might be just the messaging or it might be the actual model that you’re presenting and the need to adapt because the investor or the end user sees it as maybe 80% there, but still not 100% there.

Buzz:

Any particular ones you feel like are on the edge of breaking out?

Joe:

So there’s one called Guru Club, which is fabulous because it essentially allows the consumer to become sort of a micro influencer or even below a micro influencer of their own. So they can buy a product, they can tag it. Then before you know, they are either getting a coupon or they’re eligible to win some prize. That’s a pretty significant prize. So in addition to that, it could be somebody who goes to a ball game and on the jumbo screen, it says, tag that you’re at the game now, and you’re eligible to win a $500 gift card for such and such.

Joe:

So really, it’s a combination of bringing advertising to the sponsoring brand, but also rewarding that individual consumer, because they went out of their way to tag the brand. So it’s a collaborative effort between the brand and the consumer, which we think is great because, while I love watching some of these superstar athletes, when you see what a company like Nike is paying them, you say, well, why can’t the consumer get a little of that?

Buzz:

Right. Yeah. Well, that sounds exciting.

Joe:

Yeah, it really is. Then we have another company that is a sock company that is going to do great things for people with diabetes. It’s an extremely comfortable sock. It has, at the helm, the former CEO of Converse, which we think is kind of cool, considering it’s an early stage company to have a fellow by the name of Jim … drawing a blank here. Anyway, he’s our CEO. Jim Calhoun, I’m sorry. Jim Calhoun, our CEO. It’s a real feather in the cap to have been able to recruit him, to attract him, because he’s a high quality individual.

Joe:

Then the third thing I’ll throw out is a company that it’s called Pay By Car, where you pull up, one example, to the gas pumps. You have an easy pass code read on your car and you get out of your car. You don’t have to take a credit card out of your wallet. You just pump the gas, get back in your car and then it’ll be on your Easy Pass bill at the end of the month. So technology, it’s exciting. We’re living in an amazing time. There are a couple of others, but those are the three that are really on the forefront.

Buzz:

Easy peasy. I love it.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Buzz:

Well, as we close out too, I know for this thing that we were talking about earlier, it’s been really hard for many of the charities and everything. So are there some charities that are important to you that you’d like to throw a shout out to?

Joe:

Sure. First of all, my wife is a professional fundraiser. So she works currently at the Duxbury Beach Reservation and it’s a great cause because it’s all about preserving the beach. So I get to help her out on that. That’s something that I’ve grown to love because, again, on the south shore, our beaches are a tremendous natural resource. Then there’s an Oregon organization called Friendship Home, and Friendship Home serves developmentally disabled folks. This is a charity that goes back to my mom, Adele Malone, who was the matriarch of the family. She was a widow at 51. I was the youngest of seven, but she still found time to devote herself to the  school in Waltham and spent, let’s see, from about 1961 to her death in ’99. So almost 40 years serving the community, and did it in such a way that really … In 1960, sadly, there was a stigma attached to developmentally disabled, young people and adults.

Joe:

She kind of, in Waltham, created a group called the Friends of and they would raise extra money to make sure that, if a trip needed to be taken, the resources were there so that the clients could go on a trip. So those are a couple things that I’m focused on now, but a lot of times it’s just helping with a cause because somebody says, Joe, can you help with this? And sure. I’ve been blessed and I kind of get it from my upbringing that it’s hard to say no. In most instances, saying yes, you benefit as much from the involvement in that cause as the end recipient of the funds or the end recipient of the event. So I think the not for profit world is a wonderful way to give back and pay forward. I love doing it.

Buzz:

Well, that’s what you’ve always done. That’s probably also how we got intertwined as well. I’m grateful for that generosity, and you’re home by the way. Your birthplace, Waltham

Joe:

Correct.

Buzz:

Also home to, I would say, one of the greatest Italian restaurants ever, La Campana.

Joe:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Buzz:

We’re just plugging away here.

Joe:

Wow. You know just made me hungry. The mere mention of La Campana.

Buzz:

Well, it’s a little bit of a walk from here, but maybe we’ll take a walk over to La Campana sometime.

Joe:

Sounds good. Thank you for taking the time to drive down a Situate. I wish you all the best and I love this show. Any shoe company out there should be getting ready to write the check, Buzz.

Buzz:

I also think your new diabetic sock venture … Socks walking.

Joe:

Yeah.

Buzz:

Could be your future client, Joe, you never know.

Joe:

I will mention Jim Calhoun.

Buzz:

There you go. Thank you, Joe. I appreciate it. Nice to see you.

Joe:

Same here. Take care, Buzz.

Speaker 2:

Taking a walk with Buzz Knight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

Buzz:

Perfect.

Joe:

Good, good. That was good.

Buzz:

That was a lot of fun.

Joe:

Yeah.

Buzz:

Perfect.

Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.

After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.