Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there, folks. Welcome to the roundup. We are a cowboy state daily podcast, and we focus on the most interesting people in the cowboy state. And this week…
Mark Heinz:
Whoa, time out. Wendy, Time out. Time out. This week, the focus is on you as an interesting person from Wyoming. Hello. I'm Mark Heinz, the outdoors and wildlife reporter with Cowboy State Daily. And this week I get to do something really fun. I get to turn the tables on Wendy and interview her about her.
Because, let's face it, folks, Wendy Corr is a fascinating person who's from Wyoming. So I right off the bat, Wendy, what I want to dive into is the biggest, the latest and greatest about you. You recently, let's see if I get this right. It's the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum recently honored you with their Western Heritage Award.
There you go. Awesome, awesome. Of course, all good awards are heavy, and that's a big deal. I mean, I know just you know, knowing you personally, you've been typically humble about it, but this is your chance to brag a little bit just explain to folks what this is and why it really is a big deal.
Wendy Corr:
So okay, so the Western Heritage Awards, this is the 64th year that they have put out these Wrangler awards, and that's what these are. And when they first did this 64 years ago, this is the bronze. It's the same bronze. So the people who have won this award, these wrangler awards, for the last 64 years, have all gotten these really beautiful awards. I think they're probably heavier than an Oscar, but I'm not sure, having never held an Oscar.
Mark Heinz:
Well, you'll get there.
Wendy Corr:
But, so the Wrangler awards are a huge honor in the Western world. They are nationwide awards people submit their work, whether it's being honored by the Western Heritage Foundation, or whether they submit it for consideration by the Western Heritage Foundation.
And these Western Heritage Awards, they are all given this opportunity to win these, and so past winners of this particular bronze, and not of this particular award that I won, I won the western lifestyle program award. So Western lifestyle program, okay, which means that I did a story, I did a podcast.
In this case, I did a podcast that focused on Western lifestyle and held up and elevated and promoted the western lifestyle. And what I won for was for my podcast with Craig Johnson, which was about the Longmire author and his work and his life.
Mark Heinz:
Fantastic.
Wendy Corr:
So I submitted that and said, you know, is this award winning? And they got a hold of me in February and said, Yes, actually, it is award winning. Congratulations. You've won. And so I knew ahead of time that I was going to win this.
But I had to submit it to say, you know, maybe this is something that the Western Heritage Foundation might consider being something to elevate. And so they did. But other people who have won bronzes and who have these in their homes, include Kevin Costner - yeah, no, seriously, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell has one of these. There's just this huge long list.
This year, Brooks and Dunn, Reba McEntire, last year, Keith Carradine, Lou Diamond Phillips. I mean, all these people have a bronze that looks like this. And it's very exciting to be in that circle.
Mark Heinz:
Yeah, and that's awesome. And you know, I can tell your enthusiasm and that you are truly excited about this. I mean, you know, you and I aren't exactly strangers. We've known each other for a long time. We we first crossed paths all the way back in Park County, in Cody, when I was working for the newspaper, and you're working for the radio station there.
And like I said, I always notices, your enthusiasm and your positivity is something that you know I always notice, and that you kind of embody. But you know, it's interesting. I kind of want to get into your background, because you know, you've really embraced this iconic western lifestyle to the point of winning an award for it.
But you're not really, technically, you're not even a native Westerner. You were from the Midwest, and please forgive me, I forget which state is it? Was Wisconsin? Okay, so give me some background on that, because I'm fascinated for a couple reasons.
Number one, from what you can tell me about your heritage and about Wisconsin and how that contributed to making you who you are, and then when you relocated out here, what were some of the similarities you've noticed and some of the differences you've noticed between the two locations in the two cultures?
Because I think they're both there are some similarities. They're both centered around a rural lifestyle and a lot of agriculture, a lot of blue collar grit, but I imagine there's also some differences. So just, just take that question and run with it.
Wendy Corr:
So I am a native Wisconsinite from the Wisconsin Dells area, a little town called Reedsburg, and so all of my family is still back there. My brother is out here. My mom is out here. My brother's in Laramie. My mom's in Greybull. But everybody else is in Wisconsin, and it is so going back home is a wonderful thing.
But my parents got bit by the mountain bug when I was two, I think was their first trip out west, and every year after that, they came out on vacation with other friends, left my brother and I at home all the time until I was 10.
So I'm 10 years old before they finally bring my brother and I out west for our first Wyoming vacation. And by a year and a half later, we had moved here. My parents said, You know what? We are going to be the black sheep of the family. We are going to leave Wisconsin. We're going to go out west, go west, young man. And so they did.
My dad bought a gas station in Buffalo, and so in 1981 we moved to Buffalo. I was 11 years old, and so that's where I went to middle school to high school. But, yeah, I went to college in Casper. I was a theater major at Casper College. 1988-1989 it was, you know, Tom Empey and and Garen Cole and Dave Dundas. They were the teachers that were just amazing in that fantastic stage at the Gertrude Krampert theater. So it was, it was just a gift to be able to go to college there.
But you're talking about the differences between the cultures. My grandfather was a farmer. I mean, he was a successful farmer in Sauk County, Wisconsin, okay. And so I grew up in that rural lifestyle. I grew up with. We had horses, we had lots of cows. They were dairy cows, lots of cows. We had pigs, we had chickens. I mean, the whole works. This was a life that I grew up in.
And so when we moved to Wyoming, the size of the town, Buffalo, was a little bit smaller than Reedsburg at the time. Reedsburg is now like 10,000 people, but at the time it was only about 5000 so the only difference was the wide open spaces out here.
And you know, whereas in Wisconsin, it's three miles from Reedsburg to Loganville. In Wyoming, it is 30 miles from, you know, Buffalo to Sheridan. So it was a big difference in that way, and that was really the only culture shock.
But looking back, I cannot, I can't imagine a better place to grow up than Wyoming, because here we learned so much independence, and a lot of things happened. I mean, my parents got divorced right after we got here, and so we had to rely on friends, the friends that we made our family, they had to be the ones that helped to support us.
Our church families had to be the ones to help support us, because our blood family was 1000 miles away, oh yeah, miles away. So we could not, we could not rely on them, other than, you know, going back there for summers. So it really taught my brother and I that resilience and that idea of making the people around you into your family and relying on them and finding out really what we were made of. And if we just stayed in Wisconsin, I can't imagine that I would have learned those life lessons.
Mark Heinz:
That's, yeah, that's fascinating. You know? I love hearing outsiders perspectives. Well, first of all, you know, Wyoming does have a lot of people who've been here forever, but it also, Wyoming also has a lot of people who came here from somewhere else, I think going all the way back to the time the Paleo Indians. This is a frontier area, always has been, you know.
And I'm not from here, insofar as I've lived in Wyoming only since 2004 but I'm from here, in so far as I'm from the intermountain west, and in the Intermountain Western culture is that culture in Idaho and in Montana. I mean, there's nuances, differences, but it's pretty much the same culture.
So I really love hearing from people like you who came from the outside and learn to appreciate it from a different perspective. So I really appreciate that.
Wendy Corr:
Yeah, it was hard to go - first, here as a child, it's hard to leave everybody you know behind, especially when you move in the middle of sixth grade and, you know, the full pre teen angst and all that sort of stuff.
But looking back now, it did teach us strength. It gave us a strength that otherwise I don't think we would have learned, yeah, like the chicken coming out of the egg. You’ve got to stretch all your muscles. You’ve got to go through the struggle to be healthy. We had to go through the struggle in order to be healthy.
Mark Heinz:
You know how I say to people that ask what it's like living in Wyoming? Well, the first things I say, well, Wyoming is a place you have to want to live here, absolutely, because they it's it, I think by fate or by design, it's not easy to live here, but that's that's really kind of the point. You have to want to be here so that that's awesome.
We're obviously grateful here in Wyoming that we have you, that we got you so. So let's get into, I want to get into your career and your passions. Now you have kind of a dual career, I guess, roles that are kind of complementary. Most Cowboy State Daily readers and viewers know you as what you're doing, as a broadcaster, as a radio and video person, but you're also a very accomplished musician.
So what got you into those passions, and how did those career paths take off for you and end up being what they are today? And you did mention High School had something to do with that. So tell us your story from a career standpoint. How did you end up becoming the broadcaster and musician extraordinaire that you are?
Wendy Corr:
I've always loved to sing. That's just been, from the time I was three years old, all I've ever wanted to do is be on a stage and sing. And so when I was in high school, I was in choirs and things like that. But I also was in Speech and Drama. So I was in forensics. And I'm telling you what, if you want to - anybody who has any thoughts of ever being on stage needs to be in speech and debate.
I mean, I would tell that to every kid who wants to be a politician, who wants to be a lawyer, who wants to be anything that has to do with standing up in front of people, needs to be in forensics. And I credit that with saving my sanity, and finding, giving me a place where I could excel and where I could feel confident and build confidence.
And so I loved that, and that propelled me. Then when I went to Casper College, and being a theater major, and I also was in the music program - Patrick Patton was the best choir instructor ever at Casper College. And anybody who knows Pat Patton, who's watching this, knows what I'm talking about, and just an amazing somebody to encourage and inspire.
And so I was very fortunate to be in the theater and the music programs there at Casper College. Got married, moved to Nebraska, got my teaching degree. I wasn't supposed to do this, Mark. This is the fun part. I was supposed to be a history teacher who taught drama.
Mark Heinz:
And I can see you in that role.
Wendy Corr:
That's what I was supposed to do. But when I got married and we went to Chadron, we got our teaching degrees, but then we moved to Wyoming. We knew we wanted to get back to Wyoming, so we did, and here we are in Wyoming. I ended up working for the City of Cody as a municipal court clerk, and that was my job, is to work as a municipal court clerk.
It was great. I met people, and that's what this is, I guess, the lesson of all of this, I met people and networked. I became a Rotarian. I only got the radio job because I was buried in paperwork that I was never going to get unburied from. And I had this creative part of me that was just not content to be sitting behind a desk and working as a clerk.
I mean, I was good at it, but I just, it was not my heart. And so when I realized and got that discontent - and listen to that, folks, whenever you'd feel that discontent, it's like, okay, there's something else that I need to be doing here. That's what I did. I said, Okay, I've got - so you have to be open, open to the possibilities.
And one day, somebody comes into the city of Cody and says, you know, they're looking for a news director at the radio station, at the Big Horn Radio Network. And I'm like, I have no experience. I was in journalism in high school. I have no experience in doing this, but they encouraged me to do it because I'd done some voiceover work for rotary, for ads and stuff like that.
So I went in and they said, here's the deal, yeah, you have no experience, but you have a good radio voice. And you know, because you've worked at the city, because you've been a Rotarian, you know people. So you can go and talk to people, and you can get the stories around town, which is where I met you, Mark, is going and covering these stories.
So they hired me, and so that took me in a whole different direction. That's how I got into broadcasting, literally, back door. It's a small town, small towns, I love small towns. But that's, that's how I found myself in broadcasting.
But while I was in broadcasting, I also continued to sing. I did the music contests, and I, you know, sang at Cassie’s on the weekends with my friend Maureen, and it was just, it was fun. And anyway, so I did a contest. I did a country music contest at Cassie’s, and I won.
One of the judges for this contest was a gentleman who was relatively new to town, and his name is Dan Miller. He had come to town. He had been a TNN, Nashville Network game show host, television magazine host. He was a rodeo - he and Donnie Gay did the rodeos, the PBR for 30 years, they did those. And he had come to town, and he was one of the judges.
And I don't know, I guess it was the next year he called me. I'm like, Dan Miller is calling me. Why is Dan Miller calling me? He was starting up a cowboy music show that he wanted to do here, based in Cody, because it was a great space to do this. It's a tourism town, and this would be a great spot to do it.
I was newly divorced. I had two small children, and this was going to be a six night a week, four month out of the year deal. And I told him, I cannot. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate you calling me, but there is absolutely no way in my life right now I can do this.
So I stayed at the radio station for a while. I did a couple other things while I was at the radio station, but he came and he sat down with me at my studio in 2007, and he said, Okay, it's been three years since I first approached you with this. The gal that I did have doing this, she was playing the bass and she was singing. The gal that I did have doing this, she and her husband have other things that they want to do. This is your time, and this is your moment, and I want you to do this.
My life had changed a little bit. My kids were a little bit older. I did have some help for evenings, and so I'm like, Okay, I think I can do this. That was in 2008, and since then, we have been on - all of my bucket lists. I've been on television with Dan, singing on Larry's Country Diner multiple times, doing that.
We have traveled the country. We have been on the entertainment on cruises alongside, you know, big names like Bill Anderson, and Ronda Vincent and Mark Wills. So we have done these things, and we are continuing to do these things. This is, we've been doing now, the show has been 20 years. I was, I've been doing this show with Dan for 17 of those last 20 years, and it has been an amazing, amazing ride.
Mark Heinz:
That is fantastic. So, you know, I've got to ask, you know that we just did a big segment on what you do and what drives you. I want to get more to the core of who you are. And, you know, again, I've known you for a long time, and the two things I would, the two biggest things I notice about you - number one is you just, you have insane amounts of energy, and you're also one of the most genuinely positive people I know.
So I have to ask where does that come from? Where does your energy come from? And where does your positivity come from? Why are you one of those people who just always seems to see the good or always be in a always be in a good mood. Tell me about that.
Wendy Corr:
That's hard to put my finger on. My energy, okay. This is not going to be a popular thing in beef country. I am a vegan, actually. And I feel very, very, I feel very healthy. But I did it, not because I don't believe in beef and cattle as food, because I think grass fed cattle is one of the most nourishing foods out there. I am not anti meat.
But for me, I found that I had some health issues, and when, in my drive to - Well, for a long time, I was, I mean, people who've known me for years know that I used to be significantly heavier than I am now. And I was always, like so many women, I was so focused on weight loss, weight loss, weight loss.
And so back in 2015 I thought, you know, I need to take control of my health. My kids had had issues as well. And so I'm like, I want to try and find a solution here. And so I actually became - I let it lapse last year, but I have been for almost 10 years a certified holistic nutritionist.
And in my training, one of the things that I learned, and this was repeated over and over, is, the answer to health problems has to start with what's on the end of your fork. And I learned about good nutrition. I learned about the damage that processed foods can do, and excess amounts of sugar and chemicals and all these things.
And so I became a vegan, and I kind of - it didn't help me lose weight. So I'm like, Okay, well, I'll continue to eat clean. But anyway, a few years ago, I guess it was in 2020, my cholesterol went through the roof, I mean roof. And I was like, I'm a healthy eater. What's this?
And I went back to my training, and I went on a strictly plant based diet, and within six weeks, my cholesterol had dropped 90 points.
And so for me, that is why I'm a vegan. It is not because I think that ranchers or dairy farmers or anything, that I'm not against any of that. It's just - but anyway, that is energy for me, I think. I think it really does start with how you feel in that way.
As far as my positivity, I don't know, I'm ill. I don't know - It's a sickness. (laughing) There's no reason. I think that if you focus on the negative, if you look for things to be upset about, you're always going to find something.
But there is no reason why you can't look somebody in the eye and give them a genuine compliment about something. I see no reason why you have to focus on what's wrong in the world when you can exude the energy and a smile that might lift - think about that. If you smile at somebody, and the ripple effects that that makes. You give somebody a compliment, and the ripple effects that that makes.
I have just learned over my life and over my experiences that weirdly, everything always works out. How is it, that everything always works out? It's perspective.
And if you look at that and you don't get bogged down in, ‘What could go wrong? Why worry about it if you can't fix it.’ But if you can do one thing to make somebody else's day positive, if you can lift them up, my gosh, that's powerful.
Why not be the light? Be that light. And for me, I live by that. Why not be that light for somebody else? Because then it makes you feel better too.
Mark Heinz:
That's great. That's great. And I think that's a great philosophy. Because I think, you know, a lot of us, and maybe rightfully so, those of us who are in the news business, we get this reputation of being, you know, very jaded and thick skinned and cynical and, you know, get gadflies and question everything and trust no one.
And so I think that's really awesome, that you've been able to to graft that full lot, that whole wholly positive and uplifting philosophy of yours into a successful career in this business that is, rightly or wrongly, I would say, sometimes rightly, known for its extreme cynicism. So good for you. More power to you, you know.
And so along those lines, can you maybe talk a little bit about how you came to be where you are now, like, how you came to be with Cowboy State Daily. How did they reel you in? What was the hook that they got you with, and what's made you stay?
I mean, I've been here since 2022, and it's changed a lot since I've been here. And I'm sure you've seen, you've been here longer than me, so you've probably seen massive amounts of change. So go into that, how you came to Cowboy State daily, what you've seen, where you think it's going and and why, why it's why it's kept you engaged.
Wendy Corr:
Absolutely. I love telling this story. So I blame Penny Preston. So Penny if you ever watch this, I blame you. So Penny Preston, for people up here in northern Wyoming, if they know about television News, KULR8, Q2, or any of the local television stations, KGWN down in Cheyenne. Penny Preston was the correspondent here.
And she decided a few years ago, it was back in 2018 I guess it was, she said, You know what, we are going to try to semi retire. Her husband is Chuck Preston. Dr Charles Preston, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. So she said, we want to semi retire, which means we want to go to Arkansas in the winter and come out here in the summer. I want you to take my television correspondence beat.
I said, Are you out of your mind? I don't do television. Penny. I do radio. I've got a face for radio. It's all good. And she said, you would be perfect. You would be perfect. And so she taught me, and she said, This is what you do. And bless KULR8, bless KGWN, I was so not good. I look back at my early stuff, I'm like, I cannot believe that they took these, but they did.
But it was my training wheels. And it was less than a year into it, and Mike McCrimmon, who was doing some work with Cowboy State daily at the time, called me - and Dan Miller knew Mike from rodeo, they had done some work together with rodeo.
And so Mike had said, there's this new organization called Cowboy State Daily. And I think that if you could submit some of your stories, that they could really use, this new startup here could use more content, and you're doing good stories, because he had seen one of my stories on KGWN in Cheyenne.
So that's how I got in as a freelancer, and so I managed to stay, even though we went through, you know, we went we were up, and then we went down to almost nothing. And Jimmy Orr said, stick with us. Stick with us. Because they couldn't take my video submissions anymore, he said, Why don't you write some stories for us?
So I would write a few stories, but I stayed in the thread. I was never not in Cowboy State Daily from that time on. And so then as we got more into this, and we got closer to the time where we became Cowboy State Daily 2.0 Jimmy said, we are going to have this great person come along that's going to buy us, and we're going to be able to do so much more. And he said, so stick with us.
Because I was getting like, I don't think I can continue to do this, Jimmy. He said, stick with us. And so we did. So that took me to being a features reporter, and I was still freelance.
But the whole time, I was like, you know, Jimmy, it would be so easy to do a podcast - because I come from a broadcasting background - it would be so easy to do a podcast or even a newscast, taking the stories that our reporters, that our reporters are doing, just taking those stories and turning them into a newscast. And we'd have sound bites, and we'd have all these things.
It would be so easy, because the content is right there. We're creating it, it would just be putting it and packaging it into a different format for consumption. And so Jimmy's like, maybe, that sounds like a good idea. So eventually it became a yes, let's do it. Let's do radio.
And I'm like, radio. I get to go back to radio. This is what I'm better at, better at radio than writing. So it was July of 2023, I guess it was, that I started full time with Cowboy State Daily as a broadcaster.
Doggone Jimmy. He said, You know, we would get more views on your radio broadcast if it was a video broadcast. And I said, No. I said, Do you know how many hours that's gonna take a day to create a video broadcast? He's like, trust me, trust me, trust me. This will work.
And so I went into it kicking and screaming a year ago, Mark, it's been a year ago.
Mark Heinz:
Yeah, it's hard to believe it's been that long.
Wendy Corr:
Screaming, I went into it. And I hate it when Jimmy is right, but he was right, and our video broadcasts, our video newscasts, have reached so, I mean, more than 10 times more people than it ever did as just a radio newscast.
But then I'm gonna go back to the podcast idea. The podcast idea came up. We started doing podcasts in December of ‘23 and that was just supposed to be an audio podcast. And Jimmy's like, no, no, let's do it. Let's make that video too. And I'm like, really? And so we made that into a video too. And sure, doggone it, if that didn't work, and I win the award.
And I want to, I want to go back, Mark to one thing, because I would really be remiss, and the opportunity hasn't come up until right now. I need to make sure that people understand that I am so grateful for the opportunities that I've had here, but my life and the things that have happened in my life, they are so much richer because of Dan Miller. And Dan's and my relationship changed about three years ago, and so we're life partners now, as well.
Mark Heinz:
Congratulations. That's awesome.
Wendy Corr:
Yes, as well as being, you know, music partners. But so many things that have happened in my life have happened because Dan has opened these doors. The Western Heritage Awards. I didn't even know about them, until we got asked, Dan and Hannah, his daughter, and I got asked to go down there to Oklahoma City to play for their Western Heritage Awards Banquet. And then last year, one of the people said, you know, you should really submit your podcast for this. And I'm like, oh, okay.
But you know, those are the things that wouldn't happen, you know, without the doors that Dan has opened. And so not only am I grateful to him for all of these amazing things, but also I'm just, I'm just grateful.
And so yeah, anyway, that's I wanted to make sure that people you know, it's the people that you know. The bigger perspective on this is, it's the people that you know. You know Jimmy Orr has done so much for Cowboy State Daily, and again, his vision for video and stuff like that, has opened the doors for all of these video things here.
And that's what I love about Wyoming, Mark, I love this about Wyoming. It's the people that you meet. We are, as you know, Mark, we are one person away from any of the important people in this state. I have known Mark Gordon since he was running for treasurer, I think. And I met him there, and I can talk to Mark.
You know, I really have a hard time calling him governor, because I knew him as Mark, and we know the same people in Buffalo. And so whenever we get a chance to chance like, Hey, how's so and so doing? And these are the things that I love about Wyoming, is, it's the people that you meet that can open doors for your career, for your personal life, for just enriching these networks that we have - that we call our lives, and that we call our careers, and so I just think that's the bigger picture in all of this.
Wendy Corr:
Well, great. That's fascinating, and I've learned so much. You know, I've known you for a long time, but I learned a whole bunch more about you today. That's cool. You know, I appreciate your passion for Wyoming, and I think Wyoming's lucky to have you.
And I have to push back on your idea that saying you weren't good for video or for broadcast, I think you nail it, you know.
Wendy Corr:
I've gotten better. You know, experience - and that's the other thing, experience. You don't walk into a broadcast studio at, you know, the radio station in Cody, Wyoming. You don't walk in knowing everything you have to learn, and you have to make mistakes. And I have made plenty.
I'm so, so grateful for all of the things that have happened. I need to make sure that people know that it's a special place. Wyoming is - I was a single mom, and the town of Cody helped me raise my children. My church, the Presbyterian Church, helped me raise my children. And the opportunities that come along in Wyoming are opportunities that don't come along just anywhere.
And that's something you know. You started out in Montana, and I don't know if you've had the same experience, but in Wyoming, you can truly make your life better just by choosing to be open to the things that come along. And I love that about it.
You can choose to say yes to this opportunity because it's going to enrich your life. You can choose to say yes to this person because they light you up. You can choose to say yes to these things. And that's the other part about, I guess, being positive is you choose to say yes and live life fully.
Mark Heinz:
There you go. Choose to say yes. I think that's a good closing note. Yeah. So I appreciate your time. Wendy.
Wendy Corr:
Well. Mark, thank you. I appreciate you doing this. I've been very embarrassed and very nervous about this. Yes, I'm a musician and I love singing, and, you know, it's great to be able to have that, but to have somebody ask me personal questions is a little weird.
Mark Heinz:
You did very well. Thank you.
Wendy Corr:
You know, I will say thank you for tuning in. I hope that you guys enjoyed this podcast episode of The roundup and, Mark, thanks.
Mark Heinz:
Yep, have a good one, Wendy.
Wendy Corr:
All right, folks, we'll see you next week.
