KSEV Mornings · October 12, 2026 · Hour 1
Wayne returns to the maroon studio, the robots pick the funniest clip, and the Mob Guys weigh a story nobody can prove or refute.
Wayne Dolcefino texted Craig Coglianese around 6:30 Monday morning to say he was coming in. “I was very lonely for you this week,” Wayne explained. The truth, he admitted, was that he’d been watching the stream from his famed studio on Richmond Avenue, an old massage parlor turned media empire with a skeleton and two Don Corleone pictures within nine feet of each other, and felt bad for Craig. He also had notes on the KSEV studio’s wall covering, a color he could only describe as fuchsia maroon. Producer Russell could not say what color it is either.
The robots pick the clip
Craig revealed that he is now using AI to choose which clips go on social media, and the top pick from Friday’s show was Wayne leaving his Austin hotel room to get coffee and coming back to describe the women in line. Wayne took it as vindication. Craig explained the robot’s logic: it measures how loud the laughter is, so if Wayne tells a terrible funeral story and Craig laughs hard enough, the funeral story goes up tomorrow. Wayne asked whether he could replace staff with AI. Craig said one person managing it could probably do the work of three or four, though he doesn’t want to be the one to tell them.
Wayne also may have left his microphone in Austin. Craig suggested buying another one, and Wayne suggested buying one, using it for a couple of weeks, and taking it back.
Two versions of the flu
Then to the topic of the manic Monday: James Talarico’s explanation for his absence from the campaign trail. Craig played Talarico telling one outlet that “it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas and I was diagnosed with the flu,” and telling another, “I just went to my primary care physician.” Craig’s favorite comment online: maybe his primary care doctor was working that night in urgent care.
Craig laid out what people online have been pointing to, with a caution up front that none of it definitively proves anything. He described a private jet that flew from Austin to Hamilton, Ohio, about 20 minutes from a mental health facility, and back the next day, the same day Talarico returned to the campaign trail. “The flight fits,” Craig said. “Is it something that actually proves it? Of course not.”
The phone call
Russell played a recording of someone calling the facility asking for a “cousin James.” In the first call, the staffer asked for a code and gave out nothing. In a second, a staffer appeared to say the patient had been discharged that evening. Wayne, the investigator, said the first call actually helped him understand what the caller was trying to do. He also felt bad for the woman who answered, who he figured is probably a nice lady and might get fired.
Talarico’s campaign has called the story a lie, Craig noted. His view: if Talarico did check himself in because of the stress of a Senate race, some people wouldn’t think it’s a big deal, though Craig would consider it disqualifying. And if the campaign is lying about it, that’s worse. “Just telling the truth is never as bad as getting caught lying.” Wayne’s question: if Talarico was sick in bed, why didn’t the campaign post a sniffling video from bed?
The phones light up
One caller argued that the timeline doesn’t fit and that the story was planted because no one can verify it under HIPAA. Craig said he hadn’t seen that timeline reported anywhere, asked the caller to send it, and pointed out that the facility hasn’t denied that the call happened. Another caller said that by online accounts, the call was placed on the 10th and the staffer said the patient checked out the day before, which matches the flight. And as for the flu, he said, “You do not have the flu for two weeks.”
Wayne, speaking strictly for himself and not the station, then offered a $500 reward from his own company for information on the question. Craig said he was waiting for a number that would make Wayne skip tomorrow.
A third caller, a self-described socialist from Queens and lifelong government employee, said the first caller annoyed him so much that he now plans to vote straight Republican. Wayne said hearing from the loony left actually helps the conservative case, and floated inviting that first caller in for a full two hours, as long as he tells the truth.
When a cover-up is worse
Wayne also reported that the repair bill on the car from his run-in with an 18-wheeler after the Austin show came down from $20,000 to $17,000, and he’s a little sorry he didn’t whack it into something else first. His lesson from a life on the front page: when you try to cover something up, it just gets worse.
Also in this hour
- Wayne noted that the Harris County judge discovered reckless spending is bad right as she’s leaving the job.
- Wayne shared that he has had MS for about 28 years, “the good kind if there is a good kind,” and is down for a couple of days at most.
- The show’s second hour now streams on Wayne’s Facebook page, under a caption Craig wrote to promote himself.
Hear Craig and Wayne live weekdays from 7–9 AM Central on AM 700 KSEV, The Voice of Texas. Visit the KSEV Mornings show page for live-listening controls and more episodes.
