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Greetings 405 listener!
The 405 airs over KMMR Radio Station. At 5 Minutes past 4 PM. Normally each M-F week day of the year. Here on the website we'll get it posted for you within a few hours, normally.
Your neighbor and website maintainer,
D.J. Rasmussen
P.S. Oct 8th, 2025 Update. Finally back and published the Oct 3, 6th & 7th episodes, today on the 8th. We've had a recording equipment failure, hopefully fixed by tomorrow or very soon. Until then, I'm picking up the KMMR master recording copy and publishing that the day after The 405 airs or as soon as possible. Thanks for stopping by and listening.
Wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Beautiful day. Get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, or bottle of water. Let's see what's happening. Spring wheat $5.13 a bushel.
OK Solberg:550lb steer calf. Sit down. $4.35 a pound. Orvin's about to eat crow. Remember? I told you they won't be this high come Halloween. Well, it isn't Halloween, but I'm already getting my palate ready to eat crow. I am happy they're so high. Never saw it coming in a hundred years. Butcher hog in Iowa, 61ยข a pound, and a 100 pound fat lamb in Billings, $2 and 4 pennies. But, guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. Jay, Jay, are you listening? Preston Tucker again today. But if you see Frank Morin downtown, tell him thanks, because they're having KMMR auction.
OK Solberg:I had to leave today out of town, but Frank opened up and helped let me record early this morning. So our hats are off to Frank. Okay. Today, again, we talk about Preston Tucker, the designer and builder of the 1948 Tucker Tornado automobile. You remember, the one with the headlight in the center of the grille that turned with the steering wheel so you could see around that corner.
OK Solberg:If you listened yesterday, you know that there were 51 cars produced, and 47 of them still exist today. Yes. They do. Many are in museums, and we can all visit and enjoy this wonderful piece of history. Okay.
OK Solberg:To set the stage, I have a bible verse from James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Well, let me tell you, Preston Tucker met trial after trial after trial. He took a licking and kept on ticking. Listen to one of the dozens of setbacks he had.
OK Solberg:Tucker couldn't find an engine compact enough for his rear engine design. So what did he do? Give up? No. He bought a company that made helicopter engines and had his engineers adapt them for the car.
OK Solberg:One engineer warned, you know this engine is meant to run-in the air, not on pavement. Tucker smiled, that's fine. That's fine. The car is gonna fly off the shelves. Setbacks kept kept coming his way.
OK Solberg:During early testing, one of the prototype Tucker 48s caught fire. Tucker, ever the showman, ran into the smoke with a fire extinguisher, put out the fire himself, and then asked photographers to wait until he combed his hair before taking pictures. A young teenage boy worked in Tucker's shop. And you know what he did? He took a Tucker 48 out for a spin during a lunch break without permission.
OK Solberg:You know, all us boys would have done that. Well, he lost control, smashed it into a loading dock. What happened? Rather than fire him, Tucker asked, Now. Did you learn anything?
OK Solberg:When the boy nervously said yes, Tucker told him good. Good. Then it wasn't a waste. My kind of guy. Tucker, unusual for the time, hired female engineers and designers.
OK Solberg:He hired ladies, including some from the aircraft industry. One female worked on the torsion bar suspension system. When asked by a reporter, Tucker said, hey, if she's smart enough to build a plane, she's smart enough to build a car. Those ladies had been helping win the war, working in factories. Why not work in a car factory?
OK Solberg:And did you know, rumor has it, that a movie star named Howard Hughes, who also had a love for engineering called Tucker, to praise the car's design. Tucker told the press, when Hughes says you got something wild, it must be really wild. So here's to Preston Tucker, a man with a dream and a man who designed and built 51 1948 Tucker automobiles, of which 47 of those cars still exist today. And you and I can both see them in a number of museums across the land. I hope you guys also watch the movie that was made about Preston Tucker.
OK Solberg:And the the movie was made in 1988 titled Tucker the Man in His Dream. Who was it starring? Starring Jeff Bridges. Yes, sir-eee-bob. The Dude played Preston Tucker.
OK Solberg:The dude abides. So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.