Duff Radio Podcast

"The Luckiest Kids on the Planet": My Wife Savanna on Small-Town Lake Life, Our Cabin Near Chama, and Getting Ready for a Little Girl

My wife, Savanna, joins me on our porch at the Lake of the Ozarks. Back in Lawrence, Kansas, she pictured the lake as big towns and big cities. Now we hit Dierbergs, the Camdenton library and Ha Ha Tonka, and she follows every holiday festival in the local Facebook groups.

We talk about the mornings at our cabin at the foot of the Brazos Cliffs outside Chama, New Mexico, why leaving that quiet was the hardest part, driving across the country with a six-week-old, a fall on the farm in Lecompton, Kansas, with her mom close by, what changes now that our second baby is a girl, and what she wants to give our kids.

Recorded on our porch at the Lake of the Ozarks on September 26, 2026.

Chapters

0:00 Welcome to the Duff Radio Podcast: Meet My Wife, Savanna
0:11 From Lawrence, Kansas to the Lake of the Ozarks: Big Lake, Small-Town Vibes
1:11 Our Lake Routine: Dierbergs, the Camdenton Library and Ha Ha Tonka
1:59 Becoming Locals: Lake Festivals and Small-Town Facebook Pages
3:00 Best Mornings at Our Cabin Below the Brazos Cliffs Near Chama, New Mexico
5:16 The Hardest Part: Leaving Our Sanctuary in Northern New Mexico
6:44 Driving Across the Country With a Six-Week-Old
8:24 A Fall on the Farm in Lecompton, Kansas, With a Newborn
9:42 Baby Number Two Is a Girl: What Changes Now
11:53 What We Want to Give Our Kids

"It Was My Lake": Grandpa McDuffey on Shorecrest, the Flood of '86, and Opening a Water & Sewer Company

My grandpa, Mike McDuffey, turns 83 in October. He came to the Lake of the Ozarks in 1976 and ran Shorecrest Resort on Bridal Cave Road for 13 years. In 1990, he started Lake of the Ozarks Water and Sewer after a man with a dissolved oxygen meter took him out in a boat and showed him the lake was dying.

We sat down at his kitchen table on his farm and went through his life: working-class St. Louis in the fifties, the Navy in Newfoundland on the day Kennedy was shot, building artillery shells during Vietnam, the Christmas Eve party where he met my grandma, boating during Octobers on the lake in the 70s, the flood of 1986 where they had to sandbag cottages and worry about Truman Reservoir overflowing as Camden County residents and football players showed up to help, and winters where you could walk across the frozen water. He's also the Democratic candidate for Camden County presiding commissioner this November.

Recorded September 16, 2026, in Camden County, Missouri, with my grandma, Savanna, and Torin in the next room.

Chapters

0:00 "It Was My Lake": Fishing an Empty Lake of the Ozarks in October
0:18 Meet Mike McDuffey, Candidate for Camden County Presiding Commissioner
0:59 Born in 1943 During World War II, and the 115-Acre Family Farm
1:55 Growing Up in 1950s St. Louis: Sacred Heart, Central High, the Pool Hall
3:11 In the Navy in Newfoundland the Day JFK Was Shot (November 1963)
3:59 The Vietnam Years: Making 105mm Artillery Shells in St. Louis
4:44 Watching the 1969 Moon Landing on a Neighbor's Color TV
5:24 Christmas Eve 1964: How He Met Grandma
6:25 His First Job: Sweeping Up a St. Louis Silk-Screen Shop at 12 or 13
6:53 Why They Moved to the Lake of the Ozarks in the 1970s
8:12 Buying Shorecrest Resort in 1976 and the Lake's Tourism Boom
9:31 Running a Lake Resort: "We Can Guarantee Two Things"
10:26 A 1970s Saturday at Shorecrest: Turning Over 11 Cottages
11:08 The Bagnell Dam Strip in the 1970s and Now
11:36 Why He Started a Water and Sewer Company in 1990
12:20 Union Electric (Ameren), Diesel Fuel and the Mosquito Fight
13:28 The Dissolved Oxygen Meter That Showed the Lake Was Dying
14:21 How Grandma Ran Shorecrest Resort for 13 Years
15:28 Landing the First Wastewater Contracts Around the Lake
16:15 The Longtime Employees He'll Never Forget
16:55 The Flood of 1986: Sandbags, Truman Dam and Neighbors Who Showed Up
18:13 The Winter of 1976-77: Walking Across the Frozen Lake
18:45 Roads at the Lake: "Almost Every Road Here Is Older Than I Am"
19:25 What He Wants His Great-Grandkids to Know About Him
20:09 The Smartest Thing He Ever Did: "Marry My Wife"
20:23 A Message for Someone Watching 50 Years From Now

Part two with Nick, aka Gittyman, a 24-year-old producer and engineer out of Kansas City who's been doing music full-time for about a year and a half. He talks about the artists he works with most, including Boogie Corleone, Jace Camden, Benny, Crix Taylor and Toast, and what's coming on the next projects with the same bounce as Bennington Avenue but more experimental. He also gets into Jace's upcoming project and its 2012 swag music feel.

He breaks down why sitting there making beats is only 15 to 20 percent of the job, why he decided at the start of the year to put his face in front of people every day, and how trial reels on Instagram let him repost one video into the algorithm over and over for millions of views. He gets into Kansas City producers he rates, why he won't put Conductor Williams on a KC Mount Rushmore, the Philly drill sound he doesn't like, reproducing and resampling a full 10 or 11 song project of Boogie's covers, and plans to relocate to Texas or Atlanta and get pickier about who he works with.

Note: Ty's microphone did not record on this call, so this is Gittyman's side of the conversation.

In this episode:

• Going full-time as a producer and engineer in KC
• Working with Boogie Corleone, Jace Camden, Benny, Crix Taylor and Toast
• Learning to make beats and finding a career path
• Why the music is only 15-20% of the job
• Kansas City producers and the Conductor Williams question
• Reproducing and resampling a full project of classic beats
• Trial reels on Instagram and brand building
• Relocating South and getting pickier in five years

Every episode of the Duff Radio Podcast: duffradio.com

In this solo episode of the Duff Radio Podcast, founder and host Ty McDuffey speaks about moving away from the Kansas City area to Lake of the Ozarks, building a new house, having a second baby, and the future of the Duff Radio platform. Also discussed is the brand new Duff Radio website found at Duff Radio — Kansas City Underground Hip-Hop | Music, Videos & Podcast

The new Duff Radio website coded and designed by Ty McDuffey includes a blog, an arcade, and a video/audio embedded archive of the entire Duff Radio Podcast series dating back to 2021 across all platforms. 

Also discussed is the new Linn Creek Kickboxing Gym, Nun' to Say/Feel My Pain, the two new Duff Radio tracks by Jace Camden, Gittyman, STBtheDON, Wyd Benny, OkCasheyy, Zajikc, and Riley Macc, and what it will take to build a creative infrastructure at Lake of the Ozarks. 

PK Waves returns to the podcast to talk about current events, his new album, and gaming. PK Waves is an artist residing in San Luis Obispo California, originally from Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. His new album is called For Loaded Shells Only.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Intro; PK Waves returns to the Duff Radio Podcast
0:16 - Growing up in the Camdenton, Missouri school system
1:34 - What happened to the Scary Movie series?
2:02 - PK's SP-404 and home studio setup
2:40 - Video games
5:21 - Recording sounds with vintage microphones
6:39 - Creating beats with loop banks on SP-404
8:37 - Styles on PK Waves new album For Loaded Shells Only
10:09 - Lake of the Ozarks culture
16:44 - The 40-hour workweek; Mewgenics game; The Binding of Isaac video game
19:50 - Are LLMs demonic?; OpenAI whistleblowers
24:44 - Unseen forces of the universe in an information-based reality
26:55 - AI chatbots are like Ouija Boards; warnings against negative aspects of AI; Google DeepMind
30:15 - Using AI to create assets; Aseprite pixel art tool
32:03 - Game development program at Camdenton LCTC; Gamemaker Studio; RPG Maker
35:17 - Exploring RPG Maker; Riley Macc Discord
36:28 - Megabonk game
37:23 - ARC Raiders robot killing game
37:58 - Alienware computer
39:48 - Civilization 3, 4, 5, and 6
40:36 - Volcano vaporizers
43:02 - Rebuilding life one step at a time
43:47 - Impact of California transfers + St. Louisans and Kansas Citians on the rental market at Lake of the Ozarks
45:01 - Lake restaurant parking lot story
47:36 - Growing up in a small town
48:54 - Love is beautiful
49:18 - Thoughts on the Epstein files
1:13:49 - Future of the American Empire
1:31:33 - Importance of community in the digital age
1:34:08 - Earthship homes
1:36:35 - Building a creative community; New Mexico unrestricted land; Uncle Roy's Organic Cannabis in Milan, New Mexico
1:43:29 - PK Waves Drum Kit
1:45:25 - Moving to the East Coast; Chinese medicine; working & living in California
1:55:14 - Finding happiness in the face of modern lifestyle demands
1:58:56 - Message to music producers in 2026
2:01:12 - OG Da Sleep Dealer, BugleBoy, and PK Waves YouTube Channels
2:11:40 - Outro

Links to everything we talked about:

Uncle Roy's Organic Cannabis - https://uncleroygrows.com/
PK's Drum Kit - https://marketplace.ectocorp.net/
PK Waves YouTube: -  @pkwaves420
Bugle Boy: -  @bugleboy3k  
Aseprite - https://www.aseprite.org/

#duffradio #pkwaves #undergroundhiphop #sp404mk2

Kansas City artist OkCasheyy returns to the Duff Radio Podcast with host Ty McDuffey to talk about the upcoming Bad Luvrs and Friends show on October 3, 2025, at Sk8bar in Westport at 209 Westport Road, Kansas City, Missouri. The show's lineup features frequent Duff Radio collaborators OkCasheyy, STBtheDON, Riley Macc, TS Shaad, Zajikc, and many more.  

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro, OkCasheyy on the Duff Radio Podcast
0:06 - Brain eating amoeba Lake of the Ozarks
0:46 - Bad Luvrs and Friends Show October 3rd in Westport
1:18 - How OkCasheyy planned a local concert and found the Sk8bar venue in Westport
2:33 - Getting people out of the house and to live events
3:04 - Fighting spiritual warfare through music and togetherness
4:46 - Bad Luvrs and Friends details (October 3rd, 2025, 7pm doors open at 6pm til midnight)
5:21 - OkCasheyy's setlist for the Bad Luvrs & Friends show, Strawberry Milkshake song, tracks with Riley Macc
6:14 - Drank Pt. 4 by STBtheDON, Uneasy by OkCasheyy and Riley Macc, Roll U Up 2 by Wheelz, Aden Prieto setlist, Kelron's latest EP
7:39 - Eye for talent
8:35 - Where is OkCasheyy at creatively right now? 
9:19 - Contact OkCasheyy for music videos and visuals; Milliones video by Zajikc and Delirio MC
10:00 - Exporting videos in Davinci Resolve
10:48 - Managing changes in business; faith in God
12:07 - Was OkCasheyy raised in a church? Faith and prayer's role in OkCasheyy's life
16:04 - How music brings the world together
18:50 - Being remembered after death; making other people's lives better
20:09 - Butterfly effect, consistency, law of accumulation
21:13 - What does success mean to you?
22:46 - OUTRO; COME OUT TO the Bad Luvrs & Friends show at Sk8bar in Westport

#podcast #kansascitymusic #independentartist

In this episode of the Duff Radio Podcast, host Ty McDuffey sits down with Kansas City rap group Live By The Bag (producer ConorChillOut, STBtheDON, TS Shaad, & Mighty Casual) to talk about the release of their long-awaited debut album, which has been nearly 5 years in the making. 

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Introduction to Kansas City rap group Live By The Bag and their new album
0:43 - God works in mysterious ways, how Mighty Casual and ConorChillOut met 
1:38 - TS Shaad out of Kansas City, Kansas, Wyandotte County
3:10 - ConorChillOut on the early days of producing and recording music, meeting through Soundcloud
4:12 - STBtheDON on Live By The Bag's creation in early 2020 on 10th & Grand downtown Kansas City, Missouri; recording 3 albums during pandemic lockdowns
5:49 - Mighty Casual on shooting videos in Kansas City, early social media days, recording first tracks with Live By The Bag music group
6:53 - Respect for Live By The Bag's engineering, production, writing, energy, and talent; importance of community, friendship, & hard work
8:16 - Statement from ConorChillOut on family
9:16 - TS Shaad statement on brotherhood, growing up together, and family
10:49 - TS Shaad's growth as an artist 
11:22 - STBtheDON on friendship and working with ConorChillOut; perfecting the process and getting better; 10,000 hour rule
15:33 - Friendship, hobbies, talent, earning respect from others
16:11 - STBtheDON's New York era; hoops; building relationships in Kansas City; creating a new album for fans in Kansas City and worldwide; subgenres of rap; appreciation for rap and music; growing as men
19:17 - Top 5 rappers in Kansas City
22:32 - Music is timeless; changing the world with music; sticking together as men during tough times; setting goals and being accountable
24:25 - A Beautiful Underrated Moment album announcement 
24:50 - TS Shaad on accountability& improving; interview outro 

Solo female adventurer Alice Ford joins host Ty McDuffey on the Duff Radio Podcast to share her experiences living with a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania and her thoughts on finding happiness without modern technology. Our conversation touches on the universal commonalities among all people, how to stay in the present moment, and the debate surrounding the sale of America's public lands.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Living in the city vs country
1:00 - Recent travels
2:35 - Living with a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania 
10:12 - Commonalities between all people
13:16 - Happiness levels without technology & Internet
17:21 - How to stay in the present moment
20:24 - Trump public land sell off
29:00 - Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on the chopping block to lose federal protection as a national monument.
29:21 - Argument for the sale of public lands?
33:43 - Trump administration proposals for public land sales potential ecological impacts
36:29 - Beauty of public lands in America
40:14 - Visiting Alaska for the first time
44:50 - American overconsumption, food supply in America
47:01 - Common principles among traditional diets?
48:33 - Best places to get meat and fish? 
50:19 - Pescatarian diet
52:35 - 3 meals a day vs intermittent fasting
54:50 - Outro

#podcast #travel

Solo female adventurer Alice Ford joins host Ty McDuffey on the Duff Radio Podcast to share stories from her travels to all 7 continents, including living with the Achuar tribe (former headhunters) in the Amazon rainforest, her recent expedition to Antarctica, and what indigenous cultures have taught her about happiness and modern society.

Welcome to another episode of the Duff Radio Podcast featuring a conversation between Nathan Green, CEO and Co-Founder of New Level Radio and Ty McDuffey of Duff Radio.

In 2007, along with long-time business partner Sam Ambrose, Nathan Green helped launch New Level Radio, creating a new niche in the radio and music industry. Today, the company delivers customizable radio networks for hundreds of businesses all over the U.S., including more than 60 casino properties in 24 states across the U.S. 

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Intro to Nathan Green and the early days of New Level Radio 
2:41 - Challenges in starting a new business 
5:00 - How to do client outreach
7:47 - Phone sales closing techniques
9:57 - New Level Radio's first customers
11:22 - Who picks the music at casinos?
13:37 - Psychology of music and emotion
16:39 - Developing a musical ear
17:33 - Best decade of music
19:05 - Scaling up a small business
20:50 - Finding a niche in business
22:35 - Business growth technique
26:54 - Most fulfilling part of career
28:32 - Casino psychology
31:43 - Most interesting stories
33:45 - Most beloved songs
34:59 - Artificial intelligence age
38:29 - Anthropic AI copyright ruling
40:58 - Pushback against generative AI
43:17 - Impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on business
46:24 - Job displacement due to AI
50:39 - Biggest missed opportunities in industry today? 
52:44 - Outro; how to find Nathan Green and New Level Radio

More about New Level Radio: https://www.newlevelradio.com/company

#podcast #business #businessgrowth #businesstips #entrepreneurship #musicindustry #casino #psychology #ai #artificialintelligence