MidDays with Gerard Gibert 2026-07-29

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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Get ready, get ready to go beyond the headlines and join a meaningful conversation with people from around the state. You're listening to MidDays with Gerard Gibert here on SuperTalk Mississippi.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:01)
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MidDays, SuperTalk Mississippi. I'm your host, Gerard Gibert, along with Rhino in the Element Wealth Studio, guiding you through the middle of your day with facts, fodder, and fine music on this HOMP Day. All right, so you have no doubt heard by now the news, if you hadn't. We are devastated around here at SuperTalk Mississippi.
Unfortunately, we lost our fine colleague, Lance Tolbert, unexpectedly, late Monday evening. And that was discussed this morning on the Morning Show. He, of course, the producer of Mornings with Richard Cross and also of the Mary Whedon Show.
Man, we're just blown away. Rhino and I actually found out about it yesterday, right before the show. I got to tell you, Rhino, I kind of had a hard time getting going yesterday, literally 10 minutes before we walked to our respective locations here in the studio.

**Rhino** (2:12)
Yeah, it's not often that we actually have to keep something from you.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:18)
Yeah.

**Rhino** (2:18)
We're usually pretty open and honest about everything we know.
There's very little off the record. But in that instance, we didn't want someone close to Lance to find out about his passing in an awkward way. We didn't want it to be them tuning in to listen to the station he worked on. And hear about that for the first time. We wanted his friends and family to hear from friends and family.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:54)
Absolutely. It was the right call by management here at SuperTalk. So we were advised before we went on not to discuss it, to give it time, just as you indicated there. But it was discussed today on the morning show. Lucian Smith filling in for Richard.
Yeah, we're just, we're blown away. Just don't really have any details at this point, really, that apparently he passed away peacefully at his home. That's all we know at this point.
Man, he will certainly be missed. He had really perfected his craft. Was doing a fabulous job, and, Rhino, as you know, filling the shoes of the late great Paul Gallo and the now retired Perez, who occupied that time slot for many years, was a tall order. No easy task. But Richard and Lance had certainly stepped up.
I think it exceeded expectations. The only reason I say expectations is because you already had such a high bar. The expectation was that the quality would continue, and they certainly did it. And gosh, I know it's really strange. It's got to be difficult for Richard, who's off this week as well. So, but we wanted to get ahead of that and pass it on to you guys now. We are, of course, keeping his family and our thoughts and prayers. And may he rest in peace, man. Just incredible. We are devastated here around the SuperTalk halls. Just can't really comprehend it. I mean, yesterday, when Will told us about it, just didn't even know how to process it. Something so unusual, so unexpected.

**Rhino** (5:00)
Yeah, I think the only thing I was able to utter was a word I can't say on the air, and I think I said it three times over the span of about ten seconds. That was all I could muster.

**Gerard Gibert** (5:09)
Man, I know. So, you guys, maybe we were able to conceal it, but I struggled getting going. I couldn't compose thoughts. It's hard enough to do this when you don't have something like that weighing on your mind. You need all your wits. And I didn't have them yesterday, honestly, after learning of that. And, you know, for me, on a personal note right now, I had just done the Mary Weedon show as a guest on Friday, with, of course, with Lance producing, and he was good enough to crank up the music that he knows that I like. And I was grateful for that, thanked him for that. We had a steady dose of classic rock, of course, and Lance, of course, you would expect him to think about stuff like that. That's just the way he was. But, man, we're going to miss him big time. I wanted you guys to know, devastating news, unbelievable, on the C-Spy text line. I hate to hear that about Lance. I always enjoyed hearing him also. Tim and McGee says, I did not know about Lance. He had family from McGee. That's exactly right, Tim. He seemed like a fine man. He definitely was.