Laughter is the best medicine

Armed with her catchphrase, Bridget Owens, DC, takes to the radio airwaves with her weekly wellness message.

“Water, water, water!” says Winifred, one of the alter egos, in an increasingly higher pitched, exaggerated New York accent — which then becomes, “Watah, watah, watah!”

Dr. B, as her patients call her, was airing 30-second radio spots for about two or three years, and she knew they were working when patients would come in and say they heard her commercial on the radio.

“But,” she says, “When I would ask ‘Oh you did? What did I say?’ and they couldn’t remember, I thought, ‘Well, dadgum, how effective is that?’”

While they were hearing her voice and knowing it was her advertisement, they were losing the message. That was when she knew she had to do something different.

The idea

She was telling her friend Cindy what was happening with the radio spots while they were in the car driving down the road and, just like that, a brand new idea formed.

“I was just babbling,” says Owen, “and saying how I wish I could come up with a wellness thing that people would remember to think about, you know for a ‘thing’ and Cindy suggested I do something with this one voice I always do.

“Whenever I would record a commercial and get tongue tied, I would end up saying things in this voice like ‘Oh my gawd. One second, take two, take two! Let’s back it up again. Talk amongst yourselves.’”

This “voice” would be the exaggerated New York accent of the eccentric Winifred who is now somewhat famous in the 9,000-person town of Tomah and other surrounding towns in Wisconsin including Lacrosse and Black River Falls.

“Literally, just driving in the car I said, ‘Wednesday morning wellness with Winifred. We talk health, we talk wellness, we just talk.’ And that was that,” says Owens.

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