Jim Lombardo is the charismatic public face of Bell Ambulance, though you may know him more from his appearances on WLKH's morning show, his charity golf outing, or even his Web site, AmericasGuest.com.

It's not an unfair question to ask what an EMT was doing hanging out with Sir Paul McCartney in Las Vegas this summer, or why no less than a dozen people, including Wave coach Keith Tozer, stopped by to say hello during a recent interview at Ouzo Café. In short, the outspoken Lombardo knows pretty much everyone in Milwaukee. He calls it, simply, "inverted pyramid marketing."

Enjoy this latest Milwaukee Talks with Bell Ambulance's Jim Lombardo.

OMC: I've got to get this out of the way. Why is the guy who runs an ambulance company also "America's Guest?"

JL: I've always had a knack to be at the right place at right time. I've made a lot of acquaintances, and throughout life, I've believed that one person leads to another. I call it inverted pyramid marketing. You can always find someone to fulfill a need of yours and vice versa.

That happened with the America's Guest thing. I had been contacted by someone who was opening a comedy club and needed to go on a radio show in town. My background was in marketing at Park Avenue (a downtown night club in the '80s). I knew the radio market fairly well in Milwaukee, but I didn't know (WKLH's) Dave and Carole. But I called them up and said, "Listen, I have the perfect fit for you, we need to talk."

OMC: When was this?

JL: This has to go back 18 years. They had had some bad luck with comedians, so they had some parameters. The club was the Comedy Café on Brady Street. I know you're wondering what this has to do with America's Guest.

OMC: That's all right, I'm rolling with it …

JL: So, I got to know Dave and Carole, and one day Dave said to me, "You always do these (events through) Bell Ambulance, putting together invitations to meet rock stars and politicians." People really are kind of drawn to an ambulance, don't ask me why.

OMC: Is it the flashing lights?

JL: I don't know what it is, but you hear ambulance and it always kind of intrigues you a little bit. But we went on the air with the comedy thing and Dave said, "You know what, why don't we put you on every once in a while." I was over in Detroit at a Packers/Lions game, and whenever I was on the road, I'd always call in to WKLH and give a report. Dave was off and Matt Vasgersian was hosting. Do you remember Matt?

OMC: Sure, Matt voiced our first radio commercials in 1998.

JL: We went on the air and he asked me where I was, and I told him. He said, "You know what, you're always somewhere else. You are America's guest." We played with it on KLH and got the Web site. Some people call it a self-promoting tool, but it's really to promote Bell Ambulance.

OMC: Does it work?

JL: Absolutely. We just had the Greater Lombardo Open, and we raised $57,000 for charity.

OMC: Did I hear that you were hanging out with Paul McCartney in Vegas last month?

JL: It's true. It was two years that Paul came to Milwaukee. A friend of mine from Clear Channel and from the Park Avenue days called me up and said that McCartney was doing a show in Milwaukee, and he wanted to go sailing.

OMC: Are you a sailor?

JL: I wouldn't know the front end of the boat from the back of the boat. But all he wanted was one of those little Starfish. The friend asked me if I could put it together, and it was hell finding one, but we got it picked up and set up this whole elaborate plan at South Shore Yacht Club. Word got out, and they almost canceled it. We pulled up at The Pfister, waited about 10 minutes, Paul came down and started walking to my car. But the undercover police officer told him to go with him, so Paul's security guy came with me. And as we were pulling out, it was like that scene in "A Hard Day's Night" where people are running down the street. I swear to God, it was exactly like that, 50-80 people screaming, holding album covers, the car being mobbed. Anyway, we got him on the Starfish, then another limo pulls up and (his now ex-wife) Heather got out and said, "Jim, thank you very much, this means a lot to Paul." Then she went running out and they sailed for a few hours. We did the same thing two days in a row.

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