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TexPx

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Everything posted by TexPx

  1. Chickasaw National Recreational Area is very pretty. Turner Falls is kinda neat. Talimena Scenic Drive is a blast in the right vehicle.
  2. The only Frank Lloyd Wright designed “skyscraper” ever built is in Bartlesville.
  3. TexPx

    97.1 The Freak

    IMHO if you want to pull off “Lifestyle Talk” you need some above average and interesting talent who are well versed in a variety of topics. Guess we’ll see.
  4. TexPx

    97.1 The Freak

    I understand the excitement about the unexpected return of Texas Radio Hall of Famer Mike Rhyner to local airwaves. But am I the only one conflicted that the beloved “Godfather of The Ticket” — the one-of-a-kind sports talk station that Mike built on listeners’ unswerving devotion — has signed up to conquer the station that has brought us so much joy these last 28 years? My point of view feels pretty lonely, given that even many Ticket loyalists, intoxicated by this soap opera, are cheering the return of the Old Gray Wolf to the new 97.1 The Freak. Even worse, in the gladiator ring that is social media, I’ve seen a lot of the sentiment “to hell with The Little Ticket. I hope The Freak takes them down.” For this Day One P1, it’s awful to watch the longtime leader of The Ticket’s tight-knit band of brothers return from retirement to try a land grab on legacy. A guy who wasn’t just a founding member of The Ticket bunker but who built that bunker on Monday began shooting down into When I talked with Mike the day before The Freak’s launch, I asked how he squares building a station on listener loyalty and then competing against his former partners for those same listeners. “I don’t have a real good answer for that right now,” he said. “I realize I’m gonna have to square it in some way.” As for my analogy that his sights are set on The Ticket, Mike said: “I guess you could look at it that way. But if that’s the case, I’m shooting with a BB gun across the moat into the castle that is The Ticket.” Mike got a hero’s sendoff when he left The Ticket and has regularly been back on its airwaves and at events for P1s, which refers to those of us who listen almost exclusively to the station. If he’s got new ideas, why not return to the place so identified with his best work and where he had lifelong friends? His response is that no one at the station ever specifically raised that possibility — and he was not about to call them and ask. Until 97.1 came calling, he said, “I was a very happy retiree.” Ticket program director Jeff Catlin told me he was as shocked as anyone when he first heard the rumors several weeks ago. “I didn’t believe it. And now I am really sad about it,” he said. “Mike has a home on The Ticket for life, but he never contacted me about having the itch to get back on air.” Jeff doesn’t understand why Mike never reached out to anyone at The Ticket about his plans. “I didn’t think it was their business,” Mike told me when I asked why his longtime Ticket colleagues learned only through the grapevine of his plans to return. Mike said sticking it to The Ticket or to owner Cumulus Media wasn’t a motivator. But he followed up with the contention that he had been “minimized and marginalized” by almost everyone at the station. Mike Rhyner, right, and Corby Davidson shared a laugh at The Ticket's broadcast table at the... Mike Rhyner, right, and Corby Davidson shared a laugh at The Ticket's broadcast table at the week leading up to the 2008 Super Bowl in Phoenix.(TOM FOX) Corby Davidson, who still works in the prestigious drive-time hours that he shared with Mike from January 2000 to his retirement 20 years later, said he has no idea what his former Hardline co-host means about being minimized. “Mike was universally loved at The Ticket,” Corby told me. “We hoisted him on our shoulders in retirement. We invited him to all our events. We had him on all our shows, as recently as August.” Corby said he and his colleagues believed Mike would always be the face and heartbeat of The Ticket. “He chose otherwise, and destroyed relationships that had been in existence for 30 years. It’s heartbreaking and unconscionable.” So much for that band of brothers I like so many thought was unbreakable. And while The Ticket is a formidable powerhouse (and in full disclosure, partners with The Dallas Morning News to produce the SportsDay Talk app), don’t confuse this with any David vs. Goliath fight. Mike’s new home is owned by iHeartRadio, a huge corporation that ranks well ahead of Cumulus in the number of stations it owns. The Freak broadcasts the Mavericks games, considerably more popular than The Ticket’s Stars franchise. Bigger than that, The Freak boasts a broadcasting signal that The Ticket can only dream of. But here’s what The Ticket does have: Listeners for whom its ecosystem — created by those hosts who have been on the air since the station’s earliest days — is entwined into our DNA. Memories of The Ticket and its place in my day-to-day life in 2022 are ties that don’t break. In recent years, I’ve come to regard Mike, along with Morning Muser Gordon Keith and a couple of other guys at the station, as a friend. But years before meeting any of them, I was a die-hard P1. Saturday night dinner conversations in the 1990s meant the retelling of the most absurd Ticket moments of the week. The Musers were the soundtrack of car-pooling my two sons to school each day. Decades later, a surefire way to bond with a new acquaintance is to ask if he or she is a P1. Shawn Williams, now a vice president with Allyn Media, and I did just that back when I sought him out in 2007 to learn more about southern Dallas. At the time, he was running the online Dallas South News operation and was not so sure whether to trust an establishment journalist like me. I still recall how talking about The Ticket — he too was a longtime P1 — broke the ice. “The Ticket is part of my subconscious,” Shawn said when I called him to talk about the Rhyner defection. “Some of these are people I’ve been listening to for more than 20 years. Turning on The Ticket is, like, what I’m supposed to do.” So, yes, he feels some conflict. But he also knows a lot of people in this market want to do sports talk and need more opportunities. His car radio may be set on The Ticket, but during commercial breaks, he scans the dial. “I may go over to 97.1, but it’s not something I’m making an appointment for.” Listening to Mike’s opening segments on The Freak on Monday, just to make sure it went off as advertised, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was that first raw day when an ugly custody agreement is finally signed. Now father is competing against son. The Ticket will remain steady by continuing to be the best possible version of itself, and I’m sure the new competition will make it better. But I remain enormously sad that the next chapter in Dallas radio unfolded this way — and baffled by how unconflicted so many of my fellow Ticket listeners feel about this sorry ending. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/commentary/2022/10/03/the-way-mike-rhyner-has-returned-to-dallas-radio-leaves-this-ticket-p1-awfully-conflicted/
  5. TexPx

    97.1 The Freak

    I’m listening via OTA Frequency Modulation, as God intended. Has a slightly hollow sound but otherwise OK.
  6. TexPx

    97.1 The Freak

    How long before “The Suits” start making them talk more Cowboys?
  7. Even in an over paved densely developed exurb kids will find a creek.
  8. 5. Scheduled during Friday Night HS football games.
  9. I would rather have a threesome with Sharon Moore and Bart Reagor in the parking lot of The Crazy Gun Dealer while they repeatedly sing the “Donate to Junk for Joy” jingle than listen another of “those” ads.
  10. I was ready to cancel until the last F1 season dropped. Hulu/FX doesn’t have the quantity but quality seems much better to me.
  11. Only local/OTA options in the two largest markets is The CW? That’s the only local channel not on my DStream, but I do have Newsnation
  12. Pretty cool they closed the season with the Tim Cappello cover of “I still believe” from The Lost Boys. Written and originally performed by Michael Been(RIP)and The Call. Been was born and grew up in Oklahoma.
  13. As a big fan of Rally Cars I loved it. I bought one of the first WRX Imprezas in the US when they finally brought them over. Thrashed the hell out of it from Moab to Cheyenne Mountain to Fort Davis, Big Bend and deserted winter beaches around Port A. Often with two dogs in the back, two bikes on top and an apprehensive spouse riding shotgun.
  14. Big win for the Pre-Statehood Rights Movement.
  15. I have become hopelessly addicted to these.
  16. Earnest B’s is in the dealership. Haven’t been since he moved there but have eaten at his food truck. Ribs were definitely legit.
  17. Same thing in Frisco when they opened IKEA and the first In N Out.
  18. Never trust a President who doesn’t have a dog.
  19. The second deceptive edit deleted key words to make it sound like O’Rourke had called for “dismantling” police departments, end of story. He had actually called for dismantling “and rebuilding” departments in “some necessary cases.” The third deceptive edit was especially egregious. This one mashed together phrases from three different O’Rourke sentences. The stitch job made it sound like an O’Rourke comment about the importance of Black Lives Matter activism, and how it is part of a tradition of civil rights activism, was a comment about the importance of defunding the police and dismantling police departments. For emotional effect, the ad juxtaposed O’Rourke’s altered words with a series of video clips of rioting and looting. The Abbott campaign’s edits are extra notable because O’Rourke’s actual, unedited comments in the June 2020 interview gave Republicans ample attack ammunition. Other O’Rourke opponents have highlighted his words about policing without altering them. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/politics/fact-check-abbott-ad-orourke-defund-police/index.html
  20. Going to see them in a couple of weeks. Nice to see some young’ungs helping to keep jazz alive
  21. Their BBQ joint has a drive through on the west side. Kinda nice.
  22. Will check it out when shit settles down. Very good BBQ at the Crest Cadillac dealership up here so why not HEB?
  23. Cruised by about 11 AM. Fuck that shit. I can wait.
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