12 July 27 - August 2, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Don’t Hang Around Here The Ticket’s Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp might split from the station. BY DANNY GALLAGHER T wo more of The Ticket’s most popular hosts have left its air- waves. After weeks of specula- tion, Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp, the hosts of the station’s The Hang Zone program, announced last week via a Youtube video they would no lon- ger be employed by 1310 The Ticket after failing to reach an agreement on new con- tracts with station owner Cumulus Media. “Our contracts were expired,” McDowell said in the video. “We were trying to come to an agreement. We believed, in our opinion, that the offer from Cumulus was not some- thing we wanted to take.” Corby Davidson, one of the hosts of The Ticket’s evening drive program, noted Mc- Dowell and Kemp’s desire for something new during a discussion of the staffing shakeup on the air Friday morning. Gordon Keith, one of the morning show hosts, said that McDowell and Kemp had told their former coworkers they would not seek to join a competing sports radio station. The last episode of The Hang Zone aired on Friday, June 30. It seems that contract negotiations are to blame for McDowell and Kemp’s absence. RadioInsight obtained an internal memo from Cumulus Media, the owners of The Ticket since 1996, that was sent by the com- pany’s regional vice president and Dallas/ Houston market manager, Dan Bennett. The memo announced the duo’s departure “after being unable to reach terms of new long term employment agreements for the host- ing of the 12n-3pm [sic] time slot.” “Dan and Jake both resigned their posi- tions effective July 17, 2023,” the memo reads. “We began negotiations with both in December and remained productive and positive until late last week. At that time, talks broke down over competing digital me- dia interests Dan and Jake wished to pursue out of a Cumulus Media partnership.” Meanwhile, The Ticket’s program direc- tor, Jeff Catlin, will begin the search to fill the vacated time slot. “Obviously, we are all disappointed that we could not reach an agreement but we are all appreciative of the great contribution both employees made to our cluster of sta- tions,” the memo reads. As the week progressed, with no formal announcements made as to why the pair of hosts were not broadcasting in their usual time slot, rumors persisted. July 19, it was Davidson who provided an update to Ticket listeners. “When it’s resolved, we’ll say as much as we possibly can about it including Dan and Jake, but please be patient here,” Davidson said. “The people that ran with the story, I get it. I understand that but this is some- thing that’s ongoing. ... Everybody’s trying to do their part here and everybody’s trying to do their part within the company, within working with Dan and Jake. We’re so on this. I can’t even explain to you how much sleep we’ve all lost over this.” The news of McDowell and Kemp’s exit comes just a little over a month after another popular host announced his retirement. Texas Radio Broadcast Hall of Fame host Norm Hitzges, who led the Norm and D In- vasion show on The Ticket with Donovan Lewis, announced he would step away from the mic after 48 years on the air. ▼ NOSTALGIA BUCKING A TREND MECHANICAL BULLS ARE MAKING A COMEBACK IN DALLAS. BY DANNY GALLAGHER P utting a mechanical bull in any Texas establishment may feel a little on the nose. But trends come and go, and af- ter all the craft beers and shuffleboard and random stripper poles through the years, you hardly see them any more. It’s not hard to understand if you’ve ever been thrown off one of them. But hold on to your loins and your undigested dinner, be- cause mechanical bulls are all the rage again. Punch Bowl Social in Deep Ellum is the latest local joint to offer a new electronic bucking bull nicknamed (wait for it) Sir Loin. It’s now one of two places with a me- chanical bull in Deep Ellum along with Ro- deo Dallas. There are even more across the city in places such as Gilley’s Dallas and, oc- casionally, at Double Wide. The experience starts with signing a waiver from a QR code. The bucking bull is centered on a 16-foot inflatable stage, so you don’t need a Beastmaster helmet with a full face cage to keep your face in the same shape as when you climbed on it. The operator offers every rider a free black Stetson to wear during their run, but it’s not just for keeping your hairstyle intact. It sells the experience. The action starts easy, unlike a real bull. “It rotates and goes up and down,” says Punch Bowl Social general manager Ben Petko. “It’s all electrically driven. It goes up and down at the same time it is rotating, and when it starts to do both at the same time, that’s when it gets a little more challenging.” The resurgence of this trend may be a bit new, but the mechanical bull has been around since the 1930s. According to the PBS series Iconic America, the first mechan- ical bull appeared at the Bertrand Island Amusement Park in New Jersey as some- thing called Ride ’Em Cowboy. It caught on at fairs and parks across the country and be- came a standard of popular culture as a Mc- Guffin in the story for the 1980 hit film Urban Cowboy. The challenge extends beyond staying on the thing. “You do need your whole body to stay on it for sure,” Petko says. “You’re using your arms to keep hold of the rope and you’re also trying to use your hips and torso to stay on the bull as much as possible.” Meanwhile, the blurring, panoramic view begins to morph into this blob of smil- ing faces and outstretched applause. People you’ve never met will yell “Go!” and “Whooo!” the longer you’re able to stay on, and no matter what the time reads on the digital red clock when your body hits the mattress, you’re always greeted to a round of cheers and applause. Then a funny thing happens. Even a large lump of a human like me who fears doing anything too physical around other people, especially when the spectators clearly work out, cannot step off the mat feeling like the butt of a mean joke or a Chris Farley-esque pratfall that drains your dignity. You’re re- vered and championed for taking the ride, no matter how long it lasted. “It’s very much a spectator sport,” Petko says. “A lot of people who come, sometimes they want to do the bull or sometimes a group will come, but only one or two are go- ing to ride it but everyone else in the group really enjoys the experience of watching them doing it.” Mikel Galicia ▼ Culture Dan McDowell, right, broadcasts at The Ticket’s 2016 Summer Bash in Little Elm.
