10 January 25 - 31, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Craig Miller (co-host, The Musers): “About five months in, we all showed up to a listener party at a place called Long Branch Country Club in Coppell, and it was overflowing, and we couldn’t park anywhere. That was a big moment where we all thought ‘wow!’ It was the first time we were interacting with the listeners and the crowd was ridiculous, and we thought, ‘OK maybe we have something special here.’” Dunham: “The first Charity Challenge on Ice in ’98 was packed to the gills. We thought maybe 100 people would show up but I think more than 1,200 came, and the fire marshall stopped let- ting people in. That was amazing. I mean, we had like 5,000 peo- ple show up for when we played a basketball game against a high school girls’ team [in 2009]. I’ve always been amazed at how the P1 responds to the stuff we do.” [The Ticket team lost to the Lake Highlands girl’s basketball team 61-44. ] Keith: “I don’t think you ever get used to the fact that lightning struck and we get to be a part of it. But the secret of the station’s success is the relationship with our listeners. We could’ve put on the same show and the listeners not latch onto it. But I think the listeners did because they’re in on the bit.” Bob Sturm (co-host, The Hardline): “I think it was my first Guys Night Out, and I couldn’t believe it. My brain could not com- pute what was happening and who these guys I was working with were, because they were all being treated like they were rock stars or something.” Donovan Lewis (co-host, The Invasion): “You’re almost starstruck at everybody who felt they were starstruck toward you. You just don’t even imagine people coming out to see you. When I was at a rock station and Ozzy Osborne was doing a concert, people were showing up to see Ozzy and us radio nerds were just part of the package. But with the Ticket, I saw that people would come to sit and listen while we talked sports or whatever else. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “I remember the first time it happened for me, I think it was a Guys Night Out, and I kind of drove home and rode in silence and just thought, ‘Man, this is wild.’ That’s just some- thing you don’t expect, and even now, still I’m very apprecia- tive of the people who take time out of their day to come and check us out. Especially at the big events like Ticketstock, you’re just floored by it.” Mino: “As cheesy as it sounds, after our first show was done at Cowboys training camp last year [in Oxnard, California], I went to the beach right outside our hotel. I just sat there on the beach in California with the ocean just flowing up to me while I reflected on everything by myself. I was like, ‘A week ago, I did not think I would be on the beach in California where it’s 78 degrees.’” Matt McClearin (co-host, The Invasion): “I haven’t been around as long as some others, but I was just reminded of how the reach of The Ticket and the power of The Ticket and the amount of people who care so passionately about it is insane. I had a listener, just a couple of months ago, who lives in Massa- chusetts, who knows that I am really into beer, send me a box of beer from a bunch of crazy, kick-ass breweries in New Eng- land. He sent it to me just because. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe it, that’s awesome.’” Get in Where You Fit In Even some of the most tenured, high-profile station hosts felt a bit insecure about their roles at the station when they began. Sensing quickly their gigs were of the special sort, hosts such as Davidson and Sturm simply looked to survive in their younger days, with the hopes of thriving down the road as the station grew. Davidson: “I had known I wanted to be in radio, but after taking the weekend overnight board op job, it became a matter of fig- uring out how to stay here. Back then, this place was like a Chili’s waitstaff, with people coming and going, in and out. I knew that if I stuck around long enough and got to know peo- ple and let them get to know me, they would know I was in this for real. … When I got hired to be a producer for the Chris Ar- nold show in 1996, I remember telling myself and my parents at the time, ‘I’m good. I’ve made it. I’m totally good.’” Sturm: “For the first five years, whether I was working at night by myself or after I was put on middays with Dan [McDowell, former host], I was also focusing on ‘how do I stay here?’ I thought, ‘Man, this is really, really neat. I’m not positive I know what I’m doing, but I think I’m hitting eighth for a really good baseball team.’ I just didn’t want to screw it up. … My general memories involve me trying to become a piece of the puzzle that they would have a hard time getting rid of. That was my goal. I tried to be good at enough things that they never wanted to get rid of me.” Bass: “As soon as I graduated college, I took a job in a physi- cian recruitment firm on the sales side, as I was also working here at night on the weekends. I enjoyed that role so much that when a full-time position at the station opened up, I jumped at it even though it was less money. I mean, getting to watch sports for a living is better than doing actual work.” ‘Lynchburg Moments’ Before becoming co-host of The Hardline in 2020, Sturm co- hosted the midday Bad Radio show with Dan McDowell. Lewis was a part of that show for a few years as well. During that show’s 20-year run, the crew often referred to “Lynchburg Mo- ments,” events or occurrences that were happening in the pres- ent, that would’ve been unbelievable to a younger Sturm when he manned the microphone of his post-college radio gig in Lynchburg, Virginia. Also, these are events that likely would have taken place only at The Ticket. Even for the hosts, who, one would think, have grown accustomed to finding themselves in enviable scenarios, there’s no shortage of awe-inspiring, “sur- real” Lynchburg Moments. Some hosts have become friends with stars they grew up idol- izing, while others have started working with legends. For eight years, Sturm has assisted Hall of Fame QB, Monday Night Foot- ball analyst and regular Ticket guest Troy Aikman prepare for his weekly game broadcasts by providing statistical analysis for the games he’ll cover. Oddly enough, that’s not the only intriguing connection between a Ticket host and a Hall of Fame QB. Many hosts pointed to one of the sporting events the station has hosted when the hosts played hockey (Charity Challenge on Ice), flag football (The Quarterback Bowl) and baseball (The Great Game) alongside legendary athletes in professional stadiums with thousands of rowdy P1s paying to witness the madness. Davidson: “There were 15,000 people at the first Quarterback Bowl [2006], I think. That game was insane. For the first play, Michael Irvin sprinted to my side as a wideout, and I’m cover- ing him as a cornerback. It’s crazy because he hadn’t been re- tired all that long at that point. Athletically, it looked like he could’ve played five more years in the NFL. I walk up to the line, and I’m a foot away from Irvin, and because we’re playing indoors and the crowd is right up against the field, my dad is sit- ting next to my mom maybe 5 feet from where I was. My dad just looks at me and goes, ‘Good luck!’” Sturm: “The one I always think about is when the Stars had a skills challenge event one night where players were trying out for the All-Star skills competition. It wasn’t a regular game, but it was at Reunion Arena, and there were thousands of fans there to see players hit targets and to see who had the hardest shot and things like that. They knew of my high regard for Brett Hull, and they brought me out to quote-unquote ‘compete’ with him in the deal where you have to break four plates in the cor- ners of the goal. He had to break real plates, but I had these big trash can lids in each corner of the goal. I mean good Lord, you talk about a Lynchburg Moment: this is a guy I was rooting for when I was 10 years old.” Lane: “Well, I just had a baby with Kenny Stabler’s daughter. [Davidson erupted with one of his trademark dolphin squeal laughs when Lane said this.] But I go back to the Charity Chal- lenge as well. Having Razor [Stars TV analyst Daryl Reaugh] or Hitch [former Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock] give us a pep talk and talk strategy in the locker rooms with us was a trip. I had butterflies skating onto the ice and warming up in front of probably 15,000 people like it was a real NHL game. It was just surreal. I still have all those on videotape, and I have a VHS ma- chine just for the very reason that one day I’ll go back and relive those moments to validate they, in fact, happened.” Lewis: “I think the wildest moment for me was when my wife and I were in Memphis and were on Beale Street just standing there talking, and this one dude walked up and said my name and I was just in shock. From then on, it’s everywhere I go. I was in [Las] Vegas once, walking out of a club at 3 in the morn- ing, and a party bus pulled up and one dude yelled out “Donny Doo!” We were in Italy and a dude recognized me. Just the reach that the Ticket has around the world is still something I can’t wrap my head around. It’s also been wild sitting down and talking with Dirk [Nowitzki], my all-time favorite athlete. Those are the obvious wild moments for me.” Bass: “My Lynchburg Moment came in 2003 when I got to cover my first ball game at the old Ballpark [Globe Life Park]. One night I was just out there by myself in our booth with the windows open and they were singing the National Anthem, and I stood up, and I don’t know why, but I was just overcome with emotion. It was probably just a regular Tuesday night against the Blue Jays. It wasn’t a special game, but it was just like, ‘Holy shit, I get to be a part of this, this is my life.’ I grew up playing baseball, thinking I wanted to be out there one day, but this was the next best thing.” Mino: “I remember a time, gosh, it might’ve been three or four years ago, so it was relatively recent, and I was filling in as a host on The Musers’ morning shift over the summer. One of those mornings, I started thinking back to how I grew up as a P1, listen- ing to The Musers while going to school every morning. Justin [Montemayor] and I were doing “Muse in the News” and when I heard the “Muse in the News” music bed playing, I was just like, ‘This is what I grew up listening to. I hear this music and I think of The Musers, but here’s my voice instead.’ I almost had to stop mid-segment to think about it. That was pretty wild. ... And we got to talk to Troy Aikman when we did that show, and that was awesome, I mean, 9-year-old me was like, Oh, my God.’” McClearin: “For me, it’s just been getting to be here. That’s my Lynchburg Moment. I was just a part-timer in ’09 and 2010, but when Norm [Hitzges] retired last year, and you get the call say- ing, ‘Hey, you’re going to be the guy,’ it’s just wild. I almost com- pare it to being in AA or AAA ball and then you finally get the call like you’re Crash Davis from Bull Durham: ‘Hey, you want to come play ball with the pros?’ When I went to Cowboys train- ing camp last year, we had a team dinner, and I’ve got Bob [Sturm] to my left and George [Dunham] right across from me. I’ve worked for so long in my career to get to this point and to fi- nally have it pay off and get to this point is just surreal.” The Golden Ticket from p8 Kathy Tran Station Program Director Jeff Catlin with The Ticket’s custom bobbleheads.
