▼ Culture BLUE MOON, GOLDEN TICKET O After 25 Years, Dave Lane finally wins the race to radio host. n a recent Tuesday afternoon in Irving, it was business as usual inside the lobby of the Omni Las Colinas hotel. Cor- porate types lugged their roll- ing suitcases, valets in sharp uniforms smiled as they opened doors and a proces- sion of serious-looking slacks-wearers filed in. The heat clocked in at 100 degrees. Overlooking the pool through the lobby bar’s towering windows, three casually dressed dudes lounged on a pair of plush couches as if they were in a buddy’s base- ment man cave rather than a pricey, four- star hotel. Corby Davidson, Bob Sturm and Dave Lane, the trio who now makes up the popu- lar 1310 The Ticket afternoon drive program The Hardline, were in the middle of a com- mercial break during a remote broadcast. There weren’t any large banners signaling their position, nor was there a giant crowd surrounding them at that point. A couple of cocktail waitress strolled by to drop off drinks a few tables away from the broadcast spot, while a few folks sat at the nearby bar, nursing drinks, completely unaware of the radio taping. With his headphones removed, Lane rested his right elbow along the back of the couch, his right leg hiked up on the seat cushion as he chat- ted with his co-hosts. It’s just another weekday on the sports radio jugger- naut that is The Ticket. But for the 50-year- old Lane, who’s also gone by the nickname “Gen X Davey” for decades, it wasn’t typical, not yet. Just a month prior to that lobby bar moment, Lane spoke his first words as a full-time host on The Hardline. For more than 25 years, it was a moment he had hoped for. For most of those years, he was con- vinced he had no chance at a permanent on- air gig. Throughout his adult life, he had watched others snap up the rare Ticket host positions that came available as he endured several personal setbacks. But here he was, finally, hosting for one of the most popular radio stations in the U.S. as a full-fledged member of The Hardline, the very program with which he had a fraught history. It didn’t happen without a fair dose of 6 luck and good timing. He had long cared deeply about nabbing this job, but as he ad- mitted over the air on the evening his hiring was announced in June, he finally came out on top “when I finally stopped caring and gave up all hope it would ever happen.” L The Chance That Never Arrived ane’s new post as The Hardline’s third host, a slot often referred to as “the yuck monkey” by Ticket personnel and the legion of loyal station listeners dubbed “P1s,” isn’t his first full-time posi- tion with the station or the show. Lane be- gan at The Ticket after graduating from the University of North Texas in 1994. He worked his way through the system, going from weekend overnight board operator to a show producer for a short while, eventually becoming a “Ticket Ticker Guy” who pre- sented sports updates on The Hardline, then hosted by Mike Rhyner and Greg Williams. There were ups and downs during those initial post-college years. Lane was laid off for a short time, then rehired at the station. After about a year of reading tickers for The Mike Brooks Good things finally came for Dave Lane, who waited 25 years for hosting job at The Ticket. Hardline, he was bumped back down to a lower position when the station’s manage- ment made staffing changes. That wasn’t the first time he had been passed over for promotion, and after sensing the direction his young career was taking, Lane cut his losses and left the station on his own in 1997. He joined local ABC affiliate WFAA as a news writer for the channel’s Daybreak morning show. He didn’t stay there long. “I hated it,” he says. “It was just very gruel- ing. My shift was 1:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. I had to write dozens of stories for a two-hour news- cast. It was valuable experience >> p8 AUGUST 4 - 10, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
