Yesterday I spent the afternoon at DFW’s most beloved radio sports radio station, KTCK The Ticket, at Victory Park. Instead of driving I decided to take the DART Green Line. I’m glad I had WifeGeeding drop me off because there wasn’t any parking available. On the way there I was the only passenger on the train for the first few stops, but on the way home on the 5:09 train, it was standing room only. I bought my ticket using their mobile app, but man, it would have been easy to just sneak onboard without paying.
Victory Park is a ghost land and a far cry from what was originally planned during the middle of the day. Hopefully the New Victory Park will liven up the joint. But I did catch some folks doing outside yoga during the lunch hour.
In case you are wondering why I got to spend a day at The Ticket, I gave Sean Bass an old mower and in exchange he said he would buy me lunch and let me spend an afternoon at the mothership. There’s not a nicer guy in radio, I tell ya. During lunch I asked him how the mower was working and it needed a little work and was only able to mow half his lawn, which made me feel like a heel as it worked before he came over. But then again, it’s been collecting dust for about two years. While we were eating he got the weekly rating numbers. If I understood correctly, KZPS came in first, followed by KISS, and then The Ticket, but I got a bit lost in terms of what that meant in terms of demographics and such.
We walked into the studios around 1:30 PM and I got a brief tour of the place, including the other radio stations on the floor like ESPN and KSCS. It was almost as I expected, with doors that had an “On Air” light above them. I saw the Catman, the program directory, and that’s one intimidating mean looking dude.
During a commercial break we walked in on Bob and Dan of Bad Radio. Bob didn’t recognize me at first and cited the beard, and I was surprised at how friendly Dan was. I was nervous that I was intruding or throwing them off rhythm, but they’re pros and they seemed a little surprised that I was being so quiet. I guess it was my way of being respectful.
The Ticket’s studio basically comprises of three studios. You have one large room with a table and about six adjustable mics, and then two rooms are connected with that room with windows. I’m probably not using the correct terminology, but one room is the control room where the producer sits (Jake or Danny) with a board operator, and another smaller room for the folks like Sean that does tickers. I spent about all my time in the ticker room.
Understanding that I was a guest, I did my best to be respectful and try not to be “that guy” that whipped out the camera phone and take obtrusive pictures. Even though Sean said it was okay, I still didn’t want to be a distraction but I did snap a few where I felt it was appropriate. I really wanted to take some goofy pics with the hosts, but other than talking with Bob and Dan when I first arrived, I didn’t really get that opportunity.
This is a picture of Sean Bass taking control of the ticker room at the start of Why Today Doesn’t Suck, notice the wallpaper of a young Mike Rhyner on the monitor. Right above that picture of Rhyner is the actual back of Mike Rhyner in the studio.
Line Four Guy is no longer on line-four but line-one. Line-four use to be the line for the long distance callers, so now you know he’s not a local resident. I also found out only one host knows his identity as they are friends, childhood friends I believe.
Here’s Mike and Corby starting The Hardline, this is right after Rhyner said “the friendly Mercantile building.” And here’s Danny Balis producering the show. And yes, I know ‘producering’ isn’t a real word.
Here’s a very bad picture of Becca the traffic girl. She basically sits down in the main room for about four minutes, plugs in her headset, does the traffic, and then heads out to do the traffic for one of the other radio stations.
While I was at The Ticket a close friend called saying he was at the Coppell Dairy Queen drive-thru and witnessed a black Mercedes convertible drive into the establishment. He was able to snap this picture and then I told Bob I had breaking Coppell news. Dan had a funny comment about it but I don’t know if it’s appropriate for this blog; however, I sure did laugh pretty hard.
Glad you had a great time at The Mothership. Good intel on Line 4 Guy. It confirms other info I had. While I don't have a name, I know which rumor to believe.
I never understood the Victory Park plan. "We are going to make this horrible location succeed no matter how much tax money we have to throw at it."
Sad that Craig is leaving, but he's doing it on his terms. This is the longest gig he's ever had and he's ready for something fresh.
Hey buddy, I posted a link to your Ticket experience over at the reddit subreddit for P1's, http://reddit.com/r/theticket and a lot of us would love to ask you questions and find out more about your tour of the Mothership. So head on over there if you'd like and let us all live vicariously through your awesome experience.
We'd love to have you over there!
My username is "em0samurai" over at reddit and P1 Dan at My Ticket Confession
Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed most of it. but…
You need to hold your phone steady when taking pictures or get a tripod if you have shake hand or Parkinson's.
What is going on in the DQ pic? You will have to explain b/c there is nothing to see.
(I mean no offence)
Glad you had a great time at The Mothership. Good intel on Line 4 Guy. It confirms other info I had. While I don't have a name, I know which rumor to believe.
I never understood the Victory Park plan. "We are going to make this horrible location succeed no matter how much tax money we have to throw at it."
Sad that Craig is leaving, but he's doing it on his terms. This is the longest gig he's ever had and he's ready for something fresh.
Hey buddy, I posted a link to your Ticket experience over at the reddit subreddit for P1's, http://reddit.com/r/theticket and a lot of us would love to ask you questions and find out more about your tour of the Mothership. So head on over there if you'd like and let us all live vicariously through your awesome experience.
We'd love to have you over there!
My username is "em0samurai" over at reddit and P1 Dan at My Ticket Confession
Stay Hard!
Awesome man! Cool to hear how nice they were to you. Good insight into the station, stuff we don't get to see everyday.
Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed most of it. but…
You need to hold your phone steady when taking pictures or get a tripod if you have shake hand or Parkinson's.
What is going on in the DQ pic? You will have to explain b/c there is nothing to see.
(I mean no offence)
Cheers!