A stroll through 18 years

Ethan's first studio visit, September 2003

 

The days since Friday have been filled with the kind wishes of listeners who absorbed as I did the news that WBAP’s new owners were going “in a different direction.”  

I have sought to soothe the disillusioned reactions with the promise that I will have news to share soon about where I will appear next.

I also continue to enjoy, even cherish, the unstructured but busy days this has given me, filled with additional family time, writing time and time to get the new puppy to poop outside.  

I’ve also had time to let the memories of 18 years settle onto the horizon through my rear-view mirror.  I mentioned in my last post that the station I left doesn’t seem the same, with new owners and a new Dallas location.

But obviously it is the same in many respects, the human respects, the people who are still there, and for whom I wish nothing but the best. 

My thoughts run to them often these days, as I run through a slide show of half of my adult life at one radio station.

I rarely tell jokes, so heaven knows I am not one to invent them.  But I am proud of this one:  What do they call you after 18 years at WBAP?  The new guy.

This is a reference to folks like Hal Jay and Steve Lamb, who have been at that frequency far longer, as were legends like Bill Mack, Don Day and Don Harris, whose careers stretch back over the decades of BAP as a country music pillar.

My memory pages begin to turn with the day in Spring 1994 when I took over in a daypart that had been occupied by Don Harris, whose years of service had earned him the kind of listener loyalty I have only now begun to feel.

As BAP made the transition from country to talk, adding Rush Limbaugh in the afternoon, new programming manager Tyler Cox was smart enough to keep the local personalities the market knew and loved, tasking them with doing things other than playing Reba McEntire records.

Hal Jay transitioned into a news/talk morning show host along with partner Dick Siegel, an adjustment less jarring because they were only playing a few songs per show anyway, what with the heavy commitments to news, weather, sports and other services, and the magnificent moments of prepared comedy, with bits like Sam From Sales and Willie Landum, Fishing Guide to the Stars.

(Those segments grew in scope and type and personnel, peaking a few years ago before they were discontinued, a move listeners still hate, and rightfully so.  More on that later.)

Harris and other longtime DJs faced a stiffer challenge-- do a whole talk show.  It is not that “Harris and Company,” as it had been tentatively titled, did not work.  It had the same easy affability as Don’s shows over the years playing music.  But the decision was made that if BAP was to be a talk station, it had to go find talk show guys.  That was what led to my hiring, and the day I walked into the lobby on Broadcast Hill in East Fort Worth to “fill in” for Don in February 1994.

I was not really auditioning.  Tyler had purposefully called me after two years together at WWRC in Washington, DC, where I still was.

He had come to DC in early 1990 after stints in Boston and Sacramento (where he was briefly the Program Director at KFBK for a local show hosted by a guy named Rush Limbaugh).  When mighty ABC called and asked him to come pilot the transition of its major Dallas-Ft Worth property into the talk format, he could not refuse.  When he asked me to come with him, I declined.

I was on a station with middling ratings (up against WMAL, another monster ABC station with Rush in middays), but I was back in my hometown after hosting shows in Jacksonville and Memphis.

Regina was just a baby, and after all, I was doing a talk show in the nation’s capital.  Under Tyler’s guidance, we had come close (okay, fairly close) to WMAL’s numbers.  I did not want to move.

I was, of course, an idiot.  Washington is a terrible market for local talk.  While North Texas latches onto great topics no matter where they occur, DC, Maryland and Virginia could not care less about each other.  I toiled away for another year and a half, until a day when the Radio Gods smiled on me with a second opportunity to come to Texas.

I had learned that there was wisdom in leaving a station laboring in the shadow of an ABC property with Limbaugh, for the chance to join an ABC property with Limbaugh.

So I sat down for two shows at WBAP, just to get the feel of the studio, the programming clock, the staff.  Proving that the Radio Gods also have a sense of humor, they saw to it that this lifelong Washington Redskins fan got to anchor coverage of an entire Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl parade.

I have since managed to reconcile my NFL passions.   Nothing can erase my memories of growing up at RFK Stadium watching Sonny Jurgensen, Charley Taylor and Diron Talbert.  But my bread has been buttered here for two decades, and I have found room in my heart to join my listeners in rooting for the Cowboys, the nemesis of my youth.

Those listeners got their first dose of me as permanent host on March 28, 1994.  I had been on the payroll since March 21, given a week to do nothing but listen to other shows, among them David Gold and Kevin McCarthy on KLIF.  Longtime local favorite Jody Dean was also given a show on KRLD. There was a lot of local talk to go around, and it was a joy to be counted among the fraternity of these good and talented people.

It was clear WBAP was going to do this talk thing right, spending the money necessary to do memorable shows.  In my third year,  I was off to Chicago for the re-nomination convention of Bill Clinton, and to San Diego for the well-meaning but ultimately futile anointment of Bob Dole.

It was at that 1996 Republican convention that I ran into a number of North Texans who gave me the first inkling that something special was under construction.

As the nineties ebbed, I enjoyed additional years of a growing fan base and a growing bond with the people who were in it.  If listeners and I were growing close in those years, the unforgettable drama of the 2000 election fused us together inseparably.

In that year, we had logged more great convention shows, with George W. Bush in Philadelphia and Al Gore in Los Angeles.  We had traveled to Iowa and New Hampshire, where the races all began, an exercise I’ve maintained ever since.  A year after the snows of New England, I watched the snow fall on the Bush inaugural, covering the event from the reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue, a broadcasting dream come true.

Since inaugurations are in Washington and the new President was from Texas, the idea blossomed of joint coverage simulcast on WBAP and WMAL in DC.  I co-anchored that coverage with a man I had listened to as a teenager, the great Chris Core.

Eight months later, the world changed and the Radio Gods had their way with me again, arranging for me to be in Mexico on 9/11, the day of the biggest story of any modern life.

Planes were silent but phones obviously still worked, and I was on the air at BAP sharing thoughts about the events in general and describing the reactions of fellow Americans similarly stranded in the Yucatan as smoke still rose from Ground Zero.

WBAP, like most talk stations, ran wall-to-wall news coverage for most of the rest of the week.  There would have been only one talk show for me to do, probably Friday, September 14.  I never got to do it.  I was back the following Monday for a broadcast with my colleagues at Grapevine Mills Mall raising money for various charities serving victims.

In a larger sense, I will never know what it was like to actually be in America on 9/11.  Sure, I’ve heard a million stories from Texans, Floridians, Oregonians and most notably New Yorkers about what that day was like for them, but I will never have a personal story about what it felt like to stand on the soil of my country as it was attacked.

But I’ll tell you what I have that few others have: a memory of returning to a nation forever changed.

We had flown to Mexico on a charter that had stopped to pick up some folks from Houston on the way to Cancun. (By the way, you can have Cancun.  Head down the coast to more placid Playa del Carmen.)  We stopped to drop them off before returning to D/FW.

Landing in Houston puts your plane pretty close to the ground as land appears under you.  I will never forget the anticipation of seeing the Texas coastline, knowing I was looking down on a country newly at war.

The issues stemming from 9/11 and the war occupied a properly large percentage of the shows I have done ever since.  Sprinkled throughout, though were the great trips for political travel that broadened the topical base. In 2004, the Bush renomination in New York, and the Kerry convention in Boston (where we heard a keynote speech from Senate candidate Barack Obama).  In 2008, the McCain-Palin drama in St. Paul and the Barackalypse in Denver.  And, of course, I am freshly back from this year’s Iowa and New Hampshire coverage, where I found a candidate and a friend in Rick Santorum.

I am not generally a fan of shows outside the nurturing womb of my studio.  I like my room.  It has the TVs, the computers, the access to audio and the familiarity I crave for maximum comfort, which leads to the best radio.

Thank God I did not work for people who gave in to pressure from clients to whore out shows to attract people to the spectacle of broadcasting.   I love public appearances, apart from the actual show, but I do not need to be talking about partial birth abortion on the air  in the middle of a hardware store in Duncanville.

But I loved the political trips, which plopped me into the middle of huge breaking news, surrounded by other people doing their shows from all over the country.

And there was another type of out-of-studio broadcasting I came to love.

When I started at BAP in March ’94, I was told to get ready for September, and three weeks of outdoor shows at the State Fair of Texas.

It was everything that makes outdoor talk shows problematic:  loud, distracting and technically challenging.  And I loved every minute of it.

Each show began amid the cool of autumn and the quiet of Fair Park before the gates were open. People would stream in at ten, and by eleven, I was talking over-- and with-- kids, parents, grandparents, farmers, ranchers, carnies and anybody who had come by to plug some product or service.  I managed to shoehorn real topics into that crazy circus, and it was magical.  Like the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo broadcasts each winter, it was a chance for an extended, daily handshake and hug with the people who had been kind enough to welcome me onto their radios and into their lives.

As the years brought an additional bond with listeners, they also gave me additional family members.  I am an only child, but my Radio Family makes the Waltons’ mountain shack look deserted.

Meeting and getting to know and love Hal Jay and Steve Lamb are the gifts of a career and a lifetime.  And as for that only child business, I may have to revise that, as Rick Hadley and Sean Chastain are the brothers I never technically had.

Watching Rick grow professionally but shrink personally has been a nonstop adventure.  The fairly obese news kid I met in ’94 is now the chiseled and seasoned News Director of WBAP and KLIF, a path he has walked to the soundtrack of the ear-pummeling metal he can’t shake his love for.  I have loved walking that path with him, as a friend and co-worker.

Sean is very simply the funniest person ever born.  Okay, we’ll split that honor with Hal for decades of on-air comedy, but the things Sean has written for that morning show plus countless asides and moments of found comedy in our shared adventures have given me the loudest laughs of my life.  Coupled with the years of love and support, I am forever blessed to know him.

And as friends do, I will now throw him under the bus with a story he will tell only if you make him.  Sean’s humor is from his brain to his mouth as situations warrant.  It is as reliable as sunrise, but not as predictable.  He is not a trained seal.  His genius springs from moments of inspiration, whenever they occur.

That means a chance to meet one of his idols quickly turned from memorable to torturous.  In 2002, Dick Armey was wrapping up 18 years in Congress,  nearly half as House Majority leader.  I was the MC of an event in his honor in Dallas, heavy with high-caliber guests, among them Ben Stein, whose wit and insights have delighted me for years.

Understand that if I love Ben Stein, Sean Loves. Ben. Stein.  So I introduce them and herald Sean as the gifted guy who writes most of the morning comedy segments on WBAP.

Stein, with a droll pause, says, “Nice to meet you.  Say something funny.”

I can see the blood drain from Sean’s face and hear his stomach tighten into a thick knot.  All he would want is for Ben to hear the superb lines he had written that morning for Mystic Chuck or Breakfast With Betty or Fake Andy Rooney.  But in that moment I don’t know if Sean could have remembered his home address.  I clumsily sought to explain the nuance of Sean’s gift to Ben, but the moment had passed and off he walked, in a gray suit and sneakers, carrying a large briefcase stuffed with papers and medicine bottles.

This still eats at Sean, but all he has done in the meantime is provide years of laughs for morning listeners through his writing, and years of joy to me through his friendship.

Now to those morning bits, which the familiar will remember with fond nostalgia, and the unfamiliar will have no idea about.

When I arrived, board operator John Hanson provided Hal and Dick with some character voices they turned into brutally funny radio segments, usually written moments before they were performed, adding to their urgently timely brilliance.  When Sean took over as board op, he also added his writing to these segments, which grew to include a slew of new characters featuring the voice of Eric Harley, who is now paired with Gary Mcnamara on the rapidly growing Red Eye Radio syndicated overnight show.

There is no doubt that writing and performing these gems tapped into the focus and energy of other morning show elements, to say nothing of the minutes of tearful laughter that would usually take up even more time.  On the premise that Hal and the morning show would be better served by dumping these segments and sticking to the lion’s share of what the morning show does-- news, services, interview segments-- the comedy bits were discontinued.

This was a horrible idea, and it remains horrible to this day.

Every station provides content of a certain sort.  You always want your station to do it better, and WBAP usually did, whether news, weather, sports or interviews.  But if you have an opportunity through Hal’s extemporaneous sense of humor, Sean’s writing gift and Eric or John’s voice talents, to create moments that would be talked about for days, sometimes years, that is an opportunity to be unique and memorable and it should never have been sacrificed just so we could get in one more segment that sounded much like every other segment, good as they are.

But, I don’t program shows, I just do them.  All I have control over is my own on-air world, which has contained more wonderful people than I could name here, from the sales folks who have made me a commercial fixture in many places to the staff I have shared a building with, the newspeople who have provided such a stellar product that I have used as a launching point for so many topics, and the producers who have assembled shows for me and taken your calls over the years-- from Julie Van Dielen to Lisa Hinson to my friend forever Jeff Williams (who is still obligated to go back to Israel with me whenever I go), to the all-too-brief era of Susan Cloud, who brought not just practical skill but an unmatched personal appeal to her first radio producing gig ever.

Okay, enough.  I could go on, but it’s time to focus on that next show, which I will share more about when it is time.  But I didn’t want to walk through that next door without sharing a little about the amazing journey at WBAP, the images of which will stay with me no matter what ownership clutches the station finds itself in as the years pass.  Employees, formats, business plans can all blow away like leaves in the wind, but radio memories are forever.  I will soon make more.

 

===============

 

The Radio Family with Sean Hannity at the 2010 Hannity concert.  Sean is flanked by the First Couple of Traffic, Laura Houston and Monty Cook.  Beside Laura is Steve Lamb, beside Monty is news anchor Amy Chodroff.  The back row, L to R:  Rick Hadley, me, Sean Chastain in the shadow, Hal Jay, morning co-host Brian Estridge.

 

Team WBAP, DFW Curling Club Champions 2007:   Sean Chastain and his daughter Madeline (who graduates from Texas Tech this month), me, Rick Hadley

 

Flanked by DFW radio legends in my front yard, 2005.  Russ Martin and Hal Jay

 

Republican Convention, St Paul MN, 2008, doing floor commentary for ABC

 

Comments

[Free Willy]

Nice to finally hear someone explain the sudden loss of "the funny guys" as my very young daughter referred to them. That was the second biggest mistake WBAP made...the first of course being allowing you to get away. Looking forward to hearing you back on the air somewhere.

[Bob Leonard]

Very nicely said. I truly cherish the short time I had to work with and know you. You are ever the gentleman and a consummate "pro." All the best in the adventures that lie ahead!

[Sharon Wall]

Those hilarious segments on the morning show used to make me literally laugh, all alone in my car on the way to work . . . and they always got my day off to a happy start. I still miss them. And we all miss you. Looking forward to the next Mark Davis iteration!

[Matthew Stoltenberg]

Glad to hear that you agree that dropping the comedy was a bad idea! I really wish they had let you do a farewell show... You could've been visited by Andy Roony, Mystic Chuck, etc...

[Jim Hazlett]

At the risk of sending this thread all-comedy (ditto on how big a mistake it was to cut the bits), the one that nearly split my gut open was a hung-over Shorty Lavender mumbling "Hal... Hal... Hal... Shut up, Hal." I kept secretly hoping that Promotions would crank out bumper stickers with the BAP logo and "Shut up, Hal"

[Vic Johnston]

.....and then it rained. :>(

[Tom]

I agree that it was a poor decision to stop the morning bits. I never heard an explanation. They were just gone the same way I've not heard any explanation from BAP about you. You were just gone.

Thank you for sharing all of the above Mark. The people at BAP were a huge part of your life for 18 years and you theirs.... and ours.

[Ruth Spollin]

Miss you so much Mark and still to this day miss all those fabulous characters. Anxious to learn of your next adventure. Count me in.

[David Mejorado]

Here comes Friday and I don't feel good. Luv you man and I will miss your Friday intro.
David in Mansfield.

[Barry Thistlethwaite]

Several morning comedy skits caused me to pull over to the side of the road to laugh safely. One I recall was Willie Landum discussing Papa bass all bummed out because of how Mama bass was treating him. And Natural Howard toward the end was hilarious--I didn't know Eric Harley did some of the voices, or that Sean wrote many of the skits. Thanks for that peak behind the curtain.
I think many others realize how blessed we were to have your immense talent on the air in our local market. I hope you find commensurate rewards in your next gig--if so, you'll be as rich a man in the fiscal sense as you are in talent and good heart. As others have said, I love you, man.
--Barry

[Jack Bing]

I MISS YOU MAN!

[J. G.]

As much as I love the morning show crew, my dial has not been tuned to 820AM in over a month. I know that I don't make a difference solely, but I hope I'm a part of a great multitude that's effecting WBAP's ratings.

[Alex]

What a crappy drive this morning to work without Mark filling us in on the news of the day. I will give the "new guy" his chance, but it is like replacing your kid with a cardboard cutout at this point. You just don't replace family.

[John McNamara]

Mark, I miss you big time. My wife and I have not listened to WBAP since you left.

[Michael B. Smith]

Same here J.G. I podcast Mark L. and Rush. Mark Davis - that was a wonderful read, I hated for it to end. What a pleasant walk through the eyars with ya man! G-D where has time gone, I feel so old now and I am only 48!

Luv ya man! Michael B. Smith, Haslet TX

[jtarver]

Looking forward to your next gig!! Mornings are not the same without you.

[Georgia]

Miss you Mark! I'm a lady trucker and after Hal and the gang you helped me get through my morning! Hope to hear you somewhere soon! God Bless You!

[Dean Taylor]

The wizards of smart at Cumulus strike again...
Too sad but I hope someone in DFW has the insight to put you on the radio again. SOON! Good luck!

[PhotogGR8]

"I'll leave you with the words of Christopher Robin, who once said to Winnie the Poo...well if you'd stop doing that in the toybox, I'd call you somethin' else!"
Sam. From. Saaaaaaales!
Yeeeeeeeah!!

[Bill Tarwater]

Well after all these years i can look back and remember the good old days of WBAP.We miss you and hope to hear you filling in for Rush from time to time. Bill & betty Granbury

[Mike Knickerbocker]

It's been an absolute pleasure listening to you over the years, Mark. I don't think there is another talk radio host more glib than you (that's a compliment, BTW!) and certainly none more articulate. As someone with a great fondness for the English language and it's skillful employment, I've often marveled at just how damnably well you wield it. It seems as if you are always choosing just the right words and putting them together in just the right way, bringing crystal clarity to any topic. And your patience and ability to power through stressful conversations with, shall we say, 'difficult' callers is the stuff of legend. Hearing you maintain your poise dealing with an antagonistic caller, treating them much more fairly than their rudeness deserved, was always a thing of beauty to behold. Though certainly one could hear an edge to your voice, your unflappability ensured that decorum was maintained and good talk radio prevailed.
I've had the pleasure of meeting you a couple times at tea party events (you may remember me as the now-former guitarist for a certain notorious local rock band). What I'd like to share with those who have not met him is that Mark's on air geniality is no act. If anything, he is more gracious in person. It is amazing that someone who makes his living talking could be such a great listener, making one feel as if you're the only person in the room. I walked away from our first meeting thinking "good grief, why did I talk his ear off like that?" Well, the professional talker made me do it! In a room full of people, Mark gives you the impression he has nothing but time, and that you are the only person in that room. And I saw him engage the same way with everybody who approached him that evening. In short, the man is a Mensch. Good luck to you and your family.

[Michael B.]

"Every station provides content of a certain sort" and there was a time I emphatically believed no one did it better than BAP - thank's for 18-years. I never called in but I was right here with you the whole way.
- searching for new station presets -

[Adamaoc]

Thanks for sharing Mark.

I actually grew up listening to all that great comedy as I rode in my grandfathers truck. Eventually growing to love WBAP as a young man myself.

Your show and Mark Levin are easily my 2 favorite talk show. I've been lost in the mornings without hearing your show. Can't wait for you to find a new platform and start anew.

[Gary Livingston]

Morning show has turned into the "oprah" show. I have quit listening to them since you are no longer there. Looking forward to finding you soon, old pal.

Gary

[Mike Young]

I was forced to leave WBAP long before I wanted to go and it was not even BAP's call. I was there but for 5 years, but they were a wonderful 5 and I will not forget certain time that we all had. Like the time that we all stood on the RV at TMS, cigars in hand, waiting for the green flag to fall for 43 screaming NASCAR drivers. That was one huge adrenaline rush! You always know when you work with class and professionals. 33 years in the business have taught me what to look for. While it saddens me that the new company refuses to have any foresight in your move, it does make me happy to know that you WILL land in a better place. I hope to see you again sometime Mark, I will not forget you.
Mike Young...