I spoke my first words on The Ticket a few months into it's existence in 1994. I was trying very hard to finish up my degree at the University of North Texas, graduating on the six year plan and needing to pass this Algebra/Pre-Cal class that had kicked my butt twice before. I was also working on my fledgling radio career, first at KNTU and KDNT in Denton, then the USA Radio Network in Farmers Branch. My best friend Mark Followill told me there might be a weekend, overnight board-op job opening up at The Ticket and I should apply. A quick primer, the weekend, overnight board-op is basically the lowest guy on the programming totem pole at any radio station. The job is simple, play a station ID once an hour and try not to get caught sleeping. I jumped at the chance.
The Ticket was the dream. From the very beginning. Even though the industry "experts" were brushing it off, the guys I hung out with, those of us who went to UNT, studied under Bill Mercer, looked up to our predecessors like Dave Barnett, Craig Way, George Dunham and Craig Miller, we knew that this was something special and somewhere we needed to be. Mark had been the first of us come aboard, hired from the start to be a "Ticket Ticker" guy. His presence at the station had opened the door for me. I started at the station in the spring of 1994, within a couple of months of it going on the air. Not a Day 1 guy but pretty close.
I ran the board on Friday and Saturday nights, overnight, when no-one else was at the station and the programming was syndicated garbage from some national network. I played the station ID at the top of the hour and watched television the rest of the time. Sweet gig. My first involvement with an actual show was running the board for "The Ticket Stub". The Stub featured two young, up and coming talents named Gordon Keith and Laurence Scott. It was an awakening. The show was fresh, raw, completely original and unpredictable. It was the first time I had worked with genius level talent. Both Gordon and Laurence were on another level intellectually and while that worked to create some of the funniest radio I have ever heard, it also created some of the most awkward on-air friction ever. Gordon was always concerned that the show would get too sports intensive, shifting the focus away from his strength, the comedy. Meanwhile Laurence, knowing he had the upper hand when it came to sports knowledge, was always trying to expose Gordon in that area and show off his own sports acumen. It was mutual sabotage. It's a shame, because while both have gone on to outstanding careers, Gordon, of course, with the Musers, Laurence as a game host, commentator and content producer for the Golden State Warriors, had they been able to work together they might have become the best product The Ticket ever produced.
My first on-air break occurred quite by accident. I was finishing up the overnight board shift. The Saturday morning show, "The Bottle Rockets" were coming in. Being a live show there were Ticket Tickers, but the anchor had not shown up and it was almost time to go to break. I ran into the Ticker booth, threw together a couple of notes, and did the update. It was probably terrible, but I remember it being among the most exhilarating feelings I have ever experienced. I was just on the air, on The Ticket!! After that the Bottle Rockets producer, Rick Arnett, gave me a regular assignment recording a sports calendar of events that would air throughout the weekend. I was on my way.
There was only one problem, I was coming up on graduation, having finally tackled that damn math class (D is for Diploma) and I was going to be in need of full-time work, and soon. I figured I would have to travel out to a smaller market, maybe Mount Pleasant or Abilene, to get a start but I knew I should ask my bosses at The Ticket first. I was at a remote at the Hard Rock Cafe when I approached station owner Spence Kendrick and told him about my situation. He said he would see what he could do. (Thank you Spence!!) The next day the program director, Jim Short, came to me with a proposition, how I would I like to do Ticket Tickers mid-days, Monday through Friday? At this time there was not a mid-day slot for Ticker guys, David Burrall handled the mornings, Mark Followill the afternoons. I would be the third person hired for the job. Amazing. Did it pay much? Hardly anything. Did I care? Not a bit. I was right out of college and about to be working full-time in a Major Market. Living the dream.
I did Ticket Tickers from August of 1994 to January of 1996. Along the way I picked up the nickname "Doogie" from Mike Rhyner. Rhyner nicknamed everybody and I am not sure why he settled on Doogie but I am glad he did because Greg Williams wanted to call me "Flounder" after the character in the movie Animal House. I was also just happy Rhyner took an interest in me at all after an unfortunate encounter in the Rangers clubhouse when I was still in college left me wondering if I had made an enemy for life in the radio business. That is a story for another day. For a while I worked two Ticker shifts one during the mid-day and one during a new night time show called "The Sports Princess" with Kate Delaney. I still lived in Denton, so I practically never went home, and that was fine by me. This was during the summer of 1995, or as I call it, "The Summer of Drunk". That's because virtually every night after the Sports Princess show, her co-host Gordon Keith, her producer Randy Myers, Mark Followill and me would all head out to Louie's or some Lower Greenville establishment and proceed to enjoy libation until the place closed down. It was easily the most fun summer I have ever had. I was married to The Ticket, to the life, and it was a loving relationship, until it wasn't. They let me go in January of 1996. They said it was a budget thing. I was devastated. All I had wanted to do was work at The Ticket, now that was over. Little did I know that this would only be part one of a three part series.
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