Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Rick Arnett, Skip Bayless & The Wild Early Days of The Ticket | YDC

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Rick Arnett, Skip Bayless & The Wild Early Days of The Ticket | YDC · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. The Texas Rangers win the world series. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. Keep jamming. The the ticket, colon, colon, nothing but a big Gen X jerk off the set. Is this a cool night or what? I thought somebody would hear that go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Things go. Mhmm. You know? In theory, that's that's when the most people listen. Now I would submit and always have that in that particular format, I'm more listen in the afternoons than they do in the morning. Yeah. But I can't prove that. Can't And prove I don't even know why I'm sitting here thinking about it or talking about it. I mean, we're talking about radio and stuff. So Yeah. Makes sense. Well, that ship sailed for me long ago. And you know where we are now? Better off. We are in the realm of the podcast. The podcast. And today, look who we have with us today. This is a this is a day oner Still? At the little ticket. Mhmm. It's always been a very small fraternity that was left up there at the end, and this guy was a part of it. What did you do up there exactly? Let's run through your various roles. Well, I guess I should Before we tell people who you are. Yeah. I guess I should start. I kinda met you through GT online. Ah. Through GT on call, really? On call. Can't it's still long ago. I can't even remember. And and and I'll never forget having to do the the, you know, the calls for the betters and everything, but back then, we didn't have Internet. So the only way I could handle it is I had to wait for the the crawl across the bottom with ESPN, get all the scores. Well, back then, they canceled that when a commercial came on. So every time I'd come around, I needed to get these scores, that's when they'd go to commercial and I'd have to win another whatever. But it wasn't a bad gig, quite honestly. God, I don't remember that at all. But I do remember this guy. This guy is Rick Arnett. Yeah. Known for doing several different things up at the mothership. Most notably, the tee box golf show. But I do remember Oh, goodness. What? He does remember. He remembers twice. So are you still doing that up there? Yeah. It's going on thirty four years. Golly. I know. Man. Has it always been that time slot on Saturdays or has it moved at all? It has moved. So first, it was Sunday mornings. This is when I was a board up. I wonder if you even remember this. So after I got started and I was I can tell you right now, I probably don't, but go ahead. Weekend board up. Well, before that, I I hammered you on the phone. I mean, I tried to get through, and once I heard that the the ticket could be something through Barry Horn's calm, I just incessantly called you. And then about four days before four days before we went on the air, well, do you wanna? That was pretty much it. That's how you asked him? Yeah. Pretty much. And then and then I said He remembers this better than I do. I do. I'm not saying that it was any different. I'm just saying that he remembers it. Well, you had a lot more going on than I did. I I mean He was one of many that you had to call. I was up to my ass in alligators like I have never been before or since. Mhmm. So I got hired as weekend board up. And And I didn't know it. You know? No. Not even through GTO. Yeah. Most of the people who were they wanted the ticket, I at least knew and had some level of knowledge of or some sort of background with or something. But there were a few that I didn't know at all. And he was one of them. And let me tell you, you know, people think about the ticket and they think about the chance of going to work there, and they must have thought, oh, man. I'd love to do that. I bet people were just coming out of the woodwork wanting to work up there then. No. That was not the case. In fact, when I hired you Mhmm. I did it for one reason and one reason only, and that's because you seem like a good guy, which you are. Thank you. You seemed, very sincere about wanting to work there. You seem like the kind of guy that could ride out the inevitable ups and downs that we all knew that we were in for. And I'll go back to a great line that G. R. Ewing had, once you can fake sincerity, it's pretty easy. Yeah. He's not wrong. No. So that's how it started. Yeah. But that that's what drew me to this guy. He just seemed like a guy who would be willing to do whatever we needed him to do. I don't I don't think I had a real specific role for you back then. No. I think weekend board hopping was one of them, and then kind of a fill in producer where we had to actually take we had to write down the names on a piece of paper, run into another studio, bring it in, and I wish I had an eye watch back then with so many steps I would've taken. Typical shift. But the the show started, the T Box started actually with Jeff Rude. Yeah. That's right. Jeff Rude used to write golf for the Dallas Morning News. Yeah. Back then, we had almost every it was a horse racing guy. I mean, there was a guy for everything. We had a honey hole guy for fishing. Yeah. And every one of those was hired, and Jeff Rude was the was the golf guy, and I was born up The at the idea that the other guys who owned the station had was that we needed to branch out all across the spectrum. You needed all that stuff. And they said, go out and find us stuff. And the places I looked were mostly the morning news. Yes. That's where I got Jeff Rude Mhmm. And probably some of the other guys too. Mhmm. But alright. Go ahead. So I was the board up then, and we weren't getting many calls. And so he was just riffing with me almost the whole show. Yeah. And that lasted about gosh. It wasn't very long. Couple months, two, three, four months. And they said, well, okay. We gotta let Jeff go, but you're still gonna run the board. But Greg Williams is going to do the golf show. What? What? I said, what? That lasted one show. Greg Williams as in Our Grego. Grego. Yeah. He lasted one show. Boy, I wish I had that. My Me too. Well, I'm asking about that. That's that's when the metamorphosis happened because he knew nothing about golf. And that was before even Tiger was on the on the scene. And I I ain't doing this. Ain't gonna do this. How do you even get them to do one show? Who knows? Back then, I don't know. But that lasted one show. And then Mike said, well, do you really know anything about golf? And I I said, yeah. I've been playing since I was 12, following everything. Alright. Just go to it. That definitely sounds like him. And that was the first of, like, eight co hosts I had. Can you name all of them? Pretty much. So we had well, I don't know if Jeffrey counts. Maybe We'll count. I won't count Grego. I will count Hank Haney. Mhmm. Sandra Haney, who is an LPGA hall of famer. Right. And then it was Mike Abbott from the Four Seasons. We used to do a show on Sunday afternoons at the Four Seasons after the last shot on Sunday. So we did that for a while. Then we moved to mornings. And by that time by that time, Mike was had moved to the West Coast. So I think I was on at 06:00. And he so I had to wake him up at four. And I literally had to wake him up. Two or three calls. I'm sweating, you know. And then after that, it was Art Sellinger, long drive guy. Let's see. Else? Forgotten all of this. Hold on. There was somebody else that was in that could have been Corby, and then it was Craig, Craig Rosengarden. That's kinda how it went. Man. And here you are today. And here I am still upright. Still upright. And who's doing it with you now? Is this Craig. Craig Still? And you know Eli Jordan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's Eli Jordan. Mhmm. There's Eli Jordan. Who's been a good ad, a very good ad. He's He's awesome. He's good at radio. He knows golf. And that allowed us to take some time off. There were there were times I never took a week off. And so now that I'm getting, you know, getting to that the fall of or maybe the winter or whatever the heck it is these days. Believe me, it's the winter. Yeah. I said, I think we need some time off. So I take off at least one show a month. And are you still full time with avid golfer? Mhmm. Yeah. Man. Full time with them. Do that. We just we have a junior golf tour. I I review cars for the magazine. That's a great story. Don't have enough time for this, but We got plenty of time. That was one heck of a story. Tell us about it. Okay. So back when I must've had, I don't know, six or seven car clients in the magazine. Now do you have to go out and round these up yourself? Yeah, I was in sales. I was sales and I did everything else. You wrote, I did everything. And so it came down to the point where my car was gonna be up for, the lease was done. Yeah. So I'm thinking, jeez. I have, like, seven clients. If I buy one, I'm gonna make the other six mad. And I certainly wasn't gonna buy seven cars. So we had an an Acura client, and he said, I can see what's going on here. How about what would happen if we gave you a car and you wrote about it that month? I said, sure, I'll give it a shot. And he goes, well, now you gotta get all the other clients on board too. Okay. So every month, I got a car. And every month, when it was all over, I'd be driven to the next dealership, and I did another month. And there was a point where my daughter, Gabby, I'd have a new car in the driveway every month. She goes, dad, some people are wondering what you do for a living. Are you a drug dealer? Because some of these cars were I mean, they're McLarens. Mean, there were Good some lord. I mean, crazy cars. And that went on for seven years. Wow. And you would review them? I'd yeah. So So Put them in the magazine. Were they awesome every month? Or Well, here's what I would do. And and I I consider them more features than reviews. Smart. And all I would do is put a little couple drops of vinegar in because no car is perfect. And then I realized that I can't review a car or feature a car if it's not meant if it's not something I would buy. So what I would do once the SUVs got in a vogue and everything Mhmm. I'd ask people that SUVs, what do you look for in an SUV? Give me everything. And then I would go down the list when I was featuring it. And so I I kinda I kinda directed towards who would be looking for this type of car. Yeah. And that's what I did. Because I was it used to drive me crazy, Mike, because I was I love going to movies. I read movie reviews. And the first thing the reviewer would say, you know, I'm usually not into comedies, but this wasn't bad. So what the hell are you do you should be nowhere near that. Get somebody that likes comedies, and if they don't like it, that's a better review. Right. You know? Sure. Yeah. So that's kinda how I I've been doing it, and it's now I now I have I I said, okay. After seven years, daughter is out of college. And I really got tired of asking guys or asking the dealers, I need to go down to Austin. Do you wanna give me a loaner car or something? No. Just take it or or not. So I was very cognizant of what I was doing, and I always bring the car back better than I got it, detail and everything. Right. And then after that, I bought a car. And I kinda was running through the same thing again. I said, okay. The hell with this. I'm going with my first client, very first client that that was a car dealer, and it was BMW. And I it was it was great. And the other people could realize that. You know, they they understood that, you know, you're all great, but he was my first. So I I gotta give them the first shot. You always remember your first. Was that a And maybe last. Was that a difficult conversation to have with those people or did they No. They knew. And I I let everybody know way ahead of time. I said, you're still gonna get your features and everything, but I'm I don't wanna ask for permission to do anything with a car. I want my own car. And so that's what I do. What'd you have to ask for permission to do? Oh, that's if I had to take it out of town. Oh, Okay. Okay. Like my son was Matt was going to school in Oklahoma. Okay. Well, that's 300 mile round trip or whatever the heck it is. And I was really aware I didn't wanna put a lot of miles on a car. Yeah. You know? So more times often than not they did, but they were sometimes saying, yeah, we'll send you a loaner. Just just take that. I said, yeah. Give me whatever you want. That's not unlike the car endorsement situation we used to have back in the day. It used to be what? Two year two year deals? Oh, something something like that. Yeah. They had to commit for at least two years, if I remember. Mhmm. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Works. But it was it was awesome. It was awesome. Sounds like it. Yeah. Must be nice. Well, I had to give it back. Oh yeah. So here's the craziest thing. Craziest thing was I go through I look at my insurance, I'm thinking, well, know, my insurance premium is gonna go crazy. I mean, this is like a $250,000 car. What am I Rick? Come to find out, my insurance for the entire year was a $125. What? Because it was considered non owner as a rental. Oh. Did you have to register each car that you leased with your insurance or anything like that? No. It didn't matter. I guess not. So you had a policy that just covered whatever you were driving, Mhmm. Yeah. Because it was considered rental. Wasn't my car. Well, that worked out. About that? Yeah. I I was amazed Well, at what was without it's just like if you go a car get a, you know, a get a rental car, you can get their insurance, but almost every every insurance company covers it Yeah. Already. So that was a little bummer out there for you. So how did you find out about the ticket? Barry Horn. Barry Horn was a media writer back then. And so at the time, I when I came out here from California, I did a radio show up in Denton, KDNT. And what year was that? '93. Okay. 9293. It's right before the ticket started. Yep. And then I got sold to a Spanish concern and my Spanish was lacking it. So that wasn't gonna work out. So then I got a job doing traffic for a independent company, but I was on during Rush Limbaugh every day. And so that helped, But it didn't help because you didn't know me from Shyunola, so it didn't really matter No. At the time. But I did know this, coming from California, people out here I found people out here in Texas fairly passive when it came to jobs and everything. And if you just outworked them, you'd usually wear people down enough to do that. And when I first came out here, the first person I spoke with was Dan Bennett. Really? Because Sanders. What was his first name? Was He a midday Bob Ray Sanders. Bob Ray Sanders. Yeah. He used to work out at the gym I worked out at. And he goes, you know, what what's your story and all that? And I told him, he goes, we could probably yeah. We might be able to do something. Why don't you talk to my man, Dan Bennett? And he was great, but he didn't have a job for me. And then x amount of time later, that's when the ticket started. And it's been quite alright ever since. Yeah. I remember I didn't have any idea what I was gonna do with you. But I thought you were a a good guy. You seemed like a guy who could and had done a little bit of a vast array of things. And, man, back then, like I say, everybody probably thought that people were just flocking to work at the ticket back then. That was anything but the case. At the time, I think I was the second oldest guy at the ticket. Because how old were you? Behind you. Yeah. Everybody was behind me. Let me see. That would have been, you know, thirty five years ago. I'll be 70 in January. Good lord. And That's about 35. Okay. Yeah. That's what it was. Wow. Then after all that went on, and the the golf show was a golf show. But then it came down to it seemed like Pepe Harris was a was a what was she back then? Not a program director. She was an assistant program director. Yeah. So she goes, how would you like to work mornings? And I said, what kind of morning? Well, during Skip's shift. So what happened to Mike Fernandez? Well, they had a falling out. What? Skip being Skip Bayos. Skip Bayos. I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. And and so through that all, I think I had Murder's Row on the whoever was deemed the toughest to work with because they were they they expected a lot was Skip, then it was Rocco. No. No. Then it was Coop. Chuck Cooperstein, then Rocco, then Bob and Dan. So it was and and so they just figured since I was the oldest producer, I might be able to handle it. That's a pretty substantial murderer's road there. It was. It was. And then I got to work on the hard line every once in a while and that's where the nickname, the phone Nazi came up. Because I would really screen the calls. Yes. He was extremely no nonsense about that. Because I remembered. So we got to a point where some of the callers were fairly decent, but we didn't know if they had a bag after that call. Right? So Paul the damn Viking. I mean, all these guys would come out of the woodwork and we gave them an evening show to try them out. And come to find out, a professional is someone who makes their job look so easy that anybody thinks they can do it. And that's where that all happened. So if they didn't have a point like right away, because I always ask, what's your point? Well, I wanna talk to him. You have thirty seconds to make your point or I gotta let you go because I wouldn't wanna listen to it. No offense, but I I gotta keep this on the roll for the for the, you know, the p ones. Or until we determine that your stories become tiresome, whichever happens first. And that would get quick sometimes. But anyway, that's how that all, that's how that went. So every once in a while, and then there was a time when you called and said, What would you think about working on our show? And I can't remember why I turned it down. Something had to do with maybe my kids. I wouldn't be able to see them play sports. I don't remember. It was something That's that probably That had to be Had they moved to the afternoons at that point? Like, to three seven at that point? Yeah, they were three seven at that point. And I really wanted to because it would've been fun as hell. But and I always liked that show because everybody was kind of treated more or less like an equal. Mhmm. Everybody could could put some input in there. You were the great, you know, lion tamer, circus leader, whatever you wanna call it. But you were you were great at that and everybody and so it added more flavor to the show. It wasn't just two guys you could hear their voice all the time. It was it was was kind of crew. Yeah. It was an ensemble. Yeah. It was. And all all I was doing was was copping Howard Stern. Yeah. You're lineman. That's that's what his show was. Mhmm. And I thought he had the greatest radio show I've I I'd ever heard. Yep. Still do think that. And now since once once you had that in play, then everybody every other show slowly morphed into that, I think. Yeah. The producers got to pop on and and the board ops and and whoever else. But Yeah. I don't remember too many people there, especially there at the end that were, you know, real hardcore about, you know, hey. This is me and only me. You know? No. There weren't too much of that. Made their job easier. Yeah. Right? Did. I mean, you didn't have to fill up every bit of air. You could sit back for a little bit. You might get some gold. Do you remember those days as being particularly tenuous for the whole situation or were you aware of the You mean in the beginning? Yeah. Oh gosh. The stories. In the very beginning, every day was like, just show up. We might be here. I don't know. Yeah. Just show up and see what happens. Yeah. And it and and yeah, that was tenuous. I'll never forget there was one of the, I forget his name, but he was one of the big men at the time. I think it was the second sale. It was after Spence sold it. Spence Kendrick. There was another guy, and I'm running the board that night or that day. And he said, I want you to put on this particular game. And I said, well, do we have the rights for it? Well, I don't give a crap. Just so I brought in the the TV feed to go on the air. Oh, god. And I'm just waiting. I'm just waiting for phone calls and everything. I'm not sure I heard a phone call, except maybe the next day somebody said, what were you doing? I said, I I was just taking orders. I asked them three or four times, you sure you wanna do this? Man, I think I remember something about that happening. Yeah. That was and it was pretty that was like we didn't have any how would I call it? Any gravitas at that point. You know, we were tenuous. We were trying to be everything to everybody, take phone calls, do we really didn't We know were we were winging it. Yeah. You're saying what stuck? Totally. Yeah. We had we had no idea what was going to work, what was going was not going to work, what we could do, what you could do it, but if you do, you're gonna get in trouble. Yeah. You know? We didn't have any idea about that stuff, so we just tried it all, see what happens. We did. Let it fall where it may. And you know what? That's another miracle because a lot of stations, a lot of businesses would have just faded away. But the ticket just got better. And and it was I think it was the road shows. I honestly do. Because the road shows were really, they're heavily populated, and you could hear it in the background. And then, you know, when when the ratings started coming in and started killing it, then we pretty much were able to do what we wanted to. Yeah. That kind of solidified things. But there was one time this there was one time back then, we didn't have many commercials. And so we had a three minute ticker. Three times an hour. And I begged Mike to do tickers. And he blew me off for, I don't know, three or four months. I did? Yeah, you did. And I kept on and I kept I kept it, Mike, this be cool? And he finally said, whatever. Just go on. And, unfortunately, for me, I did not I did not pick the best time because it was during the Winter Olympics, and there were so many names on there you couldn't pronounce even with a guide. And I'm fumbling through this, and I'm like, oh, jeez. This is not gonna end well. So I knew I screwed. I knew I screwed up. But and I'd come up to you afterwards, you know, during the week, and I said, so, Mike, what'd you think? I'm gonna have to give it some more thought. I'm not even sure you even listened to it. But at some point, you said, I don't think this is your bag. I think you need to branch move into other things. That's not your bit. And I said, you know, you're darn right. Especially if it's during the Winter Olympics, can't only be part of that. So Yeah. I probably should've you probably should've tried it with, you know, more normalized stuff. Nah. Nah. It just made it I mean, I I had to go in, you know, feet first. And, you know, the other guys, and I kept on trying to find pronunciations on the ticker sheets, whatever the hell they were called back then. I couldn't even pronounce it then. Yeah. So I just said, okay. Well, that's one thing I won't be doing. And I didn't I didn't regret it at all. I'm glad I did it. Have you got any good Bayless stories? Okay. So Skip Skip was an interesting sort. He drove this t r two. It was like this like, I called it a a mini faux Ferrari. It was it was it was the Toyota that had it was a two seater. You could take off the tops. It'd be convertible. Yeah. Now for those who may not know, let me just insert Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. The first voice ever heard on sports radio thirteen ten, the ticket, was that of Skip Bayless. After how long was it was the did we play the loops, the endless loop? Was it a week? No. Like a month. I don't know. I I always thought it was like three or four days, but it may have been longer than that. Yeah. But he was the very first live voice that we had. And outside of you, probably the biggest name. Oh, by far the biggest name. I mean, nobody knew any of the rest of us. And he did he did after he did evenings on Cliff. Yeah. That was his Yeah. He'd done evening on evenings on Cliff. He'd made his way through every newspaper in the area Mhmm. As a columnist. I think by then, he was starting to pop up every now and then on ESPN. Every every Friday? Or was it yeah. His girlfriend at the time would have to take him to the airport to go to ESPN. Yeah. And then I would have to go in the studio and just act as a traffic cop, so to speak. And that was every week. And he would leave. But getting away from the car for a second, he'd get there about 04:45. I'd see him in the parking lot. We'd go on at six. And I'd I'd and he go I'd go, Skip, do you wanna talk about the show or anything? And he goes, let me just eat my chicken breast for a second. I need to digest this, then we'll go in. And it was like ten minutes before and then that's how we'd lay out the show. It was it was crazy. So weird. He did not care to include anybody else. Mm-mm. He had nothing to do with anybody else except the boss. That's how he works. Yeah. He goes into a place. He finds the top guy. He kisses his ass left and right. And then after that, the boss and only the boss will attend to him Mhmm. And he won't have anything to do with anybody else. That's the Skip Bayless trick. Until Mike Thompson got hurt. Yeah. Until the wild Irish laddie, the great Mike Thompson came on board, and then he he's might've he might've been the most valuable player at the time to change the direction of the He came along at exactly in fact, he was the guy who gave us direction. Yeah. I mean, we really didn't have that much. But when he came in, he took a look around and saw that things were way out of kilter here. And he got us pointed in the right direction. There were certain shows and certain times that didn't need to be in those times and certain shows and other times that did need to be in those more crucial hours. He fixed all that and got us headed in the right direction. So he put the musers on in the morning. Yeah. And he put you guys from eleven to two to the afternoon. Right. And then everything kinda just fell in after that. Yeah. That's when the things started really making its way. Mhmm. Yeah. He was the impetus. But by that time, we'd already generated enough of a ruckus out there to where where I think we could all tell that we'd caught something pretty high and pretty wild, but didn't exactly know how to jump up on there and ride it. You know? Yep. You're right. And I get feedback from people that but listen. I mean, back then, the p ones were I mean, they never changed the station. I don't care what was on. I don't care if it was midnight, three in the morning, some national broadcast or sports, whatever. But, yeah, that's how it all started. They were very, very loyal. Extremely loyal. Like I said, the road shows were packed. I mean, the road shows were almost as big, I would say, as the guys night outs got to be. They were. Yeah. This is the great Rick Arnett. We're kind of reminiscing about early ticket days, but there are a few other things we need to about here Whatever you'd like. Germane to you. Mhmm. And we'll have more with him in just a moment. But right now, it is time for the dreaded and feared mid show read. Don't be scared, Rick. Oh, I'm familiar with them. What do we have? The usual? Jose Joy ish. Mhmm. Alright. So, how is your pain quotient these days? Is it what it should be? Well, if you are roaming around hurting, then no, it is not what it should be because what should be happening is you should be roaming around feeling no pain whatsoever. Now for some people, that's all in a day's work. For others, it's a very, very rare occurrence if it ever even happens at all. And if it is rare or if it never happens for you, then let me tell you about the CBD house of Healing because they have stuff that can help you out. How do I know this? Well, because I am one of you. I am one of you roaming around in pain these days, and I need stuff to make it better even if it doesn't make it go away. Just want something to make it a little bit better, help me get through the day, make me feel a little bit better and the CBD House of Healing does that. I've got it right here The full spectrum salve stick from the CBD House of Healing. I just rub this on whatever hurts and that'll get it to feeling better in pretty short order. Now if you're into the gummies kind of thing, if that's, more your bag than this, well, they've got that too. What you need to do is drop by the CBD House of Healing and talk to them and see what they've got. Tell them what's going on, what they've got for it. Their owner is a registered nurse and they approach all this from a medicinal standpoint over there. I'm not sending you into no head shop or anything like that. They got good stuff for you here. They are located at Northwest Highway and Plano Road in the northeast quadrant of that burgeoning intersection. Do stop by, tell them you heard about it from us here on YDC, and start your healing at the CBD House of Healing. Boo. Is that good? You nailed Nailed it. Sink. Rick agrees. Am I supposed to be looking at that camera? Nah. No. You're You're just supposed to look at Mike. Jergling in his eyes. Just Yeah. Those baby blues. I could do that. Just have a conversation. That's that's all we're doing here. Mhmm. We're just ripping. Yes. We are. And I love it. I might be the only guy am I the only guest you've had on this show that does doesn't have his own Wikipedia page? I don't know. I know I don't. Not that I want one, but. Doesn't Craig Rosengarden have one? Maybe. You'd have to look. You don't have one at all? Mm-mm. Well, I'm sure we've had others who don't have Oh, I don't mind it. It's okay. I like to be kind of under the radar anyway. Plus, I don't even know how those things are those things really correct? Who edits those things? Anybody can edit them. Yeah. See? Yeah. We can make you one. I'm good. But Craig does have one. Good. He And it's pretty big. Is it pretty extensive? I do you think he created his own? That's a really good question. I thought the e brakes would by themselves, but Oh, god. So how long were you there as a producer or something like that in the day to day flow of the place? Left. Bruce Gilbert said, we're probably gonna have to go a different direction. This one, I was with Bob and Dan. And I think it was a it was a great mutual decision because I was getting almost too old to be a producer. You kinda you need to kinda be a wet nurse, you know? You had to you just had do everything for them, and I was getting I think I was getting a little burned out. Yeah. And and they wanted somebody, obviously, that one was just totally 100% with them. So I think it was in August 2002. Mhmm. My last full time day. So that put you there for what? Eight years? Yeah. Full time. Alright. It's a good run. It was a good run, man. Still kind of there. You know. Yeah. You at least have the access code to the place. I don't you know, we're never at the studio. I'm gonna say, y'all ever do it Ever. In the studio anymore? No. We're always on remote. Alright. Which is good thing. Even better. Yeah. They have the great Kern engineering for him pretty much every Saturday. Kern, yeah, he's great. I see him at Rangers games. Great bouillard. He's still got amazing hair. Does he really? Yes. Thing never moves. No. It's very permed. No. He's awesome. He's awesome. So like I said, everything is his from the ticket standpoint, I'll I'll never forget it. I I remember all the, you know, the charity challenges and the baseball games, and and it was it was the greatest place to be. Stood at the charity challenges. Yeah. Well, I was more of a I was more of a stud during before the game for whatever reason. I mean, I'd be roping. You looked impressive on the pregame. And then my first at bat, for some reason, I got so nervous that I struck out against Craig Miller. God. And I think he had me up third or fourth, and I was like, oh, this is so sad. I mean, you live for this stuff. But it was it was fun, and he got people out there, and and the charity challenge got my son into hockey because he goes, wow, dad, I gotta be a better skater than you. Even when he was holding onto the side rails at the rink, right? But yeah, everything was great and they all kinda went their their normal progression. By the time we lost to an all girls team in hockey, that we were done. We were just done. Yeah. Well, you know, everything runs its course. Yeah. And I remember the last play I ever had is I said, man, these girls are just lighting us up and they're laughing. And so I was gonna line some girl up and just smash her into the boards. I mean, I was like, I'm so I'm so tired of this. Why I don't play soccer, like indoor soccer anymore? Because? Because they get pissed off and line you into the wall. Yeah. Okay. Well, that that didn't turn out so well for me. Because I'm like getting up this head of speed. Now head of speed for me back then, the only way it even looked remotely decent is if you took the tape and you put it about two or three speeds ahead, you know, faster. And she must have saw me coming, but I'm barreling on her and all she did was take this little juke sidestep and I went into the boards and everything came off. Helmet, I mean, my gloves went flying, my stick went somewhere. Like a cartoon. Do you ever see those Mike, you know this. They used to have those cars used to rev up and used to run them into a wall and they'd all break and you'd them back on. Well, that was me in real life. So it was it was great. It you know, all that stuff was just So out of the call for that at the charity challenge? Pretty sure you were. You know, that was a good question because Norm was on it for a while. I think Gordon was on it. Mhmm. And it probably you because you didn't play. Yeah. I think the last few, you were definitely on them. Yeah. Trying to think I think you were on for most of them, actually. I think I was on for all of them because I I couldn't skate. Right. Yeah. And not not too many of us could. I had to but no. No. No. You don't understand. Couldn't skate. I couldn't stand, let alone move. Yeah. It's it's a whole new involved in some way. So that's so I told him, I'm doing this. You guys go out there and do that. I'm doing this. Well, I had another uh-oh moment during the cherry challenge. So one time, I just had this splitting headache before the game, and I'm saying, jeez. So I go in the cupboard and I and I take some Aleve or whatever it was. But during the game, I was, like, barely awake. It was maybe it was Tylenol PM. Whoops. God. And my and my wife and my kids go, what was wrong, dad? And I said, I think I took a sleeping pill. Maybe more than one. And but what was funny about it outside of a few guys that grew up playing hockey, you couldn't tell because we all stunk. Know, we're all still had to be the one of the fastest skaters on the ice. We were all in slow motion at the time. Yeah. The charity challenge was not exactly what you would call a game of pace. No. No. It was a game of laughter. And we the first one was over at Valley Ranch. Yeah. And I remember my wife at the time telling me that you can't believe how long it took for us to get here. The the line of cars to get into a 1,500, you know, person stadium, it took forever. We had to delay the game like a half an hour. When did you know that the ticket was gonna turn into something as a day oner? Was there any any Yes. Particular moment that you you thought, man, what have we got here? When the laddie took over. Really? Mhmm. Yeah. Because I think at that point, all the lineups were where they should have been. And he didn't care so much about being on time. You don't need to take a bunch of calls. This is this isn't a this radio station is not for people to call in. This is for and I remember him saying this directly to all of us. You guys are being paid to entertain them. Yeah. Not the other way around. Yeah. And once we did that, gosh, if we took three calls, I mean, outside of not even FaxFodder. I mean, you know, that was all sent in. Yeah. But I think it was I think it was Mike. And then when Bruce Gilbert took over, that's when everything got really I don't know. Everything seemed to really fit in place by that point. He was really good. Yeah. All the pieces really locked in and came together when when he came in because, I mean, Bruce is a I mean, he is just about the ultimate radio guy that I know. Mhmm. And I say that with it with in a very in in a way of high praise. It's about the the best thing I can say about him is he's about the best radio guy I know. Mhmm. But I would say once once Mike Thompson took over, the the flavor of the station changed. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I I mean, he And I think that's what made us needed great. Somebody to come in and really set the tone Mhmm. For what we were going to be, and he did that. I mean, you can say what you want to about him. You can talk about his rather, shall we say, erratic personality from time to time or his behavior. I mean and don't get me wrong. I love the guy. Yep. Was he was full voltage Yeah. All the time. He was. He was. And you can say what you want to about him, but he was exactly what we needed at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And then he and then probably Bruce was the was the exact thing we needed at the And then after that, I guess Jeff Callan took got made. Yeah. Took over in 2003, I believe. Yeah. Did. Exactly what was not needed at the time. Had as many program directors during my stint as I think I had jobs there. Or co hosts or whatever. So I never knew what was gonna happen when I came in. Just kinda kinda rolled with it. But boy, it was a wild ride, wasn't it? It was. It it it I loved it. I I always thought I was getting away with murder, you know, because Oh, we all were. Yeah. I was like, when are we all gonna get found out? When when when is something gonna pull the plug on this? Because we did something wrong or maybe we aired a TV a TV feed when we should have or whatever. But we were pretty well insulated. And and then, gosh, how many That's another thing those guys were really good at, and that's keeping us away from everything that we didn't need to be a part of or didn't even need to know about. Mm-mm. No. Just do your job. They'll do theirs. Quit, you know, sticking your nose and everything. I mean, I've never asked either one of them to do this, but I'll bet the laddie or Bruce, if they wanted to, and I don't know, they may be sworn to secrecy forever on this stuff. And if if that's the case, fine. But I'll bet if they wanted to, they could tell us about some stuff that was going to happen or nearly happened or was in the mill or something like that that had it come about, it would have, at the very least, blown our minds and at the very worst, changed the course of the thing. Yeah. And we and we were bought and sold so many times that every new investor, we didn't know what was going on. Oh, yeah. I remember when Susquehanna bought it. Mhmm. And I I I knew it was for sale, and I knew that they were looking at it. And I knew that they own Cliff and K Plex. And I also thought, I didn't know this, but I thought that if they wound up with us, they were gonna kill us. Well, remember way back when whoever worked for Susquehanna thought the ticket wouldn't last six months. Yeah. That's right. I thought they were gonna kill us because we were making things too hard for Cliff. Mhmm. Our presence was cutting in. We were encroaching on their turf way way too much. And way too quickly. Yeah. And I thought that they were that that they bought us to kill us. And I'll I'll I'll never forget one year at the Christmas party, I was I I was somewhere where there was just me and Dan Bennett were talking. Mhmm. And I told him that story. I told him, you know, man, this is after they'd had us for a few years and we were a part of the scene up there and all was well. You know? And I told him that, man, I I keep thinking about, you know, when you guys were bought were about to buy us. I thought you bought us I thought you guys were gonna kill us. Mhmm. And he went, what? Just pick off the parts and sell the rest. Yeah. I said, no. No. I thought you were gonna kill us because our presence was making things too hard for Cliff. Mhmm. And he just, he kind of turned away from me for a second and just went, Mike, why would we do that? Why would we do that? We bought we wouldn't have bought you if we didn't like you. And I said, I I know I know that now, Dan, but that's kind of what I thought and that's and some of the rest of them thought that rest of us Well, you weren't wrong. I mean, we were sworn enemies Oh, yeah. Back when we first started, and especially Norm. Norm, you know, didn't like us one bit. No. He didn't. Well, maybe because we were competitors, but I think he he didn't like the flavor of the station. He didn't like the way y'all did radio. Yeah. And we weren't cut and dry. We weren't paste you know, cut and paste. Were whatever we felt like that day. We were, yeah, we were whatever we wanted. And that changed radically from one day to the next. Yes. It did. Yes. It did. Which was actually kind of fun too because you didn't you didn't walk into the station every day and, okay, same old stuff, SOS. No. No. No. You you had no idea what might be happening until you left. And even after you left, you you listen on the way home just to make sure everything was okay. Yeah. Just to make sure that everything that you thought happened actually did. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. It was it'll never be duplicated. Yep. No. No. And it happened just at the right time. Yeah. It did happen just at the right time. And, boy, to get it up and running, so many things had to fall such away at such a time. And if anything falls a little bit out of whack, if anything's a little different or the timing's a little bit off, then the whole story changes. So I have a question for you. How many sleepless nights did you have? Lots. Because you were everything was ground zero to you. Yes. It was. And you were taking all the the arrows and everything else. You couldn't you didn't go to the Super Bowl? No. No idea. The first one. And, yeah, I don't know how you did it. Maybe a lot of CBD back then. I don't know. But you need you definitely needed something because by the end of the day, you're just whether it was business, whether it was, you know, programming, whatever, you just took it all. No. You just had to hang in there, man. And you had to do a show. Yeah. There was that minor detail. I don't know. You just you just had to hang in there. You had to get through one day and then then get up and do it again the next day. Take it one day at a time. Look to neither the left nor the right. Keep your eyes focused squarely between the shoulder blades of the person in front of you and push like hell. That was the way you did it. Yeah. That was the zeitgeist back then. And everybody had a side hustle. You were doing diamond talk. I mean, I'm doing golf. They because at the time, one of the great things about the ticket is you gave you a little bit of name notoriety so that people might have heard you or whatever and you'd get opportunities. Yeah. It was then that didn't stink either. It was No. It was a golden time. It was a fun time. Remember it as it was. Don't don't try and change it. Just it was it was good. Right. So how's life for you these days? Life is well, I'm I'm kind of going off maybe your beat a little bit. I'm at some point, I'm gonna have to start winding down. And I think, like, I'll be 70 in January. I think I'm gonna start easing back just because it's time. And you get to a point where whoever you're working for, you wanna do your best, but there's also times when you go, man, that seems like seems like a hassle. How can I how can I work this through my all my experience and everything to get the same thing done but not beat myself up over it? Yeah. You reach a point to where the drive to do it every single day kinda gets away from you a little bit. Yeah. And I and I was gonna ask you, what was the biggest change for you when when you were essentially retired when you left the ticket? How many times have you retired now? What? How many times have you retired? How many times have I retired? You mean totally retired? Just once. Yeah. Basically. Yeah. Yeah. Just after you left the ticket. Yeah. After I left the ticket, then I started doing this. But this wasn't right away? No. This wasn't right away. So what'd you do in the meantime? So the day you walked out Yeah. Your last day Mhmm. You knew it was your last day. Nobody else knew. Right. Okay. How long did it how long did it change or how long did it take for you to kinda ease into the new life? Because I'm writing notes. I did it I did it fairly seamlessly Yeah. And very quickly. I mean, I'd had it by then, and I knew it. Sure. You know? And when you know it, you know it, and you also know what that means. It means that not only are you not going to do what you've done for the last twenty six years, you're going to go into off into the wild blue yonder. So you take it one day at a time. Did you ever have a a difficulty filling up your day? No. I always found something. Really? I always found some way to do it. Like, what was the number one thing that you did that you said, oh, I finally have time to do this and I'm gonna do it. Probably read a lot read books. Okay. Good. You know? Yeah. I started reading a lot a lot of books and, I don't know, just just trying to learn about things that I hadn't been terribly well focused on before. You know? Mhmm. Yeah. I know exactly what it means. It's it's kinda like when you're raising kids. Your day they say that the days go by slow, the years go by fast. Yeah. But by the end of the day, you're so scheduled, especially the way parents are nowadays, you don't have the time. Yeah. You know? Now it is a little bit weird at first when after you've been gone for three or four days and finally you get out of bed one day and go, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do today. Mhmm. I don't have anything that I have to do. So, okay, if if that's the case, then let's figure that out. Right. But that takes some doing because it's really easy to do nothing. Yeah. You know? But over time, then you just start wasting away, you know? And and I'm looking at it now because my parents both suffered Alzheimer's. And so I'm I read everything. Yeah. You know, what what to take, what to do, what not to do. And because I I look at them and I say, jeez, I don't know. Troy Kwan one time said, I thought it was a great statement. He says, I want my health span equal my lifespan. Yeah. And I think it makes total sense. That's a good idea. And when you're done, just send me out. Send me to pasture because if I'm not enjoying life, what am I doing? I don't know. So a lot of these things, there's still question marks out there and you still look for signs if there's anything that you gotta pay attention to. Yeah. But, you know Well, there's a lot of things that you won't figure out right away. You know? I don't think I want to. And that's okay. Yeah. You know, that's okay. If there are some dangling participles out there somewhere that that, you know, don't clarify themselves immediately to you. That's not such a bad thing. Just let them sit. If they're going to, in due time, they will. Yeah. You don't have to be in a rush. No. You don't. I think one of the best things is I'm kinda easing into it. Right? So I might go to the office. I work every day, but I might go in the office only twice a week. I can do everything at home. It doesn't really matter. But then I can also do other stuff at home. You're not tied there, right? So I look at all of it and I and I just say, okay. Now I want a four day weekend. This is that's my goal. Just give me a four day weekend and then I'll branch out from that. Yeah. But I still like doing what I do. I just don't know if I wanna do it as much. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. I don't think so. As long as Nothing wrong with it. Long as I'm as long as I'm being productive and giving whoever I'm working with a benefit, then then it's great. But if I'm slogging along and you can tell that, you know, I'm Emmett Smith and I'm four years past what I should have been retired, you know, you don't want that either. No. You don't. Well, Rick Arnet, cannot thank you enough for doing this. It's really great to see you again and enjoyed having you in here, booby. It's always fun. I remember the first time you were even thinking about it. You and I would go out to lunch every once in a while. Again, we're the elder statesmen. And you said you started talking to your retired friends before you even thought about all this and what you were gonna do. And I I think they gave you some pretty good advice, but I'm glad you did that because nobody really knows unless they're doing it. No. It's truly the great unknown. And you don't realize just how unknown it is until you're there. So just plugs, avid golfer's still around, still doing great, the magazine. T box is still on the radio. We have a junior golf tour. And and then I get to go see my grandkids more. You're doing what you love. So far. Until I don't. Yeah. Right? Keep it that way. And you know it pretty quick too, think. Yes. When you have to talk yourself into stuff three, four, five times, you go, okay. Let's reassess this. Yep. Gotta reassess then. Well, I thank you for the opportunity. Well, thank you for doing this. This is the great Rick Arnett, everybody. Alright. That'll do it for YDC for today. Now remember, as always, what we need from you, the YDC consumer, is share us on your social media. Get us out there. Hit us on Twitter. Hit us on x or whatever it is. Facebook, Instagram, the gram, as they say. We love the gram. Do we? No. I don't. I fear the Gram. Yeah. I'm not a big Grammer. I'm a I'll tweet, I'll glance at Facebook, but not much because everybody's starring in their own movie. I'm and I'm not that interested. I'm a Facebook horse. Take off the s. Yes. That's right. So get us out there on your social media, and we will thank you very much for that. Thank you, Shoopy. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Becca. Thank you, Rick Arnett. My pleasure. Thank Thank you for watching. Bye. Bye. That was great. Alright. That was fun. Thank you, brother. Isn't it amazing isn't it when you when you haven't seen somebody in a while and they start bringing up some story? When did that happen? It is kinda crazy. Is kinda crazy. Oh, it's very crazy. God. There was one time when I was Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.