The Rumor Is Confirmed: The Hang Zone's Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp Leave The Ticket

Editor's note: 7/21/2023 2:50 p.m.: This article has been updated to include new information provided Thursday night and Friday morning.

Two more of The Ticket's most popular hosts have left its airwaves. After weeks of speculation, Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp, the hosts of the station's The Hang Zone program, announced Thursday night via a Youtube video they would no longer be employed by 1310 The Ticket after failing to reach an agreement on new contracts with station owner Cumulus Media.

Sitting next to one another, Kemp and McDowell jovially, and sometimes awkwardly, discussed the reasons behind their departure.

"Our contracts were expired," McDowell said in the video. "We were trying to come to an agreement. We believed, in our opinion, that the offer from Cumulus was not something we wanted to take."

Later in the video, Kemp noted the duo also wanted "to try other things," though neither specified what that might entail. Corby Davidson, one of the hosts of The Ticket's evening drive program, noted McDowell and Kemp's desire for something new during a discussion of the staffing shakeup on the air Friday morning.

"They want to pursue something outside of The Ticket, something outside of media interests," Davidson said. "And in the end, Jake told us, 'It kind of boils down to we just want to do something different.'"

Later in the discussion, Gordon Keith, one of the morning show hosts, said that McDowell and Kemp had told their former co-workers they would not seek to join a competing sports radio station.

There have been a few twists and turns in this story since Monday when D Magazine, among other outlets, reported that McDowell and Kemp had resigned from their noon–3 p.m. show The Hang Zone. The last episode of The Hang Zone aired on Friday, June 30.

It seems that contract negotiations are to blame for McDowell and Kemp's absence. RadioInsight obtained an internal memo from Cumulus Media, the owners of The Ticket since 1996, that was sent by the company's regional vice president and Dallas/Houston market manager, Dan Bennett. The memo announced the duo's departure "after being unable to reach terms of new long term employment agreements for the hosting of the 12n-3pm [sic] time slot."

"Dan and Jake both resigned their positions effective July 17, 2023," the memo reads. "We began negotiations with both in December and remained productive and positive until late last week. At that time, talks broke down over competing digital media interests Dan and Jake wished to pursue out of a Cumulus Media partnership."

Meanwhile, The Ticket's program director, Jeff Catlin, will begin the search to fill the vacated time slot.

"Obviously, we are all disappointed that we could not reach an agreement but we are all appreciative of the great contribution both employees made to our cluster of stations," the memo reads.

As the week progressed, with no formal announcements made as to why the pair of hosts were not broadcasting in their usual time slot, rumors persisted. On Wednesday, it was Davidson who provided an update to Ticket listeners.

"When it's resolved, we'll say as much as we possibly can about it including Dan and Jake, but please be patient here," Davidson said on Wednesday. "The people that ran with the story, I get it. I understand that but this is something that's ongoing. ... Everybody's trying to do their part here and everybody's trying to do their part within the company, within working with Dan and Jake. We're so on this. I can't even explain to you how much sleep we've all lost over this."

The next day, McDowell and Kemp gave their side in the goodbye video.

The news of McDowell and Kemp's exit comes just a little over a month after another popular host announced his retirement. Texas Radio Broadcast Hall of Fame host Norm Hitzges, who led the Norm and D Invasion show on The Ticket with Donovan Lewis, announced he would step away from the mic after 48 years on the air.

McDowell has hosted the midday show on The Ticket for 21 years, starting with the BaD Radio program with Bob Sturm. Kemp joined the station in 2006 and moved into the co-host chair with McDowell in 2020, marking the beginning of The Hang Zone show.

During the Friday morning segment, morning co-host George Dunham added that he had taken notice of the rumors and addressed the people on social media he felt had been enjoying this latest bit of Ticket station drama.

"I'd be careful about laughing about this," he said. "Because we've been through some things before and we get stronger. There are some of y'all out there who thought we were dead in the water a year ago. We've had the highest ratings this station has ever had, over the last year. We've pummeled some of the people who are laughing out there, so I'd be careful what you laugh at out there."