Off to one side, a couple of windows open into a pair of smaller spaces filled with behind-the-scenes crew keeping time, twisting knobs and producing sports news updates, more commonly known as “Ticket Tickers.” There aren’t any windows overlooking the American Airlines Center next door.
But the room blooms into something unique once the microphones are switched on and the hosts don their headsets. From 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. each weekday the smallish studio houses the voices that give flight to one of the most dominant radio signals that North Texas has ever listened to. The Ticket will celebrate its impressive run with a 30-year anniversary party on Jan. 26 at the House of Blues in Dallas.
Since its start in 1994, The Ticket has not only been the most popular sports station in DFW by far, but one of the most-listened-to stations, regardless of format, in North Texas. 1310 has become a force on a national level as well, winning a major reputation across the country for its outlandish antics, skyrocketing ratings and prestigious awards.
Devoted listeners, the so-called “P1s” (a radio industry term for a station's most loyal listeners, as well as shorthand term for the first preset button on a car radio), and even plenty of more casual followers have long since memorized the station’s origin story. When you’ve celebrated as many milestone anniversaries as the Ticket has, the extraordinary has an odd way of feeling uniform.
For the uninitiated, longtime Dallas-area radio personality Mike Rhyner cobbled together a combination of proven local talent and some lesser-known names to kickstart the only 24-hour sports radio station in North Texas in January 1994. When the broadcasts began, the on-air roster included pre-ESPN Skip Bayless and pre-NFL on Fox Curt Menefee, along with members of the local radio landscape who were ready for a better gig, such as former University of North Texas roommates Craig Miller and George Dunham.
There was some uncertainty leading up to the station launch, and once things got rolling, there were some lineup shake-ups early on (see ya, Skip), but in pretty short order, the station was a hit with listeners and advertisers.
From left: Bob Sturm, Dave Lane and Corby Davidson make up The Hardline on 1310 The Ticket.
Kathy Tran
Long before ESPN turned into debate-all-day television, The Ticket developed a rebellious us-against-the-world type of radio that felt more like freeform pirate programming than it did something strictly formatted by a large corporation. Many of the station’s youngest staff members even lived together in a frat house-type environment. Sure, sports was the primary focus from the start, but there was plenty of “guy stuff” banter regarding news and pop culture that would never dare be uttered on just about any other sports station in the country.
One journalist, a few years into the Ticket’s reign, described the station as “ESPN mixed with Saturday Night Live.” Similar to the way Seinfeld introduced the nation to a new glossary of show-specific terminology in the mid-to-late ’90s, (see: “close talker” and “Sponge-worthy”), The Ticket did that for North Texas dudes happy to have a new vernacular. Countless Dallas-area spouses have grown tired of hearing that something is “spare” or “wheels off” while their partner speaks primarily in “drops” from the station, instead of plain English.
These days, such a combo of fun and sports is more common to hear across the nation, thanks to the success of 1310, but The Ticket still stands apart. For example, the no-name hosts from three decades ago are now local celebrities with giant social media followings. Some of them are even Texas Radio Hall of Famers now, with Dunham, Miller and co-host Gordon Keith having been inducted in November.
That honor came a couple of years after the hosts won the highly esteemed Marconi Award for major market personality of the year. The station itself won the national prize for sports station of the year in 2021, following up on its first win in that category in 2007, before adding trophies in 2013 and 2017.
Of course, when a station has been on the air for as long as the Ticket has, there are bound to be some bumps and bruises along the way. There have been on-air meltdowns, hosts who just didn’t mesh, bits of bad blood and aired dirty laundry at certain points over the past 30 years.
From 2008 until 2020, the ratings-dominating four-show weekday lineup experienced a remarkable amount of stability, without any major changes to the host positions. Rhyner’s departure just weeks before COVID-19 showed itself in the U.S. was the first in a wave of controversial lineup changes that included retirements, complaints about low pay, a lack of upward mobility and even a high-profile 2023 court case over a noncompete clause.
The current regular lineup, however, in place since early August, has enjoyed some of the biggest ratings the station has ever experienced, proof that listener loyalty, built up over decades, helps weather even the most tumultuous storms.
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The relationship between the station and the audience isn’t recognized only through the black-and-white numbers of a ratings book. For each of the many listeners, there are moments when the right hosts at the right moment helped a listener get through their day in a way no one else could, not unlike the way we take comfort in the work of our favorite musicians, artists or writers.
In 2019, when The Ticket celebrated its 25th anniversary, the morning broadcast from Sept. 11, 2001, was voted as the “Top Ticket Moment” by listeners. On that tragic morning, Dunham, Miller and Keith relayed the events of 9/11 as they happened to their audience. What began as curiosity quickly built into shock and uncertainty as the three efficiently shifted from their planned sports-centric topics to the horror that was unfolding on the studio’s television screens.
There was no social media in 2001, so radio was a primary vehicle for people to get information quickly on that day. Many who were already tuned in to the station that morning as the terrorist attack continued made 1310 a main source for updates and details as the day progressed. Sports and entertainment would cease to be regular 1310 programming fodder for many weeks after as the station talked almost exclusively about what we all wanted to talk about in that world-changing era.
“I just remember it being so surreal,” Dunham said on a recent morning during a morning show break. “When I listened back to it [the 9/11 morning broadcast] later, I just kept thinking, God, I could’ve done a much better job. These guys [gesturing towards Miller and Keith to either side] did fine, but I was like everyone else I guess. It was such a jaw-dropping moment, and I couldn't wrap my head around it.”
On a morning when nothing was safe, it felt comfortable to have familiar voices behind such horrifying news. The hosts felt a similar comfort.
“To me, it felt better to be with the people I wanted to discuss the event with and go through it with,” Keith said. “I feel it would’ve been a lot creepier and depressing to just be at home consuming the news rather than being with guys who are all processing it in real time and talking about it. I liked the fact that there was a crew here that I loved and trusted and could talk about it together with. … And I’m glad I didn't have to listen to Corby [Davidson, fellow Ticket host] botching it.” (Keith was joking as he said that, ribbing his colleague.)
Station Program Director Jeff Catlin, who began as a producer for The Hardline in 1994, thinks that 9/11 was a pivotal moment for 1310.
“I think that was when the station sort of grew up,” he said. “The Ticket went from being the all-sports station with guys goofing around to being, it almost sounds pretentious to say, but, the station of record in town.”
Of course, there have been plenty of less serious moments involving Dunham, Miller and Keith that have burned into the collective P1 memory that the hosts also hold dear. Possibly the most hilarious moment in Ticket history took place with one of the most no-nonsense athletes in North Texas history. In 2008, legendary Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan joined the crew at the station’s annual Ticketstock event, and very memorably, unexpected hilarity ensued.
What made this specific moment more special was that for years leading up to that appearance, the hosts had regularly interviewed “Fake Nolan Ryan,” a character voiced by Keith. But Keith’s impersonation of Ryan consisted not of baseball tales, but stories related to his dealings with snow monkeys. Yes, snow monkeys. To be clear, it wasn’t all fiction: Ryan had indeed been involved with the snow monkey population in Texas.
For those who aren’t Ticket listeners, the previous few sentences sound silly, but for the thousands of P1s in attendance at the ’08 Ticketstock, getting to hear the real Nolan Ryan, complete with his syrupy Texas drawl, mention that he had become somewhat of a “snow monkey ambassador” was as thrilling as watching the Cowboys reach the Super Bowl. It was a quintessentially unique Ticket moment, one that outsiders need not try to comprehend.
As Ryan discussed snow monkey birth control and how snow monkeys like Hershey’s Kisses, the thousands of people present howled with laughter. The hosts were unable to contain themselves as well, even onstage, sitting next to Ryan. Sixteen years later, Miller says emphatically that it was “my favorite moment in Ticket history.” Dunham has also mentioned the event as perhaps his top all-time Ticket moment.
The morning hosts are still pretty sure that Ryan wasn’t totally in on the joke although everyone else was. “I think he was confused as to why his story was killing it so hard,” Keith said.
“The beauty of it was that he was not in on it,” Miller added. “We were all trying to not overly laugh at him to make him uncomfortable, but we did giggle along with the story while inside we’re dying laughing.”
Indeed, after 30 years, the Ticket is really its own thing, a genre of radio unto itself. As for the question of how the station has done so well for so long? To a man, each host pinpoints the complete buy-in from the personalities who have worked there over the years, as well as that of the loyal P1s. Without both factors, it's hard to believe something so unique would live as long as it has.
We talked with each of the station’s current weekday show hosts in their Victory park studio recently to find out more about what has made the Ticket tick for three decades.
From left to right: Dave Lane, David Mino, Bob Sturm, Sean Bass and Corby Davidson (seated) of 1310 The Ticket.
Kathy Tran
The Early Days
Perhaps it's true of any successful media venture, but a bit of luck in the timing department certainly seemed to help 1310 attract listeners. It also didn’t hurt that sports talk on the radio in sports-mad North Texas had been limited to only a few hours each week. Even in such a scenario, only the right mix of personalities and attitudes could get the station off the ground successfully.Gordon Keith (co-host, The Musers): “We really lucked out with the group of guys that got together at the very beginning. … It really became a subculture and another key ingredient was that the station was this scrappy underdog that had just started up, so it had this feeling of guerrilla radio.”
George Dunham (co-host, The Musers): “The day that Jimmy Johnson left the Cowboys in March of ’94, I think, was a big moment for the audience in that this is why you want to have an all-sports station because the story changed throughout the day. It was such a big story, and It was such a big day and it was such a big soap opera."
Dave Lane (co-host, The Hardline): “The Ticket was such an underdog story at the time, and it had gained such a cult following, you definitely felt the energy and you felt like there was something happening and me and Corby [Davidson] were working shitty hours for not much money as overnight board ops, but it didn't feel like we were just treading water. It felt like we were building for something, and so it was worth it.”
Matt McClearin (left) and Donovan Lewis (center) make up The Invasion on 1310 The Ticket.
Kathy Tran
Rising Through The Ranks
Many of today’s well-known weekday hosts began as part-time support players, with spots low on the totem pole. But in a number of cases, the allure of working for The Ticket in just about any capacity was sufficient to attract and keep them onboard.From longtime employees to more recent hires, just getting in the door to begin with was the hardest part. The draw certainly had to be strong, given that possibly the least-appealing job in radio, overnight board operator (more commonly known as “board op”) was how many current Ticket hosts got their start with the station.
Corby Davidson (co-host, The Hardline): “I remember going to the station, not really knowing anybody and looking around. The energy that was in that place, in year one, was just crazy. I knew I wanted to be there. I didn't know what I wanted to do, though. I was 23 years old, and I remember Pepi Harris [former producer] saying to me, ‘There’s a job opening,' and I just said, ‘I’ll take it.' She’s like, ‘I haven't told you what it is yet, it’s not good' and I just said, ‘I don't care.’ It was the weekend overnight board op job, but I knew my foot would be in the door.”
Lane: “You would do anything back then to pick up hours, and you would even show up when you’re not on the clock. We would hang out, and we had a cubicle area we called the bullpen, and you would just show up and try to hang out and try to overhear something that was going on and figure out if there was some way you could help or participate.”
Sean Bass (co-host, The Sweet Spot): “I started when I was 19 as a promotions assistant, then I became an intern. So I just kind of hung around and eventually talked my way into an overnight weekend board op position while I was going to school. I didn't major in radio, TV and film, I majored in English lit, which is pretty useless.
“Friedo [former Ticket producer Mark Friedman], God rest his soul, let me start hosting a little bit during Ticket Sports Saturday with Ty Walker and Stu Cedar, and I started feeling comfortable in that role and eventually I got to do The Shake Joint with Jake [Kemp] and I filled in a bunch during dry dock [when the full-time hosts took breaks during the summer and holidays]. That’s when I started to think, OK, I feel like I can actually do this.”
David Mino (co-host, The Sweet Spot): “I’d listen to the Ticket going to school every day with my dad, who was a Day 1 P1. I went to a small college in Kansas called Ottawa University, played football up there, and my freshman year is when I really fell in love with The Ticket. I enjoyed it when I was in high school, but being up in Kansas and listening was kind of my way to feel comfortable, to feel like I was back home. We were a tiny school, but we had a student radio station without a lot of direction that I started doing a show at.
“A couple years later, in 2011, I got a summer internship at The Ticket. I went back to college, graduated, and came back to start working part-time in promotions then started doing the overnight board op job. I was a part of The Ticket, and it was fun.”
The "Ah-Ha" Ticket Moment
Many current 1310 hosts joined the station well after it was up and running, including Bass and his Sweet Spot co-host Mino. Only Dunham and Miller remain from the original 1994 Day 1 lineup. Bob Sturm joined the Ticket in 1999, arriving from Lynchburg, Virginia. Donovan Lewis, who had been with other local radio stations owned by the same company as the Ticket, joined Sturm on the Bad Radio show in 2006.Lewis’ co-host, Matt McClearin, joined full-time last year after a couple of different part-time stints with the station and two different turns with an Alabama sports station. Many of those who have come to the Ticket from elsewhere found rather quickly that this station wasn't like other radio stations.
Jeff Catlin (program director): “Early in ’95, on the Monday that the college basketball national championship game was on TV, we all decided that we were going to watch the game at the station. This was at 7 or 8 at night, but every single person was there, and that’s when I realized, ‘Holy cow, we are just a bunch of dudes hanging out, and we’re friends.’ So much is talked about how The Ticket guys have great camaraderie, and that was apparent from the earliest days. We didn't meet at a sports bar or Chili’s or wherever. This was us hanging out at work.”
Craig Miller (co-host, The Musers): “About five months in, we all showed up to a listener party at a place called Long Branch Country Club in Coppell, and it was overflowing, and we couldn't park anywhere. That was a big moment where we all thought ‘wow!’ It was the first time we were interacting with the listeners and the crowd was ridiculous, and we thought, ‘OK maybe we have something special here.’”
Dunham: “The first Charity Challenge on Ice in ’98 was packed to the gills. We thought maybe 100 people would show up but I think more than 1,200 came, and the fire marshall stopped letting people in. That was amazing. I mean, we had like 5,000 people show up for when we played a basketball game against a high school girls’ team [in 2009]. I’ve always been amazed at how the P1 responds to the stuff we do.” (The Ticket team lost to the Lake Highlands girl's basketball team 61-44. A Dallas Observer slideshow from the game can be found here.)
Keith: “I don't think you ever get used to the fact that lightning struck and we get to be a part of it. But the secret of the station’s success is the relationship with our listeners. We could’ve put on the same show and the listeners not latch onto it. But I think the listeners did because they’re in on the bit.”
Bob Sturm (co-host, The Hardline): “I think it was my first Guys Night Out, and I couldn’t believe it. My brain could not compute what was happening and who these guys I was working with were, because they were all being treated like they were rock stars or something.”
Donovan Lewis (co-host, The Invasion): “You’re almost starstruck at everybody who felt they were starstruck toward you. You just don’t even imagine people coming out to see you. When I was at a rock station and Ozzy Osborne was doing a concert, people were showing up to see Ozzy and us radio nerds were just part of the package. But with The Ticket, I saw that people would come to sit and listen while we talked sports or whatever else. I couldn't wrap my head around it.
“I remember the first time it happened for me, I think it was a Guys Night Out, and I kind of drove home and rode in silence and just thought, ‘Man, this is wild.’ That’s just something you don't expect, and even now, still I’m very appreciative of the people who take time out of their day to come and check us out. Especially at the big events like Ticketstock, you’re just floored by it.”
Mino: “As cheesy as it sounds, after our first show was done at Cowboys training camp last year [in Oxnard, California], I went to the beach right outside our hotel. I just sat there on the beach in California with the ocean just flowing up to me while I reflected on everything by myself. I was like, ‘A week ago, I did not think I would be on the beach in California where it’s 78 degrees.’”
Matt McClearin (co-host, The Invasion): “I haven't been around as long as some others, but I was just reminded of how the reach of The Ticket and the power of The Ticket and the amount of people who care so passionately about it is insane. I had a listener, just a couple of months ago, who lives in Massachusetts, who knows that I am really into beer, send me a box of beer from a bunch of crazy, kick-ass breweries in New England. He sent it to me just because. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe it, that’s awesome.’”
Get in Where You Fit In
Even some of the most tenured, high-profile station hosts felt a bit insecure about their roles at the station when they began. Sensing quickly their gigs were of the special sort, hosts such as Davidson and Sturm simply looked to survive in their younger days, with the hopes of thriving down the road as the station grew.Davidson: “I had known I wanted to be in radio, but after taking the weekend overnight board op job, it became a matter of figuring out how to stay here. Back then, this place was like a Chili’s waitstaff, with people coming and going, in and out. I knew that if I stuck around long enough and got to know people and let them get to know me, they would know I was in this for real. … When I got hired to be a producer for The Chris Arnold show in 1996, I remember telling myself and my parents at the time, ‘I’m good. I’ve made it. I’m totally good.’”
Sturm: For the first five years, whether I was working at night by myself or after I was put on middays with Dan [McDowell, former host], I was also focusing on ‘how do I stay here?’ I thought, ‘Man, this is really, really neat. I’m not positive I know what I’m doing, but I think I’m hitting eighth for a really good baseball team.’ I just didn't want to screw it up. … My general memories involve me trying to become a piece of the puzzle that they would have a hard time getting rid of. That was my goal. I tried to be good at enough things that they never wanted to get rid of me.”
Bass: "As soon as I graduated college, I took a job in a physician recruitment firm on the sales side, as I was also working here at night on the weekends. I enjoyed that role so much that when a full-time position at the station opened up, I jumped at it even though it was less money. I mean, getting to watch sports for a living is better than doing actual work.”
Gordon Keith (right) talks to Donovan Lewis (center) and Matt McClearin during "cross talk" between shows.
Kathy Tran
‘Lynchburg Moments’
Before becoming co-host of The Hardline in 2020, Sturm co-hosted the midday Bad Radio show with Dan McDowell. Lewis was a part of that show for a few years as well. During that show’s 20-year run, the crew often referred to “Lynchburg Moments,” events or occurrences that were happening in the present, that would’ve been unbelievable to a younger Sturm when he manned the microphone of his post-college radio gig in Lynchburg, Virginia. Also, these are events that likely would have taken place only at The Ticket. Even for the hosts, who, one would think, have grown accustomed to finding themselves in enviable scenarios, there’s no shortage of awe-inspiring, “surreal” Lynchburg Moments.Some hosts have become friends with stars they grew up idolizing, while others have started working with legends. For eight years, Sturm has assisted Hall of Fame QB, Monday Night Football analyst and regular Ticket guest Troy Aikman prepare for his weekly game broadcasts by providing statistical analysis for the games he’ll cover. Oddly enough, that’s not the only intriguing connection between a Ticket host and a Hall of Fame QB.
Many hosts pointed to one of the sporting events the station has hosted when the hosts played hockey (Charity Challenge on Ice), flag football (The Quarterback Bowl) and baseball (The Great Game) alongside legendary athletes in professional stadiums with thousands of rowdy P1s paying to witness the madness.
Davidson: “There were 15,000 people at the first Quarterback Bowl [2006], I think. That game was insane. For the first play, Michael Irvin sprinted to my side as a wideout, and I’m covering him as a cornerback. It’s crazy because he hadn't been retired all that long at that point. Athletically, it looked like he could've played five more years in the NFL. I walk up to the line, and I’m a foot away from Irvin, and because we’re playing indoors and the crowd is right up against the field, my dad is sitting next to my mom maybe 5 feet from where I was. My dad just looks at me and goes, ‘Good luck!’”
Sean Bass (center) started as a weekend overnight board operator before eventually making his way into a host position.
Kathy Tran
Lane: “Well, I just had a baby with Kenny Stabler’s daughter. [Editor’s Note: Davidson erupted with one of his trademark dolphin squeal laughs when Lane said this.] But I go back to the Charity Challenge as well. Having Razor [Stars TV analyst Daryl Reaugh] or Hitch [former Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock] give us a pep talk and talk strategy in the locker rooms with us was a trip. I had butterflies skating onto the ice and warming up in front of probably 15,000 people like it was a real NHL game. It was just surreal. I still have all those on videotape, and I have a VHS machine just for the very reason that one day I’ll go back and relive those moments to validate they, in fact, happened.”
Lewis: "I think the wildest moment for me was when my wife and I were in Memphis and were on Beale Street just standing there talking, and this one dude walked up and said my name and I was just in shock. From then on, it’s everywhere I go. I was in [Las] Vegas once, walking out of a club at 3 in the morning, and a party bus pulled up and one dude yelled out 'Donny Doo!' We were in Italy and a dude recognized me. Just the reach that The Ticket has around the world is still something I can’t wrap my head around. It’s also been wild sitting down and talking with Dirk [Nowitzki], my all-time favorite athlete. Those are the obvious wild moments for me.”
Bass: "My Lynchburg Moment came in 2003 when I got to cover my first ball game at the old Ballpark [Globe Life Park]. One night I was just out there by myself in our booth with the windows open and they were singing the National Anthem, and I stood up, and I don't know why, but I was just overcome with emotion. It was probably just a regular Tuesday night against the Blue Jays. It wasn’t a special game, but it was just like, ‘Holy shit, I get to be a part of this, this is my life.’ I grew up playing baseball, thinking I wanted to be out there one day, but this was the next best thing.”
Mino: "I remember a time, gosh, it might’ve been three or four years ago, so it was relatively recent, and I was filling in as a host on The Musers’ morning shift over the summer. One of those mornings, I started thinking back to how I grew up as a P1, listening to The Musers while going to school every morning. Justin [Montemayor] and I were doing “Muse in the News” and when I heard the “Muse in the News” music bed playing, I was just like, ‘This is what I grew up listening to. I hear this music and I think of The Musers, but here’s my voice instead.’ I almost had to stop mid-segment to think about it. That was pretty wild. ... And we got to talk to Troy Aikman when we did that show, and that was awesome, I mean, 9-year-old me was like, Oh, my God.’”
McClearin: “For me, it’s just been getting to be here. That’s my Lynchburg Moment. I was just a part-timer in ’09 and 2010, but when Norm [Hitzges] retired last year, and you get the call saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to be the guy,’ it’s just wild. I almost compare it to being in AA or AAA ball and then you finally get the call like you’re Crash Davis from Bull Durham: ‘Hey, you want to come play ball with the pros?’ When I went to Cowboys training camp last year, we had a team dinner, and I’ve got Bob [Sturm] to my left and George [Dunham] right across from me. I’ve worked for so long in my career to get to this point and to finally have it pay off and get to this point is just surreal.”
