• The Ticket does some funny promos. "Passing gas and blaming it on the dog, you're listening to Sports Radio 1310 ..." The Hardline decided to explore what their promos would sound like if they were doing a show in San Francisco. "Passing gas and blaming it on the homos," was how it came out. Another one was, "Hey queers, you rock." • Davidson sang a song a few years back called "Thanksgiving Loves the White Man" with these lyrics: "Pocahantas was an Indian, she liked white men by the score/Legend said she was on the pill and her nickname was fat injun whore." Later in the song, Pocahantas is hit in the face with a frying pan. They play the song every Thanksgiving, like some rock stations play "Alice's Restaurant." • The Hardline recently discussed why black men like to videotape gang bangs with white women and then show their friends, more so than white men would. Callers weighed in. One black man called in and said it was indeed true; he and his friends loved going up to Plano with cocaine and a video camera, trolling for the white prize. • Several years ago on Gordon Keith's Saturday morning show, the hypothetical question was asked, if you would rather have the lobster claw deformity, or the small and withered "baby arm." Now "baby arm" is The Ticket's "aloha," meaning hello or good-bye. They sing a song about the baby arm, sung to the tune of the Sammy Davis Jr. song, "The Candy Man." Some guy with a withered arm named Jerome wants to be the official baby arm of The Ticket.
Now, those of you who have never listened to The Ticket are probably thinking that these guys are out of control and misogynists to boot. Even for me there are times when their forced and stupid banter about racial and sexual stereotypes forces me to turn the station off. The problem with trying to examine their content is that print is unforgiving -- some might say harshly revealing -- when trying to discuss how far they go. Are they "abrasive and over the top" as Rhyner likes to say? Yes. Are they racists? No. Some of the material may seem overly blue and overly racial, and if you clicked in for the first time, you might click off quickly. But if you listen consistently, you realize they poke fun at everyone, themselves more than anyone else. There are plenty of folks who are not amused by The Ticket's attempts at humor. "We know the long-term harm of using this type of hateful language," said Roger Wedell, president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance. "It establishes barriers between people. And there is some indication that violent and repressive language leads to violent and repressive behavior. The men who killed Matthew Shepherd hated homosexuals. They didn't learn it in a vacuum." Mary Lee Hafley, executive director of the Women's Shelter in Arlington, said she listens to The Ticket occasionally ("When I need to get the latest score.") She agreed that joking about mistreatment of women can be harmful. She also said the recent popularity of The Ticket makes it more important than ever for the on-air folks to watch what they say. "This is obviously a station that a lot of people listen to it, and a lot of them are young men," Hafley said. "Their words carry added weight with listeners because they are so popular. Whether they personally agree with the message or not, they are giving the stamp of approval when they broadcast jokes about women being beaten up." As much as The Ticket boys play games, there is a no-bullshit honesty that also comes through. They will rip teams, they will rip owners, they will rip Billy Bob Thornton for being a nut. (OK, so they don't rip NASCAR anymore. More on that later.) They will dribble out little inside jokes to the listeners that make you think. During the Sept. 11 tragedy, The Ticket was praised as having the best coverage in the market. How would this be possible? The lovers of fart joke and racial humor gave the most meaningful coverage? The hosts "had the freedom not to be journalists," wrote Dallas Observer columnist Eric Celeste of The Ticket's 9/11 coverage. "They could immediately speculate on who would commit this terrorist act and why, what the U.S. response should be, and what citizens must do differently now and forever. They could debate the questions and address the fears that rang in people's minds." They could do all this because The Ticket is not scripted as such. They have prerecorded bits and a "run sheet" that breaks a four-hour show into 20-minute segments. The on-air talent are much like improv actors, playing their characters, and broadcasting on the fly. That explains why you get serious and thoughtful commentary during a crisis, and talk of FUPAs, at other times, usually by the same guys. The problem for The Ticket is the speed at which all this flies by. Bruce Gilbert is the well-respected program director at The Ticket, and he is the parent who must occasionally go into the tree house and create some order out of the chaos. "I wince like everyone else," Gilbert said of the programming he hears. "We allow people to be themselves, and one person's idea of what is funny is very subjective. But I think the listeners know when we've gone too far and we pushed it too much." One recent example of going too far had nothing to do with race or sex. Davidson was out interviewing fans at The Ballpark in Arlington and found a woman who said she hated the station. She was real grumpy, and Davidson thought it might be funny to pull a prank on her. He paid some kids to go up to her and ask her why she had a mustache. "It just didn't feel right; it felt like we were being mean," said Hardline producer Danny Ballis. "We know there is a line there, but sometimes you are on a roll and being creative and you forget it." "That's why my position is necessary," said Gilbert. "I will sit down with a show and try to find some balance. A lot of what we deal with is subjective, and that line gets very blurry. A lot of what we do is by feel -- what feels right for our listeners and what feels right for our hosts. It's inexact at best, and we do cross the line." Williams said that is the very challenge of the show. "There is a line, and our job is to get right to it every day," he said. "Sometimes we go over it, yeah. We're in the entertainment business, and we're not journalists. If we get on a bad topic, or we are boring, people are going to click out. We can't let that happen."
I was listening to some of the ESPN syndicated programming the other day -- I can't remember what show it was -- and they were actually doing the "Pete Rose Hall of Fame" topic. But then they spent 20 minutes yukking it up about a tv show that featured out-takes from game shows. Q: Where's the weirdest place you've ever made whoopee? A. In the butt, Bob. Yuks all around. NEXT » |
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