A flight from Oahu to San Antonio takes about nine hours. Last Thursday, Mike Taylor of Ticket 760 decided to take that flight, because he felt the urge to help out his fellow Texans. A huge winter storm last week took a decimating toll on the midwest, but few areas were hit harder than the state of Texas. The power grid was out for several days and freezing temperatures meant busted pipes and no water across most of the state. It was a devastating time in the place Taylor considers home.
Taylor and his family moved from San Antonio to Hawaii in early 2020. The Mike Taylor Show is still on the air every weekday in San Antonio at Ticket 760, but now, he broadcasts from his home studio in Hawaii. As he watched the massive winter storm engulf his family and friends, Taylor started to get mad. That’s when he decided to do something about it.
“75 percent of my family and friends are in the state and over 50 percent of those live in San Antonio,” said Taylor. “It was weird, it’s not like I’m a sociopath, all of a sudden I just got really pissed off. I got a little emotional. My wife and I got to looking at each other and she’s like, dude, you might need to go home.”
That’s exactly what he did. As many people in San Antonio were stacking snow in their bathtub, just so they could flush their toilet once a day, Taylor started to formulate a plan on how he could best help the city. His first idea was to contact a local plumber that’s a sponsor of his show. Last Call Plumbing was more than happy to use his services and sent him out with one of their plumbers on Monday morning.
“I spent all day today running around with a plumber, because he’s got 80 jobs throughout the next two weeks,” Taylor said. “All these people that have their water back, that’s great, but half the city has busted pipes, so there’s still not any water. I’m sitting and talking to you at a Whataburger and I had a sandwich with nothing to drink, because they don’t have any damn water. At Whataburger!”
Even when Taylor landed in San Antonio last weekend, the airport had no water inside to drink. It was an immediate reminder of the severity of the situation, as soon as he got into town. It made him even more upset than he already was. But he knew he wanted to help and do it right away. So on Sunday night, Taylor went to the Ticket 760 studio to do a two-hour show. If anything, he just wanted to show support and provide an escape for his listeners, even if it was only for a short time.
The phone lines lit up as Taylor told a few jokes to lighten the mood. There wasn’t much talk on the damage of the city, more so just two guys hanging out and shooting the bull. But the response was incredible.
“It was amazing,” Taylor said. “I’ve heard from a lot of listeners who’ve said it was a cool outlet and they appreciate me going on Sunday night. I winged it and didn’t really plan it.”
Taylor’s week will consist of helping out his local community in the morning and afternoon, before doing his three-hour show from 4-7 p.m. The hours he’s on the air, it will be a mix of comedic relief to serve as a distraction, but also as a tool to show how listeners can help alongside with him throughout the week.
On Tuesday, Taylor’s role was to have barbecue at a local restaurant, where they raised money for the San Antonio food bank. On Wednesday, Taylor will be at another restaurant, raising money for the Red Cross. Thursday, Taylor will work an actual shift at the food bank. He’s even going to invite listeners to come work with him that day. On Friday, Taylor will be with the Salvation Army to pass out food and water to a low income housing apartment in San Antonio.
“I just really felt like I should do this,” Taylor said. “I’m hoping many others will help.”
Though Taylor is constantly posting on his social media pages the work he’s doing, this isn’t some stunt to gain notoriety. He genuinely cares about the well-being of San Antonio and the people in it. But for show purposes it has been a useful tool. While he was helping out a local plumber on Monday by soldering plumbing iron and working with PVC pipe, it gave him a new perspective into what one of his clients does during the day. That could be invaluable when it comes time to re-up with a business.
Until then, Taylor will be all over San Antonio helping out as many people as possible. After fixing pipes on Monday, which allowed a man who hadn’t had water in two weeks to finally have it, it sent a charge through Taylor. He feels good being on the air and making people laugh, but helping the same people out in their time of need is even more rewarding.
“It’s only Monday and I’ve already gotten emotional once,” Taylor said. “I talk football for a living. It’s not like I have a real job. It’s funny, because guys that have done this a long time, you sometimes wonder if what you’re doing matters at all. Am I really making an impact? I put myself out there this week and we’ve had this ridiculously overwhelming response. It’s weird to say but it does have an impact. It really does.”
Taylor is happy to be home, even if it’s under bad circumstances. He’ll leave for Hawaii on Saturday morning, but his listeners will never forget the time he left paradise and hopped on a 9-hour flight to help out all his friends in need.
“It’s a long ass flight,” Taylor said. “But I didn’t want that to be an excuse to not come and help.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
