Finding yourself in a career rut isn’t a question of if but rather when, in the sports radio business. How you get out of those ruts, can ultimately determine the path your career takes. Dan McDowell found himself in a rut in the mid-90’s while hopping around small stations in Ohio. He wanted something bigger and more exciting but he was struggling to find a way to make it happen. McDowell’s plan was simple: send radio reel tapes and resumes to any attractive openings he found across the country. And he sent a lot. The problem was that he rarely received any interest back, or even a response.
There came a point where McDowell started to wonder if he was going about things the right way. He then came to the realization he didn’t really know what a great resume looked like or what a great demo tape sounded like. How was he supposed to improve his situation if he wasn’t exactly sure what to send to a Program Director? McDowell thought of a way to see how other broadcasters were doing it. And he came up with a brilliant idea.
“I would go to Radio.com back then and look at the ads for the things I wanted,” said McDowell. “Some of the addresses just had P.O. Boxes. My mom had a P.O. Box in Cleveland, so I wrote an ad, describing exactly what I wanted, sports talk, mid-market, blah,blah,blah, send tape and resume to this P.O. Box.”
McDowell got around 100 tapes sent to his mom’s P.O. Box from people across the country, including some from hosts he was familiar with. He got to look at every resume and listen to all the tapes to see exactly what people were doing. Granted, McDowell humbly says he doesn’t know if this idea helped him out in the end, but it gave him the access to really see what the competition looked like and what it was doing.
“I would just try to set myself apart with little things,” McDowell said. “Like, perhaps, since you would send a cassette tape, maybe I had hand written something on it. I saw some people had really nice pre-printed things on them instead. I would try to do that, just to make it look more professional. Even some things people were putting on their resume that I didn’t think was worthy to put on a resume. Oh, this guy is putting that on there? Yeah, I’ll put my high school play-by-play experience on there.”
Mixed with some luck and great timing, McDowell’s intuition helped him get out of his career rut and into a major market. The only potential issue was that he spent the majority of his career working in small Ohio towns such as Athens, Marietta and Zanesville. The big break was in Dallas and he had no ties to the city. That’s when Bruce Gilbert came in.
To tell the story of Gilbert’s incredible impact on McDowell, you first have to know how the two initially met one another. McDowell was working in Dayton and was actively trying to leave the market. He had a friend working in Cleveland that knew this, so he contacted him about a recent job opportunity he was turned down from, but had an amazing experience with the PD.
“He said, I didn’t get this job opening in Dallas, but the PD called me,” McDowell said. “Bruce listened to my friend’s tape and gave him some tips on how he could improve. My buddy said, hey, you might not get the job, but at least you’ll get feedback.”
McDowell sent a resume and reel to Gilbert, in hopes of nothing more than to get feedback from a major market PD. The thing was, Gilbert liked what he heard and requested McDowell to send more. He wanted to hear an entire hour of his show in Dayton. Not long after, the two were in negotiations to bring McDowell to Dallas to host at 1310-AM The Ticket.
The year was 1999 and The Ticket was celebrating five years on the air. If the job opportunity in a market like Dallas wasn’t intimidating enough, working at a station that had built up some longevity certainly was. The station was really starting to hit its stride and create an identity when McDowell walked through the doors for the first time. He was paired up with Bob Sturm and BaD Radio began. But like any new show, especially with a host without any ties to the city, it took a while before the audience accepted him.
“I think that took probably a decade,” McDowell said. “Well, I don’t know if that’s true, but I was not accepted right away. Bob could tell you that. We used to call it a List of 100. I’m talking about people at the station and other media members in Dallas. There were at least 100 people that thought they should be sitting next to Bob and not me, because I was just some guy out in Dayton that nobody knew or heard of. I had been to two hockey games my whole life and the Stars were in the middle of a Stanley Cup run. Email was the main source of communication and I got my fair share of negativity. It took a while, for sure.”
Regardless of how McDowell felt the audience wasn’t embracing him during those early years, he never doubted for a second the support he got from Gilbert. Routinely, McDowell and Sturm were told by Gilbert they belonged at The Ticket and should be proud of what they’ve accomplished. Even during airchecks, which had always been awkward for McDowell in his previous jobs. Gilbert came with advice but also incredible optimism for how the show was doing. There was a genuine belief from Gilbert in the success of the show.
“He’s meant everything,” McDowell said. “He was amazing and he’s still amazing. He’s still the greatest. We wouldn’t have survived with anyone else. Bob and I were outsiders. The Ticket was already a thing. The station had been on air for five years and it was so intimidating. Bruce kept telling us we belonged here. That meant so much to me. The guy that matters believed in us.”
Behind Gilbert’s steadfast belief, the show started to pick up steam. In McDowell’s mind, two things in particular helped fuel the rise. First, was the famous on-air spat with ESPN College Football Analyst Lee Corso. In the early 2000’s Corso was on the air with BaD Radio and he didn’t particularly care for McDowell’s sarcasm. So much, that Corso called him a jerk on the air and left the interview after just a couple of minutes. The Ticket listeners made Corso the butt of the joke and even went as far to create signs with references to the interview, which were brought to College Gameday locations in the following years. The incident had an enormous effect on McDowell gaining the approval of listeners.
Second, was the approval he gained with the popular afternoon show on the station, The Hardline.
“Those guys really started to embrace us as a show that could do bits and be funny,” McDowell said. That and the Lee Corso incident, in my head, that was a big turning point for a lot of the listeners and I got a lot of good, positive feedback. I’ve always thought that was a key moment.”
BaD Radio never turned back after that. For several years, they helped grow the identity of The Ticket, which was sports takes but with incredible comedy and bits. But at some point, one way or another, every great radio show comes to an end. BaD Radio was no exception. A massive shakeup at The Ticket happened in 2020 after Mike Rhyner surprisingly announced his retirement. Sturm was sent to afternoons to co-host The Hardline with Corby Davidson and replace Rhyner. This left McDowell with a new partner. A situation he hadn’t been in for over 20 years.
“I was very scared in the beginning,” McDowell said. “Bob and I had great chemistry and we were friends, both on and off the air. Then it was, well maybe the only reason we ever had any following was Bob? I didn’t really believe that, but maybe people will just revolt against this. The great thing is Jake (Kemp) and I had already been working together for 10 years. He was the producer and the main fill-in host. That made it a lot easier.”
McDowell, Kemp and the other voices of The Hang Zone let the show organically morph into its own identity. What was a scary new venture at first for McDowell is now something he’s incredibly happy with. In a way, it’s even given him the passion and stamina to continue to do sports radio for several more years.
“It was a revitalized type thing,” McDowell said. “I wonder if that’s the case for Bob, too. When you do something for 20 years in a row, not that it was stale, but there’s a newness I like. It’s kind of a re-energized type thing.”
It’s a new time slot with a new co-host and a new show name, but the past two years have been enjoyable for McDowell. He doesn’t show any signs of wanting to leave The Ticket anytime soon. That would be a fitting story for someone that has played such a key role in The Ticket’s success over the years. McDowell would be quick to tell you the credit needs to mostly go to guys like Rhyner, Davidson, Sturm and others, but you can’t downplay what he’s meant to Dallas sports radio. One could make an argument The Ticket has the most well-known identity in sports radio. McDowell helped build that.
“I’m happy to just be a tiny slice of it,” McDowell said. “The credit goes to the guys that started it. I credit Bruce and his support, but being in the middle of those guys when it was already a legendary station when it was just five years old, helped us succeed. That The Ticket is thought of in that way, and that I’m here as a piece of it, is great.”
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.
