The sports talk radio world in Dallas was shocked last week to learn that The Ticket hosts Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp had submitted their resignations.
McDowell had been at the station for 24 years and co-hosted The Hang Zone with Kemp. The duo reportedly reached an impasse with Cumulus Dallas leadership in negotiations for a new contract.
On The Hardline with Bob Sturm, Corby Davidson and Dave Lane on The Ticket late last week, Sturm and Davidson offered their reactions to the news that began to circulate across the sports media space.
Sturm said hearing that Dan and Jake had gone was some of the tougher news he’s had to bear since he started.
“Honestly as the kid caught in the divorce, man I don’t really care the details as much as I care the outcome which is – this sucks,” Sturm said. “It may not suck for them. They may be very pleased. In fact, I took a look at their video, and they seem OK with how things are, but I do know in my heart of hearts that they both intended to stay at The Ticket for a long, long, long, time. It didn’t happen.”
The disagreement in negotiations reportedly stems from the fact that Cumulus would not give their blessing to Dan and Jake to podcast outside of their daily radio show. The two hosts fought the company for the right to be sole proprietors of any outside content they generate.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t work, and they’re really steadfast in what they want and that’s control of their outside media,” Davidson said.
“They want to own some aspect of their personas and that’s just counter to corporate radio,” Lane responded.
“They want to change the game, and honestly that doesn’t surprise me,” Sturm added.
Sturm seemed particularly shaken up by their departures, talking about how he considered McDowell a brother and that they had similarly structured contracts and pay just out of respect for one another.
Sturm and Davidson talked about having a different relationship with Kemp, who has been viewed as a little brother in Sturm’s eyes and someone Davidson watched basically come of age at the station.
But they made the overall point that as hard as the news is, they have to keep carrying The Ticket torch forward.
“The Ticket is going to be fine. Now it’s going to be different. But The Ticket is going to be fine,” Davidson said. “We’ve taken a couple of hits here, and for me personally, and I feel like I’ve seen it all here in the last 25 years – all of it. This one stings the worst, and it’s not really even close just because the hanging out aspect like we said.”
“I wish the station would’ve been able to satisfy them, and I wish they both had a bar that was lower for compromise and I really mean that,” Sturm added. “I wish both sides could’ve found common ground, and that in the end they both will say, ‘We tried really hard, and we wish the other side would’ve tried harder.’”
The announcement came just days after Corby Davidson offered listeners some hope. On Wednesday, he told listeners that despite the reports in the media saying McDowell and Kemp were done, it was more of a holdout than an actual resignation and both sides still wanted to get a deal done. That appears to no longer be the case.
Glad that they are gone. Didn’t like their left leaning persona.