After just sixteen months, iHeartMedia has silenced upstart Dallas talk station 97.1 The Freak, featuring hosts like Mike Rhyner, and flipped it back to its previous rock incarnation, The Eagle. It was, as I’ve said of mega radio corporations far too often in recent years, shocking but not surprising.
When I arrived in Dallas from L.A. 12 years ago I found a refreshing news and talk radio landscape. Though Dallas-Fort Worth is the fifth largest market in America there was nothing slick or big-time sounding about it. The stations that commanded the most attention from listeners were deeply rooted in North Texas. Local talkers and news personalities were (and still are) mostly homegrown and it showed. For a newcomer, it required some quick catching up but provided me with a rapid initiation into the club.
Texans are known for a lot of silly stereotypes but their reputation for open-hearted friendliness and a welcoming, can-do spirit are real. As a California transplant, it was exciting but sometimes baffling.
“It was very parochial, very insiderish; for some reason, I can’t put my finger on all of that made it more appealing.”
That’s Texas radio Hall-of-Famer Mike Rhyner, talking about the beginning of sports talk radio in Dallas-Ft. Worth 30 years ago. In that time KTCK has since won four Marconi Awards as the Best Sports Station in America.
The Ticket was borne of Rhyner’s vision and created by him with his homeboys, many of whom still work there today. In his 26 years at the Ticket, the Old Grey Wolf as he is called presided over a cast of local personalities who had their early doubts but believed in him. He swiftly led them to the top of the ratings, where they have remained unchallenged since. In January of 2020 Rhyner, approaching his 70th birthday, decided he’d done it all and announced his retirement.
I asked him if it was really retirement or if was it a sly Old Grey Fox stalking a new opportunity.
“At the time it was, it was retirement. I mean, I didn’t make one phone call trying to get another gig. I didn’t talk to one person. I’d stayed in touch somewhat with some of the guys from back in the day, but I didn’t, not once did I say, man, I’d really like to get back into it or anything like that. That changed when the opportunity to do The Freak came along.”
Two years later he was back doing afternoons on iHeart’s 97.1 in Dallas, newly branded as The Freak. His old friends, Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade had convinced iHeart to switch the station to their new style of talk, upbeat, fun, and honest, heavy on local, relatable lifestyles. They brought in several popular local personalities and finally convinced Rhyner to join them.
iHeart believed and supported them until they didn’t, just over a year later.
On my Conversations.buzz podcast this past Monday I asked Rhyner about the too-sudden surrender by the corporation. I said it takes a long time to create and grow an audience in talk. Rhyner agreed.
“If you’re going to get into talk radio you’ve got to have the stomach for the fight. Once they (corporations) get in there they realize there is much, much more to it than they had ever imagined. They lose whatever stomach for the fight they thought they had. The bottom line is you never get the time you really need.”
A quick aside to make the point: this past week the Radio Hall of Fame announced its list of 2024 candidates, including John Kobylt and Ken Champiou, who worked together for 36 years. It took more than three years for them to earn their following at KFI, Los Angeles. When they got there they never looked back.
In 16 months the Freak in Dallas was just finding its stride. The personalities were fresh, engaged, prepared, and focused. They talked about everything except politics. Sports is a big deal in Dallas, and so is entertainment, and lifestyle. They talked about it all and did so with solid information and engaging professionalism.
The word was out. The audience was growing. But not fast enough for iHeartRadio, which is a disingenuous name for a company that should be called iHeartFastProfits.
Mike Rhyner is a wise Old Grey Wolf. He’s been around long enough to know there’s nothing to be gained by biting the hand that once fed him.
“I’ve been reenergized by this (the Freak). I enjoyed doing radio again and would really like for something to pop up but if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too. Ya know? I’ve had more fun and better times in this game than most. And if nothing pops up for me henceforth I’ll just take my toys and go home and look back and say, ‘It’s been a good ‘un.’”
Of iHeart’s swift execution of the Freak, he is philosophically diplomatic: “We were brought on board to do a job there and we just didn’t get it done.”
To which I add, of course not. You were still hiking up the trail. iHeart hired you and then cut you loose before you could reach the summit. After reading the latest bean count the jury in the boardroom reached a verdict: The Freak was an unproven asset; cut the overhead.
Skeptical and even derisive at first I came around to love the Freak. It was becoming the station of my professional dreams.
More from the Old Grey Wolf:
“Yeah, there are a lot of things that I really did like about it. And make no mistake, I’m not thrilled with what happened and the way it all came down but I think we had a really good product. I think we did some really good radio.
“I know we don’t have the ratings* to substantiate that but as I would make my way around town, I had so many people come up and tell me that they liked it. It was neat to hear that.”
(*The most recent Nielsen ratings show the Freak, KEGL, with the second-highest talk station ranking among five in the DFW Metroplex. All except The Freak, the new kid, have been jostling for position for many years.)
Rhyner continues:
“I do think that we connected with a whole lot of people out there. And I do think that what we did is viable. And I do think that if there is some way that somebody a little bit more equipped, a little better equipped to take on such an endeavor ever wanted to again, then I’d love that.”
I do think we haven’t heard the end of Mike Rhyner in North Texas.
Rhyner’s crew of superb professionals now adrift are a homegrown radio dream team waiting to be enticed into a new chance and a promise: three or four years and a commitment to marketing, guaranteed.
