Many times, when a host leaves a radio station and says they are going to work on their own content, it means the host is getting ready to start something brand new. In the case of Landry Locker announcing he is no longer with SportsRadio 610 in Houston, this scenario is a little different. Locker has been building up his following on YouTube and did so with the station’s blessing over the last 18 months. He isn’t starting something; he is building upon it.
“The station has been very gracious to me, the bosses at the top…they’ve let me build this stream for the last 18 months going back to the start of the 2023 season, so I already have a pretty big start.”
Locker and his wife have a baby girl who just turned nine months old and right now the appeal of being home with her and perhaps some burn out led to him deciding to step away from his daily midday show on the station, Inside the Loop, which he hosted with John Lopez.
“I think every show kind of has a shelf life. If two guys are on different paths, a lot of times you just end up going different directions. Sometimes there’s just kind of a shelf life on stuff. I am never going to take for granted getting to do that. If I get back in radio I am going to continue to give, I’m not going to take. And I am also going to learn to try to keep the vibes up.”
Locker added, “I just had a kid. I wasn’t as joyful about radio as I should be.”
Locker moved to Houston at the end of 2016 after having been with The Fan in Cleveland briefly as the Executive Producer of The Ken Carman Show. Prior to that he had been with ESPN Radio in Dallas.
He said, “I am not going to say no to maybe doing radio again, but in the meantime, the YouTube is a good thing to have under you and seems like it’s a direction a lot of people are heading. I’m not in a position where I am unemployable, I have already talked to a lot of people.”
As for 610, Locker had a lot of praise for his boss, Brand Manager Parker Hillis, who was named to that position just over two years ago. “I am intrigued to see what 610 does,” he said. “Parker is the best boss I have ever had there. I have worked for a lot of good bosses. He is easily the best one that 610 has had. He is one of the younger guys who does that job on that level, and I think from a programmer standpoint, this is the most exciting time…I’m excited for him. I think he is really, really good at what he does. I think he deserves it and I think he is going to evolve, and this will be exciting for him.”
As for anything different he will do immediately on his YouTube channel, Locker said he is mostly going to stick with the same formula of heavy Houston Texans coverage. “It’s mainly going to be Texans, that’s the wheelhouse and it’s actually getting a lot hotter now,” he said.”
He had been doing the show at 10:30 p.m. and said that will change to the daytime for now.
“I’ll just continue to do it the same, but maybe do it during the day a little bit more often,” he explained. “Depending on what my day schedule is during the football season, if I’m doing anything else than I will continue to do the stream along with whatever that is and adjust with it.
“And who knows what will happen with the radio thing, but sometimes it’s just time to drift away.”
