Dismuke
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 146
- Location
- Fort Worth, Texas
Hmmmm. Does Internet radio count? If so - then yeah, lots of times!
As for terrestrial radio, other than a program I had on a very small college station, I have been on a handful of times.
The last time I was on was a few years ago when a restaurant that housed a statue with a lot of Fort Worth historical significance closed down and its contents, including the statue, were going to be auctioned off.
The statue, known as the Golden Goddess, stood in the lobby of the old Westbrook Hotel from the time it opened in 1911 until shortly before it was imploded in the late 1970s. During the oil boom of the 1920s, wildcatters used to cut million dollar oil deals under the statue's gaze and would rub her belly for good luck. During World War I, the Royal Air Force had an air training base just to the southwest of Fort Worth and the pilots, too,had a fondness for the statue. One of those fighters was a fellow named Vernon Castle. Vernon Castle and his wife Irene were a ballroom dancing team and, at the time, were international celebrities. It was the Castles who were largely responsible for the ballroom dancing craze that swept the nation during the 1910s and which lasted right up to World War II. When Irene fell sick and had to cut her hair - well, that is what sparked the fashion craze for bobbed hair for ladies. Vernon actually saw combat and shot down a number of enemy planes during the war before he was assigned to what was supposedly a safer job training pilots in Texas, safely outside the war zone. Unfortunately, those early airplanes were very dangerous and Castle was killed in a take off. The Castles - along with their pet monkey that traveled with them - were staying at the Westbrook when Vernon Castle was killed. In the 1930s, the Castles were the subject of a Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers movie.
Anyhow, when I read about the statue being auctioned off, I put up a posting on a local Fort Worth discussion board urging anyone local who had deep enough pockets to purchase the statue so that it could stay in Fort Worth and perhaps be put on display in another downtown hotel. A reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram saw my posting and interviewed me by phone. The day after the article appeared in the newspaper, a local country music station phoned me up and asked if I would be willing to go on the air during their morning program and talk about the statue - and, of course, I was willing to.
I phoned the station a few minutes before I was scheduled to go on the air as they requested. The lady announcer gave me a brief prep in terms of what to expect and what she was going to ask, etc. Then, about the time I was about to go on, she came on the phone breathlessly and asked if I would be willing to hold for an additional 10 minutes or so as I had been pre-empted by "hot, late breaking Dixie Chick news." Well, sure, I had time to wait.
This happened to be the very day that the scandal regarding the Dixie Chicks remarks about President Bush hit and that was the "hot late breaking" news. The only thing for me was the fact that, while I was sitting on hold, I kept wondering what on earth is a "dixie chick?" You see, that was the very first time I had ever even heard of the Dixie Chicks. I simply do NOT listen to modern music at all - so usually the only time I become familiar with the names of today's music stars is if they make news headlines for some reason or another. Of course, after my interview was over and I saw the news, I very quickly learned who the Dixie Chicks were - though to this day I would not be able to recognize any of their music.
As for the interview, it went ok and was kind of fun. The good news is that some members of the Fort Worth Petroleum Club ended up pooling their money and won the statue in the auction. They then paid to have the statue restored to her former glory after decades of neglect and abuse - and it is now on display in the elevator lobby of their clubhouse at the top of one of the city's skyscrapers. Unfortunately, only members are allowed up there so not just everyone can see it. But I did get an opportunity to attend an exhibit of historical photos being held in the club and got to see the statue after it had been restored. I have no way of knowing whether the members of the club who purchased it found out about it as a result of my thread or the radio or newspaper interviews. Most likely not. But if they did, it is pretty cool to have made a difference in the outcome.
In April of 2005 I did get to hang out for a few hours in the studio of a major New York City FM station owned by CBS. One of the station's on-air personalities is a Radio Dismuke listener and, when I was in town, he was kind enough to invite me to sit in during his program. I didn't go on the air, of course, as the audience would have had no idea who I was and the station certainly did not play anything close to the 1920s and 1930s music I play. But it was a VERY neat experience being able to hang around with a very interesting fellow in a big time radio station in THE major market of major markets. MTV, by the way, was located in the same skyscraper as the radio station - so I cracked a little joke about Dismuke being in the belly of the beast therefore making it only a matter of time before today's nasty rock stuff comes to an end due to the immanent renaissance of wonderful 1920s and 1930s type music. Oh, well - one can dream, at least.
As for terrestrial radio, other than a program I had on a very small college station, I have been on a handful of times.
The last time I was on was a few years ago when a restaurant that housed a statue with a lot of Fort Worth historical significance closed down and its contents, including the statue, were going to be auctioned off.
The statue, known as the Golden Goddess, stood in the lobby of the old Westbrook Hotel from the time it opened in 1911 until shortly before it was imploded in the late 1970s. During the oil boom of the 1920s, wildcatters used to cut million dollar oil deals under the statue's gaze and would rub her belly for good luck. During World War I, the Royal Air Force had an air training base just to the southwest of Fort Worth and the pilots, too,had a fondness for the statue. One of those fighters was a fellow named Vernon Castle. Vernon Castle and his wife Irene were a ballroom dancing team and, at the time, were international celebrities. It was the Castles who were largely responsible for the ballroom dancing craze that swept the nation during the 1910s and which lasted right up to World War II. When Irene fell sick and had to cut her hair - well, that is what sparked the fashion craze for bobbed hair for ladies. Vernon actually saw combat and shot down a number of enemy planes during the war before he was assigned to what was supposedly a safer job training pilots in Texas, safely outside the war zone. Unfortunately, those early airplanes were very dangerous and Castle was killed in a take off. The Castles - along with their pet monkey that traveled with them - were staying at the Westbrook when Vernon Castle was killed. In the 1930s, the Castles were the subject of a Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers movie.
Anyhow, when I read about the statue being auctioned off, I put up a posting on a local Fort Worth discussion board urging anyone local who had deep enough pockets to purchase the statue so that it could stay in Fort Worth and perhaps be put on display in another downtown hotel. A reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram saw my posting and interviewed me by phone. The day after the article appeared in the newspaper, a local country music station phoned me up and asked if I would be willing to go on the air during their morning program and talk about the statue - and, of course, I was willing to.
I phoned the station a few minutes before I was scheduled to go on the air as they requested. The lady announcer gave me a brief prep in terms of what to expect and what she was going to ask, etc. Then, about the time I was about to go on, she came on the phone breathlessly and asked if I would be willing to hold for an additional 10 minutes or so as I had been pre-empted by "hot, late breaking Dixie Chick news." Well, sure, I had time to wait.
This happened to be the very day that the scandal regarding the Dixie Chicks remarks about President Bush hit and that was the "hot late breaking" news. The only thing for me was the fact that, while I was sitting on hold, I kept wondering what on earth is a "dixie chick?" You see, that was the very first time I had ever even heard of the Dixie Chicks. I simply do NOT listen to modern music at all - so usually the only time I become familiar with the names of today's music stars is if they make news headlines for some reason or another. Of course, after my interview was over and I saw the news, I very quickly learned who the Dixie Chicks were - though to this day I would not be able to recognize any of their music.
As for the interview, it went ok and was kind of fun. The good news is that some members of the Fort Worth Petroleum Club ended up pooling their money and won the statue in the auction. They then paid to have the statue restored to her former glory after decades of neglect and abuse - and it is now on display in the elevator lobby of their clubhouse at the top of one of the city's skyscrapers. Unfortunately, only members are allowed up there so not just everyone can see it. But I did get an opportunity to attend an exhibit of historical photos being held in the club and got to see the statue after it had been restored. I have no way of knowing whether the members of the club who purchased it found out about it as a result of my thread or the radio or newspaper interviews. Most likely not. But if they did, it is pretty cool to have made a difference in the outcome.
In April of 2005 I did get to hang out for a few hours in the studio of a major New York City FM station owned by CBS. One of the station's on-air personalities is a Radio Dismuke listener and, when I was in town, he was kind enough to invite me to sit in during his program. I didn't go on the air, of course, as the audience would have had no idea who I was and the station certainly did not play anything close to the 1920s and 1930s music I play. But it was a VERY neat experience being able to hang around with a very interesting fellow in a big time radio station in THE major market of major markets. MTV, by the way, was located in the same skyscraper as the radio station - so I cracked a little joke about Dismuke being in the belly of the beast therefore making it only a matter of time before today's nasty rock stuff comes to an end due to the immanent renaissance of wonderful 1920s and 1930s type music. Oh, well - one can dream, at least.
