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Words just don’t do justice to the gratitude I feel towards each of you who took the time and even spent your hard-earned money to vote for me to be inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.  Even more gratifying were the stories people shared with me from across America.  I heard from people I had never heard from before.  They were loyal listeners to the show or the podcast, and they were subscribers to this newsletter.  I truly had no idea how many people I had helped and didn’t know I had.

Asking this audience for help was against everything I felt was right.  Todd brought it up a few weeks ago on the air in DFW that people could join the membership and vote, and I shot him “a look”.  At break, he asked if he did something wrong.  I said, “not at all, but nobody is going to spend money to vote for me”.  Well, I was wrong.

The behind-the-scenes folks that you don’t hear on the air took the ball and ran with it. Hundreds of people voted and I think you overwhelmed the system.  Getting a membership number took days instead of hours, but when the smoke cleared, I was one of 20 broadcasters to be inducted out of several hundred nominated.

Why did all this matter?  Of course, everyone loves recognition, but to be honest, I looked at the list of those elected and many were my heroes, most notable my trusty sidekick for 23 years, Kevin McCarthy.  Kevin was an inductee the very first year of the Hall of Fame, and I went to the ceremony to see him inducted.  That was in 2002.

On-air personalities I have worked with at WBAP in Dallas, already in the Hall in the past 23 years that made an impression on me include Hal Jay, Brad Barton, Steve Lamb, Neil Sperry, Tyler Cox, and Mark Davis. I admired each of those professionals, and although I am only a “weekend host” they all treated me as a peer.  Some of my heroes that have been inducted, but are no longer with us, include Ron Chapman, Kidd Craddick, and my dear friend Terry Dorsey.  My talk radio coach for many years, Tommy Kramer, was inducted long ago, and he worked with me for years to be a better talk radio host.

I’ve been blessed in my lifetime to win a lot of awards over two careers.  In the car business, being Ward’s Dealer of the Year and USA Today’s Dealer of the Year were standout moments.  To be elected by my peers to become the Ford National Dealer Council Chairman was huge, but then being asked to stay on for a second term was even more gratifying, that was a first for the Council.  Winning Radio Show of the Year from the Texas Auto Writer’s Association five times has been wonderful.  But for a guy who started a second career late in life, being in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame is the pinnacle.  It is even more valuable to me because it was listeners who got me here, so again I say thank you to you for voting, for your emails and social media posts of encouragement, for your many stories of how I helped you or saved you money.  This is the reason I do what I do.

As I told you on the air, the outpouring of love and gratitude changed my way of thinking.  Suddenly last week, I didn’t care if I was inducted into the Hall of Fame or not, because I had won the biggest prize of them all: The support of hundreds, if not thousands, of people across our great land, most of which I had never met in real life but became true friends and part of a large family.

Special thanks, too, to Tom Haynes my Business Manager and Amy Plemons, our Executive Producer for promoting this whole thing and making my dream a reality.  Also, special thanks to Kevin McCarthy for mentoring me and giving me the confidence to chase this dream and have a second career that I never imagined becoming so big.  I wrote about how this whole story started in my Dealer True Stories, it is #38 and you’ll find those at our website under the radio tab at the top.

With Sincere Thanks,