1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Broadcasting Origin Stories + Devaney Memories: August 13th, 11:00am

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

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It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought you by Canopy Street Market. In your face. In your face. Nice. Where you're two weeks. You're two weeks.

weeks away from really face-to-face. Cincinnati Bearcat, Nebraska Hussein, Arrowhead Stadium. I kind of feel like the rock, you know, when the rock comes out and that music hits and he always taps his skin, his forearm to let you know the goosebumps. The goosebumps were there, still there after all these years. Still there after all these years. And Bach, I don't know about you, but I still get good. goosebumps whenever the light goes on. It's really cool. I hadn't thought about it until just now that

literally, and it's probably probably why we enjoy doing this, is that each of these is different. And if you don't get excited about it, then why are you doing? Like, this is a cool thing. I'll tell the story here in a bit. But 402, 464, 5, 685, these start a Heyman text line. You want to be a part of what we're doing? and you are invited in, hit us with the what's up. Say what's up, DP, what's up, Bach, and we'll include you in the show and include you in the conversation. I have something that had wonderfully so. You can follow on all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube, Allo, Channel 961,

jump on in. It's, you know, it struck me today's the 13th, the 13th. And that 28th is coming. weeks from today, the Huskers will be on a bus traveling to Kansas City. They'll be on the bus getting ready. They'll get their walkthrough in and they'll get their pregame meals and otherwise. So, Bach, I'll give you time to get a read together to cover this hour and what we're doing. A couple of things in play. This is a very special day

that once a year, the Nebraska Broadcast Association gets together and honors the best in the business in the state. So good luck to folks who were nominated and folks who win. You'll get reports tomorrow. But in the business, you want to celebrate one another for the best in the state for various things

in sports, television, sports radio broadcasts student work as well kudos play by play all sorts of things so if folks who are nominated have a great day today with it um and then uh bach if you would please uh let the folks know how this happens each this first hour of one-on-one yeah hour one is sponsored by hamilton telecommunications bringing you the latest quality technology in communication services since 1901. Whether it's residential or business, Hamilton has the answers. Visit Hamilton tell.com for more info today. Thank you, kind, sir. Greatly appreciate. I know in the 1230 spot or so, Ashley, Sabin Larsson from LinkedIn Literacy come in. They've got word stock, which has got opportunity to

trade books, swap books, great book swap of books that are in your hands or that you're trying and get them into the hands of the right people. You can drop off books. You can swap books, books that you and your kids have read or that you want to share with other people for them to read if it's a good story and you want to drop it off. I dropped off some yesterday, had an opportunity that some books that I had on the library shelf, kid-friendly books as well, plus some grown-up books, things that just stir the mind a little bit. So she'll talk about that at 1230 event is coming up in a couple of weeks, so we want to help them push and provide. And I'm feeling grateful today.

It's always, it, Bach, when did you know this is what you want to do? Like, when did you know you want to talk sports? Well, I originally got into print journalism. So, you know, I think from a young age, reading Stephen Sipples articles and such, I thought, man, that'd be a cool job. So, you know, I obviously gravitated towards sports and then going into college is kind of cool story. You know, I was all focused on print. And then I saw this sign up in over there at the college, at the broadcasting college to say, you know, we need some help calling some games.

And so I said, sure, I'll do it. I sign up. Somehow I get the Texas game. Texas is ranked at like number two or three at the time. The number one team, you know, the two teams ahead of them lose. Then Nebraska, so Nebraska is playing the default number one Texas team. And I'm there to call it for student radio as Nebraska upset the number one team, or default number to one team in the nation and beaten tech.

What's better than beating Texas, obviously. Right. And from there, I was hooked. I said, you know what I want to call. I want to talk about sports. That was a lot of fun. And so kind of switched by majors and got headed into this way. So what's the transition?

What's it going to take to get back calling games here on the ticket? Well, I don't know. I could do it again. It would be kind of fun. I'd like to do it. We had to push an accinerated out of the way, maybe. Well, no, I mean, it can't be everywhere all the time. Right?

Yeah. Right? I mean, he can't. And it makes all the sense of the world. If it's the thing that you enjoy, you know, and you may not enjoy it anymore. And Bach also knows that I try not to push people to do things that they don't want to do that they don't enjoy doing. But, I mean, if that's a thing where if you feel like, you know what, this was,

call back to the gods, man. Just bring back young Bach, young Texas, Nebraska, Bach and bring him back. I think there would be some great value. It was a lot of fun. I personally, I actually really do kind of prefer,

you know, play by plays, obviously kind of more of the role for the non-former athlete. I really did like color commentary a little bit more, but either way, I mean, it could be a lot of fun. Why so?

Why so? Why is that? Oh, it's just being able to kind of add like it is it kind of the color kind of being able to add um you know kind of stats or something that you see somewhat after the play as opposed to to actively calling it i mean it's to each their own either one is is both fun um and and but i just i don't know i just kind of gravitated toward that a little bit more and actually before myself and sorrentson ever worked a game ever worked actually together at the ticket uh which we are the the two oldest members i suppose are longest tenured

members you're the longest tender there you go yeah not all the old yeah yeah you You might still win oldest there. Yeah. But yeah, and we called the game on BTN for Nebraska in Omaha, the Mavs. So that was a pretty cool story that we kind of can share together as well. Yeah, I just, I was thinking about it that as this thing evolves, right? And it's changed and had several versions along the way. I was asked yesterday, as a matter of fact, why the ticket?

like why would how did this all happen right because they were standing outside and they were looking at the building and um this is yeah it it how did this happen and you can't plan it like we couldn't plan this we couldn't plan the ticket right um and i've told the story that really i thought i was going to do just chill i thought i was going to retire and the opportunity to come in and have somebody ask you to share your thoughts on a daily basis? I was like, yeah. And the honest to God truth is I would do this for free. That's the real.

I think everybody who sits in front of the microphone and talk sports at some level would just love to, I mean, there are people that would pay to do a podcast, right? Let alone do it for free. They would go to debt to do a podcast. because it is a human need and human value to be hurt. And then to get feedback on your thoughts is just way cooler. This is why I stand-up comedians love the stand-up business

because you get immediate feedback, right? The thing that you thought was funny or intelligent, it either lands or it doesn't. And you get me, same thing with a singer. In front of a loud crowd, you get a live crowd, you get to feedback. Are they feeling this? Are they connected to it?

And often it becomes about the professional side of it. But Bach, if people knew the real, when I started at the ticket, I was, I want to say I was making $12. Like, I'm not out of the range, right? That's about where, yeah. Right. Like $12.50 maybe? Yeah. 1225, $1250.

Yeah. Somewhere in that ballpark. Right? So, and to tell you, like, when I got here, I said, here's what I, yeah, I'm going to retire. And they said, well, we need somebody to talk sports. Two hours. Okay, cool. The fact that you're paying me is really not my concern.

Like, okay, cool. You're going to buy me lunch every day. You're going to put gas in the car. Great. Right. So imagine that. Then it was two hours. Then it was three hours.

And then you go, okay. And then to explain to people, I thoroughly enjoy the simplicity. of that time. Like it was just, you know, you know, Tom Stevens, we sit down, we have at it. And of course, Tom Stevens, God bless his soul. God bless his heart for having to deal with me every day. When you see things in another way and you're trying to explain to people that, well, there could be more. I don't want more. I don't want to do more than that. I don't want to, like, but there's so much, there's so much more we can be doing. No, we're cool. And I felt bad. And I felt bad. like pushing and then trying to explain to people this this idea that sports in lincoln could be bigger

than than it was and i stayed away from better bigger yeah like lincoln and husker fans in my mind deserved more sports talk like i just thought what do you do it and so it's funny five years later that we've moved the station and we're down here and we're doing, you know, we're doing 18 hours a day, seven days a week, right? Because I was told nobody's going to listen at night. Nobody's going to listen in the afternoon. Like, just run Dan Patrick and be doubled. And I'm like, okay.

But I thought that Lincoln deserved to talk to people from Lincoln. Like, it, why would you not want to hear from your own people about the things you love? You weren't going to get Husker talk 430 the afternoon from Dan Patrick. That wasn't going to happen, right? And Bach can tell you from the high school level, what, how this works, from the college level, being a student, now a veteran in the space, Bach has the ability to tell people, you know what, this, if this is what you want to do for a living, here's some things you need to know. So, Bach, what have you learned in 10 years plus. Oh, I mean, well, first of all, it's been

fantastic to see the growth. I remember opening up the building down here and just, you know, because you and I had had conversations, it's funny. You mentioned the, kind of the eight, nine win basketball seasons that we went through. There were a lot of time for other conversations and future thinking during those games and, you know. A lot of us, what are we doing here at 11 o'clock at night for an eight-win basketball team? What are we doing in a snowstorm?

Yeah. Yeah. So those were, I mean, when you have, when you have eight wins and, you know, there's three games remaining, you know, it was just so, but at the time, but it was fun because he used it to kind of like forward think and, you know, strict was in on some of those conversations too. And so, you know, where it's kind of like, man, what could be? And then to watch, you take over, of course, you know, by the station and then open up down here and to see not just it then. I mean, then was beautiful. I remember to stand out in front of you and say, man, this is. This is what Lincoln needed. This is what Lincoln deserves. And then, you know, to watch it continue to grow to today and the different, you know, folks that kind of walk in. I always kind of make a joke. Some days I feel like I'm in one of those ESPN commercials or there's just random

athletes walking by some mascots. You know, from Huskers of current, past, future, you know, not just Huskers, just different sports folks from around town. So it really is cool. But, you know, there is a, there's a. a lot to be learned about, you know, haven't, haven't been in the business. But another thing that definitely comes to mind is kind of what you were saying earlier is you're kind of, it's not, it's a very public job, right? I mean, you could tell if someone's having a bad day,

you know, you're going to have bad days too. You're going to have segments that don't hit. You're going to try things, just much like comedians do, that don't quite work. And you have to kind of rewire, retool and see what works and move forward and all that sort of thing. But, but that public aspect of it and you mentioned the text line the other day is you do have to have very thick skin too you're going to have people telling you you're an idiot that you suck you don't deserve the time on air they do that they do now we've done a good job of placing the text line and trying to keep the nice folks and lincoln you know kind of if you don't have nothing anything nice to say right you know don't have nothing nice to say they don't say anything at all um but you know so at first it's so a young

broadcaster that's what i that's what i would tell you have to have thick skin because i uh you know I kind of remember at times thinking, man, maybe they're right. Maybe, maybe, you know, you, maybe this is. Maybe that's true. Maybe I do suck. But then, you know, then you got to look at the support, too, because you're always going to get support and care for them or those. And again, you know, you're not going to be perfect.

You have to learn from your mistakes. That's the real part, right, is when, especially as the student athletes come in, right? This is not, you know, for some of them, it's what they want to do. but some they just come in because they're curious and they want to share. And then they realize you have to tell them, explain to them, hey, this text line, man, this could either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Use it for both, right? Don't take the negative and turn it into a negative.

Simply use that to explain yourself. Tell people who you are, right? Listen, I'm not here to fight you via the text line. right? Because quite frankly, there's nobody. You're not engaging the text line and you're not attacking anybody. So for them to attack you is kind of weird to me. It's always been that way. But it's also a really cool way to have the text line share their feelings about what you're talking about. And I think that's been the thing. And it's always for me curious, because I can't speak on the life of growing up here in Lincoln and going to high school here and going to college

here. I can't speak to it. So I have to be curious about the things I don't know about. And the best way to get informed about the thing you don't know about is to ask somebody that went through it. And so I find great entry in, and we, we gave those basketball teams too much credit. Those were not eight win teams. Those were seven win teams. Those were back to back seven wins teams. Like, still love Cam Mack though. He's still provided. like triple double cam triple like yes like we were digging so deep to find something good to talk about i mean think about this i have an udrago and and and we we we forget how shallow the pool was like in the and there were nights there were nights when we really just i wish the listeners had gotten the

pre-show conversations because there were a lot of depression releases. Like the size that just had Buck, I remember they lost an early season game

and you just walked into the station and blurted out this expletive. And normally you'd be like, okay, I just went, yep. Like you screamed Like this is terrible. Why do we have to do this?

And then there's the word. And I just went, yep. I'm trying to remember who the loss was to. Oh, it was a wrong. Oh, my goodness. It was, because we really thought that it wasn't going to be that terrible that year. Like we were hoping. And I don't remember.

remember the Teddy Allen year. And we just couldn't wrap our brain around it. We just couldn't wrap our brain around it. And then we couldn't wrap our brain around. You know what? This just isn't going to be good for a while. And then we had to concede that there was a night where there was a 9 o'clock game, somewhere in the Big Ten, nine o'clock game.

And it was, it ran late. and it was like 1115. And while we're at the station, it is snowing like nobody's business. And we ordered pizza or something. And the pizza was the cold pizza was the highlight of the evening. And the text line was on fire. And we, Bach, you and I were laughing because we were like,

what are these people doing up at, this hour watching this horrible basketball team and just texting away. Like it was like it was rapid fire. And then you realize there is a nation of a Husker fans just begging for a for a win. And then you realize it matters that much. Absolutely. It matters that much. And it was just I didn't understand it.

I'd leaned heavily on Bach to just to just explain it to me. and Bach, where does your love of Husker basketball cover? Because it's never really paid you off. Like you've never got. Not a tournament win. Right. But I mean, that's what I love about Nebraska basketball fans is somewhat like living through that. You're right.

I mean, as we look back at it now, three street seasons, you know, seven wins, seven wins and ten wins. You got to remember conference play takes over the back half of that stretch. There are two and 18, three and 16, and four and 16. and I think we were doing post games, at least for a majority of those seasons. Yeah. And so it does. It still baffles my mind when you explain that

because there were games that would in 11. The game was over at halftime. They're down 30 or something. And there would be people that would wait, not just wait up, want to talk with us. Have the text ready. They would have the text

queued up in their phone. How would you not just turn it off at half time and say, you know what? And the rest of my night is not going to, be dedicated to Hustra basketball, but they would not only suffer through the second half. They tune into our post game show and complain with us for an hour. But that's that's the level of, that's what I love Nebraska basketball. Part of the reason my passion for Nebraska basketball is the Huskers nation's passion

for Nebraska basketball. It does not die. It does, like you said, it's never really paid off. There's been, you know, some, you know, big eight, I don't want to underscore anything they did there, you know, at times. but it, you know, I just, I, I don't, when you ask me, when it, for me, though, is just those childhood memories going to Devaney. When I was a kid, it was Theron Lou and Vincent Hamilton and Cook and Belcher. So they had competitive teams then. And, but I, but growing up, it was always the

weirdest thing where you go to a Kansas game, Roy Williams walks in the building. The crowd goes crazy. Barry Collier walks on the court. Nobody gives, nobody cares. No, not at all. Not a buzz. So help me compare Devani Hussein. Oscars basketball versus PBA, how's good. There's benefits to both. The vaney was, was more kind of like the college feel, I guess. It was just, you know, not, you know,

I think it looks a little bit more professional. Obviously, newer building over there at PBA. And in the words, you know, at the time, now PBA has developed its own history. We've had a few tournament teams in there. But there is just kind of a tournament field to. But yeah, that's what I'd say. There's, I would just kind of,

kind of compare it to more of the college arenas that you see that are kind of long-standing. compared to the newer ones that get built. Yeah, I'm kind of just, I never got to go to the old Devaney. Because you hear about it, right? And you talk about the proximity and how close to fans were to the court

and while fans felt like more part of the game than maybe PBA. But PBA, just telling you, as you travel around, is a great facility. It's a great facility, great location. I kind of wish they had better parking. Am I wrong? Yeah, there could be some more parking around.

Like, I'm not, I'm not really, like the media yet park in the back. And I don't know where fans park. I know they park across the street. Yeah. And they get those garages. In the garage. Yeah. But, you know, the fact that it's winter.

Yeah. The garage is not a bad thing. Uh, and not having you deal with that. But, oh, the trek up that hill. You know, I parked behind where they cut that big parking lot. I do it every winter. It's freezing. At least the, the bridge says Lincoln, so I can feel a part of it.

something while I'm doing it, but man. And it's bad because when the bad storms hit, like I don't even like the short trip up the back stairs to where the media has to get in. Because it's ice. It's black ice. And the stairs, as much as they try to get them ready, it's never clear. Flick. Never clear.

And so then you can go across the archway, right? You can either go across. Yeah. Right. And then cross over. or you can take the stairs. And either way, I always think of young Frankenstein,

fraubleuquer, right? And she says, the roads can be treachery. I always think of it. That's literally, every time I walk to PVA after a snowstorm, I literally, I have frowlouker in my head,

just telling, reminding me, be careful. Be careful, be careful. This is going to be brutal. So, yeah, I would like to be, I think, I don't know if it's parking garages, but I mean, it's the haymarket. So relative to the space, haymarket park has better parking. Yeah. Than PBA.

But more people go to PBA. Yeah. So it's always a kind of, like I'm trying to figure that out. It's great if the weather was great that you would just park at Haymarket and walk across. Not that terrible of a walk. But in the winter, when there are no degrees and it's icy and snow, it's a bit much.

Like I literally had to have a conversation with myself to keep from just writing, being the guy that wrote a letter to the athletic department about why you move the media room to the upstairs. You make this go up. You make the media go all the way up to either across the bridge or up the stairs and around and then walk around when you could just walk through the front door. You could just walk through the front door. It would be, I don't know, not a terrible thing, like close to parking. But that's just me. Right.

I just try. I'll write a letter for all of us. Maybe we can see you know, I, you know, Eric says this to do the parking. DeVaney was absolutely true. I'm living in luxury compared to that. Yeah, that's why I ask, is you go under the belief of what currently exist as being the standard,

good or bad. And I don't know. And I'm 100% honest when I, if I don't know what a thing was or is, I ask somebody that knows, tell me what it was. Texas, I remember going to a coliseum for Husker basketball in the early to mid-70s, quite a different experience nowadays compared to the old days.

I'd ask that texture, is that better or not? And I think the measuring, it may not, well, it actually would have been last year because there were some moments last year where big, big time programs came in here and got handled, and the building was insane. PBA was nuts last year. The last two years. Like there were some wins, some critical wins in that building. So I don't know if Devaney Strickland era,

Ty, you know, Tailu era, if that's a better or different experience only because they were better, but would it be better if you would put those teams in PBA? Would that have been a better experience than what you currently experience? I don't know. I mean, it would have been a lot of fun.

Obviously, like you said, different, but there was something, again, it's kind of your, for others that are speaking up on the Coliseum, they're saying that because that was their introduction to Oscar basketball, that was their love. For younger people that have only experienced BBA, they're going to say, how could you want anything different?

And for me, it's the same of Bob Devaney is like, yeah, it wasn't perfect. It wasn't all that glitz and glamorous, but that's kind of what Nebraska basketball was. So when you walk in, you're kind of feeling part of it. I'll never forget, I mean, for the majority of my life, I don't know why, but they had said Bob Devaney Sports Center on it.

there was like rain stains coming down from it for years and nobody ever did nobody ever addressed it and it was just kind of part of what the bob was it's like hey bob hey bob you got tears running down the side of your face and uh nobody nobody's going we're just no one's ever going to nobody's going to do anything about it i'm not sure like i don't know and and is there other than ideal right are they doing beard pba for basketball i believe so yeah right is that better I'm not a beer drinker. I haven't noticed, I guess. Like, would you care?

I wouldn't. I know some people get, even non-drinkers, some get, you know, concerned about drunks being around, but I haven't noticed anything. I don't really see them at football games. Like, I know the tailgates happen, and we see them after the game. Yes.

Like, we definitely see them after the game. We definitely know how, how inebriated Husker fans get. We see them in the post. We'll talk a little bit more about that when we come back to one-on-one. Download our app by searching 93.7, The Ticket in your app store. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 93-7 The Ticket in the Ticketfm.com.