1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Celebrating the Growth of The Ticket: February 28th, 11:00pm

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Celebrating the Growth of the TicketAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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. Boom. Midday on the ticket. Filling it for Adam Kerker. He wasn't feeling well.

Got the tax. So, rally we do. Next man up. Next dude up. And so we will carry you through the next two hours. Boxman and the board, he'll make sure the mothership keeps moving. 402-464-5-685 is the. Sartar-Hamman TechSline, you want to be a part of what we're doing.

You're invited. I mean, with a what's up. And we'll get into the conversations. You can follow all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube X, and Allo Channel 9661. Thank our folks from Canopy Street Market, Dance, Brampton, Brad Moline and crew for making the happy tummies around town. If you haven't had a chance to stop by, Canterbury Street Market, do so. Fresh-made meals, fully prepped, warm and heat carry.

You can grab yours and get out of the building. If you need beverages and snacks for your weekend, that would be a great stop. It's Canterbury Street Market down in the Hay Market. Um, anybody that knows me when it comes to the radio side of this thing, they know that, that I can have a plan for two hours of radio and then I can go down a rabbit hole and end up in a whole other universe, which is fully, I fully accept that that's a part of my profile. I'm just going to say that. No, there's not tech stories. I just pointed out. Character's not feeling well today.

So next, do it up. And in this particular case, it's me. So if you don't know who I am, buckle in. Buckle up and figure out what it is. Husker P, nice to see you on the tech sign. Greatly appreciate you hanging out with us. the next two hours. I go down several rabbit holes and there are a couple of things that I wanted to touch on,

but I don't want to dance around when there's no music. Of course, folks have seen on social media that Rico is, today is his last day. And then Rico was just on with AD and RAF and AG and it's good that he's, speaks for himself on what he's doing here. I'm a coach at heart. I'm a coach at heart. And I'm, I have, I constantly battle between radio talent and radio station owner. There's, there's a line that has to be, I have to dance around from time to time.

But I've said this, that the moment I got here, it was an interesting, it was an interesting thing that happened. at the old ticket. And I've said this. I've been in sports and sports radio for over 35 years. There's nothing new. There's nothing new. I've seen it in whether it was my time in D.C., time in Charlotte, time in Houston, time in Salt Lake City, time in L.A., Atlanta.

Like, I've been all over the country in the sports thing. And as a coach in all of those places, along with broadcasting, what you learn is your time with people, you have to be appreciative of the time. Because if you're doing it right, there's only certain ways this thing can go. You either stay or you go. And you either stay because you choose to stay and you work to stay. or you go because either it's time you've grown and you've gotten better at it. Other opportunities show up. It's the thing.

That's why I've moved around so much, is that I, you know, depending on the time and circumstance, right, to go from the redskins being where you cut your teeth to getting a phone call from the new expansion franchise in Charlotte. You know, oh, the Panthers and they need a veteran. and they need somebody to come down here and be the, be the, the guy that moves, introduces this town to this new thing called pro football and the Panthers. And so I moved. I had to leave some legends in D.C.

I was doing a show with Gary Clark and Doc Walker and Mark Mosley and Tony McGee. You know, I'm hanging out with Phil Schneer with the bullets and Craig, Blockland and Joe Benignati from the caps. But the opportunity happens. And it's a chance to go from being small fish, big pond to big fish, small pond. Or, you know, bigger fish, big, big pine. And the guys who trained me in this thing who helped me develop didn't want to see me go to Carolina, but you're kind of proud. Like, go.

Hey, man, do you think? different phases in life, different personalities involved. I went from there, went back to D.C., 9-11 happened. I got a call that, hey, do you want to work in Salt Lake City? You want to cover the Olympics? Do you want to work for the Utah Jazz? And out there, you know, you're hanging out with Jerry Sloan and Carl Malone and Stockton and, you know, Rick Majeris.

you know, you kind of want to see, are you really, are you really grown? Like, have you really grown in it? Are you, are you good? Like, are you good in your space? Are you good? Like, you want to know. Yeah, I was good in Redskins,

which is a big deal, right? I'm good in D.C., but can I be good in Charlotte? Right? They don't know me. They don't know me. Well, some of them did, but not the most of them,

And then you've got to learn, right? Because then you've got to learn NASCAR, right? Because if you're going to Carolina, you've got to learn NASCAR. Not exactly the DC hub, but you've got to learn it. Pro wrestling, you've got to go deeper, right? Because they're all living there. I mean, my third day in Charlotte, I find out that Rick Flares right across the street. And you go to a gym to work out.

Back in the days, they were still working out. And it was a gym that he and Ricky Steamboat owned together. Right, which talk about eye opening, right, that you walk in the place and two people who are fighting on Saturday, Friday and Saturday and Sunday are actually business partners. And you learn the inner workings and you meet wrestlers as they come through. I had to learn to WMBA. And there was this young lady playing point guard by the name of Don Staley, right,

who I met at UVA back previous years. You got to learn the WMBA, different game. You got to meet K. Yao at NC State. You got to deal with Duke, Carolina, NC State, all in the same hub and same window. Oh, hey, Ben, forget your Virginia come up. Forget your Maryland come up, right? Right? Yeah, Tommy, there's a thing that happens.

So I left Charlotte, going back to D.C., went to Salt Lake City, moved back to Virginia to coach. Because Salt Lake City, I mean, you know, you're working with Urban Meyer, when he comes to Utah. You meet the new generation of players at the Utah Jazz, the Darren Williams, the Andre Carolinkos, watching Urban Meyer build Utah from a pretty good program to a pretty elite program, right,

in the transition and learning BYU, and you're hanging out there with Lavella Edwards and Coach McBride, and you go, wait a minute, this is, you know, little did I know in my time did out there, that one of the guys that, as I'm hanging out on the, sideline at the University of Utah, there's this guy coaching on the program by the name of Bill Bush. Right?

You go, okay, all right. You meet the Alex Smiths of the world? And then Nebraska, where you have to come in and learn. And when I got here, there were several, I've told the story, there's several things that I thought was going to happen. None of those things happened. And my sitting here today, us sitting here today, is the evolution of a whole, lot of things happening as it is.

One of the first people, of course, Mark, and I don't have issue naming names and, you know, giving credit to people, I mean, Mark Arunweiler went through several interviews with me, Connor, made a decision. He says, okay, we got to figure out, we need the guy, let's figure out how to use them. We don't know how it plays out, but let's see how it plays out. Tom Stevens, you know, pulling back his medium shirt,

you know, buttoned up shirt to show a Superman t-shirt that said, yeah, come with me. Come with me. And guys like Bach were in the building. Young Ryan Hap was in the building. There were folks that were there doing radio. Jake Sorensen, Simple, where you have these conversations. And in a while that there, at the first person you meet when you walk in the ticket, was Rico. And Rico, everybody knows, Rico has his own personality, his own style.

his own energy pool. And the funny thing was, he was like, okay, you know, he gave me the, the, Bernie Mac look where, you know, from shoe to, shoot a hat, right? Like, and then back down again, like, what's the deal? You know, and he told me that day, he goes, listen, I don't care who you are. These are my people. I'm like, okay. Sure thing, little dude.

Like whatever, man. But it didn't take long to realize, and I told him this. I'm like, listen, man, I'm glad you're doing what you're doing, but I think you have more in you. And it would be hypocritical for me to say, I think there's more in you, and then to inject and support and celebrate that, and then be unhappy when those opportunities bear fruit. like that means that the thing that we were doing actually has value.

Like it makes perfect sense. And, you know, we had the opportunities, right? We cover sports. I'm like, okay, Rico, I need you on the microphone on purpose, not just walking in, hey, I need you to make a plan. And then, hey, do your own show and, hey, learn production and, hey, learn programming, and, hey, learn these things. And it makes people uncomfortable pushing new things on them.

And, Bach, you can speak to that as well. You understand that here I come. with a bunch of ideas and concepts. And the coach in me never stops trying to get you to add another thing to your tool, though. Like, I just keep saying it. Like, hey, man, like, we had the conversation this morning. Is there anything that you want to sink your teeth at? Right?

In this business, I'm not trying, I'm blessed to be in this radio, in this sports business. I'm blessed in it. And I love it. I actually love it. it, but I also know what it did for my life. So I'm just saying to Rico, to Bach, to Connor, to Mark, to have, hey man, do your thing. And if I can help, let me help. And then it happens.

It's like my high school players. I don't have them forever. I can help them, but I don't have them forever. I know that. There are people that don't want to leave, they'll come to tick and don't want to go But for me to think that Nick is putting in all of this work that he only wants to do high school sports is silly. Now, it may be exactly what he wants to do. And I'm good with it.

I'm fine with it. But that's why, you know, Bach and I, you and I have been talking about this thing along the way, that rule one for me is I want people that want to be here. Like everybody wants to do, everybody wants the perks of being. in radio and they want to be in sports business and they, you know, sometimes want to put in the work that's required with that. But there are things that you have to do that just, you know what, it's uncomfortable. And we know that when you throw more talent into a pool, people scatter. That's just the way it works, right?

The lineup that exists today is different than the lineup that was five years ago, 10 years ago. And there's, I'm not saying better, worse, or other words. I'm just saying it evolves. And what I think we're really good at here is evolving. Next version. In sports, we say next man up just on purpose. And here it's next man, next woman up. And it's simple to say we want to bring you the best radio that, and content that we can bring you.

Look, we don't do hot take radio. Like, we're not into debate. business. Like we don't, you know, there are shows that that's what folks want to do. But my thing is come in, get better at what you want to get better at, celebrate what you want to celebrate, and then whatever the best thing for you in your life, that's the thing that I want for you. Like everybody here, I want everybody here to live their best life. And if it could be done here, than do it here. Right?

Do it here. Like I had to convince Rico, hey man, I'm going to take you on the road with me. Right? I'm going to take you on the road. We're going to go do professional sports. I'm going to make you a professional sports producer.

Now, why would I want to make him a professional sports producer if I don't have professional sports for him to produce? It's opportunity, it's resume, it's access experience of life, right? Experience of life for him to see parts of the country and to meet people that he would never meet in any other way,

shape or form in business, that we get to do this thing every day. And I get what I love about it is to watch Rico go from the guy sitting at the front counter to the guy I could give the keys to my radio station too and trust him with it. And here's the part that people have to understand. I'm proud of him.

I'm happy for him. I don't want to see Rico go. I don't. I told Rico this thing, you have a job as long as you want to work here. Go do your stuff. And, Bach, if I'm wrong at any point in this conversation, correct me. Feel free, you have full permission to correct me if I'm telling these people anything

that is an absolute untrue. Because what I want for Nick, what I want for Jake Sorenton, I tell Jake, Hey, man, you're the biggest badass in sales in, in, in radio in Nebraska. Now, that means every other radio station and sales company wants Jake Sorensen. But I tell Jake Sorensen, amen, if you can make. There, what, what you make it here, and then have the freedom to come and go as you please and meet the people you want to hang out what you want and do the hours you want to do, hey man, I'm going to shake your hand.

I'm going to shake your hand. We don't, the ticket doesn't have competitors. I've said this from day one. I don't care what other stations are doing. I don't care. It's my job to make sure that we have, we, us, this ticket family and its listeners, get and have everything that it wants on a daily basis. And I do it with the best of resources and the best of intent,

and that's it. And I can tell you, nobody here. makes less now than they did three years ago, two years ago or a year ago. But again, feel free to confirm or deny. I haven't said anything yet because I'm waiting for you to slip up. Right, right, right. So here's my thing. It is a, it is a, as a coach, this is a graduation day for Rico.

As a station owner, this is a graduation day for Rico. I don't have to like that he's going somewhere else. I'm okay. Go make sports radio better. The whole intent, and if you haven't caught this yet, I will say this about 937 the ticket and how we've done business. Sports coverage in Nebraska got better because of the ticket. It got, you got longer teeth, you got deeper teeth.

Other folks have to do better work. They have to do more work. They've got to hire more people. They've got to improve their staff. They've got to sell better. They've got to produce better. And listeners, you have more options now in sports radio than you've ever had. You have more coverage and more people.

And you get to reach in every day and talk sports with us. We include you in this thing called the ticket. And I say to call you leaders is, no. We call you family. I'm not going to call you listeners. I'm going to call you family. Because you tell us, you ride with us every day. You hang with us.

The days you're not, the days you're not here, you miss us, and we miss you. But we keep it moving. We have to. Because you, the listener, our family, you deserve access and to be able to hang out with us and speak to us and be with us and see us at events and be in the community. and be at ball games. And when we travel to Vegas and New York and Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan,

you folks find us and meet us and hang out with us in such a cool way that we wouldn't have it any other way, if only better, if possible. And we listen every day. We listen to what you say. We listen to what you want to talk about. We don't always get it right, but we try. We're trying.

We absolutely try. Now, here's another simple truth. I don't know where Rico's going. Rico's a grown man. He's my grown son, my grown brother. He, amen. If you tell me that you're leaving the ticket, you leave in the house, you leave in the crew,

I'm going to hope that you know, I'm proud of you, go be successful, do your thing. wherever he's going to go, they're going to be better because of it. It's not ideal that he's not going to be at the ticket. But also know this. We ready. I've got, I got, I've got, I've got, I've got, Jake, Nick, Harrison, Austin, Jackson, Ellie.

I have built, I got a roster and it's on purpose. We're not missing no beats, not one single beat. I love Rico. He's family forever. And wherever he goes, I'm going to root for him as though he's here sitting in that chair, manning the board. I'm going to root for him the same way. I'm going to love him the same way. I just am.

There's a part of me that's sad today because my guy is not going to be here every day. But I have him in my heart. I hope, I hope he knows he's in mind. We'll take a break. We'll come back more one-on-one on the ticket.