It’s no ‘Last Dance,’ but documentary on The Ticket’s beloved host will be riveting
In the history of retirements, Mike Rhyner’s decision to leave SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket ranks with John Elway’s as the perfectly timed walk-off ender.
Rhyner retired from The Ticket on Jan. 6. Two months later sports stopped, and the world went inside.
“I can’t tell you how lucky I feel,” Rhyner said in a phone interview. “I call those guys up there and they’ll say, ‘You son of a [bleep].’”
Rhyner is too humble to say it, but with Randy Galloway, Blackie Sherrod, Frank Luksa, Dale Hansen and few others, he is one of the most significant figures in the history of sports media in Texas.
Accordingly, Rhyner’s career, and life, is now the subject of a new documentary.
It’s not quite The Last Dance, but for the loyal P1 listeners of The Ticket, and people who have lived in DFW for several decades, they will enjoy watching The Old Grey Wolf reminisce.
Former KDFW Fox 4, and The Ticket, reporter Crystal Vasquez is writing, directing and producing what will be approximately a 50- to 60-minute documentary about the man who helped to create the monster that is The Ticket.
The documentary is not just a history lesson of The Ticket. This is more of a story of a man’s life and career that, by way of The Ticket, changed the concept of the sports radio format in a blossoming U.S. market.
Vasquez hopes to have filming completed in the next month or so. Then she will enter the “wonderful” world of trying to find a distributor for the film with the goal of having it available later this summer.
“I saw the fans he drew in, and how the people reacted to him and that relationship he had with P1s, I just thought there was more about the man that was not told,” Vasquez said.
Rhyner, who was inducted into the the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2014, is one of the founders of The Ticket, which since it launched 25 years ago has grown into one of the most successful versions of its brand.
Rhyner and the early days of The Ticket essentially built a brand that has been copied and pasted in markets all over the United States.
A brand that in its early days had an Animal House, fraternity element that was wonderfully organic, and pushed lines that were muted in the ‘90s.
“I suspected we could draw in the more casual sports fan, the day tripper, if we discussed other stuff beyond sports and go off-script,” said Rhyner, who will turn 70 soon. “I just said don’t be hesitant and let’s not try to manufacture it.”
The Ticket was hardly conventional, but it was always sincere.
For the film Vasquez followed Rhyner to his old neighborhood in Oak Cliff. Watching Rhyner sing the fight song to his elementary school, T.G. Terry, is most amusing.
Watching Rhyner visit old neighbors he had not seen since 1964 is undeniably heartwarming.
Watching Rhyner walk through the original The Ticket radio offices, now vacated, is nostalgic.
Vasquez interviewed, among others, WFAA sports anchor Dale Hansen, Cowboys radio voice Brad Sham, Dallas radio voices Ken Rundel and John Rody. Curt Menefee, Randy Galloway and current Ticket voices George Dunham and Corby Davidson are on the list.
For the soundtrack, Vasquez relies exclusively on DFW area bands, notably Quaker City Night Hawks, The Cush, Charley Crockett, The Orbans and The Hanna Barbarians.
The surprise “get” for Vasquez is Rhyner’s former partner on the show, “The Hardline,” Greg Williams. That show dominated afternoon drive ratings for a decade, but Williams was essentially pushed out in October 2007 for unusual behavior as a result of substance abuse.
What set Rhyner, and The Ticket apart, was a willingness to share thoughts and opinions that offered no hint of self-important voice who too often fell in love with their own “knowledge.”
“From my point of view, I incurred the wrath of the team often, the consumer more often, and the player occasionally,” Rhyner said. “’I didn’t care too much about any of that. I just did it the way I thought it should be done. And the way I wanted to do it.”
Rhyner was passionate about the local teams, particularly the Texas Rangers, and had no problems sounding like a fan. In doing so he helped to create, and reach, an audience that local politicians, comedians, actors and musicians all wanted a part of to promote whatever they were doing.
Since he retired, he has not missed his show. He just misses the people from the station.
Since he retired, he received a reaction he was not expecting. The reaction, which was a champagne pop of adulation and respect, fit the man and the career. Even if he didn’t think so.
“[The station] wanted a big announcement and I didn’t want that,” he said. “I did not think it was going to be the big deal that it’s been. I thought it would be, ‘This old radio hack is crawling away and dying in the weeds’ and I was fine with that.”
It turns out the timing could not have been much better for a career whose legacy should make for an entertaining documentary.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
