WFAA’s Jason Wheeler Takes Off His Shoes | Jason Wheeler | Ep 218

Reiner sports talk
Oh with the big mic. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it
All right, all right
Here's a tip for all these Americana league teams. Don't do it. You said tip. Yeah, okay. Keep jamming
To take a colon, nothing but a big gen X jerk off
What kind of experience have you had at Earth X? I haven't I've done a podcast with someone who was putting it on
Oh
That's it. That's it
No, it was a couple of years ago. We haven't I haven't actually been to it
We were going to go again this year, but then we tried to set it up and we didn't get the the guy we wanted and
We didn't do it. Did you walk around and I didn't go. Oh, I don't have time for these pursuits
But I mean when you were there before did you?
Well, no, we did him we did him from his he was at his house. Okay. Okay. I thought maybe you got to go down there and
Take a look around. It's quite a collection things. No, you don't get time for these things everybody's got me like
Oh my god, they I'm so calendar down. It's stupid. Well, it's because you're important you matter man
Well, I don't know not all indicators show that either. You know what I mean
I'll bet the one the indicators that matter most show that you matter
I'm gonna have to go review those indicators again then because there may be a few in there that do not show it
This
kids
is us
Dipping into one of our favorite places
To get people to come on to YDC that is WFAA
channel eight
The
Undisputed not even close
Not even worth talking about news leader in this town
and we've had
Several people on with us. In fact, one is a quite the return offender the repeat offender
Jesse Havila that would be him. Oh, y'all I needed was the word offender
Yeah, we had him who we have the other day Matt Howard. Oh, yeah, we had Matt Hauerton. Wow the shoelace Matt here at
Hauerton he was
No, he said Matt Harrison. Oh, he was let's just say a little bit
Lucer than you think he might be
Yeah, I know Matt
So I'm not terribly surprised, but I do feel licensed now like good. I can take my shoes off
Yeah, if you want take a pants off if you want
Whatever you do not tempt me
He'll tempt you not ask and look who we have today
It is the great Jason Wheeler
No one also has just Jason Wheeler
Most people don't know any of that first part
Well, I think you're pretty great. Well, thank you, you know, we try others
We try to get you a couple times before yeah, and couldn't but I played really hard to get
I was not I was not going to let you get away
We always had good reasons. I was sure you did
We need the doctors notes. I think what what we need the doctors notes like
Yes, they were all doctors notes and I'm like a really healthy guy except I keep
Breaking myself, you know
Like I just it's and it's stupid things that happen and I just keep breaking parts of me and have to be it get put back together
Like literally you break something like breaking things muscles bones. Yeah, I mean it's you know
It's it's become a problem
And the stupid thing is is like I don't even have great stories for the things that are happening
You know, they're just it's dumb accidents
You know now that's a bummer if you break something and you don't have a good story to go along with it
One was a body surfing accident
Which it was just ill advise. I shouldn't have been there. I shouldn't have been doing it
And it was on a rock beach in Hawaii and it was beautiful
Absolutely beautiful until it almost killed me and so it was this gorgeous beach black rocks
Is what the whole beach is made up of and there was no one there
Which should have been my first clue. No one swimming there
It's probably maybe a little dangerous to be there
And so the waves were great and I was riding those waves and I can never body surf worth a damn
But on that day I was
But what I didn't realize was as I rode this monster great wave
The beach there ends very abruptly and so it doesn't just kind of peter out at the end and leave you sitting there on the
Rocks it though the wave just curls at the very end and dumps you straight down in this case straight onto my head
Which I felt in my spine immediately
Holy crap. So yeah, just a dumb like you don't want to tell that story to cocktail party
Because then everybody's just like no, wow good for you, you know like
Yeah, I'm sorry, bro. Yeah, I need to make something up better. How'd you get around bad? Did you have surgery or anything you did?
I did it took years the odd thing is is it took years for that to fully become the problem that it was
You know, they knew in the beginning like this is going to cause you problems someday
Let us know when that gets here and it got here
They weren't wrong. Yeah, so you got to go get that together. Unfortunately, they were not wrong
Um, let's do a little biographical data, um, because I don't know hardly anything about you
Oh good, and that's that's the kind of biographical data I like
Where did you grow up? I grew up I was born in depending on how you look at it on the map because it's it kind of overlaps or
I don't know if it's gone back and forth, but right on the borderline of Texas city and Lamarck
Down in the Houston area
Right right up the road from Galveston. Yeah
And so I was born there and grew up in the Houston area
uh, league city area if anybody's familiar with that
And then I went to school at Channel View High School, which
If you know anything about Channel View High School, that was do you remember this uh the movie or tv series on pom pom mom
The one where the cheerleader mom
Yeah, it was it was it was like a
You know like a death kind of thing to get her kid. So that was the school. Yeah
And that's their claim to fame. So yeah, and it was jayland hurts now
What? Channel Views now claim to fame with jayland hurt. Oh, it probably is
Maybe I should have said that
Let's go with jayland hurts. I do like that better
So I went to high school there and I was the mascot there in high school, which was the falcon
And um, we were right there in the shadows
I mean if you went to the old campus there is right in the shadows of a big refinery
Could not be more Houston than that. I mean you could see it Houston. Yeah from the practice fields. You could see it, you know
Great just great to be outside. How long have you been at wfa? I have been there since um
November of
2012, which is like shockingly long. I've never stayed any place this long in my career
So that is one and probably only the only thing I have in common with jesse hewila
Both of us always marvel like man we bounced around a lot before we got here
And then something kept us here, you know
So that's a very long time and those are dog years, you know, because this is it's a tough business. It's a tough industry
It's a tough station like they I mean it's a there's a standard that's there and it's not an easy place to work
You don't fly under radars there. Yeah, you know
I was in that building about the time the standard was being set. This is many years ago
When below on them and they were still a radio game
And I was one of the I worked at one of the radio stations upstairs
And as I would leave every night I would walk down those stairs and around the channel eight newsroom
And I always had kind of a feel of
What was going on in there and man you could just tell
You could just tell
That the standard was the standard and anything less was not accepted everybody looks stretched out
They did they still do yeah, you know what I have actually I was
Thinking about you because you were in the area we now call the radio room. It's been redone
But before they redid it it still had the mics in there and the padding on the walls and all of that
And I actually did a couple of podcasts for our yolitics
Political podcast in the same space where you used to do your magic wow really
Yeah, so we have that connection man. I would so love to see that see what kind of shape it's in these days
It's gone that parts gone the window looking in is still there the that original window
But that the the podcast and and all of that the audio part is gone
But it's it's been branded the radio room and it's got art on the walls that kind of speak to that and it's an interesting space
You need to take a tour of a chupy you should yeah, I'd love to I'll show you around okay show you around
I'll take you up all the hell really I will yeah
Um, how did you wind up there? Where were you before um I bounced around a lot I
So I did internships in Houston left there went to my first market in El Paso
Which was a great place to learn and I still love El Paso to this day. I never thought about El Paso until then
Love that city left there went to Pittsburgh for a while
Experience a couple of winters there and left there and came to San Antonio
And then spent some time in San Antonio left there went to Miami
Spent several years there which was again a great experience
Came back to Texas to Austin this time and then up to Dallas
I was looking I was looking for a change
When we were in Austin and I never thought that I would ever end up in Dallas Fort Worth
I never wanted to come here. I never tried to come here
Until then and you know why is your city? I did and you know why it was Houston this is again so dumb yes
Because I grew up in Houston and there's like curriculum there you know in that school right there by the refinery
They tell you no, I mean it was like ingrained and I don't know why
But you were always told that Dallas people. They're so uppity and it's a you know, it's a bad place and blah blah blah
We're we're told the same thing about Houston
You know
Yes, I know it must be I can only imagine the things you've heard and some of them may be true
But no, it's funny how that's just put into your head and you just think oh, you know
I don't really want to go there. Let me look at these other places
But then you come hearing you go why were they saying all these bad things like this is it's a good place
Is this what you aspire to be when you you know started to oh yeah plan a career for yourself?
Yes, I knew see and and I feel sorry for like a lot of these young people now because well first of all
You know, they want to get you on a track now
You know in high school and in college and all that they want you at like the age of four to know you have it all mapped out
You know these poor kids, you know, and what if you change your mind when you're in like 10th grade
But you know, I was one of those people who was blessed to know probably
In late junior high what I wanted to do this is what I wanted to do and
and weirdly like I didn't know how I wanted to do it
I didn't know the exact thing I wanted to do
But my favorite one of all on the Houston TV stations was a man by the name of Marvin Zindler and yeah
You know him everybody knows him the late great Marvin Zindler. I witnessed you. Yeah, yeah, and boy. He just boomed it
Uh, man, he did and you know
That looks like a news guy. Yeah, the best little whorehouse in Texas the movie
Melvin P Thorpe in there the annoying investigative reporter whatever that was based on him as far as I understand
Um, but yeah, he was the one that I just I absolutely loved what he did and weirdly now here. I am I don't do it the same way that Marvin did
Nobody should do it that way. I should try that one night do that do that that way
Just rattle the newsroom
Don't announce it. Just do it. They would love that. Yeah, I bet they would love that
Audience of two viral moments
But yeah, and so here I am doing consumer business type things. He did a lot of consumer stuff
He was a real lookout for the little guy guy. Yeah, and I really like that
He was great. Mm-hmm. I mean if you saw him and you have a thing for the oddball television character
You had to love. Oh, you couldn't look away from him. Yeah, you know with the pompador and the white
It was white hair and like a rose coming out of the pocket of the suit. I mean it was
And the green blue glasses the shades were greenish blue. I mean this guy was a character
I really should try this just one time just one time. That's probably all I get is just once
Sweep sweet or what or something
Yeah, how about you got enough cash aid out there where that extends you a little latitude. Yeah
It's just one nice stuff that like that
Just when you think that your stock is selling for a decent price you learn very quickly that wow
It's worth how much now? Okay, I didn't know see he's keeping us right on the money. I know
Everything's in terms of dollars and cents
How do you think that WFA has been able to maintain
This thing that makes it so much better through the years. I think it is I mean some of it is and you know
We could about that stressed out room of people
They really are I mean they just like they eat this stuff man
They eat this stuff and sleep this stuff and and I say they I guess you know
I'm in there with them. I've done it long enough that you know obviously
Maybe I have the gene
But I mean it's just there's an expectation of you there and
You just you either it's that whole sink or swim, you know and I call that a very high level of give a damn
Yeah, and you better start swimming and the good thing is is you know, you do mention you know
Erning some some some credibility with your management and all that there is a lot of an odd amount of autonomy
I would say so once you once they know that you will get it done
There's nobody hovering over you and if there's anything I've ever hated in jobs
It's when somebody's hovering over me
You know and like just constantly in your stuff and questioning everything that you do
And so they'll question you still you know
They'll they'll put you on the hot seat sometimes about things but they give you the
The breathing room to just go do what you do
And we don't want you to check every single thing with those all the time because you'll never get anything done
So that sounds like you got some clearance for the marvels and little thing does yeah
And then I'll probably have them over my shoulder for the rest of my life
But till then it's gonna be glorious, but it's gonna feel good
Maybe whenever you know your last day on the air
Yeah, I'll be and just throw it on that last day. What are they gonna do fire you? No
This sounds a lot like when I'm I'm playing different sports whether it be I like
Okay, everybody can laugh whatever pickleball
Go ahead uh and no and oh okay not at all
Some people pickleball earlier. Yeah, okay good some people still think that that's like
Oh, that's just like really old people. It's not
So when I'm playing pickleball or tennis sometimes you know because I'm not great
Sometimes when I get really frustrated, you know, you talk about letting it all out
I will just I'll just take aim with a ball
And I know I know that it's gonna go like four courts over
But I just don't care
And it feels so good to just have that release now it's unfair to my partner
You know you always get a look like what was that
But it just it feels so good to just put every bit that you have in there of
Of just angst and anger and frustration and just let that thing sail
And so it'll be like that. There you go. Yeah, it'll be my going out like I'll just leave it all out. Yeah, leave everything on the field
Oh, yeah, I have been warned not to pick up racket ball because it's you know, they say that if you already had
I was gonna say you'll probably break some first of all we have that
Uh, secondly, um, they say that if you have a frustrating sport already don't pick up another frustrating sport
Is that yeah, but what sport is not frustrating?
Hmm, you know, I would imagine
I would imagine that
Most sports are not frustrating if you have some talent in them or you're you're good at them
I'm not good at anything. I'm not naturally. No, I'm I'm serious. So like
We we talk about this like I'll go to things whatever and you know speaking engagements and this and and this conversation has come up a couple of times
Like I'm always like amazed by talents of other people and
Invariably the conversation comes up like well, what's your talent? And I always like and I've really thought about this
I've put thought into it. I have no natural talent
There is no natural like he was born with it
We always knew that he would you know shine with that whatever
The only talent I have is to work really hard to try to get better at something that I'm bad at or that I've had
Issues trying to make right
It's it's actually really oh
Sounds like me there you go. I'd like you for some reason kindred spirit. We are scrappy guys
Scrappy guys. I like that. Can I be scrappy? You can be stupid. I'll be scrappy. Yeah, perfect. I like that
He was my favorite character on Scooby-Doo too, by the way. Hell yeah scrappy was the best. Hell yeah
Usually when they bring in the baby the show is over that's how the show began went to another level. Oh, absolutely
I didn't watch the mood spoiler alert. I'm not yeah
Damn it
Here's how it ends
Let's just ruin the surprise
Well, I haven't seen it and now I'm not going to because of that
Well, let's say me three bucks
You know one thing I noticed about you as I've watched you over the years Jason
Is that you seem to be able to do virtually anything
That might have to do with channel eight news
I mean you seem very versatile you seem
um
I hate to put it this way almost like a Swiss army knife for him down there because you can do so much stuff
You are correct
It's you know that old jack-of-all trades master of none
um, and you know that the it is good. It's good for
I think it's I say this to people all the time because you know that you know we do money stuff and job stuff and all
It is very good job security
To know as many things at your workplace as possible become the indispensable player who you know just you know
They can't get rid of they can always get rid of you
But become the person it's kind of really hurt to get rid of and so know how to do as many things as possible
The downside of that is they know that you know how to do all of the things and you might end up doing all of the things
Yeah
And so then your bandwidth just flies out the window and and I always uh liking it to
I always try to say that okay if we're gonna put something else on the plate
We're gonna have to take something off because it's like one of those really flimsy
Barbecue outdoor, you know paper plates. Yeah, and I've already
Yes, the one that's really sagging the one that's the bad guy in the commercial
And it's really sagging and it's not too ply and there's art I've put a lot of wet stuff on it
So there's it we got liquid dripping, you know, we got barbecue sauce and coleslaw stuff
dripping out and
We should not add something else on here unless we take at least a fork load of something else off
Fiend time. I forget baked beans because they're so wet
So yeah a lot of wet stuff on that paper plate
Yeah
But you know
It's again, it's it's good to be able to do different roles
It's good filling in it's good, you know, plugging yourself into different things and for me as long as and you know
God love him mad howerton
I want you to stay healthy and well and never take a day off. I can't the one thing I can't
Hardly bring myself to do is anything related to the early morning show
And it's a hugely important yes thing. It's it's a it's a it's a big golden child wonderful thing
But I just I'm telling you there is something visceral some of us you raised your hand
Yes
For some of us there is just there's a code that's written into our circadian rhythm where we go
Not it's not just an inconvenience. I feel like I'm dying when I get up at that hour
Stay up until 3 a.m. Yes
Yes, but only stayed up overnight to catch an early flight overseas and been okay
Totally functional that's what I say I can I will stay up long into the night
But I just when that alarm goes up. I mean it's like pain goes through my body and it doesn't stop and like I stand up and
I can't even get ready like I just stand there frozen and I don't know what to do, you know like it's just
Yeah, well it killed us like, you know, we when we had met Howard and on he said that he was going to bed at like six
Yeah, I just looked at the clock to see what time it was
2011 right now. Let's call it madhouse. Let's call it. Don't I have his numbers jammies
Yeah, I think the biggest surprise in all of that exchange is now he wears jammies
As far as I know he does okay, yeah, okay, this is the guy who can't stay dressed in the podcast. Yeah, I know
But he wears clothes to bed. He's a weird guy like that interesting. Yeah, okay
More than we just wears he's just like Winnie the Pooh and just wears the top shirt
Nothing else underneath
When I have nightmares about madhouse and tonight
I'll tell you what he was wild when he was like oh yeah, he's a wild guy. Yeah, he is
Yeah, he was
Maybe it's a lot of fun. Yeah, he was cranking a pantera. Oh, yeah, you know, and
Three monster energy drinks or something. I've told him about those
Oh, you're the problem. No, I've told him I've told him about those like that's a lot
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff you're taking in there it affected him this from I mean I drink coffee like crazy
But I mean, I don't touch the the energy drinks
That's too much. There's it's a different. It's like a different breed of of stimulant
I've never tried one you just don't stay away. We we need you around
Yeah, it feels a lot to me like the the drink version of a 3 a.m. wake-up call
That's what it's like. It's like you just you're rattled
You know, you know, funny thing when I worked in Miami have you ever been to Miami everybody has been there?
Then they're for the Super Bowl a couple times. It's an interesting place
Very interesting place to live and work
But when I first moved there I wasn't familiar with everything and they used to do these kaffesitos
Where it was Cuban coffee and they it is a different kind of coffee. I've learned that since then that does have more
caffeine in it. There's different beans
And I didn't know that at the time and I was filling in that night and they said hey, there's kaffesito up at the desk
And I was like oh great, you know, so I go up there
They serve it in a it's a styrofoam cup like what would be considered a small anywhere where you go to order something
And then there's a big stack of thimbles little plastic thimbles
Little cups tiny cups and you're supposed to just pour that into the cup
And I just thought why don't they do this, you know? Do they don't they have enough and and so everybody had already had theirs
And so I was like well if everybody else has already had theirs
I'm just gonna take this, you know, so it's still have maybe you know a fourth or a half in there
And I went to my desk. I start drinking this. It's really good and it's loaded with sugar
And but super strong like he is it's a really strong taste
And I'm telling you I didn't even finish it and like 30 minutes in I'm like typing and my hands are just shaking
And I feel
Like nervous. I feel anxious about and I and I hadn't put two and two together yet
And I'm just sitting there like oh my god like something's wrong with me, you know my stomach feels weird
And I like have butterflies like a panic attack or something. Yeah, I felt like it was having a panic attack
And I looked at someone next to me and she was um, I think she was Dominican and I said to her hey
Uh, what's going on with me whenever she goes
Uh, did they give you that and I said no, I took it and she goes how much of that have you had?
And I go I had like maybe half of the half, you know
And she goes oh my god, you've had way too much you can't do that
You can't do that and so then everybody's laughing about it
But I'm like can we settle the emergency first and then we'll laugh about it tomorrow
Does everyone know where the defibrillator is right now, you know
I did not know that
Yeah, it's like how was how was the come down from it? Uh, it was harsh because it was sugar and caffeine right and so you know
You had that just rush and then at the end of the night it was like you felt like you had been on like a three-day bender
Like and somebody had just beaten you up like it just like it does something to your body where you just go man
I just got walloped
And I'm glad I learned the lesson before I went further and had like the whole thing, you know
That would have been brutal. I I don't know what the caffeine content is of that, but it's got to be
Yeah, if I was lucky
Thank god she spotted it. She was like well, I go look at me. I'm just shaking
Who gave you that?
I took it
Do you know right away when a story is a good one for you?
No
Well, sometimes I do but there have been some that have been like these
Occult stories where you just you know you go well, let me let me pursue this and I'm gonna see what I find on it or whatever
And you put it together and you're happy enough with it and then
It does this like some gargantuan number on the the website and you start getting just these
Emails and these texts or you know messages, you know direct messages on social media
And you go my god, this just hit this cord with people that I did not expect
And I think early on one of the subjects that that happened with was a property tax story
I know you know, it's I I dread it like anyone else whatever
But I did something on that and I thought okay, well, there's my little story done and you're like moving on to the next thing
And I mean it just starts ringing up the hit because
Everybody is looking for that effort none of us were schooled on this stuff, you know
And it's hard to to know all of these things and you don't have classes for this stuff and it's intimidating and it's
You know, you might think even that it's boring and you just don't want to even read that article about it and
And it's amazing when you can put it into bite-sized chunks that are more understandable and relatable and here's what to do about it
Um, a man it just takes off like wildfire
How do you guys at wfa determine?
Who gets to do what?
Sometimes it is offered up on the email system and there's some like and I'm always skeptical
When another reporter is giving away a story
Like why are you giving that away? Do you know that it's not as there is catch here somewhere
Because some of them seem like gems, you know, and you're like why would you offer this to others, you know
Maybe they're more giving than I am. I don't know
But I think if I had that I would totally like put my arms around it nobody else is gonna get it
But is there a guy who assigns it or or they do we have um, we have meetings that I don't I don't go to those
Because I don't I don't do general assignment anymore
But back in the day I used to go to those meetings and I would pitch my ideas and we'd hear other ideas
And I usually tried to latch on to other ideas because my ideas used to like more it like the vest, you know
But then they would always go no, we're gonna have you do your idea that sounds good
And you just go oh my god, how am I actually gonna turn that story today, you know like why did I ever say that
So, you know, you're stuck with it you got to make it work
But again, it's that expectation like uh-uh you come in here into this newsroom
You start throwing things out and you're gonna do that and not only gonna do it you better do it real well
You know
So there's that pressure
From the beginning of the day
It never ends it doesn't that's why you're so great
So great, this is Jason Wheeler of WFA TV and we'll be back with more with Jason
Want to talk to you a little bit about the things you're probably best known for that you're doing these days
Okay, and how those came about
But right now if you want to relax just
Kick kick back over there. I'm already relaxed. I have no shoes on
That's pretty good. That's good life. You can take off more
That's right. You're just almost asking me to do this. We want a full-howard
Three energy drinks later there
Right now though it is time for the dreaded and feared mid show read
Yes
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the full spectrum
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It will help me because things have started hurting man. I'm an old guy, you know
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They have more at the CBD House of Healing than just that you want CBD. They got it over there
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Drop by tell him you heard about it from us here on YDC and start your healing at the CBD House of Healing
Is that it?
Oh, okay
Time to discuss the Eric Nadal birthday benefit concert. It's coming up. It's 14th edition
It features two of Eric's favorite bands. I don't know if you know this about Eric
But he's a real music lover kind of guy
But he does not dwell in the mainstream
He's out there on the fringes looking for stuff that nobody knows about
And when he finds somebody likes he brings them in to play at his birthday benefit concert this year
It is Brooklyn based
Sammy Ray and the friends and Bay Bay Area favorite Chuck profit and the kumbia shoes
This is going to be coming down Thursday the 14th of May
doors open at 630 showtime 730
And it's all at the legendary longhorn ballroom now that's a whole another thing in itself because
I don't know if you've been to the longhorn ballroom yet and seen what they've done over there as they brought it back to life
But it is just
Amazing
You won't believe the history that you find when you walk through those halls over there
Now this supports the work of the Grand Halliburton Foundation
That's a local non-profit that provides mental health education
Training and support to teens and families to warn learn more and purchase tickets
Go to Grand Halliburton.org slash Eric Nadal
sponsor tables and sweets are also available
Comes to us the YDC team will be there on the purple carpet Eric Nadal's birthday benefit
Presented by Haynes Boons and KXT 91.7 FM
Featuring Sammy Ray and the friends and special guest Chuck profit
Go to Grand Hall Halliburton.org slash Eric Nadal
Or go to stolenwatermedia.com slash our community
Is that it? Thanks. Oh
All right excellent very good. I love 91.7
It's great. Oh, it's so good
It's really good. Oh, you need to listen to it for sure. Yeah, back up
Yeah, back up
Now our guest here today is the great Jason Wheeler
WFA I keep on to call it channel late
That's fine even though a lot of people that's that's all people used to call it
It's what a lot of people still call it. Yeah, yeah, um, they uh
Although some people still they'll get the number wrong with me they do that a lot
Hey, it's channel would fill in the blank and you know you just
You know once they get started and they're wound up or whatever you just kind of go along with it
You know, obviously they're watching the right channel or they wouldn't know
You know, yeah, just like a lot of people think that they're talking to either the weatherman or the sports guy too
That I get a lot of that. Hey, what's the weather going to be like today, you know and
I don't it's a thing for those those of them in the media. It's a thing. Yeah, I don't correct anyone anymore
I go out hardly cloudy and sure high of 72, you know, you know, you'd be on the fan hell. I'm on the fan
You know
I mean why burst someone's bubble, you know, obviously they're watching. They're just not putting everybody in their
Exact roles. Yeah, a runner. I'll love you on that muse in the news. Yeah
Totally
Well, I'm interested in how you landed on the two things that you seem to be most known for
These days, weather and sports
One is right on the money right on the money is an experiment that we started in 2019. Was this your idea?
It
Softly was but not really so I used to do a lot of
Consumery type stories and that's part of the reason why I think they hired me here because they liked those and they wanted more of that
Because that was on my real that they saw when I applied here and
And so they said hey, we want you to start doing this thing and we want you to name it and we want you
We want it to be like involving anything money whatever money you figure that part out
You come up with subjects you you know put them together and we're gonna have somebody edit them
And you're gonna do all on green screen
So it's gonna be this interactive screen that you can you know interact with the whole time and I said okay
That's a lot, but yeah, I'm willing to do all that that sounds interesting whatever
I just need one guarantee and they said name it and I go
I just need whoever does the edit on these to be the same person every time because I saw all that
You know you you know right away that that's gonna be the heavy lift right there, right?
And so they were like done
We're gonna get you know somebody we've got people with great skills. We'll have somebody do it
And I think in the first year I went through maybe 10 different people
And it wasn't that they just were terrible at making promises to me and they wanted to make my life really hard
It was just the nature of how TV works, you know
And it became like I was the short straw guy like they would go up to someone and go
Hey, you're gonna be doing right on the money this weekend. They'd be like why you know like
Because
Go backwards, baby
Because they had heard you know because it is really hard to edit all of that green screen stuff in because you're creating
Everything from the beginning you know
So very difficult so
Yeah, it's hard and people don't change it next week
You
So we finally got this whiz of a guy and his name is Austin and he is just amazing at what he does
And so for each one of these that I create I create the actual piece that I record
And then I go in and I write an entirely separate script that goes line by line in parentheses of what my mind is thinking for this
And this and this and this and this and this and this and then I tell Austin you're gonna think of things that are like 10 times better than this
So feel free to override me
And then we create a web script out of every one of them that has links for people to actually go and do the things that you know
Our solutions or whatever and it has more info on there. So each piece is three
But you know we've gotten this cadence down and thank god
I am with the same guy every time we do one of these because
You don't want somebody on the fly having to polish up their old green screen edit skills, you know
I don't think of that stuff because I watch right on the money and it's you. You're always so cool so polished so professional
Yeah, you are and professional
Yeah, I don't think he said that you might not be able to get me out of this chair
I'm moving in
But I mean it's it's like it just comes naturally to you
To to to talk that speak that language. Yeah, okay, so conversation by the time you've seen that though
I've some of these now some of these come off of my fingertips really fast if it's a subject that I'm very familiar with
I'm learning a lot of this stuff with you, you know
Like I know portions of this and the great thing is as I've lived a life where I have and I'm not kidding
I wish this was the joke where I have made
So many mistakes with all of these things car house job salary
debt credit cards you name it student loans. I've made so many mistakes
But the great thing is is that it gave me great familiarity with all of these things from a different point of view
And so now I just had to go fill in the rest of the point of view and create that so by the time you've seen it
And you think that I'm all cool and polished and professional. I did remember all of those adjectives
Um
By the time you see it. I have read and read and read and read
I mean, I do so much reading. It's unreal and pull little pieces from each thing and and and try to find a way to take this further
To actually help people who are going through it or to have have them have an understanding about it that they didn't have before
And by the time you see it, I'm like on take 16 in front of that green screen and this is with a prompter
And so that because like you turn to like reference something that's not really there
But you know what's going to be there and as soon as you turn it's it's so stupid like you can't remember the simplest you know
The that comes after that and you get back and you're just lost in the prompter
And so just know when you see these that
Every now and then I get it in first take usually I don't
But in the early days we shot them without a teleprompter
And it was an actual photographer down there with me who probably wanted to kill me on many of those days
Because I'm not kidding. It was like take 44
Oh
We were breaking this into little pieces and stuff and I'm telling you it was tedious and when I got that prompter one day
It was just like oh that can breathe again, you know
It's amazing boy
That must have made all the difference it did it's fed things along to the point where they could say
Hey, we want several of these a week
Now that you've got me down
Let's give you more let's do more. Yeah, you've got time savings in there
So you didn't have a true financial background before it I did not um and
You know since then I talk a good game. Yeah, damn right full June
Well, I do think I did have a financial background
I think and I always say this and it's not just with this
We have people on sometimes and the question I like the most is
What do most people do wrong with this you know? What are we doing wrong and I do have a financial background
I did a lot of things wrong and it's amazing the lessons that teaches you where you go
Oh, let me go share this gold bar with the world
And I mean, I've actually had people who have said to me
You have saved us thousands and thousands of dollars just with that episode. That saved us thousands of dollars
I'm not surprised man. That to me is like
That is almost as good as cool and polished and professional
Almost
Yes
Make the same states
Absolutely correct
Yeah, and since then I have gotten my I found that I was doing a ton of property taxes and property related because all of us
You know for most of us anyway our biggest investment is always going to be our home, right?
And so I found that I was doing so much of that and I you know
I'd get into you know these discussions with experts and you know some of the lingo and what I so I did get my real estate license
Just so and it helped me tremendously and you know in fact when I got it
I as I was going through these books and I actually did I know some people like skim through
I actually read all of this stuff and I had highlighters and I kept highlighting things and like ear
Earmarking the page and I thought I'm gonna do a whole series and we're gonna call it home schooling
And I did I did a whole series on the stuff when I learned you know
Got my license that every one of us should have been taught that all of us should know
And we did a whole series on that and I think it was really beneficial because it was eye-opening to me as a homeowner
You know
You ought to repeat have you repeated that series yet or is it out there?
I should you know somebody just ask the other day and some of these don't get the
You know life I guess that they should have so sometimes we'll put together like award entries or whatever for TV because you know
TV people love to go to award ceremonies and I always am like I'm not entering that. I'm not entering anymore
I've got all the Emmys I can stand
And so
So I always go in thinking I'm not gonna enter that and they go come on
You just looked at a few of them whatever and Austin, you know
I have the soft spot in my heart for Austin because he does the heavy lifting on these
He says I really want to enter him like oh god, you know
Of course they sent Austin and so I'll start going through the pieces that we've done in that quarter or that year or whatever
And it's just like wow there's some really good information in here. I never have time
I mean I see them in house before they air
But I usually don't see them air. I just see them and approve them
You know to say everything is good and I don't see them air and like I'm always on to the next and the next and the next and the next and the next
And before you know it like like somebody I'll say remember you did a piece on that and you're like
I didn't do that and I haven't done one on that and they're like yeah, you did you know you're like well
It must have been years ago and they're like it was two months
And so when I'm watching these things I always think like man
We should we should re-air this like this still has
Legs like this is still affecting every day people and so we've done a couple of specials that we've done like on streaming
Or we'll take over the four p.m. News and we'll just run an hour of me
So if if somebody I mean and there's plenty of people out there who don't like me
I'm sure who are like oh my gosh this whole hour is going to be this
so
So yeah, I that's what they say when they tune into YDC
An entire hour so yeah some of them
Yeah, some of them should have other life I think and and somebody just the other day in fact requested that we rerun
The death checklist because I did a whole death checklist series
Of all the stuff that none of us wants to think about and it seems morbid and it seems awful
But if you've ever had to go through probate
For someone in your family who died and you're the executor which I just went through by the way
you
Learned that man it would be great if we had all just known this stuff, you know
Yeah, we should make this simple so that when you go people can grieve you or
Hate you or whatever they did with you, but they don't have to go oh, man
Why did you leave us in this bind? Why did you leave all of this unanswered, you know
You have you have a lot on YouTube. Do you have your YouTube channel?
I should I do but I don't have anything hardly on it and I should
catalog it all in one place
To make it a lot easier. I have a lot of goals like
I
Should also be more involved on social media and I just I'll tell you I
Used to be really good at it and there was a day
When we went through the pandemic and during the pandemic it was hell for a lot of people a lot of people were in hell
And they were losing their jobs or they lose their income for a good deal time
And they didn't know what was happening with unemployment benefits because this states unemployment
System just melted down under the pressure of that
and
I had a contact there at the Texas Workforce Commission and they were feeding me
Information that you could not get their website was crashing their phones were crashing you couldn't get through
And I was getting information from them and I was putting out stuff that no one in the state had because of that lifeline
And I mean people were eating that they were there was like a voracious appetite. I mean people were struggling and
And people would ask me further questions and I would take those back to the person and they would answer those and it would answer it for so many
And so I would spend every night for I don't know how long it was it was a long time
I would come home when I was done with my day and those days were really long days. Y'all remember it was it was a weird time
and I would
sit there and answer questions on Facebook and Twitter and direct messages and I mean
Hundreds
On some days and my wife kept saying you need to stop this. This is going to kill you
Like I can see it like you spend hours here every night and I was like you can't read this stuff and not answer this
And so I did that for a very long time and then I took a break and just pulled away after the worst of it was over
And I still post things on there and I still try to interact but I've never been able to go back to it the same way again
It's like there's this lasting burnout
But I try to get to it
So yeah, I should try to create that YouTube page to
Got a whole list of things I need to do
Now the other thing you were very well known for
Is the series you share with Jason Whiteley? Yes, Yolatex. Yes. How did that come about? I named that one too
So I named right on the money and I named Yolatex and I didn't trademark either
Yeah, I was going to ask you write any royalties or anything like that stupid stupid guy
I told you I've made every financial mistake. There is
If you think it's something copyright it folks
No, we yes
Mike's where I've named the ticket
Did you copyright it? No, why would you do that?
The mailbox money that just could have kept coming
So that one was also an experiment
They wanted to this was also in 2019 before the 2020 election. Is that right? Yeah
Again, it's dog ears. It feels like it's like eons ago
And they said let's just we might do a political podcast. Let's just try it whatever we'll see how it goes
And you know, we'll we'll do it until the election
And we're like okay, you know, and so we started doing it
And we thought that once that 2020 election was over, you know, hotly contested whatever
That that would be it and we actually found that people were coming to us even more
After the election and after we moved through that whole crazy transition after that and when we were just talking about issues and
And it was just convers it's conversations about
political issues
But it's real regular conversations with people who aren't screaming at each other or you know at each other's throats
Where you're actually learning. Oh, that's why they have that position or that's what this issue is about
And it's amazing that there's an appetite for can you give me more than just 10 seconds of people yelling at each other
Yeah, and you know, we have a beer in the podcast too and that helps too because it loosens up the people we're talking to
I mean even before they have the first drink. It just feels a little bit more relaxed and
And it has lasted all this time and like the the numbers that we've gotten on that thing are just
It amazes me when I see and you just think wow this is really
Taken off on its own and y'all know what it's like with podcasts. You can look at like where are people listening to this
And it's the weirdest thing like you're like wow there's an expat community and like Latvia like
That regularly they're regularly listening to that you know
I mean, it's amazing like on all these continents you just you see people listening and that's kind of stunning when you think about it
Yeah, so it was another experiment that just stuck you know, and it lasted and here we are and it's still going strong
It's great, man. You guys are I mean you guys really have good chemistry together the two of you
Thanks, I think it's one of those push pulls, you know, like we may have just enough in common to
Kind of want to kind of want to hate each other every now and then you know what I mean
Yeah, I'm not saying that you're alike or anything like that because you're
You're there's definitely enough difference between the two of you totally that I'm the way better one
It let me tell you this
Jason Whiteley and I don't know what it is he has this hang up
Jason Whiteley is always you walk into the newsroom and like if I don't have to be on TV until
4 o'clock or 330 or whatever if I'm not recording anything
I'm going to be there in regular clothing. Okay, like regular stuff that normal people wear
Um, Jason Whiteley has his suit totally on jacket included middle of August
I mean, I and we have air conditioning, but I mean he's wearing a full suit with a tie that's cinched all the way to the top
You'll never see me if I'm not on air you will never see me with a tie cinched all the way to the top
And he sits there like that all day long. I don't understand that
He's he's the weird one. Am I right? Yeah, okay, but he makes it look like I'm the weird one
And like I walk in the room and it's like he can be busier than you can imagine
And he will stop what he's doing to look me up and down like he's obsessed
And oh hey Wheeler just roll out of bed. Oh, is that a t-shirt you're wearing there? And it's like it's it's a polo shirt
It's a nice like why do you feel the need every day? It's every day
And like we'll be in a podcast and if I'm you know under the table. I've got my shoes off
If anyone's going to notice it it's going to be Jason like it thrives him crazy
And I think it really it's more than just I'm going to rib you for that. I think it makes him mad. I really do
I'm and I'm serious and I you know he may see this okay here this
But I think it really watches this
This
Somebody mad howard's gonna watch this until Jason
Um, but no he will like it bothers him and so not long ago we were talking with the DA
John Cruze of the outgoing DA
and
Interestingly, I had my shoes on that day and I actually I was wearing a little bit nicer clothes, I guess
And interestingly he said to Jason and Jason thought he was talking to me
He goes, what'd you have dressed like that during the pandemic?
And Jason looks at me and I'm like,
ah, he's talking to you clearly.
And it was because Jason was wearing like these loafers without socks.
And we were just talking about like how we were more casual during the pandemic.
And I bet it drove him crazy that of all the things
that could have been noticed about the two of us by a, you know, big-time guy,
it was him and that he didn't have socks on.
He was the casual one, you know?
Nobody was saying anything about me,
because I had my dress shoes and socks on.
So he doesn't even do suit with fancy tennis shoes?
No. The most casual he gets was on a day like that,
where he has suit with different color jacket than slacks,
which I don't usually do. I'll usually do the matching.
But he had different color jacket than slacks,
and then he had the nice loafers.
They're nice, but no socks.
No socks or no seams.
No, they were no socks.
Is he the most finicky dresser in channel eight?
I think probably, I think that most people would tell you there
that the best dresser is Greg Fields in the mornings.
That's who I suspected.
Yeah.
Pete is like a real serious dresser too,
and like his wife gets all into it and like picks out combinations and stuff.
And he likes to go jack it off.
Yeah, if it's really bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the sleeves get rolled up.
Oh my gosh.
Let me go pull the car into the garage.
You know?
You have sleeves up, car into garage.
That's a loop formula.
No joke.
But yeah, Jason's in that club.
He's very picky.
And he always looks great.
He really does.
Even with the loafers with no socks,
I can't do the loafers with no socks.
Jason, let's start a rumor that his feet stink.
Oh, absolutely.
That's how I know that it wasn't that he was wearing the no-seos.
There you go.
Because I could smell him.
No, I'm kidding.
Yeah, that's a joke.
Get some owner-eaters, dude.
Hey, I've never been able to do the loafers with no socks either.
No.
Flip flops?
Yeah.
Yeah, always wear flops.
Which are terrible for you, by the way.
No, they're not.
Yeah.
I hate to tell you this.
I'm sure they are.
That's not going to get me out of them.
They mess up like that.
OK, so I have really super flat feet.
Like, my feet are completely flat on the bottoms.
And I was wearing flip flops for a long time.
And I went to this podiatrist.
And I go, man, I'm selling so many like pains in my ankles, you know.
And he goes, well, you have really flat feet.
You know, stand up.
I'm not even going to examine you.
Just walk from me.
And he goes, I want you to walk down to the door down there, whatever.
And I start walking.
And he goes, just stop, stop, stop.
Three steps in.
Just stop.
And I was like, God, is it that bad?
And he was like, it's that bad.
So it's like this is how you walk barefooted?
Yeah.
But it's like a collapsing ankle.
Yeah, because you have no arch there.
So your ankle is compensating in a way that it was not designed to do.
And so he's like, don't ever wear flip flops again.
Ever, like ever.
And so, and then I had to have inserts made.
And so I got these custom inserts that go in the shoes.
That give arch there.
And they hurt really bad at first, because your feet are not used to that.
And then all of a sudden, like, one day you just go, wow,
this feels like I'm walking on clouds.
And while it doesn't feel like, it always felt like,
did you all see misery?
Yes.
With Kathy Bates.
You haven't seen misery?
I'm sorry.
It's one of the thereby.
That is a really.
Oh.
No.
Go ahead and tell them how it ends.
Oh, okay.
Well, there's a scene in it.
It's a name well.
It's called misery.
Kathy Bates is an amazing actress.
And there's a point in it where she's got this guy.
And she's basically holding him hostage.
And he can't move out of his bed that she has him in.
And she takes a sledgehammer to both ankles.
And that's how it would feel after like a night of tennis.
You know, again, the next morning, it was like, oh, my God.
So, yeah, inserts are great.
But I loved flip flops.
And I had to say goodbye to all of my flip flops.
I've gotten those chakos.
And it's, you know, it's kind of like the...
It's similar to...
What are the other ones that have the straps?
You know what I'm talking about.
Birkenstocks?
Birkenstocks.
It's like those.
Crocs makes actual flip flops with arches built in.
Oh, interesting.
I'm going to have to look into that.
Yeah, maybe you can jump back in that pool.
Ask that podiatrist about this.
He told me never again.
And please stop walking.
Sit down.
You right now.
You broke his heart, apparently.
I did.
Like, I broke that test.
Yeah.
I didn't even make it past his door to get to the other door.
It's like just to stop.
Yeah.
Please lay down.
Sit down.
What if it came to you and said, we want you to anchor the six and ten.
Hmm.
Can you do it?
I used to think I wanted that.
But I would say, first of all, like, no, because Chris is a great guy.
He needs to be doing that.
And he loves it.
And he's good at it.
But I think that.
I think I'm right now where I need to be.
Which is a weird thing to say.
No, that's a good thing to say.
I always tell other people that.
Like, I always tell people in wherever you are right now.
And, you know, like these kids in college, whatever, ask for advice and stuff.
And I always tell them, hey, you know, just keep plugging away.
You've got to keep working hard as someone who that's their only talent.
Keep working hard.
I'm not going to tell you that story.
But I always tell people, keep working hard.
And just know that whatever you have done up to now has put you where you are now.
And what you're doing now, you're where you need to be.
And when the next thing is right, it will be, you know.
And then I always doubt that for myself.
It is poetic.
That is as poetic as I get.
But I really do believe that because there have been so many times in my life
when I have thought, like, I've been passed over or I'm failing or this isn't going right.
And then it takes later on when I look back and I go, oh my god,
that was exactly like that needed to go.
As bad as that was, I needed to go through that, you know.
Yeah.
It's amazing how that works.
Yep.
There are all kinds of situations where you look back on them and you say, well,
had to go through that to get to where I am now.
They form you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's kind of the natural order of things, although you don't realize that at the time.
Yeah.
Like everything you've done led you here to your own house, your own rules.
Yeah.
Doing what interests you.
Yes.
Asking the questions you want to ask that not that someone else wants to ask.
And the ability to have the freedom to do it.
But you.
One segment.
Yeah.
One second.
But the thing is is everything that you, everything you went through prepared you to be this guy now.
Yeah.
You know, the chill, easy laid back.
It's wouldn't have worked with you of 20 years ago.
No, it wouldn't have.
You know, I was not that way then.
Yeah.
You had to kick me out of here by now.
The most boring person I've ever talked to you.
Get out of here.
You know.
Well, man, thanks for doing this.
This was a pleasure.
This was a lot of fun.
Real quick.
Yeah.
Would you like some breaking sports news?
Yes.
If you got it.
Super flag.
Yeah.
Depending on who you ask.
Cooper Flag.
Oh, did he win?
We were just talking about that.
To the surprise of absolutely no one.
I wondered about it.
I was like, oh, she's been trying that.
Nico's gone.
I'm still, I will say, I know we're done, but I'm still not over that trade.
Where were you?
Yeah.
I was at home.
I was at home and I didn't believe my mom told me because she was visiting.
And she said, did they trade at Luca?
And I was like, mom, you know, where are you?
And she goes, I saw it on my phone and I go, you did these weird slides.
I asked her, what site are you looking at?
And she was like, ESPN.
And I was like, oh, wait.
You know, like, I mean, it was, and it was, I was stunned.
Just, and I'm still stunned by that.
Like, what did you call anybody to find out if they'd seen it too or anything?
No, because then I pull out my phone and I just sat there like a gas.
Like, I just, I couldn't believe it.
This is going to be a hall of fame inductee one day easy.
And you just, how?
I don't understand.
And I mean, I just, I don't understand it, I guess.
And I think I was a little bit personally invested more than I normally would be, you know.
Because when they went to the finals the year before, I proposed, hey, we should go to Slovenia.
I should get a trip out of this and we should go to Slovenia.
Never worked harder in my life.
I don't know why I said that.
But we went to Slovenia and like, this guy is like a beyond rock star there, obviously.
And we got to meet his coaches and people who knew him and worked with him and trained him and all of that.
I think you develop kind of a personal, even I've never met him.
But you develop this personal rapport or seeing where they grew up and how they grew up and with whom they grew up.
And these are the greatest people.
And I don't know, I just, like, I just felt like such a loss.
And I usually don't feel that way about things like that.
I just felt like I lost something there, you know.
I loved watching him.
It's been hard for everybody to take.
You know, I loved watching him too.
I was, I was one of those and there weren't many of us who didn't think he was going to be a career maverick.
Yeah.
But you were right.
Yeah.
But while here, man, watching him play was like nothing I've ever seen before.
And I get it. They wanted him in better shape and all that stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I get that.
But there was not another way, you know, I mean, just I loved watching him.
He was electric.
Like watching, it's one thing to go watch professional basketball and see.
It's amazing what they do on any, on a Tuesday night, Wednesday, whenever they play.
It's amazing just on its own, the very talented people.
It's another level when you can do that and be an entertainer at the same time.
Yeah.
And he did that.
Yeah, he made you just not want to look away, you know.
If you were with somebody who was talking to you, they just talked to the side of your head
because you didn't want to look away because you're going to miss this trick pass
or this crazy, you know, like he's got people on skates who are trying to defend him.
And they just look like they're just falling backwards and forwards.
I mean, it was just amazing.
I hated to see him go.
I hated to see him go too.
But congrats to Cooper.
That is well earned, well deserved.
And I'm glad he wasn't cheated of that honor because it is.
It should have been him.
And you know, he's a very unusual player too.
Yeah.
Will he last here?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
He will.
Because you know.
You knew.
How about he'll be career Maverick?
Okay.
Wow.
Yes.
I really think so.
On the record.
Yes.
There you go.
Cooper flag, career Maverick.
Remember to do your first.
Guaranteed.
Nothing can go wrong now.
Nothing can go wrong now.
Do not body surf.
Don't body surf on a beach where no one else is in the water or on the shore.
If no one else is around, there's probably a reason.
Go somewhere else.
That's right.
Thanks for doing this, man.
It's really been a nice talking to you and we appreciate it.
I love this.
Thank you for having me.
That is the great Jason Wheeler of WFAA.
You see him there?
You see us here.
And we will be back later on the week with another one of these in the meantime.
What we want from you is to help us get out there.
Share us.
Put us on social media stuff like that.
We got another thing here.
Oh, God.
Yeah, you let it.
Oh, yeah, I did let it go.
There's always more.
Oh, there is always more.
But we have a website now.
Okay.
Yeah, we got a website now.
And we are moving away from Patreon and we're trying to get you to go to the website.
So let us tell you about the website here.
Stolen water media is making a move.
It's time for us to change as we've been growing.
We need a little bit more than what we've had.
Now you can continue to view all eight of our podcasts on our Patreon pages.
But now you can get all episodes at www.stolenwatermedia.com.
That is our website.
And it's all there for you.
This is a much much easier way for you to find whatever you want here on YDC.
We just wander in with Norm Hitzker.
So maximum beer 30 sports o'clock, the clubhouse podcast, the angle angle, single 51 chronicles,
and the sunset soccer club.
They are all there for you on the website.
Now this is a developing story, but you can begin watching and listening now.
Go to stolenwatermedia.com and continue to find all audio wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
And some places where you've never even heard of.
You all continue to support us in our success.
We feel the love.
We appreciate it.
Stick with us as we made this move.
And always, as always, radus.
Leave us a review wherever you follow us.
Share us.
Recommend us to your family and friends.
Thank you very, very much from all of us here at Stolenwater.
Thanks to the great Jason Wheeler.
Thank you.
Thanks to Ashley.
Thanks to Shubi.
Thanks to Bega.
Thanks to all of you.
Bye.
All right.
I don't know what to do.
Hands off.
Your Dark Companion is a Stolenwater media presentation.
Thank you.