I listened to The Ticket's vaunted afternoon drive-time show, The Hardline, today and I heard the segment on co-host Corby Davidson going to the Dallas Mavericks-Sacramento Kings game tonight and sitting beside owner Mark Cuban.
The show then talked for 15 or so minutes about how fucking awesome their lives are.
I know, I know. They sandwiched their thoughts with that "aw-shucks," how did we get so lucky rhetoric and we're supposed to believe this as a salve for the tortured and underprivileged lives that the rest of us are living.
See, The Hardline -- getting to go to World Series games in New York City, NBA Finals games and playing with Roger Staubach in a charity flag football game -- just fell into this.
That's supposed to make them not sound like complete idiotic assholes.
It doesn't. For about 15 minutes this afternoon, The Hardline sounded like complete douches as they compared notes about how all this awesome shit they get to do for free as all the stars align in their sports lives and they get to front rock bands to boot.
It's generally known that journalists get free shit. It's OK because a vast majority of them are severely underpaid. If some writer gets a free lunch at a chamber of commerce luncheon, that's the least they can get.
I was part of this rabble once. Fresh out of college making $17K at a weekly in Dallas. The free lunches and dinners were a nifty perk of the job.
And, yes, I've been to countless sporting events for free. A vast majority of them from the high school ranks. Still. Free and most include an air conditioned press box and free grub.
If you can handle making $20,000 a year, it's a sweet gig for free food.
However, there is a vast difference between the regular journalist peon and those guys on The Hardline. For one, the pay. Without looking at their income tax records, I doubt they're hurting like a lot of kids still working at newspapers living in shitty apartments, paycheck to paycheck.
Also, catching a Cedar Hill-Duncanville high school football game is vastly overshadowed by almost anything our radio heroes have gotten to experience.
Finally, you don't get to read about some print journalist bragging about some free cheese and crackers they got the week before. Some people have tact. They understand that everyone has perks to their jobs or careers. You enjoy those and move on.
Maybe it's not that big of a deal. To a certain point, many listeners to The Ticket live vicariously through those hosts. It goes beyond this relationship the station has forged with its listeners. To a point, the listeners probably look at it like this, "If I can't do these things, I'd prefer my buddies at The Ticket to experience them." Which is weird.
It's just odd listening to those guys lackadaisically talk about their exploits as if they really didn't feel they sounded like complete jerks.
Popular Posts
