July 1, 2025 • 35 mins
Radio waves meet rooster tails in this captivating continuation of our conversation with broadcasting legend Steve Montgomery. From creating iconic KISW "Miss Rock" advertisements to becoming the voice of unlimited hydroplane racing on ESPN, Steve reveals the creative genius and determination that defined his career. This is part 2 of 3 of the Steve Montgomery interview. Look for part 3 to stream next week!
*Photo from the Steve Montgomery Collection
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything
about the sport that we all love, hydroplane racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again, so sit
back, relax and welcome toRooster Tail Talk.
(00:59):
Let's go, steve Montgomery.
If you haven't heard the firstpart of my interview with Steve
Montgomery, please go back toepisode 150 and listen to that
before continuing with thisepisode.
Today I had a great talk withhim and in this week he's going
to go on to talk about more ofhis stories around the sport.
He's going to talk about hisexperiences with sponsorship,
(01:21):
radio talent and security,people of all things Some great
stories, though he did shareReally appreciate the time he
took to sit down with me andtalk about his career in
unlimited hydroplane racing andbroadcasting.
So let's get back into myinterview with Steve Montgomery,
as he continues to talk abouthis time with KISW, the Rock and
(01:44):
the ads that they had forhydroplane racing.
Like you said, I love the adsthat you came out with.
There were some pretty cleverand fun ads.
You had Boatman at one pointand then you had some good
one-liners from the differentteams about KISW.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We had a great promotion director named Jim
Carey.
He was an artist, he was theguy responsible for the colored
logo, the Miss Rock logo, and hewould uh, he would come down to
one of us, any one of us.
There were probably three orfour different people that had
ideas for those ads.
We would get together andwoodshed them.
I think the first one was hehad Fred come into the station
(02:27):
and he put a hat on him and abullwhip wrapped around his
shoulder and took a picture ofFred.
And the ad was something aboutFred Leland and the Vessel of
Varum.
It was a takeoff on the moviethe Temple of Doom or whatever.
That was yeah, and they went onand on and on.
Some of my favorites were um,there was one we put together.
(02:49):
It was um, nine out of nineunlimited drivers say yes to
Miss Rock.
And then we'd say Bill Muncyquote yes, I think it was a blue
boat.
And then somebody else said yes, I went by it a couple of times
and all these crazy quotes fromdifferent drivers One of them
backfired on me a little bitbecause it had something to do
(03:12):
with the comparing the boat tothe Budweiser said the Miss
Budweiser and, um, the Miss Rockhave pretty much identical
crews.
Our crew is guys who alltogether weigh 820 pounds.
Miss budweiser has seven guysthat weigh 800, but there was uh
(03:34):
, there was one that berniedidn't like.
Yeah, so he accosted me in thebar and said well, I got some
bad news.
You'll probably be hearing fromour lawyers.
And I said what's the problem?
And I can't remember which adthat was and he said it wasn't
very funny.
I said oh, we thought it was.
Well, you'll be hearing from us, okay.
I never did hear from his lawyer, so they weren't all received
(03:55):
well by everybody but we didhave fun with it.
One was just a blank page.
It said rare picture of MissRock racing at night man fun.
That's funny.
And the radio station was thereason that we were able to.
We worked with.
We worked with these companiesthat I mentioned all the time on
(04:18):
their advertising so we knewthe people.
It wasn't hard to go find umsponsors when when you were
working with them every day wejust said, hey, you should be on
our boat at Seafair.
We made them a deal thatincluded that and the same with
some of the sponsors who weren'ton that boat.
But I ended up working withthem on other deals.
Most of them came to us throughpeople that I knew at the radio
(04:40):
station.
The hardest part of sponsorshipis getting to the guy with the
votes.
Well, in a lot of cases Ialready knew the guy with the
votes, so that kind of greasedthe skids for me.
I enjoyed that kind of work.
It was interesting and it washard.
If you set out to be a sponsorfinder, if you get a good lead
(05:01):
on a guy, you might be 18 monthsaway from actually getting them
involved in a program.
Really, it takes that long andin most cases, the people who
have sponsored UnlimitedHydroplanes were guys who had
control because they owned thecompany.
It's tough to get them past aboard of directors or anybody
like that, of course, or anybodylike that of course.
(05:24):
But the way to do it wassomething we didn't have the
bucks to do, which is to getsomebody to come to the race in
San Diego and schmooze them likecrazy.
You know Well, the sport hasn'tdone a lot of that because of
your budgetary restrictions andthings, but that means you'd be
talking to them this year,showing them the sport, and they
would take it to their peoplethe following year and then the
(05:47):
year after that maybe you'd havea deal.
That's how the big deals workin NASCAR and other places.
But uh, we weren't operating onthat level, which is the reason
we don't have more sponsors andand the marketability has come
and gone a little bit over theyears.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely changed quite little
bit over the years.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitelychanged quite a bit over the
years.
What other sponsors did youbring into the sport?
Or you want to share?
At least I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Oh, one of my first ones was Thousand Trails.
Do you even remember that one?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yes, yeah, it was Ken Thompson's boat from the
Tri-Cities, ken Thompson's fromthe Tri-Cities.
They had the rainbow Yep On thedeck, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
He came into my office at KISW looking for a
sponsor.
Well, I knew a guy named BobO'Dell.
He was one of my clients and hewas the ad agency for Thousand
Trails and I said sure, let's gosee Bob.
So we put that together.
Actually, you know, my firstone was the Olympia beer.
Really, now they're coming backto me.
(06:52):
Yeah, leslie Rosenberg ownedthe boat.
Billy Shoemaker had become agood friend, and how did I know
the Olympia people back then?
I don't remember, I can'tremember on the timeline where
this was, but I took Billy andLes down to Olympia.
We met with their marketingdirector, dave Fredrickson, and
(07:17):
made a deal for that boat to bethe Olympia beer, and that was
before the Olympia funny car.
So I don't remember whatconnection I had.
Maybe he was advertising on thestation, but I think that was
it.
Well, that was before I was atKISW, so I have problems with my
timeline there.
But anyway, olympia beer was anearly one, okay, um, the uh,
(07:42):
the casinos, um, freddie's club,silver dollar, okay, and those
were actually not related toradio.
I found them through, uh,through people that knew
somebody.
That knew somebody, um, carrieFalk was doing some five liter
racing, had an office near me inRedmond and I went to see him
(08:05):
and he said, well, I can't do it.
He had a copier company, hesaid.
But I know some people thatshould, and it was the folks
from Freddy's Club Casino.
So I went down to see them andthey ended up on the boat.
And then that guy Took me downthe street to the silver dollar
people and said these guys wanteverything I have.
(08:26):
So I hooked him up with uh KenMuscatel yeah, freddie's club
was Freddie's club was on uh JimHarvey's boat originally, and
then uh later with um KimGregory, right, yeah, there's
one of my and Diamond Lills.
Yep, there's one of my favoritestories, the uh, the Jim Harvey
(08:47):
Freddy's Club.
Okay, at Seafair, steve Davidturned it over right.
So they drag it back to thepits and it's got water coming
out of everywhere.
And I'm up on the boat with JimHarvey.
Ron Jones was up there with us.
Oh, I was doing television atthe time.
I had a camera crew followingme around.
(09:07):
But I was doing television atthe time, I had a camera crew
following me around, so, butthey weren't with me at the time
.
So they talked about what itwould take to get the boat back
in the water and I said I'mgoing to go get my camera guy
and they said okay.
So I got down off the boat andwent and found my camera person,
producer and so on.
I said I got a story over herewith this wet boat.
So we get back to the boat andthere's a fireman in full battle
(09:28):
gear with an extinguisher and ahelmet and the whole thing,
standing at the end of the boat.
I start to go by him and hestops us.
He says you can't go in hereand I said, excuse me, why not?
Well, this, this boat waswrecked.
And I said yeah, I know, I'mvery familiar with the boat.
Well, you can't go in here.
And I said, well, what's theproblem?
He said, well, there's a firehazard.
I think it has fuel in it.
(09:49):
And I said, well, the boat issoaking wet.
Is there really a problem?
Just about, then, a lieutenantwith medals and everything is
bumping me in the chest going.
You got a problem.
And I said, well, yeah, I wantedto do my job and your man here
won't let me get on the boat.
And he said, well, why shouldyou get on the boat?
And I said, sir, it's part ofmy job.
(10:10):
Okay, I need to do it.
I said I was on it earlier,before your man got here, and
now I need to get back on it.
Well, he and I went back andforth, just about came to blows.
Right, I wrote a.
I wrote a letter to the firedepartment.
I said you got a guy that'sworking for you at Seafair that
should not be working withpeople at all.
Okay, we never saw him againand I don't know if I had a part
(10:33):
of that or not, but I willnever forget that fireman and
that guy bumping my chest.
He touched me, which I thinkshould be illegal, and he
couldn't understand why weshould be allowed to get on that
boat, and I have.
That's a whole.
Nother chapter in my book issecurity.
People Make a note of that andwe'll come back to it later.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I'm sure you have countless tales of that.
Oh man Traveling around thecountries and yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Weekend warriors Right Seafair was one of the
toughest.
They had those, those yellowplastic jackets that they got to
wear one weekend a year.
And you went from a weldingtrailer hitches to being the guy
telling people who could andcouldn't go anywhere that that
that day, in fact, steve Davidwas taken into the medical
(11:19):
trailer where Dr Peterson was inthe infield and they had roped
it off so nobody could getanywhere near that trailer.
Well, I had his daughter withme and we got over to the rope
and the security guy was thereand can't go in here and I said
this is the driver's daughter,he needs to go to her dad and he
was not going to let us in.
Oh my God, patty Darling wasthe series nurse at the time and
(11:43):
she saw what was going on andshe came over and said steve, do
you need to come in?
And I said no, but steve'sdaughter does, she's well, yes,
come on.
And took her over to thetrailer.
But stuff like that happened upand down what other tales do
you have around?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
because you have to have countless tales of almost
every town, almost every town.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
We don't know how many times either me or my
reporter would get kicked offthe dock in the Tri-Cities and
they still fight that over there.
Evansville, indiana, is in acement bowl, right, and the
boats are way down below thedriveway.
So I'm heading down there withmy cameraman because the boat is
coming out of the water and I'mgoing to talk to the driver and
(12:22):
a security guy stops me.
You can't go down here.
And I said well, why not?
Well, there's a, there's a boatcoming out of the water.
I said I've, I'm actuallyfamiliar with that process.
Well, you can't go down there.
And I said why not?
He said it's for your safety.
I said, okay, are you going tobe in Detroit next week?
And he said no.
And I said well, who's going totake care of me over there?
(12:45):
I got 10 of these races to doand you're the first guy that
wouldn't let me get an arrowboat.
And then, speaking of Detroit,um, Mark Tate got tangled up
with the Budweiser and turnedone and he went over it kind of
upside down and it jammed hiscockpit so it wouldn't open.
So they, um, they turned, butthe boat was right side up right
(13:07):
.
So they towed it back to thepit area and decided what they
were going to do was set it onbarrels and open the hatch on
the bottom and get Mark out thatway.
So they roped off a ratherlarge area around the boat and
my cameraman and I ducked justinside and and got to where we
could see the bottom of the boat, waited for Mark to come out,
(13:27):
and but we're inside the yellowribbon right.
And uh, suddenly a big old copsays you can't be in here.
And I said well, we're justwaiting for Mark to go on.
So I stood up and he grabbed mybadge off my shirt and tore it
off for me.
He says you don't have a pass.
And I said give me back my pass.
(13:48):
You can get it in the office.
So I said what is your name?
And he said why do you need myname?
And I said because on the TVshow at the bottom of the screen
, we're going to say we can'tshow you the picture of Mark
coming out of the boat becauseofficer so-and-so wouldn't let
us get that shot.
You can't do that.
And I said you watch me.
(14:08):
So I go back to the officegetting my badge back and then
we go back and we ended upgetting the shot and
everything's okay.
So then Seattle is a little bitlater and I'm standing on that
big old tower in Seattle andsuddenly a guy beside me is
bumping me and I turn to myright and it's Mike the cop from
Detroit.
And now he now he's going to bemy buddy Right and I wasn't
(14:30):
open to that at first, but webecame friends.
Wow, the next year, the nextyear, I'm in Detroit and I'm in
the lobby of the um, big, whatdo they call it?
The Weston, the big, tallplaces on Jefferson street, and
there's there's Mike the cop andhe says, hey, steve, you going
(14:50):
to the pits?
And I said, yes, sir, I am.
He said you got a car?
Well, yeah, I do.
He said, well, I'll meet youout front.
So I pull out of the parkingarea under the hotel and there's
Mike with his motorcycle andhis lights flashing and he goes
like this follow me.
And he leads me down Jeffersonstreet all the way to the pit
area.
And that was, that was my buddyMike.
(15:13):
The other one.
The other one was the quotethat I'm famous for, the
production company in Tampa.
At the end of the Detroit pitarea, toward the rooster tail,
there was a section that kind ofwent out into the water and it
was like a VIP seating area.
So I'm walking along the pitarea with my camera guy and a
producer and a director and acable puller, and we get to this
(15:35):
place and there's a sweetlittle lady Actually, she wasn't
, she was a sweet big lady Okay,young girl.
And she says, well, you, youcan't go in here, young girl.
And she says, well, you, youcan't go in here.
And I said, I said I don't havetime to explain to you how
wrong you are.
And there was silence and shesaid, oh, and then we went in.
(15:57):
So every time those guys saw methe rest of my life, they
remembered that quote.
And I'm sure there were moreissues with security, but those
are the ones that come to mindimmediately.
Yeah, yeah, that'll be a good,good chapter in the book.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I haven't been to as many races as you have, but it's
.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
It's been interesting , to say the least, how uh
security has treated people overthe years I'm glad you didn't
ask me how many races I did,because I can't figure it out.
I don't remember.
You know who knows Jared Meyer,jared Meyer Okay, we might have
to get Jared to do a stat.
He is an expert on my career.
I had not seen any of my oldshows for years and suddenly
(16:39):
they started popping up becauseJared would find him somewhere.
I don't remember which years Idid what.
Frankly, I know I did a lot ofraces as the third guy and then
suddenly I was the anchor for adecade or so.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Let's talk about ESPN , because you broadcasted for
many years for ESPN and had youriconic voice was on there.
How did you bridge that fromgoing to radio to broadcasting
nationally for ESPN?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Well, espn Hydro started on ESPN before I did.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It was Jim and and and let me see.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
This is what happens now.
My brain stopped Dick Crippen,yes, yes, and I had met Jim.
I had his network on my stationat Cairo and later on KAYO.
And, uh, jim was the one thatconvinced me that I could do it.
First of all, the the interviewjob that I started on, you
weren't really on camera much,so that wasn't too bad.
(17:42):
They had you ask a question andstep out of the picture, which
my mom didn't like.
She said all they show is yourhand with a microphone.
I said well, that's my job, mom.
Then I don't remember theprogression, but the job would
change to change productioncompanies.
Originally it was diamond piecesports and they had made their
(18:03):
name in drag racing.
They were, they were based inTampa, floridaida, and then some
people from that company leftand started another company and
they had the sport and at somepoint and I don't remember how I
think you know some of it wasbudget driven.
The other guys wanted moremoney than I did, I guess, but
(18:24):
at some point I had the chanceto become the uh, the anchor.
The interesting thing aboutthose days is those shows were
all finished in Tampa, so everyrace that I did that was on a
network, involved a trip toTampa and back.
Wow, one year we did 10 or 11races and for every race I went
(18:45):
from Seattle to the race, backto Seattle, and then they took
the video to Tampa and editedinto the one hour show With all
of the commercials and Tampa andedited into the one hour show
with all of the commercials andbreaks and the graphics.
The only thing missing was theplay by play.
So then I would fly to Tampaand do the voiceover.
I didn't do it at the race, Idid it by watching the video.
(19:08):
That was not easy.
That was not easy, that was alearned, a learned ability.
I had to get used to that.
Yeah, but if you total it up,that year I went Seattle to
Madison, to Seattle, to Tampa,to Seattle, to Detroit, to
Seattle.
After that, when my body gotnear the airport, it would start
to go no, we can't do thisanymore.
(19:31):
Golly, the tricky part aboutthat job.
It sounds easy when you watchthe shows.
They will.
They will queue up a piece ofvideo and say we need 37 seconds
.
Go and you've got this timerrolling in front of you going.
Look, it's doing thousands ofseconds at a time and your job
is to have a thought that endsas it hits zero.
(19:52):
Not as easy as it sounds, oh,but I got to where I could do
that pretty well.
After practicing for a fewshows Met some wonderful people.
I need to mention them becauseI have good friends to this day
in central Florida.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
People like Ryan Kendall, who goes clear back to
that Diamond P crew, and theother the other crews that came
later.
Just a lot of really neatpeople.
And when you're, when you're onthe road, let's say you're like
a baseball team.
You know you're, you're a teamand you're on the road and
you're working together and youget to be very close.
Son Brian is is experiencingthat now and I'm really happy
(20:31):
for him because he's part of theteam shooting the videos and
all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And he's he's producing some fantastic videos
with the drone.
I don't know where all thattalent came from.
He just uh, he started one ofthose kids that did video games
and things like that and wasreally good at it.
Started one of those kids thatdid video games and things like
that and was really good at it.
And, uh, he uh started dronepiloting, had a company where he
did real estate.
He would fly through your houseand not touch anything, you
(21:01):
know.
Okay, wow.
And then I hooked him up withum, walt, ottnad and Lisa and
talk about people who have beenvaluable to the sport.
I wish they got the.
I wish they got the recognitionthey deserve.
Right, and they loved Brian,they loved his work and that's
worked out pretty well foreverybody.
That was a lot of fun for Dadwatching him do that.
(21:22):
Yeah, I'm sure my claim to famenow if I'm in a room full of
those people is I'm BrianMontgomery's dad and they go.
Oh well, he's pretty good.
Yeah, he is.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yes, well, you can be proud of him.
It's, yeah, Some of the footagehe's pulled out.
It's.
It's fun too, cause it's it'sdifferent angles than we've seen
before.
There's.
There's angles that, uh, hasnever been been shown, like the
boats going down the frontstretch and you're it's coming
right at you.
You know it's, it's always beenstuff off to the side before,
but it's just, it's incrediblewhat he's able to get these
(21:58):
different angles that we'venever seen.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And at first it was just getting a good wide shot of
the turn, you know, because wehadn't always had that back in
the day we had.
Sometimes we had a camera inthe helicopter so we could get
that footage later and edit itin and talk it over.
We had the O'Doul's eye in thesky, but it wasn't like having
it.
It wasn't like having it liveor the play-by-play people.
So that was revolutionary andthat's where it started.
(22:23):
And then Brian's got creativeand said well, you know, I can
fly this thing right down by theentrance pin, watch this.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
And you got some pretty spectacular shots.
Yeah, we do well going back tothe espn, when you're traveling,
that much for the productionsthat, were you working another
job as well, or was or was thatyour only job at the time?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
1987 I was at kisw and steve rey Reynolds got hurt
in Madison.
Well, he had been working withDon Poyer.
Besides driving that boat hewas working with Don on the.
They were called RunawayEntertainment.
They were doing Unlimiteds andLimiteds and a whole bunch of
boat racing.
Don Poyer called me and saidcould you fill in for Steve?
(23:09):
And I said I think, okay, letme try it.
And I think that was some of myfirst.
I don't believe I had done anytelevision before that.
So I became part of that crewand, uh, finished the year doing
limited races.
We did a Dayton hydro bowl and,uh, first race we ever did was,
um, uh, dean Martin's hometown,which I can usually think of
(23:33):
the name I will in a minute.
Sandy Tate was driving a boatthere, but her name wasn't Tate,
yet Mark was there,steubenville, ohio.
Okay, the thing I remember aboutthat, besides Sandy and Mark
and some of the boats, mycameraman was from King TV and
(23:53):
he had a big, heavy camera onhis shoulder and the docks.
The docks were a little bitwobbly right, but we go out on
this dock and I turned to myleft where the boat is and the
driver's coming off and I've gotmy microphone talking to him.
Cameraman is behind me.
When I got done I put the micdown and the cameraman was gone.
He had gone into the river withhis camera on his shoulder.
(24:16):
I was so tired I had to take anall-nighter to get there.
I remember falling asleep undersomebody's metal trailer and
then I had to take anall-nighter to get back to the
radio station for an eighto'clock sales meeting Monday
morning.
Jeez.
And it was about then that Istarted to think maybe my dream
of somebody having my ownbusiness would be better because
(24:40):
I'd have my own schedule.
So by late 88, I think, isabout when I resigned my job at
KISW and started Montgomerymarketing doing commercials for
people and all that kind ofstuff.
At the sales meeting I told Iwas sales manager by then and I
told my crew I was going to beleaving and they said, well,
(25:00):
what are you going to do?
And I said I'm going on thesenior golf tour.
And they said, wow, are youthat good?
And I said, well, not now, I'mgoing to have to practice.
I'm going to have to practice.
But that worked out because nowI'm my own boss and I can
pursue hydroplane raceannouncing.
And that's when it got prettyserious about then.
Now I hadn't thought of thatstory for years.
(25:23):
You, you brought it up, maybeAm.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I rekindling things.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Maybe there are more in there.
Okay, Well, good good.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Over the years, though you you worked with some
other greats and talents.
I know outside of hype andracing, but within, when I
always think back on the radiobroadcast and the tv broadcast
over the years, there's somesome pretty fun announcers that
have been there as well as youhave, and this includes dick
crippen, jim hendricks, donpoyer, o'day Mike Simmons.
(25:52):
There was a lot of great talentaround the sport.
Did you have a favorite to workwith or favorites?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, but it's none of the people you mentioned
Really, because I didn't workwith them.
They were doing their thing andI was doing mine.
Okay, my favorites were theguys when, by the time I became
the anchor, I had a second guywho did the pit interviews and
the color.
You know the color commentatorand that now you're talking
about mark evans and that was alot of fun.
(26:21):
Uh, scott pierce was really,really good.
Tommy deeth was really a goodguy.
Tommy was a little bit, uh,camera shy, but mark evans gosh,
you know that personality.
It was just, um, we, we weredoing a piece on the beach in
San Diego for a highlight filmand I introduced him as one of
(26:42):
those um, whacked out hydroplanedrivers who's been on his head
a few times and isn't quiteright.
And Mark says and we considerthat a compliment.
And Mark says and we considerthat a compliment Every anytime
I gave it to Mark and a lot ofthat.
The two man thing requirestiming between the two people.
Right, and he and I just reallyhad it.
(27:03):
It was, it was really fun.
Scott Pierce was fun because hewasn't afraid to say anything.
He just called it like it isand and said things that most
people wouldn't have, peoplewouldn't have brought up but
made for great stuff.
So those were my favoritepeople.
Now there was one time I got acall.
Pat O'Day had been doing theSeafair Race on KOMO, but the
(27:28):
CBS stations had bought thecontract so they called me this
was a K Z O K K couple otherstations.
They called me and said couldyou put together a CFair
broadcast?
And I said, boy, could I,something I've always wanted to
do.
If you remember, when I was akid, my dad and I would listen
(27:48):
to the Indy 500 every minute ofit all day and they would go
around and they had expertannouncer here and there and
there and they just went cleararound the track and I thought
I'm going to get all the goodannouncers on my team and I did.
I had Mark Allen in the pittower so I could throw it to him
.
As they got down there I had,uh, john Lynch and Brad Luce.
(28:08):
Mike McDonald from theTri-Cities came over.
I had Ron Jones sitting besideme as my expert commentator.
The sad thing about that is thepeople in the sport never heard
us because they were busyrunning the boats in the pit
area.
We did two three-year contractsand it was the best radio I
(28:29):
ever did and it was among thebest that the sport ever had.
Really professional stuff neverwon the radio station of the
year award.
So I mentioned it to KenMuscatel once when he was the
interim commissioner and I saidyou know it'd be nice if I could
go to the station and tell himwe won the award for a good
radio show.
And he said well, I thought wegave it to you and I said, no, I
(28:51):
don't think so.
He gave it to you and I said,no, I don't think so.
He said aren't you kona?
And I said no, it's in thetri-cities.
And he said oh gee, I thoughtthat was you sorry.
So in six years of doing thatprobably the most professional
radio broadcast in the historyof the sport we never won the
darn award, that's that's sadand and tri-cities and madison
(29:12):
just traded it back and forthevery year yeah, do recordings
of any of those broadcasts exist?
I don't have them.
I wasn't good at recordingmyself, but yeah, I don't know
where they'd be if they were.
Yeah, the stations have changedtimes and right changed owners,
changed buildings, yeah, so I'msure they wouldn't have
(29:33):
something like that.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, Every now and then I find a saved race on
radio broadcast and even thoughthere's no visuals to go on with
it, I still have fun listeningback to all those voices from
years gone by.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
It was great having Ron Jones.
Ron was one of my biggest fansfor some reason.
He just liked my work, so hewas happy to be doing it and one
of the things I remember abouthim he was technical, of course.
Why this boat's doing that?
Some limiteds ran at Seafairand one of my guys in the pits
interviewed the driver when hecame off the boat and Ron
(30:12):
listened to the interview andsaid um, can you put your
headset on him for a minute?
So he did and ron said larry,what prop are you running?
The guy told him he said well,your, your tail end is too low,
you need a little more pitch andthis and this and this, and I
thought we're tuning guys, boatson this radio broadcast.
(30:32):
But r Ron was great and, like Isaid, he was a big fan, a big
supporter of mine and I lovedthe guy and had fun working with
him.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, fun, fun to think back on.
Do you have any other notablemoments with broadcasters over
the years?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
In the nineties, when I was the anchor, there were
years we were doing nine, 10, 11races.
Yeah, and if you multiply thattimes eight or nine years,
that's a lot of races.
So there were a couple ofoffshoots.
I got a call at the radiostation from W S O Y in uh,
decatur, illinois or Indiana,and they wanted me to come back
(31:12):
and do the uh, the inboard race.
I did that twice.
I told him I don't know theinboards that well and I said
well, I have a guy with you whodoes.
The guy was Mike Noonan.
Oh, so Mike and I becamefriends way back there.
I was still at KISW at thattime.
The thing I remember that dayis we set a record on that race
(31:35):
course that Larry louder backbroke later to that day on green
light.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Wow, and I don't I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I don't remember which boat it was in Madison,
but they had some they had.
Ronnie Brown was there with hisdad's boat.
Um, what was his name?
Hall, uh, what was his firstname?
Grew up the Squire.
His name Hall, uh, what was hisfirst name?
Drove the Squire, later EarlHall, earl Hall.
Yes, earl Hall had a five liter.
That was beautiful equipment.
Ran away from everybody becausehis equipment was so good.
(32:02):
Um, there was a crop fieldrunning in that race.
Wow, that's.
I'm surprised the old memorycan even do that.
I'm really, I'm really bad withnames.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I'm getting there too .
It's hard.
Well, you've met so many peopleover the years.
There's only limited memoryspace right.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
You know, probably if you go from 1975 to 2014, when
I retired, I met just abouteverybody Certainly all the
owners and drivers and all thecrew chiefs and a lot of the
crew people.
It would be a big bunch ofpeople.
Being as bad as I am with names, I would know the face but not
the name, but we could chat inanyway.
(32:42):
So there were a lot of thoseand, just you know, wonderful,
one of my big disappointmentstalk about being a kid with his
nose through the fence atseafair, rooting for the Seattle
boats and hating those Detroitboats right.
But when I found out thatpeople named Shaneth and Simon
and Dawson were all really goodpeople, I was a little
(33:04):
disappointed.
Yeah.
It was like my childhood hadgone away, but they became.
You know, they were reallygreat people, yeah, and we had
wonderful times together.
Yeah, childhood had gone away,but they became.
You know, they were reallygreat people, yeah, and we had
wonderful times together.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, well, that's all the time we have for this
week.
Knuckleheads, come back nextweek, as we'll have part three
and my conclusion of myinterview with Steve Montgomery.
He has many more great storiesto share, so I hope you can come
back next week and enjoy itwith us.
Lots of racing coming up.
It's hard to believe it's July.
I'm on summer break now.
(33:36):
I'm excited to get some moreepisodes out to you, the viewer,
and if you haven't become aRichertail Talk Plus
subscription member, now is agreat time to join, as I have a
limited release 10-card tradingcard set that I'm giving out to
all of Richard Hill Talk Plussubscribers.
There's more information onRichard Hill Talk's website,
(33:57):
where you can find pictures ofthe trading cards as well as
more information about how tobecome a Richard Hill Talk Plus
subscriber.
I want to wish good luck toeveryone racing this weekend
over in Madison, indiana.
I hope it's a safe and fun race.
I was planning on going thisyear but plans changed.
Things happen right, but I'mlooking forward to traveling
(34:19):
east next year and hitting arace or two.
But I hope everyone is safe andhas fun this year in the
Madison Regatta.
Well, that's all I have for youtoday, so until next time, I
hope to see you at the races.
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything
about the sport that we all love, hydroplane racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again, so sit
back, relax and welcome toRooster Tail Talk.
(00:59):
Let's go, steve Montgomery.
If you haven't heard the firstpart of my interview with Steve
Montgomery, please go back toepisode 150 and listen to that
before continuing with thisepisode.
Today I had a great talk withhim and in this week he's going
to go on to talk about more ofhis stories around the sport.
He's going to talk about hisexperiences with sponsorship,
(01:21):
radio talent and security,people of all things Some great
stories, though he did shareReally appreciate the time he
took to sit down with me andtalk about his career in
unlimited hydroplane racing andbroadcasting.
So let's get back into myinterview with Steve Montgomery,
as he continues to talk abouthis time with KISW, the Rock and
(01:44):
the ads that they had forhydroplane racing.
Like you said, I love the adsthat you came out with.
There were some pretty cleverand fun ads.
You had Boatman at one pointand then you had some good
one-liners from the differentteams about KISW.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We had a great promotion director named Jim
Carey.
He was an artist, he was theguy responsible for the colored
logo, the Miss Rock logo, and hewould uh, he would come down to
one of us, any one of us.
There were probably three orfour different people that had
ideas for those ads.
We would get together andwoodshed them.
I think the first one was hehad Fred come into the station
(02:27):
and he put a hat on him and abullwhip wrapped around his
shoulder and took a picture ofFred.
And the ad was something aboutFred Leland and the Vessel of
Varum.
It was a takeoff on the moviethe Temple of Doom or whatever.
That was yeah, and they went onand on and on.
Some of my favorites were um,there was one we put together.
(02:49):
It was um, nine out of nineunlimited drivers say yes to
Miss Rock.
And then we'd say Bill Muncyquote yes, I think it was a blue
boat.
And then somebody else said yes, I went by it a couple of times
and all these crazy quotes fromdifferent drivers One of them
backfired on me a little bitbecause it had something to do
(03:12):
with the comparing the boat tothe Budweiser said the Miss
Budweiser and, um, the Miss Rockhave pretty much identical
crews.
Our crew is guys who alltogether weigh 820 pounds.
Miss budweiser has seven guysthat weigh 800, but there was uh
(03:34):
, there was one that berniedidn't like.
Yeah, so he accosted me in thebar and said well, I got some
bad news.
You'll probably be hearing fromour lawyers.
And I said what's the problem?
And I can't remember which adthat was and he said it wasn't
very funny.
I said oh, we thought it was.
Well, you'll be hearing from us, okay.
I never did hear from his lawyer, so they weren't all received
(03:55):
well by everybody but we didhave fun with it.
One was just a blank page.
It said rare picture of MissRock racing at night man fun.
That's funny.
And the radio station was thereason that we were able to.
We worked with.
We worked with these companiesthat I mentioned all the time on
(04:18):
their advertising so we knewthe people.
It wasn't hard to go find umsponsors when when you were
working with them every day wejust said, hey, you should be on
our boat at Seafair.
We made them a deal thatincluded that and the same with
some of the sponsors who weren'ton that boat.
But I ended up working withthem on other deals.
Most of them came to us throughpeople that I knew at the radio
(04:40):
station.
The hardest part of sponsorshipis getting to the guy with the
votes.
Well, in a lot of cases Ialready knew the guy with the
votes, so that kind of greasedthe skids for me.
I enjoyed that kind of work.
It was interesting and it washard.
If you set out to be a sponsorfinder, if you get a good lead
(05:01):
on a guy, you might be 18 monthsaway from actually getting them
involved in a program.
Really, it takes that long andin most cases, the people who
have sponsored UnlimitedHydroplanes were guys who had
control because they owned thecompany.
It's tough to get them past aboard of directors or anybody
like that, of course, or anybodylike that of course.
(05:24):
But the way to do it wassomething we didn't have the
bucks to do, which is to getsomebody to come to the race in
San Diego and schmooze them likecrazy.
You know Well, the sport hasn'tdone a lot of that because of
your budgetary restrictions andthings, but that means you'd be
talking to them this year,showing them the sport, and they
would take it to their peoplethe following year and then the
(05:47):
year after that maybe you'd havea deal.
That's how the big deals workin NASCAR and other places.
But uh, we weren't operating onthat level, which is the reason
we don't have more sponsors andand the marketability has come
and gone a little bit over theyears.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely changed quite little
bit over the years.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitelychanged quite a bit over the
years.
What other sponsors did youbring into the sport?
Or you want to share?
At least I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Oh, one of my first ones was Thousand Trails.
Do you even remember that one?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yes, yeah, it was Ken Thompson's boat from the
Tri-Cities, ken Thompson's fromthe Tri-Cities.
They had the rainbow Yep On thedeck, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
He came into my office at KISW looking for a
sponsor.
Well, I knew a guy named BobO'Dell.
He was one of my clients and hewas the ad agency for Thousand
Trails and I said sure, let's gosee Bob.
So we put that together.
Actually, you know, my firstone was the Olympia beer.
Really, now they're coming backto me.
(06:52):
Yeah, leslie Rosenberg ownedthe boat.
Billy Shoemaker had become agood friend, and how did I know
the Olympia people back then?
I don't remember, I can'tremember on the timeline where
this was, but I took Billy andLes down to Olympia.
We met with their marketingdirector, dave Fredrickson, and
(07:17):
made a deal for that boat to bethe Olympia beer, and that was
before the Olympia funny car.
So I don't remember whatconnection I had.
Maybe he was advertising on thestation, but I think that was
it.
Well, that was before I was atKISW, so I have problems with my
timeline there.
But anyway, olympia beer was anearly one, okay, um, the uh,
(07:42):
the casinos, um, freddie's club,silver dollar, okay, and those
were actually not related toradio.
I found them through, uh,through people that knew
somebody.
That knew somebody, um, carrieFalk was doing some five liter
racing, had an office near me inRedmond and I went to see him
(08:05):
and he said, well, I can't do it.
He had a copier company, hesaid.
But I know some people thatshould, and it was the folks
from Freddy's Club Casino.
So I went down to see them andthey ended up on the boat.
And then that guy Took me downthe street to the silver dollar
people and said these guys wanteverything I have.
(08:26):
So I hooked him up with uh KenMuscatel yeah, freddie's club
was Freddie's club was on uh JimHarvey's boat originally, and
then uh later with um KimGregory, right, yeah, there's
one of my and Diamond Lills.
Yep, there's one of my favoritestories, the uh, the Jim Harvey
(08:47):
Freddy's Club.
Okay, at Seafair, steve Davidturned it over right.
So they drag it back to thepits and it's got water coming
out of everywhere.
And I'm up on the boat with JimHarvey.
Ron Jones was up there with us.
Oh, I was doing television atthe time.
I had a camera crew followingme around.
(09:07):
But I was doing television atthe time, I had a camera crew
following me around, so, butthey weren't with me at the time
.
So they talked about what itwould take to get the boat back
in the water and I said I'mgoing to go get my camera guy
and they said okay.
So I got down off the boat andwent and found my camera person,
producer and so on.
I said I got a story over herewith this wet boat.
So we get back to the boat andthere's a fireman in full battle
(09:28):
gear with an extinguisher and ahelmet and the whole thing,
standing at the end of the boat.
I start to go by him and hestops us.
He says you can't go in hereand I said, excuse me, why not?
Well, this, this boat waswrecked.
And I said yeah, I know, I'mvery familiar with the boat.
Well, you can't go in here.
And I said, well, what's theproblem?
He said, well, there's a firehazard.
I think it has fuel in it.
(09:49):
And I said, well, the boat issoaking wet.
Is there really a problem?
Just about, then, a lieutenantwith medals and everything is
bumping me in the chest going.
You got a problem.
And I said, well, yeah, I wantedto do my job and your man here
won't let me get on the boat.
And he said, well, why shouldyou get on the boat?
And I said, sir, it's part ofmy job.
(10:10):
Okay, I need to do it.
I said I was on it earlier,before your man got here, and
now I need to get back on it.
Well, he and I went back andforth, just about came to blows.
Right, I wrote a.
I wrote a letter to the firedepartment.
I said you got a guy that'sworking for you at Seafair that
should not be working withpeople at all.
Okay, we never saw him againand I don't know if I had a part
(10:33):
of that or not, but I willnever forget that fireman and
that guy bumping my chest.
He touched me, which I thinkshould be illegal, and he
couldn't understand why weshould be allowed to get on that
boat, and I have.
That's a whole.
Nother chapter in my book issecurity.
People Make a note of that andwe'll come back to it later.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I'm sure you have countless tales of that.
Oh man Traveling around thecountries and yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Weekend warriors Right Seafair was one of the
toughest.
They had those, those yellowplastic jackets that they got to
wear one weekend a year.
And you went from a weldingtrailer hitches to being the guy
telling people who could andcouldn't go anywhere that that
that day, in fact, steve Davidwas taken into the medical
(11:19):
trailer where Dr Peterson was inthe infield and they had roped
it off so nobody could getanywhere near that trailer.
Well, I had his daughter withme and we got over to the rope
and the security guy was thereand can't go in here and I said
this is the driver's daughter,he needs to go to her dad and he
was not going to let us in.
Oh my God, patty Darling wasthe series nurse at the time and
(11:43):
she saw what was going on andshe came over and said steve, do
you need to come in?
And I said no, but steve'sdaughter does, she's well, yes,
come on.
And took her over to thetrailer.
But stuff like that happened upand down what other tales do
you have around?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
because you have to have countless tales of almost
every town, almost every town.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
We don't know how many times either me or my
reporter would get kicked offthe dock in the Tri-Cities and
they still fight that over there.
Evansville, indiana, is in acement bowl, right, and the
boats are way down below thedriveway.
So I'm heading down there withmy cameraman because the boat is
coming out of the water and I'mgoing to talk to the driver and
(12:22):
a security guy stops me.
You can't go down here.
And I said well, why not?
Well, there's a, there's a boatcoming out of the water.
I said I've, I'm actuallyfamiliar with that process.
Well, you can't go down there.
And I said why not?
He said it's for your safety.
I said, okay, are you going tobe in Detroit next week?
And he said no.
And I said well, who's going totake care of me over there?
(12:45):
I got 10 of these races to doand you're the first guy that
wouldn't let me get an arrowboat.
And then, speaking of Detroit,um, Mark Tate got tangled up
with the Budweiser and turnedone and he went over it kind of
upside down and it jammed hiscockpit so it wouldn't open.
So they, um, they turned, butthe boat was right side up right
(13:07):
.
So they towed it back to thepit area and decided what they
were going to do was set it onbarrels and open the hatch on
the bottom and get Mark out thatway.
So they roped off a ratherlarge area around the boat and
my cameraman and I ducked justinside and and got to where we
could see the bottom of the boat, waited for Mark to come out,
(13:27):
and but we're inside the yellowribbon right.
And uh, suddenly a big old copsays you can't be in here.
And I said well, we're justwaiting for Mark to go on.
So I stood up and he grabbed mybadge off my shirt and tore it
off for me.
He says you don't have a pass.
And I said give me back my pass.
(13:48):
You can get it in the office.
So I said what is your name?
And he said why do you need myname?
And I said because on the TVshow at the bottom of the screen
, we're going to say we can'tshow you the picture of Mark
coming out of the boat becauseofficer so-and-so wouldn't let
us get that shot.
You can't do that.
And I said you watch me.
(14:08):
So I go back to the officegetting my badge back and then
we go back and we ended upgetting the shot and
everything's okay.
So then Seattle is a little bitlater and I'm standing on that
big old tower in Seattle andsuddenly a guy beside me is
bumping me and I turn to myright and it's Mike the cop from
Detroit.
And now he now he's going to bemy buddy Right and I wasn't
(14:30):
open to that at first, but webecame friends.
Wow, the next year, the nextyear, I'm in Detroit and I'm in
the lobby of the um, big, whatdo they call it?
The Weston, the big, tallplaces on Jefferson street, and
there's there's Mike the cop andhe says, hey, steve, you going
(14:50):
to the pits?
And I said, yes, sir, I am.
He said you got a car?
Well, yeah, I do.
He said, well, I'll meet youout front.
So I pull out of the parkingarea under the hotel and there's
Mike with his motorcycle andhis lights flashing and he goes
like this follow me.
And he leads me down Jeffersonstreet all the way to the pit
area.
And that was, that was my buddyMike.
(15:13):
The other one.
The other one was the quotethat I'm famous for, the
production company in Tampa.
At the end of the Detroit pitarea, toward the rooster tail,
there was a section that kind ofwent out into the water and it
was like a VIP seating area.
So I'm walking along the pitarea with my camera guy and a
producer and a director and acable puller, and we get to this
(15:35):
place and there's a sweetlittle lady Actually, she wasn't
, she was a sweet big lady Okay,young girl.
And she says, well, you, youcan't go in here, young girl.
And she says, well, you, youcan't go in here.
And I said, I said I don't havetime to explain to you how
wrong you are.
And there was silence and shesaid, oh, and then we went in.
(15:57):
So every time those guys saw methe rest of my life, they
remembered that quote.
And I'm sure there were moreissues with security, but those
are the ones that come to mindimmediately.
Yeah, yeah, that'll be a good,good chapter in the book.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I haven't been to as many races as you have, but it's
.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
It's been interesting , to say the least, how uh
security has treated people overthe years I'm glad you didn't
ask me how many races I did,because I can't figure it out.
I don't remember.
You know who knows Jared Meyer,jared Meyer Okay, we might have
to get Jared to do a stat.
He is an expert on my career.
I had not seen any of my oldshows for years and suddenly
(16:39):
they started popping up becauseJared would find him somewhere.
I don't remember which years Idid what.
Frankly, I know I did a lot ofraces as the third guy and then
suddenly I was the anchor for adecade or so.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Let's talk about ESPN , because you broadcasted for
many years for ESPN and had youriconic voice was on there.
How did you bridge that fromgoing to radio to broadcasting
nationally for ESPN?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Well, espn Hydro started on ESPN before I did.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It was Jim and and and let me see.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
This is what happens now.
My brain stopped Dick Crippen,yes, yes, and I had met Jim.
I had his network on my stationat Cairo and later on KAYO.
And, uh, jim was the one thatconvinced me that I could do it.
First of all, the the interviewjob that I started on, you
weren't really on camera much,so that wasn't too bad.
(17:42):
They had you ask a question andstep out of the picture, which
my mom didn't like.
She said all they show is yourhand with a microphone.
I said well, that's my job, mom.
Then I don't remember theprogression, but the job would
change to change productioncompanies.
Originally it was diamond piecesports and they had made their
(18:03):
name in drag racing.
They were, they were based inTampa, floridaida, and then some
people from that company leftand started another company and
they had the sport and at somepoint and I don't remember how I
think you know some of it wasbudget driven.
The other guys wanted moremoney than I did, I guess, but
(18:24):
at some point I had the chanceto become the uh, the anchor.
The interesting thing aboutthose days is those shows were
all finished in Tampa, so everyrace that I did that was on a
network, involved a trip toTampa and back.
Wow, one year we did 10 or 11races and for every race I went
(18:45):
from Seattle to the race, backto Seattle, and then they took
the video to Tampa and editedinto the one hour show With all
of the commercials and Tampa andedited into the one hour show
with all of the commercials andbreaks and the graphics.
The only thing missing was theplay by play.
So then I would fly to Tampaand do the voiceover.
I didn't do it at the race, Idid it by watching the video.
(19:08):
That was not easy.
That was not easy, that was alearned, a learned ability.
I had to get used to that.
Yeah, but if you total it up,that year I went Seattle to
Madison, to Seattle, to Tampa,to Seattle, to Detroit, to
Seattle.
After that, when my body gotnear the airport, it would start
to go no, we can't do thisanymore.
(19:31):
Golly, the tricky part aboutthat job.
It sounds easy when you watchthe shows.
They will.
They will queue up a piece ofvideo and say we need 37 seconds
.
Go and you've got this timerrolling in front of you going.
Look, it's doing thousands ofseconds at a time and your job
is to have a thought that endsas it hits zero.
(19:52):
Not as easy as it sounds, oh,but I got to where I could do
that pretty well.
After practicing for a fewshows Met some wonderful people.
I need to mention them becauseI have good friends to this day
in central Florida.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
People like Ryan Kendall, who goes clear back to
that Diamond P crew, and theother the other crews that came
later.
Just a lot of really neatpeople.
And when you're, when you're onthe road, let's say you're like
a baseball team.
You know you're, you're a teamand you're on the road and
you're working together and youget to be very close.
Son Brian is is experiencingthat now and I'm really happy
(20:31):
for him because he's part of theteam shooting the videos and
all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And he's he's producing some fantastic videos
with the drone.
I don't know where all thattalent came from.
He just uh, he started one ofthose kids that did video games
and things like that and wasreally good at it.
Started one of those kids thatdid video games and things like
that and was really good at it.
And, uh, he uh started dronepiloting, had a company where he
did real estate.
He would fly through your houseand not touch anything, you
(21:01):
know.
Okay, wow.
And then I hooked him up withum, walt, ottnad and Lisa and
talk about people who have beenvaluable to the sport.
I wish they got the.
I wish they got the recognitionthey deserve.
Right, and they loved Brian,they loved his work and that's
worked out pretty well foreverybody.
That was a lot of fun for Dadwatching him do that.
(21:22):
Yeah, I'm sure my claim to famenow if I'm in a room full of
those people is I'm BrianMontgomery's dad and they go.
Oh well, he's pretty good.
Yeah, he is.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yes, well, you can be proud of him.
It's, yeah, Some of the footagehe's pulled out.
It's.
It's fun too, cause it's it'sdifferent angles than we've seen
before.
There's.
There's angles that, uh, hasnever been been shown, like the
boats going down the frontstretch and you're it's coming
right at you.
You know it's, it's always beenstuff off to the side before,
but it's just, it's incrediblewhat he's able to get these
(21:58):
different angles that we'venever seen.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And at first it was just getting a good wide shot of
the turn, you know, because wehadn't always had that back in
the day we had.
Sometimes we had a camera inthe helicopter so we could get
that footage later and edit itin and talk it over.
We had the O'Doul's eye in thesky, but it wasn't like having
it.
It wasn't like having it liveor the play-by-play people.
So that was revolutionary andthat's where it started.
(22:23):
And then Brian's got creativeand said well, you know, I can
fly this thing right down by theentrance pin, watch this.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
And you got some pretty spectacular shots.
Yeah, we do well going back tothe espn, when you're traveling,
that much for the productionsthat, were you working another
job as well, or was or was thatyour only job at the time?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
1987 I was at kisw and steve rey Reynolds got hurt
in Madison.
Well, he had been working withDon Poyer.
Besides driving that boat hewas working with Don on the.
They were called RunawayEntertainment.
They were doing Unlimiteds andLimiteds and a whole bunch of
boat racing.
Don Poyer called me and saidcould you fill in for Steve?
(23:09):
And I said I think, okay, letme try it.
And I think that was some of myfirst.
I don't believe I had done anytelevision before that.
So I became part of that crewand, uh, finished the year doing
limited races.
We did a Dayton hydro bowl and,uh, first race we ever did was,
um, uh, dean Martin's hometown,which I can usually think of
(23:33):
the name I will in a minute.
Sandy Tate was driving a boatthere, but her name wasn't Tate,
yet Mark was there,steubenville, ohio.
Okay, the thing I remember aboutthat, besides Sandy and Mark
and some of the boats, mycameraman was from King TV and
(23:53):
he had a big, heavy camera onhis shoulder and the docks.
The docks were a little bitwobbly right, but we go out on
this dock and I turned to myleft where the boat is and the
driver's coming off and I've gotmy microphone talking to him.
Cameraman is behind me.
When I got done I put the micdown and the cameraman was gone.
He had gone into the river withhis camera on his shoulder.
(24:16):
I was so tired I had to take anall-nighter to get there.
I remember falling asleep undersomebody's metal trailer and
then I had to take anall-nighter to get back to the
radio station for an eighto'clock sales meeting Monday
morning.
Jeez.
And it was about then that Istarted to think maybe my dream
of somebody having my ownbusiness would be better because
(24:40):
I'd have my own schedule.
So by late 88, I think, isabout when I resigned my job at
KISW and started Montgomerymarketing doing commercials for
people and all that kind ofstuff.
At the sales meeting I told Iwas sales manager by then and I
told my crew I was going to beleaving and they said, well,
(25:00):
what are you going to do?
And I said I'm going on thesenior golf tour.
And they said, wow, are youthat good?
And I said, well, not now, I'mgoing to have to practice.
I'm going to have to practice.
But that worked out because nowI'm my own boss and I can
pursue hydroplane raceannouncing.
And that's when it got prettyserious about then.
Now I hadn't thought of thatstory for years.
(25:23):
You, you brought it up, maybeAm.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I rekindling things.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Maybe there are more in there.
Okay, Well, good good.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Over the years, though you you worked with some
other greats and talents.
I know outside of hype andracing, but within, when I
always think back on the radiobroadcast and the tv broadcast
over the years, there's somesome pretty fun announcers that
have been there as well as youhave, and this includes dick
crippen, jim hendricks, donpoyer, o'day Mike Simmons.
(25:52):
There was a lot of great talentaround the sport.
Did you have a favorite to workwith or favorites?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, but it's none of the people you mentioned
Really, because I didn't workwith them.
They were doing their thing andI was doing mine.
Okay, my favorites were theguys when, by the time I became
the anchor, I had a second guywho did the pit interviews and
the color.
You know the color commentatorand that now you're talking
about mark evans and that was alot of fun.
(26:21):
Uh, scott pierce was really,really good.
Tommy deeth was really a goodguy.
Tommy was a little bit, uh,camera shy, but mark evans gosh,
you know that personality.
It was just, um, we, we weredoing a piece on the beach in
San Diego for a highlight filmand I introduced him as one of
(26:42):
those um, whacked out hydroplanedrivers who's been on his head
a few times and isn't quiteright.
And Mark says and we considerthat a compliment.
And Mark says and we considerthat a compliment Every anytime
I gave it to Mark and a lot ofthat.
The two man thing requirestiming between the two people.
Right, and he and I just reallyhad it.
(27:03):
It was, it was really fun.
Scott Pierce was fun because hewasn't afraid to say anything.
He just called it like it isand and said things that most
people wouldn't have, peoplewouldn't have brought up but
made for great stuff.
So those were my favoritepeople.
Now there was one time I got acall.
Pat O'Day had been doing theSeafair Race on KOMO, but the
(27:28):
CBS stations had bought thecontract so they called me this
was a K Z O K K couple otherstations.
They called me and said couldyou put together a CFair
broadcast?
And I said, boy, could I,something I've always wanted to
do.
If you remember, when I was akid, my dad and I would listen
(27:48):
to the Indy 500 every minute ofit all day and they would go
around and they had expertannouncer here and there and
there and they just went cleararound the track and I thought
I'm going to get all the goodannouncers on my team and I did.
I had Mark Allen in the pittower so I could throw it to him
.
As they got down there I had,uh, john Lynch and Brad Luce.
(28:08):
Mike McDonald from theTri-Cities came over.
I had Ron Jones sitting besideme as my expert commentator.
The sad thing about that is thepeople in the sport never heard
us because they were busyrunning the boats in the pit
area.
We did two three-year contractsand it was the best radio I
(28:29):
ever did and it was among thebest that the sport ever had.
Really professional stuff neverwon the radio station of the
year award.
So I mentioned it to KenMuscatel once when he was the
interim commissioner and I saidyou know it'd be nice if I could
go to the station and tell himwe won the award for a good
radio show.
And he said well, I thought wegave it to you and I said, no, I
(28:51):
don't think so.
He gave it to you and I said,no, I don't think so.
He said aren't you kona?
And I said no, it's in thetri-cities.
And he said oh gee, I thoughtthat was you sorry.
So in six years of doing thatprobably the most professional
radio broadcast in the historyof the sport we never won the
darn award, that's that's sadand and tri-cities and madison
(29:12):
just traded it back and forthevery year yeah, do recordings
of any of those broadcasts exist?
I don't have them.
I wasn't good at recordingmyself, but yeah, I don't know
where they'd be if they were.
Yeah, the stations have changedtimes and right changed owners,
changed buildings, yeah, so I'msure they wouldn't have
(29:33):
something like that.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, Every now and then I find a saved race on
radio broadcast and even thoughthere's no visuals to go on with
it, I still have fun listeningback to all those voices from
years gone by.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
It was great having Ron Jones.
Ron was one of my biggest fansfor some reason.
He just liked my work, so hewas happy to be doing it and one
of the things I remember abouthim he was technical, of course.
Why this boat's doing that?
Some limiteds ran at Seafairand one of my guys in the pits
interviewed the driver when hecame off the boat and Ron
(30:12):
listened to the interview andsaid um, can you put your
headset on him for a minute?
So he did and ron said larry,what prop are you running?
The guy told him he said well,your, your tail end is too low,
you need a little more pitch andthis and this and this, and I
thought we're tuning guys, boatson this radio broadcast.
(30:32):
But r Ron was great and, like Isaid, he was a big fan, a big
supporter of mine and I lovedthe guy and had fun working with
him.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, fun, fun to think back on.
Do you have any other notablemoments with broadcasters over
the years?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
In the nineties, when I was the anchor, there were
years we were doing nine, 10, 11races.
Yeah, and if you multiply thattimes eight or nine years,
that's a lot of races.
So there were a couple ofoffshoots.
I got a call at the radiostation from W S O Y in uh,
decatur, illinois or Indiana,and they wanted me to come back
(31:12):
and do the uh, the inboard race.
I did that twice.
I told him I don't know theinboards that well and I said
well, I have a guy with you whodoes.
The guy was Mike Noonan.
Oh, so Mike and I becamefriends way back there.
I was still at KISW at thattime.
The thing I remember that dayis we set a record on that race
(31:35):
course that Larry louder backbroke later to that day on green
light.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Wow, and I don't I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I don't remember which boat it was in Madison,
but they had some they had.
Ronnie Brown was there with hisdad's boat.
Um, what was his name?
Hall, uh, what was his firstname?
Grew up the Squire.
His name Hall, uh, what was hisfirst name?
Drove the Squire, later EarlHall, earl Hall.
Yes, earl Hall had a five liter.
That was beautiful equipment.
Ran away from everybody becausehis equipment was so good.
(32:02):
Um, there was a crop fieldrunning in that race.
Wow, that's.
I'm surprised the old memorycan even do that.
I'm really, I'm really bad withnames.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I'm getting there too .
It's hard.
Well, you've met so many peopleover the years.
There's only limited memoryspace right.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
You know, probably if you go from 1975 to 2014, when
I retired, I met just abouteverybody Certainly all the
owners and drivers and all thecrew chiefs and a lot of the
crew people.
It would be a big bunch ofpeople.
Being as bad as I am with names, I would know the face but not
the name, but we could chat inanyway.
(32:42):
So there were a lot of thoseand, just you know, wonderful,
one of my big disappointmentstalk about being a kid with his
nose through the fence atseafair, rooting for the Seattle
boats and hating those Detroitboats right.
But when I found out thatpeople named Shaneth and Simon
and Dawson were all really goodpeople, I was a little
(33:04):
disappointed.
Yeah.
It was like my childhood hadgone away, but they became.
You know, they were reallygreat people, yeah, and we had
wonderful times together.
Yeah, childhood had gone away,but they became.
You know, they were reallygreat people, yeah, and we had
wonderful times together.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, well, that's all the time we have for this
week.
Knuckleheads, come back nextweek, as we'll have part three
and my conclusion of myinterview with Steve Montgomery.
He has many more great storiesto share, so I hope you can come
back next week and enjoy itwith us.
Lots of racing coming up.
It's hard to believe it's July.
I'm on summer break now.
(33:36):
I'm excited to get some moreepisodes out to you, the viewer,
and if you haven't become aRichertail Talk Plus
subscription member, now is agreat time to join, as I have a
limited release 10-card tradingcard set that I'm giving out to
all of Richard Hill Talk Plussubscribers.
There's more information onRichard Hill Talk's website,
(33:57):
where you can find pictures ofthe trading cards as well as
more information about how tobecome a Richard Hill Talk Plus
subscriber.
I want to wish good luck toeveryone racing this weekend
over in Madison, indiana.
I hope it's a safe and fun race.
I was planning on going thisyear but plans changed.
Things happen right, but I'mlooking forward to traveling
(34:19):
east next year and hitting arace or two.
But I hope everyone is safe andhas fun this year in the
Madison Regatta.
Well, that's all I have for youtoday, so until next time, I
hope to see you at the races.
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