September 9, 2021 • 35 mins
Motorsports Hall-of-Famer Paul Page joins the guys for more stories about his iconic life and career. This is part 2 of a special 2-part conversation.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. I'm Paul Paige and this is the
Skinny from the bath Heads I Wear Studios in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the Skinny brought to you by Toyota, Rhino Classified,
General Tire and Dream Giveaway. This segment of the Skinny
(00:25):
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country in we got you at Rhino dot com. Welcome
to the Skinny. Part two actually of the Skinny as
Paul Page is in the studio with us Kent Stout,
Michael Young, we call on the track. Dude is in
sitting in for Rico here and uh, we've had some
great conversation. If you did not hear part one, make
(01:09):
sure you search it out. Great stuff in there from
one of the legendary broadcasters of our time. Chief announcer
for I M S Radio, Chief announcer at at ABC,
has done multiple IndyCar races, certainly iconic. When it comes
to the sounds of the Indianapolis five two time Grammy winner,
(01:29):
it goes on and on and on. Paul Page, ladies
and gentlemen in with us, thanks for taking the time
here and spending enough time for us to actually get
a couple of shows out of it. You know you're busy.
He actually is on his way to do it for
a couple of shows. And am I gonna get paid
for those? Yeah? That check is in the mail. As
they say, three time zero, it's still zero and no commas.
(01:53):
By the way, Hey, you've been in this industry for
so long and we all know what it's like to
be in this industry and make some blunders. Does anything
come to mind? Was there was there a big moment
where you're like, oh my goodness, I can't believe I
just did that. That comes to mind? Uh? Yeah, yeah, Um,
(02:15):
actually the most memorable isn't that big a deal in
in today's world? Um? It was actually my my first
qualifying show. Uh no, it was actually during the first race,
I'm doing the lineup you know, and at that time
that the deal was you'd do it slow because people
(02:37):
are writing it down at home and you have to
give and they want all the information. Um so um.
As I'm going through that, I'm getting kind of bored
and I have it on a piece of paper that's
on the glass on the back of the booth. Um
and I now, I'm I'm bored and I'm doing what
(02:58):
I'm doing now, which is just kind you know, reading
and reading and so um I get down to Danny
on guyass now and so we've been reading like a J.
Floyd number fourteen Sheridan Thompson Special and Danny on guyas
(03:19):
the intercourse Interscope racing schedule. So and that woke me
back up. But focus focus, Yeah, there's uh there, there's
a few like that. You really have to be careful
when you're going fast and use the word pole sitter. Yes,
And that's it. I'm not telling you anymore. I dug
(03:41):
myself into a whole Uh. Corey Weller is a female
racer and short course off road and she's very good.
She's won multiple multiple championships. And I was hosting a
deal for Lucas Oil at the p r I show,
and she happened to be in there. I happen to
catch her inside of the uh in side of the crowd.
(04:01):
And so as I was doing whatever it was, I
was talking about the different series that that Lucas Oil
owned and representing him, you know, to the to the
people that were inside of the room, and I said,
by the way, joining us is Corey Weller, who has
sat on the pole eight times, you know. And I'm like,
(04:21):
oh boy, oh boy. And I have Forest Lucas sitting
on the left side of me, and I have Bob Pattison,
Senior vice president, sitting on the right side of me.
And I looked at it, and now I'm trying to
find a way out right, I'm like, let me rephrase that. Well,
as soon as I do that, now everybody thinks about it,
(04:42):
you know, and I try to come up with another
way to say it, and invariably it doesn't help it.
It only makes it worse. And at some point I
looked over at Forest Lucas and he looks up at
me and he says, the best way to get out
of a hole is to stop digging. Well, I was like,
you know what I'm gonna end it right here. Corey
(05:02):
Weller's a championship racer that that you're He's right, though
generally you just kind of go ahead and hope that
the audience thinks it was something in transmission and it
wasn't want you just said that. In my my first race,
remember the um John Cock, the entire big naughty group
of Patrick Racing had had kept their livery over from
(05:26):
the spt STP days with bright, bright color, and I
referred to that color, which is called dago red. I
called it day go red. I just I just kept on.
I was right. I had no problem with it. What's yeah,
(05:47):
What's what's interesting is when in broadcasting, and as broadcasters,
I think it's and you do such a maskful job
of just presenting yourself. It's the one bit of advice
I think was given to me, and it may have
been you. If you make a mistake, don't dwell on
it because nine times people don't even realize you had
said it. But if you sit and beat yourself up
(06:08):
over it, that's when you end up making more mistakes.
And it's just never good as a broadcasters, unless of
course it's something really offensive, uh, terrible language or something
uh in which case you need to apologize right away.
Um did that. It wasn't mine. We were doing a
race on ABC and somebody spun and hit the wall.
(06:30):
And this is like the nicest guy in the world, uh,
always was, supply never never said a bad thing. So
they left his radio up, and the next thing that
comes is a horribly bad word, and it's like, I
don't I bet that's the first time that guy has
ever said that. But naturally i'd say, well, we apologize
for that, but yeah, no, most of the time, just
(06:52):
keep rolling and hope nobody hears it. You started in
such an amazing time and we look back, especially in
Indianapolis with the Tom Carnegie's of the world, the said
Collins of the world, yourself included that, and then on
the ladder end of that Bob Jenkins and what he did.
But it was such a special time that I don't
(07:12):
want to say we'll never see those types of personalities again,
but it was at a time I don't know if
there will ever be another Tom Carnegie, just because the
way things happen at any racetrack has changed that when
you have video monitors now that you haven't instant information
in your hand with your phone. That the role of
a public address announcer or radio announcer has changed immensely
(07:36):
from when you started. What you see, well and start
with what you just suggested. The technology when I started
and took over some sid in the seventies seven, Um,
we didn't have computer scoring. Everything was hand scored. We
didn't have any monitor of what was going on the
rest of the tracks, so we relied more than ever
(07:57):
on what the guys in the corners were feeding us.
But on the air and off the air, the only
piece of technology we had was I had a button
that I could push and be talking to the guys
off the air, and the same token they could contact
me off the air and I'd hear him in one ear. Um.
That was it. So uh. Trying to figure out who
(08:18):
was leading at any one time occasionally became an issue,
especially after they're recycling from pit stop stuff like that.
But with regard to to Tom and to sid Um,
the word iconic is it's properly used here. Carnegie created
a whole new form of public address, and he too understood,
(08:41):
as we talked about in an earlier show, the Beauty
of Silence. I mean, he really knew how to play it.
I was talking to him once so and just I
was asking him about how he approached things and that,
and we're pretty good friends. Um. And he said, you know,
if it's really getting quiet, though, and the race is
not doing much, then all I have to do is
(09:02):
say where's Mario and the crowds on its feet. You
know he's I know, Mario's on the back stretch, but
it gets them up. Yeah, and and said the SID
created something that wasn't possible. Um. In nineteen fifty two,
when Sid got the radio network going as a bona
fide let's cover the race radio network, the technology didn't
(09:26):
really exist to do what he what he did, Uh.
They had to build special little consoles for each turn,
had to send an engineer to the turn with him.
There was no satellite, so each and every station that
came on the network, and at that time was over
a thousand, had to be individually created with a A
T T longlines to that that station, whereas today put
(09:49):
on a satelline. Everybody's got it. We're good, move on. UM.
And the way that he contrived to put the announcers
out and to get ports from the corners, I mean
it was. It was astonishing what he put together. And
what to me gets me the most is even once
he created it, we didn't have the people to do it.
(10:11):
So sid solution was to go to the local radio
stations and say, hey, I'm doing this. Gonna be a
big thing. First of all, we'll deliver it to you
at no cost, but also we want to use your guys.
And so that became a group of Indiana broadcasters coming
together to do something really special. I don't think many
personalities other than Sid could have actually gotten that done.
(10:34):
So in that in that role alone, he was truly remarkable,
and he created the nature of how motor sports is
called even to today. Um I don't I can't imagine
sitting down at that microphone to do a five dred
mile race and not having the exact idea of how
I was going to do it. Sid would have said,
(10:56):
would have thought that thing through completely. And you know,
the first race as he had a handheld big r
C a microphone and then later he had a wire,
uh coat hanger around his neck with a microphone stuck
and and we didn't have headsets in those days, and
so he was evolving. Not only coverage the Indianapolis. What
(11:18):
would be the future of the coverage of a lot
of major sports. So intriguing to hear how things actually
were created and developed back in the day, and this
guy was all a part of it. We're gonna take
a quick break here. We have plenty more to go
with Paul Paige. This segment of the Skinny is brought
to you by Toyota. This segment of the Skinny is
(11:41):
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(12:02):
winning some of the coolest cars on the planet. Check
it out at dream giveaway dot com. Once again, welcome
back to the Skinny kin Stout. Michael Young and Paul
Page is in here with us, and boy are we
learning a lot about how the industry has developed over
the course of time. Of course, these guys are magical
with their words. Whenever we think about a Paul Page.
(12:24):
And I say that with absolute respect. As as a broadcaster,
I look at you guys, because there's really no school
to teach us how to do it. We have to
listen to ourselves. We have to watch the ones that
we think are doing it good and then try to
pick up some some tips from them. And one of
the toughest parts of our job, at least for me anyways.
(12:48):
And something I always look to people like you at
was how to cover a catastrophic situation. Uh, you're covering
in Indianapolis, whatever race it may be in n HR,
a race if you will, uh, And and a racer
has a huge crash and there's a death, and you're
on the air and you're live, and you have to
(13:09):
cover that and you have to find those words to
make it somehow acceptable if you will, Not okay, but acceptable.
And that's where I think people like you really shine.
You wonder how does somebody make it onto ABC, how
do they get on those top three or four networks?
And it was moments like that where I would watch
(13:30):
people like you and say, I need to learn how
to handle that because I don't know. I don't know
that I can handle that well. I I learned how
to do that. I've learned his words, said is said Collins,
universally famous for his eulogy after the Sax McDonald accident.
He Sax is dead. And I touched on that whole
(13:54):
thing in the book. But Um, said had told me
previous race fatalities he didn't cover well. In fact, the
general the general technique at the time would be to
say so and so was fatally injured in an accident
on the back straight away, and that was and then
move on. But with Sax McDonald it was entirely different.
(14:14):
He had well over an hour to think through what
he was going to say. I mean, they knew he
was dead right away. There was no question among the
officials and everything. It was just how long it was
going to take us to get Nancy and everybody else
notified properly? Um, and so Sid told me that. He
(14:35):
later on, of course told me Um. He prepared for
that by having a small envelope that he gave me
later labeled fatalities, and in it were pieces of poetry
or little essay, some prose, something dealing with death. And
(14:56):
his intent with that was to then pull out something
he felt appropriate to that moment. For example, again in
the Sax McDonald they he used the piece from Byron
um and I understood that, but I changed it. I
never felt in broadcasting a race that you had time,
(15:18):
um to look at any notes. You know, even in
the Playboy play call you you you if you look down,
something's gonna happen when you look down. So um, I
committed a lot of that to memory, to a little
file in my brain. Um. And then as again as
(15:38):
you guys well know, it's a community, it's a family.
You're all in it. They're all friends. Some of them
are huge friends, but they're friends, they're your family, and
so you kind of have to tailor all that together.
And you have to think. I think in my mind
that I am looking at one of those family members
(15:59):
and I'm explaining it as as best I can, And yeah,
I was. I had the misfortune to cover way too
many of them. Um. And and live Greg Moore was
a live call, and um, it's it's tough. Had one
in drag racing Colletta. I mean, it just is. You
(16:24):
gotta say you're talking to the family. That's the only
way you can look at it. And try and give
some tribute and some meaning to what's just happened in
your life. And you have been in so many situations
not but to some extent, Forest gumpish that major events
and you were part of them, whether a large perspective
(16:46):
or small perspective. But the night that Martin Luther King
and the news had been disseminated that that Martin Luther
King had been assassinated, you were actually in Indianapolis for
a rather historic event. Yeah, I was. I was actually
working as a stringer for w CFL in Chicago at
that time, and uh, Robert Kennedy was going to come
(17:10):
through and give a speech over on Broadway about nineteenth
and Broadway, and so I went over to cover it,
had my little recorder and everything, put my mic up
with everything else, and then word came to us as
the crowd starting to get together that Martin Luther King
had been assassinated. Now, level of communications without cell phones
and everything in those days pretty pretty slow, and the
(17:32):
crowd didn't know it. Nobody came running in and saying
Martin Luther King is dead. Um, but law enforcement knew it,
and some of his advanced staff knew it. So now
the conversation is you got to get the candidate out
of there. He can't come in. Well, Robert Kennedy overrode them,
and I'm they had a flat bed and he was
(17:55):
going to speak on that. I'm standing right down in
front of it. And he arrived. He got right out
of the car, he got up, and he gave the
most eloquent, an appropriate speech and calmed that crowd and
gave them purpose and showed them a better future through
Martin Luther King's thinkings. And nothing, nothing bad happened at all.
(18:20):
The crowd took it um and it just yeah, it's
stunned all of us. But it also that that that's
probably the only place in the country where any kind
of gathering like that didn't turn into something bad. And
and he did that. And to be there at that
(18:40):
moment and standing there and now going back into that
area and look at the statuary and everything that they have,
is that was And I didn't realize it totally at
the time. Like the next morning, I'm starting to realize
that I'm reading the papers and seems, yeah, that that
was more significant than me just being safe because of
something he said. So so help me out, I had
(19:03):
never heard that term before you were a stringer? What
does that mean? Um, as I worked for an occasion
a series of stations that I was not a full
time employee, but if I did a report and send
it to them, they sent me twenty five bucks or
something like that. That's that's what a stringer was. I'm
surprised that you didn't know that. Yeah, I've never heard
(19:23):
of that one, so so it's really making me old.
If you would go to uh, you would go to
an event like that and do a report and then
deliver it to multiple stations, right any anything that was
halfway major major plus. At the time, the Associated Press
was paying for reports as well, so UH, you could
(19:46):
take one story and farm it out for or five
different ways and you know, not make a living per se,
but at least not having to beg for. They're just
so isolated now if you're on a network, you don't
you're not dare seeing on another network. So it's pretty
cool again looking at at how the industry has changed.
That's true, I guess that is true. Another interesting part
of your life. You're very involved in law enforcement, and
(20:09):
I don't think people realize how deep lee involved You
are in law enforcement and things of that nature. Would
you care to, well, I'm involved or have been. I
no longer do it, but I was involved in in
law enforcement training UM, specifically with SWAT Special Operations Unit
(20:31):
for both the FBI and Annapolis Office and for the
State Police. And my the fun part of that I
got I never got paid. I got paid by they
leave a box of ammunition sitting over here, So that's
how I got paid. But I I started out my
my primary goal are assignment was to be the bad
(20:54):
guy and recruit bad guys as needed for training exercises.
And it went from just finding people too. Hey we've
got this problem keeps occurring and we need to train
on train up on it. UM. But if one of
our guys writes it, they'll game it. And so we
need you to write it because you don't look at
(21:14):
it like a law enforcement does. You have become a
lot of different other areas of your life. They have
taught you. You know, it was a really good criminal
at one time, UM and then that and they realized
that I was fairly proficient in both handgun and long
long gun, and so I was helping them more and
(21:35):
more with that that kind of thing and uh, um
occasionally you know, go help him on the repel tower.
And so I loved all that stuff. That's you know,
that was an adventure and um, and it was different
than everything else I did. But um, mostly the enjoyable stuff,
besides the handgun training and stuff like that, was just
writing these huge scenarios. And one of them every year
(21:59):
was an all old ideal, you know. And it might
start with a bank robbery here, and then the guys
run and now are reported here. This is all over
Camp Atterbury down down in southern Indiana. And I I
did that, and I remember teaching. They wanted to teach people.
Their teams were going through the door, but they were
(22:22):
looking here and there, but they weren't looking up. And
we wanted to train him to look up. So we
came up with exercise to be able to do that.
And I got a letter maybe eight months later from
a guy, an officer in one of the that's this
was when we were training small departments, uh, the Bureau was.
(22:44):
And I got a letter from the guy who said,
you know, you just saved my life because I looked
up and there was a guy hiding up in the
in the entrance to the attic, and if I hadn't
looked up, I'd be dead now. So yeah, that's but
for me, it was it was it was cops and robbers.
(23:06):
I think we might have to title this show Little
Known Facts about Paul Paige. We've we've opened up the
door to Pandora and box and learned some pretty cool stuff. Here.
We're gonna take one break here and we'll be right
back on the other side. We're gonna talk about his book. Hello,
I'm Paul Paige. It's race day in Indianapolis. Stay with us,
We'll be right back. This segment of the skinny is
(23:28):
brought to you by General Tire. It's more than just
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X three. Make You're anywhere possible by visiting General Tire
dot Com today. Welcome back to the Skinny a great
guest here with us this week. Paul Page. Actually a
two part show. Make sure you check out the first part.
This is part two, and we're wrapping things up here
track Dude with us Michael Young as well. We've we've
been saving this to the very end because we want
(24:12):
you people to go out and purchase this book. It
is well worth the price of admission, for sure, but
I want to get you to do the introduction. The
title on the book. I want to hear that from
your voice. Hello, I'm Paul Page and it's Race Da
in Indianapolis. Brilliant. Goose bumps, goose bumps. It's funny. Though
(24:33):
My co author H. J. L. Rod Um argued over
that he had a whole list of titles that he
wanted and I had that, and he you can telling
you all this, this doesn't fit this pattern or you know,
this is the way this is done. He is a
great writer and he understood that. But I just felt
(24:53):
this was a little different and that it was it
was it was my opening um not always said together,
but the combination quite often together, and I just it
seemed right for the book. So we we finally agreed
that that would be would be the title. But you know,
we write this entire book with maybe three serious conversations,
(25:17):
and we get to the title and it's like, we
can't agree on the title. You know, nine words maybe
do you remember any of the other options? Uh? No,
I really don't. Really. It gets that we've been in there,
you know, it gets it ties your brain all up.
It's like, let's just focus on on here and move along.
But oh my goodness, I mean, it's just so cool
(25:39):
to hear to hear you say that. So talk to
us about the book. What was the inspiration? Well, it's it. Um.
It started that I wanted to write something to my
family about what I've done that you know they could
I guess a lot of us are doing stuff like that. Um.
But then a number of people said, you you really
want to write a book, And so my answer was,
(25:59):
all it when I'm retired. Well me retiring turned out
to be one of moving target and uh kind of
vague anyway, And when finally, when I finally decided I
couldn't do it anymore. Um, And so I started writing
it as a book, and I'd have all these chapters
written and all these stories. But I'm a journalistic writer.
(26:21):
I can do. There's some writing I can do, like
opens to radio shows and TV shows. I can write
that kind of drama. But I couldn't do the ongoing
writing that was had a proper element of of of
color and place and everything. And John called me and
(26:43):
he said, I'd like to write your book and okay,
and he was able to add, you know, mine would
just be fact to fact to fact, and he put
in you know, it was a beautiful morning and you
know all the different things that gave it life. And
after five and a half years with me and two
and a half with John, um, we finally we finally
(27:05):
got it published. That was a huge day. It's interesting
to watch with well to read the book, but to
also see as you start to lay out all the
photos of your life and your career on Facebook. If
if our watchers or viewers, our listeners aren't friends with
you on Facebook or follow me on Facebook, they should,
It's interesting to see the photos that you have put
(27:29):
on Facebook these last couple of months or so. What's
your favorite? When you go through these photos and you
look at some of the memories, you're stuff. But it's
so I didn't realize I realized how much of this
that you did. But it's so neat to see it
and your age and and and what you had accomplished.
And to see my heroes racing heroes and you as
(27:53):
a broadcast hero in the day and the element and
being together, it's really quite striking. It's uh, that's that's
a difficult one to pull out, much like what was
your your favorite moment um that question as well as
this what might have been important to me and significant
to me isn't necessarily something that you would think was
(28:15):
significant at all. Um. My my personal favorite is the
picture of me Sid Collins and my son Brian, who
was an infant at that time. But that's you know,
personal emotional. I think my all around that may maybe
the racing public gets as well as I do is Uh.
(28:37):
Ello and I hugging in in the winter circle right
after he came down from the platform and uh, and
it was it was totally spontaneous. He and I were
friends anyway, uh, and we've gone through some things together
and he saw me and I saw him and it
was like wham, you know, and we're kind of pushing
through this crowd to get that done. And what was
(29:00):
native about it has happened again this year. I was
waiting downstairs just to congratulate him what I thought was
one of the most incredible races I've ever seen, and um,
he came down the stairs. He still had the wreath on.
He's coming down from up in the elevated platform and
again he sees me and I take a step or
two toward him, and there's two security guys and they're
(29:21):
kind of, you know, starting to get and then he
realized he's going for me. And again we got a
nice sock. So I think, um, both public and privately,
that's that would be my other favorite picture. But there's
so many in there that I really enjoy. And you know,
there's uh, there's a picture in there, uh that I'm
particularly proud of that was taken from the International Space
Station and I had a friend who was an astronaut,
(29:43):
and so he took a picture of the speedway out
the window. And I have a second one that's not
up yet of Texas Speedway that he also took. So
and there's such a realm of different stuff in there
that I kind of like it. And when I find something,
I'll stick it up there. And generally it's well received.
In the fact, I I haven't gotten a really nasty
(30:07):
note on any of it yet, you know. I fortunately
there's nobody's girlfriend or anything in the back of the pictures.
What was one break? If you had not had that break,
you would not be sitting here today telling these stories,
said or was there something else? No, it was it
was getting hired by w IBC. I wanted to be involved.
I was. I was a go for it at Patrick
(30:29):
Racing for a while and I just once I've seen
the sixty race, I just wanted to be involved. I
didn't care what it was. But going to w IBC
put me in the same place at sid Collins was
and I could learn from him. And also it was
a big station, very important station at the time, and
so I could get a little more key out of it,
(30:50):
and I certainly learned journalism out of it. So I
think all of that is what made that that important
of all the things I've done in my lifetime, to
say that I was able to work with Paul Paige
was it was one of those notches that I never
dreamt it was ever going to be possible, And to
be able to call you a friend and a colleague
is truly an honor. You have no idea how much
(31:12):
I appreciate that too. I really do. Professionals, you know,
that's when you're hearing from your own craft. That's that's important.
Thank you. I echo that we didn't work together, but
the opportunity to spend time with you like this, UM
is very special. Very early in my career, before my career,
in fact, I had the opportunity to sit down with
(31:35):
Chris econom Ackey and I literally picked up the phone
called Chris out of the blue, no clue who I was.
And I lived in New Jersey at the time. He
was in New Jersey, and I said, Hey, I'm starting
a television career. I was wondering if I might be
able to meet with you. He said, absolutely, meet me
at this diner. And we went and met at this
(31:57):
diner because that's where his his granddaughter was working. Yeah,
and uh and sat there and we sat there for
an hour, hour and a half. I mean, for a
man like that to take the time to talk to
that was Chris. That was he. He always had time
for anybody. Remember he started his career selling newspapers at
race tracks, UM. But he ought to be in that
(32:20):
icon with absolutely and in sid um and he helped
everybody I ever saw. Yeah, i'd see kids in the crowd,
you know, come up, Mr Economack. He had the time,
and he was he was cool. He was very cool.
He was super cool for sure. And then I did
(32:40):
have the pleasure of working with Bob Jenkins for a
little bit in short course off road. So uh, the
nicest man ever work working with you, guys. Um. You
know when I know it can feel awkward as you
sit there. I've had people come to me and say,
you know, it's it's really great to work with you,
and it can it can feel a little awkward. I
did it, and it's never happened to be Um. We
(33:02):
certainly don't mean to put you on the spot that way,
but you're a big part of our lives and you're
a big part of this country's um moments of history.
And uh, and you deserve to be in that group
of iconic broadcasters. And we can't thank you enough for
all the memories. Thank you. I don't really think of
it that way, but thank you for thinking of it
that way. Yeah. I just I just a kid who
(33:24):
I followed my passion, which is a lot of what
the book is about. Uh, and ended up living my
own dream. So but and I and I say in
the book at the start of it, there's a letter
that I got from Eddie Sachs after having written him,
and I said, maybe I could do something and and
his answer was essentially, if you want to do it,
(33:45):
you have the passion, go for it. That was and
I just always went that way. And I want to
touch on this real quick. We've got to wrap things
up here, I know. But but to me, one of
the biggest payoffs in this career is what you talked
about with Alio. Those are true relationships, true friendships, and
(34:06):
that's what develops fortunately for us and our careers is
these these people who are superstars and heroes to the
rest of the world in terms of racing drivers, but
they become our close friends. And it's so special moments
where you get to walk up and you have you
have just a person a person hug like that as
(34:27):
a true friend, and it happens to be one of
the greatest of all times. It's it doesn't get any better.
It's part known, but it's part of the family too. No,
it doesn't get any better than that. Absolutely that A J.
Foyt would wave at you. You know wow, that's exactly right.
That's my double throwdown hero and he's waving a great stuff.
(34:48):
Great times here with Paul Paige. Remember a two part
show here, so this is part two. Check out part
one as well. Go on Amazon dot com. Hello, I'm
Paul Paige. It's race Day in Indianapolis. Is the title
of the book. Just hit by it now and it
will be at your door in a couple of days,
and I promise you you'll enjoy the book. Thank you
(35:09):
so much, Paul. This has been a lot of fun.
I appreciate it. That's it. We'll see you next time
on the Skinny. Thanks for being with us here on
the Skinny. This episode has been brought to you by Toyota,
Rhino classifies, Dream Giveaway and general tire for the latest
and sunglasses, optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be sure to
(35:29):
check out bad heads dot com. That's bad Heads with
a Z. Production facilities provided by Fatheads I Wear Studios.
All rights reserved. The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app Apple podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts
The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. I'm Paul Paige and this is the
Skinny from the bath Heads I Wear Studios in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the Skinny brought to you by Toyota, Rhino Classified,
General Tire and Dream Giveaway. This segment of the Skinny
(00:25):
is brought to you by Rhino Classified. Tired of all
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modified cars, classic cars, race cars, that special pig block
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you need the trailer to move your baby around the
country in we got you at Rhino dot com. Welcome
to the Skinny. Part two actually of the Skinny as
Paul Page is in the studio with us Kent Stout,
Michael Young, we call on the track. Dude is in
sitting in for Rico here and uh, we've had some
great conversation. If you did not hear part one, make
(01:09):
sure you search it out. Great stuff in there from
one of the legendary broadcasters of our time. Chief announcer
for I M S Radio, Chief announcer at at ABC,
has done multiple IndyCar races, certainly iconic. When it comes
to the sounds of the Indianapolis five two time Grammy winner,
(01:29):
it goes on and on and on. Paul Page, ladies
and gentlemen in with us, thanks for taking the time
here and spending enough time for us to actually get
a couple of shows out of it. You know you're busy.
He actually is on his way to do it for
a couple of shows. And am I gonna get paid
for those? Yeah? That check is in the mail. As
they say, three time zero, it's still zero and no commas.
(01:53):
By the way, Hey, you've been in this industry for
so long and we all know what it's like to
be in this industry and make some blunders. Does anything
come to mind? Was there was there a big moment
where you're like, oh my goodness, I can't believe I
just did that. That comes to mind? Uh? Yeah, yeah, Um,
(02:15):
actually the most memorable isn't that big a deal in
in today's world? Um? It was actually my my first
qualifying show. Uh no, it was actually during the first race,
I'm doing the lineup you know, and at that time
that the deal was you'd do it slow because people
(02:37):
are writing it down at home and you have to
give and they want all the information. Um so um.
As I'm going through that, I'm getting kind of bored
and I have it on a piece of paper that's
on the glass on the back of the booth. Um
and I now, I'm I'm bored and I'm doing what
(02:58):
I'm doing now, which is just kind you know, reading
and reading and so um I get down to Danny
on guyass now and so we've been reading like a J.
Floyd number fourteen Sheridan Thompson Special and Danny on guyas
(03:19):
the intercourse Interscope racing schedule. So and that woke me
back up. But focus focus, Yeah, there's uh there, there's
a few like that. You really have to be careful
when you're going fast and use the word pole sitter. Yes,
And that's it. I'm not telling you anymore. I dug
(03:41):
myself into a whole Uh. Corey Weller is a female
racer and short course off road and she's very good.
She's won multiple multiple championships. And I was hosting a
deal for Lucas Oil at the p r I show,
and she happened to be in there. I happen to
catch her inside of the uh in side of the crowd.
(04:01):
And so as I was doing whatever it was, I
was talking about the different series that that Lucas Oil
owned and representing him, you know, to the to the
people that were inside of the room, and I said,
by the way, joining us is Corey Weller, who has
sat on the pole eight times, you know. And I'm like,
(04:21):
oh boy, oh boy. And I have Forest Lucas sitting
on the left side of me, and I have Bob Pattison,
Senior vice president, sitting on the right side of me.
And I looked at it, and now I'm trying to
find a way out right, I'm like, let me rephrase that. Well,
as soon as I do that, now everybody thinks about it,
(04:42):
you know, and I try to come up with another
way to say it, and invariably it doesn't help it.
It only makes it worse. And at some point I
looked over at Forest Lucas and he looks up at
me and he says, the best way to get out
of a hole is to stop digging. Well, I was like,
you know what I'm gonna end it right here. Corey
(05:02):
Weller's a championship racer that that you're He's right, though
generally you just kind of go ahead and hope that
the audience thinks it was something in transmission and it
wasn't want you just said that. In my my first race,
remember the um John Cock, the entire big naughty group
of Patrick Racing had had kept their livery over from
(05:26):
the spt STP days with bright, bright color, and I
referred to that color, which is called dago red. I
called it day go red. I just I just kept on.
I was right. I had no problem with it. What's yeah,
(05:47):
What's what's interesting is when in broadcasting, and as broadcasters,
I think it's and you do such a maskful job
of just presenting yourself. It's the one bit of advice
I think was given to me, and it may have
been you. If you make a mistake, don't dwell on
it because nine times people don't even realize you had
said it. But if you sit and beat yourself up
(06:08):
over it, that's when you end up making more mistakes.
And it's just never good as a broadcasters, unless of
course it's something really offensive, uh, terrible language or something
uh in which case you need to apologize right away.
Um did that. It wasn't mine. We were doing a
race on ABC and somebody spun and hit the wall.
(06:30):
And this is like the nicest guy in the world, uh,
always was, supply never never said a bad thing. So
they left his radio up, and the next thing that
comes is a horribly bad word, and it's like, I
don't I bet that's the first time that guy has
ever said that. But naturally i'd say, well, we apologize
for that, but yeah, no, most of the time, just
(06:52):
keep rolling and hope nobody hears it. You started in
such an amazing time and we look back, especially in
Indianapolis with the Tom Carnegie's of the world, the said
Collins of the world, yourself included that, and then on
the ladder end of that Bob Jenkins and what he did.
But it was such a special time that I don't
(07:12):
want to say we'll never see those types of personalities again,
but it was at a time I don't know if
there will ever be another Tom Carnegie, just because the
way things happen at any racetrack has changed that when
you have video monitors now that you haven't instant information
in your hand with your phone. That the role of
a public address announcer or radio announcer has changed immensely
(07:36):
from when you started. What you see, well and start
with what you just suggested. The technology when I started
and took over some sid in the seventies seven, Um,
we didn't have computer scoring. Everything was hand scored. We
didn't have any monitor of what was going on the
rest of the tracks, so we relied more than ever
(07:57):
on what the guys in the corners were feeding us.
But on the air and off the air, the only
piece of technology we had was I had a button
that I could push and be talking to the guys
off the air, and the same token they could contact
me off the air and I'd hear him in one ear. Um.
That was it. So uh. Trying to figure out who
(08:18):
was leading at any one time occasionally became an issue,
especially after they're recycling from pit stop stuff like that.
But with regard to to Tom and to sid Um,
the word iconic is it's properly used here. Carnegie created
a whole new form of public address, and he too understood,
(08:41):
as we talked about in an earlier show, the Beauty
of Silence. I mean, he really knew how to play it.
I was talking to him once so and just I
was asking him about how he approached things and that,
and we're pretty good friends. Um. And he said, you know,
if it's really getting quiet, though, and the race is
not doing much, then all I have to do is
(09:02):
say where's Mario and the crowds on its feet. You
know he's I know, Mario's on the back stretch, but
it gets them up. Yeah, and and said the SID
created something that wasn't possible. Um. In nineteen fifty two,
when Sid got the radio network going as a bona
fide let's cover the race radio network, the technology didn't
(09:26):
really exist to do what he what he did, Uh.
They had to build special little consoles for each turn,
had to send an engineer to the turn with him.
There was no satellite, so each and every station that
came on the network, and at that time was over
a thousand, had to be individually created with a A
T T longlines to that that station, whereas today put
(09:49):
on a satelline. Everybody's got it. We're good, move on. UM.
And the way that he contrived to put the announcers
out and to get ports from the corners, I mean
it was. It was astonishing what he put together. And
what to me gets me the most is even once
he created it, we didn't have the people to do it.
(10:11):
So sid solution was to go to the local radio
stations and say, hey, I'm doing this. Gonna be a
big thing. First of all, we'll deliver it to you
at no cost, but also we want to use your guys.
And so that became a group of Indiana broadcasters coming
together to do something really special. I don't think many
personalities other than Sid could have actually gotten that done.
(10:34):
So in that in that role alone, he was truly remarkable,
and he created the nature of how motor sports is
called even to today. Um I don't I can't imagine
sitting down at that microphone to do a five dred
mile race and not having the exact idea of how
I was going to do it. Sid would have said,
(10:56):
would have thought that thing through completely. And you know,
the first race as he had a handheld big r
C a microphone and then later he had a wire,
uh coat hanger around his neck with a microphone stuck
and and we didn't have headsets in those days, and
so he was evolving. Not only coverage the Indianapolis. What
(11:18):
would be the future of the coverage of a lot
of major sports. So intriguing to hear how things actually
were created and developed back in the day, and this
guy was all a part of it. We're gonna take
a quick break here. We have plenty more to go
with Paul Paige. This segment of the Skinny is brought
to you by Toyota. This segment of the Skinny is
(11:41):
brought to you by Dream Giveaway. Dream Giveaway has been
giving away high end American mucile cars to raise money
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(12:02):
winning some of the coolest cars on the planet. Check
it out at dream giveaway dot com. Once again, welcome
back to the Skinny kin Stout. Michael Young and Paul
Page is in here with us, and boy are we
learning a lot about how the industry has developed over
the course of time. Of course, these guys are magical
with their words. Whenever we think about a Paul Page.
(12:24):
And I say that with absolute respect. As as a broadcaster,
I look at you guys, because there's really no school
to teach us how to do it. We have to
listen to ourselves. We have to watch the ones that
we think are doing it good and then try to
pick up some some tips from them. And one of
the toughest parts of our job, at least for me anyways.
(12:48):
And something I always look to people like you at
was how to cover a catastrophic situation. Uh, you're covering
in Indianapolis, whatever race it may be in n HR,
a race if you will, uh, And and a racer
has a huge crash and there's a death, and you're
on the air and you're live, and you have to
(13:09):
cover that and you have to find those words to
make it somehow acceptable if you will, Not okay, but acceptable.
And that's where I think people like you really shine.
You wonder how does somebody make it onto ABC, how
do they get on those top three or four networks?
And it was moments like that where I would watch
(13:30):
people like you and say, I need to learn how
to handle that because I don't know. I don't know
that I can handle that well. I I learned how
to do that. I've learned his words, said is said Collins,
universally famous for his eulogy after the Sax McDonald accident.
He Sax is dead. And I touched on that whole
(13:54):
thing in the book. But Um, said had told me
previous race fatalities he didn't cover well. In fact, the
general the general technique at the time would be to
say so and so was fatally injured in an accident
on the back straight away, and that was and then
move on. But with Sax McDonald it was entirely different.
(14:14):
He had well over an hour to think through what
he was going to say. I mean, they knew he
was dead right away. There was no question among the
officials and everything. It was just how long it was
going to take us to get Nancy and everybody else
notified properly? Um, and so Sid told me that. He
(14:35):
later on, of course told me Um. He prepared for
that by having a small envelope that he gave me
later labeled fatalities, and in it were pieces of poetry
or little essay, some prose, something dealing with death. And
(14:56):
his intent with that was to then pull out something
he felt appropriate to that moment. For example, again in
the Sax McDonald they he used the piece from Byron
um and I understood that, but I changed it. I
never felt in broadcasting a race that you had time,
(15:18):
um to look at any notes. You know, even in
the Playboy play call you you you if you look down,
something's gonna happen when you look down. So um, I
committed a lot of that to memory, to a little
file in my brain. Um. And then as again as
(15:38):
you guys well know, it's a community, it's a family.
You're all in it. They're all friends. Some of them
are huge friends, but they're friends, they're your family, and
so you kind of have to tailor all that together.
And you have to think. I think in my mind
that I am looking at one of those family members
(15:59):
and I'm explaining it as as best I can, And yeah,
I was. I had the misfortune to cover way too
many of them. Um. And and live Greg Moore was
a live call, and um, it's it's tough. Had one
in drag racing Colletta. I mean, it just is. You
(16:24):
gotta say you're talking to the family. That's the only
way you can look at it. And try and give
some tribute and some meaning to what's just happened in
your life. And you have been in so many situations
not but to some extent, Forest gumpish that major events
and you were part of them, whether a large perspective
(16:46):
or small perspective. But the night that Martin Luther King
and the news had been disseminated that that Martin Luther
King had been assassinated, you were actually in Indianapolis for
a rather historic event. Yeah, I was. I was actually
working as a stringer for w CFL in Chicago at
that time, and uh, Robert Kennedy was going to come
(17:10):
through and give a speech over on Broadway about nineteenth
and Broadway, and so I went over to cover it,
had my little recorder and everything, put my mic up
with everything else, and then word came to us as
the crowd starting to get together that Martin Luther King
had been assassinated. Now, level of communications without cell phones
and everything in those days pretty pretty slow, and the
(17:32):
crowd didn't know it. Nobody came running in and saying
Martin Luther King is dead. Um, but law enforcement knew it,
and some of his advanced staff knew it. So now
the conversation is you got to get the candidate out
of there. He can't come in. Well, Robert Kennedy overrode them,
and I'm they had a flat bed and he was
(17:55):
going to speak on that. I'm standing right down in
front of it. And he arrived. He got right out
of the car, he got up, and he gave the
most eloquent, an appropriate speech and calmed that crowd and
gave them purpose and showed them a better future through
Martin Luther King's thinkings. And nothing, nothing bad happened at all.
(18:20):
The crowd took it um and it just yeah, it's
stunned all of us. But it also that that that's
probably the only place in the country where any kind
of gathering like that didn't turn into something bad. And
and he did that. And to be there at that
(18:40):
moment and standing there and now going back into that
area and look at the statuary and everything that they have,
is that was And I didn't realize it totally at
the time. Like the next morning, I'm starting to realize
that I'm reading the papers and seems, yeah, that that
was more significant than me just being safe because of
something he said. So so help me out, I had
(19:03):
never heard that term before you were a stringer? What
does that mean? Um, as I worked for an occasion
a series of stations that I was not a full
time employee, but if I did a report and send
it to them, they sent me twenty five bucks or
something like that. That's that's what a stringer was. I'm
surprised that you didn't know that. Yeah, I've never heard
(19:23):
of that one, so so it's really making me old.
If you would go to uh, you would go to
an event like that and do a report and then
deliver it to multiple stations, right any anything that was
halfway major major plus. At the time, the Associated Press
was paying for reports as well, so UH, you could
(19:46):
take one story and farm it out for or five
different ways and you know, not make a living per se,
but at least not having to beg for. They're just
so isolated now if you're on a network, you don't
you're not dare seeing on another network. So it's pretty
cool again looking at at how the industry has changed.
That's true, I guess that is true. Another interesting part
of your life. You're very involved in law enforcement, and
(20:09):
I don't think people realize how deep lee involved You
are in law enforcement and things of that nature. Would
you care to, well, I'm involved or have been. I
no longer do it, but I was involved in in
law enforcement training UM, specifically with SWAT Special Operations Unit
(20:31):
for both the FBI and Annapolis Office and for the
State Police. And my the fun part of that I
got I never got paid. I got paid by they
leave a box of ammunition sitting over here, So that's
how I got paid. But I I started out my
my primary goal are assignment was to be the bad
(20:54):
guy and recruit bad guys as needed for training exercises.
And it went from just finding people too. Hey we've
got this problem keeps occurring and we need to train
on train up on it. UM. But if one of
our guys writes it, they'll game it. And so we
need you to write it because you don't look at
(21:14):
it like a law enforcement does. You have become a
lot of different other areas of your life. They have
taught you. You know, it was a really good criminal
at one time, UM and then that and they realized
that I was fairly proficient in both handgun and long
long gun, and so I was helping them more and
(21:35):
more with that that kind of thing and uh, um
occasionally you know, go help him on the repel tower.
And so I loved all that stuff. That's you know,
that was an adventure and um, and it was different
than everything else I did. But um, mostly the enjoyable stuff,
besides the handgun training and stuff like that, was just
writing these huge scenarios. And one of them every year
(21:59):
was an all old ideal, you know. And it might
start with a bank robbery here, and then the guys
run and now are reported here. This is all over
Camp Atterbury down down in southern Indiana. And I I
did that, and I remember teaching. They wanted to teach people.
Their teams were going through the door, but they were
(22:22):
looking here and there, but they weren't looking up. And
we wanted to train him to look up. So we
came up with exercise to be able to do that.
And I got a letter maybe eight months later from
a guy, an officer in one of the that's this
was when we were training small departments, uh, the Bureau was.
(22:44):
And I got a letter from the guy who said,
you know, you just saved my life because I looked
up and there was a guy hiding up in the
in the entrance to the attic, and if I hadn't
looked up, I'd be dead now. So yeah, that's but
for me, it was it was it was cops and robbers.
(23:06):
I think we might have to title this show Little
Known Facts about Paul Paige. We've we've opened up the
door to Pandora and box and learned some pretty cool stuff. Here.
We're gonna take one break here and we'll be right
back on the other side. We're gonna talk about his book. Hello,
I'm Paul Paige. It's race day in Indianapolis. Stay with us,
We'll be right back. This segment of the skinny is
(23:28):
brought to you by General Tire. It's more than just
a slogan. Anywhere is possible with General Tire. General Tires
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X three. Make You're anywhere possible by visiting General Tire
dot Com today. Welcome back to the Skinny a great
guest here with us this week. Paul Page. Actually a
two part show. Make sure you check out the first part.
This is part two, and we're wrapping things up here
track Dude with us Michael Young as well. We've we've
been saving this to the very end because we want
(24:12):
you people to go out and purchase this book. It
is well worth the price of admission, for sure, but
I want to get you to do the introduction. The
title on the book. I want to hear that from
your voice. Hello, I'm Paul Page and it's Race Da
in Indianapolis. Brilliant. Goose bumps, goose bumps. It's funny. Though
(24:33):
My co author H. J. L. Rod Um argued over
that he had a whole list of titles that he
wanted and I had that, and he you can telling
you all this, this doesn't fit this pattern or you know,
this is the way this is done. He is a
great writer and he understood that. But I just felt
(24:53):
this was a little different and that it was it
was it was my opening um not always said together,
but the combination quite often together, and I just it
seemed right for the book. So we we finally agreed
that that would be would be the title. But you know,
we write this entire book with maybe three serious conversations,
(25:17):
and we get to the title and it's like, we
can't agree on the title. You know, nine words maybe
do you remember any of the other options? Uh? No,
I really don't. Really. It gets that we've been in there,
you know, it gets it ties your brain all up.
It's like, let's just focus on on here and move along.
But oh my goodness, I mean, it's just so cool
(25:39):
to hear to hear you say that. So talk to
us about the book. What was the inspiration? Well, it's it. Um.
It started that I wanted to write something to my
family about what I've done that you know they could
I guess a lot of us are doing stuff like that. Um.
But then a number of people said, you you really
want to write a book, And so my answer was,
(25:59):
all it when I'm retired. Well me retiring turned out
to be one of moving target and uh kind of
vague anyway, And when finally, when I finally decided I
couldn't do it anymore. Um, And so I started writing
it as a book, and I'd have all these chapters
written and all these stories. But I'm a journalistic writer.
(26:21):
I can do. There's some writing I can do, like
opens to radio shows and TV shows. I can write
that kind of drama. But I couldn't do the ongoing
writing that was had a proper element of of of
color and place and everything. And John called me and
(26:43):
he said, I'd like to write your book and okay,
and he was able to add, you know, mine would
just be fact to fact to fact, and he put
in you know, it was a beautiful morning and you
know all the different things that gave it life. And
after five and a half years with me and two
and a half with John, um, we finally we finally
(27:05):
got it published. That was a huge day. It's interesting
to watch with well to read the book, but to
also see as you start to lay out all the
photos of your life and your career on Facebook. If
if our watchers or viewers, our listeners aren't friends with
you on Facebook or follow me on Facebook, they should,
It's interesting to see the photos that you have put
(27:29):
on Facebook these last couple of months or so. What's
your favorite? When you go through these photos and you
look at some of the memories, you're stuff. But it's
so I didn't realize I realized how much of this
that you did. But it's so neat to see it
and your age and and and what you had accomplished.
And to see my heroes racing heroes and you as
(27:53):
a broadcast hero in the day and the element and
being together, it's really quite striking. It's uh, that's that's
a difficult one to pull out, much like what was
your your favorite moment um that question as well as
this what might have been important to me and significant
to me isn't necessarily something that you would think was
(28:15):
significant at all. Um. My my personal favorite is the
picture of me Sid Collins and my son Brian, who
was an infant at that time. But that's you know,
personal emotional. I think my all around that may maybe
the racing public gets as well as I do is Uh.
(28:37):
Ello and I hugging in in the winter circle right
after he came down from the platform and uh, and
it was it was totally spontaneous. He and I were
friends anyway, uh, and we've gone through some things together
and he saw me and I saw him and it
was like wham, you know, and we're kind of pushing
through this crowd to get that done. And what was
(29:00):
native about it has happened again this year. I was
waiting downstairs just to congratulate him what I thought was
one of the most incredible races I've ever seen, and um,
he came down the stairs. He still had the wreath on.
He's coming down from up in the elevated platform and
again he sees me and I take a step or
two toward him, and there's two security guys and they're
(29:21):
kind of, you know, starting to get and then he
realized he's going for me. And again we got a
nice sock. So I think, um, both public and privately,
that's that would be my other favorite picture. But there's
so many in there that I really enjoy. And you know,
there's uh, there's a picture in there, uh that I'm
particularly proud of that was taken from the International Space
Station and I had a friend who was an astronaut,
(29:43):
and so he took a picture of the speedway out
the window. And I have a second one that's not
up yet of Texas Speedway that he also took. So
and there's such a realm of different stuff in there
that I kind of like it. And when I find something,
I'll stick it up there. And generally it's well received.
In the fact, I I haven't gotten a really nasty
(30:07):
note on any of it yet, you know. I fortunately
there's nobody's girlfriend or anything in the back of the pictures.
What was one break? If you had not had that break,
you would not be sitting here today telling these stories,
said or was there something else? No, it was it
was getting hired by w IBC. I wanted to be involved.
I was. I was a go for it at Patrick
(30:29):
Racing for a while and I just once I've seen
the sixty race, I just wanted to be involved. I
didn't care what it was. But going to w IBC
put me in the same place at sid Collins was
and I could learn from him. And also it was
a big station, very important station at the time, and
so I could get a little more key out of it,
(30:50):
and I certainly learned journalism out of it. So I
think all of that is what made that that important
of all the things I've done in my lifetime, to
say that I was able to work with Paul Paige
was it was one of those notches that I never
dreamt it was ever going to be possible, And to
be able to call you a friend and a colleague
is truly an honor. You have no idea how much
(31:12):
I appreciate that too. I really do. Professionals, you know,
that's when you're hearing from your own craft. That's that's important.
Thank you. I echo that we didn't work together, but
the opportunity to spend time with you like this, UM
is very special. Very early in my career, before my career,
in fact, I had the opportunity to sit down with
(31:35):
Chris econom Ackey and I literally picked up the phone
called Chris out of the blue, no clue who I was.
And I lived in New Jersey at the time. He
was in New Jersey, and I said, Hey, I'm starting
a television career. I was wondering if I might be
able to meet with you. He said, absolutely, meet me
at this diner. And we went and met at this
(31:57):
diner because that's where his his granddaughter was working. Yeah,
and uh and sat there and we sat there for
an hour, hour and a half. I mean, for a
man like that to take the time to talk to
that was Chris. That was he. He always had time
for anybody. Remember he started his career selling newspapers at
race tracks, UM. But he ought to be in that
(32:20):
icon with absolutely and in sid um and he helped
everybody I ever saw. Yeah, i'd see kids in the crowd,
you know, come up, Mr Economack. He had the time,
and he was he was cool. He was very cool.
He was super cool for sure. And then I did
(32:40):
have the pleasure of working with Bob Jenkins for a
little bit in short course off road. So uh, the
nicest man ever work working with you, guys. Um. You
know when I know it can feel awkward as you
sit there. I've had people come to me and say,
you know, it's it's really great to work with you,
and it can it can feel a little awkward. I
did it, and it's never happened to be Um. We
(33:02):
certainly don't mean to put you on the spot that way,
but you're a big part of our lives and you're
a big part of this country's um moments of history.
And uh, and you deserve to be in that group
of iconic broadcasters. And we can't thank you enough for
all the memories. Thank you. I don't really think of
it that way, but thank you for thinking of it
that way. Yeah. I just I just a kid who
(33:24):
I followed my passion, which is a lot of what
the book is about. Uh, and ended up living my
own dream. So but and I and I say in
the book at the start of it, there's a letter
that I got from Eddie Sachs after having written him,
and I said, maybe I could do something and and
his answer was essentially, if you want to do it,
(33:45):
you have the passion, go for it. That was and
I just always went that way. And I want to
touch on this real quick. We've got to wrap things
up here, I know. But but to me, one of
the biggest payoffs in this career is what you talked
about with Alio. Those are true relationships, true friendships, and
(34:06):
that's what develops fortunately for us and our careers is
these these people who are superstars and heroes to the
rest of the world in terms of racing drivers, but
they become our close friends. And it's so special moments
where you get to walk up and you have you
have just a person a person hug like that as
(34:27):
a true friend, and it happens to be one of
the greatest of all times. It's it doesn't get any better.
It's part known, but it's part of the family too. No,
it doesn't get any better than that. Absolutely that A J.
Foyt would wave at you. You know wow, that's exactly right.
That's my double throwdown hero and he's waving a great stuff.
(34:48):
Great times here with Paul Paige. Remember a two part
show here, so this is part two. Check out part
one as well. Go on Amazon dot com. Hello, I'm
Paul Paige. It's race Day in Indianapolis. Is the title
of the book. Just hit by it now and it
will be at your door in a couple of days,
and I promise you you'll enjoy the book. Thank you
(35:09):
so much, Paul. This has been a lot of fun.
I appreciate it. That's it. We'll see you next time
on the Skinny. Thanks for being with us here on
the Skinny. This episode has been brought to you by Toyota,
Rhino classifies, Dream Giveaway and general tire for the latest
and sunglasses, optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be sure to
(35:29):
check out bad heads dot com. That's bad Heads with
a Z. Production facilities provided by Fatheads I Wear Studios.
All rights reserved. The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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