May 13, 2025 • 14 mins
When I was a kid growing up, I would plan my mornings around a radio broadcast on my hometown radio station KXOX in Sweetwater, Texas. I would always make sure that I was by the kitchen radio at 7:30 each morning so I would not miss Tumbleweed Smith and the "Sounds of Texas." Now over 50 years later, I finallly meet, on phone, and visit the man whose stories made me want to become a radio boradcaster. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Texas Radio Legend Tumbleweed Smith!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bob Picking. I'm talking to one of my broadcast heroes.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
If you remember, on the podcast a few weeks ago,
I told you I listened to my broadcast heroes, people
that really wanted me to get involved in radio and
to learn how to tell stories in the radio. I
mentioned Paul Harvey, and I also mentioned this man right
now on the line with us, Tumbleweed Smith. Obviously that's
not your real name, but Tumbleweed Smith, West Texan, close,
(00:24):
pretty close. Okay, I'm gonna ask you what. First of all,
your real name, tell till our audience your real.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Name, Bob Smith Lewis.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Okay, So the Tumbleweed Smith came, we see the Smith.
Your middle name Tumbleweed.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My program was first called Tumbleweed when it was just
in West Texas. Yeah, people started calling me Tumbleweed, and
I changed the name from Tumbleweed to the Sounds of
Texas on April first, nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It had been on the air six months, and you know, so.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I thought it statewide with it, and so there we go.
I went on their air April first, April Fool's Day
as a couple of week Smiths and the Sound of
Texas and so there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Since nineteen sixty nine, you've been doing three minute stories
on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, there's two and a half minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
And what started out as three minutes, and then I
was with I did features for NBC for about six years,
and they wanted two minutes and fifteen seconds, right, So
I had a little little leaguway there about fifteen second fourth,
So two and a half minutes.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
When I first got involved in radio in seventy seven
at KXOX and Sweetwater, we would play you every morning
or I would grow up. Well, I grew up listening
to you, you know, since the program started sixty nine
because it was always on KXOX. This man, I'm telling
you can tell a story. Nobody can tell the story
like Tumbleweed Smith. So if you started the program in
sixty nine, how many Texans have you talked to? How
(01:59):
many episodes of the show do you have?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, nearly fourteen thousand.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
You know, I do two hundred and sixty a year,
and I've been doing it fifty six years, and so you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Know they add up.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, but you're not going to slow down anytime soon,
are you. I mean, it's archives, it's history.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The I mean this is fun, man, what would I do?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I mean, I'm having fun, you know, I drive around
Texas and listen to all these storytellers and interesting people.
That's so fulfilling to me to be able to do that. Yeah,
and to be able to have done it for so long.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You know that that's a good deal.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, back of the old days, and I say old
days because I was there with you. Back of the
old days, you ran around with what a real to
real recorder or cassette recorder and a microphone.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, I'm gone through several stages of media.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You had to start off with.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
A reel to reel and then went to cassette, and
they went to did so audio tape, and then went
to mini discs and now I'm into.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
A memory card. So you know, technology has changed quite
a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, the equipment's not as heavy as it used to be.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Right, Oh, how true that is? Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So obviously you have everything that you have done since
sixty nine. It is saved, whether it's MP three's or
it's on tape, all that is saved. You haven't thrown
away anything.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Right, No, No, it's it's not. It's all archives and
it's going to Baylor. Baylor hasn't been wonderful oral history program,
probably the best in the nation. Yeah, and I graduated
from Baylor, and so you know it's a it's a
good place for it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, that's why I was going to ask you why
Baylor makes sense? It makes sense now and everything.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, well they've they've been they've been asking me for
about forty years.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
We want we want your stuff, and.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So you know it's open arranged and I've got a
good tax break and everything like that.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Okay, why did you start the program? Why did you
start the Sound to Texas? What was the Well?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I was in news for nine and a half years,
and so I got tired of all the blood and
goods and junk. You know, our news is an aberration
of life. And I wanted to report life, you know,
report on life, reporting on the good stuff and interesting characters,
small towns, unique events, characters, storytellers, folklore, history and the
(04:29):
things that.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Make Texas what it is.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And I had had had very and when I did
suffer NBC they were very pleased with them when they say,
we had this response to your stuff all over the world.
And I said, well, I wonder if Texans would enjoy
hearing about themselves on a daily basis. And so I
started my you know, I got five programs ready and
(04:52):
said it to sixty five West Texas radio stations and
then this.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
One bought it.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
One body Field, little Field Field.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, I had another network man, Big Spray and Little Field.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I was cooking.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So at the time I was a news director for
KTM Radio in Big.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Spray, and I this was then, this was then.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
August first, sixty nine when I started. I quit my
job in January of seventy to uh, you know, devote
full times in my program. So my life was My
wife was scared to death because we had two young boys,
one three and one seven, and there I was storting
out on this brand new adventure with.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
A very little inecom at the time.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And but but we were able to uh, you know,
I traveled about one hundred thousand miles my first year,
went into radio stations, and we moved into our dream
house in seventy one and we've been able to stay
here ever since.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Oh that is great. Now, listen, we're talking to a
real celebrity right here. He happens to have his own
star in Fort Worth. And also you uh it was it.
You're you're a Avril in the Texas Navy as well.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, honorary honorary, right right from the governor.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, okay, who is the most famous Texan? And I
know there's been a lot of If you had to
name just a few of the most famous Texans that
you've interviewed, could you, Well, who comes to mind?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Hondo Crouch, Uh, the cartoonist from Kerrville.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Uh. It was probably the best storyteller I've ever interviewed,
you know, and you.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Know, probably the best ones or people you've never heard of.
They're just great people who tell stories at the supper table,
you know, and they're they're living in small town somewhere.
They go and hunt and talk about their adventures going
to the grocery store, and it makes fascinating listening.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
It doesn't have to be anything really big. It's just
the weather, the wedding, their attitude about life. They have
a gleam in their eye and they love to talk
and they they just they just love life. You know,
they have a good time every day. They they wake
up and you can't wait to get started on the day.
That's kind of people I try to interview.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
But there's something special about Texans right.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, well, number one, you know, uh, I mean Texas
has become self homoginated or homogenized right now, and we go,
We've got so many people finding out how great Texas
it is, and they're moving and they're moving in, and
I don't want us to leave that original Texas feelings,
that original Texas spirit and flavoring character. And so that's
(07:52):
that's that's what I that's what I try to go after.
And I look for people who try to fit a
wash that spirit and flavoring character of Texas and uh
what what That's the kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Person I look for.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
But how do you find the people?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Well, I do a newspaper callum, and I do my
radio program. And when I start out on an interview trip,
I say, well, number one, I've got to take of
a lead file, you know. But let radio stations or
newspapers know that I'm coming, and they they know the characters.
(08:33):
And you know, I'm in a lot of small towns,
so everybody knows a lot of people, so they know
who the characters are, and they say, hey, you ought to.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Go down here and interview this guy who makes rope.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know, or this guy who has a born full
of UH service stations signs, or you know this guy
who frog gigs in Northeast.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Texas, and on and on. People tell I mean, I
can't think you all these people to interview. I have
a lot of help. People call me and email me
and you know, they say, you know, they're.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Interview this person of that person. And it's wonderful because
I mean, I'm fixing to go on a trip to
South Texas and I've got all kinds of things lined.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Up for it.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Wow, so you're okay, But okay, this this program has
been continuing the sixty nine. How can somebody go back
and listen to past episodes?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Do you have?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Is it on your website?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Hey? No, man, because pasions paid.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
For it, right, you don't want to listen? No, I
don't blame it. Yeah, it's income.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
However, Baylor is digitizing everything and pretty soon they will
be able to if you want a cowboy from Perryton
who is also an artist to say, you know, you
could he put his name in and say, Gordon bay Learns,
I want to I want that tape.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That couple who we did of this and this is
that Wow, but it hasn't.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They haven't. I mean they have. They got a lunch
that they've had to collect. They've had part of the
raw interviews. There are two things you know. Number one
is the produced programs. Number two is that they're raw interview,
the whole whole interview. And so they've got a lot
of the raw interviews right now that I haven't sent
any of the produced programs yet because people call me
(10:24):
all the time say you interviewed my grandfather or my
uncle or my father, and.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You're the only person who ever interviewed him.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And so I'll make a copy of that and say
they send it by email.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Usually that's cool. You know, you interviewed an old boss
of mine, Don Snyder, ran the theater in Sweetwater. I
worked there ye same time I worked in the radio.
So there was one interview that you did. I probably
know a lot of people that you've interviewed. What makes
a good a good interview? Give somebody like me tips?
(10:59):
I need tips I've been doing I haven't done this
as long as you have conduct one.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well one find somebody interesting?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, okay, you know somebody that you ask one question
and they talk for twenty minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You know that's an interview.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
But uh, but you know, you find somebody who's just
fun and interesting, and then then you get to a
quiet place and then you I always try to get
a little bit lower physically than the person I'm talking to,
and it kind of makes.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Them feel in charge, you know a little bit, and so.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
They're they're and I'll make it more of a conversation
than an interview, you know, just a couple.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Of guys talking.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, I like that. And of course you've got to
be a good listener.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Oh yeah, well yeah, that else sure.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
And because because you listen and you you, they have
things to ask, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Wow, Well I can't tell you. And we've never talked, well,
we talked last week when I called you for the
first time. But you have been a part of my
life since the seventies growing up listening to you. You
are the best storyteller that I have ever heard on
the radio. You made me want to stay in radio
(12:24):
to learn how to interview people. Are You're a master?
Now enough about you, let's talk about your kids. You
got to be very happy what your kids have done
in the business too.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Oh gosh, my son, Kevin, he's a technical director in
Dallas for older professional sports.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Right, so he puts the picture on the screen for whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
You know, you're watching the Rangers or the Stars or
the Mavericks, whatever. And he has done artistic pieces on
the Cowboy players and sometimes he runs the jumbo tron
in the football stadium. But and he's won an Emmy
for a sports television production. My young son, Beazy has
(13:03):
won eight Emmys.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Wow or music.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
He has composed for television. He has a recording studio
and has done real well with him. Yeah, yeah, well
you're talking right, man, Brod of your sons, oh my
face less up man, when I'm talking about them.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
They they just had a brother trip.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
They take a brother trip every here, and they went
to the Big Band and they stopped by here on
the way and all the way back, and it was
so great having them here, all four of us together again.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
You know. Yeah, look my wife and their two boys.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's great. That's great talking to a true legend, one
of the guys that's influenced me for years, one of
the best storytellers ever. Tumbleweed s.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You were so kind to say that, And I can't
tell you.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
No, I I appreciate hearing that it's my mission to
get you in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame because
good luck listen. Well, no, now, let me tell you
Texas Radio Hall of Fame. I mean, it's my mission
to let people know about that organization. And also I
think that all the radio heroes should be in there,
and you are definitely one of my radio heroes, certainly
(14:15):
one of my radio heroes. And man, what a great storyteller.
Tumbleweed Smith. Google his name, check out his website Tumbleweedsmith
dot com, and tumble Weed you deserve to be in
the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. What a great storyteller.
What a great visitor right there, And you know what,
I've never met him before, of course listen to his
shows is since the seventy since I was growing up
in Sweetwater on KXOX, but I've never actually talked to
(14:37):
tumble Weight Smith until that day right there.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I just can't wait to meet him in person. Hope
you enjoyed the podcast. More podcasts coming up Bob Picket Radio.
Check out my YouTube channel of course, follow me on
Instagram at x Bob Picket Radio, and we'll catch you
right here on the radio. Two on iHeartRadio stations, Bob
Picket Radio, thanks for listening.
Bob Picking. I'm talking to one of my broadcast heroes.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
If you remember, on the podcast a few weeks ago,
I told you I listened to my broadcast heroes, people
that really wanted me to get involved in radio and
to learn how to tell stories in the radio. I
mentioned Paul Harvey, and I also mentioned this man right
now on the line with us, Tumbleweed Smith. Obviously that's
not your real name, but Tumbleweed Smith, West Texan, close,
(00:24):
pretty close. Okay, I'm gonna ask you what. First of all,
your real name, tell till our audience your real.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Name, Bob Smith Lewis.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Okay, So the Tumbleweed Smith came, we see the Smith.
Your middle name Tumbleweed.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My program was first called Tumbleweed when it was just
in West Texas. Yeah, people started calling me Tumbleweed, and
I changed the name from Tumbleweed to the Sounds of
Texas on April first, nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It had been on the air six months, and you know, so.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I thought it statewide with it, and so there we go.
I went on their air April first, April Fool's Day
as a couple of week Smiths and the Sound of
Texas and so there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Since nineteen sixty nine, you've been doing three minute stories
on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, there's two and a half minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
And what started out as three minutes, and then I
was with I did features for NBC for about six years,
and they wanted two minutes and fifteen seconds, right, So
I had a little little leaguway there about fifteen second fourth,
So two and a half minutes.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
When I first got involved in radio in seventy seven
at KXOX and Sweetwater, we would play you every morning
or I would grow up. Well, I grew up listening
to you, you know, since the program started sixty nine
because it was always on KXOX. This man, I'm telling
you can tell a story. Nobody can tell the story
like Tumbleweed Smith. So if you started the program in
sixty nine, how many Texans have you talked to? How
(01:59):
many episodes of the show do you have?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, nearly fourteen thousand.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
You know, I do two hundred and sixty a year,
and I've been doing it fifty six years, and so you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Know they add up.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, but you're not going to slow down anytime soon,
are you. I mean, it's archives, it's history.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The I mean this is fun, man, what would I do?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I mean, I'm having fun, you know, I drive around
Texas and listen to all these storytellers and interesting people.
That's so fulfilling to me to be able to do that. Yeah,
and to be able to have done it for so long.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You know that that's a good deal.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, back of the old days, and I say old
days because I was there with you. Back of the
old days, you ran around with what a real to
real recorder or cassette recorder and a microphone.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, I'm gone through several stages of media.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You had to start off with.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
A reel to reel and then went to cassette, and
they went to did so audio tape, and then went
to mini discs and now I'm into.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
A memory card. So you know, technology has changed quite
a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, the equipment's not as heavy as it used to be.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Right, Oh, how true that is? Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So obviously you have everything that you have done since
sixty nine. It is saved, whether it's MP three's or
it's on tape, all that is saved. You haven't thrown
away anything.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Right, No, No, it's it's not. It's all archives and
it's going to Baylor. Baylor hasn't been wonderful oral history program,
probably the best in the nation. Yeah, and I graduated
from Baylor, and so you know it's a it's a
good place for it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, that's why I was going to ask you why
Baylor makes sense? It makes sense now and everything.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, well they've they've been they've been asking me for
about forty years.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
We want we want your stuff, and.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So you know it's open arranged and I've got a
good tax break and everything like that.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Okay, why did you start the program? Why did you
start the Sound to Texas? What was the Well?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I was in news for nine and a half years,
and so I got tired of all the blood and
goods and junk. You know, our news is an aberration
of life. And I wanted to report life, you know,
report on life, reporting on the good stuff and interesting characters,
small towns, unique events, characters, storytellers, folklore, history and the
(04:29):
things that.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Make Texas what it is.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And I had had had very and when I did
suffer NBC they were very pleased with them when they say,
we had this response to your stuff all over the world.
And I said, well, I wonder if Texans would enjoy
hearing about themselves on a daily basis. And so I
started my you know, I got five programs ready and
(04:52):
said it to sixty five West Texas radio stations and
then this.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
One bought it.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
One body Field, little Field Field.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, I had another network man, Big Spray and Little Field.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I was cooking.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So at the time I was a news director for
KTM Radio in Big.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Spray, and I this was then, this was then.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
August first, sixty nine when I started. I quit my
job in January of seventy to uh, you know, devote
full times in my program. So my life was My
wife was scared to death because we had two young boys,
one three and one seven, and there I was storting
out on this brand new adventure with.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
A very little inecom at the time.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And but but we were able to uh, you know,
I traveled about one hundred thousand miles my first year,
went into radio stations, and we moved into our dream
house in seventy one and we've been able to stay
here ever since.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Oh that is great. Now, listen, we're talking to a
real celebrity right here. He happens to have his own
star in Fort Worth. And also you uh it was it.
You're you're a Avril in the Texas Navy as well.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, honorary honorary, right right from the governor.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, okay, who is the most famous Texan? And I
know there's been a lot of If you had to
name just a few of the most famous Texans that
you've interviewed, could you, Well, who comes to mind?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Hondo Crouch, Uh, the cartoonist from Kerrville.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Uh. It was probably the best storyteller I've ever interviewed,
you know, and you.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Know, probably the best ones or people you've never heard of.
They're just great people who tell stories at the supper table,
you know, and they're they're living in small town somewhere.
They go and hunt and talk about their adventures going
to the grocery store, and it makes fascinating listening.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
It doesn't have to be anything really big. It's just
the weather, the wedding, their attitude about life. They have
a gleam in their eye and they love to talk
and they they just they just love life. You know,
they have a good time every day. They they wake
up and you can't wait to get started on the day.
That's kind of people I try to interview.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
But there's something special about Texans right.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, well, number one, you know, uh, I mean Texas
has become self homoginated or homogenized right now, and we go,
We've got so many people finding out how great Texas
it is, and they're moving and they're moving in, and
I don't want us to leave that original Texas feelings,
that original Texas spirit and flavoring character. And so that's
(07:52):
that's that's what I that's what I try to go after.
And I look for people who try to fit a
wash that spirit and flavoring character of Texas and uh
what what That's the kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Person I look for.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
But how do you find the people?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Well, I do a newspaper callum, and I do my
radio program. And when I start out on an interview trip,
I say, well, number one, I've got to take of
a lead file, you know. But let radio stations or
newspapers know that I'm coming, and they they know the characters.
(08:33):
And you know, I'm in a lot of small towns,
so everybody knows a lot of people, so they know
who the characters are, and they say, hey, you ought to.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Go down here and interview this guy who makes rope.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know, or this guy who has a born full
of UH service stations signs, or you know this guy
who frog gigs in Northeast.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Texas, and on and on. People tell I mean, I
can't think you all these people to interview. I have
a lot of help. People call me and email me
and you know, they say, you know, they're.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Interview this person of that person. And it's wonderful because
I mean, I'm fixing to go on a trip to
South Texas and I've got all kinds of things lined.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Up for it.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Wow, so you're okay, But okay, this this program has
been continuing the sixty nine. How can somebody go back
and listen to past episodes?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Do you have?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Is it on your website?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Hey? No, man, because pasions paid.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
For it, right, you don't want to listen? No, I
don't blame it. Yeah, it's income.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
However, Baylor is digitizing everything and pretty soon they will
be able to if you want a cowboy from Perryton
who is also an artist to say, you know, you
could he put his name in and say, Gordon bay Learns,
I want to I want that tape.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That couple who we did of this and this is
that Wow, but it hasn't.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They haven't. I mean they have. They got a lunch
that they've had to collect. They've had part of the
raw interviews. There are two things you know. Number one
is the produced programs. Number two is that they're raw interview,
the whole whole interview. And so they've got a lot
of the raw interviews right now that I haven't sent
any of the produced programs yet because people call me
(10:24):
all the time say you interviewed my grandfather or my
uncle or my father, and.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You're the only person who ever interviewed him.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And so I'll make a copy of that and say
they send it by email.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Usually that's cool. You know, you interviewed an old boss
of mine, Don Snyder, ran the theater in Sweetwater. I
worked there ye same time I worked in the radio.
So there was one interview that you did. I probably
know a lot of people that you've interviewed. What makes
a good a good interview? Give somebody like me tips?
(10:59):
I need tips I've been doing I haven't done this
as long as you have conduct one.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well one find somebody interesting?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, okay, you know somebody that you ask one question
and they talk for twenty minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You know that's an interview.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
But uh, but you know, you find somebody who's just
fun and interesting, and then then you get to a
quiet place and then you I always try to get
a little bit lower physically than the person I'm talking to,
and it kind of makes.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Them feel in charge, you know a little bit, and so.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
They're they're and I'll make it more of a conversation
than an interview, you know, just a couple.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Of guys talking.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, I like that. And of course you've got to
be a good listener.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Oh yeah, well yeah, that else sure.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
And because because you listen and you you, they have
things to ask, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Wow, Well I can't tell you. And we've never talked, well,
we talked last week when I called you for the
first time. But you have been a part of my
life since the seventies growing up listening to you. You
are the best storyteller that I have ever heard on
the radio. You made me want to stay in radio
(12:24):
to learn how to interview people. Are You're a master?
Now enough about you, let's talk about your kids. You
got to be very happy what your kids have done
in the business too.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Oh gosh, my son, Kevin, he's a technical director in
Dallas for older professional sports.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Right, so he puts the picture on the screen for whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
You know, you're watching the Rangers or the Stars or
the Mavericks, whatever. And he has done artistic pieces on
the Cowboy players and sometimes he runs the jumbo tron
in the football stadium. But and he's won an Emmy
for a sports television production. My young son, Beazy has
(13:03):
won eight Emmys.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Wow or music.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
He has composed for television. He has a recording studio
and has done real well with him. Yeah, yeah, well
you're talking right, man, Brod of your sons, oh my
face less up man, when I'm talking about them.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
They they just had a brother trip.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
They take a brother trip every here, and they went
to the Big Band and they stopped by here on
the way and all the way back, and it was
so great having them here, all four of us together again.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
You know. Yeah, look my wife and their two boys.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's great. That's great talking to a true legend, one
of the guys that's influenced me for years, one of
the best storytellers ever. Tumbleweed s.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You were so kind to say that, And I can't
tell you.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
No, I I appreciate hearing that it's my mission to
get you in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame because
good luck listen. Well, no, now, let me tell you
Texas Radio Hall of Fame. I mean, it's my mission
to let people know about that organization. And also I
think that all the radio heroes should be in there,
and you are definitely one of my radio heroes, certainly
(14:15):
one of my radio heroes. And man, what a great storyteller.
Tumbleweed Smith. Google his name, check out his website Tumbleweedsmith
dot com, and tumble Weed you deserve to be in
the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. What a great storyteller.
What a great visitor right there, And you know what,
I've never met him before, of course listen to his
shows is since the seventy since I was growing up
in Sweetwater on KXOX, but I've never actually talked to
(14:37):
tumble Weight Smith until that day right there.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I just can't wait to meet him in person. Hope
you enjoyed the podcast. More podcasts coming up Bob Picket Radio.
Check out my YouTube channel of course, follow me on
Instagram at x Bob Picket Radio, and we'll catch you
right here on the radio. Two on iHeartRadio stations, Bob
Picket Radio, thanks for listening.
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