Welcome to Brazos Matters.

I'm Jay Socol.

So I first hit the radio airwaves in Aggieland as a student in the late 1980s as a DJ, a part time sports guy, and eventually a full time news guy.

Which means I have either worked with or just met along the way a number of people who I would consider iconic voices in this community.

So some examples are Scott Delucia, Tom Turbiville, Chip Howard, Roger WWW Garrett, Josh Halstead, Mike Fitch.

Chace Murphy, Mary Mike Hatcher, Harold Pressley.

Katie Dempsey.

I could go on and on, but the main figure in that Mount Rushmore of voices is Dave South.

So iconic that his nickname is the voice of Aggieland.

So Dave was the voice of Texas A&M football, basketball, and baseball for more than 30 years, officially retiring from play by play, I believe, when the world stopped during the pandemic.

So I asked him to talk about his career in radio, his most cherished moments, calling games and a whole lot more because the voice of Aggieland somehow marks his 80th birthday this year.

A big deal.

So, Dave, thanks for being here.

How are you?

Well, thanks, Jay, for inviting me.

I've always been a fan of yours, too.

Well, it's nice of you to say now, in in years gone by, if I said, Dave, how are you?

I'm the best I've ever been.

You said that so much.

And that was just part of your brand.

But then you stopped.

Yes.

Tell me about that.

Well, I. The one I say now when somebody asked me, you know, how are you doing?

I always go, I'm I'm thankful and I'm fearless.

Okay.

The thankful came from a Billy Graham excuse me, Billy Graham devotional I had read and that was thankful.

And so when people ask, I would ask me how I was doing.

I'm glad.

I'm thankful.

And they would look at me and go, When are you thankful for?

And I said, I'm thankful for Jesus Christ.

Yeah.

And so then the next part of that was fearless.

Rick Warren is somebody who wrote a book, by the way, that Purpose Driven Life.

And I read that book and had a great meaning in my life.

Rick, is he had a son that committed suicide and people started attacking him, saying, you're probably not the minister you say you are, which I thought was rather rude.

But and then he said, you know what?

I wasn't going to let that bother me.

And I was going to be fearless to those kinds of comments.

Yeah.

And so that's when 365 times in the Bible it says fear not.

So that's the second half of it.

And so there are some people and when I see him, some people and I see him, they all say, you're still the best you've ever been.

Well, yeah, I am.

But here's the next part of that.

And it did get around.

There was a coach that left here and was coaching with the Buffalo Bills, and I called up there one day to talk to the trainer for the Buffalo Bills, who was a guy that I knew and I wanted to visit with him about something.

Before I hung up the phone, the receptionist said, Do you ever see Scully?

And when he no, When does he come across your desk?

Around your desk?

And she said, Yeah, I'll see him today when he comes back for lunch.

And I said, when he walks by and he'll probably ask you how you're doing, you just say, I'm the best I've ever been.

And so she said, okay, I'll do it.

And later that afternoon he called me because he walked by and she said that and he turned around and looked at her.

Do you know Dave South?

It's no.

Anyway, so now I dropped it, went the other the other way.

That's a good story though.

Yeah.

So in reading up on you, I, I learned how you fell in love with radio and then how that turned into KDAV radio.

Would you tell that story?

Back when I was growing up, the stores closed at 5:00 every night except one, and that was Thursday nights.

And they stayed open until 9:00.

And so my dad, he got a half a day off on Thursdays.

We'd come home and eat and then we would go downtown Wichita Falls, and we would stay down there until all the stores closed.

And I didn't want to go, you know, into shopping with my mother or my dad.

And there was a radio station on the streets there on the Scott Street in Wichita Falls.

And I went over there and started standing in front of the window.

You could look in and see the disc jockey.

And it turned out to be somebody very famous.

You can look this guy's name up.

You can Google him.

His name was Snuff Garrett, but his given name was Tommy Garrett.

And I would stand and watch snuff work.

I was ten years old and I would be down there every Thursday night just staring at him.

And he's and I'm sure he was kind of feeling a little uneasy.

Who is this kid who was looking at me?

And so finally one night he said he had a speaker.

We could talk to, and he said, I'm going to buzz you in, come to the door.

So I went around and he buzzed me in and I went into the control room and Snuff said what?

Hey Every Thursday night, you're here.

What's going on?

And I said, Well, my parents are shopping and I just like to watch what you're doing.

I think it's kind of interesting.

And he said, Well, you know, from now on, just let me know you're there and tap on the window and you can come in and sit with me.

And he did.

They started giving me like a news copy.

He gave me actual copies of the commercial copy.

He'd give all that stuff and he explained everything that he was doing, the control board, the record players, the turntables and the whole works.

And I was just blown away by that, you know?

You remember this?

yeah.

I mean, like, it's yesterday.

wow.

Because it had that much of an impact on me.

And Snuff Garrett was really famous in Wichita Falls.

He was close friends, very close friends with Buddy Holly.

And when Buddy was killed in that plane crash in 1959, he did like an entire night.

And he he talked to a lot of people that knew Buddy, well it was the next night, but he knew a lot of people.

Because he was from Lubbock and that's where he and Buddy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so anyway, I saw him.

I decided there was a comment from Mark Twain and he said, The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.

And I guess I found out why that those nights when I was watching Snuff Garrett work as a disc jockey, I decided I wanted to be a radio announcer.

Wow.

And now that some time had gone by, by the time I was 12 years old, I'm still going down there and watching snuff.

And that was about the time he left because he did leave.

And went to Hollywood and became a big time record producer.

But I, I decided I want to be a disc jockey.

Had a paper route, saved up my money.

I went and bought two reel to reel recorders.

I bought a little makeshift board.

I had I had two turntables.

I wired all of that together.

I had.

And I would go into my half of my closet was a radio station.

I moved all my clothes to the other side of my closet.

Great sound inside a closet, I'll say.

And so anyway, I. I started practicing being a deejay, and my mother would come in after I got through and she would listen to my tapes and she would correct my enunciations and, you know, here's and you don't need to see it that way.

You know, let help to help you with your English, here son.

Well, and so she did.

And I can and some of my friends would come over and they'd be guest on my radio show, KDAV.

KDAV.

And we would sit in my little closet and we would talk.

And so that went on for quite some time.

Even after I got into junior high and leading into my sophomore year in high school.

And so I was working at the, the ANP at that time as a sack boy, and she said, I'm going to pick you up tonight.

When you get off on time, you get off.

And I said, 4:00, and this was in the summertime.

And she said, okay, I'm going to pick you up.

What are we going to do?

You'll know when I take you there.

So we went out to the radio station.

She found her way to this radio station.

It was the same station that Snuff had worked for, and now they were out on a hill out by the TV station and pulled up.

And I said, What are we doing here?

And she said, You're going to go in there and apply for a job.

No, I'm not.

I'm not about to go in there.

And she said, Yes, you are, because I think you're ready.

And I think if you'll go in there and they'll give you an opportunity to read for them, they'll hire you.

And I said, Why don't you think?

Because you've got a great voice.

My voice had started to change when I was about 13 years old.

Now I'm 15 and people would call the house and I would answer the phone and they would go, Is your wife there?

No, but my mother is.

You want to talk to her?

And so my voice had changed and we were sitting there and it's getting close.

And she finally said, We're not going into you go in.

So I go inside and everybody was gone except for one guy.

And this guy later on I would hear him on WBAP Guy's name was Mike Hoy and h-o-y and I walked in and he said, Can I help you?

And I said, Well, in apply for a job.

He kind of looked and he said, Really?

And he said, Yeah, and he's having an experience.

And well, I wasn't going to tell him I was, you know, a closet D.J., literally a closet.

I'm going to do that.

And he said, okay.

So we go into a recording studio and the big old Ampex reel to reel record.

Remember those?

Yeah, He told me how to start and stop it.

And so he left me alone, gave me some stuff to read.

And I sat in there and I practiced and then I did it.

And so he came back and I stopped it and he came back in and he said, I'll give a chance.

I'll listen to it.

And he started to rewind it and he was not going to listen to that.

And suddenly he just stopped and he said, You know what?

I got time.

He looked at his watch and he yeah, you know, listen to a little bit.

Then he went, Where have you worked before?

I said not my closet.

I didn't say that either.

I don't have any experience.

I've taken a lot of speech classes and I guess that has something to do with it, he said.

I think we can use you.

I wanna hire you as a weekend guy.

I'm serious, We need a weekend guy right now.

And you were about 15.

I was 15 years old.

Didn't have a Social Security card.

And he kind of let that slide for a while until I turned 16 in August of that summer.

Yeah.

And anyway, so it's interesting to me that your mom not only embraced it, she drove you to the station so you could apply for this.

Yes.

Yeah.

So you get the job at the station, and then what?

They immediately change my name.

It wasn't Dave South.

I was.

It was Jim Miller and the Night Satellite.

And I don't know where they came up with that.

They had crazy names like that back in those days.

How long were you, Jim Miller Quite a while, because we started, Snuff, by the way.

He had left by then and I took over.

I eventually took over the slot that he worked from 9 to 1230.

Wow.

And that was quite an honor for me because, you know, that's Snuff Garrett And you literally got to go and Google him because, man, he was very successful.

He had he produced records for Cher, Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnette.

It just went on and on.

Then he recorded some albums called Tommy Garrett's 50 Pianos, Tommy Garrett's 50 Guitars.

And those were big sellers.

The guy was a multi-millionaire by the time that he retired.

So so you start out as a deejay, and at what point did you start sort of testing the waters in play by play?

Like that's a real pivot.

I volunteered to work for the guy that was doing the play by play for Wichita Falls High School when I got the job that summer, and he hired me to go and do stats for him and I actually ended up talking on the air and ended up doing some games that year and then also some basketball games and continue to do that for quite some time.

All in Wichita Falls.

play by play or play by play, play by play and and also color.

Okay.

I was doing both If somebody you know didn't they were having a hard time trying to find any play by play man now then let's go back before all of this.

Sure.

Because I fell in love with baseball at the age of seven and I just love the sport.

But when I was ten years old, my dad took me down to the sputter ballpark.

We they had a farm team there of the Dodgers.

Wichita Falls sputters and went down there.

And that night, the first game ever, an old Sputter Park.

And I ended up playing baseball there.

But I was sitting there and I looked down at the far, far end of the bench of the stands, way down the right field line.

There was some old bleachers, and all of the black people were sitting down there.

And I looked back at my dad and I said, Why can't they set up here with us?

Yeah, well, there much I mean, I'll never forget this.

Once you mentioned white guys sitting in front of us, they all turned around and looked at me and then looked at my dad and he's looking back at them and he goes, We'll talk about it when we get home.

And so when we got home, he said, I want you to go look up and go to the library and look up Jackie Robinson.

And so I went, and then I found out, How about Jackie Robinson and everything that he went through?

Yeah.

To get into baseball.

Well, anyway, that was one of the stories there.

But I started when I started first at ten years old, I started the the coach of this Little League team had given me a scorepad and I made my own scorebook and I would watch the game of the day on the weekends with Peewee Race and Dizzy.

Dean and I would score it and then I would go sit in the room and the window of my bedroom looking out over the backyard, and I would recreate that game.

And that's how I got the play by play thing going.

And the only thing that could hear me was my dog, Rin Tin Tin, and he was right outside the window and he would lay there, but lo the window listening to me.

And so, so would I. When I was starting to get into the news business and I was young, in fact, I started learning that every when I was in college, if you remember the name Joe Holstein.

yeah.

Joe was one of the guys who was nice enough to to start showing me the ropes there.

But I picked a couple of people to try to emulate because I didn't have a sound and I didn't have my own direction yet.

And so my, my idols were it was kind of a combination of Peter Jennings and Paul Harvey.

yeah, right.

Because I love the way they sounded and the kinds of stories that they told who were the iconic voices that maybe were the the North Star for you?

Well, I ended up, as you probably know, in Waco after I got out of school and.

Frank Fallon.

Yeah.

Frank Fallon was a great teacher.

And I've said before very publicly that the reason I'm doing what I'm doing today is because of Frank Fallon and anything that I do.

Well, it's because of Frank Fallon.

Anything that I'm not doing.

Well, it's because I didn't listen good enough to Frank.

So because I thought Frank was that he Frank could have worked anywhere he wanted to.

The Astros tried to hire him.

He did.

The Houston Oilers for a long time, and the Cowboys used him a number of times on pre-season games.

But Frank was just a pro and I could watch everything.

He was meticulous about his preparation and the whole works, so he had the opportunity to work with a pro like that.

Gonna take a quick break through to reset if you just tuned in.

I'm Jay.

Socol.

You're listening to Brazos Matters and our guest today is the voice of Aggieland, Dave South.

We're talking about radio and his legendary play by play career for Texas A&M Sports.

Okay, so how did you make your way to Bryan College Station, Texas A&M, Well, I ended up Frank, the Old Southwest Conference Radio Network.

They were looking for people and Frank recommended me.

And so I got an audition and I was in the right place at the right times and the right thing to the right person.

And they hired me.

And so I started doing I started working with the old Exxon radio network that was actually then was Exxon then, and that started my career there.

And then Frank and I worked a lot and we did some beta games together.

Frank and I would have we did Little League Baseball, we did everything you can imagine.

And and so it was that's what got me started in the right direction.

I did my first college broadcast in 1970, and then when I retired from baseball here at A&M and I guess that was in 2020.

Right.

And we you know, there'd been 50 years that I'd done all of those games.

I worked for years doing NBA games on.

And then with the network that did the NBA game of the night.

And so that was a good experience to a point, and I was traveling too much.

Yeah.

And so I just finally stepped back from that.

Totally.

But anyway, and I've you know, I've looked back and I've been to all kinds of places, met all sorts of people, especially in the sports field, but then working at KWTX and Channel ten up there met a lot of folks that were away from sports.

I had an opportunity one time to interview Dolly Parton, one of the nicest people I read in my life, just as nice as she could be.

She gave me about 15 minutes of her time because I loaned her my guitar, so she was about to go on TV and she wanted to sing a song.

So can I borrow your guitar?

And I said, Would you give me an interview when we get through?

And she did.

But just people like that, you know, down through the years.

And I also met some people that I just as soon forget.

So So I've seen a list of what's considered to be your most memorable play by play moments, your biggest calls.

Yeah, and I think they were all Aggie football and they were all iconic.

But I'm wondering if you would say those were the moments that you remember the most because I'm curious what those might be.

No, no.

You know, I know just those I you know, people have asked me what was the day, the game that you remember more than any other.

And it was the bonfire game.

Yeah.

And there that was we needed to win that game that that afternoon because we were all hurting here.

There was a I mean, we needed something to make us feel better.

Not that you can feel great about the loss of 12 students, but I would say that that game that night and then some of the success we had in basketball.

Yeah.

And then going to the College World Series, you know, to me, those are the best teams A&M ever had.

And any time that a team college qualifies for the College World Series, that's one of their best teams and not the best team.

We didn't win any of those.

Of course, we went last year.

We are, as you and I are talking and that didn't work out for us.

Yeah, Yeah.

Things that stand out, you know, the list that that is associated with you biggest calls in football.

There's Kansas State, 1998, Texas in 99, a couple of Oklahoma games, an Alabama game I think about things like Acie Law's buzzer beater against Texas and John Byington's Home runs against Texas.

There've been so many iconic moments that I think you've been part of just dozens and dozens of them.

Yeah.

You know, you think back and after a while you can't remember exactly what year that was when that happened because have been so many of those.

And then the other thing, too, is that I got real close to the athletes and the coaches.

And here's what I think.

Here's what I truly believe.

I think I lasted as long as I did.

Okay, because the coaches that I talked to and worked with knew they could trust me.

Sure, I never did or said anything derogatory about any coach on the air that I worked with and that got back to them.

And so that was, you know, and I would never, ever I did.

They were amateurs.

Then, of course, you're getting paid now, but but I would not criticize a young man now.

He's trying to do the best he can do down there.

Sure.

On that field or whatever we're doing on the court.

But I know I think that lasted that long just simply because those coaches knew they can trust me.

Yeah.

You know, and I'll tell you that there is a story and I'm not going to tell you who it was.

Okay?

Because it's pretty hilarious.

There was a point in one of the one of the networks, and I'm not sure if it was Exxon or not, but we had to interview the two coaches and I had gone to Little Rock to do a Arkansas and the other team game.

I'll tell you that was okay.

All right.

So I went to Lou Holtz's hotel, interviewed him, went across town than the other other hotel and knocked on the door.

And the coach answered the door and he was about three sheets to the wind.

And so I said, well, like, I'm not going to do an interview here tonight.

So I just said the coach wasn't available on the air the next day and he started talking.

And I truly this is one example of what I'm talking about.

And they knew they could trust me.

This guy started talking and he started telling me about everything that was going on in the Southwest conference, all of the cheating and everything.

I mean, it just went on and on.

He talked for about a half hour longer, telling me this is what this team does, this is what this team does.

And just went on and on.

And he named every team in the league except his head.

So I finally I looked at him and I said, So you're telling me you guys don't cheat?

And a great line.

He went, no, we cheat, but what can you do with $100?

So nice anyway, But I would never, ever reveal who that was or I just didn't.

That wasn't right.

I mean, they talk to me every coach I've ever worked with has said something that if I want to do, I would have put in that book and I could hurt him.

I wasn't going to do that even after I retired.

Yeah, and I think that's the reason a lot of sports people nowadays have trouble because they think the coach ought to like him.

Well, you just said that he was the worst coach you ever saw in your life.

So can you listen to a game or watch a game like a normal person or you sort of paying too much attention to the play by play?

I turn it down and I turn it down.

Do you really?

Yeah.

I just watch.

I watch it on TV.

I heard Granger Smith talked at our church at a men's steakout And one of the things he said that night, I don't know, Granger.

You know, I'm not sure he hits.

And he has three children, and he was supposed to be watching all three, and he wasn't watching the smallest.

And he went into the backyard and got in the swimming pool and he drowned.

Yes.

And so he that night he said he wanted to go and get away from the country.

Music got pretty serious for him.

And he said, I prayed to God that he would take my passion for country music away from me.

And now he's going to the seminary in Fort Worth and he's going to become a pastor.

is that right?

Yeah, he has.

And so for me, I said, Lord, I want to retire and I want to move on to other things.

So take my passion away from love from me, from my for sports.

And he's done that.

He really has.

I still a Dodger fan.

I check the scores and I still check the scores for Texas A&M and football basketball and baseball.

I go online and I want him to win.

But, you know, a lot of people don't realize for 50 years, even during the summer, I didn't have time off because I felt compelled to go talk to Aggie groups who were asking me to come and speak to them.

Sure.

And so I would do that.

But you didn't.

You never got a break and you were going you were doing something all the time.

And even in preparation for a game, I had two jobs at A&M.

I was also in charge of all of our corporate sales.

I was bringing sponsorships and at the same time I was doing those games.

Yeah, so I was doing sales in the daytime and I was working, playing.

I'm doing my play by play, getting that ready at night.

And I can remember one time saying that I was I was on a plane Christmas morning flying to a basketball game and I was missing anniversaries, birthdays.

I missed my oldest son's first home run because I was off speaking to somebody.

You know what?

So I just decided I'm going to move on.

I said, Somebody in church, not too long ago.

He said, And how did you think about the game?

What do you think about the game yesterday?

And I said, Well, I really didn't see it.

And he said, Why not?

I don't watch those games anymore.

And he made a comment.

He said, Maybe you didn't love it as much as you did or you thought you did.

And I said, No, that's not it at all.

And then I looked and I see there's a gentleman over there.

So you see that guy.

And I told him that was and he said, you know what he does?

And he said, Now, listen, he's our lawyer, but he's retired now.

Do you think he gets up every morning, goes down to the courthouse and sits through court sessions?

No he doesn't.

And so that's with me.

I've got other things I want to do now, and I'm doing that.

I am a volunteer now at Meals on Wheels.

Yeah, I am marshaling out at the campus golf course with some guys who all worked at Texas A&M and meeting a lot of people that I've known, just finding other things to do.

We're active with our church.

We're just, you know, things that are important to me now at this point in time in my life.

I imagine because you do a radio show for us, you know, fifties and sixties, rock and roll.

Dave South came to FM.

Radio is one of those things I think, that gets into your blood and it never quite lets go.

Yeah.

And so you're still doing a version of what you did in your closet?

Yes, I am.

Yes, I am.

You want to give your show a quick plug where we do about 1955 to about 1969.

It started to move away from rock and roll in the late sixties and some of that music I just don't like.

But we we were on 5:00 on Saturdays and 12 noon on Sundays.

We all and that's he's streaming it now.

The most recent show you can pick up.

I was getting ready to retire Jim Hawthorne, who did the LSU games, was there and he was that was his last year.

And I said, What are you going to do?

And he said, The first thing I'm going to do, I'm to take my wife on a round the world cruise because your wife's like my wife.

You got she got left at home all the time.

Yeah.

And what are you going to do when you get back?

He said, I've got a radio station in Baton Rouge going to give me 2 hours every Sunday night.

I was a disc jockey in high school, in college, and I'm going to be an old I want to be a disc jockey again.

And he as far as I know, he's still doing that.

And so that's what started all of that.

And I asked KAMU and they said yes.

And so I think we're 365 or 66 shows now, is that right?

Yeah.

Wow.

And I love the fact that, yes, you can catch your show Saturdays at five or Sundays at noon.

But yes, you can go to your favorite podcast platform or to the Kumu website and you know, catch the latest.

I appreciate KAMU.

You're letting me have that because I've had fun doing that.

Like you wouldn't believe.

Internet provides a lot of information that when I was a disc jockey and back in Wichita Falls, you didn't have that information.

Right now you've got it.

You find out a lot of things about some of these people that you played their records and played their music.

And some of them I've ended up meeting down through the years.

You don't.

We have barely scratched the surface about your career, about your love of radio, but I am so appreciative that you came here because you are you didn't go to school.

At A&M, I don't believe.

No, I went to Midwestern Wichita Falls, but you are part of the fabric of this community.

Well, I appreciate you saying that.

I. I was blessed to get I had actually retired in 1984.

I was going to I was a general manager of a radio station, and I decided I was just going to concentrate on that and called and asked for I'd come down for one year because they had the guy lined up and they said and I said, okay, for one year, then I'm leaving.

And that turned into 30 plus the voice of Aggieland.

Dave South thanks so much for being.

Thank you for asking.

Of course, Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Radio, 90.9 KAMU-FM.

I'm a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Marketing and Communications.

Our show is engineered and edited by Matt Dittman.

All Brazos Matters episodes are available on YouTube and on your favorite podcast platform, also on the NPR app and the KAMU website.

Thank you so much for listening or for watching.

I'm Jay Socol.

Hope you have a wonderful day.