Shayne Hollinger

Full episode transcript, auto-generated from the audio and lightly formatted (verbatim, not edited).

[Music] [Music] Shane Hollinger yes Jared horse right 95.9 The Ranch what's the what's the next move for the ranch what are you what's like hell's Focus right now yeah music big fan of that uh-huh uh we're always trying to find the next big thing as William Clark green would say and that's the hardest part who's the next big artist Pizza exactly you

don't want me to answer that it's a fun conversation since I've been at the ranch being able to do that and people like uh well tell us about this or it's like yeah I remember we had Cody Johnson play for us on the infield at Texas Motor Speedway on a flatbed trailer and like 12 people showed up whoa how long ago was

that when we first started doing work with them probably say eight nine years ago something like that it was weird like nobody's like this guy's great where is everybody eight nine years ago and when did he really when did he I guess 13 maybe something like that it was when it like really started happening for him 13. you think 13 years ago

no like 2013 like 10 years ago this is 23. man that is great that looks you feel old so it was even 16 15. it hasn't been that long remember he was new country artist of the year what two years ago well I Remember When Diamond in my pocket came out and I was like man this rips but it felt like that

was in like 2014 2013. maybe it's been a little longer I've only been with the ranch like 13 years so it couldn't have been any longer than that's true you've only been with it where were you at before the ranch before the ranch I was in Stephenville stationed my dad and I had down there called mandatory FM did that just close or

what it's a long weird legal story okay yeah perfect it was ugly yeah well your attorney's here yeah a lot of advice of my attorney yeah I've been advised not to answer that question the Florida net freeze quite often that was in your Rider yeah it was and I was also supposed to get pimento cheese and I don't see that anymore you

got the cheese that was a cool little radio station that we had and it's funny is like people still talk about that thing like it just completely changed people on what we were doing and then I brought what's cool is after years of proven myself we're doing that now at the ranch where we've just kind of expanded our Horizons yeah basically it's

like if it's cool we're gonna play it totally and that's the neat thing about what we get to do was that the way the ranch was before you got there it was not okay it was it was uh I think they were still trying to figure things out I don't mean to bad mouth anybody but I think you know when the ranch

first started this company had it was Top 40 and Texas and then a few years into yeah because you can look through the old library and find like really old Keith Urban songs and it's like why is that in here interesting you know yeah and so that it was a few years into it that they did this vote thing for the listeners

like what do you want to hear and they voted all Texas all the time and did that for a while and now we've kind of expanded it to more of a Texas Red Dirt Americana which gave us the ability to play guys like Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson yeah okay Chris Stapleton before anybody knew who no there was like a little people

got a little bit been out of shape when you guys even started doing that right oh yeah oh yeah and now they've become Core artists but that happens almost every time that we every time that we bring somebody new into the fold you'll get some haters what is this I don't like this I hate this and then three months later they love

it and that's the nature of the Beast people were scared of what they're not familiar with I think sometimes but oh most definitely but so like how do you how would you decide do they have to be independent to play them like how would you no not necessarily so like you would play song that's on traditional top 40 country radio if it

was just a good song well we have songs we play that are on traditional top 40. okay but a lot of them were ones we played first as like Cody Johnson and Parker McCollum Cody Jinks are now being played Zach Brian's now being played on some top 40 stations yeah and so that's the funny thing about us is we try to find

those artists somebody keeps calling me oh I missed the call oh you just he sent me a text and had a question about Randy Rogers so uh obviously I know all Randy Rogers sure no uh so we play these artists first and that's our goal is I don't care if they end up getting played on the big Dallas stations or the big

corporate radio stations because they become Ranch artists when we play them first that's really our goal right and you're a musician your goal is to get played on every radio station and every streaming service that there is sure you don't want to get played on one what's the point yeah why are you in it totally and so yeah I remember you playing

maren Morris like that my church song before we played maren Morris early on maren Morris used to come out to our Ranch picking parties which was a free concert where people showed up and tried to win a hundred dollars cash played their songs out at the Railhead in Willow Park when was that was a long time yeah she was you know 15

years old holy cow yeah what is she like okay so she's like 30 now probably yeah I hate to say a woman's age but you go there is that controversial yeah really to bring up an age always why are you new on this planet a little bit uh I'm younger than you so you know that's very true whimper Snapper I don't know

why that but see I think that's a cultural thing that why I don't know why it's bad to be older I did a lot of other cultures they have so much more respect for people that are older which I think is super dope like the only way to try to do anything different or like learn from somebody else's mistakes I'm fairly certain

you're calling me old right now that's what I feel like well I don't know how old are you 27. I guess I did a half I knew the weight thing was controversial but I didn't know like ages you're not supposed to talk about a woman's age ever guys it doesn't seem to matter it's women really yeah huh that's just because there's a

stigma for them even in the music business that's my problem is why is there I don't like that being a stigma that's stupid I do too not to mention it once which is why it's so hard to get women into this scene it's just another reason his age they could be fantastic but if they're not pretty then I don't want to listen

to them on the radio which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever I don't even think people are you know what's interesting you would hope so is my observation okay sure yeah all right there might be okay yeah there are others people that like they just want to see a pretty girl up there singing um but what I've found is a lot of women

I talk to are the ones that don't like a lot of women singers you're absolutely right and I hate to say that but it's true I mean I hate that we've gone into this topic but it's something that needs to be talked about uh I mean it's anecdotal evidence it's bizarre how wait I was One Stop Money oh I need to learn

about this hang on a little advert I mean wait a minute hey there we go where's my okay absolutely what are we talking about uh oh I see I almost got myself in trouble I was like we're talking about chick singers yeah exactly I guess I say it anyways right I think you just did but I caught myself Morris uh yeah it

but we were talking about how a lot of women we talk to are the ones that don't like a lot of women singers that's true and I find that and it's anecdotal evidence I'm not saying that it's like anybody it's like everybody but there's a lot of guys I talk to they're like yeah I like her you know she's good well I

can see it on our we have an app where you can listen to our stuff and you can vote thumbs up or thumbs down on songs and you have to sign in for our apps right one of your social media either Facebook or Twitter so I can see who you are and I can see how you vote and I will tell you

that happens a lot a lot of women down vote other women singers why do you think that is I don't know I really don't know because like as you know a guy for me I want to listen to something that connects with me and maybe some of these women singers aren't singing about what connects with them I don't know hey you know

I mean there are a lot there seems to be some stereotypical songs that I hear females do that Connor beating a dead horse in my opinion from a songwriting standpoint it could be said for the guys too though let's be honest look we're being honest here I get it man right I mean I mean that's but that's even like saying like black

lives matter like somebody's saying like black lives matter um like doesn't mean like white lives don't also matter right but let's so but me saying like there's stereotypical songs that females are known to write that they're being a dead horse but me saying that doesn't mean that there's not also guys doing the same thing you have to clarify that I do I've

learned in this industry that when I say something I have to make sure that all 12 other sides come as well but you know it doesn't matter I don't think you care that much I no I tried to lie there but yeah I mean I'm supposed to have an opinion that's what that's what my job is to have I mean most people

are and I mean you know it's some people don't understand that and I respect people's passion people are gonna love me they're gonna hate me yeah and usually they hate me as if I won't do something that they want and that happens sure and I get a lot of these people that hate me and I find out they're dating a local artist

that we're not playing yeah you know I'm like okay I got it you know or they work for some internet streaming radio stations like I got it you know yeah that's fine yeah I appreciate people's passion just be kind of smart about it that's all really bad yeah I get a lot of that like I had uh I had a an artist

and I won't name his name but people are going to know if they followed my social media who I put out a post you know who's an artist on the ranch that we're not playing that we should well he caught wind up it doesn't follow me doesn't listen to the radio station not from here he cut wind of it and shared it

with his fans so his fans came on and I started asking for this guy and I went and looked this guy up his band is a guy that stands up there with a microphone and a music director with a laptop to me that's not a band and that's not what we do at the ranch you know we want to play actual touring

bands you go out I don't want I'm not going to say hey go watch this karaoke singer he's fantastic sure so I said you know and he's rapping in his songs like that is completely out of our realm that's not even our format yeah I got destroyed for being a racist because I wouldn't play this guy because he happens to be Hispanic

whoa and it's like what are you talking about oh like I'm telling you his music doesn't fit our format well maybe you should change your format oh perfect it's like all right so I'm gonna play Randy Rogers and then a guy coming on and rap into a clap track behind he told like it doesn't make any sense I know that sense of

entitlement is so bizarre to me wait but that goes start your own but that was the interesting and it was constant you're a racist you're judging a book by its current I'm like no I listen to the song I don't even know the guy who was Hispanic until after you told me yeah people just shooting off some of that stuff without really

like oh my gosh that's like quite the accusation but the funny thing is the people that weren't saying racist they were like well what did you feel about Jason Aldean rapping or Morgan Wallen rapping play don't play those guys so they don't know the radio station I got busted by a bunch of Carrie Underwood fans one time for not playing Carrie Underwood

in the Carrie Underwood Facebook fan group attacked me because well you'll play Florida Georgia Line and you'll play Luke Bryan I'm like we don't play that we're your country station yes and no yeah like it's so hard to explain what we do to people that have never listened and that's what I just try to get people to do it's like listen for

10 minutes listen to three songs and you'll understand what we're about yeah we're completely different than that oh dude prime example is some newer music that I've put out like doesn't fit your format right and I love your music exactly and like the song I like the songs but I know it just doesn't fit with what we do totally like if we

only played what Shane Hollinger liked that would be a drastically different radio station no doubt but like but it fits like you it fits in a segment of music that you like right but it's not all the music that you like right and like but we play more Slayer if it was up to me I mean come on exactly and that's odd

to me that people get so it's like being invited to uh man somebody's pool party or something like somebody takes the time to throw a pool party buy some food like puts everything together organizes it and you show up and you're like pool party sucks I don't like it why is your light green yeah well it's why is it not blue and

it's like go throw your own pool party right and I don't mean to sound mean or angry or anything it's just I get a lot of that and I don't understand why God honestly I always get pretty tickled by it though you always have pretty funny uh you gotta Just Go With It yeah I mean really that's all there is yeah if

I let that bother me man I would have never made it this far no I think like in any anybody doing anything in the public eye is going to deal with it at some point don't matter if you're in a restaurant or you got what's funny is my other jocks and jock friends are like how come it's only you how come it's

not us like I don't know man there's something about what I do that just yeah there's a lot of irritates people hey yeah I guess it's uh you know we were talking about this a little bit off air about I think I think some people kind of they have to have a villain and they have to have something outside of themselves that

they can't control so that they can blame it for some sort of lack of success and that's what it is they don't have going on everybody wants to blame somebody else for their lacking rather than just like coming to grips with it and right I had a guy stop me uh it was in Decatur and uh his kid plays music and uh

and you know we just kind of started chatting a little bit I was walking into a restaurant and he goes man so tell me like what's the deal with the streaming and the radio thing like how does that work and I was like man you like make an Instagram post and then tomorrow make another Instagram post and then write a song and

then record a song and then the day after that yeah he goes I mean come on like that drives me nuts and it's not to say that maybe there's some people that have it's like but not everybody and then but that immediately creates a situation where your success is outside of yourself so you like have something to play right and so like

I even see some people do it like man I don't watch social media and it's like okay look I don't either but if they don't but it's a necessary evil they can't ever really fail right because they never really tried and so it's more like a little bit of a fear of failure thing you got to have something outside of you to

blame I want to speak to what you just said about paying to be played on the radio yeah that's what you do hey that is against the law yeah B that's insulting to me yeah and see that's insulting to every other artist that I play and that's what pisses me off the most when people say that well Shane won't play my music

because he only takes money for music that's saying that Pat Green pays me to play his music that koe Wetzel pays me to play his music those guys don't pay me well that's just the most ridiculous and asinine thing that I've ever heard in it that's the one thing that gets to me every single time hell yeah dude that is insulting to

every artist in this genre no doubt if you're saying that's insulting to you I play your music I know that's saying that you paid me I didn't get paid for this I didn't get my damn pimento cheese right but it's like why is that your excuse you know what make better music I mean come on come on what do you want to

say and I'm sorry but God that drives me nuts yeah dude and I you know but it's a it's like a victimhood thing then you have something to blame uh yeah it is it is quite insulting to like everybody involved but they somehow don't uh some people just don't ever like you're a human you're like a real person they don't realize you're

not a freaking robot they're running a radio station I don't realize that yeah like a living breathing person do you have opinions you have things you like things you don't like but you have integrity and you do it the way you're supposed to have children that see these posts exactly yeah like and then what the what we're talking about is music right

like come on chill out yeah I it's gotten it's gotten like on steroids now because uh people's success is uh they're able to see how they're doing and how other people are doing in real time so like pre-internet I like if you put out a song and like everybody got together at a bar and like a couple guys were playing and they

you know I just put out my record put a single to radio it's like nobody would really know how it was doing for months down the road right so everybody would get together and you really wouldn't even know how successful your stuff was doing until you like got some reports back and then you saw people starting come to more shows and now

sell a merch now it's like tomorrow you can find out like oh dang so-and-so just blew up on Spotify this is a hit yeah oh my gosh look he's blown up on Instagram and so now it's created a really competitive and like all of us fall into it a little bit where we're trying to like compare ourselves but like I really try

to push it aside but I think people are really getting sucked into that where music has started to become so competitive it has and I man I remember you know pre-social media everybody was a champion for everybody else I remember going to the shows and The Great Divide was headlining and they had Pat Green open for them you know and it was

just like we love this guy's music too we want to give him an experience you know and it was letters from Cody Canada when he was with ragweek telling me you know I should play this band The Great Divide you know they're friends of mine and like it's it has not become that and I think a lot of that is social media

that's done that do you think so yeah everybody has a voice everybody's entitled and everything makes you angry now which is just that's not what that thing was meant for it was meant to connect you know share the joys in your life and it's just become just a giant anger Fest like I know I have to be on that thing but it's

a dread when I wake up and oh God here we go what do I got you know and I had it this morning Shane hollinger's the worst DJ on the planet like is it not wrong but you don't have to put it on social media oh my God I know your mom I'm not a DJ I'm my mom my mom was pretty

out of pocket she knows me I mean technically I'm not even a DJ I'm an honor personality now we're not really DJing we're playing MP3s when did you get the personality one day my boss hopes one day but yeah I guess it's probably always been like that a little bit uh but it does seem like it's like a little bit out of

control now with the competitiveness and it's become so clicky and so Niche and people just don't granted the music has started to become really different it really has it is not quite as down the line like everybody's all over and I think that's the cool thing about the success of the Texas Red Dirt Americana scene is they've seen these artists have success

and everybody wants to be a part of it but everybody's different obviously and they have a different style and that's what's really cool about it yeah like because I could play a straight up rock and roll song I can play a waltz right after it you know and just a Bluegrass song that you know sounded right after that and it's all part

of the same genre or scenery and that's just really cool I agree but like when Texas Music started getting really popular I mean shoot you had Stevie Ray Vaughan and ZZ Top but she also had and it was all a little bit all over the place in the Texas scene and most people that like country I mean they also like the blues

and they like some rock and roll but they're ultimately is just that fundamental thing and it's just songwriting like it's just got to be a good song and like whatever that's what sets the scene apart is the songwriting but even that's a double-edged sword because just because you wrote a song in Texas doesn't mean it's good you know yeah you could've been

in Nashville wrote that song and it's great exactly you know it doesn't matter where you are where you're right but there is where your heart is totally and you're from Texas originally oh yeah look where grew up in Dublin Texas uh at the time it was like the home of the original Dr Pepper which was great because when you're in school in

a tiny little poor School your field trip was to the Dr Pepper plant every single year and met a free bottle of Dr Pepper at the end of the door like by that by my senior year it's like yeah you want me to run this thing for you I got it how big was it 20 like 2500 people it's a little smaller

now because now they've built a loop around Dublin like you have to be going to Dublin to get there now there's a loop that goes right around it so it's kind of killed that whole way they were a ghost town twice then yeah because I'm sure there's a railroad that goes through there right oh yeah right next to the Grain Mill they

got it twice yeah just put a loop around it dang where'd you go to college didn't go to college yeah heck yeah no I mean I started radio when I was 15 years old I knew what I was going to do because your dad was in it right he was he was did it for like his whole life for a long time

after that Stephenville station he stopped doing it I think it kind of jaded him I don't blame him yeah uh but yeah so like I mean he was doing it in the 70s yeah I grew up going to radio stations with him and he was doing you know play-by-play for little Texas high school football games on the radio go sit in a

press box with him straight out of high school you I was in high school I was a sophomore in high school when I started whoa yeah and then did you just stay at that stay Stayed there for a long time and I've moved around a lot I've been in Kerrville and I've always been a small Market guy until I came to the

ranch okay because like small Market is really where you kind of learn your craft and you get to play whatever the heck you want which is really cool for a guy that just loves music so like went everywhere doing that kind of thing and then finally came to the ranch and you know bited my time and proved my worth and they finally

made me music director and then program director and now I'm ruining Texas Music so there you go yeah stop shot right yeah so yeah I mean it's cool to be at a place that like the biggest station of my favorite kind of music it's a dream job it really is yeah is there like what's the process of like getting to where you're

at with these different stations like what like what do you did you start as an intern no I started running the board it's called being a board up so basically uh like a live remote where a jot goes out on site and there's somebody back at the board that just pushes the button and the jocks mic goes on and they talk and

you turn their mic off and you start the next song and that's how I started learning how to do that then you moved to what I was the news director at like 17 years old so going to City Council meetings and Erath County Commissioners meetings you managing a 17 year old at an Erath County Commissioner meeting learned about which roads need to

be repaved yeah uh did all that Sports director did a classic country show midday show from noon to three for a long time like really old school Ferlin Husky Ernest Tubb stuff were you naturally did you have The Gift of Gab or was that something you kind of had to work at do I have a big mouth yes yeah no I don't

know man I've always just been able to do that and that's and it's weird because like you know you see it when you're on stage you get up on stage and I get in that studio and I just there's like something just overcomes you and like here I am this is where I'm supposed to be and then it just comes out I

don't know why did you ever deal with like any sort of like performance anxiety kind of thing no nervousness never have that's pretty weird that's probably the difference I guess I don't know I think it's just when you doing what you're supposed to do sure you know it's right yeah I mean because I still get nervous but once I'm up there yeah

it's different than when I first started I was unprepared when I first started oh yeah right so like the nervousness was what's gonna happen and I think part of mine was I'd seen it for so many years before I actually went into you know start talking on a microphone right that it was just that was really all I knew are there a

lot of guys in your position that aren't actually that big of music fans oh God yeah weird yeah like a lot that's right here it is really today it's hard to find actual music fans and radio it's the job and they want to be funny that's the thing like I'm just a music junkie first and foremost that's what I am I'm always

looking for something new something cool something different something that's going to make a difference in somebody's day like where they're just you know cruising along it's background music and that one song hits and it's like oh my God totally like my life just changed what was the type of music that really pulled you into the Texas deal was it kind of that

more folky singer song right it kind of was it was like hearing Jerry Jeff Walker for the first time like wow okay yeah for me though honestly it is the weirdest story ever I was working at a little AM radio station in Weatherford Texas that's no longer there uh and this artist comes in with his new CD and he wants us to

play it and we're like a tiny little lamb station anybody that's paying attention to us all right let's play it let's interview him and it was Larry Joe Taylor whoa and it was meet me down in Corpus was like that was a completely different thing like yeah that was a great Larry Joe Taylor you just did by the way uh but it

was like he's got a very it's Willy thing to me it's very distinct yeah and it was just like his voice there was something about that song that really connected with me and I don't know what it is because I don't really like Corpus that much honestly I mean it's like it's great but I'm out you know it's like I've seen better

beaches yeah story yeah like yeah something about the honesty and the realism and what he was doing that was just like this guy just loves the beach in the ocean like and he wrote a song about it you know it didn't take 75 other people to write this song for him and 12 different producers it was just raw and that was really

cool and then I just deep dived after that like who is this guy listening to who's riding with him how many different waves of like different types of music do you think you could Define that you've seen come through the Texas deal oh dear like in terms of uh what are the I guess like the popular sounds and that have happened at

different moments like obviously you have those times that everything starts to sway in One Direction and everything starts to sound like a certain thing and then it moves over we've seen that yeah like everybody wanted to sound like Robert Earl Keane I mean everybody wanted to sound like Pat Green so Rob everybody wanted to sound like Randy Rogers and then everybody wanted

to sound like a Ragweed you know and that's and that's what's weird is there feels seems to be a gap between Ragweed and maybe Co Parker there was a like there's a gap where like what was the thing I mean but that's also when Cody started getting pretty popular Cody Johnson so and like Aaron Watson started getting pretty popular at that time

too so I guess after ragley was there kind of a back into like more traditional I think a lot of that was way out there you know give or take it's it moves around a lot this scene it's really weird you know and it feels like right now we're going more into a country sound okay whereas you know a few years back

it was really rock and roll and everything I was getting was just straight up like Southern rocks okay now I feel like most of the stuff I'm getting is very country two-step traditional Honky Tonk type stuff yeah so it just is that is that what you feel like the listeners are wanting or is that just what you're that's what's being released and

recorded by the artist okay is what it is what do you think the listeners are wanting that's a great question and a question I asked I have to ask myself every day because what they want today is not what they want six months down the road yeah I had a loss of that is once that band gets popular they're done they've moved

on they want to find the next new up and coming band and that's what a lot of this music scene is it's like once you get popular and you played on the Dallas station well we're done with you who's the next one who's the one that I'm gonna get to pay four bucks to go see and they're gonna hang out with me

after the show and drink beers with me okay and then when they stop doing that we're done with you and let's move on to the next one right so like it's even for the listener it moves constantly that Target is moving yeah I can't keep it all straight like what it's hard it really is I would hate to be in your shoes

like you know you would have the rock thing did take over pretty heavily but then you got other stuff that pops up that is like just super singer-songwritery I'd love to get your take on the Zach Bryan phenomena I love Zach I love what he's doing because he's doing his own thing I really do and I think that's really cool it annoys

me to no end to try to go to a Zac Brian show because I can't hear him sing because what is so wild about this music scene oh because I pay 50 to sing this guy's songs to him bro you know it's so weird to me I get it because it can become it would become addictive to have people singing back at

you like that but there's some artists that I really like that they don't really do that right because they're like no you pay to hear me sing great that's what I've done like I paid to hear you I don't want to hear me sing or the guy next to me yeah do you I don't feel like everybody feels like that though oh

God no they want to be part of them which is great you want to be part of the show but I think the artists themselves will be like all right now let's hear from you and I get it you know like you know if you have the opportunity sure you maybe do the chorus the broke down chorus on the second to last

song you do right you know okay interesting but when it's freaking like Zach Brian it's opening no to the very last word of that two-hour set every single word is sung loud because I've been to shows where like I can't hear him wow at all yeah but that's not even but like not even because he's trying to get them to do that

they're just doing it yeah like they just do it he's just singing yeah it's pretty wild but like so I like I really like what he's doing he's doing his own thing you know he's kind of sticking his thumb to Ticketmaster and the man selling his own tickets that way and hopefully that helps the artist out a little more you know and

like all these artists get screwed over so many times like anybody that can stand up for that kind of stuff I think is really cool and Zach's doing that I like that yeah I wonder where he uh it just I sometimes find it hard to believe that somebody really did just kind of put up some YouTube videos and then isn't it weird

yeah just a sweaty guy around a campfire like why was he sweating then there's a campfire by the way shouldn't have been cold wait a minute it's a deep face the Deep state is what it is yeah but like he's cool man I like him have you got to meet him no never have medic yeah I haven't either but I know that

felt like it was like I could still send me a message on Twitter back when he had Twitter I appreciate you bro and that's it yeah that's cool like okay all right yeah you probably wouldn't want to say if there's any artists that you've had some like really bad experiences with but oh wait I got a list for the most no yeah

I figured you did uh but for the most part you know do you guys do a relatively good job of uh remembering that you supported them when they first started like the artists usually do it's the management companies that take over down the road but don't know the story and that's I mean it's upsetting but I completely understand it like that's out

of their control most of the time by that point when the artist gets so big that the management kind of has to take over that kind of stuff because they do they get pulled in you know 80 000 different directions and I understand that but it's still it's like damn man I was playing you what nobody was showing up at your shows

yeah dude but it's one of the best things that ever happened to me I yeah it was but to think that somebody just has to pay or you're like dulling out favors like that just ain't the way it is and then that was never my it wasn't even in the realm of possibilities like when I met you for the first time or

it was like this dude's gonna play it if he likes it you know and then there's something to be said about like trying to cultivate a relationship not just using you right yeah and that's the hardest part like a lot of times I'm like I see what you're doing oh brutal I see what you're doing now yeah [Laughter] shoot man I remember

uh I probably told you about it before it's probably five six years ago now six years ago I might have I think I had one song out and I was trying to get y'all to play it uh it was the first song I ever released it's that red bandana song yeah I remember I brought little yetis and I'm sure you guys get

stuff all the time no yeah people dropping stuff off but I came and I wrote a little note and everything and I tried to get it in there to y'all I didn't even get that no of course not no but it was part of like the I don't get the most but you gotta like try you get some random stuff sometimes I

really do but China I don't know what like what is the best route to like you just got to put out music and you gotta play live and at some point you're gonna if people dig it you're gonna hear about it as an up and comer yeah like how do you get in is what you're saying yeah you put out music you

send it to a radio station and you call that radio station and you talk to them and tell them your story okay I have always respected that a management team a radio promoter no offense to him because I understand it's a beast to try to talk to every single radio station a radio promoter can't tell me your story can't tell me how

good your song is okay you know I'm gonna hear your song and it's gonna be great and then I Want To Know Your Story sure so then I can talk about you on the air yeah and understand where I think you're headed you know yeah is the is the radio like how do you feel about radio and streaming and like where all

that is headed like what's your opinion on a lot of that it's our biggest competition obviously and like we're completely open and understand that I wish and my dream has always been the way it used to be is You released your song to radio first we played your song people bought your song that way and then you put it on streaming and

it's free and then you'll get royalties off that obviously you're not going to get as much of royalty or streaming as you are if you're actually literally selling albums and selling songs totally but I don't know it's just streaming is such a just a big competition for us that we understand it's out there and we understand that we have to fight with

it I just I wish there was a way we could work hand in hand but that I don't think that's ever going to happen yeah but yeah so when you're saying streaming you're talking about specifically like Digital streaming platforms right yeah but like what you guys are doing with internet streaming is different that's just streaming our actual radio is what we are

yeah how many you guys get a lot of listeners don't you millions of performances every month and it cost a fortune I know it's funny you use the word performances you're talking about so what a performance is let's say I've got 10 000 people on it one time and I play one song that's ten thousand performances right there I have to pay

for that and then the next song there's another that goes to the Performing rights organization right of the artist yeah which you get you know point zero however much it is yeah BMF BMI or ASCAP okay why so but like a traditi a Digital streaming royalty triggers a different type of royalty than like a performing rights I believe so yeah it's like

a mechanical royalty right so but it's just because you're classified as a radio station you have to pay the so I mean the only way we can compete with streaming is by being us but me being an a-hole on the air or whatever I got to do or you know talking about the artist having the artist because you're not going to get

that on the streaming services those you know they don't have that personality that local connection that and our goal and that's why I'm always trying to find something first so you know if you listen to the ranch you're gonna hear it first and then you might hear it on streaming yeah like that's the goal because you know if you have your own

cultured playlist nine times out of ten that new artist I'm playing you haven't heard of yet so you don't have them in your playlist right so that's it's a constant battle to find the next big thing yeah so how do you typically discover music my big Discovery one is YouTube is it yeah for sure no doubt I watch what other people are

talking about on social media artists especially who's opening up shows for them and that's used nine times out of ten that's how you can find somebody up and coming is watching who's opening up that show well and I guess your Discovery process is different because it's uh like I guess you personally like stuff that you really want to listen to that you

might not be able to play on your station like what's your process for finding a lot of that music a lot of that sent to me oh it's just crazy like I could look at my phone right now and look at my email and I probably have 300 song submissions right this second that came in last night from all over the plane

we should listen to something it's the God no do you like a live uh like a lot of real so a lot of times you know I'm so busy that would be a lot of fun though oh like I eat lunch in my office and my wife works you know 100 yards away from me in another building one of the big towers

but she did and then she works for a I don't know if I should say this oh she works in finance oh we'll say that okay so like she will come over and eat lunch with me in my office like I was like I don't know what she does sound like it's in sanitation if you know what I'm saying there no yeah

like so she'll come over and eat lunch with me and I'll just start playing some of these songs you know on my laptop just watch her reaction it's funny she's like what is this yes like sorry you know I mean there's so much but there's so much good stuff that comes out of that I've got Stacks and stacks of CDs on my

desk of stuff that I know this band is going to be good they're just not there yet sure that way I can kind of keep an eye on them keep them you know on top of my mind but it's just listen to music as much as you possibly can everywhere that you can and then for some reason I get that gut feeling

and it works I don't know why how many like what specific gut feelings have you had that like ended up being like spot on Parker uh Cody Jinks Cody Johnson Co God Pat Randy so you've been you had a hard time with Shane Smith and the Saints do you had a little bit of a hard time with Co right I had a

little bit of a hard time with Co because that was before I was the program director and we had another program director there that is no longer with the station because he did some stuff yeah who hated Co like absolutely detested his music didn't think it belonged in the Texas Music Scene whatsoever so that was a battle okay but obviously I guess

I didn't even obviously it's doing okay I didn't even realize old ding dong was the program director yeah huh he was I didn't know that before me yeah I didn't blast we'll say that I don't feel like I shouldn't be talking about that my attorney advised me not to comment on this situation I mean I'm for a radio guy he's got a

lot of he's got a lot of legal disputes does he I don't know you do I'm out but like I thought that with Co though because he curses him a lot or like 10 topics oh yeah I'm just I'm about to brag I'm pretty good at editing yeah so we play a lot of songs where there's stealth in them sure and you

can't even tell yeah you gotta listen to my version of Tyler Childers feathered Indians you would have no idea he cusses in that song unless you go to the show and I went to the show last time he played at Billy Bob's and people are singing along and he throws his F-bomb in there and you can see people's faces like wait that's

in the song yeah because they listen to The Ranch it was fun that's funny yeah and then Parker you met him and Larry Joe's songwriting contest was the first time I ever met him that's the first time I met you as well was it I think so because were you there the year before that or no I was two or three years

I was thinking it was closer than that for some reason well I was probably a couple years two I don't know two or three years after um because I want to say after Parker won the year after that was like freaking coletto and yeah uh Caitlyn and Randall like all in one uh there was other ones too that I think were all

in that and I can't even remember who I think it was some kind of rando that ended up winning the deal I man there's so many great artists that come for sure everything it's ridiculous for sure but that's when I first uh met him or met you okay was at maybe was in the final round or something like that okay I met

you I remember it was out there but I couldn't remember if it was like a Rhymes and Vines yeah it could have been too it might have been after it might have been after so yeah Parker I think won that like 16 maybe remember it was between it was between him and like Troy Cartwright oh wow so yeah I mean both of

them have done really well too so he's done pretty well yeah I haven't really followed it that's interesting huh I remember maybe seeing Parker talk about how nervous he was at that uh he was like oh you could tell he was yeah you could see it Manny well it's drumming his guitar like he was mad at it and he was absolutely and

I think he lost in the first round or something and then they do that wow back yeah and then he ended up winning the final thing it's a Cinderella story is really what it is a Cinderella boy about to become I was nervous too I went out I couldn't watch anybody else perform because it was just like you know you just gotta

focus on like what you're doing because it's a it's competitive so which is weird it is and like you're not used to that with music right you know I want to be able to enjoy everybody it wasn't that it was more so like I just can't get myself psyched out or something right and that's the hardest part when like you and I

sometimes have been backstage discussing the finals and who should win and we're all just like you know they're all great that's the problem yeah like how do you pick I know and then especially when people are uh that's just different you know it's like one isn't technically better than the other they're just different and it happens to be on that night too

you know yeah and it is funny hearing that's another example of people complaining about how you do something uh and feeling so entitled for it to be a certain way um and like because the Taylor's you know there's always somebody that's whining about like there's never a girl that wins it or there's never this and I can't do it and all that

stuff and it's like these people don't get anything by doing it the tailors yeah like they're doing it to help yeah that's all they're doing like to think that they're just setting it up to like give handouts to certain people and it's like the fundamental premise is just to give an opportunity to people that don't have any sort of a platform exactly

to come in there perform your songs for people you get some critiques on it you get to meet a bunch of people and it's like if you don't like it go start your own you get your name that one pisses me off because like I've I mean obviously I want it and so it's denigrating to somebody who's did well in it right

and it's also denigrating to the people that put it on like and especially if you hear the conversations that are had about people's songs like they're not oh he's not good looking yeah it's never that no you wouldn't have won well played thank you thank you I loved it right but it's like high level conversations about songwriting you know there's people that

have a page of notes about like somebody's second verse right don't you think they could tighten it up it's funny because mine's like he's a five [Laughter] yeah I like that song it was good I remember some words yeah it's such an elusive thing I love songwriting but it is so Elusive and I just do the Goosebump test man every DJ thinks

they can write a song you don't play at all at all terrible at it yeah okay can't write a song that's I do like one little verse and I'm like that is gold and the next day I go back and look at him go that is crap so but do you have like what's your physical uh I don't like handicap I guess

like what is it that you have muscular dystrophy you have like this yeah it's even bored with that right I mean no it's something that came in later it's extremely rare what I have like I couldn't tell at first if you were messing with me no I'm being serious but that is rare yeah for that I have a thing called charcoal Marie

tooth which is three doctors that figured out what this is I went to Scottish Rite Hospital when I was a kid finally because I couldn't figure out what was happening with me and I was like freshman I think in high school used to be super fast like fastest kid in any school I'd ever been in coaches were freaking out how fast it

beat all the high school kids and then one summer like I couldn't run anymore it was slow I was like what's happening it was free freshman yeah it was freaky couldn't figure it out so they kept sending me to Scottish Rite for years and years and years and finally had to bring in a Russian specialist Doctor Who was able to identify what

I had okay like it took it was nerve biting so did you well the reason I brought it put me up to electrodes and it was awesome yeah I bet uh but like did you yeah I would imagine you had an interest in like trying to play the guitar or something right not really oh you didn't okay well no yeah not really

well I guess that's better then yeah at least you didn't really like want to or you like couldn't no I didn't really want to accept it yeah well that at least is better gosh dang I didn't know that was a thing that you could get later in life neither did I freaking gnarly neither do so do you think that like the way

that you handle uh maybe criticism or adversity like that I wouldn't have to think like learning at a young age something like that has a profound impact on how you handle adversity I'll learn how to fight really well that's for sure well do you mean like more no philosophical oh you have to you have to fight through life and so okay now

that's the way I fight that it's just by making fun of it honestly because it's just it's really not worth my time it's not but I give it a little time because it's funny sure like you're just a complete [expletive] telling me how much I suck I don't go to your drive-through window and tell you how bad you are serving me fries

or whatever it is it's like why be that way to people yeah so I like to turn it around on them man it is fascinating that some people that have some sort of physical impairment are just usually the most easy going the most mentally tough and like a lot of you have to be a lot of people that just haven't had to

deal with that much they're just soft but like I've had a lot I've gone through this my dad for a while was a preacher and you know the very Rich Church of Christ preacher so Church of Christ is your dad was yeah you didn't know that yeah I know right it's the same look I get from everybody when I say this give

me a minute please don't remember anything uh but like so we moved around a lot I mean a lot Dublin I always called Dublin my home I moved there halfway through my freshman year and was there the last part of my freshman sophomore junior senior so that was the longest I was ever at any school yeah there was plenty of schools where

I was there for six months and we moved like so I was constantly the new kid yeah so you have to overcome that and I don't know if you were ever really I think you I've heard your story you moved to Decatur like it was a Middle School uh well yeah something like that going into ninth grade so you remember but I

was living up by like Gainesville it was a little different like you're the new kid everybody wants to test you I was a good kid a lot I had to constantly do that over and I went to like 15 different schools in my 13 years of school if you include kindergarten yeah man by the time you left High School you'd been through

it oh yeah I mean like a lot and we're people tough on you because like tougher on you because of your physical oh yeah man yeah gosh that's so gnarly I remember a guy he was making fun of the way I walked and I just kind of laughed it off and kept walking on and like a month later he was in a

car wreck in a Halo so holy cow that's what happens yeah so you like put a hex on him I did actually I'm into Voodoo yeah is that why you have that little caricature of me and your in your office yes just the case yeah I didn't know we were talking about that well shoot man I appreciate you coming and doing this

um I know there's a bunch of really cool stuff coming up that the ranch is doing but we're not allowed to talk I'm not allowed to talk about it we talked about it off Mike but yeah it's exciting for us we're always looking for the new you know Innovative way to spread this music and that's kind of I mean that's really our

goal yeah is there's a lot of really cool music out there and we play as much of it as we can we can't play at all yeah but we play as much of it as we can yeah well I appreciate y'all always treating me good and taking care of everybody man it's just such a special thing when I first started playing out

I was living in Florida at the time so I was playing I was playing beach bars down there like in about how many times did you cover Margaritaville bro I played one gig every Tuesday and Thursday and I play from like one o'clock till nine good God yeah and it was just they wanted to churn out tables they would actually get mad

if I because I would try to like I mean I keep it pretty interactive and stuff and like and tables would be having a good time they'd order their food and they'd get drinks and they'd just stay there because they're having a good time and they would get mad at me they would force me to take breaks and like because they wanted

to turn another table in there which was like that was a really weird like be entertaining but not too entertaining see that's what developed your stage but you're really good on stage and interacting with the crowd and I think it's stuff like that and that's what I tell these young artists I know you're trying to wrap up but I tell these young

artists that are like you know how do I do this how do they play as many shows as you can get that stage because I talked to so many people out of the Nashville Scene that are looking at signing these bands from Texas and they're like man every artist we try to sign I put them on stage and they look completely lost

but these guys from Texas know what they're doing it's like yeah because they've been doing this week for eight nine years totally you know totally they're doing 200 shows a year yeah you got to just get in the fire and like learn how to deal with adversity and I mean somebody walking on stage or yeah somebody shouting something out just how to

read a crowd know what they want totally and that's a skill set that we're all learning in Texas and then the nation gets a wind of it and they're just like God these guys and guys are great yeah but just doing it like that is just the name of the game that's what it is yeah and so I just couldn't wait to

get back to Texas because it was there was a legitimate plan for somebody like me who had nobody had nothing had no connections write a good song and like go out there and play at a bar and somebody will kind of find you send it into the local radio station local people listen to it like it's it is so rare it doesn't

exist anywhere else in the country no it does flat on doesn't it doesn't so I'm like forever grateful you know you know we're lucky you're on the record and off the Record we're lucky yeah we're lucky we get to do what we do because usually there's a list of songs you're allowed to play yep that's what most radio stations are given not

Shane Hollinger not the ranch it's not Shane Oliver Ranch let's clarify that follow him on Twitter he's got a funny Twitter he got a funny Twitter do her yeah your Facebook is funny as well oh good not Instagram don't follow him on Instagram for Instagram the first three years I had Instagram it was a picture of a spring I found on my

mom's bathroom floor that's all I had a spring yeah she just had this plastic looking spring thing it's not great but I don't know it was pretty artsy all right thank you all for hanging man thank you buddy thank you very much [Music]