Donovan Lewis Earned ‘Dream Job’ Following Lessons From Legends

When sports talk radio legend Norm Hitzges announced his retirement from Sportsradio 96.7/1310 The Ticket after more than four decades on the Dallas-Fort Worth airwaves, plaudits and tributes celebrating his momentous career poured into the station. Hitzges had made a name for himself as a solo host for most of his career, but he had also contributed on Dallas Cowboys postgame shows on the station alongside Donovan Lewis. Longtime program director Jeff Catlin informed Lewis of interest in pairing him with Hitzges in 2015, and The Norm & D Invasion established itself as appointment listening for sports fans in the metroplex.

Lewis needed to make a profound transition in terms of how he approached the show while also realizing Hitzges was working to assimilate into the new format. In the beginning, there were some occurrences when Lewis would suggest something and find that Hitzges felt hesitant, but as time went on, they cultivated unequivocal rapport and synergy. Despite pairing for seven years on the postgame show, the weekday program was a significant alteration, but it enriched Lewis’ understanding of the craft and created a formidable daily product.

“When you’re working with someone else, it seems like you’re overloaded with things to talk about, and that’s exactly what he did and that’s what he kind of taught me, almost preparing to do the show like you’re doing it by yourself, but you’re bouncing ideas off of someone else,” Lewis said. “And if you prepare like you’re doing it by yourself, it’s going to make it easier for you, and he was correct in that.”

Once Hitzges announced his retirement, station executives were trying to determine where Lewis would fit in the programming lineup. Before working in middays, Lewis had been assigned to the BaD Radio early afternoon program with Bob Sturm and Dan McDowell, but he initially found himself struggling to adjust his position. Accustomed to only speaking when addressed in his youth, comfortably finding his position without being timid to expatiate his notions took time.

“They were willing to make sure that we made this thing work and my addition was going to help the show overall,” Lewis said. “It wasn’t just three separate people, it’s three people trying to do one show, so they were cool and fortunately it all worked out.”

Through experience in various hosting configurations and dayparts, Lewis augmented his versatility and gleaned a panoptic view towards editorializing on sports in the locale with a fervent consumption base. The station aims to nurture and maintain relationships with listeners, including P1s who drive audience engagement and interaction with the programs. Possessing industry knowledge and previous experience, Lewis had never seen a cadre of fans as passionate as P1s and does not foresee discovering a subliminal group in the future.

“They make us who we are, these P1s really, truly do, and some that have been there from the beginning, they feel that we’re family members,” Lewis explained. “I don’t know if I’ve ever done that with someone that I listened to on a regular basis when I was coming up as far as radio listening, and this is just something different.”

As the station welcomed Matt McClearin as a new member of The Invasion program with Lewis, the hosts quickly gained familiarity and built unfeigned chemistry. The first edition of the show took place live from Cowboys training camp, and the on-site broadcast further facilitated the adjustment by ostensibly coercing the duo to spend time together outside of the studio.

Lewis contends that McClearin is “a radio lifer” who truly cares about the business and always arrives prepared to execute behind the microphone. In fact, the duo has not had a single disagreement over nearly two years on the airwaves, and the show has flourished on linear and digital platforms while captivating a broad audience. Although there is a stark contrast towards how McClearin and Hitzges approach a show, Lewis has been successful working with both personalities and finding ways to thrive.

“I don’t want to say it’s night and day difference between Norm and Matt,” Lewis explained. “Norm is old school, and he writes things on his yellow pad and he is all about the stats and all those other things. And Matt is, sometimes when he’s talking about the teams that he loves, he’s a fan, and he kind of comes from that fan perspective, which is kind of refreshing because a lot of people who are listening feel the exact same way.”

Safeguarding against coming off as disingenuous or duplicitous in his elocution, Lewis strives to remain true to himself and lucid in his rhetoric. Through exegesis of the overall landscape, he can discern obfuscatory signals in demarcating sports talk with two people arguing about a given point. This differs from what Lewis and McClearin offer to the listening audience, abstaining from perfunctory segments or other hackneyed conversations and prioritizing authenticity.

“I am always, always going to tell you exactly how I feel and what I’m thinking about a game and not trying to do it just to spur on an argument or other conversations,” Lewis said. “I’m just going to tell you what I think and what I feel, and if you disagree, hey, that’s life. You’re never going to always agree with what I have to say, but I’m always just trying to be straightforward.”

Hosting in middays has been enjoyable for Lewis, who avers that the show can help guide people through their workdays and supplement the surrounding drive time programs. With pride towards the allotted time for the show, he does not take any segment for granted and strives to garner stellar ratings and avoid complacency. Even though the program has accumulated triumphs amid traditional paradigms measuring consumption, the content is also accessible through other means beyond terrestrial radio frequencies.

“We’re really happy with where things are right now, but we know that we still have a lot of work to do and we got to keep going,” Lewis said. “You can enjoy ratings success for a day or two, and then you got to keep grinding to make sure that you don’t lose the people that are listening to you.

Coming off of its highest-rated year in program history, The Musers morning show recently cut back its hours of operation in order to continue the program. Because of this scheduling change, The Invasion has been broadcasting for one additional hour per day, a significant change that has altered Lewis’ daily routine.

“We have no issues filling the extra hour as far as content goes, but we just want to make sure it’s the right content and we’re doing the best job that we possibly can,” Lewis said. “It is challenging, and we’ve accepted the fact that we have this extra hour to do five [days] a week, which doesn’t seem like a lot to a lot of people, but man, in radio terms, that extra hour is almost like a dog year trying to fill that hour every day and all week.”

Growing up with a passion for the craft, Lewis attended East Texas State University and studied under professors concentrated in television and radio. With a mindset of hosting a music show centered around R&B or hip-hop, he learned the fundamentals but was then told by his radio professor that he did not surmise him being cut out for the business. Rather than changing his direction, he used the incredulity to stay motivated and navigate other difficulties wherein he gained empirical proficiency and aptitudes.

“I was going to teach one time, I was going to work in insurance one time because I didn’t think that this thing was meant for me or this business or this career was meant for me, and then something happened to where I stuck around,” Lewis said. “And then now it’s just come to this point now to where this is the dream job that I thought about, and now I have it and I’m having fun every single day.”

When Lewis graduated from college in 1993, he networked with journalist Bob Ray Sanders, who was also hosting an evening talk show at 570 KLIF. One week later, Sanders called and encouraged Lewis to apply for an open position at the station, and he was subsequently hired as a board operator filling in on weekday and weekend shows. Lewis is grateful that he concentrated on radio rather than television in part due to the intimacy and accessibility of the medium despite mass layoffs occurring throughout the business.

“It’s always one of those to where you feel badly about the people losing their jobs around in this marketplace, in this landscape,” Lewis said, “but on the other side, it’s really nice knowing that your company is behind you and that you just have to keep showing how valuable you are as far as a space and a show to have them keep investing in the station and the show.”

While staff reductions impact professionals in the business, the format is also competing with a variety of other platforms that provide alternative options. Lewis seeks to compel listeners that he is an ideal option to hear the latest sports talk, and he feels the familiarity with the hosting lineup helps in this endeavor. At the same time, he looks to refrain from patronization or vain proclivities despite prominent accolades such as a sixth-place finish on the Barrett Media Top 20 list coinciding with their market size and daypart.

“We appreciate the honor, definitely, but again, that ‘little Ticket’ mentality just kind of keeps being ingrained in our heads as far as just, ‘Keep doing it,’” Lewis explained. “We love it – we really, truly love coming in every single day, working with each other, trying to figure out how we’re going to do the show and then going out and doing the show.”

The Ticket made history last fall when it became the first sports talk radio outlet in nearly three decades to win the NAB Marconi Radio Award for ‘Major Market Station of the Year,’ a category that includes several other formats. This victory coincided with the entity celebrating 30 years on the airwaves, and it was an achievement that Lewis does not think everyone has still fully understood. Even so, he is humbled to be part of this station and help The Ticket further ascend beyond its presumed potential.

“It’s something that everyone there should be proud of and shouldn’t be ashamed to kind of tap your chest a little bit and let everybody know because that’s something [where] I don’t think a Dallas station has won ‘Major Market Station of the Year’ before. For us to be the first to do that, it’s a special moment for everybody, and everybody’s taking pride in the fact that The Ticket has been recognized for an award like that.”

Lewis avoids defining his current state as the supposed pinnacle of his career, but he would not be disappointed if it ended up being true. Considering every show to be a blessing, he looks forward to continuing to work with McClearin and The Ticket bringing a sonorous blend of sports talk in middays replete with information, opinion and repartee. Lewis remains excited about the appeal of audio and consistent presence of sports as the station chugs along the tracks with valor and fortitude through a dynamic media ecosystem.

“This is something I never thought would happen as far as hosting my own show in a major market like Dallas, and since I’ve been here for a while now, some of that has kind of gone away, but just going in and having fun and talking and laughing with my friends on the air – that feeling of having fun like that I don’t think will ever go away,” Lewis said. “And as long as that feeling is there, then I’m going to be happy going into that office every single day doing that exact same thing.”