Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there folks, welcome to the Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and our focus is on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And it's a bittersweet one for me today, this is my final podcast as the regular host of the Roundup.
But I am leaving you all in such great hands, because my guest today is the person that I'm handing the baton to when it comes to broadcast media for Cowboy State Daily. And that is Mac Watson. Yay for Mac Watson!
Mac Watson:
Hi. Thank you.
Wendy Corr:
There he is! Now Mac, Mac has such an interesting story, so we're talking about interesting people - he fits right in. And, my goodness, the stories he has to tell. We're going to laugh a lot today.
But before we go to our interview with Mac, I want to make sure that people know about the Wyoming Business Council "Business From the Basement" podcast. The "Business From the Basement" podcast is put on by the Wyoming Business Alliance. The Wyoming Business Alliance wants to promote business and business people - and the networking, the networking that can happen between business people in Wyoming.
So if you are a business person, if you are interested in being a business person, if you want more resources, more connections, more networking, go to the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast. Check it out, and you will thank me. You will thank me for sending you their way.
But don't go there yet, because for the next little while here, we are going to get to know Cowboy State Daily's newest broadcast media director, who is Mac Watson, who comes from a - Mac, your history in the broadcast radio industry is just so colorful, and it's so interesting.
But Mac, you've only been in Wyoming for about three years, but you've had connections to Wyoming for like almost 15 now, right? So tell us about your connections to Wyoming. What brought you to Northwest Wyoming, which is where you are now?
Mac Watson:
So I was living in Phoenix, working in Phoenix at a radio station there, and I happened to start stalking a person who worked at the Attorney General's office.
Wendy Corr:
Oh my.
Mac Watson:
Yeah, she's a lawyer, which is not a great person to stalk, by the way, unless, you know, you're in jail or whatever and you need representation. But anyway, I started stalking on social media this woman that I just found fascinating, and still do. And we met, we got married, and she is from Cody.
She grew up in Cody, she was born in Casper, then they moved up here to Cody. Her dad worked for Marathon, worked for Husky oil, Marathon. He was a draftsman for years. So she graduated from Cody High School and then went to, you know, college, law school, University of Wyoming, graduate law school, and then worked for the attorney general's office in Wyoming, as well as Arizona.
So I met her when she was in Arizona, and the first time, we'd been dating two weeks. And she said, Hey, I just gotta tell you I'm going back home from my high school reunion. And I knew, because she, you know, we compared exes - always a good thing - but none of our exes really were, you know, did things for her, right?
So she said, I'm going to my class reunion, my 20th class reunion. I said, I'll go. And she was like, what? And I said, Yeah. And I bought a plane ticket that night, not knowing where Cody, Wyoming was. I flew into Bozeman. I was like this all the way until we landed, because there was nothing around. I come from the East Coast.
And when we finally landed, I called her, and I said, I'm here, but I don't know where to meet you. And she goes, meet me by the bear. And I thought they had a live bear in the middle of the airport, because I'm such an East Coast guy. And I go, who the hell keeps a bear in an airport? She goes, it's a statue, dummy. Just meet me by the bear statue.
And she drove me through the park. And I fell in love. Fell in love with Yellowstone. Fell in love with Cody. I've, unfortunately, I've never been east, so I've not been to Gillette or South Dakota, but we have gone all over, you know, central, southern, you know, down to Rock Springs, down to Salt Lake City, Denver. I've been almost everywhere in Wyoming, and fell in love with it, and obviously fell in love with her.
So we'd come up every six months to help my father in law, until we physically moved here in 2021.
Wendy Corr:
That is awesome. And then, of course, you continued your radio career, but that radio career has kept you - I mean, you've taken some really interesting, interesting turns in your career.
So Mac, my understanding from chatting with you, because you and I have gotten to chat a lot in the last week or so, getting us ready to make this transition. But my understanding is that you knew from a young age that radio that's the kind of a dream job you wanted. So tell us about your seven year old, first experience as a seven year old there, figuring out, wait a minute, this is a cool career.
Mac Watson:
So I grew up in outside of Baltimore, Maryland, and my dad grew up on a gentleman's farm near the Pennsylvania line, but he went to school and went to work in the city, every day, and he always had to wear a suit, always had to wear a tie, and he worked in banking.
So one day, and we were on summer break, one day, he says, Hey, you want to go to work with me? And of course, it's a bank. I'm like, No. And he said, Well, I'm going to go to a radio station. I was like, oh, okay, we always listen to the radio in the car. Dad always listened to a certain station. Mom always listened to a certain station.
And we went down, and the bank was right next to another building down in the city, and this is where WFBR was, and WFBR was one of the first stations in America that had what they called shock jocks, and my dad never listened to WFBR because it was too racy or whatever, right? It's too wild.
So we met the general manager, and he was wearing a suit. So I'm like, whatever. We turn the corner and there's the studio behind the glass, and there's a guy standing at it, you know, in front of a microphone, in front of a radio board, and he's standing - and I'll never forget. He was wearing shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, those big, oversized sunglasses and moose antlers, and had his headphones on.
And he was doing something, but he was like, and then he took off the headphones, he came out. He's like, Hey, young man, you know, who are you, you know? And I'm like, Who are you? I mean, this guy was not a banker, this guy was not a suit.
And I realized this guy could wear what he wanted. He could say anything he wanted, and he got to play music - because I fell in love with music at age six. I heard my first Rush song at age six, and had been a fan ever since. So music was very important to me as a kid.
So fast forward. I'm just like, blown away, right? So fast forward. So we live in Baltimore, but my mom's from Providence, and every summer we would go up to see my grandmother. My grandmother lives in Providence, and we didn't want to hit the morning traffic or the morning - I know it's Wyoming. Nobody has rush hour here. Yeah, no, we didn't want to hit the rush hour traffic going up 95.
So we left really early. So my mom and my sister are in the back and they're asleep. My dad and I are in the front, and we get through New York City, and the morning shows come on. And this is New York right now, the big buildings, and, you know, just a massive amount of people and everything.
And dad is flipping the station, and he comes on Z100, which is in New York, which is a top 40 station, is still a top 40 station. And WHTZ, I'll never forget it. WHT Z, New York, New York. Boom, you know, just this big explosion.
Top of the hour ID, and on comes this guy named Scott Shannon, who invented the morning zoo concept. And Scott's like, you know, coming up, we're gonna do this. We're gonna do this. We're gonna do the wacky, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it's two degrees above a good time in New York City. Boom, you know, he goes into music or whatever.
And I turn to my dad, and I go, what's the temperature? And my dad is driving. He does this, it's 71 Shut up. You know, 12-13, year old boy, you know, I'm like, you can say that? I mean, you know, we would say it in school, you know, and make jokes about stuff like that in school, but adults could say that stuff. Oh, my God.
Wendy Corr:
And on the air too!
Mac Watson:
Yes, it was a very different time. Very different time. Scott Shannon would go to a nightclub, do a couple bumps of coke, do a morning show, and then collapse in the morning and get up and go do it all over again. Very different time in radio. Very, very different time.
So I was always listening to the radio. And so by the time I was 16, I had a medical supply and pharmacy route, and I was always, and this is, this is so - you know, proximity is so important to your career. I could hear DC stations, I could hear Baltimore stations, and I could hear Harrisburg stations. So I heard all this and all these different types of radio stations and radio personalities, right?
But I was always told, you know, I went to a very competitive Catholic, all boys school. You're gonna be a doctor, you're gonna be a lawyer. You're going to be white collar, white collar, white collar. And I just never really was interested in school.
I never did well in school. I didn't really like it. I didn't like, I would be diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder now. That's what I would be diagnosed with if I were a kid in school today, right? I just didn’t like people telling me what to do. I didn't really, wasn’t interested in anything. You know, Pythagorean theorem - when am I going to use that? You know, all that kind of stuff.
So I figured out how to do the least amount of homework just to barely pass. So I got out of high school with a 1.8. Don't recommend.
Wendy Corr:
You sound like my son!
Mac Watson:
But my buddy Tony Palomini, who I still am in touch with, who sat with me at the cafeteria table, said you were doing the same stuff that you do on the air in high school. You're the same guy. So I would always tell a joke. I'd always, you know, you know, interview people like, Hey, did you? Did you do your math homework? Okay, he didn't do his math homework. I'll do your English homework.
You know, I was always this kind of effusive personality, and I like talking, right? But I didn't know what I was going to do with that. So my father forced me to go to college. I graduated from college with an English degree because I like to read. I had no idea what I wanted to do. So, and again, nobody told me about, this is how you get to Saturday Night Live. This is how you do improv. This is how you're on the radio.
So senior year, spring semester, the RA, the resident assistant at the college I went to, a small Catholic College in Maryland, comes down the hall and goes, Hey, the radio station just got new equipment. You're funny. Test it out. And that was like, boom, I do this, I can do this, but I didn't go to school for it. So how do I get a job?
So I get out of college with an English degree, I go into publishing, of all things, a toy train model and collectible hobby book publisher. So all day, I'm looking up values of Lionel Marx and all these other toy trains. And, you know, talking to all these train nerds. Igot to meet Neil Young because he's a huge train head. He goes to every convention every year up and down the East Coast. So I got to meet Neil Young, and we didn't talk music. We talked trains.
Anyway. No offense if anybody's a toy train lover. But my point is, is that I found that I was really good with like, hey, what? How does this work? Hey, what do you, what do you do? Like, I was really curious. And that's one of the keys to being successful. You have got to be curious at all times. You have got to want more information, right?
So I found out that my best friend in fourth grade was working at a classic rock station on the weekends in Baltimore. So I call him up on the request line. I'm like, Hey, Jordy. By the way, his dad wrote “Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," and worked with Steve Martin in the 70s. Yeah, that's that's cool.
So, Jordy is, you know, working at a classic rock station. And I go, Hey, can I come down and see the studio? And he goes, if you bring pizza? So I brought him a pizza. We hadn't connected since fourth grade, but I went down there with a pizza. And every, every Saturday night for a year and a half, I would go down and he would teach me, he would show me stuff, right?
So I made a demo tape, but it took me two years to get my first job at an AM day timer radio station that was way off in the middle of Western Maryland. We played Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Backstreet Boys, and then we would do news at the top and bottom of the hour. And then we also played Oriole games, Washington Redskins at that time, the Ravens weren't around at that time, all that kind of stuff, right?
So I'm six months in, and at night, you turn the transmitter off. That's the FCC rule. You have to turn the transmitter off. You're a low signal Class B or C or whatever radio tower, right? So I have to turn it off, and then I have to write down the log stuff, and then I go home.
Five of midnight, because I work six to midnight, five of midnight, the phone rings, and I'm like, WTTR, hello. ‘Yeah. My name is Brendan O'Connell. I'm the news director down here, WBAL-TV. Something is going on in your town, and we can't figure out what it is. Is there any way you can go out and find out?’ Whoa. Westminster, Maryland was about the size of Cody back then, about 10,000 people, right? And I knew it like the back of my hand, because that was part of my medical - you see how everything makes sense?
Wendy Corr:
Everything does. Oh, it all. It all does. No, it all connects 100%.
Mac Watson:
So I knew the town like the back of my hands. So I said, ‘Yeah, give me your number. I'll go out. I got nothing better to do. I'll go out and try to find you something.’ So I get in my car, and I'm driving, and I just start driving down Main Street, and sure enough, two cop cars just come, like, two stop signs ahead, just barrel through the intersection. Don't even stop.
And I'm like, there, okay. So I found, you know, I found them. I tail them because my dad and I used to follow volunteer fire department engines to find fires when I was a kid. So I knew how to tail without, you know, getting in their way. So I find, there is this huge crime scene, all the crime scene tape in this apartment complex. And I will never forget, I walked up to where the crime scene tape was to try to get a peek and the smell of death. You will never, ever forget the smell of death.
Now, remember, I didn't go to school for journalism. I didn't go to school to be a reporter. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm curious. And I start looking around. I start listening, and a TV truck from WJZ has already shown up, so I just act like I kind of live in the apartment complex. And I go, Yeah, I just got, I just got back from my shift, blue collar worker, yeah, right. I just got off my shift. You know what's going on?
A 16 year old girl convinced her 20 year old boyfriend to kill her parents on Friday. They discovered the bodies Monday night, it was more than 72 hours that they had started, yeah, decomposing and all that kind of stuff.
Well, I found out what it was. Ran back to the radio station and called the guy, because there's no cell phones, or, like, the bag phone had just, you know, been invented, right? Yeah, but I went back to the radio station to call Brendan. And he goes, ‘Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We're going to send a team out there.’ I gave him the address, like I wrote stuff down, I gave him the address and all that kind of stuff.
And then I thought, Well, wait a minute. The news director here always says, ‘We need to beat the paper. We have to beat the paper with stories.’ So I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning, writing, rewriting, rewriting again and recording what I thought was some kind of news item, you know, and I and I did it, and they played it on the air, and that's how I won my first Society of Professional Journalism award after just six months in radio.
Wendy Corr:
Rock on!
Mac Watson:
So then it became a follow up story, because they ran to Florida and they had to be extradited. So we were down there with DC as well, because it blew up all over the Mid Atlantic, so Baltimore stations, DC stations, all the smaller markets, all that kind of stuff. And we were one of the first ones that had the story
And because it happened in our town, we knew the cops, we knew the chief of police, so we had everything. So we're sitting in this ballroom in Annapolis, Maryland, just winning award after award for live Metro coverage, and I'm just sitting there going, this is so cool.
Wendy Corr:
Of course, oh my gosh.
Mac Watson:
So that was my first radio gig where I learned everything. I learned music, I learned how to schedule sports, I learned satellite receivers, sure. I learned everything in this really small town. And I realized later on, wow, that was a great training ground, because the only way I got my first radio gig.
So I did music radio, sure. So I worked at big stations like mix stations, DC, 101, where Howard Stern worked, and the grease man and all these people. And I finally found my niche in hot AC or top 40, because I had the high energy. Yes, couldn't tell I wasn't a rock guy. Even though I knew everything about classic rock, I wasn't a rock guy.
And one guy at 98 rock in Baltimore told me that he goes, You need to be working for a top 40 station or a hot AC station. You're not a rock jock. And I was, oh. but anyway, I found my niche. And I was out of work in Austin. I finally made, you know, the trek, if you will. I moved outside of Baltimore.
I moved to Austin after working in New York for about four months with Scott Shannon, who was - Well, be careful. Be careful of your idols. You know, be careful of your idols.
Because they would, they would bring me up on a train. I'd come into, you know, the train station under Madison Square Garden. I got to go up to the 16th floor, where ABC News Radio was, and I got to see Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and all these guys. And then we were across the street at WPLJ, and I would do my shift, and then I'd meet with Scott and the general manager.
And they would berate me as though I weren't in the room, of how bad I was, of how terrible that break was, of, ‘Where did you find this hayseed?’ They kept calling me Hayseed, and then at the end of the meeting, they go, ‘sorry, you want to come up next week?’
Yeah, I did that for four months. They never told me what they wanted me to do. They were auditioning me without ever telling me. Well, I finally got sick of it, moved to Austin, got fired after seven months in Austin, and I wanted to stay in Texas.
And my father was screaming at me over the phone, ‘You have a family here, you have a house here still, you need to move back, if you don't find a job by December I will physically come to Texas and I will move you home.’ I'm a grown man.
So my girlfriend at the time, she's in radio too, still is, by the way, she comes home one day and says, ‘Hey, they're looking for a program director at a new news talk station in Waco, Texas. Didn't you work at an am station once?’ I was like, ‘Well, yeah, I said, but I'm not going to Waco.’ She goes, ‘You don't have a job. Apply.’ So I literally drove the hour and a half up I 35 into Waco, Texas.
And again, this was seven years after the Branch Davidian. So I get into Waco, and I'm like, ‘I do not, I do not belong. I do not belong here.’ Baylor, you know, is the whole thing, you know.
So Zach, the general manager there, or the ops manager there, interviewed me with a guy named Michael Oppenheimer, who I still keep in contact with today, to this day. Zach said, ‘You know how to switch satellite receivers?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Just don't have any dead air. You can stay here the rest of your career.’
I was hired to do talk radio. I had no experience. I had never run a talk station before, but now as the program director in Waco, Texas market, like 204. And that was July 2001. September 11 happened two months in, yep.
So September, it's always, it's always hard for me to talk about this. September 11 happens. Nobody knows what the hell is going on, the general manager and the sales director come into my office and are screaming, ‘Are we next? Are we next?’
Because remember, George W Bush was in Florida. He got on Air Force One, landed in Louisiana, refueled, and then disappeared. Yes, people in town thought he's coming to his ranch, six miles outside of Waco. Paris. And so this whole thing, it literally just took off like wildfire. ‘Oh, my God, they're attacking the East Coast, then they're going to attack Texas, then they're going to attack California.’
So they're in my office screaming, ‘What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?’ So I lie. ‘Well, I'm from Maryland. I know somebody that works at the DOD. I'll just make a few phone calls.’
Really, I don't know anybody at the DOD. I don't know anybody at the Pentagon. I don't know anybody, and the Pentagon was just hit. I don't know anything, but I knew there was a 50/50 shot. Either we were going to be attacked in Waco or we weren't. So I was betting on that we weren't.
And we finally found out that he went to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. But for two hours, people were screaming and crying in the office, saying, ‘Are we next? Are we next? Are they going to hit Dallas first and then come down to wake you know, where are they going to go?’ And then it was a baptism by fire. I didn't know where Afghanistan was, I didn't know where Iraq was, I didn't know what Al Qaeda was.
Wendy Corr:
Nobody did at that time, right?
Mac Watson:
Right, right, but because I was an English major, I could read War and Peace and distill it down to a paragraph for you. So that's how I learned to do a talk radio segment, is that I literally would print something off of the Washington Post, and as I'm going over the story, I'm reading it, but I'm talking about the previous paragraph while I'm reading the next paragraph talking to you. That's how I learned.
Wendy Corr:
There you go, wow, that's a talent. That's a talent, right? But, that means you're in the right job.
Mac Watson:
Yeah, yeah, right, right. Again, makes sense after the fact. Meanwhile, I'm crapping my pants every day going, I you know, I mean, Dr. Laura, God bless her. She lost her syndication deal because nobody wanted to hear about relationships. You had other guys rise that all they talked about was terrorism. They were getting shows.
And so I kind of sort of realized that if I was going to leave Waco, I had to make something break big. So two years after the 9/11 attacks the Baylor basketball team, a player took another player to a gravel pit, shot him in the back of the head and tried to bury the body. Blew up. Blew up, not not just Texas, but nationally. Patrick Dennehy was shot in the back of the head.
The coach knew nothing about the players’ ‘interactions,’ whatever. Dave Bliss, look it up. Suddenly, CNN is calling me. Fox is calling me. All these other radio stations are calling me, because I'm the only local news talk guy, and I'll have no staff. It's just me, Wow. I'm literally the only live local show on my station, and the rest of the day is all syndication, right?
So you had Rush Limbaugh at that time, Sean Hannity at that time, you had all these guys that were in New York. I was the only guy in Waco. So the head of Clear Channel, big radio company back then, the head of Clear Channel is in San Antonio, and WOAI in San Antonio starts having me on once a week for updates.
Now, no disrespect to the people of Waco, but I couldn't stand living there, so I moved back to Austin, and I commuted an hour and a half each way, so on a random Wednesday afternoon, I drive back home, I'm still living with this woman that told me about the about the job, and she says, Hey, there's something on CNN about Baylor. They had not only found the body, but they arrested the player.
I call WOAI, like, I'm in Baylor, and I give them a report using the closed captioning on CNN. So the operations manager for news, talk and sports in San Antonio hears this, and he goes, What are you doing in Waco, Texas?
I mean, I'd worked in DC, Baltimore, New York, you know, Austin. What are you doing in Waco? And I go, I don't know. So he started putting words out. So I started getting more and more interviews, and that's how I wound up in Richmond, Virginia.
Wendy Corr:
So then you ended up going back to the East Coast?
Mac Watson:
So I went from market 206, to market 55, which is usually unheard of, in a matter of three years. So now I'm in Richmond, and now I'm kind of being groomed for, like, syndication, okay? Because there's a pipeline - back then there was a pipeline.
So I got to fill in. I would fill in for Glenn Beck, you know, every time he went off, you know, on vacation. I got to fill in, you know, at KOGO in San San Diego, or WWIW in Cincinnati. So I started, I mean, I was working and voice tracking. But I still was voice tracking for music stations. So I was working all the time, but I loved it, right?
So I'm in Richmond, Virginia, and a guy out of nowhere calls me from Phoenix, and I still to this day, don't know how he found me, or was it like Glenn Beck's people or I don't know, but basically, I went to, I went to the general manager, and I said, Hey, my contract is coming up. I've done this, this and this, including making the cover of Richmond magazine.
Wendy Corr:
Okay, you gotta lift that up a little. There you go. Look at that. Mac Watson taking the cover of Richmond magazine.
Mac Watson:
So I put this on her desk. I put another article on her desk. I-Talkers magazine now rates me as like the top 20 talk show hosts in the country. And the general manager, I'll never forget, she just took her hand and went, I'll give you a 5% raise. And I said, I'm going to Phoenix.
So I went to Phoenix in 2007. I was teamed up with a person, and we were one of the first talk radio shows that stopped taking calls. Because the audience doesn't want to hear Betty in you know, Albuquerque, go on and on about something they don't care about.
People tune in to you. People watch you, Wendy, for the news. They're not watching for somebody else. They're watching you. They want to see you do the news. They want to hear your opinion, if you're a talk show host. So we figured that out real quick, and then LA started not doing it. New York started not doing it.
And we started the concept of, we do a new break, a new segment, every segment, a new topic, every segment. We started that, and I was making way too much money, having way too much fun. Never thought I'd get married, never thought I had kids. I meet a girl from Wyoming. I'm just absolutely fascinated by her every day.
Wendy Corr:
I think that is phenomenal.
Mac Watson: 29:33
And so and so, I'm high profile. I stopped doing the national stuff. I didn't, I turned down a syndication deal because every time you get a new affiliate, you have a new boss. You know, Sean Hannity has like 250 bosses. You know, I didn't want that. I wanted to remain local. That's why I love Wyoming. We're a big state, but we all seem to be connected by, you know, small towns, long roads.
Wendy Corr:
That's exactly it.
Mac Watson:
So, something that happens in Rock Springs, and I'm in Cody, I feel that it's like, you know, just down the road, you know.
Wendy Corr:
Yeah, that's in your backyard.
Mac Watson:
So, you never know where there's an opportunity, but never turn down an opportunity. So if somebody said, ‘Hey, why don't we do this? Why don't we do this?’ I'm always like, ‘Yeah, I'm up for it. I'm up for it.’ So when you suggested that I come to work for Cowboy State Daily, even though I had a job, I was like, why not? Why not take a chance and figure out, ‘Okay, can I do this?’
And my point is, there was a small agency called Crisis Nursery. It's about 2015, Crisis Nursery in Arizona, and our program director, his wife worked with Child Crisis Nursery, and they were a foster care and respite care facility, and so they could get you licensed, but they also took care of kids too. They were one of the private agencies that take care of kids that are in the foster care system.
And my wife and I had never wanted to have children until I met my wife, so we tried. We were unsuccessful. Not my fault - kidding - couldn't have kids. And we were at a benefit for this, because my partner and I teamed up, and we would do events. We would get the word out. It was called ‘Mac and Gaydo’s Caring for Kids.’ And we would, every year, just raise a crap ton of money for these people.
You know, at the time, the foster care system in Arizona was 16,000 kids, 16,000 kids in foster care. They were sleeping in offices, government offices, you know, state offices, right? Because there just weren't enough foster families, right?
So the the CEO gets up and, you know, thank you Mac, thank you Gaydos, thank you KTAR, you know, you do blah, blah, blah. And her whole speech was, when you think you can't, you can. And I don't know what it was, my wife and I are just sitting there, and we turn to each other, and my wife looks at me and goes, ‘Maybe our calling isn't to have kids. Maybe it's to foster.’
Wendy Corr:
Okay, I'm gonna cry.
Mac Watson:
I'm already starting. And so we started our journey becoming foster parents, and I swear to God, Wendy, I threw everything at them - that I was a horrible person, that I had an anger issue, that I killed a man in Reno to watch him die, that, you know, I tried not to get licensed.
And every time this woman would say, well, that's great, because now you'll recognize when a child is angry, that it's a miscue. You can recognize trauma in children where somebody who didn't experience that can't see it.
Wendy Corr:
No excuses.
Mac Watson:
No excuses, right, right? So basically, we got licensed in six months, and we did it all on our own, with what is now called Child Crisis Arizona. We were licensed through them, and they always say, they always say, you're gonna have your heart broken. This is a really tough experience. It's a really tough job, but it's really worth it.
But reunification is always the goal. That is always going to be the goal, reuniting these children with the bio parents, no matter what they've done. Unless rights have been severed, the goal is always to reunite, right? And so you're going to get your heart broken. You're going to help these families, though, and it's going to be.
So we're licensed on Tuesday. That Friday, my wife gets a call, late afternoon. Everybody's gone home. I'm still on the air. I did afternoons. I'm still on the air. ‘Hello.’ ‘Um, yes, I found out that you were just got licensed. Congratulations. Are you up to adopt?’
They are not supposed to ask you that. They are not supposed to call you. They're supposed to call your agency. Your agency will call you and find out if you're available, if it's a fit, you know, blah, blah, blah, they called us directly, and my wife, who's a lawyer, said, ‘Is that a trick question? You're not supposed to ask me that.’ I mean, she went in legal mode, which is very pleasant for everybody anyway. Okay, counselor, enough, you know.
And so the woman was like, ‘We have two kids. They came into foster care, or they've been in the foster care system before, but they came in, they're in the office. Rights are severed.’ So my wife said, ‘Sure, fine.’ So I come home, I change clothes. We drive downtown Phoenix into a, you know, not so good section of Phoenix, into this nondescript office building, and they take us into a room that is full of children.
And there is our soon to be daughter, crying on the floor. She is seven and scared to death because she's been in the foster care system, but she's always been with relatives. She's never been outside of her family.
And I didn't like babies. Babies always scared me. Her brother, her biological brother, is 11 months old, and the social worker brings him over. And my wife loves babies, and she does this, and he launches into my arms. He chose me.
Now, of course, my wife will complain all the time about that forever. So we drove him home, and my daughter told us everything about herself, and I realized she was a fighter, and I fell in love with her immediately.
And so at her quinceanera, which happened last year here in Cody, I gave a speech, and I ended it with, ‘My wife has taught me so much about giving back and about charity, because I was a selfish son of a bitch until I met my wife. I would die for my wife, but I would kill for my daughter.’ And I mean that.
These two kids are very different. They're seven years or about six and a half years apart, different dads, same mom. They are so different, yet they are so alike. And I, and I call my daughter ‘Greatness.’ I call her ‘Greatness.’ That's her nickname, because she doesn't believe it. She has terrible trauma. And so anytime I can tell her, you are great, I do, and I mean it.
My son was 11 months when he was placed with us. He's just happy go lucky. His trauma is different. That was more in utero. So my son will sit there and tell me everything about Legos that you don't need to know, that you don't care about, that you that you could. I don't need any of this information. And if I find out anything more about LEGO, it's going to push out the part that I can drive a stick shift, and I won't be able to drive a stick shift anymore.
And I love them, and I love them. She will always come up to you and basically eviscerate you. She's like her dad. Because I, when I met my wife, I was from the East Coast, very sarcastic, very in your face. My daughter has inherited that.
And now we're, you know, fast forward, we're at dinner six months ago, seven months ago, and we were talking about where my daughter wants to go to college, and she said, ‘You know, I'd really like to go maybe for a semester abroad, to Italy or to France or something like that.’ I said, ‘You know, when I was in college, I really wanted to date a French foreign exchange student or something like that. But they always sent us Irish girls. Because it was a Catholic college. They always sent us Irish girls, and they were mean.’
And she didn't miss a beat, and went, ‘Dad, everybody knows you're not internationally attractive.’ And my son then says, my son then goes, ‘Whoop, whoop, Dad's not attractive,’ and starts eating. Now, this is how screwed up my family is. My wife makes that into a t shirt, and that's my Christmas present for last year.
Wendy Corr:
Dad's not internationally attractive,
Mac Watson:
Just not internationally attractive, and I wear it with pride.
Wendy Corr:
Mac, these stories are killing me, and this is just - you have given us such a great look into who you are, what makes you, what drives you, what your background is, and all of these things, where your heart is. And I think that this is so great for our viewers to get to know who you are and where you're coming from, because now you are going to be the face and the voice of Cowboy State Daily.
So let's shift and kind of wrap up the conversation here, because I'm sitting here rolling and crying at the same time, but -
Mac Watson:
So am I. I can't stop.
Wendy Corr:
So tell us, to kind of bring just a brief closure to this, because you're the face going forward, and they're going to get to know you for a long time to come. What do you envision for Cowboy State Daily, now that you've gotten to get to know us, you've been a part of us.
So what are your thoughts on Cowboy State Daily, moving forward, and the future of Cowboy State Daily, now with you here as the broadcast media director?
Mac Watson:
Well, I will, I will fully admit, my wife introduced me to Cowboy State daily in Phoenix because she kept up with, you know, Park County, you know, and she has family all over Wyoming because she's one of six girls, OMG. So she's always keeping up with news and stuff like that.
So she introduced me, before we moved up here, to Cowboy State daily. And the thing that, you know it, and this is a whole other podcast, how media has changed within the last 10 years, let alone 30 years. I've been doing this since 1993 but the thing that got me was great writing, great reporting, solid background, solid knowledge, and just a way with words that builds trust between the reader and the website.
And so when you started branching into the broadcast area, or the On Air part of it with you know, people like Jake, people like yourself, you know, that level of professionalism and that level and that deep knowledge of print, became apparent on the broadcast side.
So you have done a phenomenal job, and I just absolutely fell in love with your delivery and your work ethic. You know, while you were working at Cowboy State daily. So I was a fan, and so I would watch and go, this is a great idea. You're covering the state with reporters all over the place. They give you stories. You put it together, you come up with the radio script and the and the broadcast script, the digital script, and you just execute it on such a high level.
Everybody's got a podcast now, including my own. You can look it up. It's Mac Watson Talks - that I do with my wife about being a foster, an adoptive parent. But, shameless plug. But my point is, there still needs to be a level of professionalism and knowledge that people will inherently start trusting you as a solid media outlet.
You guys have been doing that for years, so I'm really honored that I can come be a part of this, because I've worked for some real jackasses along the way that would, ‘well, that's not important.’ Or, ‘well, we don't need that.’ That relationship between the viewer, the consumer, the listener, and the media outlet is so critical and so important. And I take that very seriously.
You know, we've had discussions about it. Of, ‘Wait a minute, this is what the audience expects. We've got to deliver this.’ You can't, you can't half ass this. You can't just say, ah, you know, here's what happened. Governor Gordon was talking about something today, and, you know, something today, and you know.
You've got to bring it every day. And so to me, and you've said this too, it's the grind. It's the grind of doing it every day. It's a lifestyle. Radio, for me, is a lifestyle. It is not a job. I wake up in the morning, I get on the computer, I find out if the world has blown up, you know, do I have to worry about my children? You know, that kind of thing.
I find all the news. You do the same thing. We are avid consumers and curious and curious about the world. I do that every day. Why not bring it to Cowboy State Daily, where it is not only coveted, it is also executed well. It's run well, and you're giving viewers, readers and listeners, a quality product every day. And I want to be a part of that.
And so as broadcast media director, which I humbly take over from, from you, I want to make the radio I want to make the radio presentation. You know, even that much better. It's great. Now let's see if we can make it greater. Let's see if we can do more video stuff. Let's see if we can branch out and do other things.
I'm all for it, and this is a great platform to not only be associated with, but to be on, I wouldn't say the ground floor, but there's so many other things that we could innovate and do. It's nothing, but as the old Stan Lee used to say, from Marvel Comics, ‘Excelsior!’ Which is Latin for ‘ever, upward.’ Let's just keep rising, because you guys have been killing it since, gosh, we were in Phoenix in 2019.
Wendy Corr:
2019. Yeah, we launched in 2019, I joined the group, and just shortly after it launched, yeah. So it's really been a great ride. And well, this, and this is my last official act here as Cowboy State Daily, because this podcast is going to air on Saturday, and I will have given my last TV broadcast on Friday morning.
And so this for me, is my farewell, and my official passing the baton to you, Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. Take care of it well, I know you will.
Mac Watson:
Yes, I have a big level to live up to, so will work my butt off to do that.
Wendy Corr:
Well, Mac, thank you. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into who you are, what makes you tick, today. And I know that this is just going to be so much fun for the viewers to get to know, not just your level of experience, but also your heart in taking this and moving this forward, and your enthusiasm and your buy-in to all of this and the mission of Cowboy State Daily.
So thank you, Mac, because I know you're going to do great.
Mac Watson:
Thank you Wendy, and I'm going to keep bugging you to keep coming back, or maybe we can see you down the road. I'm going to try to get you back on every chance I get. So thank you for the opportunity.
Wendy Corr:
Absolutely, absolutely. And folks, after two and a half years of being the voice, I now am signing off and I'm going to cry just a bit, but thank you. Thank you for your trust in me. Thank you for your trust in Cowboy State Daily. And folks, have a great week.
