Your Dark Companion Podcast

For years, Tony Smith was exactly where you wanted him — behind the glass, keeping the lights on, the sound clean, and occasionally dropping a perfectly timed Dancing with the Stars reference that somehow became radio gold.
In this episode of Your Dark Companion, Mike Rhyner and Grubes welcome longtime Ticket engineer Tony “the Engineer” Smith for a candid, funny, and surprisingly emotional conversation about radio life, finding your voice in the margins, and knowing when it’s time to walk away.
Tony traces his path from promotions to engineering, explains how an unexpected obsession with Dancing with the Stars turned into a beloved on-air bit, and opens up about how leadership changes, shifting station culture, and a slow drip of punishments eventually drained the joy from a place he once loved. Along the way, Mike reflects on his own departure, the unspoken bonds inside radio stations, and how sometimes the thing you leave behind simply isn’t the thing you fell in love with anymore.
It’s part nostalgia, part therapy session, part inside baseball — and a reminder that sometimes the most interesting stories come from the people who were never supposed to be on mic at all.
ydc_ep_189__tony_smith_v1
Chapters
00:00:00 – Welcome in and meeting Tony “the Engineer”00:01:46 – Life at The Ticket and the people who made it special00:03:20 – How Dancing with the Stars became “the bit”00:05:23 – When the show — and the station — started to change00:08:18 – Engineering, promotions, and finding your way inside radio00:10:15 – Becoming unexpectedly famous for the wrong reasons00:13:20 – The move that changed everything00:15:27 – When leadership shifts alter the culture00:18:13 – Why the bit worked (and why it mattered)00:22:14 – Popularity vs. talent, radio and reality TV00:27:19 – Campound, crossing a line, and unintended consequences00:32:09 – Punishments, silence, and losing the joy00:36:42 – “The station I left was not the station I loved”00:43:52 – Sponsor break: CBD House of Healing00:46:26 – Life after radio: travel, podcasts, and freedom00:49:49 – Leaving without regret and keeping the memories00:58:06 – Dallas radio legends, reunions, and closing thoughts

Show Notes

For years, Tony Smith was exactly where you wanted him — behind the glass, keeping the lights on, the sound clean, and occasionally dropping a perfectly timed Dancing with the Stars reference that somehow became radio gold.

In this episode of Your Dark Companion, Mike Rhyner and Grubes welcome longtime Ticket engineer Tony “the Engineer” Smith for a candid, funny, and surprisingly emotional conversation about radio life, finding your voice in the margins, and knowing when it’s time to walk away.

Tony traces his path from promotions to engineering, explains how an unexpected obsession with Dancing with the Stars turned into a beloved on-air bit, and opens up about how leadership changes, shifting station culture, and a slow drip of punishments eventually drained the joy from a place he once loved. Along the way, Mike reflects on his own departure, the unspoken bonds inside radio stations, and how sometimes the thing you leave behind simply isn’t the thing you fell in love with anymore.

It’s part nostalgia, part therapy session, part inside baseball — and a reminder that sometimes the most interesting stories come from the people who were never supposed to be on mic at all.

ydc_ep_189__tony_smith_v1

Chapters

00:00:00 – Welcome in and meeting Tony “the Engineer”
00:01:46 – Life at The Ticket and the people who made it special
00:03:20 – How Dancing with the Stars became “the bit”
00:05:23 – When the show — and the station — started to change
00:08:18 – Engineering, promotions, and finding your way inside radio
00:10:15 – Becoming unexpectedly famous for the wrong reasons
00:13:20 – The move that changed everything
00:15:27 – When leadership shifts alter the culture
00:18:13 – Why the bit worked (and why it mattered)
00:22:14 – Popularity vs. talent, radio and reality TV
00:27:19 – Campound, crossing a line, and unintended consequences
00:32:09 – Punishments, silence, and losing the joy
00:36:42 – “The station I left was not the station I loved”
00:43:52 – Sponsor break: CBD House of Healing
00:46:26 – Life after radio: travel, podcasts, and freedom
00:49:49 – Leaving without regret and keeping the memories
00:58:06 – Dallas radio legends, reunions, and closing thoughts

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Creators and Guests

Host
Mike Rhyner
Mike Rhyner… "a little on the bumpy side, but rather likable"…so stated famously by a grade school teacher in Oak Cliff, where Mike grew up. A complicated guy, yet a guy who can do long division and remember call strike three to A Rod. Probably best left unattended. Don't expect assistance from him if a medical situation arises.

What is Your Dark Companion Podcast?

"Whatever I want it to be about on a given day; is what it is." Your Dark Companion couples your familiar friends from radio, Mike and Grubes! Mike brings his classic interviews that draw you in, and Grubes—The Devil—drops…well the drops, and throws the occasional grenade. Mike likes to draw on his fascinating acquaintances and friends allowing them to tell their stories as you've never heard them. But he also goes outside his network, sharing Grubes' network, and often outside of both, to bring you those they don't know, but believe have a story that will make you laugh, make you think, think differently, or just entertain you…"that's what we are trying to do here."