Ben Downs To Texas Radio Hall of Fame

Ben Downs remembers the very first day he was on the air — Nov. 4, 1968. He was 14 years old.

As he takes his place in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame this year, he’ll be finishing up half a century in the radio business, celebrating the memories in between and those still to come. With the dry sense of humor he’s become known for on the air and in the office, the long-serving vice president and general manager of Bryan Broadcasting said his only retirement plans involve “a call to 911 and a gurney.”

Downs is one of 20 who will be inducted on Nov. 2at the Texas Museum of Broadcasting and Communications in Kilgore. He won’t be the hall of fame’s first from the Brazos Valley, as he joins KORA’s Roger WWW Garrett and Bryan Broadcasting’s own Mary Mike Hatcher, who were inducted in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

“I was proud to make it,” Downs said. “It’s a bunch of people that I’ve listened to for my whole career — a lot of folks I know and appreciate and think are very good broadcasters.”

For Downs, the road to Texas radio greatness started just outside the Lone Star State. In his hometown, he found a passion for radio that would stick with him through the decades.

“As a child, even before I got on the air, before I got my first job, I would sit at the Hope, Arkansas, field house and do play-by-play into an empty Coke cup because I just always wanted to be on the radio,” Downs said.

If Hope sounds familiar, it’s for good reason, Downs said. It’s the hometown of Bill Clinton as well as Mike Huckabee, who Downs shared his first job with at Hope’s local radio station.

“It’s a tiny little town, but I still go back there, I still have family there, and that’s where I started,” Downs said. “I wouldn’t let a 14 year old run my radio station, but fortunately for me, the manager at that radio station did.”

When he went away to school at Texas A&M in 1972, Downs said he planned to focus on his studies and just be a radio listener for a change. That didn’t last long, he said. Noticing some technical difficulties on a broadcast one day, he called the station and diagnosed the issue. That call led to a job offer, which Downs said he happily accepted.

“So a month later I’m working again, back on the air, and I that’s been it since,” Downs said. “I’ve worked here, I’ve worked across town, I’ve also run some small groups in the great state of Texas and have had a chance to do just about everything that you do in the broadcasting business.”

He came back to Bryan Broadcasting to stay in 1989 and has overseen the group’s expansion into a variety of genres and formats. The group added its 14th station in June, making its first foray into Spanish-language programming with “La Jefa,” 102.7 FM.

On the technological side, Downs said Bryan Broadcasting has been quick to keep up with the rise of the internet. WTAW was one of the first stations to stream online. Today, audiences can hear Bryan Broadcasting’s stations on their phones and computers, follow their social media accounts for updates and download podcasts for on-demand listening.

“We still have the transmitters, we still have the tower, we still have people running the show back at the radio station, but we push a lot of stuff out online,” Downs said. “We have our fiber connection and we keep it busy.”

Outside the audio realm, the company’s print division puts out magazines such as Best of The Brazos Valley and Brazos Valley Bride. With so many creative people under the same roof, Downs said there’s no shortage of ideas to be explored. And while not every idea will be a hit, Downs said “the riskiest thing in this business is to say no.”

“I’m inclined to believe that people work better if they’re in an area with other people,” Downs said. “They talk, they interact, they come up with ideas, they discard ideas, and I’ve found it to have a lot more energy that way. We are definitely an energy business.”

Downs and Bryan Broadcasting also have built a reputation for community service — volunteering, spreading the word about local fundraising programs and holding charitable events of its own. Downs said he’s proud to be part of a community that takes giving to heart.

“I think it’s part of Texas, and I think it’s part of Texas A&M,” Downs said. “You can’t be around the student body for long without recognizing that there’s a sense of unity there and a sense of wanting to give to a community.”

Last year, the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce named Downs Citizen of the Year for his long record of service, which started when he was an A&M student. The first event he organized was a tennis tournament benefiting the local Boys & Girls Club.

“I would leave class, I would go get prizes and come up with brackets and things like that for the tournament,” Downs said. “A lot of the tennis stuff that we gave away was clothing, and I had a model that modeled the stuff for me. And I ended up marrying her. That’s lasted 44 years so far.”

Downs and his wife, Lillian, have two children and three grandchildren — 7, 5 and 3 years old. As he’s grown older, Downs said he’s gotten a bit less hands-on with fundraising events, but he still does whatever he can to help out. He’s served on almost every nonprofit board in Bryan-College Station, and last year he made nine appearances as Santa Claus at community events — a personal best. Downs first put on the red suit more than 30 years ago and has since been a fixture of the annual Christmas Parade.

“Once they find out you’ve got a good Santa suit and you don’t charge anything, your phone tends to ring,” Downs said.

He’s also stayed active in the radio community through the Texas Association of Broadcasters and National Association of Broadcasters. Downs makes several trips to Washington, D.C., each year to speak with members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission about issues important to the industry, including one particularly close to his heart: AM radio revitalization.

“It’s been a tough few years for AM radio,” Downs said. “Fortunately, we have really good formats on ours, so they continue to be profitable and to be successful. But that’s not the case in a lot of cities and a lot of markets.”

Downs said the major issue facing these stations is all the electromagnetic noise generated in the AM broadcast band by consumer electronics such as phone chargers and computer monitors.

“I’ve been working with the FCC to find ways to ameliorate it, and one of the ways we came up with was to allow AM stations to be allocated an FM frequency,” Downs said. “It’s never been done before on such a broad scale and it works. FM is not bothered by all that noise and all the technical problems of AM radio.”

In addition to his Texas Radio Hall of Fame induction, Downs has been nominated for a Marconi Radio Award from the National Association of Broadcasters. He’s one of five finalists for the association’s new Legendary Manager of the Year award. The winner will be announced Sept. 26.

Whether he’s receiving an award from the industry or a recognition of public service, Downs said that while he’s certainly proud, he can’t let it go to his head. After all, he said, it’s always a team effort.

“To get something to hang on the wall, it lets the staff know that the work is noticed,” Downs said. “And that there are people who think it’s important work to do.”