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31-559: Bill Mack was the founder of WBAP's overnight program, the U.S. 1 Trucking Show . Mack started the show in 1969. The show, as the name implied, was geared toward the American truck driver and featured a lot of country music . The show briefly attempted an excursion into Mexico on border blaster XERF , but that arrangement ended after it was clear that Mack would not be able to host the show from his home in Fort Worth. Eventually,

62-614: A 1944 graduate of the school, was appointed its third principal in 1971, after serving as a teacher, coach and assistant principal in the Ken-Ton Schools. In that era, the school boasted large numbers of National Merit Scholarship winners. In 1969, Kenmore West, under coach Jules Yakapovich , won the Niagara Frontier League Football Championship and drew national attention as theoretical national champions, determined statistically by

93-665: A computer match-up with a Florida high school team. MacGamwell retired in 1980 and served the Ken-Ton District on the Board of Education. Another Kenmore graduate, Charles Kristich, class of 1955, succeeded him as principal that year. Douglas H. Smith became Principal in December 1994 and led the 9–12 school building until December 2005. Karen Geelan, former Assistant Principal in the West Seneca School district,

124-747: A generic conservative talk direction, though trucking news and content remains a major part of the show. On December 21, 2012, just before the first anniversary of the Harley-McNamara version of the show, the hosts announced on air that they had signed a new multi-year contract to host the show. Exactly ten years later, on December 21, 2022, Gary McNamara referenced a story about his high school graduation in May 1973, at Kenmore West Senior High School in Tonawanda, New York . He recalled his friends being sad and confused about high school ending, and that he

155-528: A local show in Los Angeles, and rebranded Harley's and McNamara's show under the Red Eye Radio name. As a result of the reorganization, the show also gained several major market affiliates, including New York City and Los Angeles, where Red Eye Radio had established itself, and refocused the program as a competitor to Premiere Networks 's ubiquitous Coast to Coast AM , eventually moving towards

186-544: A low of under 1,400 students in the early 1990s, and many teachers were laid off. Despite the loss of population, however, Kenmore West continued to be recognized for its achievements. The Ken-Ton population continues to drop, and teachers and support staff continue to be laid off as the district economic climate changes. In the 2016–2017 school year, after the consolidation of Kenmore Middle School, Kenmore West now houses eighth graders as well as ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. In 2013, Kenmore West Senior High School

217-415: Is available seven days a week, but a "best of" program airs on weekends. Due to the program’s “graveyard” time slot, relatively small listening base and controversial political opinions, the show is rarely discussed in mainstream media. Because of this, fewer than 2% of the country listens to the program on any given night, the majority of them being truck drivers. Among the criticisms given to this program

248-472: Is its time slot and lack of daytime reruns, the time of which the hosts speak on the program (Gary McNamara is estimated to speak two-thirds of the show’s dialogue on an average broadcast night), and more recently, the lack of discussion about information relevant to truckers. Bill Mack (songwriter) Bill Mack Smith Jr. (June 4, 1929 – July 31, 2020) was an American country music songwriter, singer, and radio host. While at WBAP Radio, Mack initiated

279-740: The Midnight Radio Network and then Red Eye Radio several years later. In the country music industry, Mack was also a songwriter. His best-known song is " Blue ," one of LeAnn Rimes ' biggest hits. The song won Mack the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1997. Mack also wrote " Drinking Champagne ," which has been recorded by numerous artists. The song was a hit for Cal Smith in 1968, and again for George Strait in 1990 on his album Livin' It Up . Some of his other songs have been recorded by Dean Martin , Ray Price , Jerry Lee Lewis and George Jones . In 2000, Mack won

310-571: The COVID-19 pandemic in Texas . Kenmore West Senior High School Kenmore West Senior High School (nicknamed Ken-West ) is one of two public high schools in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District . The other is Kenmore East Senior High School . In 1938, a WPA grant of about $ 700,000 was received from the federal government toward the creation of a separate building for

341-787: The syndicated radio show Country Crossroads , heard on more than 800 stations across the country, and a similar cable television show on FamilyNet . He also hosted the Overdrive Top Ten Countdown , a weekly one-hour country music countdown geared toward truckers, in syndication . Mack left WBAP to join XM Satellite Radio on its Open Road channel (XM 171). Two of the other main personalities on Open Road, Dave Nemo and Dale "The Truckin' Bozo" Sommers , were Mack's primary competitors before all three left their AM radio stations to join XM. Mack's radio program

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372-509: The Bill Mack Million Mile Club for truckers achieving one million miles of accident-free over-the-road driving. For many years, Mack was best known as the host of The Country Roads Show , (later U.S. 1 Trucking Show , and later still, Midnight Cowboy Trucking Show ) the overnight country music show on WBAP , a clear channel station in Fort Worth. Mack's show catered primarily to truck drivers who traveled during

403-635: The IB Diploma Program. The school's colors are royal blue and white, and the mascot is the Blue Devil. There are many different images used for the Blue Devil all throughout the school, and most have been designed by students. In recent years, the old mascot costume was replaced by a newer, more 'pumped-up' Blue Devil costume. The Blue Devils compete in the Niagara Frontier League (NFL) in most sports. Exceptions include

434-536: The Superintendent of Allegheny Limestone Central Schools. Dean R. Johnson, who had been a Kenmore West Assistant Principal from 2008 to 2011, succeeded Geelan in 2011 as principal of Kenmore West. Kayla Capuccio, Kelly Lambert, and Denise Grandits are currently assistant principals. Ken Belote is the schools Athletic Coordinator. The Kenmore community, like the rest of Western New York , lost population between 1970 and 1990. Enrollment of Kenmore West dipped to

465-456: The building occurred after a May 2002 fire in the cafeteria bay, causing a multi-month relocation of the cafeteria to the Old Gym while a new cafeteria was erected, opening January 31, 2003, to an appreciative student body. Kenmore West's enrollment grew steadily through about 1970, and reached its peak in 1969 with over 3000 students in grades 10, 11 and 12. Alan Hammon MacGamwell (1926–2004),

496-612: The daily recommendation?” On the February 27, 2024 show, it was revealed that a few months after Gary McNamara’s high school graduation in 1973, he was involved in a car accident. He particularly recalled “the crunch of the metal” being the most powerful part of his experience. It is not known what types of injuries he suffered from the accident. The show runs five hours each night, from midnight to 5 am Central Time. Harley and McNamara primarily address political issues, most commonly promoting libertarian and conservative viewpoints. The show

527-523: The late-night hours. Its opening theme music was an instrumental rendition of " Orange Blossom Special ", performed by Felix Slatkin and his orchestra. Because of WBAP's clear channel signal range via skywave at night, Mack's show was heard over most of the continental United States. Mack began his show in 1969. He briefly took his show to Mexican " border blaster " station XERF , but returned to WBAP when an agreement for Mack to do his show from his Fort Worth home fell through. In addition, Mack hosted

558-925: The media category award given by the Grand Ole Opry . He was named to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Country Music DJ and Radio Hall of Fame in 1982. Bill Mack lived in Fort Worth, Texas , with his wife, Cynthia. They had three children - Misty Dawn, Billy Mack III, and Sunday Renee. They had several grandchildren. Bill Mack had a daughter named Debbie from a previous marriage. Bill Mack Smith III ("Billy") has followed in his father's footsteps and has his own radio show with 92.1 Hank FM in Fort Worth, Texas. Mack died on July 31, 2020. According to his family, he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 two days prior amid

589-499: The network, which claims to reach all 48 contiguous states plus Hawaii . The show now also broadcasts on XM Satellite Radio ( channel 171 ) after a long run on Sirius Satellite Radio ( Road Dog Trucking ) ended in 2007. With the change, the Midnight Radio Network joined former host Bill Mack along with Dale Sommers and Dave Nemo on the channel. By 2007, many references to "Midnight Trucking" had returned to

620-468: The original gymnasium. Voters narrowly approved funding for the projects in 1997. The additions were designed by Duchscherer Oberst Design, P.C., an architectural firm in Buffalo. Joseph L. Kopec was the lead architect. The library was completed at a cost of about $ 10 million in the fall of 2000. The design won an award for educational architecture in the summer of 2001. Another capital enhancement to

651-538: The senior high school on Highland Parkway, and the school district provided over $ 1M in additional funds. The 20-acre (81,000 m ) plot on which the school is situated cost $ 35,000. The school opened in the fall of 1940 with fifty faculty members and 1,250 pupils. In 1959, Kenmore East High School was opened as the district continued to grow. At that time, the Highland Parkway school officially became Kenmore West High School. Raymond Stewart Frazier (1901–1998)

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682-911: The show changed its name yet again, to the Midnight Radio Network . Under Jones, the number of affiliates grew from about a dozen stations, mostly 50,000-watt clear-channel "flamethrowers," to 38. Seven clear-channel stations - WBAP, WJR in Detroit ; KXL in Portland, Oregon ; KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa ; WLS in Chicago ; KBOI in Boise ; and KOKC in Oklahoma City , as well as regional station WMAL in Washington, D.C. - front

713-773: The show's name changed to the Midnight Cowboy Trucking Show and the Midnight Cowboy Radio Network and was syndicated by ABC Radio , who carefully selected the affiliates to give maximum coverage of the country. Mack left the show in September 2001 to join the Open Road channel on XM Satellite Radio . After Mack's departure in 2001, ABC changed the name of the show to Midnight Trucking Radio Network . The network tapped WBAP producer Eric Harley, along with Joe Kelley, to host

744-526: The show, and by early 2009, to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, it reverted to the "Midnight Trucking" name. In April 2008, parent syndicator Jones Radio Networks was sold to Triton Media Group , which integrated Jones into Triton's Dial Global network. Some changes were made in the months following. One of the first was the removal of the show from satellite radio, as Open Road merged with Road Dog Trucking. The name Red Eye Radio came from Cumulus Media Networks ' existing overnight talk show, which at

775-404: The show. In addition to Mack's old network, MTRN absorbed Dave Nemo 's old The Road Gang network when Nemo left for XM as well. ABC turned over syndication of the program to Jones Radio Networks in 2005, and Kelley left the show. Jones turned to Gary McNamara, a conservative talk radio host, to fill Kelley's seat. With the change in focus from solely truckers to a more general purpose program,

806-441: The time of Cumulus's acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting was hosted by Doug McIntyre (who originated the name and had previously used it on a local Los Angeles-based show prior to changing time slots) on weeknights and Marc Germain on weekends. Upon Cumulus' acquisition of Citadel (and, by extension, WBAP and the rest of the former ABC Radio assets), Cumulus also reassumed syndication of Harley and McNamara, reassigned McIntyre to

837-494: Was appointed of principal of Kenmore West in 1952. The 20-acre (81,000 m ) plot is part of what used to be the Philip Pirson homestead, a 75-acre farm. The community continued to grow in the subsequent years, requiring a classroom addition to the west wing of school in 1967–1968. In the late 1990s, the school district proposed building a new library information center on the west lawn and an athletic complex east of

868-407: Was heard weekdays on XM channel 13 from 12 Noon to 3 PM Eastern, and rebroadcast from Midnight to 3 AM Eastern. On April 29, 2011, Mack announced that Sirius/XM had terminated his contract to make room for a merger of two of the channels The Roadhouse and Willie's Place into one channel and that this was his final show. Mack was succeeded on his WBAP show by Eric Harley , and the show was renamed

899-666: Was hired as the Principal of grades 9 and 10, and Smith would continue to lead grades 11 and 12. In 2007, Geelan became Lead Principal of the building under Smith's tutelage until he transferred to Benjamin Franklin Middle School in 2008 where he was Principal until his retirement in 2010. Geelan earned an educational doctorate from the University of Buffalo in 2011 and left Kenmore West in June of that year to become

930-584: Was ranked 74th out of 135 Western New York high schools in terms of academic performance. In January 2011, Kenmore West was designated as an International Baccalaureate (IB) School . They were the second public school in Western New York with this distinction. As of 2016, only two other high schools in Erie County offered the program: Kenmore East High School and City Honors School . By 2015, about 18% of Kenmore West students participate in

961-447: Was the only one excited about it, going as far as to say “Yee-haw!” during the commencement ceremony. An after-graduation dinner featured sweet potato cake and banana bread. The revelation became a minor debate on Internet forums during the summer of 2023. He attended the graduating class’s 50th anniversary reunion on July 21, 2023. In August 2023, McNamara referenced a local state ban on daily consumption of alcohol, quipping, “Say, what’s

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