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Wake up with Tara and win yourself a
bobblehead
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The trooper actually drew a gun on us, and
it was all on the air.”
The foibles, however, don’t even come close to outweighing
the fun, Tara says, and a big part of that fun is the people
she gets to meet.
First, there’s the country artists, whom she says
are by and large a good bunch. |
Given the chance to offer Pride readers
some down-and-dirty star secrets about her famous guests on the
show, Tara thinks awhile, then admits that Brooks and Dunn did
surprise her.
The dirt on Brooks & Dunn
“Before I met them, I had hoped Brooks and Dunn were
as nice and fun and friendly as they seemed.”
“And they were!” she says, dashing all hopes of scandalmongering.
“I felt like we’d been friends forever. They really
appreciate that their fans spend money on their music.
“Most country performers seem to be that way. Pat Green
too is just the nicest person and loves his fans. He’ll
sit and sign autographs until the last one is signed.
“People love their musicians, but when I was at the rock
station and I’d meet pop artists, they seemed more distanced
from their fan base. Which is why I prefer country music —
my favorite thing is the artists.”
The fans themselves seem to be another plus.
“I get to meet listeners, which I looooove,” she says,
drawing out the word as she often does to reflect the depth of
her feeling. “They’re not strangers because they hear
you on the radio. I’m still in awe when someone knows who
I am. I don’t think I get what it is that I supposedly do
well. I just like people.”
It must be true because even when bad things happen, she doesn’t
often speak ill of anyone. For instance, Tara recently was named
one of A&M-Commerce’s Alumni Ambassadors. During her
radio timeslot, she was on her way to the University for the Alumni
Forum, so she called in her part of the show, stopping along the
way to give out prizes in Royse City and Greenville.
Accidental hugging
In Greenville she would get chased off the mall parking lot by security
officers, but she glosses over that part of the story, emphasizing instead
the “big ol’ hug” she got from one listener who got
to her before security did.
Hugs are important to Tara. “I always think when people get in
a car wreck they oughta just get outta their cars and hug one another.
I mean, they just made it through a wreck, for goodness’ sake!”
Her perpetual perkiness seems to have found a home at The Wolf.
Winning ways
“The job I have now is my ultimate job,” she says. “At
work everyone is family. We all want the station to succeed and be the
best. When our station wins an award, it’s so great for all of
us. I loooove that.”
And lately there’s been a lot to loooove. The Wolf recently was
named the Academy of Country Music’s Station of the Year and Billboard
Magazine’s Country Station of the Year.
Pride readers who know their oldies and are awake at 5 a.m. can do their
own winning. Identify the “mystery oldie” on Tara’s
Wake Up With The Wolf show, and your dashboard too could be sporting
a Tara bobblehead.
Actually, winners have a choice. Five other Wolf personalities, all
male, also have bobbleheads available. But the station reports that,
so far, Tara’s is overwhelmingly more popular than theirs.
Again, Tara gets that last giggle.
Read and see more about Tara by clicking
on the “Wake Up With The Wolf” button at www.995thewolf.com.
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Dr. Conrad’s column rings
a teacher’s bell
My 91-year-old mother, Frieda Low Miller,
remembered many of the women teachers mentioned in his summer 2002 article
— namely, Juanita Rice, Paulin Rogers and Mary Bowman. She attended
ET in the 1930s and went on to have a teaching career spanning 30-plus
years.
On another note, she and Dr. Conrad had some communications during the
1980s when my husband built a replica of the old Low home place, called
Low Hill, and eventually donated it to the Cotton Museum in Greenville.
Thanks for the memories
Alma Nell Farmer,
daughter of Frieda Miller (BA ’42)
