Archives for December 2019

New Year’s The Other Style

Happy New Year’s Eve and happy last day of the decade!!! If you’re looking to make last-minute plans to ring in the new year in the thralls of live music, I’ve got you covered. Here are the Austin Music Minute’s New Years’ Eve Show recommendations!

Sacramento’s !!! headline the show at Empire Garage on Red River with Austin acts TC Superstar and Zettajoule opening the wall-to-wall dance party. Ghostland Observatory and Golden Dawn Archestra do up the Moody Theatre in an explosive way only they could pull off, lots of musicians channel their favorite musicians of the 1950’s with a night dedicated to the year 1959 at Hotel Vegas on East 6th, also East of 35 Horror Glam Diva Caleb DeCasper is putting on a jazz lounge act along with Groove Think, Urban Heat Island Effect and others at Dozen Street on 12th and Chicon, and just North of downtown at the good ol’ Hole in the Wall you can find Ladyfang, Megafauna, Darkbird, and Flora and Fauna.

-Taylor Wallace

Texas Standard: December 31, 2019

Immigration, elections, new laws, challenges to natural resources. What were the top stories in Texas during 2019? That’s our focus for this hour. On this New Years Eve, we’re refocusing the rear view mirror on the year that was. We’ll hear from Victoria DeFrancesco Soto of the LBJ School at UT-Austin, Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News as we begin an exploration of the topics that shaped Texas over the past year.

New Year’s Eve KUTX Style

It’s the day before New Year’s Eve, and if you’re sure you want to go out, and you know you want to ring in the 2020’s KUTX-style, but haven’t quite figured out where this Austin Music Minute is here to help. Here’s a rundown of ALL the NYE shows being presented KUTX 98.9.

If you want to keep away from downtown, Radio Coffee and Beer off Ben White and Menchaca host an eclectic mix of sounds with the Deer, Middlespoon, and Bayonne’s Roger Sellers. Just outside of town, Carson Creek Ranch hosts a swanky gala with Grupo Fantasma and Superfónicos to raise money for the Nobelity Project’s work in Austin and Latin America. KUTX and Antone’s present A Night on Fire featuring Tameca Jones, Magna Carda, and Sam Houston and Blk Odyssey. And finally, Delta Spirit returns for their first show in four years, commanding the Mohawk stage and joined by PR Newman and Glass Grapes. And there ya have it; all your New Year’s Eve options for ringing in 2020 with KUTX.

-Taylor Wallace

Texas Standard: December 30, 2019

It’s time to take a look at what Texas’ political parties are planning for the year 2020. A sneak peek to their strategies today on the Standard.

With heavy hearts we bring you the latest on the shooting at a house of worship in White Settlement, Texas.

What if what was once a symbol of hatred could be transformed into a symbol of unity? The arts organization that tryign to do just that.

Some numbers at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are not adding up. How did TDCJ so drastically reduce the number of attempted suicides?

And the poetry of a young Syrian boy. Today on the Texas Standard.

All Things Drake

This week on The Breaks:

Listen on The Apple Podcasts App, Spotify or Stitcher

The Breaks are on every Saturday 10pm-1am on KUTX 98.9.
You can hear the latest full broadcast of The Breaks Saturday night show.
 

Joe Lovano

What does it mean to create a legacy? How do we hold at once the future and the present as we move through the world?

In this installment of Liner Notes with Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe, we learn about the life and career of jazz great Joe Lovano, who continues to collaborate and create while bringing the history of jazz into the 21st century.

 

 

Cheryl Grace (Ep. 4, 2020)

This week on In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. speaks with Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s Senior Vice President of Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement, and co-creator of the 2019 Diverse Intelligence Series Report on African Americans.

Announcer [00:00:15] From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America.

Cheryl Grace [00:00:23] Well, actually, in 2011, so about six years after I joined the company, I was heading up the communications for our global, what we call CPG division, consumer packaged goods division, which is, you know, where people buy the retailers, where they buy their groceries, the manufacturers that make all fast consumable goods. And I saw all of this data coming across my desk about multicultural consumers. And I knew I wasn’t aware of the power that we had. So I just assumed that the general population and our clients were also not aware of this. And so tossed around and started working with some analysts. And we pulled together the first report on the African-American consumer that kind of talked about what we watch, what we buy and and why we watch and buy what we do.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:01:19] Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s senior vice president of Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement and co-creator of the 2019 diverse intelligence series report on African-Americans. At 47.8 million strong and a buying power that’s on par with many countries gross domestic products, African-Americans continue to outpace spending nationally. This year’s report title is in the Bag. Black Consumers Path to Purchase focused on assisting brands and marketers understand the multifaceted process that African-Americans take to buy products. There were several drive as well. Culture is at the center of them all. Also, their love for technology make African-Americans more savvy and conscious consumers. The report highlights several differences in shopping, behavior and purchasing when compared to the total U.S. population. I’m John L. Hanson Jr. And welcome to another edition of In Black America on this weeks’ program, It’s In the Bag Black Consumers Path to Purchase with Cheryl Grace, Neilson’s Senior Vice President of Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement In Black America.

Cheryl Grace [00:02:29] So what we included in this year’s report was what the African-American focused media spend is for, like how much money companies are spending on the different platforms. And you would think, given the fact that African-Americans watch so much TV that the ad spend would be comparable, but it’s not is actually at odds with our consumption habits, which is fair to say. There has been a decline year over year. So cable television had a 1% decline, digital advertising had a 12% decline, national magazines had a 9% decline, network TV had a 13% decline, but Radio 4% and syndicated TV had 11% decline. So across the board, the platforms that are focused on African American media saw decline. And that’s that’s not good.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:03:27] According to Nielsen’s latest report on African-American spending, African-Americans want more for themselves. And from corporate America, the report title is in the bag. Black Consumers Path to Purchase revealed that African-Americans are more likely than the total population to agree that advertising provides meaningful information on most platforms. But advertising dollars designed to reach African-American swimmers declined by $1 billion between 2017 and 2018. Nielsen’s 2019 Diverse Intelligence series report on African-Americans also include deeper insight into how culture, socioeconomic and business influence, how, why and what motivate African-American spending. In addition, African-Americans outspent the total market on personal soap and their products by nearly 19%. That’s $573.6 million recently. And Black America spoke of show Grace Nielsen, senior vice president of Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement and co-creator of the DIS Report.

Cheryl Grace [00:04:37] I live in Chicago. I was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I’ve been in Chicago since I graduated from college. So that’s actually longer now than when I lived in my hometown.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:04:50] And what college did you attend?

Cheryl Grace [00:04:52] Purdue University for? My undergrad.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:04:54] Oh, so you didn’t stray too far from home?

Cheryl Grace [00:04:56] No, I did not. I did not.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:04:59] What brought you to the Nielsen Company?

Cheryl Grace [00:05:01] Whoa. So in 2004, when I joined the company, they were experiencing a little bit of unsettledness, if you will, with the African-American and Latino population. And there was an assertion being put forth that Nielsen wasn’t accurately measuring people of color, which was not true. And I actually had experience working for a television station, local NBC affiliate in Chicago, and I also had community organizing background and a background in working in politics because I had worked as the press secretary for the Chicago city treasurer. And so they were looking for a person with those qualifications specifically to kind of help them navigate establishing a community relations and government relations department. And so I joined at that time.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:05:58] What brought Nielsen to the point where it thought it needed to produce these reports?

Cheryl Grace [00:06:05] Well, actually, in 2011, so about six years after I joined the company, I was heading up the communications for our global, what we call CPG division, consumer packaged goods division, which is, you know, where people buy the retailers, where they buy their groceries, the manufacturers that make all fast consumable goods. And I saw all of this data coming across my desk about multicultural consumers. And I knew I wasn’t aware of the power that we had. So I just assumed that the general population and our clients were also not aware of this and so talked around and started working with some analysts. And we put together the first report on the African-American consumer that kind of talked about what we watch, what we buy in and why we watch and buy what we do. And it was such a success. That first report, it actually won a number of awards that the company stepped back and said, hey, maybe we should take a look at consumers who are Asian American and Latin American as well. And but the diverse intelligence series of reports were born. And now we put forth at least three or four reports every single year on some of those diverse communities.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:07:26] Why is this information significant?

Cheryl Grace [00:07:29] It’s really important because particularly multicultural consumers are rapidly growing. Our purchasing power is rapidly growing right now collectively. African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans have over 3.2 $3.4 trillion of purchasing power. When you combine all of it and that’s like if we were a GDP, there are only four countries in the entire world who would have economies that are larger than that, and that would be the United States. It would be China. It would be Japan and it would be Germany. And so you cannot overlook that type of tremendous power. And we need not only for our brands and clients and marketers to understand and value diversity when it comes to consumer and our consumption habits and behaviors. We also need the consumers who are making these decisions to understand what their power is so that they can use it accordingly.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:08:37] How did you go about developing the metrics to measure?

Cheryl Grace [00:08:42] You know, Nielsen measures what consumers watch, what consumers by, what consumers listen to. And what we do is we just simply pull together a lot of the information that we’ve already collected, but we vary with a different lens. So we very strategically pull out the information on African-American consumers for the African-American report. So it’s information that we’re already gathering. We just put it in a consolidated place so that we have access and we can provide that to our clients and to consumers.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:09:14] When you looked at the numbers and we’re going to talk about, you know, some of the numbers up in the conversation, did you have any aha moments from this report, from the one that you first did in 2011?

Cheryl Grace [00:09:28] Yeah. So I think the biggest shift there were two for me that I’m starting to see from a trend perspective, and I’ve been doing this report for nine years now. I can say that the biggest shift I’ve seen over the last few years was in how differently the top 20 programs are that African-Americans are watching versus non-Hispanic whites. And what we have seen is historically there have been overlapping in content from what Blacks are watching to what the total market is watching. Generally, about 40, 50% of an overlap. This year, we saw a lot less of that. So with Blacks who are 18 to 34, there were only like two shows that. They watch that the total market is also watching. And that was Empire and a show called 911 on Fox. And when you’re looking at Blacks, 35 and over, there were only four shows out of the 20 that crossover. This is us Chicago P.D., FBI and Manifest. So for me, that’s significant because it says that if you build it or rather produce it, they will come. And when Blacks have choices about what they want to see, they’re going to turn to the shows that have cast and characters who look like them. It used to be that we would see we were tuning in to shows that had diversity, but especially for 18 to 34 year olds, their shows are almost all exclusively African-American cast. Not 100%, but but primarily Black. And so that’s been the biggest shift that I’ve seen. I’ve also seen this shift when it comes to viewing. And we watch a lot of television, by the way, we watch more than 50 hours a week of television. We’re watching, I think it’s close to 57 hours a week, watching about 11 hours more than the total population watches. And when you take a look at the differences between the viewing habits, I think a lot of it is being driven now by people having options to network and cable shows. So now they’ve got the streaming choices and those streaming services are really providing a lot of diverse content. So the network and the cable providers have to keep up. So that’s why you’re starting to see a lot of changes on TV is driving a lot of the interest for adults 35 plus and for those 18 to 34 year olds. VH one is is nailing it. VH one has so many of the love and hip hop franchises that pop up on that top 20 list. But for 18 to 34 year olds are really into reality television. Surprised.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:12:26] Alastair? As a television viewer myself, I should be watching the program for entertainment purposes. But I’m also watching it to see what commercials are being shown in that vein. Does the viewership of that particular program dictate the type of commercials that are going to be shown or shown for that particular program?

Cheryl Grace [00:12:53] So what we included in this year’s report was what the African-American focused media spend is for, like how much money companies are spending on the different platforms. Right. And you would think, given the fact that African-Americans watched so much TV, that the ad spend would be comparable, but it’s not is actually at odds with our consumption habits, which is sad to say. So there has been a decline year over year. So cable television had a 1% decline. Digital advertising had a 12% decline. National magazines had a 9% decline. Network TV had a 13% decline. Radio 4% and syndicated TV had 11% decline. So across the board, the platforms that are focused on African-American media saw decline. And that’s that’s not good because radio. 92% of all Blacks watch. I’m sorry listen to radio in any given week. And so that’s the number one way to reach African-Americans. But still, we’re seeing the decline in radio. We’re seeing a decline in television. It’s just not it’s not adding up.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:14:10] Was there any indication of advertising towards the four or five African-American cable channels that we have be TV?

Cheryl Grace [00:14:22] I did not pool the specific programs or networks where the ads were dedicated this year, unfortunately. Okay. Something I can look into. But we didn’t pull those numbers this year.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:14:34] Why is it important? And I’m looking at the report that cultural has significant place in what African-Americans purchase.

Cheryl Grace [00:14:45] Well, you know, advertising in particular resonates with African-Americans. And we are not as averse to having ads, for example, pop up on our mobile phones. But we find that ads resonate with us. And there’s a certain reason why. So like 51% of Blacks say that a celebrity endorsement may influence them to consider or buy a product. So. Celebrities are really important. I love keeping up with celebrity news and gossip. 44% of Blacks say that when a celebrity designs a product, I’m more likely to buy it. 35% of Blacks say that. And I’m influenced by what’s hot and what’s not. 33% of Blacks agree with that statement. These are like relevant because we again, we want to see ads that reflect people who look like us. But we also have this admiration for celebrities. And Blacks are actually considered to be very cool, if you will. And we’re trendsetters. And so what you find is that when you’re marketing and using African-American celebrities, not only does that appeal to African-Americans, it also appeals to all of the other demographics as well. I think it’s 76% of of Caucasians and 67% of Hispanics say that they think blacks drive pop culture. And so when you’re marketing to us, you kind of get a bonus in that other cultures are following our trends. So something that happens with us in our communities generally, six months to a year, you start to see it happening across other communities as well. So we’re definitely trendsetters.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:16:37] If you’re just joining us, I’m John L. Hanson Jr and you’re listening to In Black America from KUT Radio. I’m speaking with Cheryl Grace, senior vice president of Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement and co-creator of Nielsen’s 2019 Diverse intelligence series Report on African-Americans. Miss Grace, I live in Dallas, and for the life of me, I see a lot of African-Americans driving high end in cars. And I’m looking at this report and it says Blacks are 20% more likely than the population to pay extra for products that is consistent with the image, but also to shop at high end stores. So we like the good stuff.

Cheryl Grace [00:17:20] We actually. Oh, definitely. Image is everything for African-Americans. And you think about it. It is what we are projecting and who we present to the world and who we are is very important to our our our integrity. Right. And some of that can be tracked and traced back to some of the problems that we’ve had historically where we haven’t been valued or we’ve been pushed aside or we haven’t been respected in terms of what we bring to the table. So image means a lot and you know what you mean. In Dallas, it was interesting to me to note that Texas has become the number one state with the highest buying power for Americans. So that’s why you’re seeing all those fancy cars. And it’s also the number one state with the highest population of Blacks. Most of that is in the Dallas and Houston.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:18:22] Houston.

Cheryl Grace [00:18:23] Markets. Yeah, but I, I found that really very interesting that Texas. People are moving to Texas.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:18:30] Yes. Yes, they are. Miss Grace, how has online purchasing affected African-American buying power overall than going to the store in person?

Cheryl Grace [00:18:42] So that was also something that was a bit interesting in this report, because this report, which we we named the, um. It’s in the bag. Mm hmm. Black consumers path to purchase. What we specifically talk about in this report is how Black people decide to buy what they buy. Okay. And so the steps that they they take to lead up to making a purchase, those pre-purchased influencers, and then what happens when they’re at the point of purchase, at the point of sale, if you will? And one of the things that I felt was interesting was that when you think about the in-store experience, 52% of Blacks say that the physical shopping experience is relaxing to them, and that outpaces the total population by 26%. A lot of us find it very relaxing just to be in a store, a brick and mortar environment and Blacks are impacted in-store by things like in-store personnel. So please don’t follow me around the store and I’ll have a better experience while I’m there. What the in-store advertisement looks like and merchandizing. So we actually, you know, enjoy being in the store. Now, that’s not to say that we don’t also like to buy things online. 41% of our cosmetics sales come from drugstores. So again, that’s in the in the store. But a lot of baby items we’re purchasing online. So baby wipes and baby bath. We also purchased nutritional shakes, more likely with Bibles online sports, nutrition and vitamins like those are types of things that we’re buying online, but we still enjoy the in-store experience.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:20:30] I found it interesting that you all these reports say that Proctor and Gamble is the largest advertiser in African-American media.

Cheryl Grace [00:20:38] It is. Yes, it is.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:20:40] So they’re giving in and the others aren’t or. What’s the equation

Cheryl Grace [00:20:45] Well, we list the top 20. Okay. Advertisers in the report. We’ve got a list of the top 20 of advertisers that are spending money in the community. So Procter and Gamble is number one. Berkshire Hathaway, Pfizer, AT&T and GlaxoSmithKline are the top five advertisers out of a list of 20 that are literally making a commitment to spend money with Black.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:21:12] I found it interesting. And just looking in my pantry, Quaker Grits Louisiana Fried Fish will fix the fish with and glory greens. It’s amazing that these particular products mirror what I would assume a lot of African-American plus myself have in their pantry.

Cheryl Grace [00:21:36] Yeah. So, you know, there are certain areas. It sounds like you’ve got all this Southern cooking thing going on with the grits and the catfish and, you know, and greens. So those are we gave in the report a list of the top five grocery products that Blacks are spending the most on. And so we’re spending about $19 million a year on Quaker quick grits. So you didn’t say whether or not your grits were quick or not? I am.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:22:07] I think they are. They are. Right. It’s less than five. No more than 5 minutes. I guess they quick.

Cheryl Grace [00:22:14] Those are the points we had because, you know, grits can take a while to make.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:22:17] Yes. They can.

Cheryl Grace [00:22:19] And so we’re spending about 19 million on quick grits a year versus 2.6 million on on the regular cooking grits for Quaker. And then there’s another 11 million that we’re spending on Louisiana fish fry coding mix. So, you know, you would coat your fish with.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:22:38] You able to get it right?

Cheryl Grace [00:22:40] Yeah. And then glory greens you know about 7 million on that and Jay’s potato chips are spending about 2.7 million on Jay’s potato chips. So there are certain brands that we are spending our money on. I think it’s also interesting that there are two types of categories. The top five categories that we’re spending our dollars on was very interesting. The number one item that we’re spending the most money on from a grocery related item. Mm hmm. Can you guess what it is? Or if you read the report you already know.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:23:12] Already know for go ahead and tell the audience.

Cheryl Grace [00:23:14] It’s dish detergent.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:23:16] Exactly.

Cheryl Grace [00:23:17] We’re spending almost $1,000,000,000 on this detergent.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:23:21] Is it a particular brand? Is Dawn leading all of that collectively? That’s correct.

Cheryl Grace [00:23:26] Yeah, that’s across all brands. And so, you know, we make up about 14% of the population here in the United States. And our percent of the spin for this detergent is kind of in sync with that. We spend about 14.8% of all this detergent that’s purchased by African-Americans. So what I thought was interesting is that we’re spending we’re 19% of the total spend for things like personal soap and bath needs, where we’re spending about a half billion dollars, 574 million on personal soap and bath needs. We really it goes back to that whole image thing where we really want to make sure that we’re presenting ourselves to the world in a positive way.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:24:10] I understand this is a rhetorical question, Miss Grace, but do corporations and brands just take African-American consumers for granted? And as that they feel that they don’t have to advertise to us, we’re going to buy it anyway?

Cheryl Grace [00:24:25] Well, it’s a great question. I wouldn’t say that it’s even rhetorical. It’s a valid question. What I think some brands make a mistake in doing is assuming that because there are no language barriers, that they don’t have to develop ads specifically for us. And where those brands were, they are missing the mark is how important culture is to us. So you could have a generic ad and drop a Black person, African-American person into that ad. But if it doesn’t have a cultural nuance or relevance to me, I may not even pay attention to that ad. So I think that’s where some brands are making their mistakes, is that they’re not focused on connecting with us culturally, which takes us back. To the conversation we were having earlier about the importance of celebrities. And, you know, if I know somebody who looks like me is a spokesperson for this product, then I’m going to spend my money with that product because that person understands who I am in theory.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:25:31] Got you. Few more questions Miss Grace, when you look at your circle of friends and family, do they, as far as their purchasing power, buy in to what these numbers indicate?

Cheryl Grace [00:25:44] So when you say buy into, what do you mean?

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:25:46] They they are reflective of what you all came up with as far as what African-American consumers purchase and feel that they need to have as part of the psyche when they go out to purchase items.

Cheryl Grace [00:26:00] So I think what’s great about the information that we pool is, is that it’s based on samples of the overall population. So of the 46, 47 million Blacks in the United States, we have a sample of that population that gives us a great indicator indication, rather, of what the total population is doing. And so, yeah, I, I, I find that if you were taking Glory greens, for example, we have glory greens in our pantry, but we also have fresh greens and sometimes.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:26:34] Right, exactly. Exactly right.

Cheryl Grace [00:26:36] So it’s not Glory exclusively. So yeah, I would say so.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:26:41] When you look at these reports, what are some of the, some of the shortcomings that advertisers are making and really need to pay attention to if they’re going to have longevity in whatever industry they’re participating in.

Cheryl Grace [00:26:58] So I think it’s really important to follow the cultural nuances, what Blacks are trending towards. I think it’s important not to get on the wrong side of African-Americans, especially now that we are very proficient in engaging socially on social media. So, you know, Facebook is where you’re going to find the most Blacks who are 18 and over with 65.7% of us on Facebook. But Instagram, because we’re so young, our population tends to be younger than the total population. You’ve got 54.7% of all Blacks on Instagram.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:27:38] Cheryl Grace, Neilson’s, Senior Vice president of Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement and co-creator of the 2019 Diverse Intelligence series Report on African-Americans. If you have questions, comments or suggestions as to the future in Black America programs, email us at InBlack America@kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard is over. Remember to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez, I’m John L. Hanson Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week.

Moving Forests and Sour, Naked Buffalos. Wait, what?

Photo by: Juan Figueroa 

There’s always a good reason to go out and catch a show, and many-a-time a single show holds several reasons within itself. Tonight the good energy overload happens at Cheer Up Charlie’s on Red River. The Sour Notes celebrate the release of their new single “Gold,” self-proclaimed Mud-folk outfit Lord Buffalo awaken from hibernation, and the Naked Tungs and Royal Forest round out the bill leading up to the night’s headliner. Moving Panoramas return from the road for their last show of the year. All of the love goes down tonight at 8 at Cheer Up Charlie’s on Red River. Check out live videos from tonight’s line-up below!

-Taylor Wallace

Texas Standard: December 27, 2019

Oh, when a number tells a story and leads to an investigation. The Texas Education Agency says some numbers are not adding up, we’ll explore. Plus: “Red State Blues”. Sounds like a song but it’s a thorough analysis on how red are red state policies. And we’ll be talking to the directors of “Confession Killer” the docu-series that has Texas written all over it. Also the challenges aging parents face when caring for an adult child with mental illness… And let’s talk about power, geothermal power. All of these stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Latin Sounds in Far Out Places

Iffin ya haven’t heard, a new venue popped up in far South Austin this year. What used to be a small, hole-in-the-wall bar that served as the last stop for bikers on the way to San Antonio decades ago is now The Far Out Lounge: a sick, down-to-Earth bar and venue near South Congress and Slaughter Lane. Covert Curiosity Founder Lawrence Boone curates a variety of sounds down in this new South Austin haunt, and tonight the line-up is steeped in Latin sounds. Latin psych-rock band Los Alcos shares the stage with Nemegata, who bring their own blend of cumbia, psych, and desert blues. The night kicks off with a DJ set by Group Fantasma, Brownout, and Money Chicha founder Greg Gonzalez. The fun begins at 8 tonight at The Far Out Lounge in South Austin. Get a taste of what your soul and zapatos de baile are in for below!

-Taylor Wallace

 

Texas Standard: December 26, 2019

The most powerful factor in the Texas economy? Energy. This hour, we’ll explore how changes out west are affecting the entire landscape of the Lone Star State. They used to call it the fracking boom. New technologies that made it possible to extract more oil and gas from the ground. Texas’ Permian Basin has become the most productive patch of petroleum development in the U.S. leading some to suggest the endless cycle of boom and bust may be over. What happens in west Texas affects us all, so what’s next? That’s our focus in Untapped: a Special Edition of the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: December 25, 2019

From what was once the furthest frontier of the west, a mission to the furthest frontier of humankind. From Texas to the moon on this special edition of the Texas Standard. On July 20th 1969, the world held its breath as astronauts from the United States did something nearly unimaginable. But the pathway to the first moon landing ran through Texas and the marks of that journey left deep and lasting impressions the lunar surface and on the Lone Star State. On this Christmas day, we invite you to join us as we explore that Highway to the Moon: How Texas Paved the Way for Apollo:

Texas Standard: December 24, 2019

It’s beginning to look a lot like 2019 all over again? On this Christmas eve, we’re telling some of our favorite stories from the year that was. From the Texas Capitol City, this hour we’ll be criss crossing the state. From deep west Texas, to the Rio Grande Valley, up and east to the Piney Woods. Along the way, hearing marching bands and matadors and contemplations of our sense of place. It’s a yuletide gathering of stories hand picked by the staff of the Standard. Grab a cup of hot something and pull up a chair for this special holiday edition of the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: December 23, 2019

He calls it powered by people, but there’s one ex presidential contender clearly powering the group to prominence. What it could mean for Texas in 2020. Also, law enforcement warning that there’s a certain type of trafficking on the rise in the borderlands and its causing cacti to disappear. And why 2020 could turn into a banner year for renewable energy in Texas. Plus the story of some last minute angels helping out a short-handed Santa in some parts of of the Lone Star State. That and more today on the Texas Standard:

Glen Crawley (Ep. 3, 2020)

This week, In Black America producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. speaks with Glen Crawley, co-owner, with Kenny Garth, of ATX Hello Tours, a rare African American-owned helicopter tour service, located in Pflugerville, a suburb of Austin, Texas.

Intro music [00:00:08] The In Black America theme music, an instrumental by Kyle Turner.

Announcer [00:00:08] From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America.

Glen Crawley [00:00:23] The high school that he went to was Air Force ROTC. So he did that. I got to see him come home in his uniform. And then when he went off to to the academy here in San Antonio, he sent back a picture of him standing next to a fighter jet. And in my mind, he was a superhero. You know, I’m I’m still in junior high. He’s he’s standing next to a fighter jet and I’m like, oh, my God, my brother’s awesome. So he kind of set me on that path to want to be, to leave the ground basically in class, something.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:00:52] Crawley, co-owner of ATX Heli Tours, located in Pflugerville, Texas, a northern suburb of Austin, Texas, and 2017, Crawley, along with his partner Kenny Goff, opened the helicopter tour company. Crawley and Goff both met while they were in flight school, preparing to take their flight test before receiving their licenses. Their instructor thought that they might pair up and split the cost of the flight. Crowley had always wanted to fly because of his brother and Goff’s partner, who was an aircraft mechanic, trash-talked his way into the sky. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 3% of the nation’s commercial pilots are African American. Both of them hope to change this by showing their passion for flying. They want to encourage others, especially young people, that they, too, can become pilots. I’m John L. Hanson Jr. And welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week’s program, ATX Heli Tours with the co-owner Glen Crawley, In Black America.

Glen Crawley [00:01:57] We wanted to lease a helicopter one day. I had spoken to the owner of the business and he said that I could and then the message didn’t get back to the school and the school wouldn’t allow us to take one of the helicopters. And then Kenny kind of got upset about that. He was like, look, this is the last time we’re going to have to ask anybody to borrow anything. So let’s just buy our own helicopter. And in my mind, I’m thinking we can’t afford a helicopter, but they are super expensive. So he was like, we’re going to figure it out. So we just started looking around and we met this really nice business guy who who owned his own helicopter, but he just didn’t have time to fly it. And now he’s a really good friend of ours. And his name’s Ed Mouser. He pretty much let us pay a third of his helicopter upfront. And then he said he would self-finance the rest of it. So he already owned it outright. And so he self-financed the rest of it. And that’s how we were able to get this helicopter..

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:02:46] ATX Heli Tours offer a view of Austin, Texas never seen before. They say one should never have to sacrifice durability for beauty and comfort. They helicopters have a closed cockpit with air conditioning and leather seats. Open in 2017 Crowley and his partner, Kenny Goff, have flown hundreds of customers since then. Their tours range from 10 minutes to an hour long tour all across the city. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. Glen Crawley is an engineer with Freescale in XP. His partner, Kenny Goff, is an aircraft mechanic. They met in flight school. Little did they know one day they will own their own helicopter to a company. In the beginning, they were reluctant in fear that the public might not respond knowing the company was owned by African-Americans. That fear has been laid to rest. As the company grows, they want to establish partnerships with schools with the intent on exposing young people to the joys of flying. Recently In Black America spoke with Glen Crawley.

Glen Crawley [00:03:53] I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. I grew up primarily in Montgomery, Alabama, and so I spent most of my formative years in Montgomery, Alabama. And after college, I moved down to Florida to start my first job in the high tech industry, where I still work part time today. And so I I’ve worked in this industry for almost 29 years, and for the last two and a half to three years, I’ve had this helicopter tour business that I do because I have three or four days off per week and I’m able to to operate the business on my off days. I have a business partner as well. And so we we kind of share duties. So when I’m working, he takes care of the business and when I’m off, I cover the business and we work together. So that’s what I do. But yeah, primarily I grew up in in the South and I’ve been in Texas, here in Austin for about 25 years. So I always say that I’ve been here long enough to consider this home. I’ve lived in Austin longer than anywhere else, so I’m an Austinite, I would say.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:04:52] Any brothers and sisters?

Glen Crawley [00:04:53] Oh, yeah. I’m the youngest of five. I have one brother and three sisters. So I’ve, you know, I’ve been fortunate enough to be the younger, you know, some people. I mean, I see that as a benefit, but it was rough, I could say that. But I have had the opportunity to watch my siblings do things and learn from what they did some good, some of the mistakes they made, you know? I didn’t have to make a lot of mistakes myself. I was able to learn from others mistakes, so they didn’t make a lot of mistakes. I mean, we were raised pretty well. But, you know, I learned how not to get into trouble. But my brother, seven years older, he was really my I would say my mentor source always, because he never did anything wrong. I mean, he he did everything right. I mean, he’s you know, it’s hard to follow this guy, but he did everything right. So I had no excuse really for doing anything wrong because he never showed me that. He only showed me what was right. So I had, uh, I had my brother to look up to and follow behind. He went the route of, uh, the Air Force. He was in Junior ROTC in high school. The high school that he went to was Air Force ROTC. So he did that. So I got to see him come home in his uniform. And then when he went off to to the academy here in San Antonio, he sent back a picture of him standing next to a fighter jet. And in my mind, he was a superhero. You know, I’m still in junior high and he’s he’s standing next to a fighter jet and I’m like, oh, my God, my brother’s awesome. So. So he kind of set me on that path to want to be to leave the ground, basically, and fly something.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:06:23] And what college did you attend?

Glen Crawley [00:06:25] I went to a tech school and I’m in Birmingham, Alabama. You know, I went there at at a tech school there and the University of Alabama in Birmingham as well. So I knew I wanted to do education because growing up in my household and just everyone around, they knew that after high school they would have to go do something right. There was no just get out of high school, hang around a neighborhood because that wasn’t the best environment, you know, to be hanging around in. And so we knew that after high school we would have to go do something. And so I couldn’t wait, really. I wanted to get out of town. So I went to Birmingham, Alabama, to school there, and then straight out of out of out of school. I went straight to Florida and the Palm Bay Melbourne area. Right. And started my my career in the high tech industry. So Motorola brought me to to Austin. So I started working here for Motorola. Then the name change to Freescale, then in XP. So, um, but I’ve always wanted to fly. It’s been my passion forever, just wanting to, uh, to fly a helicopter. So I got the opportunity to do so and I haven’t looked back.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:07:33] Oh, I heard that. How did you and Kenny meet?

Glen Crawley [00:07:35] I met Kenny in flight school, actually. Kenny’s my business partner. Of course he, uh, he he is a chance, I’d say he’s a chance taker, but he definitely saw something we wanted. First of all, we were leasing helicopters after we finished flight school. We were leasing helicopters from the place where we went to school. And so we would lease helicopters and go do flying around, just personal flying. And then he one day said that, uh, we should buy own helicopter, and it wasn’t because he thought that we could. It was because we wanted to lease a helicopter. One day I spoken to the owner of the business and he said that I could and then the message didn’t get back to the school, and the school wouldn’t allow us to take one of the helicopters. And then Kenny kind of got upset about that. He was like, look, this is the last time we’re going to have to ask anybody to borrow anything. So let’s just buy our own helicopter. And in my mind, I’m thinking we can’t afford a helicopter, but they are super expensive. So he was like, we’re gonna figure it out. So we just started looking around and we met this really nice business guy who who owned his own helicopter, but he just didn’t have time to fly it. And now he’s a really good friend of ours. And his name’s Ed Mouser. He he pretty much let us pay a third of his helicopter upfront. And then he said he self-financed the rest of it, so he already owned it outright and so he self-financed the rest of it. And that’s how we were able to get this helicopter. Our hats off to Ed Mouser couldn’t couldn’t couldn’t be here without him.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:09:00] Give us an idea what the flight instruction and training looks to fly a helicopter.

Glen Crawley [00:09:06] Well, to fly a helicopter, I could tell you, is difficult. It’s difficult. It is. It’s not very similar to flying an airplane. I mean, the communications over the radio is the same, but all of the controls inside the helicopter is totally different. It’s a lot more intense, I would say, to fly a helicopter because you’re using all of your extremities, your right foot, left foot, right hand, left hand. They’re all doing something different and all simultaneous. So you’re doing all these things based on what the winds are doing and what the weather conditions are. So when you just trying to hover right above the ground, that’s the most intense time for a helicopter pilot because it’s a heavy workload, trying to keep the helicopter stable in an aircraft. You basically for an airplane, you just need forward air speed and, you know, you lower the flaps or whatever if you come in for a landing and then and then it comes down. Once you’re on the ground, you’re pretty much, you know, having to do a whole lot with the controls. You just you control the throttle more or less just to move it forward. But a helicopter is very, very intense in the training and it takes a long time. There’s a lot of a lot to learn. And depending on how much free time you have to put in the study time, it could be extended out for quite a bit of time to get the the training in, to get to where you get certified.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:10:16] That was my next question. How long did it take you all, take you, to obtain your license?

Glen Crawley [00:10:22] Well, for me, it took a while because I had a I had a kid right in the middle of it so the expense to do it, I didn’t have because I had child care. You know, $1,000 a month primarily. And so I didn’t have the extra money to continue the training. So I had to stop training for a while, then go back to it and finish it later. So for me, it took a few years to finish it. But you can finish, I would say, if you had time to dedicate two or three flight training sessions per week, you probably could finish it in about 6 to 8 months, I would say.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:10:54] I understand that Glenn is an aircraft mechanic?

Glen Crawley [00:10:58] No, Kenny is an aircraft mechanic. He’s a certified AMP mechanic and he’s also a pilot. So he works on aircraft, but it’s more of a civilian style of aircraft, But he works on the aircraft that supplies, I guess, gear supplies to the military. So he’s in Afghanistan for two months out of the year, about two months, and he comes back for two months. So he’s out of the country for two months and he comes back. But while he’s over there, he works on aircraft that helps with the support for the military. So he’s flying in supplies for the military, but it’s not a military aircraft. So he works over there as a civilian on aircraft that supply things for the military. And so he’s a he’s a helicopter pilot as well, and he’s a amp mechanic so he can work on our helicopter. So saves us quite a bit of money having someone who’s also a mechanic and a pilot so we don’t have to really go outside and pay someone else to work on the aircraft because we have our own in-house mechanic for that.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:11:54] I understand. If you’re just joining us, I’m John L. Hanson Jr., and you’re listening to In Black America from KUT Radio. We’re speaking with Glen Crawley, co-owner of ATX Heli Tours, located in Pflugerville, Texas. Glen is one thing to, you know, fly a helicopter leisurely on your spare time, but it’s another thing to open up a business. What led you all to this endeavor?

Glen Crawley [00:12:19] Well, for one, we wanted to bring Austin something that they didn’t have. Okay. There was I think there was another helicopter tour company here. But what we wanted to provide was something that was a little bit different, a little bit better, and a little bit more, uh, luxurious, I would say. So what we offer is something that’s a little bit better. Our customer service is most important to us. So we come in, we want to make sure that the customer is happy and we want their tour experience to be the very best that it could possibly be. So we make sure that we give them a little bit more than they expect. So for anyone wanting a tour, it doesn’t even matter which tour you select. If you choose to have champagne or you need flowers for your mate or whoever, you just let us know that ahead of time and we’ll make sure we get those for you. There’s no extra charge for that. We just wanted to be the very best to experience. We had a guy call us up and he said, Hey, man, I don’t I don’t really have much money, but I love my I love my girlfriend and I want to treat her special I don’t have much money. So we have a tour for $59 per person. He bring her out for that tour. We’ll have chocolates for her, we’ll have champagne for you guys. And we’ll have flowers. So we don’t charge you for that. Just bring her out. We’ll make her feel special. So he brought her out. We gave her all those things. And of course, he got high fives and kudos all day because he’s the best boyfriend in the world now. Right? But he only had $120 to spare. But he still got all of that with his $120 tour package. So that’s that’s kind of what we do. That’s an entry level tour that we have at $59 per person, and it goes up as high as $300 per person. But, you know, we just want everyone to feel special. So we want the the experience to be the very best that it could be. So that’s what we brought to this town, that it didn’t have.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:14:04] What are the other type of tours that you all provide?

Glen Crawley [00:14:07] Okay. We provide the the the entry level tours that we have as a tour that goes over Pflugerville. Since we are located in Pflugerville, there’s a lake right there in Pflugerville. And so we fly primarily from our airport in Pflugerville to Lake Pflugerville, and it flies over. That’s about a 8 to 10 minute tour, and that’s the one that is $59 per person. And it flies over lake Pflugerville and then over Typhoon, Texas. There’s a little water park over there. So just to get the initial feel for what it’s like to be in the helicopter, that’s that’s our entry level flight. And then we have our next level flight that goes over to downtown Austin, and that is a 20 minute flight. It goes over downtown Austin, Mount Bonnell over to the Penny Becker Bridge and then back to Austin, executive. And that tour is $125 per person for a 20 minute tour. And then we have the next tour that goes out to Lake Travis. So it goes over the same places as a 20 minute tour, but then it extends out to Lake Travis over the Oasis restaurant, and it flies over Lago Vista and then over Mansfield Dam and then back to to, uh, an executive airport in Pflugerville. And that tour is like I say, that’s. A 30 minute tour, and that tour is $175 per person. And then we have another tour that is a 1 hour tour. And that tour is 20, I mean, to $299 per person. And it does all of those same things, but it stays out over lake Pflugerville for a much longer time. It goes all the way out to almost Pace Bend Park, almost to the end of Lake Travis out there. So it goes out for a long ways and you’re out. You’re in the air for exactly one hour. And as to $299 per person for that tour. So we try to have a tour for whatever your budget is and for whatever you need. We just want to want everyone to be happy.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:15:54] What makes these type tours special? Hovering over over the city.

Glen Crawley [00:15:59] To get the vantage point of, uh, of a bird more or less, just being the bird’s eye view over the city. It’s really hard to explain how how beautiful that is. I mean, I just flew a tour yesterday for two people who had never been in a helicopter before. And there it was, the guy’s birthday, and his girlfriend was surprising him with the tour. And she just kept saying from the back seat, she just kept saying, this is unbelievable. This is just unbelievable. And she said, I know, I know you’re tired of hearing me say this, but is this true? I cannot believe how beautiful this is. And I said, like, I hear this all the time. I never get tired of hearing it. So I just say it as many times as you feel you need to. But it’s just a bird’s eye view that you can’t get any other way. It is beautiful when you’re flying above, when you’re flying above it all, and you can just look down to see everything so clearly. I mean, the helicopter, you can fly much lower, so you get to see everything. We tend to fly about 1000 feet to 1200 feet above the ground. So you can see everything clearly.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:16:55] Are there communications between you and, I would assume the the towers at Bergstrom International and the one at at Pflugerville as far as air traffic control?

Glen Crawley [00:17:08] Yes. Yes, sir. We have to communicate with air traffic control constantly. And that’s the only way to stay safe in the air. I know there are some pilots who prefer to fly where there is not a tower so they don’t have to talk to air traffic control. But speaking with air traffic control is the best way to to to say safe. But that way you can hear all of the aircraft, I mean, aircraft traffic and you can you can stay in constant contact. When you when we depart from Austin Executive, we switch over to Bergstrom air traffic control and call approach and we tell approach that we were going to fly over downtown Austin. They’ll give us what’s considered a squat code. You put that particular code in a transponder, and then you show up on their radar and you like a little beacon flashing on their street, on their screen so they can see exactly where you are. And not only that, but they’ll tell you where all the other aircraft are. So the aircraft is in your pad or heading in your direction, air traffic control will tell you that. They’ll tell you whether to climb in altitude or to go down or to go left or right or whatever. So it’s best to be on with air traffic control all the time. And that way they’ll keep you safe. So I talked to them from the time I depart Austin Executive Airport until like five miles out from Austin Executive. Then they’ll tell me to switch over to Austin Executive Tower and then talk to them until I hit the ground. So. So that’s what we do every time.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:18:26] Why a Pflugerville location was more convenient for you all.

Glen Crawley [00:18:31] Well, this funding available hangar space is an issue around here. So, you know, I got lucky enough that the previous owner of the aircraft already had it hangar and not an executive airport because you can’t even get hangar space out there. There’s so many guys wanting hangar is out there. They can’t get it because no one gives it up. Once you get it, you better keep it even if you don’t have an aircraft. Because if you think you may want to have aircraft again, you will never get that space back if you give it up. So we got lucky and we basically just took over the same hangar space that the previous owner had. So the aircraft never left. It stayed in the same spot. We just traded keys, I guess, but we, we still have the same hangar space at Austin Executive, it’s a beautiful, beautiful airport. So if you ever go out there, you’ll feel like you’re in a luxurious setting because Austin Executive airport is really, really nice compared to Bergstrom. I mean, it’s day and night difference.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:19:25] Obviously, the aircraft makes a difference. So what type of helicopter do you all fly?

Glen Crawley [00:19:30] We fly what’s considered the number one tour helicopter in the world. Its the Robinson R-44, Raven two. And the Raven two basically means that it has a fuel injected engine and usually has leather interior and it has air conditioning. So all of those things, you kind of need to be in Texes because for one, I couldn’t even imagine flying a helicopter with no air conditioning. But there are tons of helicopters out there without it because at the $20,000 option. So most most people don’t want to spend that. But I could tell you that if you had to bake in a helicopter, you wish you had that $20, $20,000 to spend, for sure. But yeah, we uh, we our helicopter is is a very reliable helicopter. There’s a lot of them out there. So there’s always available parts, you know, for this type of helicopter whenever you need to do service work done to. It’s easy enough to find the parts because there’s so many of these helicopters manufactured. And Robertson is an American helicopter maker out of California, so it’s easy enough to get parts for them any time you need them.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:20:27] How do you divide your time between your job and the helicopter business?

Glen Crawley [00:20:34] It really kind of, they kind of morph together whenever I’m at work and then I have any time away from the job, be it on breaks or whatever, I take the messages from the business, and if I need to return calls, I return calls. But whenever I’m off work from the the corporate job, I spend pretty much all of my time doing the the helicopter work. So the helicopter work is what I’m planning to do in the next phase of my working career. So as the business grows, once it’s able to replace the salary from my corporate job, I’ll phase out of the corporate job because my passion is helicopters. So I like dealing with people. I like meeting new people. And I just love flying helicopters. I absolutely love what I do. So for what I do, you must love your job. And that’s what I just I couldn’t imagine doing anything more.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:21:25] I understand. Speaking of of the future, where do you see the business maybe 5 to 10 years from now?

Glen Crawley [00:21:33] Well, what we see is being off site. Eventually, we would like to be offsite from Austin Executive Airport and have our own location where we have our own building and we have more control, you know, where we’re able to, you know, have toy helicopters for the kids, you know, give T-shirts away, sell T-shirts or sell merchandise or maybe even have like a bar there with food and alcohol or whatever. See, right now, we can’t do any of that because on their facility, it is not allowed. So we would like to be in a situation where we have our own control. So we would like to have our own building with multiple helicopters. Right now we only have one helicopter. We have access to another one that is not ours, but we would like to have at least five helicopters at some point and have them pretty much just flying all day long. So that is our goal. And if you’re going to dream you dream big, right, right. That’s what want.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:22:23] As a pilot of these tours, what are some of your favorite landmarks or location you like to show customers?

Glen Crawley [00:22:29] I love flying over downtown Austin and people love to see the stadium, the UT Tower and flying over the Capitol building. So it’s a phenomenal building, right? So people love to see it. And that’s where most of the pictures are taken over downtown Austin. And then when I fly out to Lake Travis, you know, it’s just mind blowing when you fly out there straight over the Oasis restaurant, over the major part of the Lake Travis, right there by Mansfield Dam. It’s the waterway opens up. And it’s just a beautiful, beautiful sight, especially when you’re flying out there around sunset. And that’s one of the tours that we offer as a sunset tour. Of course, there’s only one of those per day, so they tend to sell out pretty fast. But I just love flying over Lake Travis and I love flying over downtown also. I always say that Lake Travis kind of beats out downtown Austin just a little bit just because of the sheer magnitude of the lake. When you’re flying at about 2000 feet and you see the lake, you can see how large it is. Most people only get to see it from right there at Lake Travis, right there by the oasis. But we had 2000 feet. You could see all of it. And it kind of snakes and winds its way out quite a ways.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:23:29] When you open the business, obviously you need a helicopter. But what are the things that needed to be considered to open you alls enterprise?

Glen Crawley [00:23:37] Well, you have to have, uh, certain certifications with the FAA. You have to have what’s considered a letter of authorization that can only be given by the FAA in order to do helicopter transport and to charge passengers for it. So you couldn’t just buy a helicopter and say, I’m going to fly people around to get paid. Yeah, you can’t you can’t do that. So you have to go through the FAA. They have to come out and inspect your helicopter and look at all of your books and go through all of your records to make sure the helicopter has been safe and cared for. And then they’ll give you, if you’re lucky, they’ll give you what’s considered a yellow A or a letter of authorization to to transport poor people for for money. And so we had to go through that process. And it was a lengthy process, of course, something that we didn’t even know how long it would take. We thought it’d be like we’d call them up and next week they’ll come check out the helicopter and we’d be flying. It took them eight months to finish this process. So just imagine you buy a helicopter that costs a ton of money, you can’t make any money with it for eight months and paying out of pocket to have it. I figured that I would get tours to cover the cost and it wouldn’t cost me anything. But for about the first year, a year and a half, we were paying out of pocket to have the helicopter. We weren’t making enough money to cover the cost. So had it not been for my other job and my 401k, there’s no way we could have had this helicopter. No way.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:25:01] All right. What has been the most difficult thing that you had to learn in becoming a pilot?

Glen Crawley [00:25:07] I would say I’ve always been a people person. I mean, I’m a licensed realtor also. So just knowing how to deal with people and communicate well and keep people calm. You know, that’s been has been paramount for me because, you know, people come out, they’re nervous, they’ve heard stories, you know. So you always want to keep them calm. What we do that no one else does is we provide like if you have a certain artist, whatever type music you like, we can play that. Right. We have Spotify on aircrafts. So I’ve found that when you play music for people and it’s something that they like, they’re calm right away because for one, they’re focusing on the song and they’re not focusing on anything else that might not be deemed favorable to think about while you’re flying. And so they they get into a kind of a groove. They’re listening to the music and they’re looking at the sights and everyone is calm. Within 5 minutes, everybody’s happy that they’re up there, you know? But I just I just love giving them what they what they want, you know? And I just love seeing happy customers leave.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:26:04] Do you see yourself being mentors or opening up the field to other individuals that may have not thought about becoming pilots?

Glen Crawley [00:26:15] Yeah, that’s that’s one of the things we, we, we kind of toy around with whether we want to do instructions or not. When you’re doing instruction, it takes a lot of your time and you really have to focus in on each individual, uh, student. And that’s not our forte as far as what we, what we try, what we’re trying to achieve right now. If someone were to come to me, I’m fine with it, if anyone want to come over and be introduced to flight, I can come over, I can show them all the controls, maybe take them out for a short flight so they can see exactly what it takes to to fly an aircraft. But as far as the teaching, you need to go somewhere where they do that nonstop in order to get the best instruction you need to be where they teach. I mean, you go to the university to learn. You wouldn’t go to speak to somebody who already graduated. Say, teach me something. You would go where they teach every day. So I would I would push them to go towards a training school where that school is more focused on training pilots every day because they’ll get the very best instruction under that condition. I mean, that’s where I had to go to get it. So I didn’t want to talk to some other pilot who had flown already to teach me anything. I rather go where they teach. And so I would say that’s the best place to go to become a pilot. But if you want to just come over and check out a helicopter and see how the controls look inside and maybe go on a short flight or something. Yeah, I’ll come. I’ll do that all day. I want everyone, especially all the young people, to be introduced to aviation in their lives because it changed my life.

John L. Hanson Jr. [00:27:41] Glen Crawley, co-owner of ATX Heli Tours, located in Pflugerville, Texas, a northern suburb of Austin, Texas. If you have questions, comments or suggestions about the future In Black America programs, email us at In Black America at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Remember to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez, I’m John L. Hanson Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week.

Intro music [00:28:31] CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing to In Black America. CD’s, KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keeton St, Austin, Texas 78712. This has been a production of KUT Radio.

KUT Weekend – December 20, 2019

Religious groups step in to provide contraception as Planned Parenthood gets sidelined in Texas. Plus, how does Austin’s school district move forward after its equity officer called a school closure plan racist? And who started the tradition of residents stringing up hoards of lights on a stretch of 37th Street? Those stories and more in this edition of KUT Weekend!

Subscribe at https://weekend.kut.org

Texas Standard: December 20, 2019

The president promises 400 miles of border wall within the next year. But something’s in the way: miles and miles of private property. More today on the Texas Standard.
What were the takeaways for Texas in last night’s democratic presidential debate? And what might it mean for Texas’ lone remaining contender in that race?
also, as traffic backs up on Texas highways- are bigger roads better roads?
One of Texas’ most celebrated museums reconsiders Norman Rockwell. Plus, the week that was in Texas politics and more when the National News Show of Texas gets started.

Where Are Your Pants?

Some folks just don’t like pants — even in the dead of winter. This Typewriter Rodeo poem is inspired by them.