Austin Signal

Floodwaters rose overnight in the Texas Hill Country, killing at least one person. We have the latest updates from the scene in Kerr County and speak with Travis County Judge Andy Brown about response operations locally.

Central Texans have plenty of questions about data centers and their future in the region. But how much do we know about what a data center is and does? KUT’s county reporters are diving in.

There’s a bevy of live music to support tonight in Austin.

We chat with the CEO of The Onion about the future of Infowars.

Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org

The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] Floodwaters rose overnight in the Texas Hill Country, killing at least one person so far. The water levels jumped quickly after days of downpours across the state. KUT reporters are on the scene in Kerr County and we’re going to bring you the latest updates and speak with Travis County Judge Andy Brown about response operations locally. Plus, Central Texans have plenty of questions about data sensors and their future here in the region, but how much do we know about what a data sensor is and does? Like AUT’s county reporters are looking into the story, we’ve got more coming up on today’s show.

KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:39] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.

Jerry Quijano [00:00:44] We are also going to chat with the CEO of The Onion about the future of Infowars, and there is a bevy of live music to support tonight here in Austin. We’re going to tell you about a little bit of it that’s coming up next. It’s right here on Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Keconnell. It is Thursday, July 16th. Thank you for tuning in. Governor Greg Abbott says at least one person has died in dangerous overnight flooding that prompted evacuations in damaged homes, schools, and roads in the Hill Country. We are currently monitoring the rising water and rain in Kerr County. Joining us now for more is Pat Vesper. He is meteorologist in charge at the Austin San Antonio National Weather Service Office. Pat, thank you for your time.

Pat Vesper [00:01:36] You’re welcome, Jerry. How are you doing?

Jerry Quijano [00:01:37] I am okay. Let me ask you what is the latest on the flooding in the whole country right now? Where are the water levels at?

Pat Vesper [00:01:44] Well, currently we are in our third day of this heavy rain event, so when we speak about the heavy rain we’ve had each day, we’re now in a situation where many of the rivers have gone into major flood across the area, so the water levels are high. As an example, earlier today, the Guadalupe River rose 22 feet in 50 minutes. Around the comfort area, so that just gives you an idea of the rises that we’ve seen across the area, very similar in some locations to what we saw last year.

Jerry Quijano [00:02:26] Yeah, 22 feet is kind of hard to imagine in less than an hour. As you mentioned, it’s day three of heavy rains. Was there a specific event last night that contributed to this morning’s floodwater levels?

Pat Vesper [00:02:39] Well, you know, the last three days have been very similar in the sense that we have had a broad convergent area, maybe a stationary low-level front in the area, that coupled with abundant moisture, low- level and mid-level moisture, streaming into the area. And then also, too, overnight, one of the big contributors is the enhancement of the low-level lens, we call it a low- level jet. That actually comes together and helps those thunderstorms develop. Each night we’ve had these small-scale circulations, too, that have served as a primary focus. What you saw last night was just all these things coming together with the result being thunderstorms, a very intense rainfall occurring, and also the storms are moving very slowly.

Jerry Quijano [00:03:37] Yeah, you mentioned the similarities to a last year storm. One thing that stands out to me is how slow these storms are moving. What other similarities are you seeing compared to last year’s flood event?

Pat Vesper [00:03:48] Well, certainly the abundant amount of moisture we have in the atmosphere, you know, for this time of year, both this year’s event and last year’s events had near-record amounts of moisture in the air. So that’s one feature. And then the slow movement, the very intense rainfall rates that we’ve seen, like as an example, last night in Kerr County with rainfall rates approaching four inches per power. Last year they’re actually even a little bit higher than that in some instances along the uh… The south fork of the guadalupe uh… Now a different this year uh… Is that the south for cause an effected that self-work of the global if they didn’t really have uh… That that the same flood situation they had last year and uh… And one last thing i would say that is different after last year’s experience and what everyone went through. I think that this year, because of people’s experiences that they had last year, they’ve taken a few extra measures to help protect themselves and I think thatís great.

Jerry Quijano [00:04:59] Well, you mentioned a day three of heavy rains. The Weather Service had issued a flood watch that’s in effect until seven o’clock this evening. Do you anticipate that that watch will expire at seven o´clock? Could we see that extending? And what does the forecast look like for the next few days?

Pat Vesper [00:05:14] Well, actually, you’re correct. That flood watch goes into the morning, right, into tomorrow, into Friday morning. And what we’re seeing, we’re seen the general circulations kind of move north or northwest of the area, and they gradually diminish over our area. And so we’re hoping that’ll be the last watch you see in the morning time. I don’t think it will be extended. Uh… And then uh… For the next few days it’ll probably be much drier across the area and you’re even seeing now even in the way that we should have flood watch we’ve removed uh… The areas from uh… They are thirty five corridor eastward so uh… Counties like travis hayes camal guadalupe bear county they’re not in that that flood watch anymore it’s all the areas west of san antonio uh… That include the Hill Country, the Edwards Plateau. The Rio Grande Plains, the US-90 corridor west of San Antonio. So those will be the focus overnight, and then hopefully we can get out of this pattern when we’re in right now and get to a little drier weather.

Jerry Quijano [00:06:24] Okay, yeah, that was my error. The flood watch is in effect until tomorrow at noon. We have been speaking with Pat Vesper. He is the meteorologist in charge of the Austin San Antonio National Weather Service Office. Pat, thank you for your time.

Pat Vesper [00:06:37] Oh, you’re very welcome. Thank you, Jerry.

Jerry Quijano [00:06:45] All right, joining us now is Travis County Judge, Andy Brown. Andy, thank you for your time.

Judge Andy Brown [00:06:51] Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jerry Quijano [00:06:52] So Travis County has been under a disaster declaration for a few days now. What went into that decision?

Judge Andy Brown [00:06:59] So we just wanted me and Kirk Watson, the mayor of Austin, wanted to make sure that we were prepared for anything that might happen and have the agility to move quickly if we needed to take actions based on flooding or other disasters in Travis County.

Jerry Quijano [00:07:14] Luckily most of us here in the in the Austin area have avoided some of the worst flooding from from your resources from the people You’ve been talking to what is the current threat to our area?

Judge Andy Brown [00:07:25] Yeah, so thankfully we did not, we’ve been under a watch. We did not see flooding, you know, last night we’ve up monitoring it all night. This morning, we sent star flight resources to Kerr County and Gillespie counties, but we are still good here. The thing that we are monitoring right now in conjunction with LCRA is waters that are coming down the Perdenales River. That river has seen a lot of rain upstream. It dumps directly into Lake Travis. There’s no dam in between the Perdenalis and the lake. So we’re monitoring that and we, you know, trying to see what if, when, and if that will hit Travis, Lake Travis? The other thing that we are looking at is LCRA’s lift opening of floodgates on the dams upstream from Lake Travis, and again, they’ve been in contact with us as they’re doing this. They are. Lifting some of those floodgates for I think Horseshoe Bay and Lake Marble Falls to empty a little bit lower. We luckily, I guess, have a good amount of capacity in Lake Travis right now, believe something like 161,000 acre feet until we get to the upper limit. So should be good, but that’s something that we’re monitoring and we’re encouraging anybody who’s on the lake or who plans to boat on the Lake, especially anywhere. On or near the perdenalis to take extra precautions and follow the LCRA hydromet meters and any messaging from the LCRI about if they need to clear out of the way.

Jerry Quijano [00:09:05] Okay well apologies I’m gonna ask you to repeat something because there’s a lot going on can you remind me of the resources that you have already sent out to the whole country and do you anticipate having to send more resources in the days ahead. Sure. So around the early.

Judge Andy Brown [00:09:18] Morning sometime 5, 5 30 a.m. Craig with Star Flight here in Travis County let me know that they were working with the State Operations Center. So TDEM, basically the Texas Division of Emergency Management, were coordinating responses in other counties. So since we did not have a need here at that moment, we have three Star Flight helicopters. We sent Star Flight 1 and Star Flight two. To help in Kerr County with Star Flight 1 and Gillespie County with Star Flight 2 early this morning at the at the request of the state. And they helped in operations in those two counties. At this point, Star Flight two is back in normal operations. They we have a hangar that we partner with Blanco County on. There’s a hanger in Blanco county. That’s where it went. And it is under normal operations, my understanding is Star Flight one. Continues to be ready to assist in the Kerr County area.

Jerry Quijano [00:10:17] Okay, well, as we’re covering these rising floodwaters across the hill country, it’s hard not to notice the timing as it relates to last year’s flooding. Are there things that you have learned from a year ago that you see are implementing well in today’s response?

Judge Andy Brown [00:10:34] Yeah, absolutely. I think we have learned and are better prepared today than we were a year ago. That said, I don’t know that the danger is any less because of, call it what you want, climate change, global warming, whatever the thing is, we are seeing more and more frequent storms that lead to this kind of flooding. I saw videos from Hunt, Texas taken this morning at a property that, you know, last year. Uh was was worse but this year is a close second like it’s flooding that i had not seen on that property in a very long time and it’s becoming more frequent i’ve been county judge since 2020 so a little over five years and the number of you know freezes and floods and fires that we have is increasing so i think the the message is that people need to you know, sign up for Warren Central Texas. Absolutely do not turn off your notifications on your phone, even if, you know even if they get bothersome at some point and be ready. Have a plan, stay in touch with your neighbors. And today in particular follow what the LCRA is doing with water levels in our lake and on the Perdenalis.

Jerry Quijano [00:11:47] All right, we have been speaking with Travis County Judge, Andy Brown. Judge Brown, thank you for your time. Thank you very much. This is a quickly developing situation. We are bringing you what we have right now on Austin Signal and we will continue to bring you this reporting at KUT.org and on the KUT app. Right now, KUT’s multimedia reporter Patricia Lim is on the ground in Ingram. She is in a safe spot as she just told us off air. Patricia, thank you for joining us.

Patricia Lim [00:12:18] Thanks for having me.

Jerry Quijano [00:12:19] So tell us where are you right now and what is the situation, what are you seeing?

Patricia Lim [00:12:24] Yeah, I’m currently in Ingram Park and the Waterbarger parking lot because it has the best signal here. I was just at Kerrville and I’m seeing that there’s a lot of road closures happening. So it’s really hard to get to the scene. But I have spoken with a couple of residents from Hunt, Texas, while I was getting gas and. They mentioned that they were evacuating and they’ve been waiting to evacuate since 3 a.m. In the morning and they were just waiting for the water to get lower and that wasn’t until 12 p.m when I saw them and they able to evacuate. They mentioned there were family members near Camp Mystic who are still unable to evacuate due to the water rise. So, they’re still waiting to make their way to Kerrville, which is the higher. Parts of Crerar County.

Jerry Quijano [00:13:21] Yeah, we have been following this news all week long, but things really developed overnight. So tell us, you drove out to the scene this morning, what were the roads like? Did you see any flooding on your way out there?

Patricia Lim [00:13:35] I actually didn’t see any flooding on my way from Buda Texas all the way here in Grim Texas.

Jerry Quijano [00:13:41] And the roads, they were over the condition of the roads. They were okay at least until you got into Kerr County.

Patricia Lim [00:13:46] Yeah it was okay and you know there were rains but it wasn’t as bad. Getting into Kerr county that’s when I started getting a lot of emergency and amber alerts on my phone left and right but the second I got to Kerr Kerrville I couldn’t receive anything because I had no signal.

Jerry Quijano [00:14:07] Okay, well this is obviously a very fluid situation. Do we know are there any rescue operations going on right now?

Patricia Lim [00:14:14] I’m not sure with that, but I did see a bunch of rescue boats coming in and out of the road closures and there’s no, the only emergency vehicles are allowed to go in and people evacuating are allowed come out, but they’re not allowed to come in.

Jerry Quijano [00:14:31] What else do you know about the situation or what else has stood out to you about the situation so far?

Patricia Lim [00:14:36] Yeah, so when I was in Kerrville, there was a lot of residents watching the Guadalupe River. There’s an overlook over there and you could see the water rising and it’s very frightening but people are still watching and there are a lot people that I spoke with were not concerned comparing to last year which is interesting.

Jerry Quijano [00:15:04] Obviously you’re still trying to get more information. What are your plans for the rest of today?

Patricia Lim [00:15:10] Yeah, I’m gonna head back to Kerrville since I really can’t pass anywhere here in Engram and find local residents and hope that they’ll talk to me.

Jerry Quijano [00:15:23] Okay, well when you have some of that reporting, we will bring it to you here on Austin Signal. That is Patricia Lim. She is a multimedia producer for KUT News. Patricia, thank you for your time. Stay safe. Thank you. And we have more developing flood coverage at KUT.org and on the KUT app. The KUT newsroom has been hard at work. So stay up to date with the latest on the website and on app and of course stay here with us on KUT News for the latest. Austin Signal will be back after this break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. KUT’s county reporter team has been working hard on a series about data centers. It’s called the Data Center Next Door and it’s gonna kick off next month. But before that, Travis County reporter Katie McAfee is here with us to give us a sneak peek of the reporting process behind this series. Katie, welcome to the show.

Katy McAfee [00:16:19] Thanks for having me on, Jerry.

Jerry Quijano [00:16:20] So let’s start off, tell us, what are you all working on here?

Katy McAfee [00:16:25] Yeah, so kind of how this all started is we felt like data centers just kept coming up on all of our beats. My colleague Kaylee Hunt who reports on Williamson County reported on a story about a parcel of land up there that was supposed to be a park is now being a data center is now coming in there. My other colleague Lee Walden who I’m working on this project with reported on some stuff that happened with data centers in San Marcos. And we just felt like with so many new stories coming up, there was a big need to slow down, do a deep dive and kind of answer some of these questions. What actually is a data center? Why are they coming to Texas? And just give folks more context around the situation.

Jerry Quijano [00:17:05] Yeah, like, what do they look like, what kind of building is it, and I know that’s where the series kind of starts off. The three of y’all went out to take a tour of a data center. What was that like, what did you learn?

Katy McAfee [00:17:16] Yeah. So we got to visit the Texas Advanced Computing Center or TAC. That’s a data center actually on UT’s JJ Research Pickle Campus up north near the domain. Basically what it looks like is a big warehouse full of computers. There’s just these black rows of servers stacked on top of each other. And honestly, what it looks like isn’t as exciting as what it sounds like, it is extremely loud in there and I can actually show you what it sounded like in there. I have a cut for you coming up here. Yeah, it’s up to 100 decibels in some parts, in the loudest parts of the data center, which is like having your ear next to a running chainsaw. So really overwhelming to be in there, but basically why it’s so loud is because they have all of these servers super densely packed and they’re running 24-7, and that generates a lot of heat. And there are several different ways to cool these things off, but one of the ways that they do it in TAC is they do air cooling, and they’re blowing hundreds of cold air on hundreds of these servers, and it generates a lot of noise.

Jerry Quijano [00:18:32] So that’s what we’re hearing there is those fans just cooling down these servers.

Katy McAfee [00:18:35] Yes, exactly.

Jerry Quijano [00:18:37] That’s very interesting. So what are these servers like? Why are they getting so hot? What are they doing?

Katy McAfee [00:18:42] Yeah, so TAC is actually funded by the National Science Foundation. So a lot of work that they do out of that data center is science-y stuff. One of the folks who gave us a tour said that their data center was actually one of the few systems capable of processing some of the James Webb telescope images of the earliest galaxies that came out a few years ago. Uh… My colleague we walden who i mentioned earlier she actually interviewed a cancer researcher who uh… He kind of builds these mathematical and things

Jerry Quijano [00:19:19] These equations or something, yeah.

Katy McAfee [00:19:21] I’m in the right field, but basically he’s using math to find a cure for cancer. So what he does is he builds these models that can predict how cancer will grow in a patient, how a patient will respond to different treatments. And a lot of his work requires, you know, these supercomputers that can crunch lots and lots and lots of data. And his work is actually happens through TAC. Hmm

Jerry Quijano [00:19:46] Yeah, well, I think that’s kind of fitting that there’s so much to you couldn’t really put the words on it But I think what we’re trying to find out with this series. What else are y’all reporting on?

Katy McAfee [00:19:55] Yeah, so the information I just shared with you is kind of our first story. We’re trying to break down what a data center is, but we have four more coming to our listeners way. We are going to do a story breaking down a water use and power use and trying to answer some of those questions. And then actually next week we’re taking a reporting trip to Abilene and we are going to look into economics. We’re hearing a lot about. Data centers. There have been some claims that having a data center in a small area can generate tax revenue for communities that is really needed. Maybe data centers can create jobs. We want to answer these questions and see what the situation is, so we’ll have a story on that in a few weeks.

Jerry Quijano [00:20:40] Yeah, and we’ve had a chance to speak with Lee and Kaylee about the process. So I’ll ask you the same question. This is a big topic to kind of dive into. So how has it been working with that group to kind of, I don’t know, maybe gain some confidence in this reporting?

Katy McAfee [00:20:55] Oh my gosh, this is such a great project to do collaboratively because it really is so complex. Lee is actually, she has a joint degree in journalism and computer science. So she’s been wonderful to work with on this project. She basically explained how AI works to me and Kaylee. And Kaylee is just such a superstar reporter and she always knows what’s going on in Williamson County. She’s always telling me things that I had no idea existed, so. Especially for a project like this. It’s been great to be collaborative and kind of all use our strengths

Jerry Quijano [00:21:27] Very cool. That is Katie McAfee. She is KUT’s Travis County reporter, and we’ll be bringing you that data center reporting right here on Austin Signal. Katie, thank you very much.

Katy McAfee [00:21:37] Thanks so much for having me, Jerry.

Jerry Quijano [00:21:46] The Onion has been in a legal battle to own Infowars, the website of Austinite Alex Jones, for quite a bit of time now. Despite legal hurdles, they’ve made steps to fully taking it over. For more about what’s happening in the future of the website, we are joined by Ben Collins. He is the CEO of The Onion. Ben, thank you for your time. Thank you so much for having me. We have been discussing this for our audience for a while. But just in case somebody is not really familiar with the work that you’ve been doing over the past few years, why did you want to buy Infowars in the first place?

Ben Collins [00:22:21] Yeah, so I was an extremism and disinformation reporter for about 10 years. One of my friends, girlfriends was killed during a live stream. Like the shooter was using a GoPro on Facebook. This was 10 years ago. And ever since then, that kind of, like. Glorified mass killing stuff has taken over our culture. It’s horrible. And to have people around denying this happening is kind of like a weird type of erasure that I think is ridiculous. I also realized just straight up reporting on it doesn’t do anything but give them more attention. And you kind of have to make fun of the absurdity of this stuff. It works and we’re already seeing it right now. The image of Alex Jones in most people’s minds is him shirtless and losing his studio and we hope that remains the same.

Jerry Quijano [00:23:13] So y’all officially haven’t yet been given the green light to take over InfoWars.com, but you’ve just been forging ahead despite a couple rulings that have sided with Jones and Info Wars. Can you tell us where does the purchase stand, and do you have an idea when this all might wrap up?

Ben Collins [00:23:28] Yeah, we’re hoping as soon as possible, but at the end of the day, Infowars is, you know, an asset that the families have and they want it with us. So we’re moving forward to make sure something gets done here. Basically, there was an emergency stay, which usually lasts like a couple days or a few weeks in court from last August, and they have not ruled on it yet. We don’t know why that is, but it has allowed Alex to move around his assets and declare Infowar is dead. But Infowarz is not dead. We want to keep it going. Just in a very different way in the next few years.

Jerry Quijano [00:24:03] Yeah, and you mentioned those families. It’s been years and years since this all started, and you said this is meant to provide some financial relief to those families, how soon do you anticipate that might happen?

Ben Collins [00:24:13] As soon as this court lifts the stay, we would love to give them money to either lease this stuff from them or buy it from them outright. We would give them, money for merch in perpetuity. We’d love to get them cash for that. We wanna actually pay them. Alex has been $1.5 billion in debt to these families for about five years now, and he has not paid them a penny. We are ready to pay them whenever this stay gets lifted and the courts get out of the way on this, Uh, cause otherwise Alex is not really interested in you know, helping these people out in any way.

Jerry Quijano [00:24:47] When y’all initially tried to acquire Infowars, you said back then that this was the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. This kind of started out as a bit, but it’s obviously grown into something much bigger than that. What is the long-term plan here? Where do you see Infowar’s going forward? And let’s say in five years. Yeah, it’s-

Ben Collins [00:25:04] still a great bit I think. It’s still working for me and we’re having a lot of fun you know we’ve been uh Tim Heidecker who was our new creative director and also hosted the show Emergency that we have on all the InForce channels across the internet. We’re having a ton of fun with this. This week’s episode is mostly about how he lost his horse Horace in his divorce. You should all watch it it’s really good. But our larger goal here is A lot of people over the last few years in the comedy world got wrapped up in like really bad comedy, stupid roast comedy, bad stuff that doesn’t last, and the smart people got left behind. And we need to give them a place to be goofy and stupid and also make fun of the culture as it is right now, which is like addicted to boner pills and stuff. We need to get them a space to make fun that stuff. We’re giving them that right now and we want to grow that to the biggest place to make it.

Jerry Quijano [00:25:58] Alex Jones used to be on public access television here in Austin. He was basically a failed comedian who turned into a much different kind of media figure, convincing people that chemicals turned frogs gay. You yourself are a well-regarded disinformation reporter. Do you fear that people will actually believe that Tim Heidecker can turn urine into gold?

Ben Collins [00:26:19] Yeah, I hope so. That’s the thing is like, I think joking around with this stuff is fun and good. It’s just like he reached the line a long time ago where he started saying, anybody who died in mass shooting in a school wasn’t real. And that is not a joke to me. That is evil and weird. If people want to turn their their urine into gold, we will try to find a way. Give us an email. Infowars at the nn.com. If you guys know any alchemy suggestions. We’re into it. Just let us know.

Jerry Quijano [00:26:50] In the midst of such a turbulent media landscape, where do you see the onion in Infowars existing within all of that?

Ben Collins [00:26:57] Hopefully at the forefront, man, like we’ve been able to build these channels very quickly. A lot of people really very badly want to make fun of these like weird podcast people who think that if you have enough sauerkraut, you can solve cancer. We are kind of the only people who are saying the unsaid part about our kind of stupid and useless media ecosystem right now. Um, we want to. Just as The Onion made fun of the New York Times and CNN and all that stuff in the past, the dominant way people get their media right now is through crazy people. And we have a golden opportunity here to make fun of those people.

Jerry Quijano [00:27:35] And as far as the onion goes, I heard somebody say the other day that nobody is buying a newspaper, but you have people getting physical copies of the onion in their mailbox every single month. What is the demand that you’ve seen so far?

Ben Collins [00:27:48] Yeah, it’s crazy. We two years ago, next month, actually, we’ve relaunched our newspaper. And now we have 82,000 people getting a newspaper newspaper in the mail every single month and another 5000 more Barnes and Noble or Hudson News and stuff. So it’s been a real joy. We’re the fifth biggest newspaper in United States right now. The Washington Post is close. They’re in our crosshairs. So watch out. But yeah, there’s people want Guys, people want nice things to happen. I know- Uh, everything’s really rough right now and things cost too much and things are, uh, it’s a rough ride and when you get funny stuff in your inbox, uh or your, or your actual physical mailbox, it really helps you out.

Jerry Quijano [00:28:28] All right, we have been speaking with Ben Collins. He is the CEO of The Onion. Thank you so much for joining us. Cool, thank you, man. Really appreciate it. And thank you out there for making Austin Signal part of your Thursday afternoon. Just as a reminder, we are developing flood coverage on the KUT app and online at KUT.org, and we will bring you the latest on the radio this afternoon on all things considered. Austin Signal will be back after this break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Tonight, KUTX is hosting the drop-in out at the Long Center. It’s a concert event on the Long with singer Paige Plaison. So I saw her perform in Studio 1A yesterday. Fantastic voice and a great band to boot. It’s free to the public. And with a nod to yesterday being National Hot Dog Day, there’s gonna be a special guest out at the drop in, the Weiner Mobile. The weenie wagon is celebrating 90 years this year And here to talk. About it with us. We have a couple of hot doggers, Nacho Dog Nora and Cookout Caroline. Welcome to the show.

Cookout Caroline [00:29:37] Thank you for having us.

Nacho Dog Nora [00:29:39] Excited to be in the Austin area. Yeah, this has been great so far. We’re loving Austin and everything that comes along with it

Jerry Quijano [00:29:45] So how long have you been hot doggers? Tell us a little bit about your journey so far.

Cookout Caroline [00:29:50] So we have been hot doggers for going on six weeks now. This is our fourth week on the road. We started in Madison, Wisconsin, where the program is headquartered. And then if kind of worked our way down, so we’ve been to Dallas, we’ve be in Shreveport, Louisiana and Kansas City and are super excited to be in the Austin area. So we just basically go to various different events that we are requested at and get to talk with the people in the communities and really get to hear everyone else’s stories about their experience with the Wienermobile. It could be someone who saw it 60 years ago as a kid and haven’t seen it since, or it’s someone who’s seen it for the first time. So really just get to be able to bring joy to them, make them smile, that’s what we’re all about.

Nacho Dog Nora [00:30:30] Yeah, as the Sizzlin’ South theme, it is my personal first time down south, from the East Coast, so this is all super new and super exciting for me. Never been to Texas before, I’m loving it, of course. But yeah, like Caroline said, we actually had 10,000 requests a year for the Ween Mobile to be at different events. So we have our routes kind of mapped out for us based on what people have requested us to be at including the concert tonight, which we are just so excited about.

Jerry Quijano [00:30:58] Well, we used to have a guest on our show, Miley Carballo. She used to talk Austin music with us. She’s also a hot dogger and you saying sizzling south made me think of the fact that before she left, she was on a terror with all these hot dog related puns. What are some of the best ones they all know and they all employ very often?

Nacho Dog Nora [00:31:17] Oh, my favorite is Frank you instead of thank you. I think that’s maybe both our favorites.

Cookout Caroline [00:31:23] Of more favorites. We always say we have buns of puns. So we have buns of fun with those puns, a lot of a lot of bun related things. So like in the wiener mobile, we have a bun roof and a shot bun and see in a bun box. So kind of just anywhere that we can really put a play on hot dog related things we do. But Frankie’s big one. I like to say I’m having a Frank-tastic day. Frank-Tastic is a great ad.

Nacho Dog Nora [00:31:49] To for all things everything it really flows in conversations well wonderful as well always a classic relish as well just say you would relish the opportunity Yeah.

Jerry Quijano [00:31:59] Miley would say that all the time. Yes. Okay. Well, I think everybody has an idea of what it would be like to be a Wiener Mobile driver. I’m sure y’all had a vision of what that experience might be like. How has it been different and challenging in ways that you didn’t expect?

Nacho Dog Nora [00:32:14] Um, for me, I really feel like this has exceeded my expectations. I mean, I went in knowing I had a love for travel and a love for meeting people, but this is truly just such a unique experience. We are meeting all sorts of people with all sorts of super unique stories. You never know what somebody is going to say when they’re coming up to you. Um, and seeing the Wienerobile, a lot of times it’s somebody’s first time seeing it and maybe they’ve never even heard of it. And they’re like, what in the world are you doing?

Cookout Caroline [00:32:41] Yeah, that was probably the most eye-opening thing for me because I grew up with my mom singing me the oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener jingles and the baloney jingle so coming into this I kind of already knew about it and there have been so many people we’ve met who’ve been so excited to see it But had no clue it even existed. And so that’s probably been the biggest shock for me

Jerry Quijano [00:33:00] So you’re gonna be out at the drop-in tonight, that’s at the Long Center at seven o’clock. Where else can people find y’all this weekend?

Nacho Dog Nora [00:33:07] So tomorrow, Friday, we are going to the Randalls in Lakeway, Texas on Ranch Road. And then on Saturday, we’ll be at the Corvette Invasion in Bastrop from 8 a.m. To 2 p.m., and then on Sunday from 12 to 3, we will be at the Thinkery Children’s Museum.

Jerry Quijano [00:33:23] Very cool. Very cool all right. We have been speaking with nacho dog Nora and cookout Caroline again They’re gonna be out at the drop-in. That’s at the Long Center tonight at 7. We’ll have more information in today’s show notes. Thank you

Nacho Dog Nora [00:33:36] Thank you so much. Frank you. Yes, Frank you, have a wonderful day.

Jerry Quijano [00:33:49] We’re smack dab in the middle of July, which means it’s time for some summer tunes as part of Hot Summer Nights. And today we’re chatting with one of the hosts of The Breaks on KUTX, the head of Summer Jam 2026, which is happening this Friday night indoors at Stubbs. Joining us is Fresh, one of The Hosts of The Break. Fresh, welcome back. Hey man, good to be back. Glad to see you. So tell us what number Summer Jam is this for you and Confucius and what sparked this idea?

Fresh Knight [00:34:16] Oh, man, it is year eight overall. And I believe the fourth year we’ve been a part of Hot Summer Nights and, uh, me and Confucius were inspired when we got up here in 2017, AKU-TX. We wanted to do, um, a showcase that just kind of put attention on the artists we felt like the city and everybody should be paying attention to. And we originally tried to do it in 2017, but we ran into some bumps in the road. And so 2018, we met some gentlemen by the name of Eric and Wayne, and they helped us flesh out the vision. And we originally did it down at Barracuda, which I believe is now a creaking cave. We did the first two years at Barrackuda outside and it was a hit and the pandemic hit. And I think that was the year we did it digitally. And it aired on Austin PBS. Oh, that’s right. And then I think we took 2021 off, which is where I get confused. And then we’ve done it ever since. We’ve been doing it ever since 2022 consistently now.

Jerry Quijano [00:35:24] All right, cool. Well, I know that this year’s lineup starts with Confucius. He’s going to be doing a little DJ set. But I want to talk about the other artists who are featured. Seeing your Knicks hat reminded me that your Knick’s beat my Spurs. But I was reminded of the Spurs because I was watching the music video for a Gio, who’s one of the artists who’s going be featured. Tell us a little bit about her.

Fresh Knight [00:35:42] Uh, she’s a rising R&B artist here in the city. She signed to a homegrown label. I believe it, uh, that is titled Superwoman Records.

Music [00:35:52] Rollin’ on a Sunday with the top down Sun reflecting off the grill in my mouth From the two, five, four to the five, one, two In the turnin’ lane

Fresh Knight [00:36:02] Um, I’ve been following her for, I would say the better part of maybe two and a half, three years now. Um, really nice voice, really great upbeat music. She also has ballads as most R&B singers do. So I’m looking forward to, uh, seeing her grace the stage.

Jerry Quijano [00:36:18] I saw the music videos like shot on the parking lot of cabana club So it was like yeah, I felt like really familiar just watching her music watching the video and hearing her music Next on the lineup is Soto the activist tell us more about them

Fresh Knight [00:36:30] We just had him on the breaks actually last week discussing how he landed in Austin. He’s originally from the East Coast or North East, as he said. He’s a rapper, a very, I guess you would say consciously charged activist, a bit of a boom bap, if that’s your flavor of rap.

Music [00:36:49] My lunarism is sittin’ pretty in our humongous bed, we sexin’ Carl don’t text me, I’m a broken man FaceTime will save lives more than the medicines that Z-Pack I sit back and try to

Fresh Knight [00:37:00] Once again, looking forward to him. I think he’s only been in Austin. I think you said like just hitting a year this year.

Jerry Quijano [00:37:06] So yeah, okay, and then the the main act is smooth nature. They really are smooth I had not heard of them until I saw the post on key UTX about hot summer nights. How did you find out about them?

Fresh Knight [00:37:32] uh instagram i think yeah most of the most of everybody’s come from social media i’ve just seen grace my uh my news feed or whatever and um smooth smooth nature i have been seeing them perform and then i finally got to see them i want to say last year they sold out uh acl 310 and it was a great show great performance um and when i saw that i was like yeah we We kind of missing out. We need to get them on a stage. And so the opportunity presented itself and they were more than happy to do Summer Jam this year.

Jerry Quijano [00:38:09] And I saw on their Instagram, they’re like Waco in Austin, do they spend?

Fresh Knight [00:38:11] Yeah, I think they are originally from Waco. I know they just did a show out there in Waco, but I believe they are based here in Austin for the last few years.

Jerry Quijano [00:38:20] Okay, cool. Whenever you’re making these lineups, do you come up with a theme when you’re trying to come up these artists? Because this felt like there’s a lot of soul to a lot of these music. They’re all different genres, obviously, but that at least something that stood out to me, is that something that you did deliberately, or just kind of it’s whatever pops up to you?

Fresh Knight [00:38:37] Uh, I try most years is whatever pops up or whoever we feel like is the hottest right now. Like the year we had Grace Sorensen, Grace was just undeniable at that point. And I think everybody wanted her on the showcase, but we got her first. Shows out to Red River culture district for allowing that. Oh, but this year, uh, this year we tried to, I would say, try to lean more into the R and B because, uh previous years it has been a lot. Rap heavy, so I think we wanted to showcase R&B just a tad bit more, which is why you have a G.O. And a smooth nature and just subtle. And I wanted Confucius to get back to DJing. I had to kind of coax him and coerce him into DJing again.

Jerry Quijano [00:39:21] Okay. All right. Well, I did not know that I’m looking forward to that now. We have been speaking with Fresh. He is one of the hosts of The Breaks on KUTX. Again, Summer Jam 2026 is happening this Friday night indoors at Stubbs. We’ll have a link to more about the show in today’s show notes. Thank you, Fresh. Thank you. And as a reminder, we have continuing flood coverage at kut.org and on the KUT app. This is Austin Signal. There’s more from the stories we shared with you today. At kut.org slash signal and in the podcast show notes. I’m your host, Jerry Kehannel. We will talk to you tomorrow.

This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.