Is Michael Garfier. Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining in the high Tech Texan.
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texan, items to make life
easier, new technology. So Michael Garfield has something you might want. Michael
Garfield is your high Tech Texan. Three decades helping you make magic with your
gadgets. Heard worldwide on the Iheartmaredio Act. Now your high Tech Texan.
Michael Garfield. Well, we have a lot to pack in on this first
weekend of March. It is called the High Tech Textan Show, so much
more than technology. Let's quickly start it off. We're going to give you
the phone number. It's interactive. Last I checked. Love to have you
to call in, ask me some questions and say hi, comment, agreed,
disagree? Come on man, it's debate all yeah, whatever, exactly
what I love doing debating? Uh seven one three two one two five nine
five. Oh, this number is not changed in well over two decades I
have been doing this show. Calum Reid is right across the aisle over here
through the window. He is pushing the buttons to make sure that you hear
me what we're going to talk about. In this episode of the Iech Texas
show. Hey man, were you affected by last week's AT and T downfall?
At and T that cell service went out for a number of hours?
You could be eligible for some credit AT and t's eating a little crow,
and I'll tell you how you can get a little credit should you have been
affected. Also, Wi Fi calling in general, when you don't have phone
service, what do you do? Were you really sol were you just out
like in the forest? Were you like living in the antiquated age, old
era when you didn't have cell phone service about a week or so ago.
Well, there is such a thing called Wi Fi calling that MANI phone services
and phone cellular systems have. I will tell you how to put that on.
And also, if you ever dreamed of driving a car that is built
by your favorite company called Apple, you can get that out of your dreams,
and get that car out of your dreams too, because it is Ova.
Well, I'll talk about a new watch that was just launched in debuted,
a phone review, some other things, but we are going to start
it off with how do you get your money back from when AT and T
went down? Where were you it was last thur? It was Thursday of
one of the last Thursdays of February in the morning. I did not know
this because I do not have AT and T cell phone service, and I
was out at the Rodeo Barbecue Cookoff. I was going live out there on
Channel eleven because I'm on Great Day Houston, and we did notice anything until
we're getting ready to go live at night in the morning, We're interviewing somebody
and says, boy, I hope you got cell phone connection. You don't
have AT and T because the service is down, And I kind of shook
it off, and the next thing I know, just it started trickling in.
It's like I can't contact I can't get can I borrow your phone?
GARF? What's going on? AT and T? They just they had an
internal failure from what they're saying, and I had guessed, I think correctly,
that it was either trying to upgrade service, a server's issue, or
something. You know. Everybody was debating it was a solar flares, but
a majority of their service went down for people across the state of Texas,
California, and in other parts of the country. It was pretty bad and
it was down from most parts of the day. What happened. Listen.
I'd love to hear your stories and what did you do? Because it's some
people they their lives came to a standstill because you add no data connection,
and I sympathize with you. I totally can understand that feeling. Sometimes when
I travel a few times a year and I'm out, I hike with my
buddies. We're in these mountainous ranges way out in West Texas. It's a
big bin. We were in Utah last December, and I'm like, help,
what happens if there's an emergency? How do I get hold of somebody?
It's old school, but we don't understand this. I mean, we
didn't have cell phones in college, and how do we know where to connect
with our buddies when we were going on Sixth Street before that? How did
our parents fonus, track us, tell us what it was coming time for
dinner. We just had to wait till it got dark and we just rode
our bikes home and that was it. Nowadays, no, we are so
connected, and so we were in the dark. So AT and T they
admitted it, and AT and T came back and they said, hey,
guess what we feel so bad? We are going to give you some credit.
Should you be an AT and T customer and should you have been affected
by our outage on Thursday February twenty twenty second it was a technical area.
Ace T and T said it planned to give effected accounts credit for the outage.
Folks, get ready to go to the bank, because you could receive
five dollars five bones, five bones for having your life come to a halt,
including potentially some of your businesses. If you take you know, if
you if you you know, if you have a restaurant and you use the
AT and T sell service det for you know, signing the credit cards gone
five bucks. That's all good. They apologize. Though worth it or not,
I will tell you this. You need to avoid getting scammed while pursuing
your refund. Do this. Go to AT and t's official website, which
I think is AT and T dot com, ATT dot com. Okay,
don't go to social media, don't go to third party accounts. AT and
T senate its website. It's been contacting quote potentially impacted customers, which is
a live all right. If you receive a text from some weird number,
just would you just call AT and T log onto your account to see what's
going on, the company's going to credit consumers five bucks per AT and T
Wireless Act. It does not apply to a T and T business, AT
and T Prepaid or Cricket, which is part of AT and T Build Credits.
It's going to be applied within one to two billing cycles. They're going
to make it right, is what they say? Five bucks for that?
Is it worth it or not? Probably not. But if this happens again
to you, whether you're on AT and T, Verizon, T Mobile,
some mvn O, whatever it is, how do you avoid this? Whether
there are a few workarounds. And when I was doing some last after we
found out my phone was okay and I finished some of the TV stuff I
did is three or four five different hits on different radio stations around the country.
It's like what to do. My first advice was use Wi Fi calling.
If your carrier has an outage or you're heading out somewhere remote, you
can likely still make calls or text using the internet for backup. It doesn't
matter if you're a T, Verizon, most all phones have it too,
iPhone, Android phones, whatever. But Wi Fi calling is something you need
to turn on your phone. And I actually do this, not even just
in cases of emergencies. I always have it on when I'm in a trusted
Wi Fi network, like at home, or like at work or somebody something
else. I actually use Wi Fi versus cell. Does it make a difference?
Sometimes it does. You know, remember back in the day where you
ad x number of minutes per data on your cell. Maybe you know like
that now, but we mostly have unlimited minutes. It doesn't matter too much.
But sometimes if you're in a building in the cell signal is not strong,
Wi Fi maybe stronger. So go into your settings, whether you have
an Android, whether do you have an iPhone, play around with it on
the iPhone. Go to the settings and go to the cellular setting, tap
Wi Fi calling, turn it on. If you have an Android, go
to settings and hit connections and turn it on. Turning it on actually works.
That means if you could not get a cell signal this past week,
week and a half or so, if you found a Wi Fi hotspot,
like if it was if you're in your home or into building that Wi Fi
odds are, you could have made a call. For emergencies, made regular
calls and people can reach you. It's a backup that people do not know,
they do not utilize. You really should try it yourself. Anything else
I can do for you, bo Hey, tell you what. We're gonna
go a little off the grid when we come back over here. Got to
have an interview longtime buddy of mine. His name is Mike McGuff. Mike
is a media blogger. He covers the media here in Houston, actually across
Texas, but he's also a big fan of an age old radio station that
used to be part of well, actually it is, but it used to
be part of our clear Channel slash iHeartMedia family here in Houston Rock one oh
one k l O L. If you are of age, if you've been
in Houston for a while, you may remember it back in the day of
just some crazy stuff, Steven Sipprwitt, Greg Oprewitt, the Boner. I
myself even started my career with a few daily hits on this station. It
is gone right now, but a brand new movie is about to be released
that Mike McGuff directed and produced. He has spent many, many years of
his life bringing this to fruition with some really cool interviews and so if you
want to relive the days of Runaway Radio. I'm going to have him on
to talk about how he made it, how long it took to make it,
and why was the labor of love coming up right here at the High
Tech Texan show. Back at it, Michael Garfield. It is the long
running high Tech Textan show heard KPRC nine point fifty AM, which is part
of the iHeart Radio conglomerate here in Houston, formally Clear Channel and formally a
few of the things before that. I have been a part of this iHeart
slash Clear Channel family for twenty two years right now. And I've told the
story before because people want to know how I kind of got into media TV
in the radio, but also here at iHeart before that was Clear Channel.
It's a long story. I won't get into it the moment, but I
remember coming here starting off my media career and eight radio stations. It's very
big, powerful radio stations. Obviously seven forty k titer h This KPRC nine
fifty Am honored to be the longest running radio show here at the KPRC now
at twenty plus years. But there was also KLOL Rock one oh one,
and that was part of the conglomer back then, back when KOL was KLL
and for so many Eustonians who are listening to the show and maybe around the
world if you're listening to it on the podcast or iHeart Radio app. You've
heard of Rock one oh one, the Runaway Radio and it is a part
of Euston herriage for decades and actually at least maybe two generations or so.
And it was an honor to be on it for the for two three four
years with some of the radio gods, and it was a neat history.
But history is now coming true. If you did not know much about the
Rock run oh one radio days, you can soon because there is a documentary
that has been in the works for probably a decade, is getting ready to
hit video on demand in theaters near you. I want to talk to the
writer, the producer, the director who has this been a labor of love
for so long. His name is Mike McGuffey is a longtime media blogger,
a frequent guest to this show, a good friend of mine. Mike joined
us in. McGuff let me start with this writer, producer, and director.
Why are you still gracing your presence here in Houston with this how come
you're not in Hollywood already I already tried. They kicked me out as soon
as I flew into No not look guarded too lax. See, I can't
even get the airport right. So they turned me around and say, go
back to Texas. We don't want you here. Well, I have to
say, this is a media blogger. You're the only radio DJ in town
who launches his career on billboards and commercials before he even gets behind the microphone
of a radio station. Right, like you were already like a presence before
you ever got behind that microphone. Kind of did it bass ackwards. Really,
it was close to it. It's not about me or but real quickly,
So I started on Channel two early in the morning on the morning show,
where I created the high tech text and it was almost simultaneously that Time
Warner back in the day they picked me up as the road Runner spokesperson because
I was talking about technology, which then within a few months led to my
employment at Clear Channel Radio. And so the funny thing is I was probably
one of the few people who actually in the entire industry who studied radiotelligence film.
There's a lot of people who are very successful more successful to me.
Now who they stay. I mean, Dana Tyson, I'm one of my
she was a stockbroker. I mean, I actually studied to be in this
thing, so I took a kind of roundabout way. But you do cover
so many people in the media of the goings on and who's leaving and listen
to media landscape has changed so much in the last twenty years that you've been
covering it. But what you have done right now, you've taken a classic
I'm an absolute classic, iconic radio station here in Houston k LOL rock one
oh one, and you have documented it going back until I think it was
to nineteen seventy. Let's start it this way. What's your infatuation with this
radio station so much so that made you make a documentary? Well, I
always wanted to make a documentary. That was something you know, I wanted
to do. But you know, you never think that's actually going to happen,
right, Like, you don't set out saying, yeah, I'm in
Houston, Texas, I'm going to try to make a movie. Usually those
words are not uttered around here too much. But I thought that, you
know, I wanted to make one, and as a media blogger, all
I did was here about k LOL, even years after it went off the
air, and it was the station I grew up with. I mean,
that was my introduction to real rock music when I was a freshman in high
school. It was like the ritual for anyone who lived here into rock music.
You're going to probably tune into kal LOL. And you know, this
is pre Internet for me. I was in the very early nineties as a
freshman in high school, and you know, you didn't know sink about your
favorite bands. You didn't know kind of lifestyle stuff for just trendy news that
might interest a rock fan. Well, the k LOL DJs were the inner
for you back then. You listen this station, you got entertained, you
learned something, You learned something about the artists you love. And that's kind
of I think how kal Lowel, which some of the DJs will call it
like a lifestyle, they are absolutely correct because they were switched a part of
the community and it was kind of like a tribe. You know, your
people. You'd go out to concerts, and you can still go to concerts.
I went to the Guns and Roses concert a couple months ago and I
saw Runaway Radio shirts like original ones from the station's heyday all over the place.
I saw the Motley Group Poison Show a year before that runaway radio shirts
there too, so it definitely lives on in the hearts of its listeners.
So it makes the perfect documentary. And besides that, the station was extremely
visual. So you know, you think about a documentary with the radio station,
well, oh, how do you do that? It's all audio?
But in k Loel's case, they were very smart and so when it came
to TV commercials, to television appearances, to marketing campaigns in print, so
you bring all that together and you start having kind of an interesting visual palette
to work with for the documentary. And then of course a lot of these
were crazy rebellious types on air, so of course that's going to make an
interesting story for sure. Talked about this as kind of the Internet before the
Internet. Certainly was, but I think the difference is the radio or the
obviously the TV and radio airwaves. It's governed by something called the FCC,
where the Internet is not. And can you imagine if the FCC was not
there when Rockwan it was around. Because they can do anything. Because I'm
gonna give some adgatives over here and tell me if this is correct or what
I'm missing? Launching and risque and just over the top, and it's like,
did I hear what I just thought I hear? You know, there
are kids probably like you who were drawing. Their parents drove them to school,
and maybe the parents did not want their kids listening to it. They
barely got by on that FCC, but it was something that was really unheard
of before. Yeah, we actually talked about that. That's part of the
story, that they would get fined and get in trouble with the FCC.
And we talked to one of the program directors involved in and making sure the
station kept its license, and he actually says in the film there were times
I hated my job because he had to try to rain in these people to
make sure the station was not fined. And the way they got around it,
you know, there was that double entendre stuff like they would be the
way they would say things, they'd have to say it in such a way
where they could get it passed. But of course the listeners could figure it
out. Maybe kids obviously didn't always get it, but the adults were probably
sitting there laughing Mike McGuff he is the director of Runaway Radio. We'll give
you all the information of where you can see it, and certainly if we're
long time Ustonian, they're just a fan of some of the iconic people,
the DJs, all the personalities. This is definitely a you can't miss thing
coming up here. The personalities listen. Nowadays, we know it's about content,
content, content, and to be popular you have to have a hot
take back then, but the personalities on air are they're near and dear to
so many listeners. They're near and dear to me because a lot of them
were my co arts. I work with them and I saw them every single
day. But let's start with Stevens. Improve it now. I when I
started two thousand and one, two thousand and two, Mark Stevens was already
passed in, but Jim Prewitt was still on the radio. But the Stevens
impruit that show alone, I mean, those those guys actually did get national
attention for what they were doing. Yeah, we have a clip in the
movie from the Morton Downey Junior Show, which was a syndicated talk show,
and he came down to Houston and tape the show and Stevens, I prud
are you know, interviewed there and they essentially carried the station for many many
years. When they got there, you know, they were in the battle
with ninety seven Rock, so they kind of helped spark the revival of Kale
Lowell when they faced a lot of adversity in the Radio Awards as we called
them back then. So they were the pillars of that station. And when
you know, Mark Stevens was let go. I think the station was already
in decline for other reasons, but that certainly did not help them. Specifically
about the movie, this was how many years in the other taking? When
did you even start this project? I started in twenty ten, which was
lucky because I was able to get people, honestly before they passed away.
If I'd started any earlier or any later, we wouldn't have some of the
people and a lot of people who you interviewed for this. And I did
see a clip it was it was. It was amazing some of the stars
that you got to sit down. Sammy hager Lyle love it. I saw
Melita, Melissa its Ridge, I saw Dusty Hill in there too. How'd
you get how did you get? You know? These people actually sit down
and talk about Kalowell. Well, you wonder why it took so long.
That's part of the reason. I mean part of it was just to get
even some of the Kalel people to sit down for an interview would take years.
And also when you're dealing with Alan of that caliber of these musicians that
they have busy schedules, are on tour, so sometimes that took years to
get. But you know, stubbornness pays off, so eventually we did get
them, and I think they add a lot to the film because we picked
those kind of big time rock stars that actually have connections to KOLL and they
have stories associated with it which make it interesting. It's a part of the
story. It's not just to have them there because you know they're popular and
people know who they are, but they actually are connected to the station.
Talking with the director Mike McGuff of a Runaway Radio, we'll be right back
with more after this. It's Michael Garfield. It's the High Tech Tection Show.
Continuing going with more of my interview with Mike McGuff, the director of
Runaway Radio, the new documentary movie about KLOL Rock one oh one, and
with Mike McGuff He is the director of the new video on demand movie.
He's actually gonna be playing in a Alibo draft house near you soon. He
is the directors called Runaway Radio. Obviously, the Runaway Radio. That that's
the iconic logo that I still see now. I mean, years and years
after the demise of the format itself, people are wearing that logo. I
still see bumper stickers. I mean, that iconic radio. It's a lot
of stuff. It's about marketing, and it was marketing. We can go
back to Doug Harris, another good friend of ours, of how that logo
was everything about the little radio running with the tennis shoes and the gloves out
there. But it's people still do remember it so much this so it's it's
nostalgis coming back again. Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think that was
brilliant. That Runaway Radio logo really cemented the station in people's minds. And
I mean we were at literally two Saturdays ago, We're to stop light.
Now I'm not paying attention, and my wife goes look and in front of
us was a bumper sticker with the Runaway Radio on someone's back window. So
yeah, and like I said, I go to concerts still to this day,
and their k LOL runaway radio shirts everywhere, and now you can buy
the runaway radio shirt from companies across the country. Even one of the Kalea
DJs, Chris Allen, selling of favorite radiohurts dot Com where you can buy
it. But it's everywhere, it's on etc. It's on all these other
apparel sites. Just type it in and you're going to find them. At
shocking that it's still alive in twenty twenty four about some of the DJs.
It was more than just a Stevenson Prwitz show. A lot of the DJs
who did participate in in this, the movie that it's coming out with,
they still her here in and around the Houston area, and a lot more
still involved in median radio. A good friend of mine outlaw Dave od I
know when most iconic voices that dude was. He's participating. And of course
we love Dana Steele. Dana is a very big presence. She's you know,
she's still doing radio right now. We've got Brian Boner Shannon. I
mean, were they excited, were they nostalgic? Were they getting little for
clemped When you were asking all these questions. Yeah, I mean, I
definitely think that you sit down with someone for two hours and reminisce about the
past, and I think it definitely brings out emotions and thoughts maybe you know
that they weren't going to have before the interview, and definitely when they've seen
it, the reaction is a total time warp. I mean, even if
you have never heard of k Lowell, watching that old video will take you
back to your youth, you know, in the eighties, seventies, eighties,
and nineties, You're going to have memories associated with, you know,
your own past, just kind of it is like a time machine taking you
back to those decades. And of course if you grew up in Houston,
then yes, this will really be a time work because we have file footage
going all the way back to the seventies where we're chilling with Galveston, downtown
Houston, astral World, all the way up into you know, the nineties.
All that footage is really going to You're going to see things you haven't
seen in a long time. We'll just say that, I'm gonna call it
the demise of the format. When Kala Well was taken off the year as
it was and replaced with a Latin pop music format. How did that,
I guess hit you as a listener and any reaction that you remember since you
do cover the media, you know what, what do you remember about a
story or two or three of the people were they ready to burn down the
program directors that they want it back? And then it's because it's no longer
here. Yeah, I was. Actually I didn't even have my blog when
Kalewell went off the air. I probably started my blog a year later,
but I worked at Channel thirteen, and I remember all the TV stations,
the Chronicle were doing stories about it over and over, and yeah, there
were there were Petisians, you know, like we say in the movie,
there there needed to be like a mega on air because just the listenership for
that kind of station was right there and no one was really catering to that.
But at the same time, why did they take kalo lo Well,
they could have honestly taken another station in the portfolio, and honestly, I
don't think anyone would have cared at that point, and I wouldn't have a
documentary today, you know. It's just that k Loel was kind of one
of those stations that hit people in a special way. So of course they
were upset when it was taken away. And I know a lot of people
that time would say, Okay, you know, maybe they weren't even listening
to ko Well back when it went off the air, But I think knowing
it was there was always kind of like a security blanket emotionally, and they
probably always figured the station could come back to some kind of dominance. I
mean every station, and as we talk about in the documentary, there were
ebbs and flows at the popularity of the station from the beginning. So that
just happens with anything. Longtime fans of Kalol when they see this movie Runaway
Radio, what do you think they'll they'll learn that they did know about the
station or about the personalities. I think, honestly, there are people who
worked there who have seen this film and did not know everything that's in the
film. It is that vast that research that because you know, you have
your time frame that you listened or worked at kale Well, which would be
a number of years, but you know you weren't there in the very beginning
or at different parts of it. So yeah, there's so much going on
with this and the three decades it was on the air, plus that it
will show you things you probably had no idea were going on, even if
you worked there. That surprised me from an internal inside baseball media standpoint is,
you know a lot of people don't realize that. You know, they
hear our voices on the radio, or they see us on TV or maybe
on stage, and a lot of times they're the same personality. I mean,
my name is really Michael Garfield. It's not a stage name. I
mean, I like to think I don't put on any ears. Is just
Garf. Come up and talk talk to me. Some people, you know,
they do have that personality. Maybe they're a little bit more angry,
maybe they're a little bit more different, maybe they have a little accent or
something. But it was very intimidating to me so real quickly when I started
in the business here at Clear Channel. It has now been twenty two years
almost exactly coming up in April of twenty twenty four that iHeart at that Clear
Channel had eight stations, all located in the same complex. And this was
back in early two thousands when radio was in Clear Channel just owned so much
of this airways, which I think we kind of still do. But let's
go back to Sunday ninety nine Weaver, Moro and Dana and we've got to
Katie Ah had Jp and Lanta the Arrow ninety three seven had Deanan Raj.
We had Mixed ninety six point five in our stable and it was you know,
Larry Moon and in Shelby. I mean I went to that first day
and I didn't know really much about radio or certainly about media, and the
kind of market manager sat me down in every single one of these personalities over
there because they wanted to introduce me, because I was gonna do segments on
all of these stations, and I mean I was like, this was like
the Justice League of America. I mean, there's this is every superhero that
that's known to Houston. Audiences are in there and they're they're, you know,
they're talking like, here's what Michael's gonna do. He's gonna come on
each morning, do a three, four or five minute bit talk about technology
and whatever. So I did all the stations, but the last one I
did not go on to yet. It was Rock one oh one, and
at that point it was greg O Prewitt and the boner As I was done,
and I had a great time in all the other ones. I was
terrified, terrified to walk into that studio. I didn't grow up in Houston's,
but I just knew of Stevens and Prewitt and how different they were and
what they're gonna ask me, or they gonna ask me, I don't know,
just a strip in front of the newly web camera. I don't know
what they were gonna do. I gotta tell you Jim Prewitt again icon I
did the five or six minute bit. He couldn't have been more inviting and
made me laugh and everything like that. I walked out of the studio.
He came after me out of a studio and he just stopped. Just give
me a high five. He goes, dude, that was phenomenal. Where
did you come from? I said, I'm kind of new with this stuff.
I haven't done a little TV. He goes, you were e fin
brilliant. Can't wait till you come out on a regular basis over here.
But he I said, can you give me any tips? And he goes,
no, I think you're good. You know, maybe you just want
to talk a little slower and kind of play off everybody else, but he
couldn't have been more invited. And I guess the point of the story was,
you know, if you grew up listening to anybody on the on the
radio at one o one, and maybe you thought Stevens or poo what,
we're a little off person to person one on one. Wise they were.
They could not have been nicer, and I think maybe that helped their longevity.
Yeah, definitely, Jim Brewy had this kind of spiritual thing about him,
and I actually have a personal story with him. I mean I had
set up an interview with him at his gun store for something related to Channel
thirteen years ago. And at that point, my dad had died and or
maybe it was when my mom had died actually, and I had called him
and said I couldn't make this because you know, I wasn't going to be
at work because I had to deal with the funeral and stuff. And I'm
talking to him on the phone and he was just super nice and just super
calming, and it was you know, take aside, this is Jim Brute
you're talking to. He was just like a wonderful person to talk to on
the phone and such a horrible time. So yeah, there was something about
him that you sort of saw it on the air, but I think a
very you know, empathetic guy off off off Mike too. What I and
I think people who do see this the Runaway Radio, what is the movie?
They're going to find out a lot of inside information. It's going to
bring back a lot of nostalgia to and probably a lot more sales for that
Runaway Radio D shirt that you're actually wearing right now, Mike McGuff listen,
I could be selling them. I feel like am I missing out by not
cashing in on that too? I think there's enough out there. You haven't
learned anything from me about how to market yourself. Come on, mcgoverer,
we got to continue to work with this. But I'll tell you what,
you're doing a great job of quote unquote selling the film. Tell us where
can we see it? What are the days? Not only on video demand
but also a special presentation coming up at an actual movie theater. Yeah.
So February twenty seventh, which is very soon, it will be available to
rent or buy on Amazon, Google, YouTube, Voodoo, Xbox, and
that list kind of goes on forever. So any place that you rent any
movie, it will be there. And then Saturday, March second, will
have the Houston premiere at the Alamo Draft House in Katie and there's going to
be a Q and A and you're going to see a lot of your favorite
people in the film will be there where you can talk to them and meet
them, and I'm sure we'll have some special surprises as well. There's a
sixth and nine o'clock screening, but I will say they are it's practically sold
out, so definitely go to rock one oh one movie dot com and you'll
see a linked where you can buy tickets. So yeah, I do that
quickly. It's the information is rock one oh one movie dot com. His
name is Mike McGuff. You talked about a labor of love. This is
easily what about a third of your life. I think it took to make
this, didn't it. Yes, it is taking a piece of me.
I have lost a piece of my life and my soul giving up this.
But it has been fun to make it. The process was a lot of
fun making it, so you know, I don't look back at it badly.
It is a gift for all of this. And listen, congrats.
I have known you have talked about this for as long, almost as long
as I've known you, and it is finally here. So congrats on Mozeltov
on having another baby come out. His name is Mike mag Listen. Thank
you so much for your time, my friend, and I wish you the
best of luck. Thank you, and with that we will continue the High
Tech text and Show with me Michael Garfield right after this. We enjoyed that.
We do. Thank mister Mike McGuff and good luck with Runaway Radio.
Some really interesting stories. I wasn't around in Houston when the Runaway Radio one
oh one was really into the hyperdrive, and I honestly, I don't know
if that was for me. I mean, I grew up in Dallas and
there was a format kind of like that, and you know, just you
know, I was more of a sunny ninety nine ish, you know,
pop music kind of guy. But to be able to actually be a part
of it, even for two years two three years of rock one oh one,
to be on it with Jim Pruitt and and those folks over there,
which is pretty cool. We do continue High Tech Textan Show. Had some
extra time in my hands this past week due to a little illness. If
you can't figure it out through my kind of stuffy nose. I usually sound
a little bit more sexier than this, don't cal thoughts. So kind of
stuck at home, just watching watching TV movies, not many sports. I
mean to NBA, you know it's made. It's baseball spring training. I
don't care. NBA, you know it's not in the playoffs yet. So
I'm watching some I figured i'd catch up some movies that I've never seen,
and I really don't. I know, I'm opening up a can of worms.
I'm gonna start this conversation and it's a it's a little shortened show today.
We got to get out of here at that thirty minutes past the next
hour. Got a basketball game coming up for you. But if you've listened
to me a long time, you know that I am a pop culture mogul.
I know incredible, an incredibly stupid amount of information about pop culture dating
back to the seventies. Certainly the eighties is my sweet spot, and I
put it to zero use. But it is surprising when you find out what
movies I have never seen in my life. So do I figured i'd have
a two hours to two three hours to kill and watched the movie I have
never seen. I went on my Twitter account high tech Texan, and I
talked about him. People were just going just freaking crazy. H I was
live blogging like I've never seen it before, which I haven't. Uh the
Shawshank Redemption. Stop it, do not call right now. Yes, I
know, I'm in my fifties. I've never seen The Shawshank Redemption. I've
heard about it, and I got to tell you this, don't hate,
but what's the big deal? I mean, Morgan Freeman, awesome, Frank
Debond, I believe the director, that was his first directing debut, beautifully
directed, Love the camera work, I love everything. Tim Robbins, really
good actor. But uh, just I didn't I thought it was I expected
more from shaw Shak shaw Shank. You know, I'm not gonna spoil for
anybody who's about the prison thing escaping and whatever. It was just kind of
it was kind of slow, kind of kind of slow. Seven one,
three, two, two, five nine five. Oh yeah, I feel
free to open up the phone less because they'm not going to answer them right
now. I still have some top in my hands. Uh, tune in
to my Twitter because I will probably try to watch for the first time ever
The Godfather Parts one and two, which I've never seen. I swear I'm
losing listeners right now. I know. Then after that I may go for
the Big Lebowski, maybe Little Jaws. Never seen them. Lord of the
Rings, Nope, it's a wonderful life. Never have seen it up,
Fight Club Matrix, Nope. I can go on and on and on.
I'll still beat your butts in trivia. I will still take you down.
I digress. It is Michael Garfield. This is called the High Tech Textan
show. You know the phone number right now? Tell you what you know.
I'm a big car guy always. I have a member of the Texas
Auto Writers Association. For the past fifteen years, I have been able to
test drive vehicles of all sizes and shapes and colors and actually power trains,
certainly now electric. I do not get paid these. This is not endorsement.
I do not work with dealerships directly with manufacturers, just like an auto
writer. It is my thoughts. I could tell I can call them out
and I could say they're all crap. I can love them, I can
hate it. It don't matter. I will tell you this. One vehicle
I was looking forward to test drive if it ever came to fruition in my
lifetime. Was the long rumored Apple car. It has been long rumored for
about ten years that Apple was reportedly making a vehicle, ten years, billions
of dollars, multiple leadership changes, rumors, rumors, rumors. But the
rumor coming out of Bloomberg past week the Apple car project is dead Gonzo Apparently
they have officially canceled the car. Two thousand employees had been working on it.
Pepa's going to move many of those employees working on the car to other
divisions of Apple, maybe the Artificial Intelligce division. Apple never spoke publicly about
its efforts to build a vehicle. Internally, it was known as Project Titan.
If you followed it listen. There were a number of leaks over the
years, a lot of ambitious stuff. They wanted to build a fully self
driving car without pedals, maybe without a steering wheel, with a remote command
center ready to take over for a driver. Is building a car company?
It's not easy, ask Elon Musk. The fact is Apple had reportedly considered
pricing the car around one hundred thousand dollars, which is in the ballpark of
a very very high end Tesla model axe an Apple execs even then they were
concerned about the profit margins. This is true. This is one of the
rare setbacks for the company, rare setbacks for Apple, and I'm fine with
it. Let Apple do what it does best, overcharge for items and technology
that look sexy that generally other companies have already beaten them to the punch and
work better. Boom. I did lay an egg on that one. Sorry.
Let Apple work on the Apple car play. Just just let it do
it. The Apple Car itself never felt real. I mean, it was
just just you know, there's only so much rumors that you're going to go
through before it's like it ain't gonna be out there. One time, the
funny, the funniest story that I thought it was real. I go to
call. I love California. I got visiting. I love visiting and travel
in California. I am in cal I'm in San Diego. I'm gonna go
four years ago, three four years ago. I'm driving north on the San
Diego Freeway four or five, I believe, and I'm going north headed back
to Los Angeles, and I see an s u V driving next to me.
It did not have a a badge on it. And the badge is
if you look almost every single car, it's the metal badge that has the
emblem of every manufacturers from BMW to four to GM. Just this one didn't
have a badge, and it didn't have the little letters that are that are
stamped on there or you know that other than the other than the words,
and it looked very professionally done. Lisa, l I s A, all
right, l I s A. And I'm driving and I'm like, that
car looks familiar, but it's freaking me out that i haven't seen anything called
the Lisa. So I'm thinking, what is this? And I'm driving and
I'm following this car for I'm not kidding you, thirty forty miles and I'm
thinking, wait a minute, Lisa was the name of the very first Apple
computer when that came out in the nineteen eighties. I'm wondering if this is
a test model of the Apple car. Oh name Lisa, And I'm getting
I'm been driving up taking pictures and I've got the scoop of my lifetime and
it's gonna be crazy. And all of a sudden, I'm looking closely.
I'm like, I recognize that car. You know what it was. It
was a freaking Hyundai Hallisade Hallisade p Alisade and there was a lady driving it.
It looked like her husband was in the passenger seat. What they had
done, and I've seen this before, they removed they very carefully. You
can remove the badges in the lettering. And she took the word Pallisade and
she took the first part of that off. She took the second part off,
and all she left was apparently her first name, Lisa P A L
I A D. Lisa. Oh my, it's a good thing I didn't
post that. I was such a fool. Our ip Apple, howks,
you're not getting your six figure Apple car, So get out of my dreams,
you will dream. Thirty more minutes of the show. We got the
top of the hour coming up. It's Michael Garfield. It's the high Tech
Dex and I hope you're having fun as much as I am. Can I
have a clean x plaze? So I Texan is Michael garfil Michael Garfield,
Michael Garfield's joining Yeah, the high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with
a high tech Texan. It was to make life easier. There some new
technology. So Michael Garfield has something you. Michael Garfield is your high Tech
Texan. Three decades helping you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on
the iHeartRadio Act. Now your high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield, Top of
the Hour. Halfway through the show. Actually we're over halfway through the show.
A little shortened special version of the High Tech Textan Show. This week.
We only have thirty more minutes. Got to make way for a University
of a Houston Cougar basketball game, the number one ranked UH Cougar basketball game
for so standby will lead you up until the twelve thirty pm Central time tip
off. In the meantime, we're over halfway to Happy Hour. Happy Hour
starts now on a beautiful Saturday here in the Houston area, brought to you
by Papa's p l R Rum. Papa Papa as in Papa Hemmingway that is
his rum. Great to hear stories and get photos and posed and tagged from
a lot of my listeners. The past six seven, eight months I have
been yapping about this. It was really great rum. Don't sleep on rum
man. It is good. It's good sipping especially the different verytelles as I
call them. They have the light blonde rum goes good, you know,
poor little coke, little Kuba Libra, the dark rum. And I did
a video on my Instagram earlier this week. It's it's rodeo season, rodeo
time here in h Town. And I came up with a garf's rodeo rum.
It's a rum drink. It's a it's a dark and stormy. So
you take the dark papas people are dark rum. Little two ounces, Take
some ginger beer. Don't love ginger beer. Four ounces of ginger beer ice.
Put a little lime in there. You know I put in a little
lime. You think it's like a mule. You're gonna love it. Love
ginger beer is good, which goes into a Moscow mule. If you put
vodka in there, put some rum in the becomes a dark and stormy.
I call it a rodeo rum. Try that, but you got to use
Papa's PLR. You can get it. All your great stories. You got
Goodie Goodie, you got total Wine, you got Specs, you got Ralston.
It is served in the Capital of Grille. I see it downtown of
Garden Grace asked for Papa's PLR rum and I guarantee those bartenders will know me
because I helped get that in there. You know what, come by the
end of this month and when I feel better in Rodeo Zova, Rodiova I
need, I'm gonna I'm gonna have a happy art that I'm going to host
and I will be buying rounds of anything made with Papa's PLR rum. We
continue the ht T show National Margarite today, not going too far of it
is actually was celebrated last week. I'm gonna have some, I know,
I'm We're gonna have an interview coming up here. Callum, I hope you're
hungry. Escalante is celebrating thirty years. Could you believe that thirty years Escalante?
There's like what eight of them I think Aaron Houston. They are coming
in there bringing margarita is because they serve margaritas to go, but also some
of the great Fahidas. We'll talk about that in the meantime. We lot's
good down to business. You know what I feel sorry for, you know
the Valentine's Day with you know, came and went. I don't know how
you guys celebrated it, and maybe you didn't. Maybe you're still trying to
figure out which dating app you're going to get on there. But guess what
I read. I saw this about dating apps. There's a tender and Bumble
and Hinge, and I am not kidding you. I am not on any
of these apps, never have been. I I don't think I planned to,
and I may not plan to because they may not be around longer.
Bumble, which I don't I think it's based in Austin. Bumble just laid
off a lot of its staff. It's planning to lay off about thirty percent
of its staff. That's about three hundred and fifty employees. Last quarter,
the fourth quart earnings either the profits, they're not nearly as profitable as they
used to because gen Z Generation Z, which is I guess younger than my
generation X gen X. Apparently dating apps are now a turnoff. Tellum,
you you're a gen Zer. You know you don't want to talk about your
dating Okay, that's fine. A Bumble, the CEO said, the cuts,
that's gonna the cuts are gonna say the company about fifty five million dollars
and the company plans to invest in relaunching the app next quarter with new safety
and artificial intelligence features to woo gen zers who are looking for love, Actually,
let me give you, let me give you a little help over here.
They probably need to woo gen xers like me looking for relove after divorces
and whatever happens. But it's not easy because a lot of people. Everyone's
losing interest, it seems, and swiping for a soulmate, but especially those
young people. Here's a survey last October survey from axios Slash Generation Lab,
seven nine percent of college and grad students said they don't use dating apps.
That's interesting, that's a high number. Now, I've got three boys who
are in their twenties who are not married. They're gen zers, and I
actually I don't think they used They don't use any of it. But that's
but I think I know a lot of their buddies do. That's a high
number, so that's not working. Meanwhile, forty percent of users who were
over thirty said they've paid for dating apps, pair to just twenty two percent
of users who are under thirty, according to a Pew Research study. Listen,
bumble the competitors out there, they're scrambling to innovate two tender believe it's
I'm reading right now. They're trying to shake up its reputation from being a
hookup app hinges investing in in person meetups. You know what, maybe do
what us us parents did, but I guess we were dating in the eighties
or something they did. It's it's just it's called organic, man, But
maybe not do that because it's it's really not working for me either. I
don't know. He's just you go, you meet somebody. Hey, I
got a friend for you, Michael. I don't know. I don't know.
I just thought that was intro because dating apps. I'm not saying they're
over done, but I just I just they did with a little fishy to
me, little fish to me even know. I know, listen, there's
some success stories. Never my buddies have found their soul mas are still married
from dating apps. Good for you and I. What I do is I
go up to their their wives, who are very friends, we are friends
with when I say, you got a sister? Where am I going with
this? I don't know. I'm getting hungry and I'm ready for another cocktail
over here. It's almost national, butgrab Marguerite's coming it. It's gonna be
crazy. U no use to not gonna think about the number right now.
I got about another minute, actually less than a minute, real quickly had
a I knew I've been playing with a smart watch. And I don't have
a ton of time to talk about it now, even the show. But
it reviewed a little bit more next week on my show, but also going
to put some notes on my website high tech texts in dot com. A
company called one Plus. Don't sleep on this company. Last year I found
and I got to test for the first time a phone, a foldable phone
from one Plus. It was called one Plus Open. It was a fold
of a phone. I really really dug it. Just about a month ago
they had sent me the one Plus twelve, which is a new flagship phone.
Is an Android affordable great. They just launched it and I've been playing
this and I could say a word for about the last two two and a
half weeks. Sit me there new one Plus Watch two. This is the
second version of their watch. This is an Android watch. I really like
it. What I'm impressed about this entire company. Their batteries. Their batteries
are just crazy awesome, long, huge. This is a dual operating system.
Nice looking, very large because I like large watches, you know,
millimeter size, easy to manipulate, screen great, so many apps. The
battery life is fantastic, last almost four days. Quick charging that it comes
with too. You could customize the watch face work seamlessly on either the Samsung.
It's certainly the one plus. I like it a lot, three hundred
dollars fifty dollars traded. Also it's called the one plus watch too. We'll
talk more about that next week, but in the meantime, this is what
I do. I review as many things as I can, and it doesn't
have to be technology. Because coming up in his time for fajitas and margaritas
before we get out of here, don't go anywhere. It is Michael Garifel,
the high Tech text in Shiseau. Good afternoon, my good friends.
I appreciate you tuning in. It is Michael. Actually i'm gonna call this
segment. I'm gonna call it the Miguel Garfield. It's the Alto Technelaria Tjano.
I gotta do a little Spanish here because you know what this week is.
It's National Margarite a week. Technically it was national Margarita Day, but
I'm going to go with the entire week right now? Is Margarita's? Is
that the official drink of Texas? If it's not, I'm really going to
start some sort of a petition to make it, because that's pretty much what
we drink here year round and certainly this week. So many restaurants out there
doing Fahida specials and Margarita's, but one of the biggies with the classic and
now turning thirty years old, this restaurant here in the Houston area, Escalantes.
Everybody should be familiar with Escalantes. They got seven locations all around the
Age Town area. I go to the one out in sugar Land that's near
me. So good. And not only are they're celebrating their thirtyth aniversary,
they're celebrating National Margarite to Day and fatas and so bringing food into studio,
which is really the coolest thing I get to do in media. I get
all. I got this food over here. It's Ali Quert this he is
the general manager of the Meyerland location and he is celebrating for Escalantes bringing in
some good food. Hey, I appreciate, and why did you only bring
just like three or four margaritas to me and me go, of course we
should. I mean, we have a few margaritas, but you're more than
welcome to come over. You know, we have tons of margaritas waiting for
you, guys. And it's not just this week you do. Every time
you're open, you do have margarita. It's not just celebrating National Margerita Day.
For those unfamiliar, I don't know why thirty years that Escalonte's has been
over here, tell us a little about Esclonte's how it started. So Esclentas
started back in December nineteen ninety three with our Woodwag location. It comes from
a family, Miss Barbara Escalantes, and that's where all the recipes are coming.
So there is an Escalon. There actually is an Escalante. Yeah,
that's a last name. Okay, very good. All right, So for
some reason you change at Garfield would be a nice name for a new Mexican
restaurant. If you guys want to branch out right, you can take that
back to your marketing place. The first location, as you said, was
was on Woodway. Woodway, is it? And that's still there? Yes,
that's the oge you know one. Oh my goodness, you have been
working there twenty years or so, is that what you're doing? Yes,
being with the company for twenty years. Actually, I started at wood we
and Boss as a server and move myself on. Did you know what?
I love hearing stories about that, and so I think the Escalantes may actually
be changed to wert this here the next generations. As we're talking to Ali
quert This, he's the GM at one of the escalantes over here. One
of the signature things, and I continue to read more about it and along
with my visits. Everything is fresh, and that's one of the things that
you pride yourself on that is correct. Everything's fresh, made from scratched.
We get our pros every single day. Some of them come from Mexico,
California. But yeah, everything's fresh. One of the staples that I think
of how to tell a really good text Max restaurant from another, it's the
tortillas. Yes, sir, to tell me you make those all on site?
We do. We do as a made paid order. We do half
I'm sorry, flour and corn tortillas handmade. Yeah, delicious. Half so
half are flour and half a Yes we do have flour. Yes, yes,
Oh that's a good consistent. As I peak over the monitors and I
see just a whole plethora of food over here. I can't wait to dig
in, one of which is your caeso queso. Again, I talked about
margarite as being the national drink of texts. I think keeso should be like
the probably the national food or something that literally should be injected directly into our
veins. You use queso blanco. I noticed the white cheese. I love
that much more so than the yellow cheese. Yes, sir, so,
we're known for queso blanco. It's made with Shadar cheese and American white cheese,
white onion, and green bell peppers. Delicious too. Staple, I
talk about staples again. You know, obviously I'm an enchilada fan. I
mean, I go simple. I like cheese enchiladas. But you cannot have
a great restaurant without having great fatas, which I know. I generally have
this chicken fijedas which your sweat. Can you give me the secret sauce of
how you make it fijeda? So? Well? Well for the beefaheda wheels
outside skirt. Of course, we marinated overnight with our secret recipe and we
cooked our feeding meat, medium ware. Serve on a hot scalet, very
hot skill Joe. By the way, if you if you ever see a
hot skiale coming out, people don't have the kids go oh is this hot?
Stay away for that stuff. We're chatting with Aliquert This he is with
Escalante's. There are thirtieth anniversary seven locations and we'll kind of give a break
that down here in a second. So let's take a look as we go
down the radio down left to right, some of the good stuff that you
brought into celebrate. We already talked about the fetas. You've got the beef
and you've got the chicken in on the top of a little bit of veggies
here. Huh yes, sir, so serve it with saltate, onion and
bad pepper, of course, with all the fixings fresh peakle. They got
your fresh wacamole, shred of cheese and sour cream. We have sights cylinder
rice, Mexican rice, black bean and rey fried pinto beans, which both
are vegetarian. And I noticed you. We got two guacamoles over here,
and they're a little different, you know. One it's like your typical guacamole
but this one looks like a table side, is that right? That is
correct. So we're known for making the wacamole on table. So it's fresh
meat per order, which you can tell us what do you want? What
do you want us to add it to guacamole and we'll do it for you.
Oh that is awesome. I love it. It's fun just watching how
it's made. And of course I sit there and try to replicate it and
home myself. It just never tastes as good as you guys do it in
the restaurant. We have the touch. Oh exactly. Yeah, you need
to come over and make something in my kitchen. All right. Now comes
to even just as fun stuff. It's a National Margarita Day was a few
days ago. Well I'm going to call this National Margarite a week. You
actually brought in a few of these things, and you just don't have one
type of margarita. You brought in several of them. What are the differences
are you? So we have what we call Escalante's number four. That margarita
has a history. So pat Antrio and Kope went to Halisco, Mexico,
and they actually picked that barrel. Actually it was the fourth barrel. And
that's what the name is coming gotcha. Uh, it's hand picked that Margaret.
It's made with heradula double barrel, not on Halicore fresh squeeze slam use.
And I got that? Is this the one right here? That is
the one? Okay, I'm gonna say. I'm a professional, so I
could do this on live radio. So let me go ahead. And oh
that is like you know what, it's not too sweet because you never you
don't need too much of that sugar. That is good, strong, as
I say. But I'm a professional. I can do this. Kids,
do not do this at home while you're talking on the radio. That's just
one. We also have something. I see some jlapenas floating in there.
What else do we have? Yes, so we have we have a spicy
mango which is a model fresh mango and fresh jilapenos with Catas Blanco tequila,
not on Halicore fresh slam use. And I we used only fresh lamb use
and I got it with our margerators. If you have to pick one signature,
which one would say, is there one did you actually call signature or
just all the mo open your mouth? People, Well, I'll go within
number four. That tequila is made especially for us, so you can't get
it anywhere else or then in our seven locations. It is. It is
good stuff. Chatting here with Alec Wert This he is with Escalante's. Actually
I'm looking at the emails coming over here. We've got actually someone who actually
lives near you in Myreland. Is his name is Jim. Jim says,
hey, it's I frequent the Mierland location. I need to start venturing out
to the other one. And do they have a happy hour because that is
something I've never seen. So actually the last question, oh you do tell
us about do we have a happy hour? It's Monday through Friday three to
six, and we feature in our original margarita with perto Wai jerta Goal tequila
and Jule's sixty proof Tequila's that's the key right there. Ooh, sixty proof
because generally it's forty. Generally tequilas are forty, but we're going sixty sixty
only at Escalante, only in Escalantes, with fresh flame use and simple syrup.
Oh my goodness, this is good. You guys open seven days a
week. We open seven days a week. We open at eleven Fridays and
Saturdays, we'll close at ten, gotcha. Any other day we close on
nine, right, And to wrap it up over here, you have seven
locations we've already know. We know the Myerland. There's one in Woodlands,
there's one on wood Way that I know. There's one in right on West
Timer in kind of the River Roxea type of area. That is correct,
one town of country. Yes, gosh, I'm getting this off a handed.
What am I missing? Sugar Land? Sugar Land. I go to,
of course Sugarland, and we have one not south, oh, NASA,
down south Okay, wherever you are listen. Our radio signal goes all
the way across southeast Texas people. You got to try it out. Happy
National Marguerite today. And actually as a gift from Escalont's. You see,
I'm not the only one who benefits from all this good food. Two of
our lucky winners. You brought in some gift cards, didn't you, my
friend. Yes, we have two one hundred dollars gift cards. Two one
hundred dollars gift cards. People stand by I between now and the end of
the show, or maybe one on social media. High tech tax I will
give away these gift cards Courts Escalante, so you do can win the opportunity
to go try some of these margaritas. And by the way, if you
don't win, suck it up. Just go to them, go eat there.
That's how good it is. Ali Horitis, thank you so much for
coming in and happy National Margarita Day week. Of course, thank you so
much for having us here and just come and see us. You got it
so friendly, so good. Thirty freaking how do you say? It's that
Trent, you need one more margarita? Let me help you out. You
brought a lot of margarita's in. I'm gonna have by the end of the
show. I'm gonna be absolutely it's all espagnol here all the time. All
right. It is Miguel Garfield KPRC nine fifty AM here in the Houston area,
but also on iHeartRadio all over the country. Appreciate you. Tune in
and we'll be right back after this.