My favorite country music singer of all time – heck, my favorite singer of any genre of all time, really – is George Strait, the King of Country Music. The man has 60 No. 1 hits to his credit, and influenced an entire generation of singers to come back to traditional country after a wave of crossover pop-country acts proliferated in the '70s.
There are none better and few as good as The King at telling a story via song and just standing in the middle of the arena and making every single person in the building sing along word for word. He is, to put it bluntly, the best in the business.
My favorite George Strait song of all time is one of his newer hits, Troubadour, but there are about 15 songs that are a very, very close second, including his classic The Cowboy Rides Away. Well friends, that's the theme of today's episode, because your ol' pal Andy is hanging up his headphones and stepping away from The Dubcast.
In September of 2019, Johnny asked me if I'd be interested in taking over for Beau Bishop, who had been an incredible cohost. It was a risky proposition, because while I had spent more than a decade as a broadcast journalist, and nearly 10 years in radio specifically, I had never been a sportscaster. But Johnny and I quickly found that we had an incredible rapport, and we've spent the past 200 or so weeks together cracking wise and sharing our #takes on everything from the state of Buckeye football to the utility of grits as part of a balanced breakfast.
It's been a true pleasure and privilege to be a part of The Dubcast, and more specifically to be Johnny's podcast partner for nearly four years.
But time and change will surely show how firm thy friendship, as our alma mater says, and indeed it is time for some change. As my professional responsibilities away from Eleven Warriors have grown this year with a new day job, it made sense for me to gradually step away from my duties covering Ohio State's wrestling team, and sadly for me personally, away from my hosting duties.
Co-hosting this show has been one of my favorite things I've done over the course of 20+ years in media, and I'll always be grateful to Johnny and to Jason Priestas for letting me play in the sandbox lo these many years. And I'm especially grateful to our regular group of listeners for adding so much fun the show via social media messages and the ever-important submissions to "Ask Us Anything." You're the reason this program is still going strong more than a decade "on the air," so to speak.
So let's saddle this horse one last time together, shall we? Next week's episode will feature our new cohost, who has admirably filled in for me several times in recent months, and he and Johnny will continue to serve up something hot and juicy for your listening pleasure each week. That's right, The Dubcast ain't going anywhere, it'll just have a new and improved cohost alongside the show's soul and mainstay, Johnny G.
Until next time, to quote Downtown Julie Brown, peace, love, and wubba wubba wubba.
