It was a sweltering summer evening in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The year was 1955.
A 10-year old boy was sitting at his bedroom window, looking out at a (mostly) empty backyard and talking to no one except his dog, Riney.
He had watched Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner call the CBS Game of the Week earlier in the day and had meticulously scored it on a hand-drawn scorebook page.
Now it was his turn—recreating what he had just watched.
Riney, and perhaps a few other neighborhood dogs, were his only audience.
Now, his voice is known to millions.
That boy?
Dave South.
Radio turned out to be his destiny.
a 10-year-old Dave South
From those bedroom window baseball broadcasts in his home town of Wichita Falls, South's path led him eventually to Waco and KWTX Radio.
The GM?
Frank Fallon, already a legend in radio play by play.
If you are over the age of 40 and grew up listening to college sports in the state of Texas, you've heard of Fallon—one of the all-time broadcasting greats in the state of Texas.
The pair were on the air often, bringing sports to the people of Waco.
All kinds of sports.
"We did everything you could possibly imagine. We did Little League Baseball, sitting on a card table behind a backstop. We did pee wee football on Saturday mornings, sitting on top of a 10-row bleacher. If it was a sporting event, we broadcast it."
They did high school and junior college basketball games. They did both the Southwest Conference Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships for over 10 years. They did NCAA Basketball games.
South's football career really took off while at KWTX, with much of the credit going to Fallon.
The Southwest Conference was the home of the nation's first broadcast network. Known at this time as the Exxon SWC Radio Network, fans around the state could listen to every game throughout the day.
In 1970, it was hiring.
Fallon told South he should apply, which he did. After an audition, he was hired.
He's called college football ever since.
In fact, South is the last of the Exxon SWC Radio Network announcers still on the air.
"Frank was my mentor. He's why I am where I am today. He was a great teacher."
South was even the host of a two-hour morning news and talk show from 1974 until 1981 when, a few months after Fallon left to work at Baylor, South departed radio for the first—and only—time in his career.
For two years he sold for Herndon Medical Supplies during the week and broadcast sports on the weekend.
South returned to radio, this time in sales, in 1983. He remained in the Waco area, working at KNFO.
It would be his final step before taking the biggest—and best—of his career.
Coming to Texas A&M.
"That guy was terrible."
In 1979, Host Communications wanted a part of college football and basketball. They won the rights to the popular SWC Radio Network.
"They put a bid on the table that just blew everybody else away," South said.
Fast forward to 1985. A&M Athletic Director and Head Football coach Jackie Sherrill hired South to become the Aggies' voice on the radio network. It began a 32-year association with the school that has become as much a part of him as he the fabric of A&M sports to fans around the world.
The A&M radio crew at the 1986 Cotton Bowl.
Each school had its own voice on a network that covered all teams—the setup for the SWC games was an interesting one to say the least.
"At home, I would do the play-by-play. And when we were on the road, their broadcaster would do play-by-play and I would do the color."
As fate would have it, a chance moment in a visiting locker room in 1987 would change the face of college sports radio in the state of Texas forever.
Following the an Aggie win, South was waiting in the locker room before the team left. Offensive line coach Joe Avezzano's son, Tony, came up to South and asked who was doing the radio with him.
South explained the setup.
"That guy was terrible," Tony Avezzano said.
"I turned around, and Jackie was standing right there," South recalls.
Jackie had heard the entire conversation.
"I want to see you in my office Monday," Sherrill said.
South met with Sherrill that Monday morning, sat down and explained how everything worked.
"He said, 'We really don't have our own network, do we?'"
South shook his head.
"That's going to change," Sherrill said.
The following spring, Sherrill called Jim Host—founder and CEO of Host Communications. The two met in Dallas, where Jackie…well, did what Jackie did.
"He got up there, and just flat out told Jim, 'This is coming to an end. We're going to have our own network, Texas is going to have their own network…everybody else is going to have their own network.'
"And it's been that way ever since."
In 1988, the Texas A&M Radio Network was born. South would handle the play-by-play duties, and Dave Elmendorf was hired as analyst.
Stations, which had been required to carry all the SWC games, jumped at the chance to continue to broadcast the Aggies—and to a lesser extent the Longhorns. It quickly grew to over 50 stations, the largest in the state. The rest of the league struggled to regain anything close to the footprint they had through the old conference radio network.
"The days of the old Exxon network, where Exxon made sure everybody got equal coverage, were gone…But it was the right way to go. Those smaller schools were riding the coattails of A&M and Texas."
"I want A&M to win. That's all there is to it."
When working for the Exxon Radio Network, South—like any of the outlet's announcers—was required to be neutral at all times.
Even when the teams were playing non-conference opponents, announcers were told to play it right down the middle of the road—not even showing favoritism for the network's home conference school.
It was pure business.
"Exxon had this terrible fear of somebody being for or against a certain team," South said. "Say an LSU fan was listening to an LSU-Rice game, and he's having to listen to the Rice broadcast. It wasn't unusual for Exxon to get one of their credit cards in the mail, cut in two, with a note saying I don't like your radio network."
This obviously was not an issue when it came to working for the Aggies.
"By and large, the people who are listening to me want me to be excited. To some extent, I have a little pride, because I've had people tell me when they tune in they can tell by the tone of my voice—without me ever giving the score—if we were ahead or behind.
"I'm the Voice of the Aggies. I want A&M to win. That's all there is to it."
Dave with Reveille V outside Kyle Field.
South became a full-time employee with A&M in 1990, where he handled sponsorship sales, broadcasting the games and hosting the coaches' shows. He would eventually rise to Associate Athletic Director before retiring in 2009.
Through the years in College Station, South's worked for Host Communications, Learfield, Sports Network Incorporated (SNI), Clear Channel, and now Learfield once again.
But no matter who's signed the paycheck, one thing has remained constant.
His love for Texas A&M.
South's talent had humble beginnings in his bedroom window of his family home in Wichita Falls, with only his dog Riney to listen.
He now sits on his current perch high atop the largest football stadium ever built in the state.
It's a career that began 47 years ago in Waco.
For over three decades, we've had the privilege to be able to call him ours.
"God blessed me with Texas A&M. That's a special relationship.
