Bill Mack, The Midnight Cowboy, passes away at 91

Mike

Well-Known Member
Bill Mack, who was born in the Panhandle town of Shamrock, was known to his loyal listeners as the "Dean of Country Music Disc Jockeys" and "Radio's Midnight Cowboy" due to his dual status as a country music DJ and songwriter.

He first hit the airwaves in Fort Worth in 1969 as a disc jockey on WBAP 820-AM where he hosted the Country Roads Show and played music for overnight truckers.

The show, which was broadcast out of the historic WBAP studios where NBC 5 also first went on the air, was later renamed the Midnight Cowboy Trucking Show, which is associated with his moniker. The show, with its clear channel signal, reached listeners in Texas and across much of the United States.

 
I listened to many of his shows as a kid, when I was supposed to be sleeping, lol. First listened to him when I was able to pick up the radio station while living in California. Thought it was cool to pick up a radio station there from as far away as Texas, then simply ended up leaving it there at night to listen to his show.

Moved to Texas in the early 80’s and it became much easier to tune the channel in, lol.
 
I have to be honest. I never heard of him but, I am sure he kept many driver safe buy keeping then awake listening to his show and for that I thank him.
Rest In Peace Bill Mack.
 
I have to be honest. I never heard of him but, I am sure he kept many driver safe buy keeping then awake listening to his show and for that I thank him.
Rest In Peace Bill Mack.
Probably lots of drivers today have no clue who he is. Not too many these days have had the experience of searching radio stations for specific shows you listen to at night.

Drivers used to call into these shows at night from payphones.
 
Probably lots of drivers today have no clue who he is. Not too many these days have had the experience of searching radio stations for specific shows you listen to at night.

Drivers used to call into these shows at night from payphones.
phone call GIF by US National Archives
 
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Probably lots of drivers today have no clue who he is. Not too many these days have had the experience of searching radio stations for specific shows you listen to at night.

Drivers used to call into these shows at night from payphones.
True! The only reason why I knew who Dale Sommers was, was because he was on XM only learned of his past on nation wide AM radio stations after.
 
True! The only reason why I knew who Dale Sommers was, was because he was on XM only learned of his past on nation wide AM radio stations after.
Bill Mack was on XM as well in the beginning, all three of the overnight trucking show hosts came to XM.

During the merger to Sirius, Willies Road House didn't make the cut, and they decided not to bring mack over to the Road Dog channel.
 
He didn’t do it very many times the only reason I remember is because that’s only about 25 miles from the house.
Where do you live? We can't be too far apart (live in Knox, work at Hunter Peterbilt in Clearfield).
Did you see the box van that went over the bridge on I-80 near Brookville on Saturday?
 
Where do you live? We can't be too far apart (live in Knox, work at Hunter Peterbilt in Clearfield).
Did you see the box van that went over the bridge on I-80 near Brookville on Saturday?
Just outside of New Bethlehem (drive for Walmart out of Woodland) I heard about it on the news. I just came thru there a little while ago but couldn’t figure out for sure where he went over.
 
Just outside of New Bethlehem (drive for Walmart out of Woodland) I heard about it on the news. I just came thru there a little while ago but couldn’t figure out for sure where he went over.
You're real close...my family has a funeral home in NB
 

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