Midnight Trucking Radio Network
| Genre | Talk show |
|---|---|
| Running time | 5 hours, Monday–Friday |
| Country of origin |
 United States
|
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | WBAP News/Talk 820 in Fort Worth, Texas |
| Syndicates | Westwood One |
| Starring | Eric Harley and Gary McNamara |
| Created by | Bill Mack |
| Original release | 1969 – present |
| Website | Official show website |
| Podcast | Red Eye Radio podcasts |
Red Eye Radio is a talk radio program currently hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara. The program is syndicated nationwide by Westwood One and originates from WBAP in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The show traces its history through several predecessors, beginning with Bill Mack's overnight truck show in 1969.
Bill Mack was the founder of WBAP's overnight program, the U.S. 1 Trucking Show. Mack started the show in 1969. The show, as the name implied, was geared toward the American truck driver and featured a lot of country music. The show briefly attempted an excursion into Mexico on border blaster XERF, but that arrangement ended after it was clear that Mack would not be able to host the show from his home in Fort Worth.
Eventually, the show's name changed to the Midnight Cowboy Radio Network and was syndicated by ABC Radio, who carefully selected the affiliates to give maximum coverage of the country.
Mack left the show to join the Open Road channel on XM Satellite Radio.
After Mack's departure, ABC changed the name of the show to Midnight Trucking Radio Network. The network tapped WBAP producer Eric Harley, along with Joe Kelley, to host the show. In addition to Mack's old network, MTRN absorbed Dave Nemo's old The Road Gang network when Nemo left for XM as well.
ABC turned over syndication of the program to Jones Radio Networks in 2005, and Kelley left the show. Jones turned to Gary McNamara, a conservative talk radio host, to fill Kelley's seat. With the change in focus from solely truckers to a more general purpose program, the show changed its name yet again, to the Midnight Radio Network. Under Jones, the number of affiliates grew from about a dozen stations, mostly 50,000-watt clear-channel "flamethrowers," to 38. Seven clear-channel stations - WBAP, WJR in Detroit; KXL in Portland, Oregon; KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa; WLS in Chicago; KBOI in Boise; and KOKC in Oklahoma City, as well as regional station WMAL in Washington, D.C. - front the network, which claims to reach all 48 contiguous states plus Hawaii.
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Wikipedia