By Paul Heckmann
Edited by Mike Farris
Paul Heckmann: Hello there Troy. Paul Heckmann here.
Troy Dungan: Hi Paul, I just walked in the door.
Paul: Glad to finally catch up with you.
Troy Dungan and the crew at Channel 8, Iola Johnson, Tracy Rowlett and Verne Lundquist. Courtesy WBAP
Let me kind of start out for the folks that might have recently moved to Dallas or Fort Worth. Mr. Dungan was our Channel 8 Weatherman for many years. I know he goes back a bit before that, so I will let him fill you in.
Troy: I stopped doing this in, in 2007, so it’s been 18 years since I was a TV weather guy, but, but I did it for 45 years, 31 here in Dallas.
Paul: It’s quite amazing actually. You’ve been named the best television weathercaster by the Texas AP broadcasters eight times. The Dallas Observer had named you the best television weather caster five times. You’d received the Knight of the Press award and special recognition from the National Oceanic, atmospheric Association research flight facility for work on a documentary dealing with the subject of hurricanes. Additionally, The Dallas Press Club had bestowed the Kaia Award upon you. During the last week as Chief Weather Anchor, the National Weather Service gave, Troy an award for his service to the weather community.
I guess we should start this with your personal history. You were born in Ennis?
Troy: Yes, I was born in Ennis and my parents moved to Hillsboro when I was three. So I’m basically a local. I lived in Hillsboro from age 3 to 18, and then they moved south a few miles when I went to Baylor. So I was in this part of the country for most of my life until I started working
Paul: Sic’em Bears.
Troy: Yes, indeed. I went to Baylor and then I started working at KWTX Radio and TV in Waco where a lot of local guys started. KWTX is a very good radio and TV station, it’s a real pioneer. I think the TV station’s been the air since the early fifties, it’s a good product in a good market
Waco’s not a big city, but it’s a good radio and TV market.
Paul: Absolutely.
Troy: So, are you a Baylor grad as well?
Paul: I went to Baylor for a couple of semesters. I went to Texas A&I as I got a football scholarship down there.
So, when did you leave Waco for Orlando?
Troy: When I graduated in January of 59, I moved down to KBTX-TV in Bryan College Station at that time. Ladybird Johnson owned half of that station so it was a natural transition.
In 1959, Bryan Valley Station good, but I decided I wanted to see the world, so I went to Florida on vacation. I applied at several different TV stations there. At that time this one was called WDBO in Orlando, it’s now Channel 6, a CBS station.
And so I got a job there however it was not doing news or weather. It was what you used to call a ‘booth announcer’. That was the fella that announced all the station commercial logs. Then in February of 62 they said, ‘hey kid, we need somebody to do the weather at 11 o’clock. You wanna try this?” And I said, “Sure”. And then later on they added another cast at 6 PM.
And then a station in Houston called and said, they would provide me with an education in Meteorology.
Troy and Janet in the early days. Courtesy Troy Dungan
I moved to Houston to KTRK-TV, and for a year and a half to two years, I had private lessons every day from a couple of professors at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic University in Houston. And they developed a TV meteorology curriculum based on what they taught me. So my background is quite unusual. I’m the only one I know that really had private lessons in meteorology. My degrees are in Radio, TV and Political Science. That private training really played off for me.
Paul: And was that the National Engineering Science Company?
Troy: That was just the University of St. Thomas. These two guys were college professors, Dr. Thomas and Dr. Goldwyn and they developed a curriculum based on what they taught me.
So that put me in good stead for seven and a half years at KTRK TV in Houston. It’s ABC 13 now.
Paul: That’s amazing. Isn’t that where you met your wife?
Troy: Janet and I met when we both worked at KTRK-TV in Houston. She was a behind the scenes staffer. Too bad she wasn’t in front of the camera. She was and still is beautiful.
Paul: That she is!
Now when did you leave for Philadelphia?
Troy Dungan at Ch 7. Photo courtesy Internet included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
Troy: It was in 1972. They actually contacted me. CBS owned that station at Tough Times Networks, they only owned five network stations at that time.
One of them was in Philadelphia and this guy called me and he said, ‘I need somebody here’. So I went up and interviewed with them and sure enough, got a job doing weather in Philadelphia, which was big because at that point, Philly was the fourth largest market, it’s a big city.
It’s a wonderful place. It’s, it’s a tough town for sports fans, you know, they actually booed Santa Claus at a Eagles game. The winter’s not too bad, summer’s not too hot. I was there for a couple of years
Paul: And that’s when you developed current five day forecast system?
Troy and his brand new “5 Day Outlook”. Photo courtesy Internet included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
Troy: That is correct. We were one of the first ones to do that.
Now they do it all the time. The forecast is really the first two days – and outlook is five days and anything beyond that’s an educated guess.
Paul: Tell me about WXYZ in Detroit.
Troy: I was in, in Philadelphia a couple years, and the guy that I had replaced in Philadelphia, whatever news, and after a couple years, they’re gonna bring him back, and so my spot kind of went away. So. I didn’t really look for a job in Detroit. That was not a place I was really headed for. But I went to New York and spoke with Al Primo at, ABC. He was developed a happy talk TV news and he, he leaned back in his chair and he said, I need someone in Detroit. So I go back to Philadelphia that afternoon and I’m a plane ticket for Detroit the next day.
Ah, the climate in Detroit. The people are great, but the climate’s awful. Anyway, the bottom line was I got this job in Detroit and for two years I did weather and environmental reporting there, but I was never really delighted to be there.
However, I met Marty Haag, who was the TV news director at WFAA in Dallas while I was still in Detroit. So it took us a while to work this out, but in the spring of 76, I came down to Dallas and sure enough, I got the job as well.
Paul: Now there is one big part of your journey yet to be told from WXYZ. Tell me about the evolution of your signature bow tie.
Troy: That is correct. Yes, it was, it was very cold and I was doing a story about ice fishing in the middle of Pontiac Lake. The ice was like eight inches thick and we all had these Channel 7 Blazers. And it had the logo on the pocket so we all looked alike, and you had to wear a high neck sweater because it was cold. Our ties would disappear underneath those sweaters. Anyway, Don Meredith was doing a Super Bowl for ABC, and he was wearing a bow tie. I said, ‘that’s interesting’, and when I tried it, you could still see the high neck sweater. So I bought three bow ties, wore ’em for three days, took a day off.
And after that, one of the anchors said, what happened to that bow tie? That was interesting. So I went and bought some more. That was 1974. So I started wearing bow ties and it became a trademark. It really says, here’s this guy and there’s everybody else. So it was, it was a good trademark for me. It still is.
Paul: And these were all hand tied bow ties too.
Troy: Oh yes, I said, if you’re gonna do this, you gotta learn to do it right. So I kept the instructions in my pocket for a long time just in case somebody came along and ripped it undone. I. And it’s still not easy. I have to stand in front of a mirror to do this, and I couldn’t tie one on anybody else. It’s still not an easy discipline, but it’s worth it because it just turned out to be my look.
Paul: Well, you know, something, I had the clip on bow ties and I had to stand still stand in front of a mirror to get it straight.
Troy: And also I’ll let you in another secret if Paul, there are two ways to wear a bow tie, the kind you hand tie. You can just have the kind of a double make hair look or it’s a little messy. Or if you’re anal retentive as I am, you’d like for the ends to match. So I take double sticky tape and stick the ends together after it’s tied and that way it looks neat.
Paul: Very cool! Okay then. Now you don’t wear a bow tie on Thanksgiving. Is there a story there?
Troy: Well, that’s, that used to be when I worked at Channel 8, I was the senior guy, so I could, I could work what holidays I wanted, but I wanted to be fair. So I always wanted to be off Christmas. So I always worked on Thanksgiving, which is a weekday of course.
And so on those days I would always wear a turtleneck. That’s kind of a protest of being there!
And I still have a, I have a drawer full of ’em. I’ve got 220 bow ties. I have a new client, a commercial, so I’m wearing a tie in that or whatever. So if I wore a tie there, I’d look like I was trying to stand out if I have a business meeting. Like a, a funeral or something. I still have those ties and, and I wear ’em and I don’t have any straight ties!
Paul: And Dallas is next. You arrive in July of 1976, tell me about what’s going on and how you got there.
Troy: Hardy Hague was the news director. We knew each other and as I said before, it took us a while to put it together. So he invited me down and we decided that we could do this. And my parents were in Ennis by that time, so they were happy They were living here and it’s the only place I ever worked where my parents could watch me on TV.
We had a daughter at that time who was a year and a half old. So also my parents got to watch my baby daughter grow up. Her name is Wyn-Erin
And we had three days to look for a house. We came down in the spring from Detroit to move here in July.
We, the third house we looked at third day, we bought that house in July of 1976, and that’s where I’m sitting right now. We still live in that house. Paul,
Paul: And your daughter?
Troy: She is married and. So I’m a grandpa. So, but, but you know what, we had two older kids as well, and think about this. This is the house where they grew up. Mm-hmm. And that doesn’t really happen anymore. You know, this is people move around. But since we’ve been here for half a century in this house, well, those kids grew up here, so it’s home. Janet and I love that place.
Paul: So you’re, you’re back in Dallas. Was this only at 6pm?
Troy: actually, I did the, the weather at five, six, and 10: And for 30 years I did that. And then I was gonna retire at after those 30 years, I was certainly there long enough to retire, but they talked me into staying another year. So, Pete Delkus entered the picture. I had been responsible for getting my own replacement, so I talked to him into coming down from WCPO in Cincinnati. We worked together for a year. We kind of split duty. And then the last was there, the 31st year. I just did the six o’clock weather. Pete did the five and the 10. So after that, I stopped in July of 2007, and that’s been 18 years now. I haven’t looked back.
Paul: An amazing career.
Paul: While we are on Ch 8, let’s talk about Dale Hansen, your station’s sports guy. Dale claimed weather was an easy job…
Troy: I said, ‘It’s not quite like forecasting all the sports stories five days ahead.’
And he said, he said, ‘Okay, you got me there.’
Paul: Dale was known to spout a little bit.
Troy: Oh, Dale’s one of those guys. He’s got no filter on his brain. Whatever’s out there just comes out his mouth.
Paul: He is a character for sure.
Troy: He is indeed.
I just had a wonderful career, but you know, I said I’ve done this long enough and I wanna stop before somebody tells me to!
Paul: Well, looking back in your youth, I bet you never thought about doing the weather..
Troy: In high school I was interested in journalism and was a paid reporter for the local newspaper in Hillsboro when I was in high school. I had the idea of majoring in journalism at Baylor and I kind of fell into broadcasting and wound up a degree in, in Radio and TV Communications, and I had room for a second major. So I chose Political Science. So I started out to be in the news business and the weather just kind of came to me by chance. You have to be ready for whatever life brings you and turned out it was gonna be weather. So I did that for 45 years. It was very good to me.
Paul: ‘Dance with what brung ya’ as I think Darrell Royal said.
Troy: That’s true. Worked out very well.
Paul: Worked out very well.
Troy Dungan VHA Toy Drive WFAA Ch 8 Santa’s Helpers, courtesy Tim Seaman
Who were some of your favorite co-hosts to work with?
Troy: Well, Tracy Rowlett and I are still friends, I’m having dinner with him and his wife plus another couple next week, We’ve known each other, of course, for over 50 years, and Tracy and I have worked together on several different occasions.
And we talk about things that happened behind the camera and some of other people. The late Chip Moody was just a real character. We got a lot of good stories and, of course I worked with Dale Hansen, we were acquaintances. We were never really close friends because he only showed up in the studio to do the sports and he was back in his office. I also worked with Verne Lundquist who’s retired now, he worked for CBS sports for many years. He’s still a good friend as well. But I don’t see him very much.
He spends a lot of time in Steamboat Springs, which would be his first home now. So otherwise, we’ve just had a good bunch of people over the years. Uh, some people whose names you wouldn’t recognize from on the air, but we’re still friends and see each other and, and still enjoy friendships ’cause life’s about relationships. And if you can maintain those friendships, that’s a very important part of life.
Paul: Absolutely. I still have friends from nearly every job I’ve done in my life, and there were a lot of them!
So who might be the best producer that you worked with? Who was the most fun?
Troy: Well, you know what? That would be hard to say, but I will say that one of the producers later became a really close friend, his name is John. We call him “Sparky” as his last name was Sparks.
John worked at most the stations in Dallas, he was also the executive producer at WNDC TV in New York for four years. But he moved back here. Well, in 2013 and 2014 there was a little startup station, channel 47, they put on a show called, Texas Daily. A number of us who had been in TV, they called us back to do that show.
It was an hour long show. Tracy and I were the anchors for two days of the week. And you could just, you drink coffee with your buddy 30 minutes before the show, say whatever you want for an hour on the show, and then you go home. Well, “Sparky” John Sparks was the producer. And we really connected and found our spiritual connection. We wound up going to church together and we are still good friends. We see each other very often. They’re very high on our list of social friends, that’s the producer that really jumps out to me.
Paul: Iola was on that Ch 47 show, I believe.
Troy: John Criswell was also there. He passed away in 2023.
Paul: I worked with John Criswell’s daughter when she was a Playboy Bunny at the Playboy Club of Dallas. Very lovely lady.
Troy: Yes she is.
Troy’s retirement cake at WFAA. Courtesy Lane Luckie and laneluckie.com
Paul: Tell me about the Skeeter meter.
Troy: Well, the mosquitos are a bit of a problem in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. At that time the City of Dallas was releasing a report every day predicting what mosquito activity would be. There are all sorts of diseases that mosquitoes can bring. Our art director came up with this meter and it says, mosquitoes green, yellow, and red, with a dial. And we put that on the screen behind me and. It would show what we expected the mosquito activity to be; Red, yellow, or green.
You know what, I asked about that the other day? I think that one of those is still exists at Channel 8, somewhere in the back room of engineering. I don’t really know anybody down there anymore, but I need to get down there and see if we can unearth that, that would be an artifact.
Paul: Oh yeah. I love those artifacts. We collect them for Memories Incorporated, we have a storage locker for them up in Carrollton. I just got one from somebody that you probably know, Bud Buschardt.
Troy: Yes, Bud was a, he was a really good guy. Unfortunately, we lost him recently. He was a great loss, but he was a good guy. Very well thought of in the business.
Paul: I got to interview him and went to his house about four or five times. It was filled to the brim with records. I’ve never seen so many records in all my life.
Troy: Ha. That’s right. That was Bud.
Paul: And he had a full turntable set where he could play and record anything he wanted to there. And he had the actual original turntables from the Something Else show.
Chip Moody watches Troy Dungan & Gloria prepare for Chip’s annual Beni Hana Celeb Chef’s fundraiser for Children’s Med Ctr. Courtesy Gloria Campos
Troy: Oh my. The Ron Chapman show.
Paul: Exactly. Yes. That’s another one.
Troy: Ron Chapman was another dear friend and a really good guy. And unfortunately we lost him recently also. But, as you know, we all have egos in this business, so did Ron. But let me tell you that behind the scenes, Ron was a very sweet man who did a lot of good for a lot of people. He never publicized those good deeds. He was really a good guy. And he’s missed.
Paul: Did you ever have to cover for another anchor, like sports or something else?
Troy: No, I never did that. But you know, that wouldn’t be easy to do because if somebody told Tracy Rowlett to go do the weather, that’s not something that’s going to be easy because you’re not used to it. And if same by the same token, I don’t think they would ever let me do that, ’cause they probably wouldn’t think I’d be serious enough about it. But sometimes it did happen. One time the news anchor didn’t show up on a Saturday. I was filling in for somebody doing the weather. And George Reba had to do the sports and the news. You know it’s not easy when it’s something you’re not used to doing.
Paul: At least if you’re sitting down at the desk, maybe you could read off the teleprompters there.
Troy: Well, you probably know when you do the weather, you use a teleprompter, you’re prepared the data, so you just kind of talk about what you figured out all afternoon.
Paul: You also have to figure out what’s behind you on the green screen.
Troy: Exactly, yes.
Paul: You REALLY have to know what you are doing to do green screens correctly. What year did you start using green screens?
Troy: I think that was 1983. At that point, we began to have some computer products, and if you wanted to show that and still be in the picture yourself, you could use what we then called chroma key. So John Coleman, who was a weather guy in Chicago, and I kind of dispute about who invented that. It was one of the two of us. It was not the same time, but I was one of the first one or two people to use it for sure. And of course that’s the way they do it now. And now, until now, some stations, including one in the Fort Worth area, just have a video wall behind them. So the pictures are really there. Yes. But before that, you have to look at monitors off to one side or the other and create the illusion that there’s something behind you.
Paul: Wow. It’s amazing.
So tell me about the family. Are they all Baylor Bears?
Troy: As for Leah and Dana, Janet had those two little ones when we got married.
They were nine and five. Leah lives in California. Unfortunately, we, we lost Dana about a short time ago to liver disease. He was 53. But to answer your question, neither one of them. She went to North Texas and he went to a private school and was in the Air Force, but our daughter, Erin did follow me to Baylor and did study communication.
She had her Master’s in Communications and she was a TV director at KWTX TV in Waco. And then, she got married in Oklahoma. And was a TV director. And then she got tired of getting up at two in the morning because in TV, you know, you work one end of the clock or the other. I always worked at night. She always directed the morning news. So finally she got a job at the University of Oklahoma Medical School as a Baylor Bear working surrounded by the Philistines at OU!!
In Norman, it’s downtown by the capital. So she wound up being in charge of all online and on demand, programming for classes. But when she had her first, child 15 years ago, (our first grandchild), my wife said, you see you need to retire and take care of those kids. And so she did. So she does some work from home for some people, but she got off TV as well. So nobody else in TV in the family nowadays.
Paul: So sorry for your loss, may Dana rest in peace.
Well is there anything else you’d like to add to to this we haven’t talked
Troy: Thank you. And no, I think I’ve told you about everything I know and everyone I know!
Paul: When we first started talking about this, it was interesting because I’m from a little town about 10-15 miles west of Waco, and Troy’s from a little town 20-25 miles north of Waco. We were in the same district when I played football in high school. When we said ‘let’s go into the city’, we were talking about Waco, not Dallas.
Troy: Yes. Dallas was almost an overnight trip. In those days, it’s 60 miles. It was, the shops were open late one night in the big cities, so off and on Thursday we’d go down to Waco and have dinner at the Piccadilly cafeteria and go shopping at Cox’s!
Paul: Piccadilly’s downtown was an every Sunday after church for us. Got my fried fish and chocolate Ice Box pie there
Troy: Exactly. Then once in a while we’d come to Dallas as my dad owned a laundry, direct cleaning plant, so we would go north to buy supplies and we’d go to lunch and sometimes come to the Dallas Eagles or Fort Worth Cats baseball games in the summers.
So we enjoyed the cities. But yeah, Hillsboro was a great place to grow up. The school system was wonderful. Prepared me well for college. I still know a few people there, down there once in a while. Of course my parents are gone for a long time now, but it was a great place to grow up.
Paul: Yeah. Well, listen, thank you so much for all your time here.
It’s been really informational and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Troy: My pleasure. Thank you for thinking of me, and I hope this works out well for your non-profit!
Paul: Thank you, sir.
Troy: My friend. God bless.
Troy’s book, “Jesus Makes Salsa by the Seashore”
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