12-17-2009
12:24 AM
204 Loves
[asset|aid=240|format=image|formatter=asset|title=RBRiPodLogoSmall.gif|width=180|height=179|resizable=true|align=right]This week’s episode of Red Belly Radio is about the 150,000 blankets and more than 30,000 pillows we donated to the Salvation Army. You may have read Ashley Roger’s blog about it last week entitled Blankets of LUV so I won’t go into too many details except to say that I interview Ashley and Major Carl Earp of the Salvation Army. Give it a listen!
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12-11-2009
06:16 PM
427 Loves
This week’s episode of Red Belly Radio is about the 150,000 blankets and more than 30,000 pillows we donated to the Salvation Army. I interview Ashley and Major Carl Earp of the Salvation Army.
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12-09-2009
07:34 PM
217 Loves
We enjoy a lot of Freedoms at Southwest Airlines and this episode of Red Belly Radio is about two of them. We have had a program for at least 18 years (how long I have worked here) called “A day in the field” where any Employee from any department can spend time in another department to better learn what they do. The other day, Hollye Chacon learned about Communication and got to learn first-hand how podcasts are made in her “day in the field.” Another Freedom we enjoy is how we are able to decorate our cubes. (I understand some companies don’t allow this.) Employees here are, not too surprisingly, able to decorate their cubes the way they want. Tim Childress, a Finance Employee, decorated his cube with Christmas lights and airline memorabilia including a row of seats off one of our aircraft! Tim also has a claim to fame around here. On Halloween in 2007, he made a suit of peanut wrappers! Very popular and still hangs on the walls in a case. Listen and learn about how someone even goes about doing that—I am so jealous! (both for the suit and the seats) Photos: Above, Tim in 2007 halloween with Southwest Airlines Founder Herb Kelleher; Tim's cube with the row of seats in left front.
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12-09-2009
07:21 PM
489 Loves
We enjoy a lot of Freedoms at Southwest Airlines and this episode of Red Belly Radio is about two of them. We have a program called “A day in the field” and I interview a young lady who learned first-hand how podcasts are made. I also talked with a Finance Employee who decorated his cube with Christmas lights and airline memorabilia including a row of seats off one of our aircraft! To top it off he he made a suit of peanut wrappers for halloween one year.
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Interview with Barbara McDermott of the Dallas Ronald McDonald House and the presentation of the street sign to Herb and Colleen. Also a performance of the song "The House That Love Built" performed and written by Wade Kilgore.
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11-18-2009
06:37 PM
556 Loves
[asset|aid=240|format=image|formatter=asset|title=RBRiPodLogoSmall.gif|width=180|height=179|resizable=true|align=right]Have you called our Customer Support & Services lately? Do you read the airline industry blog called FlyerTalk? CS&S is the Department at Southwest formerly known as Reservations—but that Department does so much more now than make reservations, we had to rename it. FlyerTalk is a blog about the travel and airline industry and the two of these come together on this episode of Red Belly Radio. When calling Southwest Airlines for information, with our relatively new, cool call-back feature, you no longer ever have to wait on hold. But if you choose to, you will hear a number of Employees talking about their jobs and various products and offers from Southwest Airlines. David Holmes is one of those Employees you might hear. David is the Southwest Flight Attendant known for his great Customer Service and his fantastic raps. He can often be heard rapping the safety information on his flights, but was also on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and is a popular YouTube entertainer with more than 2.5 million views of his videos. David wrote and performed a rap for the on-hold entertainment that we use. It caught the ear of expert7700 who commented on Flyer Talk, asking if anyone had a recording of it? Just so you’ll know, I had to call CS&S three times trying to record David but never got put on hold—it went straight to an agent! So I finally asked if I could be put on hold so that I could record it. Also in this edition of RedBelly Radio, learn about another fun project that David’s working on—a video response to the Air New Zealand challenge.
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11-18-2009
06:15 PM
437 Loves
CS&S is the Department at Southwest formerly known as Reservations. FlyerTalk is a blog about the travel and airline industry. These two come together on this episode of Red Belly Radio when David Holmes, a.k.a. the rapping Flight Attendant rapped on the telephone on-hold entertainment.
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11-11-2009
02:06 PM
200 Loves
[asset|aid=903|format=image|formatter=asset|title=Kidds02.jpg|width=196|height=300|resizable=true|align=right]This episode of Red Belly Radio is about kids. Not just any kids, but some very special ones. Nationally syndicated, Dallas-based radio show, Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, raises funds every year to send between 40 and 50 families with special needs kids to the Disney parks in Orlando Florida. Several companies help sponsor the trip, but Southwest Airlines helps out in a number of ways: hosting a phone bank; providing volunteers to take donations from Kidd Kraddick listeners; and, providing an aircraft and crew to fly these deserving families to Florida. It is a very big deal for the families and everyone who has the opportunity to participate. In fact, this trip has become a very sought after “assignment” for many of our Flight Attendants, and we always have many more Employee volunteers than there are spots on the plane. On this episode of Red Belly Radio, you will hear from several of the Flight Attendants who were selected to assist in with this year’s trip, Cinda from the medical staff, one of the parents, and more.
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11-11-2009
01:55 PM
428 Loves
This episode of Red Belly Radio is about kids. Not just any kids, but some very special ones. Nationally syndicated, Dallas-based radio show, Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, raises funds every year to send between 40 and 50 families with special needs kids to the Disney parks in Orlando Florida. Southwest Airlines helps out in a number of ways: hosting a phone bank; providing volunteers to take donations from Kidd Kraddick listeners; and, providing an aircraft and crew to fly these deserving families to Florida.
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11-04-2009
04:39 PM
415 Loves
Southwest launches a recycling program. The photo is one side of a bale of aluminum cans worth $1000. This is a repeat or "recycled" episode.
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While our resident podcaster, Steve Heaser, takes some much-needed time off, we took the liberty of "recycling" his podcast all about, well, recycling. This episode of Red Belly Radio is all about the new recycling effort that Southwest Airlines has launched. This is by far the biggest and most wide-spread recycling effort in our history. The event kicked off with the distribution of blue recycle bins for everyone who works in our headquarters. Our partner, Allied Waste, was on hand to explain recycling to Employees and also held a contest to guess how many pounds were in a “bale” of aluminum—pictured right. Using the comments section, guess how much that thing weighs. I’ll put the answer in a comment in a couple of days. I speak with Marilee McInnis, from the Southwest Airlines Green Team, Mitzi Green (her real last name, not some recent environment stunt) who manages our facility maintenance at our headquarters campus, and Eileen Wargo from Allied Waste. This is about Phase I, so look for more recycling efforts systemwide and on Southwest planes as the different phases roll out. to listen to the podcast: click here.
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10-28-2009
10:48 PM
288 Loves
[asset|aid=873|format=image|formatter=asset|title=GreenPlane.jpg|width=300|height=160|resizable=true|align=right]This week, a bit of a twist: Red Belly Radio Theater proudly presents radio as it used to be. Old time radio is the theme with this docudrama that features the talents of John, Trent, Caleb and me--your host Steve Heaser--with a special appearance by Southwest CEO Gary Kelly whose part was recorded while addressing a group of reporters and online media folks at the unveiling of a four-year-old plane. In fact, there is even Cliff Hangar. Confused? Listen to Red Belly Radio to learn just what we mean by a "Green Plane."
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10-28-2009
10:38 PM
437 Loves
Red Belly Radio Theater proudly presents radio as it used to be--or maybe never was. Old time radio is the theme with this docudrama with a special appearance by Southwest CEO Gary Kelly whose part was recorded while addressing a group of reporters and online media folks at the unveiling of a four-year-old plane. In fact, there is even Cliff Hangar. Confused? Listen to Red Belly Radio to learn just what we mean by a "Green Plane."
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10-21-2009
08:44 PM
203 Loves
[asset|aid=240|format=image|formatter=asset|title=RBRiPodLogoSmall.gif|width=180|height=179|resizable=true|align=right]This episode of Red Belly Radio was recorded at the Dallas Maintenance Center at our 7th annual, 2009 Southwest Airlines Pigskin Plane Pull—pulling one of our Boeing 737s with human power! I won't tell you who won here, but can tell you that a record time was set—for the worst time ever in this event.
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10-21-2009
08:19 PM
459 Loves
This episode of Red Belly Radio was recorded at the Dallas Maintenance Center at our 7th annual, 2009 Southwest Airlines Pigskin Plane Pull—pulling one of our Boeing 737s with human power! I won't tell you who won here, but can tell you that a record time was set--for the worst time ever in this event.
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My apologies to Corey in DEN, the actual composer of the Banjo ringtone.
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To think, I had to edit the Laugh down (almost in half) to get it to ringtone length. You can hear the whole laugh on the Red Belly Radio episode from several weeks ago titled: It's On Contest" or it is linked at the top of this page. And I have Christina's song on my phone right now. Great tune.
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10-20-2009
10:36 AM
406 Loves
Have you ever wondered what it is like to travel from your bags' point of view? This video attempts to shed some light on the exciting world of bags flying free on Southwest. ...And don't forget those HOT Rampers!!!!
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You may remember way back into September when an episode of Red Belly Radio featured a collection of contest entries that our Employees phoned in and used the words “It’s On” to coincide with our It’s On commercials that you have hopefully seen on TV or this video blog. You may also remember the episode where I recapped my bout of H1N1 and an additional week off where I lamented not being able to complete a few projects. Just to remind you—the winner was going to get the most amazing prize ever! His or her contest entry would be made into a ringtone! Well, we had a panel of highly trained experts listening and deciding. Strict requirements were put in place to be a judge: 1. We had to be a Southwest Airlines Employee. 2. Must currently have a cell phone, or have heard a cell phone ring. As you can imagine I had to look long and hard to find qualified candidates, but something I left out of the strict requirements was “Must be decisive.” Had that rule been in place, we might have ended with only one winner, instead we (indecisively) decided that we could have several winners. (Read, each judge got to pick one.) Here are the winners, download these files and install them on your phones at your risk. We have tested them out on several phones around here but not every possible combination of brands and cell service. Enjoy them as you would your first two checked bags on one of our flights—FREE! The winners are: Banjo—Corey, DEN Customer Service Agent Don’t Forget Grandma—Mario, LAX Ground Operations Fargo Lady—Katherine Rilley, BWI Flight Attendant Swing Song—Christina Helbling, SAN Ground Operations The Laugh—Joe Jordan, DAL Ground Operations Wheels Up—Chad Martin, University for People Files can be downloaded below. Even if you don’t want a new ringtone, give them a listen and comment about your favorites. The longest ones are 15 seconds. To download, right click and "save as."
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10-14-2009
05:24 PM
214 Loves
This episode of Red Belly Radio was recorded in the city so nice they named it twice. Olga and Lindsey, from our Communication Department, were in New York, New York, at the Southwest Porch in Bryant Park celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Latino Art Beat. Latino Art Beat is a nonprofit charity that gives scholarships to Hispanic students with artistic talent. Since its inception, the organization has given more than $3 million to deserving students. Artwork: “Todo para ti, Maria Sofia” / Acrylic on canvas. Katherine Ordonez, Miami, 2009 National Winner
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This video was recorded at the "Play Ball With Nolan Ryan" event at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Nolan answered a few questions after dinner from the Employees and Customers who won a wonderful trip. Learn what it takes to pitch a no-hitter; a wonderful story of how his Texas Ranger teammates played a prank on him after the longest homerun ever given up at the old Ranger's stadium; his take on steroid use; and even his wife, Ruth, answers a question. Also be sure to listen to the Red Belly Radio podcast interview with Nolan.
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This is my 76th episode and it is also a first. For the past two days we have been collecting answers to the question: "Why You'd Rather Be Drinking Wine than Working" in celebration of our new addition of Coastal Ridge Chardonnay and Coastal Ridge Merlot to our in-flight beverage offerings. Hundreds of you have submitted entries on this blog, through Twitter, and on our Facebook page. This is the first time we have announced winners of a contest on Red Belly Radio! The top five entries win a two-night stay at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel and Spa and wine tasting experience in Napa Valley, CA. Sadly, I am not eligible since Southwest Airlines Employees and their families can not enter. There are a lot of other rules and you can see the original post by Ashley Rogers on her blog from Monday.
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We asked the question: "Why You'd Rather Be Drinking Wine than Working" in celebration of our new addition of Coastal Ridge Chardonnay and Coastal Ridge Merlot to our in-flight beverage offerings. Hundreds of you submitted entries and the top five entries win a two-night stay at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel and Spa and wine tasting experience in Napa Valley, CA. This podcast reveals the winners!
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09-29-2009
06:29 PM
772 Loves
Southwest Airlines moves a lot of people every day. Those people carry a lot of stuff with them. So if you lost something on a flight, what are the odds of someone you know finding it?[asset|aid=240|format=image|formatter=asset|title=RBRiPodLogoSmall.gif|width=177|height=177|resizable=true|align=right]Southwest Airlines moves a lot of people every day. Those people carry a lot of stuff with them. So if you lost something on a flight, what are the odds of someone you know finding it? Well that is what this episode of Red Belly Radio is about, two Employees, Ginger and Paula, traveling on the same plane—just not together.
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09-29-2009
06:27 PM
553 Loves
Southwest Airlines moves a lot of people every day. Those people carry a lot of stuff with them. So if you lost something on a flight, what are the odds of someone you know finding it? Well that is what this episode of Red Belly Radio is about, two Employees, Ginger and Paula, traveling on the same plane—just not together.
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[asset|aid=841|format=image|formatter=asset|title=H1N1_flu2.jpg|width=170|height=200|resizable=true|align=right]On this week’s episode of Red Belly Radio, it is an interview with the interviewer. Christi Day hosts this edition and interviews me, your regular host, about my bout with H1N1 also known as the Swine Flu. So as long as we were talking about barnyard animal stuff, I added some bonus footage of a quick interview I caught with a listener who asked me about a previous podcast “Our First Flight and the Bovine Challenge” where I posed the question: “How Do Cows Stand Up?” Pictured right: a microscopic photograph of the H1N1 Virus.
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On this week’s episode, I give a first-hand account about my bout with H1N1 also known as the Swine Flu. And as long as we were talking about barnyard animal stuff, there is a quick interview with a listener who asked me about a previous podcast about how cows stand up?
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09-23-2009
08:46 AM
417 Loves
Length: 14:22 This show was originally released in August of 2007. I just don’t think this group can get enough recognition. I am talking about the Tuskegee Airmen and those involved with the Tuskegee Aviation Experiment. On this episode of Red Belly Radio, I interview one of the original Tuskegee Airmen and historian, Leroy Gilleed, about how the Airmen came about and the war for these men was not only fought overseas, but right here at home.
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09-09-2009
06:03 PM
180 Loves
I feel I am really moving up on the podcast food chain. I finagled my way into interviewing Wolfgang Puck and Tom Colicchio but now I am moving into the big leagues because on this week’s Red Belly Radio I interview baseball legend Nolan Ryan. Unlike the first two names mentioned, I don’t even know if Nolan cooks—but who cares? He struck out 5,714 batters and threw seven no hitters in his 27 seasons as a major leaguer. I don’t know how many people could get into the old Texas Rangers baseball stadium, but I have a feeling Nolan has heard from more than that number that “They were there.” Well for all you people who drove by during that game and claim to have been there—I REALLY WAS! My friend Matt called me up and asked if I wanted to go to a game. The date was about two weeks out and there was really no way to predict the pitching order to have seen Ryan, but we just wanted to go to the game. On a beautiful evening in May, 1991, Toronto could not get a single hit against the Ryan Express. The feeling of being part of an event like this is indescribable. They teach in journalism school never to use absolute terms such as “A good time was had by all” because unless you actually ask everyone, you can’t say that accurately. But in this case—EVERYONE in the stadium had the feeling of being part of history. No, I didn’t ask everybody, but just trust me on this, I could tell. No one wanted to leave, and when we finally got out of the stadium, no one wanted to leave the parking lot. And when we finally drove off, thousands of fans were lined up on the streets high-fiving strangers and honking their horns. The adrenaline rush was unforgettable—and that was from a fan! What is it like to be the pitcher of a working no hitter? Listen to this week’s episode of Red Belly Radio to hear Nolan Ryan tell how the team treats you in the dugout during the final innings of a game like that. I don’t play the state lottery very often but I can prove that I have a winning ticket in the baseball lottery! Pic: Top—My no hitter ticket stub signed by Nolan Ryan. Bottom—Me interviewing Nolan in the Baseball Hall of Fame for this podcast.
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