THE DRIVE
with CARL DUKES, DAVE TEPPER & JULIE TAKAHASHI
MONDAY - FRIDAY
4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Call The Drive in the studio at 713-780-ESPN (3776)

CARL DUKES
Email: dukes@975theticket.com

Carl Dukes has been a Radio Broadcaster for over 16 years with sports as his passion. Baseball Hall of Fame Broadcaster Milo Hamilton called him “El Duque” along with the “The Duker” and since coming to Houston those nicknames stuck. One Houston sports executive says, “Dukes is one of the most exciting sports personalities in the country.” That is why Houston sports fans have come to know and respect him.

He has won many awards throughout his career including; AP’s Best breaking sports story award, Best Sports Talk Show Host in Houston, and other National Broadcasting Awards. He has been in the Houston market for 10 years and has anchored sports updates in Afternoon Drive on Newsradio 740 KTRH. He hosted Houston’s historically longest running sports talk show “Sportsbeat” on KTRH. He has hosted Pre and Post game shows for the Astros and Rockets along with hosting afternoon and evening sports shows. Recently, he was the Morning show host on 790 “The Sports Animal”. He makes regular appearances on ESPN “The Hotlist” and ESPN’s “First Take” along with other national sports shows. Locally he has appeared on KPRC Channel 2 “Sports Sunday” with Randy Mcllvoy and Channel 13’s Extra Points with Tim Melton. For the last nine years Dukes has either been the Play-by-Play voice or Color commentary for the Houston Cougar basketball program.

Carl Dukes came to KTRH in 1998 from San Antonio, where he worked on KTFM’s and KTSA’s morning shows as a co-host and sports anchor. He is involved in numerous charity community activities throughout the Houston area and also does many guest speaking engagements throughout the year. In his spare time he enjoys movies, golfing, playing a good pick-up game of hoops, and listening to music while preparing new dishes on the grill!

DAVE TEPPER

Dave Tepper comes to ESPN 97.5 FM The Ticket in Houston by way of Austin, where he worked at 1530 AM ESPN Austin as a talk show host for three years. Previous to that, Dave lived and worked in Los Angeles, where his family still resides. He worked as a Producer for talk station 790 AM KABC and as a weekend talk show host at 97.1 FM KLSX. He also hosted a morning show for 1310 AM "The Ticket" in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His first break in radio came from his experience as a professional stand-up comic at The Laugh Factory. Dave has two dogs -- a golden retriever named Coach and a St. Bernard mix named Madden -- he loves to run with. Don't ask him to do anything during the football season; he has plans to be on his couch with his dogs on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Dave's dogs

JULIE TAKAHASHI

Julie Takahashi, Assistant Program Director, got her start in radio hosting a NITE-ROCK show on 90.1 KSAU while she was a student at Stephen F. Austin. After graduation she came back to Houston and started out her radio career.

She joined “Camp Cumulus” in 2006 as the Executive Producer and has been with ESPN 97-5 The Ticket since its inception in 2007.

Julie is a contributor and producer of “Put Up Your Dukes with Carl Dukes”. Having worked in a variety of roles from behind the scenes (producer, reporter…) to on-air (SportsCenter Updates, co-host…) she has worked with many shows in the ESPN line-up. From MMA to Poker to Football to College Sports she can talk about it all.

She’s an athlete at heart playing softball in High School, Lacrosse at SFA and Women’s Professional Football for The Houston Energy. Nowadays its poker, flag football and keeping up with her team, the Philadelphia Eagles.