"The Sounds of Texas" is a two and one-half minute program airs five days per week on KWEL AM 1070 in Odessa and KBST FM 95.7 in Big Spring and features interviews with al kinds of interesting Texans. Often, Smith travels to small towns around West Texas to talk with locals, but he has interviewed a number of celebrities including George Foreman and the actor Jon Voight who was featured in the very first "Sounds of Texas" program. To celebrate the 10,000th "The Sounds of Texas," Smith again interviewed Voight for a program set to air on February 8th, 2008.
Tumbleweed Smith's real name is actually Bob Lewis. In addition to working on his radio program, Smith writes for the Midland Reporter Telegram and is an adjunct communications professor at the University of Texas Permian Basin. He was born and raised in Fort Worth, but settled in Big Spring many years ago after earning a bachelor's degree in English from Baylor University and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Since the late 60s, he has traveled the state in search of people to interview for his radio program. After all these years, however, he seldom has to look very far for interviews. He is now popular enough among West Texans that people contact him by phone and email to offer suggestions for shows and even requests for interviews all the time.
Tumbleweed Smith edits and mixes each show from his home studio in Big Spring. Generally speaking, he cuts his two and one-half minute programs down from about twenty minutes of interviews. That means that he has to cut out most of the interview. He still strives, however, to include as much of the interviewees story as possible. Except on very rare occasions, he meets with his interviewee in person. That means that he must travel at least once per week to get interviews. Although he tries to get at least five interviews per trip, he has been known to get as many as eighteen on a trip. After 10,000 shows, he has only conducted three interviews over the telephone.
One of those phone interviews was conducted recently with Jon Voight. Voight has come a long way since he first spoke with Tumbleweed Smith in 1969. At that time, Voight was working on Midnight Cowboy in Big Spring. Since clips of that first interview ended up on NBC radio, Voight credits Smith for being partially responsible for launching Voight's success. At the same time, the interview was beneficial for Smith as well. All of these years later, he is still doing what he loves. He has plans to continue the program for many more years to come. He may not be able to finish another 10,000 shows, but he would like to do that if possible.
