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Texas Public Radio's Nathan Cone has been with Texas Public Radio for a long time. Because of that longevity, and the dedication, creativity and innovation he brings to his work, Cone has received a distinctive honor.
That honor came recently from the San Antonio Radio Broadcasters. Cone was inducted to the organization's Hall of Fame.
While Cone has been with Texas Public Radio for 30 years, it wasn’t his first radio job. Trinity’s KRTU was the first place where San Antonians first heard his name—and his voice.
“I have Trinity to thank for my love of jazz music now, and being on the radio at Trinity was a lot of fun,” Cone said.
After KRTU, Cone finally settled at Texas Public Radio, which includes KSTX and classical music’s KPAC.
Cone did on-air shifts, created radio spots, and a host of other things that radio production folks do every day.
Before too long, however, he began thinking of content that wasn’t being created, and that he could create himself. And he began doing so, starting with one of his passions: cinema.
“Let's go back with the oldest thing first, which was the Cinema Tuesdays series. So in 2000 to 2001, there was no Alamo Draft House in San Antonio,” Cone said.
There was simply no local place to see the greatest films ever created, so Cone’s idea was to secure that place for film lovers to come together over that shared passion.
Cone had joined forces with a then part-time staff member at TPR named Jay Black.
“Jay had experience working in movie theaters before, and so we kind of came up with the idea to do a film series,” he said.
Cone was able to turn his interest in great cinema into a yearly summertime event that brought like-minded TPR-listeners to the movies to see classics.
And the content ideas kept coming.
“Other things like, Think Science were more of a collaboration where, Joyce Slocum, our CEO at the time, and the events team, we would talk about finding needs for doing live events that were related to some of the programs that we carried on the air. And so Think Science came out of that,” he said.
Think Science, like Cinema Tuesdays, was aspirational, but they also lined up with TPR’s ambition to bring San Antonians of all kinds together.
And then, another idea emerged. Nathan began to realize the city’s symphony was creating great content, but if you weren’t at the performance, you missed it. After speaking with the leadership of the symphony, Performance Saturday was born in 2014. That relationship will continue with the San Antonio Philharmonic.
“We want to share the good stuff that is happening right here in San Antonio on KPAC,” Cone said. “And so that's how our Saturday night concert series program, Performance Saturday ... that's why it's there.”
Asked if he had a favorite memory among his pantheon of interviews, his answer was surprising. “Mary Poppins is my favorite Disney live action movie, and I am a huge Disney fan already, and I love the music and the work of the Sherman Brothers,” Nathan said.
He had an opportunity to interview one of the Sherman brothers.
“Of course! Yes, I would love to interview Richard Sherman!” he declared when invited by the Majestic to participate in an interview.
Not all stars end up being as nice as their image paints them to be. That wasn’t a problem with Richard Sherman.
“He was so charming, and he had such great stories about working with Walt Disney, about the creation of Mary Poppins,” Cone said. “And it was very emotional for me that as the interview was ending, and I thanked him for it, I started crying because, you know, this was part of my childhood. This movie—and it meant so much to me as well.”
Since Nathan is a part of so many public events, he often gets feedback from others about what he does.
“It's a great feeling to talk to somebody at an event and for them to say about what we do here at Texas Public Radio, ‘thank you so much for what you do,’” he said.
With 30 years under his belt here, and a new Hall of Fame membership, he doesn’t expect to be leaving anytime soon.
