Latest / Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza / Ep.74 – Why I Refused to Sell: Matt Velasquez’s Bold Catholic Stand | Family Business | Patriotic Faith | Conservative Values

Transcript

Ep.74 – Why I Refused to Sell: Matt Velasquez’s Bold Catholic Stand | Family Business | Patriotic Faith | Conservative Values · Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza

• 0:00
  And I told my wife, I said, I want to start the most hardcore
• 0:03
  Christian conservative radio station that you could find.
• 0:06
  And I said, what do you think about that?
• 0:09
  And her answer was supposed to be no, but she said yeah, sure,
• 0:12
  go for it. So you got to explain to me you
• 0:19
  started a radio station at a time when legacy media is
• 0:22
  collapsing. What was your thought process
• 0:24
  there? Yeah.
• 0:24
  So the background behind the radio stations, we actually been
• 0:27
  in this industry since 83. So my family, my father
• 0:32
  purchased this radio station back in 1983 to start the second
• 0:35
  smash radio station in Houston. So we've been in the radio
• 0:38
  industry for a long time. I took over ownership back in
• 0:41
  2022 when my father passed away and I was going to sell the
• 0:45
  company. I was like, you know, I'm done
• 0:46
  with this. I've been working here since O 4
• 0:48
  and you know, definitely saw radio as a dying medium.
• 0:51
  But what I decided is, well, there's two areas where radio's
• 0:55
  still relevant and sports and then political news talk.
• 0:58
  So I decided, well, let me go the English, you know, route.
• 1:02
  Let me go the political news talk route where it's still
• 1:04
  relevant and use that as a jumping platform to get to my
• 1:07
  bigger picture, which is to create a more digital based,
• 1:11
  online based form that focuses on Houston area topics.
• 1:15
  So it's a risk still because it was changing formats from
• 1:19
  something that had been working, but at least we had the
• 1:22
  foundation of, we've been in this industry for 40 plus years,
• 1:25
  but it was basically like starting all over again in 2024.
• 1:29
  So January 1st, 2024, that's when we officially launched
• 1:32
  Patriot Talk 920 AM. So we're still in the infant
• 1:35
  stage, you know, only a year and a half into this, but you know,
• 1:38
  so far it's going in the right direction.
• 1:39
  But I know radio isn't going to be the long term play here.
• 1:43
  There's other things that are going to come five years plus
• 1:45
  down the road. What motivates you to do a
• 1:48
  political radio show? So I was on a road trip with my
• 1:52
  my family when I got so frustrated because I felt like
• 1:56
  my Catholic faith was under attack and my patriotism was
• 1:59
  under attack by the mainstream media.
• 2:01
  And I told my wife, I said, I want to start the most hardcore
• 2:05
  Christian conservative radio station that you could find.
• 2:08
  And I said, what do you think about that?
• 2:11
  And her answer was supposed to be no, but she said, yeah, sure,
• 2:14
  go for it. And so that was kind of
• 2:16
  interesting. So it was really a passion play
• 2:18
  of I was just tired of my faith under attack.
• 2:22
  I was tired of my love for our country under attack and my
• 2:25
  fight to pursue for freedoms in the Houston, Harris County area
• 2:29
  because my kids, you know, we've grown up in the Houston area.
• 2:32
  I've, I'm born and raised in Houston.
• 2:34
  I live in Sugar Land. I didn't want my kids to grow up
• 2:37
  and feel like, oh, I got moved to Florida or somewhere else
• 2:40
  where it's, you know, a little bit more sane.
• 2:42
  I wanted to convert Harris County back to traditional
• 2:46
  family values, you know, not the whole world culture that we've
• 2:49
  been living in. And I'd like for it to be a
• 2:51
  place where my family can grow up and my kids can stay close to
• 2:54
  home. But why didn't you just lie down
• 2:57
  and take it like everyone else? You know, I turned into that.
• 3:00
  Obedient and docile. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:03
  I turned, I turned into the social media warrior like a lot
• 3:05
  of people did, especially during COVID, where, you know, behind
• 3:08
  your keyboard, you can complain about stuff and just say, oh, I
• 3:12
  don't like this, I don't like that.
• 3:14
  And I knew one that wasn't bringing any joy to my life.
• 3:17
  That was just me complaining behind, you know, screen
• 3:19
  anonymously. And then I was like, well, I got
• 3:22
  this platform, you know, it's been here in my family for so
• 3:25
  long. It has a good business model
• 3:28
  behind it. But let me actually, you know,
• 3:30
  do something now. And so the fact that I had the
• 3:32
  ability to do something, it was like, OK, this is my calling.
• 3:36
  You know, I, I prayed very hard over it.
• 3:38
  I, I went through my own discernment of what I wanted to
• 3:41
  do. And after la prayer, la careful
• 3:44
  considerations, we're like, OK, you know, we are going to use
• 3:47
  our family business and this is the direction we're going to go.
• 3:50
  I love it, Matt, although you're making me reconsider if you're
• 3:52
  saying that seeing behind a screen as a social, what do you
• 3:56
  say? A social media warrior isn't
• 3:58
  fulfilling. I'm gonna have to reconsider my
• 3:59
  life. Everyone has their own calling.
• 4:04
  I just know that sitting and making a couple social media
• 4:08
  posts didn't do anything. But, you know, people that are
• 4:11
  creating content like this, this means a lot, you know, to put
• 4:14
  conversations out there. And I'm big on conversations.
• 4:17
  You know what, what people don't realize, especially when they
• 4:20
  first learn about Patriot Talk 920 AM, is they think that, oh,
• 4:24
  it's a bunch of rich white guys that put this together, you
• 4:26
  know, good old boys that, you know, just just hate, you know,
• 4:31
  every minority out there. And it's like, well, first of
• 4:34
  all, look at this Hispanic American right here.
• 4:36
  So that's not all the case. And you know, it's, it's just, I
• 4:40
  have so many diverse friends, you know, Catholics,
• 4:43
  Protestants, agnostics, you know, people that are straight,
• 4:49
  people that are gay, people that come from all different
• 4:51
  backgrounds. It's just like, look, I'm open
• 4:54
  to conversations as long as you're a good hearted person who
• 4:57
  can have a reasonable discussion with me.
• 4:59
  You know, I, I have no problem and having difference in
• 5:02
  opinions. But you know, it's, it's the
• 5:04
  fact that our opinions were getting squashed by the
• 5:08
  mainstream media. And so that's why again, anyone
• 5:12
  that can bring conversation to light, whether it's through
• 5:14
  social media conversations, whether it's through a a
• 5:17
  broadcast company like what I have, you know, any kind of
• 5:20
  conversations that we can bring out to the open I think are very
• 5:23
  important, especially nowadays. Just want to make sure you're
• 5:26
  not racist. Is your best friend black?
• 5:29
  I I, I did have a a black girlfriend in high school, so
• 5:33
  I'll say that much. OK, OK, good.
• 5:35
  All right. Thank you.
• 5:36
  We can continue this conversation now.
• 5:39
  All right, so you tell, you told me the mission.
• 5:41
  How do you know accomplish that mission?
• 5:43
  Yeah. So it's, it's taking strategic
• 5:46
  steps and one I have to create a business that's successful.
• 5:50
  You know, I have to financially make this work.
• 5:53
  This isn't a, you know, charity that that I'm doing.
• 5:56
  It is trying to make a business work that will support myself,
• 5:59
  support my family, and then support itself going forward
• 6:03
  where whether I'm in the picture or not, I want this machine to
• 6:05
  continue to support itself. So 1st we had to make, you know,
• 6:09
  financially sound business decisions and then from there
• 6:12
  it's really been creating a grassroots model.
• 6:15
  So I knew your big radio players in the, you know, Houston area
• 6:19
  across the country, your I hearts and whatnot.
• 6:21
  I can't compete with them. They're they're at a completely
• 6:24
  different level. But here's the great thing is
• 6:27
  they can't compete with me because I'm at an independent
• 6:30
  locally owned level as well. So and not to jump in too hard,
• 6:34
  you know in the Catholic world right now, but my motto for the
• 6:38
  business is Saint Francis, the sales model of be who you are,
• 6:41
  be that well. And so I know who I am is
• 6:43
  independently owned and operated radio station.
• 6:46
  So I am going to use that to my advantage in creating a
• 6:50
  grassroots following. And we've been very blessed that
• 6:53
  in the year and a half we've been in operations, as soon as
• 6:56
  someone hears about us, they're automatically a fan of ours
• 6:58
  because they love the mission, they love our message, they love
• 7:01
  our authenticity and the transparency behind our
• 7:04
  operations. You know, I don't sugarcoat
• 7:06
  anything and what we're doing. I let our audience know the
• 7:09
  direction that we're going and how we're trying to basically
• 7:13
  continue to bring light to issues going on in the Houston
• 7:16
  Harris County area, along with things across the country.
• 7:19
  So that authenticity has really helped me to create
• 7:22
  relationships in the very loyal base, so loyal that they want to
• 7:25
  come and volunteer their time to help the station 'cause they
• 7:28
  know, you know, it's myself and a couple of staff members
• 7:30
  they're doing this whole thing. So it's really been a great
• 7:33
  experience to just watch us grow and how we can be different than
• 7:38
  the other, you know, competitors out there because again, they're
• 7:41
  going to operate it their way. Great.
• 7:42
  I'm not going to do it the same way.
• 7:43
  I'm going to find my own way of creating a niche in this market.
• 7:48
  Give us a highlight reel. What's some of the best content
• 7:50
  you've released? So some big things that we've
• 7:53
  done locally. So to kind of give you a mix of
• 7:55
  my radio station, we're a combination of nationally
• 7:58
  syndicated radio programs plus local radio programs.
• 8:01
  And so the national stuff is great, you know, big, big guests
• 8:05
  that we have. But at the local level, I'm very
• 8:07
  proud for things we bring to light.
• 8:09
  We are one of the only broadcast companies to talk about.
• 8:13
  There is the big statue at University of Houston that was
• 8:17
  in honor of Ruth Gator of RGB Ruth, gosh, I can't ever say the
• 8:22
  her full name out but. Supreme Court Ginsburg, Yes.
• 8:25
  Thank you. That's my tongue twister that I
• 8:27
  can't get through ever. So it was a statue that was
• 8:30
  supposed to be honoring her, but realistically it had a lot of
• 8:33
  Pagan attributes to it and it was very much promoting abortion
• 8:40
  and more so than anything. And so that was something, you
• 8:43
  know, taxpayer funded that was sitting at and we covered that,
• 8:47
  you know, and I was very proud that we're able to bring to
• 8:50
  light something local that a lot of people didn't know about and
• 8:54
  a lot of things coming out of Harris County Commissioners
• 8:56
  Court will bring to light. But, you know, some of the other
• 8:58
  local stations do that too. But the big ones that we tend to
• 9:01
  have is where we try to put our Christian faith in the messaging
• 9:05
  of what we're doing to try to bring Christian American family
• 9:07
  values back into Houston where, you know, your local politicians
• 9:11
  rather work on, you know, being this woke social justice warrior
• 9:16
  that goes against, you know, American valued Christian
• 9:19
  teachings. What's the biggest wins you've
• 9:22
  had? So I, I think my biggest wins
• 9:27
  actually come from the business side, not in a monetary sense,
• 9:31
  but in the sense of we've gotten people to come on board,
• 9:35
  advertiser sponsors to come on board with us.
• 9:38
  Who realistically, they probably, we're probably not
• 9:43
  ready to be that platform for them to advertise on, but they
• 9:46
  see the vision and the purpose of why we're doing this.
• 9:49
  And I've had companies that back me because not because I'm the
• 9:54
  biggest radio station in Houston by any means, but because again,
• 9:57
  it goes back to that authenticity of this is who we
• 10:00
  are. I'm not going to sugarcoat
• 10:02
  anything, but this is the plan we have, you know, one year out,
• 10:05
  this is what we're looking like 3 years out, this is what we're
• 10:07
  looking like. This is a drive in the mission.
• 10:09
  We have to bring these values back into our community.
• 10:13
  And we've had companies that back us with that.
• 10:15
  And they say, you know what, we love this.
• 10:17
  We know in the future it's going to pay off and to see other like
• 10:20
  minded business owners that can come together and support us in
• 10:23
  doing this, it means the world to me.
• 10:25
  And you know, I don't take that for granted.
• 10:27
  I tell them on a regular basis, you know, I thank you for this.
• 10:30
  They understand that I'm still not paying a taking a paycheck,
• 10:34
  you know, a year and a half into this thing, that this is just me
• 10:37
  trying to grow this company right now.
• 10:39
  And so I will sacrifice for this company and for my community and
• 10:43
  to have other people rally around us.
• 10:45
  That means a lot to me. What does your competition look
• 10:48
  like? So my competition is very much
• 10:53
  where radio's been for the last 40 years.
• 10:55
  You know, it's still doing a lot of syndicated programs.
• 10:58
  It's still doing a lot of infomercials that they'll run
• 11:01
  during the the week. With myself, it's more about
• 11:03
  building a community relationship.
• 11:05
  And we're really the only radio station that's active within the
• 11:09
  community. You know, every week we're out
• 11:11
  at different events. We are interacting one-on-one
• 11:14
  with our audience. And what's really cool about it
• 11:16
  is I'm out there at all the events as well.
• 11:19
  So I get to talk in person to our listeners or potential
• 11:22
  listeners. And people come up to me and
• 11:24
  they don't realize, hey, wait, you mean the owner of the radio
• 11:27
  station is actually here talking to me right now?
• 11:30
  And you know, it's like, yes, like another radio station
• 11:34
  cannot say that. Yes, they're owners here because
• 11:36
  again, you're talking about a network of stockholders.
• 11:39
  So, you know, you're not going to have a, a board of directors
• 11:43
  come to a gun show and talk to people about, hey, yeah, this is
• 11:46
  our one low radio station we're going to talk to you about.
• 11:49
  No, it's what we can do is we're able to actually have that
• 11:52
  interactions and I'm able to talk one-on-one to people my on
• 11:56
  their personalities. They're able to talk one-on-one
• 11:58
  with people. Everyone else has kind of just
• 12:00
  created this cookie cutter model that they can replicate across
• 12:04
  the country. We're just focusing on Houston.
• 12:06
  And so the fact that I'm not looking to expand outside of
• 12:10
  Houston, I'm not looking to create a network of radio
• 12:12
  stations. I just want to be 1 radio
• 12:14
  station that fixes my hometown. Who Who are your best
• 12:19
  personalities on the radio right now?
• 12:21
  So I'll always go back and say we started as the home of Dan
• 12:25
  Bongino for Houston until he left for the FBI.
• 12:28
  So that was always my answer until a few months ago when you
• 12:31
  have to leave as a deputy director.
• 12:34
  Wait, really? Yeah, yeah.
• 12:36
  You guys launched him? No, he was.
• 12:38
  He was in Houston with us. Yeah.
• 12:41
  Yeah. Cool.
• 12:42
  OK. Yeah.
• 12:42
  So we have Bongino. So again, it was a it was a
• 12:45
  funny Side Story. I play basketball every Sunday,
• 12:49
  and one day I got a text on my phone that it was like, hey, you
• 12:53
  know, Bongino got the gig as deputy director of the FBI.
• 12:57
  I was like, oh, that's awesome. And then immediately after I put
• 12:59
  my phone down, I was like, wait, we're losing him as a radio
• 13:02
  personality. So it was a good high and then a
• 13:04
  a low right after that. But what's been nice is I have a
• 13:08
  lot of great radio personalities with us still.
• 13:10
  Currently, one of my closest friends from the national level
• 13:14
  has been Todd Starnes, who was a former Fox correspondent.
• 13:18
  He's currently with Newsmax as well, and he does his own
• 13:21
  nationally syndicated show out of Tennessee, and he is great
• 13:25
  because he's Southern Baptist, so there's a Christian aspect to
• 13:28
  some of his programming that he's doing.
• 13:30
  He has a very good dry sense of humor and you know, again, being
• 13:33
  a national voice, he has a lot of great contacts and he's been
• 13:36
  a good friend. He checks in with us regularly,
• 13:39
  text me often to see how things are going.
• 13:41
  So it's nice having him on. He took over when Bongino left
• 13:45
  that time slot, so we've had him.
• 13:48
  We have other personalities that people know.
• 13:50
  Dana Lash, number one female personality in the country.
• 13:54
  We're home to Dave Ramsey in Houston.
• 13:56
  So Dave Ramsey runs with us in the afternoons from 2:00 to
• 13:58
  4:00. And then locally, we have a
• 14:01
  young man named Michael Wilson. He's only 23 years old.
• 14:05
  I gave him his very first radio gig here, and he is really taken
• 14:09
  off where very, very intelligent, knows
• 14:12
  constitutional history very well, knows Christian history
• 14:16
  very well. And he puts those two together
• 14:17
  in his morning show called The Lone Star Conservative, where
• 14:20
  he's not afraid to bring up Christian American values within
• 14:25
  commentating a local Harris County Houston politics.
• 14:28
  So it's a really unique mix. I think, you know, within the
• 14:31
  next couple years, he's very much going to take off and be a
• 14:34
  huge voice in Houston. But, you know, for his first
• 14:37
  time in radio, he's doing a great job.
• 14:39
  And what's nice is, you know, I have a lot of people that want
• 14:41
  to come on to the station with us.
• 14:42
  So every day I have different, you know, phone calls with
• 14:46
  people. They're like, hey, Matt, just
• 14:48
  want to touch base with you again.
• 14:49
  I'm ready to come over to Patriot Talk 9:20 AM.
• 14:51
  It's like perfect. I'm not ready yet.
• 14:53
  Give me a little bit more time to get there.
• 14:55
  But the fact that people see our growth in our company, other
• 14:59
  radio stations have either become stagnant or they're going
• 15:02
  into bankruptcy. We are growing and that's a big
• 15:05
  deal to a lot of people is the fact that we have growth in our
• 15:08
  vision. So it's it's been really nice to
• 15:10
  see people want to come over with our radio station.
• 15:15
  Any last words for our audience? Yeah, just, you know, a, a big
• 15:19
  thing I always want to say is, you know, my faith drives my
• 15:22
  company. If you come into our office,
• 15:24
  you'll see, you know, my crosses and a lot of Catholic relics,
• 15:27
  you know, throughout the, the office.
• 15:29
  And so I think it's more and more important for us to put our
• 15:32
  faith 1st and everything, not just in our day-to-day life, but
• 15:35
  in our business and our business decisions.
• 15:37
  So I pray often over my business decisions.
• 15:39
  You know, I always ask God to help me carry my cross every
• 15:42
  day, help me guide me down his path and make sure that the
• 15:46
  business decisions that I make are never about myself or about
• 15:50
  His will. And so I'm very big on, you
• 15:52
  know, put your faith first in your business.
• 15:54
  And I think that'll be a huge, you know, win, whether it's a
• 15:56
  financial win or not. That's not what's important.
• 15:58
  It's just doing God's work. And to my Virtuous Leaders
• 16:02
  audience, what you just said, Matt is exactly what this show
• 16:05
  is all about, highlighting messages of values driven
• 16:09
  entrepreneurs leaders. Thank you for doing that and
• 16:12
  thank you for the listeners here today.
• 16:15
  If you like this show, please subscribe, like, send a comment
• 16:18
  and listen to Matt Station. Awesome.
• 16:20
  Appreciate you Hon.