The Straight Poop on Scoop
Scoop Sweeney spent his formative years in the tiny West Texas town of Big Spring. Being mired in a cultural black-hole, on the fringes of the Great American Desert, our hero's future was less than promising. A fortuitous encounter with a struggling local rock band led to his first job as manager/bouncer/loan shark for a gang of high decibel hoodlums. Being one of the only people in town who actually knew a musician qualified the bumbling bumpkin for a job as D.J. at the local radio station. (He also had a better record collection.) This two-pronged attack of good fortune quickly derailed his once promising career as a redneck/village idiot.

One thing led to another and a keen instinct for self-preservation led him out of Big Spring to the thrilling Metropolitan wasteland of Dallas, Texas. Better bands and bigger radio stations helped hone our hero's skills. In 1969, Scoop migrated to Houston, where he hooked up with a group of local media crazies. They had just gone onto the air as Pacifica Radio (KPFT FM). This hearty band of troublemakers had managed to stir up the local media scene to such an extent, the local Ku Klux Klan felt obligated to blow these electronic rabble-rousers off the map. This they did, with the aid of a hefty helping of C4 plastic explosives, not once but twice. The photo on the left shows the once proud transmitter after it's transformation into a rather expensive heap of scrap metal. Scoop joined the Pacifica staff, first as a news reporter and later, as News Director and Public Affairs Director.


In 1973, he stuck a few (wilted) flowers in his hair and headed for San Francisco. There he joined Zodiac News Service, a nationally syndicated radio feature service, first as a political correspondent and later as Music/Entertainment Editor. ZNS quickly grew to a major supplier of feature news to more than 450 radio stations around the world. Major print media and televison also carried ZNS features on a regular basis.

By 1980, corporate accountants and programming consultants had managed to gut the radio business. Zodiac News folded its tent and crept off into the desert to die. Scoop hooked up with yet another struggling band and hit the road. With a partner, he formed a talent agency in the thrilling urban war-zone of the East Bay. One agency act, Vital Signs, quickly gained a sizeable following throughout California and the Western US. After the usual "creative differences,"Scoop and Vital Signs split from the talent agency, striking out onto the road for three years of constant touring. Ultimately, a record deal with A&M Records and a big budget video (check out the soundtrack album for the movie "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure") led our hero to another thrilling urban area, Hollywood and the Sunset Strip.

Unfortunately, Vital Signs' style of melodic, hard rock was beginning to fall upon hard times. Public tastes began to shift and the members of Vital Signs decided to call it a day. Scoop moved on to concert and event production where he happily works today as a production manager, stage manager and production supervisor for promoters and event producers throughout the United States.