Media News

Iconic Dallas media figure Dale Hansen returns to fray via new podcast

Mark Villasana, Lila Levy, Dale Hansen

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An iconic Dallas media figure is back on the air: Former longtime sportscaster Dale Hansen, who retired in 2021 after more than 40 years, is chattering again in a new podcast, "Dallas Dialogue With Dale Hansen," which made its debut on June 2.

The podcast is sponsored by Northwest Insurance Agency, a Dallas-based agency owned by Mark Villasana, an insurance professional with nearly 30 years of experience in the DFW market.

Villasana and his partner Lila Levy (AKA, CultureMap Dallas' own bagel expert) launched a separate podcast in April 2025, called "Beyond The Policy: Covering Everything Dallas," where they share insights on insurance, before segueing to interviews with chefs, artists, musicians politicians, and other local figures.

Hansen was one such figure they interviewed, and that May 26 episode turned out so well, they decided to launch a new monthly podcast starring Dale, providing the outspoken and opinionated Hansen with a platform for his hot takes on a variety of issues.

Here's a few words from Dale:

The return of Dale
""I've seen every movie and TV show that Netflix has to offer," Hansen says. "My wife and I travel quite a bit, and I play a lot of poker with the guys," Hansen says. "So when Lila called, what was supposed to be an hour turned into two and a half. I don't have a lot of conversations with people these days, so it's hard for me to shut up. Halfway through, they said, 'This is really good, would you mind if we make it into two parts.' And then they suggested the idea of doing the podcast once a month. That was the magic moment for me. I love writing commentaries. I was ready to retire for a lot of reasons, but that was the only thing I missed from my television days."

To zoom or not to zoom
"My wife and I live in Waxahachie," Hansen says. "It's not that far from Dallas. We're recording the show in Denton and I make the drive. I don't like having these conversations over Zoom. I know it's technically possible but i like to look the person in the face, and be there with Mark and Lila. Someday we might end up doing it over Zoom but for now, it gets me out of the house. It's about an hour and 15 minutes. Although halfway there, I start thinking, 'Maybe we ought to do this over Zoom.'"

First topic
"The first one I did was about the divide in America — how we've allowed politics to divide us unlike anything in our history," Hansen says. "We've been divided before but never lost friends. But because of my self-identified 'liberal' leaning, I've had conservatives kick me out of a card game. I don't get invited to dinner parties. My sister and I didn't talk for nine years. I blame a single man, Donald Trump, for causing this divide. Previously, you could still maintain friendships. And it goes both ways. I have a liberal friend, we were going to eat at Javier's, and the question was, 'Who else is coming,' because they won't attend if certain people are there."

Future Dale
"Future topics include the Luka and the Dallas Mavericks, and the technology of the world we live in -- phones, computers, Facebook. I do see some of the benefits, but how many influencers does one country need?" Hansen says.

"Bottom line, I am doing a great deal of what I did at channel 8 — talk about social issues, sports, although even when I was talking about sports, I would always weave in social aspects. I just love sparking the conversation. A friend told me that his buddy said, 'The hell with Dale Hansen, he thinks he's right about everything and he's just not.' Well, of course I think I'm right — I wouldn't say it if I didn't think I was right. I didn't understand why that was supposed to offend me."

"Dallas Dialogue With Dale" can be viewed on YouTube or heard via Spotify.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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