Nebraska's Big Rodeo

A few days from now and the scenery will look a little different at Nebraska Big Rodeo in Burwell. In the past year a few generous donation have made it possible for a new crows nest and 10 brand new preifert bucking chutes. Gone will be the old wooden bucking chutes. One of the things that made Burwell unique was the those bucking chutes. There are some many other things that has made Burwell....Burwell. I don't know of another professional rodeo that still has wooden bucking chutes. I'm excited for this change. From an announcers standpoint I'm mostly excited for the new crow's nest. That crows nest is where I had my first solo announcer flight. The Spring of 1994 was the first time I announced a rodeo. On a friday I co-announced the Taylor hs rodeo. The next two days is when I was on my own with their hs rodeo. In the last few years I have been priviliged to announce the Steer Roping along side the legend Hadley Barrett. Times and technology have changed a lot not only in the 15 years I've been announcing but especially in the last 50 plus years of the Burwell crows nest. During the Burwell Rodeo you will have a minimum of 4 computers running music and a scoreboard. You have a 30 plus channel soundboard be utilized as well. I hope they will build a suite alongside the announcer stand to put some of the sponsors up nightly during the rodeo.

With the new bucking chutes the committee will have a lot less maintence. Yearly or even nightly when the boards would break etc. somebody would have to get their hammer out and go to work. It will be nice and I'm excited to see the changes. Nobody loves tradition more than me, but for the safety of the contestants and animals this will a great change.

What do you thing? Agree or disagree. Let me know.

Travis Schauda