Crickets chatter in creek beds and night critters call out to each other among the green, leafy bushes on the rolling Texas plains. There's a warm breeze blowing near Tyler that's carrying the fresh scent of the Piney Woods past Galilee toward Gresham. Two hundred miles away, sea waves are one moment caressing -- the next minute crashing against -- the sea walls of Corpus Christi. Near Cielo Vista a coyote cocks his head, gazes up and serenades the moon. The giant Mexican flag flaps and whips in the swirling winds that have sneaked across the Rio Grande from El Paso over to Juarez. And in the deep, cool darkness, on the other side of midnight, Texans are warming themselves with fluorescent lights from radios and a friendly voice that stirs the imagination of those who begin their days at midnight with Texas Overnight.

Charley Jones has come back to those Texas overnights and the Kingdom of Texas has welcomed him. "It's as if I never left," he says. From overnight one, those who had stayed up and telephoned to talk -- four and more years before -- returned to their telephones and called again to greet him. "It's as if they never left," he says. While most radio stations have surrendered their overnights to satellite signals from as far away as Virginia and Vallejo, Charley's network -- 15 stations strong and growing -- is proudly Texas home grown at KRLD 1080 and the Texas State Network. Sometimes controversial, but always a courteous gentleman, Charley greets his guests and says goodbyes with "Sir" and "M'am," a civility and respect.

How did Charley Jones come to find a home with Texans overnight? It's a twenty-five year storybook that's bookmarked with a friendly zoo and an awkward moment or two at an oasis that's now been swallowed up by the desert. Charley's secrets for his overnight success surely have a beginning somewhere behind Janel's China blue eyes. She is Charley's angel and he is her enchanting, steady rock.

Last week, in between the Friday sips of Pappasito's margaritas and the crunching of tortilla chips, the three of us sat down to visit. Charley's excited about the future of Texas Overnight. Janel is delighted to have him home again during the daylight hours and their growing kids are happy to be able to spend more time with dad. Janel's a people coach. She teaches people to improve themselves. No doubt, she's done some good with her close by cum laude graduate, husband Charley.

Charley swears that there's something special about the Texas overnight family that telephones and talks. It's discussions, not shouting matches, that the listeners enjoy. He's a big brother to an unnamed fraternity of friends who spend some time talking together in that in-between time -- from midnight till 4 AM -- when the rest of Texas and twenty-eight states sleep soundly.

What's ahead? If Jones has his way, there'll be as many Texas Overnights full of two and three-way conversations as there are stars in the Texas skies . Q's and A's on countless topics -- and classy competition for the chattering crickets and night critters that call out to each other across Texas -- Overnights.