Let's give 'em something to talk about

I’ll be filling in again Sunday night on KABC Talkradio 790 at 9 pm to co-host their sportstalk show. At least I’ll have stuff to talk about. Pro and college football and basketball, the bullshit BCS rankings, the baseball winter meetings, hockey (well… maybe not hockey.) But it’s sure different from my hosting the KMPC Sports Final in 1981.

KMPC here in LA was a talk station then. They came up with the idea of doing a two-hour nightly sports news and highlight show (a la ESPN Sportscenter). I was asked to be the sole host. Since the writers happened to be out on strike then too I eagerly accepted. It’s not easy to support a family on JOE & SONS residuals.

Unfortunately, two days into the job the Players Union went on strike shutting down Major League Baseball. It was early summer. Other than baseball at that time of year there was NOTHING. I had two full hours of NOTHING. Couldn’t take phone calls. Couldn’t do interviews. I would have killed for hockey news.

I had to resort to reporting minor league baseball results. The Salt Lake City Gulls were the Angels’ Triple-A farm team and since we were the Angels’ flagship station, we became your official Salt Lake City Gulls station (not that any other stations were competing for that title). I was doing pitching-matchups between Salt Lake City and Tacoma on a 50,000 watt major Los Angeles radio station. And repeating it seventeen times!

I was also giving Australian Rules Football results, summer pro-league pick up basketball game results, green conditions on local golf courses, and paddle tennis tournament updates from the Jonathon Club. The Dallas Cowboys began training camp in nearby Thousand Oaks. I reported on wind sprint drills.

After a couple of months of this the baseball strike was settled, and the NFL began its preseason. Finally I had something to talk about!

Then the station decided to promptly drop the format and let me go.

But if I get hung up tonight I know that Australian Rules Football player Adam Ramanauskas is slated to be the guest coach at a talent camp in South Africa. I can do twenty minutes on that EASY.