Should New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick be suspended for stealing signals? How about O.J. Simpson's bust-in at a Vegas hotel — frame-up or fair game? The lines are open.
John in Tooele, are you there? Looks like we lost John. Let's go to line three. Allen in Riverton, what's on your mind?
If you haven't noticed the flood of sports radio programming these days, your AM radio dial must be broken. There are four stations in Salt Lake City that air 24-hour sports talk.
Chet in Holladay, quickly, what's your beef?
It hasn't always been this way. When 1320-KFAN's David Locke was starting out at The Score (FM-106.5) in the early '90s, there was just one sports station in town — and a dubious one at that. He arrived before 7 each morning to turn the station on. Next, he hosted a show from 7-9. The $6-an-hour wage required he take a job teaching ski lessons at Solitude, beginning at 10 a.m. and stretching through the afternoon. Afterward, he would drive back to the station to run the operation until powering down at midnight.
He worked two jobs, 17 to 18 hours a day, and made $11,000 that first year.
Looking back, he says those early radio efforts were amateurish.
"It's shocking how bad we all used to be," said Locke.
But boy was it fun.
Locke returned to Salt Lake City this month after nine years in Seattle. KFAN contacted him several months ago about returning to the market, but he was under contract as the play-by-play voice of the Seattle Sonics. Then something wonderful happened — he got fired. A change in ownership initiated the move, and suddenly he was back where he started, hosting an afternoon sports talk show from 3-6 in Salt Lake.
Which he says isn't a bad thing.
Erik on a cell in Bountiful. Speak to me.
Locke's return marks a milestone of sorts in Salt Lake radio. In 1991, there were no sports radio stations in the market and, as he puts it, "no one knew what it was and how to do it." Nowadays KFAN and 1280-The Zone rely heavily on local talent talking about local teams. KALL-700 Sports employs a mixture of local and syndicated programming, while AM-1230 is strictly syndicated.
If you don't know BYU's Fui Vakapuna is out four weeks with a broken hand or that Ute quarterback Brian Johnson could be back by Saturday, don't blame the radio stations. They're doing their darndest.
That Locke would return just when competition among stations is peaking is, in a way, appropriate. Chicagoan Barry King was first in the Salt Lake market to start a sports radio station, and Locke was soon on board. The Score, broadcast from a tiny rectangular studio, was not much larger than a closet.
"No TV, no monitors, just sort of padded walls. We'd take callers directly on the air," said Locke.
He grew up in the Bay Area listening to sports shows. But full-time sports programming was only beginning to catch on nationally in the early '90s. As a college graduation present, Locke's father bought him 30 minutes of air time on Sunday nights for 13 weeks on a station in Los Angeles. Tapes from the show landed Locke his job at The Score.
Familiarizing himself with sports in Utah wasn't hard. His family planned regular ski vacations in Utah around Jazz games as he was growing up.
"I wanted to be Hot Rod (Hundley)," said Locke.
Not long after landing his first job, he was hired by KISN-570, the station that carried the Jazz. He had his own noontime show and covered Jazz games as a reporter. The next stop was at KFAN — the first time — which by then had acquired the the Jazz's broadcast rights.
He moved to Seattle in 1998 when KJR (950) hired him to do a nightly show. After six years of calling games for the WNBA's Seattle Storm, he followed with his one-year stint with the Sonics.
Now he's back in Utah, where from timid beginnings the sports radio competition has become fierce. Stations have been bidding against one another for talent, with some salaries reaching six figures.
Who knows where (or if) it will end?
As long as there are angry fans waiting to be heard, there will likely be sports radio.
"It's incredible to realize that my career has paralleled the rise of the sports radio format," said Locke.
Rex in West Valley, you're up.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com