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Monday, July 01, 2002

Talk about a radio daze. All of the sudden, there are three sports-talk AM alternatives in the drive-time afternoons and early evenings. Count 'em: tha-ree. The incumbent and sports-demographic champeen Mark Madden on WEAE soon finds himself in a Steelers wheel of competitive yakkers: stalwart veteran Stan Savran to the left of him on relative newcomer WBGG, relative newcomer Paul Alexander to the right on stalwart veteran KDKA.

All right, so Savran doesn't start until next Monday and Alexander until five weeks from today.

If you're a sports-talk fan, though, both your head and radio dial are about to spin.

The 26-year market vet Savran moves next week into heretofore uncharted territory for him: the 3-6 weekday afternoon shift, a step up in marquee value and down in time slot (from his 8-9 p.m. usual perch much of the past generation). He admitted to "no illusions" about swiping ratings from Madden and ESPN Radio 1250. But Savran will bring listeners to WBGG, the 19-month-old recently rechristened Fox Sports Radio 970, even if -- as he maintains -- the listeners might wind up flipping back and forth between these two hosts, sampling each station's fare.

Add Alexander and KDKA into the mix, a move that was brewing last week while Savran was publicly tapped, and that's what puts you into the Wayback Machine. We're almost back to the glory days of local sports radio with Sam Nover, Myron Cope and ... Stan Savran. And, geez, Mr. Peabody, all anybody wanted to talk about then was the Stillers, too.

Alexander, who's about the same age as Madden and a decade younger than Savran, brings a new voice to the sports-talk gabfest. He also constitutes something of a small risk for KDKA. The station with the signal that can reach half of the United States -- compared to competitors who occasionally can reach half of Allegheny County -- could have gone a safer route with a proven radio commodity.

Say, John Steigerwald. This longtime sports anchor would have reveled in the chance at the 6-9 weeknight show that Alexander got. After a decade-long radio hiatus, Steigerwald returned last year to the AM airwaves at WBGG with a show featuring his trademark sarcasm and disdain.

Yet KDKA types wanted a talk-show host they could brand for their own. Steigerwald and Bob Pompeani, with years of radio service himself in Beaver County, are seen by the public as television sportscasters. They are, as radio station general manager Michael Young put it, "better defined on TV." Alexander is all radio's all the time now, representing them when he works KDKA-TV's "Sunday Sports Showdown" or sister-station UPN's "Nightly Sports Call" (though he'll infrequently sub as anchor for Steigerwald and Pompeani).

He started in radio in State College, spending three years as a sportscaster and play-by-play announcer for Penn State Lady Lions basketball and local high school football. Next he moved into TV with WTAJ in Altoona, spending much of his time covering Pittsburgh sports. Funny thing was, after he came to KDKA-TV in 1998 as a news reporter for its morning shows, he volunteered to switch to sports once Paul Steigerwald went to work with the Penguins. "These guys were like, 'You can do sports?' 'I had 10 years at my last station doing nothing but.'

"The point I want to make with my listeners as soon as I can is, I was there when Barry Bonds blew up [at a Pirates public-relations person]. I was there when Francisco Cabrera got that hit. I've been covering Pittsburgh sports for almost 15 years. It's not just something I've been doing for the past two years."

Outside of a fill-in week for the outgoing Thor Tolo in April, Alexander's radio personality remains mostly an unknown. It's a good guess that he'll be the same witty, caustic fellow seen on the "Showdown" or "Sports Call" shows. This much is a given: He will take calls, listen, discuss -- all without frills and bravado and babes and beer, same as Savran. Both of them, like I do, still believe strongly that the bulk of Pittsburghers prefer to talk specifically sports.

"I don't want to take anything from Fred Honsberger's show [on KDKA-AM overlapping the sports-talk shows elsewhere], but if people have to find sports radio for them to live, I'd love for them to hop right over at 6 o'clock. I hope that I have the same ideas about the genre that Stan does," said Alexander, who will compete against Madden's last hour and Tim Benz on WEAE, plus some Penguins shows along with the "SportsBeat" simulcast (more Savran!) on WBGG. "I think it's great for the people of Pittsburgh to have more of Stan. I hope someday they'll think the same of me."

For now, it's nice to think that the buffet line of local sports-talk radio at long last will have several palatable selections.

In addition to The Big Picture, Chuck Finder writes a general-sports column exclusive to the http://www.post-gazette.com/ every Tuesday. He can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com