Friday, March 05, 1999
SPORTS ON TV-RADIO
BOB's McAlister might leave town
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Lance McAlister's days in Cincinnati could be numbered. His contract with WBOB-AM (1160) expires March 23.
The station wants him to stay and he is happy with the job and an offer to renew, but it's not a given that he'll stay.
McAlister was married in June, and his wife, Kelly, lives in Chicago. She works for the Fox television affiliate there. After two years of a long distance relationship — Lance flies or drives to Chicago nearly every weekend — the McAlisters have decided to live in the same town.
But which town?
“What my wife and I want to do is the bigger question,” he said. “It's gotten to the point where you divide a piece of paper in half and write the pros on one side and the cons on the other.”
He's done some detailed lists.
“Her parents live 20 miles from Chicago and we eventually want to have kids, so we'd have free day-care there. Things like that are factored in.”
McAlister and his wife haven't been able to make a decision.
“Some days we feel like flipping a coin,” he said.
McAlister would be a major loss for BOB. His show, which runs from 10a.m. to 1p.m., is one of the best local shows and gets some of the best numbers the BOB draws.
Management knows that.
“They've been very appreciative,” he said. “We'll get something worked out if I decided to stay.”
There might be an alternative. With Vanguard Airlines offering $19 one-way rates to Chicago, McAlister figures he could commute daily.
He was just kidding about that.
RPI VIP: The Fish, aka Paul Sturgeon, will have RPI guru Jerry Palm on his show at 4:25p.m. today.
“He'll take calls,” Sturgeon said. “We're doing the show at Uncle Woody's, so people there can ask questions, too.”
Palm picked 32 of the 34 at-large teams last year and had 60 of 64 seeds within one of their actual seed. Palm runs the collegerpi.com website and also does the RPI for cbs.sportsline.com.
CROWDED SCHEDULE: The folks at Channel 12 are nervous this time of year.
With three local teams — UC, Xavier and Miami — and three regional teams — Ohio State, Kentucky and Indiana — all likely to be in the NCAA Tournament, conflicts for the first round may be unavoidable.
“It could be a nightmare,” Channel 12 General Manager Bill Moll said. “(CBS) will do everything they can to juggle the schedule.”
“We have some flexibility,” said Mike Aresco of CBS programming. “We'll prevent it if we can.”
If a conflict cannot be avoided — say, UC and Kentucky are playing at noon and 12:35 p.m. Thursday — then Channel 12 will offer one game to another local station.
That happened a few years with Xavier and UK, and Channel 64 showed the UK game.
“That's pretty rare,” Aresco said. “Remember, there are two day windows and two night windows. We usually can work something out.”
Moll said the station may poll viewers if two equal games run head-to-head.
“We might do that if we're between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
DON'T SET THE VCR YET: CBS and Sports Illustrated will present a two-hour 20th Century Sports Award show Dec.2 from Madison Square Garden. Let's hope the gag writers are better than the ones who do the ESPYs.
John Fay covers TV/radio sports for The Enquirer. He can be reached at 768-8445.
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