Bledsoe Appears On Gameday

Former WSU, a native of Walla Walla, appeared on ESPN's Gameday

It Has Arrived

ESPN's Gameday on the WSU campus in Pullman for the first time ever.  The WSU flag, Ol' Crimson has traveled and appeared on Gameday telecasts across America for 15 years.

Stuart Evey Dies

A broadcasting pioneer with somewhat local connections has died.  Stuart Evey, a board member of Getty Oil and a personal assistant to one of J. Paul Getty's son, was 84. 
Evey was instrumental in the founding of ESPN, the first 24 hours cable sports network.  Although he was not well known, he appeared prominently  in "Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World Of ESPN"
Evey, apparently put up the money to get the idea started, then was forced out just before the network really made it's impact, something from which he may not have recovered.  In the book, Evey was portrayed as a cranky, almost  tyrannical person.
Evey lived in Spokane which was where he died.

ESPN Sacks Clayton

Hall of Fame NFL reporter John Clayton has announced that his association with ESPN has been discontinued. The network had announced several weeks ago that it was making deep staff cuts.  Clayton is a resident of the Seattle area and has a Saturday morning radio on 710 ESPN  Sources have said his show will continue to be on that station.   Before KIRO AM became a sports station, Clayton's show could be heard on Sportsradio KJR.
Clayton had at one time been a beat reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune, often appearing to offer his expertise as a guest on Sportsradio KJR.  He is a native of Pittsburgh.

Linda Cohn Autobiography--Book Review

In the early 1990s, KIRO 7 TV in Seattle had two personalities who would eventually work for national networks.  Aaron Brown, originally was an anchor for KING 5, would go on to ABC and eventually, a prime anchor spot on CNN and Linda Cohn, who was soon bound for ESPN. 
I have long been a fan of Cohn because of her special talent of being able to relate with her audience. She comes across on TV as a friend with whom you want to chat about sports.
Cohn-Head (a nickname that she got from an SNL skit) chronicles her journey from growing up in the New York area, to her struggles to fit in at college, to her desire to break into what at the time was a male dominated sports broadcasting field. 
What I did not know is that Cohn was a star goalie on her school's women ice hockey team.  She devotes a chapter to her time in the Seattle area, she actually turned down the first offer that ESPN made to bring her aboard.  She also writes about her family, her struggles to balance her home life to the demands of having a  high profile job. 
The impression that I have is that Linda's success is because of her reliability and her genuineness.  She loves sports and she loves her job.

Popular ESPN Host John Saunders Dies

The sports journalism world is mourning the passing of  John Saunders.   Saunders, was a veteran ESPN personality.  At this time, no cause of death has been revealed.  Saunders was a native of Canada.

So Long Stuart Scott

The year is not even a week old and another well known TV figure has left us.  ESPN reporter Stuart Scott has died of cancer at 49..  I remember him the most, from the show Dream Job, ESPN's attempt to recreate the then popular reality show The Apprentice.  Scott was the host of the show which asked contestants to do a number of tasks to win a job reporting on the sports network.

Eagle's Play By Play Man Larry Weir Get's National Nod

One of the coolest people I have worked with in radio, Larry Weir can be heard doing play by play on this cut from ESPN radio's Colin Cowherd, himself a Washington native. It is play by play of the Eastern Washington Eagles upsetting Indiana University. Larry and I worked together at KTEL.

Q-13 Sports Director Aaron Levine

Aaron Levine is a somewhat familiar face on Puget Sound TVs for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, his station Q-13 is the local Fox affiliate, since the network carries the NFC, the lion's share of Seahawk football will be on that station.  Seahawks after all are in the NFC.  In addition, he hosts Seahawks Saturday Night, and Seahawks Gameday, as well as Q It Up Sports, a Sunday night look at whats happening in the Sports world.
However, before he got the Seattle gig, Levine flirted with fame as a contestant on the reality show, Dream Job.  It was a show where the winner was awarded a one year contract as an ESPN anchor.  Levine, who had taken a quarter off from Stanford so he could fly back and forth from San Francisco to New York, finished second.  He is now happy that he did not get the ESPN job, figuring his lack of experience would have stunted his growth in the field.   He spent the next couple of years working at a station in Bakersfield before getting the job at Q-13 in 2007 at the age of 25.
Levine is now the sports director at Q-13.  A native of Calabasas, CA, his favorite hobby is golf.

Baseball Is Sweet In Walla Walla

Baseball is alive and well in Walla Walla Washington. Jim Caple of espn.com went down there recently and filed this report. Top picture shows the view from the hand operated scoreboard in Walla Walla's Borleske Stadium.