Ten years later, I’m back in Columbus, getting ready for USC-Ohio State. For five years I broadcasted AAA Clippers games here, and co-hosted a daily sports talk show with Kirk Herbstreit on still current-Buckeye flagship WBNS.

(Keeping T’s clean in Columbus … so far. Yeah, Royals hat ruins the effect)

The city has come alive since I left. Downtown has blown up with the newish arena entertainment district and the campus’ bar scene, which flatlined in the ’90s, is now at least somewhat-representative of a school OSU’s size. But flip on radio/TV and you’ll find out in five seconds people’s priorities haven’t changed.

(Stealth drone prototypes or early stages of College Gameday construction?*)

Driving in from the airport, WTVN, the big AM talker in town, was airing an Ohio State football roundtable with Earle Bruce and two former OSU guys you never heard of. (What’s that? Who’s Earle?) Got into the hotel room and turned on local NBC 4, and the lead story on Thursday’s night newscast was, yep, Buckeyes v. Trojans.

(THE Bar For THE Ohio State University)

Reminds of when I did the talkshow in Columbus with Kirk. We had to put a moratorium on Michigan talk except for the week of the game, ‘else we’d get calls about UM-OSU every single day.

When I worked in Columbus and later Los Angeles covering USC for then-Trojan flagship KMPC-AM, days like Thursday and today were what I loved most - when you had absolutely no new, legitimate news to report about the big game.

(Know it’s a biggie when JV Gameday rolls into town!)

That’s when you would go to reporting the ridiculous, and in the case of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH Thursday night, the sublime. Read more…