Building A Better Booth

Spring ball is over, recruiting’s a wrap and we’re between player mutinies.

At last. Now our undivided attention can be devoted to the real football emergency at Washington State University - a crisis which cuts to the very soul of the program and threatens its profile statewide.

I think you know where I’m going with this.

Bob Robertson needs a new color man.

I know, I know - Bob is Cougar football. But sometime between giving us the placekicker’s height, weight and hometown and reminding us to be a good sport all ways, even Bob has to come up for air.

No one solos in the radio booth anymore. Sidekicks are standard - to report whether the secondary is in Cover-2 or Cover-3, to glass the sidelines for huffy quarterbacks and to set the scene for crucial third downs with drop-ins for term insurance and pale ale.

Dave Grosby, second chair the past two seasons, recently made himself electronically ineligible by changing employers - from the Cougars’ Seattle flagship, KIRO, to rival KJR, where he’s now the early afternoon switchboard cop for all the get-a-lifers up and down I-5. He even shares a segment with late-afternoon host Mike Gastineau called “Groz with Gas,” and that’s probably way more than you need to know about Seattle sports radio.

A true pro as a call-in host, Groz seemed a bit miscast as a color man - he just didn’t bring enough rope to the rodeo - but the Cougs could certainly do worse.

They have done worse.

Don’t read anything into this segue, but our moles tell us the leader in the clubhouse to replace Groz is the man he replaced - Paul Sorensen.

Some true Cougs remember the Sorensen reign of rah-rah as the Golden Age of Radio; others are finally making progress in therapy.

But if there were few lucid moments, there were fewer dull ones - and at Wazzu, you learn to appreciate those miniature victories.

Yes, at times listening to Paul made you wish Marconi could take it all back. You wanted more of the expertise and feeling he could call upon from his days as one of Wazzu’s saltiest safeties and less of the loopy shtick and homerism. But since he also owned the radio rights to the games he was broadcasting, who was going to give him a job review?

Besides, if this is a money issue, Paul’s a lock. There’s no telling how much of his salary he might rebate just to get back in the booth.

But let’s hope it’s not a done deal yet. You don’t turn your fall Saturdays over to the first guy through the door. And just as my boss has a stack of unsolicited suggestions for my replacement, I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a possible short list of candidates so that they need not apply in person.

Jim Walden: Would this be Arbitron heaven or what? When he was coaching the Cougs - and later Iowa State - Walden couldn’t bring himself to hold his tongue even when he knew he’d probably have to apologize later for whatever he said. Even if he’s just a tenth as blunt and honest - and funny - on the radio as he was as a coach, that’s about 1000 percent more bluntness and honesty and humor than you get in sports broadcasting now.

On second thought, radio may be too limiting. Get him a network blazer - or better yet, get him on CD-ROM.

Chad Eaton: The danger in putting the Howard Stern of defensive tackles on the radio is that it might turn Bob into the Robin Quivers of play-by-play. One thing’s for certain: If Eaton ever thinks the Cougs should be in a nickel defense, we’ll know about it.

Tory Hunter: They should have miked his helmet on game days when he was still playing cornerback for the Cougs. There are sideline reporters, and then there are sideline-to-sideline reporters.

Don James: A couple of years ago, Cougars coach Mike Price confessed that the Dawgfather’s commentary on Prime Sports Northwest’s Husky telecasts “really helped me get a feel for what the Huskies are trying to do and how they’re thinking.” Couldn’t hurt to have those insights on the home team, could it?

Warren Powers: Doesn’t he still have a few bucks of that contract he jumped to work off?

Bill Moos: The raconteur of Cougar football lore, he was passed over when Wazzu was searching for an athletic director - and landed a better job at Oregon. If the Cougs pass him over this time, he’ll probably wind up with his own late-night network talk show.

Chad Davis: Instead of second-guessing Price in the huddle, he can do it over the air.

Paul Seebeck: The host of Spokane Score Central is the perfect guy to comment on erratic officiating because he’s used to no calls.

Mike Lowry: You’ve got to like the guv’s credentials. He’s a Coug. He’ll need a job pretty soon. And so far, he’s been able to talk his way out of almost everything.

Ron Fairly: Look at it this way - 11 fall Saturdays will be insufferable, but it’ll get him off 162 Mariners broadcasts.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (2 Color)

MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.