Easy radio call

Was driving to the California-USC game at the Coliseum and decided to forego the ESPN Radio 710 interminable pregame show that begins at, like, dawn, and has run out of steam by, oh, noon. With five hours still to go before game time.

But luckily we have recently added a car with satellite radio and so on offer was both the Iowa broadcast of the Penn State at Iowa game and the Louisiana State broadcast of Alabama at LSU, two games about which the outcome could have huge impact on USC's tiny national titles hopes.

Being bred a Midwesterner with Big Ten genes, the first choice was the Penn State game. According to what's on the University of Iowa website, the broadcast team is Gary Dolphin on play-by-play and former Iowa player and NFLer Ed Pololak doing analysis. Iowa was leading 7-3 when I tuned in and there was no hint -- no crowd sound, no slap of pads hitting pads, no grunts from the players, no shouts from the coaching staffs -- that these broadcasters were actually at the game. They could have been inside a studio in Des Moines calling the game off TV.

So a switch was made to the Alabama-LSU game. The immediate sign that this was different was the gutteral roar of the crowd. Play-by-play man Jim Hawthorne and analyst Doug Moreau sounded like they were actually at the game! They were a little homerish (lots of 'Oh nos' and 'I can't believe thats') but with the sounds of the outside let onto the broadcast it didn't matter. So that's the game that stayed on the radio.

The best radio makes you feel as if you're at the game, not listening to it.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark fumbles as he is sacked by Iowa's Adrian Clayborn during the first quarter Saturday. Credit: Jerry Lai / US Presswire