Monday, July 14, 2008

I don’t know how it sounded on the air on Friday, but I had a really great time being part of the CBS Radio roundtable discussion on WSCR. Dan Bernstein did a masterful job of letting everybody get a word in edgewise. For my money, however, Lin Bremer from WXRT still talked too much. He talked more during the roundtable than he does during an entire week on his own show. My favorite was Ramblin’ Ray from US99. You might recall that Ray and I bonded a few years ago when we taped an episode of The Weakest Link out in Los Angeles. No one was more surprised than I was that Ramblin’ turned out to be such a funny guy. I guess I’ve known him since back in the WLUP days, but who knew a country guy could be funny?

Ray does the PA at the speedway and he hooked me up with some tickets to the NASCAR race in Joliet on Sunday. Well, actually Mike Dahl hooked me up with the tickets, Ray hooked us up with a parking pass and also a pass that lets you bypass all of the race traffic on closed-off back roads. Needless to say, that kind of thing is invaluable to me. Mike was pretty impressed with it too. Mike and I sat in turn one, and we were blown away by the impressive speed and skill exhibited out there on the track. The fans are another matter, and I will save most of that for Monday’s show, but let me say there’s a reason that no toothpaste companies sponsor a car, if you know what I mean.

Mike and I even rented those gigantic yellow headsets that you see all of the NASCAR fans wearing. They are scanners to listen to the driver’s frequencies along with TV hookup and radio coverage as well. They’re quite handy, and when you put them on it gets a lot quieter. At one point I had them on and I unplugged them just to catch a little silence. Those cars were cranking around the track for the better part of three hours. I don’t know if it’s by design, but the loudness of the cars also helps to drown out the idiotic comments from the fans around you who might be lacking in the IQ department. It’s no wonder that the drivers all head for their helicopters and get the Hell out of there right after the race.