Telly Savalas' Monday News and Views

Well its a cold Monday here in the Bluegrass state and some of you are fortunate enough to be off today as we honor Martin Luther King's Birthday....even though today isnt the correct day. The most important real birthday today is the one of my mother who is celebrating in a much warmer climate, leaving me here to do start-up law firm things and blog until my heart's content. Because my mom says she doesnt classify as a "celebrity" (she is wrong), we are left celebrating the birthday of the bald-headed legend (no not Morakinyo Williams), Telly Savalas. To many of you Savalas is known for his role as "Kojak", a show that allegedly was about Telly fighting or solving crime or doing something where he walked around with expensive watches. But that was before my time....I grew up in a later era and for me Telly Savalas means one thing...."Diner's Club" credit cards. When I was a kid, my mother would drop me off at my grandparents when she went to work and I would watch ESPN, which back in those days actually had a real non-sports news show early in the morning. During that show, ESPN was to Diner's Club what 1570TheZone is to Tubby's Pizza....the haven for ubiquitous commercials. And the pitchman for Diner's Club was Telly Savalas, who would tell you that if you had Diner's Club, you could eat at any classy restaurant in America. I of course believed Telly, and thus when we went to Prime Sirloin in Middlesboro (the classiest joint in town), I asked them (at age 7) if they took Diner's Club.....they didnt, but I still felt like a hip guy. I dont know what has happened to Diner's Club and I havent seen one of those cards in a million years, although for some reason when I look at Lee Todd, I think he still carries one around hoping to use it. Either way, Telly was the pitchman for the product and for that he deserves our praise.....or something to that effect. To the news......... (1)UK vs FLORIDA Saturday night was a bit of a bummer as the Cats fell to the Gators in overtime in Gainesville. While it was a difficult loss to take, it was a strong performance for parts of the game and the Cats had multiple chances to win the game. After a poor shot by Bradley in overtime and a bad decision by Harris to take a three pointer early in the offense, the Cats fell apart in overtime and the crowd took the Gators over the top. Gillispie once again said he was pleased with the performance, but not the result and praised the team's effort. They were hurt a bit by some difficult plays towards the end of regulation and two good decisions by Jai Lucas that led to a bucket and two free throws. The Cats are improving but are hampered by the fact that they have such a difficult opening stretch to the SEC schedule. After UT on Tuesday however, they have six games, five of which they may be favored in.....a good time to make a season turnaround. I wasnt disheartened by the loss Saturday, but I was disappointed. Both the Miss State game and Florida game were there for the taking....the losses likely make the NCAA Tournament officially out of the picture. But I really want to take out UT on Tuesday,.....that atmosphere should be VERY nice. (2) JUCO IN 08 Something strange and unprecedented happened this weekend....in the midst of something hosted by Rob Bromley, actual news came out! During the television Billy Gillispie show, after a question by Bromley, the Coach said that he had used the JUCO route a few times in recruiting and expected to get a player from the JUCO ranks in 2008. That confirms what we had all expected, especially with the pursuit of Tyrone Appelton and various JUCO big men, but it was a rare bit of recruiting news coming from the coach's mouth. JUCO recruiting goes on much later than high school, but a decision by a player could come any day. We have worked hard trying to find JUCO names that UK is actively pursuing besides Marvin Jefferson and Appleton. Hopefully the next few weeks will make it more clear. (3) NEW WR COMMITMENT: Jeff Drummond of the Cats Pause reported tonight that Kentucky received a commitment from Eric Adeyemi, a high school WR from Miami, Florida. Adeyemi comes a bit off the charts for the Cats, who have been focusing WR pursuit on some other targets, but like Adeyemi because of his speed....listed as running a 4.4 40 by one recruiting service. We will have more on Adeyemi this week and hope to have him as part of our special "Signing Day" Podcast coming next week. (4) CHEERLEADING CHAMPS: Admittedly, we dont cover a lot of cheerleading here at Kentucky Sports Radio, but this is big news. The University of Kentucky has won a national championship again today and is once again on top of the cheerleading world. The Cats have now won 4 of the last 5 and find themselves hanging yet another banner in Rupp. We often mention the tradition of UK basketball and the success of the major programs, but there may be no more dominant program at UK than the cheerleading group. Props to them again..... (5) NEW RADIO LINEUP: As we announced on here on Sunday, much of the radio lineup from 1570TheZone has been hired by the new Cumulus Broadcasting owned ESPN Radio, 93.9 The Ticket in Louisville. That means that we are back with ESPN Radio and go from a very weak AM signal to a very powerful FM signal. The new lineup for that station is as follows: Dave Ragone and Scott Padgett: 6-9 AM Mike and Mike: 9-10 AM Colin Cowherd: 10-1PM Rick Bozich and Jody Demling: 1-3 PM Johnny the Freak: 3-6 PM The Big EZ: 6-8 PM The new Matt Jones Show: 8-9PM In addition, the AM station (1450AM) will carry national ESPN programming all day, except for also picking up the new Dan Patrick show. This is an exciting move for me personally and will give us a much wider distribution and a whole new series of options, especially for guests....you will see a marked increase in guests and interviews, many of which will end up on here. For instance this week, Monday: Gregg Doyel and Bomani Jones help me get it started Tuesday: Scotty Hopson Wednesday: Jon Hood Thursday: Michael Wilbon Friday: Jamal Mashburn It should be a great new endeavor....the new station has modern studios and will be a very different sound from what you are used to. We arent streaming on the new station yet, but will be soon. Until then, it is 93.9 FM for your listening pleasure. But we wont forget those of you outside Louisville....for that, we are doing two things....first, we are bringing back the old Kentucky Sports Radio podcast, which we will have on here. We broke down and purchased the equipment to do shows and will be doing them live from Lexington restaurants every Saturday during the season. Our first one (which is rough and occurred after the Turkey Hunter, Hubby and I went to a monster truck rally and then watched the Florida game) is linked below. Second, we are beginning a new longer running feature called "Inside the Wildcats Studio", where I sit down for longer interviews with people connected to the UK program, including former players, coaches and commentators. We have a number of these lined up and are open for suggestions for more. These will be great and we will have some in the next few weeks, but then a great deal after the season. So thats the future folks, we hope you enjoy. More throughout this holiday......... Kentucky Sports Radio Podcast 1