Move of Sportsmemo radio show moves my dial to Miles and Monk

By Rob Miech

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | 6:19 p.m.

Mornings will be quite different come May 4, the day the Sportsmemo sports-wagering radio show moves from 7 a.m. to noon on KBAD 920-AM.

For most of my 6 1/2 years in Las Vegas, I have awoken during the week to the sports show with the very Vegas edge to it.

I even wrote a story about it on July 15, 2003. Somehow, my byline doesn’t appear on the piece in the archives, but they sure look like my words.

Tim Trushel runs the show from Tennessee, and the cast he talks with for two hours hails from all over the country.

They talk about games and players, patterns and tendencies, in relation to point spreads, totals and other aspects of the betting line.

Trushel & Co. run a business, selling picks, and the Sporsmemo.com Web site is filled with material from free picks to articles to blogs to records of individual handicappers.

The hook is to get listeners to call in for various-priced picks, but it isn’t difficult to listen to the radio show for a while and figure out when a few of the ’cappers particularly favor an angle or a team. I have been known to treat quarters like manhole covers, but the lads have made me a dollar or two.

As a sportswriter, the show has been indispensible in providing information – trends, injuries, etc. – that is not available on the usual cookie-cutter sports radio shows.

That, in fact, is what’s moving into the Sportsmemo time slot. Dan Patrick takes over from 7 to 9 in the morning on the Fourth of May.

Brushing my teeth, making the bed and generally prepping for the day won’t be the same without hearing about how a certain umpire always calls close, low-scoring games.

In a brief e-mail, Trushel explained that KBAD was contractually bound to air Patrick’s show, that it was beyond anyone’s control and that the noon-2 slot seemed like the best alternative.

“We’ll give it a go and see what happens,” Trushel wrote.

Soon enough, when the clock strikes 7 a.m., I’ll switch the dial to KUNV 91.5-FM, one of the rare jazz stations in the country that often provides an inspirational and soothing writing environment.

Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk will easily get the nod over Patrick’s overexposed cookie-cutter.