REBENSTORF’S COMEBACK IS LOUD AND CLEAR

A month ago, John Rebenstorf lay in the intensive care unit of Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles, recuperating from triple-bypass heart surgery. He already had suffered two heart attacks and had come to grips with the knowledge that life could be fleeting, especially for someone with a family history of congenital heart problems.

Rebenstorf, 35, had a more difficult time coping with another big change in his life. It, too, had been out of his control and had left him hurt and angry. One of the driving forces behind John Rebenstorf had been taken away, and he wanted it back.

And as fate would have it, he got it.

For four years, Rebenstorf had been the radio voice of Cal State Fullerton athletics. He also was ad salesman, engineer, statistician, technician . . . a regular one-man traveling radio show.

This was not the life your average communications major has in mind when he pictures a radio career. Rebenstorf has had to carry outdated equipment up flights of stairs that would leave a someone just out of boot camp gasping, and then sit in an open plywood press box praying a rainstorm won’t short the transmitter . . . or electrocute him.

Rebenstorf never complained much, though. He just took the cheap flights, rode the team bus because renting a car would put a serious dent in his shaky profit margin, and hoped he’d be on the air when he was supposed to be (the engineers at the stations where he could afford to buy air time were usually less than the best in the business).

Then in April, it ended when an interim athletic director signed a contract with a new firm that promised greater revenues and a stronger signal.

Leanne Grotke, then Fullerton’s acting athletic director, decided to sign a contract with ROWW Enterprises, a new radio packager headed by Bob Olson, the UC Irvine sports information director, and Wayne Welk, a broadcasting veteran from the Midwest.

Overnight, Rebenstorf became a broadcaster with nothing to talk about.

It was purely a business transaction that Grotke called a difficult decision. ROWW Enterprises had offered Fullerton $8,000 for this year’s basketball and football radio rights, a figure double what Rebenstorf was willing to pay.

ROWW also offered to get a station with a stronger signal than the weak Corona AM and San Clemente FM stations that Rebenstorf had enlisted.

It sounded good.

“They made an attractive financial offer and a commitment to a stronger signal,” Ed Carroll, Fullerton’s current athletic director, said. Carroll, then Fullerton’s athletic business manager, said he did not take part in the decision, but was aware of the factors involved in the negotiations.

“To be candid, there was a great deal of miscommunication between Leanne and John,” he said. “John knew what the market would bear and he was trying to cut the best deal. Leanne got the impression he wasn’t really that interested in keeping the rights.”

Rebenstorf, who probably figured nobody else was crazy enough to want his job, says he was only trying to paint an accurate--if bleak--picture of the situation.

But Grotke got an altogether different impression.

“He was very pessimistic about being able to secure a station,” said Grotke, an associate athletic director at Fullerton. “And he didn’t show much enthusiasm or optimism. ROWW Enterprises, on the other hand, was very optimistic and enthusiastic. They were talking about getting the rights to a number of schools and it seemed that a larger corporation, with more than one account, would be able to secure a larger station.”

Carroll: “As it turned out, ROWW’s plan was totally unrealistic. It sounded good at the time, but it just wasn’t financially feasible. John, of course, would have told us up front that it wasn’t going to work.”

And it didn’t work. Olson, who says he lost “quite a bit of money,” left the partnership midway through the football season after it became clear the plan to cover games for “five or six” schools was not going to work. They ended with only Fullerton.

“We started out with a plan to have five or six schools and we got the rights for four, but we couldn’t get a station to carry San Jose State or Santa Clara or Loyola-Marymount, so we ended up with just Fullerton.” Olson said.

A month later, ROWW went belly up. Mel Franks, the Fullerton sports information director, and Ron Fremont, his assistant, broadcast the Titan football game from Northern Arizona. Fullerton students did the play-by-play for the final two home games.

Carroll found the money--somehow--to pay for the air time in the Titans’ not-too-deep athletic coffers.

So, instead of making $4,000 more than what Rebenstorf had offered, Fullerton ended up spending about $2,000 to air the final three football games. And the school has yet to receive any of the $8,000 promised by the bankrupt ROWW Enterprises.

Rebenstorf, meanwhile, was dealing with post-operative pain in Kaiser’s ICU ward. Franks said Rebenstorf perked up a bit when he called the Monday following the Northern Arizona game (five days after the operation) with the news about ROWW’s demise.

“It certainly didn’t come as a surprise,” Rebenstorf said. “I listened to the early broadcasts and charted their (advertising) spot load and it was significantly lower than what I had done the year before. I knew they were in trouble.

“I had already put together a contingency plan in my mind.”

Rebenstorf was in a position where Fullerton needed him, but he had no intention of making Carroll crawl to his bedside to grovel for help. He was too happy to have the chance to return to broadcasting.

“When Ed and I did meet to work out the basketball deal, I thanked him for having confidence in a guy who had just had a heart operation.”

Rebenstorf still wears the scar from Grotke’s decision, though.

“The only thing that still bothers me is that she made the deal (with ROWW) and I heard it through the grapevine before she told me face-to-face,” Rebenstorf said. “After working my butt off for four years, I figured I deserved better treatment than that. That really hurt me and I still think it was handled in bad taste.”

Even Grotke agrees.

“I have always liked and respected John Rebenstorf, and I admire loyalty and good service,” she said. “But business decisions have to be made with your head, not your heart. The way he found out was unfortunate, though, and I’ll take some of the blame for that.

“After I told ROWW they had the contract, I couldn’t get ahold of John immediately. I was busy with other matters, too. Then Wayne (Welk) went out to football practice that day and that’s how word got out. I apologize for that and, in fact, I wrote John a long letter telling him that. In hindsight, I should have found a way to notify him first.”

Now, Rebenstorf says that Grotke “probably saved my life.”

“If I had gotten the radio rights, I doubt seriously if I would have subjected myself to an angiogram (a test that determines blockage in the heart) in the middle of football season,” Rebenstorf said.

As it turned out, he wasn’t doing much but looking for a job last October when he had the test that revealed total blockage of two arteries and a 70% blockage of a third.

“I really owe her a debt, I guess,” he said, managing a smile. “I probably would have dropped dead climbing those stairs at Utah State.”

So, the “Voice of the Titans” is once again extolling the virtues of Fullerton athletics--and begrudgingly pointing out the weaknesses--with renewed vigor.

The Fullerton fans have opened their hearts, too. During the Titans’ final football game, a public address announcement about Rebenstorf’s return elicited an ovation. Some have sent cards and many have taken the time to stop by the press table to welcome him back.

“I like John immensely, and I’m hoping for a long relationship between the school and J.R. Sports (Rebenstorf’s one-man firm),” Carroll said. “I’m hoping to expand his role at Fullerton, too. He has a proven record of success and he delivers what he says he will.

“John belongs at Fullerton. He’s a scratcher and a clawer like the rest of us.”