RADIO : Fans Can’t Seem to Get Enough Talk

Jack Bowman is a busy man.

As football coach and history teacher at Saugus High, Bowman plays many roles--radio personality among them.

Each week during the football season, Bowman and fellow Santa Clarita Valley coaches Harry Welch of Canyon and Mike Herrington of Hart offer insight regarding their teams and others on area-based KBET-1220 AM’s “Step Up to the Mike” and the “High School Scoreboard Show.” The programs are part of KBET’s expanding high school sports coverage.

“I think KBET does a great job,” Bowman said. “They really get out there and cover the kids, so I don’t mind giving my time to pay them back a little bit. It gives the kids good exposure.”

Before the 1992 high school sports season, the station, which plays rock ‘n’ roll music from the ‘50s and ‘60s, focused its sports coverage on broadcasting the football “Game of the Week” Friday nights from one of the area’s three high schools (Canyon, Hart and Saugus). KBET also reported on the schools’ other athletic teams throughout the year in its daily sports segments.

KBET is not alone in broadcasting area high school sports. Thousand Oaks-based KNJO-92.7 FM did Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks football games during the ’92 season.

Barry McKeever, in his first year as sports director at KBET, was instrumental in expanding the station’s coverage, including talk shows. The public is pleased, according to McKeever.

“The response to what we’ve done has been incredible,” McKeever said. “I can’t go to a game without hearing someone say how much they love what we’re doing.

“People wanted something like this all along. I think it was just the matter of someone taking the time to do it.”

Said Herrington: “We appreciate the coverage and the support. The kids get a big kick out of all of it.”

On “Step Up to the Mike,” which is done from the studio, McKeever conducts telephone interviews with the schools’ varsity baseball, boys’ basketball and football coaches. He also talks with the “KBET Athlete of the Week,” who comes to the studio. The program is broadcast from 5 to 7 p.m. Sundays.

KBET also covers baseball and boys’ basketball games.

“People tune in because they care about what’s happening,” McKeever said. “With all three teams being in the same league now (Foothill), it helps to increase the interest.”

Pizza parlors throughout the Santa Clarita Valley sponsor the “High School Scoreboard Show” and serve as sites for remote broadcasts on Fridays from 10-11:30 p.m. Coaches call in to be interviewed, and McKeever interviews players at the restaurants. McKeever reads scores from games outside the area and answers call-in questions from the area’s zealous fans.

“Santa Clarita never had an open forum to call in and talk about the games, and that’s all we want to give them,” McKeever said. “People don’t want to wait until the next day to read the (newspaper), they want to find out that night.”