TECHNOLOGY : Cal State Fullerton Baseball Takes to the Web

Cal State Fullerton’s baseball team won the national championship last year, but fans hoping to find their games on the radio this year are out of luck. They can still tune in, however, if they’ve got a computer with a sound card and a modem.

Fullerton lost its local radio slot to UC Irvine last year. So Fullerton took the wired route and joined a growing number of universities broadcasting games on the Internet.

The quality isn’t always so good, and it’s a little more complicated than turning a dial. But the Internet does offer some advantages. Players’ families as far away as Germany can tune in. And if fans aren’t home to listen to the live broadcasts, they can simply download the complete game later and listen to the broadcast.

“It’s very strange,” said Mel Franks, who calls the play-by-play for Fullerton. “The concept I’ve always followed is to try to talk to someone in their living room. Now I’m talking to a computer.”

To tune in, fans should go to Fullerton’s athletic department’s home page at https://sports.fullerton.edu and click the “live broadcast” option. From there, users will be instructed to download a piece of free software called RealAudio, and then onto another page where the games can be accessed.

Franks said he’s not sure how many people are listening, but he is getting responses from faraway places. After Stanford beat Fullerton, 5-0, a few weeks ago, Franks got a fax from Ontario, Canada. The fax said: “Thanks for putting the game on, it was fun to listen to, especially if you’re a Stanford fan like me.”

By Greg Miller, who covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com.