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What: “The Big Show”

Where: Fox Sports West 2, XTRA 690, AM 1150

When: Weekdays, 6-9 a.m.

Maybe you’ve heard that Keith Olbermann’s new show on MSNBC is called “The Big Show,” although some people around ESPN may be calling it “The Big Ego Show.” Also, “The Big Show” is what Olbermann and former ESPN partner Dan Patrick called their segment of “SportsCenter.”

In these parts, “The Big Show” is the one with Steve Mason and John Ireland that is live on two radio stations, XTRA 690, its original home, and AM 1150, and has been on Fox Sports West 2 since Day 1.

It’s a radio show that is also televised. To call it casual is an understatement. “Steve wears the same jeans every day,” Ireland said on the set the other day. The casual atmosphere makes it appear as though everything happens by accident. That’s part of the appeal.

But the real key to the success of this show is that Mason and Ireland are likable, at least most of the time. They have fun, and the idea is for their audience to have fun too, even if it is early in the morning.

Mason and Ireland were first paired at nights on XTRA 690 in 1993 after Rick Schwartz, Mason’s original nighttime partner, was moved to mornings. But Mason, unhappy with station management, soon left XTRA to work for CBS Radio and other entities and also start, along with two partners, a movie theater business that he still has. Ireland, a UCLA graduate, continued to work for XTRA and a San Diego television station. When Mason returned to XTRA about a year later, the two were paired in the mornings. Jeannie Zelasko was also part of the cast, but she left to work full time for “Fox Sports News.” For a while, Mason was stationed in a studio in Los Angeles, while Ireland was in San Diego. But the two have been together in Los Angeles since Ireland moved here after getting a job with KCAL, Channel 9. They’ve been doing the show from the Fox Sports West lot since January.

A benefit of being on television, producer Dave Singer says, is that makes it easier to get guests. On Tuesday, the lineup included jockey Gary Stevens, Santa Anita Chief Operating Officer Cliff Goodrich and actor/comedian Kevin Pollak.

But does a radio show work on television? In this case, it does. One suggestion, though: Change the name. Something besides “The Big Show.” Let Olbermann have that one.