One Signal May Not Bode Well for Trojans

Talk about bad timing. This is a big week for USC flagship radio station KMPC (1540), which needs all the listeners it can get. So what happens?

The station lost its signal for two hours Wednesday morning.

John Ryan, the station’s general manager, said all radio transmitter sites have a “fail-safe” system that automatically shuts down the transmitter if a worker gets too close to a high-voltage area. Ryan said a malfunction triggered the fail-safe system.

Could this be a bad omen for the Trojans?

Trivia time: Who is the only person to have coached at USC and UCLA at the same time?

Bad look: For those who missed their daily dose of former Trojan Petros Papadakis on KMPC, Papadakis told Morning Briefing one story he planned to tell on the air.

Papadakis, also a regular on Fox Sports Net, had his hair professionally dyed blue on one side, cardinal on the other and gold in the middle at a salon in Hollywood on Tuesday afternoon. The dye job is the result of losing to television counterpart Matt Stevens in picking Pacific 10 Conference games.

“I made a stop on Santa Monica Boulevard, and I noticed this attractive gal eyeing me,” Papadakis said. “I’m thinking, ‘She must think I look good.’ Then I get back in the car, look in the rearview mirror and realize she was eyeing me because I look like a freak.”

One more: “Here’s another one,” Papadakis said. “My mechanic, Greg Streeter, told me he released a car to a customer [Wednesday] morning. The guy returns a few minutes later, mad as all heck because he couldn’t get 1540 on his radio station. He thought Greg had done something to mess up his radio.”

No pressure: Former USC All-American Jon Arnett, a guest at Wednesday’s Southern California Sports Broadcasters luncheon at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake, reminded the gathering he placed second in the broad jump (now the long jump) as a sophomore at the 1954 NCAA championships.

“There were three or four others in the field who could jump farther than me, but they choked,” Arnett said. “I didn’t choke, because the only reason I went out for track was to get out of spring football.”

Passing issue: Regarding Tuesday’s trivia question, a number of readers e-mailed to say they believe Texas’ Darrell Royal, not Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, originated the quote, “When passing, three things can happen and two of them are bad.”

Keith Jackson, Mr. College Football, said: “I think they both said it. Not sure who said it first.”

Trivia answer: Dennis Storer. In the fall of 1966, he coached soccer at USC and rugby at UCLA. He ended up coaching soccer and rugby at UCLA until 1982.

And finally: “Four members of the Oakland Raiders have tested positive for steroids,” Jay Leno said. “Isn’t that amazing? Just four? Slow week? They face a four-game suspension, which means they could be back in time to miss the playoffs.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.