Spanning the past two decades the local legends behind the mike – Dr. Basketball, The Music Man, Quake and Cowboy Joe – have entertained, informed and made listeners bring their ‘’A game’’ as no other local sports show has done.

The hosts are a sports potpourri of Burns and Allen, the Marx Brothers and Carson and McMahan with more flair than Ric and the Four Horsemen between the ropes.

Hard core area sports fans, and even those on the fringe, tune in daily to 102.3 FM (WGOW) for their three-hour (4-7 p.m.) sports fix quicker than they download the latest tunes on their ipod.

Twenty years ago on this date – April 16, 1990 – the Haskew brothers (Jerre and Gary) brought sports radio alive with their all-time sports lists, nationally-known guests, great blend of music, the latest on SEC football and NASCAR and the ever-growing cast of call-in characters.

Over the years, the hall of fame callers known as Mr. Philly, The Great Defender, Bama Jean, Spike, The Commissioner, BoSox Bob and Rocky Top Jeanne have added their two cents and more, kept the office water cooler discussions lively and the ratings high.

“Four to seven is a special time for us as hosts of the show and hopefully for our listeners as well as we strive to make sports fun,’’ said Scott McMahen, known as Quake who was an UTC student intern producer in 1989 and running the board full time in 1991. “Our show is a vehicle to get away from the normal stresses of life.’’

“A couple of keys to our success is to keep the topics local and regional and to make sure our listeners are entertained,’’ said Gary “Dr. Basketball’’ Haskew.

“Heaven knows we don’t need to produce another national sports show, yet we do focus on the national scene with NASCAR, the Braves and the PGA.’’

The success of the show has been built on understanding and capitalizing on what are sports fans talking about at the office, during lunch and at their kid’s youth soccer
and baseball games.

“The top five sports our listeners have a passion for are college football, NASCAR, the NFL, and the next one will surprise you – college football recruiting – and fifth is college basketball,’’ said Jerre. “We needed a shtick to be successful and its entertainment and we also have been fortunate in knowing our audience.’’

McMahen uses a sports analogy for the popular drive time talk show hit.

“I compare our show to fishing. We throw out a topic and see if there are any takers.

“If we can get 45 minutes out of a topic that great, but we also want to have an extra topic or two on the back burner in case the first one dies out in 15 minutes.’’

Haskew and McMahen point to slam dunk topics including greatest football or basketball players from Chattanooga area, athletes who have impacted their sport on a national scale (Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Mohammad Ali, Michael Jordan, etc.) or most any conversation which has a Big Orange flavor.

Though local in nature, the show goes worldwide with the internet – first sport talk show to do so live in 1993 – and coast-to-coast with big time guests either in studio or via phone conversation, including George Steinbrenner, Vince Dooley, Sir Charles Barkley, Phil Mickelson, Don Drysdale, Betty Probasco, Bobby Bowden, Pat Summit and Terry Bradshaw.

And more hall of famers include Harmon Killebrew, Don Sutton, Sam Huff, George Foreman and legendary announcers John Ward, Eli Gold and Larry Munson, plus Olympic medalists.

The Start: Local radio personality J. David Miller, who was also a writer for Sport Magazine, started Sport Talk in 1988 on WGOW AM (7-9 p.m.), brought in Gary Haskew to help out once a week in 1989, lost his job in 1990 with the Haskew brothers given the head sets, microphones and the opportunity to sit in the host’s chairs on Monday, April 16.

Thanks to a 50,000-watt station in the Midwest, the Haskews in the Deep South heard Pete Franklin as they were introduced to sports talk radio in 1987.

“J. David got the ball rolling, but Gary and I had learned from Pete Franklin at WWWE in Cleveland, Ohio that your callers were the key which was lacking in J. David’s format,’’ said Jerre.

“Pete did a masterful job of stirring up controversy, involving his listeners, giving them nicknames, which took a life of its own, and he kept the show lively and up to date,’’ Gary stated.

“He was the godfather as he did talk radio three hours each night (9 p.m. to midnight), by himself mind you, and did it flawlessly and Jerre, Quake and myself have added our own this and that and 20 years later here we are,’’ Gary said with a smile.

The Haskews also knew that the show had to move to FM – first to 102.7 and currently at 102.3 – to have any chance at success.

“We have kept the show fresh with televised shows, being out in the community with occasional remotes, a national record 25 hour marathon show and taking on community issues when needed,’’ stated Jerre who leased and owned the show’s time from Radio Chattanooga CEO Don Newberg at WGOW-AM in 1990.

Gary pointed to his “Ed McMahan’’ type roll as playing off the lead guy; first with Jerre and now with Quake.

“Jerre did a great job of driving the show in the 1990s as that was his strong suit and Quake effortlessly moved into that roll when Jerre retired from the show in 2000 (Cowboy Joe has been the producer the past eight years),’’ stated Gary who also noted the show was part of an October 1990 sports talk radio article in Sports Illustrated.

The brothers not only hustled on the air to pull in listeners through an entertaining two hours (now three), but also reached out to the community for sponsorships.

“Early on we sold sponsorships which was key as the advertisers felt a real part of the show,’’ said Jerre who teamed with Ival Goldstein to take the sponsorship/business side to another level. “Our high water mark in the ‘90s was 64 sponsors.’’

“My first two sales were to Yogi’s Rib and Loin and Service Inc. Heating and Air Conditioning,’’ said Gary.

Today, the show has approximately 75 advertisers including the Herb Adcox Chevrolet Racing Hour (Wednesdays, 6-7 p.m.), Check Into Cash Wrestling Hour with guest host Danny Gilbert(Mondays, 6-7 p.m. in January and February) and “Around the SEC’’ by New Balance (Thursdays in the fall).

Music Man: The tunes throughout the three hours have run the gamut from reggae to rock and roll to gospel. From Elvis and Buddy Holly to the Oak Ridge Boys to Shania Twain and Faith Hill to the Back Street Boys and more.

“Sports is the show’s foundation, but I believe that our blend of a wide variety of music, especially in the early years, was the catalyst to drawing a wide audience,’’ said Jerre. “Music on a sports show was something no one else was doing and that helped set us apart.’’

Mr. Basketball to The Doctor: In late winter of 1989, Gary was a guest on Miller’s show and correctly picked all eight SEC games against the spread and a legend was born.

Even though over the years, he has had to eat crow and even some dog food to pay off bets, he ate famed basketball prognosticator Danny Sheridan for lunch one March on first and second round picks during NCAA’s March Madness.

“I felt that picking the long shots in that first weekend was the key and I hit about 80% to his maybe 50% and Doctor Basketball was born,’’ he said.

No Egos: “We all get along really well on and off the air and there are no egos in the booth,’’ McMahen stated. “After seven o’clock we don’t take our stage names and go bar hopping to pump the show. We go back to being Gary, Scott and Joe and go home to our families.’’

“I guess what we are most proud of is that outside of Luther Massengill’s legendary years at WDEF I don’t know of any other daily show in this area that has lasted for 20 years and we feel good about that accomplishment,’’ Gary stated.

The listeners and guests are glad to have been a special part of the show and look forward to another 20 years of hearing about “you loons’’ plus good tunes, more great trivia topics and Dr. B’s next outrageous wager.