Courtesy the Miami Herald

(August 6, 2010) Watch and listen to enough broadcast sports on the local airwaves and eventually -- in between the repetitive talk-show calls and the packaged highlights -- you'll stumble upon something unique that commands your attention.

Here's one viewer's list of occasional-or-regular segments/gimmicks/interviews on the South Florida airwaves that make us stop and listen, in no particular order:

• Marlins e-mail Tuesdays. One of our biggest pet peeves is social media's intrusion in TV sports. We bristle when ESPN2 posts viewer tweets during Tuesday college games.

So we wondered if it was a good idea for Fox Sports Florida to inject viewer questions throughout a Marlins game. But the gimmick has been executed so effectively that Tuesday Marlins telecasts have become one of the week's most enjoyable.

Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton seamlessly weave in questions and answers, never detracting from the game. Baseball's rhythm lends itself to a conversational approach, and no TV announcers in the market engage in more entertaining repartee than Waltz and Hutton.

And the questions have been generally strong, giving the announcers a reason to share information they otherwise might not -- updates on Marlins minor-leaguers, details about the new ballpark and random factoids (an example: Marlins players are not fined for running through hold signs at third base but are firmly addressed).

A producer sifts through the 600 to 800 e-mails and gives the best to the announcers.

``The hardest part,'' Hutton said, ``is getting them in if the pitching is quick.''

• WQAM's Channing Crowder Show. By far the most entertaining of any active players' show in the market. Who else would say that if he tried to hit Jets coach Rex Ryan, ``I might get lost in his belly button?'' Crowder has a contract with WQAM but wants to be respectful to the Dolphins' request that players do shows only on WINZ-AM (940).

So according to WQAM program director Lee Feldman, Crowder compromised by agreeing to do the show once every two weeks at 7 p.m. Tuesdays beginning in September, with Yeremiah Bell and Brian Hartline appearing other weeks. (Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown will do previously contracted weekly shows on WQAM, Feldman said.)

• The prickly debates between UM announcer Joe Zagacki and Orlando Alzugaray on WQAM's Dolphins pregame shows. Alzugaray, Mr. NFL Draft, is the voice of the angry fan, passionate and highly critical at times. Zagacki -- far less prone to angry rants or coach-bashing -- crafts analytical, sensible responses.

Their exchanges, sometimes combative, were good radio regardless of whom you agreed with. Unfortunately, they won't continue. Alzugaray has been moved to Dolphins postgame shows, with Zagacki on the pregame.

• Dan Le Batard's interviews with Charles Barkley on 790 The Ticket and Sid Rosenberg's chats with Phil Simms on WQAM. The two former players' personalities, coupled with their candid responses, produce lively discussions.

• Inside The Heat and Inside the Marlins specials. Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida consistently achieve high quality in these athlete profile shows. The Heat series has won five Sun Coast Sports Emmys. The newest Marlins installment, on Andre Dawson, airs after Friday night's Marlins games.

• Roy's Top 10 lists on Le Batard's 790 show. Crafting parodies with racial overtones -- but doing it in an entirely inoffensive way -- can be tricky, but Le Batard's associate producer, Roy Bellamy, pulls it off.

op 10 things that remind ``Roy'' of the Gulf oil spill? Among them, C.J. Spiller, Oil Can Boyd, Slick Watts, Ricky Watters, Jackie Shipp, Chris Leak, Derek Fisher. No. 1? Bob Griese.

• Two morning segments: Joe Rose's Football Friday WQAM show -- especially his sessions with Jim Mandich (whose WQAM status is uncertain) and Don Bailey Jr. Also, O.J. McDuffie and Dan Morgan will be added this fall. Also, Jorge Sedano's ``Around The World'' on The Ticket, where guests discuss the day's big stories in rapid succession.

• The newsy first two segments of the WFOR-CBS 4 and WSVN-Fox 7 Sunday night sports shows. Too bad WTVJ-NBC 6 and WPLG-ABC 10 dropped their shows.

There's a lot we don't like, too: The Ticket (which has a marketing partnership with The Miami Herald) selling air time for a cigar show; the lack of afternoon sports updates on WQAM, and NBC 6 having a news anchor read the Saturday sportscast. But that's for another column.

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