ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603150036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS STAFF WRITER
By his own admission, John Hale is a fan, not a professional.
The host of "Sports Talk" on WNRV 710 AM nightly from 5 to 7 p.m. has livened up drive time for sports fans around the New River Valley. Hale's talk show centers around local high school and collegiate sporting events as well as delving into the national scene with interviews and listener call-ins.
Hale served as offensive coordinator for Christiansburg High School's football team during the 1986 and '87 seasons and helped the team on a part-time basis the following season. All along, he worked at Virginia Tech in the continuing education department and still does.
So how did he go from coaching high school football to running a two-hour sports talk show?
"In 1990 my friend John Beamer and I got the wild idea we'd do a magazine for all Southwest Virginia high school football," Hale said. "So I took a leave of absence from Tech and we did this magazine called Southwest Virginia Football Journal."
While putting together the magazine, Hale also worked as a substitute teacher at Christiansburg High. He was appointed director of in-school suspension in 1991.
"During that time in 1991, John had given me a call and asked if I wanted to do play-by-play for Christiansburg football,'' Hale said. ``We did four home games and that was it. I thought that was the end."
Little did Hale know it was actually just the beginning. In 1994 he and Beamer started an hourlong show on WBNK 100.7 FM called "The Arm-Chair Quarterback" to profile high school and college football.
"It kind of just expanded itself from there," Hale said. "[Station owner] Bob Travis and I got the idea of putting on a talk show on a daily basis. We started Monday, April 3, 1995, with a one-hour format and after April we went to a two-hour show."
Hale says he's not the type of sports analyst who fills his air-time reciting facts. Instead, the show's foundation is interviews, listener call-ins, and Hale's own love of sports.
"The real challenge to everything, especially in this business, is being organized, which is something I have trouble doing," Hale said. "That's why sometimes doing stuff off the cuff is so much better for me than being organized. Some of the best shows I've had have happened like that.
"As the show has developed interviews have become very important. In the first year it was important just to get big names, no matter who they were, but now it's important to have interviews the listeners can respond to. When the telephone doesn't ring and you don't have any interviews you have to talk for two hours ... that's not easy. Some days we have a lot of calls, some days nil."
Hale has interviewed numerous guests. Included have been Charlotte Hornets coach Allan Bristow and player Dell Curry, both of whom were former Virginia Tech standouts, as well as NFL Hall of Famer Tom Landry, the former Dallas Cowboys coach, and Washington Redskins boss Norv Turner.
Local high school and college coaches are regulars on the show, as are members of the local media and numerous collegiate play-by-play announcers from around the country.
"The problem I run into is that it's a lot easier to get hold of college coaches because they are in their offices, while high school coaches are in the classroom," Hale said. "But someone who has really enhanced this show is Dave Hunziker, the voice of the Radford Highlanders. He came on at 5:45 p.m. and did 15 minutes about Radford basketball for me. He is also so knowledgable about players and coaches all across the country."
Hale said he has never really thought of radio as a career, but is enjoying the travel and other fringe benefits that result from his show. He isn't the only one. His parents, Ed and Alice Hale, are retired from Tech and living in Blacksburg, and are avid listeners.
Hale said he will continue doing "Sports Talk" nightly and will resume "The Arm-Chair Quarterback" when football season rolls around.
"I love to listen to other play-by-play guys because they're so knowledgeable plus their verbiage and word usage is incredible," Hale said. "I don't have a great vocabulary, but I listen a lot. I've certainly never thought of myself as being an all-star of play-by-play; I just consider myself a fan."
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. John Hale is host of "Sports Talk" onby CNBWNRV 710 AM nightly from 5 to 7 p.m.