BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When CBS welcomed back the NFL Saturday night for the San Francisco-Seattle preseason game, it was fitting that Greg Gumbel was the man at the microphone. Gumbel, after all, was the one who signed off four years ago when the network was cut out of the NFL deal.
Gumbel, who came back from NBC to CBS with the NFL, had been looking forward to returning.
"The happiest days of my life were at CBS," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting started. The opportunity to return is truly a joyous one for me."
It fell on Gumbel in 1994 to sign off for CBS after the the Dallas-San Francisco NFC Championship game.
"It's just a strange quirk of fate that I would sign on and off," Gumbel said.
Gumbel is paired with Phil Simms as CBS' No. 1 announcing team. Simms also comes over from NBC, where he was on that network's No. 1 team. Gumbel goes from the studio to the booth.
CBS went with a two-man team when the trend is toward putting three in the booth.
"I get asked about that a lot," Simms said. "The practice game we did we eased into it. It's simpler. It makes sense." There's a lot more opportunities to talk about whatever comes to your mind."
BEST TEAM?
Gumbel and Simms make a nice team. Fox's John Madden and Pat Summerall are the reigning kings. And ABC's new Monday Football Night crew of Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf and Boomer Esiason is getting good early notices.
But ABC's sister station, ESPN, may have the best No. 1 team in Mike Patrick, Paul Maguire and Joe Theismann.
Maguire was paired with Simms and Dick Enberg last year on NBC's No. 1 team. He's sort of a poor man's Madden -- a funny, off-the-wall guy who looks at the game from a lineman's prospective.
He clicked right away with Theismann, who plays off the trenches point of view with his quarterback background. Patrick is solid in his play-by-play role.
RADIO LOGIC:
Andy Treinen had done no radio as of 4 p.m. Thursday. In the next 27 hours, Treinen, the Channel 19 sports reporter, did nine hours -- 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday on the WBOB (1160 AM), 9 a.m. to noon on HOMER (1360 AM) Friday, and then 4 to 7 p.m. on WBOB again Friday.
"It was fun," Treinen said. "I'm glad I got to do it."
Treinen would like to get a permanent gig on the radio. In both cases, he was in a fill-in -- for Wild Man Walker on HOMER, and for Lap and Fish on BOB.
HOMER is increasing its local programming.
"But right now we're concentrating on Wild Man's show," program director Dave Armbruster said. "Unless someone really blows us away, we'll probably stick with Tony Kornheiser at 4 to 7."
HOMER moved Wild Man's show from drive-time to 9 to noon in an effort to get more calls.
"It's picked up quite a bit," Armbruster said. "Sports talk around the country during drive-time just doesn't get the phone calls. But going to 9 to noon has helped."
Treinen would be a good fit. He knows local sports and was smooth for a newcomer to the talk show game.
ANDY II:
Treinen will serve as the sideline reporter for the two University of Cincinnati football games Channel 19 does. The station will air the Louisville game and another yet to be determined.
A possibility is the Miami of Ohio game.
CLASSIC OSCAR:
Former UC - Royal great Oscar Robertson will be the ESPN Classic Sports athlete of the week this week. The highlight will be a half-hour interview by Dick Schaap. It will air Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and be repeated Friday at 2 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The network also will show Game 4 from the Milwaukee Bucks-Baltimore Bullets series in 1971 and Game 6 from the Bucks-Boston Celtics series in 1974.
John Fay covers TV/radio for The Enquirer. He can be reached at 768-8445.
