Like many of you, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get my sports talk radio fix since Bell Media unceremoniously pulled the plug on TSN 1260 in mid-interview and provided a dubya-tee-eff moment for so many of us back on the morning of June 14. 

As I said that day, listening to the morning show, then Lowetide and Jamieson and later Jason Gregor in the afternoons was literally part of every weekday for me – be it the main noise in the room or having it on the background while I tapped out another item in my home office for Oilersnation. I remember thinking that morning in June, “They can’t do that.” But they did.

Sure. But not so fast, Bub. Today, after several days of hints that something might be up, we get the news that sports talk radio will return with the Nation Network jumping in with both feet as Sports 1440 makes its debut Sept. 5 when the Kevin Karius Show hits the airwaves at 7 a.m. I like it that Karius, the smooth talker from Global TV and a fixture on the tube for decades, kicks things off. Nice change-up.

As Baggedmilk let us know with this morning’s announcement, the Sports 1440 line-up will look like this:

Having grown up when I did, I was hooked on radio early – I listened to Vancouver Canucks games on CKNW when they got into the NHL in 1970 more than I saw them on TV in the days when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens seemed to get all of the airtime.

There was no such thing as sports talk radio then, but for me, listening to Jim Robson work the microphone was good radio. All nostalgia aside, good radio is what it’s all about. That’s what we had here in the sports talk genre until June 14. Given the line-up on Sports 1440, we’re in for more of the same. Allan Mitchell is back. So is Gregor. How good is that?

I spent about nine years as a cost-host on Gregor’s show – it’s a testament to his hustle, tenacity and talent that he not only survived my newspaper guy monotone on-air all those years but managed to grow the show and his brand. Now, he’s driving this. I’ve been writing at Oilersnation for 15 years. I’m excited about what this blend in the form of Sports 1440 will bring to the airwaves starting Sept. 5.

Good radio is good radio and after a couple of months without the people who provided so much of it as part of the soundtrack of our day-to-day lives, we have the good stuff returning to the airwaves. Welcome back and count me in.