The Mediaburn Radio Weblog

ON THE WATER | SPOTLIGHT ON SURFING
These surfing experts are riding radio waves

By Brad Melekian
SPECIAL TO THE UNION-TRIBUNE

June 2, 2008

Sunday morning surf checks in San Diego recently got their own soundtrack.

At 8 a.m. every Sunday on XTRA Sports 1360, Surfer Magazine Online Editor Scott Bass and co-worker Marty Thomas, a former World Championship Tour surfer, broadcast the "Down the Line" surf talk radio show, which they brand as "an irreverent and sometimes irrelevant look into the world of surfing each week."

Broadcast from San Diego County, the show streams nationwide and is podcast, attracting a niche following locally and abroad.

"We cover anything and everything that has to do with surfing," Bass said. "We don't limit ourselves. We cover plenty of World Tour stuff. Environmental issues, shark attacks, Bird Rock Bandits, surfboard design, everything."

They do it well. The temptation here would be to produce a show that played on surfing stereotypes, punctuated with gratuitous use of the word "sick" and breathless prattling on about what "gnarly" things their "bros" had done. Or, to otherwise fashion themselves as a surfing version of the two-sided talking-headness that seems to pass for sports commentary these days.

Instead, Bass and Thomas form an articulate, insightful team. The middle-aged tandem packs the show's hour with commentary and analysis of the week's surf headlines in an accessible format that serves to extend the issues they cover.

While neither has extensive broadcasting experience, and the missed cues and technical gliches evident in the early podcasts indicate that the team is still finding its feet in radio, Bass says he and Thomas never want for things to talk about.

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