Sports Print, TV Crossovers Continue with Irwin Column

Northwest Arkansas

by Michael Tilley ([email protected]) August 23, 1999 12:00 am 72 views 

A column written by Mike Irwin, sports director for Fayetteville television station KFSM, Channel 5, began appearing in the sports section of the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas on Aug. 15. Morning News sports editor Grant Hall says Irwin will now write a Sunday column each week on a correspondent basis.

“Mike has a fresh perspective about sports and a lot of other people have told me that he really always has been a journalist,” Hall says. “As he pointed out in his first column, you can be a journalist in TV as well as newspapers.”

Irwin is no stranger to print journalism. When he was growing up in Morton, Texas, his family owned the local weekly, the Morton Tribune. Irwin says he and his father used to argue about whether he should go into TV or newspapers.

“My dad used to say that if you say something on TV, everyone forgets it in five seconds,” Irwin says. “But if you write it in the newspaper, it’s there forever. I have to say this is fun and I’m learning. It’s a lot harder than I thought. You don’t just sit down and hammer out a column in 30 minutes.”

Hall, who replaced Bob Caudle as sports editor in July, says Irwin previously joked about writing a sports column if “all the other broadcast media were going to write columns.” After Hall became sports editor, he talked with Irwin again and decided the TV personality could add something to the paper’s sports section.

Mike Nail began writing a column for the Northwest Arkansas Times in March of 1998 while he was still sports director of KHBS/KHOG, Channels 40/29. He joined the Times sports staff full time in April after retiring from TV. Chuck Barrett, host of the daily sports talk show “Sports Rap” on KFAY, AM 1030, also began writing a column for the Times in March of 1998.

Hall has been co-host of “Sports Line Live” on Thursdays for the last three years on Fayetteville cable’s KSBN, Channel 11, with University of Arkansas sports information director Rick Schaeffer. The duo also teams up for “Sports Line” each Monday on KREB, FM 96.7 in Fayetteville and FM 99.5 and AM 1390 in Rogers.