I've got sports on the brain. The big-time American sports scene is an ever-changing, unending wash of events and personalities—and sometimes there are actually a few athletic contests. In the past fortnight, we have seen the following: ex-NBA center-forward and NBC on-air talent Jayson Williams shotguns to death his chauffeur, Costas Christofi; former basketball god and current Washington Wizard Michael Jordan has surgery on his 39-year-old, probably-shoulda-stayed-retired knee; striking a blow for 65-year-olds everywhere, John Madden signs a 4-year, $20 million deal with ABC to join Al Michaels on Monday Night Football—leaving Dennis Miller (thank God) and Dan Fouts (condolences) to twist slowly in the network sports wind; University of Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson—in the wake of a strange and maybe misunderstood public tirade—resigns his job and is bought off at $500,000 for each of the next six years (legal action is pending); salary-cap-itis hits the NFL in epidemic proportions, and suddenly big-name football players find themselves out on the street (for a while anyway). Chief among the notables are a bunch of well-regarded Baltimore Ravens, including QB Elvis Grbac (who, as of this writing, is threatening retirement), and, of local import, Blaine Bishop of the Titans.

Let's see, what else? New Washington Redskins head coach Steve Spurrier begins to mold the Florida Gators North NFL team (Danny Wuerrfel and/or Shane Matthews at quarterback? Hmmm. Maybe Spurrier is incapable of functioning at those cooler Middle Atlantic temperatures); ex-Oakland head coach Jon Gruden becomes the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (frankly, I think the Raiders made out like a bandit with the draft choices they got in return, and I'm sure owner Al Davis wouldn't have had it any other way); the expansion Houston Texans start building an NFL franchise with former Jacksonville offensive tackle Tony Boselli.

Oh. It's also less than a month until the Masters! Tiger looked great this weekend in his duel with Ernie Els at the Genuity. And although I might be guilty of confusing my hope with my evidence, I'm thinking John Daly might make a rumble at Augusta. And, lest we forget, Major League Baseball spring training is under way too.

Most immediately, of course, is March Madness and the NCAA Tournament, which should be hotly contested this year. There might be some favorites—No. 1 Kansas or No. 2 Maryland, for example—but ain't no one a shoo-in (especially the Jayhawks and the Terps: both are notorious chokers). And just when you think some team might assert itself a little—say, Cincinnati—the No. 4 Bearcats turn around and lose to Rick Pitino's gifted but struggling Louisville team.

Oh yeah, Duke lost to Virginia. ('Sup with the Blue Devils? They're only ranked No. 3 nationally.) Yet the Cavaliers, usually a pretty strong presence at tournament time, dropped out of the rankings altogether, as did perennial threat Syracuse. Elsewhere, four teams tied for the Big Ten regular season title: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Then there's tiny, adorable Gonzaga. They usually sneak up on people in March, but they won't get the chance this year. They're 27-3, ranked in the top ten, kicking butt all over the West Coast, and hence, are probably doomed for an early tournament exit.

Things have been even weirder in the SEC, where there's lots of talented teams but no one seems to want to hold on to that hot potato. Consider how last week, little-regarded Vanderbilt defeated then-No. 11 Kentucky, the Commodores' first victory over the Wildcats since 1993. Then a wounded Kentucky beats then-No. 10 Florida. Then an even more wounded Tennessee beats then-No. 15 Georgia. Then an underrated Mississippi routs then-No. 6 Alabama on the last regular season weekend before the SEC tourney, which begins March 7. (Don't hold your breath on those rankings, by the way. It's that kind of a year.)

Staying current with all this activity can be daunting, especially if, like me, you don't have cable. Somehow I manage, though. Besides keeping up via newspapers and regular network television sports—and making the occasional foray into Sam's Place in Hillsboro Village to catch ESPN on the big screen—I have discovered WNSR 560-AM, Nashville's 24-hour all-sports radio outlet.

The station, which had been completely off the air before being revived in September 1997, offers the Nashville-area sports freak a nice amalgam of syndicated and original programming. The 500-watt signal is a tad weak—depending on where you're listening from—and there are odd times when it suffers from local interference, which station manager Jeff Kolb attributes at least partially to the location of antiquated Nashville Electric Service equipment. WNSR's studios are located in Nashville on 37th Ave. N., with their broadcast tower in Brentwood.

“We've received approval from the FCC to boost our signal to 1,000 watts,” says Kolb. “Eventually, this will improve reception. But even now we still broadcast through the eight-county Metro area, and we have listeners in Kentucky and Alabama.”

You might recall that in the recent discussions regarding the future of the Gaylord-owned WSM-650 AM, ideas were floated about possibly killing off country music and the Grand Ole Opry and replacing it with alternative programming, with the all-sports idea grabbing some mention. With sports infotainment growing ever bigger nationwide, a story like this could still have legs, since the attraction of a 50,000-watt outlet can't be denied.

But for now, WNSR is the one. They are the area's exclusive ESPN radio affiliate. Weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Tony Kornheiser rules the airwaves. Kornheiser, a mouthy, arrogant veteran Washington Post sportswriter turned -caster is certainly entertaining. He brings top-flight sports celebs and nationwide fellow columnists into his on-air dialogue, and his confrontational style usually evokes some thoughtful discussion.

Then ESPN broadcasting dynamo Dan Patrick takes over for three more hours. Patrick is smooth, funny and everyone knows and likes him. He brings the big names on the air, too. Recently, Charles Barkley phoned in to add his two cents to the Nolan Richardson controversy. Alas, Charles shined little clarifying light on the situation, except to bellyache that he's paid $40 million in taxes over the course of his athletic career. (We bleed with you, Charles.) Patrick has fun reading fresh e-mails over the air, and otherwise makes a good case for why he's a star in the sports broadcasting firmament.

Original, local programming picks up after the ESPN feed at 3 p.m. with “The Press Box,” hosted by sports-talk personality Bill King and Murfreesboro Daily News Journal executive sports editor Greg Pogue. These two make no bones about playing to the local audience, sometimes broadcasting from Hooters on Second Avenue or Easy's in the Village. Alas, their cornpone, bull-in-a-china-shop on-air demeanor is a bit of a turn-off, unless you're out in some rural town and dying to know the minute details surrounding some local high school football hero's campus visit to Knoxville or Athens. The style's a bit Goober Pyle, in my estimation. Or possibly I'm just not that passionate about the SEC—not to that extent at least.

From 6 to 8 p.m., Max Howell, a former coach at Florida State and several SEC schools, continues the local angle with “Southern Sports Tonight.” More of the same, with a few interesting guests.

From the mid-evening to early morning, WNSR provides call-in sports programming in the form of syndicated feeds from Sporting News Radio out of Chicago. This is fairly rote stuff, conducted by sports jocks who often seem to be trying out their on-air sea legs and developing that attention-getting, contentious Cosellian attitude. But they take phone calls all night, and if you're that type of fanatic listener, it'll keep you company till 6 a.m., when former Knoxville sports anchor Pat McMurtry mans the sports desk until 9 a.m. along with Arkansas radio veteran David Coleman. Then Kornheiser begins the daily cycle all over again.

Not that I'm listening 'round the clock.

In between regularly scheduled programming, and as necessary, WNSR fills an essential role locally by providing broadcasts of college football and basketball contests, e.g., for Vanderbilt, Belmont University or Tennessee State.

So no, I'm not glued to my television. I'm getting my sports news as much aurally as others do visually. Thanks to WNSR, I'm informed. And I'm not so alone with the radio on. (A little more polish, though, fellas, please? And a little less goober.)