The year was 1989. At a restaurant on Brainerd Road, WGOW-AM 1150 was about to do a live feed for that afternoon’s “SportTalk” radio show, complete with the show’s mystery guest, Dr. Basketball.
His real identity a closely guarded secret at that time, the restaurant’s parking lot filled up before Dr. B arrived, forcing him to park across the street, then walk back across the busy road during afternoon rush-hour traffic.
“Because he wanted to keep his identity a secret, he was wearing a ski mask,” recalled the station’s Scott McMahen. “A lot of people probably thought he was coming to rob the place.”
Gary Haskew, center, died Monday afternoon from a heart attack. He was the senior member of WGOW Radio’s “SportTalk” show crew.Beyond that, said longtime WGOW program director Bill Lockhart, who had just joined the station, “He had this bodyguard with him, some tough-looking guy in a trenchcoat they called ‘Bad Bob.’ It was like something out of old-time pro rasslin’. It was crazy.”
Crazy like a fox. For if anyone in Chattanooga radio ever became an overnight sensation it was Dr. Basketball, who was known as Gary Haskew to his family and friends.