You'd think WRCB television sports anchor Paul Shahen would have enough on his plate these days without adding to his work load. It is football time in Tennessee, after all, along with Georgia and Alabama and the start of National Football League camps.
Beyond that are all those other sports Shahen must keep up with, everything from the Atlanta Braves to University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball and wrestling to prep sports such as cross country and the start of basketball.
But when a chance to host a Saturday morning radio show from 8 to 10 on ESPN 105.1 FM The Zone recently came up, Shahen couldn't say no.
"I've always had stories I wanted to share," said Shahen, who spent most of his youth in Connecticut but bleeds Pittsburgh Pirates-Penguins-Steelers when it comes to pro sports, since much of his extended family still calls the Steel City home. "Radio allows me to do that."
Indeed, television is a perfect vehicle for quickly dispensing headlines and ball scores. But with Shahen limited to less than four minutes a night during the week and less than five minutes on weekends, it doesn't leave much time for glorious details.
And all good stories are filled with details.
Merely consider the road trip that first led Shahen to Channel 3 at December's dawn of 2009.
"My first job out of college (Southern Connecticut State) was in southeast Idaho," he recalled Monday. "I covered rodeos, among other things. I've actually been hit with snot flying off a bull. When this job came open I threw everything I owned into my 2000 Ford Ranger and headed for Chattanooga."
That trip was delayed by a blizzard that overcame Shahen and his Ranger a few miles from Elk Mountain, Wyoming - population 191, according to the 2010 census.
"I called the state police," he said. "I didn't have a GPS device. The state trooper told me that he was 65 miles from me but I was five miles from Elk Mountain. He stayed on the phone with me until I got to the Elk Mountain Hotel."
It turns out the hotel reportedly is haunted by a ghost named Mary Evans, who was the wife of a former owner. Shahen reluctantly supports this claim.
"I saw the ghost," he said. "One of the most uneasy nights of my life."
Befitting a lifelong Pirates fan, he also still sees the ghost of former Pirate Sid Bream scoring the NLCS clinching run for the Braves in the 1991 playoffs.
"And Sid still has a home in Pittsburgh," Shahen said, wincing.
Shahen shares his home here with his lovely wife, Rachel, and the couple's three-legged cat, Skunkins.
"My wife's not at all a sports person," he said. "So if I can hold her attention or make her laugh when I'm working on a story, I feel like I'm doing a good job."
Ask him the person he believes does the best job as a radio sports announcer and he almost instantly refers to longtime Pittsburgh Penguins play-by-play man Mike Lange.
"The way he paints a picture is the furthest thing from boring," Shahen said. "He'll say, 'Let's go hunt big moose on a Harley.' Or 'Scratch my back with a hacksaw.' Or, 'Lord, Stanley, Lord Stanley, pour me a brandy.' That's what I want to do. I want to be the furthest thing from boring."
It's certainly been anything but a boring life to date for the 34-year-old Shahen. He's covered college football national championships. He met Lange when covering the Penguins and Nashville's Predators in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. He even once let Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops borrow some of his television makeup in a Birmingham hotel during SEC Media Days.
There also was the time the 5-foot-4 Shahen tried out for the Southern Connecticut baseball team, long a Division II power.
"I was a second baseman," he said. "I was short but I had good feet and I was quick."
Not quick enough to make the team, apparently, but the next spring Shahen was sitting a few rows behind some pro talent scouts before an Owls game. He heard one of them ask another one, "Where's the short kid with the quick feet?"
Said Shahen as he recalled that moment: "I didn't say anything, but I wanted to say, 'They cut him.'"
Come Saturday at 8 a.m., our town's sports fans can cut on 105.1 The Zone to hear much more from him.
"Bringing more local programming to our listeners has always been a goal, and with this addition to our Saturday lineup, we feel like we've accomplished that," said the station's program director, Wells Guthrie. "Paul has covered sports in the Chattanooga market for almost a decade, and with football season right around the corner, he'll have plenty to talk about."
Added Shahen: "All these experiences I've had more than make up for the long hours and stressful deadlines."
They should also make for more than a few stories worth sharing over the radio that can't always be told in a four-minute television sportscast.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com