Cotlar is admittedly a radio guy, but he exhibited his versatility by creating a quick-moving, informative show that was taped on Tuesday afternoon, then shown at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and Friday on Mediacom Channel 22.

Cotlar, the 6-to-9 a.m. sports talk-radio host on KXNO, interviewed John Walters on the first part of his TV show. Then Chuck Reed and I did a roundtable-type discussion with Cotlar in the second half of the show.

Walters, the veteran WOI-TV sports director, is Iowa State’s new radio voice for football and men’s basketball. Reed is employed by Special Olympics, does some football shows for KXNO and fills in for Cotlar occasionally as a KXNO morning host.

Cotlar, Reed and I discussed such things as the football season from an Iowa and Iowa State perspective, the Maurice Clarett situation at Ohio State and the end of the regular season in major league baseball—especially as it relates to the Chicago Cubs team that I’ve been living and dying (which is the case most of the time) for more than a half-century.

Cotlar said some nice things to me about my appearance, and I appreciate them. He made it comfortable for all of us.

"I was happy with the first show," Cotlar said. "I’ll tell you what made it for me was that my wife, who is my toughest critic, even liked it. That told me something. She might say something like, ‘Your shoulder is slumping down.’ But she also said, ‘Man, that was good.’"

"They were doing a Sound Off show on WHO-TV," he explained. "Steve Deace was going to be on it, but he had just gotten fired from a radio job. Keith Murphy (the WHO-TV sports director who hosts Sound Off) called and said, ‘Can you do it instead of Deace?’"

Cotlar kept the Sound Off experience in the back of his mind, and later said he called Mediacom and "told them I’d like I wanted to do some kind of roundtable thing."

That’s how the "Larry Cotlar Show" got its start.

Cotlar said major league umpire Tim McClelland of West Des Moines will be the guest on his next show, and former Iowa State basketball coach Johnny Orr will be a future guest.

"We’re going to work out a time for Drake basketball coach Tom Davis," Cotlar said, adding that Bill Reichardt, the opinionated former Iowa football player and clothier from Des Moines, will also be a guest.

One is David Skorton, president of the University of Iowa.

"I met him at the Hawkeye Huddle the night before the Iowa-Iowa State football game," Cotlar said. "He played the Iowa Fight Song and ‘In Heaven There Is No Beer’ on the saxophone at the huddle, and he’s a great guy.

‘I may go on location to do some shows. One could be with Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney."

Obviously, the future for the "Larry Cotlar Show" looks promising.