NFL

Happy birthday to Bob Trumpy, Cincinnati's original "Trump." He created radio sports talk here in 1976 while still playing tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Trumpy, born 72 years ago today in Springfield, Ill., hosted a weekly one-hour show in 1976 on WCKY-AM (1530), before "Monday Night Football" broadcasts – after WLW-AM turned down the idea.

The Bengals-Dolphins game on WKRC-TV Thursday night scatters CBS' prime-time lineup to sister stations CW Cincinnati (Channel 12.2) and WSTR-TV (Channel 64).

Channel 12 will simulcast the Thursday night football game from the NFL Network. (It's not a CBS Thursday night game).

Move over Chad Johnson, UC alum and Kansas City Chief receiver Travis Kelce enters the dating TV arena in October.

He debuts in "Catching Kelce" Wednesday, Oct. 5 (9 p.m., E!), a reality show in which 50 women -- one from each state in the nation -- pursue the former Bearcats tight end, with assistance from his older brother Jason, a former Bearcats center playing for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Thom Brennaman says he'll be back announcing Reds games on Fox Sports Ohio in August – not July, as his father told the huge crowd at the Pete Rose Hall of Fame induction dinner Sunday night at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Bengals fans are excited about Saturday's playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  But for law enforcement, it's just another day at the office. 

Hamilton County Sheriff's Lieutenant Dave Daughtery says deputies, troopers, and police officers have been keeping the peace at Paul Brown Stadium for years.

TV stations which loved the web traffic for the naked Bengals locker room video would hate losing unrestricted access to players immediately after games.

WCPO-TV’s John Popovich, WLWT-TV’s George Vogel, WXIX-TV’s Joe Danneman and Bengals announcer Dan Hoard do appreciate the concerns of Bengals tackle Andrew Whitworth, who doesn’t like having media in the locker room while players shower and dress. He said the NFL’s policy “is dated, it’s old, and it needs to change.”

But local sports broadcasters are wary of any limitations or changes after the NFL’s own network crew positioned a camera to show naked men in the background while interviewing Bengals for the NFL Network Sunday.

“NFL Turning Point” features Andy Dalton leading the Bengals comeback victory Sunday over the Seattle Seahawks on the NBC Sports Channel series Wednesday.

The weekly NFL Films’ program “reviews Andy Dalton’s performance on Sunday and provides an analysis of his consistent play through the first five games of the 2015 campaign. The segment then examines the thrilling conclusion of Sunday’s game and highlights how Dalton orchestrated the Bengals’ comeback win against the Seahawks to remain undefeated,” NBCSN announced.

On this day 29 years ago, the long-awaited “fourth network” began competing with the three-decades TV monopoly of ABC, CBS and NBC.

Fox Broadcasting launched  “The Late Show” hosted by comic Joan Rivers on Oct. 9, 1986.

Prime-time programming would not begin until the following April with a Sunday night lineup featuring “Married… with Children,” “The Tracey Ullman Show,” “21 Jump Street,” “Duet” and “Mr. President.”

I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize the significance when WXIX-TV program director Patrice Mohn told me in summer of 1986 that Channel 19 had picked up Rivers’ show for fall.

Bill Cunningham’s flagship station has benched his national Sunday night talk show for NFL football.

“Live On Sunday Night, It’s Bill Cunningham” airs on nearly 350 stations – but not on Cunningham’s hometown WLW-AM, his long-time employer, this fall. Both WLW-AM and his national syndicator, Premiere Networks, are owned by iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel).

“It’s a contract issue with iHeartMedia,” Cunningham says.

This week, Cincinnati is hosting the National Sports Forum.   Jackie Reau with the Greater Cincinnati Sports Corporation says it's another opportunity to get the area more national, and international attention.

"There are about a thousand people here from really all over the country, representing all the four major league sporting bodies, as well as a number of colleges, universities, sporting properties, and also vendors who supply the sporting industry," Reau says.

The NFL is suspending Cincinnati Bengal DeQuin Evans for the first eight games of the season. The league says Evans violated its policy on performance enhancing substances.

#Bengals DE DeQuin Evans has been suspended 8 games for violation of NFL's performance-enhancing substances policy.

As the Bengals head to Houston to face the Texans in a Wild Card playoff game Saturday, they'll be looking for more success than they've had the past few years when they lost both their opening round games. 

Chick Ludwig is the host of the Monday Morning Quarterback Show on Fox Sports 1360.  He likes the Bengals chances of moving ahead this year, even though they're playing the same team that ousted them last year.