Used to be, morning sports radio in Springfield was only Ned and Scott. Reynolds and Puryear. Five days a week. All you could stand.
Now tune in to "Sports Reporters" on KWTO 98.7 FM in the mornings, and who knows who you'll hear. Reynolds is still the staple as the show nears its 14th anniversary. However, since Puryear peeled off three years ago, it's been a rotating lineup of daily co-hosts.
Tuesdays, a financial planner researched Kansas City Royals batting averages. Twenty-four hours earlier, the co-host was the former director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
Seems as if the show has gone off on a tangent, if not off the rails.
"It did. I don't think there's any question it did," said Reynolds, the longtime face of KYTV sports who's called Springfield home since 1967. "We had to do it when Scott left — and he and I were together for 10 years — we had to change the direction. I could do it myself. But who the hell wants to listen to me for two hours?"
Reynolds offered those words Tuesday at the East Chestnut studio of Meyer Communications.
The show still covers two hours, only now with a shotgun start of 8 a.m., an hour earlier, and it gets quality guests such as USA TODAY baseball writer Bob Nightengale and, on Tuesday, Gabe DeArmond, the publisher of PowerMizzou.com.
However, the must-listen, good cop-bad cop banter between Reynolds and Puryear airs now only on Fridays, leaving for a much more toned-down version of "Sports Reporters" than in its first decade.
That's not to say guests don't know their sports.
Bill Rowe, the former Missouri State athletic director, is Wednesday's co-host.
On Thursdays, it's Kirk Elmquist, a former Liberty University quarterback who has previously worked for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the Springfield Cardinals, Morelock-Ross and more recently, Top of the Rock Golf Course.
The financial planner on Tuesdays is Dennis Heim, a former Missouri State football player.
But the week begins with Ron Spigelman, the former Springfield Symphony conductor and now with Springfield Little Theater.
"To his credit," Puryear said of Spigelman, "he does his research."
Spigelman is on for another reason, however. Reynolds and Ken Meyer, station owner, are fans of classical music. He's known as "Maestro."
"When Scott left, yes, I did think, 'Maybe we've outlasted our welcome here. But when we started punting around the idea of having different co-hosts and doing things a little differently, I decided, 'Heck, let's give this a try and see what happens,' " Reynolds said. "Yeah, sports is my life. That's what I talk about, but it's not all I do.
"Classical musical, for instance, is one of my great passions. And having 'Maestro' on is fine with me. Having anybody else on is fine. I love to visit with people."
"Sports Reporters" isn't the only sport-talk radio on in Springfield. Art Hains, the voice of the MSU Bears, hosts a 4-6 p.m. show called "Sports Talk" on 98.7 FM.
However, the only day to get your fix of the Ned-and-Scott duo is Fridays.
The duo teamed first in January 2001, combining the Ozarks' biggest sports personalities — Reynolds from the local NBC TV affiliate, Puryear then as the News-Leader's sports columnist.
But Puryear, who became the Drury University sports information director in 2005, bowed out in 2011 as his day job tugged at his mic.
In between, however, they created memories. In the early years, Ken Strode, known as "Iggy," worked at the station and worked his connections from St. Louis.
"I remember when Albert Pujols was on when he got called up to the Cardinals," Puryear said. "Iggy tracked Pujols down in the team hotel in Denver. Looking back, that was quite an accomplishment. And Iggy wouldn't take no for an answer."
Puryear wouldn't let Reynolds off the hook on anything. Or callers, for that matter.
"Off the air, people grew to believe we always disagreed," Puryear said. "This year, he picked the Houston Texans to win the Super Bowl. Most co-hosts might have let it go. Of course, I wouldn't let it go."
On Tuesday, Reynolds fielded calls about a lightning-rod topic in sports — the designated hitter in baseball — and advertised a local business with a trivia contest.
Like Hains, his memory and knowledge are impeccable.
The show, he said, is in his wheelhouse. That's why he's kept it alive.
"My roots — this is almost 60 years in this business — and when I got into it, it was radio. I never gave TV a consideration. It's not where my training was. And the TV job happened to come open," Reynolds said. "The TV aspect of things, sure, it's been my career. But by the same token, it isn't the same as radio.
"Radio allows one to be much more creative because you're ad-libbing for the most part. You're going from knowledge. You're not reading everything in sight. Your level of thinking and ability to communicate, that's where my roots are. And it's fun."