104.3 the Fan listeners are asking "Where's Sandy?" UPDATED!

Because I have been blogging about Denver sports talk radio for many years I regularly get texts and direct messages from people asking me if I know what’s going on with this station or that show or what I think about general stuff. Recently I have had several people contact me to ask if I know what’s going on with Sandy Clough.

I don’t.

I might be Clough’s biggest fan. The man has forgotten more about the Denver sports scene that I will ever know. He understands the culture and the texture of this market like nobody else. He’s a historian and an analyst of the highest order and an accomplished orator who can hold a listener’s interest for hours. Suffice to say that I consider Sandy Clough to be at the very pinnacle of his chosen craft. He’s one of the best talk radio personalities of any specialty ever to have sat behind a microphone in Denver.

For whatever reason he’s been gone.

104.3 the Fan has been bringing in substitutes to fill Sandy Clough’s time slot for many weeks now – six or more. I’m not even entirely clear on precisely how long it’s been. Sandy was on air for a spell after the Super Bowl and Clough did travel to Houston earlier this month to be part of The Fan’s coverage of the Final Four. When the station mixed up the schedule, brought in Mark Schlereth and begun to adapt its “no off-season for talking Broncos” format it paired Clough with former Broncos’ wide receiver Brandon Stokley. For the record, the Clough / Stokley combo didn’t really “sing” for me. I would have far preferred that the station allow Clough to be a solo act. In my opinion, he’s at his best when he’s by himself. Stokley, it seemed to me, was mostly in the way.

Not long after the debut of “Sandy and Stokley” the show before it, the Football Insider with Cecil Lammey, began running an hour longer and handing off not to Clough but to Charles “CJ” Johnson and Brandon Stokley. Clough was apparently on vacation.

There’s nothing unusual about sports talk radio personalities taking some time off. Particularly after football season ends the heavy hitters in the business often go on sabbatical for a while. Clough, though, has been off-air for weeks and weeks. His extended absence is odd. Clough strikes me as a creature of habit – the kind of guy who values his routine. For him to have stayed away from his own radio show for as long as he has seems to point to something odd going on.

I have done a little looking into the reason why Clough has been gone for so long. The company line from folks at the Fan is that he’s just taking some time off. This could be the case. Maybe he just has a ton of vacation time accumulated maybe and Bonneville International, the Fan’s new parent company, wants him to use it up. Maybe he’s backpacking across Europe or zip-lining through the Andes.

It seems more likely to me that something else is going on. It’s probably some kind of health issue. That would explain why the folks I have reached out to at the station have been as dodgy as they have been. Employers can’t disclose information about the health of their employees.

If Sandy Clough is suffering from some kind of malady I sure hope it’s not too serious. He is badly missed in his role at the Fan. His very absence has allowed the new station in town, Altitude 950 AM, to gain traction in Sandy’s time slot with Vic Lombardi, Kyle Keefe and Julie Browman who are doing a much more listenable show than CJ and Stokley are. Besides, I, like many listeners, truly value Clough’s insight on the local sports teams.

I would love nothing more than to have Sandy return to the airwaves next week to break down the Broncos’ new draft picks, evaluate the quarterback situation and even talk a little Rockies. I miss his measured, thoughtful and educated assessments and I know for a fact that many, many others do, too. Sports talk radio in Denver isn’t the same without him.

**UPDATE, 4/29**

The initial publication of this article led to my having a couple of other conversations that have shaped my take on Clough’s recent absence from 104.3 the Fan.

Personally, I don’t think Sandy is ill. I also don’t think he would have vacationed through the station’s coverage of the NFL draft.

This is only a theory and it is mine alone … I think there has been a falling out between Sandy Clough and management at the Fan. I know that Clough was rankled over the dismissal of Scott Hastings by the station and I also suspect that he was unhappy about being paired with Brandon Stokley. I think it’s very possible that Clough is sitting out in protest and that he might even quit.

There’s a gap in programming at Altitude 950 between the morning program and the afternoon program that is currently filled with the syndicated Rich Eisen show. I would not be the least bit shocked to learn that slot was being held open for Clough should he be able to gracefully remove himself from whatever contract he is bound to with the Fan.

Again, this is just a guess.