Scott Walker is a West Coast guy.

He went to Oceanside High, where he played baseball for Dave Barrett.

One of Walker's first jobs in TV was working with Jim Laslavic and Jim Stone at Channel 39 in San Diego.

And for the last few years, Walker has been working in Orange County, where he ran an Internet production company.

But the lure of being in front of the camera, reporting, flying around the country to events, have led him "From one Orange County to another," he said, after taking a job at the Golf Channel.

Walker worked four years at ESPN as a national correspondent, was a correspondent for the USA Network's "PGA Tour Sunday," as well as a college football sideline reporter for ABC.

But in 2003, when his career led him to live in the Midwest, he walked away to open a production company and live where he wanted.

"But I'm happy with this move," said Walker. "I've done a lot of live golf the last decade, and now I'm back into daily TV.

"Of course, it requires a move to Orlando (the home of the Golf Channel). It's a lifestyle change with a major time change.

"I'm still not used to NFL or college football games starting at 8 p.m.

"And it's going to be tough on my wife (Nichole). She's licensed to practice law in two states (California and Illinois). Now I'm asking her to move again.

"But we're settling in."

Walker said he was "itching" to get back into TV.

So he called his agent, who knew of an opportunity at the Golf Channel.

"My long suit is that I've done a lot in my career," Walker said. "I've worked in the field, done features and been behind a desk.

"I think my versatility is important. What I like about this job is that I have a desk, but I don't have to be at it every day.

"This job is really the best of both worlds for me because I like variety."

Last week, Walker was in Vancouver working on a brother-sister duo who won titles at the Junior World Championships.

He'll also serve as an anchor and reporter for "Golf Central", the network's marquee nightly news program.

And he'll contribute to the network's reporting team at PGA Tour and LPGA Tour events.

"The network wants to add depth to its coverage," Walker said. "So we're working on some long-term pieces, and features.

"Those are things I love to do.

"I'm in the prime of my career with a decade of growth in front of me. I want to take advantage of that.

"People think of me as a football-baseball guy. And people thought I had died when I left ESPN.

"There are 29.5 million adult golfers in the U.S. I want to talk to them in some way. I want to bring them interesting stories."

Walker said his love for sports was fueled at Oceanside High.

"I got so much out of playing sports in high school," Walker said. "It wasn't just about wins and losses at Oceanside.

"The coaches there were really concerned that you were better after playing a sport than you were before you made the team.

"Coach Barrett was so good at that, so good at making young men feel good about themselves."

Vasgersian's farewell

Matt Vasgersian, the long-time TV voice of the Padres on Channel 4, will call his final event in San Diego on Sunday.

Vasgersian will work the 1 p.m. Falcons-Chargers game for Fox, along with former El Camino High star J.C. Pearson.

The problem, however, is that if the game doesn't sell out by 1 p.m. Friday, it will be blacked out in San Diego.

The Chargers haven't had a home blackout in more than three years.

Fox plans to send the game to only 10 percent of the country -- San Diego, Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Miami.

College football weekend

The Friday after Thanksgiving used to be a great day for college football rivalry games.

Today's schedule features West Virginia-Pittsburgh at 9 a.m. on ABC, then skips to the afternoon with Fresno State at No. 9 Boise State at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 and UCLA-Arizona State at 6:30 p.m. at ESPN2.

Saturday's lineup features No. 2 Florida at No. 23 Florida State at 12:30 p.m. on ABC, Auburn at No. 1 Alabama at 12:30 p.m. on CBS, Oregon at No. 17 Oregon State in a 4 p.m. game on Versus that could send Oregon State to the Rose Bowl, No. 5 USC at Notre Dame at 5 p.m. on ESPN, and No. 3 Oklahoma at No. 11 Oklahoma State at 5 p.m. on ABC.

Skins Game

This weekend's Skins Game features two-time defending champion Stephen Ames, world No. 3 Phil Mickelson, 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate and Korea's K.J. Choi this year.

Played on the Celebrity Course at the Indian Wells Golf Resort, the first nine holes will air at 10 a.m. Saturday on ABC. The final nine holes are set for 12:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC.

Holes 1-6 are worth $25,000 each. Holes 7-12 are worth $50,000 each. Holes 13-17 are worth $70,000 each. The 18th, the super skin, is worth $200,000.

Ames picked up nine skins last season and walked away with $675,000.

Terry Gannon, Andy North, Judy Rankin and Tom Rinaldi call the action.

Ratings game

- Sunday night's Colts-Chargers game on NBC drew a 10.8 rating with 8.3 million households. Those are good numbers, but the rating was down 31 percent from last year's Eagles-Colts game when the Colts were undefeated.

- The MLS Championship Game between the Columbus Crew and the New York Red Bulls drew a dismal 0.7 rating for ABC. The MLS hasn't topped 1.0 for its title game since 1997.

Local note

- Thursday's Raiders-Chargers game will be shown in 3-D in selected theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. The game is seen as a forerunner to regular NFL broadcasts in 3-D.

Around the dial

- Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is interviewed Sunday's "60 Minutes" on CBS. In the piece with Anderson Cooper, the eight-time gold medalist says he "had nothing left" before his final event.

- The fourth season of "The Contender" debuts at 7 p.m. Wednesday on Versus. Tony Danza hosts the 11 one-hour episodes with a two-hour finale.

- Tonight's "NFL Classic Game" at 6 p.m. on the NFL Network is the 2007 meeting between the Bears and Vikings, in which Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson rushed for 224 yards and three scores.

- ESPN has one of the top women's basketball games of the season at 5:15 p.m. Sunday when No. 1 Connecticut hosts No. 4 Oklahoma.

- ESPN2 has highlights from the NASCAR Nationwide Series awards banquet at 9 a.m. Sunday.

- ESPNU will have coverage of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Selection Show at 7 p.m. Sunday, announcing the 64-team playoff field. ESPNU will carry all four regional finals on Dec. 13. ESPN2 will carry the title match on Dec. 20. Â

Staff writer John Maffei's TV/Radio column appears every Friday. He can be reached at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.