The roadblocks have been removed. And as far as San Diego State athletic director Jeff Schemmel is concerned, the path has been paved for Ted Leitner to remain as voice of the Aztecs for football and men's basketball on the university's new radio station - KOGO (600 AM).

"We've made it very clear," Schemmel said. "Our desire is to keep Ted as our voice.

"We've had discussions with the Padres and Sandy Alderson, and Ted has the OK to miss a few Padres games to call our games.

"We have a great working relationship with Ted.

"I have a sense the people at Clear Channel (KOGO's parent company) are willing to work with us and are OK with Ted."

Bob Bolinger, vice president and marketing manager for Clear Channel's seven San Diego stations, said travel and meetings - both his and Schemmel's - have slowed the decision process.

Bolinger has a great in-house candidate for the job in Lee Hamilton, and while he wouldn't say so, Bolinger would probably like to give the job to a company employee.

"We just haven't had much of a chance to sit down face-to-face with Jeff and his people and work this out," Bolinger said. "And with all due respect, it's not something I'm comfortable hashing out in the media.

"We will get together with San Diego State, and we will get this worked out."

Like Leitner, Hamilton has called Aztecs games. Like Leitner, Hamilton has also called Chargers games.

Both men are highly qualified, though they have different styles.

Leitner is more conversational. Hamilton is more hard-core, down-and-distance.

So what if the Aztecs and Clear Channel can't reach a consensus?

"We'd go to Plan B to make a determination," Schemmel said.

Plan B will not include Channel 39's Jim Stone. It won't include Steve Quis of Channel 4.

Both are qualified, but Stone is considered to be too closely aligned with the University of San Diego, while Quis hasn't been cleared by Channel 4 to work a second job.

The compromise candidate could be Chris Ello.

A former San Diego State baseball player, Ello has extensive play-by-play experience calling Gulls hockey.

Currently, he's the voice of the San Diego Shockwave, the city's first-year indoor football team.

He's lobbying hard for the job and would do a nice job if he were the compromise candidate.

The bottom line, however, is that it shouldn't come down to that.

There are already two great candidates. The compromise needs to be there, not someplace else.

"I'd like to get this done now," Schemmel said. "We're anxious to start making plans for next season."

Like Schemmel, Bolinger would like to make an announcement "sooner rather than later, but I just can't tell you when sooner might be," he said.

Gwynn on his game

Tony Gwynn was on his game during Wednesday night's Diamondbacks-Padres game on Channel 4.

He broke down slumping Mike Cameron's swing, pointing out a bat wiggle that only a hitting coach or a Hall of Famer would spot.

In the 12th inning, Gwynn first-guessed Padres manager - and former San Diego State teammate - Bud Black when Black ordered pitcher Mike Thompson to walk the left-handed hitting Stephen Drew to pitch to right-handed hitting Eric Byrnes.

"I know this goes against the left-right matchup, but I'd rather pitch to the inexperienced player - Drew - than a veteran like Byrnes in a key spot," Gwynn said.

Byrnes burned the Padres with an RBI single to right.

Plus, Gwynn didn't get caught in the trap of begging on ball-and-strike calls.

Matt Vasgersian and Mark Grant have fallen into that pit way too often this season, to the point of distraction.

ESPN fails

ESPN senior coordinating producer Tim Scanlan said last week that the network had great plans to celebrate Sunday night's Padres-Dodgers game in Los Angeles on Jackie Robinson Day. The network, he said, wanted to cover the celebration without detracting from the game.

Well, give ESPN a great big "F" on that promise.

While the features were great, coverage of the game - to put it in a word - stunk. Too many multipicture shots, too little attention paid to action on the field.

Jon Miller and Joe Morgan had great in-the-booth interviews with Rachel Robinson - Jackie's widow and one of the classiest ladies on the planet - and all-time home-run champion Henry Aaron. Miller and Morgan are professionals and know their stuff. Those interviews didn't detract from the game. Rather, they supported it. Robinson was even following the game while being interviewed.

Studio interviews by Stuart Scott with Dave Winfield and Don Newcombe fell flat. That's because Scott is an over-exposed, over-hyped talking head. The game took a back seat to his interviews.

Peter Gammons, who should have been conducting the Winfield and Newcombe interviews, was misused roving the stands while giving opinions. Gammons has forgotten more baseball than Scott will ever know.

Olbermann's back

Keith Olbermann will co-host NBC's "Football Night in America" studio show, joining Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber.

Olbermann, in his first network sports assignment in six years, will narrate highlights as well as debate NFL news and issues.

Olbermann, who seems to burn as many bridges as he crosses, was named one of the Top Ten Most Powerful People in TV News for 2007 by Television Week. He'll continue to host "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC.

He will also continue as a regular on "The Dan Patrick Show" weekday mornings from 11-noon on ESPN Radio.

Obviously, Olbermann is a talented guy, who isn't afraid to throw out his opinions on sports, politics or religion. For my taste, he's a little too cerebral, but I had to look up the spelling of cerebral, so maybe it's just me.

Hoop scoop

• ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will carry as many as 44 NBA playoff games, tipping off Saturday with one game on ABC and three more on ESPN. ABC has a game Sunday morning. Mike Breen is the lead announcer on ABC with Mike Tirico and Mark Jones calling games on ESPN.

• TNT will be the home of "40 Games in 40 Nights" with double-headers Monday through Thursday. Marv Albert, Kevin Harlan and Dick Stockton are TNT's lead announcers.

• The Lakers-Suns series tips off Sunday at noon on ABC with games Tuesday and Thursday on TNT.

• Cox Communications digital customers will get a free preview of NBA TV from Saturday through May 5. NBA TV is the spot for all playoff-related coverage - games, press conferences, behind-the-scene reports. NBA TV airs on Channel 331. The station will have games Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Around the dial

• "NASCAR Now" - ESPN's daily news and information show totally dedicated to NASCAR, is expanding its Monday edition to 60-minutes. It will air from 3-4 p.m. on ESPN2. The rest of the week, the show airs at 3:30 p.m.

• A reminder for NASCAR fans that this weekend's action moves up a day with the Busch Series race from Phoenix at 6 tonight and the Nextel Cup race at 5 p.m. Saturday on Fox.

• Former Ramona High standout Mia Longfellow figures to be in the starting lineup Sunday when No. 16-ranked Oregon State meets Arizona State in a Pac-10 softball game on ESPN2. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.

• The MISL championship game - matching Philadelphia at Detroit - will air live at 1 p.m. Saturday on Versus.

• Versus will have daily America's Cup updates through the end of the round-robin competition May 7. Starting May 14, the network will have daily coverage of the semifinals. The finals of sailing's top event are set to begin June 1 with Versus on the coverage.

• Andrea Kremer of NBC Sports will join HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" next month.

• HBO Sports, in collaboration with Major League Baseball Productions, has begun production of "Brooklyn Dodgers." The two-hour documentary, which will debut on July 11, will examine the team's golden years from 1947-57. If this piece is anything like HBO's special on UCLA basketball, circle the calendar and don't miss it.

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