Lin and I appreciate the support that our radio show and website are getting from the media.
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Los Angeles Times
March 4, 2008

Ross Porter taped an episode of his "Real Sports Heroes" radio show with the loquacious Torii Hunter. "He gives you five shows," Porter said with a smile.

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Dodger Thoughts
Jon Weisman
March 1, 2008

Ross Porter offers this appreciation of Shawn Green at Real Sports Heroes. Shawn has been scheduled to be our "Real Sports Hero" on March 20th on KABC for several weeks now, and still will be, only now as a retired player. In that vignette, I say that what he has done off the field may be more significant. While playing in Los Angeles, Green donated one and a half million dollars in six years to support the development of four baseball fields in the city. The money also went for the purchase of books for local elementary schools and youth community programs...

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Valley Vantage
Warner City News
Las Virgenes Enterprise

February 14, 2008

Sportscaster Ross Porter Seeks Inspiring Athletes

By Rodger Sterling

Calabasas baseball coach Bret Saberhagen was recently interviewed on "Real Sports Heroes with Ross Porter" on 790 KABC. Porter has been ranked as one of baseball's 60 all-time best announcers and is a member of the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame after 38 uninterrupted years on the air in Los Angeles.

Calabasas based Porter told Valley News Group his program is seeking out coaches or athletes who are an inspiration both on and off the field; someone that has an extraordinary story that deserves to be told...and rewarded.

Porter said both winning nominee and the person who recognized their effort will receive tickets to see the Los Angeles Dodgers and will be awarded four roundtrip coach tickets for domestic travel or to the Caribbean, Bermuda, The Bahamas, Mexico or Canada by "Real Sports Heroes" sponsor American Airlines.

For rules and information, log onto www.kabc.com (keyword: sports heroes). Or, send submissions (500 words or less and they must include daytime phone number) to 790 KABC, Real Sports Heroes, Box 790, Los Angeles, Ca. 90016.


Rodger Sterling receiving The Bill Van Gleson Memorial Award. PUBLISHER WINS CALABASAS CHAMBER'S HIGHEST AWARD

Rodger Sterling, publisher of Valley News Group, won the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce's highest award, The Bill Van Gleson Memorial Award, given annually by the Chamber in recognition of continued years of community service.

Sterling bought the Las Virgenes Enterprise in 1968 and expanded the community weekly from just Calabasas to include Agoura and Westlake
Village. Sterling was President of the Calabasas Chamber in both 1970 and 1974. During his tenure with the Chamber, he started the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival in 1971.


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Dennis McCarthy of the Los Angeles Daily News has won many awards for his columns. What is refreshing about Dennis is that every column he writes is of a positive nature. His upbeat writing style is truly unique.


By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist
Los Angeles Daily News - January 29, 2008Radio show proves good guys win

Good guys don't finish last. They win. Ross and Lin Porter are proving that.
The former Los Angeles Dodgers announcer and his wife of 46 years have teamed up to bring us important, poignant stories of real sports heroes.
Those would be the athletes without rap sheets and criminal defense attorneys.

"I got up one morning about five or six months ago, picked up the sports page, and it looked like a disaster sheet," Ross said Monday from his home.

"Michael Vick, Tour de France competitors being disqualified for using illegal substances, a couple of drunk-driving arrests and a few more athletes beating up someone.

"I was so tired of it. I figured there had to be other people tired of it, too. That's when I knew this kind of show would work."

This kind of show is Porter's daily drive time radio gig on KABC-AM (790) featuring the positive, good things athletes and coaches do - from local youth sports coaches all the way up to pro athletes and major league managers.

It's not fluff. It's solid stories filled with inspiration and integrity, a throwback to times when you'd smile after hearing or reading a sports story, not shake your head and frown.

The show, which airs at 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday in February, at 5:30 p.m. in March, and at 7:30 or 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, reminds us that good guys can and do win.

"Lin and I wanted to focus on the everyday athlete or person who has no spotlight," he says. "I think those are the people we all want to hear and read about."

For people who are not in their cars or listening to the radio at home when Ross is on the air, Lin writes stories for their Web site, realsportsheroes.com.
She writes about Angel Manager Mike Scioscia making hospital visits to a young boy dying of cancer and how they made the boy's last weeks of life fuller and happier.

She writes about AYSO Region 71 in Woodland Hills forming a VIP team for special-needs children, and a Chaminade High School business teacher and his students opening the Higher Grounds coffee shop on campus to sell coffee and help poor Ethiopian farmers trying to sell theirs.

With each story about a well-known athlete or coach, like Tiger Woods or John Wooden, she includes the charity they sponsor because that goes hand in hand with being one of the good guys.

"Athletes, coaches, teachers, they're all role models who have an impact on young lives," Lin says. "You can't go out and do something disgraceful and have that same impact."

The Porters have invited people to write to them on their Web site about an athlete, coach, or teacher who was inspirational in their lives. The stories will be judged and the best of them will be posted on the Saluting Teamwork link on the site. One winner will receive four free tickets on American Airlines, which sponsors Porter's radio show and Web site.

"It's a way for the community to give credit to local groups - high schools, sports teams, etc. - who are doing something that is positive for charities and people in need," Ross said.

The idea for "Real Sports Heroes" grew out of a weekend Lin and Ross spent in Ojai baby-sitting their grandkids shortly after learning the Dodgers were not going to renew his contract.

"We talked about what he wanted to do next because Ross still had a lot to give," Lin said. "He wasn't going to stop working."

Whatever it was going to be, it had to be positive, they agreed. Both were tired of the negative, sensational sports reports getting far too much attention.

"I've been a sports fan all my life," Ross says. "My dad said that when I was 3, I'd sit on his lap while we read the sports page together."

Did dads still do that with their sons and daughters today, he wondered. Were they bonding reading about Michael Vick going to jail, or another superstar being pulled over for drunk-driving or getting in a fight?

Somebody needed to balance this madness - talk and write about the real sports heroes showing integrity in their lives on and off and field.

And now someone is.

Original story can be viewed at http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8104592.