To celebrate 850 the Buzz’ 10th Anniversary, The Fabulous Sports Babe is coming to Raleigh on April 10 for one show; 10am to Noon. The Babe’s national radio show was a lunchtime staple when 850am began its conversion to the Sports Talk format. Her weekday show was not only carried by more than 250 national radio stations, it was also shown live on ESPN2 during its peak.

I won 850’s big trip to eat lunch with the Fabulous Sports Babe in 1999. The programming manager at the time, Craig Schwalb, and his girlfriend flew my fiance and me up to NYC. We stayed at the Helmsley Park Central hotel for three nights, watched Babe do her show, and ate together at the All-Star Cafe. The station also supplied us with tickets for both the Rangers/Bruins hockey game and Saturday Night Live (Ray Romano/The Corrs). On Friday night Craig and Michelle ate at Windows on the World and got engaged, so 9/11 was difficult for them in a unique way. It was a trip for the ages for everyone involved, and we made lifelong friends in the Schwalbs.

Our trip had to be postponed three months because Babe was diagnosed with cancer. Soon after my trip she moved to Tampa and did her show from down there. ESPN radio dropped her and while she did find another syndicator, stations did not follow, and The Babe faded into the “I hope she’s doing well” category. To this day her website still reads “Gone Fishing”.

It will be great to hear her again. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to thank her for sending my fiance and me the Kiss of the Babe-ino on our wedding day. Nine years later, The Kiss works like a charm!