Sometimes, when National Public Radio gets bogged down in a report on the folk art of Bulgaria, and the music stations are all on commercials, I like to switch to sports talk radio.

It’s a mental vacation. Checking in is agreeing to accept trivia as a big deal, so the listener should suspend criticism. However, there is one thing …

Opinions drive these shows, and so the host makes a bold statement. Then he rephrases it, and then he hits it again. You would think he would want to state the opinion and then enlarge upon it, but instead he just gives it again. He has a point to make, and then he makes it a second time. Then he runs it past you a third time.

It’s repetitive. It’s saying the same thing in a slightly different way. He’s just repeating himself.

Hey, that really does make the time pass, doesn’t it?

Des Moines has a couple of radio stations specializing in sports, but we don’t exactly have a Chicago level of sports action. So most of the day is given over to nationwide shows that have more to talk about.

If a pitcher isn’t getting cheated out of a perfect game, Reggie Bush is giving back his Heisman Trophy. And if you can’t think of a fresh insight about Brett Favre, you might as well be using that radio voice at a drive-up window intercom.

Still, there’s plenty of repetition.

Radio host Colin Cowherd was going on one day about obnoxious fans at National Football League games. This is a subject that cries out for beer-soaked anecdotes and arrest statistics, but all Cowherd could do was keep saying that fans are loudmouthed jerks. If you’re not familiar with Cowherd, give him a listen and then take this easy test: What do NFL fans and Colin Cowherd have in common?

Highly successful Jim Rome starts with repetition, then blends in his unrivaled mastery of dead air. “Dude gets picked off first base. (Really long pause.) He’s standing there, he’s not into the game, and he gets nailed. (Even longer pause; Rome may have gone out to his car to get something.) Dude says, hey, I know what will help the team; I’ll get picked off first base.”

And so on.

All of this comes to mind because local station KXNO is in the process of finding replacements for Jon Miller and Steve Deace on its morning drive-time show. Deace reportedly decided that two shows a day were too much – he also does the evening drive-time show on WHO.

Whether that’s the whole story or not, it’s bizarre that Hawkeye fan Miller and Cyclone backer Deace departed when the college football season arrived. After what they went through all summer, it seems a bit cruel.

I don’t know if they were working under strict orders from on high or just prided themselves on keeping it local, but these guys got through the hot months by using big-picture repetition like an air conditioner.

They meticulously analyzed where Iowa should be in a realigned Big Ten Conference – for days on end. They pondered the Hawkeyes’ possible bowl matchups next winter – for days on end. Every week, they took five minutes’ worth of material and stretched it like an expense account.

This is a tough assignment. This is not easy to do. Talking about local sports in Iowa in the summertime is a challenge.

Unless you can locate an audience that’s hungry for high school softball analysis, you’re pretty much out of topics from the end of the NCAA basketball tournament’s first round until football returns.

Whoever gets the job will cruise for months. Then comes track season. Quick, think of a controversial remark about the shot put.

Poor Miller and Deace hung on through the dull times, and now they get sidelined. They never quit when the going was tough, but they miss out on the good part. Dudes did the heavy lifting, and now somebody else gets the gig.

Did I already mention that?