University Southern California Trojans
Men's Basketball Selects Radio Announcers
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
September 9, 1998
LOS ANGELES-- Former Los Angeles Clippers announcer Rory Markus and one-time USC assistant coach Jim Hefner have been named the radio voices of USC men's basketball for XTRA-AM Sports 690, USC athletic director Mike Garrett announced today.
Markus will handle the play-by-play duties, while Hefner will be the analyst. "Rory Markus comes to us with an extensive broadcasting background, particularly at the professional level, and we're excited and delighted to welcome him," said Garrett. "Jim Hefner has done an outstanding job in his long association covering our teams on the air. We believe this will be a superb announcing team."
Markus, who currently is a sports anchor at Los Angeles' KNX-AM Radio and KTTV-TV, spent the past 4 years (1995-98) doing radio play-by-play and color for the Clippers. Before that, he did play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers, on television for 3 seasons (1992-94) and as a backup on radio for 8 years (1984-91).
He was the weekend sports anchor at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles for 9 years (1989-97) and was also a news reporter at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles for 3 years (1995-97). In his career, which began in 1976 and has seen him win 2 Golden Mikes, he has also been a sports and news reporter at radio and television stations in Tucson, Ariz., Las Vegas, Nev., Flagstaff, Ariz., and Rogers, Ark.
Hefner, who was a Trojan assistant men's basketball coach for 13 years (1966-78) and then an assistant athletic director at Troy for 10 years (1979-88), has been the analyst on USC radio broadcasts the past 2 years (1997-98). Earlier, he was the USC men's basketball analyst for ON TV for 3 years and Prime Ticket for 4 seasons.
XTRA-AM Sports 690 is a Southern California-based station whose 77,000-watt signal reaches from Baja California to the south, Santa Barbara to the north and Palm Springs to the east. The USC men's basketball team, under third-year head coach Henry Bibby, returns 7 lettermen (2 starters) from a squad which finished last season impressively by upsetting No. 2 Arizona and then blowing out Arizona State by 46 points. The Trojans tip off their 1999 season Nov. 18 with a home game against San Diego State. Other non-conference opponents include Kansas, UNLV, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount and St. Bonaventure before Pac-10 play begins Jan. 2 against Arizona State in the Sports Arena.
