The Front Row with MARK NELKE Nov. 11, 2012

For those of us not making the trek through the ice and the snow to Pocatello on Friday, our alternatives for following Coeur d'Alene's and Lake City's semifinal games in the state 5A football playoffs were the radio and the Internet.

On my desk - next to some box of cologne called "Blue Seduction for men" that someone left on my desk while I was on vacation as an apparent joke - is a purple funky-shaped clock/radio that I bought at some charity fundraiser/silent auction some people in our building put together a couple of years ago.

Until Friday, the clock/radio sat there, collecting dust. But now it was time for it to make itself useful.

So, nearly two years later, I finally decided to plug in my $5 investment/charitable donation and listen to the game.

Problem was, while the clock part of the clock/radio worked just fine, the dial on the radio wouldn't move.

So, unless there was a station somewhere around 1500 or 1600 on the AM dial, or about 107.5 on the FM, you were pretty much out of luck.

No wonder I got such a good deal on it.

It reminded me of an old episode of M*A*S*H, where Frank Burns complained that the watch he bought from a South Korean pedaler ran backwards.

"Try other wrist," the Korean man advised him.

Fortunately, Joel on the news desk brought in his transistor radio, which he apparently paid more than $5 for, because it worked.

From what little I could see on the Internet in the early going, Coeur d'Alene was running through and passing over the top of the Rams, building a 10-0 lead.

Then, much like the booster bus might have run into on its way to Pocatello, a whiteout developed on the webcast.

It reminded me of my drive home from covering Sandpoint and the other North Idaho schools at the state wrestling tournament in Pocatello during the 1990s.

Then I noticed something on the website that was showing the games:

“Trying to watch on a MAC? Click here!”

So I clicked “here!” and downloaded a bunch of things, hoping at least some of them would work. And, by golly, after restarting, I could see the game again. And Coeur d’Alene, after giving up 24 straight points to fall behind after the webcast disappeared, started to run through the Rams again, scoring the last 21 points to win 45-38.

So maybe that’s all it took.

Unfortunately, that momentun didn’t carry over to the second game, as Lake City lost 36-0 to Madison of Rexburg, setting up a Coeur d’Alene-Madison title game Friday back down in Pocatello at Holt Arena.

SO, IF anybody needs a clock/radio where the radio part doesn’t work, it’s yours. Hope you don’t mind anything purple.

In the meantime, maybe I’ll have to see if I can have any better luck with that mysterious box of Blue Seduction.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.