Fans of traditional sports-talk radio may wish to stop reading now, because Paydirt Sports Talk is far from the cookie-cutter sports talk that many flock to.

In fact, the men behind the locally based Paydirt show, an hourlong program that airs live online each week, not only tend to disregard usual topics, but frequently pepper their commentary with side observations and the ever-popular “yo’ Momma” joke.

The upstart call-in talk show began simply enough, with three Kentucky-based sports fans—Derek “Hotel” Hottell, 23, and Brandon Phillips, 27, along with 16-year-old Mitchell “The Mitch” Mullis, a high-school junior from Henderson County High School—clamoring for more variety in sports programming.

“The (sports-talk) market is fairly saturated right now with a variety of shows, but if you listen to them, they all sound basically the same,” said Bowling Green resident Hottell. “They cover the same stories and usually from the same perspective, but what makes our show interesting is that we are basically just a bunch of fans who have loud mouths.”

Per the show’s creators, most sports talk presents “the same topic … (on) show after show, host after host,” and therein is the audience niche fort Paydirt, which is webcast for all to hear 9-10 p.m. each Wednesday via www.paydirtsportstalk.com.

“We avoid 75 percent of the mainstream topics, because we simply don’t care to talk about them,” said Owensboro-based Phillips, who refers to himself as the program’s unofficial CEO. “We could talk about who is on steroids in baseball, but really, who cares?”

“Anything is fair game as far as I’m concerned, but I think it would get boring rather fast for us, if we just talked about ‘the big-four sports,’” Hottell added. “Some things we just avoid, because we have nothing to add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said by a million other commentators.”

Broadcasting since April, Paydirt’s hosts make it a point to provide sports talk, albeit irreverent at times, with a decided edge and a sense of humor.

“We work hard to deliver what’s missing from mainstream sports talk, and that’s the 100 percent honest opinions from die-hard sports fans—not the opinions of the so-called ‘experts’ or ‘insiders,’” explained Thompson, who also serves as the program’s webmaster.

“Paydirt provides a different perspective to things,” agreed Mullis, “and it’s a very funny show, whereas I feel that other shows are too serious. …”

Although its listener base initially, and logically, consisted of family and friends, the show’s demographic has expanded somewhat, with listener calls from as far away as Nashville and Tampa Bay. Still, the commentators aren’t precisely sure how to define their audience makeup.

“I really don’t know how to categorize the show’s typical listener other than sports fans looking for the common view and not the politically correct view,” Thompson offered. “I don’t think anyone could ever label Paydirt Sports Talk as ‘politically correct.’”

For some, including its own staff, Paydirt blurs the definition of what’s defined as a sport. The show’s co-hosts say they consider topics listeners suggest as open invitations to discuss unorthodox “sports”—such as the mixed-martial arts sports association known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship or competitive eating—and feature the “athletes” who undertake them.

“On one recent show we had Hall ‘Hoover’ Hunt on as our guest,” Thompson confirmed. “He is ranked No. 9 worldwide by the sanctioning body known as Major League Eating. Chess boxing, which is a hybrid sport that combines chess and boxing, is another sport topic we mentioned one night, and we talk about X-Box or whatever we want. Anything is open for discussion—at least once.”

With its quirky, off-the-beaten path subject matter and weekly show intros that warn listeners some unplanned profanity may erupt during a given broadcast, Paydirt Sports Talk is anything but predictable. Additionally, Phillips said, much of the show’s appeal rests with its co-hosts’ on-air chemistry, which is no small feat considering none of the regular contributors are in the same room come broadcast time.

“We’re all scattered (throughout the region,) so the show’s actually done through a conference call,” said Thompson, 34. “But somehow, it works.”

Moreover, in spite of their devotion to talk radio that seeks to avoid typical sports-chat fodder, Paydirt’s founders concede they wouldn’t mind securing a broadcast home, and audience, that’s more mainstream—never minding that sponsors might balk at the program’s unconventional setup.

According to information from Bridge Ratings and Research LLC, for instance, satellite radio is projected to have more than 35 million users by 2010—and that’s a radio bandwagon that Paydirt’s founders are willing to jump on.

”All radio’s starting to go satellite, anyway,” reasoned Thompson, who predicts that such an opportunity, while not yet in reach, would “expand our audience and bring us to listeners who’ve never heard a show like ours before.”

Thus, with hopes for audience growth as a primary goal, the men of Paydirt currently consider the ability to attract and secure big-name guests as the greatest advantage to market expansion.

“Paydirt has had guest commentators, including sports fans, coaches and athletes of both high school and college varieties, but with growth, we hope to attract more high-profile guests,“ Thompson said. “Ideally, we’d like to have someone like Peyton Manning as a guest, but we’ll really have to expand before that can happen.”

For now, though, the show remains a staple in the lives of its creators, said Phillips, who doesn’t envision too many changes too soon, including the show’s midweek timeslot.

“I can’t see us ever abandoning our Wednesday-night time slot, even if a traditional radio service came calling for our services,” he said, before admitting, “Well, maybe for the right price.”

Most assuredly, however, the Paydirt crew insists that their grassroots approach to sports talk is set in stone.

“We’re just a bunch of fans who understand we are no more qualified to comment on the sports world than our listeners,” said Hottell, reassuringly. “Now, we are arrogant and loudmouths, so we are … going to ridicule any idea we don’t agree with, but we still want to hear them.”

HOW TO ACCESS PAYDIRT SPORTS TALK: Paydirt Sports Talk may be accessed online at www.paydirtsportstalk.com at anytime. Live shows air 9-10 p.m. CST each Wednesday, but often the program continues beyond its hourlong timeslot and listeners may access the show in its entirety via the program’s archives on its Web site. Audience members may access the show’s call-in lines during broadcasts by dialing (718) 508-9587 or by sending an online instant message to the commentators during the live show via Yahoo Messenger at paydirtsportstalk. E-mailed suggestions, comments, questions and show topics also are accepted at all times at paydirtsportstalk@yahoo.com and on the show’s MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/paydirtsportstalk