ROSENBLOOM FINALLY HAS HIS DAY IN THE SUN : WITH THE WORLD WATCHING, ANNOUNCER HITS BIG TIME ON COVERAGE OF VOLLEYBALL.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth

Included on Randy Rosenbloom's resume of professional play-by-play jobs:

NBA - Clippers radio, 1994.

Pro football - Simulcast for the Las Vegas Posse, Canadian Football League; radio on the Los Angeles Express, United States Football League.

Pro basketball - Santa Barbara Islanders, Continental Basketball Association.

College football - radio (Blue-Gray Game, Liberty and Hula bowls) and TV (Freedom and Independence bowls).

High school football - Both the L.A. City and CIF Southern Section championship games - on the same day, last December.

A variety of sports for ESPN. Most notably, the NCAA softball championship, the professional cycling circuit and barrel jumping from Austin, Texas.

Jeez, was it only 20 years ago when he was doing play-by-play of Pepperdine and Santa Monica College sports for then-Theta Cable in Santa Monica?

You get the idea that if Rosenbloom bought a quick-pick lottery ticket each week, he'd always get three numbers - tops - enough to get $5 back and keep playing.

If it sounds like a career full of bronze- and silver-medal assignments lacking in that elusive shiny gold, that ended this week in Atlanta.

With partner Kirk Kilgour, Rosenbloom has turned the assignment as NBC Sports' No. 2 volleyball team into more than just a week at the beach.

Live morning coverage of the inaugural men's and women's beach volleyball competition has put North Hollywood resident Rosenbloom into more living rooms than he could ever imagine. Atlanta's NBC affiliate, WXIA, has also seen a lot of him - it picks up much of the Olympic volleyball coverage when NBC goes away from its network coverage from 3-5 p.m. daily.

Rosenbloom will have done more than 20 indoor and outdoor volleyball games, including Saturday's women's beach final. And because NBC coordinating producer David Neal (a Taft High graduate reared in Woodland Hills) found out Rosenbloom has experience in the sport, he was added to NBC's coverage of the women's softball semifinals and finals.

No matter how sappy it sounds, the Olympics will always be a place where dreams come true.

``No one was more motivated to work here than I was,'' said Rosenbloom, who believes he got his foot in more because of what he knows rather than who he knows.

Work on SportsChannel helped get him a spot on NBC's TripleCast coverage of the '92 Barcelona Games on volleyball and water polo. He thought that was the ultimate.

The 45-year-old Rosenbloom, a Cal State Northridge grad who doesn't use an agent, reapplied to NBC Sports producer Tom Roy and senior VP Peter Diamond to get involved in the '96 Atlanta coverage.

``I believe if there were 70 broadcasters hired for these Games, I was the last guy,'' Rosenbloom said. ``I'm not a big name already under contract. I just had to prove how good I am.

``I put a lot of pressure on myself. I haven't slept much since I've been here. But there are so many motivated and talented people here, doing such a complicated and immense job. There's nothing like it.''

Rosenbloom had what he called the privilege Friday to call what he said was easily the biggest match of his career - Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes' intense victory over Singin Smith and Carl Henkel in the beach semifinals.

The emotions caught up with Rosenbloom on many levels.

``You absolutely pour your heart out during a broadcast; I almost cried twice (during the Friday match) I was so into it,'' Rosenbloom said. ``I'm an emotional guy anyway. So these are really Olympic events for the announcers. It's an honor to be here.''

And with that honor comes perks, of course. Such as Thursday night when he was at the NBC Broadcast Center when President and Mrs. Clinton were there for an interview with Bob Costas.

Rosenbloom said he invited President Clinton to the beach venue, and Clinton remarked that he thought he could have been a good beach player. He also said his daughter, Chelsea, had been down to watch the sport and had a great time.

Before all this, Rosenbloom's top Olympic moment was - and you could guess this - doing the public address announcing at the Forum for basketball during the '84 L.A. Games.

And his link to a family member's athletic success is as a nephew to former light heavyweight champion ``Slapsie'' Maxie Rosenbloom.

The bloom is never off the rose in Rosenbloom's life. He doesn't figure much else could top the experiences he's had this week. If it's right back to the high school football game of the week, so be it.

``I just love calling games, no matter what they are,'' he said. ``I feel lucky for getting this break. I love volleyball, so it's a perfect match.

``You don't always have to get the best job to be successful. I'm proud of what I've accomplished.''

MEMO: Staff Writer Tom Hoffarth's media column appears daily during the Olympics. His e-mail address is sptmediaaol.com.