You don’t spend 50 years behind the Channel 13 (ABC13) anchor desk — the Guinness World Record for a TV news anchor in one city — without making friends. A lot of them.

Dave Ward & Friends is a new podcast where Ward and a well known Houstonian pull up a chair and talk about the city they love. The podcast started last week with former “Luv Ya Blue” quarterback Dan Pastorini.

Episode Two will air at 10 am Thursday, March 18 with Ward interviewing Astros Hall of Fame slugger Jeff Bagwell. Other guests on tap: country star Steve Tyrell, NFL legend Earl Campbell, racing king A.J. Foyt, former astronaut Scott Kelly, Apollo 13 flight director Gene Kranz, and Houston Rockets heroes Rudy Tomjanovich and Clyde Drexler. Sonic Automotive is the presenting sponsor.

“A podcast is the best way for me to stay connected with my viewers. I’ve missed the interaction with viewers and a podcast will provide that,” says Ward.

Each 30-minute episode will be debut at 10 am Thursdays and be available for streaming after that. Dave Ward & Friends can be heard on most major podcast outlets including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spreaker, Spotify, Podcast Addict, and Podchaser.

Ward’s interviews also can be seen on Ward’s Facebook page (davewardshouston), Instagram TV, and YouTube.

Not-so-prize fights
I seriously doubt that ESPN will cover this.

Pop star Aaron Carter is scheduled to box former Los Angeles Laker Lamar Odom, June 12 at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City. The three-round train wreck will air live on pay-per-view TV. James “Buster” Douglas will be the guest referee.

Other celebrity bouts will include Joe Giudice from the Real Housewives of New Jersey (I thought he was in jail or deported or something) and Iggy Rodriguez from The Bachelor. Ojani Noa, actor, producer, and one of Jennifer Lopez’s ex-husbands, also will lace ‘em up in a preliminary bout.

Carter is calling his showdown with Odom the “biggest celebrity fight of all time.” You mean bigger than when Joey Buttafuoco battled Joanie “Chyna” Laurer on Fox prime time in 2002?

Bigger than Dustin “Screech” Diamond vs. Ron (Horshak) Palillo? Bigger than Todd “Willis” Bridges vs. Vanilla “Ice, Ice, Baby” Ice?

Whatever. Carter told TMZ that he will drop Odom “like a bad habit.” Among Odom’s history of bad habits: drugs and marrying a Kardashian. It’s a pick’em which is worse.

One more sign the world is going to hell: Online gambling sites will take action on the fight. Odom, once the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, is the heavy (-220) betting favorite.

That means you will have to lay $220 to win $100, for a total of $320 back. If you want to bet on the underdog Carter, you will wager $100 to win $155, a total of $255.

While the Texas state legislature ponders whether to put casino and sports gambling on the ballot in November, here’s my greatest moment as a punter: the time I knew the winner of a sports event “before it happened.” Sort of.

No names, please, those Fox Celebrity Boxing fights were recorded a week before airing, with the combatants sworn to secrecy who won and lost.

I knew one of the boxers. I asked him (maybe her), “So tell me, did you win?”

My buddy said, “I can’t tell you. I would be breaking my contract with the show.”

So I did that bit from the All the President’s Men, when Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) is trying to get confirmation from a lawyer about a story involving the Nixon

White House. Paraphrasing: “I’m going to count to 10. If the story’s wrong, hang up before I get there. If it’s okay, stay on the line till after, got it?”

I told my friend, “Will I win money if I bet on you? Don’t say anything if you won.” I got the silent treatment.

I bet $100 (the limit my bookie would take). The night Celebrity Boxing aired, I sat back and watched my friend beat the snot out of the opponent.

Winner! Once in a lifetime.