Friday, August 20, 1999
SPORTS ON TV-RADIO
Stations turning down Reds playoff games
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ESPN is looking for an over-the-air outlet to carry Reds games in the event they make the playoffs as a wild-card team.
“They offered it to us,” Channel 9 General Manager Bill Fee said. “We're not interested.”
The problem for Channel 9 and any other station is pre-empting network programming to put the games on.
Bill Pulliam of Channel 64 isn't interested either.
“It comes at a bad time,” he said. “We'll be premiering our new WB shows. If it was one or two shows, we'd consider it, but almost our whole lineup is new.”
“We're taking a look at it,” Channel 19 General Manager Jon Lawhead said. “It's difficult to pre-empt the network.”
The games ESPN is offering are at 1 p.m., 4 or 11.
The network also is charging a fee to show the games. It could run anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000.
The package isn't overly attractive because the station that gets the game is not the exclusive carrier. ESPN also will broadcast the game.
Only about 60 percent of local households get cable.
XAVIER HOOPS: Now that Roy Alfers has been hired as producer/director for Xavier men's basketball games, Channel 64 is starting to talk about whom to hire as on-air talent.
A leading candidate for the play-by-play job is Chuck Underwood. Underwood has done Ohio State TV and radio. He has lived in Cincinnati for the last five years, working as a producer.
Underwood has a working relationship with Alfers.
“I've probably worked more with Roy than any other director,” Underwood said. “He's as good a director as you'll find.”
Candidates for the analyst job: former players Steve Wolf and Ralph Lee.
A RANT: Ron from Westwood lights up Fox Sports Net's Keith Olbermann for pronouncing the first part of Reds General Manager Jim Bowden's name like in take a bow instead of as in bow-tie.
“This is a guy who rips Ken Burns for making historical mistakes,” Ron said, “and he can't even say the name of Reds' GM right.”
GRADING 12: Anthony Munoz was excellent in his season debut on the Bengals-Indianapolis exhibition game Saturday on Channel 12.
Munoz's work at ESPN has paid off. His instant analysis on replays is network quality.
Play-by-play man Brad Johansen didn't have as good a night. He was wrong a couple of times on downs and distance. He also went a little overboard on the call of Darnay Scott's touchdown catch. This, remember, is the preseason. The games don't count. A little excitement is good; a lot of screaming is bad.
PATRICK VS. ROME: Dan Patrick could not have picked a tougher time slot to launch his radio talk show on ESPN. Patrick's show will air from 1 to 4 p.m., beginning Sept.12.
That means he goes head-to-head with Jim Rome for half his show. Patrick is a great talent, but Rome does as good a national show as there is. I don't see many stations dropping Rome to pick up Patrick.
MORE TALK: Love the idea of The Two Angry Guys doing a high school football show on WBOB-AM (1160) from 8 to 10 a.m. each Saturday. TTAG know their high school football and they'll keep it lively.
John Fay covers sports TV/Radio for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 768-8445.
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