Talk Radio Playlist: Bad Taste

Once Kobe Bryant was charged with sexual assault, it was as though sports talk radio took it as permission to go crazy.

Restraint? What’s that?

Every time a friend or acquaintance of the alleged victim opens his or her mouth, sports talk show hosts analyze and dissect every word.

Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian of KSPN (710), for instance, turned something reportedly said by someone who supposedly was the host of a party attended by the alleged victim into a one-hour bit on Wednesday.

And now they’re asking everyone who calls their program, no matter what the subject, “Guilty or innocent?”

Meanwhile at XTRA Sports (690 and 1150), Steve Hartman and Mychal Thompson have gone overboard all week. They talked to a 19-year-old friend of the alleged victim. They talked to a Denver talk show host who claimed Bryant and the alleged victim had met on previous occasions. They talked to the NBC reporter who said the alleged victim was at a party talking about Bryant’s anatomy.

Thursday, Hartman and Thompson were comparing hearing about Bryant being charged to hearing about John Kennedy being assassinated, Ronald Reagan being shot, the O.J. Simpson chase and 9-11.

It’s all getting out of hand, and making matters worse is that much of what is going out over the public airwaves is inappropriate for children and offensive to many adults.

But there’s no holding back. It’s full speed ahead, often with reckless abandon.

Bob Steele, director of ethics for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., said, “With talk radio, restraint is not a value that holds much value.”

XTRA next week will place 40 billboards around Los Angeles that read: “KOBE: What’s Next? Just Listen.”

And it’s only just begun.

In Other News

There are other things beside the Bryant case going on in the sports world these days.

The Tour de France, with Lance Armstrong vying for his fifth consecutive victory, concludes Sunday, with CBS offering delayed coverage at 11 a.m. and the Outdoor Life Network also offering delayed coverage at 6 p.m.

CBS averaged a 1.4 rating for its first two weekends of Tour de France coverage, up from a 1.2 at the same juncture last year. Outdoor Life reports its Tour de France ratings are up 135%.

The highest-rated sporting event in Los Angeles the last two weekends has been soccer’s Gold Cup in Miami on Spanish-language Channel 34.

A match between Mexico and Brazil on July 13 drew a 5.3 rating, and Sunday’s quarterfinal match between Mexico and Jamaica had a 5.6. By comparison, the final round of the British Open on ABC did a 3.3.

The Gold Cup championship match will be televised by Channel 34 live at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Monday Night Golf

There’s plenty of golf on television this weekend. ABC has the Senior British Open, featuring Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, CBS has the Greater Hartford Open, and the Golf Channel offers the final two rounds of an LPGA tournament from France today and Saturday.

And then there’s more golf on Monday.

ABC comes back with its fifth edition of what might be called “Monday Night Golf.” Monday’s 5 p.m. show, titled “Battle at The Bridges” because it takes place at The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, has Tiger Woods and Ernie Els squaring off against Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia in a best-ball format.

The first of these Monday night made-for-TV golf events was the “Showdown at Sherwood” in 1999. It pitted Woods against David Duval. Then came three “Battle at Bighorn” shows at Palm Desert, all with different formats.

The one constant has been Woods, which makes sense. The event was created by Trans World International, a division of International Management Group, which represents Woods.

Stop the Presses

ESPN’s “SportsCenter” will devote two hours to one topic Tuesday at 7 p.m. No, it’s not a two-hour special on the Bryant case. It’s a two-hour “SportsCenter” special on “SportsCenter.”

ESPN, never shy about promoting itself, will answer such vitally important questions about its flagship news show as:

* How are highlight package created?

* Who determines what’s in the show?

* Do the anchors write their own material?

* What do the anchors do during commercial breaks?

Norby Williamson, senior vice president and managing editor, in explaining why ESPN is doing this, said, “Viewers like to go where they can’t normally go. There’s a natural curiosity.”

Williamson added, “We’re not taking ourselves too seriously. We’re not patting ourselves on the back. There will be a bloopers segment. We’re not being self-indulgent, we’re having some fun.”

Stuart Scott and Kenny Mayne will serve as the hosts of the special.

For those more interested in the sports news of the day, there will be a regular “SportsCenter” on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. that night, with Dan Patrick and Kevin Frazier anchoring.

Short Waves

XTRA, mainly heard in L.A. on 1150 and in San Diego on 690, will announce today that it will carry the Raiders this season. And that brings up an interesting issue. Raider broadcasts on 690 will often go head-to-head against Charger broadcasts in San Diego. The NFL normally doesn’t allow such things, but XTRA got around that by saying it is an L.A.-based station.... KMPC (1540) carried the Raiders last season but will broadcast the Chargers this year.

Mike Lamb, the former USC radio commentator who has since worked in a variety of broadcasting roles, is going to try his hand at play-by-play. He has been hired as the play-by-play announcer for the high school football package on Fox Sports Net 2 this fall and will work with John Jackson in the booth. Petros Papadakis and Lindsay Soto will handle the sidelines.

Manchester United plays one of Mexico’s top teams, Club America, at the Coliseum Sunday, and the 4 p.m. game is being televised on Fox Sports Espanol and Fox Sports World.... KMPC is also offering a two-hour pregame radio show with a special edition of “World Soccer Weekly” with Steven Cohen and Nick Gerber.

Channel 9 is hosting the annual golf tournament at Lakeside on Monday that benefits Special Olympics. Fox Sports Net used to host the tournament.... Channel 7’s Rob Fukuzaki is hosting the sixth Heads Up Foundation tournament at Coto de Caza in southeastern Orange County on Monday.

Bob Uecker will be presented with the Ford C. Frick broadcasting award during the baseball Hall of Fame inductions Sunday.... Jim Gillis, president and owner of Gillis Broadcasting and a 1951 graduate of Notre Dame, will be presented with the Harvey G. Foster award at halftime of the Irish’s game against Washington State Sept. 6. Foster, a 1939 Notre Dame graduate, coincidentally encouraged Gillis to pursue broadcasting.

The glow still hasn’t worn off British Open winner Ben Curtis. He’ll be interviewed by CBS on Saturday during the Greater Hartford Open and again Monday by ABC during the “Battle at The Bridges.” ... The first of four new editions of “Topspin” will be on CBS on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. It features Andy Roddick touring his high school.... Horse racing has moved south to Del Mar, but TVG is continuing to offer its “Trackside Live” shows on Fox Sports Net 2.... Maybe it’s not the perfect time, but Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports Net 2 have new weekly Angel and Dodger “Insider” shows making their debuts Saturday at 10:30 and 11 a.m. and repeating that night at 10:30 and 11.... Ten ordinary people, including Southern Californian Cortney Sneller, will compete in sports challenges trying to win $1 million each in the Best Western $10 Million Challenge” on Fox Saturday at 4 p.m. Sneller, 43, is a telephone operator and a mother of four.

In Closing

More radio craziness: Sue Bird of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm agreed to a bet with a Seattle talk show host that she would finish the season with a two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio. If she lost, the host got to spank her. Bird reconsidered after state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles said the bet “helps feed into the images of violence against women and stereotyping.”