Channel 9 Changes Tune

Channel 9 boasted last baseball season that ratings for its Angel telecasts were increasing at a higher rate than Dodger telecasts on Channel 13.

The final tally showed that the Angels on Channel 9 averaged a 3.1 rating and a 6 share, up 29% from the 2003 season, and the Dodgers on Channel 13 averaged a 3.3 rating and a 7 share, up only 14% from 2003.

Channel 9 was implying that the Angels’ popularity was on the rise, and that the team was potentially a better television property than the Dodgers.

The Angels are certainly a better bargain. Channel 13 is paying about $8 million a year for Dodger rights. Channel 9 is paying just more than half that for the Angels.

So it was a little surprising when it was announced this week that Channel 9 had signed an eight-year agreement to become the over-the-air television home of the Dodgers, beginning in 2006.

Channel 9 said in a press release that it was “obligated” to carry the Angels in 2005. “Obligated” probably isn’t the word the Angels would have chosen.

Now the Angels are left to find another over-the-air station. But at least the team has a year to work on it.

A Meager Offer

The Dodgers will start their new announcing format next season. Charley Steiner is in place as Ross Porter’s replacement, and Al Downing is likely to be named the new radio commentator.

Steiner and Rick Monday will split radio play-by-play duties, and one or the other will handle television on the 45-50 games Vin Scully will miss. When Scully is there, he will work alone, but when it’s either Steiner or Monday doing television play-by-play, they’ll be joined by a new commentator.

Eric Karros was offered that job, but, according to multiple sources, when he found out the Dodgers wanted to pay only $1,000 a game, he said no thanks. The same sources said the Dodgers were offering only $500 a game for the radio commentating job.

Dodger executive vice president Lon Rosen denied that the offers were that low. Rosen also said the team wasn’t finished negotiating with Karros.

New Job for Brown

ABC will probably announce next week that Hubie Brown, who stepped down as coach of the Memphis Grizzlies on Thanksgiving Day, will be its new NBA commentator.

It was reported in The Times last Saturday that Brown could be headed for ABC, and word now is, the network is close to hiring him.

Brown would work alongside Al Michaels, and his first assignment would be the Christmas Day matchup between the Lakers and Miami Heat.

Mike Fratello is leaving TNT to replace Brown as coach of the Grizzlies and TNT will not replace Fratello. He worked with Marv Albert and Steve Kerr, who will now become a two-man announcing team.

West Coast Supporter

With all the East Coast bias in college football, and sports in general, ABC’s Keith Jackson, a native Georgian who graduated from Washington State and lives in Sherman Oaks, provides a little balance.

“California is the second-best team in the country,” Jackson said on a conference call this week.

Someone with a national presence has to speak up for the Pacific 10, and who better than Jackson?

Odd Starting Time

In recent years, West Coast afternoon games on ABC have normally started at 12:30 p.m. But Saturday’s USC-UCLA game, with Jackson and Dan Fouts announcing, will start at 1:30 p.m. That’s because the ABC schedule on the first Saturday in December runs an hour later than normal. The first game of ABC’s national tripleheader Saturday, Virginia Tech at Miami, will start at 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.

Short Waves

FSN West will offer a special one-hour postgame “Southern California Sports Report” from the Rose Bowl after Saturday’s game.... The dismantling of the Lakers will be examined on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” beginning with Sunday’s 8 p.m. edition. The segment includes interviews with Jerry Buss, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson.

Charles Barkley will join the ESPN “College GameDay” crew Saturday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta before the Southeastern Conference championship football game between Auburn and Tennessee. Barkley attended Auburn. “College GameDay” is on at 7:30 a.m. The game is on CBS at 3 p.m.

An uplifting story about how Darryl Strawberry might have finally turned his life around will be on Spike TV’s “Untold” series tonight at 10.... The BASF People vs. Pros, with amateur golfers taking on John Daly and Gary McCord in separate matches, will be televised on ESPN on Monday at 7 p.m.

In Closing

The sports television industry was hit hard by the Colorado plane crash that left NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol with broken ribs, a broken sternum and fluid in his lungs, and killed his 14-year-old son, Teddy. Among those hit hardest was Lorne Michaels, who partnered with Ebersol to create “Saturday Night Live” in 1975.

Michaels, who flew to Grand Junction, Colo., with NBC chairman and CEO Bob Wright to be at Ebersol’s side, said, “I wanted to be there. What struck me over and over again through the worst ordeal imaginable is how strong [the Ebersol] family is.”