NFL Leaves L.A. Out in Cold Again on Sunday Schedule

Los Angeles usually has great weather, but it often has bad television for NFL fans.

Sunday is another case in point. While most of the country will see the New York Giants vs. the Dallas Cowboys on CBS, followed by the Seattle Seahawks vs. the Raiders on NBC, Los Angeles will watch Cincinnati vs. Washington on NBC (yawn), followed by Philadelphia vs. San Diego on CBS (double yawn).

Andi Sporkin, Channel 2 spokeswoman, said: “We tried to get the Giant-Cowboy game but were told by CBS in New York that we couldn’t, because Pete Rozelle and the NFL had decided that in the ‘best interest’ of NFL fans in L.A. we had to televise a 1 p.m. game. We think it’s unfortunate and unfair.”

The purpose of the NFL’s decree was to clear the 10 a.m. slot here for NBC because the network has only one 1 p.m. game available--the Raiders and Seahawks at the Coliseum. Of course, that game can’t be televised here because it didn’t sell out 72 hours in advance, falling 14,300 tickets shy.

If the Raiders had sold out, then Los Angeles would also have gotten the Giant-Cowboy game in the morning.

This brings up another sore point. A sellout for a Raider home game is 92,516, by far the largest in the NFL. Next highest seating capacity is 80,638 for the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., where the Detroit Lions play.

So Los Angeles isn’t paradise, after all. We may have sunshine in December, but we also have a football stadium that almost never sells out--actually, two, if you count Anaheim Stadium, where the Rams will play St. Louis in another blacked-out game Sunday.

Raider executive assistant Al LoCasale said: “If the NFL hadn’t scheduled both us and the Rams at home on the same weekend, both games probably would have sold out in time to lift the blackouts.”

In order for Channel 2 to televise Philadelphia at San Diego, it needed an NFL waiver. The NFL regards Los Angeles as a peripheral market of San Diego, so if a game there doesn’t sell out 72 hours in advance, it normally can’t be televised by a station here either. The reason is that most cable subscribers in San Diego get the L.A. stations.

What really is needed is a waiver that would permit Channel 4 to televise the Raider-Seahawk game.

Talking about injustices, consider this:

Huntington Beach Edison High School officials won’t allow the school’s outstanding football team to appear on television without getting a substantial rights fee.

That’s one reason Channel 56 will televise tonight’s Southeastern Conference title game between Diamond Bar and Covina Charter Oak instead of the Big Five title game between Edison and Long Beach Poly. It will be shown at 10 tonight and repeated at 8 a.m. Saturday.

“The Diamond Bar people are just thrilled we’re televising their game,” said Bob Elder, Channel 56’s sports director. “Their team is 26-0 over the past two seasons. They’ve been waiting for two years for us to do one of their games. We haven’t been able to before because they usually play on Saturday afternoons.”

Last season, when Edison played host to L.A. Banning in its second game, Channel 56 planned to televise it. But then Edison officials asked for a $5,000 rights fee, Elder said.

“We’re not ABC, and they’re not a CFA school,” Elder said. “We spend between $7,500 and $10,000 on production costs when we do a high school game. It’s a break-even proposition. We have only three regular sponsors.”

For a while this season, Elder wouldn’t even mention Edison on the air. When a graphic of Orange County’s top 10 teams would be put up, there would be a blank where Edison belonged.

Although Elder now mentions Edison, he says the feud has not cooled much. Two weeks ago, when Edison played host to Anaheim Servite, Channel 56 wanted to televise the game. Elder said that Edison wanted $1,000 for itself and $1,000 for Servite.

“I didn’t even ask about this game,” Elder said. “For one thing, if it rains, the game will be switched from Anaheim Stadium to Santa Ana Stadium at the last minute in order to protect the field for Sunday’s Ram game. The other thing is, I didn’t want to subject the station to any more embarrassment. No other school has ever even mentioned a rights fee. Other schools are begging for us to do their games.”

Jack Kennedy, Edison’s principal, said: “We would love for our games to be on television. We think the exposure would be good for the school and good for our kids. And we think Channel 56 does a good job.

“But we don’t think a $100 rights fee (the amount required by the CIF) compensates for our loss at the gate. We did ask for $1,000 for us and $1,000 for Servite this season, but I don’t remember asking for $5,000 for the Banning game last season.”

Notes Rumor mill: Is Stu Nahan on the outs at Channel 4? The rumor has been floating around for a while and was printed by an L.A. newspaper last week. Nahan said no one has asked him about it. “All I know is I have eight months left on my contract,” he said. “I hope to stay at KNBC, but if I’m told I’m not wanted, then I guess I’ll go look for another job.” . . . The recent item mentioned George Michael as a possible replacement for Nahan at Channel 4. Michael is the host of the popular syndicated show, “George Michael’s Sports Machine,” which is carried by Channel 4 Sundays at midnight. He is based in Washington, where he works for NBC affiliate WRC-TV. John Rohrbeck, Channel 4’s general manager, said the Michael rumor is an old one. He said speculation was running rampant when he came to Channel 4 from WCR a little over a year ago. “Some people thought I might bring George Michael with me, along with the WCR news director, several anchors, reporters, producers and certain other management people,” he said. “Of course, no one has left WCR to come to KNBC.”

With college football’s regular season over, there will be two NFL games on television Saturday, and one of them, Chicago vs. the New York Jets on CBS at 9:30 a.m., is a good one. The other game, Kansas City at Denver on NBC at 1 p.m., isn’t bad either. . . . ABC, which has been on a hot streak, offers another good Monday night matchup--New England at Miami. . . . This week’s Ram-San Francisco game attracted a national Nielsen rating of 21.4 with a 34% share of the audience, the second-highest Monday night rating of the season.

CBS will have John Unitas and Jim McMahon as studio guests Sunday on “NFL Today,” which will be shown at 9:30 a.m. rather than half an hour before the Philadelphia-San Diego telecast. . . . Bud Greenspan’s Heisman show last Saturday drew an impressive L.A. rating of 5.3. . . . There’s an attractive matchup on ESPN Saturday at 1 p.m.--Fresno State (10-0-1) vs. Bowling Green (11-0) in the California Bowl at Fresno. . . . The Champion of Champions quarter horse race at Los Alamitos Saturday night will be televised live by ESPN. Coverage will begin at 9, with post time about 9:40. . . . Don’t worry if you see announcers Gary Bender and Billy Packer stuck in traffic when CBS goes on the air Saturday to begin its coverage of the UCLA-St. John’s game at Pauley Pavilion. The traffic jam bit was taped today. . . . ABC will announce its Athlete of the Year on “Wide World of Sports” Saturday. . . . Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award will be announced live during a one-hour show on HBO Tuesday at 5 p.m. Insiders at HBO are saying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the favorite. Merlin Olsen will be the show’s host.