CBS Dropped Ball in NBA, but ABC Is on the Ball at Indy

It’s been a tough go.

A week ago, CBS televised a Laker playoff game at 11:30 p.m.

On Sunday, CBS televised only one of the two NBA playoff games that day. Los Angeles and many other markets didn’t get the Boston Celtics’ series-clinching victory over Milwaukee. The problem: CBS was committed to televising a golf tournament, of all things.

Then Wednesday night, Los Angeles got a live Laker telecast, but Ralph Sampson spoiled things for Laker fans.

Now, finally, there is some good news. This Sunday, ABC, for the first time, will televise the Indianapolis 500 live. The telecast will begin at 8 a.m. PDT.

But it’s not all good news. Some auto racing fans might prefer listening to Paul Page and crew on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway radio network while watching ABC’s pictures, but most are out of luck. KLAC has decided not to carry the race. Only KWNK (670) in Simi Valley, with a signal that doesn’t cover much of the Southland, will carry it.

Jim McKay, who has been involved in all 15 of ABC’s delayed Indy telecasts, will serve as the host for this one, but he will not call the race. Jim Lampley will, with Sam Posey as commentator.

Lampley said the job of calling the race came his way because McKay’s schedule had him at Pimlico for last Saturday’s Preakness during Indy qualifying.

This will be Lampley’s third Indy assignment. The first came in 1983, when he reported from the garage. “You might say auto racing wasn’t the biggest interest in my life,” Lampley said. “But at the time I was trying to expand my career, so I accepted the assignment.

“Even though I was sort of low man on the totem pole, producer Bob Goodrich suggested I meet everyone before the race. He said, ‘You’ll be talking only to unhappy people, at the worst moment of the year for them. If they know you, they’re more likely to talk to you.’

“So I went around and met everyone that I could. By race day, I was personally and emotionally involved in the event. It had won me over.

“I missed the ’84 race, but when I signed a new contract after the Olympics in 1984, I had a clause put in that insured that I would get an Indy assignment.

“In 1985, I was a pit reporter, and my love for the event grew.

“And now to be calling the race for the first live telecast . . . well, it’s a real feather in my cap. I have done a lot preparation for this assignment because I’ve been motivated to prepare.”

Larry Kamm, who will direct the race coverage, said doing it live won’t be much different than doing it delayed.

“The big difference will be I get to go home right after the race,” he said. “When we did it delayed, I’d get to the track about 7 a.m. and wouldn’t be through editing until about 11 p.m., local time. This year, I’ll be done by about 2:30 p.m.”

ABC, which will use 31 cameras to cover the race, plans to use three race-cams. CBS and ABC have had great success with race-cams for stock car races, but so far they haven’t worked well for Indy car races.

“They’ve been testing better than ever, but that doesn’t mean they’ll work on race day,” Kamm said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The race-cams used in stock cars weigh about 40 pounds and are mounted inside the car. But the race-cams used in Indy cars weigh about eight pounds and are mounted outside the car.

Both types of race-cams were developed by the same Australian company. “The Australian group had to develop an extremely lightweight camera to avoid upsetting the delicately balanced aerodynamics of the Indy car,” Kamm said. “There isn’t a natural place to position a camera on Indy cars. Stock cars have protected, closed cockpits.”

The cars that will carry race-cams are Danny Sullivan’s Penske car, Ed Pimm’s car, which is owned by former California Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, and rookie Roberto Moreno’s car.

“We sort of worked our way around the garage to find car owners willing to carry a camera,” Kamm said. “The Penske-Sullivan crew agreed immediately. Others flatly said no. And others wanted to test the camera first before deciding.”

Ratings game: Wednesday night’s Laker telecast drew a 22.2 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles, the top rating of the night. ABC’s “Dynasty” got the second best, a 19.0.

Last Friday night’s delayed Laker telecast drew only a 7.5 L.A. rating.

Still, CBS is planning on more 11:30 p.m. telecasts during next season’s playoffs. “One thing that will help is that the season has been pushed ahead one week, so we’ll get out of the May sweeps period sooner,” said Peter Lund, president of CBS Sports.

Ratings during the sweeps period determine advertising rates, so networks unload their heavy-duty programming during that time. NBA telecasts, although drawing much higher ratings now than a few years ago, still don’t quite fit the bill.

The bad part about the new schedule is that the championship game, which this year will be played June 11 if the Boston-Houston series goes seven games, may not be played until about June 20 next year. The way things are going, someday the NBA championship series and the World Series may be played back-to-back.

Add ratings: ABC’s Preakness coverage last Saturday drew a national Nielsen rating of 8.9, up from a 5.6 last year.

The Boston-Milwaukee NBA game drew a 6.3 national rating Saturday, and Sunday’s split national telecast of the Lakers vs. Rockets and Celtics vs. Bucks drew a 9.0.

Meanwhile, golf on CBS did a 2.8 Saturday and a 4.3 Sunday.

$1-million prize: On Saturday, 100 amateur runners--one man and one women qualifier from each state--will compete in a 10-kilometer footrace, “Super Run . . . America’s Race,” at South Lake Tahoe. The winning man and winning woman split $1 million.

The race will be televised on a three-hour delay on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

A similar race was held two years ago but was not televised.

Active college and world- class athletes are not allowed to enter the competition.

The California qualifiers are Tim Powell, 25, a supermarket clerk from South Lake Tahoe, and Deborah Sharp, 32, a housewife from Port Hueneme.

Notes Game 1 of the NBA championship series will be televised Monday at noon. . . . Also Monday, the $1-million Jersey Derby, with a field including Snow Chief, will be televised live by SCORE, the sports arm of the Financial News Network, which reaches 21 million homes. The one-hour telecast will begin at 1:30 p.m. PDT. . . . The Angels make another NBC appearance Saturday, this time against the New York Yankees at 10:20 a.m. PDT . . . The Angels’ Wally Joyner will be on NBC’s baseball pregame show Saturday at 10 a.m. . . . CBS Radio begins its Game of the Week coverage this Saturday with the New York Mets at San Diego at 7 p.m. KNX carries the games in Los Angeles.

The first Big League Baseball Decathlon, taped in St. Petersburg, Fla., last December, will be televised on NBC’s “SportsWorld” Sunday, on Channel 4 at 2 p.m. In a series of 10 events, baseball stars test their baseball skills. The event was produced for NBC by the Donny Osmond Entertainment Corp. of Newport Beach. The director is Mark Wolfson, the director of the Dodger telecasts on Channel 11, and the event coordinator is Roy Englebrecht, an Orange County sports packager. . . . ABC has signed an agreement to televise three best-ball, mixed-team golf events on successive weekends in December. They are the J.C. Penney tournament at Largo, Fla., the Chrysler Team Invitational at Boca Raton, Fla., and the Mazda Champions at Montego Bay, Jamaica. . . . The United States Football League may or may not be in business this fall, but ESPN already has announced a television schedule. ESPN plans to televise 18 regular-season games, with 16 on Sunday nights, and four playoff games. The first telecast is scheduled for Sept. 14.