Channel 7 Took Poll but It May Have Been Nothing but a Ploy

Channel 7 is taking some heat for its poll on the air time of Thursday night’s Raider-Charger game at San Diego, but John Severino, the station’s general manager, contends it was legitimate.

“We did the poll solely for the purpose of finding out whether viewers preferred a live telecast at 5 or a delayed telecast at 7:30,” Severino said. “I had contact with a representative from the Raiders who said Al Davis was inclined to approve a delayed telecast if that’s what the viewers wanted.

“The NFL said Davis couldn’t do that, but remember the NFL also said Davis couldn’t move his team from Oakland to Los Angeles. At no time did anyone from the NFL call me to tell me we couldn’t delay the game.”

Val Pinchbeck, the NFL’s director of broadcasting, said Channel 7 had no choice but to televise the game live at 5, since that is required by ABC’s contract with the NFL.

But as things turned out, it made no difference since viewers, at 50 cents a call, overwhelmingly voted for a live telecast. The final tally, Severino said, was about 33,000 to 6,000.

Channel 2 said the poll was just a ploy to boost the ratings for Channel 7’s 11 o’clock news, that it would lure viewers who wanted to know the results of the voting.

“Gee, I never even thought of that,” Severino said.

But Channel 2 did and has filed a protest with the Nielsen and Arbitron rating services. “Such a contest or promotion during a ratings ‘sweeps’ period goes against the rules set down by the rating services,” said Andi Sporkin, Channel 2 spokeswoman.

Said John Rohrbeck, Channel 4’s general manager: “If I was a KABC viewer who had voted, I’d be calling Severino’s office, demanding my 50 cents back.”

Severino said all but several hundred dollars of the money generated by the poll is kept by the phone company. The rest will be donated to the American Cancer Society, Severino said.

If you don’t have a cable system with pay-per-view capabilities or have SelecTV, or know somebody who does, you won’t get to see Saturday’s USC-UCLA game at 3 p.m.

(For a list of the cable systems offering the game at a cost of, generally, $15, see the ad on Page 4. SelecTV is offering the game for $10, and subscribers can order it until game time by calling 827-4422.)

Because the signal is being scrambled, the game probably won’t be available at local taverns with satellite dishes. However, as of Thursday, five Southern California establishments had made arrangements to show the game by paying a rights fee and acquiring a decoder.

They are Legends in Long Beach, Baxter’s in Westwood, Hamburger Hamlet in Brentwood, Blue Moon Saloon in Redondo Beach, and California Pasta near USC.

“Originally, we didn’t want restaurants involved,” said Rick Kulis, president of Choice Channel of Century City, which, along with Prime Ticket, is distributing the telecast. “We didn’t want some people paying for the telecast while others got it free at a neighborhood bar.

“But we are aware the game is not available in some areas, so we have made it available to some establishments, who we hope will have a cover charge or a drink minimum so people won’t be getting the game for free.”

It’s suggested that interested parties call the establishments named above to see if there is a cover charge.

Pitt-Penn State, suddenly worthy of national television, will be carried by the USA cable network at 9 a.m. Saturday.

A Pitt victory would ruin the Fiesta Bowl’s plan for pitting No. 1 Miami against No. 2 Penn State in a game NBC would televise at 5 p.m. PST on Friday, Jan. 2.

ABC had the option of televising Pitt-Penn State, and the network considered it. Dennis Swanson, president of ABC sports, and a few of his staff discussed that possibility Monday.

But they decided to go with Oklahoma-Nebraska, figuring it will be more competitive.

ABC might have gone the other way had Pitt (5-4-1), a 10-9 winner over Notre Dame earlier in the season, still had quarterback John Congemi, who is out for the season after breaking a vertebra Nov. 1.

The other game that stands in the way of the Miami-Penn State showdown is Miami-East Carolina on Thanksgiving Day. That game will be televised by WTBS at 4 p.m. East Carolina is 2-8.

And now, basketball: College football dominates Saturday’s sports fare, but college basketball is a part of it, too.

ESPN televises Navy-North Carolina State in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off game from Springfield, Mass., at 11 a.m., and NBC has Al McGuire’s college basketball preview at 4 p.m.

McGuire covers a lot of ground in the half-hour piece, including a stop at a maximum-security prison in Joliet, Ill., to chat with the inmates who play basketball regularly.

“I wouldn’t say there were any NBA prospects in there, but there were some guys who could play Division I or Division II (college) ball,” McGuire said while in Los Angeles this week.

Also during the show, McGuire picks his top teams and his top players. North Carolina is his pick as No. 1. His top three picks in the Pacific 10 are, in order, Arizona, Washington and UCLA.

McGuire also takes a look at the three-point shot, which he calls “a piece of cake” from 19 feet 9 inches, and offers a nice feature on Notre Dame’s David Rivers, battling back from a traffic accident in which he was thrown through the windshield of a van three months ago.

TV-Radio Notes Pro football Sunday: Denver at New York Giants at 10 a.m. on NBC, with Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen reporting, and Atlanta at San Francisco at 1 p.m. on CBS, with Gary Bender and Hank Stram. Dallas at Washington is CBS’ primary game Sunday, and probably many L.A. viewers would probably prefer that game. . . . The Monday night game has the New York Jets at Miami. . . . ESPN is televising the Alex Ramos-Michael Nunn fight at the Country Club in Reseda tonight at about 7:30. First bout is 6 p.m. Tom Kelly and Al Bernstein report. . . . Saturday night’s Trevor Berbick-Mike Tyson fight at the Las Vegas Hilton will be televised by HBO at 7 o’clock. Barry Tompkins, Larry Merchant and Sugar Ray Leonard report. . . . Don King will be interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America” at about 7:10 a.m., followed at about 7:35 by interviews with Tyson and Berbick. . . . Add “Good Morning America:” football coaches Jimmy Johnson of Miami and Joe Paterno of Penn State will be interviewed by David Hartman Monday morning at 7:10 a.m.

Fresno State’s Kevin Sweeney goes after Doug Flutie’s NCAA career passing yardage record Saturday night against Utah State, and Prime Ticket will televise the game at 6 p.m. Sweeney is 173 yards away. Following Utah State at Fresno State on Prime Ticket will be Hawaii at San Diego State, delayed at 9:30 p.m. The Hawaii-San Diego State game is being shown in San Diego at 7 p.m. by the San Diego Cable Sports Network on a pay-per-view basis. The fee is $9.95. . . . Social note: ABC’s Donna de Varona is engaged to be married to John H. Pinto, the managing director of a Boston real estate company. Pinto’s mother lives in Los Angeles and his late father was a vice president of Technicolor Audio Visual and vice president of RKO General.

ESPN is delving heavily into thoroughbred racing. It will televise 29 races live in 1987, beginning with the Tropical Park Derby at Miami’s Calder race track Jan. 3 and including the Eddie Read Handicap Aug. 16 at Del Mar. . . . ABC announced this week it has reached a three-year agreement to televise the Western Open golf tournament. The news here is that it will now be the Beatrice Western Open and will offer a purse of $800,000 in 1987, up from this year’s $500,000. . . . Prime Ticket will televise Monday night’s Michelin Tennis Challenge at the Forum live at 6, featuring Ivan Lendl against Miloslav Mecir. Mecir has replaced the injured Stefan Edberg. In a women’s match, Helena Sukova takes on Carling Bassett. . . . CBS holds the rights to the 1987 NCAA basketball tournament, but after that, the tournament is up for grabs. CBS had an exclusive negotiating period with the NCAA, but it ran out Thursday, meaning that all three networks can negotiate for the rights. . . . Taking a cue from Sports Illustrated, “Sports Lifestyles” features swimwear Saturday at 5 p.m. on Channel 7.