Curse of Anthologies: What Will You See? When Will You See It?

This is the time of year that anthology shows such as “Wide World of Sports” and “SportsWorld” dominate the weekend fare.

The problem with such shows is that the networks deliberately confuse their viewers. They refuse to spell out what will be shown when.

On CBS’ two-hour “Sports Saturday” show this weekend, for example, there will be taped highlights of the recent European Figure Skating meet, the Daytona twin 125 Grand National stock car races, taped earlier in the week, and a 10-round fight between Bert Cooper and Willie deWit.

The order in which these vastly different events will be shown is kept a secret. “Just ahead is . . . “ viewers are constantly told. “Just ahead” may mean 10 minutes--or 45.

This is not to pick on CBS. All three networks are guilty. NBC two years ago attempted to give some semblance of order to “SportsWorld,” but that didn’t last long. Ratings dipped slightly, so that was that.

The thinking is, tease the viewer, string him along and make him watch the whole hour-and-a-half or two-hour show, even though he is only interested in one segment of it, and this will generate a higher rating.

This kind of thinking, however, eventually turns a lot of viewers away totally. A typical response: “I’m not going to sit through 45 minutes of figure skating just to watch a fight.” Or vice versa.

The networks mislead the public in other ways, too.

Underestimating the viewers’ intelligence, they try to pass off a taped or delayed show as live by rarely, if ever, referring to it as a taped event, whether in promos or during the actual telecast.

The networks also practice deception by giving incorrect starting times of events in an effort to get viewers to tune in early for pregame shows.

It’s time for networks to turn to honesty. They can begin by announcing what will be shown when during anthology shows. They may discover a favorable response. At least they will have more satisfied viewers.

ABC offers an attractive fight on “Wide World of Sports” Saturday, Evander Holyfield facing former Olympic teammate and roommate Henry Tillman at Reno in a junior heavyweight title fight.

“Wide World” will be televised at 4:30 p.m. by Channel 7 and most West Coast affiliates, although San Diego’s Channel 10 will show it at 3:30.

Exactly when the fight will be shown, of course, isn’t known.

Part of “Wide World” Saturday will be devoted to an ABC promo disguised as a feature on the Calgary Winter Olympics. And part will be devoted to a legitimate report on the SMU football situation, with Jim Lampley interviewing the team’s quarterback, Bobby Watters.

Also, there will be a Valentine’s Day-type feature on Tillman, who lives in Los Angeles, and his long-distance relationship with Gina Hemphill of Olympic torch fame. Hemphill, a production assistant on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” lives in Chicago. Of course, Oprah Winfrey appears on ABC.

If you make it through all the window dressing, something to look for during the fight is the introduction of a device that measures the power of the punches.

The fight is being shown live in the East, yet delayed in the West. But watch ABC try to pass it off as live nationwide.

Add boxing: The Marvin Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard fight, scheduled for April 6 in Las Vegas, will be televised on pay-per-view cable.

But the price won’t be the usual $15 or $20. Instead, it will range from $30 to $45.

Good news for Raiders: Mike Antonucci of the San Jose Mercury News, quoting two different sources, reported last week that San Francisco radio station KGO, which recently struck a deal with the 49ers, tried to lure announcer Bill King away from the Raiders.

But King, showing his loyalty, signed a new two-year contract with the Raiders.

A lot of people say King is the best radio play-by-play announcer in the NFL.

Says Steve Sabol of NFL Films, which uses voices of all the league’s radio announcers for its shows: “Bill King is fantastic, far and away the best. We’ve used more of his calls than anyone else’s. He’s had some real classics.”

Reaching for new heights: A new ABC show, “Mutual of Omaha’s Spirit of Adventure,” makes its debut Sunday at 2 p.m.

This is the first of six one-hours shows featuring outdoor adventures. One will be shown each month through July.

Sunday’s show features an attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Included in the party which made the attempt in October were three women who hoped to become the first American women to make it to the summit, which, at 29,028, is the world’s highest point.

But because of bad weather--temperatures dipped to a minus-10--and other problems, they didn’t make it.

Also in the party were a team of hang gliders, who practiced their sport off some of Everest’s upper slopes. And ABC’s Donna de Varona also made the trek.

“It was a tough assignment, no question about that,” said de Varona. “But I enjoyed it and learned a lot.”

De Varona made it to 19,000 feet. “I’d like to try it again,” she said.

TV-Radio Notes Sunday’s Daytona 500 will be televised by CBS live at 9 a.m. What’s really made this an outstanding television event is the race-cam. Drivers scheduled to carry race-cams this year are Geoff Bodine, Darrell Waltrip and Neil Bonnett. This trio will also carry what is called a face-cam, a small camera that allows viewers to see their faces. Obviously. They will also be equipped with audio hookups so that announcer Ken Squier can talk with them during yellow caution flags. Perhaps Squier will show more discretion than ABC’s Sam Posey did during last year’s Indy 500. Posey tried to talk with leader Kevin Cogan with three laps to go. Cogan, who said he was a little too busy to talk, was subsequently passed by winner Bobby Rahal. . . . Squier will call Sunday’s race with Ned Jarrett and David Hobbs. David Despain, a CBS newcomer, and Mike Joy will report from the pits. Chris Economaki, serving in a new role, will serve as host of the telecast. . . . Following the stock car race on CBS will be the Lakers and Boston Celtics, live from the Forum at 12:30 p.m.

The second game of the two-game series between the NHL All-Stars and the Soviet national team will be televised by ESPN today at 4:30 p.m. . . . The first of this year’s four International Race of Champions events, being held today at Daytona, will be televised on Channel 7 Saturday at 2 p.m., with San Diego’s Channel 10 showing it at 1 p.m. The event has switched networks, going from CBS to ABC, and the Ohlmeyer Communications Co. will produce the four shows. The 12 drivers in the race, representing stock car, Indy car and road racing, all drive identically prepared Z-28 Chevrolet Camaros.

Sunday’s “Wide World of Sports” features leftovers from last week’s U.S. figure skating meet, the pairs and ice dancing competition, plus ski jumping from West Germany. . . . Channel 13 is gearing up for four hours of live coverage of the Los Angeles Marathon March 1. ESPN will follow Channel 13’s local coverage with an hour of highlights, to be televised at 3 p.m. . . . Channel 2’s Jim Hill will preview next week’s L.A. Open this Saturday at 3 p.m. Hill also will take a look at the history of the tournament and the Riviera Country Club in the half-hour special. . . . Can you believe it? WTBS drew its biggest audience ever last Saturday when it covered the NBA slam-dunk and long-distance shooting contests. The events averaged a Nielsen rating of 5.9, a share of 11.8 and were seen in an estimated 2,387,000 homes. Previous high for number of households was 2,193,000 for a Boston-Philadelphia playoff game in 1985.

Former Channel 5 sportscaster Joe Buttitta, who has been filling in at Channel 11, now also has a morning sports spot on radio station KGIL Monday through Friday at 7:10 a.m. . . . ABC has hired Cliff Drysdale as a tennis announcer. He will continue to do tennis for ESPN as well. . . . Dodger Spanish-language announcer Jaime Jarrin has been appointed a vice president for the Los Angeles-based Lotus Communications Corp. Lotus owns Spanish-language stations KWKW, plus KOXR in Oxnard. KDIF in Riverside, XEGM in Orange County, KVIM in Coachella and KNEX in Lompoc. All of these stations will carry the Dodgers this year, replacing KTNQ. . . . Channel 52 has announced it will carry a weekly half hour Spanish-language Dodger highlight show on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. during the season. Jarrin will be the host and Channel 52 reporter Mario Salis also will be featured.