More Changes at KABC Radio: Lisa Bowman, Al Downing to Return

Less than a week after radio station KABC’s announcement that Bud Furillo was leaving comes word that Lisa Bowman and Al Downing are returning.

They will work some of the “Dodgertalk” shows before and after games, sometimes as a team. Downing will start Sunday, Bowman a week from Sunday.

Wes Parker will continue doing some of the “Dodgertalk” shows, as well.

Bowman was previously with KABC for 2 1/2 years after winning the job in a 1983 talent-search contest. Actually, she was the runner-up, but the winner, Merrie Rich, was fired after a month, and Bowman was hired.

Eventually, Furillo took over as sole host of “Sportstalk,” and Bowman was let go.

But now she’s back, and welcomed with open arms. George Green, the station’s general manager, said Bowman eventually may be paired with new host Stu Nahan on the main “Sportstalk” show.

Furillo, meanwhile, has a lucrative one-week job lined up in New York, doing a talk show for new all-sports station WFAN July 6-10. Also, Furillo is working on a deal to write a weekly column for the Herald Examiner, his former employer.

Honeymooners: Nahan and Channel 4’s Fred Roggin were both on honeymoon trips last week. No, not together.

Steve Bailey, the Angels’ No. 2 play-by-play radio announcer until recently, said his being replaced by Ken Brett had nothing to do with any complaints about his work, as reported here last week.

“There have been no complaints that I know of,” he said, adding that the move was planned all along. The idea was for Bailey, the station’s sports director, to teach Brett play-by-play before the former pitcher tried it.

Tennis, anyone? Wimbledon will start Monday, with HBO providing same-day midweek coverage, beginning at 5 every weeknight through July 2.

NBC will televise a Wimbledon preview Sunday that Channel 4 will show at 1:30 p.m. NBC’s tournament coverage will start next weekend.

In a recent readers’ poll in Tennis magazine, HBO was chosen as the network that does the best job covering tennis, even though Wimbledon is the only tournament the pay-cable service carries.

“The key is our flexibility,” HBO tennis producer Tim Braine said. “We don’t cover just one match. We respond to what is happening elsewhere.”

HBO can be flexible because it has access to the BBC feed, and the BBC covers nearly everything.

The magazine’s readers picked NBC as the network that does the worst job on tennis. And NBC won’t win over anybody when it shows a Wimbledon women’s semifinal from 12:45 a.m. to 2:45 a.m. July 2.

But what NBC didn’t do at the recent French Open was even worse. The women’s semifinal between Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini was never shown. NBC planned to show the match as “fill” programming in case of a rainout during the following three days. But there were no rainouts. Talk about bad planning!

Football, anyone? Yes, football in June. ESPN brings you the Denver Dynamite vs. the Chicago Bruisers Saturday night at 6 as arena football makes its debut.

Arena football is played indoors on a 50-yard field that is 33.3 yards wide. Check it out. It could be interesting.

Camp time: Wondering what to do this summer that might be different? Well, if you’ve ever had the urge to try sportscasting, Newport Beach-based Sportscasters Camps of America provides that opportunity.

A five-day sportscaster camp will be held Aug. 7-11 at Loyola Marymount in conjunction with the Summer Basketball League. Roy Englebrecht, an Orange County sports syndicator, and King announcer Bob Miller are co-directors.

Guest announcers include Chick Hearn, Eddie Doucette and Joel Meyers, and counselors include Tim Welhelm, Randy Rosenbloom, Fred Hessler and Steve Roah.

The cost for the camp, which includes room and board, is $595. For more information, call (714) 760-3131.

Ideal voice: The people at Hanna-Barbera, which produces the “Flintstones” cartoon show, were quite impressed with the feature CBS did last week in which gravelly voiced Tom Heinsohn was compared to Fred Flintstone.

Hanna-Barbera spokesman Richard Leary said that if Henry Corden, the current voice of Flintstone, ever retires, Heinsohn would be the obvious choice for the job.

Add Heinsohn: Reader Joe Brown of Coronado writes to say we were off base when we picked on Heinsohn for saying that A. C. Green “has been running around loose like a bull in a China closet. “

“Although ‘bull in a China shop’ may be heard more often, ‘bull in a China closet’ is just as acceptable,” writes Brown. “If you are going to nit-pick, you should be certain about the nit.”

TV-Radio Notes ESPN will cover the second round of the U.S. Open today, with ABC offering extensive 18-hole coverage of the final two rounds this weekend. . . . WTBS will televise Monday’s NBA draft live, beginning at 10 a.m. The coverage will continue until 12:05 p.m. . . . Darrin Van Horn, who will fight Los Angeles’ Luis Santana on NBC’s “SportsWorld” Sunday, isn’t your typical boxer. The junior middleweight with a 29-0 record is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky, where he is studying veterinary medicine. He is also a part-time model. . . . Last Monday’s Gerry Cooney-Michael Spinks fight, which was obviously overpriced, didn’t draw well nationally. It was simply not a $30-$35 attraction. But it did OK in Los Angeles. Choice Channel reports that about 14,000 cable subscribers bought the pay-per-view event, and SelecTV spokeswoman Denise Helmrich said 12,000 orders were taken by the over-the-air service, many on the day of the fight. . . . ABC will televise a tape of the fight next Friday at 9:30 p.m.

Bud Greenspan’s “16 Days of Glory: Part II” will make its debut on the Disney Channel Saturday night at 7. The first part of the official film of the 1984 Summer Olympics was televised by the Disney Channel in January. In special ceremonies Thursday night, a tape of the full five-hour documentary was buried in a time capsule at the Coliseum. Among those taking part in the festivities were Mayor Tom Bradley, Disney Channel President John Cook and, of course, Mickey Mouse. . . . ESPN plans to begin scrambling its signal full time Monday. Satellite dish owners seeking information about subscribing should call Showtime, which is marketing the ESPN signal, at (800) 422-9000. . . . The National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s track meet, held two weeks ago, will be shown by CBS Saturday at 5 p.m. . . . ESPN will present a Father’s Day special Saturday at 5 p.m. Father-son combinations in sports will be profiled. . . . Kudos Dept.: Jim Hill and Channel 2’s “Sports Final” staff deserve plaudits for last Sunday night’s show, which focused on the National Basketball Assn. finals and the Lakers’ championship. It was superbly done. Channel 2 also did a nice job covering Tuesday’s Laker celebration at City Hall. . . . Magic Johnson, one of Johnny Carson’s guests Wednesday night, was as smooth on the set as he is on a basketball court. Explaining why he’s never married, Johnson needled Carson by saying: “I took your advice.”