NBC, CBS Escalate Their Feud Because of a Duplicate Tape

Sports broadcasting, 1987 style:

Tops in the silliness department this year is the current feud between the sports divisions at NBC and CBS. The latest chapter involves a tale of the tape.

Gayle Sierens, the woman who will make history Sunday when she does the play by play for the regionally televised Seattle-Kansas City football game for NBC, has been rehearsing the past few weeks.

Her last two off-air practice games were in Tampa, Fla., games which were televised by CBS. Sierens and partner Dave Rowe used equipment leased by CBS. So, more out of curiosity than anything else, CBS made its own tape of Sierens’ work on the Detroit-Tampa Bay game Dec. 13.

When word got out that CBS was in possession of this tape, NBC claimed invasion of privacy.

CBS spokesman Doug Richardson, in response, said: “There was at no time a request of confidentiality. And we have not shown the tape to anybody, nor have we said anything disparaging about her work. I think NBC is simply milking this thing for all the publicity it can get.”

The NBC-CBS feud began heating up last month when Brent Musburger announced the results of the Skins Game, which included a hole in one by Lee Trevino, before the tape-delayed event was shown on NBC.

Now comes the latest flack. Is there no Christmas spirit?.

The craziness this year started back on the second Saturday of January when Musburger helped an official make a call that cost Nevada Las Vegas, then unbeaten and ranked No. 1, a point in a basketball game in which it lost by a point.

Musburger, you may recall, told an official there was no conclusive replay that showed whether a Las Vegas player had made a two or three-point shot at the end of the first half, when actually there was. But the Rebels were awarded only two points.

It was only a week later that another replay controversy occurred, this time in the Super Bowl.

In the second quarter, a reception by Denver Broncos tight end Clarence Kay was ruled incomplete. It took CBS eight minutes to come up with a replay that showed Kay had made the catch. But, as was the case in the Las Vegas basketball game, the replay came too late.

Add Musburger: This comes from former New York Post TV columnist Phil Mushnick:

“Steve Epstein, a 38-year-old Omaha businessman, thought he’d landed in Walter Mittyland when CBS hired him as a spotter for the Oklahoma-Nebraska game. But, as Epstein recently told the Omaha World-Herald, the gig wasn’t quite the gas he expected.

“ ‘I didn’t enjoy the game,’ Epstein told the newspaper. ‘The job was a lot of intense pressure. Early in the game, John Kroeker of Nebraska dropped back to punt. Brent called him Jeff Kroeker. When we went to a commercial, I said: Brent, his name is John.

“ ‘He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was irritated. Then he called down to the truck and asked someone to check Kroeker’s first name.’

“According to Epstein, a CBS employee whispered to him: ‘Don’t do that again. Brent doesn’t like to be told he’s wrong. If it comes up again, tell me and I’ll tell Brent.’ ”

Vicious Hits Dept.: Boxing promoter Bob Arum, who now writes a regular guest column for the Las Vegas Sun, delivered this shot recently: “In the time we have been in boxing, we have met many sleazy characters. We have also seen many nice people occasionally do sleazy things. However, in our more than 20 years in boxing, we have to tell you that the sleaziest, slimiest creature we have ever encountered is Howard Cosell.”

Cosell delivered a pretty tough one at TV columnist Rudy Martzke of USA Today. “It’s altogether possible that the principal program head in sports at all three networks is that . . . little imbecile named Rudy Martzke,” he said.

KMPC’s Jim Healy had this to say about Channel 5’s weeknight sportscaster, Keith Olbermann: “Every time I see or hear this guy I have the feeling that, somewhere, a McDonald’s is missing a night manager.”

Best camera work of the year was by ABC on Eric Affholter’s winning catch in the USC-UCLA game. But ABC missed the first two series of the game as it showed about a dozen commercials and promos.

ABC had some other noteworthy blunders, as well. It missed an accident at the Indianapolis 500 in which a spectator was killed and, in covering the New York City Marathon, it missed the winner crossing the finish line.

The network tried to blame the marathon mistake on a cameraman, but the head of the union that represents ABC’s cameramen later said it was the director’s fault.

Innovator: Michael Weisman, the executive producer of NBC Sports whose ideas include the Silent Minute during the 1986 Super Bowl, the backward clock in boxing (one that goes from 3 minutes to 0:00), and the microphone in a golf cup is the one who decided to use a woman as a football play-by-play announcer.

Best newcomers: It’s been a good year for football commentating, particularly with the additions of Ken Stabler and Will McDonough at CBS.

Jimmy Cefalo, completing his second season with NBC, is that network’s best young football commentator.

Strange idea: Cable TV is something we all know about. But cable radio? Yes, there is such a thing. The Cable Radio Network is what you hear on your television set when you switch to the cable channel that lists the programming.

The Cable Radio Network carries some Lazer and King games, and broadcast a few Oklahoma football games this past season.

TV-Radio Notes

Christmas is not a traditional sports day, but there is a pretty fair lineup today, highlighted by the Aloha Bowl, with UCLA and Florida, on ABC at 12:30 p.m. ABC offers the Blue-Gray all-star football game at 9 a.m., and CBS counters with the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks at 9 a.m. At 11:30 a.m. is the Sun Bowl between West Virginia and Oklahoma State. TBS has the Altanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers at 5:05 p.m. . . . The Lakers and Clippers will both be on television Saturday. The Lakers’ 1 p.m. game at Utah will be televised by Channel 9, and the Clippers’ home game against Boston at 7:30 p.m. will be televised by Channel 5. . . . Both of the National Football League games on television Saturday have a bearing on the playoffs. It’s Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh on NBC at 9:30 a.m. and Washington vs. Minnesota on CBS at 1 p.m. . . . Sunday NFL games are Green Bay at New Orleans at 10 a.m. on Channel 2 and San Diego at Denver at 1 p.m. on Channel 4. ESPN’s guest commentator for Sunday’s 5 p.m. Ram-San Francisco game will be O. J. Simpson.. . . . KMPC sports director Steve Bailey is concluding his 30th year of traveling with the Rams. He has worked with four Ram voices, Bob Kelley, Dick Enberg, Al Wisk and Bob Starr.

Husbands and wives: Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host with Regis Philbin of “The Morning Show” on WABC-TV in New York, will work with husband Frank as a late night host during the Winter Olympics. . . .

Boston Globe sportswriter Lesley Visser, wife of sportscaster Dick Stockton, has been hired as a reporter by CBS, her husband’s employer. . . . Stockton and Visser will appear on the Madison Square Garden Network’s “Coors Sports Forum” show this Sunday. The show is carried by the Financial News Network’s SCORE sports segment Sunday evenings at 6:30. In this show, Stockton discusses using a woman as an NFL play-by-play announcer. The show was taped before NBC announced the Gayle Sierens assignment.

Dave Rowe, who will work with Sierens Sunday, is a former defensive lineman for the Raiders. He currently works for Raycom Sports, a national syndicator which televised last Tuesday’s All-American Bowl and will televise next Tuesday’s Liberty Bowl. Rowe formerly worked for NBC off and on the previous nine seasons, and was selected for Sunday’s assignment because he has a reputation of being easy to work with. . . . Mike Chamberlin will announce Channel 13’s Sportsmen of the Year next Tuesday night on the 10:00 news.