Please ABC, Don’t Call the Coverage Live When It Isn’t

ABC didn’t miss any U.S. hockey goals Thursday night, but then the United States’ team didn’t play.

What’s really becoming more and more irritating about ABC’s Winter Olympics coverage is Jim McKay constantly talking about “live” coverage.

It doesn’t seem to bother McKay or ABC that for millions of people living in the Pacific time zone, the coverage is not live. It’s three hours old.

But the deception doesn’t stop there. On Wednesday night, viewers weren’t informed until late in the telecast that Pirmin Zurbriggen had fallen during the slalom portion of the Alpine skiing.

ABC kept teasing viewers about Zurbriggen’s run without ever mentioning his fall.

Probably the only reason viewers were informed as early as 8:33 Thursday night that U.S. skier Pam Fletcher had broken a leg earlier in the day was because the women’s downhill was postponed.

Not everything ABC has done during the Olympics has been bad, of course. Generally, the camera work has been fine and some of the taped features are interesting, particularly Al Trautwig’s piece on timekeeping Thursday night. However, we didn’t need McKay telling us it was “fascinating.” Doesn’t he think viewers can judge for themselves?

Dick Button’s figure skating commentary is usually interesting and informative. Thursday night, he informed viewers that the scores for for Brian Orser were a little low because the judges were leaving room for an even better routine by Brian Boitano.

Orser himself later verified what Button had said.

Olympic ratings: ABC’s Olympic coverage at least is getting good ratings.

The coverage Tuesday night got a whopping 25.5 national Nielsen rating. NBC’s prime-time programming placed second that night with an average rating of 12.9.

On Wednesday night, ABC beat second-place NBC, 19.6 to 13.9.

Channel 5 can’t show Olympic highlights because its newscasts end before 11 p.m. So Tuesday night, sportscaster Keith Olbermann showed his own version of “pairs” competition--a kids’ hockey game with pears spinning around on the ice. It was typically unfunny.

Only slightly better was what Ed Arnold did last Saturday. Because he couldn’t show the Opening Ceremony at Calgary, he showed highlights of the opening ceremony for the Goodwill Games at Moscow, which Channel 5 carried two years ago.

“You’ve seen one opening ceremony you’ve seen them all,” Arnold said.

Don Sutton will be pitching for the Dodgers this year, but a source said plans are already in the works for Sutton to become an Angel radio announcer in 1989. He would replace Ken Brett, whose two-year contract expires after this season.

Sutton could end up working on both radio and television if Joe Torre, the TV commentator whose contract also expires after this season, decides not to return in 1989.

Ed Hookstratten, Sutton’s agent, said: “With Don, you can’t rule out the possibility that he’ll still be pitching in 1989. He’s been talking about retiring the past five years. I think it’s premature to talk about what’ll he’ll be doing next year.”

Bret Lewis, the new Channel 4 weekend sports anchor who will replace Mike Smith in late March or early April, says he is known for his off-beat features.

“I don’t try to make a joke out of everything, but if I see something that lends itself to humor, I’ll go with it,” he said from Miami, Fla., where he is still working. “But I’d say the majority of my stuff is straight. I come from a news background.”

Lewis, 40, was a news anchor in Dallas for two years before taking a sports job at the NBC affiliate in Miami four years ago. His father used to be the associate editor of the Dallas Times Herald.

Channel 4’s No. 1 sports anchor, Fred Roggin, is scheduled to appear with Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show next Wednesday. He was scheduled twice earlier this month and didn’t make it on the show.

The first time, Roggin got bumped. The second, Carson got the flu and went home about an hour before the show was to be taped. Carson later told Roggin: “The thought of your appearance isn’t what made me ill.”

Buddies again: Jim Healy and Bud Furillo, former friends who have been feuding ever since Furillo left the Herald Examiner for radio work back in 1974, have made up.

Healy recently praised Furillo’s son, Andy, a former Times reporter now with the Herald Examiner. That prompted a call from the elder Furillo.

The two met face-to-face in the Santa Anita press box last Saturday and hugged each other.

How touching. And right before Valentine’s Day.

What’s next? A Healy-Stu Nahan truce? Maybe they’ll kiss each other, as they did for a newspaper photographer 13 years ago.

Don’t bet on it.

Add Healy: Ever wonder who attracts more listeners, Healy or KABC’s “Sportstalk.” Well, apparently it’s no contest.

According to Arbitron ratings, in the fall of 1987 KMPC averaged 53,100 male listeners 18 years and older for the time period in which Healy is on, while KABC averaged 30,900 for “Sportstalk.”

Howard Cosell, once known as a tough interviewer, has gone soft in his old age. His “Speaking of Everything” show, carried by Channel 4 Sunday nights at 12:15, is nothing but puff. Cosell had Roone Arledge, his former boss at ABC, on the show recently, and all they did was figuratively pat each other on the back. The interview was self-serving and embarrassingly bad.

TV-Radio Notes Channel 11 is dropping its Sunday night “Sports Wrapup” show. The final show tentatively will be Feb. 28. The worst part of this is that Joe Buttitta, the station’s popular sports reporter, will probably soon be out of a job. . . . Tonight’s Times/GTE indoor track meet at the Forum will be televised live by ESPN. The coverage begins at 9 p.m. . . . There are a couple of college basketball games of note on television this weekend. CBS will televise No. 3 Arizona vs. UCLA Saturday at 11 a.m., with James Brown and Hubie Brown reporting. NBC will show No. 1 Temple against North Carolina Sunday at 10 a.m., with Dick Enberg and Al McGuire. . . . Saturday night’s Pepperdine-Loyola Marymount game will be televised on American Cablesystems’ Channel 27 in the airport area, with Terry Runzler and Mario Palladini reporting.

Next weekend’s Los Angeles Open golf tournament, which will be televised by CBS, will be previewed by Channel 2 this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Jim Lampley is the host of the half-hour show. . . . Sunday at 9 a.m., Channel 2 will televise a one-hour special, “A Hard Road to Glory,” which profiles a number of black athletes. Arthur Ashe is the host, with James Earl Jones providing narration. . . . ESPN boxing commentator Al Bernstein will be among the guests on “The All-New Bob Uecker Sports Show” on Channel 4 Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Bernstein, also an accomplished singer, does a rendition of “ESPN Blues” on the show. . . . Prime Ticket will televise the two World Boxing Council title fights set by Feb. 29 at the Forum. Carlos Zarate faces Daniel Zaragoza for the vacant super-bantamweight championship and Azumah Nelson meets Mario Martinez for the vacant super-featherweight title. . . . Has anybody seen Jim Hill on television lately? He’s supposed to be working for ABC at Calgary.