Vic the Brick Will Be Off the Wall as Channel 13 Anchor

Brace yourself. Vic (the Brick) Jacobs, possibly the most outlandish, off-the-wall sportscaster you’ll ever see, is coming to KCOP, Channel 13, in August.

Jacobs will replace Mike Chamberlin, a solid but not flashy sports anchor who, station management thought, didn’t attract enough attention.

If it’s attention Channel 13 wants, it’s attention it will get from Jacobs, who wears wacky clothes and got his nickname by throwing a fake brick at people he doesn’t like.

Ed Coughlan, Channel 13’s news director, said: “People will have an opinion, good or bad, we know that.”

Coughlan said that was one reason the station hired Jacobs.

Jacobs has been working at Fresno-Visalia station KMPH for the last two years. Before that, he was unemployed and living in Austin, Tex.

Mike Novin, sports editor of the Visalia Times-Delta, said: “He’s all show. He doesn’t really tell you who won and lost. He’ll take some obscure news item and blow it all out of proportion. I don’t care for him, at all.”

Bill Rice, news director at KMPH, said: “When you first see him, it’s like jumping into cold water. It’s quite a shock.

“We used to get a lot of negative mail about him. Not so much anymore. I think people got used to him and found him entertaining. I think he’s terrific.”

Attention, CBS director Sandy Grossman. Please, oh please, cut down on all that camera-switching during the Laker-Detroit series. You had us viewers all over the Pontiac Silverdome Thursday night.

Basketball should be a simple game to cover. So keep it simple and, at least most of the time, stick with basic shots.

One more thing. Tell the guys in charge of grahics you can’t put up the score too much.

As most people know, Pat Riley used to be Chick Hearn’s commentator before becoming the Laker coach. Not as well known in these parts is that Detroit Pistons Coach Chuck Daly used to be a cable television commentator for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Jim Gray, now an NBC sports reporter and producer, used to work with Daly as a game producer and pregame host for PRISM, a Philadelphia cable network. Of Daly, Gray said, “He’s the best basketball commentator I’ve ever heard.”

Double duty: Ross Greenberg, the executive producer for HBO sports, says this month is the biggest ever for his department.

Beginning Monday and running through June 29, it will produce 29 1/2 hours of early-round Wimbledon coverage for HBO, and it will also produce the pay-per-view and closed-circuit telecast of the Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks fight June 27.

HBO sports has only seven full-time people working in production. But, with the addition of free-lancers and part-timers, HBO will have a crew of 100 in London for the tennis and another crew of 100 in Atlantic City, N.J., for the fight.

Greenberg and announcers Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant will be involved in both events, each making two round trips from New York to London.

As if trying to coordinate the coverage of two major events isn’t enough, Greenberg’s wife, Michele, gave birth to twins, Rachel and Brad, May 15.

“It could have been worse,” Greenberg said. “The twins weren’t due until this weekend.”

Other announcers working Wimbledon for HBO will be Barry MacKay, Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe.

NBC will provide 25 1/2 hours of Wimbledon coverage, mostly on weekends, plus late-night highlights during the week. The NBC on-air lineup includes Dick Enberg, Bud Collins, Charlie Jones, JoAnne Russell and Stan Smith.

The women’s final is set for July 2, the men’s July 3.

Add fight: The price of the pay-per-view telecast goes from $35 to $40 Monday. It will be $50 or higher, depending on demand, the day of the fight.

Tony Acone, president of Prime Ticket who is heading the promotion of the pay-per-view telecast in Southern California for Jerry Buss and Bill Daniels, said sales are ahead of what they were for last year’s Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight.

Prime Ticket and Choice Entertainment were the co-promoters of that telecast.

Speaking of Prime Ticket, there will be two special editions of the cable network’s talk show, “It’s Your Call,” next Wednesday and Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The shows, with Rich Marotta and Barry Tompkins, will originate from Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.

On the regular “It’s Your Call” show Monday night at 7, boxing reporters Earl Gustkey of The Times and Doug Krikorian and John Beyrooty of the Herald Examiner will discuss the fight.

Slimming down: John Madden, who has lost more than 60 pounds, said he was inspired to diet when CBS acquired the rights to the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France.

Addressing CBS affiliates at the Century Plaza this week, he said: “I don’t know what my assignment will be, but I didn’t want anyone saying, ‘Hey, you must be a mountain.’ ”

The Albertville assignment presents another problem for Madden, since he doesn’t fly. “Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make my bus float,” he said.

TV-Radio Notes

There isn’t a golf tournament on CBS Sunday that could hold up the 12:30 start of Game 6 of the Laker-Detroit series, but there could be problems if the Detroit Grand Prix runs long. The worst thing, though, is that viewers must choose between the U.S. Open on ABC and the Laker game on CBS. Final-round Open coverage Sunday runs from 11 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m. . . . Kudos to Brent Musburger for a fine job interviewing Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks during halftime Thursday night. Musburger asked some good questions, and also managed to keep Spinks’ manager, Butch Lewis, in line by saying, “Please, Butch, just answer the question.”

NBC is offering a baseball doubleheader Saturday, beginning at 10:15 a.m. with the San Francisco Giants against the Reds at Cincinnati. Reporting that game will be Steve Zabriskie, a New York Mets’ announcer, and Kurt Bevacqua. Steve Garvey was originally scheduled to work the game, but he had to bow out because he is being honored tonight at the Century Plaza Hotel by the Multiple Sclerosis Society. After the date for the affair was changed, Bevacqua was called in to pinch-hit for his former San Diego Padre teammate.

The second game of the doubleheader, at 1 p.m., is the Dodgers and Padres at Dodger Stadium, with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola reporting.

The National Hockey League and ESPN are parting company. The league this week signed a 3-year, $50-million deal with SportsChannel America, a division of Cablevision Systems Corp. SportsChannel operates regional networks in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New England and Florida. For Los Angeles to get the package, SportsChannel will have to deal with Prime Ticket or Z Channel. ESPN, which paid $24 million for a 3-year contract that expired this season, was simply outbid by Sports-Channel.

A special on Joe Louis, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his victory over Max Schmeling, will be televised on Channel 2 Sunday at 3 p.m. ProServ Television produced the special. . . . Z Channel will televise the Frankie Duarte-Ron Cisneros fight at the Country Club in Reseda June 29. . . . Tim Malloy, Channel 13’s news anchorman, will serve as host of the Dad’s Day 10-kilometer run at the Hermosa Beach pier Sunday. The race benefits fatherless children.