Lampley Will Be Anchor Substitute at KCBS; NBC Schedules Michael Jackson Special

KCBS-TV Channel 2 sportscaster Jim Lampley will anchor the station’s 11 p.m. newscast next week, the station announced Thursday.

Lampley, who filled in Monday for Harry Smith as co-host of the early morning news show, “CBS This Morning,” will be substituting for vacationing John Schubeck.

“Lampley is real bright and articulate and his knowledge extends well beyond sports,” a KCBS spokeswoman said.

CBS sportscaster Brent Musburger did a stint as a KCBS news anchor in 1979 before returning to network sports full time, and NBC’s “Today” show host Bryant Gumbel is perhaps the best-known broadcaster who made a successful transition from sportscasting to newsman.

But KCBS management said that putting Lampley in the anchor chair was “just an experiment,” and denied that he was being groomed to make a similar transition from sports to hard news.

Speaking through the station spokeswoman, Lampley said that such speculation was premature and that he is merely helping out during the summer vacation season.

NBC’S “BAD” BOY: Pop star Michael Jackson will star in a 90-minute special for NBC July 30, the network said Thursday.

“Michael Jackson Around the World” will be broadcast in “Saturday Night Live’s” 11:30 p.m. time slot and will consist of footage “personally selected by Jackson” from his current international tour to promote his latest album, “Bad.”

The broadcast will include excerpts from Jackson’s appearances in Tokyo, Rome, Berlin, Paris, Munich and London, NBC said.

SHOW BUSINESS: Financial News Network is presenting a show at 3:30 p.m. today that it says will be a regular series come fall: “The Business of Show Business.” It will be hosted by Sonny Fox, a producer and former NBC executive.

The goal, said FNN vice president Gary Nenner, “is to explore the business and financial side” of the entertainment industry. Among the guests on the first program are Rich McDonald, senior broadcast analyst for First Boston Bank; Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Schubert Organization; and Richard Wald, senior vice president at ABC News.

VIEWER ALERT: A coming installment of KCET’s “California Stories” series will report on a variety of schemes being used in Southern California to part local citizens from their money.

Called “Flim Flam,” the half-hour documentary airs July 25 at 7:30 p.m. with information on scams ranging from floating card games to bogus telephone marketing and phony investment opportunities.

RESEARCH BONANZA: Want to find the names of every guest who ever appeared on NBC’s “Today” show, or the date of the Muppets’ TV debut?

Just go to the Library of Congress.

NBC recently gave the Library of Congress its collection of more than 1 million program files that contain detailed information on every NBC broadcast from 1939 to 1985.

In this catalogue guide are such things as the names of every guest ever to appear on “Today,” a description of the 71 hours of NBC News coverage of the assassination and funeral of President John F. Kennedy and the TV debut of the Muppets on “The Jack Paar Show.”

The information includes air date and time, story line and credits.

NBC gave the Library of Congress 18,000 NBC kinescopes, films and videotapes in 1986 and 175,000 radio recordings and transcripts in 1978.