Rambis Has Chance to Call Some Shots as Sports Anchor

Who is that doing the sports segments on Channel 9 this week?

He may look like Clark Kent, but he’s really Kurt Rambis.

Rambis, the former Laker and current Charlotte Hornet who still calls Manhattan Beach home, was a guest reporter for Channel 9 during some Laker playoff games.

He did well enough to be invited back this week to fill in for vacationing Scott St. James as sports anchor on the nightly newscasts.

So why did the station pick Rambis?

“They couldn’t afford anyone good,” he said, laughing.

Seriously, Rambis isn’t that bad. Sure, he’s a little rough around the edges, but you have to consider that Rambis has never done this before.

“I wish I could have taken a couple of months to observe, to see how things were done and gotten in some rehearsals,” he said. “I mean, I haven’t had to read out loud since I was reading things like, ‘See dog run.’ ”

Although St. James is off for two weeks, Rambis is working only one.

“I promised my wife a trip to Maui next week, and no way could I cancel out on that,” he said.

Rambis, 31, admits the sportscasting bug might have bitten.

“I’m just getting my feet wet, but, yes, I’d be interested in dabbling in this business someday,” he said. “But, hopefully, I’ve still got a few years left in basketball.”

Z News: Z Channel, now owned by SportsChannel America, converts to its all-sports format a week from today. It will be called simply SportsChannel.

SportsChannel will broadcast from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Dodger and Angel games still will be telecast, plus weekly boxing shows, tennis and a daily wrap-up show, “Sports Nightly,” at 4 and 7 p.m. NBC sportscaster Jimmy Cefalo is one of the anchors.

Plans also call for a local show, “Sportswriters on TV,” scheduled to begin next Friday at 6 p.m. The host will be Dan Avey and the regulars will be Scott Ostler of The Times, Doug Krikorian of the Herald Examiner, Ron Rapoport of the Daily News and Steve Bisheff of the Orange County Register.

In the future, Notre Dame football, national high school football and basketball, Notre Dame basketball, Loyola Marymount basketball, Clipper basketball and SportsChannel America’s National Hockey League package will be offered.

Also, because SportsChannel will no longer be a movie pay service, it will be able to sell commercial time, which will reduce its cost to customers.

The price for Z Channel ranged from $10 to $14 a month. Cable systems will charge $6 to $9 for SportsChannel.

Outside the five-county Greater L.A. market, cable systems carrying SportsChannel offer it as a basic service at no extra charge.

The competition begins: Before doing cartwheels over Los Angeles having two sports cable services, SportsChannel and Prime Ticket, there’s something to consider.

These two will be battling for sports properties, which means bidding wars and higher rights fees. And who figures to pick up the tab?

Right, you viewers.

Prime Ticket is a basic service that comes with such channels as ESPN, TBS, USA, and MTV at no apparent extra charge.

But in your monthly bill is 75 cents or so you pay for Prime Ticket. This fee figures to grow considerably as Prime Ticket battles for survival.

SportsChannel’s current bargain prices are expected to increase as well.

Prime Ticket claims to have the Lakers and Kings locked up for years, and SportsChannel likewise claims to have the Dodgers and Angels.

But, as they say, things happen.

Santa Anita has already switched from Prime Ticket to SportsChannel. The main attraction was SportsChannel’s agreement to televise a number of stakes races live from Santa Anita, with some being carried by SportsChannel’s six other regional networks as well.

Imagine if Prime Ticket were to lose the Lakers. That would surely be the end of the service.

Remember, Laker owner Jerry Buss is no longer half-owner of Prime Ticket. Bill Daniels owns 83%, Buss 17%.

Also, the new general manager of SportsChannel’s L.A. network is Chuck Velona, who for the last 10 years held that position at Channel 9, the Lakers’ flagship TV station.

And John Mohr is the president and chief operating officer of SportsChannel’s seven regional networks. His affiliation with Buss dates to the days when he was in charge of sports for ON-TV.

Although the Lakers are the backbone of Prime Ticket, SportsChannel is a force because of the Dodgers and Angels.

If Prime Ticket were to wrest the Dodgers, Angels or both from SportsChannel, then SportsChannel would be in trouble.

And where do the Clippers fit in? Well, SportsChannel owns their rights, but Prime Ticket may have a shot at acquiring them, if it wants them.

The Clippers were the answer to this question on Chris Berman’s trivia show on ESPN the other night: Which is the only team in the NBA since 1970 that has never made the playoffs?

That doesn’t exactly make the Clippers a hot property.

Prime Ticket, as a basic service, reaches 2.3 million homes in the Los Angeles market. It recently achieved 100% cable penetration with the addition of King Videocable in the Saugus-Newhall area. In its four-state area including Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii, Prime Ticket reaches a total of 3.5 million homes.

SportsChannel, as an optional pay service, reaches only about 140,000 homes.

So Prime Ticket can charge more for advertising.

But SportsChannel gets more money from subscribers. And another advantage is that it has NBC as a partner. SportsChannel is jointly owned by Rainbow Program Enterprises, a division of Cablevision Systems Corp., and NBC.

SportsChannel, as result of its partnership with NBC, will offer pay-per-view programming during the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona.

TV-Radio Notes

NBC’s Wimbledon coverage begins with a preview show Sunday at noon and HBO’s weekday delayed coverage begins Monday at 5 p.m. . . . Jim Lampley will be the host of HBO’s coverage, which will also feature commentators Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King and Barry MacKay. BBC announcers Dan Maskell, John Barrett, Mark Cox, Virginia Wade and Bill Threlfall will call the action. And HBO’s Larry Merchant will file reports. . . . HBO cameras will supplement the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage. HBO’s weeknight coverage will run from 5 to 7:30 p.m., with half-hour highlight shows at 7:30 and 11:30 p.m. the first week. The second week, HBO will continue with 7:30 highlight shows but NBC, after its first weekend of coverage, will take over the 11:30 p.m. slot.

NBC will devote its 15-minute baseball pregame show Saturday at noon to the Pete Rose situation. . . . Attention bodybuilding fans: The Arnold Schwarzenegger meet, bumped off last weekend’s “SportsWorld” program, has been rescheduled by NBC for Sunday’s “SportsWorld” at 1 p.m. . . . Steve Rotfeld, producer of “The Lighter Side of Sports” show on ESPN, has hired North Carolina State basketball Coach Jim Valvano as host of the series. Valvano replaces Jay Johnstone.

The NBA draft will be covered by TBS Tuesday, beginning at 4:35 p.m. . . . NBC basketball commentator Bucky Waters played in a recent celebrity golf tournament with Michael Jordan, whose passion for golf is well known. So Waters was a bit surprised at what happened on the first tee. “Jordan got a huge hand as he prepared to tee off,” Waters said. “Then he proceeded to hit a little dribbler about 20 yards. There has never been a better athlete on the planet, but this proved that if he keeps his feet on the ground, he’s human.”