KABC to Bring Back Bieler After Firing Him 13 Years Ago

Ed (Superfan) Bieler, fired by KABC radio in 1976, is returning to the station. And the man who fired him, George Green, the station’s general manager, is the man bringing him back.

Bieler will start in October, and his contract calls for him to be on the air 20 hours a week. Details have yet to be worked out.

Program director John Rook said: “We don’t want to say too much because we don’t want to let our competitors know what we’re planning. But Ed is going to be a major player.”

Bieler says he works alone. So what will become of current “Sportstalk” host Fred Wallin?

Green would say only: “Fred will continue to be a part of the KABC team.”

It wasn’t so long ago that Green was saying he would never hire Bieler back, that Bieler was entertaining but irresponsible. Bieler essentially was fired by Green because of too many threatened lawsuits.

But the almighty ratings changed Green’s thinking. The station’s experiment with a general talk show done by Wink Martindale and Bill Smith hasn’t gone well.

“We had the franchise on sports talk for years, and we want to go back to it,” Green said. “Of the parade of people who have hosted that show, Bieler got the best ratings. I was the sales manager here when Ed first started (in 1973) and he was an easy sale. He had widespread appeal.”

Green’s interest in Bieler was rekindled about two months ago when he heard that the ABC radio station in Chicago, WLS, was trying to lure Bieler from Kansas City’s KCMO.

Green contacted Bieler, who was stunned.

“Over the years, I had written a lot of letters to George Green, hoping someday to return,” Bieler said from Kansas City, where he will continue to work until Sept. 1. “Finally, I gave up, figuring it would never happen.”

It’s a strange business.

There will be a little less of Brent Musburger on CBS this fall. Musburger, cutting back on his schedule because he will be his network’s lead play-by-play man on baseball next season, is giving up college football.

Jim Nantz will move out of the studio to replace Musburger and work with Pat Haden. Greg Gumbel will move into Nantz’s studio role.

The latest on Joel Meyers’ move to NBC-TV as a pro football announcer is that KMPC probably, but reluctantly, will let him out of the two-year contract he signed three months ago.

Meyers has told KMPC management he would like to continue as the host of the weeknight “Sportsline” talk show, but it’s unlikely he will be allowed to do that.

Bob Costas and Dick Enberg were instrumental in getting Meyers the NBC offer. It’s a good sign for Meyers that NBC wants to pair him with Paul Maguire, a very good commentator.

Maguire was received well by the public when he worked for NBC in the 1970s but was fired by then-executive producer Don Ohlmeyer, who said he simply needed to make room for new talent.

Maguire spent six years with ESPN before returning to NBC three seasons ago to work on the pro football pregame show. Now he is going back to commentating.

If, as expected, Meyers does go to NBC, KMPC will have to scramble to find a new UCLA play-by-play announcer. A top candidate is Chris Roberts, who has done Cal State Long Beach football and basketball the past eight years.

Prime Ticket and Tom Kelly are reportedly close to making a deal, meaning KNX is in the market for a new USC play-by-play man.

Rich Marotta, a solid all-around announcer, is one candidate. Pete Arbogast, who works for KNX and is the backup Clipper play-by-play man, is another possibility.

NBC said it was going to streamline its “NFL Live” pregame show by cutting back on the cast. But the network has added Bobby Beathard, former general manager of the Washington Redskins, and writer Ralph Wiley of Sports Illustrated to do a weekly “Insiders” report, and “Today” correspondent Mike Leonard to file a weekly off-beat feature.

Things are starting to get congested again. Who’s next, Vanna White?

Orange County sports packager Roy Englebrecht and King announcer Bob Miller are putting on their annual week-long sportscasters camp at Loyola Marymount, beginning Sunday.

Among the 130 or so campers will be Loyola basketball star Hank Gathers, who already is looking ahead to his post-playing days.

Englebrecht said there are still a few spots open. The cost is $695. For further information call (714) 760-3131.

KMPC hired Englebrecht and Miller to work with Angel announcer Ken Brett during the last two off-seasons. One thing they did was take Brett to a Clipper game so he could announce it for practice and work on showing enthusiasm.

Nothing like a Clipper game to stir one’s enthusiasm.

TV-Radio Notes

It was good to hear Don Drysdale back on the air Thursday. The Dodger announcer had been out for a couple of weeks after undergoing surgery to correct an artery blockage. . . . During the NBC telecast of the 5:15 Dodger-San Francisco Giant game Tuesday night, a graphic showed that Eddie Murray is a far better hitter in day games than night games. Taking note of the graphic, Vin Scully asked Tom Seaver: “Since this is a twilight game, what will Eddie do?” Replied Seaver: “That means he’ll play well for 4 1/2 innings, then bad for 4 1/2.” . . . KFI is dropping its weekend sports talk show and will have sports talk only on Sundays, from 8 p.m. to midnight. Joe McDonnell will be the host. Chris Roberts, who had been the host of the weeknight show, will stay on with KFI and sister station KOST as a sports anchor and reporter. . . . Word is the Raiders aren’t pleased that KFI, their flagship station, is cutting back on sports programming.

SportsChannel has made a deal with the Rams to carry their three home exhibition games on a one-day tape delay and also to carry a Ram highlight show for 20 weeks. Prime Ticket, according to spokeswoman Lori Gutknecht, passed on the package. . . . The Rams’ first exhibition game, to be played in Toyko against the San Francisco 49ers, will be televised on both ESPN and Channel 11 Saturday night at 7, with ESPN announcers Mike Patrick and Joe Theismann reporting.

Bob Starr, Ram radio play-by-play announcer, didn’t make the trip to Tokyo because of Angel TV commitments. Joel Meyers will fill in, working on the KMPC broadcast with Jack Youngblood, now the lone Ram radio commentator. Dick Bass, after 12 seasons, did not have his contract renewed. . . . Channel 11 will have a special Ram pregame show Saturday night at 6:30 with sports anchor Rick Garcia. Speaking of Garcia, he is often overlooked, but he’s solid and can be clever.

Channel 5’s weekend sports wrap- up shows, anchored by Ed Arnold and produced by Chris Lee, have been getting impressive ratings lately. Last Saturday night’s Channel 5 wrap-up show drew a 4.7 Nielsen rating, Channel 7’s a 3.9 and Channel 2’s a 3.3. Channel 4 does not have a Saturday night sports wrap-up show. . . . The Sunday night Nielsens: Channel 4, 6.5; Channel 5, 3.7; Channel 7, 2.2, and Channel 2, also a 2.2. Of course Channel 5 has the advantage of having its wrap-up shows on earlier than the network stations.

Look-a-likes: Channel 4’s Fred Roggin and actor Bob Saget, star of the hit ABC sitcom, “Full House.” In fact, Saget used to play a sportscaster, but he said his role was changed because a lot of people noticed the similarity between him and Roggin. Saget now plays a TV talk-show host. . . . Bill MacDonald, who has been working for Prime Ticket as a free-lancer the past three years, has signed a contract with the the cable network that calls for him to serve in both host and play-by-play capacities. . . . Channel 9, the Laker station, will televise a one-hour Dodger special Sunday night at 6. But this show is about the Greats Falls (Mont.) Dodgers. It was produced by Channel 9’s news department.