He Calls Himself Superfan; Others Say It’s Stuporfan

It has been more than two months since Ed (Superfan) Bieler started working at radio station KABC for a second time.

KABC, which fired Bieler in the middle ‘70s, brought him back with high hopes.

So how’s he doing? Well, it depends on who’s being asked.

George Green, the station’s general manager and the man who counts the most, raves about Bieler.

“I love him, and everyone at the station loves him,” Green said. “He’s been cooperative with everyone. He’s got to be the hardest-working guy in radio.

“His ratings are going up, and they’re going to continue to go up.”

Green said that, according to the latest Arbitron ratings, KABC is drawing 58,700 listeners in Los Angeles and Orange counties at any given moment during Bieler’s show.

KABC, according to Marla Pirner of Media Product Management, was drawing only 52,400 listeners during the same time block early this year after dropping “Sportstalk.”

KABC’s late-afternoon, early-evening audience peaked at 77,200 in the fall of 1988, when Stu Nahan and Fred Wallin were the hosts of “Sportstalk.” Of course the Dodgers, in the midst of a pennant race at the time, contributed significantly to that audience.

Last summer, with either Wink Martindale and Bill Smith or the start of a non-West Coast Dodger broadcast filling the late-afternoon, early-evening time period, KABC drew only 61,300.

Now, minus the Dodgers, Superfan is doing close to those numbers.

However, KMPC’s Jim Healy was drawing 77,600 at any given time during the summer rating period, according to Pirner.

Bieler may not be as dull as a dictionary, as Paul Olden, his competitor at KMPC, has been described in print.

But neither is Bieler captivating the town.

One problem is that he spends too much time on his soapbox, complaining about such things as athletes being spoiled and overpaid, or over-emphasis on high school athletics.

There are issues that ought to be addressed and Bieler’s points may be valid, but his preaching gets old and the result is a show that is too often downbeat.

Most people tune in a sports talk show to tune out the problems of the real world.

During Bieler’s earlier stint at KABC, he took on the Establishment and alienated many of the town’s more conservative sportscasters, including Nahan, now a KABC colleague.

Said Green: “Ed and Stu have let bygones be bygones and have become the best of friends.”

Said Nahan: “I work with him and get along with him. We don’t go out socially, but then I don’t go out socially with anyone I work with.

“I guess Ed is trying to turn his life around, and I admire him for that.”

So what did Bieler used to be like?

Verne Lundquist of CBS, who worked with Bieler in Dallas in the late 1970s, said: “He was a screamer on and off the air. He was very insecure, and viewed everything as a threat.

“His thing, at least back then, was to attack the Establishment. . . . He was nothing more than an uneducated Joe Pyne.”

Things got so bad between Bieler and Lundquist that, according to Lundquist, Bieler once challenged him to a fistfight.

Bieler denies that, to which Lundquist said, “His memory is slipping.”

Being the host of a sports talk show isn’t easy, and even the best make their share of mistakes.

Some of Bieler’s stick out. KMPC’s Healy enjoys playing a tape in which Bieler, all in one sentence, forgot Patrick Ewing’s last name and called Manute Bol Manuel Boat.

Also, Bieler sometimes tries to come off as an authority on something when he isn’t.

Once he complained about basketball players Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble transferring from USC to Loyola Marymount, saying that, going in, they knew what kind of coach the Trojans’ George Raveling was because he recruited them.

The players were recruited by Stan Morrison.

Joe McDonnell, on his weekly Sunday night sports talk show on KFI, has a feature he calls “Stuporfan Moments,” in which he plays Bieler’s mistakes of the week.

So what does McDonnell think of Bieler?

“He’s a disgrace,” he said. “He doesn’t prepare, he doesn’t know anything. He’s simply terrible.

“Sports talk in L.A. has been dying for years. Maybe KABC is trying to kill it off totally by hiring this guy.”

Gee, could you be a little more direct, Joe?

One of the appealing things about Bieler during his first stint at KABC was his willingness to go against the grain. In a town of homers, Bieler was, at times anyway, a refreshing change.

Sure, he got himself into hot water with KABC management for such things as complaining about Dodger Dogs. He was told, “You don’t criticize the Dodgers on the Dodger station.”

All he was doing was sticking up for the little guy.

Now he seems to be taking on safer issues, such as denouncing the media for publicizing high school sports.

When the Dodgers recently announced that they were raising ticket prices, did Bieler go to bat for the fans? Did he ask if the Dodgers would be spending the extra money on signing free agents?

No. He simply said, “Dodger baseball is still the best buy in town.”

TV-Radio Notes

Speaking of radio sports shows, Bob Costas’ highly popular “Costas Coast-to-Coast” is currently not available in Los Angeles. First KMPC dropped it, then KFI, and most recently San Diego’s XTRA. Jeff Schwarz, sports coordinator for Olympia Broadcasting, the St. Louis syndicator of the show, said negotiations are under way with KLAC and KMPC. “KLAC is the best bet,” Schwarz said.

Bad news for Nevada Las Vegas fans: Channel 9, under new management, is threatening to delay Rebel basketball telecasts until 1 a.m. or later this season. . . . Joel Meyers, who usually does football with Paul Maguire, will be working with Al McGuire this weekend. NBC opens its college basketball schedule with UNLV at Oklahoma at 10 a.m., and Meyers, filling in for Dick Enberg, will announce the game. . . . ABC has an attractive college basketball doubleheader Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m. It’s Duke-Michigan followed by North Carolina-Iowa.

Former UCLA announcer Kent Derdivanis, who has been doing Arizona football and basketball the last four years, has been hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ No. 2 announcer. . . . SportsChannel America has hired Earl (the Pearl) Monroe and Jim Chones as high school basketball commentators.

SportsChannel will televise tonight’s Southern Section Division I title game between Fontana High and San Gorgonio, delayed at 10 p.m. It will be repeated Sunday at 4 p.m. . . . Saturday night’s Division III final between Paramount and El Toro will be on SportsChannel Sunday at 10 p.m. and again Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Randy Rosenbloom and Ron Glazer will be the announcers for both games.

Recommended viewing: Two excellent shows produced by NFL Films will be shown Saturday. One is a one-hour special, “Field of Honor: 100 Years of Army Football,” on Channel 4 at 3 p.m., and the other is “This Week in the NFL” on Channel 2 at 4 p.m. This segment is totally devoted to the history of the Raiders.

Prime Ticket has arranged to televise the Dec. 16 Independence Bowl game between Oregon and Tulsa. It will be shown on a five-hour delay at 10 p.m. . . . Lee Trevino’s debut on the Senior PGA Tour, at the Kaanapali tournament, is being televised by ESPN. . . . This weekend, Prime Ticket is covering the Johnnie Walker Australian tournament, which features Seve Ballesteros, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. Air times are tonight at 9:30 and Sunday at 5 p.m. . . . Attention boxing fans: Colorful Jorge (Maramero) Paez fights Lupe Gutierrez on NBC’s “SportsWorld” Saturday at 1 p.m.