Air Quality: Michaels Still Clear, Conin Hazy, Donoho Is Unhealthy

Back by popular--or unpopular--demand, here is our best-and-worst list for 1989:

Best network play-by-play: Al Michaels began the decade with a miracle on ice, and finished it by acting as a newsman the night the San Francisco earthquake hit and as a fill-in host on “Good Morning America” this week.

Michaels, all around, is the best, but he does have a flaw. Like so many others, he doesn’t give the score often enough. Let’s hope someone gave Michaels an egg-timer for Christmas. That’s what Red Barber used to remind him to give the score.

Worst network play-by-play: No clear-cut winner . . . er, loser in this category, so with the holiday spirit in mind, we’ll skip this one. By the way, whatever became of Chris Schenkel?

Best network commentator: John Madden for pro football, Pat Haden for college football, Tim McCarver for baseball and Hubie Brown for basketball.

Dan Dierdorf made a run at the master, Madden, when he first switched from CBS to ABC in 1986 but has since gotten carried away with himself and has turned viewers against him.

Worst network commentator: Dierdorf. The big man has taken a big fall. Let’s hope someone gave him a muzzle for Christmas.

Best local play-by-play: It’s fudging a bit to put Vin Scully in this category since he’s also a network announcer, but he deserves high recognition someplace.

Best septuagenarian: Whatever age he is, Chick Hearn is phenomenal, a true legend. He’s as good today as he’s ever been.

Worst local play-by-play: The Angels’ Al Conin, who no question has a good voice and might even be the best in some markets. But for Los Angeles he’s too much of a homer, too often confuses listeners when anything out of the ordinary happens, provides little insight and relies too heavily on cliches and jargon.

Best local commentator: The Raiders’ Rich Marotta, who has shown that you don’t have to be a former player to be a commentator. Working with Bill King, the best radio football play-by-play announcer in the business, helps a lot.

Worst local commentator: The Rams’ Jack Youngblood, who has shown that being a great player has nothing to do with how you’ll fare in the booth. It’s amazing that the same team has given us both Dick Bass and Youngblood.

Best network sports anchorman: ESPN’s Chris Berman edges out NBC’s Bob Costas. They’re both very good, but Berman comes across as a little more genuine.

And some good news for Berman fans: He won’t be leaving ESPN, which was a rumored possibility. This week he signed a new five-year contract reportedly worth $2.5 million, a good move for both Berman and the cable network.

Worst network sports anchorman: Terry Chick, formerly of CNN, who is coming back in February on a new 24-hour sports news network, to be called SNN.

Best local sports anchorman: Fred Roggin, who stands out in a weak field. Channel 4 sent along an advance tape of Roggin’s annual year-end show, which will be televised New Year’s Day after the Orange Bowl game at around 8:45 p.m. The show may be over-hyped, as one rival sportscaster recently suggested, but it’s terrific. Don’t miss it. It’s Roggin’s best year-ender.

Worst local sports anchorman: Todd Donoho, the clown prince of sportscasting, should take a hike and take those trivia questions with him. Donoho is the best thing that could have happened to Channel 7 colleague Jim Hill. Donoho makes Hill look awfully good.

Best radio personality: Jim Healy. You may not like everything he does and some of his sound effects are getting a bit old, but his show remains the most entertaining thing on radio.

Worst radio personality: Can’t think of his name, but some people call him Stuporfan. Worst thing is, he underestimates the intelligence of his listeners. You can fool some people, but not too many.

Best additions: Joel Meyers and Bobby Beathard, by NBC. Meyers is headed for stardom as a play-by-play announcer, and Beathard is the best personality to hit sports television since another Cal Poly San Luis Obispo alumnus, Madden, came along. Let’s hope, for the sake of the nation’s viewers, Beathard stays in broadcasting and forgets the football business.

Worst additions: Bill Walsh and Ralph Wiley, by NBC. Walsh was an outstanding coach, and Wiley is an outstanding writer, but both lack natural broadcasting instincts. Let’s hope Walsh goes back into the football business. That’s what he does best. And Dick Enberg deserves better, someone such as, say, Merlin Olsen.

Best executive: Neal Pilson, president of CBS Sports, for acquiring so many valuable properties, such as baseball, the NCAA tournament exclusively and two Winter Olympics.

Worst executive: Pilson, for spending so much money.

Best sports shows: ESPN’s pregame and postgame NFL shows, which edge out ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

Worst sports show: Channel 7’s “Monday Night Live.”

Nice-guy awards: This special category is to show that despite what you may hear about the big egos in sports broadcasting, there is a long list of genuinely good guys. Just a few of them are Ed Arnold of Channel 5; Vic (The Brick) Jacobs of Channel 13; Scott St. James, formerly of Channel 9; Charlie Jones and Enberg of NBC; Gary Bender and Schenkel of ABC, and Verne Lundquist, Dick Stockton and Tim Ryan of CBS.

Congratulations to the winners, condolences to the losers, and a Happy New Year to all. Remember, as Bob Costas says, “It’s a wacky business.”

TV-Radio Notes

Who won in the ratings race when the Rams and Raiders went head-to-head last Sunday? It depends on which rating service you believe. Nielsen had the Raiders-New York Giants game ahead, 13.2 to 12.8; Arbitron had the Rams-New England Patriots game in front, 12.3 to 9.8. It just shows you can’t put too much stock in ratings. . . . The Chicago Bears-San Francisco 49ers game on CBS Sunday afternoon, with no other NFL game to compete against, got an L.A. Nielsen rating of 14.9. . . . The Minnesota-Cincinnati game Monday night got a hefty 19.2 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles.

The NFL wild-card announcers Sunday will be CBS’ Pat Summerall and John Madden on the Rams-Philadelphia Eagles game at 9:30 a.m., and NBC’s Marv Albert and Bob Trumpy on the Pittsburgh Steelers-Houston Oilers game at 1 p.m. . . . New Year’s Day announcers: NBC’s Don Criqui and Ahmad Rashad on the Hall of Fame Bowl at 10 a.m., CBS’ Jim Nantz and Pat Haden on the Cotton Bowl at 10:30 a.m., ABC’s Gary Bender and Dick Vermeil on the Citrus Bowl at 10:30 a.m., NBC’s Charlie Jones and Merlin Olsen on the Fiesta Bowl at 1:30 p.m., ABC’s Keith Jackson and Bob Griese on the Rose Bowl at 1:45 p.m., NBC’s Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh on the Orange Bowl at 5 p.m., and ABC’s Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf and Frank Gifford on the Sugar Bowl at 5:30 p.m.

CBS will use Bear Coach Mike Ditka on its “NFL Today” show before the NFC championship game and Super Bowl. . . . How’s this for coincidence? A radio broadcast of Saturday’s Freedom Bowl game at Anaheim between Florida and Washington can be heard in both Cuba and the Soviet Union. Florida’s radio network includes a station in Cuba, and Washington’s network includes a station in Nome, Alaska, that can be heard in the northeast tip of the Soviet Union. . . . The NBC-TV announcers for the Freedom Bowl, which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., will be Joel Meyers and Paul Maguire.

A feature on HBO’s “Inside the NFL” Thursday night focused on the Rams’ Jim Everett and the Eagles’ Jerome Brown. The show repeats tonight at 7 and Saturday at 10 a.m. . . . Recommended viewing: An hour-long special, “The Year in Sports 1989,” with Frank Deford and Jim Gray, will be on Channel 4 Saturday at 3 p.m. Preceding it at 2 p.m. on Channel 4 will be “Great Moments in College Bowl History” with Barry Tompkins.