MEDIA : KNSD-TV Replaces Hunt as Host of ‘Sports Wrap’

When KNSD-TV (Channel 39) Sports Director Jim Laslavic decided two weeks ago to continue doing the San Diego Chargers radio broadcasts, it sealed the fate of No. 2 sports guy Kevin Hunt, who was given his walking papers last week, sources said.

Channel 39 hoped Laslavic would drop the radio broadcasts and take over as host of the Sunday afternoon “Sports Wrap” show, which debuted during football season last year, with Hunt as host. News Director Don Shafer had been unhappy with Hunt for months, and only the support of Laslavic and station general manager Neil Derrough saved his job. They felt Hunt had earned a chance with his hard work of the past year.

Hunt was hired a year and a half ago by the station’s previous news director.

“It all started when (former news director) Nancy Bauer left and Don came in,” Hunt said, referring to last summer. “It was real apparent he wanted to bring in his sportscaster from Tucson to replace me.”

The deal to bring in Shafer’s friend from Arizona fell through, but the station didn’t renew Hunt’s contract last September and it was clear his job was on thin ice.

According to station sources, Shafer didn’t want Hunt to host “Sports Wrap.” Thought perky and prone to silly errors, Hunt was generally respected at the station for his light feature packages. But, several months ago, he was told to improve his anchoring skills.

The powers-that-be were also not thrilled with his “on-air look,” particularly the weight he had added since joining the station, a source said.

Laslavic said his decision to stick with the Chargers broadcast was a “tip-off” to Hunt’s future. When he committed to the radio broadcasts, the station was faced with another season of Hunt on “Sports Wrap,” and Shafer got his way.

“If I was in (Laslavic’s) shoes I would have gone with the radio job,” Hunt said.

Hunt knew he was in trouble but, believing he had weathered the storm, was nevertheless “surprised” by his dismissal.

Hunt’s replacement will be Jim Stone, sports director of WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pa., an NBC affiliate. Shafer and Stone reportedly worked together in Reno.

Both Derrough and Shafer were unavailable for comment.

Stone is a “hard worker with good contacts,” said Bill Fisher, sports editor of the Sunday News of Lancaster, adding that Stone is prone to expressions such as “boom time” to describe a home run.

Steve Snyder, assistant sports editor of the Harrisburg Patriot News, described Stone as a “low-key, workmanlike” sportscaster who “doesn’t go for a lot of glitz” and is “definitely not an entertainer.”

Hunt expects to stay on the air until the end of the month, when Stone is scheduled to start.

KFMB-TV (Channel 8) has given Larry Mendte the go-ahead to produce a pilot for a half-hour comedy show featuring an ensemble of local comedians. The show, “Channel Z,” will spotlight skits and parodies, in the SCTV mode, by local comedians Russ T. Nailz and Mark Brazil, comedy writer Mark McNeil, and Mendte. KGB-FM’s (101.5) Cookie “Chainsaw” Randolph and comedian Steve Kelley are also scheduled to appear.

The first show, now in production, will include bits such as “Billy the Circus Boy,” about a boy who runs off to join a middle-class family, and “Dueling Leitners,” spotlighting Randolph’s impression of Channel 8 sports guy Ted Leitner.

The show is tentatively scheduled to air on Saturdays at 7 p.m., but no date has been set for the first show.

Local Morning News Wars will officially begin next Monday, when Channel 8 begins a half-hour 6:30 a.m. news program, directly competing with Channel 10’s established newscast.

Channel 8 veteran Lorraine Kimel will co-anchor the show, with a yet unnamed male. The station will probably hire someone for the slot, using existing staffers in the interim, according to Jim Holtzman, stations news director.

As part of the move, Channel 8 will move “CBS This Morning” to 7 a.m., its regular time slot, and “Sun Up San Diego” will move from 8 to 9 a.m.

A new agreement with CBS may have provided some “impetus” for the move, Holtzman acknowledged, but it is something the station has wanted to do for a while. Channel 8, like all CBS affiliates, hopes that “This Morning,” with former Channel 8 reporter Paula Zahn as hostess, may finally find an audience. The move probably won’t hurt “Sun Up,” which posts steady mediocre ratings. “House Party,” a syndicated talk show now airing at 9 a.m., will be dropped. It won’t be mourned.

“It all seems to to fit together nicely,” Holtzman said.

New XHRM-FM (92.5) General Manager Lee Mirabal says the station will be going “back to its urban roots,” playing more urban dance music and less “European rock.” The change, she acknowledges, was made, in part, to address the black audience the station supposedly abandoned when its Mexican owners kicked out operator Willie Morrow a few months ago for failing to pay his bills. “It’s always been my dream to program this station for a black audience,” Mirabal said. She worked at the station in 1978 and ’79. . . .

One of Channel 10’s first updates during “Headline News” last Monday was immediately followed by an ad for Channel 8’s news team. . . .

KFMB-AM (760) news director Cliff Albert told Tribune gossip columnist Allison DaRosa that shootings are so frequent in Southeast San Diego that the station seldom covers what they call “environmental homicides.” Cute. But, if quoted accurately, Albert has added fuel to criticism from minorities that the media treat a murder in Chula Vista differently than a murder in, say, Encinitas. (Albert was unavailable for comment Friday.) . . .

After a recent Channel 10 editorial denouncing the tuna industry, station employees decided to take a stand. They voted to eliminate tuna from the cafeteria menu. . . .

Former Channel 39 reporter John Britton, who was dumped last year after 16 years with the station, is general manager of the News Monitoring Service, a local video clipping service. . . .

According to his agent’s office, former Channel 39 sports guy Bobby Estill is still in San Diego looking for work in television. He is now “in negotiations” for a job, presumably in another market. . . .

Former XTRA AM and FM promotions director Rob Tonkin has been hired as promotions director of KQLZ-FM (Pirate Radio) in Los Angeles.