Will Clippers Settle for a Fixer-Upper in Hunt for TV Home?

Maybe Clipper fans will eventually be watching their team’s games on Channel 56, right after reruns of “Hogan’s Heroes.”

The Clippers seem to be having trouble making local television deals. The latest word is that negotiations between the team and Channel 5 have hit a snag. The Clippers, sources say, are seeking more than $100,000 a game from the station.

“Negotiations are continuing, but we are far apart,” said Peter Walker, Channel 5’s general manager, referring to a contract that would take effect for the 1991-92 season.

Prime Ticket recently broke off negotiations on a deal with the Clippers that would have taken effect this season. Sources said Prime Ticket President John Severino decided to say thanks but no thanks, after the Clippers asked for a five-year arrangement that would have earned them an average of $110,000 a game during the term of the contract.

Prime Ticket, which signed a 10-year contract with the Lakers in 1985, pays Jerry Buss’ team about $95,000 a game.

Bob Steele, chief executive officer of the Donald Sterling Corp., who is negotiating on behalf of the Clippers, said: “It is not a fair characterization to say we are seeking more than the Lakers. You have to look at all the elements.”

Channel 5’s contract with the Clippers, which has one more season to run, does not permit the team to make a deal with a basic cable outlet such as Prime Ticket, at least not without compensation. To make a valid comparison, Steele said, you have to factor in defraying those costs, as well as what the Lakers will be getting in rights fees in future years.

SportsChannel’s contract with the Clippers expired after last season. Lynn Woodard, SportsChannel’s general manager, said she is going to wait and see what develops before entering into negotiations on a new Clipper contract.

As expected, Prime Ticket will use Bob Miller and Jim Fox on its 70 regular-season telecasts of Kings’ games this season, and there will be no simulcasts. Nick Nickson and a yet-to-be-named commentator will handle the radio broadcasts.

But for the 10 regular-season games not televised by Prime Ticket, Miller will move to radio, with Nickson handling the commentary. Miller will also work the radio-only exhibition games. Prime Ticket will televise only two exhibitions.

Add Prime Ticket: The plan to move Tom Kelly off USC telecasts is being reconsidered.

The main problem is that ESPN has withdrawn permission for Barry Tompkins to work for Prime Ticket, a Prime Ticket spokesman said.

Tompkins, under contract to ESPN, was going to do USC local telecasts for Prime Ticket, and Kelly was supposed to work the Pacific 10 Conference game of the week, which is also carried on the 15 other regional cable outlets that make up the Prime Network.

Now, it appears, Kelly will do the USC telecasts, while Phil Stone will handle the Pac-10 game of the week.

Bill King, considered by many to be the best pro football radio announcer in the country, will work his 500th Raider broadcast Saturday from San Francisco.

King, because of commitments to the Oakland Athletics, did not make the trip to London for the exhibition game against the New Orleans Saints last Sunday, breaking a streak of 499 Raider broadcasts.

Even a case of laryngitis last season didn’t end the streak. Commentator Rich Marotta had to do the play by play, but King was at least there to make a few comments.

The 6 p.m. Raider-49er exhibition game also will be televised by CBS, with Pat Summerall and John Madden reporting.

Eddie Doucette begins working on what he hopes will be a long streak when he makes his debut as the radio voice of the Rams this weekend. He will work with Jack Youngblood.

Doucette, play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Bucks for 16 seasons, moved to the San Diego area in 1980 to provide a better climate for his son, Brett, who was suffering from leukemia.

Brett is now a senior at Poway High School, and doing fine.

Doucette continued to work for the Bucks through 1984, and has since been an announcer for the Indiana Pacers, the Denver Nuggets and SportsChannel, doing Dodger telecasts.

A friend, Bill Shumard, an assistant athletic director at USC, got Doucette together with Ram Vice President Marshall Klein.

Doucette was originally hired to be a fill-in for Bob Starr. But after Starr, now a radio announcer with the Boston Red Sox, decided he couldn’t continue working the Ram games as well, Doucette got the full-time job.

World travelers Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh, who were in London last week for the Raider game, hopped over to West Berlin, where they will announce the Rams’ exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs, which will be on NBC Saturday at 10 a.m., PDT.

Enberg and Walsh, on a conference call from West Berlin, said they have taken time to do some sightseeing with their wives.

They were particularly impressed by West Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Enberg: “It’s P and P, powerful and poignant.” Walsh: “It’s the most magnificent stadium in the world. You’d think it was built in 1990 rather than 1936.”

They haven’t been impressed by everything in West Berlin, though.

“The traffic here is like traffic in Southern California,” Enberg said. “Except here when they see a bad driver, they point and yell, ‘East German driver.’ ”

TV-Radio Notes

Magic Johnson’s all-star game, played last Sunday at the Forum to benefit the United Negro College Fund, will be shown as a two-hour special on NBC Saturday at 1:30 p.m. This is one event that will be better taped than live, since it is more of a show than a competitive game. Magic’s team, with Michael Jordan and coached by Arsenio Hall, lost, 167-162. Defense is not a high priority. Hall provided plenty of comic relief for NBC to edit into the show. Game coverage was produced by Prime Ticket. . . . Add Arsenio: Martina Navratilova and Zina Garrison, in town to compete in the Virginia Slims tournament in Manhattan Beach next week, will be guests on the “Arsenio Hall Show” Monday night.

NBC Sports’ top executives, Dick Ebersol and Terry O’Neil, are convinced that Pat Riley’s drive to excel will make him a success as NBC’s NBA host. Riley spent Monday and Tuesday in a Hollywood studio rehearsing for the role he will assume full time on Nov. 3, the day of NBC’s regular-season opener--the Lakers vs. the Spurs at San Antonio. Riley, who returns for another practice session today, said he thought the rehearsals went well, and O’Neil said the improvement from Monday morning to Tuesday evening was incredible. “He still has a lot of work to do, but I think he’s gaining confidence,” O’Neil said. NBC has helped Riley set up a mini-studio, complete with camera, teleprompter and tape machine, at his home in Brentwood.

Paul Olden is off to a fine start as Channel 5’s new Angel play-by-play announcer. Olden, more accustomed to radio, may talk a bit too much for television, but this is curable. . . . KMPC will pair Cal State Fullerton announcer John Rebenstorf with Olden on UCLA football this season. Rebenstorf replaces Bob Steinbrinck, the station’s news director who had been doing double duty. Rebenstorf will continue to handle Fullerton basketball and baseball. . . . Prime Ticket’s new nightly news show, set to begin Oct. 16, will be called Prime Ticket Press Box. Channel 11’s Rick Garcia is a candidate to become one of the show’s four anchors. . . . SportsChannel reports that more than 9,000 viewers responded to a recent three-day summer preview, when the pay service was offered free to its affiliate base of 1.5 million homes in Southern California.

New show: The first of three scheduled segments of “Overtime With Pat O’Brien” will be televised by CBS tonight at 11:35 and co-hosted by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Guests include Billy Crystal, Isiah Thomas and John Madden. O’Brien said the shows will be a mix of sports and entertainment. . . . Boxing beat: Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor and Hector (Macho) Camacho are featured in an HBO tripleheader from Caesars Tahoe Saturday night at 6. . . . Attention, equestrian fans: Channel 4 will cover jumping competition at Huntington Beach as part of a half-hour special Saturday at 1 p.m. Fred Roggin is the host.