Not the Big Game, but a Prime Game

John Severino, president of Prime Ticket, should send a thank-you note to his longtime friend, Dennis Swanson, president of ABC Sports.

ABC’s decision to televise California at Stanford, which this year really is the Big Game, paved the way for Prime Ticket to televise UCLA vs. USC at the Coliseum.

The Rose Bowl bid isn’t at stake, but it’s still the Bruins vs. the Trojans.

This is not the first time Prime Ticket has televised the UCLA-USC game. The regional cable network also showed it in 1986, but to a limited audience on pay-per-view.

For Saturday’s 3:15 game, Prime Ticket originally planned to use only USC announcers Tom Kelly and Paul McDonald, but later decided to add UCLA announcers Bill Macdonald and Tom Ramsey to its broadcast team.

Ramsey will join McDonald as a commentator, meaning play-by-play announcer Kelly will be quarterbacking this team.

Macdonald will be used as a sideline reporter.

McDonald and Ramsey are familiar with the USC-UCLA series.

McDonald was the Trojan quarterback in two victories over the Bruins, in 1978 and ‘79, the latter by a score of 49-14.

Ramsey, a four-year starter from 1979 through ‘82, was the Bruin quarterback in victories over USC in 1980 and ’82.

McDonald is in his first year with Prime Ticket, Ramsey in his second. Both are bright and articulate and have adapted well to television work.

McDonald, who lives in Newport Beach with his wife and three children, is a full-time employee of Wells Fargo Bank.

He spent eight seasons in the NFL, six with the Cleveland Browns and two with the Dallas Cowboys.

Ramsey was in the USFL for two seasons, mainly with the Los Angeles Express, then played for the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL.

Ramsey is interested in making television a profession but realizes that on-air opportunities are limited.

“I’m also interested in the business side,” said Ramsey, who is working for pay-per-view mogul Rick Kulis at Event Entertainment in Rolling Hills Estates.

McDonald inherited his commentator’s job from Mike Garrett, who gave it up after being named an associate athletic director at USC.

“I called Mike to see if he was still going to do it,” McDonald said, “and when he said no, I told him I’d be interested.”

That led to interviews with Mike McGee, USC’s athletic director, and Don Corsini, Prime Ticket’s vice president of programming.

“It’s worked out really well,” McDonald said. “The bank has been good about letting me take some time off.”

Another former quarterback who has broken into broadcasting this season is UCLA radio commentator David Norrie.

Norrie and play-by-play announcer John Rebenstorf have become an outstanding team for KMPC.

You would never know that Norrie’s only broadcasting experience before this season was a week at Roy Englebrecht’s sportscasting camp in August.

Norrie was recommended for the KMPC job by Bruin Coach Terry Donahue and others at UCLA who knew he had the qualifications.

“I’ve worked very hard at it,” Norrie said. “I pore over every tape, looking for things I did wrong. I’m my own toughest critic.”

Norrie, who lives in Westwood, works in real estate for CB Commercial.

Kudos to ABC director Larry Kamm and his crew for the pictures of Florida State’s missed field goal against Miami last Saturday.

In direct contrast was NBC’s botched work the previous week on the missed field goal that resulted in Notre Dame’s loss to Tennessee. Dick Enberg said he couldn’t tell whether the attempt was blocked or not, and then NBC went off the air without ever showing any kind of a definitive replay.

Chick Hearn, a recent guest on Roy Firestone’s “Up Close,” said he would take Kareem Abdul-Jabbar over Wilt Chamberlain. Hearn deliberated for some time before making his choice.

Rick Barry, a former Turner Broadcasting commentator, who was on “Up Close” this week, didn’t hesitate.

“Of course, Chick is going to say Kareem,” Barry said. “But no way. Wilt (Chamberlain) was the best by far. I mean, one season (1961-62) he averaged 50 points .

“Kareem had tremendous ability, but the effort wasn’t always there. One time we (the Golden State Warriors) were playing the Lakers in a mini-series, and Kareem got mad and just tore us up.

“You wondered why he didn’t play like that all the time.”

Olympic update: The three-day Western Cable Show in Anaheim ends today, and there has been considerable talk about the pay-per-view plans for the Barcelona Olympic Games next summer.

This is a $200-million joint venture of NBC and Cablevision, with $100 million going toward the $400 million NBC paid for television rights.

It is called “Olympic Triplecasts,” because the coverage will come over three separate cable channels.

The feeling here initially was, why would viewers pay from $95 to $170 for Olympic coverage when NBC will offer so much for free?

But Marty Rafferty, who is in charge of the project, makes a good case why they will.

“There’s one misconception that needs to be cleared up,” he said. “Somehow, people thought the Triplecasts would cover preliminary rounds and NBC would cover the finals. That is not the case. The Triplecasts will have everything NBC has, plus much, much more. There are no embargoes.”

The Triplecasts will offer 1,080 hours of coverage, counting all three channels, while NBC will offer 161.

Rafferty said the selling points for the Triplecasts include no commercials, no switching from one sport to another, and 12 consecutive hours of live coverage daily.

The only negative factor is that, because of the time difference, the live coverage will run from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Each 12-hour segment, however, will be repeated, beginning at 2 p.m.

Cable companies began taking orders last Saturday. Rafferty said, through Wednesday, there were more than 12,000 inquiries, with more than 100 orders taken.

For more information, call: (800) OLYMPIC.

TV-Radio Notes

Saturday’s Cal-Stanford game, with Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil reporting, is the second game of an ABC doubleheader. The first is Ohio State at Michigan, with Keith Jackson and Bob Griese calling the action. . . . With the Raiders playing the Bengals in Cincinnati and the Rams playing the 49ers at Anaheim Stadium Monday night, NBC will show an NFL doubleheader in Los Angeles Sunday. The second game will be the Miami Dolphins at the Chicago Bears, with Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh reporting. Announcers for the Raider game will be Charlie Jones and Todd Christensen. . . . An oddity Sunday is that CBS’ NFL game will be on opposite the Raiders at 10 a.m. It’s Dallas at Washington, with Pat Summerall and John Madden announcing. . . . Monday’s Ram-49er game was all but sold out on Thursday, 24 hours before the deadline for lifting the TV blackout, and the Dec. 1 home meeting with the Redskins is close to a sellout.

CBS will offer weekend coverage of the Shark Shootout at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, beginning at 2:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. That is a slight delay. Today’s round will be on ESPN at 1 p.m. The announcing lineup includes Jim Nantz, Ben Wright, Gary McCord and Peter Kostis. . . . For the first time, Loyola Marymount basketball games will be on a commercial radio station, KBLA (1580), beginning with tonight’s game against Morgan State. Keith Cameron and Brian Berger are the announcers. KXLU, the campus station, will continue to carry the Lions as well, with Rick Ramage and Chris Kelley reporting.

Recommended viewing: The just-released “1991 World Series” videotape is as good as the Series itself. There is more than what CBS showed. . . . A Prime Ticket interview with Wayne Gretzky’s father, Walter, taped before he suffered an aneurysm, will be shown during next Thursday’s Kings’ game against Calgary. . . . Pete Rose came across as upbeat during an interview with XTRA radio’s Steve Hartman Wednesday.