He’s the Only One Who Could Make Magic Disappear

Magic Johnson is on television more than Johnny Carson, or even Jay Leno.

Johnson was on Channel 7 with Jim Hill last Sunday, and the next night was a presenter on the “American Music Awards.”

He will be a commentator for NBC Sunday when the Lakers play the Chicago Bulls. The NBA All-Star game is the following Sunday, and on Feb. 16 his jersey will be retired when the Lakers play the Boston Celtics on NBC.

As a television draw, Johnson may be bigger than ever. He’s even in Michael Jackson’s new video.

But for some reason, Terry Crofoot, Channel 7’s general manager, didn’t want Johnson as co-host of the station’s “Countdown to the American Music Awards” show Monday night.

Johnson was the co-host of the show last year, along with Channel 7 entertainment reporter Francesca Capucci, and the show drew a 12.1 rating and an 18 share. This year, without Johnson, the show drew a 9.2 rating and a 13 share.

Naturally, the show’s producers wanted Johnson back, and there had been some preliminary discussions in October, before his retirement. At the time, Johnson’s agent, Lon Rosen, said his client should be paid, because he wasn’t being asked to be a guest, but a co-host.

Channel 7 apparently wanted the co-host to work for nothing, or next to nothing, so there were no further discussions.

But then Capucci ran into Johnson at the Forum Club after the Paula Abdul concert Dec. 5, and asked him if he would do the show. Johnson said he would be glad to, and Capucci was so thrilled that she ran to a phone to call Channel 7 program director Vic Heman.

“It was my perception that the money was not a concern to Magic,” Capucci said. “He just wanted to do the show.”

But, sources say, Crofoot, squelched the idea of using Johnson. Crofoot declined comment, but others say he told executive producer Barbara Chacon it wouldn’t be appropriate to use Johnson, that it would draw attention away from the awards.

But there is speculation that wasn’t the real reason.

In November, Channel 7 reporter Joe McMahan stormed into Rosen’s Century City office, unannounced, to get a comment on tabloid stories about Johnson. Rosen was then shown on the air asking the crew to leave.

Rosen was upset, and his repeated phone calls to Crofoot were not returned for six days.

So when CBS’ Connie Chung and ABC’s Barbara Walters were asking to interview Johnson, CBS won out over the network that employs Crofoot.

Jim Lampley says he’s still undecided about his future. He will be in Las Vegas to work a heavyweight fight doubleheader Saturday for HBO, then he comes back to Los Angeles to pack for Albertville, France. He leaves on Monday for the Winter Olympics, which he will cover for Channel 2.

“All I know is that I will do as good a reporting job on the Winter Olympics as I can possibly do,” Lampley said. “What happens after that, I don’t know.”

Lampley, dismissed as a news anchorman by Channel 2 last week, has been asked to return to his former role in sports. He said he went to the Laker game Wednesday night and asked friends, among them Magic Johnson, for opinions.

“The answers were mixed,” he said.

Lampley, seeming to indicate that he will take the offer to return to sports, said he wouldn’t look at it as a demotion. He also said that, overall, Channel 2 has treated him well, and that after going through 10 rating periods in 3 1/2 years with the station remaining No. 3 in the ratings, the change didn’t come as a total surprise.

The feeling here is that Lampley should go back to sports--something he does very well--and continue to collect his $900,000-a-year salary. There are worse things.

KMPC held an elaborate news conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood Thursday to announce its change to an all-sports format in April, which had already been reported.

The turnout was impressive, but the only news was that Robert W. Morgan’s morning show will become a sports show.

Conspicuously absent was Georgia Frontiere, whose Rams are carried by KMPC. Raider owner Al Davis was there, as were Chuck Knox and Jack Faulkner of the Rams, Clipper owner Donald Sterling, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis, Gene and Jackie Autry, all of KMPC’s sports announcers and many other luminaries. ESPN newcomer Keith Olbermann was there, sporting a new beard.

Olbermann’s friend, Jim Healy, served as host of the affair. Healy called the announcement the biggest in the history of Los Angeles radio. Gosh, we’ve told Healy at least a thousand times never to exaggerate.

San Diego’s XTRA, which has been nearly all-sports, is getting a head start on KMPC and switching to an even heavier sports format on Monday.

Steve Mason, former publicity director of the triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, has been hired to do a morning (6 to 11) sports and entertainment show.

Chet Forte and Steve Hartman’s show will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with Lee Hamilton taking over from 3 to 7 p.m. Fast-rising newcomer Jim Rome, who got his start at KTMS in Santa Barbara, will have his own show, which will run from 7 to 11 p.m.

Larry King’s syndicated program will be on from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., with Sports Final, syndicated programming from Boston, on from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.

XTRA is dropping Rush Limbaugh’s show.

Hamilton said the new format has been in the works for a couple of months. He said the last rating book showed XTRA doing particularly well in the Los Angeles market.

TV-Radio Notes

Channel 9 sports producer Martin French, a former defensive back at USC, showed some hustle last week when he lined up an exclusive interview with Dr. Brian Sando, the Australian official who reportedly recommended a boycott of the Olympics if Magic Johnson plays. French tracked down a phone number for Sando by calling information in several Australian cities. In his interview with sportscaster Gary Cruz, Sando said he had been misquoted, that he never recommended a boycott and that he was unaware he had created such a stir.

Byron Scott, who has said that Magic Johnson should not play in the All-Star game, will be Cruz’s guest on “Lakers Tonight” Monday at 6 p.m., before the Lakers’ game at Phoenix. The interview will be taped Sunday night in Los Angeles. . . . Steve Edwards of KABC radio polled listeners on the Johnson issue Wednesday, with 64% saying he shouldn’t play and 35% saying he should. . . . Joe Benson of KLOS-FM (95.5) will be doing double duty Saturday during the Winternationals at the Pomona Fairplex. He will be filing reports as well as driving his 1957 Corvette Super Gas entry, which has a top speed of 138 m.p.h. He will be on the air from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A new remote-control camera mounted beneath the scoreboard at the Forum was used for the first time by Prime Ticket on the Laker telecast Wednesday night. It has remarkable maneuverability and zoom capabilities. . . . Recommended viewing: On “Bob Millers’ Face-Off” on Prime Ticket Sunday at 4 p.m., Al Michaels not only talks about the 1980 U.S. Olympic gold-medal winning hockey team, but also his brief career as a Jack Kent Cooke employee in 1967. It has been documented that Michaels was Chick Hearn’s first broadcast partner, but what isn’t as widely known is that Michaels originally was hired to be the Kings’ commentator with Jiggs McDonald. But Michaels was switched to the Lakers, and then fired while at LAX, about to begin a trip. “I was a sacrificial lamb,” Michaels says. “Chick really didn’t want a commentator.”