Prime Ticket’s Hall Ahead of the Field on Dunleavy Move

Nothing like an exclusive to make a reporter feel good. And Prime Ticket’s Randi Hall was feeling very good this week.

She had a clean break on the Mike Dunleavy-to-Milwaukee story. On Monday night’s “Press Box,” she was the first to report the Laker coach was returning to the Bucks.

Hall, acting on a tip, said she confirmed it with two sources in Milwaukee, then called General Manager Jerry West and Dunleavy.

When neither denied it, Hall was confident she had nailed down another Laker exclusive, this one by far her biggest.

She won’t say who tipped her, but it’s obvious she is well connected with someone high in the Laker organization.

When James Worthy was on the verge of signing a contract earlier this season, Hall was the first to report it. Same with Vlade Divac.

But Laker stories aren’t the only ones she has broken. She had national exclusives about Bill Parcells when he turned down coaching jobs at Green Bay and Tampa Bay, even beating NBC, which employs Parcells.

Hall said at Tuesday’s news conference that some reporters came up and congratulated her, but others snubbed her.

Maybe some figure that her looks give her an unfair advantage. Hall acknowledges that being a woman can help.

But she says it takes more than a pretty face to get stories.

“Persistence, that’s No. 1,” Hall said.

A week earlier, when she asked West and Dunleavy about the Milwaukee rumors, they denied it. “And they were pretty convincing,” she said.

But Hall stayed on the story.

Hall said another key is building relationships.

“I don’t mean just being friendly, but gaining respect and trust,” she said.

Being a woman might have its advantages, as Hall says, but it also has its disadvantages.

There are male colleagues who don’t respect her and probably never will.

She has been criticized for having a snap-on smile. She has been criticized for a lack of knowledge. She has been criticized for asking unintelligent questions. She is sometimes the target of sexist jokes.

There have even been times when her colleagues at Prime Ticket have rolled their eyes after one of her live interviews.

No question, some criticism is justified. Some of her live interviews are sophomoric.

But Hall, 32, is hardly the only sports reporter--male or female--who has ever asked an unintelligent question on live television.

Hall does have supporters in the media. KMPC’s Joe McDonnell, who sits next to her at Laker games, said: “I’ve always found her to be a very nice lady, and she really works hard. You’ve got to give her credit.”

Hall’s strength, besides breaking stories, is putting together features. She has done some excellent taped interviews, whether with a national figure such as Mike Ditka or with a Los Angeles star, such as Worthy and his wife Angela. She had a nice piece on Shaquille O’Neal on Wednesday.

She’s working on a feature on Eric Dickerson, scheduled to be shown on “Press Box” May 27. Hall gets Dickerson to talk about his 4-year-old daughter, Erica, born out of wedlock and now living in Sherman Oaks with her mother.

Hall has gone above and beyond for some of her “Press Box” features. She has sky-dived and bungee-jumped. She has driven race cars. And the other day she got into an Italian fighter plane for a piece that will air in a couple of weeks.

Hall, who is single, says that she is sometimes asked out by athletes or others involved in sports.

“I don’t believe in mixing business with pleasure, so I just tell them I’m involved with someone. And fortunately, it’s the truth.”

That someone is Peter Desnoes, the president of Chicago-based Burnham Broadcasting, which owns television stations in Mobile, Ala.; Green Bay, Wis.; Honolulu, New Orleans and Bakersfield.

“We’re very serious, and are making plans for the future,” Hall said.

She was married for 2 1/2 years to Greg Meidel, the president of 20th Century Fox Television, whom she still calls a good friend.

Hall grew up in Texas, the only child of a high school coach who wanted a son. “I was supposed to be Randall,” Hall said.

So sports have always been a part of her life. In 1980, during her sophomore year at Southern Methodist, she got her first broadcasting job, working on an ESPN show called “SportsWoman.”

Before joining Prime Ticket, she worked on George Michael’s “Sports Machine” in Washington, on a morning show in Cleveland and as a sports reporter for Channel 9 in Los Angeles.

TV-Radio Notes

Remember when a lot of reporters were speculating that Bill Parcells would replace Bill Walsh as NBC’s No. 1 commentator on pro football? Even before Walsh left for Stanford? Well, the job was never Parcells’ after all. That’s the good news. The bad news is, Bob Trumpy has been chosen as Dick Enberg’s partner on NBC’s No. 1 team. . . . Parcells will move out of the studio and work with Don Criqui as a game commentator. . . . NBC has also announced that Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth will be paired on Notre Dame home games this season. . . . CBS’ Pat Summerall, being treated for alcohol-related problems at the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, is expected to return home to Florida next week. He is expected back on golf assignments sometime this summer.

KMPC’s “Monsters of the Mid-Day” show is now the “Monster of the Mid-Day” show. Todd (Ego Monster) Christensen is going it alone, now that Joe McDonnell has left the show. Sources said McDonnell and Christensen, although they tried, simply couldn’t get along. McDonnell will become a field reporter and continue to do a Saturday show with Doug Krikorian. Also, McDonnell and Krikorian will fill in for Jim Lampley whenever he is off on assignment for HBO or NBC. “This is what I wanted to do in the first place,” McDonnell said. . . . By the way, NBC has paired Lampley with Ahmad Rashad for NFL football.

If McDonnell had problems handling Christensen’s ego, as some have said, it’s understandable. Listeners have been complaining, too. No question Christensen is a bright guy but he doesn’t need to show off with $4 words. Plain English will suffice. The other day, he was talking about people who have “co-created.” McDonnell translated: “You mean people who have had children.” . . . Lampley could also tone down the intellectual lingo as well. This is talk radio, which doesn’t exactly attract the intellectual crowd.

Bright spots for KMPC have been reporters Chris Roberts, Larry Kahn and Mike Kaufman. What makes Roberts particularly valuable is his versatility. Not only does he deliver sports reports in a concise and smooth manner, he has also done well as a talk-show host. And Roberts is also a solid play-by-play man. One ticky-tack, though. America 3is pronounced America Cubed , not America’s cube, as Roberts has been calling it.

Recommended viewing: “The Season to Remember: ‘71-’72 Laker Championship,” on Channel 9 Saturday at 9 p.m. and again Sunday at 6 p.m., should lift the spirits of Laker fans. Producers Jerry Cole and Garth Franklin have put together an excellent show. Wilt Chamberlain, talking about the importance of chemistry, says the best collection of players was the Philadelphia 76er team with him, Chet Walker, Luke Jackson, Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham, but the ‘71-’72 Lakers were better as a team. Then, showing uncharacteristic humility, Chamberlain says the Boston Celtics would never have won 11 championships with him at center, as they did with Bill Russell. “My individuality would have detracted from the team,” Chamberlain says.

“Baseball’s Greatest Games,” with Steve Garvey as host, returns to Prime Ticket Sunday with Game 5 of the 1969 World Series between the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles. The popular series will be on every Sunday at 7:30 p.m., followed at 9:30 by “Angels Clubhouse,” which now has a set time. . . . Bouquets to TNT for all the fine NBA playoff coverage. Tonight’s Cleveland-Boston game will be TNT’s 33rd playoff telecast, with four or five more games coming next week. TNT televised 34 last year.