Raiders Flagged for Ticket Promos

It was one thing for the Raiders to shamelessly hawk season tickets during exhibition telecasts.

It was another when they did it during their regular-season opener. It wasn’t simply tacky, it was a contractual violation.

If you watched last Sunday’s game between the Raiders and Denver Broncos on Channel 9, you may have noticed that several times during the second half there was a graphic on the bottom of the screen that gave the phone number for ordering season tickets.

The problem was, TNT was televising the game, not Channel 9. The TNT telecast also was on Channel 9 because the NFL requires that cable telecasts be carried by local over-the-air stations in the markets of the teams involved.

By contract, these stations are limited to 12 minutes of their own advertising in specified spots, same as TNT’s cable affiliates.

“We’re glad we found out about this,” said Kevin O’Malley, senior vice president of sports programming for Turner Broadcasting. “We’ll be informing KCAL (Channel 9) and other local stations that will be carrying our telecasts that they are not allowed to go over the allotted 12 minutes with any kind of advertising.”

Jennifer Barnett, a Channel 9 spokeswoman, said the graphics were requested by the Raiders as part of the station’s exhibition-season deal.

Bob Speck, the Raiders’ radio and exhibition season television packager, said it was up to Channel 9 where and when the graphics were used.

If the Raiders are that concerned about selling season tickets, they might try switching quarterbacks and winning a few games.

On the positive side, Channel 9 is to be congratulated for a slick Raider pregame show last Sunday. Host Tom Murray and correspondent Gary Cruz, reporting from Denver, did fine work and the features were particularly impressive.

The one on Bob Golic and his love for a microphone was terrific. It is Golic’s voice that is heard at the Coliseum instructing fans on what is not allowed inside the Coliseum.

“I’m now in negotiations with LAX to do that red-zone, white-zone thing,” Golic said.

The Raiders may be in for a tough season, but they do have a winning team in the radio broadcast booth.

Steve Sabol, the president of NFL Films, calls Bill King the best football announcer in the business, and Sabol should know since NFL Films uses radio voices in its highlight packages.

Sabol calls the erudite King “the Alistair Cooke of football.”

King’s partner, Rich Marotta, recently signed a new contract for this season. It’s only a one-year deal because the Raiders may not be on KFI next season, since KFI has been de-emphasizing sports.

KMPC’s Joe McDonnell got an eight-month extension of his contract, calling for about a $10,000-a-year raise.

McDonnell signed the deal last Friday morning, a few hours after reading this quote from KMPC General Manager Bill Ward: “Joe will take what we offer him or he’s off the air.”

McDonnell, who brought in Beverly Hills baseball agent Dennis Gilbert to negotiate his contract, was seeking more than $120,000. He got about half that.

KMPC’s Jim Healy sent a memo to Ward this week, explaining that Gilbert, whom Healy called baseball’s top agent, also would be negotiating his next contract.

“Dennis called to say he was a longtime listener of mine and would like to have lunch,” the memo said. “One thing led to another, and he’s now my agent.”

On the back of the memo was written “April Fool.”

Said Healy: “The part about Dennis and I having lunch is true.”

Oops Department: TNT analyst Pat Haden was quoted in this space last week as saying, “What is most important to me are my kids.”

Said Healy on the air Wednesday night, “What should have also been noted is that Haden was raised without a father.”

That was news to Haden, whose father, Woody, died in 1985. It is true that Haden lived in the John McKay household in West Covina his senior year at Bishop Amat after his father, a salesman, was transferred to Walnut Creek in Northern California, but Haden, one of five children, was always close to his father.

TV-Radio Notes

ABC’s college football pay-per-view experiment did not get off to a roaring start last Saturday. The distributor of the pay-per-view games, Showtime Entertainment Television, declined to release any figures, which is not a good sign. Bob Green, marketing director for Paragon Cable of Torrance, said his company had 42 buys for Notre Dame-Northwestern out of a possible 44,000. That’s less than a .1% buy rate. . . . This Saturday, Notre Dame, which faces Michigan in South Bend, Ind., will be on NBC at 10 a.m., with Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth calling the action. The pregame show, “Notre Dame Saturday,” with Jim Lampley and Hannah Storm, comes on at 9:30 a.m.

Pay-per-view boxing, which has been struggling, gets a boost this Saturday with Julio Cesar Chavez taking on Hector (Macho) Camacho on a $24.95 card that begins at 6 p.m. This is the best pay-per-view attraction in some time. The problem is, these two should have fought five or six years ago. . . . KMPC boxing expert Johnny Ortiz, former co-proprietor of the Main Street Gym with Carol Steindler, did a nice job of analyzing the fight on the “McDonnell-Douglas Show” on Wednesday. The station should use Ortiz more often. . . . When Camacho was interviewed by XTRA’s Jim Rome recently, he didn’t like Rome’s questioning and threatened to come down to the station and knock out Rome. The interview will be replayed today at 12:30.

Next up to audition for the co-host role on KMPC’s midday show with Brian Golden will be the Daily News’ Paola Boivin, who used to be a regular at KMPC on the “Scott St. James Show.” Boivin follows the Orange County Register’s Steve Bisheff. . . . Golden and Boivin will be joined by Ram commentator Jack Snow Monday for the debut of a new weekly program called “The Quarterback Show.”

Because the Rams are at home and because the U.S. Open men’s final will be on CBS at 1 p.m., Sunday won’t be much of a day for NFL viewing. The Raiders’ game at Cincinnati, with Marv Albert and Bill Parcells reporting, will be on Channel 4 at 10 a.m. Also at 10 a.m., Channel 2 will show Atlanta at Washington, with Dick Stockton and Randy Cross announcing. The day’s best game, Buffalo at San Francisco on NBC, will not be televised in Los Angeles.

HBO’s “Inside the NFL,” the best show of its kind on television, made its seasonal debut Thursday night, and will be repeated tonight at 7 and Saturday at 11 a.m. Featured in the “Where Are They Now?” segment is Hall of Famer Alex Wojciechowicz, 76, former Philadelphia and Detroit offensive lineman who was one of Fordham’s “Seven Blocks of Granites.” Wojciechowicz died two months after the piece was taped in May, but of course it was updated. . . . Channel 2’s “L.A. Football Co.” pre-pregame show will make its debut at 9 a.m. Sunday, before CBS’ “NFL Today.” The show, with Jim Hill, Cyndy Garvey Truhan and Doug Krikorian, was supposed to be on last Sunday, but a technician at the station put the taped “Sunday Morning” show, with Charles Kuralt, on at the wrong time.

On “NFL Today,” John Madden showed that, besides being the best football commentator on television, he also has good interviewing skills. His chat with Joe Montana cleared up a lot of questions about Montana. The key thing is that Montana wants to play as soon as he comes off injured reserve after the fourth week. Also, Terry Bradshaw made a good point when he said Montana should not travel with the team as long as he is on injured reserve, thus giving 49er starter Steve Young some breathing room. Bradshaw said it’s no secret that Montana and Young have had their problems. . . . Joe Namath, on NBC’s “NFL Live” last Sunday, was outstanding. He was relaxed and told interesting stories. NBC should use him in the studio more.

You may have noticed something called the Cable Radio Network in the listings as a carrier of college football. The Cable Radio Network, based in Sunland, is a national service that really isn’t television or radio. It’s something in between that is carried by cable systems, usually as background on a directory channel that lists the system’s programming.

The network also carries a nightly call-in show during the week, 9 to midnight, with Don Tegeler. The network has two football suppliers. One is Radio Sports Creations, an independent packager based in Malibu that offers ACC games announced by Randy Rosenbloom and Warren Williamson. The other is the Big West Conference. This Saturday’s Cable Radio Network doubleheader is Virginia at Navy and New Mexico at New Mexico State.