Chandler Warms Up in the Booth

Bob Chandler knows something about playing in Buffalo, where the Raiders will endure the cold and wind Saturday.

Chandler, now a Raider radio commentator, was a wide receiver for the Bills for nine seasons before finishing his career with the Raiders.

It was common for Chandler to play in single-digit temperatures during his Buffalo days. But, he says, he never got used to it.

“If the Bills have an advantage, it’s only psychological,” Chandler said.

“People say it’s an advantage for the Bills whenever a team from a warm-weather climate comes to Buffalo to play because the Bills are used to the cold. When you play for the Bills, you go along with that theory because it might give you an edge. But you’re just as cold as the other guy. I froze to death all the time.

“Actually, I think the warm-weather team has the advantage. They get to practice all week in normal conditions. They get to work up a sweat.

“When I was with the Bills, a lot of times (quarterback) Joe Ferguson and I would end up playing catch on a racquetball court.”

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Add cold weather: Chandler says the coldest weather he played in was at Cleveland, not Buffalo. It was a 1980 playoff game, when he was with the Raiders.

“The wind-chill factor was about minus 50,” he said. “After the temperature gets below 20, it really doesn’t matter how low it gets. It’s the wind that kills you.”

Maybe the most memorable thing about that game in Cleveland, besides Mike Davis’ game-saving interception in the end zone of a pass by Brian Sipe, was Raider center Dave Dalby coming out on the field before the game to greet his friends on the Browns wearing only a T-shirt.

“Cold, what cold?” Dalby said.

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Add Chandler: He has been a standout on the Raiders’ new broadcasting team that includes veteran play-by-play announcer Joel Meyers and newcomer Mike Haynes.

Chandler’s experience has shown. The former USC star was a football commentator for NBC and a sports reporter for Channel 7 before getting out of sports for a while and serving as co-host of Channel 2’s “2 on the Town.” He is now also the host of the critically acclaimed “Amazing Games” series on ESPN.

Chandler figures as a candidate for one of Fox’s football commentating positions next season.

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Add Fox: The network made an announcement this week, but it wasn’t the hiring of John Madden, who appears headed for ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

Fox named George Krieger, a former HBO sports vice president, as executive vice president of its new sports division. Krieger has been working in business development for Fox since July of last year and was previously a senior vice president in 20th Century Fox’s home video and pay-television division.

If Madden is out of the picture for Fox, a good choice as its lead commentator would be Pat Haden, regarded by some as the second-best in the business behind Madden.

Not only was Haden outstanding on TNT during the first half of the season, but he has done just as well on CBS radio the second half. He and radio partner Howard David are tremendous together.

David and Haden will be in Buffalo Saturday for CBS radio, but their broadcast will be blacked out in Los Angeles to protect Raider flagship station KFI. They will also be in Houston on Sunday for the Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs.

Jack Buck and Hank Stram will announce the other two playoff games for CBS radio.

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More former Bills: The NBC announcing team on Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. Raider-Buffalo telecast will be Marv Albert and Paul Maguire, and working the sideline will be O.J. Simpson and Cris Collinsworth. Maguire is a former punter and linebacker for the Bills and, you may recall, Simpson was a running back for the Bills.

Maguire, who was with the Bills from 1964 through ‘70, still lives in Eden, N.Y., a Buffalo suburb.

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Playoff apathy: Certainly the weather in Buffalo has something to do with it, but the Bills, despite a 24-hour extension, were still 6,000 tickets shy of a sellout at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Bills were granted another 24-hour extension to sell out and lift the local television blackout.

The Bills’ playoff game last year against Houston, the comeback game, was also blacked out in Buffalo. Capacity at Rich Stadium is 80,290.

In Detroit last weekend, the Lions fell 25,000 tickets short of selling out in time to lift the blackout.

At least the Raiders were able to sell enough tickets to lift the blackout for their game against Denver last Sunday, although they needed two extra days and probably wouldn’t have sold out if the Coliseum capacity were still 92,488.

TV-Radio Notes

KMPC’s Joe McDonnell said Wednesday that the attack on Nancy Kerrigan was not a major story because it was figure skating. Ridiculous. It was a huge story even before Tonya Harding’s former husband and her bodyguard became involved. McDonnell had to do an about-face Thursday, when he was all over the story and even did an interview with Gary Crowe, the private investigator involved in the case. McDonnell might try broadening his horizons beyond basketball, football and baseball. It might also broaden his listening audience.

Latest on the sale of KMPC to Capital Cities is that the sports format may be around until the end of April, a source said, and maybe longer if ratings continue to climb. . . . XTRA’s Lee Hamilton makes a point that if you combine the shares of XTRA and KMPC, they bode well for sports-talk radio in Los Angeles. In the fall Arbitron book, according to Hamilton, the overall share in Los Angeles for men 18-plus was 1.4 for KMPC, 1.6 for XTRA. Together, that’s a respectable 3.0.

Steve Mason quit XTRA last Friday to pursue other non-sports broadcasting interests. His nighttime partner on “Too Much Show,” Rick Schwartz, will now do the show solo. “We’ll still do wacky stuff and have fun,” he said. “But we’ll also give the show more of a sports flavor than it’s had.” . . . XTRA sent Schwartz to Buffalo. He did Thursday night’s show from Buffalo radio station WGR and will do tonight’s show there, too. Steve Springer, who covers the Raiders for The Times, will be Schwartz’s first guest tonight. . . . The L.A. media are well represented in Buffalo. KROQ-FM even sent Michael (the Maintenance Man) Burton to file reports for “Kevin and Bean,” the station’s popular morning show with Kevin Ryder and Gene (Bean) Baxter.

Reader R.E. Mucko of Covina complains that XTRA, which carried NBC radio’s Rose Bowl coverage, left the game before its conclusion to pick up the Kings’ pregame show. Interestingly, Mucko was the only one to complain. Tells you how many people were listening to the game on XTRA.

Laker Doug Christie, an aspiring broadcaster, will be Al Epstein’s guest commentator on the radio broadcast of Saturday night’s Pepperdine-St. Mary’s game on XTRA (670 only). . . . TBS offers live coverage of the Hawaiian Open golf tournament today at 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 4:30. Vin Scully and Bobby Clampett call the shots, with Don Sutton and Donna Caponi serving as on-course reporters.

Jackie Slater and Ram teammate Jerome Bettis were guests of Arsenio Hall Tuesday night. Slater was also a recent in-studio guest on KMPC. It would seem a broadcasting career awaits him if he wants it. . . . The Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn. has named Sam Balter as its fourth Hall of Fame inductee. Balter, to be honored Feb. 9 at a luncheon at Lakeside Country Club, is the group’s fourth inductee. The others are Tom Harmon, Bob Kelley and Fred Hessler.

Not only is Channel 2 planning to continue its locally produced “L.A. Football Co.,” but CBS says it will retain “The NFL Today” and expand it to one hour next season. However, Terry Bradshaw figures to be long gone by then and Greg Gumbel might be gone, too. Gumbel’s CBS contract expires in September. . . . Pat Summerall and John Madden will be in San Francisco Saturday for the Giants and 49ers. Jim Nantz and Randy Cross will work CBS’ coverage of the Green Bay-Dallas playoff game Sunday. NBC’s Dick Enberg and Bob Trumpy draw Sunday’s Kansas City-Houston game.

Recommended viewing: NFL Films, Comedy Central and Sports Illustrated have teamed up to create a series of Super Bowl-related programming. One of the shows in the series, “Who’s the Boss?” which focuses on coaches and referees, will be on Comedy Central Saturday night at 9. It’s typical NFL Films-quality--outstanding. Steve Sabol is the host. . . . Roy Firestone, who continues to attract top guests for his “Up Close” show on ESPN, is scheduled to have Cowboy Coach Jimmy Johnson and wide receiver Michael Irvin on together via satellite on Tuesday. . . . Cable television’s ACE Awards show will be televised live Sunday night at 6 by TNT from the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Among the presenters will be Evander Holyfield and Barry Bonds.

Daly report: John Daly, in an interview with Ann Liguori on her national television show, “Sports Innerview,” had this to say about why he picked up his ball and walked off during a tournament in Maui last Nov. 7: “If I’m playing bad and I’m going to walk off a golf course, I’m not going to walk up to one of the officials and say, ‘Hey, my arm’s hurt.’ I’m not going to lie about it.” Daly also told Liguori that former Cowboy Thomas Henderson, whom he met during a three-week stay at a treatment center in Tucson, has helped him battle alcoholism. Liguori’s show was on Prime Ticket Thursday and will be repeated Sunday night at 9:30.

A quarterfinal round of a national Dick Vitale sound-alike contest will be held at the UCLA student union next Thursday at noon (limit is 50 entrants). Before you snicker, consider that the sponsor, Mountain Dew, will donate $5,000 to the V Foundation, a cancer research fund established by ESPN last year on behalf of Jim Valvano. Vitale will be on hand at Thursday’s contest to serve as a judge. He will work that night’s UCLA-Arizona game for ESPN.