Magic Got Blanket Coverage, but Where Was Channel 2?

It has been said that Magic Johnson and his friend Michael Jordan are addicted to the limelight. If that’s the case, Johnson got a pretty good fix this week.

Channels 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13, plus Prime Ticket, ESPN and CNN, all carried at least a portion of his news conference on Wednesday live. And KMPC, XTRA and KNX offered live radio coverage, with KMPC and XTRA offering lots of follow-up programming.

An L.A. sports story hasn’t gotten that kind of media attention since, well, the last Magic Johnson news conference. If one of Jerry Buss’ motives in making the coaching change was publicity, he got what he wanted.

Prime Ticket, as it should, stayed with Wednesday’s news conference almost until the end, nearly 35 minutes. The first to pull out was Channel 7, followed by national networks CNN and ESPN, then in order channels 4, 13, 9, 11 and 5.

Interesting that 11 and 5 would outlast Channel 9, considering it is the Lakers’ flagship station. But Channel 9 rallied, devoting the entire “Lakertime” pregame show that night to the coaching change and also having Chick Hearn sit down with James Worthy for a halftime interview.

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How embarrassing for Jim Hill, Johnson’s close friend, that Channel 2 was the only L.A. station not covering Wednesday’s news conference. It opted for “Young and the Restless.”

No great surprise. Channel 2 gave us “The Price Is Right” and “Geraldo” last week instead of NCAA tournament games involving California and Arizona. And on Sunday, it preempted tournament coverage while devoting too much time to earthquake coverage, staying with it long after other stations had gone back to golf, auto racing or whatever.

On Saturday, some Channel 2 viewers were angry that CBS cut away from Maryland’s victory over Massachusetts to show the end of Syracuse’s five-point victory over Wisconsin Green Bay and Florida’s 22-point victory over Penn.

Then on Sunday, CBS signed off before the end of Louisville’s victory over Minnesota because it was time for “60 Minutes” in the East.

But CBS overall didn’t do all that badly. It’s an impossible job to please everyone, particularly in a transient market such as Los Angeles, where not everyone follows any particular team.

At least now the NCAA tournament has taken on some semblance of order, although tonight’s Indiana-Boston College game will be joined in progress.

A 64-team tournament is simply too much for one television outlet to cover, especially when the first round--32 games--is crammed into a two-day span. CBS’ contract to carry the NCAA tournament runs through 1997, so don’t look for things to change.

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It took 11 months, but KMPC’s Joe McDonnell has finally gained redemption.

Last April 22, McDonnell and Doug Krikorian, who was then his partner, reported that Johnson was going to replace Randy Pfund as coach of the Lakers.

Now, it’s obvious they had something, but back then they went with their unsubstantiated report too quickly, and what followed were denials by the Lakers and snickering among their colleagues in the media.

What was needed was an experienced program director--this was before Scott O’Neil took charge--to tell McDonnell and Krikorian to curb their enthusiasm and their egos and get some substantiation before going with the report.

It wasn’t until a week later that Johnson came on their show and indicated that, yes, there was something to the story.

And now it has come to fruition, with McDonnell claiming he broke the story Tuesday night when he called into KMPC’s Clipper post-game show around 6:50.

McDonnell said he was told by a “friend” in the Laker organization that Pfund had been fired after Monday’s game against Miami.

“It didn’t make sense because the Lakers had won, but I pursued it anyway,” McDonnell said. “At first I ran into a brick wall, but eventually I confirmed it with three different sources. I wanted to make triple-sure this time.”

McDonnell’s report made the wires and was soon picked up by other media outlets, causing the Lakers to change their plans to make the announcement today.

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XTRA’s Lee Hamilton said he’s not convinced McDonnell broke the story. He said he got a call from someone at Associated Press in New York about 6:15 Tuesday night, asking if he knew anything about Johnson replacing Pfund.

Hamilton reached Chick Hearn in Dallas, who confirmed it. Hearn, in an interview taped for airing Wednesday night, told Hamilton that he knew Tuesday morning, but was surprised that word got out.

Geoff Nathanson, who does a syndicated show from Las Vegas, “SportsFan Tonight,” that is currently being carried by XTRA at 10 p.m., called that station about 9:45 after his producer, Charlie Parker, had reached Pfund.

Pfund confirmed that he had been fired, effective immediately. Initial reports had indicated that Pfund would coach the team until Johnson took over after the current trip.

Hamilton, by the way, asked callers Wednesday night if Pfund had been treated fairly. The vote was 33-9 that he wasn’t.

TV-Radio Notes

TNT has added Magic Johnson’s first Laker game as coach, Sunday night against Milwaukee, to its schedule. The tipoff has been moved from 7:10 to 7:20 to accommodate TNT, which has Houston-Phoenix at 5. The TNT Laker telecast is subject to blackout, but of course Prime Ticket will have the game. . . . Congratulations to producer Ron Boscacci for the excellent retrospective on Wayne Gretzky that was shown to both Prime Ticket viewers and to the crowd at the Forum after Gretzky scored his 802nd goal. The music was “This Is Your Life” by the Call.

XTRA’s Joe Tutino also put together a nice piece on Gretzky that was played throughout the day on Thursday. . . . The Kings will be on ABC the next three Sundays, and Bob Miller will call the first two games, beginning Sunday at Vancouver. Amazingly, this is Miller’s first network assignment since he did a game for ESPN in 1986. You’d think the networks would be clamoring for Miller, who is outstanding. ESPN is producing ABC’s hockey telecasts and selecting the announcers.

Neither Ann Meyers nor Larry Farmer, who both did nice work on the NCAA tournament last week, made the cut. The CBS announcing teams left are: Dick Stockton and Al McGuire at the West Regional, Greg Gumbel and Bill Raftery at the Southeast, Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg, East, and the Final Four team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, Midwest. . . . NBC will have five telecasts, three in prime time, of figure skating’s World Championships, beginning tonight at 8 with taped coverage of the men’s final.

ABC announced that Rick Davis, coach of the Los Angeles Salsa, and Seamus Malin will be its World Cup commentators, working with Al Trautwig and Roger Twibell. The ABC teams will also cross over and work some ESPN telecasts. Twibell, Malin and Davis will call the championship game July 17. Jim McKay will serve as host of ABC’s coverage, which begins June 18 with the United States facing Switzerland at Detroit.

XTRA’s Jeanne Zelasko made her Prime Ticket debut last Friday, doing a well-produced feature on San Diego Padre pitcher Andy Benes. With Prime Ticket San Diego going on the air April 18, Zelasko might become a Prime Ticket regular. She should. Not only is she talented, but unlike former Laker reporter Randi Hall, she is respected by her colleagues in the media. . . . Producer Heidi Palarz has put together an excellent feature on Dominique Wilkins that will be shown at halftime of the Clippers’ game at Atlanta tonight. . . . Oops Dept.: A graphic on the 11:30 edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Wednesday night said Danny Manning and Joe Dumars sat out that night’s Clipper-Detroit game because of flu. It was Wilkins and Dumars. . . . For the last two years, the Clippers, ARCO, AM/PM minimarkets and Smog Pros have been involved in a Neighborhood Pride project to help refurbish parks and playgrounds for L.A.’s youth. The project will be featured in a special produced by Tony Richards on Channel 13 Saturday at 4 p.m. before the Clippers’ game at Charlotte.

“Slam Dunk: the Players’ Show,” a new show with Scottie Pippen and Ellen K of KIIS-FM serving as co-hosts, gets a trial run on ESPN Tuesday at 2 p.m. Derrick Coleman and Kenny Smith are contributing reporters. Featured are David Robinson and, naturally, Shaquille O’Neal. . . . Also on ESPN Tuesday, at 7 p.m., is a two-hour pay-per-view show designed for rotisserie baseball players. The cost: $19.95. To anyone who buys this show: Get a life. . . . Then there is Karatemania VIII on pay-per-view Saturday at 6 p.m. for $19.95. . . . Recommended viewing: The Stanford women’s national championship basketball team of 1989-90 is the subject of PBS’ “Frontline” Tuesday at 9 p.m.

Latest rumors on the KMPC sale: Capital Cities will take control May 1, and Tom Leykis’ name has surfaced as a possible host in the new “smart talk” lineup. . . . It’s a big golf weekend, with the USA network and NBC covering the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra, Fla., and ESPN and ABC televising the Dinah Shore tournament at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage. . . . The Mighty Ducks’ Todd Ewen, who writes and illustrates children’s books, will be on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday about 7:45 a.m. . . . Roberto Duran fights on USA next Tuesday at 9 p.m. . . . The Naismith Award winners will be announced Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on CBS. . . . The John Wooden All-American team will be announced on Roy Firestone’s “Up Close” Wednesday on ESPN at 9:30 p.m. and midnight.