NFL Films Is Positive About New Show

There are still positive stories in sports. They simply seem to get lost amid all the drug busts, college recruiting scandals and unsavory characters who spit at umpires and flip off officials.

NFL Films set out more than a year ago in search of positive stories that define America’s passion for football.

Nearly 200 stories were researched by former Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter Ray Didinger, who now works for NFL Films. Nine made the final cut for what is an uplifting two-hour show, “Football America.”

It makes its debut on TNT tonight at 5 and repeats at 7 and 9 p.m. Other play dates for the James Coburn-narrated show include next Monday at 7 p.m.,

next Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 27, at 9 p.m.

Set the VCR. You don’t want to miss this, and you want to save it to show your kids, or somebody’s kids. It shows football can be more than point spreads and uncivilized behavior, and that there is still some purity left in sports.

One story deals with 61-year-old Bob Blechen, a computer scientist and volunteer assistant coach at Agoura High who plays semipro football for the Ventura Cardinals.

Another deals with Dot Murphy, receiver coach at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Miss., the only woman coaching collegiate football in the country. Her husband, Glen, is the head coach.

There’s a story of a six-man high school team from the little town of Guthrie in the Texas Panhandle. There are 14 boys in the school, and nine are on the football team.

There’s also a story about pee-wee football in Akron, Ohio, and its colorful commissioner; one about a high school team in Juneau, Alaska; one about a top prep quarterback in western Pennsylvania; one about the team at Gallaudet University, a college for the deaf, and one about prison football.

It’s not just the stories themselves. It’s that they are done so well, something you’d expect from NFL Films.

The stories that didn’t make the show have been put into a book called “Football America,” written by Didinger and Phil Barber, an editor for NFL Properties.

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Fox Sports was launched after the Fox network obtained the NFL’s NFC package in December 1993, and now it is approaching its biggest endeavor of its young life--the World Series, which begins Saturday, weather permitting.

On Jan. 26, it will have the Super Bowl.

In between, on Nov. 1, Fox Sports launches Fox Sports Net, created by a merger with Liberty Sports, owner of Prime Sports.

The launching of Fox Sports Net means a name change for the Prime Sports regional sports networks. In Los Angeles, Prime Sports becomes Fox Sports West. The start of Fox Sports Net also marks the start of “Fox Sports News.”

Fox this week announced its lineup for “Fox Sports News,” which will surround a marquee event each night, such as a Laker, King or Mighty Duck telecast.

The host of the pregame segment will be Kevin Frazier, who comes from fX, Fox’s fledging cable network. He’ll be joined by former Laker James Worthy and former Edmonton Oiler Craig Simpson.

The postgame crew includes Alan Massengale, Tom Kirkland and Randy Sparage, holdovers from Prime Sports’ “Press Box,” plus newcomers Dwayne Ballen, formerly of the Golf Channel; Suzy Kolber, formerly of ESPN; John Walls, who comes from Tulsa; Paul Rudy, who comes from Kansas City; and Jeanne Zelasko, who will continue to do the morning show for XTRA radio.

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This will be the third time Massengale has played a vital role on a sports news show. He worked on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” in the mid-1980s, and he was there for the start of “Press Box” in September 1990.

“What excites me is that Fox has the resources and finances to take this show to the next level,” Massengale said. “I think the advantage we have is our shows will be tailored for the local markets.”

Massengale, a Georgia graduate who was a star quarterback and pitcher for Collins High in Atlanta, was a sportswriter before getting into sportscasting. He was 27 when he was hired by ESPN in 1985.

He won out in a national search of about 400 candidates. He was working for a television station in Jacksonville, Fla., at the time.

“I think I was the first guy from south of New Jersey hired by ESPN,” Massengale said. “My Southern accent must have helped.”

He worked for a Miami station for two years before joining Prime Sports, where his breezy style helped make “Press Box” a mainstay for the past six years.

TV-Radio Notes

The airwaves are getting crowded these days. Besides Fox Sports Net, also launching on Nov. 1 will be ESPNEWS, a 24-hour sports news service. And on Dec. 12, CNN/SI, a competing 24-hour sports news service, makes its debut. CNN/SI, created through the merger of Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner, will have the resources of CNN and Sports Illustrated at its disposal. Should be an interesting battle.

Game 6 of the St. Louis-Atlanta series Wednesday night on Fox got an overnight Nielsen rating of 12.8. The Clinton-Dole debate on ABC, CBS and NBC averaged a 26.3. . . . Fox’s World Series announcing team will continue to be Joe Buck (the 27-year-old son of Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck), Tim McCarver and Bob Brenly. Brenly, a rookie announcer who was a catcher and bullpen coach for the San Francisco Giants, first joined Buck and McCarver for a Cincinnati-San Diego game on Sept. 14. It worked out so well he has been with them ever since. “The disadvantages of a three-man booth is talked about a lot, but there are also a lot of advantages to a three-man booth,” McCarver said Thursday from Atlanta.

Of his meteoric rise in broadcasting, Joe Buck said, “I got an earlier jump than most because of my bloodlines and my father.” But McCarver said, “His genes got his foot in the door; his talent took him the rest of the way.” Buck was announcing for the triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 while still at student at Indiana. . . . The Fox pregame show cast includes Chip Caray, 31, son of Skip Caray and grandson of Harry Caray, plus Steve Lyons and Dave Winfield. Fox will have half-hour pregame shows on the weekends but on weeknights, they’ll be about 10 minutes.

After tonight’s Laker-Philadelphia 76er exhibition on Prime Sports will be an hourlong season preview show entitled “Showtime is Baq.” Paul Sunderland is the host. . . . Saturday’s USC-Arizona State game is a 12:30 ABC telecast. The 3:30 UCLA-Washington game is a Fox-Liberty syndicated telecast that will be carried by Channel 9 in Los Angeles. The USC game announcers will be Keith Jackson and Bob Griese; the UCLA game announcers will be Steve Physioc and David Norrie. . . . Because of the World Series, the Bruin game will be on radio station KLAC and not XTRA, which is carrying the CBS Radio coverage of the Series with Vin Scully and Jeff Torborg.

Channel 9 has another Jorge Paez fight Saturday at 8 p.m., when the “Clown Prince” faces 1992 Olympian Julian Wheeler at Caesars Tahoe. . . . There is no Sunday night NFL football this weekend because of the World Series. That’s why there was a game Thursday night, which had the misfortune of going up against Game 7 of the Atlanta-St. Louis series. . . . The Monday night game next week should be a good one--Oakland at San Diego. . . . Producing NBC’s Breeders’ Cup coverage on Oct. 26 will be David Michaels, brother of ABC’s Al. It is Michaels’ fourth Breeders’ Cup. Calling the races for the 13th time will be Tom Hammond, while Trevor Denman works as a commentator for the eighth time.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Oct. 12-14.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Baseball playoffs: Yankees-Orioles 4 10.9 22 Baseball playoffs: Braves-Cardinals 11 7.6 19 College football: Arizona State-UCLA 7 6.8 17 NBA exhibition: Denver-Lakers 9 5.4 9 College football: LSU-Florida 2 3.5 11 College football: Washington-Notre Dame 4 2.8 8 College football: Florida State-Miami 2 2.2 6

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SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Baseball playoffs: Braves-Cardinals 11 12.6 24 NFL: Detroit-Oakland 11 11.0 26 Baseball playoffs: Yankees-Orioles 4 10.5 25 NFL: Arizona-Dallas 11 9.6 25 NFL: Miami-Buffalo 4 9.4 24 Soccer: Galaxy-Kansas City 34 1.5 4 Soccer: St. Vincent-Honduras 34 1.4 3

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MONDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share NFL: San Francisco-Green Bay 7 23.0 34 Baseball playoffs: Braves-Cardinals 11 7.7 14

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Note: Each rating point represents 49,424 L.A. households.