Lakers to Jump-Start Fox Sports West

Just when we were getting used to calling it Prime Sports instead of Prime Ticket, the regional sports network is changing its name again.

At 6 p.m. today, it becomes Fox Sports West.

“It’s more than a name change,” said Kitty Cohen, the network’s general manager. “It’s a brand-new network, with a whole new look.”

It’s no coincidence that the unveiling comes on the night of the Lakers’ season opener. The Fox people keep talking about marquee events. Well, they’ve got one here.

Starting things off at 6 p.m. will be the debut of “Fox Sports News,” an offspring of Prime’s “Press Box” with a new look and a cast that includes former Laker James Worthy. It’s a national show tailored to each local market.

At 7 p.m. comes the locally produced “Lakers Live” pregame show with host Paul Sunderland, followed by the game against Phoenix at 7:30, with Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz.

After the game comes about two more hours of “Fox Sports News,” which will be on until midnight.

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Fox Sports West is one of eight regional sports networks that make up the national Fox Sports Net.

There’s bound to be some confusion differentiating between the over-the-air Fox Sports and the cable and satellite Fox Sports Net and its affiliates, but the Fox people want everything branded with their banner.

The name change is the result of a merger between Fox and Liberty Media, a division of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). Liberty purchased Prime Ticket from Bill Daniels, who along with Jerry Buss founded the regional sports network in 1985.

Fox and Liberty each own 50%, but Fox is the managing partner. David Hill, the head of Fox Sports, which brought us the World Series and has the next Super Bowl, also oversees the Fox Sports Net.

Cohen, the Fox Sports West general manager and one of the nation’s top-ranking female executives in sports television, became the head of Prime Sports in October 1994, two months after Liberty took control.

A 1982 graduate of Colorado State, she came to Prime Ticket in 1988 as controller after working for Daniels and Associates in Denver for two years. She was Prime Ticket’s chief financial officer at the time of the sale to Liberty.

Liberty thought enough of Cohen to promote her, and Fox chose not to make a change after its takeover. In addition to playing an intricate role in all the changes and everything else, Cohen is also a new mother. She and husband Herb are the parents of 13-month-old Kyle.

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This is a big weekend for Fox Sports West in more ways than one. Besides two Laker games--tonight’s against Phoenix and Sunday night’s against Minnesota--it will also televise the Clippers’ home opener Saturday night against the Utah Jazz.

There will be a half-hour pregame show, “Clippers Courtside,” with Sunderland also the host of this show. The game announcers will be the regular Clipper team of Ralph Lawler and Bill Walton. Later in the season, whenever Walton is busy with NBC assignments, Reggie Theus will fill in.

Fox Sports West also has the Stanford-UCLA game Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

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There is one thing that makes the timing of the big changeover and all the ballyhooing of the Fox banner not so good. Fox Sports, which has done many good things in its two years of existence, such as the score-all-the-time graphic, only last Saturday botched the New York Yankees’ World Series celebration at the end of Game 6.

Instead of giving us the pictures and sounds of the delirious celebration, Fox instead gave us mostly commercials.

Fox did manage to sandwich in a 45-second interview with catcher Joe Girardi between two 2 1/2-minute commercial breaks. But then Girardi was the Chevrolet Player of the Game, so he had to be part of the postgame show.

For Fox to miss Darryl Strawberry leading his teammates in a victory lap around Yankee Stadium was unconscionable. We only heard and read about it, but it had to be one of the more fascinating moments in recent sports history.

Imagine had ESPN, in 1995, gone to a bunch of commercials as Cal Ripken made his victory lap around Camden Yards after breaking Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played. But then, ESPN knows better.

TV-Radio Notes

Fox Sports West is not the only television outlet benefiting from all the hype surrounding the Lakers and Shaquille O’Neal. So is Channel 9, which begins its Laker coverage from New York on Tuesday. Besides televising every Laker road game, Channel 9 will be televising 20 Clipper games. It also has 20 Mighty Duck games and nine King games on its schedule, plus the Angels, Forum Boxing, and some Pacific 10 football and basketball. Plans call for more boxing and possibly some NASCAR events. . . . Don Corsini, formerly the head of production for Prime Ticket and the program director at Channel 7 before that, has been Channel 9’s vice president of sports operation and production since February and has been a driving force in increasing the station’s sports inventory. Corsini says Chicago’s WGN is now the only over-the-air local station that has more sports programming than Channel 9. . . . Susan Stratton, Channel 9’s executive producer of sports, begins her 20th season on Laker telecasts. This will be Chick Hearn’s 37th season on the Lakers and Stu Lantz’s 10th.

Laker General Manager Jerry West and sports agent Leonard Armato, who represents O’Neal, will be Paul Sunderland’s guests tonight on “Lakers Live” on Fox Sports West at 7. . . . Channel 9 will have a Clipper season preview Sunday at 5:30 p.m. . . . NBC will devote one hour, 2-3 p.m. Saturday, to a look at the NBA’s list of 50 greatest players ever. . . . Preceding that special at 1 p.m. Saturday, NBC will look back at this year’s U.S. Golf Assn. events, mainly the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur.

The Washington-USC game at 12:30 p.m. is one of seven regionally televised college football games ABC is carrying Saturday. Another one to be shown on the West Coast is San Diego State at San Jose State at 4 p.m. . . . CBS, because of a deal with Navy, has the Notre Dame-Navy game at Dublin, Ireland, at 9 a.m. Saturday (delayed). Tim Ryan, a Notre Dame grad, and Phil McConkey, a former Navy and New York Giant wide receiver, are the announcers. CBS has a second game, Georgia at Florida, Saturday at 12:30 p.m., with Gus Johnson and Terry Donahue reporting. Jim Nantz has the day off. . . . CBS has hired former USC and Ram assistant coach Artie Gigantino as a sideline reporter and analyst. He’ll make his debut as an analyst Nov. 29 on Louisiana State-Arkansas. . . . CBS this week named Lance Barrow as its coordinating producer of golf. His predecessor, Frank Chirkinian, 69, was named special consultant and senior executive.

XTRA program director Howard Freedman had his contract bought out by Jay Corp., the station’s new owner. He has been replaced by Jay Corp. executive Jack Evans. . . . It was great listening to Vin Scully call the World Series for CBS Radio. He has so many stories to fall back on. He recalled that Yankee Manager Joe Torre, once when he was catching for the St. Louis Cardinals, was moved to third for a game against the Dodgers because of a thumb injury. “From my worst pun department, I said, ‘If he’s afraid to go back behind the plate, does that make him Chicken Catcher Torre?’ ”

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Oct. 26-28.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Baseball: World Series, Game 6 11 22.0 40 College Football: Alabama-Tennessee 2 4.3 12 Horse Racing: Breeders’ Cup 4 3.9 11 College Football: Syracuse-Boston College 2 3.1 9 College Football: UCLA-California 9 3.0 6 College Football: Arizona State-Stanford 7 2.1 6 Golf: PGA Tour Championship 7 2.1 4

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SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share NFL: Carolina-Philadelphia 11 18.0 41 NFL: Miami-Dallas 11 18.0 38 NFL: Kansas City-Denver 4 4.6 10 Soccer: Mexican League 34 1.6

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MONDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share NFL: Chicago-Minnesota 7 19.8 29

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