Deal Could End Dodgers’ Broadcast Blues

Can you imagine almost every Dodger game being televised? It could happen.

Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire includes controlling interest in Fox Sports West and sole ownership of Fox Sports West 2, has emerged as possibly the top candidate among the half-dozen or so legitimate ones to buy the team from Peter O’Malley.

Fox and Dodger officials would not comment, but there were no denials about the Murdoch possibility.

Before O’Malley can enter into serious discussions with any prospective buyers, he must get approval from baseball’s ownership committee to open his books, and he has not done that.

Another name that has been mentioned is Bob Daly, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Studios and the Time-Warner Music Group. But Daly would have to divest himself of interest in Time-Warner because the company, through its merger with Turner Broadcasting, now owns the Atlanta Braves.

If Murdoch ends up the Dodger owner, the team would no longer rank last in number of local telecasts. Quite the opposite. If a dozen or so games were shown nationally on ESPN, FX and the Fox network, that would leave about 50 for Channel 5, and as many as 100 for Murdoch’s Fox Sports West 2.

That’s why Murdoch might be willing to pay between $350 million and $500 million for the Dodgers.

Murdoch also has had his eyes on golf. He’d like to pick up a few PGA tournaments for his Fox network during negotiations that begin next week between PGA Tour officials and the networks.

Murdoch’s Fox Sports Net, which includes Fox Sports West, begins televising a series of golf events from the Celebrity Players Tour this weekend with same-day delayed coverage of the Toyota Celebrity Challenge from the Morgan Run Resort in Rancho Santa Fe on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m.

AWARD DEPARTMENT

Chick Hearn will be inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn. Hall of Fame at the organization’s annual dinner Monday at Salisbury, N.C. Because Hearn is busy with the Lakers, The Times’ Mike Downey, being honored as the California sportswriter of the year, will accept the honor for Hearn. Chris Berman is being honored as national sportscaster of the year and Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly as the national sportswriter of the year. . . .

It was nice that Frank Gifford got a lifetime achievement award, that Keith Jackson was honored as tops in play by play and that NBC got 10 Emmys for its Olympic coverage, but can anyone take seriously the Sports Emmy Awards that were announced this week? John Madden, who won 11 of the last 12 years in the commentator category, wasn’t even nominated this year. Neither was Billy Packer, the only other winner in Madden’s category the last 12 years. Fox’s Howie Long, a studio analyst, was named best commentator. Al Michaels was not nominated in the play-by-play category, yet Bob Costas, who won for studio host, was nominated for play by play.

BOXING BEAT

The Forum-promoted “Fight Night” series on Channel 9 has been a ratings success since its inception in 1993, averaging a 5.5 rating and a 10 share. It has also earned a local Emmy for executive producer Susan Stratton and her crew. The series returns Saturday night with another top attraction when Jorge Paez faces Gerald Gray at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas as the main event in a two-hour show beginning at 9. Tom Kelly and Rich Marotta call the action. Marotta, one of the busiest announcers in boxing, figures he will work about 65 fights this year, either as the blow-by-blow announcer or commentator.

George Foreman, 48, fights Lou Savarese, who supposedly has a 36-0 record with 30 knockouts, on HBO Saturday night at 7. Isn’t Foreman ever going to retire?

MISCELLANY

Three top executives have left Fox Sports West to join former colleague Don Corsini, the new general manager at Channel 9. Corsini, the executive producer at what was Prime Ticket and then Prime Sports, has hired Pat McClenahan as Channel 9’s executive producer of sports, Corsini’s most recent position before being promoted to general manager. Mike Kincaid and Tom Morris have come over to Channel 9 to head up the sales and marketing departments. . . .

Channel 9, which has the Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Ducks and Angels, continues to beef up its sports inventory with horse racing. Channel 9, beginning June 8, will televise seven Sunday stakes races from the Hollywood Park meeting. Channel 9 did two telecasts from the meeting in 1995 but none last year. . . . “Hollywood Park Today” will be televised race days at 4 p.m. on Fox Sports West 2, beginning today. “Hollywood Park Today,” with Mike Willman and Kurt Hoover as the hosts, will televise the seventh and eighth races live every race day except Friday, and will also show replays of all earlier races. Friday’s shows will preview the weekend races. “Thoroughbred L.A.,” the weekend radio show on KRLA with Willman and Hoover, has moved to the 9-10 a.m. time slot. . . .

The three-game UCLA-USC baseball series beginning with tonight’s 7 o’clock game is getting blanket coverage. Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at USC will be televised live by Fox Sports West, with Barry Tompkins and Jerry Kindall announcing. The USC radio station, KYPA, will broadcast all three games, with Larry Kahn and Justin Dedeaux. KIEV has tonight’s game at UCLA and XTRA 1150 has Sunday’s game at UCLA, both with Chris Roberts and Jeff Blank. Sunday’s 1 p.m. game is one of four XTRA 1150 picked up after KWNK went all-Spanish language. . . .

Spring football: ABC this weekend is taping the NIKE/NFL Air-It-Out national four-on-four finals at Disney World in Florida for showing this summer. . . .

Fox Sports West offers the first of a series of half-hour Laker playoff specials Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Bill Macdonald is the host. . . .

For the record: CBS’ Pat O’Brien, after the NCAA championship game, was criticized in this space for supposedly asking John Wooden, during a halftime interview, if he could win 10 national championships if he were coaching today. What O’Brien actually asked was if Wooden could dominate the game today as he did. O’Brien made reference to the 10 championships in response to a comment by Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was also part of the halftime show.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs April 19-20.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Pro basketball: New York vs. Chicago 4 7.5 16 Gymnastics: Women’s Team Championships 4 4.1 12 Wide World of Sports: Boxing, speedskating 7 3.6 9 Golf: PGA Seniors’ Championship 4 3.2 9 Bowling: PBA Classic at Tampa, Fla. 7 2.4 7 Golf: MCI Heritage Classic 2 1.9 5 Baseball: Angels at Kansas City 9 1.6 3 CBS Sports Show: Hoop Summit 2 1.2 4

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SUNDAY

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Pro basketball: Lakers at Portland 4 8.6 24 CBS Sports Show: Collegiate cheerleading 2 3.5 10 Soccer: World Cup qualifying, U.S. vs. Mexico 7 3.1 8 Golf: PGA Seniors’ Championship 4 2.9 8 Hockey: Mighty Ducks at Phoenix 11 2.5 7 Golf: MCI Heritage Classic 2 2.0 6 Soccer: Mexican League, Guadalajara vs. Atlas 34 1.5 4 Soccer: MLS, Colorado at Dallas 34 0.8 2

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