Playoffs on Radio: the Sound of Silence

It’s great that every baseball playoff game is televised, even though, with three networks involved, it’s difficult to figure out which is carrying what.

Not so great is that, in Los Angeles, there is no radio coverage of the first round.

KNX dropped the CBS radio baseball package last season. XTRA 690 picked it up but isn’t carrying the first round, going with its regular programming.

XTRA will carry the National League championship

series and the World Series, while its sister station, KSDO 1130, will carry the American League championship series. Problem is, KSDO’s signal does not reach Los Angeles.

ESPN radio takes over the package next season. Let’s hope it can get more widespread coverage.

CROWDED BOOTHS

Viewers regularly complain about too much chatter in the broadcast booth, but three-man announcing teams are becoming the norm.

Both Fox and NBC have jumped on the three-man bandwagon for the baseball playoffs, with Fox using Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Bob Brenly, and NBC using Bob Costas, Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker.

Also, NBC will be using two three-man teams on the NFL Sunday. Randy Cross joins Charlie Jones and Bob Trumpy on Kansas City-Miami, while NBC’s No. 1 team of Dick Enberg, Paul Maguire and Phil Simms works San Diego-Oakland.

Cross, who was set to be Marv Albert’s NFL partner on the No. 2 team this season, was told this week that Tom Hammond would become his regular partner after this weekend.

NBC had to do some shuffling after Albert was fired last week. Hammond got bumped up, and rookie Jim Kelly, despite a great start, got bumped down from Hammond to Dan Hicks.

Joel Meyers got bumped up from fill-in status to full time and will be paired with Beasley Reece, Hicks’ former partner.

COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT

OK, neither UCLA or USC is involved in a big game Saturday, but still many fans, if they haven’t figured it out already, are going to be upset when they learn that they can’t see either the Bruins or Trojans.

Both UCLA’s home game against Houston and USC’s home game against Nevada Las Vegas will be televised on Fox Sports West 2, which is not available in about 900,000 Southland cable households.

Meanwhile, Arizona State-Washington and San Diego State-Arizona will be on Fox Sports West.

Business is business.

The good news is, FX channel opens its abbreviated college football schedule with a decent game Saturday at 4 p.m., Kansas State at Nebraska. The commentator will be former USC and Ram assistant coach Artie Gigantino.

BATTLE OF THE BAYS

Network NFL announcers, when unhappy about working dog games, used to say something like, “I always get one of the Bays,” meaning Green Bay or Tampa Bay. In those days, you couldn’t go much lower.

But Sunday, the big game is Tampa Bay at Green Bay on Fox, with Pat Summerall and John Madden announcing. It will be the first time since 1987 that Madden and Summerall have worked a Tampa Bay game.

Fox will do its pregame show from Lambeau Field.

ANOTHER DYNAMITE GAME

TNT, which has been on quite a streak, has another attractive matchup Sunday at 5 p.m., when the New Orleans Saints play at Chicago. The Saints are 1-4 and the Bears 0-5, but the story line here is Mike Ditka’s return to Chicago.

Expect TNT cameras to focus on Ditka almost as much as the action on the field.

TNT earlier had Bill Parcells’ return to New England, which turned out to be a great game.

This one could be pretty good too.

“At least the teams are evenly matched,” TNT’s Pat Haden said. “You don’t anticipate a blowout.”

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Viewers get a rare inside look at what it’s like to be a baseball umpire on CNN’s “The Sporting Life With Jim Huber” Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Huber was given tremendous access by an umpiring crew headed by Rich Garcia. Garcia was the umpire who mistakenly gave the Yankees’ Derek Jeter a home run despite 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier’s interference in Game 1 of the American League championship series last year. Garcia talks about the sleepless nights that followed that ruling.

SHORT WAVES

The Clippers have a new radio station, KEZY-FM 95.9. Rory Markas remains the main radio play-by-play announcer. . . . “NBA Inside Stuff” makes its season debut on Channel 4 Saturday at 10:30 a.m. . . . Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara will be on the Golf Channel’s “Golf Talk Live” Monday at 5 p.m. . . . KNX’s Steve Grad, who has done NFL football for NBC, is doing the play-by-play on Minnesota-Arizona for Fox on Sunday. Grad also was recently named a host for CBS radio’s coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics. Another host will be XTRA’s Steve Mason.

Radio stations KYPA 1230 and KIEV 870 will carry a number of UCLA men’s and women’s volleyball matches, beginning Sunday at 2 p.m., when KYPA broadcasts the women’s team’s home match against Stanford. The stations will also broadcast 23 women’s basketball games and eight baseball games during the school year. Generally, KYPA will carry weekend events and KIEV weekday events. . . . Westwood One’s new Los Angeles station, KXMG 1540, finally changed to its all-sports format. A first impression: no better than any other all-sports station.

IN CLOSING

If you haven’t been able to tell, we’re generally not a fan of sports-talk radio. The people in it call themselves such things as nasty, fabulous, gods, cannons, or bricks and expect people to like them. The other day Jim Rome apologized for being niiiiice after saying something positive about Gabriel Ruelas and his brother Rafael. What’s wrong with being nice? Despite our distaste for talk radio, congratulations are in order for Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton. He has been doing the same show for 10 years at XTRA 690. In talk radio, that’s an eternity.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Sept. 27-29.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share College football: USC at California 7 7.3 17 Baseball: Dodgers at Colorado 11 4.4 12 Golf: Ryder Cup 4 4.2 12 College football: Notre Dame at Michigan 2 3.9 11 Boxing: Hector Quiroz vs. Jaime Ocegueda 9 3.3 6 College football: Florida at Kentucky 2 1.7 5 Hockey: Mighty Ducks at Kings 9 1.4 3

*--*

SUNDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: Chicago at Dallas 11 14.0 33 Pro football: Green Bay at Detroit 11 10.8 28 Pro football: Jacksonville at Washington 4 4.6 12 Baseball: Dodgers at Colorado 5 3.4 8 Golf: Ryder Cup (peak rating of 5) 4 2.4 12 Soccer: Tampa Bay at Columbus 34 1.5 4

*--*

MONDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: San Francisco at Carolina 7 19.2 31

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Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households.