Firing of ‘Big Nasty’ Took XTRA Effort

Even though you often can’t believe what you hear on sports talk radio, the firing of Joe McDonnell by XTRA Sports 1150 was not a hoax or a publicity stunt.

McDonnell was given his walking papers for real after he finished his show last Friday.

The publicity stunt, if there was one, was that the man who fired McDonnell, new station operations manager Mike Thompson, went on the air last Monday and took calls from listeners for four hours.

Actually, it was gutty, and somewhat refreshing. The show certainly was more interesting than a discussion of the NBA lockout or some other mundane topic.

But all Thompson said about the McDonnell firing was that it was “a business decision” and “the station is going in a different direction.”

So what does that mean?

It means Thompson didn’t like McDonnell. Professionally, not personally.

McDonnell’s supporters--and plenty of those called Monday to voice their opinions--like the fact he is a veteran of the L.A. sports scene, that he has good sources, that he is outspoken and outrageous.

The people who don’t like McDonnell--and few of those were heard from Monday--think he is a raving, mad-at-the-world lunatic whose hatred for USC and Laker Coach Del Harris gets old.

Thompson, during a couple of recent get-acquainted meetings with this reporter, talked about maybe finding a partner for McDonnell to reel him in when he went on one of his tirades.

Thompson had heard that McDonnell and Long Beach Press Telegram columnist Doug Krikorian had built a following as “McDonnell-Douglas” a few years ago at KMPC. At one point, in men ages 25-54, a key demographic category, they got a 2.8 share, which is more than double any XTRA 1150 show has gotten.

However, McDonnell was holding his own. The latest ratings book showed he was tied for 13th in the market in his time slot in men 25-54 and ranked ninth with an average listening time of 3 1/2 hours per week.

Krikorian was brought in as a guest co-host for one day a couple of months ago, but Thompson apparently wasn’t impressed.

He said he was seeking to make McDonnell more upbeat and fun to listen to.

McDonnell is known as “the Big Nasty,” a name given to him by Krikorian and one McDonnell has taken to heart. He can be downright nasty.

McDonnell arguably was once the best journalist in L.A. radio, but at XTRA 1150, his eighth L.A. station, he damaged his reputation with fakery.

When Roy Rogers died, he pretended to call the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville and ask Rogers’ grandson if he was going to stuff Rogers and put him atop Trigger. The call was a hoax.

He recently ballyhooed that L.A. was getting a new professional football team. He didn’t explain until later that he was talking about an arena team.

He had a woman caller recently claim she was filing a paternity suit against McDonnell.

Such antics may not have gone over with Thompson, but the firing came as a surprise.

It would have been a surprise to McDonnell too, except he had read rumors on the Internet about how he and most of the other people at XTRA 1150 were going to be fired. But he was stunned last Friday when, as he left a sandwich shop in Westwood where he had done his show, Thompson gave him the word.

“They have the right to fire me,” McDonnell said. “But I certainly didn’t like the way they did it.”

McDonnell said no one at the station had told him anything except they liked what he was doing.

McDonnell, who will be paid until his contract expires in May, said he plans to explore other possibilities, most notably KRLA, which is going to an all-talk format. He said XTRA 1150 asked him to come back in the 10 p.m.-1 a.m. time slot, but he declined.

Meanwhile, XTRA 1150 has named two new co-hosts to replace McDonnell in the 3-7 p.m. slot. Newy Scruggs, who has been at Channel 13 since March 1996, and Dave Denholm, who comes from a Cleveland sports-talk station, WKNR, begin Monday. Scruggs will continue working at Channel 13 as well.

Scruggs, 27, the station’s first African American host, has been Jim Rome’s fill-in several times. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, because his father was in the military and stationed there. He has lived in North Carolina, Texas and Georgia and is a graduate of North Carolina Pembroke. He was working in radio and TV in Cleveland before coming to Los Angeles but does not know his new partner. Borrowing a Cleveland moniker, they will call their new show “the Dawg Pound.”

SHORT WAVES

Now that McDonnell has some time on his hands he’ll be able to listen to his old friend John Robinson on the radio today. Robinson joins former USC announcers Larry Kahn and Mike Lamb on a national broadcast of Arizona State-Arizona. The 3:30 p.m. game will be carried by KRLA in Los Angeles. The trio will also announce the UCLA-Miami game on Dec. 5, but that broadcast can not be carried by a Los Angeles station. Their next game, the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 19, will be carried by KLSX-FM. . . . CBS has a game of interest to UCLA fans on Saturday--Miami at Syracuse. And Terry Donahue is the commentator. . . . CBS used its version of the first-and-10 marker on the Pittsburgh-Detroit game on Thursday. What they really needed for this game was instant replay on the botched sudden-death coin flip.

Phil Esposito makes his debut as a hockey analyst for Fox Sports News next week. . . . Gary Miller and Sean Salisbury will get tryouts as replacements for Chris Myers on ESPN’s “Up Close.” . . . Steve Anderson, ESPN’s executive producer until taking the same job at ABC in October 1996, is going back to ESPN. . . . For those overstuffed on football, ABC has the Skins Game this weekend from Rancho La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta. It will be on Channel 7 Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30. Competing are defending champion Tom Lehman, Mark O’Meara, Fred Couples and Greg Norman. The purse is $1 million, with No. 18 alone worth $200,000. . . . A new craze seems to be speed golf, which combines running and golf. It will be featured on the Golf Channel’s “Golf Central” Saturday at 4:30 p.m., with anchor Jennifer Mills giving it a try, and CBS has a feature planned for Jan. 2.

IN CLOSING

Heard a great sports talk show on Wednesday. Jim Rome did so many interviews he had no time to take any calls.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Nov. 21-22, including sports on cable networks:

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share College football: USC at UCLA 7 17.6 44 College football: Michigan at Ohio State 7 6.2 18 Horse racing: Hollywood Prevue Stakes 2 2.5 6 College football: Kentucky at Tennessee 2 0.6 1 Golf: World Cup at New Zealand 11 0.5 1

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Cable Network Rating Share College football: Oregon at Oregon State FSW 1.5 3 College football: Auburn at Alabama ESPN 1.1 2 Auto racing: NASCAR Motegi (Japan) Coca-Cola 500 TBS 1.0 2 Hockey: Chicago at Kings FSW 0.6 1 Golf: LPGA Tour Championship ESPN 0.5 1 College football: Northwestern at Hawaii FSW2 0.3 3 College football: Boston College at West Virginia ESPN2 0.3 1 Tennis: WTA Chase Championships ESPN2 0.3 1 College football: Brigham Young at Utah ESPN2 0.2 1 College football: South Carolina at Clemson ESPN2 0.1 0

*--*

SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: Oakland at Denver 2 13.8 32 Pro football: Green Bay at Minnesota 11 11.7 27 Pro football: Seattle at Dallas 2 6.8 16 Golf: World Cup at New Zealand 11 1.7 4 Golf: LPGA Tour Championship 7 1.6 3 Tennis: WTA Chase Championships 7 1.3 3 Hockey: Chicago at Mighty Ducks 9 0.9 2

*--*

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Cable Network Rating Share Pro football: New Orleans at San Francisco ESPN 6.0 10 College football: USC at UCLA (tape) FSW2 0.5 1 Tennis: World Doubles Championship ESPN 0.2 0

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WEEKDAY RATINGS: Monday--Pro football, Miami at New England, Ch. 7, 16.0, 26

Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.