McDonnell-Douglas Makes a Comeback

We’ve had to endure the embarrassing shenanigans of Vic “the Brick” Jacobs, who has taken buffoonery to new heights; the insufferable homerism of Geoff Witcher, who is so bad his co-workers cruelly ridicule him on the air, and the antics of “Ben and Dave”--whoever they are and wherever they came from.

And now comes word that Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian, the original bad boys of L.A. sports-talk radio, are making a comeback.

They will begin doing a 1-5 p.m. show for the One-On-One network’s KCTD (1540) in Burbank on July 19. The Chicago-based national network recruited them to give its Southern California station an L.A. presence.

The first thought is, oh no, do we really need these guys polluting our airwaves again? Isn’t L.A. sports talk bad enough?

But then you think about the cast of mindless talk-show hosts at Dodger flagship station KXTA (1150)--some, not all--and you realize maybe it’s not such bad news after all.

At least McDonnell, a radio veteran, and Krikorian, a columnist for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, know the L.A. scene, have sources and understand how to go get a story. They’re journalists, a rarity in L.A. sports-talk radio.

At one point in the early 1990s they got a 2.8 share in men ages 25-54 at KMPC (710) and ranked 13th in the market in that demographic category.

If Krikorian, who doesn’t take himself too seriously, can soften up McDonnell--Krikorian was the one who tabbed him “the Big Nasty”--these guys may be all right. McDonnell doesn’t have John Robinson and Del Harris to kick around any more, and that’s a plus.

It’s OK to be tough, but McDonnell was savage. He has been doing sports news spots for KFWB (980) since February, after being fired by KXTA in November.

Will we see a new and improved, a kinder and gentler McDonnell? It should be interesting.

AWARD SHOWS

The 33rd Victor Awards show at the Las Vegas Hilton will be nationally televised by Fox Sports Net and shown locally by Fox Sports West Saturday at 5 p.m.

As usual, athletes in professional and amateur sports, voted on by a Sport magazine panel of journalists, will be honored. And “living legend” awards will be presented to John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Carl Lewis and Kathy Whitworth.

What’s different this year is that a special award will be presented to Dr. Elias Ghanem, chairman of the Nevada Athletic Commissioner. The Duke Medical School graduate who at one time was Elvis Presley’s personal physician, is being honored for his contributions to the sport of boxing.

Speaking of award shows, ESPN has announced that its next ESPY Awards show, set for Feb. 14, 2000, will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

HORSE RACING BEAT

A launch party will be held today at the National Digital Television Center in West Los Angeles for the TV Games network (TVG), a new horse racing channel.

“We’re hoping this channel will be to horse racing what the Golf Channel is to golf,” said Rick Baedeker, TVG vice president.

Although the plan is to have the channel operating by July 1 in Kentucky, it probably won’t be available in Southern California until later this year. The plan is to offer home betting--by phone, PC or interactive cable technology as it becomes available.

The channel is owned by TV Guide Inc., whose corporate family includes Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and TCI (now called AT&T; Broadband & Internet Services since its purchase by AT&T;), with the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn. serving as the marketing arm.

Of more immediate concern to the thoroughbred association is Sunday’s Hollywood Gold Cup, which is the third race in the NTRA Champions on Fox Super Series.

The NTRA, created in April 1997 to promote horse racing, pitched the idea for this series to Fox after the network televised the 1998 Santa Anita Derby.

“Our goal is to do for horse racing what NASCAR has done for stock car racing,” NTRA President Tim Smith said.

FOX PROMOTES SHELL

Fox recently promoted some of its top executives, and one key move was making Jeff Shell the president of Fox Sports Net. Shell, a 1991 Harvard Business School graduate who got bachelor’s degrees in economics and applied mathematics from California, is liked and respected throughout the company.

He says one of his goals is to create, as an offshoot of Fox Sports News, local news shows for regional networks such as Fox Sports West. But a more immediate problem is getting four major Southern California cable operators to accept an increased surcharge.

SHORT WAVES

A $29.95 pay-per-view boxing card at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas that’s being shown by Showtime Event Television at 6 p.m. Saturday offers five attractive fights. Bantamweight Johnny Tapia meets Paulie Ayala in the 12-round main event, Stevie Johnston faces unbeaten Aldo Rios in a lightweight title bout, Yory Boy Campas faces Ron Weaver in a 10-rounder, Eric “Butterbean” Esch and Peter McNeeley--remember him?--meet in a four-rounder, and former Playboy model Mia St. John of Calabasas is featured in a women’s four-rounder. Steve Albert, Ferdie Pacheco and Bobby Czyz call the action; Jim Gray and Bill Boggs will serve as roving reporters. . . . A special golf event, the Villages Charity Challenge, will be televised by Fox Sports Net this weekend. Taped April 18 at Tierra Del Sol Golf Club in the Villages, Fla., it will be on Fox Sports West Saturday at 2 p.m. Juli Inkster, the Women’s U.S. Open champion, Nancy Lopez and Helen Alfredsson played an 18-hole match using a format known as “nines.” The winner of each hole gets five points, second gets three and third one for a total of nine. The points are shared when there are ties. What sets this event apart is 90% of the $1 million in prize money goes to charity.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for June 19-20, including sports on cable networks:

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: U.S. Open 4 5.4 17 Baseball: Philadelphia at Dodgers 11 2.9 9 Women’s World Cup: U.S. vs. Denmark 7 2.7 9 College World Series: Miami vs. Florida State 2 2.1 7 Golf: Michael Douglas Celebrity event 7 2.0 5 Senior tennis: John McEnroe vs. Bjorn Borg 2 0.9 3 Soccer: Galaxy at Washington 52 0.7 2

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Cable Network Rating Share Stanley Cup finals: Buffalo at Dallas ESPN 2.3 5 Boxing: Michael Grant vs. Lou Savarese HBO 1.6 4 Women’s World Cup: Brazil vs. Mexico ESPN 1.4 4 Baseball: Angels at New York Yankees FSW 1.0 3 Women’s World Cup: China vs. Sweden ESPN2 0.8 2 Women’s World Cup: Japan vs. Canada ESPN2 0.6 1 Soccer: Galaxy at Washington FSW2 0.3 1 Baseball: Atlanta vs. Arizona TBS 0.3 1

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: U.S. Open 4 7.4 21 Baseball: Angels at New York Yankees 9 2.3 7 Auto racing: CART Budweiser/G.I. Joe’s 200 7 1.2 3 Senior tennis: John McEnroe vs. Jimmy Connors 2 1.1 3 Track and field: NCAA championships 2 1.0 2 NFL Europe: Barcelona at Frankfurt 11 1.0 3 Soccer: MLS, N.Y./New Jersey at Kansas City 34 1.0 3 Bowling: Reno tournament 2 0.8 2

*--*

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Cable Network Rating Share Baseball: Philadelphia at Dodgers FSW2 1.3 4 Auto racing: Winston Cup Pocono 500 TNN 0.8 2 Baseball: Seattle at Cleveland ESPN 1.1 2 Women’s World Cup: Germany vs. Italy ESPN2 0.8 2 Women’s World Cup: North Korea vs. Nigeria ESPN2 0.7 1 Women’s World Cup: Australia vs. Ghana ESPN 0.6 2 Women’s World Cup: Norway vs. Russia ESPN2 0.5 1 Boxing: Antonio Hernandez vs. Joel Casamayor FSW 0.4 1 Horse racing: Hollywood Park Today FSW2 0.4 1

*--*

WEEKDAY RATINGS: Monday--NBA finals, San Antonio at New York, Channel 4, 12.0/20. Wednesday--NBA finals, Game 4, 11.0/20.

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.