Rome in the Morning and Afternoon?

Can’t get enough of Jim Rome?

Well, soon you’ll be able to listen to him for six hours a day in Los Angeles.

The plan is for KXTA (1150) to continue to carry his nationally syndicated show live, 9 a.m. to noon, and for San Diego sister station XTRA (690) to carry it delayed, 1-4 p.m.

It could happen as soon as Monday, and if that is the case, Rome will announce the change on the air today.

XTRA will move the “Loose Cannons” to the 9 a.m.-1 p.m. slot.

Apparently, the parent company, Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, decided to make the move because it doesn’t make much sense to have the same show on two stations in one market at the same time. It splits the audience.

However, the move may not go over too well in San Diego, where only XTRA’s delayed Rome show can be heard. And XTRA is where Rome first made it big.

RUSSELL VS. WILT

ESPN profiles Bill Russell today at 4 p.m. as the 18th-greatest athlete of the 20th century, as selected by a panel of experts. Russell is the fifth basketball player in the top 50 thus far. The others: Julius Erving, No. 43; Oscar Robertson, No. 36; Larry Bird, No. 30, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, No. 26.

Still remaining are Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

Chamberlain’s ranking higher than Russell caused quite a stir among Boston Celtic fans. They point out that Russell’s Celtic teams were 7-1 in playoff games against Chamberlain’s teams and 86-57 overall.

The Russell-Chamberlain debate is a part of the ESPN show, another excellent one in the series. It presents all sides of Russell, a complex man, and includes dozens of interviews. Teammate John Havlicek says, “It wasn’t a matter of Wilt versus Russell with Bill. He would let Wilt score 50, if he won. The thing most important to him was championships--rings and winning.”

Bill Sharman played with Russell and coached Chamberlain but is not part of the show. He doesn’t do television interviews because his voice, which he blew out while coaching the Lakers in the early 1970s, still isn’t 100%.

“They were both great athletes, big, strong, quick and skilled,” Sharman said by phone. “Wilt was more about muscle and power and scoring. Russell was more about running the floor and passing and defense. They’d both make my top five.”

Chick Hearn, honored at a fund-raising dinner Thursday night in Beverly Hills for the Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne, also took the diplomatic approach.

“I would have them tied,” he said.

The best description of Russell on the ESPN show comes from Bob Cousy, who says, “He was Jekyll and Hyde.” Around the team, he would laugh and be a great guy, Cousy says, “and then the mask would come down.”

Cousy says he and Russell would talk at length.

“I should have been much more sensitive to his anguish,” Cousy says as he breaks down and cries.

HOCKEY BEAT

The NHL season begins today on ESPN with a pregame retirement ceremony for Wayne Gretzky at 4:30 p.m., before the New York Rangers’ game at Edmonton. ESPN will switch to Pittsburgh at Dallas at 5 p.m.

The Mighty Ducks’ season opener at Dallas on Saturday at 5 p.m. will be televised live by Channel 9; flagship radio station XTRA will farm out the game to San Diego’s KOGO (600) because of USC football. The Ducks have a new radio announcing team. Doing the play-by-play will be Steve Carroll, 43, who spent the last two seasons with the New Orleans Brass of the East Coast Hockey League and the 1995-96 season with the Philadelphia Flyers. The new commentator, hired only last week, is Mike Greenlay, 31, who did fill-in work for the Nashville Predators last season and did television for the Orlando Solar Bears of the International Hockey League. . . . Chris Madsen, who has a three-year contract extension, and Brian Hayward, return as the TV team.

Because of college football, the Kings’ opener at Nashville will be televised by Fox Sports West 2, instead of regular carrier Fox Sports West, and will be delayed two hours, until 7 p.m. It will be live on KRLA (1110). . . . The Kings’ game at St. Louis Monday will be on Fox Sports West live at 5 p.m. . . . Besides flagship station KRLA, the Kings have an eight-station radio network. . . . Long Beach Ice Dog games, beginning with Saturday’s opener against the Orlando Solar Bears, will be broadcast on KPLS (830), with KFWB’s Ted Sobel and fill-in commentator Michael Lockhart. Regular commentator Nick Vachon, son of Rogie, will be in the East filming a movie with Mel Gibson for the next four to six weeks. . . . Also on KPLS, Todd Moshier has a new weekly sports-talk show on Fridays, midnight to 2 a.m., that will often be hockey oriented.

SHORT WAVES

Double-duty trouble: While announcing USC’s game at Oregon last Saturday for XTRA, Lee Hamilton, who also does the Seattle Seahawks, left at halftime to reach Pittsburgh via Portland and Chicago in time for Sunday’s Seahawk game. That left inexperienced Tim Ryan to do the play-by-play for the rest of the game, and Ryan had his problems. Twice in overtime he said, “We’re all tied, 23 to 20.”

Fox Sports Net has added tonight’s Chicago Cubs-St. Louis game to its schedule. The game can now be seen on either Fox Sports West, with Kenny Albert and Kevin Kennedy, or on WGN. . . . Showtime offers a boxing card from the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday at 9:30 that features Ricardo Lopez and Julio Cesar Chavez in separate bouts. There is also a Christy Martin fight on the card.

IN CLOSING

So who, according to the ESPN panel, will end up as the No. 1 North American athlete of the 20th century? ESPN.com users selected Jordan, with 46.5% of the votes. Muhammad Ali was next with 18.7%, then Babe Ruth, 13.5%, and Jim Thorpe, 13.4%. Our pick: Ali. Biggest injustice: John Elway didn’t make the top 100.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Sept. 25-26, including sports on cable networks:

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: Ryder Cup 4 4.5 16 College football: Colorado at Washington 7 3.6 10 Boxing: David Kamau vs. Marco Lizarraga 9 2.6 5 Baseball: Angels at Seattle 9 2.0 4 Baseball: Arizona at San Francisco 11 1.2 3 College football: Arkansas at Alabama 2 1.2 3

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share College football: USC at Oregon FSW 3.1 6 College football: Stanford at UCLA FSW2 2.1 5 Boxing: Shane Mosley vs. Wilfredo Rivera HBO 1.7 3 Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad (tape) HBO 1.2 2 College football: Indiana at Penn State ESPN 0.9 3 College football: Northwestern at Purdue ESPN2 0.8 2 Prep football: Concord De La Salle vs. Mater Dei FSW2 0.8 1 College football: Nebraska at Missouri FSW 0.7 2 College football: Virginia at Brigham Young ESPN2 0.6 1 College football: Oklahoma at Louisville FSW 0.5 1 College football: Florida at Kentucky ESPN 0.3 1 Golf: Senior Kroger Classic ESPN 0.3 1 College football: Miami at East Carolina FSW 0.2 0 Golf: Westin Texas Open ESPN 0.1 0

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: Minnesota at Green Bay 11 10.7 26 Golf: Ryder Cup 4 6.9 19 Pro football: Washington at New York Jets 11 7.8 20 Pro football: Indianapolis at San Diego 2 4.7 11 Auto racing: CART Grand Prix of Houston 7 1.7 4 Baseball: San Diego at Dodgers 5 1.2 3 Baseball: Angels at Seattle 9 1.0 2

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro football: New York Giants at New England ESPN 6.5 12 Auto racing: Winston Cup MBNA Gold 400 TNN 1.1 3 Soccer: Women, U.S. vs. Brazil ESPN 0.8 2 Auto racing: IRL Las Vegas.com 500 ESPN2 0.4 1 Boxing: Rafael Ruelas vs. Hicket Lau FSW 0.4 1 Horse racing: Kentucky Cup ESPN2 0.4 1 Golf: Westin Texas Open ESPN 0.4 1 Auto racing: Formula One Grand Prix of Europe FSW 0.3 1

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WEEKDAY RATINGS: MONDAY--Pro football, San Francisco-Arizona, Channel 7, 13.8/23.

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.