KNBC Gears Up for Long Run

The Los Angeles Marathon has taken a major turn. For the first time in its 18-year history, it will be televised by a major network station -- KNBC Channel 4. The station will devote four hours to Sunday’s race, with coverage beginning at 8 a.m.

In another first, the race will also be televised in Spanish -- by Channel 4’s sister station, Telemundo’s Channel 52.

The race seemed destined to someday end up at Channel 4. It was a natural fit.

“Once NBC lost the NBA, it gave us the opportunity to do the marathon,” said Channel 4’s Fred Roggin, who will anchor the coverage from a booth at Arco Plaza overlooking the finish line.

In 1990, when Channel 4 televised the Long Beach Marathon, the station brought in Phil Olsman, a veteran producer of live television events, to oversee the coverage. At the time, Olsman was also producing the L.A. Marathon’s coverage for Channel 13.

Roggin anchored the Long Beach Marathon coverage and struck up a friendship with Olsman. Later that year, when Roggin had a chance to do a nationally syndicated show, “Roggin’s Heroes,” he asked Olsman to be the producer.

“Phil became my friend, my mentor and my teacher,” Roggin said. “He is a TV guerrilla. He has got that TV mentality -- get it done, make it look great, be on time and be on budget.”

They formed a company, Fred Roggin Productions, to do “Roggin’s Heroes.” The show lasted 3 1/2 years, but the production company continued. Sunday’s race is listed as a production of Fred Roggin Productions, and Olsman and Roggin are listed as the executive producers.

Fred Roggin Productions also did the three hours of coverage for last year’s race, when it was on Channel 9.

The L.A. Marathon was televised by Channel 13 the first 16 years. Olsman was the producer the first seven.

A Different Look

Channel 4 will use 22 camera positions, six helicopters and a crew of about 80 to cover the marathon. Joining Roggin in the booth on site will be Toni Reavis, an L.A. Marathon veteran. Newcomer Alberto Salazar, a three-time New York City Marathon winner, will be on the course, following the men’s race, and Kathrine Switzer, another L.A. Marathon veteran, will follow the women’s race. Two-time L.A. Marathon wheelchair winner Bob Molinatti will follow the wheelchair race.

“This is the only event that unites the entire community,” Roggin said, “and we want to give it its due. This is our NBA Finals, our World Series, our Super Bowl, our Olympics.”

Roggin and Olsman said this year’s race would have a different look. For one thing, there will be more focus on the field and less on the elite runners.

“There are maybe 40 elite runners in the race, and there are 23,000 others out there,” Roggin said. “Our job and our objective is to tell their stories. We’re going to have a fast-paced show. We won’t have 10 solid minutes of people just running. We’re going to include local people and their stories in every segment.

“We have a database where we can call up any runner’s number and we’ll have facts about that runner. These won’t be just nameless people running down the street.”

Channel 4’s Patrick Healy, who has run in the L.A. Marathon, will serve as an on-course reporter.

Werndl Quits

Bill Werndl, who became the second half of the “Loose Cannons” on XTRA (690) in August 1996, has left what is now super station XTRA (690 and 1150).

Greg Ashlock, the station’s general manager, said it was a case of Werndl not wanting to relocate from his home in the San Diego area to Los Angeles.

“Bill is a good guy, and we like him,” Ashlock said. “And we wish him well.”

Meanwhile, Werndl’s partner, Steve Hartman, who works for Channel 2 on weekends, has agreed to a contract extension and will make the move to L.A.

Hartman worked solo on Thursday. He’ll be paired with A. Martinez when the two go to Arizona for spring training next week. A permanent partner will be named later.

Baseball Notes

It was good to hear Dodger baseball on new flagship station KFWB (980) Thursday morning. But there will be only three other weekday broadcasts until the Freeway Series begins March 28. KFWB is broadcasting mostly weekend games -- 14 in all. Meanwhile, new Angel flagship station KSPN (710) is broadcasting 33 spring games.

KFWB will wait until the regular season to do pregame shows or postgame “Dodger Talk” but KSPN will dispatch Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian to Tempe, Ariz., the week of March 17. Also that week, “Angel Clubhouse,” with Terry Smith and Jose Mota, will be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of only Wednesday.... However, XTRA seems to be giving the Dodgers and Angels the most coverage. Lee Hamilton is in Arizona this week, Hartman and Martinez will be there next week and Hamilton will be in Dodgertown the following week.

Mota will be filling in for Rory Markas on the Angels’ first two spring broadcasts because Markas has USC basketball obligations.... There’s no baseball on television this weekend, but there is softball, with some of the biggest names in baseball competing. The Pepsi All-Star game, taped at the Big League Dreams sports complex in Cathedral City, will be on Channel 4 Saturday at 11:30 p.m.

Short Waves

CBS Sports President Sean McManus said this week that if the U.S. goes to war with Iraq and news developments take precedence over the network’s NCAA basketball tournament coverage, some games might be moved to the National Network (TNN). CBS and TNN are owned by Viacom. The tournament begins with first-round games March 20-21.... McManus no doubt was glad to see CBSSportsLine.com drop two gambling sites before making a deal with the NCAA this week. McManus made known his feelings on gambling when he fired point-spread guru Danny Sheridan in 1997. “The perception he was an oddsmaker made him someone we at CBS didn’t want any part of,” McManus said at the time.

The popularity of the Lakers is soaring. Channel 9 reported its Laker telecasts during February averaged a 7.7 Nielsen rating, up 67% from February 2002 and the highest for any February since 1997.... A 10-minute interview KLAC’s Larry Burnett had with Shaquille O’Neal was aired Tuesday night during the pregame show and at halftime. As for his view of the media, Shaq said, “I don’t like it when people think for me. That’s why sometimes I shut out the media.” He seemed particularly upset about negative remarks by ESPN’s Bill Walton and Sean Elliott. “They won’t say it to my face,” Shaq said. “That’s because I’m a man and they’re a mouse.” ... Kobe Bryant, in a taped interview that will be shown on the 8 o’clock edition of ESPN’s “SportCenter” Sunday night, was asked about Walton’s saying Bryant may be the MVP of the league but not his team. “Shaquille is the anchor of our team. How can he not be?” Kobe said.

In Closing

Phil Jackson missed his first NBA game in 12 seasons as a head coach Tuesday night. And we all know about Chick Hearn’s streak of 3,338 games. Well, Frank Pollack, who produces or coordinates Laker broadcasts on KLAC, has a pretty good streak going. He hasn’t missed a game since he got the job about a month into the 1980-81 season.