Marathon Coverage Shapes Up

Nothing like getting through that first marathon. Last year, Channel 4 discovered that televising a marathon may be more difficult than running in one.

After stumbling but surviving a year ago, Channel 4 will televise its second L.A. Marathon on Sunday. The coverage will run from 8 a.m. to noon.

The crew should be in better shape this time. Maybe host Fred Roggin won’t have to ask co-host Toni Reavis quite so many inane questions. The addition of another expert, former U.S. Olympic marathoner Nancy Ditz, should help.

The main anchor team will work from a stage overlooking the finish line, which gives them a better position than the booth Roggin and Reavis had last year.

Ed Eyestone, also a former Olympic marathon runner, is another addition this year. He’ll be out on the course to report on the men’s elite race, while Kathrine Switzer, a veteran L.A. Marathon commentator, focuses on the elite women.

And of course the Channel 4 news team -- Fritz Coleman, Patrick Healy, Beverly White, et al. -- will be out in full force. Can’t miss an opportunity to promote your news team.

Running expert and coach Pat Connelly will join Coleman at the finish line to help with interviews, which is another good idea. Coleman barely weathered the storm while trying to handle post-race interviews alone last year.

Channel 52, Channel 4’s Spanish-language sister station, will also televise the marathon. Anchoring Channel 52’s coverage will be Mauricio Cardenas and Adrian Garcia Marquez. They will be joined by German Silva, a two-time winner of the New York City Marathon. Channel 52’s news team will also be involved.

Technical Breakthrough

Producer Phil Olsman is going to try using a satellite global positioning system, or GPS, in covering this year’s marathon. Used in NASCAR coverage, it informs viewers of a car’s position and provides other vital information.

Under the L.A. Marathon’s new “catch me if you can” format, in which the elite female runners get a 20-minute, 30-second head start against the elite male runners, GPS will be used to determine the distance between the women and the men and show their positions on the course.

GPS has never before been used in televising a marathon, Olsman said.

One problem for Olsman was finding places for the boxes used to receive the signal from the satellite. Putting a box, which weighs about 10 pounds, in a race car is no big thing. But you can’t put one on a runner.

Motorcycles following the men’s and women’s race leaders, plus the wheelchair leader, will carry the boxes.

“Originally, my goal was to use this system in 2005,” Olsman said. “But we tried it and it worked, so we thought, ‘What the heck, let’s try it this year.’ I just hope it works on race day, so I don’t look like an idiot on Monday.”

Olsman, who specializes in producing major live television events such as marathons, was initially hired by Channel 13 to produce the first L.A. Marathon coverage in 1986. He produced the first seven, and then came back for the last three, counting Sunday’s.

The race coverage is actually produced by Roggin Productions, a company formed by Roggin and Olsman in 1990 to produce the nationally syndicated “Roggin’s Heroes.” That show lasted 3 1/2 years.

Olsman and Roggin, listed as the executive producers of the L.A. Marathon coverage, hope this venture has a long run in more ways than one.

Short Waves

Good news for horse racing fans: This weekend, Channel 56 begins carrying “HorseRacing TV Live From Santa Anita” on Saturdays and Sundays, 4-5 p.m. It’s good timing, because Saturday’s feature is the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap.... Mark Cuban’s HDNet is offering Big ‘Cap coverage in high definition, beginning at 3 p.m. On subsequent Saturdays, HDNet will televise an HDNet five-week challenge from Santa Anita. The HDNet announcers are Kenny Rice and Chris McCarron.

NBC and the USA Network announced that, once the General Electric-Vivendi Universal merger closes, USA will become the cable outlet for U.S. Olympic trials. The two media giants agreed to merge in October. Olympic trials TV coverage is scheduled to begin May 22 with the weightlifting trials. The swimming trials begin July 7 in Long Beach, and the track and field trials begin July 9 in Sacramento. The Athens Games begin Aug. 13.

Barry LeBrock interviews Carson Palmer on tonight’s “Southern California Sports Report” on Fox Sports Net. Palmer will address such topics as his promotion to starting quarterback with the Cincinnati Bengals and the defection to the NFL of USC’s Mike Williams.

ESPN announced that Brad Nessler and Doc Rivers would team up on ESPN’s exclusive coverage of the NBA Eastern Conference finals. TNT has the Western Conference finals and ABC the finals. Rivers will be working with regular partner Al Michaels when ABC televises Sunday’s New Jersey Net-Laker game at Staples Center.

College football sideline reporter Jill Arrington has left CBS to join ESPN. Making nearly $110,000, she asked CBS for $200,000. CBS said no.

Avenger quarterback Tony Graziani will join Al Trautwig and Glenn Parker as a studio analyst during NBC’s Arena Football League coverage Sunday.... At halftime of the game between the San Jose SaberCats and the New York Dragons, NBC will show a preview of “NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience.” The game will be shown, delayed, at 3 p.m. because of Channel 4’s marathon coverage.... In Demand will begin offering a weekly high-definition Arena Football League telecast to digital cable subscribers March 13.

Radio News

Attention Dodger fans: The good news is, KFWB (980) is broadcasting every spring game this year. The bad news is, weekday broadcasts are being delayed until 7 p.m.... The Angels have a new Spanish-language station, KTNQ (1020). Ivan Lara returns for his seventh season with the Angels, and Jose Mota will be back for his third.

KMPC (1540) is now carrying NASCAR Nextel Cup races. This weekend’s stop is at Las Vegas.... All of UCLA’S Pac-10 women’s tournament games will be broadcast live on either KLAC (570) or XTRA (690/1150), beginning with Saturday night’s game against Arizona on KLAC. Dave Marcus and Michael Sondheimer will be the announcers.

In Closing

ESPN apparently is being sneaky in more ways than one with its “Sex and Sports” five-part “SportsCenter” series this week. For one thing, it’s a sneaky way to get away with showing scantily clad women. Also, according to what the New Orleans Hornets’ Baron Davis told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the network pulled a sneak attack on him.

“They lied to me, and I’m highly offended,” Davis said. “I only agreed to do the interview because they told me it was going to be a joke-type thing, poking fun at the stereotypes of athletes.”

Davis flippantly told ESPN that athletes visit strip clubs “two or three times per week.”

It was meant as a joke, but ESPN didn’t present it that way.