Laker Youth Movement Hits the Radio Booth

The Lakers’ youth movement continues. On the day their 17-year-old first-round draft pick was introduced to the media, the team and flagship radio station XTRA Sports 570 announced that they had hired a 26-year-old play-by-play announcer.

He is Spero Dedes, who comes from NBA TV.

Team and radio station officials had said they were looking for someone with at least five years of NBA play-by-play experience to replace Joel Meyers, who moved to TV.

But Dedes, comparatively speaking, has little play-by-play experience. He was mainly a studio host at NBA TV. Five years ago, he was still in college. He is a 2001 graduate of Fordham University, the New York school that produced Vin Scully.

Don Martin, XTRA’s general manager, believes they may have found a real gem in Dedes.

“Spero is someone who could be in this job for 40 years,” Martin said. “He is that good. When I met him, he blew my doors off. He is the complete package.”

Dedes arrived in L.A. Thursday morning, stopped off at XTRA to join Steve Hartman and his new Laker broadcast partner, Mychal Thompson, went to the Lakers’ afternoon news conference for draft pick Andrew Bynum, then planned to do some house hunting.

A native of Paramus, N.J., who now has a home in nearby Hackensack, Dedes may be in for a rude awakening when he sees the real estate prices here.

But he’ll be making more than $200,000 a year with the Lakers.

Dedes began his broadcasting career at New York’s WFAN and also in 2001 did radio play-by-play for the Arena Football League’s New Jersey Gladiators. He has done play-by-play for the YES Network, field hockey play-by-play for NBC at the 2004 Olympics and NBA play-by-play on first-round playoff games for NBA TV.

“You hear about these jobs, so I thought I’d throw my name in the hat,” Dedes said. “I never dreamed I’d get the job. It’s surreal.”

Sunderland Update

Paul Sunderland, whose contract was not renewed after three-plus seasons as the Lakers’ TV play-by-play announcer, said he is hoping to find another NBA announcing job.

One possibility might be the Clipper radio play-by-play job formerly held by Mel Proctor, who is an announcer with the Washington Nationals. The Clipper job involves about 65 games a season, when Ralph Lawler is doing television.

There is a slim possibility Proctor could be back with the Clippers, pending his status with the Nationals.

But more than likely there will be an opening.

The problem for Sunderland might be salary. He was making more than $300,000 with the Lakers.

The Clipper job pays about $75,000.

“The Clippers are a young and vibrant team, and I’d be interested in talking to them,” Sunderland said.

Vitale Shoots Back

Dick Vitale, in an e-mail, said, “Hey, baby, Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said on radio that analysts are on TV to make noise. He said I was misinformed concerning international players.... The bottom line is the numbers don’t lie. I don’t feel that there have been very many impact players among international players over the past three years. This is more than just an opinion. This is fact.”

Short Waves

NBC, which begins its share of the NASCAR season with the Pepsi 400 at Daytona on Saturday at 4 p.m., has made a change in its broadcast booth, with Allen Bestwick and Bill Weber swapping assignments.

Bestwick goes from play-by-play to lead pit reporter, and Weber, who remains the pre-race host, will now handle the play-by-play. Bestwick missed two races last year after breaking a leg in a hockey game, and Weber was so impressive filling in, NBC producer Sam Flood decided to put him in the booth.

Weber, speaking from Daytona on Thursday, said after they were told of the change in December, Bestwick handled it professionally, and even called to offer his assistance. “He’s still got a great job down there in the pits -- he gets to talk to the winner right after the race,” Weber said. “It’s like moving from shortstop to third base. It’s a different position, but it’s still baseball.” ...

Wimbledon coverage this week has infuriated West Coast tennis fans. For one thing, it’s delayed three hours on NBC, yet live on ESPN2, which creates all kinds of problems. The West Coast gets three fewer hours on ESPN2 than the rest of the country because ESPN2 can’t cut into NBC’s exclusive window. And ESPN2’s coverage is on when few can see it....

In contrast to Wimbledon, there will be almost round-the-clock coverage of the Tour de France on OLN, formerly the Outdoor Life Network. Beginning Saturday, there will be more than 300 hours over the 23 days, counting all the replays.

In Closing

She may be a longshot, but word is Lisa Guerrero is among the hordes who have applied for an NFL sideline reporting job with NBC.