Lakers Might Take Their Time to Fill Radio Job

It’s official: Joel Meyers will move from radio to take Paul Sunderland’s spot as the television play-by-play announcer for the Lakers. The expected announcement was made Thursday.

But Meyers’ replacement on radio might not be announced until the end of the month.

Among the half-dozen or so finalists for the radio job is Spero Dedes, 26, a versatile anchor for NBA TV. Dedes has done play-by-play on first-round playoff games for NBA TV, and college and pro basketball for the YES Network in New York. Dedes is a graduate of Fordham, the school that produced Vin Scully.

Another finalist is said to be Matt Pinto, who has done radio and TV play-by-play for the Dallas Mavericks the last eight seasons. Brian Wheeler of the Portland Trail Blazers is considered a longshot, even though KMPC’s Tony Bruno recently said he was a lock for the job.

The Lakers have yet to re-sign commentator Stu Lantz, but that is expected once executive vice president Frank Mariani returns from a trip. Mariani is vacationing with Laker owner Jerry Buss.

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Ratings Game

The national rating for Game 3 of the NBA Finals was a 7.2, but the L.A. rating was a 9.6. L.A. ranked fifth among markets outside Texas and the Detroit area.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and Pistons last year got a national rating of 10.5.

Fox is averaging a 2.7 national rating after four weeks of Saturday baseball telecasts, up 23% from this juncture last year. The gain is the highest one-year increase since Fox has been televising baseball.

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Unusual Enticement

NBC signed John Madden this week to work in its Sunday night football booth beginning in 2006. NBC also pursued him in 1994, before Rupert Murdoch signed him for his fledgling Fox network for a then-astonishing $8 million a year.

“I believe we came within about 12 hours of concluding what would have been one of the most unusual deals in the history of television, if not the most unusual,” NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol said this week.

He said Jack Welch, then the chairman of NBC parent company General Electric, wanted to offer Madden, who has an aversion to flying, his own locomotive and his own parlor car.

“That’s how John was going to travel the country during the football season,” Ebersol said. “Mr. Murdoch, however, came along, made a visit to Fort Knox and put an amount of money on the deal which changed the course of history.”

At least it changed Madden’s mode of travel. Madden’s choice of a bus led to the creation of the Maddencruiser.

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Tossed Golf

Tommy Roy, the executive producer of NBC Sports who is also the network’s golf producer, said of the greens for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst: “If you really want to get a good idea of what these greens are like, go get a salad bowl out of the cabinet and turn it upside down.”

Of viewers at home watching the pros struggle at Pinehurst, NBC commentator Roger Maltbie said, “They don’t mind seeing the pros getting a little bloodied up once a year, watching them go through what golf feels like for them on a weekly basis.”

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Short Waves

“DodgerTalk” host A Martinez will make his debut as a game commentator today and Saturday, working alongside Rick Monday on radio when the Dodgers play the Chicago White Sox. Martinez will fill in for Steve Lyons, who will be working Saturday’s Florida Marlin-Angel game for the Fox network. Martinez, whose given name is George, got the nickname “A” from Steve Mason when Martinez was an intern at XTRA in San Diego. Mason could never remember his name, so he would just say, “Hey, Martinez.”

Dennis Gilbert, a former baseball agent who is now a special assistant to White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, will be a guest on the KFWB Dodger postgame show tonight. Gilbert represented some of the biggest names in baseball when he was an agent.

An interview that FSN West’s Lindsay Soto taped with Jamie McCourt will be shown on the “Southern California Sports Report” on Tuesday night. ... The second series of the season between the Dodgers and Angels will be June 24-26 at Anaheim, with every game to be televised by FSN West 2 and Angel flagship Channel 9. But FSN West will offer Angel pregame shows during the series, as well as Dodger pregame shows on FSN West 2. That will be a first.

A replay of Mike Tyson’s loss to Kevin McBride will be replayed on Showtime on Saturday at 9 p.m.

Recommended viewing: “Making the Cut” on HBO Saturday at 9:30 p.m. follows golf enthusiasts Ray Romano and Kevin James as they try to make the cut at this year’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. ... Jennifer Allen, the daughter of the late George Allen, has done a feature on New England Patriot Coach Bill Belichick and his daughter Amanda that will air on NFL Network’s “Total Access” today at 4, 7 and 10 p.m.

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In Closing

The best line of the NBA Finals so far came from Al Michaels when he said, “The San Antonio River runs right through downtown San Antonio.” Michaels was a fan of the late Jim Healy, who loved to play the tape of Ed “Superfan” Bieler messing up by saying, “The San Antonio River runs right through the heart of downtown Los Angeles.”