Marathon Coverage Evolves in the Long Run

Producing the television coverage of a marathon can be about as difficult as running in one. Phil Olsman, who will be producing Channel 4’s coverage of the 20th L.A. Marathon on Sunday, can attest to that.

“You could say covering a marathon is like covering a football game,” he said, “except we’re dealing with 25,000 players on a field more than 26 miles long.”

Olsman recalls how coverage of the first L.A. Marathon in 1986 almost didn’t get off the ground -- literally.

Helicopters are essential to the coverage of a marathon because they are used to transmit signals. Olsman will use six for that purpose Sunday.

He had three at his disposal in 1986. The plan was for them to take off from Van Nuys Airport, but because of fog in the San Fernando Valley, the helicopters spent the night before the race at Santa Monica Airport.

Olsman got word from one of the pilots on race day at 6 a.m., the scheduled departure time, that Santa Monica police were not going to let the helicopters take off because of noise abatement laws.

“I told him to take off anyway, we’ll pay the fine,” Olsman said. “The next call I got was to inform me that the police, with guns drawn, were determined not to let those helicopters take off.

“We had to call the Santa Monica city manager to get those helicopters in the air. They got into position just minutes before we went on the air.”

This will be Olsman’s 11th L.A. Marathon. He was the producer for the first seven on Channel 13, and in his second stint has done the last four. It was on Channel 9 in 2002, and has been on Channel 4 since.

Olsman had a crew of about 40 for the first L.A. Marathon telecast. There will be a crew of about 120 working Sunday.

Channel 4’s announcing crew will be the same as last year. Toni Reavis, who has worked every L.A. Marathon telecast, and Fred Roggin will serve as co-hosts. Joining them on a specially constructed stage at the start-finish line, as she did last year, will be former U.S. Olympic marathoner Nancy Ditz.

Ed Eyestone, another former Olympic marathoner who was added last year as a course reporter for the men’s elite race, returns. Kathrine Switzer will again focus on the women’s elite race. Bob Molinatti will report on the wheelchair races.

Most of Channel 4’s regular news reporters also will be on hand.

The coverage on Channel 4 and Spanish-language sister station Channel 52 begins at 7:30 a.m. The coverage will run 3 1/2 hours on Channel 4 and four hours on Channel 52. The coverage also will be available at www.nbc4.tv.

ESPN Takes U Turn

ESPNU, the college sports network that is launching today with as much fanfare as ESPN can generate, will be available only in DirecTV homes that get the satellite service’s sports package and in Adelphia homes that have digital cable. That amounts to only 3 million homes nationally.

In other words, the launching of ESPNU will have about as much effect on the American sports viewing public as the cancellation of the NHL season, which is next to nothing.

Short Waves

The History Channel and the NBA are involved in a season-long “Hardwood Classics Nights” promotion leading up to the premiere showing of “NBA’s Top Ten Greatest” on April 21 at 5 p.m. The top 10 NBA moments, matchups, moves, etc., are being determined through fan voting at www.thehistorychannel.com. The voting ends March 15. As part of the promotion, the Lakers will be wearing their classic 1959-60 powder-blue jerseys tonight when they play the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center. Also, Bill Sharman, coach of the Lakers’ 1971-72 championship team, will be honored at halftime.

NBA TV recently discovered tapes from a number of 1960s classic games and will show highlights from 11 of them beginning Saturday at 8 a.m. with the second half of Game 7 of the 1962 NBA Finals involving the Lakers and Boston Celtics. Seven of the 11 games involve the Lakers and Celtics.

The Santa Catalina Stakes, being run as the fifth race at Santa Anita on Saturday, will be televised by ABC as part of a one-hour racing show at 2 p.m. The Santa Anita Handicap, being run as the 10th race, will be televised only on HorseRacingTV and HDNet.... Eddie Delahoussaye, who is being honored Saturday at Santa Anita, will be a guest on Jay Privman’s “Thoroughbred Digest” radio show on 1540 Saturday at 8 a.m. and also a guest on “Thoroughbred Los Angeles” with Mike Willman and Kurt Hoover Saturday at 9 a.m. on 710.

The NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 at California Speedway in Fontana on Sunday generated a 7.9 rating and drew 12.7 million viewers. The 7.9 is the second-highest rating for a NASCAR race on Fox other than the Daytona 500. The only higher rating was a 7.9 for Rockingham in 2001, a week after Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona.

It was reported in this space last week that FSN has dropped “Totally Football,” but it is only on hiatus. A network spokesman said the show will be back next season.... ESPN is close to finalizing a deal to hire Eric Karros as a baseball commentator.... Showtime, using boxing to help draw viewers to a free preview weekend, will televise, delayed, a fight card from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Saturday night at 10:45. Showtime also offers boxing tonight at 11.

In Closing

ESPN is known for its over-the-top self-promotion, but TNT is going to new heights in this area. The mugs of Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson are going to be painted on a Southwest Airlines plane.