Feuer Is Happy to Be Back Where His Career Started

Tom Feuer was fresh out of UCLA when he got his first full-time job at Prime Ticket on Dec. 15, 1985, as the new regional sports network’s first publicist.

On Dec. 15, 2005, he will return to the 20-year-old network that is now FSN West and FSN West 2. Feuer, 43, this week was named the executive producer, a role in which he will oversee all production.

So how thankful is he?

“It’s through the moon,” he said.

Feuer replaces Mike Connelly, who has been promoted to vice president and general manager of FSN Arizona.

The hiring of Feuer by FSN West vice president and general manager Steve Simpson appears to be a great move. There are few people anywhere who know more about sports than Feuer, and he has a reputation of being a tireless worker and an all-around good guy.

A Southern California native who attended Palisades High, Feuer is coming back to his roots after being based in Seattle for the last three years, where he was executive producer of FSN Northwest.

His emphasis at FSN Northwest was on local coverage.

“I think my philosophy about local coverage was a key reason I got hired,” Feuer said.

Since 1988, he has taken time off his regular jobs to work on NBC’s Olympic coverage, mainly as a track-and-field producer, although twice he was in charge of the website, nbcolympics.com. At Athens in 2004, he worked as a field producer and play-by-play announcer, calling the race-walking events with commentator Marty Liquori.

“That was a dream come true, announcing an Olympic event,” Feuer said.

Even if it was race walking, which Olympic host Bob Costas referred to as a competition comparable to seeing who can whisper the loudest.

Feuer’s desire to be involved in the Olympics was the reason he left Prime Ticket in the summer of 1988. He wanted time off to work for NBC at Seoul but didn’t get it.

Feuer went on to work at ESPN and Turner Sports, and now he is returning home.

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Ratings Game

Even though it ended well after 2 a.m. in the East, the 50-42 shootout between USC and Fresno State on Saturday night earned a 2.7 national rating on FSN’s 20 regional networks.

It was seen in 2.1 million homes and had a viewing audience of 2.8 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research. The rating was the second-highest in FSN history, behind only a 3.0 for a Nebraska-Kansas State game in 2000.

In Los Angeles, the FSN West 2 telecast got a 7.5 rating and was seen in 424,688 homes. That made it the highest-rated show on TV in L.A. on Saturday and the highest-rated event ever on FSN West 2.

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McDonnell Update

Joe McDonnell, who was let go by all-sports radio station 710 in October, has not yet landed a job, but here’s some news: He is engaged to be married sometime next year to Elizabeth Cahn, an administrative assistant at 95.5 FM, a sister station of 710.

Doug Krikorian, McDonnell’s longtime radio partner, said, “The worst thing about local sports talk radio these days is that Joe McDonnell is not a part of it. The best thing is that I’m not either.”