Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991 TAG: 9104130070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Meyers, who has developed into a man for all seasons, will have a large presence on NBC today. Through the magic of television, he will call the Grand Prix of Miami, then do NBA courtside reports in Portland on the Lakers-Trail Blazers telecast (3 p.m., WSLS).
Meyers can do this because he is talented and versatile and the Miami race is on tape (preempted on Channel 10). On Friday afternoon, Meyers called the Dodgers-Padres baseball telecast for SportsChannel in Los Angeles. On Sunday, he will work an NBA game for NBC in Phoenix.
A good reporter is honest, however. So, Meyers doesn't hesitate to say he'd rather be at Augusta National or watching the Masters on CBS this weekend. Since Meyers started working golf telecasts for NBC, the sport has become his passion.
"There's nothing like being able to get away for those three or four hours and play," Meyers said. "I played before, but now I'm playing golf with a sense of purpose. I know more about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I used to break 100. Now, I play what I'd call `respectable golf.' I'm in the 80s."
In case you don't know recognize Meyers, he's the guy with the great voice and tan, but no socks.
"Only in dire moments do I don the socks," Meyers said. "Growing up in the St. Louis suburbs, wearing moccasins and Topsiders was a way of life. You can't wear socks with those, right?"
Meyers, 36, a Missouri graduate who previously worked for KMOX, CBS and Mutual Radio, made his network debut in August 1989 when he was hired by NBC to handle NFL play-by-play.
Meyers called six years of UCLA football and basketball broadcasts before joining NBC. He showed immediately that he didn't have cold feet when he was paired with analyst Paul Maguire, whose work could stand up on "NFL Live" or "Saturday Night Live."
In 1 1/2 years, Meyers has tackled football, basketball, auto racing, diving and golf for NBC. An Olympics assignment next year will add to his resume.
"I've always been a baseball, football, basketball guy," Meyers said. "I still am that, primarily, but if you're going to work for a network, you have to do more. They know what I can do. I have plenty of time."
Meyers calls working the NBC golf beat "a religious experience." That's why, while he is working this weekend, a friend will tape the Masters shows. Meyers was the USA Network's Masters host three years ago.
"I can't wait to see the Masters," said Meyers, who likely will be inspired to play his weekly round - sans socks, of course.
\ You may have noticed a difference in ESPN's baseball coverage the first two days of the season. Unlike last year, the cable network didn't switch to a backup game when its primary telecast was in a rain delay. When rain halts an ESPN telecast game this season, viewers will see more studio updates, interviews and, if the delay is lengthy, taped programming.
The reason: Major-league baseball does not allow ESPN to televise a non-exclusive ESPN game into a team's local market.
ESPN used three game feeds when needed in 1990, and now, after using the third feed an average of only seven times in its first season and the "dummy" planning year of 1989, has cut back to two feeds. The third feed only was used in 1990 to protect teams' local markets during a rain delay.
Using Tuesday as an example, ESPN could not switch its backup Toronto-Boston game to a national audience when Montreal-Pittsburgh was stopped by rain because the American League game would be beamed into New England, which is the Red Sox's TV territory.
If this had occurred last year, the Montreal-Pittsburgh audience would have gotten Toronto-Boston. The New England audience would have been switched to another game ESPN picked off the satellite, perhaps a Braves' telecast from WTBS.
ESPN lost $20 million televising baseball last season. Network spokesman Mike Soltys said money was a factor in the decision not to use a third feed, but a larger issue was the difficult logistics of feeding another telecast for a small audience on a limited number of occasions.
It is the same baseball telecast rule that keeps ESPN from showing a Tuesday or Friday night Baltimore game in the Orioles' region, which includes Virginia.
\ Pay-per-view cable's growth will enjoy another spurt Friday when TVKO, Time Warner Sports' new venture, makes its debut as Evander Holyfield defends his undisputed heavyweight title against George Foreman. The scheduled 12-rounder from Atlantic City, N.J., will be the first of TVKO's planned monthly boxing programs.
Holyfield-Foreman potentially is available in 17 million U.S. homes with addressable converters. Cox Cable Roanoke and Salem Cable TV are selling the three-hour, three-bout show for $35.95. A record number of pay-per-view "buys" are expected by Time Warner Sports, which is a sister operation to cable's longtime boxing venue, Home Box Office.
The pay-per-view buys record for boxing was 1.06 million homes for Holyfield's title victory over Buster Douglas six months ago. TVKO officials are expecting about 2 million homes to purchase Holyfield-Foreman.
Last month's Mike Tyson-Razor Ruddock bout was bought by 550 Cox-Roanoke homes and 130 Salem subscribers. Another 250 watched the closed-circuit show at the Salem Civic Center. There is no closed-circuit show of Holyfield-Foreman, which should crunch Tyson-Ruddock in area home buys.
\ ON THE AIR: Tennessee's overtime victory over Virginia in the NCAA women's basketball championship game drew a record 5.2 rating on CBS, a 41 percent rise from last year. . . . Al McGuire, whose visibility was limited with NBC Sports' severe cutback of college basketball, gets an NBA gig Sunday when he works the Celtics-Knicks game with Don Criqui. Count on Al referring to the "Nick-a-bahkas" more than once. . . . UCLA and Indiana will start next basketball season in the Hall of Fame Tipoff Game in late November on ESPN.
by CNB