Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992 TAG: 9202290153
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
DEAL BRINGS BIG CHANGE TO REDSKINS RADIO
Washington Redskins fans love to turn down the volume on NFL telecasts and listen to Sonny, Sam and Frank on the Redskins' radio network.However, the club's broadcasts may be Sonny-less next season.
The Redskins severed their 44-year tie with flagship station WMAL (630 AM) this week and signed a two-year contract for $3.5 million annually with WTEM (570 AM), which in April will become the first all-sports station in the nation's capital.
Sonny Jurgensen has one year remaining on his WMAL contract, however, and station manager Tom Bresnahan says Jurgensen will do Redskins pregame and postgame work but won't be released from his contract. Frank Herzog and Sam Huff, who have worked with Jurgensen on Redskins broadcasts for a decade, have expired contracts with WMAL.
"We spent 10 years developing and promoting this [announcing] team at our time and expense," WMAL operations manager Jim Gallant told The Washington Post. "We can hardly be expected to hand over what we've had so much success with to another radio station."
WTEM intends to continue selling Redskins rights to stations throughout Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. WMAL carried Redskins games from 1942-1956 and since 1963. WMAL paid the Redskins $8 million over the past three years and had offered a slight increase.
\ Today, coach Debbie Ryan's top-ranked Virginia team gets the kind of shot women's basketball needs more often.
The Cavaliers visit North Carolina State for a game televised nationally on CBS (2 p.m., WDBJ Channel 7). It's only the third live women's basketball telecast this season on the NCAA's network, and the only one that won't have competition for viewers from NFL playoff games.
"It's great for the game and I just hope it's a good game for people to watch," Ryan said. "There aren't many chances like this, and when we have those chances we want people to like what they see. We're getting more and more support in our arenas. Getting more live TV is the next step."
Last season, UVa won at N.C. State 123-120 in triple overtime in a game regarded by the sport's observers as perhaps the greatest game in history.
"That game was televised [on Home Team Sports] and it was tremendous for us," Ryan said. "I think the sport is on its way. . . . We've had games on tape [against Connecticut on ESPN last week], but that's not like having it live. I think live television is the next logical step for women's basketball."
Ryan also has an idea how to fit live women's telecasts into the glut of college basketball that's already televised.
"We're saturated with men's games, and there are games involving teams at the bottom of their leagues that really aren't very good games," Ryan said. "It would be great if you could put a good women's matchup in those spots."
\ A political basketball?
Since Mac McCadden is Radford University's radio basketball analyst and the Highlanders' games are broadcast in Roanoke and McCadden is a Republican candidate for Roanoke City Council, does Radford have to give equal airtime to the Democratic candidates?
\ After a six-month run, "It's Your Call" ends Sunday on WSLC (610 AM).
The 7-8 p.m. call-in show, a cooperative effort of the radio station and this newspaper's sports staff, could return in late summer. A decision on the show's future will be made in coming months.
Host Bill Roth and the newspaper's sportswriters have enjoyed doing the show, and WSLC general manager Herm Reavis is solidly behind the program. However, a lack of callers despite varying the show's topics has become frustrating - and may again say something about the sports apathy in the Roanoke Valley.
\ It's no surprise that Al McGuire, who worked his last NBC college basketball telecast last Saturday, will join CBS Sports for its coverage of the NCAA Tournament. McGuire is one of eight early round analysts on the network's exclusive NCAA coverage.
McGuire will work two prime-time first-round and two second-round games with Dick Stockton. Greg Kelser and Stockton will work two daytime first-round games.
CBS has paired Staunton's Dan Bonner, the former Virginia forward who calls ACC and ESPN telecasts, with play-by-play man Mel Proctor, known best for his Home Team Sports work on Baltimore baseball. Other early round teams are James Brown-Bill Raftery, Greg Gumbel-Quinn Buckner, Verne Lundquist-Len Elmore, Sean McDonough-Bill Walton, Tim Ryan-Digger Phelps and Brad Nessler-Ann Meyers.
Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, the lead CBS game-calling team, will have studio duties during the first two NCAA rounds before getting a regional spot leading to the Final Four assignment. CBS Sports executive producer Ted Shaker said the network won't repeat history by putting Packer and McGuire, who shared the analyst role on NBC from 1978-81, together at courtside with Nantz.
\ AIRINGS: CBS finished with an average 18.7 Nielsen rating for its prime-time Winter Olympics telecasts, 10 percent above the 17.0 promised advertisers. The network - surprisingly - broke even on the Albertville Games, with a $243 million rights fee and $70 million in production costs. A $50 million loss had been projected. . . . If you watched the U.S.-Unified Team Olympic hockey telecast at your office or during your lunch hour eight days ago, you weren't alone. Of the 11.6 million estimated sets tuned to the game, 3.04 million were out-of-home locations. . . . It's unlikely area viewers will be able to watch noontime Southeastern Conference football games the next four years. The SEC, after eight years with Turner's WTBS on cable, will have its early Saturday telecast package syndicated through the SEC region by Jefferson Pilot Sports. There is no assurance the games will be aired in Virginia.