NCAA RATINGS ARE UP, AND THAT MAKES CBS HAPPY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993                   TAG: 9304030039
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long
NCAA RATINGS ARE UP, AND THAT MAKES CBS HAPPY
The bottom line on the NCAA Tournament?
CBS is paying the NCAA $131,850,000 this year, primarily for exclusive rights to the 63 games in the Division I men's basketball tournament. The network will devote more than 10 hours to college hoops today with a pair of Final Fours, beginning with the women's semifinals from Atlanta at noon.
Why is CBS smiling? Entering the men's Final Four telecast at 5:30 p.m., the network's NCAA Tournament coverage has drawn an 8.4 Nielsen rating, up 6 percent from last year's average through the region tournaments. That number should only increase because of the powerhouse Final Four of North Carolina-Kansas and Kentucky-Michigan.
What should viewers watch for today? How about marksmanship? Bob Fishman, who directs CBS Final Four telecasts, recalls teams having some shooting problems the last time the event was held at the Louisiana Superdome, in 1987.
"Depth perception can be a problem for the players, who aren't used to shooting in a dome," Fishman said. "You look up, and the space behind the backboard just goes on forever and ever and ever."
\ PLAY BALL! The glut of regular-season baseball telecasts - a fan's delight but one of the game's problems - begins Monday. It's Opening Day of the last season of four-year contracts with CBS and ESPN, which will pay the majors a combined $364 million in 1993.
Whatever networks buy the national rights for 1994 and beyond, ON THE AIR JACK BOGACZYK they won't be paying the $1.45 billion CBS and ESPN paid for the current deals. Baseball executives are expecting at least a 30 percent fall in rights fees, and the uncertainty about a possible lockout next season won't make the impending negotiations any easier.
All viewers care about, however, is what's on where and when. Here's the pitch:
CBS Sports (WDBJ, Channel 7) will air 16 regular-season Saturday games - the first April 17 - the All-Star Game on July 13 from Baltimore's Camden Yards, the National League and American League championship series and the World Series.
ESPN's national cable schedule remains at six games in prime time weekly, the only doubleheader on Friday. ESPN will televise Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Tuesday game will be from the west coast, and the Monday game moves to Tuesday evenings in August. ESPN's schedule begins Monday with Los Angeles-Florida at 2 p.m. and Philadelphia-Houston at 7:30.
Cable's TBS begins its 125-game Atlanta Braves schedule Monday at 2:05 p.m., when the defending NL champions visit the Chicago Cubs.
Chicago's WGN doubles again this season. Besides airing 140 Cubs games, the Chicago superstation will increase the White Sox schedule to 48 games.
New York's WWOR, available on some area cable systems, will show 75 New York Mets telecasts. That number is decreasing because the Mets have kept their TV rights in-house and are buying WWOR airtime for the rights.
Home Team Sports, the regional cable network that isn't available on enough area systems - Cox Cable Roanoke is the largest system in the HTS region that doesn't offer the network - has 85 Baltimore Orioles regular-season games, 70 from Camden Yards.
CBS Radio, in the third season of a four-year, $50 million contract, returns with its Saturday games and holiday broadcasts, beginning with Monday's Dodgers-Marlins opener. Roanoke's WFIR (960 AM) will carry one of the two CBS games each Saturday and will air Monday's opener. CBS has dropped Sunday night games.
\ TEE TIME: The first of the year's golf Grand Slam events, the Masters, gets its usual august treatment at Augusta National starting Thursday, when cable's USA Network and CBS Sports will combine for 9 1/2 hours of live coverage.
USA, recognizing that many who want to see the first two rounds are weekday workers, will repeat its 4-6 p.m. live Thursday and Friday shows those nights from 9-11. CBS will have 15-minute highlights shows those nights, too.
CBS, which is televising its 38th consecutive Masters, will have live third-round coverage next Saturday (3:30-6 p.m., WDBJ) and the final round next Sunday from 4-7 p.m., focusing primarily on the final nine holes. Jim Nantz, only a few days removed from calling the NCAA Final Four games, will be host of the shows from the Butler Cabin.
\ NEW BUSINESS: Pat Frizzell has resigned as a reporter and weekend sports anchor at WSLS (Channel 10) to start his own TV production business. Frizzell, 29, an Alexandria native and Oklahoma graduate, was at the Roanoke station for two years.
Frizzell said his firm, Via Video/Frizzell Productions, will open soon. He plans to do freelance work for ESPN and to produce athletic recruiting videos for colleges and corporate training videos. He left TV news "because the business is just too competitive," he said, and because "the chances of upward mobility in the [TV] business is minimal."
WSLS news director Bill Foy said Channel 10 is advertising the position and considering in-house candidates to replace Frizzell.
\ BOX OFFICE: The 13th anniversary of ESPN's "Top Rank Boxing" occurs Thursday at 9 p.m., with Roanoke resident Steve Pannell (12-0) making his telecast debut in a scheduled 10-round light heavyweight bout against Ernest Mateen of Brooklyn. Pannell will have a $3,500 payday at Resorts International in Atlantic City, N.J.
\ UVA TEARS: Virginia had a superb year in men's basketball, reaching the NCAA's Sweet 16, but the Cavaliers could do better on their radio network than analyst Terry Gates.
Gates, a former UVa player, lapses into criticism of the officiating far too often when the Cavaliers begin having problems. When Massachusetts began its futile rally in the Cavs' second-round NCAA win, Gates blamed the referees.
It was a recurring pattern during the season - the overtime win at William and Mary was another prime example - and Gates, who is offering much less keen analysis than he once did, is hurting his on-air credibility.
\ HOOPLA: In addition to its NCAA men's and women's Final Four telecasts over the next few days, CBS Sports will air the McDonald's All-America high school basketball game Sunday (1 p.m., WDBJ) from Memphis, Tenn. Oak Hill Academy stars and North Carolina signees Jerry Stackhouse and Jeff McInnis will play for the East team. . . . Radford's Doug Day will be shooting in ESPN's Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championship on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. . . . ESPN will add to its "Outside the Lines" series Tuesday at 9 p.m. with a one-hour special, "Days of Madness." The show, with host Bob Ley, will be a behind-the-scenes look at what happens at the Final Four this weekend in New Orleans.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB