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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994                   TAG: 9409070068
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WDBJ SWITCHES TO ABC, BUT ONLY FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL

It may seem confusing when an ABC production is aired on a CBS affiliate, but when something like that happens, it's usually good news for viewers.

So it will be this college football season when WDBJ (channel 7) delivers the noon ABC college football telecasts that WSET (channel 13) has to pre-empt for the Atlantic Coast Conference package In recent years, WJPR/WFXR has aired these noon CFA games.

WDBJ will pick up five ABC games, including the Michigan-Ohio State national telecast on Nov. 19. Included is a 3:30 p.m. game on Nov. 12, because the ACC moved its games into that time period to avoid going head-to-head with Notre Dame-Florida State at noon.

Because ABC always has aired a strong noontime schedule against the regional conference packages, the games WDBJ could air - CFA selections aren't finalized until 12 days before kickoff - figure to be impressive. Among the possibilities are Notre Dame-Boston College or Clemson-Georgia (Oct. 8), Alabama-Tennessee or Ohio State-Michigan State (Oct. 15) and Georgia-Florida or Wisconsin-Michigan on Oct. 29.

HAPPY 15TH: ESPN celebrates its 15th aniversary Wednesday with a special crew of anchors for the 11 p.m. SportsCenter. Chris Berman, Bob Ley and Tom Mees, all of whom have been with the cable network since it signed on Sept. 7, 1979, will take over what usually is the Dan Patrick-Keith Olbermann show.

They last anchored together on Dec. 2, 1988, which was the 10,000th SportsCenter telecast. ESPN has compiled a chart on how the sports world has grown since the network - which ranks first in cable subscribers - signed on. One of the categories is ``newspaper TV sportswriters.'' There were approximately 15 in 1979, including yours truly. There are approximately 130 today, including yours truly.

ICEMEN: The National Hockey League season opens Oct. 1, and ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise about 100 games in the regular season. The ESPN opener is Philadelphia-Florida on Oct. 4. Most of the games will air on Friday nights. The networks will carry virtually every playoff game, with the Stanley Cup Finals among the 37 on ESPN.

ACC on HTS: Cable's Home Team Sports begins its ``ACC Sports Sunday'' series Sunday at 7 p.m. with a two-hour special, on which the football analyst will be former North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest coach Bill Dooley. The show includes football, soccer, field hockey, volleyball and cross country. The weekly version of ACC Sports Sunday begins Sept. 25, and HTS also has live coverage of several ACC championship games, including women's basketball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer throughout the school year.

SCHOOL DAYS: There again will be two Roanoke Valley radio stations airing high school football games this season. WJLM (93.5 FM) will carry all of Salem High's games, as it has in recent years. WROV (1240) will feature Roanoke Valley and Blue Ridge District games in a schedule that opens next Friday with Magna Vista-Patrick Henry. On Sept. 16, sports director Jim Carroll will choose between Northside-Rockbridge and Patrick Henry-Salem. The WROV football plans include 40 minutes of pregame coverage, including interviews with that night's opposing coaches.

AROUND THE DIAL: ABC Sports has switched tonight's college football telecast for Roanoke-Lynchburg from Northwestern-Notre Dame to Tennessee-UCLA (8 p.m., WSET). ... Boston College-Michigan is the pay-per-view offering from ABC and ESPN at 3:30 p.m. today on local cable systems. ... WSLS (Channel 10) has started its weekly ``Name the Game'' toll-free phone vote for viewer-selected NFL telecasts. The first choice is for the 1 p.m. game on Sept. 11 - Miami-Green Bay or Pittsburgh-Cleveland. ... ESPN will put retired New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms to work with former Philadelphia QB Ron Jaworski as X-ing and O-ing analysts on the new ``NFL Sunday Matchup,'' airing weekly in a late-night Friday or Saturday time slot and again at 9:30 a.m. Sundays. ... WSLS (Channel 10) will air only the last half of NBC's special one-hour ``NFL Live'' pregame show Sunday, because the ``Inside Virginia Tech'' weekly football show makes its season debut at noon. ... Strike or not, ESPN has a Labor Day baseball doubleheader, with Reading-Portland from the Class AA Eastern League at 1 p.m., and Omaha-New Orleans from the Class AAA American Association at 9.

by CNB