Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That Saturday night, Channel 7 presents a first - live flag-to-flag race coverage. The Roanoke station will air 235 laps of racing from NRV Speedway, including the WDBJ 200, two 100-lap Late Model Stock races sandwiching a 35-lap Limited Sportsman race.
"It's a huge undertaking for us," said WDBJ sports director Mike Stevens, who will handle the race call with Jimmy Hensley, the Ridgeway driver who is available because Winston Cup has that weekend off. "We're using seven cameras and about 30 people to pull this off."
The show is scheduled from 9-11:30 p.m. It is during a ratings period, and WDBJ executives are interested to see how the event fares against other summer prime-time programming.
The speedway isn't getting a rights fee, just desired exposure. Track officials and WDBJ made plans for the show in February. Mike Bell, WDBJ's programming manager, said the station budgeted for the show last year and should break even on the production.
"I think the speedway figured this was a way to reach some fans they haven't," Bell said. "We cover racing, and this is something that adds to that. It's something we might want to develop, and we're slim on sports [because of CBS' loss of baseball and NFL rights]. We reached the point where we said, `Let's see if we can do it.' "
Stevens said if rain postpones Saturday night racing, WDBJ plans to go live the next afternoon starting at 2 p.m. In addition to Stevens and Hensley, sportscaster Steve Mason will work as a pit reporter, with weather forecaster Robin Reed providing color and interviews.
\ GETTING HARRY: Harry Caray would like to return to the Wrigley Field telecast booth Monday for the Cubs' doubleheader with Colorado, but WGN spokesman Jim Zerwekh said the Hall of Fame baseball voice may not be able to do that.
Caray, in his 50th year as a broadcaster, remained in a Chicago hospital Friday for treatment of a periodically rapid heart beat. He should should be hospitalized for a couple more days, said Dan Parker, a spokesman for Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Caray is also still recovering from a recent fall at Joe Robbie Stadium. Some reports have said Caray suffered a stroke or heart attack. Neither is true, Zerwekh said.
"The doctors will make the decision on when Harry will return," Zerwekh said. "He wants to travel with the team the remainder of the season, if he is able. The doctors will decide what's best."
On a Cubs telecast this month before Caray's mishap, analyst Steve Stone and Caray's alternating play-by-play man, Thom Brennaman, revealed the legendary Caray had asked WGN and the Cubs to allow him to work only home games next season.
Zerwekh said Caray, 77, had said before this season that he wanted to go on the road only one more year. "Next season is a long time away," Zerwekh said. Tribune Co. TV president Dennis FitzSimons has been quoted as saying Caray can work as long as he wants.
\ BIG BOOT: When ABC and ESPN paid $11 million to FIFA for U.S. telecast rights to the 1994 World Cup, some of the losing bidders laughed about the expenditure. It's become a great deal.
ABC got a 6.8 Nielsen rating for Sunday's U.S.-Romania game, a record audience of 6.33 million homes for a soccer telecast. By comparison, the weekend daytime NBA playoff games on NBC averaged a 6.6 and the weekend daytime NCAA Tournament games an 8.4.
The record was a 6.6 rating for the World Cup final in 1982, Italy-West Germany. ABC's four first-round games averaged a 4.8 rating, above the network's expected 4.0-4.5.
For the U.S. victory over Colombia on June 22, ESPN's cable rating was a 4.3, or 2.7 million homes. How often does ESPN reach a 4.3? Only NFL games regularly top that. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals did a 5.2 rating, the only NHL playoff game over 4.3 this year. ESPN has had only one baseball game reach a 4 this year, the St. Louis-Cincinnati Sunday night opener (4.1).
ABC figures to have another large audience Monday for the United States' second round date with Brazil (3:30 p.m., WSET). ABC flip-flopped airtimes with its Capital Cities sister network, so ESPN will air the Netherlands-Ireland game Monday at noon.
\ IN YOUR BACKYARD: Radford coach Ron Bradley, seeking to nudge his basketball program to a higher level, has discussed a series with DePaul that could start in 1995-96 and include WGN telecasts. Bradley is willing to sign a four- or five-year deal, with all but one game in Chicago, to get the TV time. . . . The kickoff for the Nov. 12 Oyster Bowl in Norfolk has been pushed back to 3:30 p.m., so The Citadel-VMI game can be televised by cable's Prime Network, which includes Home Team Sports. . . . Clemson's football visit to Virginia on Sept. 17 is scheduled for a noon kickoff on the ACC telecast network, which returns to Lynchburg's WSET. . . . VMI's new basketball coach, Bart Bellairs, is hopeful of landing a TV show, to air about four times during next season. . . . After the season opener on WSLS (Channel 10), Fox Network affiliate WJPR/WFXR (Channels 21 and 27) gets 14 of the last 15 Washington Redskins' game telecasts this season. The other is on cable's TNT. . . . WJPR/WFXR will air a half-hour special on next week's Caremark International Soccer Tournament in Roanoke, on Sunday, July 10 at 8:30 a.m.
\ AROUND THE DIAL: The first "All-Star Team Selection Show" from The Baseball Network will air on NBC Sunday (5 p.m., WSLS). Bob Costas will host the one-hour show, during which both 28-man teams for the July 12 game in Pittsburgh will be announced. . . . The Baseball Network's first two prime-time dates have been regionally mapped. The ABC games in Roanoke-Lynchburg are Baltimore-California on July 16 and Atlanta-Pittsburgh on July 18. . . . NBC begins its summer-long coverage of Association of Volleyball Professional events Sunday (3:30 p.m., WSLS) from Manhattan Beach, Calif. The network will air more than 20 hours from 17 AVP dates. . . . The Washington Warthogs, the newest members of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, have a Monday night taped telecast schedule on Home Team Sports through Aug. 29. . . . CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer says that if the "NBA should ever make a move to four-on-four basketball, now is the time to take away from all of the mugging inside. The most important people at an NBA game are the referees. They are more important than the players and coaches. Everything depends on their interpretation of the rules."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB