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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994                   TAG: 9407230019
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAck Bogaczyk
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

AREA'S 2-HEADED FOX EYES NEW AUDIENCE WITH NFL COVERAGE

The two-headed Fox Network affiliate will be the only place to find Pat Summerall and John Madden calling NFL games this season. And what that means is more new viewers will find the Roanoke (Channel 27) and Lynchburg (Channel 21) station than ever before.

Yes, the station that has brought you Bart Simpson, Al Bundy and Dave Ross - and not necessarily in that order - will be airing the NFL's National Conference package, which has moved from CBS with a four-year, $1.58 billion contract.

WJPR/WFXR - it bills itself Fox 21/Fox 27 - has improved its signal in recent months. It is running promotional contests with tickets to Washington Redskins preseason games as prizes. And in October the station will run a contest to award a long-distance trip to a Redskins game.

"We know that people who haven't watched us before are going to find us because of the NFL," said Stan Marinoff, WJPR/WFXR's vice president and general manager. "This really changes the game for us."

Fox won't change the game in the NFL. It can't, and it wouldn't dare turn off longtime viewers. The network will, however, give the game a new look - starting with 12 cameras on every regional game. That's "Monday Night Football" and playoff treatment.

Madden and Summerall may be the No. 1 announcing team, but Fox's wish to reach a new generation of viewers has an appropriate start in the booth. Three of the play-by-play voices are Kenny Albert (Marv's son), Thom Brennaman (Marty's son) and Joe Buck (Jack's son).

It also means WJPR/WFXR has nine minutes of advertising to sell in every NFL game. It may be a high-priced spread, but the two-signaled station probably is going to find out just how lucrative having rights to the highest-rated perennial sports TV package can be.

We're talking a different zip code than "Beverly Hills 90210." This is Cowboys, Redskins, Eagles, Buddy Ryan and other Giants. This is a new audience.

\ SMART MOVE: Here's another reason the ACC is among the leaders in conference television.

For years, College Football Association conference TV packages have aired games at noon. In recent years, the first games of ABC doubleheaders have intruded on that time period, mostly with blockbuster matchups.

When ACC football syndicator Jefferson-Pilot Sports saw ABC had this year's Notre Dame-Florida State game at noon, it asked the ACC to seek permission from the CFA to move the conference game of the week to 3:30 p.m., against ABC's regional schedule.

The CFA agreed, so on Nov. 12, J-P will air Maryland-Virginia or Georgia Tech-Clemson at 3:30 instead of foolishly trying to butt helmets with the big game at Orlando's Citrus Bowl. It also means ABC affiliates with the ACC package, including Lynchburg's WSET, won't have to pre-empt Notre Dame-Florida State or lose it to a competing station.

\ NEW PITCH: For all the hoopla about The Baseball Network - and JACK BOGACZYK ratings, predictably, were improved for the first two games over the dismal Nielsens CBS had gotten in recent years - there's nothing special about the new presentation.

ABC's first two games averaged a 7.4 Nielsen rating. That figured to happen, because with 14 regional telecasts, the network is airing games back into the local clubs' markets. The next game in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market is Montreal-Atlanta on Monday (8 p.m., WSET).

Most viewers would rather watch the Braves on TBS, however, and have the addition of a daytime Cubs game on WGN, instead of having The Baseball Network take all all games in one exclusive time period.

The club owners, who had been getting more than $13 million annually from network baseball from 1990-93, now receive payments in the $5 million range. And more fans will scream when the first two rounds of the postseason are presented on a regional basis.

In a market of split loyalties such as Roanoke-Lynchburg, The Baseball Network could be giving viewers some players and teams they don't often get to see. Instead, viewers get the same clubs they can watch almost daily.

\ TURNER'S OLYMPICS: Viewers won't see much of the Atlanta Braves on TBS in the next two weeks. That's because Turner Broadcasting's first cable outlet will be televising 64 prime-time hours from the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia.

TBS' Goodwill shows, on same-day tape, will air each day from 8:05 p.m. until 12:05 a.m. ABC will air another 17 hours, on weekday afternoons. Both networks begin coverage today and televise through Aug. 7.

Expect to see much basketball, track and field, volleyball, gymnastics and the Olympic sport that really rakes in women viewers, figure skating.

The Goodwill Games are Ted Turner's brainchild, and his networks have lost about $70 million on the first two editions. If the quadrennial event lasts, it moves to New York City in 1998.

\ CUP WRAPUP: Sunday's World Cup final broke the 2-week-old U.S. ratings record for a soccer telecast. The Brazil-Italy game had a 9.5 Nielsen rating and an estimated 32 million viewers. The Brazil-United States game July 4 had the Nielsen record of 9.3. ABC averaged 5.3 for 11 World Cup games. The pre-Cup projection was a 4.2.