ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512050102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Maybe the best way to say this is the way Chris Berman would.
If you want to catch the start of ``NFL GameDay'' on ESPN Sunday, you'll have to set your alarm clock back-back-back-back-back.
``We might be running into `Sunrise Semester' or `Sermonette,''' Berman said Thursday from his office at the network in Bristol, Conn. ``I don't know what most people watch then.''
If you turn on your TV Sunday morning, the guy with the dark hair and receding hairline in charge of a forum won't necessarily be Tim Russert. GameDay began the season promoting itself as the longest NFL pregame show with an ``11:45 Sharpe'' slogan, a reference to the show's 75 minutes and new analyst Sterling Sharpe. Now, at least for the last four weeks of the regular season, GameDay will stretch to 90 minutes with an 11:30 start.
``We're just going to see what the viewers like,'' said Berman, one of ESPN's original faces and its first icon. ``Even with 75 minutes, it has seemed like we we're tight and in a hurry. Maybe this will give us time to breathe. We're going to be expanding several things, except, hopefully, not our waistlines.''
Consider that until the Fox Network wrested NFC game rights from CBS and introduced a one-hour pregame show, no network other than ESPN had talked NFL for that length of time before kickoff. Besides, Berman said taking 15 minutes from the network's ``SportsCenter'' and giving it to GameDay won't be a huge difference to viewers.
``Most of those last 15 minutes before us [on GameDay] was devoted to pro football pieces anyway,'' said Berman, who on Thursday night was honored by the American Sportscasters Association as the top studio host of the year. ``So, it was `Why not just let the football guys do it?'''
It's a big weekend for Berman in another way, too. ESPN's Sunday night NFL telecast has Buffalo visiting San Francisco. Those are the two teams Berman has picked to meet in the Super Bowl not only this year, but also in the previous seven in his role as ``The Swami'' on SportsCenter. On Friday night, he told viewers the winner of Sunday night's game would be presented ``The Vince Swambardi Trophy.''
``Hey, you have to give me this,'' Berman said. ``At least one of them has made [the Super Bowl] all of those years. Who else has been that right?''
With apologies to Andy Warhol, the expanded GameDay will give Berman an extra 15 minutes of fame, with his recurring references to pop music going to an expanded audience, too.
``We're on at 6:30 in the morning in Hawaii,'' Berman said. ``GameDay is on in 141 countries now, some of which I've never heard of and some of which I have no idea where they are. We're on in Vietnam. Never did I think I could be a hit in Hanoi.''
Tune in earlier Sunday to see whether Berman signs on with, ``Good Morning, Vietnam.''
PRIME TIME: There's another first for Virginia Tech football in reaching a Bowl Alliance game. Part of the negotiations, bidding and selection of the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls as the Alliance trio was an agreement that those three games would have no telecast competition from other bowls.
That's one reason why ABC and CBS agreed to pay big bucks for the games and why those bowls are paying more than $8 million per team to participating schools and conferences. The Hokies, whether they go to the Sugar or Orange, will be playing on national over-the-air network television in prime time for the first time in history.
There will be no football competition against those games on Dec.31 and Jan.1-2, although the NFL has two wild-card games on New Year's Eve afternoon. That kind of exposure is a huge boost to a program, particularly one like Tech's, trying to establish an identity.
The Bowl Alliance selection show airs Sunday on CBS (5:30 p.m., WDBJ), with host Jim Nantz getting reaction from the bowls and six coaches, including Tech's Frank Beamer, in the half-hour show.
BILLY BALL: CBS begins its expanded college basketball schedule today with an attractive doubleheader (1 p.m., WDBJ) of UCLA-Kansas and Kentucky-Indiana. The network's lead team of Nantz and Billy Packer will start the season in Lawrence, Kan., a season Packer says is filled with uncertainty, particularly in a conference he knows well.
``It's been a long time since the ACC has started a season and not had at least one team and possibly as many as two or three that, realistically, you could say, `You know, if they made it to the Final Four, it wouldn't surprise me,''' Packer said. ``This year, for the first time in a long time, the ACC people would have to honestly say it may surprise them if anybody gets to the Final Four.''
AROUND THE DIAL: Booth Communications added ESPN2 to Salem's expanded basic cable offerings on Friday, in time for next Saturday's Stagg Bowl telecast on the network. ESPN2 is available on Channel 61 or 66 on Salem cable until Dec.28, when it moves to Channel 48. ... The players for the ninth annual Senior Skins Game golf moneyfest on Super Bowl weekend on ABC are Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Raymond Floyd and Jim Colbert. ... Fox Sports won't have a play-by-play man work next Saturday's Arizona-San Diego NFL game (WFXR Channel 21/27), but will have analysts Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson in the booth . ``I expect Terry and Jimmy to be more conversational and less structured than a typical broadcast team,'' said Fox Sports president David Hill. ``Traditionalists need not fear, this is just a test, not a direction we plan to move.''
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Berman.by CNB