ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604090006
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
One night this season in the Roanoke Civic Center's hockey press box, a scribe, being more wise than wise-guy, declared there was only one person drawing a Roanoke Express paycheck that could get to the NHL in the future.
That's Tim Woodburn.
For all of the veterans the Express will have to replace next season, Woodburn could be the one missed most by the fans. He has been superb, incisive, knowledgeable, explanatory and witty as the play-by-play voice on the Express' radio broadcasts for three seasons.
Woodburn called his last East Coast Hockey League game Tuesday, and after one more week in the office he's headed to the expansion Lexington Thoroughblades of the American Hockey League next season, and he's up to the job. Before starting with an expansion franchise here, he worked the first season for the ECHL's Birmingham Bulls.
At age 23, he took a job in a hockey graveyard and in just more than two months got the Express on the air. Now, thanks primarily to Woodburn, the Express has a four-station network that spans a 160-mile radius. The Express went from no sponsors to six the first season and 20 this season. His marketing work and media relations effort also make him a tough man to follow.
When Woodburn came to Roanoke after being axed in Birmingham, he drove from his St.Louis home thinking that for his career, ``It's now or never. I make it work, or I go out and cut grass or something.'' What else kept going through his mind as he wheeled over I-64?
``I called the last complete game in the LancerLot, for Birmingham,'' Woodburn said. ``The next game, the roof caved in. My one vision of that game was fans waving signs that said, ``[Rampage owner Larry] Revo Is Over.'' Then the Zamboni came out, and one of those even hung on there.
``I had very severe doubts hockey would make it here. I figured it was a last-chance situation. In the league, when I was with Birmingham, everyone called this place `Roa-Joke.'''
Woodburn is one of the people who has helped hockey prosper here. He praises Express owners and management for letting him ``be an integral part of the club, to have a chance to learn how the money side works.''
He could have left last season. Woodburn was a finalist for the radio job with the International Hockey League's Orlando Solar Bears. ``I'm very fortunate to be going to the AHL,'' he said this week. ``That's where the NHL is steering. The AHL is only going to get stronger because the NHL will make it stronger.''
Woodburn leaves Roanoke having made many friends and having shed more than a few pounds. When he first arrived, the ``Roundhouse'' might have been named for him. Even if you didn't listen to his game calls, you've probably seen Woodburn, who describes himself as ``sometimes a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.'' He played the part of the black leather-jacketed ``Maniac'' on the Express' TV commercials - a character he created on spots he wrote.
The Thoroughblades' slogan is ``Hockey with Horsepower.'' Woodburn will help provide that.
FINAL FOUR: The 18.3 Nielsen rating for CBS' coverage of the NCAA Tournament championship game Monday night - a record low since the game went to prime time in 1973 - shouldn't have been surprising. However, it was down only 5 percent from last year's UCLA-Arkansas final, and that one had a team from the Los Angeles market.
The final had no Big Ten team to bring in Midwest markets that have helped the numbers in recent years. The Kentucky-Syracuse game was predicted to be lopsided. For all of the talk otherwise, it's apparent the huge New York TV market really doesn't care so passionately about the Orangemen. It also was Baseball's Opening Day and viewers in some major markets were watching their teams on local telecasts.
The tournament average Nielsen of 7.5 over 62 hours was up 3 percent from last year, thanks mostly to a good Final Four semifinal Saturday, which was up 12 percent over 1995.
TEE TIME: There will be 101/2 live hours of telecast coverage at the Masters, with the first two rounds on cable's USA Network on Thursday and Friday (4-6:30 p.m.) before CBS starts its 41st year at Augusta National next weekend. CBS will have 15-minute, late-night highlights shows Thursday and Friday at 11:35 p.m. USA repeats its afternoon shows of those days at 9 p.m. The third round Saturday airs from 3:30-6 p.m. (WDBJ, Channel 7), with Sunday's final round from 4-7 p.m.
NEW TEAMS: The Fox Network still hasn't completed its baseball roster for this season, but it's close. It's no surprise that Tim McCarver was named the No. 1 analyst and will work with Joe Buck, son of Hall of Fame Cardinals' voice Jack Buck - who formerly teamed with McCarver on CBS baseball telecasts in 1990-91. Thom Brennaman and Bob Brenly form another team, along with Chip Caray and Jeff Torborg. Ken Singleton is a strong possibility as an analyst with a to-be-hired play-by-play man. In the studio, former utilityman Steve ``Psycho'' Lyons will join Dave Winfield as an analyst, with a studio host to be selected. James Brown, who handles the Fox NFL and NHL studios, may be the guy.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Woodburnby CNB