ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608190029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The NFL's return to Baltimore this season will remind some local viewers of the days before Bob Irsay put the Colts into moving vans on the road to Indianapolis.
For years, WSLS (Channel 10) was Baltimore's home on Sunday afternoons. While the Redskins were on CBS affiliate WDBJ, the Colts were the regional AFC offering by NBC on Channel 10. To a certain extent, WSLS will be reunited with a team that calls Memorial Stadium home again this season.
For the fourth year, the local NBC affiliate will conduct a ``Name the Game'' toll-free phone-in poll on NBC regional games this season. WSLS viewers will choose between two games in a time period as offered to the station by the network.
The Baltimore Ravens might have an edge, however.
``We have asked the network that whenever possible, we'd like the Ravens to be one of our two choices for the viewers,'' said Randy Smith, vice president and general manager of WSLS. ``It's kind of appropriate that it's the old Cleveland team, because whenever the Browns were available, they would always get the vote.''
Since the Colts bolted Baltimore in 1984, WSLS has been through several NFL ``eras'' in its regional offerings, all the while getting blasted in the ratings by the Redskins. When the NFL expanded, WSLS executives hoped the Carolina Panthers would be placed in the AFC as a regional alternative to the 'Skins. Instead, Carolina went to the NFC, giving the Fox affiliates in this region - WJPR/WFXR locally - even more of an NFL edge.
WSLS went primarily with Pittsburgh for several years, tried Miami briefly, and even leaned toward Buffalo, with former Virginia Tech star Bruce Smith as an anchor. Then, the station went to the popular ``Name the Game'' concept, which, despite incidents involving a couple of overzealous, modem-using callers, has worked.
NBC discourages its stations from using the game-picking system, preferring to assign games, but understands why WSLS and a few other stations hang onto the concept.
So, for example, the network probably will give Ch.10 the option of Oakland-Baltimore or Pittsburgh-Jacksonville at 1p.m. on Sept.1, when the NFL opens the regular season, and follow with the assigned 4 p.m. national game, New England-Miami.
The Redskins make only one NBC appearance this season, on Oct.27 against the Colts, and WSLS will not have a phone poll that week, when NBC doesn't have a doubleheader. Carolina has only two NBC dates, the final two weeks of the season, against the Steelers and the Ravens. Those are likely Channel 10 games, but the voters haven't spoken yet.
It will be interesting to see how the erstwhile Browns play with WSLS voters and viewers. Will Cleveland fans still follow their transplanted team? Will Baltimore do any better than Pittsburgh, Miami or Buffalo against the Redskins, who will make 14 Sunday afternoon appearances on Fox? Will Roanoke turn stark Raven mad?
IT'S CLOSE: Southwest Virginia always has been, like most of the rest of the state, part of the Redskins' market, and from a TV sense, it still is. However, the Carolina Panthers are making inroads on the air in our region.
The Redskins, back on WFIR (960 AM) in Roanoke this season, have eight radio affiliates in Southwest Virginia, stretching from Bedford south to Saltville and Martinsville, and are on the air in 26 Virginia cities.
The Panthers are a one-hour drive closer to the Roanoke Valley than Washington, and it shows in the radio geography of the second-year club. Carolina is on the air in 13 Virginia localities.
The Panthers, returning to WROV (1240 AM, 96.3 FM) in Roanoke, have affiliates in six Southwest Virginia cities - Blacksburg, Wytheville, Stuart, Bluefield, Narrows and Roanoke. The Virginia cities with both clubs on the air are Roanoke, Richmond, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville. The Redskins' regional dominance stretching into South Carolina may have been challenged, but Washington isn't vacating the premises. The Redskins still have 21 affiliates in North Carolina and seven in South Carolina.
TUBE TALK: ESPN's tribute to the late Tom Mees, who drowned in a swimming pool accident this week, will air at 11a.m. Sunday as a segment on ``SportsWeekly.'' Chris Berman and Bob Ley, with Mees' death the only remaining original sportscasters at ESPN from its 1979 sign-on, will anchor the video retrospective on their friend. ... Kirby Puckett, forced from baseball by deteriorating eyesight earlier this season, will join Terry Gannon in the booth at Lamade Stadium next week for the Little League World Series telecasts on ESPN and ABC. The final is scheduled for next Saturday (3:30p.m., WSET Channel 13). ... Capital Cities executives aren't talking about it, but the word is loud that Berman, the longtime ESPN anchor, will become the latest cable network voice to move between sister networks, replacing Brent Musburger as the halftime host of ABC's ``Monday Night Football.'' ... CBS, which will telecast more than 45 hours of U.S. Open tennis starting Aug.26, has added Patrick McEnroe as a studio analyst. His better-known brother, John, will be an analyst in the booth. ... One of the NFL telecast debuts with the most potential for entertainment will be on TNT, where syndicated columnist Norman Chad will contribute his often wry look at the game on pregame shows. Chad, a really funny guy, introduces his first ``Andy Rooney-like'' segment at halftime of Sunday's San Francisco-Jacksonville preseason telecast.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Ravens logo.by CNB