A marathon load of media notes
There's no way you're getting up at the crack of dawn Sunday to watch the 22nd L.A. Marathon on KNBC-Channel 4, is there? Not even if there was the guarantee of the winner slipping at the finish line and hitting his (or her) head on the pavement?
After we considered that option in our media column that appeared in today's Daily News, we challenge you to make it through this obstacle course of notes that may or may not have you asking for a cup of water to wash it down:
-- The new L.A. Marathon course that starts at Universal Studios in Toluca Lake and ends at 5th and Flower in downtown L.A. presents a whole other list of logistical nightmares for Roggin Productions, which is doing the race for KNBC-Channel 4 starting at 7:30 a.m. Sunday. "With a point-to-point course rather than a loop, everything we do is doubled and tripled," said Phil Olsman, the show's producer. "We used to do it from one central place (near Staples Center). Now everything multiplies." Adds Fred Roggin, who'll handle the play-by-play: "Getting the telecast on the air may be more exciting than the race itself." The microwave antennas that transfer camera pictures from the ground to the air and back to a studio truck could go haywire. The weather could also present a problem, although the forcast is for temperatures in the 70s by the finish.
"With six helicopters, 26 cameras and 140 people on the crew, a lot can go wrong," said Olsman. "We just try to limit that. Our philosophy is: We'll make mistakes, we just want them to be new mistakes. We get angry when we keep making the same mistakes. We live with it and build on it." The production had to add a new production truck at the beginning and at the end of the course, more communications systems and supplementary transportation to move the broadcasters from Point A to Point B. The route change was forced the production team to start planning for the 2007 race just 60 days after last March's race.
-- Those at home, and with a wifi along the course with laptops, will be able to follow the race online with videostreaming at www.NBC4.tv. but the sophisticated GPS system that was in place for the recent Tour of California bike race from San Francisco to Long Beach isn't quite in place for this event yet. "The GPS has revolutionized the way we televise marathons," said Roggin. Olsman said the goal by next year is to have expanded GPS coverage on the digital tier of channels that KNBC will have available. "We've added it to the webscast access with real-time stats so people at home can read the differentials, but the GPS is an incremental growth thing. With the new course, we're going to keep it as direct as we can and maybe next year expand it more for the home viewer. It's all baby steps. Nothing is simple. Or cheap."
= Read on for more...
-- The return of always media (un)friendly Bill Parcell's at ESPN as a studio analyst is hardly a surprise, but the news that he'll co-host an ESPN Radio show with Chris Mortensen on Fridays at 4 p.m. (PDT) during the NFL season should make for good listening. Only problem here in L.A. is the ESPN affiliate, KSPN-AM (710), surely won't break into the John Ireland-Steve Mason local show to air it. Parcells was an ESPN studio analyst on Sunday's NFL Countdown in 2002 and had done work at NBC ('91 and '92) in between NFL coaching jobs. If the best spot they could find for him is on "Monday Night Countdown" (4-5:30 p.m.), maybe it's not such a stress-filled position. But you know he'll be asked about Terrell Owens to death that it could lead to an early departure for him. "The reason I'm back at ESPN is because of the strong relationships I built there both on the set and behind the scenes," Parcells said Thursday. "I will get the opportunity to work with many of those same people again and I am looking forward to picking up where I left off. Viewers can look forward to hearing a coach’s insight on what's happening in the league and I'm excited about lending that kind of perspective."
-- If only to give the few viewers of “Around The Horn” something to look forward to each day, ESPN has established a new system for anyone to report mistakes they find made by one of its TV, radio, Internet or magazines. As we wrote about this earlier in the week on SportsByBrooks.com, ESPN says on its website that “significant errors of fact will be corrected in a clear and timely manner … this policy is not intended to cover inconsequential factual errors, such as minor statistical mistakes, inadvertent and immaterial identifications, minor inaccuracies in developing stories or font errors that don’t impair the viewers understanding of a story.” ESPN executive editor John Walsh ran the format past the Poynter Institute in Florida, and it was reviewed to be “well-thought out, thorough, professional, responsible, comprehensive . . . (it) will set a new standard for broadcast and online transparency,” says Bob Steele, the Poynter scholar for journalism values and senior faculty of ethics.
- While FSN Prime Ticket has live coverage of the CIF Southern Section Division I boys championship basketball rematch game between Mater Dei and Artesia (Saturday, 6:30 p.m., Honda Center in Anaheim), Vootage.com has its schedule set for this weekend of high school basketball championship games, and it's a beaut.
Start with:
Girls:
Today: CIF Southern Section Finals:
Division V-A: LA Baptist vs Bishop Conaty-Loretto
Division IV-AA : St Mary’s Academy vs Costa Mesa
Division I-A: Mira Costa vs San Clemente (airing on KDOC Sunday, March 18 at 8pm)
Division I-AA: Long Beach Poly vs Brea Olinda (airing on KDOC Sunday March 11 at 8pm). Poly is #2 in the U.S. and Brea Olinda is #3 according to MaxPreps.com.
Saturday: LA City Section
Championship Division: Taft vs Washington (produced by LA36)
Boys:
Saturday: CIF Southern Section finals:
Division III-A: Corona del Mar vs Renaissance Academy
Division III-AA: Campbell Hall vs La Canada
Division II-A: Norco vs Corona Centennial
Division II-AA: Pasadena vs St Bernard
Division I-A : Redondo vs Los Alamitos (shown on KDOC Sunday at 8 p.m.)
LA City Section Championship Division: Westchester vs Fairfax (produced by LA36)
Invitational Division: Hamilton vs Bell (produced by LA36)
The KDOC games include Tom Kelly doing play-by-play. All games should all be available on Vootage.com by the following morning of the game.
-- Monday's next installment of HBO's "Real Sports" (10 p.m.) has pieces on new Chicago Cubs manager Lou Pinella (with Frank Deford), a profile on the Wisconsin basketball program (with Bernard Goldberg) and looks into the rise of prep school basketball programs as dipolma mills (with Jon Frankel). There's also a follow-up on NHL coach Ted Nolan.
-- College hoops to focus in on this final weekend of regular season (or conference tournaments for others):
UCLA at Washington, Channel 2, Saturday at 11 a.m. (Kevin Harlan and Bob Wenzel); Stanford at Arizona, Channel 7, Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (Brent Musburger and Steve Lavin); Ohio State at Michigan, Channel 2, 1 p.m. (Dick Enberg and Dan Bonner); Pitt at Marquette, ESPN, Saturday at 6 p.m. (Dan Schulman and Dick Vitale, with Erin Andrews); West Coast Conference tournament semifinals, Sunday at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., ESPN2 (Dave O’Brien and Rick Majerus); Kentucky at Florida, Channel 2, Sunday at 9 a.m. (Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery); the Missouri Valley Conference championship, Channel 2, Sunday at 11 a.m. (Gus Johnson and Clark Kellogg) and Duke at North Carolina, Channel 2, Sunday at 1 p.m. (Jim Nantz and Billy Packer).
-- Sunday’s Lakers-Suns game from Phoenix (Channel 7, 12:30 p.m.) has Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Michelle Tafoya.
--For the first time in its history, ESPN will do a Spanish-language telecast of a major sporting event with Sunday’s NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City at 11 a.m.. ESPN2 will cover the race in English while ESPN will have a rare simulcast of ESPN Deportes. "The NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City is a special event,” said John Wildhack, ESPN senior vice president, programming and acquisitions. “It presents a unique and history-making opportunity for a Spanish-language telecast on a major cable network as well as a traditional English-speaking telecast. Interest in this event is high and we're pleased to be able to provide multiple viewing options for NASCAR fans.”
--NBC hired Brett Hull to talk hockey straight from his heart, and that's what he's doing -- including slamming NBC for cutting in on his pregame time. Hull told USA Today that he wasn't getting enough time during the "NHL on NBC" studio show with Bill Clement and Ray Ferraro, which sometimes goes only 10 minutes before the opening faceoff. “I have a lot to say. But in 20 seconds, you have to be some sort of English lit professor to do it with any style or bravado," Hull said. As for the NHL's cable partner, Versus, Hull added: “People don’t even know that we’re on. That’s a huge problem. We’re at the mercy of Versus, NBC, ESPN, CBS. Unless two of them want to show hockey, the NHL is screwed."
--ESPN is going to launch a 30-minute "College Football Live" weekday series starting in late July that'll run through the bowl season, modeled after it's own "NFL Live" or "Baseball Tonight" series. It's scheduled to air in the 12:30 p.m. slot on ESPN, then move to 11 a.m. on ESPN2 when "Monday Night Football" begins.
--Michael Irvin's departure from ESPN was likely due to his overinflated estimate of his worth in light of his recent enshrinment into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, according to the Dallas Morning News' Barry Horn. Irvin, writes Horn, tried to supplement his income outside of ESPN when it was apparent the company wasn't going to pay him as much as he wanted. ESPN said they would allow him to do that but only if it approved it.
--George Greenberg, who has been FSN’s Executive Vice President, Programming & Production has been promoted to the same title at Fox Sports, according to David Hill, the chairman and CEO of the Fox Sports TV group.
-- And finally, true enough, Victoria Beckham will benefit from her husband David's move to the U.S. to play for the Galaxy by starring in a six-part "unscripted" TV series for NBC that may air this summer. In documenting all the stress one can have moving a family, hair dresser, personal publicist, etc., from across the pond, Simon Fuller, who used to manage the Spice Girls and now does "American Idol," will produce the show. Sounds riveting.
And even the Galaxy's rival, USA Chivas, has coattailed on the reality scene. While the Galaxy made some noise when it had an open tryout that produced two recruits who'll be given a brief chance to prove their worth, Chivas USA took the open tryout a step further into a reality TV show. "Sueño MLS: Chivas USA Wants You!" started as an open tryout for 2,000 at the team's Bell Gardens training site and it has turned into a month-long show on the Univision weekly sports show, "Republica Deportiva," where, at the end of the month-long process, one player will get a two-week cotnract with the team and a chance to make the full roster. Last week, the 2,000 were cut down to 60. That group will be cut to 24 for the third round on Saturday. Because Chivas USA also has a more developed youth system than most MLS squads, it's also possible that the winner of the program could become a member of one of the organization's youth teams, said Dennis te Kloese, the club's director of youth development.