Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 22, 1993 TAG: 9305220055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Tech's move of its football and basketball network sales and marketing to American Network Group of Nashville, Tenn., will bring a 72 percent increase in rights fees in 1993-94. The three-year contract with two one-year options includes a 10 percent annual increase.
The Hokies bid out the rights after four years with the MetroNews Radio Network in Morgantown, W.Va. At the end of a three-year contract with two two-year options, Tech didn't pick up the option after the 1991-92 school year, but simply renewed for '92-93 at the $64,000 rights fee MetroNews paid the previous year.
"We were very pleased with what MetroNews did with our network," said Tech athletic director Dave Braine. "American Network does have a bigger name and reputation, but our final decision was based on money, period."
The new agreement with American Network Group begins with a $110,000 payment for game broadcast rights. Also, ANG has negotiated separate contracts with Frank Beamer and Bill Foster for the coaches' weekly radio and TV shows. Since 1987, Tech coaches have had to sell and pay to produce their own TV shows.
The coaches will be paid an annual talent fee by ANG, removing their burden of selling a show if they wanted one. ANG is paying the coaches a total of $130,000, with a larger percentage of that going to Beamer because the football show is aired to a larger potential audience. ANG and Tech will not reveal the talent fee for each coach, although both must file that with the university.
ANG vice president Don Williams said his network will change both coaches' shows to Sunday telecasts and there will be no midweek repeats of the Beamer show like last year. ANG will purchase airtime in Virginia's TV markets and on cable's Home Team Sports for the coaches' shows.
Beamer's show will continue to air in most state TV markets. Foster's show has been aired only in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market and on HTS. Williams said the basketball show will expand into Richmond this season, with a push being made next year for other outlets.
The radio network will sound similar to recent years for several reasons. Bill Roth returns on play-by-play and Mike Burnop will remain as the football game analyst. Williams said ANG is considering adding a basketball game analyst and a sideline reporter for football. Braine said it is probable both positions will be filled.
Most affiliates will remain the same, including WSLC (610 AM) in the Roanoke Valley, although Williams said ANG hopes to improve the Hokies' availability in the Hampton Roads region. ANG also has contracted with MetroNews to continue the production and distribution of the Tech network, meaning the improved halftime scoreboard segments of recent years will return from a Morgantown studio.
Roth, who has been the host of Foster's TV show, will replace Roanoke's Greg Roberts as the host of Beamer's weekly telecast highlights as well.
ANG's decision to bid for the Tech property is a compliment, because the network obviously is picky about its potential clients. ANG has been involved in college sports since 1980. It currently handles the radio networks of UCLA, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida and Penn State, and produces TV shows for the last four of those.
\ HOOPLA: The NBA playoffs TV ratings are elevating like Michael Jordan, and with a glamor Eastern Conference finals of Chicago-New York and Charles Barkley-led Phoenix in the Western finals, they should only go higher.
The ratings on cable's TNT are up 13 percent over last season and received a huge boost from the 4 million homes tuned in for Monday's Chicago-Cleveland finale that ended with Jordan's in-Gerald Wilkins'-face jumper.
NBC's weekend playoff ratings are up 5 percent from last year and the highest they've been since 1990. The network should get a boost Sunday, when the NBA Draft Lottery airs at halftime of the Bulls-Knicks opener (3:30 p.m., WSLS).
\ TUBE TALK: Expect former Washington coach Joe Gibbs to sign with NBC as an NFL telecasts analyst next week. Gibbs likes NBC's offer because it includes only a partial schedule, primarily of West Coast games, that will permit him to watch his son, Coy, play for Stanford, and also continue to travel to watch his NASCAR Winston Cup team run on some Sundays. . . . ESPN will air the NCAA Division I baseball tournament selection show live Monday at 3 p.m., when the entrants and pairings for the eight regionals will be revealed. . . . ABC's telecasts of the first two legs of horse racing's Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, have gotten all-time low Nielsen ratings. . . . ESPN starts its 49 hours of French Open coverage with live shows Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. NBC will have the finals two weekends from now. . . . Al Bernstein, ESPN's superb Top Rank Boxing analyst since 1980, will receive the Rocky Marciano Foundation's Broadcaster of the Year honor Monday. The Springfield, Mass., foundation is donating proceeds to a area hospital's pediatric AIDS unit.
by CNB