Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508140126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WFIR Radio (960 AM) will broadcast West Virginia games this season, and, if sales are any indication, into the future, too. The Roanoke station will air the entire schedule from the Mountaineer Sports Network, including any bowl game WVU might play.
Network coordinator Mike Parsons said the Mountaineers have broadcast in the Roanoke Valley only one previous season, more than a decade ago. He said the impetus for the program's presence in the market came from the strong WVU alumni chapter in the Roanoke Valley.
``They approached us,'' said Terrilynn Hardman, WFIR's general sales manager. ``They first came to us just before last season, but there wasn't enough time to put it together. We've gotten huge support for it. Their alumni people are very interested.''
Parsons said WFIR is the only Virginia station to date on the 65-station WVU network, where legendary Jack Fleming returns this season for his 43rd year of play-by-play. WVU still is negotiating with a Staunton station. The first game on WFIR is Sept.2 when Purdue visits Mountaineer Field.
The commitment to West Virginia football means WFIR won't be carrying the CBS Radio major league baseball Saturday games after Aug.26. The station will continue to air Sunday night baseball from the network.
BIG BUY: The huge bid by NBC for the 2000 and 2002 Olympics - a combined rights payment of $1.27 billion - is rooted in the Atlanta Games. The network's sales have gone so well for the 1996 Summer Games that NBC can turn some of its profit toward the 2000 Sydney Games.
NBC is paying $456 million for rights to the Atlanta Games, where the network will televise more than 165 hours. With 11 months remaining until those Games begin, NBC's advertising sales already are in the $625 million range. The network's agreement with the International Olympic Committee calls for a revenue-sharing split (50-50) of any sales over $615 million.
The pre-emptive bid - a take-it-or-forget-it proposition for the International Olympic Committee - was $705 million for the Sydney Games and $545 million for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002. NBC will provide $10 million in promotional support and shows to each games.
While there will be no cable coverage for the Atlanta Games, the Sydney and Salt Lake Games will have coverage on NBC's two cable networks, CNBC and America's Talking. NBC officials estimate that by 2000, CNBC will be available in 65 million homes and America's Talking in 30 million. NBC is likely to seek increased fees from cable systems that add those services, too.
Certainly, the prospects for Olympic programming will boost those numbers in coming years.
Another sidelight to the huge deal is a new benefit for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Starting with the 2000 Games, the USOC receives 10 percent of all cash dollars a U.S. network bids for any Olympic Games.
So, the breakdown of the doubleheader bid pays $429 million to the Sydney Games organizers, $327 million to the Salt Lake committee, $378 million to the IOC and $125 million to the USOC.
And in only a quarter-century, the Olympic ante has long jumped much farther than even Bob Beamon did in Mexico City in 1968. ABC paid $25 million for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. NBC paid more than 28 times that amount for Sydney rights.
BASEBALL FEVER: Just wait until October arrives and viewers start screaming about the regionalized baseball playoff coverage. In this area, don't expect to see the Indians, Reds, Red Sox, Rockies, Angels, Yankees or Astros. In The Baseball Network concept, this will be Atlanta's region, unless Baltimore reaches the playoffs, and then NBC and ABC will have a choice.
And this is what pseudo-commissioner Bud Selig told Peter Gammons in Baseball America about the TV plan: ``There's no question that while we've made a lot of mistakes, this is about the greatest one. Unfortunately, there may be nothing we can do about it right now.''
AROUND THE DIAL: The PGA Championship gets two-network coverage for the third and fourth rounds today and Sunday, with a combined 13 hours from cable's TBS and CBS Sports (WDBJ, Channel 7). ... VMI may have won only two football games in two years, but it hasn't damaged the Keydets' telecast exposure. Turner's SportSouth, the regional network that covers six states from North Carolina southward, has four VMI telecasts this season, including dates against Liberty, Tennessee-Chattanooga and The Citadel on live. The VMI-Marshall game will air on same-day tape. ... Longtime Roanoke Valley sports play-by-play voice Jerry Joynes has moved to Florida, so Joynes' game-calling role on Salem High football broadcasts will be taken over by Curtis Beach on WJLM (93.5 FM). ... WROV (1240 AM) begins its high school football broadcasts Sept.8, with the Salem Avalanche baseball schedule running through at least Sept.2. The first WROV game will be Glenvar-Lord Botetourt or Martinsville-Cave Spring. ... One of the original ``Hogs'' among the Washington Redskins is joining TNT's crew for a revamped, one-hour ``Pro Football Tonight'' studio show. Mark May, who played 13 NFL seasons on the offensive line with the Redskins, San Diego and Arizona, will make his debut Aug.27 on what will be TNT's pregame show when the regular season begins a week later. ... Virginia's football season opener, at Michigan in the Pigskin Classic on Aug.26 (WSET, noon), will be called on ABC by Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil. Keith Jackson and Bob Griese will work the Boston College-Ohio State game in the Kickoff Classic the next day. ... In a follow-up to an earlier column on Fox's NFL game regionalization, a projected schedule from WJPR/WFXR (Channels 21/27) includes 13 Washington Redskins' games and six Carolina Panthers' games. ... The latest in ESPN's Emmy-winning ``Outside the Lines'' series airs Monday at 8 p.m., with the one-hour ``Tyson - The Return.''
by CNB