Albert Losing Voice, Walton Finding His

Trying to talk over the noise at Orlando Arena has taken its toll on Marv Albert, but he’ll be up for Game 2 of the NBA finals tonight.

Like most basketball fans, he and his NBC broadcast partners, Bill Walton and Matt Guokas, are enjoying the playoffs.

“This is the greatest thing in the world,” Walton said from Orlando. “You’ve got the greatest athletes in the world, the most intriguing athletes in the world, and they’re playing the greatest game in the world.”

Walton said the only thing better would be if he were playing.

“I just can’t believe this,” he said. “Five years ago, I was announcing CBA games and not getting paid. Now I’m courtside at the NBA finals and have people coming around asking me if there is anything I need.”

Walton, who overcame a speech impediment in his late 20s, has been like a kid with a new toy ever since. He talks nonstop.

“I don’t worry about stepping on Matt,” Walton said. “I just talk continually and leave it to Marv to plug me in every once in a while.”

Actually, Walton said he’s trying to be more reserved. “I’m working on my shot selection,” he said.

The Houston-Orlando series is of particular interest to Guokas since he was the Magic’s coach for the first four years of the six-year-old team’s existence.

He said the noise at Orlando Arena--the loud music, the booming P.A. system, the wild fans--has always been there. It’s just that now it belongs, even if it is playing havoc with Albert’s voice.

*

So you want to become a big-time sportscaster? Broadcasting courses help, but so do business and economics classes. And don’t forget to include marketing.

Larry Kahn and Mike Lamb, a venturesome pair, will be announcing USC football on radio this fall because they showed some initiative.

Pete Arbogast and Fred Gallagher worked in such places as Victorville and Porterville and Barstow on their way to the USC booth.

Kahn and Lamb took a shortcut.

Kahn, who attended USC in 1972 and ‘73, is a 20-year radio veteran, but play-by-play will be something new.

Lamb has been dabbling in broadcasting since he was an offensive lineman at USC in the early 1980s, but being a game commentator will be a new role.

Essentially, they hired themselves.

Kahn and Lamb, along with a friend, Joe Metoyer, formerly head of sports sales at KFI, got together earlier this year to form what is known in broadcasting as a packaging company. They named it KLM.

Kahn and Lamb had heard that KNX’s five-year contract with USC was up, and they wanted to be ready in case the station didn’t renew. Negotiations between KNX and USC broke off in late March.

“We had lost money on USC the previous two years,” said George Nicholaw, KNX’s general manager. “We couldn’t continue to pay the kind of money we were.”

KNX, which had broadcast Trojan games for 28 of the past 38 years, was paying $1.1 million a year for the rights, a hefty price in an era where most major football games are televised live.

USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett said KNX’s offer was less than half of what they had been paying. Garrett said thanks but no thanks.

Enter KLM, along with KMPC, which had lost UCLA to XTRA.

A deal among USC, KLM and KMPC, in the works for months, was announced Thursday.

Although KMPC doesn’t want weeknight basketball, meaning KLM is still shopping for a secondary flagship station for basketball, Kahn and Lamb have their dream jobs--announcing USC football.

You have to feel sympathy for the loyal KNX employees who lost out in the deal. Arbogast did the play-by-play for five years, and Gallagher handled the commentary for 11. But they got pushed aside by economics.

Kahn and Lamb, meanwhile, made economics work for them.

*

TV-Radio Notes

Sometimes it pays to live in the West. At least, we don’t have weeknight NBA games ending after midnight. But Game 1 of the NBA finals was worth staying up late for, wherever you live. . . . Game 1 got a 14.7 rating, third-highest ever for the first game of an NBA finals. Game 1 last year got a 12.6. . . . The NBA finals are being televised in 164 countries, up from 117 last year. The finals are being broadcast in 40 languages. As with an Olympic Games or a World Cup, a world feed is being provided to international broadcasters. . . . You might not remember this, but back on April 29, Chris Webber was a guest analyst on TNT and his pick to win it all was Houston. The Rockets trailed Utah, 1-0, in a first-round series at the time.

ESPN announced that its ratings for the first four games of the NHL conference championship series were up 58% from last year, 1.2 to 1.9. Wow, stop the presses for a 1.9. . . . Fox got a 1.9 national rating last Sunday for the first game of the Chicago-Detroit series, which isn’t bad, and did even better in Los Angeles, getting a 2.9. . . . The Mighty Ducks announced this week that they have reached a new three-year agreement with KEZY, which is working on beefing up its radio signal.

CBS will televise Monica Seles’ long-anticipated comeback match on July 29, when she is scheduled to play Martina Navratilova in an exhibition. . . . Is everybody up for the French Open on NBC this weekend? . . . CBS will offer live coverage of the Women’s Professional Beach Volleyball Killer Loop U.S. Open at Hermosa Beach Saturday at 11 a.m., with Andrea Joyce and former San Diego State star Maria Barnes calling the action.

Razor Ruddock and Tommy Morrison will be on pay-per-view Saturday night, but Channel 9 will offer what boxing experts are saying is a better fight on free TV. Sammy Fuentes of Hermosa Beach will defend his World Boxing Organization title against Hector Lopez of Glendale on a Forum-promoted card from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Calling the Channel 9 card will be Tom Kelly and Rich Marotta.

Some of the biggest names in entertainment and sports will take part in the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Summer Games at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., on July 1. NBC will tape the ceremony for prime-time showing on July 1. . . . Prime Sports will stage a benefit golf tournament Monday at Lakeside in Toluca Lake, with proceeds going to the Special Olympics.