With Special fX, Two Games Disappear

If you wanted to watch UCLA’s game against Arizona State on Fox Sports West on Thursday night, you had to wait until midnight.

USC’s game against No. 6 Arizona, which featured the father-son subplot of Henry Bibby vs. Mike Bibby, wasn’t on anywhere.

Fox Sports West had to delay the UCLA game because of the Laker-Portland game and then Fox Sports News. Such situations will be eased with the launching of Fox Sports West 2 on Jan. 27, provided your cable company offers Fox Sports West 2. The USC-UCLA game at Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 19 has been moved to Fox Sports West 2, as has the UCLA-Oregon State game at Pauley on Feb. 27.

The USC-Arizona game Thursday night couldn’t be

televised because of the Pacific 10 Conference’s exclusive Thursday night package with Fox’s fledgling national cable network, fX. The fX game Thursday night was Stanford-Oregon, and no other Pac-10 game could oppose it.

When Fox Sports merged with Liberty Media, the owner of Prime Sports, which became Fox Sports West, Fox took control of Liberty’s contract with the Pac-10. In an effort to push fX, Fox came up with the idea of the exclusive Thursday night package.

Next Thursday, when UCLA and USC play at the Sports Arena, that game will be on only fX. On Jan. 30, the fX game is USC at Oregon State, and on Feb. 6 it’s California at UCLA.

The problem is only 54% of the Southland’s cable households get fX, according to fX. If you’re not sure if you get fX, you can call (800) fXfXfX1, or 393-9391.

This is another case of a conference saying, “Show me the money,” in this case Fox’s. Meanwhile, the viewer at home, who simply wants to see his team play on live television, ends up missing out if his cable company doesn’t offer fX.

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If you’ve been paying attention to the ratings, you know the NFL, even though there is no team in Los Angeles, annihilates everything else.

After a pretty good dip last season, the first after the Raiders and Rams departed, the NFL ratings in Los Angeles went back up this season despite a 10% decrease across the nation.

The Fox averages in L.A. went from 13.4 in 1994 to 10.6 in ‘95, then back up to 11.5 in ’96. The NBC numbers were 14.2 in 1994, 10.1 in ’95 and 11.3 in ’96.

L.A., as a market, ranked in a tie for 17th in ‘94, dropped to a tie for 23rd in 1995 on Fox and was 20th this season. L.A. went from 15th in ’94 to 27th in ’95 to 25th in ’96 on NBC.

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This is the NFL’s in-between weekend--in between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl--but there still are plenty of events on television.

There is the NHL All-Star game on Fox on Saturday at 5 p.m., and, yes, the FoxTrax blue dot returns.

There is Bob Hope golf on NBC.

And there is the Oscar De La Hoya-Miguel Angel Gonzalez pay-per-view fight from Las Vegas on Saturday night at 6.

The De La Hoya show, a $34.95 TVKO three-fight event offered by most cable systems, is also being offered by DirecTV. In the past, DirecTV subscribers had to also have U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB), a separate package, to get pay-per-view fights.

But this week DirecTV and promoter Bob Arum announced a deal in which Arum will provide De La Hoya’s next three fights, plus a monthly $14.95 pay-per-view series that will appear the second Wednesday of every month.

Arum said one advantage of this package is the ease of ordering with the DirecTV system. “Everything is better with DirecTV,” Arum said. “I’ve been a subscriber through two football seasons and I’m an absolute convert. The difference between cable and DirecTV is night and day.”

TV-Radio Notes

Are you ready for this? Fox’s Super Bowl pregame show a week from Sunday will be 3 1/2 hours. Actually, five hours if you count a 1 1/2-hour special on John Madden’s All-Super Bowl team that precedes the pregame show. . . . Fox showed a preview of the Madden special to television writers this week. If you’re a Madden fan, you won’t want to miss this. . . . This Sunday at 5 p.m. on Fox, Madden offers what he calls his 14th annual All-Madden team. It’s actually his 13th All-Madden team, but he skipped over 13. “All coaches have their superstitions,” Madden said.

Fox commentator Ron Pitts, a former UCLA defensive back, will be working the Green Bay Packer sideline during the Super Bowl. His father, Elijah, played for Vince Lombardi’s Packers and rushed for two touchdowns in Super Bowl I. Elijah Pitts is now assistant head coach and running back coach of the Buffalo Bills. Ron interviewing Dad sounds like an obvious pregame feature. “Nothing planned yet,” Ron said.

It won’t be easy replacing a legend, the late Mel Allen, as the host of “This Week in Baseball.” But the producers of the show believe they have the man who can do it--former St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith. The first show will be April 5. Not an easy assignment for a rookie broadcaster. . . . A new half-hour show, “Talking About Sports,” makes its debut on Channel 13 on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. This host will be Newy Scruggs. The first guests will be Laker rookie Derek Fisher and Los Angeles Sports Council President David Simon. There will also be a feature on multisport star Jason Thomas of Compton’s Dominguez High. . . . The Lakers’ Eddie Jones will be featured on “NBA Inside Stuff” on Channel 4 on Saturday at 11 a.m.

There has been talk of KIIS-AM in Los Angeles possibly carrying XTRA’s talk shows. KIIS-AM is owned by the Jay Corp., which also owns XTRA. . . . Here’s something different. David Davenport, Pepperdine’s president, was the radio commentator for Wednesday night’s game against Loyola Marymount on KWNK.

Boxing beat: A new boxing series makes its debut on Fox Sports West tonight at 8 with a live card from the Country Club in Reseda. The main event has Michael Nunn resurfacing to face Rudy Nix. The announcers will be Barry Tompkins and Tommy Morrison. Yes, that Tommy Morrison. . . . Channel 13 also has a new boxing series. The first fight, to be taped Jan. 31 at Santa Ynez, Calif., and shown Feb. 8, features junior-welterweights Mark “the Shark” Lewis of Mira Loma against Joel Garcia of Los Angeles. The announcers will be David Arroyos, Angelo Dundee and L.A. boxing guru Johnny Ortiz, the host of KWNK’s “Ringside With Johnny Ortiz.”

Ed Arnold of Channel 5 and Mike Carlucci of KBIG radio, who is also the Dodgers’ and Mighty Ducks’ public-address announcer, will serve as hosts at the festivities benefiting former Ram Lamar Lundy at Cal State Fullerton on Sunday at noon. . . . “Wheel of Fortune” next week will feature current and former NFL players. Rodney Peete, along with Stan Humphries and Robert Brooks, will be on Wednesday’s show. . . . The Golf Channel celebrates its second anniversary today. The Golf Channel now reaches 7 million subscribers, 500,000 more than early-year projections.

The Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn. will hold its annual awards luncheon Feb. 3 at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake. Nominees for television play by play include Chick Hearn, Tom Kelly and Bob Miller. Vin Scully isn’t eligible because of too many past wins (three). In the television commentating category, it’s Sparky Anderson, Rich Marotta and Bill Walton. The radio commentators up for an award are Mike Lamb, Steve Hartman and Stu Lantz. The radio talk show nominees are defending champion Irv Kaze, Ross Porter and Geoff Witcher. The XTRA crew is nominated in the radio anchor staff category.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Jan. 11-12. SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Golf: Mercedes Championships 7 5.4 13 Wide World of Sports: figure skating, boxing 7 4.5 10 College basketball: UCLA-California 7 3.2 9 Golf: LPGA Tournament of Champions 4 2.2 7 College basketball: Arizona-Arizona State 2 1.8 5 College basketball: Wake Forest-Duke 2 1.2 4

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SUNDAY

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NFL playoffs: Carolina at Green Bay 11 30.6 57 NFL playoffs: Jacksonville at New England 4 28.8 49 Figure skating: Ladies Pro Championships 2 5.0 8 Golf: Mercedes Championship (playoff) 7 3.2 6 Golf: LPGA Tournament of Champions 4 0.9 2

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Note: Each rating point represents 49,424 L.A. households.