USC Announcers Persona Non Grata

USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett has possibly overstepped the bounds of his authority to carry out a vendetta against radio announcers Larry Kahn and Mike Lamb.

Kahn says Garrett tried to keep them from fulfilling a Trojan Club speaking engagement last week and earlier had barred them from a guest appearance on AM 1150, the sister station of new USC flagship XTRA 690. Kahn also said Garrett would not let him emcee the school’s basketball banquet on March 9, even though he had been asked to do so by Coach Henry Bibby.

But school officials say that Garrett, a magnet for criticism these days, is being wrongly blamed.

A rift between the announcers and the school came to a head in early March after USC chose not to renew a contract with Kahn and Lamb, who had been both the announcers and packagers of USC football broadcasts the last three years. Their company also packaged USC basketball and baseball, with Kahn doing the play-by-play on those broadcasts.

Kahn and Lamb were scheduled to speak at a Conejo Valley Trojan Club meeting in Westlake Village on Wednesday of last week when they were told that afternoon that USC had requested they not speak.

According to Sandy Mejia of Thousand Oaks, president of the club, Brian Luft, USC assistant director of development and a teammate of Lamb’s at USC in the early 1980s, called at 12:30 that day to tell her that Kahn and Lamb were not allowed to speak.

“He said it would be a conflict of interest,” Mejia said. “I thought we lived in a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

Kahn said a school official told him that Garrett had asked Luft to make the call, but Mark Ryan, Garrett’s subordinate as assistant athletic director, said he, not Garrett, had asked Luft to make the call.

“Mike had absolutely nothing to do with this,” Ryan said. “He didn’t learn of it until after the fact.

“We thought it was highly inappropriate for Larry and Mike to speak at a USC-sanctioned function, since they and the school might be involved in litigation.”

Assistant athletic director Jim Perry also said it had been Ryan who asked Luft to call Mejia.

Lamb was already on his way to Westlake Village when he got a page and learned of Luft’s call. He and Kahn attended the meeting anyway.

Mejia abided by USC’s request, but after officially adjourning the meeting she invited members to stick around and talk with Kahn and Lamb privately.

A couple of weeks ago, Lamb and Kahn were scheduled to appear with John Ireland and Steve Mason on “The Big Show,” which is carried by AM 1150 and Fox Sports West 2. But that appearance was abruptly canceled the night before, Kahn said, at the request of Garrett. But Ryan again said he was the one who had called Bill Pugh, the operations manager for AM 1150 and XTRA 690, both Jacor stations. And, according to Pugh, Ryan only explained the situation, without making any demands.

“Mark called but it was ultimately my decision,” Pugh said. “My thinking was, why jeopardize a relationship with a new partner?”

Around the same time, there were also reports that a free-lance writer, Dave Wielenga, who had been critical of USC and Garrett in a New Times story, was banned by Garrett from an AM 1150 appearance.

“At no time has Mike Garrett ever called me to say we couldn’t put someone on the air,” Pugh said. “I’d estimate I’ve spent about seven hours in face-to-face conversations with Mike and all he has ever talked about is how to improve USC athletics. I’ve never had one problem with Mike.”

According to a source, USC made an average of $580,000 a year on its radio deal the first two years of its contract with Kahn and Lamb and should make about $600,000 this school year.

UCLA makes $300,000 a year off radio for football and basketball. And at USC, basketball brings in virtually nothing.

USC will now buy time from XTRA for $150,000 a year and sell its own advertising.

“We made a business decision to do the broadcasts in house and we’re convinced we made the right decision,” Ryan said. “We spent a lot of time researching this. Also, there were problems that I really don’t want to get into.”

On the surface, the rift doesn’t seem to make sense. Kahn and Lamb put their heart and soul into USC. Also, their pocketbooks. They sold all the advertising, produced the broadcasts, borrowed money and paid themselves only $2,500 a month for announcing. Most announcers get that much for one game. But Kahn and Lamb still attended football practice every day and always turned in a sold effort on game days.

CENTURY FINALLY ON BOARD

The stalemate is over. Century Communications has agreed to begin carrying Fox Sports West 2 part time on most of its systems May 7--all West 2 Dodger telecasts will be shown after that--and full time July 15. Most systems in the L.A. metropolitan area will carry it on Channel 67.

Century systems in Chino, Glendora and Monrovia are still being upgraded and won’t launch Fox Sports West 2 until later this year, said Bill Rosendahl, Century senior vice president, and Century subscribers in Brea are out of luck for the foreseeable future because of a channel capacity problem.

SHORT WAVES

The ESPN crew working this weekend’s California 500 includes pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch, who really is a doctor. He has served as chief of staff of a hospital in Florida and also owned his own trauma center until two years ago, when he decided he could no longer hold down two jobs. “I’ve seen people die and never heard anyone, in their last breath, say they should have worked more,” he said. “I had to cut back. I was killing myself.” . . . ESPN and ESPN2’s weekend coverage of the Fontana race includes a gala affair at the Wiltern Theatre. It will be held tonight and televised Saturday at 7 p.m. . . . Game 6 of the NHL playoff series between Detroit and Phoenix was switched from Saturday night to Sunday at noon to accommodate Fox.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told ESPN’s Chris Myers he has talked with Donald Sterling about the Clipper coaching vacancy. . . . Nice hustle by Tony Allevato, producer of the “Hollywood Park Today” show on Fox Sports West 2. An hour and a half after ESPN’s Chris Lincoln messed up Wednesday’s Kentucky Derby draw on ESPN, “Hollywood Park Today” had a complete report.

IN CLOSING

For television, there is such a thing as getting too involved in an event. The mess-up during the Kentucky Derby draw was not only embarrassing for Lincoln but also ESPN, which should have never put Lincoln in such a position.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for April 25-26 *--*

SATURDAY Event Ch. Rating Share Pro Basketball: San Antonio at Phoenix 4 7.0 22 Figure Skating: Ultimate Four 4 6.4 11 Pro Basketball: Cleveland at Indiana 4 5.4 18 Track & Field: Penn Relays 2 2.2 7 Golf: Greater Greensboro Classic 2 1.8 6 MLS Soccer: San Jose at New York/New Jersey 7 1.7 5 Baseball: Angels at Tampa Bay 9 1.7 4 Auto Racing: Touchstone Energy 300 7 0.9 3 SUNDAY Event Ch. Rating Share Pro Basketball: Portland at Lakers 4 13.6 35 Pro Basketball: New Jersey at Chicago 4 10.1 25 Pro Basketball: New York at Miami 4 8.0 23 Tennis: U.S. Clay Court Championships 2 1.9 5 Auto Racing: NASCAR DieHard 500 7 1.8 5 Golf: Greater Greensboro Classic 2 1.4 3 Hockey: Colorado at Edmonton 11 1.1 3 MLS Soccer: Columbus at D.C. United 34 0.8 2

*--*

WEEKDAY RATING: Lakers-Portland, Ch 9., Tuesday, 10.6 with a 16 share.

Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households.