They’re Broken Up Over the New Lineup at Depleted KMPC

The dismantling of KMPC’s staff, leading to a probable sale of the station or another format change, has become obvious with the firings of afternoon drive-time co-host Doug Krikorian and midday hosts Brian Golden and Paola Boivin.

Krikorian was told Wednesday he was out, and Golden and Boivin got the word Thursday.

Today will be Krikorian’s last day. Golden and Boivin are leaving early next week.

Tony Femino will move from nighttime to middays, with syndicated programming filling Femino’s old spot.

Krikorian’s partner, Joe McDonnell, who will become a solo act on Monday, said: “I’m really disappointed about losing Doug. I think we had a great thing going. We were a great team, the best ever to do sports talk in this town, and they’ve broken up that team.”

Said Krikorian: “It was great fun this past year, and I’ll miss it. But I always looked at this as my second job. My main job is as a sports columnist for the Long Beach Press Telegram.”

Golden and Boivin also have sportswriting jobs to fall back on, Golden with the Antelope Valley Press and Boivin with the Daily News.

Krikorian, Golden and Boivin were ousted as KMPC’s pulse fades because of poor ratings and economic difficulties.

Before them, morning co-hosts Chris Roberts and Jack Snow were let go, although they remain the UCLA play-by-play announcer and Ram commentator, respectively.

The plan was for Scott St. James and a supporting cast of actor Harold Sylvester and Phoenix radio personality Anita Fajita, two new hires, to do a non-sports show in the mornings. But to save money, Fred Wallin was moved from nighttime to mornings.

Producer Kurt Kretzschmar, responsible for, among other things, the popular “Major Leagues in Action” and the “NFL in Action” shows, was also let go recently, as was sales manager Michelle Billy.

Mitch Lewis, the engineer for the “McDonnell Douglas Show,” is leaving to join former KMPC morning host Robert W. Morgan at KRTH-FM.

Also, there is talk that Shadow Sports, a service that provides the station with its traffic reports, will be used for news and sports updates as well, jeopardizing more jobs.

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What is happening at KMPC is unfortunate. Good, hard-working people are losing their jobs.

Maybe when KMPC launched its all-sports format in April of 1992, the timing was bad, what with a bleak economy and L.A. sports in the doldrums.

Maybe Los Angeles simply isn’t a good market for all-sports radio, what with so many people coming from other areas, where they grew up as fans of teams outside L.A.

Competitor XTRA isn’t doing so well in the ratings in Los Angeles, either.

Maybe Jim Lampley, as smooth and knowledgeable as they come, was too erudite for sports talk radio. It turned out he wasn’t the person to build a format around.

Maybe it was a mistake to mess with Morgan’s non-sports morning show and then let him get away.

Maybe there were times when some of the free-swinging hosts, including McDonnell and Krikorian, needed tighter reins.

But McDonnell and Krikorian, despite their rough edges and zany antics, had the station’s highest-rated show and the one with the most impact. The “McDonnell Douglas Show,” or rather the “McDonnell Doug-Less Show,” won’t be the same minus the Douglas.

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What will become of KMPC? There is no end of rumors about prospective buyers.

At one time, KMPC was to become a religious station. Then there was talk of it becoming an all-business station, or a Spanish-language station. One recent rumor has Disney buying it so it will have an outlet for the Mighty Ducks.

There was also talk at one time that Cap Cities, which owns radio station KABC, would buy KMPC, allowing a KABC-KMPC sales force to sell Dodger and Angel advertising as a package.

KABC, which has dropped all sports talk not connected to Dodger broadcasts, is doing well. On Wednesday, in fact, the station had some of the elite of Los Angeles out for an elaborate party and tours of KABC’s impressive new facility on La Cienega.

As for KMPC, another possible scenario is that Noble Broadcasting, which owns XTRA, will buy it and make it part of a three-station California sports network. Noble is also trying to buy the Bay Area’s KSFO, the Oakland Athletics’ flagship station until this year. John Lynch, who heads Noble, reportedly met with Ram and Angel officials recently to discuss those teams’ contracts with KMPC.

Money is one possible obstacle to a sale. KMPC owners Gene and Jackie Autry reportedly are asking about $16 million, but the offers are considerably lower.

If the station is not sold, it may change to a music format, possibly country and western. Scott Burton, who has a music background, was serving as a consultant to KMPC while working at KTAR, a music station in Phoenix. But Burton now has an office at KMPC and will have a say in the station’s future, which these days looks pretty bleak.

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Meyers is the man: Joel Meyers, a good choice, will be Bill King’s replacement as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Raiders.

The decision was finalized Thursday night, said Roger Blaemire, the president of Nedelander Sports Marketing, the team’s new radio rights holder.

Meyers, who initially balked at the $50,000 salary being offered, called his deal “very fair.”

A commentator, probably Jim Plunkett, Bob Chandler or Mike Haynes, will be named. And Rich Marotta, sports director at flagship station KFI and the team’s commentator since it moved to Los Angeles, will be offered a host’s role.

A possible play-by-play announcer for Raider exhibition telecasts on Channel 9 is the Kings’ Bob Miller, who did football for the University of Wisconsin before coming to Los Angeles in 1973.

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Ratings game: Prime Ticket ended up with an average rating of 7.6 in all television households for the five-game Stanley Cup finals.

Game 4 got the highest rating, a 10.5, with a peak of 14.6, which shatters all records. The highest average rating before this year was a 3.2 two years ago for the final game of a second-round playoff series with Edmonton.

Game 5 against Montreal on Wednesday had a 6.3.

But hockey still has a way to go to catch up with basketball in Los Angeles. The first game of the NBA finals Wednesday night on NBC got an L.A. rating of 15.5.

The national rating was a 16.8, the highest ever for the first game of a championship series.

TV-Radio Notes

The replay of Monday’s Tommy Morrison-George Foreman fight will be shown by HBO on Monday at 9:30 p.m. Riddick Bowe was at ringside with Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant when the fight was taped. . . . Recommended viewing: “NBA Stories,” produced by NBA Entertainment and chronicling some of the season’s most compelling stories with behind-the-scenes footage, will be on NBC today at 5 p.m. before Game 2 of the NBA finals. . . . Although KLAC remains the Los Angeles carrier of the NBA finals, San Diego-based XTRA will begin broadcasting the series with tonight’s game. . . . NBC’s NBA telecasts are being simulcast in Spanish, believed to be a first. Channel 4 in Los Angeles is one of only 13 NBC stations in the country doing this. . . . With no King game to televise Saturday, Prime Ticket will show the Angels’ game against Seattle at 7 p.m., as originally scheduled.

With hockey over, along comes soccer. ABC will televise the U.S. national team, fresh off a stunning 2-0 victory over England, in a game against Germany on Sunday, delayed at noon. If you want to check out how ABC will handle commercials during its World Cup coverage next year, this telecast will provide that opportunity. The announcers will be Roger Twibell, Rick Davis, general manager of the Los Angeles Salsa, and Seamus Marlin. . . . Univision announced this week that it will televise all of the 52 World Cup matches next year in Spanish.

ESPN announced this week that ESPN2, targeted for younger viewers, will be launched Nov. 2. Just what we need, another sports network. Actually, the ESPN name gives this project a good chance at success. . . . Attention beach volleyball fans: This weekend’s Hermosa Beach Open for women will be taped for showing on CBS July 11. The announcers are Chris Marlowe and Maria Barnes.

One radio sports show that seems to be thriving is Irv Kaze’s show on KIEV, which is now Fridays at 6:30 p.m. It is repeated Sundays at noon, and KUHL in Santa Maria carries it Sundays at 10 p.m. Kaze, a longtime sports executive, always gets good guests. Tonight, Jack Kemp, former pro football quarterback who went on to become Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will be on the show.

Oops Department: ABC was televising last Sunday’s Milwaukee 200 Indy car race when it left for a commercial break with 27 laps to go. When it returned, seven laps remained and Nigel Mansell had passed Raul Boesel on his way to victory. What happened to those 20 missing laps? Well, in the East, where the race was shown live before the Memorial golf tournament, ABC left the race to show a Jack Nicklaus segment promoting his golf tournament, which was a bad mistake to begin with, since it meant that 20 laps got preempted. In the West, where the race was shown delayed after the golf, the Nicklaus segment was cut out, but unfortunately the 20 missing laps were not shown, which an ABC spokesman said was a mistake. The West got short shrift again.