Media Notes: Las Vegas won’t get ESPNews

Tim Graham

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The big battle will begin in a little over two weeks, but Las Vegas won't be able to watch the initial fireworks.

Fighting for the attention of sports zombies across the country, the world's two biggest media moguls, Disney and Time Warner, are set to square off. The opening bell is Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. local time.

That's when Disney debuts ESPNews.

Riding the shirttales of its already-established sister stations ESPN and ESPN2, ESPNews hopes to be the premiere 24-hour all-sports news network on cable.

But on Dec. 12 at 5 p.m., Time Warner will unleash the competition: CNN/SI. Named after the two organizations that form it, the Cable News Network and Sports Illustrated, CNN/SI is banking it will be the one to grab the sports fan by the pennant.

Prime Cable, however, won't be televising the competition. With a finite number of channels at its disposal, Las Vegas' lone cable company doesn't have room for either right now.

"Our channel capacity is limited," said Bob Burns, Prime Cable's executive vice president of operations. "To add anything we would have to take something off."

And with three all-sports networks -- ESPN, ESPN2, Prime Sports West -- already on Prime Cable's menu, adding a fourth or fifth isn't its No. 1 priority.

"If you're talking to a sports junkie, he'll say there's not nearly enough on, but I wouldn't agree with that," Burns said.

Prime Cable currently has a capacity of 60 channels, but plans on adding two more before the end of the year. While Burns could not say what those stations will be, he did state they are not sports related. "But they are services all of our customers will immediately recognize," he said.

Prime Cable's 300,000-plus subscribers most likely will have to wait until some time in 1997 for any new sports stations, which also could include Classic Sports, a network predicated on vintage programming.

"We are reviewing all of these new sports networks, but we are not making any commitments," Burns said. "All of their respective representatives have been in to talk to us.

"We may add none of the above, but that's unlikely. My guess is that we would add one or two of those, but I don't have any idea which at this time."

According to Burns, subscriber input and national attention will be the biggest factors in determining what gets added.

"We do research on a quarterly basis, and it is common for us in that research to ask our customers about a number of cable-related topics," he said. "We ask them to give us a brief description of a certain channel and they'll either say 'Gee, that sounds interesting,' or 'That doesn't appeal to me.'

"If any of (the new sports networks) get onto the radar nationally, when articles start popping up in TV Guide, in the newspapers and national magazines and start to become discussed, then our phones start to ring. All of those things come together and converge to where these stations get serious consideration and that hasn't happened yet for these channels."

Static

* 24-7: ESPNews announced its format will consist of continuous 30-minute programs, using "SportsCenter" as its foundation, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Live programming generally will begin each day at 10 a.m. and lasting until after the final game ends. The format "essentially (assures) live programming any time sports news is being made," an ESPNews press release read. Each program will lead with the day's top stories and breaking news, followed by highlights and scores of key games and other analysis. Press conferences will be another major source of programming. "The Bottom Line," the scrolling scoreboard currently in use on ESPN2 (Prime Cable Channel 31) will be used. Also in ESPNews' weekday lineup is an encore presentation of that day's 3:30 p.m. "SportsCenter," which will air from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

* DON'T FORGET FOX: Fox Sports News, which will air on Fox Sports Net regional affiliates beginning Nov. 1, the same date as ESPNews, has selected its anchor team. The crew consists of such notables as former "SportsCenter" anchor Suzy Kolber, "Press Box" anchor Alan Massengale and "fX Sports Show" host Kevin Frazier. Expert analysts include former NBA All-Star James Worthy and former NHL standout Craig Simpson. Fox Sports Net will be seen locally on what is now Prime Sports West (Prime Cable Channel 17).

* KENO GETS KORKED: KENO 1460-AM is so full of sports programming it needs to give some to sister station KORK 920-AM. With the World Series, NFL, college football, Los Angeles basketball and Las Vegas Thunder hockey, KENO needed to share the wealth for the next couple weeks to ensure all games reach the airwaves. KORK will carry the St. Louis Cardinals-Atlanta Braves National League pennant games until the series concludes, but the World Series will be heard on KENO. It also appears all football and Laker broadcasts will be heard on KENO. Listeners will need to check the daily listings for the Las Vegas Thunder as both stations share those games.