Columnist Tim Graham: Mandalay Bay to host sports-talk network

Tim Graham

Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

Tim Graham's media notebook appears Wednesday. His page 1 column appears Thursday. Reach him at 259-4078 or tim@lasvegassun.com.

Mandalay Bay wants to be on the minds of sports radio listeners around the country.

The next Las Vegas megaresort, which opens March 2, has lured the country's largest sports talk syndicate, Sports Fan Radio Network, with a state-of-the-art, race and sports book broadcast studio.

SFRN will air more than 50 live hours a week from its new digs. It will maintain its East Tropicana Avenue offices, from where its morning shows and updates will continue to emanate.

The network boasts around 380 affiliates nationwide. It has operated out of Las Vegas for five years and is heard locally on flagship station KSFN 1140-AM.

"We think it's a terrific deal for everybody involved," SFRN general manager Jay Clark said. "Who wouldn't want to be at the newest and best hotel in Las Vegas?

"It's a good place to be for our announcers because they have a chance to rub shoulders with the people they are talking to. A studio audience is always a good idea."

It won't be the first time SFRN has broadcast from a sports book. The network was brought to the MGM in 1994 by hotel publicist Bill Doak, who now works at Mandalay Bay.

"It's a great way to reach an audience we're not normally talking to," Doak said of the concept. "A radio network is a wide-reaching audience. It's a great way to send out the message of Mandalay Bay, especially our sports book."

The setup at Mandalay Bay is far superior to the one at the MGM, which basically was nothing more than a tabletop on a platform.

Mandalay Bay's studio is glass-enclosed but also can be opened to facilitate patron interaction.

The set features audio and computer equipment on par with SFRN's offices and can also be used for television productions. Both video and audio from shows airing from Mandalay Bay will be transmitted live over the Internet.

"We aren't necessarily confined to the booth," Clark added. "On nice days we can broadcast from the pool or anywhere else in the hotel."

SFRN also can benefit from events held in the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center, which will host major boxing events. It is scheduled to be the venue of Oscar De La Hoya's next fight.

Clark also said there could be crossover promotional events relating to the House of Blues, a cozy concert hall located near the sports book.

SFRN's weekday lineup at Mandalay Bay will feature Chuck Powell from 3-4 p.m. Powell is joined by co-host Soren Petro from 4-9 p.m. Overnight talker John Tournour ("J.T. the Brick"), on from 9 p.m.-2 a.m., will visit occasionally. Tournour now works full-time in the Bay Area.

On the weekends, "Gametime" will be offered from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The show is hosted by former Chicago Bears defensive lineman Tim Ryan both days, with Zach Zaidman co-hosting on Saturdays and Frank Andrews on Sundays.

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A new boxing website, www.boxingmag.com, is offering live video and audio of interviews and pre- and postfight press conferences in addition to feature articles. Crews for the site, operated by former heavyweight Crawford Grimsley and edited by Steve Farhood, worked the Mike Tyson-Frans Botha fight, continued with the De La Hoya-Ike Quartey bout and intend to staff all major fights in Las Vegas. ...

CBS Sports golf analyst Ken Venturi will be given the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism in April. Venturi, who joined CBS in 1968, is the longest-serving TV analyst in sports history. ...

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