Columnist Tim Graham: All-sports format still fills Las Vegas airwaves

TIM GRAHAM is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. His media column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]

When Las Vegas experienced its sports-talk surge last year, people openly wondered how much was too much.

KENO 1460-AM used to be the only game in town. But it found company when its owner, Lotus Broadcasting, switched big band KORK to big smack KBAD on 920-AM. Not long after that, KSFN 1140-AM joined the fray.

Suddenly, Las Vegas' all-sports options tripled. Many in the business wanted to know if the market could sustain them all, especially with two of the stations being operated by the same company.

Nearly a year and half later, the answer still has not been delivered. All three stations have maintained their formats, but not without much shuffling.

KENO and KBAD offers the best in nationally syndicated programming. But Seat Williams is the program director for both, and that results in an inability for the stations to be totally autonomous.

Even though each station is intended to have its own flavor, their juices often flow back and forth.

"What we've tried to do is make (KENO) a pure station as far as very noncontroversial-type sports," Lotus general manager and vice president Tom Bonnici said. "And then with KBAD we've tried to get more confrontational.

"I think it's working out real well. One of the problems with having one sports station is you have to decide which of the great product your going to choose to air. With two (stations) we can split the quality programming so the listeners can have whatever they want."

KENO continues to be anchored by One-on-One Sports, which offers "Papa Joe" Chevalier and Peter Brown among others. It also features ESPN Radio.

KBAD boasts the caustic Jim Rome and equally caustic Scott Ferrall.

But it always has been confusing for the casual listener to follow. For example, One-on-One "Sports Flash" updates also air on KBAD. ESPN "Gamenight" is heard from 4-7 p.m. on KBAD before flipping over to KENO from 7 p.m.-7 a.m.

Even the personalities flop around. Not too long ago, it was possible for a sportscaster to be in the middle of a sentence, only to have the show go to commercial. A push of the button and he was finishing his thought on the other station.

This is done to make sure all the shows air in their entirety. But at what point does someone in charge just accept that not everything can get hit the airwaves all the time?

"We really haven't had a lot of confusion," Bonnici said. "The fans are just a button away from moving to the next station. If they don't like what we're doing on (KENO) -- bam! -- they're on to KBAD."

Bonnici said KBAD get off to a slow start and continues to struggle to a degree. But he is confident in its future. He said both stations will remain all-sports for as long as possible.

"It's still a work in progress, but I think it's here to stay," Bonnici said.

Local flavor

One way for Lotus to help solidify its all-sports impact would be to add more local programming. The valley desperately could use some, to balance out the national chatter.

Thankfully, a Las Vegas radio station decided to do something about it.

KSHP 1400-AM will air a four-hour block of valley-driven sports banter, hopefully by the first week of August. KSHP, which owns the rights to several pro and college teams, will complement that programming with call-in and handicapping shows from 6-10 p.m.

The 6-9 p.m. segment will be known as "Sports Line" and feature local hosts. It will lead in to the one-hour, nationally syndicated "Smitty's Sports Talk" Monday-Friday. "Smitty's Sports Talk" is based in Las Vegas and has a heavy emphasis on boxing and pro wrestling.

KSHP has started to gain a reputation for giving listeners a little extra local flavor by broadcasting live from Las Vegas events. It will air shows at 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday from the Western Athletic Conference's football media preview at the MGM.

Punches to piledrivers

Boxing isn't good enough programming for the USA Network, but wrestling apparently is.

USA decided to pull its 17-year staple, "Tuesday Night Fights," earlier this year, citing a desire to attract a new audience. The last show airs Aug. 25.

But the network announced Friday that it will add more World Wrestling Federation fodder to its schedule for five weeks starting Aug. 2. "WWF Sunday Night Heat" airs at 7 p.m.

Taking stock

Broadcast.com, an Internet provider of live audio sports events, made Wall Street history last week when it opened for trading.

The company started at $18 on Friday, peaked at $72 and then settled in at $62.75 at the final bell. The soaring value marked the best opening-day gain of any company in Wall Street history.

UNLV football and basketball games have been aired on Broadcast.com for the past two seasons. They will return for 1998-99.

* STATIC: ESPN "SportsCenter" anchor and former UNLV quarterback Kenny Mayne recently threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game. ... For those who get Fox Sports West 2 via a satellite dish, the Las Vegas Stars can be seen on the road Aug. 3 at 6:30 p.m against the Albuquerque Dukes. A replay airs Aug. 4 at 1 p.m.

archive