Fred Wallin Offers the Counterpoint ‘Sportstalk’ Needed

Stu Nahan and Fred Wallin, the co-hosts of KABC radio’s “Sportstalk” program, carried on a lively debate during the recent National Basketball Assn. playoffs.

Wallin kept saying that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should retire at the end of the season. Nahan kept saying he shouldn’t.

Of course, such a stance is typical for Nahan. Besides Clipper owner Donald Sterling, a safe target, there is hardly a Los Angeles-based athlete, coach or team executive he doesn’t like.

To Nahan, taking a hard-line stance means attacking, of all people, sportswriters for their heinous crimes, such as daring to write anything that doesn’t flatter the local teams.

Anyway, the point is that the addition of Wallin, hired in January, has given the KABC show some balance. Wallin, although not exactly a hard hitter, at least partially offsets Nahan, a real Pollyanna.

Wallin is a study in perseverance.

During a 10-year stretch, beginning in 1975, Wallin, who had worked at KABC screening calls for talk shows in the early ‘70s, periodically asked George Green, KABC’s general manager, for a job as a “Sportstalk” host. And Green always turned him down.

“Finally, I gave up,” Wallin said. “I came to the conclusion I would never work for KABC again.”

That was more than two years ago. Then, late last year, WFAN, a new 24-hour sports station in New York, used Wallin to do fill-in work.

Fortunately for Wallin, while he was at WFAN, the station invited some TV-radio sports critics to New York to listen in. The station didn’t draw rave reviews, but Wallin did.

Suddenly, KABC was interested. He filled in with Eric Tracy last November, when Nahan was on vacation, and was hired full-time two months later.

Wallin began dreaming about doing a KABC talk show of any kind while attending Culver City High School.

“I lived only about five minutes from the station and used to go over there just to watch the talk shows, whatever the topic,” he said. “I was fascinated.

“There are two things I love: Talk shows and sports. So, I have the perfect job for me.”

However, after graduating from Cal State Northridge in 1971, Wallin said he planned to become an attorney. “My two brothers are both attorneys,” he said.

Then he got the job screening calls at KABC and forgot about the legal profession. He later got a job on “Sportstalk,” a fairly new show at the time, as an assistant producer. Ed (Superfan) Bieler was the host.

Wallin followed Superfan from KABC to KIEV. There, in 1975, he got his first on-air experience, sitting in for Superfan on weekends.

Wallin later hooked up with Randy Rosenbloom, now sports director at Oxnard’s Channel 63, and they were co-hosts of a sports talk show for KPRZ. Then, from 1982 until he was hired by KABC, minus six months that he worked in Portland in 1985, Wallin did a sports talk show for KFOX-FM in Redondo Beach.

Now, finally, he has the job he always wanted.

The addition of Wallin is not the only reason “Sportstalk” is an improved show. John Broeske, KABC’s new program director, who came from a Fresno station, KMJ, at the end of May, has made some subtle changes.

The format for commercials is different, for instance. There are just as many commercials but fewer breaks, giving “Sportstalk” more continuity.

Also, the local news segments have been dropped, another move to increase the continuity and to allow for more banter between Nahan and Wallin.

Of Nahan, Wallin said: “I didn’t know Stu at all before I went to work at KABC. I didn’t know what to expect. Well, he’s been great. Stu and I have become good friends.

“The only disagreements we’ve had are those we’ve had on the air.”

TV-Radio Notes

HBO will show a tape of the Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks fight Saturday night at 10. Originally, word was the fight would be shown tonight. . . . Other playdates are: Monday at 11 p.m., Wednesday at 1:30 and 11:30 p.m., and a week from today at 5:30 p.m. . . . Originally, HBO planned to devote 1 1/2 hours to the fight. Now, for obvious reasons, the show runs only an hour. . . . HBO will pad the show with interviews and pre-packaged footage. Tyson and Don King, originally agreeing to take part in the show, have since declined. . . . Prime Ticket executive Tim Krass, who was involved with the pay-per-view promotion of the Tyson-Spinks fiasco, says they’re coming out with a sequel. “They’re going to call it, ‘Round 2,’ ” Krass said.

HBO did an excellent job producing last Monday’s fight telecast, considering there was only 1 minute 31 seconds of action, if you can call it that. Particularly outstanding was announcer Jim Lampley, who had a lot of time to fill, since the fight started 32 minutes late. But it was Larry Merchant who came up with the best line: “Tyson is 34-0, not counting bouts with his manager and his wife.”

ESPN also did an outstanding job, covering the activity before and after the fight, particularly the postfight press conference. As a result, ESPN drew a 4.2 Nielsen rating from 8:30 p.m. to 9:45. Normally, “SportsCenter” at 8:30 gets around a 1.0.

Athletes and drugs will be the subject of Geraldo Rivera’s show on Channel 2 at 5 p.m. Monday. Guests will include Mercury Morris, Spencer Haywood, Steve Howe and Dwight Gooden. Howe, asked how expensive his drug habit was, says: “It cost me over $3 million and a family.” Howe also describes his first encounter with drugs. “In 1980, when I was rookie of the year, I was a nervous wreck and I had to go to this press conference. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to wear, and someone came up to me before I went on the air and said, ‘Hey, kid, try this.’ And I tried it and I was hooked from that moment on.”

NBC’s Wimbledon coverage, which will be shown at 10 a.m. today and 8 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, each day will be delayed two hours in the West. . . . Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda will be interviewed by Kathleen Sullivan on “CBS This Morning,” live from his office at Dodger Stadium at 8:30 this morning.

Add Sullivan: She and husband Michael Kiner, son of announcer and Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, have legally separated because of the strain of a commuter marriage. Her job kept her in New York and Kiner is in Palm Springs, where he’s in real estate development. “We never lived together,” Sullivan says of the bi-coastal set-up. There are no hard feelings, Sullivan says. “I adore Michael. He’s wonderful.”

The networks absolutely seem to love the Dodgers, especially now that they’re in first place. They aren’t on NBC Saturday--the Angels are, from Detroit at 1 p.m.--but the Dodgers are on ABC again Monday night. Thus, their home game against St. Louis will start at 5 p.m.

Attention auto racing fans: On Sunday, ESPN’s “RaceDay America” will involve almost a full day of auto racing, beginning at 5 a.m. with “MotorWeek Illustrated,” followed at 5:30 with delayed coverage of the Formula One Grand Prix of France. At 8:50 comes the IMSA (International Motor Sports Assn.) Continental race live from Watkins Glen, N.Y., then it’s the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Cleveland Grand Prix at noon. . . . ABC will televise the Firecracker 400 stock car race at Daytona Beach, Fla., delayed, as part of “Wide World of Sports” Saturday at 4 p.m. (3 p.m. in San Diego).

The USA network came up with an innovation, the “ref cam,” last weekend in covering the George Foreman and Hector (Macho) Camacho fights. A camera was attached to the referee’s shirt. The results weren’t that good, however. It’ll be awhile before the ref cam is perfected.