MEDIA / KEVIN BRASS : Lakers Fans Lose Out as Cable Drops Channel 9

These are tough days for Los Angeles Lakers fans, and not just because Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is retiring at the end of the current season.

As all die-hard Lakers fans know, KHJ-TV (Channel 9) is the home of the Lakers, the traditional channel to watch Magic destroy the Celtics and the rest of the NBA’s poor and pitiful, while Chick Hearn provides the “simul-cast” commentary.

A few months ago, Dimension Cable, serving coastal North County, became the last major cable system in San Diego County to drop Channel 9. Probably few people even noticed until the start of basketball season a couple of weeks ago. However, more than one Dimension subscriber was upset to turn the dial only to find something called “American Movie Classics” where Chick and Co. was supposed to be.

Of course, it’s hardly a tragedy to lose Channel 9. Most Laker home games are now on Prime Ticket, and KUSI-TV (Channel 51) plans to carry about 22 road Lakers games this season. There is certainly little reason to lament the loss of Channel 9, except for fans of “Sanford and Son” who will now have to search for some other form of amusement.

But for hard-core Lakers fans, the demise of Channel 9 is bad news, especially at this time of year. Channel 51 doesn’t show all the games aired by Channel 9. It misses six or seven games a season, primarily at the beginning of the season. For a Laker fan there can be nothing worse than opening up the TV Guide to find a game listed on Channel 9 and not 51.

However, as shocking as this may be to Laker loyalists, the cable companies say KHJ is the least-watched of the independent stations out of Los Angeles, which makes it the first to go. “We only have a certain amount of channels, and customers demand other things,” said Sandra Cochran of Southwestern Cable, which dropped Channel 9 about three years ago, primarily to make room for WTBS. Southwestern, she said, relies heavily on customer input, phone calls, letters and responses to surveys, such as the questionnaire it is sending to customers in December.

Daniels Cablevision dropped Channel 9 at the end of 1987. Like Cox Cable, it was facing huge copyright fees for keeping the Los Angeles station on its dial. The FCC allows most cable systems to carry only a certain amount of so-called “distant signal” stations without paying copyright fees. Cox carries three distant signals, KTLA (Channel 5), KTTV (Channel 11) and WTBS.

“Periodically we get calls or letters from Lakers fans,” Cox general manager Bob McRann said. He tells them “it would cost a couple of million dollars a year” to carry KHJ.

In Dimension’s case, spokeswoman Susan Ritchie said viewers were demanding other programming.

“We had a high demand for American Movie Classics,” she said. “They advertise heavily in the market, and we have a large number of seniors in the market.”

Lakers fans--and all San Diego basketball fans, for that matter--must face up to this sad reality: They are part of a minority, far from the television mainstream.

“The Lakers games never draw a large audience,” Channel 51 general manager William Moore said. “People don’t consume that much basketball.”

During KGB-FM’s (101.5) 30-hour “Foodathon,” KNSD-TV (Channel 39) anchorwoman Denise Yamada was among the celebrities to stop by to talk with Berger and Prescott. During a break, the station ran a commercial for one of the duo’s regular gags, a spoof of the new Channel 39 news featuring “Denise Ya-mama.” Fortunately, Yamada has a sense of humor. “She was really great about it,” KGB program director Ted Edwards said. The Foodathon raised more than 30,000 pounds of food and $1,700 for the Joan Kroc St. Vincent de Paul Center. . . .

XTRA-FM (91X) is “perhaps modern rock’s most mainstream outlet,” according to a recent article in Billboard magazine. Of course, it also calls the station “XETRA.” The article, a feature on WBRU program director Neil Bernstein, also answers a seldom-asked trivia question: Whatever happened to Mad Max? Formerly 91X’s program director, Todd (Mad Max) Tolkoff is hiring himself out as a consultant for a new modern rock programming service called the Edge, which lists WBRU as its first and only client. The article credits the Edge for providing WBRU with a significant ratings boost. . . .

KGTV (Channel 10) anchorman Michael Tuck, whose recent separation from his wife became fodder for radio shows and columnists, has officially filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences.” According to court records, Kimberly and Michael had been married for a year and a half when they separated in June, a few days after the birth of their son, Collin. . . .

KFMB-TV (Channel 8) photographer Jim Garcia made the news the other night. While covering a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless, a fight broke out. One of the participants turned and attacked the cameraman when he saw Garcia taping the fight. The ironic twist: Channel 39 had the best tape of the incident. Garcia kept his camera rolling, producing bizarre, sort of abstract footage of the guy coming after his face.

Just a week after it opened in San Diego, “U2: Rattle and Hum” was relegated to small screens by most theater chains, to the dismay of the group’s fans. The concert film is just not the same without the big screen and prime sound system. But the initial crowds didn’t justify keeping it in the big theaters, according to theater managers. . . .

Compounding the felony. In the current issue of Foghorn, the San Diego Press Club newsletter, the editors attempted to put a light touch on their apology for the issue’s typographical errors: “As you may be aware, a printer in North County was shot over the weekend. Short range. Right between the eyes. It seems like a just sentence for making a series of typos in the attached Foghorn . . . “

Diane Morales, late of KROQ in Los Angeles, will be the new promotions director at KGMG-FM (Magic 102). She replaces Kathy Tyler, who resigned for personal reasons.