Ducks in a row.
KCNC-Channel 4 lining up its news players for a major push in the local ratings this spring.
The CBS outlet this week named Vic Lombardi the station’s lead sports anchor, replacing Steve Atkinson, who is taking that dreaded trip “to pursue other interests” when his contract is up in June.
Don’t expect any clowning around from Lombardi, a Denver native. “I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done, except different nights a week,” he said. “I like to have fun but I don’t want to turn it into a circus. I do what I do. I can’t change my personality.”
Lombardi’s elevation means that by May CBS4 News’s nighttime lineup will be Jim Benemann, Molly Hughes, Ed Greene and Lombardi. Greene will replace the retiring Larry Green as main weather anchor. Lombardi also will anchor the station’s “Sports All Access” on Sunday nights.
It’s all in preparation for Channel 4 welcoming into the fold “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” a sure-fire ratings booster, on May 29. CBS4 News will be on at 5, 6 and 10 p.m., and the station plans to expand its 6 p.m. newscast to an hour in September.
The Big One
What you need to know is that kickoff for Super Bowl XL is 4:25 p.m. Sunday on KMGH-Channel 7. Everything else is football foreplay. Channel 7 said Wednesday that it has installed a temporary HD tower on Republic Plaza so viewers with the proper equipment can see the action in high-def (digital channel 7-1 and HD Channel 652 on Comcast).
Al Michaels and John Madden make their farewell appearance as the ABC Sports duo. The pre-game show starts at 12:30 p.m.
For some, the commercials are a bigger draw than the game. For ad junkies, there’s “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials,” where we get to see Apple’s “1984” spot; “Mean Joe Greene”; and those Bud-weis-er frogs (7 p.m. Saturday, Channel 4).
Pointless but fun information:
It takes 36 cameras, 40 digital video replay sources, 60 microphones, 500 monitors, 29 miles of camera and microphone cable and 29 vehicles to cover the game.
This will mark the seventh, and last, time ABC covers the Super Bowl.
Expected viewership: 90 million in the U.S., based on A.C. Nielsen records.
Around the dial
Ex-driver Rusty Wallace and veteran racing announcer Marty Reid have been added to the ABC/ESPN team covering the upcoming IRL Indy-car Series … Bill Belichick, who knows a thing or three about Super Bowls, added to ABC’s pre-game extravaganza … Silence is golden: NBA TV will show the Houston-Orlando game on Feb. 26 without announcers … Quotable: “We’ve got a lot of eyeballs watching” Vic Lombardi.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
