BRYANT GUMBEL COUNTS THE DAYS : LEAVING `TODAY' SHOW AFTER 15 YEARS, HE SAYS HE'LL `MISS HAVING THE FIRST SAY'.

Byline: Bill Carter The New York Times

Bryant Gumbel was sitting in his tastefully cluttered, librarylike office at Rockefeller Center, feet propped on his desk, hands clasped behind his head. With only a couple of weeks to go before he leaves NBC's ``Today'' program after a record-setting 15 years as its host, and with no certainty where he would be working after Jan. 3, Gumbel looked as unperturbed as a man in a hammock rocking in the afternoon sun.

``It's just time,'' he said of his departure from the program, which he announced at the beginning this year. ``I'm not worried about something being lined up.''

Referring to his agent, he added: ``The lovely Ed Hookstratten and I have fought about this for a long time. I always say I just want to be the crazy old man who lives on the hill. I say I just might disappear. Ed says, `Yeah, disappear in 10 years.' ''

Gumbel, 48, has received offers from almost every network, and he will almost surely accept one of them early in the new year. Meanwhile, rumors buzz; the latest has him going to ABC, where he would become an anchor on the news magazine program ``20/20'' and the backup to Ted Koppel on ``Nightline.'' In any case, it is unlikely he will soon find himself on his hill.

Beyond the intriguing suggestions for work (NBC is still a possibility, he said, but he confessed to finding his incumbent bosses ``a little complacent''), Gumbel admitted that he would miss the jolt he gets from his morning program.

``I love having a hand in the big story of the day,'' he said. ``When I'm not on `Today,' I'll miss having the first say on that big story.''

And, though it is rarely mentioned, there is his prominence as the most visible African-American broadcaster on network television.

``What has been to a certain extent satisfying,'' he said, ``is how I've been struck by the number of African-Americans who have stressed that it's important that I stay around. I think what was important to them is that every day there was somebody there, who, if not representing their interests, certainly represented what they were about.''

If one thing is particularly striking about the attention that has surrounded Gumbel as he leaves ``Today'' - in the last few months he has conducted a virtual farewell tour of interviews, as if he were a retiring sports star - it is the absence of the preoccupation with race that attended his acceptance of the job 15 years ago.

When he joined the program, the primary comment was that he was the first African-American host. This was quickly followed by questions about whether he could make the transition from sports to the longest-running news and information program on television.

``I find it amusing,'' Gumbel said, ``that when I started, I was considered maybe too light for the job and toward the back end I was considered maybe too serious.''

Jeff Zucker, the executive producer of ``Today,'' said, ``He pretty much proved to anyone who ever made negative comments that he was simply the most qualified person who's ever had the host job.''

Zucker also said that Gumbel has, in forceful and subtle ways, brought ``a different perspective to the show.''

In the area of race, Gumbel said this different perspective was a fairly simple one: ``Just to ensure that the black guests you have on need not necessarily talk about racial matters. If you're talking about medicine and pregnancy, it's OK to have a black gynecologist.

``I'm not one given to viewing myself as any kind of role model, but I think it's very difficult for somebody to be on TV for two hours every day for 15 years and not have some impact; some, if only in defeating the arguments of some racist saying every black is - whatever he says he is.''

Gumbel's skills as a broadcaster were always acknowledged by fans and critics alike: He is unflappable in any live context, bright, quick-witted, intensely prepared, a dogged and intrepid interviewer and always supremely confident.

At various times during his tenure, there were critics (and competitors) who cited negative findings about him in research done on viewers' reaction to the show. Usually these related to that quality of self-confidence. For some, that played as arrogance. His occasional low standing with certain groups of women was cited as evidence that they were put off by Gumbel's interaction with his female co-hosts, which could seem like an especially male form of intellectual muscle-flexing.

Gumbel, never an apologizing sort, made no excuses for his man's-man style of presentation.

For the most part, this style has been extremely successful, both in how professionally the program was presented and in terms of its ratings. The program lagged behind ABC's ``Good Morning, America'' when Gumbel started in 1982, then moved ahead for several years. After Deborah Norville replaced Jane Pauley as co-anchor in 1989 - a public relations disaster for NBC, which was seen as using the well-liked Pauley as a scapegoat for the program's falling popularity - ``Today'' suffered even lower ratings until Katie Couric was installed in the chair next to Gumbel's in 1990. Since then, the ratings have risen steadily.

``Today'' just concluded its 52nd consecutive week as the highest-rated of the network morning news programs. ``Since the start of real competition'' with ``Good Morning, America,'' said Zucker, ``the show has never been more dominant than this year, and that year of dominance happened with Bryant as the captain.''

The supporting cast has probably never been stronger, either. One key to the program's current success, in the eye of many viewers, has been the more equal relationship between Gumbel and Couric. Staff members say that Couric's playful defusing of some of Gumbel's more domineering tendencies is a significant element of the positive chemistry between them.

The rest of the ``Today'' team consists of the weatherman, Al Roker, who has a warm relationship with Gumbel, and the news anchor, Matt Lauer, who has become a close friend of his, on camera and off. With Lauer set to be named officially as Gumbel's replacement any day now, the transition looks uncommonly smooth and amicable.

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Photo: With offers from almost all the networks coming in, ``Today'' anchor Bryant Gumbel, who announced he was leaving at the beginning of the year, says he's not worried about finding another position.