FOR KTLA, IT'S OUT WITH THE OLD; AFTER A THOUGHTFUL CAREER, ARNOLD LET GO BY CHANNEL 5.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

If Ed Arnold had done something completely and insanely idiotic - and in the realm of local sports TV, that could be one of about 238,000 things - maybe KTLA Channel 5 could justify having him escorted from the building when his contract runs out at the end of this month.

But, of course, Arnold doing something other than sound, meaningful, thoughtful reporting would be news itself.

So why has the sportscaster of L.A. television for the last 31 years started the humiliating process of packing his stuff, which has understandably upset many at the station?

``I think age had to be a factor, but that's their prerogative,'' said the 59-year-old Arnold, a KTLA anchor for 20 years, the last 11 of them in his current spot after a seven-year run at KABC Channel 7. ``I know I'm not as young as I once was and they'd like a younger look - you can see by the (network) programs that lead into the news.

``But none of that's important. I understand the nature of the business. It's changed. I'd rather go too soon than too late.''

While deciding on several options he's already been presented with, Arnold's return to local TV sports would be a surprise. A talented man who is deeply involved in community charity projects has too much going on his life - including two grandkids, a 2-year-old and a 3-week-old - to worry about himself at this point.

``The only thing about all this that really gets me is how local stations seem to be throwing in the towel when it comes to sports,'' said Arnold. ``It's a shame someone who works as hard as Jim Hill (at KCBS Channel 2) gets a minute and 14 seconds of time on the 11 p.m. news. A few guys in this town actually bust their butt to do their job and don't get much time to show it. Every time there's a major sports story, look where it goes - high in the newscast. With my schedule, I don't have time to watch a half-hour of scores to see how the local teams have done. I do have a life.''

They've killed Kenny: KCOP Channel 13 has also decided to dump weekend hipster Kenny Sargent from its sports pen at the end of this month. But the upside is KCOP will be bringing in someone who'll become L.A.'s first female sportscaster in a long while. Michelle Bonner, working at the Fox affiliate in Houston, should be on board by the end of July to work with Newy Scruggs.

Another age-old question: Fox Sports has already started running a series of ads featuring a bumbling, really old-timer trying to make a comeback as a promotion for the start of its national baseball coverage - by the way, it's Saturday, with the Angels-Dodgers at 1 p.m. as one of four interdivisional regional broadcasts.

As a preemptive strike to discourage organized protests of the ads before they begin en masse, let's point out one thing - the spots are drop-dead hilarious.

Two of them have a Dodgers angle. In one, the old-timer tries using the ``catcher-cam'' and ends up getting flattened by Raul Mondesi scoring a run. Another shows the old guy taking a lead off first, held on by Eric Karros. When he goes to steal second, he hobbles down the line and drops into a slide that comes up a few feet short of second so that Todd Hundley throws him out - which by that fact alone is hysterical.

``In today's world, it doesn't take much to get people annoyed,'' said Fox Sports executive producer Ed Goren. ``We've played them for various groups and the reaction was very positive. It produced a chuckle.

``In a very cluttered environment of commercials, it's more and more difficult to grab the attention of the viewer. It's even more challenging when you're launching baseball coverage eight weeks in.''

Adds Keith Olbermann, who'll start the festivities Saturday with Steve Lyons on the pre-game studio show: ``Considering Luis Polonia is pushing 70 and still playing the outfield, the spots may be mistaken for a highlight.''

The final slapshot: Snide remarks made recently by NHL chief operating officer Steve Solomon that lame-duck Fox was reluctant to cross-promote the sport's national package with ESPN were unjustified for a TV partner finishing off a five-year, $155 million deal with Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Tuesday and Thursday.

Fox dumped more than $25 million in promoting the sport before it eased off a bit this year after ABC charged in with a $600 million, five-year deal that starts with next season. And if Fox's legacy to the sport will be the glowing puck, at least that drew the highest-rated NHL telecast during the Fox reign: a 4.1 rating for the '96 All-Star Game.

``When the ratings are good, TV takes too much credit and when they're bad, TV takes too much blame,'' said Fox's Goren, who said the overall NHL rating on the network started to become diluted when, after two seasons, Fox expanded the regular-season package from six games to 11 and had to compete with events like the NCAA Final Four and The Masters.

``We never got a payoff in the postseason with hockey, for whatever reason. It seems hockey fans, once their teams drop out, stop watching. It doesn't help that hockey hasn't been able to take its young stars like Paul Kariya and make him a national star. They're still celebrating Wayne Gretzky.''

SOUND BYTES

By Tom Hoffarth E-mail: sptmediaaol.com

WHAT SMOKES

C'mon Charismatic, give me your special song: Among its 37 cameras for Saturday's coverage of the Belmont Stakes, ABC breaks out the gyrocam again and promises this time to use it. It'll be attached to a vehicle on a service road between the two grass tracks that runs inside of the dirt track and provides what should be exceptional low-angle shots, either live or on the replay. ``We're calling it the `Ben Hur camera,' '' said ABC's new coordinating producer John Fillipelli. ``It's a tracking shot that we've certainly not seen before and will be dramatic.''

Steven Michaels, a 28-year-old USC grad, spent more than a year producing the latest project to be shown in ESPN's SportsCentury project, the ``Top 10 Games of the 20th Century,'' a two-hour special that airs on ABC (11:30 a.m.) as the lead-in to the Belmont coverage. Steven's father, Al, who admits to providing the play-by-play on at least one of the chosen finalists (think miracles in Lake Placid), didn't need his arm twisted to agree to be the show's host.

ABC won't spring for a third man in the ``Monday Night Football'' booth, but it will at least give Michaels and Boomer Esiason a visual aid: that electronic yellow first-down yard marker, as its cousins at ESPN started last year on Sunday-night NFL games.

The 60th anniversary issue of Joe Weider's Woodland Hills-based Muscle & Fitness magazine. You've definitely got to be in shape just to pick up the 400-plus page issue, but the pre-movie star pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger, including the huge photomosaic centerfold, are worth ripping through it.

WHAT CHOKES

How good a friend is ESPN to Major League Baseball? At a time when verbal sparring over coverage of a few September games has resulted in each suing the other, it's ironic to note that it was an ESPN camera making history in helping umpire Frank Pulli decide a call in Monday's St. Louis-Florida game. Sure, Pulli took it upon himself to check the viewfinder of a third-base ESPN camera to see a replay of a fifth-inning ball hit by the Marlins' Cliff Floyd and decide if it was a home run or a double. But that cameraman certainly was under no obligation to offer it up, was he? The next day, NL president Len Coleman ruled that Pulli had erred although he ``acted in good faith'' in making the call and proclaimed: ``Use of the video replay is not an acceptable practice. . . . In the course of play, instant replay has no role in major-league baseball.'' Especially, if it's an ESPN replay.

As part of its annual seven-hour ``Ultimate Stanley Cup Finals'' marathon, ESPN Classic Sports has - again - decided that the Game 2 slot will be the '93 Kings-Montreal contest (airing Sunday, 10 a.m.). Just let it die, OK?

Chris Berman's annual hockey nicknames that ESPN felt compelled to release with the Stanley Cup Finals here include Buffalo's Dominik ``Burning down the'' Hasek, Colorado's Patrick Roy ``Me Worry'' and Dallas' Joe ``Huey Lewis and the'' Nieuwendyk. He couldn't come up with one for the Sabres' Miroslav Satan?

WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV

The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from May 27-June 2:

Event Date Station Rt/Sh. x

NBA: New York at Indiana Gm 1 5/30 KNBC  8.5/23

NBA: Portland at San Antonio Gm 2 5/31 KNBC 7.9/19

NBA: Portland at San Antonio Gm 1 5/29 KNBC 7.5/21

IRL: Indianapolis 500 5/30 KABC 5.5/18

Tennis: French Open 5/30 KNBC 5.4/15

NBA: New York at Indiana Gm 2 6/1 5.0/9

NBA: Utah at Portland Gm 6 5/27 TNT  5.0/9

MLB: Dodgers at Atlanta 5/30 KTLA 4.5/13

Tennis: French Open 5/29 KNBC 4.0/12

MLB: Dodgers at Pittsburgh 5/31 KTLA 3.8/10

Note: ABC's coverage of the CART Motorola 300 on 5/29 did a 2.5/7 number; TBS' coverage of the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 on 5/30 did a 1.7/4 number.

x One rating point equals 50,092 TV homes in Los Angeles; a share is the percentage of all the TV sets in use at that time.

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

Box: (1) SOUND BYTES (See text)

(2) WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV (See text)