FOX PUTS STOCK IN NEW FACES; OLBERMANN REVEALS HE'S BETTER MAN AFTER THERAPY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Tuesday, the day Fox Sports News announced the hiring of Keith Olbermann as its headlining act, Fox Entertainment Group made its initial public offering and sold all of the 124.8 million shares it made available. News Corp made a reported $2.81 billion on the deal.

Thursday, when Fox officially declared ESPN's Chris Myers had been lured over as well to do some anchor work and host the weekly news magazine ``Goin' Deep,'' the stock moved up to $24 from the $22.50 a share it was sold at in the opening.

Coincidence?

As much as Olbermann would like to take credit, Dow and Jones themselves would tell you that's one of them unexplained Wall Street occurrences.

Yet, if the market's reaction to future Fox trading is anything like Olbermann's Doberman-like moon swings, strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

Olbermann, the former (fill-in-the-network and/or L.A. affiliate) sports/news anchor will relocate next month for enlistment in FSN's kamikaze squad. It's an exciting, potentially high-yield risk both Olbermann and Fox are willing to take.

For Olbermann, he's set free from the oblivion of minor-cable-news-show host shackles he thought was best for him and his career at MSNBC just more than a year ago.

For Fox Sports News, it finally gets (with all due respect to Van Earl Wright) a high-profile anchor with a huge following and an equally huge bit of publicity for a show that, frankly, no one watches for anything more than to check out Randy Sparage's latest land-mass acquisition or the latest Brad Goode/Lauren Sanchez contribution to ``Sportscasters' Greatest Bloopers.''

In Year 3, FSNews' bright lights and flashy decor try to dazzle viewers, but it continues to be as compelling as nude pictures of Dr. Laura Schlessinger on the Internet, as informative as John Saunders and Todd Blackledge droning on during the college halftime report, as dimensional as an Etch-A-Sketch.

From a numbers standpoint that both ESPN and Fox love to fire at each other, the fact is, the established ``SportsCenter'' reaches 75 percent of the TV homes; Fox cable programming is closer to 50 percent.

``SportsCenter'' ratings have been boosted lately because of NFL game lead-ins; Fox's show ratings have been sluggish lately because, for one reason, there's no NBA game lead-ins.

So Olbermann's hiring is the nitro Fox needs as it tries to throw more money at its problem - an extra $2 million ad campaign to raise Fox Sports News attitude awareness started last week.

Fox, in particular FSNet chief Arthur Smith, is even more convinced this is the right time to reel in Olbermann rather than having him come straight over from ESPN, where he spent the best of his 5-1/2 years with Dan Patrick as his foil.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Olbermann said he's a better man these days because ``I'll confess, announce and gleeful endorse'' this epiphany-inducing therapy he's been in since January. It's therapy, he said, that made him realize he had lost the job he really loved most - sports anchoring.

``I didn't have a problem with sports, it was the grind (at ESPN) that brought so much anger and disappointment that I sought a resolution,'' he said. ``I couldn't keep the pain inside. What was going in my life wasn't adding up. I made a change (to news), but something still was missing.''

Unsure of the damage that misguided therapy could further cause, Olbermann said he was finally comfortable with it when a producer/friend introduced him to his parents, both psychologists.

Olbermann, who has described himself as ``an iceberg that's 95 percent above water,'' says he just ``got lucky'' with therapy. ``There was nothing seriously wrong, I just needed help settling some things.''

Next week, don't be surprised if you see him in cartoon form on the couch with Comedy Central's Dr. Katz.

While therapy is one of those sexy media words that many use to wash away frailties from the past, it's an ongoing process, one Olbermann hopes will keep him focused and somewhat repair his erratic reputation. Meaning, if this job doesn't work out, another train wreck in Olbermann's career could be quite damaging to his psyche.

Olbermann, given the title of senior correspondent as well rumored to replace Chip Caray as the network's future host of the baseball studio show, says he feels he's been accepted ``as a junior partner. I feel I have personal equity in this. I'm encouraged to believe this will end when it's supposed to end.''

Olbermann, by the way, will make close to $1 million a year from Fox.

Myers, who spent 10 years at ESPN and the last four encased in the ``Up Close'' interviewer's chair, where he was forced to read from a script of questions that rarely allowed him to free-lance on an interview, will reportedly make about half that.

``(I'm here because) Fox needed someone to drive Keith to work,'' Myers said Thursday.

He was only half-kidding.

SOUND BYTES

By Tom Hoffarth E-mail: sptmediaaol.com

WHAT SMOKES

CBS will draw its own line in the dirt - specifically, a yellow graphic used to mark first downs on the TV screen - starting with the Pittsburgh-Detroit Thanksgiving Day game, two other regular-season contests, and four AFC playoff games, including the AFC title game on Jan. 17. It's an expensive process, but the fact CBS saw its usefulness so quickly after ESPN introduced it for ``Sunday Night Football'' shows that borrowing a good idea that helps the viewer is worth doing, no matter who came up with it first, and it doesn't look as petty as NBC's decision to refrain from using any constant time-and-score graphics during its games.

ESPN's Karl Ravech, 33, continues to recover from what's been called a heart attack he suffered during a pick-up basketball game with colleague Bill Pidto last week. Ravech had an emergency angioplasty to clear a blocked artery and is resting fine. An ESPN spokesman said he will be back to work soon.

BCS alert: Saturday, KCBS Channel 2 decided to go with the Tennessee-Arkansas contest in place of Navy-Notre Dame, and L.A.-based Radio Sports Creations will deliver Nebraska-Kansas State game (that's otherwise available only on pay-per-view) over XTRA-AM (690) with Randy Rosenbloom and Warren Williamson doing the call.

WHAT CHOKES

Tis a shame KALL-AM (910) in Salt Lake City couldn't afford to keep airing the heralded Karl Malone show simulcast out of KXTA-AM (1150) in Burbank since the Utah forward's agent, Dwight Manley, demanded the station start coughing up the same money - namely, $1,000 a show - that L.A. was ridiculously paying. The Utahonians missed out on hearing live the big guy's proclamation Wednesday that he wasn't coming back to play for the Jazz when (if) the NBA lockout ends. Which begs the question: If a Mailman delivers in a forest with no one around, does anyone hear him complaining?

The longer KCBS Channel 2's Jim Hill avoids making any kind of public statement about his involvement with the Michael Ovitz Carson NFL bid - outside that lame ``disclaimer'' following a recent story on Ovitz - the more speculation will continue to circulate about this unethical relationship.

Tell me new KABC Channel 7 sports guy Bill Weir didn't say it the other night when introducing the standard leave-'em-laughing clip about a high diver who sets himself on fire before leaping into the pool: ``Finally, tonight, we have a story on a flaming high diver, and I don't mean Greg Louganis . . .'' Be careful: There's drag racing this weekend at Pomona.

WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV

The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from Nov. 5-11:

Event Date Station Rt/Sh.x

NFL: Green Bay-Pittsburgh 11/9KABC 16.6/27

NFL: San Diego-Denver 11/8 KCBS13.8/31

NFL: Oakland-Baltimore 11/8 KCBS 9.9/23

NFL: N.Y. Giants-Dallas 11/8 Fox 8.3/19

NFL: Tennessee-Tampa Bay 11/8 ESPN 5.5/9

NCAA: UCLA-Oregon State 11/7 FSW  4.5/10

NCAA: Notre Dame-Boston College 11/7 KNBC  4.2/12

NCAA: USC-Stanford 11/7KCAL  4.2/9

NCAA: Washington-Oregon 11/7 KABC 3.7/10

Breeders' Cup 11/7 KNBC 3.5/11

Note: The Breeders' Cup Classic on KNBC at 2 p.m. had a 4.8 rating. The 3.5 overall mark is the average from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

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)