MCDONNELL'S MAKEOVER BEGINS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

It takes an awful lot to keep Joe McDonnell quiet.

Finally, a month after KSPN-AM (710) decided that by going in the proverbial ``different direction'' it meant not renewing the contract of the 30-year L.A. veteran sports-talk host, McDonnell can talk without any legal restraints about how things suddenly went so sour after he had been an intrical part of the station's growth since he helped launch it in early 2000 as an assistant program director and afternoon drive host.

For a blow-by-blow account of his departure, McDonnell has it all on his Web site (www.1bignasty.com). But in a more contemplative conversation Thursday, he expanded on how the experience has left him with a less romantic view of today's sports-radio landscape, what continues to be a de-personalizing process for employees whose careers hinge on the whims of program directors trying to save their own hides.

``I'm not bitter or jaded, just really pragmatic and realistic now,'' McDonnell said. ``The writing was on the wall after they fired Doug Krikorian (his longtime partner, back in June). I did the show the way they wanted, not the way I wanted, and it took us a long time to build our audience.

``I never thought we'd both be gone. It just never made sense to me. The last four months the ratings were good enough that they had to cut me an extra severance check because I had hit my contract bonuses. But none of that mattered, and that's just a shame.''

As he maps out his next move - it could come slowly by doing fill-in work at either 570-AM or 1540-AM during the holidays, or doing political talk on 1150-AM - McDonnell says he's going to do a little career makeover.

In his personal life, McDonnell has already had to make many major adjustments in just the last year - both his parents passed away, he dropped more than 300 pounds through a gastric bypass procedure last October, and he recently became engaged to Elizabeth Cahn, an administrative assistant at KLOS-FM whom he met while working in the same building as the KSPN studios.

First, the nickname ``Big Nasty'' that Krikorian pinned on him has been retired. His Web site URL will soon change because of this decision.

``It's time to let it go,'' said McDonnell, 49. ``There was a time when it was as much a part of my regular personna as I was on the air. Before losing the weight and dealing with food addiction, it gave me an excuse to not to have to deal with it - I'm nasty, so I can do what I want. But when I look inside and try to be true to myself, I don't want to have this reputation of being a bad guy, or people to think I am because they hear me.

``I don't think talk radio has to be mean-spirited. We should be less about being combative and mean and nasty. Besides, in this business, everyone has to reinvent themselves eventually. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over.''

Not that McDonnell has been putting on an act all these years. His sincere, passionate, researched opinions - whether or not everyone in radioland agrees with them - are what have made him a well-connected sports-radio icon all these years at all the stations he's been employed.

His devotion to UCLA might, to some, prevent him from eventually landing at what's come to be a very pro-USC 1540-AM. But the reality is that the up-and-coming Sporting News Radio affiliate could use a little balance in its coverage. Who better than McDonnell, whose ties to program director Roger Nadel go back to when the two worked together at all-news KFWB-AM (980)?

``Everyone who knows me knows that what I say is what I feel; I'm not enough of an actor to pull it off if I'm not passionate about it,'' McDonnell said. ``I admit I grew up in a Bruin household, but I'll never please either USC or UCLA fans with my opinions.

``Part of the fun of radio is making a comment about USC's fans and hear their reaction. I'm almost jealous because UCLA fans hardly get that passionate. But if perception is reality, and some think I'm 'too UCLA' to work at a 'USC station,' I hope that's not an obstacle. Anyone who's listened to me over the last five years knows I haven't said anything negative about the Trojans - you'd have to be a complete moron to be critical of their football team these days.''

In the meantime, McDonnell says that by having a month off the air to process all that's happened, it's not that difficult to take the high road about his firing. KSPN has since replaced McDonnell with Gary Miller and D'Marco Farr, moving them to the 1 to 3 p.m. spot and ``The Big Show'' with Steve Mason and John Ireland from 3 to 6 p.m.

``I was hurt, but certainly not surprised by what happened,'' McDonnell said. ``What they did to me was something I couldn't do to myself - walk away from the money. I never got involved in the politics there.

``In the end, we'll find out if they made the right move.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--Who's to blame for this latest mind-numbing chapter in the Terrell Owens saga? It may have started with an innocent interview the Philadelphia Eagles receiver did with a teenager named Graham Bensinger who works for ESPN.com, but it sure seems as if it's a story that ESPN (among many) enjoys dragging on if it can self-generate. Credit Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander for putting it best Wednesday: ``ESPN has almost singlehandedly turned a juvenile prima donna's rudeness into something resembling the McCarthy investigation, with all the resultant commentating, hand-wringing and philosophizing giving its hours of precious, gold-flung programming.'' Telander closed with this astute prediction: ``The savaged, destructive wide receiver, the detested pariah of thinking ESPN sports analysts everywhere, will be employed by that company the instant his football career is done.'' Or, at least used by ESPN as a new ``Monday Night Football'' opening tease with another ``Desperate Housewives'' floozie.

--Petros Papadakis, the 1540-AM midday sports talk anchor, has been picked to host a new Spike TV 10-episode series called ``Pros vs. Joes,'' where former and current star athletes such as Jerry Rice, Bo Jackson, Jim McMahon, Jennie Finch and Clyde Drexler compete against ``regular guys'' in various sports-related challenges. The series, currently shooting at Home Depot Center in Carson, is targeted to air in April.

WHAT CHOKES

--With the Lakers and Clippers on extended road trips, we see the philosophical differences in how the local NBA teams decide which games are to be live and which are tape-delayed. The Lakers' KCAL-Channel 9 feeds on Eastern time-zone games have reverted back to tape delay - Tuesday's game in Atlanta started at 5 p.m. PST, even though the radio feed was live a half-hour hour earlier. Nine Lakers games on KCAL will end up tape-delayed this season, all from the East (Central time zone games, such as Wednesday's in Minnesota, were live at 5 p.m.) By comparison, the Clippers' KTLA-Channel 5 feed from Washington on Wednesday was live at 4 p.m. PST, and there was no TV for their game in Atlanta on Thursday (because of TNT exclusivity). For KCAL, the antiquated tape-delay in the Internet, know-everything-now world means fetching more ad-rate dollars because of a bigger potential audience. For example, a KCAL spokesman pointed out that those watching TV in the L.A. market on Tuesday was 24 percent larger at 5:30 p.m. than at 4 p.m. A year ago, KCAL did the Lakers' game in Atlanta live at 4 p.m. PST and it got a 2.8 rating. Tuesday's delayed contest drew double the audience - 5.6 - with the 5 p.m. start, even though many knew the result. Meanwhile, KCAL will continue to replay all its Lakers broadcasts at 1:30 a.m., regardless of the tipoff times.

--The last page in the December issue of Playboy promotes an upcoming appearance of an out-of-work sportscaster with a revealing photo and caption that reads: ``Lisa Guerrero drops the microphone and her robe.'' The January issue will be on news stands by the middle of December.

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SOUND BYTES

BY TOM HOFFARTH