THE MEDIA : TWO `WRONGS' MAKE WRIGHT TRY L.A.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Van Earl Wright got his first piece of hate mail this week.

``The guy said I was annoying and he didn't know what my problem was,'' Wright said.

Finally. He's starting feel at home in Los Angeles.

All-news radio station KFWB-AM (980) put Wright on the air only a month ago to do the weekday morning-drive sports updates at 15 and 45 of each hour.

For anyone who hadn't grown accustomed to the Wright stuff during his four-year stretch of doing sports for CNN in the early '90s, his bombastic broadcast in this laid-back market would be rather jarring. With or without the morning cup of java.

Maybe it's like listening to a tape of Ted Baxter going through a Cuisinart.

Or someone running a pocket watch through a knife sharpener.

Wright sounds like some bitter balding guy in his mid-50s. It's when you actually see him - mid-30s, a full head of blond hair (longer than usual, since he doesn't have to be on TV), happily married with a 1-year-old daughter - that you come to realize this is just someone who, as a kid, probably spent half his time underwater in the bathtub blowing bubbles just to listen to all the different rumbling sounds he could make with his voice.

Fortunately, one listener's irritation can be another's comic relief.

And Wright has shown every boss he's had during his 12 years of broadcasting that his unique e-NUN-c-iation with a distinct Southern drAAAAAWL is one you'll either loathe or love. But like watching Jim Furyk's golf swing, it takes some getting used to.

``I don't want to sound like some automated voice,'' he tried to explain over lunch the other day. ``I hear enough of that on voice mail.

``I'm not trying to piss anyone off, either. I'm obnoxious enough to invade your space, and I choose to do it this way. But I'm not going to take all this sooooo serious.''

Wright may not have had more than cult-figure status when he was rattling off scores at CNN. He had been doing sports at stations in Beaumont, Texas and Tupulo, Miss., and Charleston, S.C., before he got a shot to fill in at CNN, which is in his hometown of Atlanta.

Using him as basically a fill-in-the-gaps guy for Nick Charles, Gary Miller and Co., CNN producers were always concerned that his on-air persona was a little too . . . oh, what's the word . . . pompous?

``Hey, people want to be entertained,'' Wright says. ``I'm not going to be Mr. Stoneface. I was tired of that.''

So he left.

In '94, he took a job for more cash and airtime at WDIV Channel 4 in Detroit, the NBC affiliate, to do weeknight sports on the 5, 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts.

Wright calls the experience rewarding. He gave up national exposure for a steady schedule and the opportunity to get out of the studio to do stories.

Eventually, this ``Van Earl'' factor caught up with him again.

``They wanted warm-and-fuzzy,'' he said, explaining why he wasn't interested in another three-year deal there.

So he left.

Last November, Wright came out to So Cal to sniff around for work. If he was going to be branded a one-trick pony, at least this was not a stable of sportscaster thoroughbreds he'd have to compete with.

He was hanging out at a Lakers game one Sunday night, walking up the aisle with a Coke and hot dog in his hands, when KWFB general manager Roger Nadel bumped into him. Nadel had headed up an all-news radio in Detroit when Wright worked that town.

Give me a call if you're interested in doing L.A. radio, Nadel said.

I'll start dialing now, Wright answered.

If the trend in Hollywood is to go from the big screen to smaller roles and to television, maybe it wasn't so wrong for Wright to go from national TV to local TV to all-news radio. CB radio could be next, but don't count on it.

Since he's been in L.A. in early January, Wright has gotten voice work on commercials and did a pilot for a TV game show. His resume already includes MTV ``Rock 'n' Jock'' basketball play-by-play and punching up video games with his patented DEEEEEP calls.

Don't be surprised if he weasles his way onto a local TV affiliate - or better yet, punches up the punchless Fox Sports News show - before the summer hits.

``It's been so enjoyable working at KFWB,'' said Wright of the station that already has solid sports reporters with Rod Van Hook and Mike Kaufman and is working Tammy Trujillo into the rotation to get away from a staid approach.

The extent of Wright's radio experience was a noon-to-2 sports talk show for six months recently at all-sports WDFN in Detroit. He gave it up because he couldn't spend enough time with his wife, Shari, and daughter Alexandra.

One of his attempts to be different here is to not go heavy on reading the previous night's scores, but to find news snippets that play into his ``LUUUS ANNNG-GEEE-LEEEESS'' style.

``He bring a slightly younger, brash attitude, which I think listeners here can relate to,'' said Nadel. ``It's no reflection on the other (sports readers), but he requires more active listening. That's what we always strive for.''

And Nadel says he has no problem helping find Wright more ``Hollywood-type'' work, just as long as he can have him between 5-and-10 a.m. each morning.

Meaning Wright, who always has his cellphone and rollerblades in tow, has no problems working here.

In case you were considering writing him a letter to inquire about that.

STATION BREAK

What smokes

The Mighty Ducks' latest call to their local cable litigator. Fox Sports West's decision to move their game telecasts to the new Fox Sports West 2 doesn't sit with the Ducks since no cable system in Orange County, like so many others in Southern California, is willing to add the channel. For various reasons. (Refer to the newspaper ads that West San Fernando Valley company CVI has taken out to explain its side in this dollars-and-cents matter). The Ducks' squawk of contract suit filed Wednesday could be just the start. Wait til April when the Dodgers pop on and no one is getting FSW2. Then the feathers will fly.

Listen up, Cheryl Miller. NBC has hired Ann Meyers as a full-time basketball analyst - specifically for WNBA coverage that starts in June, but interestingly for NBA coverage as well. She'll do the Seattle-Utah regional game with Dick Enberg on Feb. 23.

A quip from Lakers post-game talk show host Bret Lewis after the Clippers' unheard-of 22-point thrashing of the Lakers on Tuesday: ``Yeah, sure the Clippers will beat the Lakers . . . (it'll be) the day they find O.J. guilty.''

What chokes

NBC is using the old ``retooling'' excuse as it grounds the semi-controversial ``skycam'' on Sunday's NBA All-Star Game telecast. Since the network unwrapped it on Christmas Day, some critics have done nothing but whine about this camera that slides 15 feet above the court on a cable and really captures the full-court speed of the game. Call it the ``Dramamine-Cam,'' but it's a lot like what NBC did with its ``railcam'' during the track sprints in the '96 Olympics. This is the slickest thing the NBA has seen since Slick Watts. And on a game where it would be most effective, we'll have to settle for the peacock adding Bill Walton to the broadcast team of Marv Albert and Matt Goukas.

So there's a store on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana called Espy Alterations & Dry Cleaning. We're awaiting word on whether the owners were tailoring a defamation of character suit. Why? Of course, those pesky ESPY Awards, which make their annual pseudo-cast on ESPN Monday (5 p.m.) You know you're trailer-park material if you're double parked on the couch watching Jeff Foxworthy host this gala.

An incisive, well-presented essay by Stedman Graham about the gender gap in sports. ``Too often, the atmosphere . . . can be characterized as nothing less than downright anti-female,'' writes Graham in the March issue of Inside Sports. That's the one with ``Baywatch'' vixen Donna D'Errico on the cover and the teaser: ``37 pages of sizzling swimsuits & gorgeous women!''

Charley Steiner, ESPN ``SportsCenter'' anchor and civic leader. He wrote an op-ed piece in last Sunday's Hartford Courant that was headlined ``Don't Let Them Go.'' Them is the Hartford Whalers, the local NHL team for the boys in Bristol, Conn. Steiner's plea: ``If the Whalers are allowed to leave, Hartford will never be given the opportunity again to house a major-league franchise . . . It really isn't so much Save the Whales as it is Save the City.'' It's distressing to see Hartford's most pressing social issue be keeping a team named after a bunch of guys in raincoats who gut endangered mammals for a living so the rest of us can enjoy a $4.99 fish-and-chip platter down at H. Salt. Since when does Hartford need a pro sports team? Let's hope no one of Stu Nahan's stature boldly tries to seize the moment and lead a pep rally for L.A. to get a pro football team so he can have something to shill about on the 10:50 p.m. sports update.

The winners announced at this week's Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association Awards are . . . c'mon.

One-time respected baseball analyst Joe Garagiola is doing the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for USA Network on Monday and Tuesday. Make up your own punch line.

CAPTION(S):

Box

Box: STATION BREAK (See Text)