TIME FOR CBS TO OPEN MASTERS' GREEN CURTAIN.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

We'll believe in the Easter bunny before we believe that CBS will stop walking on eggshells around the folks in Augusta, Ga.

There is no acceptable explanation for it any longer. The Masters should be televised wall-to-wall, first tee to final putt, and every sweet-smelling azalea in between.

But year after year, we're fed the press release comments by CBS, the Augusta National Whatchamacodgers and the tournament sponsors that this is the way it will be. Two-and-one-half glorious hours on Saturday, followed by three more hours of specialness on Sunday. And with limited commercial interruption, there are more golf shots per telecast than any other golf tournament.

If you can't handle that, we're sorry. Then don't watch.

Don't watch golf on TV? Is that a threat or a promise?

If this tournament is supposed to be one for the ages, it's never has been one for the TV age.

After 43 straight years of parking their cameras exactly where the greensuits point or putting talent on the air that is officially certified, change remains a taboo word around Augusta. Even if there's a unique opportunity to capitalize on something - specifically, someone - every other sport could only wish it had.

More TV viewers watched the Masters last year when Tiger Woods was making history than had ever watched a golf tournament before. They weren't watching to see what Peter Oosterhuis had to say at the 17th hole. Or even have him spell his name.

It'll be the highest-visible tournament again this year, even if Woods doesn't repeat. So why not expand the TV window? Why not show more of the first nine holes?

Why don't you stop asking those questions, says Jim Nantz.

``We get asked that same question every year,'' said CBS' Butler Cabin boy during a conference call with reporters this week who had the nerve to bring it up. ``I wish people would find a new way they asked that question.''

All right. How about this one:

Why does CBS continually bow to the Masters' wishes? That's easy. If they didn't, another network would.

Why doesn't CBS use a blimp shot and show all the poor neighborhoods around the exterior of the course? That would be over-the-air suicide for CBS, which will be about as probing as a Barbara Walters special this weekend.

Why don't they allow someone like Gary McCord back on the broadcast, when apparently the Masters has lifted its ban on the analyst who once embarrassed them by telling the truth a few years ago?

Producer Lance Barrow, asked that question this week, said: ``Last year was such a great year for us. We had such a great lineup. I'm a very superstitious person. I want the same guys we had last year.''

That's almost as funny as something McCord would say.

Until a network like Fox is allowed to enter the hallowed grounds - which would be CBS' second-worst nightmare - viewers are hostage, no matter what kind of spin the networks, the course members or the sponsors want to put on it.

The only spin viewers are in is a tailspin.

MASSENGALE-FORCE WARNINGS

When KCAL Channel 9's newsroom folks were handed a memo this week announcing the addition of former Fox Sports Net anchor Alan Massengale to a sports staff that already revolved around highly regarded anchor/reporters Tom Murray and John Ireland, the reaction was a bit mixed.

Massengale, scheduled to start his Monday-through-Friday shift on April 20, has name value in the city. And he knows his sports, unlike some fair-haired ex-news readers who have replaced him at Fox (hint: he's so bad, he's Goode).

But how could budget-conscious KCAL, owned by staff-slashing Young Broadcasting, afford such a luxury? Maybe if someone like Murray, in the final year of a contract that's probably in the $150,000-to-$200,000 range, is dispatched to weekend duties and finally becomes so frustrated with it that he leaves.

Murray does not care to speculate on his future. Ireland said he was asked last week by station GM Don Corsini what he'd like to do. He said he'd like to do some play-by-play and host a studio show, which could happen at a station like KCAL that has contracts with almost every local pro sports team except the Dodgers.

Ireland says he'd hate to see Murray eventually be forced out because, ``I'm a huge fan of the guy and a friend. When you talk to some at other stations, it's the nature of the business to say good things about them in public and then stab their back and try to take their job. But no two guys in this city enjoy working together as much as me and Tom, and it's in part because we know how hard the other works to produce what we do at this level.''

If Corsini, who was not available for comment, can work the three into a viable force, it would be another improvement on the top-notch local sports staff in the city. If Corsini is simply making room to hire an old friend - they worked for years together at Fox Sports West, back to when Massengale was hired as one of the first anchors at the then-Prime Sports nightly news show - it's another poor example of who you know being more important than what's best for the team.

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

Despite the predictable trappings that haunt any made-for-TV movie about someone whose life story hasn't been completed, Showtime's production of ``The Tiger Woods Story'' (Sunday, 8 p.m.) is buoyed by several poignant scenes. And that happens in a large part because of the special care director (ub)LeVar Burton took in presenting these defining moments in Woods' 22-year life. Pay particular attention to the acting of (ub)Freda Foh Shen (as Tiger's mother, Tida) when she's in scenes with Gary Le'Roi Gray (playing Tiger between ages 9 to 13) and T.J. Hall (Tiger from age 3 to 5). They are much more important to the storyline than the grinding relationship between Keith David (as Earl Woods) and Khalil Kain (as Tiger from age 16-21), which has already been hashed about in the media. Burton has captured the spirit of Woods rather than replaying events in his life.

The NHL wants to move its TV package with Fox from Saturdays to Sundays next year to boost ratings. It's the right move. Fox's ratings for NHL games this season are down 15 percent to their lowest since the network outbid CBS for rights in 1994. Fox is deciding whether to extend its five-year, $155 million contract with the league for two more seasons and pay at least 22 percent more for the rights.

WHAT CHOKES

CBS convinces (ub)Marcus Allen it's time to quit his winter job and become an NFL studio analyst. Fox once used the former USC and Raiders tailback as an NFL game analyst during a Sunday his Kansas City Chiefs had a bye week. That performance is one reason why Fox hasn't tried to convince Allen to quit his winter job and work for them. CBS Sports chief decision-maker (ub)Sean McManus admits Allen's draw is his ``star quality. . . and contemporary insight.'' Which is what NBC once said about (ub)Joe Montana when it tried to wedge him into their studio show.

CBS' perpetually comatose (ub)Sean McDonough, parked at the 16th hole at the Masters in place of (ub)Gary McCord again, told the Boston Globe that he was ``disappointed'' to be left out of the network's NFL announcing teams this fall. He'll remain the top college football play-by-play rah-rah with (ub)Terry Donahue. ``I felt like I had earned the opportunity,'' McDonough said. ``I stayed with CBS through the tough times.'' Maybe he stayed because no one else was knocking down his cave door?

By Tom Hoffarth E-mail: sptmediaaol.com

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Photo: ALLEN

Box: SOUND BYTES (See Text)