Now that CBS Sports has dropped coverage of the PBA Tour, commentators Phil Ferguson, Marshall Holman, and Dave Davis look forward to the telecast finals of the tour on ESPN if negotiations to schedule the PBA on the leading cable sports network are successful. It hopefully won’t be their final telecasts in the year of 2000.
Ferguson has progressed through the ranks to become the regular commentator of all the PBA stops, announcing with Holman and Senior Tour commentator Dave Davis. Holman’s CBS sidekick, Gary Seibel, will no longer be part of the bowling commentator mix.
Ferguson always has wanted to broadcast the TV finals of the PBA Tour dating back to his boyhood days in Akron, Ohio, the birthplace and current headquarters of the PBA. When he watched the tour on ABC-TV, he absorbed the broadcast styles of Chris Schenkel, Bo Burton, and the late Billy Welu.
"As a kid, I staged mock bowling tournaments by setting up toy pins in my parents’ basement," said Ferguson. "I tape recorded my commentary from those tournaments, so this is something I’ve always wanted to do."
He enhanced his background in bowling journalism by covering such events as the Firestone Tournament of Champions for several years on local TV and radio stations in Akron.
"Living in Akron gave me the advantage of being able to cover bowling on radio and television," Ferguson said. "I also host a talk radio show on Sportsradio WAKR in Akron where I talk about current news items and sports. Because I do it from 4 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, I can still work in my assignments as PBA Tour commentator for the stops on weekends."
Ferguson credits Holman and their tour producer, Peter Lasser, who was part of ABC’s "Pro Bowlers Tour" production crew, for helping him smooth out the technical portions of broadcasting the tour, with Holman specializing in match play analysis.
Ferguson started his career with the PBA as media director (formerly known as tour broadcast director) for five years (1978-83). He later jumped at the opportunity to broadcast the PBA Senior Tour with bowling Hall of Fame commentators Dick Weber, Carmen Salvino, and Dave Davis on the old Prime Sports Network four years ago.
"I worked with the Senior Tour events, and then PBA Commissioner Mark Gerberich invited me to announce the regular tour with Marshall Holman, and I’ve been doing it since then as a regular."
Former PBA touring pro Denny Schreiner, who is best remembered for his quality commentary for the PBA Tour and the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour before leaving to do the same for the Golf Channel five years ago, was another instrumental figure in the evolution of Ferguson’s career.
"I actually took over Denny’s job as media director for the PBA Tour when Denny decided to leave that position to become a regular bowler on tour himself," Ferguson remembered. "Then, before Denny went back to the tour as its commentator, he had a sports job at our local Akron TV station, which I took over when he vacated it. I ultimately took this job as commentator for the PBA finals on ESPN that he also once had before he left for the Golf Channel. So you could say that I have literally followed in Denny’s footsteps."
Ferguson, who even sounds like Schreiner, has bowled all of his life, mainly in leagues and tournaments in Ohio. He decided, however, that the constant challenge of the weekly grind of travel, competition, and the lack of money or a sponsor was not for him, so he never bowled professionally on the PBA Tour.
Perhaps Ferguson and Holman will not be able to continue their commentary for the tour because the televised finals of the PBA on ESPN face a tentative future at best in the 21st century. In fact, if matters don’t improve, Ferguson could continue to follow Schreiner in his footsteps to the Golf Channel.
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The PBA Tour and the PWBA currently have serious cash flow problems when it comes to televised coverage of their tournament finals unless they respectively join the American Bowling Congress and the Women’s International Bowling Congress, which could finance their operations.
PBA Commissioner Mark Gerberich says, "We have a major shortfall in fulfilling our agreement with CBS Sports this year. In 1992, the PBA received $4 million a year in rights fees from ABC-TV. This year, we had to pay CBS $2.3 million for airtime and production. We had the same deal with CBS in 1998, but we were very successful. This year, we had sponsors that didn’t renew for one reason or another, and we weren’t able to replace them."
As a result of the million-dollar shortfall, CBS will not be renewing the PBA’s Spring and Summer tours on its "Sports Spectacular." Gerberich finally paid CBS the $1 million which the tour owed the network in October of last year, but it was too little, too late for the PBA to get back on CBS.
Since paying the PBA’s bills seems to be such a gamble an the tour has stops in Las Vegas, perhaps Gerberich should have made an appearance on the popular ABC-TV show, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" to see if he could have won a million dollars from Regis Philbin to pay the PBA’s bill to CBS. An appearance on a similar game show called "Greed" on the Fox Network would have been even better. If Gerberich had won the big $2 million prize from host Chuck Woolery, he would have been $1 million ahead on his bills. Just think of the publicity the PBA would receive from those shows. They money he would win from ABC from Philbin could be recycled to its sister network, ESPN, to pay for PBA coverage.
Philbin jokingly says the he is saving the ABC network with the millionaire show and Gerberich could say he’s saving the "Pro Bowlers Tour" by winning the million from Regis. It could be the final answer in solving PBA’s financial woes, and it could join the other ABC, the American Bowling Congress, with a monetary cushion.
Not only were pro bowlers snubbed by sports writers and sportscasters in ESPN’s SportsCentury Awards as previously reported, but the snub also carries over with sponsors of the tours on TV an potential advertisers.
Even David Letterman, who always welcomed discussion of the PBA Tour on his "Late Show" if only to make fun of it, personified the new CBS attitude toward bowling when he invited World Series champion manager Joe Torre to appear as a guest along with other New York Yankees on his show shortly after the Yankee’s sweep of the Atlanta Braves.
Torre was reminiscing about the highlights of the World Series when he was cut off in the middle of his sentence by Letterman when the Yankee skipper mentioned the magic word—bowling.
"We are winners because we play together as a team," Torre said. "It’s not like bowling where you…."
"Tell us about how Roger Clemens pitched so well in the final game of the series!" Letterman abruptly interrupted.
Torre obliged Letterman by answering the question and moving on to another tangent of discussion about the World Series and never returning to his comparison of the Yankees as a team compared to pro bowling as a individual sport where bowlers frequently compete against each other on TV in singles match play competition.
Syndicated columnist Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.