Complex Christensen Simply Quits

Todd Christensen is as difficult to understand as the polysyllabic words he uses.

People who know the former Raider tight end often use the word complex when describing him. Others use less flattering language.

What’s obvious is that Christensen is a highly intelligent former athlete who is driven to succeed. His current goal is to make it big as a broadcaster.

He was perplexed, therefore, when NBC named Bob Trumpy as Bill Walsh’s replacement when Walsh returned to coaching. Although Christensen, an NBC football commentator for two seasons, was glad to see Trumpy awarded for his tenure, he believed the job should have been his.

NBC people have since said he was never in the running, and Christensen was disturbed when he was told that his lack of proper deportment was a factor in not getting the promotion.

His broadcasting career was jolted again last week when he abruptly quit his midday talk show at KMPC after only five weeks on the job.

“I know this is not going to look good,” he said from his home in Alpine, Utah. “They say my deportment hurt me at NBC, and now this.”

Christensen said he was told he lacked proper deportment, but what that meant wasn’t explained.

During a second phone conversation this week, Christensen, with a trace of humility, talked about learning lessons and about a letter his father had written to offer some sound advice.

Christensen said that his father, a professor at the University of Oregon, was in the East and saw a New York Times story with a quote about his son’s lack of proper deportment. It’s not what a father likes to read about a son.

But don’t look for Christensen to suddenly become a mild-mannered, self-effacing glad-hander. You can expect only so much.

Around KMPC, there are those who say that the pedantic Christensen was an ego monster, that he was aloof and kept to himself when he was off the air. Also, he wasn’t viewed as a team player. His detractors said he was concerned only with himself.

He did have supporters at the station, though.

Scott St. James, who is on the Robert W. Morgan show that precedes the midday show, added, “Todd would always stick his head in the door to say hello. We--and by we I mean those of us on the morning show--liked Todd. We had no problems with him.”

Not so with Joe McDonnell, Christensen’s partner. These two simply did not like each other from the start.

Program Director Len Weiner, who had fought to get Christensen in the first place and agreed to pay him $105,000 a year, paired him with McDonnell.

One problem was that Christensen thought it was his show, that he was the star. But McDonnell, who has a fair-sized ego himself, wasn’t about to play second fiddle.

So, from the outset, these two were reluctant to share air time. Things got so bad that after a couple of weeks, McDonnell agreed to be a field reporter.

Christensen then went it alone, but it wasn’t long before Weiner told Christensen he needed a partner. Christensen said OK, that he would be willing to work with either Brian Golden or Chris Roberts.

Instead, McDonnell was put back on the show, over Christensen’s protests. The end came less than a week later.

Christensen, showing some political savvy, is careful not to say anything negative about Weiner or anyone else at KMPC.

And he said he was glad to hear McDonnell was clicking with his new partner, columnist Doug Krikorian of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, on what Morgan calls the “McDonnell-Douglas Show.”

McDonnell, a little out of character, has also chosen the tactful route.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” he said. “I have no problem with Todd. I think he showed he has good radio skills.”

The feeling here is that Christensen is pleasant enough and has a decent sense of humor.

“At least my family likes me,” he said with a chuckle.

He and wife Kathy have four sons, and the plan was for the family to move back to Los Angeles from rural Utah if the KMPC gig worked out.

Contributing to Christensen’s decision to stay in Utah was concern for his 4-year-old son, Teren, who has spina bifida, a partially open spinal column, and recently had surgery. Christensen doesn’t confide to many about his son’s problem, but there were those around the station who were aware of his concerns.

Spina bifida has received some national attention in recent years because it’s widely known that another former NFL player, Steve Largent, has a son, Kramer, with the rare, disabling congenital defect.

Weirdness file: The strange relationship between KMPC’s Morgan and Police Chief Daryl Gates--what a pair!--reached the absurd this week.

Gates, before joining Morgan in the studio on Wednesday, agreed to take a call from Morgan before the chief’s Monday news conference at police headquarters.

So Morgan sent one of his staffers, Kathy Orton, decked out in a KMPC T-shirt, to the news conference armed with a cellular phone.

As an auditorium full of puzzled reporters looked on, Gates answered the phone not once but, because of problems with the phone, four times, saying “Good Morgan” each time. He also won seven $10 bills each time because of KMPC’s spot on the dial--710. His take was $280.

Bizarre, really bizarre.

TV-Radio Notes

Believe it or not, there will be major league baseball on CBS this weekend. The season is 10 weeks old, but CBS has done only three games, none in the last five weeks. Saturday’s “occasional game of the week” will be the Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, with Sean McDonough and Tim McCarver reporting. . . . Last Saturday’s College World Series championship game between Pepperdine and Cal State Fullerton got a 3.2 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles. The national rating was also a 3.2, which was also the rating for the Monica Seles-Steffi Graf French Open final.

With KMPC’s Jim Lampley headed to New York for an NBC assignment this weekend, Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian will move into his afternoon time slot today. Chris Roberts and The Times’ Thomas Bonk will handle the midday show until Lampley returns Tuesday. . . . McDonnell and Krikorian will broadcast next Thursday and Friday from Caesars Palace, site of Friday’s Evander Holyfield-Larry Holmes TVKO pay-per-view fight. Johnny Ortiz, former proprietor of the Main Street Gym, will be on with McDonnell and Krikorian Wednesday to analyze the fight. . . . XTRA’s Jim Rome will broadcast from Caesars all next week.

Lou Duva, Holyfield’s trainer, said Thursday he believed next Friday’s fight could attract as many pay-per-view subscribers as last year’s Holyfield-George Foreman fight (1.4 million homes). He said Holyfield-Mike Tyson, which had been scheduled for Nov. 8, would have broken all records. . . . Most cable systems are charging $35.95 for Holyfield-Holmes, with the price going to $39.95 the day of the fight.

A casualty of KMPC’s format change to sports was popular deejay Johnny Magnus, who had stints of 10 and eight years at the station. Magnus, a baseball fanatic, was hopeful of obtaining a role in the new format and even made an audition tape that included an interview with his friend, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda. . . . Sportswriter Gene Wojciechowski takes an in-depth look at the radio war between KMPC and XTRA in Sunday’s Times. . . . The Clippers’ Doc Rivers did a nice job filling in for the vacationing Steve Edwards on KABC’s “Sportstalk” Monday.

Prime Ticket’s “Press Box” will be showing some new flexibility next week. Anchor Larry Burnett and producer Tom Reilly will be at Caesars Palace and anchor Alan Massengale and producer Sol Steinberg will be at Pebble Beach, site of the U.S. Open. . . . Susan Stratton, Channel 9’s Laker producer-director, will be inducted into the Women in Film Hall of Fame at a Beverly Hills luncheon today.

Channel 9 will take a look at the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team in a special, “Team USA,” Saturday night at 9. Chick Hearn and Gary Cruz are the hosts. The special was completed before Cruz was admitted to Westlake Medical Center last Sunday with pancreatitis. He was scheduled to be released Thursday night or today. . . . The Times’ Jim Murray, a guest on Roy Firestone’s “Up Close” on Monday, also will be Irv Kaze’s guest on KIEV tonight at 7. Director Gary Marshall, a big sports fan, will also be a guest. Kaze’s weekly Friday night talk show is now being repeated Monday nights at 8.