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Show i nTr.wi. by Joan Hanauer United Press International Writer NEW YORK In telecasting 50V4 hours of the 1980 Winter Olympics, ABC estimates it will reach 180 million Americans with some portion of what may be the only games on the tube this year The vastness of the potential audience 85 percent of the total United States population explains why the network was willing to spend $25 million for rights to the games at Lake Placid, N Y , that will go on Feb. THE $130,000 average per minute that the network is getting from sponsors the price tag is higher for prime time and lower for other day parts will offer the network what it considers a modest profit and, unless its predictions are off, an enormous advantage in the networks own brand of competing event, the ratings race. The games are sold out to 29 sponsors who make products ranging from beer to mattresses to data processors. Although ABC won't detail its advertising it is usual to sell coverage in arrangements, packages, so that prime time advertisers almost must buy into daytime and late night. The sponsors will be buying coverage that includes 32 Vi prime time hours, 15 daytime hours, mostly on weekends, and three hours of late night broken down into 15 and occasionally segments following the late news. WHAT ABC AND the sponsors are counting on, based on experience with past Olympics, is the universal nature of the games appeal. They naturally hypnotize the sports nut who would watch the tortoise race against the hare if somebody would the event But they also attract the type who thinks the Orange Bowl is a Florida dessert dish The 1980 Winter Olympics will be the seventh games broadcast by ABC This years summer games from Moscow are scheduled to be broadcast if they take place at all and if they are not by NBC boycotted by the United States in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Ordinarily the summer games are considered the main event, and NBC agreed to pay $87 million for the Moscow set, planning to spend another $35 million or so to air 151 hours of events. With the Moscow games in doubt, ABC may benefit with a bigger audience for the winter sports. The man who will host the skiing, skating and sledding events is Jim McKay, who has performed similar chores for all of ABCs other Olympics and also was host for CBS in televising the 1960 Rome games. IN TALKING ABOUT the broad appeal of the games, McKay said during an interview, That's my job to make a story out of it, so that the whole thing becomes more than just a series of isolated events. For McKay, the story starts with the village of Lake Placid, which, he said, had traditionally been a summer resort, not a winter haven. "Then, back in 1904, Lake Placid became the first place in the U S. where Americans went in the winter to play. Thats when old Melville Dewey, who invented the Dewey decimal system they use in libraries, had the old Lake Placid Club. televise McKay went on to talk about the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, when there were no Alpine or downhill Olympic skiing events just cross country THAT YEAR, according to McKay, Lake Placid underwent a thaw at Olympic time and there was slush everywhere. This year the worry has been lack of snow, but McKay was reassuring: "Theyll be all right as long as its cold enough 28 degrees or less. It just wont look as pretty without snow The worst that could happen would be a brown landscape with white streaks, instead of picturesque white mountains and snow sprinkled trees. McKay spends much of his time telling the stories of individual athletes, humanizing them so that the viewer can identify with the competitors I like to think we give the basic sports fan everything he or she wants, McKay said "But its important to reaclfthe casual viewer, too. and McKay obviously believes in the Olympics not because he goes overboard for sports When he said, he never watches football in the summer or baseball in the spring and the only sport he dotes on is soccer. The Olympics, he belives, are different. "Think about all the regular programming on television," he said, "and the things the kids are watching night after night. The Olympics is something that happens two times every four years, when they get to watch people who think it is worthwhile to work really hard to be the best in the world. I think thats important off-dut- . SPECIAL PRE-SPRIN- G for men or women Includes Full Use Of All Facilities & Services: Resolve Now To Make 1980 soothing sauna heated indoor swimming pool relaxing whirlpool steam room modern conditioning equipment nutritional guidance A Slimmer, Healthier Year! The Salt Lake .( t-- V Mux ss CALL NOW Sugar house 1033 E Jisl South offer limited to new adult , Ji A J TV cait.a? patrons only 10. Holladay (Open Sundays) Ogden (Open Suixluys) Fashion Place Orem 4700 Highland Drive 3354 Harrison Blvd 155 E 6100 South 703 South State Spa Lady (Special Low Rates Ladies Only) 3581 So Market (Just west ot Valley Fan Mall) |