SURF'S UP: MEDIA NOTES

     In L.A., Jane Hall reports that all four broadcast networks
are "posting record revenues in terms of advertising dollars
spent" for TV ads in prime time for the new season (L.A. TIMES,
9/13)....Andre Agassi's victory in the men's final in the U.S.
Open "did not galvanize viewers as CBS had hoped."  In
preliminary overnight Nielsen ratings, the Open received a 5.5
rating, down 5% from 5.8 a year ago.  Football was the
"preliminary culprit" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/13)....The 49ers-Chiefs game
was the highest-rated regular-season 49ers telecast in 10 years.
The game had a rating of 38.9 and a 74 share in the Bay Area.  It
was the first regular-season 49ers game on Fox affiliate KTVU
(SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 9/13)....In Atlanta, Kris Jensen notes
that SI's 40th anniversary TV show, scheduled for 10:00pm ET on
NBC, "shows how the magazine is branching into television and
other media."  This special is the first show produced by SI's TV
division (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 9/13)....With less than three
weeks to go before the "crucial shareholder vote" on the Viacom-
Blockbuster merger, execs at Blockbuster Entertainment plan to
"hit the road next week to rally support" for the merger (MIAMI
HERALD, 9/12).