Shares in Clear Channel Communications dropped from $56.50 on September 29 to $45.88 last week, and Vikings Owner RED MCCOMBS estimated his stock loss last week in the company between $700-800M (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 10/8). ...Grizzlies Owner MICHAEL HEISLEY "is waffling" over a report that he will sing "O Canada" before the team's home opener October 31. Heisley: "I'm not a Canadian. I was thinking of doing it to express my appreciation for the way people in Vancouver have treated me but I don't want to insult anybody. And that's what worries me. I don't think I've got that great a voice. I think I can sing a little bit" (Vancouver PROVINCE, 10/8). ...Producer PIERRE COSSETTE is "reaching out" to BOOMER ESIASON about having the former NFL QB play JESSE VENTURA in a Broadway musical (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/10)....Knicks season-ticket holder WOODY ALLEN wrote a piece in support of former Knicks C PATRICK EWING in Sunday's N.Y. TIMES: "That he gave everything in practice and on the court was all anyone could expect. That he refused to be as user-friendly off the court should not have mattered in any assessment of his huge contribution. ... There's a deeper value in teams keeping certain players for life ... There's more to sports than the big money and not even winning is so precious" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/8)....The N.Y. TIMES' Fabrikant & Landler reported on possible succession of News Corp. Chair RUPERT MURDOCH. Murdoch's younger son JAMES "has had an increasingly visible role" in the company, "raising the specter of competition between [him and his older brother LACHLAN] over who will ultimately prove better qualified to run the company" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/8).
