He’s Having a Ball With ‘It’s Your Call’ : * Television: Bill Macdonald, a graduate of Corona del Mar High and USC, enjoys hosting Prime Ticket’s phone-in sports talk show.

Bill Macdonald appeared on the screen, smiling, tanned and ready.

“We’re talking baseball tonight on ‘It’s Your Call.’ . . . As always, we’re going to start the show with beach volleyball.”

OK, so maybe they weren’t talking just baseball on “It’s Your Call,” a phone-in sports talk show on the Prime Ticket Network. In fact, Macdonald, the show’s host, found only 15 minutes to devote to the “national pastime” on this particular show.

The bottom line here was he had fun. Lots of it.

“We get as many diverse people as possible--athletes, actors, writers--and try to cover as many topics as we can,” said Macdonald, 32. “It may sound like a cliche, but we try to have fun.”

And for that, the show couldn’t have a better host than Macdonald. It might sound like a cliche, but “fun” is his middle name.

This is a guy who once promoted the World Championship of Body Skimming and later judged bikini contests at beach volleyball tournaments. So Macdonald knows how to have a good time.

Yet, he has also become a serious broadcaster, a dream that dates back to when he was a kid playing basketball in the driveway of his parents’ house.

“Like most kids, I would always pretend to be someone, like Jerry West, when I was shooting around,” Macdonald said. “But I would also be Chick Hearn, announcing the game. When I threw the baseball against the garage, I was Vin Scully or Dick Enberg. I grew up listening to those guys.”

Macdonald, a graduate of Corona del Mar High School and USC, has been with Prime Ticket for six years, the past three of which he has hosted “It’s Your Call.” He began as a color commentator for the Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League.

During his 10-year career as a broadcaster, Macdonald has been involved in a variety of sports, from beach volleyball to college football. He also has been the play-by-play announcer for UC Irvine basketball the past two seasons.

But most of his exposure has been from “It’s Your Call,” which airs live at 6 p.m. every Friday during the summer. Macdonald has been the host for the past three seasons, during which the show’s popularity has increased.

“It’s Your Call,” now in its sixth season, is geared very much to the Southern California life style, with plenty of beach sports and an occasional celebrity.

A sports junkie will get enough of a baseball-basketball-football-hockey fix to be satisfied, but he might also get William Shatner talking about show horses or Don Johnson chatting about drag boat racing.

“We don’t try to limit ourselves,” Macdonald said. “We try to be informative, but we also try to be entertaining. There are so many good talk shows out there and many of them do the same things.

“Roy Firestone has one guest and spends a half hour with him. He gets in-depth and that’s great. We’re a completely different thing. We bring someone on and, boom, spend 15 to 20 minutes max. Then it’s on to the next topic.”

Macdonald is more as a moderator than an interviewer. He admits he doesn’t ask many tough questions, leaving that to the people who phone.

The show receives calls mostly from Southern California and, sometimes, Arizona. However, people phoned from as far away as Canada the night Wayne Gretzky was on the show.

The format has been successful with Macdonald, the show’s eighth host.

“It’s not your usual Q-and-A talk show,” said Michael Setsuda, the show’s producer. “Bill is loose and fun. He can make a guest feel at ease. Since he took over, we’ve built a lot of momentum.”

As has Macdonald’s career.

After graduating from college in 1981, Macdonald took a job at the Forum, home of the Lakers and Kings. However, his job was behind the scenes, selling season-ticket packages.

In those days, the closest he came to broadcasting was when he acted as unofficial master of ceremonies at the even-less-than-official World Championship of Body Skimming in Newport Beach.

The event, which Macdonald and his friends founded when they were in high school, involved competitors sliding on their stomach on three inches of water.

“I was more like P.T. Barnum,” Macdonald said. “I would wear a tuxedo top and swim suit and would yap at the guys competing.”

In 1982, Macdonald decided the time had come to pursue a broadcasting job. The trouble was finding one.

“I thought I had the talent, but I didn’t have the experience,” he said. “It’s kind of Catch-22, you need experience to get a job, but you can’t get a job until you have experience.”

So Macdonald took the initiative. He approached John Buss, son of Laker owner Jerry Buss, who ran the Los Angeles Lazers. At that time, the games were not broadcast.

Macdonald proposed announcing the games and said he would pick up the expenses. Buss liked the idea and also hired him as the team’s public relations director.

Macdonald bought air time on KBOB in the San Gabriel Valley for $500, which he borrowed from his father. He also sold one advertising spot, to a company that made volleyballs.

“It seemed a little strange, a volleyball company on a soccer broadcast, but it helped pay the bills,” Macdonald said.

“It wasn’t a very big station. I mean, you could pick up the games if you lived within five miles of the station and the wind was blowing in your direction. But it was a great place to learn.”

Macdonald did learn, so well in fact that when Prime Ticket picked up the Lazers, he was hired as color analyst.

“I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” Macdonald said. “At the time I was just about to get married and was really gainfully unemployed. When Prime Ticket finally decide to hire me, it was a relief.”

Macdonald broadcasted a variety of events besides the Lazers. From football, basketball and baseball, to motocross, water skiing and even rodeo.

He was also assigned to beach volleyball for two years. Macdonald would broadcast the tournaments and segments on the cities where they were held. He also judged the bikini contests at each tournament.

“Unfortunately, I became known as ‘Bikini Bob,’ ” Macdonald said. “A lot of people would ask me if I actually got paid to do my job. I think my wife was the happiest person in the world when I got off that beat.”

When Macdonald was approached to take over as host of “It’s Your Call,” he was surprised.

“Bill was a young, up-and-coming guy,” Setsuda said. “We thought he would work well with the show.”

Although Macdonald enjoys doing the show, he eventually would like to move on. His goal is to be a play-by-play announcer for a team.

“If I could be the voice of a team, I’d stay there for 20 to 30 years,” he said. “I’d be as happy as a clam.”

For now, though, he’s content to be the fun-loving host of “It’s Your Call.”

“I have time to see my wife and kids,” he said. “I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do. And, I’m having fun.”