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• Timberwolves radio analyst Billy McKinney agreed to a three-year deal this week to continue in that role. (Courtesy Minneapolis Star Tribune)

• Lee Hamilton will not return as San Diego State's football color analyst. The one-year experiment with Ted Leitner was judged as something less than successful and Hamilton's contract was not renewed (Leitner has a long-term deal). No word on a replacement, but the top two candidates are believed to be Chris Ello and Mike Costa, who already work at Clear Channel, which airs the games on KOGO-AM. (Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune)

• Wednesday's Detroit Red Wings- Pittsburgh Penguins game drew the biggest national rating for a Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals in six years, with 2.3 percent of the audience for NBC. However, it still didn't beat ESPN's NBA playoff game between the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics, which got a 5.3 rating. In Detroit, though, hockey beat basketball, 18.2-15.9. (Courtesy Baltimore Sun)

• ESPN has added a stat line to its top-of-the-picture graphic. Below the score, it will flash information on a batter's performance at a particular count, showing his batting average, homers and RBIs when facing 1-0 or 1-2, etc. I could be a curmudgeon and complain of too many graphics crowding the screen, but this is an enhancement for a viewer's inner seamhead. (Courtesy Baltimore Sun)

• Six of ESPN's eight analysts working college baseball's Regionals and Super Regionals on the ESPN family of networks played in the College World Series, including Barry Larkin (Michigan), Robin Ventura (Oklahoma State), Kyle Peterson (Stanford), Eduardo Perez (Florida State), Keith Moreland (Texas) and Phil Nevin (Cal State Fullerton). Nevin will take time off from his duties on the Padres' radio pregame show to work college games for ESPN. (Courtesy North County Times)

• Coverage of the NCAA Women's College World Series continues Friday through Wednesday. John Kruk will join the broadcast team of Beth Mowins and Jessica Mendoza for 10 of the 17 games. (Courtesy North County Times)

• The Tennessee Titans have added 104.1 The Ranch in Carthage, TN to their radio network.

• Former WXYT-Detroit PD Dan Zampillo has been hired as Assistant Program Director at WGN in Chicago. Zampillo is a one-time APD at The Score in Chicago.

• Super Bowl XLII was watched in 43 percent of U.S. households. The NCAA basketball championship was watched in 12 percent. Last year's World Series averaged being watched in 11 percent. Last year's Daytona 500 was watched in 10 percent. The Kentucky Derby was watched in 9 percent. The Masters averaged being watched in 7 percent. Last year's NBA Finals averaged being watched in 6 percent. The average NFL broadcast last season was watched in 9 percent. And that includes the households of Miami Dolphins fans. (Courtesy Charlotte Observer)

• Congratulations to WPEN-Philadelphia PD Matt Nahigian and his wife Joey on the birth of their son, Boston.

• One of the pioneers of Houston sports talk radio is returning to the airwaves this weekend. Barry Warner, who's done sports talk since the early '70s on stations including KLYX-AM, KIKK-AM, KILT-AM, KLOL-FM, KTRH-AM, KSEV-AM, KPRC-AM and KKRW-FM (just to name a few), will co-host The Front Page from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday on KFNC-FM (97.5). Warner will be talking sports and taking calls with Fred Faour. (Courtesy Houston Chronicle)

• ESPN will broadcast the preliminary championship rounds of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee this week in Washington, D.C., chronicling the highs and lows experienced by kids competing in the pressure-packed spelling competition, the network announced Tuesday. (Courtesy Multichannel News)

• Detroit's NHL and NBA teams had simultaneous prime-time playoff games Saturday and Monday. Locally, hockey kept the local ratings race pretty close. In Detroit itself, Saturday's Stanley Cup Finals game drew 8.4% of households on Versus as the NBA Pistons' playoff game drew 12.6% on ABC. Monday, hockey's Red Wings drew 11.7% locally — the Pistons drew 16%. Nationally, Versus' Saturday NHL game drew 1.2% of U.S. TV households — triple last year's Anaheim-Ottawa Finals opener — in the most-watched cable-TV Finals game since 2002. Monday's NHL game got a bigger audience — drawing about 1.3%. (Courtesy USA Today)

• ABC's Boston-Detroit game on Saturday drew a 4.6 overnight, translating to 4.6% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnight ratings — and a 21% increase over a San Antonio-Utah game in the time slot last year. Monday, ESPN's Celtics-Pistons game drew a 5 overnight — up 35% from comparable coverage last year. On NBA playoffs so far, ABC is averaging 3.7% of U.S. households (up 28%), as ESPN (up 32%) and TNT (up 12%) average 2.5%. (Courtesy USA Today)

• ABC's Indy 500 coverage Sunday drew 4.5% of U.S. TV households, up 5% from last year's rain-delayed race. But Fox's Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race, drew 4.7%, up 4% from last year. That's the fifth time this NASCAR race outrated Indy since 2002 — the first year it happened. (Courtesy USA Today)

• Yes, the “American Idol” thing was a big deal in Kansas City. Tuesday night’s show on Fox posted a 19.2 rating in Kansas City, while Wednesday night had a 23.1 rating. Those are great numbers, but consider that the lowest Chiefs rating during a dreadful season last year was 24.5 for the game against the Lions. Even the Chiefs’ season finale against the Jets drew a 27.4. (Courtesy Kansas City Times)

• Detroit Pistons play-by-play announcer George Blaha was named Michigan Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. (Courtesy Detroit News)

• Greg Lucas and Jack Lazorko will call the Big 12 baseball tournament championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday on FSN Houston. XM satellite radio also is airing all tournament games on channel 241. (Courtesy Houston Chronicle)

• Another gauge for the popularity of the Lakers in L.A. is that Wednesday night's TNT telecast, during the hour it went up against Fox's "American Idol," was viewed in 1,008,000 Southern California households and got a 17.9 rating, compared to 745,462 households and a 13.2 rating for "American Idol." Of course, that was in the 8-to-9 p.m. slot, long before the Idol winner was announced; the final hour was seen in 988,302 households and got a 17.5 rating. (Courtesy Los Angeles Times)

• Fox Sports Net regional cable operations will have the capability to offer all of its game telecasts, which number about 3,000, in high definition by early 2009. The president of FSN Networks, Randy Freer, made the announcement Monday at a National Cable and Telecommunications Association meeting in New Orleans. Fox's 16 regional sports networks produce more than 1,700 live high-def telecasts. FSN regionals carry major-league baseball, NBA, National Hockey League and college football and basketball games in HD. (Courtesy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

• The NBA playoffs are drawing big audiences. On ABC, games are averaging 4.193 million viewers, up 31 percent from last season. Sunday's Eastern Conference semifinal Game 7 between the Celtics and Cavaliers drew a 5.7 rating with 6.421 million viewers on ABC. On ESPN, games are averaging 2.657 million viewers, up 27 percent from last season.

• Ratings for Tuesday's NBA draft lottery on ESPN were up 58 percent from last season and seen by 2 million viewers.

• To say Versus and NBC are excited about the Red Wings-Penguins matchup in the Stanley Cup Finals is like saying ABC is excited about Danicamania – an understatement. “The hockey gods are smiling so wide we can count their missing teeth,” said Mike Emrick, who will call the games with Eddie Olczyk on Versus (Games 1-2) and NBC (Games 3-7). The series starts tomorrow, with all games at 5 p.m. (Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune)

• Former Sox utilityman Lou Merloni is scheduled to make his NESN debut as an analyst Tuesday at 9 during the pregame (and postgame) broadcast. (Courtesy Boston Globe)

• Comcast SportsNet will air one-hour pre- and postgame shows for every Celtics-Pistons game. In addition, CSN will host online Celtics chats on Drivefor17.tv starting at 7:30 on game nights. Former Celtics forward Ryan Gomes, now with the Timberwolves, will work tomorrow's Game 3 pre- and postgame broadcasts for CSN. (Courtesy Boston Globe)

• On Sunday, CBS College Sports Network will broadcast a lacrosse tripleheader starting at 1:30 p.m. with the Division 3 men's championship, followed by the Division 2 championship at 4:30 from Gillette Stadium. Jason Chandler and analyst Paul Carcaterra will be in the broadcast booth with Matt McConnell reporting from the sideline. At 7, the network will air the NCAA Division 1 women's championship from Towson, Md. (Courtesy Boston Globe)

• CBS has named the announcing team for its new Saturday-night mixed-martial-arts fight card, CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights, which answers the opening bell May 31. Play-by-play announcing duties will be handled by Gus Johnson. Also announcing the fights will be martial-arts veterans Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, who has been announcing EliteXC fights on Showtime. "Cageside" reporter is Karyn Bryant, who has been announcing Showtime boxing events. (Courtesy Broadcasting & Cable)

• The 2008 National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees include sports media personalities Sam Rosen and Tony Kornheiser. (Courtesy National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame)

• John Pepe, former sports director at the now defunct WERA-AM in Plainfield, NJ has died at the age of 74. (Courtesy Bridgewater Courier News)