Nothing's official yet, but several sources confirmed to the San Diego Union Tribune that Channel 4 San Diego has made an offer to Mark Neely and expects to have a deal finalized next week. STAA first reported Neely as the Padres choice on December 24th.

Neely has been the radio and TV voice for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers for the past 13 seasons. He also worked for ESPN before joining the Big Ten Network in August 2007.

Craig Nichols, vice president and general manager of Channel 4, refused to confirm Neely was his choice to succeed Matt Vasgersian, who left after seven seasons. But Nichols did say he has “selected a candidate” and is working on a deal.

“It's a candidate with a good deal of experience,” Nichols said, “somebody who will bring a good deal of perspective to the game on our telecasts.”

He added: “The person we will hire has the credentials and the experience where everyone is going to say, 'OK, this makes sense.' Even if they may not know the name.”

The North County Times reports that the search to replace Matt Vasgersian as TV voice of the Padres on Channel 4 appears to be down to two: Roxy Bernstein and Mark Neely.

Bernstein has an extensive background as a minor-league radio guy and has worked radio in the big leagues for the Giants, Expos and Marlins. A graduate of California, he has been the voice of Golden Bears men's basketball on radio since 1997.

He has deep ties to Padres CEO Sandy Alderson and is said to be the club's choice to replace Vasgersian.

Neely has been the radio voice of the Double-A Tulsa Drillers for more than a decade. He recently quit that job to devote more time to the Big Ten Network. He is said to be Channel 4's choice.

A number of candidates were interviewed for the job, including Victor Rojas, Dave Sims and [STAA client] Josh Suchon.

Rojas does radio for the Rangers and Sims does radio for the Marlins.

Suchon is a writer-turned-broadcaster who graduated from San Diego State and worked as a part-timer at the old Escondido Times-Advocate. He gave up writing to take a minor-league broadcast job and now does pregame and postgame work on the Dodgers Radio Network.

An announcement could come as early as Friday.