Courtesy Boston Globe

(January 1, 2010) The usual aim in this space is for perspective rather than retrospective, for context instead of reminiscence. But today, with the final moments of 2009 still fresh, the obligation is to bid a proper farewell to an eventful and compelling year in sports media, one that offered gluttonous helpings of both the optimism of rapid progress and the fear of uncertainty and change.

Consider the radio dial. WEEI, which confidently stood alone as the sports-talk superpower in Boston essentially since it switched to the format in 1991, faced its first significant challenger when the CBS Radio-owned “98.5 The Sports Hub’’ launched on the FM dial in August.

The Sports Hub had early success that exceeded even the most hopeful expectations (it finished third in the market in the coveted male 25-54 demographic in October, just its second full month in the Arbitron ratings). Yet WEEI has suffered nary a small dent in its ratings, finishing first in the same demo in October and November and second to classic rock station WZLX in the December ratings released yesterday. The Sports Hub has dipped slightly, finishing sixth last month after tying for fifth in November.

While the champ and the challenger will continue to swap punches into the new year and beyond, one thing is apparent: The real winner is the sports radio listener, who after all these years finally has a real choice.

The new choices weren’t limited to the radio, of course. Virtual haymakers were thrown in other forms of media as powerful brands such as ESPN and Comcast launched or greatly enhanced their news-gathering organizations in Boston. In their attempts to siphon readers and viewers from traditional, successful entities in the marketplace, the newcomers did what newcomers do: They tried to poach so much established and recognizable talent - with varying degrees of success - that sometimes it seemed as if “sports media’’ should be awarded its own heading in the transactions column.

While the pressures of the enhanced competition should have made for some ruthless rivalries, the reality was often more complex for the individuals involved. The reluctance to burn bridges was plainly obvious, and for some personalities - particularly the more ubiquitous ones - it was business, not personal.

It became commonplace for radio competitors in the afternoon to show up as television cohosts or fellow panelists a few hours later, and that byline in your newspaper in the morning often provided the postmortem in-studio after a ballgame. In this new media world, there are few conflicts when there is so much interest.

We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention the game-changing impact of social media, which was probably the sports media story of 2009, save for the possible exception of the nontraditional media’s ethically debatable relentlessness in exposing the details of the Tiger Woods scandal. The perception here entering 2009 was that Twitter was primarily a device for professional hipsters, self-adoring navel-gazers, and Ashton Kutcher to tell the world what kind of omelet they had for breakfast in 140 characters or fewer.

We couldn’t have been more misguided. Turns out it’s not a fad; it’s essential, not only in terms of breaking news in the perpetual cycle, but also for promotion and attracting readers.

The date its relevance was crystallized here remains clear: July 31, the major league baseball trading deadline. In the recent past, one would hop from website to website hoping to find the latest news and rumors. But this year, with so many prominent writers - pioneered by SI.com’s Jon Heyman - using Twitter to get all info out there in an accelerated manner, following them became the best and quickest way to gather information. And so it was not a newspaper, a website, a television station, or sports talk radio that broke the story that the Red Sox were on the verge of a major trade. It was USA Today baseball writer Bob Nightengale, who had the scoop at 1:53 p.m. with these simple words: The Red Sox are about to acquire Victor Martinez from Indians.

The Red Sox had their player. Nightengale soon had a lot more followers. And the ever-evolving media game in 2009 had changed yet again.

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