Sports broadcasting random notes

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• More than 17.4 million viewers watched the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers on ESPN's "Monday Night Football," making it the fifth most-viewed telecast in cable TV history. (Courtesy MIlwaukee Journal Sentinel)

• At noon ET Wednesday, ESPN entered a “Storm & Cohn to McKendry & Steele” play into its SportsCenter history book when the 9 a.m. co-hosts turned their three-hour SportsCenter over to their 12 p.m. colleagues. “Never in my 18 years here have there been back-to-back sets of women anchors hosting SportsCenter,” Linda Cohn said as she and Hannah Storm gave way to Chris McKendry and Sage Steele. (Courtesy ESPN)

• ESPN play-by-play broadcaster and STAA client Dave LaMont has a pair of unique upcoming assignments. Over the next two weekends, LaMont will be calling the ESPN 3D broadcast of Clemson's game at Miami Saturday October 2nd at noon Eastern, then another 3D game -- somewhere in the Big Ten -- on October 9th. Tim Brown and Ray Bentley will work wtih LaMont on the broadcasts.

• KWNA-AM in Ely, NV is flipping to ESPN Radio on Friday. (Courtesy All Access)

• SI.com, managed by Turner Sports, will formally announce Wednesday that it will launch a new series of 90-second online videos that feature announcers from various networks — including NBC's Cris Collinsworth, TBS' Cal Ripken, Fox's Howie Long and CBS' Nick Faldo and Boomer Esiason— who'll all appear when the videos debut Friday. The idea isn't to have the announcers tout their respective network ratings — although that could be entertaining — but instead to just talk sports. (Courtesy USA Today)

• Multiple sources have confirmed to [Sports By Brooks] in the past week that ESPN has designs on hiring Cleveland Cavaliers beat reporter Brian Windhorst away from the Cleveland Plain Dealer to cover the Miami Heat this season for ESPN.com. (Courtesy Sports By Brooks)

• Len DeLuca, Mark Mandel and George McNeilly: The ESPN executives are leaving the organization, according to two separate Sports Business Journal reports. DeLuca, who had been ESPN's SVP/Programming & Acquisitions, is leaving to "pursue entrepreneurial opportunities." Meanwhile, Mandel and McNeilly's departures come in the wake of ESPN "[reorganizing] ... its public relations operations in its Bristol [CT] headquarters." The two plan to "work until Oct. 15." (Courtesy Sports Business Journal)

• Despite the hype, Boise State's latest foray onto the national scene was not a spectacular draw for ABC Saturday night. Saturday's Oregon State/Boise State game drew a 3.8 overnight rating on ABC, down 5% from Iowa/Penn State last year (4.0), but up 23% from Georgia/Arizona State on the comparable weekend in 2008 (3.1). (Courtesy Sports Media Watch)

• Sportscasting giant "Big Al" Meltzer says he "overdid it" while greeting friends and colleagues Saturday night before the Mid-Atlantic Emmys. So instead of accepting the Board of Governors' Award, he spent a few hours in Pennsylvania Hospital. His buddy Bill Baldini accepted the award on his behalf. Meltzer, 82, who retired in 2003 after a 50-year TV and radio career, said Sunday that he was fine after the bout with hypotension. (Courtesy Philadelphia Inquirer)

• "NFL Today," after the first two weeks of the season, was ahead of the Fox pregame show in audience ratings — a statistic that rarely happens since "Fox NFL Sunday" has built-in viewers in major markets — New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington. And although Los Angeles doesn't have a team, the huge TV market always has leaned heavily toward the NFC. (Courtesy Denver Post)

• Kevin Rogers is back hosting nights at WQAM Miami. The station had moved Orlando Alzugaray to nights after hiring Gino Torretta. However, Alzugaray has changed his mind and resigned, so Rogers is back on evenings. (STAA)

• XTRA 1360 has named Charod Williams co-host of its afternoon (3-7 p.m.) talk show with Josh Rosenberg. Williams replaces Jeff Dotseth, who resigned a few weeks ago to enter private business. (Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune)

• Discussions are ongoing regarding bringing ESPN Radio to sister station San Diego 1700-AM. If that happens, XX Sports might be able to simulcast the ESPN programming during late-night and overnight hours, as well as on weekends. (Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune)

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• With their season starting Oct. 9, the New York Islanders still are without a radio station. Last season their TV feed was simulcast on two Long Island stations. (Courtesy New York Post)

• Alabama and Arkansas were much bigger TV draws Saturday than they were a year ago. CBS' coverage of Alabama's 24-20 win against the Razorbacks drew a 5.4 overnight rating, translating to 5.4% of households in the 56 urban TV markets measured for overnights, up 145% from the teams playing the same weekend last year. (Courtesy USA Today)

• ESPN has hired British sportscaster Ian Darke, who did play-by-play on World Cup games for the network over the summer, as its lead soccer voice in the U.S. Darke will be the primary play-by-play voice on ESPN’s coverage for English Premier League matches, the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams, marquee Major League Soccer events, the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. (Courtesy Albany Times Union)

• Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones has joined WKRC-TV to do a weekly Friday video for the Local 12 website, and appear on “Bengals Nation with Marvin Lewis” (11:35 p.m. Saturday, Channel 12) starting this weekend. They’ll also air during Channel 12′s 7 a.m. Saturday newscasts. (Courtesy Cincinnati Enquirer)

• ESPN's "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption" are moving to a new studio at the ABC News Bureau in Washington, D.C., on Monday as the shows ---- that air at 2 and 2:30 p.m. weekdays ---- shift to HD. (Courtesy North County Times)

• Former Ole Miss running back Deuce McAllister joins the CBS College Sports Network as an analyst on "SEC Tailgate" that airs Saturday at 11 a.m. (Courtesy North County Times)

• Entercom Boston announced an interesting tweak to its roster last Friday: Tim Murphy was appointed vice president/general manager. Murphy spent the previous two years as vice president/general manager for WEEI.com where, along with editor Rob Bradford, he developed the site from a neglected afterthought for the radio station to a dependable destination and provider of consistently fresh content for New England sports fans. (Courtesy Boston Globe)

• Wednesday Sept 29th STAA client John Focke will be broadcasting the Minnesota Timberwolves training camp scrimmage along with Jonah Ballow on timberwolves.com. During the regular season, Focke serves as the T-Wolves executive producer, studio host and backup broadcaster. Next week's broadcast will be interactive with video and an opportunity for fans to pose questions and make comments throughout the broadcast. Broadcast gets underway at 7pm from Mankato and fans can join the conversation at that time on timberwolves.com.

• Three broadcasters will pinch-hit in the booth when Buffalo Sabres voice Rick Jeanneret goes on vacation. Mark Jeanneret, the son of Jeanneret and play-by-play voice of the AHL's Portland Pirates, will call the action Dec. 27 (at Calgary) and Dec. 28 (at Edmonton). Kevin Sylvester returns to the booth for a fourth season when he fills in for four games: Jan. 1 (vs. Boston), Jan. 4 (at Colorado), Jan. 6 (at San Jose) and Jan. 8 (at Phoenix). Dan Dunleavy, a sportscaster for FAN 590-AM in Toronto, will handle play-by-play duties Jan. 25 in Ottawa. (Courtesy Buffalo News)

• The Big Ten Network reported it set a new ratings record Saturday. The 11 a.m. games, which included Michigan-UMass, Ohio State-Ohio and Illinois-Northern Illinois, averaged a 5.4 rating (680,000 homes) in eight major markets in the Big Ten coverage area, which includes Chicago. The previous record was a 5.1 set on Oct. 3, 2009. (Courtesy Crain's Chicago Business)

• ESPN's Bill Simmons made his Pardon the Interruption debut this week, filling-in for Michael Wilbon.

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• Fox Sports Radio on Saturday debuts a weekly sports and money Stox 'n Jocks morning show (7 a.m. ET) featuring brothers Pete and Jon Najarian, professional investors and CNBC regulars — and ex-NFL players. Says Jon, on whether he'd buy long on the NFL and players solving labor issues and playing games next season: "It's just a question of which one blinks first. Both sides are smart enough and greedy enough to not screw this up." (Courtesy USA Today)

• WGRZ Sports Director Ed Kilgore is one of the newest inductees of the Buffalo Broadcaster's Association Hall of Fame, having been inducted Tuesday night into its Class of 2010. (Courtesy WGRZ)

• SportsTalk 84, the daily call-in sports-talk program on Clear Channel Radio’s WHAS-AM, is expanding to Sunday. Drew Deener, the host of “The Early Birds,” a morning sports call-in show on sister station WKRD-AM and WKRD-FM, will be the host of the Sunday SportsTalk 84. It will run from 9 a.m. to noon. (Courtesy Louisville Business Journals)

• ESPN next week will begin broadcasting the daytime talk shows, Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn, in High-Definition. (Courtesy Sports Business Journal)

• Red Zebra's WTNT (570 AM) flipped from talk to sports this morning, and Steve Czaban's new Sporting News Radio morning show is now carried on WTNT. (Courtesy DCRTV)

• Former Florida Gator TV and radio broadcaster Steven Michael Babik was sentenced Friday to 12 years and seven months in prison on federal charges of receipt and distribution of child pornography. (Courtesy Gainesville Sun)

• CFRW-AM IN Winnipeg is flipping to sports next month.

• The second episode of the new Sunday sports show featuring Channel 45/WBFF news anchor Jennifer Gilbert, "The Real Score," did not air Sunday, we're told. We're also told - unconfirmed - that the show, which debuted on September 12, has been cancelled due to an alleged dispute between WBFF's owner, Baltimore-based Sinclair, and the show's Florida-based producers. (Courtesy DCRTV)

• Redskins great John Riggins' new post game show on MASN received a radio boost starting this past Saturday night. "Post Game Xtra" will start airing on Bonneville's Federal News Radio, WFED, AM 1500 and 820. The show is also heard on the digital HD3 channel of Bonneville's WTOP 103.5 FM and via riggo44.com. (Courtesy DCRTV)

• Veteran broadcaster Matt Sampsell is back in Houston. You may recall that he took a job in March to launch the Bahamas’ first sports-talk radio station. The station, alas, never got on the air, and Sampsell returned to Houston in late August and signed on this week as a freelancer at 39. (Courtesy Houston Chronicle)

• Fox Sports Houston will air 75 regular-season and seven preseason Rockets games this fall, with six regular-season and one exhibition game on KTXH (Channel 20). Every Rockets game this season will air in HD, the network says. (Courtesy Houston Chronicle)

• ESPN Radio affiliate KFNC (97.5 FM) lost a little steam with the end of the World Cup but is still holding its own with KILT (610 AM) in the August Arbitron ratings. KILT retook the lead in the weeklong numbers for men 25-54 by two-tenths of a share point, KFNC leads in morning drive, and the stations were tied at midday and in afternoon drive. (Courtesy Houston Chronicle)

• Pete Sheppard, who has had a relatively low profile since being let go by WEEI in January, announced on his Facebook account this week that he will be hosting a show on Patriots.com. Sheppard, who formerly hosted WEEI’s “The Real Postgame Show,’’ will host the “Pete Sheppard Show’’ from 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays beginning next week. (Courtesy Boston Globe)

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