"Time Warner Cable Sports Press Box" likely will premiere within the next week or two on a trial basis before going full bore in the fall. Brian Sinkoff, the former WTEN (Ch. 10) sports director who currently has an afternoon drive-time radio show on WTMM (104.5 FM), is scheduled to be the host.

"The idea for the program is to invite on a regular basis people from lots of different media sources that cover sports in our region to come in and talk about local sports, regional sports," said Greg Bobbitt, director of programming and production at TWC. "We had to change the name a little bit, but we're hoping to launch within the next week or two and make it a regular offering on the channel."

Bobbitt said the "press box" aspect is key. He plans to rotate area TV sports anchors, newspaper writers and radio hosts in a roundtable discussion, most likely -- among the aforementioned ESPN shows -- resembling "Sports Reporters."

"The idea behind it is to really talk about local sports, talk about regional sports, but from the perspective from people in the media," Bobbitt said. "The reason we identified guys from the press box -- you know as well as anybody -- when you're in a press box and you're talking to media folks who are covering games, they tend to be a whole lot more candid and open about what they talk about. They're not within the restraints of the media that they're working in, it's just like a man cave or anything else. Individuals, well-known in area of sports, who are doing the exchange.

"We can have Marisa Jacques from YNN and Pete Dougherty from the Times Union and maybe a radio person all on set and have an opportunity to talk about their perspective on local things that are happening or regional things that are happening. It's a simple approach."

Sinkoff was chosen as host, according to Bobbitt, because "Brian is a natural fit for this type of a program. What he's doing on 104.5 is very much in tune with it. When you talk about folks in the region, he becomes a neutral host to the area. He's working in identifying a lot of these same types of topics almost daily."

The plan is to run the show through May, tweaking things as necessary, and adding it to the Time Warner (Ch. 3) lineup on a weekly basis in the fall.

"The idea that we probably would tape on a Wednesday morning, and then air Thursday and Friday evenings, and Saturday," Bobbitt said. "By Sunday it's old news. It gives us an entree into the weekend. It's a nice support programming that we can do from the studio."