By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

In a move not totally unexpected, NBC7 (WHDH-TV) is about to sever ties with sports middle-man (in seniority), Dave Briggs.

It is believed Briggs’s contract expires at the end of the month and will not be renewed, according to several electronic media cohorts of Briggs’. (An email to Briggs’s ‘HDH account, through the station’s website, was not immediately returned as of posting. Briggs was, we should note, live at Fenway on Friday night for the station.)

The Briggs departure will leave nine-year ‘HDH veteran Joe Amorosino and market rookie Larry Ridley to cover for both the numerous Channel 7 newscasts and the fledgling 10 p.m. newser on CW56.

The Briggs bump should also mean the hiring of a female reporter to enhance the young, hip nightly offering (See: Dreyer, Dylan below.)

Briggs will be ending a solid three-year run at the Boston station which continues to see the most turnover of any sports desk in the market. Wendi Nix left last summer for ESPN and it is the station that gave us Gary Gillis, Gene Lavanchy, Jack Edwards, John Dennis, Fran Charles and any host of one-hit wonders in recent years (gratuitous Zip Rzeppa reference). All the while, Channels 4 (CBS/WBZ), 5 (ABC/WCVB) and FOX25 have had an almost inpenetrable fence around their sports desks with the likes of eternal figures Mike Lynch, Mike Dowling, Bob Lobel, Steve Burton, Alice Cook and Butch Stearns.

. . .And while we’re on WHDH, let us praise our new favorite weather woman, Dylan Dreyer. Dreyer, of couse, is a Providence market (WJAR) alum (and Rutgers grad) making her the “Kathryn Tappen of Boston meteorology.”

Tappen, we should note, got a very solid Friday pre-game one-on-one with Derek Jeter, dugout-side before NESN’s Sawxyankees (thanks, Mike Vaccaro) series opener. Tappen wouldn’t be a bad choice for ‘HDH, atlhough with the drama of Channel 7’s always-simmering pot of turmoil, NESN might actually be a better place for Tappen at the current time - as much of a shock as that will be to the ever-angrier NESN Union proponents.

Laura Behnke, late of NECN, is another familiar face that might be worth a ringy-ding by ‘HDH Suits.

. . . No, we won’t speculate on male replacements because the position is only worth switching if the switch is to a female. Otherwise, Briggs was quite passable and would have been worth retaining.

. . . In the past, when ‘HDH has found itself short-handed, they have tapped Duke Castiglione. The Son of Joe is now at FOX 5 in New York doing weekends and was unavailable for comment.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom