By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

So much for the slow news days of the summer.

Morning Drive radio in Beantown is being shaken to its core; NESN has dumped the one man in town who made the Bruins semi-relevant (WEEI 850 AM’s Dale Arnold); and the debut of NESN’s “PTI: Boston” is proving just how hard it is to play both the roles of Tony Kornheiser AND Michael Wilbon.

There’s also the slow, somewhat enjoyable demise of the almighty Entercommer Jason Wolfe as he yet again stumbles on behalf of his employers. Wolfe has now, in the course of two months, botched the Bernard McGuirk fiasco and is about to lose his biggest WRKO 680 AM talent, Howie Carr, to the FM dial. If Wolfe loses his ‘EEI morning duo for the hat trick of bad moves, it could be “Hello Wichita! Wouldn’t that put some smiles on faces around town?

[The Carr to WTKK 96.9 FM deal should end the speculation of Gerry Callahan and/or John Dennis heading to the FM talk station. It will not, however, end all the speculation over the duo’s next landing spot (WBCN 104.1 FM remains alive), especially with the Wolfe mishandling of the Mysterious Callahan Explanation release. There are a lot of ominous signs for the WEEI morning show and if the peak of 850’s popularity has passed (as we’d like to suggest it has) there is every reason to believe that Dennis and Callahan are smart enough to see the writing on the wall. If – and we very much hope this is the case – Callahan is healthy enough to return to the airwaves, let’s assume he’s had a fair amount of time to read the tea leaves and see what a disgrace ‘EEI has become over the past 18-24 months.]

We just hope everyone’s paying attention because there’s a very good chance that the Boston Sports Media landscape is on the verge of a tumultuous shake-up. (Natalie Jacobson ain’t the only aging, Boston TV icon discovering an exit strategy and this fella’s departure will not make you say, “Why can’t we get guys like him?” More likely we’ll be saying, “Why can’t we get rid of more of the guys like him?”)

• NESN, the Globe and Bob Ryan’s attempt at “Pardon the Interruption: Boston,” with “Globe 10.0” has had hits, misses and mostly steady results since it’s launch on June 26.

Chiefly, the Tuesday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m. show has displayed just how magical the show that Kornheiser and Wilbon have created, truly is. Ryan, instead of being allowed to build a rapport with a steady partner, is rotating amongst the Globe writers with varied results. Gordon Edes was a refreshing option this week but the same can’t be said for all the co-hosts who have sat before the Watertown studio’s green screen.

Oh, and about the green screen, hi-tech background? NESN and Ryan were billing the thing as a third member of the show. It’s not. Not even close. We were thinking the graphics would come out and grab us, maybe even deliver drinks with the way the NESN peeps were talking. Basically it shows logos, head shots and a run down of topics. Ho-hum, says the viewer.

Either the full capabilities of the set are still be discovered or the network got shnookered by some good studio equipment salesman. It’s hardly the gargantuan step up from plasma TV backgrounds and faux brick it was billed as. If anything the desk itself is more distracting than anything because of its Honda logo shaping on its base. Does Honda pay for that placement? They should. Every time I see it, I think Ryan’s driving an Odyssey.

Also a bit disturbing is the insistence on not using the numbers 1 through 10 and instead labeling each topic with “10.0” logo, as it were. The idea of doing a countdown is so you know where you are in the countdown. To label everything as No. 10 is self-defeating. Lastly, there are some overdone sound effects during the clock countdown that could be toned down or eliminated.

Still, “10.0” is a welcome change from the stale “SportsPlus” show that preceded it. Given time and given the chance to develop some chemistry with his roster of co-hosts, Ryan and NESN will have succeeded in providing a solid lead-in to Sox and Bruins pre-game shows.

. . . The show is also podcasting, which is an encouraging sign.

• Just an FYI for columnist/commentator/author/plagiarist Ron Borges in case he’s looking for the fine work of the ex-Tacoma Tribune writer, Mike Sando. The Tribune announced earlier this month that Sando is going to ESPN.com.

• Bill Simmons is back in the race for Sox Nation President! He’s running on a platform that will have smoking banned throughout Fenway, including the NESN booth. As he explains, he doesn’t usually fight with retired second baseman and was set to throw his support behind the Peter Gammons candidacy, however:

“You know what Jerry Remy, normally I don’t feud with retired second basemen unless they have a career OBS of .660 or more. . . but in this place I’m going to make an exception. . .

“Screw it, I’m going to stay in the race and I’m going to win the presidency.”

. . . Good Wilbon interview by Simmons on that podcast as well, where Wilbon says Dan LeBatard told him that “PTI is a relationship show.” Exactly! Wilbon also gets into the Bill Burt pseudo-incident a bit.

• Big sports week for Ernie Boch, Jr., who – on the same night – made cameos on the Red Sox Broadcast (with Tina Cervasio) and on “Rescue Me” as the coach of the NYPD hockey team. (The Espo/Leary verbal joust was classic stuff. Oh, and where on Earth can I find an ex-nun of my own?)

• Can you identify the former Boston sports personality who cues The Rock at the tail end (2:06) of the sure-to-be-awful “Game Plan’s” trailer (below) with the line, “3. . . 2. . . 1. . . Go?”

HINT: He used to urge his “true believers” to “rock on” and earned the nickname Ron Burgundy from Greg Dickerson.

• With training camp a week away, the Globe is still searching for its Borges replacement. Shots has confirmed at least two instances where sports editor Joe Sullivan feebly attempted to lure a national web writer into the NFL Beat position vacated by the Borges’ “retirement.”

Both writers politely declined Sully’s initial contacts for reasons stemming from the slow erosion of the Globe’s standing to the fact that the dot.com’s are paying substantially better with more stability and better perks.

“Why would I go backwards at this point?” said one of the rebuffers.

• Ex-big-leaguer, Medfa homey and Japanese baseball guru, Mike Pagliarulo and MIT man, Adam White are hosting a new baseball radio offering, the Baseline Report on Sundays at 10 a.m. on 890 ESPN. By the way, Jocko (the Herald’s John Connolly) did a nice piece on Pags’s offspring.

• Another reason to check in at foxsports.com comes with Jason Whitlock’s move to Foxsports.com.

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

You can listen to Scott every Saturday morning from 9 to 11 a.m. as he co-hosts the Boston Sports Review Show on ESPN Radio 890 AM with ESPN’s All-Sports Reporter, Mike Salk. This week’s show features an exclusive Terry Francona one-on-one and guests Albert Breer and Alex Speier (we’re efforting Richard Gere for rhyming sake).