By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

When the natives of the Nation get restless with their Sox, it permeates through all precincts and no one is spared. So even after all the rage is vented at Eric Gagne, Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew, there still appears to be some venom left for another Beantown lightning rod: Sox radio voice, Glenn Geffner.

This week the “Get Rid of Glenn” movement got a bit more formal at Ian Bethune’s soxanddawgs.com website in the form of an on-line petition that garnered more than 225 signatures in the first 48 hours of its posting. (A cohort going only by Steve did the writing of the letter directed at The Trio of Henry, Werner and Lucchino.)

But even before the petition, you’ll recall a separate entity started in April called “38cliches.com.” The dreaded (and anonymous) message boards were also brutal on the Geffner hire from early on (technically an Entercom employee, but Geffner was a favor to the ownership group, chiefly Lucchino).

Shots has good news for the Geffner gadflies, as a source familiar with the specifics of Dave O’Brien’s contract has confirmed that “Obie” will be in the Sox radio booth for at least 135 games next season. The source also verified that stalwart Joe Castiglione will be returning and that Geffner’s role will be either greatly reduced or non-existent. “If [Obie's] ESPN duties (which will be reduced next season) allow him to do more than 135 - say 162, or 150, or 139 - then he will,” said the source. “It really depends on what is manageable for him.”

Geffner, who has been a target of Sox radio listeners all season, is a victim of the booth-share agreement that offers up the booming, made-for-radio voice of O’Brien in sharp contrast to the not-yet-ready-for-a-major-market pipes of Geffner.

It is also believed the Sox, Entercom and O’Brien are working earnestly on a multi-year extension with the Quincy native to keep him in the booth with Castiglione for the long-term.

Geffner, who is no longer listed as part of the Sox front office would likely return to a desk job with the club (serving as a fill-in on radio or for NESN minor league games), or find a radio gig in another market.

. . . This, once again, is a sign that the front office actually does listen to its fan-base. Geffner was a gaff, but it was also reward for some dedicated service. If the Sox can launch Geffner into another market for further polishing, it would be a win-win for all involved. He’s not without tools, he just needs to get more reps.

. . . Meanwhile, O’Brien, we’re told, is expected to call the Division Series for Entercom and the Sox network before jumping to the ALCS and World Series for MLB International (TV outside the USA).

. . . The Don Orsillo/TBS was a bit of a shocker. Orsillo is solid, but we’ll be interested to see the national reaction to what more than a few think is a poor man’s Sean McDonough (see McDonough note further on down). Remy would really be the more logical grab, but it looks like TBS is loaded with big name color men.

We’re guessing the blogodome will have more than a few takes on the TBS broadcast teams.

• Comcast SportsNet will officially debut in Boston on October 1 at 6:30 p.m. when Fox Sports New England becomes CSN and adds to the impressive, expanding Comcast Sports footprint.

A couple of weeks later (October 17) the new network’s new studios will debut and by the time the Celtics regular season starts, CSN will be deep into the formation of a newly emphasized news division in addition to other programming that will, as predicted, open of job opportunities in the market in what can be considered substantial numbers.

“All those plans are in development,” said Comcast SportsNet president (and fellow Peabody native) Jon D. Litner. “If you look at what we’ve done in other markets it will give you a good sense of what we’re striving to become. It takes time. The initial and biggest priority we have is the Celtics, on the heels of their acquisitions in the off-season.”

Litner, who was in town for the annual FSNE Celtics luncheon, has quite a stable with CSN presence in seven of the top ten media markets. The Yale (and St. John’s Prep) graduate was a bit vague when probed on what role - if any - Comcast-owned CN8 will fit into the CSN make-up.

“We’ve got a great working relationship with the cable side of the business in CN8 in all of our markets and one thing we’re going to do is to look where we can work together,” said Litner, who has ABC and NHL lineage. “Obviously there’s common ownership and what we want to do is own the sports marketplace, that’s really our goal. We’re all about localism. Where it makes sense to work together, we will.”

Litner did everything but throw the gauntlet at NESN’s still shiny and still new Watertown studios when he started rambling off properties that may be of interest to CSN. “High school football on Thanksgiving, the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles,” would be attractive, said Litner before adding that daily and breaking news coverage will figure large in CSN’s plans. “Our goals are ambitious but achievable,” he said.

. . . All CSN Celtics broadcasts will have 30 minute pre- and post-game shows and a new weekly Celts magazine show (hosted by Donny Marshall and HOPEFULLY a gifted female) will launch Tuesday, November 6 at 7:30, running every Tuesday in-season thereafter. (39 home games will be in HD with first full seasons of HD access for Cox and Time Warner customers.)

. . . Stationery and emails have already taken the CSN branding and FSNE is all but dead. Long live FSNE. (Actually we never liked FSNE, especially when they made us go with the “E”.)

. . . Mike Gorman - who will be on his 27th consecutive year with a reduced-travel Tommy Heinsohn - offered up two keepers as to how relevant the Celts are again:

1. “I was golfing on Wednesday at Green Valley in Portsmouth - great course, by the way - and I felt like I was Elvis on the course. People were yelling from tee boxes. ‘Hey Mike! Can’t wait for the season.’”

2. In the midst of running late for a Statehouse function Gorman pulled a creative only-in-Boston driving maneuver and just about hit a State Trooper while being so bold in his attempt to make the Heroes Among us event. “I rolled down the window, he just looked at me and said, ‘Whaddya need, Mike?’ I felt like calling Wyc and Pags and saying, ‘We’re baaaaaaccckkkk,’” Gorman told the lunch crowd.

. . . Always good to get Gorman reminiscing on the old green blazers of Prism, the fore-father of CSN (followed in between by SportsChannel and Fox Sports).

• Couple of Boston Globe/Boston.com things to notice. The paper’s utilizing its Worcester Telegram & Gazette unit to the benefit of the sports department with Rich Garven, et al contributions. Also, Reiss’s Pieces has now enabled commenting, and the numbers are going to swell quickly. In-game discussions at Pieces will be interesting to follow for sure.

• Monday night’s NESN debut of “Rooters: The Birth of Red Sox Nation” is more than just worth DVRing, it’s worth getting a copy of the 2-DVD set. Shots has been absorbed in our advance copy and already we have kudos for narrator WEEI 850 AM’s Mikey Adams and the writing of Peter J. Nash paired with the direction of Ian McFarland and Anthony Moreschi. Put it this way, Dr. Charles will be proud of this thing.

• This is too staggering to believe that a message board denizen would have this much time, but one of them at radio-info.com claims these domain names were apparently registered by Greater Media before Dennis & Callahan re-upped with Entercom (after a supposed dalliance with Greater Media):

929theticket.com
929fmtheticket.com
beantownfan.com
Homeforthebostonsportsfan.com

All have Bellevue, Washington Whois locators and all were created in the timeframe during which D&C talks would have been ongoing, but we’re not sure where the Greater Media connection is. Interesting nonetheless.

• Sean McDonough’s charity weekend was another success with initial tallies putting the monies raised in the $500,000 range. “It will be our best year yet and would get our six year total comfortably over $2 million. We are truly blessed to have hundreds of incredible friends who help us in a wide variety of ways,” said McDonough who calls a a battle of undefeateds from Tulsa on Friday night for ESPN2. Rob Stone is still on soccer duty from what we know - and still trying to remove Heather Mitts’s lovely tongue from his ear. McDonough gets support from Chris Spielman on color and Joe Schad on the sidelines.

“The only negative of the event was that Jay Bilas’ team won the golf tournament,” said McDonough. “I will NEVER hear the end of it. There was actually a four-way tie for the title between Bilas, Mike Eruzione, Billy Packer, and John Havlicek. Bilas’ team won the match-of-cards tiebreaker because Jay birdied the number one stroke hole to give his team the Will McDonough Memorial Winner’s Cup.”

• The CN8 network is in the midst of some turnover as the outstanding director Fred Bowen has left the Comcast family to join the Jacobs Family (he’s working video editing duties at TD BankNorth Garden) and news this week that Jeb Fisher, a multi-talented reporter/producer will be heading to NESN to work on the Bruins “The Buzz” show with Hazel Mae. CN8’s losses are others’ gains. Best of luck, Gents, pleasure working with you.

• For those wondering where Shots was during the craziest Patriots week ever, here’s a glimpse. I liked being away from it all. I really did.

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