By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Last week we devoted the lead-off spot of Shots to the radio future of the Boston Red Sox radio rotation. In the interest of equal time it’s only proper to look at the radio booth tandem calling New England Patriots games, the rapidly aging duo of Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti. [NOTE: Original versions of this post had Gino's first name spelled wrong (as GENO). Shots regrets the error and stands by the criticism despite our spelling deficiencies.]

Our most recent experiment in pigskin eardrum endurance came during last Sunday’s Pats/Bills game from our perch in Section 226. Despite the welcome return of synched 104.1 WBCN FM audio to complement the live action, the Gil and Gino tandem is quite simply a sub-par pairing with overwhelming weaknesses. From misidentified players by Gil to overtly obvious (and oblivious) analysis from Gino, the Rock Radio Network’s broadcast team is more suited for an 0-3 franchise (headed for 0-16) than one that is 3-0 (and sniffing 16-0). Cappelletti has been awful for several seasons already, and now Santos too is starting to show signs of being on the downside of a substantial and enduring career.

Blasphemy? Perhaps. But we’d urge you to take an objective listen to G&G, carefully watch the action simultaneously and then judge for yourself. It’s nice to have continuity and tradition and all, but at a certain point the game-calling game passes even the best of ‘em by. With each Patriots game, it’s no longer time to “turn down the TV and turn up the radio,” it’s time to turn off the radio and pray for replacements.

• NESN was busy touting its “expanded” college football coverage this week in a Fall programming package that will include Ivy League, Colonial Athletic Association, and New England Small College Athletic Conference match-ups in October and November. According to the NESN release, “ USA World Events, a premier sports marketing and media production company has been contracted to manage the weekly production, in partnership with NESN and the ECAC. Previously, USA World Events worked with NESN to televise the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game.”

How’s this for coincidence? Wellesley-based USA World Events’ CEO is Tom Souza and the package’s sideline reporter will be a fella named Paul Souza. Efforts by Shots to discover a relationship between the two men failed, but we’re guessing there’s some nepotism going on here, considering a Google search of “Paul Souza Television” and “Paul Souza Sideline Reporter” yielded no relevant hits. Also taking part in the second (or third) tier programming for the seven games will be the multi-talented Eric Frede and the talentless Steve DeAwful DeOssie. Makes you wonder if DeOssie’s real surname might be Souza too? At any rate, it sounds like must-miss TV to us.

• Brandeis (and Deerfield Academy) product, Sam Weisman has jumped into the “Miracle of St. Anthony” movie adaptation. I’m still trying to cast Bob Hurley in my mind, but I keep coming back to the man himself.

• Boston.com is showing a frustrating lack of consistency with its “Comments” sections for its various sports blogs. While Reiss’s Pieces has made the overdue switch to commenting, the Celtics and Red Sox blogs have not followed suit. The very basis for community participation is something as simple as commenting – how hard can it be for the Globe to get things in-line?

. . . A brief clarification on the note we had last week regarding the Globe’s content-share for sports stories with sister paper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, according to a T&G insider: “The relationship is (an) even swap with the T&G providing the Globe with sidebars and the Globe providing the T&G with notebooks. The idea is to maintain the core of each paper’s coverage (game stories, columns, etc.), while strengthening that coverage by eliminating overlap/repetition on depth stories, now written by the other paper’s regular beat writers.”

Makes sense and is very similar to what is going on – to the dismay of some – with the Gatehouse papers.

• Dan Patrick’s signing up stations for his new show from Content Factory. Wonder if there’s a place for Patrick in Boston from 9 a.m. to noon? Hello, WBOS? You still out there “feeling out the marketplace”?

• News that WCVB ABC Channel 5 is starting a Sunday night sports show is mostly noteworthy because of how irrelevant the Sunday night shows at Channels 4 and 7 have become (throw in NESN’s “Lights Out” as well). The Sunday nighters used to be a place to get original (and first) takes from the weekend’s (and week’s) sporting events but have become virtually obsolete in an age where the locals give us one-tenth of the coverage they used to and analysis and re-cap is delivered instantly on the net. The market was already overloaded with just two mediocre late Sunday shows and now it will be flooded with three. And what do you bet there’s little to no website involvement and a similar lack of an original approach to the ABC5 offering? Get ready for recycled packages, guests and segments. Oh, joy.

• The final Boston Sports Review radio extravaganza chugs into the station for its final episode this Saturday at 11 a.m. on 890 ESPN Boston with busy beaver Alex Speier filling in for the absent Mike Salk. We’ll go out with a few bangs, including the first appearance of long-time Shots’ associate, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports, who will offer his unique and insightful take on all things sports at 11:20, as well as a fond look back at six months of the radio history-in-the-making that has been the weekly BSR Radio Gala. No, seriously.

Okay, we didn’t make a dent and our listenership hovered between a six-pack and a twak (12-pack), but we brought it every Saturday, delivered top-shelf guests and offered a reasonable alternative to the garbage that continues to escape from the New Balance Building during Saturday mornings. There’s really no way to legitimately challenge WEEI in the current sports radio marketplace, but the longer ESPN 890 sticks around the more we’ll see what could work with meaningful marketing and ample resources.

. . . Look no further than Thursday afternoon’s WEEI line-up for a sign of how anemic the Sports Leader’s bench is: Steve Burton drove the “Big No” with Larry Johnson and Steve Buckley in co-pilot seats. The only thing worth listening to for the entire afternoon was the sports flashes delivered by Laura Behnke of NECN fame.

. . . Meanwhile, on 890 during those hours, Mike Felger and Joe Haggerty had some good bar room banter going until the point when Felger trotted out his “I’m sick of the NESN broadcasts” routine. Felgie, better than anyone, should know what drives the bus on game presentations these days: it’s sponsors, “drops,” “promos” and ad money. So don’t expect NESN to scale back its in and out of house in-broadcast content at this point. Everything ( including entire seasons) is sponsor-able. Sara’s Hubby did, after all, have a weekly show sponsored by a once bankrupt electronics-seller and even his own show’s guest line has a presenting partner. Suffice to say, if Felger had a few more of those intrusions his show – and the station’s fortunes – would be considerably more well-off.

Felger’s right – all the brand selling of all things Red Sox IS over-the-top. But it’s also the way of the world and Felger, whether he knows it or not, is living in that world.

. . . True story from ESPN 890 this week: The “suits” at ESPN corporate (or within the Tang Gang, it’s still unclear) forbade Felger’s intern (and Northeastern student radio voice) Keith LaVon from undertaking a gallon-milk challenge during Wednesday’s show. Felger was thinking having his “obese intern” vomit all over the study would be good counter-programming to the early-start Sox game. And it would have been. The Beancounters saw differently, probably rightfully so in hindsight.

• See you all at Dylan at the Ryan Center (at URI) on Saturday night. Let’s hope Bob brings his A-game.

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