By Dave Hughes
DCRTV.com

Boomer Esiason will be featured on the new CBS Sports Radio network when it launches in September on 90 stations nationwide, including Baltimore's 105.7 The Fan, WJZ-FM, and Washington, D.C.'s 106.7 The Fan, WJFK. Both stations are owned by CBS.

Esiason, a 14-year NFL veteran, will deliver commentary and headlines at the top of the hour during morning drive.

***

Comcast SportsNet named veteran sports reporter and editor J. Michael Falgoust as its "Ravens Insider."

The former USA Today beat writer will lead coverage of the Baltimore Ravens for the Bethesda-based sports network's digital media platforms and contribute to its news and gameday TV programs, including "Ravens Kickoff" and "Ravens Postgame Live."

Falgoust spent 12 years as a sports writer and editor with USA Today, most recently serving as the newspaper's NBA beat reporter. He's also worked for the Orlando Sentinel and Ring Magazine.

***

Baltimore-based SFMSports has partnered with Delaware State University athletics and will be the new home to the Hornets Radio Network.

SFMSports will produce and broadcast 11 football and 30 basketball games, as well as weekly coaches' shows.

That includes a half-hour pregame and tailgate show before each football broadcast, a half-hour "All Access Pre-Game Show" before each basketball broadcast, and a weekly interactive coaches' show through the fall and winter sports seasons.

***

As the Washington Nationals get closer to clinching their first winning season, one which has them in first place in the National League East with the best record in baseball, the team is deeply divided with the Baltimore Orioles about the amount of TV money the Nationals should be paid.

That's according to James Wagner in the Washington Post, who wrote that the situation has called attention to the Nationals' unusual television partnership with the Orioles, sharing the Mid-Atlantic territory, and whether the Nationals could get a higher fee on the open market.

The Nationals are asking for upward of $120 million per year, at least three times the $29 million they received last season from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is owned by Orioles owner Peter Angelos.

A panel composed of representatives of three other teams has been charged with reaching a settlement, but the talks have dragged on for months and have already missed two deadlines for a resolution, according to Wagner, as the controversy continues to drag on.

***

Dan Daniels, a Washington radio and television sportscaster for 22 years, died Aug. 13 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was 90 and suffered complications from a fall at his home in Bethesda.

Daniels came to Washington in 1956 to join Channel 9, then WTOP-TV.

From 1961-68, Daniels was the broadcast voice of the Washington Senators. He switched to Channel 4/WRC in 1969, reporting sports on the evening news shows.

He remained with WRC through 1979.

***

Owings Mills-based Maryland Public Television's "MotorWeek" has picked up six awards, including outstanding reporting statues for correspondents Yolanda Vazquez and Steven Chupnick from the International Automotive Media Competition and the Telly Awards.

The IAMC honored Vazquez for her feature about how technology is helping blind people drive and her news piece offering consumers advice about how to avoid buying a flood-damaged vehicle. Chupnick received a Telly statue for his segment about the Planter's Nutmobile.

***

Washington's Channel 50/WDCW will carry Southeastern Conference football games this season. As a partner of ESPN Regional Television, WDCW began broadcasting SEC sports last February as D.C.'s broadcast affiliate for SEC basketball. The first SEC football game on DC50 will be Buffalo at Georgia, at noon on Sept. 1. Following that will be 12 more weekly contests.

***

Recently on WJFK's "Sports Junkies" show, Channel 7/WJLA and NewsChannel 8 sports reporter/anchor Britt McHenry denied rumors that she might be headed to ESPN.

McHenry left the D.C. Allbritton-owned stations earlier this year to be a Padres TV reporter for Fox Sports San Diego, but soon returned, saying she had missed D.C.-area sports too much.

Posted Aug. 21, 2012