By Dave Hughes, DCRTV.com

The TV audience for the Baltimore Orioles' game Sept. 30 was almost twice as large as the one for last year's home finale, according to Nielsen Media data supplied by the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.

A total of 91,000 viewers watched the Orioles' regular season finale, compared with 47,000 for the last home telecast in 2011, an increase of 94 percent.

For the season, the Orioles averaged 70,000 viewers per telecast, up from 44,000 the year before (a 59 percent increase).

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More information has been released regarding Jim Rome's new gig with CBS Sports Radio. He'll be joining the new network beginning in January.

Rome will serve as host of "The Jim Rome Show," which will be broadcast live on weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. starting Jan. 2.

He'll also provide his take on the day's sports headlines via the "CBS Sports Minute," 60-second commentaries that can be heard hourly on CBS Sports Radio affiliate stations.

Rome recently signed a multi-year agreement with CBS and will be contributing across a variety of platforms.

CBS Radio won't confirm that Rome will be heard in Baltimore, but that's a likely possibility because WJZ-AM, 1300, will drop ESPN Radio for CBS Sports Radio in 2013.

CBS's 105.7 The Fan will also carry some CBS Sports Network programming, but so far, there have been no specifics from the station's management.

For more than 15 years, Rome hosted a nationally syndicated radio program on Premiere Radio Network. His latest show on ESPN signed off in January 2012 after airing for six years.

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SFMSports.Net has partnered with the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association  and will produce and broadcast four football, four boys' basketball, and four girls' basketball finals during the 2012-2013 athletic school year.

"We are pleased to be able to provide this service to those interested in our football and basketball state finals, especially those that are not able to attend in person," said Ned Sparks, executive director of the MPSSAA. "SFMSports.Net provides us with the technology to bring those games to a greater audience and reach those traveling via audio streaming."

Each game will be streamed live online and on mobile devices through sfmsports.net. Coverage of the finals will include pregame and halftime shows.

"The number of radio stations that broadcast high school sports is limited in Maryland," said Steve Clendenin, the president of SFMSports.Net, "and based on the response we get from families, students, alumni and supporters, SFMSports.Net understands the need for coverage and we are going to meet those needs."

Coverage of the finals will include a 30-minute pregame show and a full halftime show. Each game will be streamed live and be offered as a free podcast download after the broadcast. The play-by-play announcers will be named at a later time.

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Jim Williams, who covers sports media issues for the Washington Examiner, said Major League Baseball would continue its television deals with Fox and TBS/Turner Sports.

"If you add up all the new cash going to Major League Baseball," he said, "their annual payments from ESPN, Fox and TBS from 2014-21 will grow to $1.55 billion from $750 million in the current contracts, or over double the money the they now get from TV."

Williams also said Fox would keep the broadcast rights for 26 regular-season Saturday Games of the Week, the All-Star Game, one League Championship Series and the World Series. Fox will also pick up the rights to one Division Series matchup while adding additional games that will air on Fox One, their soon-to-launch all-sports network, which will replace Speed Channel.

Turner retains one League Championship Series and one Division Series, and it will reduce its TBS Sunday Game of the Week broadcasts from 26 to 13 weeks.

ESPN will continue its Sunday Night Baseball franchise, broadcast other games during the week and carry one wild-card game. It will also retain exclusive radio rights for multiple Games of the Week, as well as all the playoff and World Series broadcasts.

MLB Network will retain the rights to one wild-card game, plus it will air games on weeknights and Saturday nights when other networks are not showing games, Williams said.

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CBS' Washington, D.C., sports talker WJFK, 106.7 The Fan, which a segment of D.C. fans have criticized for catering to the NFL crowd, will be awash with baseball coverage throughout the Nationals' playoffs run, according to the Washington Post.

WJFK will air a three-hour Nats pregame show before every playoff game, plus three more hours of Nats talk after each game.

While local playoff game coverage will air on WJFK, the outings will also be heard on Red Zebra's ESPN 980, WTEM, which will be carrying ESPN's national feed. Nats games that conflict with WTEM's Redskins and other NFL game coverage will air on sister sports talker WSPZ, 570 AM.

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After the Redskins released Chris Cooley, many thought he'd have a career in media. Cooley has taken the first step by agreeing to do a Redskins show with Channel 4/WRC's Dan Hellie every Monday, according to the Washington Post.

Posted Oct. 2, 2012