By Dave Hughes
DCRTV.com

Channel 11/WBAL sports anchor Gerry Sandusky said the number of hate Twitter postings he's getting from people confusing him with disgraced Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was gradually declining.

"I am fine," Sandusky told national journalism blogger Jim Romenesko. "It's always been my wife and kids I worry about, and last night even my wife laughed about the whole crazy situation. I take that as a very good sign."

Sandusky is the Baltimore Ravens' radio broadcaster and WBAL-TV sports director. He's spent much of this year explaining that he's not the Penn State Sandusky, and why he won't change his name.

"The easiest thing in the world for me to do in the short term would be to change my name," Sandusky told Romenesko. "But if life has taught me anything -- if the Penn State situation has taught America anything -- it's that doing the easy thing in the short term is almost never the right thing to do in the long term. I'm not going to make the same mistake they did.

Sandusky has told his story to Sports Illustrated, ESPN and countless other reporters. He said he lost track of the interviews he's given at 60.

"I don't get tired of interviews, because I do them hoping they can bring strength to other people's struggles, others who deal with far bigger problems then I face," Sandusky told Romenesko.

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According to the Sports Business Journal, the Baltimore Orioles saw the fourth-highest increase in Major League Baseball TV ratings during the 2012 regular season, with a 42.2 percent hike from last season, via MASN and MASN2.

But the Washington Nationals' 74 percent increase in television ratings this season, also via MASN and MASN 2, was the highest in the majors.

That's a big change from last year, when the Nats were in the bottom five in terms of overall average ratings and dead last in average audience size per game, with a typical game attracting 29,000 viewers, according to the Sports Business Journal.

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WFED, 1500 AM, is the flagship radio station for the Washington Wizards this season.

The team can also been heard on WJFK, 106.7 The Fan, when the Wizards games don't conflict with its coverage of Capitals hockey and, come next spring, Nationals baseball.

WFED, which is licensed to Washington, D.C., but also covers much of the Baltimore-metropolitan area with its 50,000-watt signal, will carry all 82 regular-season Wizards basketball games, plus select preseason games.

Dave Johnson, sports director at WTOP, WFED's sister all-news station, returns for his 16th consecutive season as the radio play-by-play voice and will be joined once again by color analyst Glenn Consor, who is entering his sixth season as part of the broadcast team.

The Wizards are the latest sports property to join WFED, which will continue to carry Capitals hockey, Nationals baseball, Ravens football, Navy football and George Washington University and American University basketball.

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Kevin Shafer and Rocky Parrish, who have been hosting a show on CBS Radio's 106.7 The Fan, WJFK, will be hosting a new show for the NFL Players Association.

The latest incarnation of "The Kevin And Rock Show" will debut Nov. 12 and air from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Sundays.

The program will be produced live from the Gene Upshaw Building in D.C., and cover sports and entertainment. It will begin as a live-streaming audio program, with Rockdeep Media looking to expand it into a nationally syndicated television and radio program.

Posted Oct. 18, 2012