The Media Learning Curve: Sept. 17-24

Without the usual smokes and mirrors of the "smokes" and "chokes" segment in today's media column (linked here), we've timeshifted it all to this part of the more interesting Internet part of the house:

== There's no use of the word "pig" and "lipstick" in the press release to describe the changes made by ESPN on its "Around the Horn" show starting Monday, but let's just say that by moving it to a new studio and showing it in high def, we don't expect the intelligence level to rise dramatically.

This is the artist's redition of how the set will look -- as executive producer Erik Rydholm says, it'll be "like Tony Reali is in a spaceship or an Apple store."

Likewise, "Pardon the Interruption" will go hi-def starting Monday, and both shows will be moved to a new studio in the ABC News Bureau in Washington D.C.

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon will do Monday's show, but for the rest of the week, the wishy-washy voice of "Sports Guy" Bill Simmons will serve as the guest host (as he's been this week).

Again, from the artists' rendering, Kornheiser and Wilbon are somewhere near the middle of the set below, if you look closely:

== Fox Sports West has Bill Macdonald (play-by-play), John Jackson (analyst) and Lindsay Soto (sideline) on its coverage of USC-Washington State (Saturday, noon). Soto and Jeremy Hogue will also do the pre- and post-game shows.

== ABC has Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Matt Millen (analyst) and Heather Cox (sideline) for its UCLA-Texas game (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7). The net returns with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit for the Oregon State-Boise State telecast (5 p.m., Channel 7), while ESPN "GameDay" is in Boise, Idaho (starts on ESPNU at 6 a.m., then on ESPN at 7 a.m.). It will mark the first time the show has originated from a Western Athletic Conference site.

== ESPN sends out JP Dellacamera, John Harkes and Allen Hopkins to cover the Galaxy-New York Red Bull contest (tonight, 8 p.m., ESPN2), then bring in Alexi Lalas for halftime. The coverage from Home Depot Center will include the expense of a blimp and a super slo-mo with the usual compliment of cameras.

== Because the next 19th annual ESPY Award ceremony is just around the corner -- Wednesday, July 13, 2011, if you haven't bookmarked it yet -- the network wanted all to know that "Saturday Night Live" guy Seth Meyers will return to host it from the Nokia Theatre in LA Live, ending any threat that it could go to Roy Firestone.

== They say it has something to do with Hispanic Heritage Month (which goes from September 15 to October 15 by some weird calendar), this televising Sunday's Jets-Dolphins game in both English and Spanish, and on both NBC and Telemundo. The Telemundo L.A. station (as well as those in Chicago, New York, Dallas and Miami) will have Jessi Losada, Rene Giraldo and Edgar Lopez on the call.

And Inez Whatshername has been told of this?

== MLB of note this weekend: MLB Network has tonight's N.Y. Yankees-Boston game (4 p.m.). Fox goes to Cincinnati-San Diego (Chris Rose and Mark Grace) for Saturday's game of the week (1 p.m., Channel 11), with MLB Network airing San Francisco-Colorado (5 p.m.). Sunday, TBS has San Francisco-Colorado (noon) while ESPN has Yankees-Red Sox (5 p.m.).

== Eric Karros with a new goatee? See for yourself on KCAL Channel 9's "Think Blue" pregame (6 p.m., leading into the Dodgers-Dbacks telecast). Comment appropriately.

== ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada has a sit-down with the Dodgers' Jay Gibbons set to air on Sunday's "Outside The Lines" (ESPN, 7 a.m.). The clip above provides some context. Gibbons acknowledges he received HGH, testosterone and HCG, the female anti-fertility drug used essentially as a masking agent, and used the drugs sporadically for 18 months until 2005.

== After its "24/7" documentaries have worked in the boxing world, and once expanding into NASCAR, HBO will do one for the NHL's Winter Classic, a four-episode series that leads up to the Penguins-Capitals game on New Year's Day. The series starts Dec. 15. It ends on Jan. 5, with coverage of the game from Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.

== The New York-based Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame has announced as its 2010 inductions for this December: Leonard Chapman (CEO of Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment, which specializes in camera cranes), Davey Finch (CBS's lead handheld-camera operator for 30 years), John Madden (former NFL colorman from 1979-'08), Geoff Mason (a former ABC executive producer on the NFL and Olympic games from '68 to '88), John Roche (a technical manager for some of the largest live television events), Chet Simmons (former president of NBC Sports and the first CEO of ESPN), George Steinbrenner (the former New York Yankees owner, for his business in regional MLB coverage and launching the YES Network), and Pat Summerall (former CBS play-by-play man who did 16 Super Bowls).

== A Twitter exchange recorded earlier this week between Tim Cowlishaw, the Dallas Morning News and ESPN "Around the Horn" panelist, and Mike Florio, the ProFootballTalk.com editor and new contributor to NBC's NFL Sunday night coverage:

From Cowlishaw: "Has Costas run out of people to talk to? Dumping Wade for Garrett after a Houston loss? News flash to Florio: Garrett's not exactly hot."
8:52 AM Sep 20th via web

From Florio: "Hey, Tim, isn't there something about Darrelle Revis you should be fabricating today?"
10:02 AM Sep 20th via web in reply to TimCowlishaw

From Cowlishaw: "@ProFootballTalk took a law degree to come up with that? Sad."
11:05 AM Sep 20th via Twitter for BlackBerry® in reply to ProFootballTalk

Pardon that interruption.

== AND FINALLY:

== Congratulations to Lance Orozco, the news director for NPR station KCLU (88.3 FM in Ventura County and 1340-AM and 102.3-FM in Santa Barbara County ) for winning a 2010 National Edward R. Murrow Award in recognition of "Best Audio Sports Reporting" in the small market radio division for his story on "The Oldest Dodger."

Orozco, a Sherman Oaks resident, profiled 100-year-old Tony Malinosky, the oldest living former major-leaguer, living in Oxnard (his Baseball Reference bio linked here).

Orozco joined KCLU on the Cal Lutheran University campus in 2001, working in the broadcast journalism field for nearly 30 years.

The Murrow ceremony will be Oct. 11 in New York.

== Hear "The Oldest Dodger" story (linked here). Read an Associated Press story last year on Malinosky (linked here).