TV/Radio

Remote patrol

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published December 9, 2005

CHECK IT OUT

ARMWOOD-NEASE FOOTBALL, 1 P.M., SATURDAY, WHBO-AM 1470: The Hawks go for three straight state championships, a remarkable feat shared by only a handful of teams in the state. Nease has one of the country's top quarterbacks in Tim Tebow. Steve Berrey and Kevin Sullivan will call the Class 4A action, which starts with a pregame show at 12:30 p.m.

CLASS 5A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP, 7:30, TONIGHT, SUN SPORTS: To get yourself in the mood for Armwood, check out two of the best teams in the country meeting for the 5A title - Lakeland (USA Today's No. 1 team) and St. Thomas Aquinas (No. 4). For DirecTV subscribers, try alternative channel 635; DISH folks can go to 449.

FACES OF SPORTS, 10 P.M. WEDNESDAY, ESPN2: Speaking of Tebow, he will be featured in this one-hour documentary that looks at how this home-schooled, three-sport star became one of the country's best. A day earlier, Tebow will make the live announcement about his college choice on ESPNEWS at 5:10 p.m. He has scholarship offers from Michigan, USC, Miami, FSU, Florida, Alabama and just about everywhere else.

ICE 2005, 4-6 P.M. SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, CH. 8: So, wondering who the athletes to watch are for 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy? NBC tries to answer your questions by looking at the best in curling, luge, bobsled and skeleton this weekend by covering the Team USA Curling Duel from Duluth, Minn., the Men's Luge World Cup from Cesana, Italy, and the Women's Skeleton World Cup, from Lake Placid, N.Y.

COSTAS NOW, 9 TONIGHT, HBO: A collaborative effort by HBO and Sports Illustrated will take a look at the SI Sportsman of the Year award (Tom Brady is your winner). A roundtable panel of John McEnroe, Charles Barkley and Cris Collinsworth will review the year in sports.

CHANNEL SURFING

Howard Stern is pimping his move to Sirius in a big way, even stopping by the Best Damn Sports Show Period at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

NBC will show the USGA Year in Review special from 2-3 p.m. Sunday.

Need your car racing fix? Then try the Baja 1000 at 3 p.m. Sunday on Ch. 8 as 300 entrants - including NASCAR's Robby Gordon and Paul Newman - vie for the top prize.

ESPN and The Contender will do their second live boxing special Feb. 12 at at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., immediately following the NFL Pro Bowl. Contender finalist and Providence native Peter Manfredo Jr. will meet Scott Pemberton, who was recently destroyed by St. Petersburg's Jeff Lacy.

The NCAA men's soccer championship between the SMU-Maryland and Clemson-New Mexico winners will be televised live by ESPN2 at 1 p.m. Sunday.

RATINGS

Good news for Monday Night Football's move to ESPN next year - Monday Night Countdown, the network's 90-minute studio show leading into MNF, is averaging 1.768-million homes and its highest rating (2.0) in 10 years. The audience has increased 17 percent from last year.

ESPN's men's basketball coverage of Duke's first visit to Indiana averaged a 2.5 rating and 2,285,000 households, making it the network's highest-rated and most-viewed Big Ten/ACC Challenge telecast ever, bettering last year's North Carolina at Indiana game (2.0 rating).

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 01:19:17]