Pull up a chair for more media notes

-- Those already in the know will know that Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 from Fontana will go live on Fox (Channel 11) at 11 a.m. Last week's Daytona 500 on Fox chugged in with a reported 10.9 rating, a dip behind the 11.3 that NBC had for it a year ago. Aside from the five drivers one can see on DirecTV's amazing "Hot Pass", Sirius Satellite Radio will have, in addition to the live call on Channel 128, 10 additional channels with the "Driver2Crew Chatter" audio that let fans hear drivers talk to their pit. The racers who'll have audio scattered between channels 122 and 144 will be Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin and a "fan's choice" to be determined.

-- Thanks to Sen. John Kerry's initive, the government started investigating a proposed deal between Major League Baseball and DirecTV over its exclusive deal that it is negotiating for its "Extra Innings" package of games. Disclosure of the FCC’s investigation of any such deal came in a letter from FCC chairman Kevin Martin that Kerry released Thursday. The programming option allows baseball fans who live outside the markets of their favorite teams to watch them play for an extra fee. It is currently available to a number of cable and satellite television providers. Kerry had asked Martin to investigate the “proposed $700 million television deal that could deny many consumers the ability to watch their favorite teams.” Martin, in reply, wrote Kerry: “I share your concerns regarding this proposed deal.” The chairman added that he understood the package had been available to 75 million cable and satellite viewers for the past several years, and would only be viewable by DirecTV customers if a deal were signed. “I am concerned whenever consumers cannot purchase the programming they want or are forced to purchase programming they don’t want,” Martin wrote. DirecTV has never
confirmed that the widely reported deal even exists.

--AP No. 1 Wisconsin vs. No. 2 Ohio State has piqued our interest, and CBS (Channel 2, 1 p.m. Sunday) has the contest. OSU, first in the coaches poll, and Wisconsin, which lost Tuesday to Michigan State, will mark the first time two teams ranked No. 1 in the polls have met during the regular season. Verne Lundquist and Billy Packer call the game. Saturday's lineup include Dick Enberg and Bill Rafery calling Oklahoma State-Texas Tech (9 a.m.), Tim Brando and Mike Gminski doing Pitt-Georgetown (11 a.m.) and Florida-LSU with Gus Johnson and Clark Kellogg at 1 p.m. Before Sunday's Wisconsin-Ohio State game, CBS has Louisville-UConn (9 a.m.) and Duke-St. John's (11 a.m.). Down the road leading into March Madness, CBS will also have UCLA-Washington on March 3 at 11 a.m. (with Kevin Harlan and Bob Wenzel), although UCLA-Washington State would have made more sense if they had stuck to the original Pac-10 schedule instead of anticipating the Bruins-Huskies actually meaning something.

--John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova will be in the TV booth when the Tennis Channel airs the French Open from May 27 to June 8. “We could not be more proud that two icons of professional tennis will lead Tennis Channel’s on-air team,” chairman and CEO Ken Solomon said Thursday. The two former stars will call singles and doubles matches, and give analysis from an anchor desk.

--In an interview with Golf World, Lanny Wadkins says until CBS hired Nick Faldo as its new 18th tower analyst, he believed he would retire working next to Jim Nantz. Wadkins signed a four-year extension with CBS before the 2006 season but said he received mixed signals from his bosses about how he should do his job. Says Watkins: “The guys who don’t want me there are the same guys who wanted Katie Couric (as anchor of the CBS nightly news).”

-- CBS claims the final-round coverage of the Tigerless-Nissan Open from Riviera Country Club that featured Phil Mickelson losing a three-hole playoff to Charles Howell III had a preliminary national household ratings/share of 3.4/7, up 31 percent from last year when it was on ABC. The highest the rating got was in the final extra half hour (4 to 4:24 p.m.) when it went to a 5.4/10.

--NBC has Tiger Woods' weekend appearance in the WGC Accenture Match Play in Tucson, Ariz., unless he falls in his match today. NBC's schedule runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Says NBC's Johnny Miller on Woods' current seven PGA Tour win streak: "The bottom line is that what he has been doing is off the charts. It's fantastic to watch him, he has really matured as a player, he seems like he is hitting on all cylinders. It will be fun to see if he can keep it going. It will be real interesting to see if Tiger does fall behind and if he can make his comeback because these guys get pretty inspired when they get a chance to beat him." NBC's Gary Koch, talking about Michelson's play at this event coming off his Nissan Open loss: "I kind of liken watching Phil Mickelson to why fans watch NASCAR. You're always waiting for the wreck to happen. It seems like with Phil, good or bad, he seems to provide some of those thrills for you, from some of the decisions he makes or even with the shots that he hits at the wrong time. But I certainly think there are a core group of people out there that love to watch him just for that reason."

-- TNT reports that the 2007 NBA All-Star Game delivered 6.8 million viewers and was the top cable show for the last week and the year-to-date. TNT had a 5.1 cable Nielsen rating for the exhibition.

-- Tony Kornheiser signed a deal with XM Satellite Radio to start a nationwide show starting March 5 on Channel 144 from 6 to 8 a.m. (PDT).

--In pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of violating a restraining order, HBO boxing broadcaster Jim Lampley received three years probation, a year-long domestic abuse violence recovery program stay, 40 hours of community service and a $700 fine earlier this week in the case involving former girlfriend Candice Sanders. Lampley still contends he did not commit the crime and said through a spokesman: "The thing that I am most guilty of is choosing the wrong woman."

--Where to avoid the weekend of March 2-4: Disney World in Orlando, Fla. ESPN has dubbed it the fourth annual "ESPN The Weekend" sponsored by a sporting goods company that'll make every 11-year-old boy giggle. A bunch of athletes are getting paid to make a personal appearance alongside Mickey Mouse and Pluto, but the goofiest part of all this is how the company makes their on-air talent come by to visit and mingle as if they're some kind of come-to-life Disney characters. The ESPN anchors/personalities schedule to appear: Linda Cohn, Jay Harris, Al Jaffe, Chris McKendry, Sal Paolantonio, Mark Schlereth, Howie Schwab, Stuart Scott, Bill Walton, Trey Wingo, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic, John Seibel, Matthew Berry and Eric Karabell. The last two are fantasy sports experts whose sites were bought out by ESPN.com. A press release trumpeting this whole thing has this caviat: "NOTE: not all athletes and ESPN personalities will appear all days; all appearances subject to change." Mickey, he'll be there all right. At least you can count on him.

-- ESPN2's "Cold Pizza" will move production from New York to Bristol, Conn., and be renamed by June 1 with more of an emphasis on news instead of smarmy "Today" show-like fodder, according to a note in today's USA Today. For those who watch and care...