Media Notes

ESPN's Peter Gammons will provide weekly reports for WEEI-AM radio in Boston beginning March 21 and running through MLB's regular season (WEEI)....Phoenix Open Media Dir Jeff Blaugrand said that national interest in the event is "up significantly this year and attributed it mainly" to 17-year-old Ty Tryon, who is making his pro debut. For the "first time ever," AP golf writer Doug Ferguson will cover the event. In addition, SI will have two writers at the event, and "other publications that have never, or rarely, covered the event inlcude" the Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun and S.F. Chronicle (AZ REPUBLIC, 1/22).... ESPN's Tony Kornheiser, on SI's management shake-up: "If they blow-up Sports Illustrated, it's New Coke. They're going down with it." ESPN's Michael Wilbon: "You can't alienate the reader, though. Maybe you tinker a little bit. They can't go New Coke" ("PTI," 1/22)....In Charlotte, Scott Fowler profiles Univ. of Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino and writes that Pitino "knows coaches' TV shows are inherently boring, so he jazzed his up in Louisville. One recently featured a woman who swallowed fire. Another had a magician, a nun, a football player" (CHAR. OBSERVER, 1/23).