Media Notes

NBC/TNT NASCAR analyst Benny Parsons, who is being treated for lung cancer, was scheduled to work yesterday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup GFS Marketplace 400, but “was not feeling well and flew home to North Carolina” (DETROIT NEWS, 8/21).

RACE DAY: Terry Moir, Programming Dir at Cleveland’s WKYC-NBC, said that the station “has changed plans to air” D’Rays-Indians on October 1 so it can carry the NASCAR Nextel Cup Banquet 400. The game will instead air on SportsTime Ohio. In Cleveland, Roger Brown notes the station last week “was flooded with irate phone calls and e-mail from viewers when it televised the Indians’ blowout win over [the Royals] instead” of the AMD at The Glen. WKYC will air Twins-Indians on September 17 to replace the dropped game (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 8/21).

INJURY LIST: In DC, George Solomon wrote preseason injuries to Redskins RB Clinton Portis and CB Shawn Springs “set up the first head-to-head confrontation between” sports talk radio stations WTEM-AM and Red Zebra Broadcasting’s Triple X ESPN Radio. Triple X ESPN Radio “had the Springs story first, it boasted, which isn’t shocking since it falls under the same corporate umbrella as the Redskins.” Red Zebra Broadcasting VP/Operations Tod Castleberry: “At best, we’re cousins. We’re independent from the ownership of the team; and why wouldn’t we feature the team we have the rights to?” (WASHINGTON POST, 8/20).