In Sacramento, Ed Fletcher reports KHTK-AM "isn't panicking" despite the NBA Kings' possible relocation to Anaheim could affect the station "as much as any business in town that isn't working for the club." The Kings have been on KHTK since the '94-95 season, and station GM Steve Cottingim: "We do love having the team. But really, at the same time, we are a sports talk radio station that has done well despite the team struggling." Cottingim said that if the Kings do leave, the station "will focus more" on MLB and NFL teams in the Bay Area, "as well as Sacramento's minor league teams." KHTK recently signed a deal to broadcast Raiders games (SACRAMENTO BEE, 4/6).
DROPPED SHOTS: SI.com's Bruce Jenkins noted Sunday's Sony Ericsson Open final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal received no airtime during ESPN's "90-minute 'SportsCenter' Sunday night." Jenkins: "Unbelievably poor showing. ... Here's a network so terribly proud to be involved in all four majors, but it dismisses everything else as irrelevant. That won't work" (SI.com, 4/5).
DON'T FORGET MARK MULDER: ESPN has signed former MLBer Mark Mulder as an analyst for "Baseball Tonight." Mulder will make his debut on the show Friday and appear throughout the season (ESPN). Meanwhile, former MLBer Sean Casey last night made his first appearance "as a Reds TV analyst on Fox Sports Ohio" for the team's game against the Astros. Casey, who also is a studio analyst for MLB Network, will call 15 Reds games for FS Ohio this season (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 4/6).
CABLE RANKINGS: MULTICHANNEL NEWS' Thomas Umstead reports ESPN averaged a "record of 2.4 million viewers" in primetime during Q1 '11, ranking it third among ad-supported cable networks. TNT "averaged 2.1 million viewers," ranking it fourth (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 4/4 issue).
