Jageler follows calling
The folks at WWZN (1510 The Zone) yesterday said goodbye to Dave Jageler, who was one of the station's originals. All week a steady stream of callers wished the best to Jageler, the cohost of the noon-3 p.m. "Eddie & Jags" show, as he heads off to be the play-by-play announcer for the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Jageler was there when The Zone was launched in September 2001 and he delivered the first flash when "The McDonough Group" went on the air Oct. 9, 2001.
"We're happy for Jags even though we're sad to see him go," said WWZN general manager Mike Winn. "Doing play-by-play is his calling and his passion."
Jageler will do the full 144-game PawSox schedule, broadcasting 126 over the team's six-station radio network, headed by flagship station WSKO (790-AM), and another 18 on TV for COX3.
He'll work the radio broadcasts with WSKO's Steve Hyder in a reunion of sorts. Hyder hired Jageler out of college to work at WSYR in Syracuse, N.Y. On TV, Jageler will be joined by former Red Sox analyst Bob Montgomery for the team's COX telecasts.
"Jags is going to a really good organization," said Winn, "and we're happy to see him get the opportunity to do play-by-play, which is his true calling. Hopefully, we'll see him in the major leagues one of these days."
He's going to the right place for that.
His predecessors have done just that. Don Orsillo (Red Sox), Dave Flemming (Giants), and Andy Freed (Devil Rays) all moved up. So, too, has Dave Shea (Nationals), who called PawSox games in the mid-'90s.
"The PawSox have launched a lot of major league broadcasters' careers," said Jageler. "They've got a great tradition, and I hope to live up to it."
Jageler called the selection process "very thorough. You see why the team has been so successful."
PawSox spokesman Bill Wanless said the team's short list of finalists "not only was strong, but so good that three of the folks on it landed major league jobs last month." That would include Shea and his new partner with the Nationals, Charlie Slowes, plus Roxy Bernstein, who caught on with the Marlins last month.
"A lot of people with good jobs in the minor leagues also inquired about our opening," said Wanless.
Jageler will be a PawSox employee, working in community relations "and whatever they ask me to do" in the offseason.
In season, fans can catch Jageler at work by clicking on a link at pawsox.com and pick up streaming audio of PawSox games. "And we hope to have him on the air as a guest, talking about the PawSox," said Winn.
Lure of Tiger
Last year's final round at Doral (without Tiger Woods) did a 3.8 rating in Boston. This year, with Woods and Phil Mickelson going head-to-head, the ratings more than doubled to 7.7 . . . Speaking of ratings, the Celtics' TV audience has jumped with the return of Antoine Walker. Recent games with the Lakers, Suns, and Timberwolves averaged a 3.0 rating, roughly double the early-season average. Wednesday's game with Atlanta averaged a 2.5, peaking at a 4.1 in the final quarter-hour . . . Walker began a regular Thursday night guest spot on FSN's "New England Sports Tonight" last night, a segment that will repeat tonight at 6:30, leading into Celtics-Pistons at 7:30 . . . Celtics owners Wyc Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca, and Robert Epstein join host Tom Caron and the Globe's Dan Shaughnessy in a roundtable discussion of the team on tonight's Globe "Sportsplus" show (NESN, 6:30 and 10:30) . . . NBA TV has an hour special on Game 6 of the Celtics-Lakers 1963 NBA Finals tomorrow at 11 a.m. It was Bob Cousy's final game . . . Tomorrow's Northeastern-Vermont America East championship game is an ESPN telecast at 11:30 a.m.
Netting listeners
Streaming audio is a hot item in radio circles. The reason? People tuning in on computers tend to spend more time listening, something that's important if they also happen to have a ratings diary. "Time spent listening" is a big part of the radio ratings equation. WEEI (850-AM) plans to resume streaming audio "soon," according to the station's Jason Wolfe, now director of sports programming and operations for Entercom. "It's something that's happening at both Infinity and Entercom," said Wolfe. "In the past, the problem was that the server would crash when too many people tried to listen. Now we're assured that there's no limit on the number of people who can log on. My conservative estimate is that we'll have 250,000-300,000 people listening online each month," he said. "That was the peak number we had before. Now that we've expanded our coverage area, I think the online numbers will reflect that." . . . WBZ (1030-AM) is among the 11 Infinity stations around the country that begin online streaming Monday. "As more and more listening is being done away from home and the car, we must extend our stations beyond their dial positions," said Infinity CEO and chairman Joel Hollander. "We believe streaming will not only exceed listener expectations but also increase time spent listening." . . . "World Soccer Weekly," the Internet-available soccer show, has found a daily home on Sirius, being rebranded as "World Soccer Daily" (Sirius Channel 122, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. daily or at worldsoccerweekly.com). Hosts Nick Geber and Steve Cohen also tweak US audiences with "Fox Football Friday," a weekly soccer show on Fox Soccer Channel each Friday from 9-10 p.m. . . . Trivia buffs who'd like to challenge ESPN guru Howie Schwab -- "Stump the Schwab" -- can audition for a spot in the show's second season (it begins April 11). Boston's Q&A session will be at the Cask 'n' Flagon (and if you don't know that location, you don't qualify as a Boston trivia expert) next Saturday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com. 
