It's academic for Castiglione
As of today, you can call him ''Dr. Castiglione."
Red Sox radio voice Joe Castiglione and George Grande, the Cincinnati Reds' TV announcer and an original voice of ESPN, are scheduled to receive honorary doctorates from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., this morning. Both are from Hamden.
''As for being called 'doctor,' recall what Bart Giamatti, an old family friend in New Haven, Conn. [and later baseball commissioner] said when I called him 'Dr. Giamatti' in an interview," Castiglione said. ''He said, `I'm no doctor. Your father is the real doctor, a healer of men. Don't call me doctor.' "
This would have been a great day to bring in Joe's son, Duke, to fill in on the Sox-Braves broadcast with Jerry Trupiano. No such luck.
''I'm first on the graduation program, and will have a car service waiting to get me back to Fenway for the game," said Joe.
Of his new alma mater, Castiglione said, ''My only past connection with Quinnipiac was having to take a summer course there in the summer of 1966. Then, it was a one-building school. Now it has a beautiful campus and law school and features the Ed McMahon communications center for broadcast studies."
Castiglione would feel right at home there. He teaches broadcasting at Northeastern and Franklin Pierce.
Asked if his degree would mean a pay raise at NU, Castiglione, as usual, wasn't at a loss for words, e-mailing a quip from the West Coast: ''Somehow, I think the term 'adjunct professor' implies the standard part-time rate and no parking spot."
Tales of the tape
Bob Lobel promises the 20-minute tape, ''25 Years of Boston Sports," that will run on tonight's expanded ''Sports Final" (Channel 4, 11:30) is ''one for the VCR or DVR or TiVO or whatever they call them these days."
The tape, a collaboration between Channel 4's Jackie Connally and Jim Murphy, was put together for a charity event two weeks ago to benefit the Penikese Island School for troubled teenage boys. Channel 4 called that presentation ''25 on 4: The Bob Lobel Era." That made Lobel uncomfortable.
''It's not about me," he said. ''Someone had to be in that chair."
But when the tape was shown that night at the Westin Hotel, Channel 4 staffers from Lobel to president/general manager Julio Marenghi knew it belonged on the air.
''I can't say it'll make you cry," said Lobel. ''But it made me cry. It also made me laugh and gave me goose bumps."
Lobel didn't want to give anything away, but he shared one moment from the video:
''One was from 1986. Bill Buckner was interviewed and said, 'The best thing that possibly could happen is to be world champions. The worst is to have the ball go through your legs and lose the World Series.' That was 19 days before the Series."
Broadcasting the news of a death always is tough, and Lobel said the reports on Len Bias and Reggie Lewis were among his toughest times on the air. ''Same with the Johnnies, Most and Kelley.
''I was on my way to a charity golf tournament when Alan Miller, then my producer, called to say Bias had died. I turned and went right to the station."
The station is calling this ''The Bob Lobel Era," even though Lobel says, ''It could have been [predecessors] Len Berman, Roger Twibell or Dick Stockton. They all went on to bigger and better things."
But Lobel stayed.
He will have Globe columnist Bob Ryan in studio to talk about the tape. It's a good choice because Ryan, too, has been on the job for all that will be seen on air tonight.
As for his role as the dean of Boston sportscasters, Lobel said, ''It's about surviving, especially in this town, where there are always sharks in the water."
While Lobel technically is between contracts, all parties involved -- Marenghi, Lobel, and his agent, Ken Fishkin -- say it's only a matter of finalizing the deal.
Next up: How about ''50 years of Boston sports"?
Libel and Lobel
''Sports Court" on WWZN (1510 AM) from 4-6 tonight will have Los Angeles libel lawyer Mitchell Langberg talking about Lobel's lawsuit against the ''Get Fuzzy" cartoonist who depicted him as being drunk on the air. ''It's topical and timely for us," said David Frank, an assistant district attorney and the show's cohost along with attorney Scott Gilefsky. ''Langberg files several of these every month for people in the entertainment industry and can talk about all the legal ramifications." The show airs immediately after the station's all-day (8 a.m.-4 p.m.) remote broadcast of the ''Hot Dog Safari" at Suffolk Downs . . . TNT and
Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com. 
