New Network

Paramount Communications Inc. announced yesterday that it would join forces with Chris-Craft Industries Inc. to start a fifth national television network.Though the proposed network does not appear to have a direct effect on the battle to take over Paramount now going on between Viacom Inc. and QVC Network Inc., Paramount's chairman, Martin S. Davis, said the proposed network had already been approved by Paramount's favored merger partner, Viacom.The Paramount Network would begin in January 1995 with four hours of national programming over two nights.

Well, here's a clear break from the "Will & Grace" mold. FX 's new sister network FXX (yes, they really just added an extra 'X') has ordered an animated comedy, titled " Chozen ," about a gay white rapper who has just gotten out of prison. Deadline reports the main character, voiced by Bobby Moynihan , emerges from the clink with "a new message and new skills, which he will use in his quest for redemption and domination. " I'll reserve full judgment until FXX releases a trailer or a pilot, but two quick thoughts come to mind.

Michael Hodes' new radio network may be all talk, but he isn't.Mr. Hodes, a Towson attorney and local radio personality, has teamed up with five other businessmen to launch the United Talk Radio Network, a Baltimore-based 24-hour, all-talk radio network.The network, known as UTRN, signed on the airwaves Jan. 24. Shows are broadcast from the studios of WCBM-AM in Baltimore, the same station that has carried Mr. Hodes' radio show on financial advice for eight years. Mr. Hodes' show is now carried on UTRN as well.

Drama is not exactly something the networks do well any more -- especially drama that has any kind of cultural resonance. But "Nashville," which debuts at 10 p.m. Wednesday on ABC, is the one new network drama that pretty much has it all. In the world of fast-hit blog reviews, here are five outstanding elements that recommend it: Callie Khouri -- The series set in the home of country music is created by Khouri, the Oscar-winning screenwriter...

For Carol Leifer, it's the opportunity for a creative carte blanche.For Robert Townsend, it's the chance for some talented African-American directors, writers and actors to hone their skills.And for Ed McMahon, it's the chance to serve as father figure to a bunch of young kids anxious for the big time.For all three, working for the WB is working for the new network on the block, a reality that may translate to fewer viewers and less exposure but brings with it a host of other benefits."It kind of appealed to me that [the network]

Friday night's Smackdown, which was the final episode of the show on the CW network before next week's move to MyNetworkTV, was mostly a straightforward wrestling program except for a show-long angle that concluded with The Undertaker delivering a Tombstone piledriver to Vickie Guerrero. Perhaps this is a prelude to the return of Edge. It would make sense to bring him back for the show's big debut on the new network Friday. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com /ringposts)

Drama is not exactly something the networks do well any more -- especially drama that has any kind of cultural resonance. But "Nashville," which debuts at 10 p.m. Wednesday on ABC, is the one new network drama that pretty much has it all. In the world of fast-hit blog reviews, here are five outstanding elements that recommend it: Callie Khouri -- The series set in the home of country music is created by Khouri, the Oscar-winning screenwriter...

PHILADELPHIA -- By the time it plays its All-Star Game on July 13, Major League Baseball probably will have a new cable TV contract.Phillies president Bill Giles, a member of the owners' television committee, said the owners are close to cutting a deal with either ESPN or Liberty Media, which owns Prime Ticket Sports Network and SportsChannel America.ESPN is the front-runner. Sources close to the negotiations say the all-sports network has offered between $150 million and $200 million to broadcast three games a week for the next four years.

Warner Bros., the Hollywood studio owned by media giant Time Warner Inc., plans to launch a fifth TV network to compete RTC with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, knowledgeable sources said late Wednesday.The new network would be built on a nationwide foundation of local broadcast and cable systems, sources said. It would be the first to take advantage of the convergence of broadcast and cable television, which until recently have been in fierce competition.Warner's has recruited former Fox Broadcasting Co. President Jamie Kellner to head the project -- the launch could cost as much as $2 billion.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network should be almost up to speed by next month, when its two cable television channels begin full-season coverage of both the Orioles and the Washington Nationals. The only thing left to do is make sure Orioles and Nationals fans know where to go to get all the action. Here's a hint: When you're channel surfing and you come to a local radio show that isn't in high-def, that's probably the channel that the Orioles will be on come April.

If you want to see the finest new drama of the TV year, tune in BBC America at 10 p.m. Wednesday for the opener of "The Hour," a six-week series starring Dominic West, of "The Wire,"and Romola Garai, of "Emma. " He plays a hard-to-read establishment anchorman at a BBC newsmagazine; she plays his producer boss. He's married; she isn't. That doesn't stop stuff from happening between them -- powerful stuff. I guarantee you nothing the networks will offer in coming months of their fall seasons comes close to "The Hour.

Duff Goldman had a "blast" making his new Food Network series — "I got to check out the country. They let me off the leash. " His new project is "Sugar High," a six-episode series debuting Aug. 8. The show sends Goldman and his motorcycle on a "cross-country trek to capture sweet secrets and tasty techniques … in the top dessert destinations around the country. " Sweets along the way include chilled bread pudding on the Venice Boardwalk in Los Angeles, tableside s'mores in Dallas, apple strudel in Chicago, lemon ginger mousse in Boston and traditional rice pudding in Philadelphia and Sno Ballz from the first-ever, shaved-ice machine in New Orleans.

Duff Goldman's new series "Sugar High" will premiere on Monday, Aug. 8. at 10:30 p.m. on the Food Network. Duff's " Sugar High " will take him on "a cross-country trek to capture the sweet secrets and tasty techniques that keep the cookies from crumbling in the top dessert destinations around the country. In the six-episode premiere season Duff visits a bevy of sweet spots from diners and snow cone machines to food carts and boutique bakeries, getting a full view of what it takes to sweeten up any soiree.

Patrolling the vast reaches of the Chesapeake Bay and its major tributaries has always been a difficult task for law enforcement officers. But a new $2.4 million radar-and-camera network is giving them a clear view of boat traffic from the port of Baltimore into the Potomac River. The Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network allows Natural Resources Police dispatchers in Annapolis to track and intercept suspicious vessels and speed assistance to boaters in distress. Dispatchers can draw an electronic "picket line" around a sensitive area such as the liquefied natural gas terminal in Calvert County, a cruise ship approaching the Inner Harbor or an oyster sanctuary near Tilghman Island.

The super-secret National Security Agency, traditionally reluctant to share its code-breaking secrets, is joining a new, highly classified social network that links its analysts for the first time with thousands of colleagues at other U.S. intelligence agencies. Gone are what used to be those rock-solid paradigms of intelligence: providing information only to those who need to know and limiting access to locked, specialized "compartments." Until now, a Pentagon analyst working on Afghanistan, for instance, might not know about highly sensitive NSA intercepts of opium smugglers discussing payoffs to Taliban insurgents.

Friday night's Smackdown, which was the final episode of the show on the CW network before next week's move to MyNetworkTV, was mostly a straightforward wrestling program except for a show-long angle that concluded with The Undertaker delivering a Tombstone piledriver to Vickie Guerrero. Perhaps this is a prelude to the return of Edge. It would make sense to bring him back for the show's big debut on the new network Friday. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com /ringposts)

WASHINGTON -- As Americans watched the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, this year, we enjoyed the acrobatics of world-class athletes. But back in Washington, a supposedly expert government agency was engaged in a less-inspiring kind of acrobatics - a flip-flop that could lead to higher cable television bills for consumers and less opportunity for television programmers. The less-than-elegant back flip was a highly questionable effort by the Federal Communications Commission, which reversed itself in a report that endorses a new federal regulation that would allow cable television viewers to be charged on a per-channel basis.

COLLEGE PARK - Back in the old days at the NFL Network, the game plan was to supplement the coverage provided by CBS, Fox, ABC and ESPN. Showing live regular-season games was not in the playbook. Yesterday, barely 10 months after its launch, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the network has been so successful that televising regular-season games is an option that is being seriously considered. The NFL might even think about making less money from television over the short term to get its own distribution system up and running, he said.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network should be almost up to speed by next month, when its two cable television channels begin full-season coverage of both the Orioles and the Washington Nationals. The only thing left to do is make sure Orioles and Nationals fans know where to go to get all the action. Here's a hint: When you're channel surfing and you come to a local radio show that isn't in high-def, that's probably the channel that the Orioles will be on come April.