Philadelphia television personality Dave Frankel is going national as a correspondent for ESPN's "Outside the Lines."

The investigative sports show, hosted by Bob Ley, expanded from a weekly to a daily show a few weeks ago. The former KYW-3 news anchor and WPVI weather anchor spent many years at WPVI as an investigative journalist, but this is his first stint in sports since his college days at Dartmouth University.

Though the show is taped at the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., Frankel can file his reports from Philadelphia. Right now, he is working on a story about a controversy over Chicago Cubs ticket sales.

Frankel, who was last seen on KYW in October 2001, is now free to work for any station in town, as his no-compete clause with KYW expired in March. The ESPN job is a freelance position.

"I've done news, weather, and now sports. All that is left is sales," he joked.

One position that he didn't mention was morning host. His name has been mentioned for the long-vacant "Good Day Philadelphia" job on WTXF.

"Outside the Lines" airs at midnight on ESPN. In other ESPN-related trivia, former WTXF weekend sports anchor Bill Perry is a producer for ESPN News.

King of the hill

WCAU's "Sports Final" led the Sunday night sports shows with a 6.3 rating/14 share of the audience for May sweeps.

One reason that the show succeeds is due to scoops by contributor Howard Eskin, who had the Larry Brown story first this week.

WTXF's "Sports Sunday," which airs an hour earlier than "Sports Final" had a 3.3 rating/5 share, and the "George Michael Sports Machine," on which Eskin also appears and airs at midnight on WCAU, had a 3.2 rating/8 share.

That must be distressing to KYW, as its "Sports Rap" had a 3.0 rating/7 share. WPHL's "Sports Extra" barely registered with a 1.1 rating/2 share. Each rating point equals 28,305 households.

European vacation

South Jersey resident Brian Baldinger, a Fox football analyst, is beginning another season as an analyst for NFL Europe on Fox Sports Net Sunday. He is doing the Frankfurt-Rhein game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Hey, Larry

Get two Larrys for the price of one on "On the Record with Bob Costas." Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird are the guests on HBO at 11:30. No word if Bowa and Brown were invited to participate.

Charity event

Sixers television announcer Marc Zumoff is an organizer of "Points for the Promised Land," a basketball tournament to raise funds for the victims of terrorism in Israel. The 3-on-3 event is looking for players high-school age and up. It takes place at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell on Saturday, June 8. To register contact http://www.jamminforpromisedland.com/.

Bad guy

Evidently, WTXF sports anchor Don Tollefson has finally found someone who isn't a "good guy." Last week, Pete Rose gave Tollefson the cold shoulder when Tollefson was trying to interview him after his appearance at the Camden Riversharks game. Awesome!

Laura Nachman covers television and radio sports for the Courier Times. She can be reached at bradyresident@aol.com.