Patriots’ preseason broadcasts will go unconventional route

The preseason provides the opportunity for NFL teams to experiment, to escape the conventional when the stakes are minimal, and to find out if that unorthodox idea just might actually work.

In recent years, the Patriots have taken an equivalent, hey-let’s-try-this approach with their preseason broadcasts.

In 2018, they decided to have their radio team, Bob Socci and Scott Zolak, call the television game broadcasts on Ch. 4, with Dan Roche and Matt Chatham handling the radio call on 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Last year, the Patriots became the first team to produce an alternate broadcast with “The McCourty TwinCast,’’ featuring Devin and Jason McCourty.

And this year, they will try something outside of the standard football broadcast playbook again.

For their two locally-produced preseason broadcasts on Ch. 4, the Patriots will utilize a three-person booth featuring the McCourty twins and Zolak, with no traditional play-by-play voice.

The broadcast will be more conversation-driven, with Zolak — who has been the lone color analyst on Patriots radio broadcasts since 2012 — acting as the de facto moderator.

“What better time is there to try something different than during a preseason game?’’ said Matt Smith, senior executive producer of the Patriots’ preseason games.

“Devin, Jason, and Zo all have that ‘it’ factor. There’s not a shrinking violet in the room. There’s going to be some compelling dialogue between them.”

Smith said that there will be no conventional play-by-play.

“Fans’ interest in preseason is often more about who is doing what to make an impression and make the team than the outcome of a particular play,’’ said Smith, who noted that graphics will provide important information such as down-and-distance, field position, and so on.

“Say the Patriots pick up a first down on third and 2. The discussion might be about the left tackle trying to earn a starting spot who made a great block to open a hole rather than the particulars of the play.”

Edwards replacement soon?

The NHL is in a bit of a post-draft, post-free-agency pause right now, but industry sources have indicated we could get some news on who will fill the Bruins’ play-by-play vacancy around the start of August.

I’m told approximately six potential candidates to succeed the retired Jack Edwards have auditioned with color analyst Andy Brickley.

They include a couple of candidates with NHL broadcasting experience outside the market, as well as Judd Sirott, who has called Bruins games on 98.5 The Sports Hub since the 2017-18 season, and longtime NESN host and play-by-play voice Tom Caron, who I noted a couple weeks back has extensive game-calling experience even though he might be best known to Boston sports fans for his work as a Red Sox studio anchor.

The Bruins will have some say in the hire.

Castiglione always there to help

Couldn’t quite work this comment from Lou Merloni into the stories I wrote in advance of Joe Castiglione receiving the Ford C. Frick Award on Saturday at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

So I want to note it here, since it encapsulates Castiglione’s effortless generosity as a person and broadcaster.

“I started doing play-by-play this season and I wasn’t comfortable with it, and I don’t know if I still am,’’ said Merloni, “but Joe has been so great at trying to put me at ease.

“I did the first few games with him, and then on the Uber back to the hotel, he talks to me about it. ‘That was really good. This is good. Just think about this, just think about that. Maybe try this in this spot.’

“As a baseball player, I want to be coached. If I’m not doing something right, I don’t want to keep doing it over and over again. Telling me is not going to hurt my feelings.

“And he does it in such a professional way, in a way that feels like true friendship. I just really appreciate him.”

Sports Hub dominates again

Your semi-loyal scribe (me) was on a brief post-Celtics respite when the spring Nielsen Audio ratings dropped last week, but the bludgeoning that 98.5 The Sports Hub continues to put on most WEEI programs cannot go unacknowledged.

In the men 25-54 demo from March 28-June 19, the Sports Hub finished first with a 15.4 share, while WEEI was ninth at a subterranean 3.6. In middays, the Sports Hub’s Zolak and Bertrand show (16.7) routed WEEI’s Gresh and Fauria (tied for 13th, 2.1). WEEI’s afternoon drive Jones and Mego show also had a 2.1 share (17th place), while the Sports Hub’s Felger and Mazz rolled as usual with a first-place 18.4.

The only relatively competitive day part was in morning drive, where The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Hardy show was first (16.1), with WEEI’s Greg Hill Show second with a solid 10.3. Rich Shertenlieb’s show on WZLX, which debuted May 20, was ninth with a 3.7 share.

I sometimes get asked when these lopsided ratings are released every three months when WEEI will make changes. Much of that is dependent upon the status of individual contracts. But all other things being equal, we’re several ratings periods beyond when a shakeup should have happened.