Comcast SportsNet drops ball on McNabb story   When the Donovan McNabb-Rush Limbaugh story broke Tuesday, it was the top story on the local television stations, with one glaring exception: Comcast SportsNet. On the Tuesday edition of "SportsNite" at 6:30 p.m., incredibly the newscast's top story was a Flyers preseason game and practice session followed by the first day of Sixers training camp. In case you forgot, Comcast owns the Flyers, Sixers and Comcast SportsNet. I'm sure many viewers were second-guessing the news judgment of the sports station during that broadcast. Comcast SportsNet vice president of programming Tom Stathakes could not be reached for comment. Ratings game Last week's Eagles-Bills game scored an impressive 26.5 rating/48 share on WTXF. However, its pre-game show "Eagles Game Day Live" was DOA with a 1.2 rating/3 share. Fox will be lucky enough to have this week's game vs. Washington at 4:15 p.m. Sunday. In the battle of the Sunday night sports shows, WCAU's "Sports Final" led with 4.8 rating/10 share. "Sports Sunday" on WTXF was next with a 4.8 rating/7 share. "Eagles Total Access" on KYW trailed with a 3.7 rating/8 share. WCAU and KYW compete directly. "Sports Sunday" airs after the 10 p.m. news on WTXF. Each local rating point equals 28,305 households. Encore, encore The wonderful closing ceremonies from Veterans Stadium will have an encore presentation on UPN 57 at 8 p.m. tomorrow. The survey says ... "On the Air" surveyed the broadcast media about the Eagles, Sixers, Phillies and Flyers organizations. We received responses from all the local television stations we asked except Comcast SportsNet (second demerit in this column for CSN). Here's what we learned about the teams. Flyers "Their PR staff, led by Zack Hill, is top shelf." Another said: "The Flyers' PR department, led by Zack Hill, is moderately helpful. Zack has a tough job, getting Bob Clarke and Ron Ryan to be media friendly." Another said; "Since the Flyers hired Ken Hitchcock, they've gotten so much better. He is awesome." Eagles Public relations director Derek Boyko was our PR MVP, getting unanimous praise by the media. Here are some of the comments: "Derek Boyko and his staff are true professionals. Don't view the media as the enemy." "PR guy Derek Boyko is fantastic, and the players see the media as a part of their business." "The Eagles are super. Derek Boyko has the trust and respect of the players, so they show up and do the things he asks." On the other hand, there are some in the organization that weren't praised: "[Jeffrey] Lurie, [Joe] Banner and [Andy] Reid run that franchise like it's the Kremlin." Phillies Many media members complained that the Phillies are unaccommodating to the media. However, most had praise for the director of Fun and Games, John Brazer. One media member said: "John Brazer does a great job as director of Fun and Games with the Phillies. The Eagles front office should hire him - or a close facsimile. He spent 10 years putting a happy face on a bad product and did it without being overly sensitive." "After years of being terrible at it - have become the best. A lot of that has happened since John Brazer has taken some of Larry Shenk's old responsibilities." One said: "They seem to lack control over their athletes. The baseball players treat media like inferiors with the exception of Jim Thome and a few others." Sixers One media member said: "The Sixers are inconsistent. Sometimes they'll get what you need, but at other times, they don't even return the phone call." Another praised Karen Frascona and Chris Wallace of the PR staff. "Actually understand what 'public relations' means." Laura Nachman covers television and radio sports for the Courier Times. She can be reached at bradyresident@aol.com. October 3, 2003 6:03 AM