This week, WIP aired a promo to crow that afternoon host Howard Eskin scooped the world by calling in to Ike Reese's show at 8:05 p.m. Friday to announce that sources had told him of the hire.

WPEN counters that afternooner Mike Missanelli called colleague Dan Schwartzman to spill the news at 8:04 p.m. - a full minute before - and logs confirm this. (Asked about the incorrect boast, WIP operations manager Andy Bloom said blandly: "If you say so, all right.")

For the record, Comcast SportsNet was first with the news, posting an online version attributed to "sources" at 7:54 p.m. Of course, CSN is part of the Comcast orbit that owns the 76ers .

Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News posted a "sources said" version on Philly.com at 7:59 p.m., thereby also scooping the radio guys. He put up a confirmed version eight minutes later. The Inquirer's Kate Fagan had a confirmed version up at 8:10. The official release came late Friday night.

As for Eskin: His son Spike Eskin - midday DJ, assistant program director, and music director at sister station WYSP (94.1) - will sit in the next chair from 3 to 7 p.m. today. The cohosting is a one-day thing, says Spike. Rob Ellis (not Rob Charry , as I wrote in Tuesday's column) was in the chair much of last week and this week.

No Unity Day It will be Philadelphia's first August since 1977 without Unity Day. Organizer WDAS (105.3) yesterday announced that the family-friendly outdoor event would not be held. "It's the economy," said station manager Joe "Butterball" Tamburro . "It's atrocious out there. We don't have the resources to do it the way we've done it in the past, and we decided to take a break. We'd rather people remember it as it was." Tamburro said he did not know if Unity Day would return when the economy improves.

News about news The CW's Wake Up News , a partnership between CBS3 and Traffic.com, is going to sleep after four years. Effective June 29, CBS3's Eyewitness News This Morning , which now airs from 5 to 7 a.m., will be expanded to 7 to 9 a.m. The two later hours will air on CW57. Ukee Washington and Liz Keptner will anchor on both stations along with meteorologist Maria LaRosa and traffic reporter Bob Kelly . Wake Up anchor Natasha Brown will report for the new newscast; traffic reporter Sean Murphy will become a CBS3 feature reporter and fill-in for Kelly. Weathercaster Christa Quinn , a Traffic.com employee, will do backup work for CBS3, a spokeswoman said. The CW show is produced by Traffic.com in Wayne. By using CBS3 studios, the expanded program will be in HD. CBS3 started a 10 p.m. 'cast with Dave Huddleston , with the Eyewitness News brand, on CW57 this year.

Mike Strug , one of the few reporters who's worked for three TV stations here, tomorrow will bow out of NBC10, his home since 1990. Expect sendoffs on the 4 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Strug, 66, says he took a buyout with a year and a half left on his contract. "I got to ride the wave of television when it was a good place to be," Strug says. "Now as things are changing, it is not quite as much fun." Strug, an Olney High and Temple grad, also worked for Channel 6 (1966-78) and later at Channel 3 (1978-89).

Contact columnist Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com.