Jackson to join Farmer in Sox' radio booth

The White Sox are expected to announce within the next few days that broadcaster Darrin Jackson has chosen to return for another season on the South Side, according to a White Sox source.

But in 2009, he'll be in the radio booth.

Jackson had been mulling his future ever since September, when the Sox decided to remove Jackson in '09 and put Steve Stone next to Hawk Harrelson on the TV side, offering Jackson a chance to stay with the organization if he wanted to move over to radio.

After months of deliberation, Jackson is staying and will work with Ed Farmer a couple dozen feet from where he spent the last nine years.

For Farmer, who's going into his 18th year broadcasting Sox games, it's his third partner in the last five years, and it won't be easy losing Stone, with whom Farmer had great chemistry.

Previously, Farmer worked with John Rooney through the World Series-winning 2005 season, after which Rooney bolted for St. Louis. Chris Singleton spent two years with Farmer before joining ESPN last March. Stone took over, and he and Farmer formed an instant bond, working together throughout the 2008 season.

At the same time, Jackson and Harrelson never seemed to click on the air, and it was hardly a surprise that the Sox chose to move Stone into that chair.

So it'll be interesting to see how it works out on the radio side, but it ought to be good for Jackson, who always deferred to Harrelson, and now will get more of an opportunity to talk and show what he knows about the game.