"Unlikely" is how the New York Times termed today's reported partnership between returning radio pariah Don Imus and RFD-TV, a 24-hour network celebrating the early-rising country life, broadcasting shows called I Love Toy Trains and The Johnnie High Country Music Revue. I wouldn't be so sure.

Launched in 2000, RFD is reportedly already available in some 30 million American homes, about 10 million fewer homes than HBO. And you can expect that to change. This deal is obviously a major coup for RFD -- whose audience will likely be fairly forgiving toward Mr. Imus -- and gives the network much stronger leverage as it pursues carriage through Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC).

Terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed, as the final deal has yet to be struck. One Times source expects RFD to pay as much as $5 million annually for the five-year deal, which, along with Imus' radio contract with Citadel Broadcasting Corporation (NYSE: CDL), would nearly match his earnings from CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) Radio before the network yanked him this spring.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Best Buy Co, Inc (BBY), Amazon.com, Inc (AMZN), aQuantive, Inc (AQNT) and AT&T (T) were today's most notable upgrades:

• Goldman upgraded shares of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to Buy from Neutral, telling customers valuation is discounting an earnings miss and reflects concerns about the company's capital allocation. The firm expects BBY to meet recent guidance and current Street estimates.
• Deutsche bank upgraded shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Buy from Hold, citing expectations for operating margin improvement near-term and added growth and margin expansion longer-term from Web Services initiatives.
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of aQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT) to Outperform from Neutral, citing valuation and stronger fundamentals as the firm expects Google's (GOOG) acquisition of DoubleClick to result in stable pricing during the integration process. aQuantive was also upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBSW and to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer at CIBC.
• AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital, as the firm believes shares have stronger growth prospects compared to the group based on wirelines cost cutting, churn and margin improvements at Cingular.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman upgraded shares of Progressive Gaming International Corp (NASDAQ: PGIC) to Neutral from Sell on valuation.
• Banc of America upgraded shares of Apollo Group, Inc (NASDAQ: APOL) to Buy from Neutral.
• Matrix upgraded shares of Ruth's Chris Steak House, Inc (NASDAQ: RUTH) to Hold from Strong Sell.
• Bear Stearns upgraded Rural Cellular Corp (NASDAQ: RCCC) to Outperform from Peer Perform.
• Merrill raised COTT Corp's (NYSE: COT) rating off the ground, upgrading shares to Neutral from Sell.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).