It's not exactly breaking news, but could The SCORE soon be simulcasting its sports talk lineup on the FM side in addition to its current home at 670 AM? According to Sun-Times columnist Lewis Lazare, it could be a reality sooner rather than later.

Lazare devoted his column today to the January Arbitron ratings book, and all indications appear pointed towards WSCR simulcasting its popular sports talk on one of CBS Radio's struggling FM stations, possibly in time for baseball season right around the corner.

While WSCR ranked 10th overall among adults ages 25-54 and ranked 1st in morning and afternoon drive among men in the same age bracket, the same can't be said for Fresh 105.9. Even though that station is geared more towards women, has been heavily promoted in commercials & billboards, and has done quite a bit of tweaking to its playlist, the fact of the matter is that nobody's listening. The former WCKG, now known legally as WCFS, ranked 26th among adults last month and has been a ratings dud from the getgo. Although another CBS outlet, 104.3 JACK FM, had been mentioned as a rumored simulcast partner for The SCORE, the ongoing struggles of 105.9 FM may force the company's hand.

Why would CBS want to possibly simulcast The SCORE on FM? For starters, SportsRadio 670's deal as the flagship for the Chicago White Sox Radio Network expires after this season. It's common knowledge that the White Sox could be the centerpiece of a proposed FM sports talker from Emmis Communications, the Indianapolis-based parent company of 97.9 The LOOP & Q101.1, although nobody's saying which of the 2 rock stations could be converted. Second, it could be much more costly for Emmis than it would CBS to simulcast The SCORE on one of its FM properties.

One well respected CBS Radio executive says "There's nothing about a simulcast on the drawing board today." However, another radio station executive told Lazare that the rumored SCORE simulcast will soon be a reality, added that CBS could make it happen "in 36 hours once they decide to do it." It remains to be heard how long an FM SCORE could become a reality, but stay tuned.

Didn't you post something about this a month or 2 ago?

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Score to FM's been a story for many months now. Are they still simulcasting on 104.3's digital subchannel, for the five people in Chicago who can pick up digital subchannels? I know they started mentioning it in the station ID for a while, but then they dropped it. I figured someone told them they didn't have to legally identify subchannel simulcasts or something.

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This thread was better two months ago?

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SHARK is Mike Tomczak in favor of this move to FM?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Hey SHARK. Douchebag said that this probably won't happen and you know not of which you speak. What would you tell him?

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This is my signature...

What are the benefits to the listener of talk radio being on FM?

It will be easier to tell if Terry is in the studio or not?

You can listen from your MP3 Player?

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Sounds better. There is still a large collection of people for which AM doesn't really exist in their worlds. You can get the signal if you work in a highrise (in a short range, the FM signal is easier to pick up).

Benefits are no need to hire a staff for 105.9, it's like betting 1 and 1A, you get them bolth when you bet the 1 horse

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WSCR's sistah station in Detroit has been doing this for years, 97.1 FM and 1270 AM (the TICKAT (ha)).

The MP3 player thing is good news, as well as using the built-in FM receiver on your smart phone/cell phone, which uses far less juice than streaming via your smart phone's web browser or an app.

Nah, it's gonna happen. CBS's Detroit and Dallas stations have been doing the AM/FM simulcast thing for years (as I'm sure others in the CBS sports talk radio family do). It seems s.o.p. for CBS sports talk radio stations. This is just catching Chicago up with the times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRLD-FM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXYT-FM

As long as they don't give up the AM blowtorch, I'm fine with it. I don't want to live in a world where people in Wichita can't listen to DePaul games in their cars.

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True that. The next time I am in Jacksonville Florida I sure as hell better be able to get me some LoHo.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I thought I offered an opinion, Spmack. Besides, the story appears to have legs now in the wake of the continuing struggles of Fresh 105.9, despite all kinds of commercials, billboards, and tweaking their music format. This in addition to a rumored FM sports talker from the folks at Emmis, owners of 97.9 The LOOP & Q101.1.

I also thought you could listen to "Chicago's Sports Station" in HD quality sound on 104.3 WJMK's HD2 channel in addition to listening online to 670thescore.com anytime, anywhere. I know for a fact 105.9 WCFS's HD2 channel is where you can definitely stay informed and listen to WBBM Newsradio 780 in FM quality sound. Besides, before the talk about possibly simulcasting The SCORE on the troubled 105.9 FM, all indications were that a rumored FM SCORE would be broadcast on 104.3 JACK FM, a different CBS Radio property.

One last thing. If CBS started broadcasting the SCORE on FM in addition to 670 AM, Chicago wouldn't be the last city to broadcast 24/7 sports talk. It wasn't that long ago that CBS converted a longtime FM rocker in Boston, I believe WBCN, to WBZ-FM "The Sports Hub". The idea there is to cut into the audience of WEEI, one of the highest rated sports talkers in the entire nation. It's not as hard as it seems.

Last week I was in St. Louis for a few days & I picked up WSCR in my car day & night.

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Yeah, Radio-Locator says 670 should sorta come in down there with a good antenna:

It's a clear channel, so on the clearest nights you can probably pick it up anywhere from the Rockies to the coast. WCCO, WLW, KMOX, and that one AM station in Windsor all come in here regularly. On good nights with good radios I've picked up WABC out of New York, WSB Atlanta, and CJOB Winnipeg. I listened to the Saints' radio call of the last Bears-Saints game but I forgot the callsign/frequency. I was just surfing and I happened upon it.

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Was that station WWL Radio, Curious, the Saints' flagship?

It was! I kept wanting to say WLW but that's Cincinnati.

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Are you asking me or telling me?



Didn't think of that, thanks.



That makes sense, too.

I can pick up WSCR at night just to the south of Duluth MN.

And the reason the FM signal will be better.... you can actually listen to it downtown

I'm all for this.

I suppose they could, but NIU and DePaul are probably contracted to run on 670. They probably couldn't toss them out to the crappy CKG signal because that's not what they paid for. Relegating boring-ass Sox scrimmages to FM-only would be nice because then Boers & Bernstein might actually do a show in the month of March, but they probably don't want to cannibalize their audience or something.

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Hmmm...If The SCORE started broadcasting on the FM side, that's a good question. I remember before WCKG "Fresh"-ened their format a couple years ago, 105.9 FM actually broadcast a handful of NIU & DePaul Basketball games whenever there was a conflict on 670 AM. If I remember correctly, the Blackhawks were on WSCR at the time and they always had top billing among the winter sports teams the CBS Radio-owned sports talker aired. It remains to be heard if the rumored SCORE FM even becomes a reality...

I think you are thinking of WKRP

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WKRP in Cincinnati was a great show. Mom-and-pop radio of the '70s and '80s--because God knows there isn't any today--basically was a sitcom brought to life, so its mere existence was appropriate.

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Curious, "WKRP in Cincinnati" was a good show when it originally aired on CBS from 1978-82. It was the show that put Howard Hesseman on the map as "Dr. Johnny Fever", and Loni Anderson was definitely easy on the eyes as "Jennifer". Unfortunately, the syndicated "WKRP" that aired about a decade later, featuring Tawny Kitaen...Not so good.