After you read the following link, you might be wondering how much longer before CBS Radio pulls the plug on 104.3 K-Hits in favor of an FM version of 670 The SCORE. I think that day is coming...Check this out.

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archi ... wfan-to-fm

I don't care if they do an FM simulcast, but giving up 50,000-watt clear channels that win in the ratings is fucking dumb. They'd better not waste one of the best signals in the country on The Doug Gottlieb Show.

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CH, sports talk radio on FM is a big time trend in this country. I'm not sure how CBS Radio, parent company of The SCORE, K-Hits, 93XRT, as well as B96, US 99.5 & WBBM Newsradio, plans on doing it locally, if at all. CBS Radio's big Chicago boss, Rod Zimmerman, recently denied rumors that K-Hits' format is on borrowed time in an interview with Timeout Chicago's Rob Feder. For all I know, K-Hits might actually survive, but the all-news simulcast with 780 AM & 105.9 FM might be a different story entirely. I simply don't know.

Based on what I've read, the all-news simulcast that WBBM/WCFS has had for just over a year now hasn't necessarily been what CBS bosses in New York bargained for. Ratings & revenue aren't where CBS thought it was when the all news simulcast began in August, 2011. The same is true of K-Hits when they replaced the jockless JACK FM earlier this year.

When I read stories about what ESPN Radio has done with its New York & Boston stations, and the fact there are FM sports talkers popping up everywhere, it makes me wonder as a big sports radio consumer if it will happen here. I think in the wake of today's news about WFAN going to the FM side next month, I really believe FM sports talk, whether it's a simulcast or if WSCR converts the AM one to become a full time outlet of the new CBS Sports Radio Network in January remains to be heard.

What do they expect? They think we're so f*ng dumb, we can't switch our radios to the AM band to listen to the news?

Basically, they halve their overall programming, and expect 2x the ratings of 'BBM.

That's truly more stupid than knocking off the WMAQ clear channel, in the first place. Or does someone think that folks in Dallas truly need to hear the Score?

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

Actually, yes. This is exactly what executives think. Somewhere, there's market research that shows that people my age (mid-twenties) and younger do not acknowledge the existence of the AM band. Anecdotally, I can tell you I've spoken with people around my age who never listen to AM, but the real fear should be people around my age who don't listen to any over-the-air radio at all.

The only thing dumber than CBS expecting ratings gold by simulcasting WBBM on 105.9 was the original premise behind FM News, which the BBM simulcast set out to counterprogram: that being that not only are young/middle-aged women unable to find 780, but if they could, the stentorian tones of the newsreaders and their heady topics of such things as "world and national news" would be too much for their delicate ladybrains to process, and so the only way to bring news radio to them was to put it on FM and talk about shoes. God, fuck Randy Michaels with a red-hot poker up the ass.


In all honesty, it probably was redundant for CBS to keep running WBBM and WMAQ, and since WMAQ only entered the Westinghouse/Infinity/CBS family through various mergers and acquisitions, it was gonna go one way or another. Personally, I'd be glad they used 670 for the Score and didn't just make it, I dunno, Spanish or something.

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Westinghouse owned WMAQ long before they bought the SCORE.

WFAN will be simulcasting in New York. It won't surprise me if the SCORE does the same.

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Right, but WBBM was always the #1 news station during co-ownership. It was going to be MAQ that they got rid of.

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That's the thing. If MAQ were garnering ratings 'x', doing news, and WSCR doing less than that with sportstalk, I'd rather have the two separate news stations (yeah, I know: both CBS.) Another case where people thought the sky's the limit for certain meteoric careers, which didn't come to pass.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry