Screw TALKING about the Blackhawks, SlapHappy... I'm on the phone with McDonough today about GETTING A JOB WITH THE HAWKS. Assist in public relations, promotions and marketing... drive the Zamboni... tape sticks... part-time manservant for Savvy (sometimes he drinks... I can get him home to Mona safely). I'm stoked. I've been looking for a new lease on life and know I have it (if Johnny Mac has a spot for me, of course). Say it with me: Red Rising.

Buy one! I would think that if you, North, and Boers pooled funds, you'll have enough cash on the table that a serious investor would be willing to join and help with whatever you are short. Ran wisely, a sportstalk radio station can generate a 60% margin while paying top bucks to its key talent.

_________________
"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

Fucking fashion shows before games and shitty P.R. schemes...You'll be the new Joe Mcgrath..I LOVE IT!!!!!

_________________
"You can't put a bounty on a man's head"!

.. that's .... now I have it. Oops.
There are no quick fixes for the Hawks, but there are ways to get 'em back to "mattering" fairly soon... and your noting the Bulls and Bears are struggling is key.
1. Foley is back
2. Harvey Wittenberg back on PA (if he's healthy... haven't seen Harv in at least five years and he was old then)
3. LOTS OF HOME GAMES ON TV!
4. Reasonable ticket packages for family events. No wonder why so many people over the years have been complimentary to the Wolves, the Kane County Cougars, etc. They let families in the park reasonably and don't gore them with concessions.
5. Put on a bounty on the head of Tim McCracken. He's the biggest punk and chief irritant on this Syracuse club.

Pay? Forget that, make them partners. Imagine the streamlining of shows if the principal hosts were also investors. Harry...Gone. Cocktail waitresses posing as executive producers...Gone. Vacations during the most interesting points of the sports season...Gone. I agree that a single sports talker dominated by great hosts would make everyone phenomenally wealthy. The partnership would need an incredibly strong managing partner (non on air talent).

Coach Crapowski-

I wish buying a sports station in a major market were easy. But even if it were, the three pack of sports mouths you mentioned would not be liquid enough to be a player. You'd be talking about a $75-100 million dollar acquisition.

I have talked to Bill Peterson about buying a station and helping me run it. I'd do afternoon drive (Mac, Jurko and Terry???) and be an executive partner/executive producer. I told Grissom I'd cost at least $2 mill a year. Bill is the only guy I know who might have many million dollars to plunk down on an investment/hobby. I asked him we went out for dinner and manhattans at Harry Caray's in June.

He listened. He loves Chicago and Chicago sports and doesn't want to do CSI forever. In fact, don't be shocked if he's back here sooner rather than later. He and some other Chicago big shooters are a player for the Cubs. If that doesn't happen, I'll be in his ear about the radio thing.

Even if he greenlighted it, where do you go buy one of those sports stations with a great signal? Is there a website to get one? A store? All the good signals are owned by major corporations and it'd be hard to get one of 'em to sell. I wonder what Bonneville would want for the Loop? And I know it's a much weaker FM push as opposed to AM signals that reach east and I mean WAY east, but it also is a great sounding signal. As a guy on a show that features some music everyday in rejoin/open/sign-song eruption among hosts..... it would sound awesome on an FM frequency. And at the end of the day, I care more about how ChicagoLand listeners receive the show. So they can't get it cleanly in Ohio or Maryland. It would sound sweet in Naperville, on the East Side, in Evanston, in Highland.

Good question. Thanks for letting me "fantasize about a life that doesn't so closely resemble..."
Anybody get the movie reference?

[

Name dropper... .. I had lunch with the head of the public works department for Elk Grove village the other day ....

_________________
"NEED a friend...Buy a dog"..

_________________

oopsie doopsie..

_________________

Nicely done, Costanza. Love Lester Burnham.
Excellent thought process demonstrated by Good Dolphin. GD must be in the biz or was in the biz. Come on, Dolphin. Whoooooooooooooo are you? Hoo hoo, Hoo hoo. Would love what you proposed. Make it happen and thou shall be rewarded.

Never claimed that it would be easy or that my favorite three-pack is anywhere near "real money." What I did say is that the aforementioned three-pack can put up enough funds on the table to make a serious investor (who will cover the difference) comfortable with the partnership. The Investor or his duly qualified agent will also perform the duties of manaing partner that Dolphin alluded to.

Edit: As a consumer, I like your Loop idea. JB on the morning drive, Dahl and North mid-days, HFC afternoon drive. Retain services of Hood, Bernstein, Grobber, Silverman, and Jurko for the rest of the timeslots. I will never touch the radio dial again.

_________________
"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

Ditch all that and go satellite. If they can have regionally specific traffic stations, I would think that Sirius could devote a channel to regionally specific sports.

I'm no insider, like GD, so I don't know their capacity but I would think if the Sirius/XM merger could go through it would free up their satellites to expand the variety of stations they could offer (they both have Classic Rock stations, they only need one).

Broker a deal to run that channel, staff who you want, and if you can keep it clean, maybe you can syndicate individual shows to other Midwest stations. Then, you can do just about whatever the hell you want.

_________________
You know me like that.

I don't think capacity or regionality are the issues, Doc. For now, at least, moving to satellite means losing a substantial portion of your audience.

Sat signal doesn't come through well in downtown buildings and I don't want to pay for radio.

_________________
"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

As part of your subscription, you get online streaming of a number of stations.

The merger is also providing for a la carte options where you could pick and choose the stations you would like for as low as $7/month. It's worth it.

NSJ, I don't know for sure about capacity issues but I do know when they broadcast all the NFL games on the weekends they take over other stations to do so. I would think if they had additional capacity they would just have dedicated channels for those broadcasts like DirecTV does. It would be much less confusing since it is difficult to find what you are looking for because you don't know what channel it is on.

_________________
You know me like that.

I for one would GLADLY fork over the cash to pay for the honour of listening to the lineup someone proposed earler with JB, Dahl, HFC, etc. I'd even dip into my stogie/scotch/poker bankroll for it.

CMS

_________________
I don't do drugs anymore... than say, the average touring funk band.
-Bill Hicks

Thinking about this a little more, hasn't Dan Patrick essentially done what you are thinking Mac. Forget buying a station. Form a partnership with some of the other greats of this market and package your shows for sale to the highest bidder. At first glance I would think your partnership could hold the chicago sports talk industry hostage because it would be completely devoid of talent. However, I could see those s.o.b.'s not caring about the content on the station whatsoever, especially espn (as that was true during the huge and lou days).

Forget loyalty to these conglomerates that have not proven themselves worthy of the loyalty. Instead, have loyalty to the partnership and treat these conglomerates as nothing more than clients. The partnership would not fine you for using the word bitch and I bet they would reward you for slugging Tiny.

By the way, I expect a little kickback if you use this thought.

Yeah, who needs to deal with a brick-n-mortar station? All you want are your own sponsors, and basically pay the stations for airtime.



Weekends like this are great, if you need to see examples. Score switches over the SNR during the day, in-between games. It's either that or get some producers to work 7-day weeks. Is that what you'd call caring about content?

_________________
Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

Mac,

Have you ever smelled the leather in a hot new Mustang?

_________________
"NEED a friend...Buy a dog"..

Touch 'em all, S-G.

I guess you didn't enjoy your turkey.

Mac,

When and how are the tix for MJH nite at the Hawks game gonna be given away? I vote for a Led-Zeppelin trivia contest!

I'll hang up and listen for my answer..

_________________