While Dan McNeil was on the air making his third career debut on WSCR-AM 670, The Score’s management was celebrating its major free-agent acquisition.
Jimmy deCastro, senior vice president and market manager for Entercom Communications’ Chicago radio stations, and Mitch Rosen, WSCR-AM’s operations director, know McNeil.
They know what he can do, both positive and negative, and they feel positive.
“He’s hungry. He’s humbled,” Rosen said Wednesday. “Listen, a month ago, he was selling cars in Northwest Indiana. He’s hungry to prove to everybody that he still is on top of his game, which I believe he is. … All he wants to do is win. He wants to have fun and he wants to win. Those are the two key things in his head every day.”
The risk-reward of bringing in McNeil — who’s very good when he’s good and suspended or cashiered when he’s bad — is just one aspect of the upheaval of the WSCR-AM weekday lineup.
Other issues involve politics and diversity, so you know, nothing too controversial, as deCastro has pursued what he called “a fresher approach” with a “combination of youth and experience.”
McNeil has been paired with Danny Parkins, who a decade ago was an intern for him. They’ll hold down the 1-6 p.m. slot when not preempted by Cubs broadcasts.
Left without a partner is Matt Spiegel, who had been working middays with Parkins since Parkins’ return home from Kansas City last year. The move also displaced Jason Goff, who had been paired with Dan Bernstein.
Management said Spiegel and Goff may wind up as fill-in weekday hosts and heard weekends, though they haven’t finalized those arrangements.
Joining Bernstein instead of Goff is Connor McKnight, once hired by WSCR after as part of a talent search promotion but most recently White Sox pregame and postgame host on WLS-AM 890.
When asked what the station hopes to get with the new alignments that it didn’t get with Goff and Spiegel, deCastro said only: “I don’t think it’s specific to those two.”
It has been suggested that a factor in the changes was that the afternoon show with Bernstein and Goff was deemed too political for the sports-talk station.
“I don’t know. I’ve seen some blogs that are saying that,” deCastro said. “My opinion on that is we’re a sports station. … The truth of the matter is we think they need to be talking about sports.
“If there’s (news that’s) live and local we have a responsibility to report, we’ll report on it. But we’d much rather have our talent be playing the hits in the sports world because that’s what people come here for.”
Goff’s removal from The Score’s regular weekday lineup represents a 50 percent decline in the number African-American hosts in prime slots. The station also is light on the perspectives of Asians and Hispanics, and could feature more women.
Rosen noted that Julie DiCaro and USA Today’s Maggie Hendricks host a weekend show. And de Castro said the station has interviewed other women recently. They said they would like to have one on the air five days a week.
DeCastro cited the overall diversity of Entercom’s Chicago lineup, which includes the reformatted Jams 104.3 (aka WBMX-FM 104.3, formally WJMK-FM) and B96 (WBBM-FM 96.3).
But the lack of diversity at The Score, while hardly uncommon across the media landscape, comes at a time when sports rosters and fans seem to be as diverse as ever.
“A very fair point,” deCastro said, who then cited the potential for additional daytime exposure for weeknight host Laurence Holmes.
“We’re talking about having him fill-in and grow,” deCastro said. “We’re talking about maybe popping Goff in with him from time to time because they like each other and know each other well.”
Holmes has been doing solid work long enough that everyone — in local sports media and in the audience – knows him well.
philrosenthal@chicagotribune.com
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