Stone negotiations heating up

Now that Kosuke Fukudome has signed to patrol right field in the Friendly Confines, the biggest intracity baseball bidding war of the winter isn't between the Cubs and the White Sox, but between WSCR 670-AM and WMVP 1000-AM.

And the man in demand is none other than Steve Stone.

Since leaving the Cubs' broadcast booth at the end of the 2004 season, Stone has maintained a presence -- and a summer home -- in Chicago by serving as the Score's baseball analyst.

No doubt about it, he's the best in town in that role. He made things hot for Dusty Baker, and he was an early defender of Lou Piniella, insisting, rightfully so as it turned out, that last year's Cubs were a playoff team, even when it looked bad for them early on.

Stone is beloved and admired in Chicago, on both sides of town, as he proved last summer when he sat in for Darrin Jackson (during Jackson's brief paternity leave) alongside Ken "Hawk" Harrelson on Sox TV broadcasts. The Score remains the Sox' radio home, but WMVP execs would love to steal him away, just as they spirited Mike Ditka away with his weekly on-site broadcasts talking football and plugging his restaurant before last season.

Sources say Stone was getting $100,000 at first from the Score, and that doubled to $200,000 this year after WMVP made a run at him last off-season. Now they're coming back for another try, and while they aren't offering Fukudome money, they're putting the screws to the Score and testing its resolve about how much it wants to keep Stone in the fold.

And Stone, who proved himself a crack negotiator in his contract talks with the Cubs and WGN Channel 9 for 20 years, is sitting pretty. As an ex-athlete, he clearly likes to win, and he's no doubt playing it that way with both stations.

"You can't and shouldn't ever comment on ongoing negotiations," Stone said Thursday from his Arizona home, adding, "I haven't done much of anything as far as really contemplating what's going to happen. That's why we have agents."

Yet he called Chicago "very lucky" to have a couple of all-sports stations like the Score and WMVP, and even threw David Kaplan's "Sports Central" on WGN 720-AM into the mix.

The one thing in play in addition to money is flexibility with any national cable TV work that becomes available, something the Score has readily afforded him.

"The same thing will probably hold true this year," Stone said. "We're going to try very hard to add a television component to this."

But WMVP would no doubt clear room on its schedule as readily as the Score would.

The competition for his services couldn't come at a better time for Stone, as the Score just took a dip to a 1.4 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older in monthly Arbitrend ratings to fall behind WMVP at a 1.5 share. In a tight race like that, Stone is a difference-maker.

Score program director Mitch Rosen declined to comment on negotiations, as did his WMVP counterpart Justin Craig, who added only that "of course" he'd love to add Stone to the station.

"I think he'd be a good fit overall," added WMVP general manager Jim Pastor, who also declined to comment on the actual negotiations.

"I love the city of Chicago," Stone said. "I'm not sure you can go wrong as long as whatever you do involves that city."

Look for that to continue, one place or the other.

In the air

Remotely interesting: WLS Channel 7 is picking up the broadcast rights to ESPN's "Monday Night Football" for the Bears-Vikings game at 7:30. Mark Giangreco plays host to a pregame show -- including a segment on Illinois' Rose Bowl team -- at 7 p.m.

Comcast SportsNet Chicago is picking up a 10-game package of Illinois High School Association basketball games starting with two quarterfinal games in the Proviso West Holiday Tournament Dec. 27. … HBO reruns Floyd Mayweather's 10th-round knockout of Ricky Hatton at 9:15 p.m. Saturday.

End of the dial: WMVP 1000-AM held steady with a 1.5 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older in monthly Arbitrends released this week to pass WSCR 670-AM, which dipped from a 1.7 share to 1.4.

WMVP's Dan McNeil, John Jurkovic and Harry Teinowitz broadcast live from Harry Caray's in Rosemont at 10233 W. Higgins from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday.

-- Ted Cox