City Series a TV battle as well
The so-called Crosstown Classic isn't just a head-to-head battle between the Cubs and the White Sox. It's also a head-to-head battle between WGN Channel 9 and Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
The two will offer competing, side-by-side coverage of today's game at Wrigley Field at 1:20 p.m. and Saturday's at noon, as well as next Friday's game at U.S. Cellular Field.
ESPN is claiming the two Sunday-night series finales, and Fox will nab next Saturday's game for WFLD Channel 32 after inexplicably taking a pass this weekend.
Channel 9 will air the Sox coverage with Ken "Hawk" Harrelson and Darrin Jackson today and next Friday, with the Cubs' Len Kasper and Bob Brenly on CSNC. Kasper and Brenly switch to Channel 9 Saturday, with Hawk and D.J. on CSNC.
Even with the back-and-forth, Channel 9 likely will win the ratings battle between the two. Yes, cable and satellite penetration is at an all-time high, but the added reach of over-the-air broadcast combined with WGN's 60-year tradition of covering baseball make Channel 9 dominant. For instance, the Cubs are pulling 11 local Nielsen ratings on Channel 9 this season, translating to more than 375,000 households, while they pull 6's and 7's on CSNC.
"I'm not really sure why it happens," said Bob Vorwald, Channel 9's executive producer of sports. "We're always pleased that people choose to find us" when it has competing coverage.
There's no denying the high-water mark for the first-place Cubs and Sox is lifting all boats, especially CSNC's. "Everything is benefiting, because the teams are doing so well," said CSNC President Jim Corno. "This business is built on the teams and the teams' performances."
Little has changed at CSNC of late. One could point to the relatively recent additions of Mark Schanowski as a terrific anchor, while WGN 720-AM's David Kaplan has moved in to solidify the weeknight roundtable discussion program, but really Corno has the same solid staff in place. It's just that the teams are driving up interest.
"When the owners put this business together, their vision is coming together now where this is becoming the dominant sports network in Chicago," Corno said.
CSNC is partly owned by the Cubs, Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks, yet it has done a fine job of maintaining its independence and integrity, and can devote its resources entirely to local sports.
For instance, while Channel 9 will go with a fairly standard pre-game in the city series, CSNC will saturate and surround the games with similar programming. The whimsical minor-league reality series "Playing for Peanuts" runs at 11 a.m. today, followed by "Holy Cow: Remembering Harry Caray" at 11:30, then a "Crosstown Preview" with Len & Bob at noon and an extra-long pre-game at 12:30. Then it will do a post-game report at about 4:30, analyze the game on Kaplan's roundtable at 5:30, do highlights on "SportsNite" at 6:30, then replay the game at 7 before finishing with more highlights on the 10 p.m. "SportsNite."
Saturday's CSNC coverage begins with another "Preview" and pre-game at 11 a.m., with a post-game and more "SportsNite" highlights, again with replay at 7.
Even Sunday night's ESPN game will receive pre-game coverage on CSNC on the 6:30 "SportsNite" and post-game on the 10 o'clock "SportsNite."
Channel 9 and CSNC are both making plans to pad their coverage should the Cubs and Sox remain in first into September -- as is every media outlet in town.
"The teams have already made our summer," Corno said.
"It's been great," Vorwald added. "You can only hope it's going to be even better."
In the air
Remotely interesting: Comcast Cable customers, your long wait for the Big Ten Network is almost over. Comcast and BTN announced Thursday that Comcast will offer the sports network as an expanded basic channel beginning Aug. 15 in Big Ten states -- meaning Illinois, of course -- although as of next spring Comcast may elect to move it to digital cable.
The Summer Olympics are beginning to draw media attention -- not all of it good. ESPN's "Outside the Lines" examines air pollution in Beijing at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel" looks at the Chinese school system -- and the battle to keep softball an Olympic sport -- at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Comcast SportsNet Chicago has been named Special Olympics Illinois Outstanding Media of the year. … The Mike Myers comedy "The Love Guru" opens this weekend with a strong emphasis on hockey. The action scenes, featuring former NHL players like Rob Blake and Bob Probert (not easy to spot), are pretty good, but better are Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan riffing on hockey TV announcers.
End of the dial: Syndicated ESPN Radio morning hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of WMVP 1000-AM will sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field for Wednesday night's game.
Although it has been widely speculated that the White Sox' WSCR 670-AM color analyst Steve Stone could return to TV next year in a swap with Darrin Jackson that would break up the ex-pitchers and -hitters and mix and match them with Ed Farmer and Ken Harrelson, CSNC President Jim Corno says, "At this point, nothing has been talked about, to my knowledge." He added: "It's too early to tell what's going to happen next year."
-- Ted Cox