Jim O’Donnell: Sports talk radio in Chicago – is it still there?
THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO THINGS more boring than listening to sports talk radio in Chicago.
One is writing about it. A second is reading about it.
So let’s get this obligatory exercise in ad nauseum over with.
Few care. Few listen. Advertisers who allow their messages to get lost in extended commercial blocs need to have their promotional budgets examined.
BRIGHT YEARS AGO, with talents like Dan Jiggetts and Jimmy Piersall and Dan McNeil stoking the signals, the local genre had both pulse and potential.
Now, nothing – it’s all about budget-friendly daily drones cluttering the air, like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” attacking Bodega Bay.
(The special-effects screech of those birds would be preferable to the sonic swill that airs in the local sports airspace.)
MOST RECENT NIELSEN AUDIOS for Chicago indicated that WSCR-AM (670) is lolling along in 14th place with WMVP-AM (1000) staggering five lengths back in 19th.
That’s certainly competitive – and about as exciting to the mainstream as hearing that Costco is stocking a special holiday cranberry-cinnamon goat cheese with bacon.
(Which actually could prove to be quite a step saver.)
THE FINAL NIELSEN MONTHLY OF 2023 will show that WLIT-FM (93.9) -- with its holly-bombing all-Christmas music, all the time – once again rules December on Chicago radio.
And AM-670 and AM-1000 will be far up the track.
Image molders from both stations will try to find a pliable sports media sort to sell their great success in “target demos,” like males 18-to-34 who only have access to battery-operated transistor radios and flip phones.
It’s brutal and it’d be nice to say that the more rabid fans of The Captive Sports City deserve better.
But do they?
STREET-BEATIN’:
Amaze anyone who will listen at a Bears watch party today (noon, Fox) by naming all five NFL teams Joe Flacco has QBed. Two are gimmes – the Ravens and the Browns. Add DEN, NYJ (twice) and PHL and boom-zappo, a complete set. Flacco first touched the Chicago radar way back in December 2007 when he led Delaware to an upset of Jerry Kill and host Southern Illinois in an FCS semifinal. …
Unless Jed Hoyer takes the no-pest strip off of the Ricketts family exchequer, the Cubs will head into 2024 with the signing of Craig Counsell – oh what a lucky man he was – as their marquee upgrade. Of MLB free agents, Hoyer could have been speaking to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons when he told media, “You’re betting on human beings with bones and ligaments and all those different things.” …
Thom Brennaman is on the board as a longshot to fill the void created when Jason Benetti bolted the White Sox for Detroit. His live gay slur -- made in 2020 -- continues to haunt him. It’s exactly the sort of counter-intuitive hire that would be consistent with the contrarian baseball culture on the South Side. …
Stevenson High alum Aidan O’Connell (Class of ‘17) threw 4 TD passes Thursday night to spark the Raiders’ smashing 63-21 win over the Chargers and immediately float Jim Harbaugh back to the top of the LAC vision grid. But here’s the saver for the maize-and-blue: A crisply placed insider says owner Dean Spanos wants the Chargers next HC to be, “Someone young and who he can control.” Harbaugh, if he ever returns to the NFL, will be as controllable as General Douglas MacArthur in Korea (q.v.). …
Lost in the autumn fog was the very public visit of star prep QB Ryan Fitzgerald (Loyola Academy) to the Iowa City of Kirk Ferentz. Pop Pat Fitzgerald was quite visibly alongside. The puzzle pieces currently aren’t on the same table, but Ferentz is gapping from Iowa administrators and Fitzgerald is still widely regarded as the sort of family-first head coach who would fit the Hawkeyes culture to a “P.” …
That ABC / ESPN Monday night “doubleheader” featuring Giants-Packers and Titans-Dolphins – with the same kickoff times – was a concept straight out of development purgatory. (The split screen has seldom been as great an annoyance.) NYG-GB drew 11.4M viewers on ABC; TEN-MIA had 7.3M on ESPN. Speed text to network chairman Jimmy Pitaro: Mark it and scrap it. …
UC reality: The welcome absence of Zach LaVine (foot) is opening up minutes for Billy Donovan to try and develop younger players. That’s a historic Donovan strength. LaVine’s $215M contract remains the Bulls’ biggest self-induced disaster since Jerry Reinsdorf drew back his bow and allowed Jerry Krause to consummate his bro-mance with Tim Floyd. …
Bruce Wolf is denying that he’s working on an autobiography with the working title of “From Durocher to DeSantis: Let’s Have Another Schlitz, Fellows.” The sequestered funnyman remains one of the four greatest wits in the last 50 years of Chicago sports media, along with Tim Weigel and Steve Rosenbloom. …
And Mike Emilio, on FS1’s anemic weekday ratings: “Dudes in the federal witness protection program would be safe co-hosting the Skip Bayless show.”
Jim O’Donnell’s Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.