Jim O'Donnell: Is DraftKings weighing a plan to shake up sports media in Chicago?
WHEN THE THIRD-LARGEST RADIO MARKET in America has two reeling sports talk stations, rumors will rumble.
Hottest one going around Chicago right now is that a major sports gaming corporation is noodling a plan to establish a frontline media presence in Our Town and ultimately multiple other major North American markets.
Podcasts, low-budget daily TV “grind” shows and relentless advertising are functional. Full sticks — station ownerships — are a much more aggressive incursion.
They also cut out the middle man.
No. 1 probable on that invasion list would be DraftKings, the Boston-based sports fantasy and gaming carnivore that has gone from startup in 2012 to industry heavyweight.
DRAFTKINGS STOCK WAS SELLING for about $15 per share less than a year ago. It closed Friday at $41.59. Some informed speculators project that it will hit $100 in 2025.
“DK” added the wizardly Marie Donoghue last week as chief business and growth officer. She's riding the crest of a remarkable run as a VP at Amazon (2018-23) and ESPN (2005-18). At Amazon, she was a principal driver in the landmark establishment of the NFL's “Thursday Night Football.”
Whether the stumbling sticks of Chicago's WSCR-AM (670) or ESPN-AM (1000) are both too small potatoes for Donoghue and Co. is a valid question.
BOTH ARE CURRENTLY running on empty. Audacy — parent company of “The Score” — recently filed for a structured bankruptcy. A key residual of that maneuver means that the bare-boned AM-670 lacks resources to make substantive upgrades in leadership, talent and promotion.
(The station also has a laughably calcified group of regular guests.)
At AM-1000, Craig Karmazin and Good Karma Brands loll along as a low-sizzle, no-steak operation. Their inaugural season as flagship station of the Bears was at best a qualified doinker.
With a low-value talent and management roster, the kindest thing that can be said is that the station reliably broadcasts every day, just like a low-watt high school FM station.
There is no question that sports media in ravenous Chicago is long overdue for The Next Big Thing.
Is that DraftKings knocking on the weakened walls?
STREET-BEATIN':
News that Theo Epstein is back as a senior adviser and minority partner with the Fenway Sports Group is another gut shot to the pursuit of championships in Chicago. The future Hall of Famer would have been a godsend as a controlling principal in a fresh White Sox ownership group. (Dream on.) …
A welcome Groundhog Day gift from the Chicago sports media: How about a 24-hour news cycle with no mention whatsoever about Justin Fields, Caleb Williams and Your Name Here regarding the future QB dynamic of the Bears? Until there's hard news, the redundant guessing on the topic has gotten as numbing as a State Farm/Andy Reid commercial. …
Woebegone Blackhawks fans hoping that the lottery lords deliver 17-year-old phenom Mack Celebrini in the June Entry Draft had all last season to watch him with the Chicago Steel of the USHL out at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva. He's now a freshman at Boston University. Defenseman Chris Able of Libertyville has helped Mike Garman and the current Steel flip a brutal start (1-8-1) into a 7-1-2 bounce-back since the holidays. …
Peacock takes “The Dan Patrick Show” to a special set at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas this week. That's well away from Radio Row at Mandalay Bay. Patrick has the best daily talker in the land. It's also heavily odds-on that the Nevada National Guard couldn't keep Deion Sanders from making a Super Bowl week appearance with Patrick. …
The juiced $20M Pebble Beach concludes today with its strongest and smallest field ever (2 p.m., CBS). Jim Nantz, who owns a mansion near tournament central, will actually be in attendance to call the final round. (He anchored last week's Farmers Insurance Open remotely, from Baltimore on Saturday so he could call Sunday's Chiefs-Ravens AFC finale.) The Bing Crosby Clambake has lost much of its oceanside charm. …
While Caitlin Clark and her Iowa road show were conquering Evanston the other night, Chris Collins and the Northwestern men were getting boiler-made mad down at Purdue. Zach Edey and mates made 29 of 46 free throws to NU's 6 of 8 in a 105-96 OT win. The even-keeled Collins lost it at the end; even by state of Indiana standards, that's homer-ism in the first degree. …
Enduring Arlington jockey agent “Captain” Tom Morgan reports the passing of Marie Baird, mother of E.T. Baird, the ace Rolling Meadows-spawned rider. Mrs. Baird, who briefly attended primary school in her native Liverpool with Paul McCartney, was married for 42 years to the late Bobby Baird, another superb gate jock. …
For those with acute Super Bowl chase fever, L-Vegan researchers have discovered that in seven sports-related renditions of The National Anthem since 1974, Reba McEntire has averaged getting it done in 1:17. (Longest — 1:25 at The National Rodeo Finals in 2010; Shortest — 1:05 before Game 1 of the Cards-Royals World Series in 1985.) Problem is that no legal book is taking action on The Queen of Country before SB 58 next Sunday. …
And Sir Walter Ruston, on the ongoing February stalemate between the Cubs and Cody Bellinger: “Couldn't Woodstock Willie have brought some light to the matter?”
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.