Who won the 2025 Chicago sports media survey?
It had been three years since we did a Chicago sports media survey and the voters were ready. More than double the number of respondents turned up at the polls than in 2022 (5,191 in total, though most questions received around 4,500 votes).
I asked a lot of questions so let’s go straight to the results. (You can click here for the full list.)
Which is your favorite radio station? (4,371 responses)
No surprise here. 670 The Score won again, beating ESPN 1000, 68.4% to 31.6 (4,371 votes). That’s down a little from 2022, when 670 The Score won 71.3-28.7.
I got some complaints about too many Score questions, but the station makes a lot of changes, so I’m interested in what the audience thinks.
Do you listen to Chicago sports radio? (4,586 responses)
“Yes, regularly” is the winner here with 41.3%. After that comes “Yes, sometimes” (34.7), “No, but I used to” at 20.9%, and “No, I hate everything about it” at 3.1%. So, 76% of respondents listen to sports radio, which makes all these questions newsworthy, I suppose.
What is your favorite sports radio show in Chicago? (4,248 responses)
The winner is ESPN 1000’s mainstay “Waddle & Silvy” at 28.1%. Marc Silverman is probably renting a villa in Tuscany right now, so he won’t see this, but he and Tom Waddle have been doing this show together since 2007 and it remains fun and interesting.
Second place is the new pairing of longtime Score hosts Laurence Holmes and Matt Spiegel at 26.6%, followed by the Score’s long-running morning show of Mike Mulligan and David Haugh (who replaced Brian Hanley in 2018) at 21.7%.
Last time I did this in 2022, the new show “Bernstein & Holmes” beat out “Waddle & Silvy.”
Who is the best sports radio host in Chicago? (4,253 responses)
No surprise here, it’s two in a row for Laurence Holmes, who also won this vote in 2022. Holmes had 20.8% of the vote, beating out ESPN’s 1000 morning show host David Kaplan (16%), who also has a separate YouTube channel for his REKAP Network. Kaplan, of course, has built an audience over the decades hosting on WGN radio and NBC Sports Chicago.
Third place goes to Holmes’ partner Matt Spiegel (13%), followed by Waddle (12) and Mulligan (8.4).
Do you miss hearing Dan Bernstein on the air? (4,348 responses)
Would you listen to a Bernstein podcast in the future? (4,325 responses)
Did I need to do two Bernstein questions? Probably not. But I was curious what people thought now that the smoke has cleared from his firing, which stemmed from a Twitter meltdown about fishing ethics.
You might not like him, but he was on the air for 30 consecutive years for a reason. When I first did this survey in 2019, Bernstein won best host, and in 2022, he finished second by 0.7% to his then-partner Holmes. But this time around, 56.9% said they don’t miss him on the air, while 31.4% said they did and 11.6% said they did “when something big happens.”
As for a future podcast, one possible avenue for him, 64.8% said they wouldn’t listen, 32% said they would and 3.1% said they’d “hate-listen.”
I think Bernstein and The Score benefited each other, and I’m not sure how powerful his voice would be elsewhere. The station certainly misses his opinions and his encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago sports.
Do you miss Danny Parkins at The Score? (4,286 responses)
I almost added a second question asking if anyone was watching his FS1 show “Breakfast Ball.” And boy, would that be newsy right now.
On Monday, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that “Breakfast Ball” was one of three FS1 shows that were canceled before football season starts. Parkins left Chicago last summer to move to New York City for a starring role on the sports talk show. The show didn’t last a year, but from what I’m hearing, Parkins should get on another show there as he has a multiyear deal with Fox Sports.
This was a close vote, as 48.5% voted that they didn’t miss Parkins at The Score, while 45.8% said they did and another 5.7 said they did “when something big happens.”
Is The Score better or worse than it was a year ago? (4,239 responses)
Did The Score’s lineup changes over the past year make you more or less likely to listen? (4,147)
This is where I say, “Who ya crapping?” to some voters. Because 53.8% say it’s worse and 56.5% say they’re less likely to listen. How many of you said you don’t miss Bernstein or Parkins, but The Score is worse without them? I think famed fictional TV executive Rogers Meyers Jr. said it best:
More than a third of you think The Score is the same as it was a year ago (35.3%) and that your listening hasn’t changed (34.3). Only 10.9% said it’s better than it was a year ago, and 9.1% said you’re more likely to listen.
What is the best show on The Score? (4,012 responses)
“Spiegel & Holmes” eked out a win over “Mully & Haugh,” 43.9% to 43%, a difference of just 38 votes. “Rahimi & Harris” put up a respectable 13.1% as the new show in town.
What is the best show on ESPN 1000? (3,868 responses)
“Waddle & Silvy” was the easy winner here at 63.8%, followed by “Kap & J. Hood” at 24.3% and “Carmen & Jurko” at 11.9.
Do The Score and ESPN 1000 talk too much Bears? (4,270 responses)
A few hours before writing this section, I tuned into one show while in the car and promptly heard a caller ask two ESPN 1000 hosts to estimate how many wins Matt Eberflus cost the Bears last season. Very pressing news in mid-July.
But 42.1% of you say the stations don’t talk too much Bears, while 37.3% say they do, and 20.6% responded: “Bearsssss.”
Who is the best sports broadcast team in Chicago (4,603 responses)
The Cubs’ radio broadcast, led by the Hall of Famer Pat Hughes, deservedly won the vote this year with 37.9%, followed by the Bears radio team (19.4) and the Bulls’ TV crew (14.5).
When I did this survey in 2022, the easy winner was the White Sox TV team of Jason Benetti and Steve Stone at 39.8%. A lot has changed since then. The current Sox TV team of John Schriffen and Stone came in next-to-last of TV and radio shows for the “big five” teams at 1.5%. I had a nice conversation with Schriffen this season and he was aware of his struggles last season. In the games I’ve watched, he’s been much better. But I’m not sure how well he and Stone are meshing.
Do you listen to Chicago sports podcasts? (4,637 responses)
It turns out you do, as 38.9% of the respondents said they listen regularly and 34.7% said they do sometimes. Another 6.8% said they only listen to national sports podcasts and 19.7% aren’t listening at all to podcasts.
What is your favorite Chicago Bears podcast? (3,411 responses)
Of course, the overwhelming favorite is “Hoge & Jahns” with 47.3%. The Adams Hoge and Jahns will now be doing the show under the CHGO umbrella after Jahns left Ye Olde Athletic. Second goes to Audacy’s “Take The North” podcast hosted by Dan Wiederer and Mark Grote (15.9), and third is CHGO’s Bears podcast (10.7).
What is your favorite non-Bears Chicago sports podcast? (4,055 responses)
I’ll be honest, I don’t listen to a lot of sports podcasts in general, and I definitely don’t listen to ones about Chicago sports. I get enough Chicago sports chitchat in my job. So I threw in a bunch that I knew and offered a write-in category for the rest.
One plucky podcast took the initiative to get its name out there.
And it worked. With a bunch of write-in variations, “Locked On Cubs,” hosted by Matt Cozzi and Sam Olbur (Locked On is a chain of podcasts with local hosts), won with 23.2% of the vote. Second was “North Side Territory,” which is the Cubs podcast from The Athletic’s duo of Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma (11.5%). After that came the CHGO brand of podcasts (10.6).
Do you watch a local Chicago sportscast on the evening news? (4,400 responses)
I feel for my friends in the TV side because the business ain’t what it used to be. I will say this: Every time I’m on a show, I or my family get feedback from friends. People still watch in Chicago. But 56% of our respondents say they don’t watch a nightly sportscast, while only 25.6% say they sometimes do. We still have 9.4% who do regularly and 9.1% who say their parents or grandparents watch.
With that in mind …
Which is your favorite TV postgame show? (4,453 responses)
I think the CHSN Factor/YouTube TV is at play here because 32.1% said they don’t watch any of them. That option wasn’t included in 2022. But for those who do watch, the White Sox postgame show of Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillen won with 23.2%, beating the Marquee Sports Network show hosted by Cole Wright (18.1%).
Do you get Marquee and/or CHSN? (4,521 responses)
If you’re a Comcast customer, did you upgrade your package to get CHSN? (2,970 responses)
It’s clear the audience hasn’t fully adapted to the new RSN reality in Chicago. For the first question, 39.4% said they don’t get the channels, while 30.4% said they get both. (YouTube TV customers have to buy à la carte subscriptions to Marquee and/or CHSN.)
A whopping 84.9% said they are Comcast customers (the honor system is at play here) who didn’t upgrade their package for CHSN, with just 5.3% saying they’ll do it for the Bulls/Blackhawks season. That’s the struggle for an RSN made up of three losing teams.
Do you watch Chicago sports radio shows/podcasts on YouTube (Inc. CHGO shows, David Kaplan’s The REKAP, etc.)? (4,402 responses)
I’m curious about this one because there’s such a push to YouTube (or Twitch), but the numbers never seem that impressive to me. More than half of the respondents (52.7% ) said they never watch, but I suppose the 47.3% who do watch regularly or occasionally give credence to the strategy.
How do you consume sports on TV? (4,478 responses)
Your answers are pretty evenly split between cable subscription + streaming apps (34.7%), YouTube TV + streaming apps (32.9%) and only streaming (28.9%). In the 2022 survey, 48% said they still had a cable subscription.
Do you have a subscription to The Athletic? (4,555 responses)
Hey, good news for us as 84.2% said they are subscribers. That’s up from 81.8% in 2022.
Now onto the fill-in questions …
Who is your favorite current sports writer in Chicago? (2,764 responses)
In 2022, the winner was The Athletic’s James Fegan, who has since moved on to the Sox Machine collective. This time around, it’s The Athletic’s OG baseball writer, Sahadev Sharma, who had 10.2% of the vote, just beating out Chicago Tribune football writer Brad Biggs (9.2%) and Jahns (8.8%). Less than 40 votes made the difference between first and third here. After that come The Athletic Bears writer Kevin Fishbain (8.2%) and, because I administered the survey, me (7.8%).
Who is the best Twitter/X or BlueSky follow in Chicago sports? (2,091 responses)
As I counted and fact-checked the results, I assumed Dan “Big Cat” Katz would win with his 1.7 million followers, but I doubted the passion of the Locked On Cubs superfans. Sam Olbur, the co-host of the podcast, might only have 6,932 followers, but he easily won this category with 9.2% of the vote, more than double Katz’s 4.4%. I’m guessing Katz makes slightly more money podcasting than Olbur, so this is a win for the little guy.
I finished in third at 3.8%. Again, I did the survey, so I suppose this is a social payment.
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