If I could change one thing about Chicago radio, this is what I’d do: I’d get the Bears off WBBM-AM. Not that I have anything personal against the Bears. Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I actually do. Whenever they’re on the air, the Bears utterly dominate the Sunday Brunch. When it comes to the ratings, the Bears destroy us and anybody else who happens to be on the air at the same time on a Sunday afternoon. But I guess I don’t mind that as much as when I find myself going somewhere during a Bears game and need timely traffic information.
This is how having the Bears on WBBM-AM is a serious misallocation of radio resources from a listener’s standpoint. You see, WBBM-AM is the only all-news station in Chicago. Whenever they’re airing a Bears game, the station is departing from normal programming for at least six hours. (Don’t even get me started on why they need a two hour long pre-game show.) As a listener, you’re left with few alternatives on the dial if you want an immediate shot of what you’d ordinarily be getting from WBBM. Traffic and weather, for instance. On WBBM you get traffic and weather every ten minutes but not when the station is airing the Bears. And there’s nobody else on the dial providing the information as frequently. If it’s not near the top of the hour, you won’t get it from any of the other AM stations at the moment you need it.
The Bears really should be on one of Chicago’s main radio stations to air sports programming: WGN, WSCR or WMVP. That would free up WBBM-AM to stick with what it’s always saying to us that it is: “Chicago’s All-News Station.” Frankly, I’m not so sure they ought to be calling themselves an “all-news station” when we all know they aren’t. Not as long as they’ve got the Bears.
Tags: Chicago Bears, Newsradio 780
Great points, Rick.
CBS needs to put their All News format on FM before somebody else does. Yes, the cost of starting up an All News station is high, but so’s the potential revenue. Bonneville would be a good company to do it. They already do All News on FM in Washington.
I believe Chicago would love an FM station doing a hipper, faster-paced version of WBBM — running a few less commercials per hour, no play by play sports, no old time radio, etc.
It would also force WBBM to clean up its act!
I couldn’t agree more, Rick. It is really frustrating to tune in to WBBM for traffic only to hear a Bears’ game.
Rest assured that even the Superbowl wouldn’t steal me away from the Sunday Brunch –I’ve been a fan since the WCLR days, and the Brunch is one of the most enjoyable shows on radio.