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Something brewing in Chicago?

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Deleted User 15835

Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by Deleted User 15835 » Wed Mar 29, 2023 2:14 pm




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MWmetalhead
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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by MWmetalhead » Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:02 pm

Look for 670 The Score to add an FM simulcast, likely on 104.3, within the next several days. Possibly could occur as soon as tomorrow (Cubs season opener). The Score is the flagship for Cubs baseball.

Look for B96 to cut back on currents and add a lot of the 90's & 00's rhythmic gold heard on 104.3.

The listening public prefers 104.3 Jamz, but advertisers place greater stock in the B96 brand for whatever reason. I do think the launch of 104.3 Jamz cannibalized some of B96's ratings.

Adding an FM simulcast for the Score will allow that station to maintain its position as the dominant sports radio station in Chicago. It also could pave the way for Audacy to possibly sell the land that currently houses the 670 & 780 joint transmitter site at a later date, although I'd say that is far from a sure bet.

Adding an analog FM slot for the Score perhaps became a somewhat higher priority when ESPN 1000 snagged Chicago Bears broadcast rights away from WSCR (the Bears will be heard on ESPN 1000 later this year). Perhaps Audacy feels adding an FM simulcast for WSCR will make it that much tougher for ESPN 1000 to try to level the playing field, so to speak.

If these rumored moves are true, I think they are wise from a long-term vantage point. The launch of 104.3 Jamz pinned-in B96 to a pure CHR/Pop music position, which has made increasingly less sense for B96 over time. In many markets, the audience for CHR/Pop in an average quarter hour has shrunk dramatically in recent years. B96 is best known for its "CHUrban" lean from the late 90s through the 2000s, and now, they will be able to return to that music position. Placing WSCR on FM reduces the urge of someone like iHM, for example, to flip one of its FM sticks to Sports in the future. Finally, as noted above, such a move opens the door for Audacy to possibly sell the real estate that houses the 670 WSCR and 780 WBBM transmitter site.

Off-hand, I do not know how much acreage is associated with the WSCR / WBBM site or if it is situated in a prime location. As we all know, Audacy sold the original 780 WBBM TX site land a year or two back, resulting in AM 780 being downgraded from 50 kW to 35 kW and becoming co-located at the existing WSCR site. (Since the downgrade, AM 780's daytime signal is noticeably weaker in western Michigan.)

Kiss 103.5 has been the dominant CHR/Pop station in the ratings in that market for close to a decade now. B96 has lost that battle.



ftballfan
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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by ftballfan » Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:18 pm

If this happens in Chicago, could we see a three-way call sign change?
96.3 (currently WBBM-FM) becomes WBMX-FM (while keeping the B96 name with a format shift)
104.3 (currently WBMX-FM) becomes WSCR-FM (new simulcast of 670)
105.9 (currently WCFS-FM) becomes WBBM-FM (keeps simulcast of 780)



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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by CurlyHoward » Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:24 pm

The Score sucks and has sucked for almost 10 years, but even if some rumors are true and they're going to wind up going mostly CBS Sports Radio outside of drive time and Cubs games, they eventually HAD to put it on a FM signal finally.



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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by MWmetalhead » Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:56 pm

I do see that 670 The Score relies on CBS Sports Radio programming quite heavily during the weekend, more heavily than 97.1 The Ticket, surprisingly.

I have not listened to The Score for any meaningful length of time in probably eight years. The last time I listened was to their afternoon show at the time, when I was driving back from a business trip to Chicago.
If this happens in Chicago, could we see a three-way call sign change?
96.3 (currently WBBM-FM) becomes WBMX-FM (while keeping the B96 name with a format shift)
104.3 (currently WBMX-FM) becomes WSCR-FM (new simulcast of 670)
105.9 (currently WCFS-FM) becomes WBBM-FM (keeps simulcast of 780)
I think all of those proposed changes make a lot of sense.



Deleted User 15835

Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by Deleted User 15835 » Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:43 am

Wow... I totally overlooked that one, yeah Chicago doesn't have an FM sports station. A hypothetical move to the FM would make sense. Just for me as a radio nerd 8o , the call sign shuffle makes total sense.



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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by Ben Zonia » Thu Mar 30, 2023 7:44 pm

The difference with Detroit is that the Tigers demanded that the stations bidding for the Tigers had to be 50000 watts. In order to do that, they had to move WXYT from a 5000 watt station nondirectional Day and directional with two towers and one null to the West at Night, in the geographic center of the market, to a 50000 watt 9 tower directional antenna, far from the center of the market with many nulls day and night. In order to comply with ever changing and convoluted FCC rules, they built a "giraffe" of a facility that faded and isn't that strong in much of the market. In Sudbury and Scandinavia, the signal is often stronger than in much of the Detroit Market at Night. In order to get a decent signal in the market, they had to go to 97.1 FM, from a tower near the geographic center of the market, years before Chicago. WSCR has a good 50000 watt nondirectional signal over the Chicago Market, and only recently has it been necessary to have an FM signal. That's why this has happened so late in Chicago. 50000 watt WXYT 1270 is but a small shadow of itself when it was 5000 watts from Southfield.


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billmich88888
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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by billmich88888 » Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:47 am

1270 being much higher in the dial also plays a part into the story



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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by Marcus » Tue Apr 11, 2023 1:04 pm

I wonder if 1270 will diplex with the 950 WWJ transmitter site at some point. (taller towers = less fading)



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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by billmich88888 » Thu Apr 13, 2023 4:08 pm

the Chicago towers diplex easily in part because they are non-directional, both day and night

950 and 1270 are both directionalized all the time



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Ben Zonia
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Re: Something brewing in Chicago?

Post by Ben Zonia » Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:18 pm

Marcus wrote:
Tue Apr 11, 2023 1:04 pm
I wonder if 1270 will diplex with the 950 WWJ transmitter site at some point. (taller towers = less fading)
The towers also have to be in the right place, spacing and orientation, to create the needed pattern. Height is just one consideration. It's too bad the FCC doesn't have a "Mulligan" policy, so you could just move back to the previous facility in Southfield, as closely as possible. If they did conductivity studies, they might find that they could have more than 5000 watts nondirectional, from the geographic center of the market, close to equidistant from Downriver and the Lake St. Clair suburbs. The Ratchet Clause caused WXYT to reduce IDF 10% toward stations they already interfered with greatly, which were numerous. There was only one null in the old two tower Night pattern to the West toward WHBF/WKBF Rock Island, which is now deleted. But Elkhart and Gary, IN stations later slipped in between in the same general direction and are still Class B.


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