Monday, February 18, 2013

Report: More Sports Could Be Future For WGN Chicago

Chicago Radio & Media is reportingTribune Broadcasting is considering keeping the ownership of WGN 720 AM Radio, but doing a dramatic format shift for the station... maybe later this year. That new format? Mostly sports.

Last month, WGN-AM and Tribune Broadcasting did multi-year renewals for the exclusive local rights to broadcast the Chicago Blackhawks hockey games and Northwestern Wildcats football and men's basketball games. The station is already in a deal to broadcast the Chicago Cubs baseball games for many years to come (although that currently unprofitable contract may have to be renegotiated in the future). These teams alone give the station a solid core audience of sports fans.

One of WGN-AM's most popular shows is its evening program "Sports Night," hosted by Chicago sports media star David Kaplan, along with Brian Noonan and Andrea Darlas. There is also a popular weekend sports talk show, "Sports Central," most often hosted by Jim Memolo and Glen Kozlowski. WGN-AM's longtime Sports Director Dave Eanet is highly regarded and can often be heard on the AM 720 airwaves now discussing sports news.

CRM sources 'insiders' saying that Tribune Broadcasting has already begun talking with experienced and successful sports talk program directors, including at least one local one.

This could also be seen as a preemptive strike against Cumulus Media's considering adding the syndicated CBS Sports Network programming (which Cumulus co-owns) to either WLS-AM in 2014 or to a FM station they would possibly purchase from another company.

WGN-AM's revenues and profits have fallen hard in the last two years -- well below the national average. There are a great many reasons why this could be, from losing key sales executives, some unpopular hosts (with both fans and advertisers), and corporate changes. Regardless of the reasons why, Tribune Broadcasting wants to correct that problem. Assuming the station is not sold, going more toward sports broadcasts and sports talk could be a fast way to fix the revenue problem. The fastest growing programming for raising revenue is sports.

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