Courtesy Chicago Sun Times

(January 22, 2010) The buzz about Chicago getting a major FM sports radio outlet is building again. We first heard rumors several months ago that CBS Radio might opt to simulcast its hugely popular sports talk WSCR-AM (670) on one of its FM outlets here. The most likely candidate to provide that spot is adult contemporary WCFS-FM (105.9) which, unlike WSCR, hasn't exactly been on fire in the ratings. Local CBS Radio executives downplayed the notion at the time, but other savvy Chicago radio observers insisted it was only a matter of time.

Now with the news this week that CBS Radio will introduce an all-sports format next month on its FM rock outlet in sports-hungry Pittsburgh, sources are suggesting once more that CBS Radio will -- sometime this year -- move to put sports on an FM station in equally sports-hungry Chicago. CBS Radio also has sports talk on FM outlets in Detroit; Dallas; Washington, D.C., and Boston, so it's a growing trend within the large radio chain.

WSCR sources continue to say nothing is on the drawing board about such a move at this very moment, but the resistance to such a game plan seems less strong than it was just a few months ago. Certainly, WSCR is a force in the ratings, and putting the product on an FM outlet would give fans of the station a high-quality listening experience. In the key 25- to 54-year-old adult demo Monday through Sunday, WSCR was in a tie for ninth place in the most recent December Arbitron ratings, while WCFS could do no better than a tie for 25th place. Among males 25 to 54 in December, WSCR was the top-ranked radio station in the Chicago market.

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