Courtesy Chicago Sun Times

(February 25, 2010) The January Arbitron radio ratings book released Wednesday has perfectly set the stage for what most in the Chicago radio business are convinced will be the next big move here: an FM sports station for a sports-obsessed city.

The smart money is betting that CBS Radio Chicago will move -- sooner rather than later -- to simulcast it's hugely popular sports talk WSCR-AM (670) on one of the FM stations in the CBS Radio Chicago cluster. The most likely candidate would appear to be adult contemporary WCFS-FM (105.9), which was still languishing in 26th place overall among adults 25 to 54 in the January ratings book. In recent weeks an aggressive ad campaign to draw listeners to WCFS hasn't succeeded in boosting the station's ratings in that key audience demo.

Most observers believe CBS Radio will act quickly to put sports on the FM dial to pre-empt any chance of a competing radio company making such a move first. There has been speculation Emmis Communications might want to convert one of its FM stations to a sports outlet, but that would be a much more costly effort for Emmis than the WSCR simulcast would be for CBS Radio.

"There's nothing about a simulcast on the drawing boards today," said one well-placed CBS Radio Chicago source, suggesting the situation is fluid. Another radio station's executive, who thinks the simulcast will come, said CBS could make it happen "in 36 hours once they decide to do it."

WSCR was 10th overall among adults 25 to 54 years old in the January ratings book, and in first place in both morning and afternoon drive among males 25 to 54 -- the station's core audience. These strong results came despite a relatively slow month for sports in Chicago. WSCR may want to have a simulcast plan in place for the start of the Chicago White Sox season in April.

Elsewhere in the January ratings book, Bonneville's hot adult contemporary WTMX-FM (101.9) moved back into the top spot overall in the 25 to 54 adult rankings, and with a commanding share, WTMX's No. 1-ranked morning drive team of Eric Ferguson and Kathy Hart carved out a huge lead over their nearest competitor, Eddie Sotelo on Hispanic music station WOJO-FM (105.1).

Another surprise was Clear Channel Radio's adult contemporary WLIT-FM (93.9), which did not plummet nearly as far as some observers might have expected from the No. 1 spot it held in the holiday Arbitron book. In January, WLIT was tied for 7th place overall among adults 25 to 54, suggesting a chunk of listeners who sampled the station over the holidays may have decided to stick with it. "We've worked really hard at improving WLIT over the past year," said Clear Channel Chicago programming honcho Tony Coles, pointing to the new morning drive show "Valentine in the Morning" and more commercial-free music segments as two things he thinks have helped grow WLIT's audience .

It's going to take a couple more books to determine whether the changes at Citadel Broadcasting's news/talk WLS-AM (890) will boost that station from its disappointing 24th ranking in the January book in the 25 to 54 demo -- a ranking it shares with arch-competitor Tribune Co.-owned WGN-AM (720). WGN-AM is likely to get a boost from its Chicago Cubs broadcasts starting in April. But WLS-AM is still waiting for its star afternoon drive host Roe Conn to get back on track. His show was ranked 23rd in January among adults 25 to 54.

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