Twenty-one years ago, when the Chicago Bears earned a berth in their first Super Bowl, the city had no full-time sports talk radio stations. A generation later, as the Bears return to the big game, Chicago boasts two full-time sports talk stations. While neither of the city’s sports talkers are perfect, it’s truly rare for a city to sustain one — let alone two — sports talk stations. WSCR-AM “The Score” is celebrating its 15 year on the air this year. It’s even more remarkable that neither WSCR or rival WMVP-AM carries the play-by-play coverage of the city’s two most popular franchises — the Bears and the Cubs.

The Business Ledger takes a look at the state of Chicago sports talk radio:

Professional sports have become big business, and sports talk radio is a major part of that business. Sports talk encourages conversations about the local teams—even when they aren’t playing—and helps sustain interest. Teams often allow broadcasts of their games to be carried on sports radio stations, even though the on-air talent at the same station may be critical of the team’s performance the next morning.

“Teams seem to have a love-hate relationship (with sports-talk radio),” WSCR-AM afternoon co-host Dan Bernstein said. “It allows fans right away to react. It gives people an outlet.”

Bernstein, who co-hosts his show with former Chicago Sun-Times and Daily Herald sportswriter Terry Boers, added that fans feel almost as if they are talking to their buddies in the bar.

“It’s where men hang out,” said Jeff Schwartz, former WMVP and WSCR director of operations.