Last week Lewis Lazare — or “Clueless” Lazare, as Bruce Wolf has come to refer to him — speculated in his Sun-Times column that CBS Radio’s WSCR-AM The Score might soon be heard on 105.9-FM, the current home of CBS’ Fresh FM format. Then, today, Ed Sherman, writing on his blog at Crain’s website, suggests that the market might be ready for a third sports talk station and that the FM band might be the likeliest place for such a station to launch. Both ideas seems a little far-fetched, but before dismissing them completely, they are worth examining more closely.

Lazare has continually promoted this idea of “The Score” being heard on one of CBS’ FM sticks, if not 105.9 then 104.3, the current home of JACK-FM. The problem with this idea is that it simply doesn’t make any sense. What advantage would CBS gain by putting a station already transmitting on a 50kw AM license that can be heard throughout the Midwest on an FM stick with a considerably smaller coverage pattern? The quick answer always seems to be demographics. Most of the popular wisdom suggests that the AM band skews much older than the FM band. Advertisers like younger listeners with disposable income, so the FM stations are more desirable. However, both Lazare and Sherman point out that “The Score” and ESPN 1000 WMVP-AM both do very well in the highly coveted 25-54 year-old demographic.

Lazare:

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.

Sherman:

In the fall ratings book, both stations were tied for first in men ages 25-54, the demographic that means the most to advertisers on sports talk radio.

Would “The Score” really pick up that many younger listeners if they were heard on the FM band? It seems like they are doing fairly well with the old AM stick.

CBS also likes offering demographic cells to advertisers. While Fresh FM hasn’t done phenomenal numbers yet, it offers advertisers a nice supplemental audience to the already strong US99. Sacrificing that marketing opportunity to “The Score” seems like a strange move. In 2008, “The Score” billed $15.7 million in a down economy, putting it ahead of “The Loop”, Q101, and JACK-FM, and just behind “The Drive” and KISS-FM. The sports talker is hardly struggling.

Additionally, CBS just brought int veteran programmer Bill Gamble to run Fresh FM. Gamble’s track record has generally been pretty good, so it would be unlikely that CBS would pull the plug on the format without giving Gamble time to do his magic.

There does not appear to be a compelling argument for CBS to do anything with “The Score” other than leave it alone on the AM band.

What about the idea of a third sports talker in Chicago?

This idea seems a little more possible, but it’s unlikely that it would resemble either “The Score” or ESPN 1000. Sherman points out that there are some major markets that can sustain more than two sports talk stations, but in the case of Dallas’ KTCK-FM “The Ticket”, the station is a hybrid sports talk / hot talk station, that is less about the X’s and O’s the big game and more about DD’s, if you get the drift. It’s possible that a creative programmer in Chicago could make it work, but so-called “hot talk” in Chicago has a mixed recent history.

There’s also the issue of play-by-play sports availability. Much of the revenue lifeblood of sports talk stations comes from this type of programming. WGN-AM has already locked down the Cubs and Blackhawks for the foreseeable future. The Bears aren’t leaving WBBM-AM anytime soon. The White Sox seem content on “The Score”. The Bulls already had a brief stint on WCKG-FM a few season ago, before the station flipped. There may be some college teams looking for new homes, but those are hardly compelling selling points for a new station.

To play armchair programmer, what about a station that features some combination of  Dan Patrick, Steve Dahl, Dennis Miller, Bruce Wolf, Matt Abbatacola, and Bill Leff? There would be plenty of sports, but there would also be a lot of talk about a lot of other topics that appeal to men —pop culture, politics, women, etc. The talent seems to be out there. Is there a broadcast company willing to take the risk?