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?

These are strange days in the radio business. At one time in the not-too-distant past, all of these broadcasters were considered franchise players on their respective radio stations. All were well-compensated and commanded the attention of substantial audiences. Not anymore.

Mike North’s contract expired and was not renewed. Spike O’Dell decided to talk away from arguably one of radio’s best gigs because he no longer wanted the job. Eddie & JoBo ended their nearly two decade run on B96 a few weeks ago after their numbers plummeted. CBS is paying the duo to sit out. Steve Dahl is being paid several million dollars to also sit out after CBS decided they didn’t have a place for a hugely talented legend of Chicago radio.

Consider that fact for a moment. CBS would rather pay Steve Dahl to stay off the air than use him somewhere. CBS is, in effect, saying that they don’t know how to use Steve Dahl. On all of their Chicago stations, they don’t see any situation in which Steve Dahl would bring any benefit.

In a business run by managers who clearly don’t understand radio and who have run the stock prices of their respective companies into the ground, Steve Dahl has been exiled for the next couple of years because the CBS Radio Chicago boss Rod Zimmerman thinks that his radio stations will perform better without Steve than with him.

This should be a wake-up call to the other high-priced broadcasters in Chicago. If Steve Dahl can be benched, so can you. The general manager chairs are being filled by incompetent, uncreative bean counters whose lack of management acumen is being manifested by cannibalizing what was once the nation’s top radio market.

The city that once played host to the likes of Larry Lujack, Wally Phillips, and John Landecker is fast becoming a vast wasteland. Now, too much of what fills the airwaves is syndicated or voice-tracked garbage, originating from places like New York or Los Angeles.

When an untalented hack like Erich “Mancow” Muller can bully his way into a shift on WLS by striking a shady revenue sharing deal, you know the situation is bleak. When Westwood One’s Metro/Shadow news and traffic service guts their Chicago operation down to a bare bones operation, there’s not much hope. When talented hands like Garry Meier, John Landecker, Tommy Edwards, and now Steve Dahl are on the outside looking in, it’s a sad day.

2009 could be a very tough year for Chicago radio.

From the NY Daily News:

While an hour sounds like a lot of time compared to the couple of minutes into which McCord usually condenses the news, he says this won’t be a PBS kind of show with long reports.

“I think folks want to hear what’s going on in a concise manner when they wake up,” he says. “We’ll have the major stories, sports, traffic reports, business. Listeners will know what to expect.”

What’s most intriguing about this situation is that a similar scenario would be almost ideal for WLS-AM. Pat Cassidy joined WLS this past summer under the guise that he would be hosting a talk show. That has never materialized, and increasingly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Mancow is locked into the 9-11a slot, and while he’s done well with Cassidy at times, the pairing doesn’t appear to have a long-term future. WLS just re-signed Don Wade & Roma to another contract — a contract that will take Don Wade to his 70th birthday. From all accounts, Don has no interest in sharing his stage with Cassidy.

However, it’s clear that the Wades aren’t as spry and eager as they used to be. There are some days when they literally phone in the show from their condo in Miami, and then there are some days when it just sounds like they’re phoning it in. Their PPM numbers have been strong, but it’s clear that that the feistiness once associated with Don Wade has ebbed mightily as he’s aged.

Perhaps WLS management would see an opportnunity to ease the burden on its morning show as the team enters its final lap. Might it make sense to scale back the Don Wade & Roma show to a three-hour gabfest, running from 6-9am? That would allow Pat Cassidy to slide back into a familiar role as he could then anchor an hourlong newscast, competing directly with his former colleagues at WBBM-AM. It would accentuate Pat’s greatest strength while at the same time decreasing Don Wade & Roma’s exposure to their biggest liability. Pat could then anchor the news for the duration of the broadcast.

Clearly, the model for this is WABC and Imus. But the biggest impediment may be Don Wade’s ego. After all, the reports we’ve heard are that Wade vetoed Cassidy’s involvement in morning drive when he was hired in August. Could Don Wade see the value in shrinking his role in order to bolster the station? In the long run, would Don Wade be stronger and more focused if he only had three hours to fill rather than four? Could Pat Cassidy find satisfaction in returning to a role he spent so many years perfecting? These are the kinds of questions that WLS GM Mike Fowler and PD Kipper McGee should be considering as the station moves forward. We’ll be expecting a check for our consulting services.

The first thing that’s noticeable as you listen to Muller on WLS is how much better suited Pat Cassidy is to the format than Muller is. Cassidy brings a wealth of experience as a journalist from his days at WBBM-AM and WMAQ-AM. He not only grasps the depth of issues, but he also has a much better command of the details than Muller does. There are too many occasions when Muller struggles to remember simple details, like the names of the principals in a story or their relationships to each other. Cassidy often acts as a safety valve for Muller, bailing him out when it’s clear that he’s lost in a topic.

Muller also seems to lack basic discipline when it comes to talking about nearly anything. His attention span is minuscule, as he jumps from topic to topic, without much concern for nuance or genuine discussion. Again, it’s the staid and steady presence of Pat Cassidy that often seems to lend the show any credibility. In a recent show, Muller was whipping around from topic to topic, at one point ostensibly talking about Barack Obama’s decision to send his daughters to private school in DC. As he tried to work up his disgust at this decision, out of nowhere, he brings a guest into the show by introducing him simply as, “Wayne Allen Root — the libertarian.” There was no set-up as to why he was a relevant guest or what expertise he brought to the topic. Rather, it appeared that his inclusion in the discussion was dictated only by his personal relationship with Muller.

Muller’s show moves at a breakneck pace, with very little context or explanation. And then there’s Muller himself. It’s not clear if he truly believes any of what he’s saying or if he’s just trying to emulate what he thinks a conservative talk radio host is supposed to sound like. You’re hard-pressed to find much original thought or intellectual curiosity from Muller. His apparent lack of authenticity is maddening at times.

It’s not clear who WLS thinks Muller appeals to. The core right-leaning, traditional talk audience likely sees through his act. When you’ve got Limbaugh and Hannity on the same station, it’s hard to sell Mancow as the off-brand. At the same time, the audience that followed Muller at Q101 have either matured out of his gimmick or are left wondering when the strippers are going to show up.

In the end, it’s clear that Mancow’s presence on WLS is something of an arranged marriage. The persistent rumor is that Muller and his syndicator, Talk Radio Network, struck some kind of revenue sharing deal with WLS. This arrangement allows WLS to dump the salary of Jerry Agar, pay Muller nothing, while splitting any revenue generated from the program.

We’ll soon get an early indication of how well this experiment has done from an Aribtron perspective, as a new batch of PPM data is due next week.

Listen to the first moments of Mancow on WLS here:

And hear Mancow talk with Rush Limbaugh here:

The signs all seemed to be pointing to the certainty of such a move. After all, WLS PD Kipper McGee came to WLS from Talk Radio Network, where he helped launch the national syndication of Mancow Muller. At the same time, WLS was facing the prospect of having to replace its heritage morning show of Don Wade & Roma, who have held sway in morning drive for nearly two decades.

When Mancow was bounced from Q101, he spent several months using studios at WLS to originate his syndicated show for TRN, allowing him to rub elbows with McGee and WLS management on a daily basis. Mancow eventually relocated his show to his own studios in Lincoln Park.

Then, Mike Fowler took over the GM post at WLS-AM after John Gallagher departed earlier this year. Fowler was running the show at WRCX-FM 103.5 during Mancow’s stint there in the mid 90’s. It almost seemed inevitable that Mancow would be joining the Big 89.

Meanwhile, the 9-11am slot on WLS had become something of a wasteland. Jay Marvin and Eileen Byrne were co-hosting the shift until the end of 2004 when Marvin was let go. Byrne struggled in her role as a solo host though 2005 and into 2006. Jerry Agar, who had been pulling shifts on WABC-AM in New York picked up a weekend shift at WLS, largely because of his relationship with then-ABC Radio programming guru Phil Boyce. It was only a matter of time before Byrne was moved out and Agar was moved in.

Agar, a native Canadian who last made his home in Kansas City, never really caught on as authentically Chicago. His style seemed pretentious at times, and he never seemed to find a voice for himself on WLS.

Just a few weeks ago, Phil Boyce left WABC and Citadel, perhaps a symbolic end to Agar’s favored status within the company. Reports indicate that with Mancow taking over next week, Agar will ride out his contract, filling in when needed on WLS until his deal expires. At that point, expect him to relocate to another market.

That leaves us with Mancow Muller hosting a two-hour shift on one of the nation’s top talk stations. What is WLS thinking?

The answer may be that they aren’t thinking at all, or at the very least, the right hand and the left hand don’t know what the other is doing. We’ve been told that WLS PD Kipper McGee wasn’t even told of the deal with Mancow and had to read it for himself in the Tribune. If that’s the case, it may mark the second time in recent memory that WLS had made a personnel move without consulting the PD.

Earlier this summer, WLS hired Pat Cassidy from WBBM-AM, presumably to be a regular part of a talk show. However, several months into his tenure, Cassidy has bounced around to various dayparts, without making much of a lasting impact doing anything.

Mancow brings a very shady list of credentials to WLS. He’s made his name as a poor man’s Howard Stern. His repetoire consists of the typical shock jock bag of tricks, mainly gimmicks, stunts, and off-color bits that rely on whacky characters and salacious situations to get over.

Is this what WLS thinks its audience wants?

But wait, crows Mike Fowler. We’ll see a different Mancow, he claims:

“Mancow was always intelligent, but he was always split,” Fowler said, referring to being both topical and racy. “[The new show is] not going to have any of the old Mancow-type 18-to-34-year-old elements. It’s going to be broad” in its appeal.

He went on to compare Muller to two other hosts, who just happen to air on WLS:

“It’s going to bring a lot of energy to the station,” Fowler said. “It’s a younger version of Rush [Limbaugh], with some Roe Conn thrown in.”

If I’m Limbaugh and Conn, I’m filing a defamation of character suit against Fowler for even being included in the same breath as Mancow.

Mancow is going to be a failure on WLS. There are some very simple reasons for this. Chief among them is that Mancow is not a talk show host. He’s just not. He doesn’t have the discipline or intellectual curiosity to examine and exploit stories in the way that a Limbaugh or a Conn can. Mancow has a famously short attention span on the air. The times he’s filled in on WLS or for TRN’s talk show hosts, he’s sounded erratic and unfocused. He’s a mile wide and two inches deep.

In addition, the core audience of WLS expects a fairly consistent diet of conservative-leaning talk radio. Don Wade, Jerry Agar, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin all fit that bill. Roe Conn is talented enough to pull off what he does without offending the core audience because he’s incredibly smart.

Mancow is neither smart nor is he authentically conservative. He describes himself as “libertarian”, which means almost nothing to talk radio audiences.

The success that Mancow enjoyed at Q101 came from his ability to relate to the 18-34 demo who were too young to appreciate Johnny B or Steve Dahl but who had graduated from Eddie and Jo Bo. Those people are now in the 25-54 demo and are looking for something else.

The bottom line is that Mancow simply has no track record of success as a talk host, and yet, he’s been signed to a two-year deal on a heritage, major market talk station.

While this should be disturbing enough for WLS listeners, what’s worse is the fact that it sounds like WLS PD Kipper McGee has been completely frozen out of any substative programming decisions at the station.

It makes me wonder if Don Wade & Roma, who are weeks away from the end of their contracts are re-considering their place on a radio station that increasingly looks less and less like the place they walked into more than 20 years ago.

Rosenthal acknowledges that he may be late to the party, writing, “This just in: Blogs have officially gone out of style. I finally got one.”

Regardless of Rosenthal’s motivation or relative tardiness, I welcome him to the fray.