CSNbbs

The Tribune is reporting that the Bulls are headed to WSCR next year, also. With 160 or so Bulls and Blackhawk games and the White Sox in the fall, that Score deal may be somewhat illusory.

Get ready Huskie fans!
Here come the 11:00 AM football starts... just like our Big Ten brothers!

niucob86 Wrote:Get ready Huskie fans!
Here come the 11:00 AM football starts... just like our Big Ten brothers!

As long as we play Saturday day games we are fine. The Sox play most of their Saturday games at night as far as I remember.

The Bulls don't start till mid/end of October as well.

Ya, most Saturday baseball games are evening cause they shoot fireworks off after (Sox home games at least). Bulls/Hawks will interfere with basketball some but they were just going to broadcast select games anyways from what I remember anyways. I bet the put us on WIND otherwise (which isn't all bad).

Bulls and Hawks are almost always at night, and Sox usually start at 6 for fireworks. Saturday afternoons should continue to be wide open for football. Huskie basketball could be another story.

There is no way that WSCR will carry both the Blackhawks and the Bulls next. The Hawks are buying time for this season and will probably do likewise next year on WMVP after the Bulls depart. Way too many conflicts. We won't be any worse off than this year. Stillhave not seen a basketball schedule yet but we are supposed to get 20 games on SCR or maybe CKG. I'll bet that at least 15 are on the Score.

sportsfan Wrote:There is no way that WSCR will carry both the Blackhawks and the Bulls next. The Hawks are buying time for this season and will probably do likewise next year on WMVP after the Bulls depart. Way too many conflicts. We won't be any worse off than this year. Stillhave not seen a basketball schedule yet but we are supposed to get 20 games on SCR or maybe CKG. I'll bet that at least 15 are on the Score.

Here's the story--I did not make it up

ON MEDIA

WMVP LOST BUNDLE ON BULLS, SOX DEALS

BY ED SHERMAN
Published October 14, 2005


WMVP-AM 1000 definitely is getting the most out of its final season airing White Sox games. The team's playoff run has provided a lovely parting gift.

But the Sox's success in the postseason doesn't make up for what has been a costly deal for the station.

Back in 1995, Jerry Reinsdorf signed a long-term contract with WMVP to carry both the Sox and Bulls games. That run is nearly complete. The Sox will be moving to WSCR-AM 670 next season and the Bulls are likely to do the same after one last season on WMVP.

The ABC-owned station's accountants won't be sorry to see the teams go. According to sources, the station lost an estimated $50 million during the tenure of the contract.

"When it's all said and done, we'll be able to point to some good things and some not so good things," WMVP general manager Jim Pastor said.

The deal has been all good and then some for Reinsdorf. Privately, he has told associates he had the best radio package in sports.

Thanks to an escalating payment scale, WMVP shelled out an estimated $4.5 million to air Sox games this year, and will pay in the neighborhood of $7.5 million for its final season with the Bulls.

Former WMVP general manager Bob Snyder said Reinsdorf pulled off what is considered "a landmark deal" in the industry.

"It was, is and always will be the most favorable radio rights deal for a team, particularly if you take in consideration the staggering losses ABC suffered," Snyder said.

Reinsdorf could not have had a more favorable environment when the deal was done in 1995. The Bulls were riding the wave of Michael Jordan's popularity and WMVP was being launched as a new sports-talker to compete with WSCR.

With a new format, the station wanted to make a splash by acquiring Bulls games. Reinsdorf, who oversees both teams, smartly bundled the Bulls with the Sox.

"For us to establish our franchise with MVP, [acquiring the rights] was a prudent part of our business strategy," said former WMVP general manager Larry Wert, now general manager of WMAQ-Ch. 5.

Wert said WMVP was profitable during its first year. Eventually, according to sources, the station pulled in as much as $7.5 million per year in ad revenue from the Bulls during their peak.

Then two things happened. ABC purchased WMVP in 1998 to have a Chicago outlet for ESPN Radio. And Jordan retired.

Chicago quickly ceased being a Bull market for WMVP. At one point, ad revenues from the team dropped to a low of $700,000 for a season. The Sox, meanwhile, had mostly average, lackluster showings, with the exception of 2000, when the team won a division title.

With its losses mounting, ABC Radio approached Reinsdorf about reworking the deal, Snyder said. Reinsdorf balked.

"I don't blame him," Snyder said. "He said, `When Michael won three more championships, did I try to hit you for more money?'"

When asked if it was a bad deal for WMVP, Wert said, "I wouldn't argue the evolution of the Bulls post-Jordan had an impact. But as my grandpa said, `No matter how thin you slice the cheese, there's always two sides to it.' I wouldn't blame all their woes on that contract."

Pastor said ABC was aware of the Bulls-Sox deals when it purchased the station.

"ABC knew what it was getting," he said. "The company looked at the opportunity in total."

Pastor said the current deal had no impact on WMVP not renewing with the Sox. Clearly, though, the station wasn't eager to jump in, even at a reduced price. WSCR's package will pay the Sox between $3 million and $3.5 million, a reduction of about $1 million.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are expected to hook up with WSCR as well. But instead of a straight rights fee contract, the Bulls are likely to take the broadcasts in-house. They will produce their own broadcasts and negotiate a deal to share ad revenue with the station that carries them.

As for WMVP, it is too late for the Sox to save the station's balance sheet on the deal. But Pastor is happy they are going out with a bang.

"I've been a Sox fan for a long time," Pastor said. "Knowing the way things have played out, I couldn't have asked for anything more this year."

On television, the White Sox continue to post strong numbers locally. Wednesday's game did a 26.7 rating and a 39 share; 1 local ratings point is worth more than 34,000 homes and share is the percentage of televisions tuned to the broadcast.

Among the teams still in the playoffs, Chicago had the second-highest local rating. St. Louis did a whopping 40 rating Wednesday; Houston pulled in a 25.4, Los Angeles an 18.5.

Nationally, Fox's combined coverage of Sox-Angels and Cardinals-Astros did a 9.1 rating and 15 share. That was off 10 percent from a year ago when they aired Game 2 of the Yankees-Red Sox series.

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esherman@tribune.com

Reinsdorf will move from WMVP to WSCR - no doubt!
The Hawks will find themselves elsewhere as there are probably 40-45 conflicts between the two every season - way too many to farm out to another station.
Like I said, NIU's situation shouldn't be any worse than this year.