Blackhawks' Time-Buy Agreement With WSCR-AM Examined

Blackhawks Will Continue With WSCR-AM

While the Blackhawks announced recently that for a seventh consecutive year their games will air on WSCR-AM next season, the "benefits of continuity were minimized by the niggling detail that the Hawks will be paying the Score to air the games, not vice versa," according to Ted Cox of the IL DAILY HERALD. Cox: "The Hawks are in a trough where fan appeal is concerned, and their failure to make the playoffs last season did nothing to pull them out of it. Fan interest was down, and — given today's media consolidation — so were available radio suitors." WCKG-FM had "no interest in ... bidding against its Infinity-Viacom sibling, The Score. The same went for [WBBM-AM], the Bears' radio flagship. Besides conflicts with the Cubs in the spring (not likely in October), [WGN-AM] wouldn't want to disrupt its already successful evening programming." Also, WMVP-AM was "already laboring under the Bulls and wasn't interested in taking on another charity case." Blackhawks Exec Dir of Marketing Jim Sofranko, on whether the team will break even on the deal by selling ads: "It's too early to tell" (IL DAILY HERALD, 7/4).