Source: tribune sox close deal with wscr-am

[chisox2334]

If anyone can find article online post it.

[chisox2334]

WMVP-AM 1000 is the White Sox's flagship station, but you wouldn't have known it by listening to sports radio Tuesday morning.

 

Hawk Harrelson and Carlton Fisk were guests on Mike North's morning show on WSCR-AM 670. Later in the day, Steve Stone talked about the Sox on the station's "Boers and Bernstein" show.

 

Consider it part of an emerging trend.

 

Sources said Tuesday that the Sox were closing in on a deal with WSCR that, if completed, would end the team's 10-year relationship with WMVP after this season.

 

A key moment in the bargaining will come Wednesday, when several WSCR executives are scheduled to meet with Brooks Boyer at U.S. Cellular Field.

 

Boyer has been the Sox's director of marketing for just one year, but the former Notre Dame basketball player already has hired a new ad agency, altered the players' pregame introductions and changed the ballpark by adding premium seats behind home plate and a fun zone for kids.

 

Now Boyer is poised to put an even greater stamp on the team.

 

Boyer didn't return a phone call Tuesday, and Sox spokesman Scott Reifert said the team would not comment.

 

Radio executives were equally tight-lipped, adhering to Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf's desire to keep negotiations out of the newspapers.

 

The Sox's expiring deal with WMVP paid the club about $5 million per season, but that contract was signed before ABC took ownership of the station.

 

The new deal likely will pay the team no more than $2.5 million per season.

 

Sources said Reinsdorf has only one serious concern about moving the Sox to WSCR: It would isolate the Bulls on WMVP through the 2006-07 season. So Reinsdorf is trying to package both teams on WSCR.

 

Sources said Boyer, meanwhile, sees many advantages to leaving WMVP, which relies on ESPN programming such as the "Mike and Mike Show" (5 a.m.-9 a.m.) and Dan Patrick (noon-3 p.m.).

 

WSCR's entire focus is Chicago, so the hosts could theoretically talk about the Sox all day.

 

Reinsdorf also has a close relationship with both North and the Score's new program director, Mitch Rosen.

 

Meanwhile, Reinsdorf appears to have trust issues with WMVP after his testy interview Monday with midday personalities Marc Silverman and Carmen DeFalco.

 

Reinsdorf ended the Q&A by saying: "I hope you enjoyed it because I won't be on with you guys again. You conducted this interview under false pretenses, and you won't get another bite at the apple."

 

The false pretenses refer to Reinsdorf's contention that he only agreed to answer questions about the Sox. But Silverman and DeFalco, showing good news judgment, also asked about baseball's steroids policy, Eddy Curry's heart condition and Bulls coach Scott Skiles' prospects for a contract extension.

 

Said Reifert, speaking for Reinsdorf: "We thought they wanted to promote Opening Day on our flagship station. If they had come to us and said: We'd like to get the chairman on to talk about Curry, Skiles, this and that, Jerry would have decided whether or not he wanted to do it."

 

Although a WMVP producer later apologized to the Sox in an apparent effort to appease Reinsdorf, Silverman and DeFalco were adamant that they had not been told that certain topics were off limits.

 

Silverman addressed the issue at the end of Tuesday's three-hour show, saying: "The first thing I want to get off my chest is that we respect Jerry Reinsdorf. There is no vendetta. He was offered to us on this show and we said, of course we'd like to interview the guy.

 

"There were no parameters set up. Our producers were not told he was coming on exclusively to talk about Opening Day. We just wanted to ask questions that every Sox and Bulls fan would want answered on their teams."

 

Silverman pointed out that Reinsdorf, who generally shuns the print media, was a "tough get," meaning WMVP might not have had another opportunity to ask questions about the Bulls.

 

DeFalco, who has hosted Bulls pre- and postgame shows for five seasons, said on the air that: "We didn't mean to have a negative tone or be malicious. We didn't come up with a list of questions to say: `Let's stir the pot.'"

 

What's interesting is that Reinsdorf was asked similar questions about Curry and Skiles a month ago in an interview with North--and Reinsdorf didn't flinch.

 

But Reinsdorf and North are tight. They'll become business partners of sorts if WSCR wins the Sox's broadcast rights.

[KWs OK for Me]

I listened to that interview on Monday. Reinsdorf really was quite a prick! They asked the questions they said in this article but definately by no means were they trying to be malicious or get under Reinsdorf's skin. Reinsdorf became incredibly annoyed and in all honesty acted like a little kid who didn't get his way.

[EvilJester99]

Thats actually good news because as it stands with WMVP you can't hear them as it gets later due to them have a directional antenna and have to power down as it gets later...you head west and you can't hear s***...

[KWs OK for Me]

Yea I can hardly get AM1000 past 8 in the Western Suburbs, but I can get WSCR in Madison. That'd be great. I welcome the switch.

[chisox2334]

I had feeling reinsdorf did it on purpose knowing that this deal with score would happened soon. Reinsdorf left wmvp 1000 not on good terms and he proved it more with that interview and if this deal gets done I say that was his parting with am 1000.

[LosMediasBlancas]

I wouldn't mind the Sox being on the Score.........as long as North is gone from there.

[AngelasDaddy0427]

I don't blame Reinsdorf for becoming upset. I mean he's on there to try to promote his BASEBALL team and they are asking him questions about basketball and steroids. IMO it makes it in a way make the Sox opening day meaningless compared to the Bulls and makes the organization on a whole look bad.

[ZeroHour]

I wouldn't mind the Sox being on the Score.........as long as North is gone from there.

 

North would become a Sox fan again if they went to WSCR. You just watch. That guy changes his team about every 3 months it seems.

[Kogs35]

id rather see the sox on wgn before wscr. those guys r grumpy old s*** who think they know everything when they know nothing. but in the end id rather see the sox stay on mvp and i can see mvp kissing uncle jerry ass for the next few weeks so they have a cahnce to keep em. i hope they stay on mvp

[SAVVY18]

Another plus is that alot of the games will force cub lover Murph off the air. Throughout the summer, he will have to constantly mention the White Sox. That will just kill him and can't help but limit the spread of cub propaganda by him.

[retro1983hat]

The Sox will only get $2.5 million for their radio rights? Hmm, seems low.

 

Does anyone know what the Sox TV deal nets the team? I thought it was a pretty penny. At least in the upper third of the league.

 

Perhaps the real numbers are not known since they own a portion of the Comcast channel.

[Wise Master Buehrle]

Yeah I hate it when I'm at my lakehouse out in Wilmington listening to the Sox game and then 8 o'clock rolls around and boom, no more game.

 

Pisses me off so much.

[TheBigHurt35]

Thats actually good news because as it stands with WMVP you can't hear them as it gets later due to them have a directional antenna and have to power down as it gets later...you head west and you can't hear s***...

 

I don't know much about radio, but is that the norm? If not, why wouldn't they fix it? Any why do they have to power it down at night?

[EvilJester99]

From what I understand is at a certain frequencies they are required to power down due to FCC regulations... why I don't really know. Anyone else know more feel free to fill in what you can.

[Heads22]

I can get the Score here quite often but never WMVP cause the local station here is 950 and bleeds over. I like.

[SpringfieldFan]

What, no Sox games on AM1000 next year? Dang, I have always enjoyed my Sox games interspersed with static and spanish talk...

 

SFF

[Rex Kickass]

I always thought AM 1000 (WCFL,WLUP,WMVP) was a nondirectional 50K clear channel signal, but apparently it isn't. I do know that 670 WSCR (formerly the mighty MAQ) is a nondirectional. It's a better, more powerful signal because it doesn't need to protect anyone near it. (There's a 660 in NY and nothing west of it between Chicago and the Rockies) and 1000 may have to protect itself against stations in Canada and Mexico at night.

[danman31]

Damn, this sucks. It's better for people further from Chicago, but I very much dislike the Score. I can't stand listening to the Chicago media, all they do is talk Cubs. 1000 was a Sox haven, so much for that.