WSCR

WSCR

City	Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast area	Chicago market
Branding	670 The Score
Slogan	Chicago Sports Radio
Frequency	670 AM (kHz) (also on HD Radio) 104.3 MHz WJMK-HD2
First air date	January 2, 1992
Format	Sports talk radio
Power	50,000 watts
Class	A (clear-channel)
Facility ID	25445
Transmitter coordinates	41°56′3″N 88°4′24″W / 41.93417°N 88.07333°W (NAD27) (main tower) 41°56′7″N 88°4′27″W / 41.93528°N 88.07417°W (NAD27) (auxiliary tower)
Callsign meaning	W-SCORE
Former frequencies	820 AM (kHz) (1992-1997) 1160 AM (kHz) (1997-2000)
Affiliations	CBS Sports Radio
Owner	CBS Radio (CBS Radio East Inc.)
Sister stations	WBBM, WBBM-FM, WCFS-FM, WJMK, WUSN, WXRT part of CBS Corp. cluster with TV station WBBM-TV
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	670 The Score

WSCR (670 kHz, "670 The Score") is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois. The station is owned by CBS Radio and broadcasts a sports talk radio format. Its transmitter is located just off Army Trail Road in the suburb of Bloomingdale, and its studios are located at Two Prudential Plaza in the Loop. It is known as "The Score," and has been on the air since January 2, 1992. WSCR is currently the Chicago radio home for Chicago Cubs baseball and is the flagship station for the Chicago Cubs Radio Network, as well as Illinois Fighting Illini football and men's basketball. WSCR also carries other live sports programming from CBS Sports Radio and Westwood One, including Monday Night Football.

WSCR uses HD Radio on its AM signal 24 hours a day.^{[1][note 1]} The station's programming is also available to listeners with an HD Radio receiver via a simulcast on the HD2 subchannel of sister station WJMK.

History

The station initially signed on at 820KHz AM on January 2, 1992 as a 5,000-watt regional "daytime" station.^[2] This meant that after sundown the station had to sign off to avoid interfering with the nighttime signal of WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas, the clear-channel station on 820. WSCR moved to 1160 AM on April 7, 1997,^[3] and to its current frequency of 670 AM — a 50,000-watt clear-channel signal acquired when Viacom ceased broadcasting WMAQ's all-news format — in August 2000, and subsequently divested the 1160 frequency due to FCC limits on ownership (see WMAQ (AM) and WYLL). WSCR's studios were then located at 4949 W. Belmont Ave. on the northwest side of Chicago, in the building where sister station WXRT had long been located. (WSCR ceased broadcasting from that location in 2001.)

From 2001 to 2008, the station was the flagship for Chicago Blackhawks hockey, until their move to WGN 720 AM. WSCR was also the radio home for the Chicago White Sox baseball team from 2006 to 2015, until their departure to WLS (890) at the conclusion of the 2015 season.^[4]

The Chicago Cubs made WSCR the flagship of their radio network following the White Sox' departure to WLS. When the Cubs left WGN for CBS Radio following the 2014 season, the Cubs were heard on WBBM (780). A clause in the Cubs' deal with CBS allowed a one-time move to WSCR in the event that the White Sox left the station.^[5] The move was officially announced on November 11, 2015.^[6] The Cubs' first year on WSCR paid immediate dividends, as the team won the 2016 World Series, its first world championship in 108 years, and the first since the birth of radio and modern communications.

Before 1992, the WSCR call letters were used for a station in Hamden, Connecticut, where it was an acronym for ""Suburban Country Radio". Prior to that, they were the longtime radio call letters for a now-defunct station in Scranton, Pennsylvania at 1320, standing for "SCRanton".

Programming

The Score is known for various concepts, such as:

• The station's relationship with long-time listeners, callers, and contributors. Many supply regular contributions in the form of faxes and e-mails. Some callers and e-mailers, known as "Score Heads," use colorful monikers, such as "Formula One Boy", "Schmutzie," "9-Iron", "Stan from Bellwood," "Whitley from Ravenswood," The Gridiron Assassin," "Rusty from Stickney," "Bichiro," "LeBron James's Hummer," "Canuck Boy", "Alex from Rogers Park," "GatorBill from Champaign," "Denver Dave," "Stonecutter from the Northwest Side," "Wild Bill" RIP (known for his hoarse, out of breath voice), "Rex Kwon Do," "Mr. Mouth", "Quad Cities Pat", "Quit Playin'", "Dusty's Toothpick", "Bittersweet Jeff" from the South Side, "Dark Twain," "Agent Orange", "Mike in Milwaukee,""Tom from 'Hangover Park,'" "Northside Fro Dog" "Mike from East Chicago (RIP), "Bob in Niles" (The Movie Man) and an impersonator of The Simpsons villain "Mr. Burns."
• The station's relationship with Chicago celebrities, sports or otherwise. They include former pitcher and current Chicago White Sox announcer Steve Stone, and former Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén. Former Pro Football Weekly and current Chicago Football publisher Hub Arkush is a paid analyst.
• The station's various "radio remotes." Shows are done from various locations ranging from restaurants and bars to sports teams' training camps, mainly the Chicago Bears. At one point, former morning radio personality Mike North even did a series of remote shows from the backyards of various SCORE listeners. On every Friday, the Boers and Bernstein show hosts the Bud Light "Who Needs Two" tavern tour.
• Various "signature segments." These range from "Who Ya' Crappin'," based on Mike Ditka's response to a question posed by Terry Boers in a recorded interview, to Mully and Hanley's "Reporters' Notebook," "Bum Of The Week" and "And For That You Suck!" with Les Grobstein. Another segment is Laurence Holmes' "Hater Wednesday." The signature and other segments are now available via the "Pod Spot" menu of The Score's website.

Starting in 2005, WSCR started airing Sporting News Radio overnights (now CBS Sports Radio and limited to Saturday and Sunday a.m. and other fill-in time slots). It also began airing the Dan Patrick show on a delayed basis in 2007. Now overnights are covered by Les Grobstein. WSCR also airs CBS Sports Radio on its website whenever it airs the NFL on Westwood One or the Cubs, which do not allow live streaming.

The station is the exclusive Chicago radio outlet for Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball and football along with Chicago Cubs baseball, Westwood One's coverage of NFL football, and pre/postgame shows.

Twice an hour, there are minute-long "Score Board Updates" by reporters with game results and highlighted stories of the day. Many producers are on-air contributors and fill in when other hosts have days off. Other reporters include Julie Dicaro, Zach Zaidman, David Schuster, Nick Shepkowski, and Jay Zawaski.

Weekends outside of play-by-play constitute of local shows by Mike Esposito, Steve Rosenbloom and Mark Grote (Rosenbloom and Grote host a show known as the Wake & Bake show), Matt Rodewald, and "White Sox Weekly" with Chris Rongey, as well as syndicated shows from CBS Sports Radio.

Broadcast facilities

The Score has had three primary broadcast facilities in its years on the air. The first was at 4949 West Belmont Avenue on the Northwest Side of Chicago. The second, with them moving to the 670 frequency after the merger of Westinghouse and CBS Radio, was at the NBC Tower. Currently the station is located in Two Prudential Plaza, along with several other CBS-owned stations.

Notes

1. Some AM stations use HD Radio only during daytime hours, per Barry McLarnon's AM IBOC page (see references below).

References

1. McLarnon, Barry (2016-04-18). "AM IBOC Stations on the Air". Retrieved 2016-06-24.
2. "Street Talk", Radio & Records, January 3, 1992. p. 20. Accessed February 4, 2016.
3. https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4394849.html
4. Feder, Robert (June 23, 2015). "WLS wins White Sox radio rights". robertfeder.com. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
5. Neil (November 11, 2015). "Cubs Officially Move Radio Broadcasts to 670 The Score". chicagocubsonline.com. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.

External links

• 670 The Score
• A Fan Page for the Score 670 AM
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WSCR
• Radio-Locator Information on WSCR
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WSCR