5-23-13
What will it take to bring WGN back to its glory days? It's one thing when you're a recognized sports station carrying play-by-play of a winning major market sports franchise. It's another when you're a hybrid news and sports station and one of the teams you carry is as consistently awful as the Chicago Cubs (currently 18 wins 28 loses in last place).
De Castro's answer to the whether or not the sports/news hybrid format can succeed was "I don't know." Perhaps that non-answer says a lot. On former Chicago Market Manager says over time WGN has been beaten down.
Most researchers agree play-by-play is not very PPM friendly. When you add the dismal performance of a team like the Cubs, that play so many day games, on an aging frequency on a station trying to successfully execute both news/talk and sports in a major market you have to wonder if de Castro will look to make major programming changes to drive revenue and "grow the audience younger." Here's the perspective from a former Chicago market manager.
"While the call letters remain iconic, the brand has lost all of its luster. It no longer stands for anything. None of the talent generate water-cooler talk, they all lack relevance to today's Chicago listeners. In neither morning nor afternoon drive do they do a good job of providing information when big news breaks #which used to be a WAGON hallmark#.The station really doesn't even have an identifiable logo #such as WLS's#, nor a single positioning slogan. The incredible erosion of the Cubs' on-field product and the Cubs brand means that the team does not currently drive passion for WGN. Because of the over-all station ratings decline and the eroding level of sponsor interest in the Cubs, WGN salespeople are meeting more resistance selling the station and are earning less- resulting in a steady stream of AE's leaving. Chicago is a market where media buyers tend to buy two AM stations for any client: WBBM-AM is a given, and for the past two years, sports-talk WSCR has replaced WGN as the other. They need to find a way to make the station compelling to media buyers who still spend 60% of all market revenue."
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