WSCR

This article is about the WSCR Radio Station. For another radio station that operated at this frequency, see WMAQ (AM).

WSCR

City of license	Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast area	Chicagoland / Northern Illinois
Branding	The Score
Slogan	Chicago Sports Radio
Frequency	670 AM (kHz) (also on HD Radio)
First air date	1992
Format	Sports talk radio
Power	50,000 watts
Class	A
Facility ID	25445
Transmitter coordinates	41°56′2.9″N 88°4′22.6″W
Callsign meaning	W-SCORE
Affiliations	Fox Sports Radio Yahoo! Sports Radio
Owner	CBS Radio (CBS Radio East, Inc.)
Sister stations	WBBM-AM, WBBM-FM, WCFS-FM, WJMK, WUSN, WXRT part of CBS Corp. cluster with TV station WBBM-TV
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	670thescore.com

WSCR is a 50,000 watt Clear-channel station sports radio station in the Chicago, Illinois radio market. The station is owned by CBS Radio and transmits on 670 kHz on the AM dial. Its transmitter is located just off Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale, which is a western suburb of Chicago. It is known as "The Score," and has been on the air since 1992. WSCR is currently the radio flagship home for Chicago White Sox baseball as well as Northern Illinois University Huskies football and men's basketball, and DePaul University basketball. WSCR also carries other live sports programming from Westwood One, including Monday Night Football. From 2001-2008, the station was the flagship for Chicago Blackhawks hockey, until their move to WGN (720) and the Illinois Fighting Illini sports broadcasts from its establishment until 2005. The Illini have since moved to WIND (AM).

History

The station initially signing on at 820-AM in 1992 as a non-clear channel station only. This meant that after sundown the station had to sign off. It moved to 1160-AM in 1997, and to its current dial position 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).

Before 1992, the WSCR call letters were on 1220 in Hamden CT. Prior to that they were the longtime radio call letters for a station in Scranton, Pennsylvania at 1320-AM.

Programming

The Score is known for various concepts, such as:

• The station's relationship with long-time listeners. Many of the original listeners from the station's inception remain dedicated listeners, callers, and contributors. Many supply regular contributions to the station in the form of faxes and e-mails. Some callers and e-mailers, known as "Score Heads," use colorful monikers, such as "Schmutzie," "Stan from Bellwood," "Whitley from Ravenswood," The Gridiron Assassin," "Rusty from Stickney," "Bichiro," "LeBron James's Hummer," "Alex from Rogers Park," "GatorBill from Champaign", "Denver Dave", "Stonecutter from the Northwest Side," "Wild Bill" (known for his hoarse, out of breath voice), the always hilarious "Rex Kwon Do," "Mr. Mouth", "Quad Cities Pat", "Quit Playin'", "Dark Twain","Mike in Milwaukee","Tom from 'Hangover Park'" "Northside Fro Dog", and an impersonator of The Simpsons villain "Mr. Burns."

• The station's relationship with many well-known Chicago celebrities, sports or otherwise. Some of these include former pitcher and current Chicago White Sox announcer Steve Stone, and former Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén; some, such as Stone and Pro Football Weekly publisher and former Chicago Bears announcer Hub Arkush, are paid expert analysts. Ozzie Guillén Jr. conducts a Spanish language baseball program.

• The station's various "radio remotes." Radio shows are done from various locations in the Chicago area, ranging from restaurants and local bars and pubs, to Chicago 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." Another popular sement is Laurance Holmes "Hater Wednesday". The signature and other segments are now available via the "Pod Spot" menu of The Score's website.

The Score directly competes with ESPN Radio WMVP 1000. The main difference from ESPN is the sports focus of programming. Score broadcasters will frequently divert to personal stories and non-sports pop culture.

Starting in 2005, WSCR started airing Sporting News Radio overnights (now 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 primarily covered by Les Grobstein. WSCR also airs Yahoo! Sports Radio on its website whenever it airs the NFL on Westwood One or the White Sox, which do not allow live streaming.

Line Up and Personal

The scores standard weekday schedule is as follows

12:00AM-5:00AM Les Grobstein
5:00AM-9:00AM Mully and Hanley
9:00AM-1:00PM McNeil and Spiegel
1:00PM-6:00PM Boers and Bernstein - Longest running Chicago Sports talk show
6:00PM-10:00PM Laurence Holmes
10:00PM-12:00AM Matt Abbatacola

This schedule is frequently interrupted by DePaul basketball, White Sox baseball, and Northern Illinois University football games and pre and post shows.

Twice and hour there are minute long "Score Board Updates" by reporters that discuss game results and highlighted stories of the day. Many producers are frequent on air contributors and fill in when other hosts have days off. Most notably during Boers and Bernstein, Jason Goth is basically a third participant. Other reporters and contributors are Dave Wischnowsky, Connor McKnight, David Schuster, and Nick Shepkowski

Weekends constitute of local shows by Mike Esposito, Steve Rosenbloom and Mark Grote, and White Sox Weekly with Chris Rongey as well as syndicated shows from yahoo sports. Also on the weekends the score broadcasts NCAA games, Whitesox Games and NFL Playoffs games through Westwood One.

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.

Preceded by WMAQ

Occupant of the AM 670 kHz frequency in Chicago, Illinois (facility id=25445) 2000–present

Succeeded by Incumbent

External links

• Official website
• A Fan Page for the Score 670 AM
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WSCR
• Radio-Locator Information on WSCR
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WSCR