Wscr

WSCR

City of license	Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast area	Chicago market
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	(main antenna) (auxiliary antenna)
Callsign meaning	W-SCORE
Affiliations	CBS Sports Radio
Owner	CBS Radio (CBS Radio East Inc.)
Sister stations	WBBM, WBBM-FM, WCFS-FM, WJMK-FM, 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, 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 1992. WSCR is currently the radio flagship home for Chicago White Sox baseball as well as Illinois Fighting Illini football and men's basketball. WSCR also carries other live sports programming from Westwood One, including Monday Night Football. From 2001 to 2008, the station was the flagship for Chicago Blackhawks hockey, until their move to WGN (720).

In April 2016 WSCR will be the new flagship station for the Chicago Cubs moving over from sister station WBBM (780). The move was facilitated by the move of the Chicago White Sox to WLS-AM (890) starting in 2016.

HD programming

WSCR is licensed for a hybrid (analog plus digital) signal; HD1 duplicates traditional (analog) broadcasting.^[1] WSCR can also be heard on WJMK HD2.

History

The station initially signed 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 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 broadcast from 4949 W. Belmont Ave. on the northwest side of Chicago in the building where sister station WXRT made its broadcasts. WSCR ceased broadcasting from that location in 2001 and the transmitter in that location was never used again,

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.

670 AM in Chicago was previously known as WMAQ; see Broadcast Facilities below.

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" "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 analysts.

• 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 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 CBS Sports Radio on its website whenever it airs the NFL on Dial Global or the White Sox, 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 (starting 2016) 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 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. Also on the weekends, The Score broadcasts NCAA games, White Sox baseball and NFL playoffs 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.

References

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 Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WSCR