Glance at the Web site of WIND-AM 560 and you won't catch a whiff of sports. The news-talk station's mantra is: "You can find us on the left side of your radio dial, but right on the issues."

 

Chances are, most Chicago-area sports fans never bothered to try to find WIND on their radio dial. But they will now.

 

 

The station learned Tuesday it is the new Chicago home of Illinois football and men's basketball. An official announcement is expected Wednesday.

 

For much of the last 15 years, the Illini called WSCR-AM 670 home. And the Score clearly benefited from the basketball team's success in its winter book, pushing it in front of WMVP-AM 1000 with an overall rating of 1.8.

 

But as a public state institution, Illinois held an open bid for its local radio rights and WIND came through with a three-year offer that promised "100 percent clearance"—radio-speak that means an Illini game never will get bumped for other programming.

 

WSCR-AM is also the home for DePaul basketball, and the station hopes to finalize a deal with the White Sox in the next two weeks. So there might have been conflicts.

 

"We had a great ride with Illini hoops this winter," Score program director Mitch Rosen said. "But overall Illinois was a small piece to the big puzzle here."

 

The Illini will be a big piece of the pie at WIND-AM, which also will carry Ron Zook's and Bruce Weber's football and basketball coaches' shows. The station carried Loyola men's basketball last season but hasn't decided whether it will re-sign the Ramblers for another year.

 

"We're excited," said Dave Santrella, the station's general manager. "We're ready to join the Illini arm in arm and be a part of them in terms of promotion and merchandising."

 

Older Chicago sports fans will recall WIND-AM used to be the home of the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks. The station switched to a Spanish-language format in 1985 but reversed course last year after Salem Communications turned it into a conservative-based Christian news-talk station, with syndicated hosts such as Bill Bennett and Michael Medved.

 

"We don't characterize our station as left or right," Santrella said. "I would say our talk-show hosts follow a more conservative agenda."

 

The station's agenda now includes the Illini.

Well, not as strong a signal, but i'm glad they stuck it to the Score and their constant anti-illini bias.

good. wscr is my only chicago sports radio option (can't get mvp). nothing worse than working in my shop on a saturday morning and then the illini football network comes on the air.

Edited May 11, 200520 yr by poorme

This is HUGE for WIND. I recently wrapped up a 13 week internship there and I know they were looking for something to give them a spark since they are a new station. Well, they got it now!