“WBBM Newsradio 780 and now on 105.9 FM.”

Starting August 1st

After announcing the FM simulcast in a staff meeting just before noon Thursday, Rod Zimmerman, CBS Radio Chicago’s senior vice president and market manager filled in the blanks in a conversation with Robert Feder at timeoutchicago.com:

Q. When the simulcast starts, what are you doing with the WCFS call letters?
A. Keeping them the same. The call letters really aren’t an issue anymore in how the ratings are gathered. It’s all measured electronically now, so call letters don’t mean anything.

Q. How about the on-air slogan?
A. We will identify ourselves as “WBBM Newsradio 780 and now on 105.9 FM.” After a period of time, the “now on” will go away and it will just be: “WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9.”

Q. Why wait until August 1? Couldn't you flip the switch now?
A. There’s still some preparation that needs to take place in the next couple weeks from an administrative, contract and production standpoint. We want to be sure we’re 100 percent ready when we put it on the FM signal. Advertising and revenue always plays into the equation, too, so there’s a combination of factors. We just felt Monday, August 1st, is a clean date to make the flip.

Q. Are you planning any changes to the current on-air product?
A. It will be the WBBM Newsradio format everyone’s familiar with. No changes — other than we’re always looking to upgrade the sound and the production elements from a quality standpoint. Traffic and weather together on the eights, sports at :15 and :45, CBS News at the top of the hour, business at :25 and :55, will all remain the same.

Q. So it’ll be a 100 percent simulcast — even during Bears broadcasts?
A. One hundred percent. You have to do that to get single-line reporting in Arbitron, which is what we want.

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