Chicago Radio: Crain's Explores Shake-Up At WGN 720 AM

A new owner is shaking up personnel and programming at WGN 720 AM, potentially positioning the 95-year-old Chicago station for another sale, reports Crain's Business.

Nexstar ousted the longtime duo of Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder in a midday overhaul. Popular morning host Steve Cochran also got the boot and was replaced by Bob Sirott. Business news shows were axed, but listeners can now get a Frank Sinatra fix on Sunday mornings.

Those moves won't change WGN's image as an outpost of old-time radio, but the station's new boss says they have attracted more listeners. WGN Radio Executive Vice President Sean Compton provided ratings data showing recent increases in WGN's share of the coveted 25- to 54-year-old age group.

Sean Compton

Higher ratings could generate more ad revenue, which in turn could attract interest from acquirers. Observers see a sale as logical for Nexstar, which bought WGN parent company Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in September. Chicago-based Tribune's 42 TV stations gave Nexstar a total of 197, the largest television portfolio in the country. But Tribune also gave the Irving, Texas-based company something it didn't already have—a radio station.

Unloading the outlier might make strategic sense, but Nexstar had better move quickly if it wants to get a good price. With younger listeners abandoning traditional radio for podcasts, sale prices for stations are falling fast.

Experts tab Entercom, Hubbard Broadcasting and iHeart as potential buyers. All three operators run stations in Chicago and might want to expand their presence.

If no buyer steps forward, station management will face intense pressure to improve results. As the odd bedfellow in a television empire, WGN could be ripe for cost cuts as Nexstar works to deliver a promised $185 million in savings this year from the Tribune Media acquisition.

WGN was the eighth-highest-rated local station in December, with a 3.5 percent market share, according to Nielsen. But it trails news-focused competitors WBEZ and WBBM. The audience also skews older, making it more difficult for Nexstar to attract advertising dollars and increase revenue.

Compton says the recent changes are part of a long-term strategy to restore discipline and avoid alienating local listeners with polarizing political commentary. He declines to discuss individual personnel moves, but says ratings were suffering because previous hosts talked too much about national politics and not enough about local news, entertainment and sports.