When Diamond Broadcasting officially launched The Score in Chicago on Jan. 2, 1992, the morning show producer needed to power on the transmitter daily since the station was only able to broadcast on 820 AM in the daytime hours. Even though the sports talk radio outlet did not possess any play-by-play rights, the weekday prime programming schedule featured a blend of established veterans and promising newcomers. Featuring a hosting lineup with Brian Hanley, Terry Boers and Dan McNeil among others, The Score worked to become a staple for Chicago sports fans and has continued to innovate amid alterations in media.
In addition to celebrating the 33-year anniversary of The Score, station vice president Mitch Rosen is approaching two decades working with the station. Rosen was hired by former general manager Paul Agase in 2005 as The Score was broadcasting on the standalone 670 AM frequency. Possessing an understanding of the venerated tradition of the outlet, he has sought to maintain its distinctive on-air presence while expanding its ventures to disseminate its content across multiple points of consumption.
“When the station first signed on, the audience interacted via fax machines and calls, and obviously we still take calls, but now the interaction is different,” Rosen said. “And when I reflect, and a number of us here, it’s the interaction with the audience and how you have to adapt, and how you change with technology and how much is on video now in addition and how it compliments audio.”
Shortly after Rosen joined The Score, negotiations commenced with the Chicago White Sox to become the flagship radio home for live game broadcasts. This would add a second team to a play-by-play portfolio that had included the Chicago Blackhawks since the 2000-01 season, coinciding with the move to 670 AM in 2000. When 670 The Score reached a deal to begin White Sox broadcasts in the 2006 season, Rosen did not realize that the team would take the field as defending World Series champions on opening day.
“Literally seconds after they won the World Series, we had imaging on the station, ‘Your new home of the World Series champion Chicago White Sox,’ so that was exciting from a content and programming standpoint,” Rosen said. “Also from a sales standpoint, it makes it a little bit easier to hit the streets selling a World Series champion team, and I really think that was monumental if you look back at the history of The Score getting a prime time play-by-play team like the White Sox.”
The Score continued broadcasting White Sox baseball through the 2015 season before the team moved its radio rights to WLS along with the Chicago Bulls. Yet 670 The Score was able to pivot and begin a deal with the Chicago Cubs to air live game broadcasts over its airwaves as part of a multiyear agreement. With the longtime broadcast duo of Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer on the call, the Cubs made history by hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy victorious as World Series champions in 2016, snapping an infamous 108-year championship drought. Both entities agreed to sign Hughes and Coomer to multiyear contract extensions last month that will keep them in the Wrigley Field broadcast booth.
“It’s a true partnership, it’s a friendship,” Rosen said. “We like to kid in a great way with the management of the Cubs. Do we ever look at the rights agreement? Very rarely. It’s more of a true partnership in that there’s a lot of trust involved, and that’s how we like it.”
As a manager at the Audacy-owned outlet, Rosen truly cares about his people, offering compassion and support when necessary while also holding people accountable. Rosen recognizes that giving people more responsibility and freedom, combined with being there for them, will oftentimes compel them to work harder. When the staff was working remotely during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosen made it a point to meet staff members outside of their homes for walks.
“I called it the ‘How you doing walk,’ and just to hear what they were going through with their families and their personal lives, to me, that was more important than any ratings book or any interview that they were doing,” Rosen said. “It was important for them, but it was almost more important for me that I needed to be around them. I didn’t see them every day at the station – they were working at home – so to me, that’s what managing is all about. It’s about the people.”
One of the hosts in the daytime programming lineup at the time was Danny Parkins. Outside of his work with The Score, Parkins had been filling in on select FS1 programming and amassing a larger national profile. One day while Rosen was on the way to a vacation, Parkins texted him and said he really needed to talk. While on the phone, Parkins revealed that he had received the opportunity to join FS1 in morning drive as a co-host of the Breakfast Ball program emanating from New York City.
“I’m so proud of him and what he has done and accomplished already in New York,” Rosen said of Parkins. “Danny was a vital part of our brand. It was seven or eight years ago that he came in and did a week of overnight shows on The Score.”
Despite the departure of Parkins and having to scramble to compile a new programming lineup ahead of the Chicago Bears season, Rosen is confident that The Score remains a trusted brand that elicits local listenership through compelling opinions and entertaining talk. Spiegel is now co-hosting with Laurence Holmes who moved from middays, forming a duo that attained a first-place finish in the daypart among Men 25-54 in the Nielsen Audio fall ratings book. The new midday team of Dan Bernstein and Marshall Harris finished second in the demographic and have taken part in transition segments with the afternoon program as well, showcasing profound synergy at the outlet.
“It just kind of all came together, and you put that with our digital team and everybody else, and we’ve got, I think, a very, very good afternoon show and a very good midday show, and our mornings,” Rosen said. “Our mornings consistently are top three, top five in the demo, and Mully & Haugh have been together a long time, so we feel really good [with] where our brand is today.”
In the instances when Rosen and his colleagues look for talent, they consider various factors that span beyond their presence on the airwaves. Rosen and program manager Ryan Porth will look at social media, creativity and innovation in the digital domain as they evaluate prospective talent in the market. Rosen has an avidity for learning and looks forward to seeing more developments surrounding technology and the industry writ large. For a few years in a row, the station organized a “Score House” venture outside of Cubs spring training in which it would cover the action and create content at a centralized location.
“We should be doing things like that,” Rosen said. “We should be doing more digital-based content, whether it’s [going] to the [NFL] Draft and set up in an RV camp, like outside of Green Bay this year, or rent a farmhouse, and think of content that might not ever go on the air but might just live in the digital space. So those are the type of things that we are brainstorming about now and trying to ideate in how we can move to the future that we think our fans today and our fans beyond will really like.”
The home studios for 670 The Score are located at Prudential Plaza in Chicago, providing a central location easily accessible to talent, producers and guests. Throughout its 33-year history, The Score has been situated in three different studio spaces, the first of which was in a smaller neighborhood on Belmont Avenue. After spending some time in the NBC Tower, the company joined its then-CBS Radio colleagues in 2010 at its current building.
“Our studios, obviously, are very video-friendly, obviously great technology, and having all of our brands and properties in one location is just terrific,” Rosen said. “Then we add BetQL, which is a very prominent sports betting network into that, and we have a great performance studio, [and] we have a great culinary kitchen, so it’s a fantastic operation and a fantastic facility.”
Hyundai has served as the title sponsor of the studio for the last 10 years, implementing its branding throughout different elements of the location. In addition, Circa Resort & Casino sponsors The Score hotline, entering into a partnership with the brand before mobile sports wagering was legalized in the state of Illinois. Integrating in-content branding from partners has allowed The Score to continue flourishing and driving added value for its stakeholders.
While Rosen affirms that the brand still has room for growth, he knows that 670 The Score would not be in its current position without the people that he works with daily. The outlet recently finished second overall in the Nielsen ratings for the Chicago designated market area, a victory he encouraged his colleagues to celebrate while remaining level-headed. Rosen, who has also worked at WGN Radio and ESPN 1000 throughout his career, realized that it was integral for the station to refine its imaging and promotion strategy. Production manager Russ Mitera and director of sales Chad Feldman have been fundamental in this endeavor and work closely with Rosen to facilitate success.
On top of that, 670 The Score has augmented its reach through a combination of stellar programming and adopting advancements in technology. Consumers are able to watch shows streaming live on YouTube and Twitch and can also listen live, rewind or replay episodes using the Audacy mobile app. Safeguarding against complacency, Rosen is aiming to continue digital media ventures at the station and disseminate content across several verticals.
“I think a way to get more of a youthful audience at times is through the different platforms on video, and then to think of other ways [and] different creative content that might never hear OTA, but might be digital-specific content, and I think that gets you to a path,” Rosen said. “I also think that play-by-play on the radio is special. We’re fortunate to have the Cubs and the Bulls, and I think that also brings in a younger demographic, but again, in the key demographic of Men 25-54, we live in that space, but we also strive to bring in a more youthful audience at times, and I think through our digital platforms, we can do that.”
As Rosen approaches two decades at 670 The Score, he is keeping his focus on the people that are bolstering the brand and propelling it to new heights. With the new year at its inception, he hopes to effectuate some of the exclusive digital content surrounding the shows and further augmenting the reach of the brand. Rosen remains concerned with the potential of the automobile industry forsaking the AM radio in dashboards and values existing as more than a standalone station on the terrestrial band. Even though the station is operating in a media ecosystem replete with fluctuations in consumption patterns and distribution methods, he is committed to the grind and positioning The Score for long-term prosperity.
“We just have to keep continuing to come up with new, innovative ways of spreading our content to different platforms, and people will find you,” Rosen said. “Once you have good content, they will look and find you. You just have to continue to give them so many ways to do that, and I think we as a company, we as a brand continue to do that.”
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