WLW said nothing of the sort. The station lost the Bengals not by standing on principle, but by stepping on toes. Conflict is what works in talk radio nowadays. Mike Brown had had enough of it, and the station wasn't about to abandon a proven formula for the sake of a football team. Ultimately, the station's interest in ratings superseded its interest in rights holding.
Confrontation is nearly always more entertaining than bland boosterism.
Still, the line between debate and debasement often becomes blurry at The Big One. They are not sincere. They don't mean what they say. It's just snake-oil type of stuff to get people to come in. St. Gregory St. The testosterone level of WLW's talk shows drops dramatically when the subject is Marge Schott.