page_title: WSCR
section_title: 1980s and 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: WSCR / History / 1980s and 1990s
caption_attribution_description: English: NBC Chicago, Illinois
context_page_description: WSCR – branded 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Owned by Entercom, WSCR is a clear-channel station with extended nighttime range in most of the Central United States and part of the Eastern United States. WSCR serves as the Chicago affiliate for CBS Sports Radio, the Illini Sports Network and the NFL on Westwood One Sports; the flagship station for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bulls radio networks; and the home of radio personalities David Haugh and Matt Spiegel.
  The WSCR studios are located at Two Prudential Plaza in the Chicago Loop, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Bloomingdale, diplexed with co-owned WBBM. Besides its main analog transmission, WSCR transmits continuously over a single HD Radio channel utilizing the in-band on-channel standard, simulcasts over the second digital subchannel of WBMX, and streams online via Radio.com.
  Historically, this station is best known under the WMAQ call sign, which it bore from October 1922 to August 2000.
context_section_description: In the 1980s, music listening was shifting to FM. WMAQ saw a transition to a short lived talk radio format. After 57 years, NBC disposed of all of the company's radio stations following RCA's merger with General Electric.  NBC sold WMAQ to Group W in 1988. This was Westinghouse's third stint at station ownership in the Chicago market, having founded KYW before relocating that station to Philadelphia in 1934, and later with WIND from 1955 to 1985.
  At 5 A.M., March 1, 1988, Group W switched WMAQ to an all-news format, patterned after its successful all-news outlets in New York (WINS), Los Angeles (KFWB) and Philadelphia (KYW).  The slogan was the same as those other stations: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You The World."  Long-time WMAQ morning news anchor Pat Cassidy (later with WBBM) was on the air when the switch was made to all-news. The news staff included two veteran WMAQ reporters, Bill Cameron and Bob Roberts, holdover anchor Nancy Benson, Jay Congdon, Christopher Michael, Lisa Meyer, Larry Langford (son of the late Chicago Ald. Anna Langford), Dave Berner, Mike Doyle, Jim Gudas, Cisco Cotto, John Dempsey, Chris Robling, Mike Krauser, Corrie Wynns and crime reporter Doug Cummings. Chicago news veteran (WCFL, WIND) Jim Frank (1940–2007) was hired as the news director, following a stint at WIOD in Miami.  Other news directors included Bonnie Buck (daughter of sports broadcaster Jack Buck) and Krauser, who took the same position at rival WBBM after Viacom shuttered WMAQ and fired the staff.
  WMAQ was among the first Chicago AM stations to transmit using the Motorola C-QUAM AM stereo standard, even though its format was all-news, not music.
  The station moved to the new NBC Tower in 1990 with television station WMAQ-TV despite their being owned by different companies.  The studios for both stations had been designed by NBC before the sale.
  Amid stagnate ratings, WMAQ added more long-form news programming and some assorted call-in shows in 1998 and 1999. Cameron and Langford, hosted by City Hall reporter Bill Cameron and police beat reporter Larry Langford, was cancelled in April 1999, but briefly returned in June 2000. An early harbinger of the future sports format was the evening WMAQ Sports Huddle which premiered in 1993 and competed with all-sports WSCR and WMVP as well as WGN's Sports Central program.
  Westinghouse merged with CBS in 1995, making WMAQ a sister station to its all-news rival, WBBM; the merger also paired former all-news rival stations in New York and Los Angeles. CBS' radio stations were spun off into Infinity Broadcasting in 1998; CBS retained an 80 percent stake in the new company.
caption: NBC Tower, where WMAQ moved in 1989. WSCR also broadcast here before moving to Two Prudential Plaza.
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