Cubs Coming Back To Local Radio
March 7, 2018 at 5:21 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
The Cubs are coming back to Warsaw radio.
When the season ended last year, the emails started pouring in: “Roger, we need the Cubs back on the radio in Warsaw,” “Where will I be able to listen to the Cubs games?” and “I sure hope you guys could carry the Cubs next season.”
Frankly, carrying a major league baseball team’s games is a major commitment by a radio station. Cubs Radio, which is now managed by WMAQ Radio in Chicago, gives us plenty of flexibility when it comes to carrying ALL of the games. They understand that stations will have other things like the NFL, Indy 500 or local high school games, and carrying all 162 games is unrealistic.
And they also are very generous in giving us local commercial breaks in which to play your local sponsors commercials. That means we get to allow more local businesses a chance to be part of the fun and get their message out.
From a station standpoint, just like for the players and coaching staff, baseball on radio is every day – four hours-worth at least on 27 days out of 30 or 31 each month from April to Sept. It means taking your regular afternoon and evening programming and setting it aside for the Cubs.
I would love to tell you that I went in and made a passionate speech while standing on Woody Zimmerman or Kris Lake’s desk this winter in an effort to persuade them that we needed to bring the Cubs back to Warsaw radio. I would be honored if you thought I was perched on top of our building waving a Cubs flag back-and-forth to convince these two wise and highly-respected programmers that we needed to make this commitment.
I did no such thing.
They came to me (told you they were wise!).
I have a lot of favorite teams in the different sports, but there will never be a team that matches up to how I feel about the Cubs. So when I walked out of the room that day last month with instructions to call the Cubs, I must confess that the tears were rolling down my cheeks. I know this community loves the Cubs, and I know what it means to have the games on a local radio station. I am glad to play my humble part in bringing them to you.
What kind of season will it be? Well that is hard to tell. It’s baseball, which is the most unpredictable sport on the planet. It’s a round bat on a round ball, and the only sport where the defense starts every play in possession of the ball. There is so much that goes into winning, like avoiding injuries and weather and … you get the point.
The Cubs front office went out and revamped the bullpen. They picked up starter Yu Darvish, but their rotation and their basic roster remain virtually unchanged from the one that was knocked out of the NLCS last October by the Dodgers. But while some fans lament that fact, the truth is what needed to change for the Cubs was internal.
The players admitted last June and July that things weren’t going as well they expected (nor the fan base) because they were still living in the glow of delivering the first World Series title to Chicago’s North Side in 108 years. They weren’t ready to play when the season started in April, and it showed.
But, to a man, the Cubs players have made it clear that the pain of losing in baseball’s final four last season has stuck with them all winter long, and they came to training camp to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I know it snowed here last night, and it’s really cold outside. But just do yourself a favor and close your eyes. Picture yourself in a much warmer, sunnier time of year here in northern Indiana. You’re on the boat digging blue gills or bass out of the weeds, or floating around on your pontoon with friends having a glass of something. You are working in the yard with your headphones on. You have the grill going, and it’s got steaks or burgers and dogs or shrimp or chicken or whatever you can put on it to make the neighbors jealous.
And wherever you are and whatever you are doing, the Cubs are on your radio.
That, my friends, is something to look forward to.
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The Cubs are coming back to Warsaw radio.
When the season ended last year, the emails started pouring in: “Roger, we need the Cubs back on the radio in Warsaw,” “Where will I be able to listen to the Cubs games?” and “I sure hope you guys could carry the Cubs next season.”
Frankly, carrying a major league baseball team’s games is a major commitment by a radio station. Cubs Radio, which is now managed by WMAQ Radio in Chicago, gives us plenty of flexibility when it comes to carrying ALL of the games. They understand that stations will have other things like the NFL, Indy 500 or local high school games, and carrying all 162 games is unrealistic.
And they also are very generous in giving us local commercial breaks in which to play your local sponsors commercials. That means we get to allow more local businesses a chance to be part of the fun and get their message out.
From a station standpoint, just like for the players and coaching staff, baseball on radio is every day – four hours-worth at least on 27 days out of 30 or 31 each month from April to Sept. It means taking your regular afternoon and evening programming and setting it aside for the Cubs.
I would love to tell you that I went in and made a passionate speech while standing on Woody Zimmerman or Kris Lake’s desk this winter in an effort to persuade them that we needed to bring the Cubs back to Warsaw radio. I would be honored if you thought I was perched on top of our building waving a Cubs flag back-and-forth to convince these two wise and highly-respected programmers that we needed to make this commitment.
I did no such thing.
They came to me (told you they were wise!).
I have a lot of favorite teams in the different sports, but there will never be a team that matches up to how I feel about the Cubs. So when I walked out of the room that day last month with instructions to call the Cubs, I must confess that the tears were rolling down my cheeks. I know this community loves the Cubs, and I know what it means to have the games on a local radio station. I am glad to play my humble part in bringing them to you.
What kind of season will it be? Well that is hard to tell. It’s baseball, which is the most unpredictable sport on the planet. It’s a round bat on a round ball, and the only sport where the defense starts every play in possession of the ball. There is so much that goes into winning, like avoiding injuries and weather and … you get the point.
The Cubs front office went out and revamped the bullpen. They picked up starter Yu Darvish, but their rotation and their basic roster remain virtually unchanged from the one that was knocked out of the NLCS last October by the Dodgers. But while some fans lament that fact, the truth is what needed to change for the Cubs was internal.
The players admitted last June and July that things weren’t going as well they expected (nor the fan base) because they were still living in the glow of delivering the first World Series title to Chicago’s North Side in 108 years. They weren’t ready to play when the season started in April, and it showed.
But, to a man, the Cubs players have made it clear that the pain of losing in baseball’s final four last season has stuck with them all winter long, and they came to training camp to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I know it snowed here last night, and it’s really cold outside. But just do yourself a favor and close your eyes. Picture yourself in a much warmer, sunnier time of year here in northern Indiana. You’re on the boat digging blue gills or bass out of the weeds, or floating around on your pontoon with friends having a glass of something. You are working in the yard with your headphones on. You have the grill going, and it’s got steaks or burgers and dogs or shrimp or chicken or whatever you can put on it to make the neighbors jealous.
And wherever you are and whatever you are doing, the Cubs are on your radio.
That, my friends, is something to look forward to.
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