Mike North On The Air Online

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 11, 2009 3:15PM

Mike North's ChicagoSportsWebio.com is preparing to become a 12 hour sports talk station. The station will include boxer Ray 'Boom Boom" Mancini, Chet Coppock, Jonathan Hood, Teddy Greenstein and Tim Doyle.

The website currently simulcasts North's television show, which will continue when the new format begins in April. The station will run from studios in Morton Grove and has been luring staffers and producers from the two sports stations in Chicago. Now that Bruce Wolf is available will North tap him for this new venture?

The challenge for this to work will be luring sports fans from their radios to their computers. Although many already are listening to live streaming of WSCR and WMVP online. WMVP has the backing of the ESPN brand, and also airs the Chicago Bulls games. WSCR airs the White Sox, and the Hawks, Cubs and Bears are taken by other stations. Without any local games to air, the content of North's web station will have to be valuable and unique to get the listeners. Not to mention the challenge of reaching people in their cars.

Another challenge will be finding advertisers. It appears they already have Comcast Sportsnet on board. As an advertiser, web tracking and impressions have the potential to be more valuable than Arbitron ratings. There's more opportunity to connect with the listeners as an online advertiser than an on-air advertiser. This will be something very interesting to watch as it unfolds.

BY: Pattie Lee