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| WKRS-AM Officially Announces Flip To Spanish Format |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Wednesday, 18 January 2012 20:53 | |||
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Two weeks from today, north suburban NextMedia-owned WKRS-AM 1220 will be flipping from an English-speaking political & regional news/talk station to a Spanish talk station. Starting February 1st, WKRS-AM will be primarily carrying broadcasts from the nationally syndicated ESPN Deportes sports talk network. It will also be keeping some of its weekend talk programming that was already in Spanish.
The new station, going by the name ESPN Deportes 1220, will carry shows such as the popular sports talk shows of Jorge Ramos & his Band and ESPN SportsCenter, as well as live game broadcasts of FIFA, MLS Soccer, American Football, Latin America Baseball, professional boxing, and more. In addition to the ESPN Spanish programming, a few of the local, weekend Spanish programs that WKRS-AM has been airing -- including "Union Latina," "Conexion Catolica," and "Most Blessed Trinity" -- will remain on the station's weekend broadcasts. All of the English speaking programming will be gone from the station after January 31st, This includes the morning shows "Wake Up with Jerry & Nick" and 'The Lenny Palmer Show" and afternoon host Paul Lepek, as well as some weekend shows such as "Weekend Sports Report with Les Grobstein" and a talk show with local broadcasting great Jack Taylor. Also gone will be syndicated shows by such national stars as Laura Ingraham, Dave Ramsey, and Jim Bohannon. Some programs, such as Lenny Palmer's local show and Jim Bohannon's syndicated show, already air on Kenosha sister-station WLIP-AM 1050, which also covers much of Lake County. Jerry & Nick also have a weekend show on WLIP-AM and could see additional air time on that station, as could other talk shows from WKRS-AM. With the news now official, Jerry & Nick plan on discussing the upcoming change on tomorrow morning's radio show. Lenny Palmer addressed it somewhat today and will do so again tomorrow. The rumors of the impending flip were first mentioned exclusively on this website last week. The news was confirmed late today by Karl Wertzler, the General Manager for NextMedia's four radio stations in Waukegan and Kenosha. Karl Wertzler issued a statement today saying: "The ESPN brand reaches the heart of the Hispanic male demographic of 21-49. With compelling 24-hour sports talk in Spanish language, ESPN Deportes 1220 fills a need in Lake County that has been growing over the last decade. According to the 2010 Census, the Hispanic/Latino population of Waukegan was 53.4%." He added: "We are thrilled about the partnership and the new opportunities it brings to the table." Although a website is not yet up for the new ESPN Deportes 1220, a website domain name has been purchased for the station -- ESPNDeportes1220.com and the website is expected to go live on February 1st. In the meantime, the station has already launched a new Facebook Page for its new format. WKRS was the very first commercial radio station in Lake County, start on the FM band in July 1948, and moving over to AM in September 1949, where it has been ever since. In addition to having ESPN Deportes coming to Waukegan's WKRS-AM and heard throughout Lake County, there is a possibility that it could also be heard soon within the city of Chicago... RadioInsight.com's Lance Venta reports that at the start of this month Clear Channel registered three domain names: SmoothJazz975.com, 975TheBull.com, and ESPNDeportesChicago.com. The reason for the domains has to do with the relationship Clear Channel has with EMF Broadcasting's broadcast translator W248BB, which will broadcast at 97.5 FM in Chicago. In the last few months, the translator was given permission to have its transmission wattage increased to 250 watts and moved from Hillside, IL to atop downtown Chicago's third tallest skyscraper, the Aon Center (formerly known as the Amoco Building). From that location and increased wattage, the transmission, weak though it may be, covers all of the city of Chicago and the communities that immediately border it. While three domains have been purchased, Clear Channel is long known for purchasing fake domains for a new radio station, along with the one it desires, supposedly to throw competitors off the track. Before flipping WNUA-FM from the Smooth Jazz format to a Spanish Music station in the Spring of 2009, Clear Channel purchased a domain and started up a website called "Cat Country 95.5" and had a countdown clock to the exact time when WNUA-FM was set to flip. Of course, it never flipped to a Country format. It is widely believed that Clear Channel has no desire to return to Smooth Jazz, since much of its syndicated Smooth Jazz programming can already be heard on 87.7 WLFM-LP, as well as on WNUA-FM's HD2 station, plus the Smooth Jazz fans who tend to enjoy quality audio will not tolerate the low-powered and potentially weak over the air signals. Clear Channel has started up a website on the 975TheBull.com domain, which, like "Cat Country 95.5" before it, has a simple countdown clock, clicking away the minutes to February 1st, along with the slogan "The Bull - Better Country." Most likely, it is indeed "bull." Most believe that the still-parked and unused domain ESPNDeportesChicago.com will be for the 97.5 frequency, airing nothing but syndicated programming for ESPN Deportes. For right now, Clear Channel is not saying publicly what it has planned for the frequency. There is only wide-spread speculation. Clear Channel is at the government mandated maximum number of radio stations it can own in Chicago. Using translators, leased out to them from other companies as a kind of mini-radio station, is a legal loophole around the FCC rule. It has put the company in trouble in the past in other markets, however. These translators with increased power tend to interfere with neighboring signals, or at the very least, stations on neighboring signals will claim to the FCC that they are being interfered with. The FCC then demands that the translator's transmissions be stopped. There is no guarantee that even if Clear Channel does begin transmitting on 97.5 FM on February 1st that it will still be doing so a month or two down the road. As for having the same Spanish sports programming on two different frequencies, it would not be the first time that ESPN Deportes has used this method to blanket a large metropolitan area. In Los Angeles, CA, ESPN Deportes Radio is currently airing on 1330 AM to cover the city of LA and simultaneously airing on 1220 AM out of Pomona, CA to cover LA's western suburbs. ESPN Deportes also airs on Milwaukee, WI's WRRD-AM 1510, which does reach to the Illinois border, as well as Madison, WI's WTTN-AM 1580, so the fans of the station to the north of Chicago will be able to hear it fairly easy. The Disney-owned ESPN Deportes Radio has been looking for a Chicago outlet for a very long time. There was talk of Radio Disney looking for a Chicago FM outlet (101.1) and having ESPN Deportes take over on AM 1300. That never came close to happening, of course, but it was seriously explored. Other Chicago AM station had supposedly been approached in the last year to carry the programming, but no deals were reached. It appears that Disney has finally found a way (or ways) to get ESPN Deportes Radio into the Chicagoland market. 
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