There was a time when DePaul, not the Bulls or the Blackhawks, was the hottest winter sports television property in town.
Throughout most of the 1980s, Blue Demons games were a fixture on WGN-Ch. 9. The station also had the Bulls, but in the pre-Michael Jordan days they were secondary players to coach Ray Meyer’s bunch.
“Without question, the Bulls were a non-entity,” said Dan Roan, who called most of the DePaul games on WGN with analyst John Mengelt. “DePaul was by far the biggest seller.”
Television did more than bring revenue to the school. Playing on WGN’s superstation gave DePaul nationwide exposure. Roan recalled that when the Demons went into Philadelphia to recruit Dallas Comegys, he knew all about the school from watching its games on TV.
Two things happened to the relationship during the 1990s. DePaul started to sag, and WGN became an outlet for WB network programming, leaving the Demons to find a new home.
DePaul’s games now have a reduced presence on Fox Sports Net, part of a package with Loyola and Illinois-Chicago, and WCIU-Ch. 26. Their membership in Conference USA leads to occasional ESPN exposure, and their Louisville and Nevada-Las Vegas games were ABC regional telecasts.
DePaul recently signed a three-year extension with WSCR-AM 670. According to WSCR’s Matt Fishman, some DePaul games still do strong ratings, but it’s inconsistent.
“We’d like them to be winning more,” Fishman said. “But it’s like a marriage. You’re in it for better or worse.”
