Bulls move to WSCR-AM 670; first broadcast set for Saturday

The Bulls are moving the radio broadcasts of their games to WSCR-AM 670, beginning with Saturday’s matinee against the Clippers in Los Angeles, the station announced Wednesday morning.

“The Bulls are coming to The Score!” Mike Mulligan, co-host of “The Mully & Hanley Show,” told listeners. “This is so exciting. They’re coming on Saturday!”

WSCR will be their radio home “for several years after that,” Ram Padmanabhan, the Bulls vice president for finance and general counsel, added. “We are absolutely thrilled to be associated with The Score and really look forward to the partnership.”

The announcement came 13 hours before the Bulls and Trail Blazers tipped off in Portland for the team’s last game with WLS-AM 890 as its flagship station and one day before a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge is expected to tear up the team’s contract with the station.

Cumulus Media, WLS’ parent company, earlier this month filed a request with the New York court asking it to nullify what Cumulus has called “a handful of extremely unprofitable contracts, including those with the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bulls.”

While Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s White Sox have yet to announce a new radio home — speculation has centered on Tribune Media’s WGN-AM 720 and ESPN’s WMVP-AM 1000 — Reinsdorf’s Bulls and WSCR fast-tracked negotiations.

“Usually deals like this get made over six months (or) a year, so we rolled up our sleeves, worked the last two weeks and got it done,” Mitch Rosen, The Score’s operations director, told listeners. “It’s a true partnership. We’re just excited.”

When Bulls fans find the broadcasts at the new AM frequency, they won’t notice much difference. Chuck Swirsky still will handle play-by-play with Bill Wennington as analyst and Steve Kashul on the pregame and postgame shows.

When there is a conflict with WSCR’s Cubs broadcast commitments, Bulls games will shift to WIND-AM 560.

“We’re very excited about where the Bulls are going and how they’re planning to get better,” said Jimmy De Castro, who oversees WSCR and other local former CBS Radio stations as senior vice president and Chicago market manager for Entercom Communications.

Another deal Cumulus is seeking to get out of is its agreement to operate and ultimately acquire Merlin Media’s Chicago stations, WKQX-FM 101.1 and WLUP-FM 97.9.

Merlin, whose chief executive is Randy Michaels, a former CEO of one-time Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., might wind up operating the stations itself or selling them.

The White Sox began their six-year deal with Cumulus in April 2016. The Bulls’ five-year agreement began in November 2016.

WSCR becomes the 10th station to serve as the Bulls’ radio flagship since the team came into the NBA in 1966. It is not the first time the team has called AM 670 its home.

WMAQ-AM, which broadcast at that frequency until it ceased operations in 2000, was the Bulls’ radio station from 1985 to ’88 and from 1991 to ’96.

The radio executive who lured them away 22 years ago, bringing them to WMVP-AM, which was not yet aligned with ESPN? Jimmy De Castro.

prosenthal@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal

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