The Chicago Cubs Radio Network (known in 2024 and 2025 as the Southwest Airlines Cubs Radio Network for sponsorship reasons) is the network of radio stations that broadcast Cubs games on 30 stations in six states.[1]
Veteran broadcaster Pat Hughes has been the play-by-play announcer since 1996. From 1996 to 2010, Hughes was partnered with Ron Santo. After Santo's death, Keith Moreland took over as color analyst through 2013. Ron Coomer took over color analyst duties in 2014. Zach Zaidman handles the Cubs Central pre- and post-game shows and takes over the play-by-play for the fifth inning of most games.
All 162 regular season baseball games, some spring training games, and all postseason games are broadcast by the network, though not all affiliates distribute the entire slate. The games are transmitted to stations via C-Band satellite service on AMC-8.
From 1925 to 2014 (continuously from 1958 to 2014), the Cubs' flagship station was WGN, 720 AM, the lone radio station of the Tribune Company (which for many years simultaneously owned the Cubs, TV station WGN-TV and its national superstation, and the local newspaper from which it gets its name, the Chicago Tribune). When it was part of the Tribune Radio Network, the network's non-sports programming included the National Farm Report, a farm news feature hosted by Orion Samuelson; Samuelson Sez (a weekly commentary hosted by Samuelson); and Farming America, a farm news feature hosted by Steve Alexander (previously by Max Armstrong).
In 2015, the Cubs' broadcast rights moved to CBS Radio (later Entercom, then Audacy) after Tribune declined to renew its longstanding broadcast rights.[2] The 2015 season was broadcast by WBBM. After sister station WSCR's loss of radio rights to broadcast the Chicago White Sox games to WLS in July 2015, it was widely expected that the Cubs would move to WSCR as a replacement. This move was confirmed by CBS Radio on November 11, 2015 [3][4] and finalized before the start of the 2016 Cubs season. Through WSCR, the games also aired on the FM dial via HD Radio through WSCR's subchannel on WBMX (104.3-HD2). In 2026, WBMX-FM HD1 flipped from classic hip-hop to all sports 104.3 The Score with the call letters now WSCR-FM, simulcasting WSCR-AM. The Cubs are now on 104.3 HD1 and HD2 now has The Bet Chicago.[5][6]
Affiliates
edit| State | City | Station | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | Champaign | WGKC | FM 105.9 |
| Chicago | WSCR WSCR-FM WPPN |
AM 670 (Flagship Station) FM 104.3 FM (HD2) 106.7 (Spanish) | |
| Decatur | WDZ | AM 1050 | |
| Lawrenceville | WAKO W257DW | AM 910 FM 99.3 | |
| Lawrenceville | WAKO-FM | FM 103.1 | |
| Monmouth | WRAM | AM 1330 | |
| Peoria | WZPN WHPI | FM 101.1 FM 96.5 | |
| Springfield | WFMB | AM 1450 | |
| Sterling | WSSQ | FM 105.5 | |
| Indiana | Boonville | WBNL | AM 1540 |
| Lafayette | WASK | AM 1450 | |
| Marion | WBAT | AM 1400 | |
| Elkhart | WTRC | AM 1340 | |
| Iowa | Boone | KWBG | AM 1590 |
| Bloomfield | KUDV | FM 106.9 | |
| Carroll | KCIM | AM 1380 | |
| Cedar Falls | KCNZ | AM 1650 | |
| Cedar Rapids | KGYM | AM 1600 | |
| Des Moines | KRNT | AM 1350 | |
| Dubuque | WDBQ | AM 1490 | |
| Elkader | KADR | AM 1400 | |
| Fairfield | KMCD | AM 1570 | |
| Harlan | KNOD | FM 105.3 (pending) | |
| Iowa City | KGYM | FM 106.3 | |
| West Burlington | KCPS | AM 1150 | |
| Michigan | Kalamazoo | WTOU | AM 1660 |
| Petoskey | WWMN | AM 1110 | |
| Traverse City | WJNL | AM 1210 | |
| Minnesota | Sauk Rapids | WBHR | AM 660 |
| North Dakota | Fargo | WDAY (AM) | AM 970 |
| Nebraska | Omaha | KIBM | AM 1490 |
| South Dakota | Vermillion | KVTK | AM 1570 |
| Wisconsin | Madison | WTSO[7] | AM 1070 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ "Affiliate List". cubs.com. Archived from the original on April 3, 2011.
- ↑ Marek, Lynne (May 30, 2014). "WGN America to drop Chicago sports". Chicago Business. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ↑ "Cubs make their radio move to WSCR official". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
- ↑ Sherman, Ed (July 23, 2015). "Bulls, White Sox deals put WLS-AM back in the game in a big way". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
- ↑ https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2026/01/14/670-the-score-fm-radio-bulls-cubs-sports-talk-moving
- ↑ https://www.audacy.com/stations/thebetchicago
- ↑ "Brewers games on Bally Sports Wisconsin will look similar, but some streaming services lack deals". March 8, 2021.