Last February, Tribune Broadcasting in Chicago launched a sports talk station on their 87.7 FM dial called The Game. Unfortunately for fans of the station, it looks like management is pulling the plug after only 9 months.
You can’t blame Tribune Media for cutting their losses so soon since ratings for The Game were abysmal. According to Robert Feder, in the latest Nielsen survey the station tied for 38th place overall with a 0.5 percent audience share and cumulative weekly audience of 218,600. That was not going to cut it. But the real story is how the station broke the news to their on-air talent. Or rather, how they didn’t. Apparently their afternoon host Ben Finfer found out on twitter WHILE HE WAS STILL ON THE AIR.
“We’re doing a live show here. And to be told this way, it’s really a letdown. We’re getting screwed on this one. … We just found out on Twitter a half hour ago that the station is being taken off the air. We were not told about this ahead of time. We didn’t know anything about it. We were coming back from a break and saw on Twitter from Robert Feder that the station is being taken off the air. Can you believe that? A lot of really talented people were hired to work at this station and found out through Twitter that they were fired. Nothing from the bosses. I don’t really know what to do for the last hour of this show. I guess take calls.”
I’m gonna be honest, I’d love to hear those calls.
“Yeah hi, long time listener, first time caller. What should the Bears do about Trestman? I mean this guy, he’s gotta go. I’ll hang up and listen.”
“Thanks for the phone call. Who cares?!?! Next caller…”
