Friday, March 28, 2008

The Magic and Wonder of WGN (The Sports Super Station)

Growing up in Chicago, I watched a lot of WGN. After all, it was the channel that Bozo the Clown was on, and I loved that show. As I got a little older (about 6 or 7) and got into sports, WGN became even more awesome, because it showed the Cubs games, and Harry Caray, I discovered, was even more entertaining then Bozo!

When we moved from Chicago, luckily WGN came with us, although no longer as a local station (number 9 on our television sets, number 1 in our hearts) but as a CABLE SUPER STATION (you should read that as if it is being said by Deep Anouncer Voice Guy, you know, the one who always says, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY).

Back when I was growing up, practically every Cubs game was on WGN, but slowly as time has gone by, that is no longer the case.

In 1999, the Cubs signed a deal with FOX Sports Chicago, and many of the games began to be broadcast there (which I had no access to living in Texas). Later, the deal switched to Comcast Sports Chicago (which, still, no access to in Texas).

I understand the Cubs reasoning for such a move (the same as most everything these days, MONEY), but there are other things that you got from showing all of the Cubs games on WGN.

Have you ever been to a Cubs away game? If you have, you'll know what I'm talking about. No matter where you go to a Cubs away game at (I've been to plenty of them, I've seen the Cubs more in Houston then I have at Wrigley) there will be a sizeable amount of Cubs fans present. Partly that is because in areas without a baseball team to call their own, fans would adopt the Cubs because they could see all of their games on WGN. Then, when the Cubs would travel to where ever the closest baseball team was to those fans, they would make a trip specifically to see the Cubs, because driving to Houston for a baseball game from say, Arkansas (for example), is much easier then driving to Chicago (although many fans will make that trip at least once, and trust me, you haven't seen a baseball game until you've seen one from Wrigley.)

Slowly, that magic is fading. Partly because every Cubs game is no longer available on WGN, but partly because thanks to the Extra Innings package on DirecTv, Dish, or Cable and partly because of the greatness of MLBtv online (which is what I use now).

Anyway, this whole nostalgic post was brought up by this article at the Tribune. It's a good read on the history of the Cubs and WGN. Enjoy. And only three days to go!

1 comment:

fester said...

sorry if this posts again but i had to have an acocunt and i dont know if it posted the first one. I just said first that i read your blog before the first game so eat that. but further i remember those days as well. back then New York also had a station that was national and it showed baseball too, the yankees i think but still. it was nice on a saturday there were choices, Rangers, cubs or the occassional white sox, yankees or occasional mets, the braves, or whatever was on ESPN. now our only option is to pay a lot of money, watch the local team on FSN or get lucky and see a game they are actually airing. ahh the good old days