Dollar and sense: “What's going on at the score” Sparks Talk in Chicago Sportmedien

Dollars and Sense is an occasional column about the Chicago sports shop and media, which people occasionally ask.

This week in Chicago there is a large media conference that focuses on sports radio and podcasting.

But when I checked the schedule for the two -day affair of Barrett Sports Media, I noticed that a timely and local discussion topic was missing: “What the hell is going on during the score?”

It is certainly a question that the people in Chicago are talking about, since another main support left the city's original sports station. So why not make an industry -wide topic?

“What the hell is going on in the result?” Would be much more interesting than “Homeruns (sic) from the corner office” or “Podcasting's Big Future”.

During the BSM conference there are already a number of 670 employees who speak to employees in various panels-an impact on Mitch Rosen, the Operations Director of the Audacy ownership.

The moderator of foundationims Mike North and the recently abandoned Danny Parkins, who has just gone to television and luckily in New York City, receive both awards. I think they have opinions.

The former score producer John Mamola works for BSM and could be the host, and roses could explain the challenges of running chicago in Chicago. Score presenter Laurence Holmes could even turn it into a podcast for his “House of L” show.

The Barrett Sports Media Conference takes place in the Edlis Neeson Theater, and I can't imagine a better place for an event in the sports radio as in the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The recent development of the station took place last week when the executive producer Shane Riordan abruptly announced that he would leave the station immediately. On the same day, the train station announced that Leila Rahimi, who was no longer a host of the lunch show, was again full -time at the train station.

This news was carried out about a month after noon moderator Dan Bernstein due to some stupid tweets after a long, successful run at the train station and about nine months after the Parkin, the hometown -child has achieved something that is so rare in the medium these days: he did a better job itself.

Compared to ESPN 1000, which together with the same line-up (for good or bad), the score is like a carousel, a roller coaster or a Tilt-A-Whirl. Make your choice. With Parkins, amber and now Riordan, these are three big departures in one year, all under wild different circumstances.

Change is not always bad. It is advantageous to get new voices in the mix. But is the station better today than a year ago? I would say the answer is no.

Of course, not everyone has to agree. Argument is the core of sports radio, isn't it?

Was amber the goat? Do you put it on the Chicago Sports Radio Mount Rushmore?

Et cetera and so on.

I am glad that Rahimi and Marshall Harris, Bernstein's former co-moderator, make up the new lunch show (together with the regular third co-moderator, the always entertaining Mark Grote). You are good people and I hope you get the runway to develop and be successful. It is a job that each of us in the industry can do for one or two shifts, but it is more difficult than you think of doing it five days a week. To be original and creative and committed and at the same time to be a technician who is even more difficult four hours a day.

Bernstein was not everyone's cup of tea – sometimes he could go overboard on the animus – but it is difficult to replace. There is a reason why he took so long in one place.

The same applies to Riordan, an aggressive producer who took care of how the show sounded and the Gravitas had to influence a show.

Holmes, the youngest co-moderator from Matt Spiegel, is of course not to measure against Parkins. He has been doing this for decades. Technically, he is as sound and attentive as everyone else. I suspect that the long -time host would also like to stay in the afternoon window for a long time.

Sportradio is based on habits and familiarity, and the loss of three main supports will affect the product of the score if not the ratings. But maybe change may be a good thing.

The score had been relatively defined in the past three years, when Holmes, who did a solo afternoon show, replaced Rahimi (who briefly went back to television for a short time) as a co-moderator from Bernstein.

But then Parkins got his big job at Fox Sports 1 shortly before the football season.

The afternoon show, which he made with Spiegel, Riordan and Chris Tannehill, was only fun with the sports radio. Riordan always joked me about my love for her afternoon rivals on ESPN 1000, Marc Silverman and Tom Waddle, but I always wrap between the shows and I stay with what interests me. When this four -man started on the score, it was difficult to change the station.

Parkins from a local radio broadcast to the morning show on national television was a pretty big deal, and it even raised some of us to see what channel FS1 was. (But not quiz me about it.) But the aftermath of this movement will still be felt.

The new afternoon show is okay – Holmes knows how to make radio – but it's not the same and it is a big blow to lose Riordan.

He made an explanation on Twitter why he left the station or why the train station left him.

The amount of support that I received in the past few days was incredible. I don't have my career without you, the incredibly committed and appreciative listener.

Thanks for everything 🖤 pic.twitter.com/vsd4o0u09d

– Shane Riordan (@shane_riordan) May 4, 2025

I was told that it was mutual even though the timing was not decisive. Riordan thought about going when he was indicated in the post, but the bosses of the station chose the day when Rahimi (a good friend of his) was hired. Did you have to cut the salary? It would make sense. Audacy, the owner of the station, does not really thrive financially and only had layoffs across the country.

As soon as Holmes Parkins took place, the show changed, which in my opinion partially led to Riordan's departure. His time in the air decreased, but Riordan's greatest strength was the booking of guests, a lost art these days. His aggressiveness and feeling of the moment have brought him to enthusiasm with famous Chicago Sports radio opportunities (is that one thing?) Like Jesse Rogers and Randy Merkin.

When news had happened, Riordan was there and he knew how he pressed his hosts' buttons in and out of the air. He had the feeling that he needed his show to destroy the competition, and he produced it accordingly. The score will be boring without him, but it will collide back. With Barstool Sport in the city, I could see how he ended up in a production role.

If the Score bosses were intelligent, they would make sure that Tannehill is happy at the train station. He is the most indispensable person there and should be paid accordingly.

And now back to amber.

Less than a month after Parkins went to New York, Bernstein became viral during a transition with the afternoon exhibition to achieve a strange reaction.

Bernstein did not like, as he was greeted by “Barstool Eddie” Farrer, a barstool sports personality that was a guest with a mirror. Bernstein's oversized reaction during the awkwardness was caught on video (because every sports radio program is now a streaming show for some reason) and it was blown up when the barstool comment became wild to protect its own.

Holmes left the show to move to the co-moderator with a mirror in the afternoon. This opened Harris, who had been a regular filling out on the station since 2022. Harris came to Chicago from Sacramento in 2021 to work on TV, but was released as sports director at CBS 2 last summer. He had some sports radio experience in Philadelphia and was officially stopped at the end of September as a partner of Bernstein.

Bernstein and Harris lasted with regular third co-moderator Rahimi until the end of March. Then Bernstein's professional life exploded over X about X about a heated conversation.

Yes, a fish.

As a proud amateur angler, Bernstein liked to show its catches on social media. A troll accused him of killing a fish instead of throwing it back and Bernstein lost it. Threatened the identity of the poster and tweeted: “Do you want to involve your children”. It was so strange that it is difficult to believe that it actually happened.

Nobody was injured and nobody would have seen this nonsensical exchange, except that Twitter is full of people who have these exchanges of screenshot to bring other people into trouble. But Bernstein is certainly smart enough to know that nothing is private when it is tweeted. He had previously got into difficulties in this medium, and this was the last straw.

He had been at the train station for 30 years and his shooting has not produced much sympathy. The barstool people celebrated what was to be expected and many people in Chicago had a kind of reaction “they get what they deserve”. Amber polarizes to express it, and when he spoke in the air, if someone else is fired over a fish because of tweets, he would also make fun of her. (“Question my athlete” has now become a joke among reporters.)

People asked why I didn't write about it back then. I was on vacation and frankly the whole thing amazed me. Bernstein had a long, successful career and he has a family. He was smart, quirky and extremely knowledgeable. Losing his job because of something like that was only beating me as a terrible shame.

I didn't like it when the original Dan McNeil 2020 lost his job in 2020 (read here) via a tweet, and I felt just as much about amber. Yes, they were responsible for what they brought out there, but there is far too much focus on social media.

McNeil and amber were good in their work because they knew how to be committed, not always polite opinions in the air. This does not always translate the Twitter verses. If you have a public job, it is important to remember that you never have to answer there. But if you do this, do not contact a fish picture.

Whether they liked him or not, Bernstein is a great sports radio presenter, and his knowledge has made him a valuable capital. He is not for everyone and had many critics, but he was popular, as his appearances at the local media surveys in 2019 and 2022. I suspect you will soon find it in your own podcast, if not in barstool. I wish him all the best.

The same applies to the new midday team from Rahimi and Harris, both of whom had good relationships with Bernstein. You cannot replicate what Bernstein has brought up, nor should you try.

But they have five days a week to try to stay in the air as long as possible. Because it is one thing about the score, always changes.

That would be a good opening line for a panel discussion, right?

(Photo from the left of ex-Barr trainer Dave Wannstedt, Shane Riordan, Danny Parkins, Chris Tannehill and Matt Spiegel: With the kind permission of Shane Riordan)