BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WLW's on-air talent for the Bengals coverage this year reads like a list of the team's Hall of Fame: Boomer Esiason, Jeff Blake, Anthony Munoz, Cris Collinsworth and Sam Wyche.
"We prioritized the list with Boomer No. 1, Blake No. 2, Munoz three and Sam four," said WLW operations manager Bill Cunningham. "We'd figured we already had Cris. We said, "Can we get these guys, and how much is it going to cost?' We got all four. Jacor spent the money. The cost is approaching $200,000."
Here's the lineup:
Esiason will do a weekly Wednesday night show with Collinsworth. The show likely will be done live from New York, where Collinsworth and Esiason will be doing network work. The two did a show last year. Blake will do a live report at 7:40 a.m. Mondays.
Munoz will do a 7:40 a.m. report on Wednesdays, as well as special features.
Wyche will do an hour of SportsTalk, either Tuesday or Thursday, depending on his schedule.
Collinsworth's role on SportsTalk will be reduced. That was expected after Collinsworth signed to do Fox's pregame show, which requires weekly travel to Los Angeles.
His new contract calls for only one hour of SportsTalk from September through January. Collinsworth and the other four will be part of station's pregame show on Sundays from 9 a.m. to noon, with live call-ins and taped pieces.
Collinsworth's SportsTalk co-host, Andy Furman, will solo Tuesday through Friday. Tom Dinkel will co-host on the Bengals show on Mondays.
"SportsTalk is Furman's baby," Cunningham said.
Jacor did not sign the Two Angry Guys (Tom Gamble and Richard Skinner). Instead, Gamble and Skinner re-signed with WBOB-AM (1160). Jacor had offered them a show on "Homer" (WCKY-AM, 1360) and several fill-in dates on WLW.
No decision has been made on the time for Gamble's and Skinner's show, but it likely will be a five-day-a-week show.
WBOB program director Gary Bruce said the decision will be made after the Arbitron ratings come out Tuesday.
