McCown hits jackpot


by William Houston
globeandmail.com
September 4th, 2007


It seems appropriate that the 15th anniversary of The Fan 590 sports radio station in Toronto would fall on or about the day that its leading personality signed a multimillion-dollar contract.

Bob McCown, host of The Fan's afternoon drive show, has agreed to a five-year deal with the station, backdated to January. The contract will take him through 2011, after which, he says, he will probably retire when he's 60.

McCown, over the years, has consistently declined to discuss salary, but, based on the compensation for top radio personalities in the Toronto market, he will earn more than $500,000 a year and in excess of $2.5-million over the course of the deal.

It's a healthy stipend for a Canadian sports broadcaster, but McCown would argue he's worth the money.

After all, he consistently leads all shows on The Fan in audience share. That makes him the station's leading earner and most popular personality.

Still, there have been plenty of highs and lows for McCown and The Fan. In the mid-1990s, the station almost went under because of an onerous Toronto Blue Jays radio contract negotiated at the peak of team's success in 1992.

“There was no way the station could be profitable with the amount of money it was spending on the Blue Jays,” McCown said Tuesday. “Now, the guy who did that deal and was subsequently fired, [sports executive Paul Williams], never really grasped that, or didn't care, I don't know.”

When Williams resurfaced at The Score Television Network, he tried to hire McCown away from The Fan by offering him a huge contract to run The Score's TV operation and also launch a syndicated radio network.

“I immediately went back to The Fan and sat down with [station general manager] Doug Ackhurst and [program director] Nelson Millman and said here's the offer,” McCown recalled. “Ackhurst waited about two seconds, got up, shook my hand and said: ‘It's a great offer. We wish you the best of luck. We hate to lose you.' ”

The next morning, Millman called McCown with a counteroffer. McCown chose to stay with The Fan, despite leaving $200,000 over three years on the table from the rejected Score deal.

The next destination for Williams, after he left The Score, was CHUM Radio, where he launched an all-sport radio network that aired national programming from Toronto.

It was a concept doomed to failure because the lifeblood of sports radio is not national, but rather local content. But the Williams-led initiative didn't lack in confidence. One CHUM executive predicted The Fan, unable to fight off the new challenge, would fold in a year.

“They were extremely cocky,” McCown said. “Williams had a grudge. He hated me, perhaps blaming me for getting fired at The Score.”

CHUM's sports radio network lasted 16 months, after which the flagship station in Toronto, Team 1050, threw in the towel and went back to airing golden oldies.

But the CHUM sports stations in the cities outside Toronto – Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver – stayed alive by airing local programming.

CHUM spawned these all-sport stations, but The Fan established the model. And the working model was based largely on McCown's afternoon drive show, which kept call-ins to a minimum, discussed issues rather than athletes and kept most of the conversation on the home team.

“We don't do athletes,” McCown said. “Principally, we look for stories and issues that can spark conversation or debate.”

‘Russians cheated'

Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada notes that his Fan 590 radio show, Grapeline, predates the station's all-sport format to the days when it aired on CJCL and CFRB in Toronto. “The show's been on the radio for 23 years,” Cherry said. “We're now syndicated on 110 stations and have a audience of 1.2 million a week.”

We couldn't let Cherry go without asking him about the eight-game junior Super Series, which Canada leads 4-0. “Did you really think the Russians would play fair?” he asked. “They had played their second exhibition game and we hadn't even been on the ice. As usual, the Russians cheated. We don't know how long they've been together.

“And they are absolutely terrified. The key is they don't want the puck. But you know what really infuriates me? One of the announcers says the New York Rangers are really counting on one of the Russians – I-cut-your-finger-off or whatever his name is [Alexei Cherepanov]. He did nothing in the tournament. I mean, these guys don't even want the puck.”

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