A busy day yesterday in Chicago radio.

Both dailies reported that Bonneville agreed to give its classic
rocker WLUP (the Loop) to Emmis Broadcasting, owner of modern rocker
WKQX (Q101) in exchange for three Emmis stations in Phoenix--top-rated
AM news-talker KTAR, "AC" KKLT (Jack FMish the Peak) and ESPN Radio
sports talk KMVP. Emmis will take over the Loop on Nov. 1 through a
broker agreement until the FCC approves the trade. Bonneville also
owns in the Chicago market classic hits WDRV (the Drive), 80s/90s
oldies WNND and modern AC WTMX (the Mix).

Q101 is locked in a war for the young male Chicago rock listener with
ABC's active rocker WZZN (the Zone), which in the most recent
Arbitrons it is winning by only one-tenth of a rating point. The
Drive's softer, older skewing sound is performing better for
Bonneville than the "classic rock that really rocks" approach of the
Loop, but there are some that believe that atmosphere of the Latter
Day Saints Church-owned Bonneville has made it hard for the Loop to
perform as well as it could. There are also rumors that Emmis may
move Q101's controversial morning man Mancow Muller to the Loop and
bring the station back to its 90s heyday as a young-skewing talker in
competition with Infinity's WCKG. We shall see.

In addition, Salem and Univision made some dealing--with Salem giving
CCM WZFS (the Fish), along with San Francisco CCM KFSB (the Bridge) to
Univision in exchange for Spanish contemporary AM station WIND (La
Tremenda), along with Houston's salsa/merengue KOBT (Orbita 100.7),
Dallas' Tejano KHCK (Kick 1480 AM) and Sacramento's KOSL. Salem also
owns religious talk WYLL-AM in the Chicago market, while Univision
owns regional Mexican WOJO (Que Buena), the dominant Spanish-language
station in the market, and the Latin AC WVIV/WVIX "Viva" metrocast.

It's expected that Univision will flip the Fish to some sort of
Spanish format, which will probably enrage its listeners in the same
way almost every flip from an English to Spanish format does.
Meanwhile, Salem may return WIND to an English news-talker, as it was
before Westinghouse sold the station in 1984 to Univision predecessor
Tichenor. However, while Group W's view of news-talk was relatively
middle-of-the-road, Salem is expected to do a conservative talk format
featuring its stable of syndicated hosts including Michael Medved,
Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt. With ABC's WLS flailing about without
a GM and losing some of its key local personalities, the time would be
right for another hot talker to make an impact in the market. We will
be watching this in the months ahead.