T Dog’s Think Tank: The White Sox uses the CBS Chicago blueprint for its Fan Alienation Plan

Chicago’s South Side MLB team resembles CBS Chicago’s ratings disasters in every way possible 

In the early 2000s, then-Chicago Tribune media critic Steve Johnson noted the management at CBS-owned WBBM-TV implemented what he called a “Viewer Alienation Plan”, a series of bad decisions repelling viewers from the station throughout the 1990s, including tabloid newscasts, awful anchor pairings, and a deer-in-headlight look from reporters who wished they’d worked somewhere else (I wrote about this plan in a 2007 piece when the station was in…you guessed it, last place.)

Like the modern-day CBS Chicago – or CBS 2 – or whatever you call the station these days, the Chicago White Sox are in last place and the worst team in baseball by far. Over the last few years, the team adopted a Fan Alienation Plan of its own – re-hiring Tony LaRussa as manager, replacing him with the arrogant and recently-fired Pedro Grifol, and decidedly poor play on the field, resulting in the fourth-lowest attendance in baseball and threatening the 1962 New York Mets’ record for the worst of all time. 

The team has become a national punchline – much like the Los Angeles Clippers back in the day (and still are), with the White Sox winning a title in the last 54 years the only difference. The team recently went on a record-tying 21-game losing streak – earning national attention for the wrong reasons, and had a fourteen-game losing streak earlier this season.

The White Sox won only 29 games this year as of this writing. By comparison, all but four teams in the NHL and seven teams in the NBA won more games this previous season – with an 82-game schedule.

Just as bad, the White Sox’s telecasts have taken a nosedive in quality this season, placing dead last in Awful Announcing’s annual MLB announcing poll thanks to village idiot John Schriffen replacing Jason Benetti as lead play-by-play man this season, who has been salvaged by fans and critics alike, including this site. 

While announcing on Wednesday a reduction in season-ticket prices for next season, White Sox marketing chief Brooks Boyer – who is still marketing the team like it’s still 1998, announced Schriffen and partner Steve Stone – who hinted at retirement recently – will return next season as the team shifts its telecasts to the new Chicago Sports Network – a new regional sports network being launched at a time when the RSN is going away.  

And with 46 days until launch – today is August 15 mind you, Chicago Sports Network does not have any distribution deals lined up with cable or satellite operators or any direct-to-consumer subscription plans announced. As for the over-the-air concept for the future home of the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks, they would be lucky to get ultra-low-rated religious independent WJYS to carry their games since the barely visible ratings they earn match each team’s win percentage. Other stations in town would get higher ratings with 48 Hours reruns or one of those Byron Allen court shows.

Chalk it up to the idiotic ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf, who is making the late CBS chairman Larry Tisch look at least halfway competent when he owned the network from 1986 to 1995 given the White Sox are more embarrassing than Central Park West or The Pat Sajak Show. I can’t imagine anyone tuning in to this team on lame-duck NBC Sports Chicago, who decided to let Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillen loose on the pre-and post-game shows in hash-mark ratings hell. Ratings for White Sox games have been pitiful, as the team finished dead last among all baseball teams at least three times in the last decade. 

With his new CHSN pet project, it’s not enough that Reinsdorf wants to be the world’s worst sports owner – he wants to be the world’s worst television executive(s) as well, a title currently held by Warner Bros. Disocvery’s David Zaslav and the trio of CEOs who run CBS Chicago parent Paramount Global, given they laid off fifteen percent of its workforce and shut down Paramount’s TV studio but somehow has funds to buy reruns of Family Guy for dying cable network Comedy Central and hiring former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for a four-day DNC analyst stint at CBS Chicago. 

Speaking of the CBS station division – stupidly named CBS News And Stations, it recently forced a drab black-and-white graphics look on all its owned stations and a lame generic music theme for its newscasts. Despite CBS Chicago’s critically acclaimed investigation into police raids a few years ago, a scandal erupted at the station division costing CBS Chicago its GM and regressing in quality while continuing to languish in last place. In Detroit, CBS’ WWJ-TV’s return to local newscasts was a disaster, while in Los Angeles, KCBS-TV newscasts’ identity was stripped away as CBS slapped the branding of lesser sister station KCAL on them in one of the dumbest marketing moves I’ve ever seen. Is Brooks Boyer also running the marketing department at CBS? I see the Viewer Alienation Plan is still in effect. 

Since Reinsdorf and White Sox management have no interest in making the team look at least halfway presentable on the field or the tube, they’ll be in last place for years to come in the American League Central and at the bottom of the TV ratings – just like CBS Chicago. If CHSN is looking for a broadcast home, The Church Of Tisch would be the right fit.