The Score, the longtime Chicago sports radio leader which launched as a daytime-only AM station more than three decades ago, is adding an FM simulcast.

The full schedule of WSCR-AM 670, including Cubs and Bulls play-by-play, along with a roster of sports talk hosts such as “Mully & Haugh,” will air on co-owned 104.3 FM beginning Feb. 2., group station owner Audacy announced Wednesday.

“We’re excited to expand The Score’s reach through this FM simulcast, bringing our premier sports content to an even wider audience so they can join the conversation and stay connected to their favorite Chicago teams,” Kevin Cassidy, senior vice president and market manager of Audacy Chicago, said in a news release.

The FM simulcast will open up new listenership opportunities for The Score, but will also end the run for the music programming on WBMX 104.3 Jams, a  classic hip-hop station. The Score on WSCR-AM is tied for 12th among listeners in Chicago with a 2.9 share in December, while WBMX-FM is tied for 18th, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.

Audacy, the second-largest radio chain in the U.S. behind iHeartMedia, owns more than 220 stations nationwide and a large Chicago cluster that also includes news station WBBM-AM 780; Top-40 station WBBM-FM 96.3 (B96), country station WUSN-FM 99.5 (US-99); and legacy rock station WXRT-FM 93.1.

The Chicago stations were added by a 2017 megamerger with CBS Radio, whose acquisition precipitated a nine-month stay in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization for Philadelphia-based Audacy in 2024 amid mounting debt.

Immediately after the 2017 merger, 104.3 FM was flipped from classic hits to classic hip-hop. After more than eight years with the format, the station will soon be reborn as 104.3 The Score, broadcasting 24/7 sports.

“We’ve heard from The Score listeners and Chicago sports fans that they want to hear Chicago’s sports leader and Cubs and Bulls play-by-play on FM. We’re responding to that desire,” said Mitch Rosen, The Score’s vice president and brand manager.

Nationally, AM listenership has been in decline for years, losing ground to the clearer sound of FM radio, and more recently, satellite radio and the rise of digital media in the new millennium.

But Chicago remains one of the strongest AM markets in the country, led by WBBM-AM, WGN-AM  and WSCR-AM, which are perennial top-10 stations among local listeners.

There is precedent nonetheless for simulcasting legacy AM stations on FM to extend their reach. In 2011, then-owner CBS Radio began simulcasting WBBM-AM on 105.9 FM, bolstering its status as Chicago’s leading news station.

When The Score simulcast hits the airwaves next month in Chicago, it will be the 20th Audacy FM station to broadcast sports programming, the company said.

The Score, which launched in 1992 as a daytime-only station at AM 820, long ago shifted to a full-time frequency at 670 AM, becoming the leading sports talk station in Chicago. Adding an FM simulcast will likely boost its audience even more.

There is however, at least one cautionary tale of an FM sports talk flameout in recent Chicago radio history.  The Game, 87.7 FM, WGN’s entry into FM sports talk, lasted less than a year in 2014 before low ratings forced owners to pull the plug.

The station, which is actually a low-powered TV signal, eventually found success under new owners, Weigel Broadcasting. It was rebranded as MeTV FM and programmed with an eclectic oldies format that turned 87.7 FM into a competitive radio station. MeTV FM is currently ranked 16th in Chicago with a 2.2 share, according to Nielsen.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com