Jay I am a diehard and without CHSN access my interest is proving hard to sustain. Lets be clear about CHSN: it absolutely can choose to move its over the air signal to a higher power subchannel so that more people can pull it in. It is a CHOICE they are making to keep it on the low power spectrum it selected. Aaaaannnnnndddd they could contract say with WCIU to carry at least the games CHSH broadcasts until CHSN gets carriage on Comcast. CHSN also needs to get over being put on the RSN tier. Something is better than nothing. Most of their hardcore viewers are already on that tier and the longer they go without carriage the casual fan will get less interested and less likely to pony up money to get the RSN tier. And Comcast will not budge on this. And CHSN knows this. The Rockies died on this hill for two years and Comcast didn’t budge. And Marquee is headed to the same tier. And Marquee WILL drive people to pay for the tier which will work to the benefit of CHSN. This is all so stupid and shortsighted. Just at dinner last night my 3 teenage multi sport high school athletes were telling me how they are surprised how little they miss not seeing the Bulls or Hawks play. This is a bleating red danger sign for the Hawks and the Bulls. Perhaps you can share this with the folks at the Blackhawks. They are rapidly on the road to losing a generation of fans. I am old enough to remember what happened in the late 80s when the NHL lost its national TV contract. I was in law school at IU at the time and since there was no local team there was no hockey to see at all. It took the better part of a decade for the NHL to recover. Out of sight is mostly out of mind. And what is surprising to me is how a lot of the granular game breakdown coverage on the Athletic and here and in the Sun Times and the Tribune is a workable substitute to keeping up with the team. Anyway, I am just beyond irritated by this. Its stupid. My kids did not even ask me to take them to a Hawks game this year for the first time ever, which, given the Hawks dependence on ticket revenue, should be a even more deeply worrying sign.

I didn’t realize the app was trashy. I loathe paying for Marquee (as an STH) but it works. I’m in the city so my antenna connection is great for all the crappy teams in Chicago. While prospects are fine and all Chicago should have never got into this mess. What is Kyle on his 4th coach now? It’s not like he just fell into this franchise. He has been here for 15 years making some decisions. The last few seasons are embarrassing at best. This franchise hasn’t done anything well in a decade.