McDonough is determined to have all 82 Blackhawks games televised next season.
"We're talking to different partners," McDonough said Monday. "We haven't consummated anything, but I'm very confident all of our games will be televised."
As many as 25-30 could go on free, non-cable TV. WGN-Ch. 9, which carried Hawks games in the 1960s and early '70s, and WPWR-Ch. 50 are two possible landing spots.
The Hawks' main TV partner is Comcast SportsNet, which is broadcasting 39 road and 11 home games this season. Another two were on Versus, leaving some 30 untelevised games in Chicago.
Ratings for Hawks games on CSN are about equal to last season's 0.8, with 1 point equal to nearly 35,000 TV homes. ( The Bulls are averaging a 1.8 this season on CSN. The Sox did a 1.3 last season, while the Cubs averaged a 4.2.)
WGN would be nice for a larger audience, especially with HD.
