In its first season airing Bears games, ESPN 1000 changed how broadcasts sounded. The station gave Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer more room to call the action by minimizing ad reads. It also took calls from fans during halftime, a novel approach to a time of the game listeners generally tune out.
It produced local shows before and after the network pregame and postgame shows, turning game days into marathons of Bears programming. And the station used many of its regular talk-show hosts to keep the continuity of its sound and introduce them to new listeners.
