Todd Brommelkamp / 1600ESPN
“Chicago Cubs baseball is on the air.”
If you’re not familiar with that phrase, you soon will be.
It’s how Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Pat Hughes welcomes listeners to Cubs games on the radio, and you’ll hear if for the first time on 1600ESPN Tuesday, March 18, when the Cubs play the Dodgers in Japan.
That’s right, our station is Eastern Iowa’s new home for Cubs radio broadcasts during the 2025 season (and, hopefully, beyond).
I wish I could take credit for this development — or blame from non-Cubs fans — but I had very little to do with this, though I certainly do welcome it.
The Cubs are by far the most popular Major League Baseball team in Eastern Iowa. A survey conducted by this station in 2010 indicated the only topic that was of greater interest to the listeners of 1600 was the Iowa Hawkeyes. A look at Facebook data from about a decade ago showed just under 1 in every 4 baseball fans in Johnson and Linn counties back the Cubs. No other team was in double digits.
Yet listening to the Cubs, especially in Cedar Rapids, wasn’t easy depending on what time of day games were being played. Now, thanks to our leadership team at 1600ESPN, that won’t be an issue. When the Cubs are on their flagship 670AM in Chicago, they’ll be on here all across Eastern Iowa. Now, there will be some exceptions due to other contractual obligations, but we’ll be doing our best to keep those conflicts to a minimum.
In many ways this is a homecoming of sorts. Not all that long ago, 1600 was the local radio affiliate for Cubs broadcasts. That changed sometime in the last 20 years. I have a stack of Cubs media guides in my basement but there is a gap between recent years and the early 2000s, so I wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact season they disappeared from our lineup. It certainly occurred before I came on board in 2011. Now, the Cubs are back and better than ever. The last time they aired on our station you could only hear the games on AM. Now we have 102.3 FM in Cedar Rapids and 106.3 FM in Iowa City, both of which will allow for a much clearer presentation for those within the reach of our towers.
The Cubs are coming off back-to-back 83-win seasons, but there’s reason for optimism on the north side of Chicago this summer. Manager Craig Counsell’s team is favored to win the division, and the addition of slugger Kyle Tucker gives the Cubs a big bat in the heart of the lineup. Mainstays like Gold Glove-winners Ian Happ and Dansby Swanson are back as well as a host of young players like centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. On the mound, Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele provide the team with one of the best 1-2 lefty combinations in the game. Cascade native Colin Rea is also vying for a spot at the back end of the rotation this spring.
While this addition to our lineup won’t be welcome by everyone, it makes the station better and stronger in the face of an ever-changing industry.
Welcome back, Cubs. You’re home (again).
Todd Brommelkamp is the host of “The Todd Brommelkamp Show” and can be heard weekday mornings on 1600ESPN from 6:30 to 9 a.m.
