The CBS Radio President/CEO says "Fresh 105.9" "was well-programmed and we thought it could compete in this female market." But he tells Time Out Chicago's Robert Feder that in the end, "It would have required more time and energy, so we decided at that point, OK, we'll go ahead and bite the bullet on the value of the FM, simulcast [all-news] WBBM-AM, and hope for the best." Another reason Mason made the decision to blow up "Fresh" is that Chicago market manager Rod Zimmerman predicted that with the addition of an FM simulcast, WBBM (780) might become the country's #1 biller as early as 2013. As an AM-only operation, WBBM-AM did $42.5 million last year. Hubbard's all-news WTOP, Washington, D.C. did $57.2 million in the BIA rankings. Mason decided to go for it, especially in the face of new competition from Merlin Media's "FM News 101.1" WWWN. As for his remaining FMs, Mason says "our music programmers have a tendency to get dejected when a music station goes away to a spoken word station. But I say it's really good for them, because it means less competition...I think [rhythmic WBBM-FM] B96 and [classic hits WJMK] K-Hits will be better off, because they're all in that 18-49 and 25-54 marketplace. With less competition, they'll both get stronger."