WINZ of change?

It's already been a month since credible rumors began to surface regarding the fate of Miami progressive talker WINZ (940AM). Word is that Clear Channel is ramping up a flip to the company's FOX Sports Radio, possibly by early March.

March is now here, and there's still no official word from Clear Channel on the flip to sports. In fact, the station has made one change, ditching the syndicated Don Imus for the morning Air America feed of Rachel Maddow's show. Never mind that it's only an hour long. WINZ is currently airing the entire four hour repeat feed.

Now, this strange move could, in fact, mean that a change is coming. It is quite likely that Imus was dropped (at the beginning of the month, no less) because of a potential flip, and the Maddow marathon is essentially a placeholder. Likely, the dropping of Imus could be some kind of contractual issue. The switch to sports could happen this month.

Again, no word yet on when (and/or if) this will happen. And certainly no affirmation that sports talk will be more successful on WINZ than their current format. In the overall ratings for Fall, WINZ topped the top sports station in the market, WQAM, 1.5 to 1.4. Granted, sports talk-formatted stations tend to rely more on much narrower demographics. But needless to say, with several other sports stations in the market already, and the fact that WINZ has built up a rather solid audience over the past several years, isn't this wholesale move to canned network sports talk a little half-baked?