I don't see any future for all news on 97.3 either. To make all-news work, you need a strong signal, strong personalities, and a strong local presence (both on air and in the community). And as we've seen with several all-news tryouts lately, sometimes that still isn't enough. It takes a lot of money and patience to invest into an all-news startup, and I don't think 97.3 is the kind of signal they'd want to make that kind of investment into. As for Columbus, I agree with what Del_griffith said: I applaud NABCO's effort, but I have serious doubts about their ability to stay in it for the long haul.
About the only way I could see anyone trying FM news or news/talk in Cincy right now is if CC flips WEBN to a WLW simulcast*. Most of the other big signals in town are doing well enough that the owners probably aren't going to want to kill off their current formats any time soon--though perhaps if all forms of Oldies, Country or Top 40 cycle down in a few years, that discussion might be worth revisiting.
(*Caveat: I could conceivably see CC putting WLW on an FM HD/translator combo. But I think that would be the means to test interest in a full-power WLW FM, not the end itself.)
All sports was also mentioned in this thread. While I think that could work on a slightly weaker signal, the station would need a few things:
1) to wrestle the ESPN and/or Fox Sports rights away from CC (Yahoo! Sports as your primary network isn't going to cut it, and FSR is unlikely since that is essentially a CC property);
2) to grab the Reds and/or Bengals rights away from CC (some college rights would be nice too, but in a pro-sports market you need a pro team to carry the station); and
3) at least one strong local drive-time host (Mo/Lance? Would either of them be strong enough to carry the station? Ken Broo possibly could, but unless he had some financial stake in the station I wouldn't see him leaving Ch. 5 for a M-F shift. Fuhrman's been out-of-sight, out-of-mind for too long in this market to make an impact, IMO.)
If Hubbard had their hearts set on doing all-sports in this market, I think they'd have deep enough pockets to fund it. But would the potential payoff be great enough for them to want to try? (I personally think they'd try something else first... Alternative ("The Sound") perhaps... but you never know.)