Category: Business

WGN-AM 720 midday host Mike McConnell has been removed from the station’s on air line-up… kind of. He will now be heard, exclusively via the station’s website on WGNRadio.com’s Livestream Ch. 2, an online-only secondary stream channel (usually reserved for re-airing of older shows).

From Mike McConnell’s Facebook page earlier this morning:

Hello friends,

We’re starting something new today. A PODCAST!
Some of the show will be prerecorded and some live.

The live portion will stream at 11:00am cdt and your calls are welcome.

The phone number is WGN’s old number 312-591-7200.

When you call you will go directly on hold and hear the stream.

There is no call screener and for now I’m experimenting with how to best put it together.

The show will then stream in it’s entirerty at 3:00pm cdt.

I typed this whole damn thing myself believe it or not. Just part of my commitment to the listening public.

Talk to you later.

Mike Mc

For all intent and purposes, this appears to be the station’s way of getting around his contractual obligations. McConnell’s three year anniversary at WGN was Friday, Aug. 9. Though terms of his contract were not made public, speculation was his multi-year deal ran anywhere between three to five years.

Listeners wishing to listen to him will have to seek out WGN Radio’s Livestream Ch. 2 feed at WGNRadio.com. The show will be made available in the afternoon as a podcast. It will be interesting to see what kind of effort the station will make to promote McConnell’s online shows.

The station is now free to program anyone they wish during his 10am-3pm slot, which as of this writing, is written as “WGN DAYTIME” on WGN’s website. Various fill-in hosts are scheduled to host during those times for the rest of this week.

Today’s McConnell broadcast was described on air by the host himself as an “ill conceived concept.” McConnell is left to answer any calls himself, many of which so far have been wrong numbers. At times, random dial tones and other phone sounds are heard in the middle of breaks and sometimes during live segments. Today’s show appears to be a “shoot from the hip” test day, more or less to get the bugs out.

It would appear for now that WGN is attempting to utilize the high priced McConnell via the cheapest means possible.

With McConnell now out of the way, it would seem logical that the station will soon announce their revamped program scheduled sooner rather than later.

On Friday, news broke that John Jurkovic, veteran host at WMVP-AM/ESPN 1000, was resigned to a multi-year renewal. This is the latest of moves made by the station plagued with years of downward ratings.

The impetus for ESPN 1000’s ratings woes by and large came in Jan. 2009 with the sudden exit of superstar host Dan McNeil, who months later would resurface on WSCR-AM/670 The Score. McNeil’s ESPN 1000 exit was a self-inflicted wound since it was Jim Pastor, the station’s then general manager, who gave him the boot.

McNeil’s former afternoon co-hosts Harry Teinowitz and Jurkovic were joined by Carmen DeFalo to help steer the ship, while Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman would continue to hold the fort during middays. Since then, it seemed to be a matter of when, not if, the “Waddle and Silvy” show would eventually move to afternoons.

Months turned into years, while ratings fell deeper, further distancing themselves from the Score.

In March, and a little more than four years following the station’s last significant programming change, ESPN 1000 was ready for change. Gone was Teinowitz, leaving DeFalco and Jurkovic the remaining two hosts in afternoons. In April, the station pulled the trigger on moving “Waddle and Silvy” to afternoons while “Carmen and Jurko” moved to middays (but not after also renewing DeFalco’s contract). A few other programming tweaks made room during the 9 a.m. hour for Colin Cowherd’s nationally syndicated ESPN Radio show, “The Herd.”

The station was quick to tout themselves as the “all new ESPN 1000.”

Ugh, perhaps, more like a fresh coat of paint?

While I don’t think the swapping of the “Carmen and Jurko” and” Waddle and Silvy” shows will mean much in the long-run, there are a few justifications for at least trying.

1. Waddle and Silvy’s continued relationship with Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. With Cutler appearing as a weekly guest during Bears season, afternoons may allow for added exposure. This may hold more weight if the appearances take place as sponsored remotes, in which more people may be able to attend after their work day.
2. Even though the Score’s “Boers and Bernstein” show is doing very well in the ratings, a lot of people don’t like the awkward, brash, silly and tension that often accompanies the show. Those not liking B&B who previously may not have warmed up to “Carmen and Jurko” may potentially warm up to “Waddle and Silvy.” This, however, is dicey because the many who can’t stand B&B still listen anyways (which is the same reason why people read Jay Mariotti in the Chicago Sun-Times each day).

Another glaring hole in the programming department is the “ESPN 1000 Post Game Show.” Featuring noteworthy segments from the day’s “Waddle and Silvy” and “Carmen and Jurko” shows, the 6 p.m. hour is more or less a throwaway. Since the station continues local programming on most weeknights from 7 to 10 p.m., would it hurt to eliminate the “Post Game Show” and offer an additional hour of live programming, preferably with Jonathan Hood?

I would like for ESPN 1000 to put up more of a fight. I’ve been listening on and off to AM 1000 since the mid 1990s (dating prior to the ESPN Radio takeover in 1998). I’ve also had the privilege of meeting some of their personalities through the years. Personal bias aside, I admit that my ESPN 1000 listening has decreased in sync with other Chicago sports fans who now get most of their sports talk from the Score.

Four months after the swapping of the “Carmen and Jurko” and “Waddle and Silvy” shows, ratings appear to be stagnant. And with Teinowitz’s firing in March, he so far is the lone scapegoat for the station’s ratings woes.

For all we know, overtaking the Score may not be the ultimate goal for ESPN 1000 management, or that of ESPN Radio corporate in Bristol, CT. As long as revenues meet expectations, they just might be content with second place.

On the surface, that appears to be the playbook they are abiding by.

Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano, the soon to be full-time WGN-AM 720 hosts, are warming up the pipes in anticipation for their eventual debut to weekdays. As for now, they are simply filling in for the vacationing Mike McConnell. The couple filled in yesterday from 12  to 3 p.m. and will be on again tomorrow and Monday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Though WGN President and General Manager Jimmy de Castro acknowledged the couple’s hiring to Chicago media journalist Robert Feder, no official start day or time slot has been announced.

Larz at ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com has repeatedly hinted that McConnell, who now holds down the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. slot (while the 2 p.m. hour is occupied by various part-time hosts) is likely on his way out in the coming weeks, leaving the entire 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. time up for grabs. Sirott and Murciano would likely inherit a two or three hour show within those hours while the remaining time could go to either Bill Leff, the station’s overnight host, or Steve Cochran, who recently returned to the station as a fill-in host.

Sunday night host Brian Noonan, who has been deemed a rising star, recently announced that he had accepted a full-time job outside of radio, thus eliminating him as potential replacement for middays.

At this time, the only sure thing is that Sirott and Murciano will soon be heard five days a week on WGN. Anything outside of that is simply rumor or speculation. For all we know, de Castro may have a few more aces up his sleeve, leaving the potential for this to play out completely different.

Plenty of chatter has been devoted to the pending exits of both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from the 40 or so Cumulus-owned news/talk stations they currently have shows broadcasting on. Locally, such a move would obviously have a significant impact on WLS-AM 890’s program schedule (Limbaugh 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.,  Hannity via tape delay 6-9 p.m.).

Further dents in the WLS program schedule is the last thing that station needs right now.

The current trainwreck at WLS was something I was meaning to bring up here, however, there was some good discussion about the station in recent days on the ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com message board.

There’s no question that WLS had a few rough months with the sudden death of midday host Jake Hartford and the exit of morning hosts Don Wade & Roma. Not helping was the reassignment of Drew Hayes (station’s operation director) to KABC-AM in Los Angeles. However, the rough patch the station had was near the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013. We’re on the eve of August and WLS is merely treading water with hands tied behind its back.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the new morning show with Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft. At least Don Wade or even someone like Jerry Agar (early midday host in 2008 and 2009, now early midday host at NewsTalk 1010/CFRB-AM in Toronto) understood radio and had an art for creating compelling discussion, even if you didn’t agree with them. Proft doesn’t come close. Instead he preaches, except when he is awkwardly tiptoeing around Wolf.

I have not listened to enough of John Kass and Lauren Cohn, the station’s early midday hosts, to have an honest opinion. Many people on the CRM board have written that Kass personifies the old  adage “a voice for print” (not sure if that is really an adage… if not, then I’m making it up). Kass often writes compelling content in his Chicago Tribune column, but from the little I have heard, it doesn’t carry over on the air while he is host.

I’ve been a listener of Roe Conn since the late 1990s when he was paired with Garry Meier. Conn’s show has had ups and downs through the years, depending on who he’s been partnered or sidekicked with. The current arrangement with Richard Roeper is not my favorite. Not sure if Roeper is the problem or if I grew tired of the Jim Johnson (now retired) and Christina Filliagi act. I’ve also been a victim of bad luck when attempting to listen to their show. I’ll say eight out of 10 times when trying, I hear commercials. The commercial breaks are long and often. Not helping is the ridiculous “Traffic & Weather – First on the Fives,” which after more than a year, are still prominently unsponsored (!).

The commercial content and repetitive traffic problems apply to the station’s morning and early midday shows as well.

I have a hard time getting past Conn’s continued stammering while telling a story. He often comes across as one with severe ADHD while telling a story and becoming distracted, either by someone else in studio or because a new thought popped into his head. I can put that aside because Conn is highly intelligent and has a fairly realistic point of view when it comes to analyzing the relevant news of the day.

The morning and early midday shows are incredibly dull and the chemistry during the afternoon show just doesn’t click with me.

As bad as it is at WLS, it could be a lot worse. Cumulus, the number two largest radio ownership in the country (which includes WLS), could have cancelled much of the local programming many months ago and had replaced it with syndicated crap. To their credit, they’ve resisted so far.

While things there could be a lot worse, they also could be a lot better. It’s a shame that no one else there seemingly thinks so.