New at oldies WLS-FM: Winston & Miller
In a seismic shift involving four of radio’s best known voices, Fred Winston moves in to afternoons, Brant Miller returns to mornings, Greg Brown moves up to middays, and Scott Shannon moves out at oldies WLS-FM (94.7).
All four moves, announced Friday, mark a wholesale realignment of the daytime lineup at the Cumulus Media station, which is being rebranded Chicago's Classic Hits.
WLS-FM mornings go in ‘different direction’ without Fogel
Robservations on the media beat:
- It’s over and out for Dave Fogel after more than two years as morning personality at oldies WLS-FM (94.7). He learned his fate when he got off the air at 10:30am Thursday. Part-timer Tom O’Toole is expected to fill in Friday alongside co-host Marti Jones, who’s staying on. “We’re going in a different direction in morning drive,” said Jan Jeffries, senior vice president of programming for Cumulus Media and program director of WLS-FM. No word yet on what’s next. Fogel, who joined WLS in March 2010 from KCKC-FM in Kansas City, previously worked in Chicago at hot adult-contemporary WTMX-FM (101.9) and classic rock WLUP-FM (97.9). In the latest Arbitron survey, his morning show tied for 13th place among listeners between 25 and 54 with a 2.7 percent share.
- Randy Michaels is telling his friends in the trade press that I’m wrong. When asked to comment on my report here Tuesday that GTCR, the private equity firm that bankrolled Michaels’ Merlin Media, was looking to sell its stations, Michaels issued the same statement to Radio Business Report and Radio Ink: “Merlin Media is not for sale.” And that’s all he wrote. Who knows? Maybe Randy hasn’t seen the prospectus. But I’m heartened by the lead story in Wednesday’s Inside Radio (“Merlin Media’s investors are ready to cut their losses and shop the four-station group”) and by veteran industry analyst Jerry Del Colliano who wrote in Inside Music Media: “When Feder says Merlin’s money people, GTCR, are ‘actively seeking buyers,’ I’m thinking I might believe a man who has been correct in his reporting for an entire career compared to a bloviating ex-swashbuckling radio dude.”
Outpouring of support for Don Wade ‘overwhelming’
Robservations on the media beat:
- Prayers and well-wishes have been pouring in to news/talk WLS-AM (890) since listeners learned Monday about morning host Don Wade’s upcoming surgery to remove a growth from his brain. “The response has truly been overwhelming,” said Donna Baker, vice president and market manager of Cumulus Media in Chicago. “Many thousands have written in — and they’re really heartwarming. This man has friends who are praying for him all over the world.” Wade, 71, who has hosted mornings on WLS with his wife, Roma, since 1989, is scheduled for surgery Thursday in Chicago. The station has an email account at: getwelldon@gmail.com.
Konkol leaves Sun-Times to write for DNAInfo Chicago
Mark Konkol, the Chicago journalism superstar who won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting last year, is leaving the Sun-Times to join the startup of a hyperlocal digital news service covering city neighborhoods.
Konkol, 38, resigned Monday after eight years at the Sun-Times to become writer at large at DNAInfo.com Chicago, which is expected to launch this fall online and over a variety of mobile platforms.
Fox Chicago shuffles anchors on noon, weekend newscasts
Readers of this blog saw it coming more than a month ago, but Fox Chicago finally made it official: Anna Davlantes and Kori Chambers will anchor the station’s noon newscast, starting October 8.
While continuing to host Good Day Chicago (which Chambers anchors with Dawn Hasbrouck from 5 to 7am, and Davlantes anchors with Corey McPherrin from 7 to 10am), the duo will replace noon anchor Patrick Elwood, who’ll shift to feature reporting in the morning. Elwood had been anchoring solo at noon since Jan Jeffcoat left in July.
WLS host Don Wade faces brain surgery after seizure
Don Wade, the morning star of WLS-AM (890) and a mainstay of Chicago radio for 30 years, will undergo surgery this week to remove a growth from his brain.
Doctors discovered the growth after Wade, 71, suffered a seizure September 13 in New York. He was there with his wife and radio partner, Roma Wade, to attend the wedding of their daughter, Heather. They participated in the wedding as planned.
Neurosurgeons will remove the growth in an operation scheduled for Thursday in Chicago, according to the Wades’ agent, Eliot Ephraim. No other details were disclosed. Both Don and Roma are expected to be off the air for at least four to six weeks.
Building blogs: Sun-Times hires Gilmer as digital editor
Robservations on the media beat:
- Marcus Gilmer, the new media wunderkind who’s been blogging for Chicago Public Media, is joining the Sun-Times as digital editor/blogs and traffic. He starts October 9. Sun-Times editor-in-chief Jim Kirk said Gilmer “has his finger on the digital pulse of Chicago and has great ideas on how to build readership online,” adding: “We are making a bigger investment in blogs and he will help lead our efforts in this important arena.” Since August, Gilmer has been writing Punching Up the News, the daily news blog for wbez.org. He previously was editor-in-chief of Chicagoist and associate editor of The A.V. Club, the pop culture sister publication of The Onion.
Sundays will be starting earlier for WGN’s Richards
Add Dean Richards' Sunday Morning to radio’s early risers: Starting October 7, Chicago’s preeminent entertainment reporter and critic will be hosting his weekly radio show from 6:30 to 11am Sundays on Tribune Co.-owned news/talk WGN-AM (720).
WGN’s Skilling: Grateful ‘beyond words’ for 10-year deal
Humble and self-effacing as always, Tom Skilling said he was “beyond words” in expressing gratitude for his 10-year contract extension as chief meteorologist at Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Channel 9.
Confirming a report here Wednesday, Skilling told the Chicago Tribune he’d committed to another decade at the station where he’s been a franchise player since 1978. If he works to the end of the contract in 2022, Skilling will be 70 years old and will have reigned as king of Chicago weather for 44 years.
Former Chicago exec isn’t retiring his love for radio
Word that a west suburban AM radio station was changing call letters to WCKG Wednesday prompted the man who put the original WCKG on the air in Chicago more than 27 years ago to reach out and reminisce.
“I sent the GM a note with my best wishes,” said Marc Morgan, who was vice president and general manager when Cox Radio transformed 105.9 FM from WAGO to WCKG in March 1985. “Spurred some great memories.” Through a variety of formats and multiple owners, the call letters endured until 2007 when CBS Radio flipped the station to WCFS. It’s now a full-time simulcast of all-news WBBM-AM (780).
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