Blogs

C.R.M. Blogs
Archive of blogs from 2010 with thoughts on Chicago area media & much more written by Larz.

Record Store Day 2010

Details: Published on Friday, 16 April 2010 06:29

Tomorrow is an international holiday. It may not show up on that calendar you bought late last year, but it is a holiday nonetheless. Tomorrow, April 17, 2010 is Record Store Day.

The Jim Laski Disgrace

Details: Published on Friday, 26 March 2010 00:59

In the last two years, WGN-AM has made a lot of moves and major changes, both on the radio and behind the scenes. This time period has coincided with a new regime change within the station and within the Tribune Company itself. While some change is always needed, many of the changes have confused and confounded everybody from those who worked (or still work) at the station to those who enjoyed listening to it.

Randy Michaels: Tribune CEO & "Hell"-raiser

Details: Published on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 14:20

Yesterday, Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels wrote a long memo to WGN-AM news Director Charlie Myerson, who in turn passed it on to the WGN News Staff. This memo contained almost 120 commonly-used words and phrases that are now banned from ever being spoken on WGN Radio's airwaves. To add insult to injury, in addition to the memo from the top of Tribune Tower, makeshift "bingo cards" were handed out to the staff, each containing some of the now-forbidden words. staffers are to use these cards to "tattle" on a co-worker, who may slip up and say a phrase he or she shouldn't say.

The LaShon Kids Fund

Details: Published on Sunday, 07 March 2010 12:18

As a follow-up to yesterday's piece on the sad passing of LaShon Bilbro-Beverly, I know have the information for those who would like to contribute to the fund to help care for her children.

WXRT Loses A Beloved Family Member

Details: Published on Saturday, 06 March 2010 10:51

For 10 years, the heart & soul of WXRT was not one of their talented radio personalities, not one of their highly regarded managers or executives, and not any "big name" star. The heart & soul of WXRT was LaShon Bilbro.

How To Make An Emmis Sports Talker Work In Chicago

Details: Published on Thursday, 18 February 2010 06:56

On Tuesday, the talk around town was all about the speculation about a possible third sports talk radio station coming to Chicago. This was largely based on a blog from very early that morning from Ed Sherman. I even wrote a blog about it on Tuesday, where I weighed the pros and cons of the possibility of Emmis Communications doing this. My conclusion was that, based on various factors like Emmis' financial struggles and the probable competition for listeners and ad dollars by this time next year, that a third (or fourth by then) straight-up sports talker would not work. Unless...

There is one way it could possibly work. If Emmis went with a hybrid station, all of which openly appealed to one demographic: Males 25-54.

All of the following is based off of the speculation (and speculation is ALL that this is at this point) that Emmis is looking to flip one of its two properties in order to carry Chicago White Sox & sports broadcasts. Between WLUP & WKQX, WLUP has the long-standing "Loop" branding that just can't be thrown away. That leaves WKQX as the likely flippee. For the sake of this blog, I am going with the idea of Jeff Smulyan will flip Q101 to a new format at the start of next year. I'm also assuming that he wants to do this so bad that he is willing to gamble the company's money and give up Q101's revenue in order to achieve this goal.

To do a full-on 24/7 sports station would not work, for the reasons mentioned in the previous blog. There only so many sports fans and so many sports advertisers to go around. With WSCR, WMVP and possibly a WSCR FM simulcast on the air by this time next year, a new sports station has a slim chance of survival. However, flipping WKQX to a station that has sports, talk, comedy and rock, all geared toward men has a much better chance of survival. Most programmers know that sports radio has a predominately male audience. It shows up at or near the top of the Male 25-54 ratings, but near the bottom of the Female 25-54 ratings. Why even bother hiding the fact? Make it a "man's" station.

Absolutely sign the White Sox to three-year deal! Even allow Jerry Reinsdorf to be a partner in the new station. Bring on some sports talkers, too. Mike North wants back in radio. His CBS2 morning show will probably be history by 2011, so you now have a morning show. A very good morning show if Dan Jiggetts joins up. Mike Murphy will be available, too. As long as he is willing to show some love to the southsiders and not just his beloved northside baseball team, he would work fine there. A good White Sox pre- & post-game shows would be needed, too. Steve Dahl is available in the summer of 2011, but for the right price, can leave his CBS contract in early 2011 to be the all-important afternoon anchor. Geoff Pinkus is available to evenings or middays. His Sunday "Man Show" on WIND is the perfect example of what this new 101.1 FM should be. Pinkus' "Living Large" could easily be made into a daily show. Chet Coppock is around for evenings, weekends & fill-ins. Overnights can be hard rockin' -- maybe even a simulcast of Emmis' Loop Loud or just a few hour block of active rock. Weekends can be have more sports talk (especially during the baseball season), as well more "Guy Talk" with programs featuring Pete McMurray locally and syndicated shows like Tom Leykis'. (It was announced earlier today that Tom Leykis is returning to radio. His show will start in LA, but he is also forming his own syndication company to reach nationwide once again.) Shows that attract a male following (sports, autos, outdoors, cigars, booze, gambling, rock & roll, etc.) can fill weekends when the Sox are not playing. Even Dr. Demento can come over from WLUP on Sunday nights and fit in nicely there.

Think of it as a WSCR/WCKG hybrid. "Guy101." Maybe "WMCV -- The Man Cave." (Yes, Mr. Smulyan, those call letters are available.) The imaging should openly flaunt it. "It's a Guys thing. You ladies just wouldn't understand." "You're in the Man Cave. Chicago's radio for guys." "Sorry Ladies, but this is The Men's Room."

An FM talker would only have an audience of so many. Another sports talker would only have an audience of so many. A hybrid of the two, allows both audiences to co-exist perfectly and gives Emmis a better shot at ratings & billings success. It also allows personalities like Steve Dahl, Geoff Pinkus, Pete McMurray, and even Mike North, the opportunity to talk beyond the strict borders of sports talk and capture a wider audience for a longer amount of time. (Although Mike North is at his strongest when he sticks with the subject of sports.)

I personally feel that both WLUP & WKQX should stick around longer. Both have great potential that just isn't being met for many reasons, but they also both fill a need in Chicago radio. Local radio would be the lesser for losing either one of them. However, if Emmis truly wants to make a bold move and Jeff Smulyan truly wants to work with his good friend Jerry Reinsdorf, my idea is one strong way to make it happen.

A Third Sports Talk Station For Chicago?

Details: Published on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 18:47

In his latest blog for Crain's Chicago Business, Ed Sherman wrote about the possibility of a third Sports Talk radio station coming to Chicago, with this one on the FM radio frequency. You can read this particular blog at this link HERE. He specifically mentioned that the Chicago White Sox broadcasts could be a big part of the foundation for this new station and that Emmis Communications (owner of WLUP & WKQX) could be the company that makes this bold move.

I'm having trouble picturing this actually happening, for a number of reasons. There are a great many positives to this move, but there are at least as many negatives.

The biggest issue has to do with the cost. It would take a LOT of money to to start up a new FM Sports Talker. New staffs, new promotions, new everything. Then, in addition to all of the upfront costs, there is the problem of losing all that income that WKQX brings in. The new sports station would have to at least match the revenue that Q101 brings in. That is doubtful right now. Eventually, maybe, but doubtful immediately.

There are a lot of Chicago-centric sports talkers that could quickly fill the need for on-air talent. Sherman mentions Mike North, but his TV partner Dan Jiggetts would be a great on-air reunion for a station. Chet Coppock would attract many listeners. Bruce Wolf's comedic mind would be a welcome addition, although he has relaunched his law career and may not want a full-time radio job. Mike Murphy is is just sitting out his CBS contract before looking elsewhere for work. This new station would be a good fit for "Murph" and help bring in some Cubs fans. Jay Mariotti had a successful show on WMVP at one time and would again enjoy talking Chicago sports and purposely angering people. George Ofman would be the top choice for a baseball news reporter and Steve Stone could be easily brought aboard as a baseball expert from WSCR. Sherman mentions Steve Dahl, but Dahl's current contract with CBS does not expire until halfway into the Sox season in 2011. That doesn't help a station launch. If Emmis is willing to buy out CBS' remaining contract, then it is a possibility. All that said, none of this would come cheap. This doesn't even count the producers & staffers needed to make a top-notch sports station work. It would cost much more than what WKQX now costs. (WKQX would be the target station to make the flip IF Emmis would consider doing this format in Chicago.) The cost is a huge problem here.

On a slight side note: There are numerous syndicated sports talk shows available that used to be heard in Chicago, but are not right now. The two with the biggest Chicago followings, according to various Internet streaming reports, are Jim Rome & Tony Bruno. Both of which could come fairly inexpensive, but being syndicated, may not connect as well as a local host would. If it costs listeners & advertisers, then the cost savings of the syndicated program is lost by the lack of willing advertisers.

Then you have to look at the ownership... Emmis Communications is not in a very strong financial situation right now. That is why Jonathon Brandmeier was let go from the Loop, along with all of their weekend jocks & many others from Q101 & The Loop, not to mention the majority of all decisions being made, which are now stupidly done out of St. Louis. Could Emmis even afford to take a HUGE loss on a sports station, with the hopes it makes money a year or two later? I'm not so sure that Emmis has that luxury of time or that available income to invest in Chicago. I truly doubt the mindtrust in St. Louis has ANY ability to connect with Chicago Sports fanatics.

Jeff Smulyan is a massive sports fan -- this is especially true of baseball. He has even tried to buy a baseball team before. It would not be unheard of for him to strongly consider doing something like this, and personally pushing for it to succeed. While FM is a weaker signal overall, it is a much stronger signal to the younger demos and has the ability to reach more youth than AM does.

The question isn't whether or not Emmis wants to do this. The question is, CAN Emmis do this?

Maybe... just maybe with new investors pumping money into this new station (Reinsdorf? Dahl?), but these investors would have to be more in love with the idea of owning part of a station, than the idea of making money from it. Good luck there nowadays.

One other wild card in this deck is CBS Radio. They have the opportunity to quickly torpedo this idea by simulcasting their WSCR-AM on one of their FM signals, more than likely 105.9/WCFS. That would put them in a better position to re-up with the White Sox, putting their games on both the strong AM signal and the FM signal, which reaches more demos than the AM signal can. It also allows them to experiment with more sports programming, putting one show/broadcast on FM and another on AM to check out the reaction from fans. Most of all, it gives Chicago the FM Sports Talker it doesn't have, making any new attempt at another FM Sports Talker a long shot at success.

Outside of new investors blowing large amounts of money to get this station off the ground, I don't see it happening beyond the "talkin' about it" stage.

There is one way this could work for Emmis & the White Sox... I will save that theory for a blog for tomorrow, though...

Steve & Johnnie's Silver Anniversary at WGN

Details: Published on Friday, 12 February 2010 18:07

Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrating the love between a couple. It is a very fitting day for WGN's special couple, Steve King and Johnnie Putman, to be celebrating a radio anniversary.

It has been a year full of 25th anniversaries for these these two. Last year, Steve and Johnnie celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary together. On this past Christmas Eve, Steve King celebrated his 25th anniversary of being on the air at WGN-AM. On Sunday, Valentine's Day, it marks the 25th anniversary of Johnnie Putman's first time on WGN's airwaves. She had joined her newlywed husband on a special Valentine's Day show on February 14th, 1985. The audience reaction was supurb. The listeners felt the natural chemistry between these two, a chemistry that had started when they would do events together for WIND before either of them joined WGN, and a chemistry that would lead to a long, loving marriage. Based on that great show together, WGN then hired Johnnie to work at WGN, first as a traffic reporter for the Wally Phillips morning show and the Bob Collins afternoon show, but soon after, she was placed at her husband's side for the overnight program. The WGN program director at that time, Dan Fabian, had long wanted a male/female broadcast team for the station. What better male/female team than a husband/wife team? It worked immediately. Listeners loved being welcomed into Steve & Johnnie's lives, and in turn, welcomed them into their homes via their radios. 25 years later, that relationship with the listeners is still as strong as the relationship they share with each other.

Both Steve King and Johnnie Putman were radio veterans long before either joined WGN. Mr. King had worked at radio stations in Indiana and all over Chicago. He probably first became widely known as the nighttime DJ on MusicRadio WLS from 1973-1978, although his radio career had started seven years before joining WLS. From WLS, he jumped over to WIND to do a talk show, where he worked (except for quick jump to another radio station) for six years, before getting hired by WGN. Ms. Putman also knew her way around a radio studio. She started at a pair of radio stations in west suburban Aurora in 1977, doing a talk show on one and then a music show on another. In 1982, she joined WIND as a talk host. (Female talk show hosts were as rare then as they are again today.)

It was at WIND that Steve met Johnnie and first appeared on the air together. After the two had escorted a group of listeners to a Joan Rivers concert, which was not very well received, Steve joined Johnnie on her WIND talk show to talk about the not-so-funny comedy show they both experienced. That would just be the first of many thousands of times these two would be together on the radio. In fact, radio is so intertwined with their lives, that even their engagement happened at a live remote for WIND. The two were the honorary King & Queen at a broadcast from "King Richard's Renaissance Fair" in Bristol, Wisconsin. The "King & Queen" were riding on top of an elephant for the broadcast. When WIND cut to a commercial break, Steve turned to Johnnie and proposed. By the time the station cut back to them and before they could get off of that elephant, the two were engaged to be married. They have been "King & Queen" ever since.

The two have been royalty when it comes to dominating the overnight radio ratings, as well. Steve and Johnnie's "Life After Dark" radio show has consistently been the top rated overnight radio program for Chicago. Steve King, and soon after with Johnnie Putman, had some big shoes to fill when taking over the overnight spot. He was replacing "Chicago Ed" Eddie Schwartz, the very popular overnight host on WGN. Steve was not Eddie, though, and had to build up his own audience and convert Eddie's fans over to him. He did so, first on his own and then alongside his wife. Steve & Johnnie's fans aren't just Chicagoans, either. With its strong signal at night, WGN can be heard in over 30 states and up into Canada, not to mention it is now heard worldwide on the Internet. They get calls, emails, and postings on their Yahoo Group & Facebook accounts from people listening from all over the country and world.

25 years is a long time to be at any company, let alone for a company in the ever-fickle world of radio. These two have been on the air together on the same station, with the same ownership and in basically the same time slot (give or take a few hours) for 25 years. That deserves to be celebrated. These two Chicago radio treasures deserve to be celebrated.

It may be the silver anniversary for Steve & Johnnie, but this radio duo is pure gold.

The Death of Bob Collins -- A Sad Anniversary

Details: Published on Monday, 08 February 2010 09:32

Today marks a sad anniversary in the Chicago radio history books. It was ten years ago this afternoon that beloved WGN morning show personality Bob Collins lost his life when his private jet accidentally collided with another in the skies over Lake County. Collins was only 57 years old -- just two weeks shy of his 58th birthday.

Collins joined WGN-AM in 1974, after spending time on the radio in Wisconsin, California and Florida. In the summer of 1986, he took over the morning show time slot from the legendary Wally Phillips. Collins' fun & lovable personality behind the microphone help WGN enjoyed amazing ratings success in the mornings, with the station coming in at or near the top with each ratings book. The WGN Gold website has numerous tribute pages up for Chicago's "Uncle Bobby." There is a terrific musical & audio tribute HERE, a page of featuring many dozens of audio clips from his radio shows HERE, a photo gallery HERE, and much more which can be found HERE. Earlier this morning, WGN's overnight hosts, Steve King & Johnnie Putman paid tribute to their fallen co-worker on their program. (If/when audio of that tribute gets posted up on the WGN website, this blog will be updated to include that link.)

In October of 2000, E. Illinois Street, which runs alongside Tribune Tower just to the north, was renamed "Bob Collins Way" as a way to honor Collins' memory.

In addition to his many years of entertaining Chicago through his radio programs (and occasional, but reluctant television appearances), Bob Collins left another legacy. The skies above Waukegan Regional Airport are now safer. Since his collision was largely blamed on the lack of radar at the small airport, the airport quickly gave into public pressure and installed a radar system to avoid losing any more lives due to pilot blind spots.

In 2007, a federal judge exonerated Bob Collins is a wrongful death lawsuit resulting from the mid-air collision, ruling that the lack of radar was the clear cause of the three sad deaths that fateful day. In 2008, Bob Collins was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Three men have hosted the WGN-AM morning show since Bob Collins' death 10 years ago. However, he has yet to be replaced in the hearts of his millions of fans. He will forever be flying high there.

Chicago Cubs breaking fans' hearts -- and the season hasn't even begun...

Details: Published on Sunday, 07 February 2010 00:48

The Chicago Cubs released their 2010 TV broadcast schedule this week. Instead of filling Cubs fans' hearts with hope & joy as this annual announcement usually does, it has filled them with sadness. More than likely, this schedule signals the beginning of the end of a Cubby tradition -- Chicago Cubs baseball on WGN-TV.

Out of the 162 televised Cubs games, only a maximum of 64 will be on WGN, although more than likely, the number will be 58 games. The reason being that for six of the games, Fox or ESPN has the option of picking them up. Since Chicago Cubs broadcasts tend to be very high ratings winners for these networks, it is a safe bet that they will pick up these broadcasts unless the Cubs are just dismal this year, or a much higher profile game happens to be on at the same time that they have the option of airing.

Chicago Cubs baseball has been broadcast on WGN television since 1948. In those 62 years, there has NEVER been a year when only 58 games aired on WGN. This will be an all-time low.

The games will be split up between WGN, WCIU, Comcast SportsNet, and Comcast SportsNet Plus (which could show up on CLTV, a cable access channel, or any random channel on your cable TV lineup), with a few national games on ESPN and Fox. The Cubs' home opener will only be seen on WCIU. Their second game will be on Comcast SportsNet Plus and their third game on regular Comcast SportsNet. There will not be a Cubs game until their fourth game, which is five days into the regular baseball season.

The Cubs have one of the biggest national followings in all of baseball, much of which is credited to WGN-AM's far reaching transmissions and to WGN-TV's national reach via their cable/satellite superstation, which goes out to an estimated 70 million homes outside of the Chicago market. With so many games being shown on WCIU & Comcast SportsNet, many fans outside of Chicago will be unable to watch the broadcasts. With Comcast's channels not being seen in every home due to no cable or a different television content provider, even many Chicagoans will be missing out of seeing Cubs games in their own homes.

This isn't a new problem -- Cubs games have appeared on Chicago cable channels at a growing rate since the mid- to late-1990's. At first, this was done to accomidate the WB Network programming, which WGN signed up with in the 90's. The cable broadcasts quickly became commonplace for a different reason: money. The Cubs found they could make as much as double the income from a cable broadcast as they could from a broadcast on WGN-TV. Having millions of potential viewers is great. However, to Cubs management, having millions of potential dollars is more important, viewers be damned.

It should also be noted that when the Ricketts family purchased the Chicago Cubs organization a few months ago, they also purchased a healthy share of Chicago's Comcast SportsNet.

The ever-shrinking amount of WGN-TV broadcasts and the ever growing amount of broadcasts on cable seems to indicate that the Chicago Cubs are pointing to the direction of moving all their locally shown games to a cable channel, possibly even their own cable network. The day will come when the only way to see your favorite baseball team will be to pay an added fee to your television provider for access to that team's private network or subscribe to an expensive sports package like DirecTV's "Extra Innings" baseball broadcasts.

This year's broadcast schedule seems to indicate that day is coming sooner, rather than later.

It's not all bad news, though. The Chicago Cubs and WGN-TV still have a top notch broadcast crew delivering an excellent show when the games are on. Cubs announcers Len Kasper and Bob Brenly are a terrific team and one of the best tandems in all of televised baseball broadcasting. Maybe even more to the Chicago Cubs credit, they still show more games on free TV than most other teams in Major League Baseball. The problem is... that is no longer saying much.

For any Cubs fans over the age of 21, watching Cubs games on WGN-TV is a heart warming tradition. Cubs fans well older than 21 will remember the broadcasts by Jack Brickhouse, one of the greatest announcers of all time, and Harry Caray, one of the greatest fan favorites of all time, both of whom did their most memorable work on WGN's Cubs baseball broadcasts. Seeing the Cubs logo appear on Chicago's Channel 9 meant spring was finally here. For longtime fans, there is much more to seeing Cubs games on WGN than just watching baseball on TV. There is an emotional attachment to seeing the games. There is an closeness connected to the many years of memories of seeing the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field on "Chicago's Very Own" TV station.

It is completely understandable that the Chicago Cubs would not be on WGN-TV forever. Very little stays the same in life. Progress happens. The Cubs broadcasts are progressing to a new platform and a new delivery model. That progress is pulling Cubs games away from WGN-TV. Sadly, this progress is also pulling broadcasts away from millions of Cubs fans. Maybe the worst offense is the fact that this "progress" is pulling at the hearts of those who care about the Chicago Cubs the most.

The Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award

Details: Published on Friday, 15 January 2010 15:43

Radio Ink Magazine's website today reported that the Broadcasters Foundation of America has created a new honorable award: the "Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award." Yes, the very same man who founded Clear Channel Radio and systematically ruined the radio industry by an amazing variety of means will have an "Excellence" award named after him.

The first recipient of this ironically named honor will be handed his/her award in April at the next NAB Show in Las Vegas. Unless that winner is a Clear Channel employee, good luck with that acceptance speech and working Lowry Mays name into the list of people you thank!

(The fact that Clear Channel donated $125,000 to the Broadcasters Foundation of America may have had a little bit to to do with the naming of this award... or maybe I'm just getting cynical...)

Personally, I'm almost hoping that this begins a new trend in ironically named honors! I would love to see awards handed out at fancy ceremonies, such as:

The Drew Peterson Healthy Marriage Award
The William J Morris Healthy Lung Award
The Lindsey Lohan Sobriety Award
The Chevy Chase TV Talk Show Longevity Award
The New Coke Marketing Excellence Award
The Matt Millen Award for NFL Managerial Excellence
The Pepe Le Pew Great Hygiene Award
The Shaquille O'Neal Free Throw Perfection Award
The Taco Bell Gourmet Dining Award
The Rod Blagojevich Excellence in Politics Award
The William Hung Vocal Excellence Award
The Bubonic Award of Health Excellence
The Dick Cheney Excellence in Quail Hunting Skills Award
The Ray Charles Perfect Vision Award
The Kajagoogoo Musical Longevity Award
The David Lee Roth Radio Career Honors
The Richard J Daley Speech Etiquette Award
The Pompeii Award for Urban Renewal
The Carrot Top Comedy Excellence Award
The Marcel Marceau Oration Award
The Michael Vick Pet Care Award
The Donald Trump Hair Excellence Award

Not-So Jazzy Change For WNTD-AM Evenings

Details: Published on Friday, 15 January 2010 13:24

WNTD-AM 950, Sovereign City Radio Services' radio station is making a few changes to it's evening programing. During the daytime, WNTD airs Relevant Radio, the Catholic talk format, from 5:00am to 6:00pm, on a fairly weak signal. In the evenings, the signal increases, but the format is different. For the last few months, from 6:00pm until 5:00am, WNTD was playing the "Timeless Cool" format, featuring Jazz & Blues-based music, both old & new. It calls itself Avenue 950 in the evenings. While Avenue 950 isn't leaving, it will be starting later or have interruptions on some nights.

Tuesdays, from 8:00pm-10:00pm, WNTD has been airing "This Is Chicago Jazz" with Mike Jeffers from Chicago Jazz Magazine, hosting local jazz artists' music, as well as some talk & interviews for the local Jazz community.

Fridays, it is "Live! From The Green Mill" from 8:00pm-10:00pm, playing live music from one of Chicago's famous Jazz nightclubs -- usually featuring music by the Alan Gresik Swing Shift Orchestra that was performed at the Green Mill the night before.

Both of those shows fit in nicely with the Timeless Cool format. However, on Wednesdays evenings, there will be a new talk show that is quite un-Jazzy. The Sun-Times' Lewis Lazare is reporting that starting next Wednesday the 20th, WNTD will air "The Skinny & Houli Show" from 6:00pm-8:00pm. "Skinny" is James "Skinny" Sheahan, former director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events. "Houli" is Mike "Houli" Houlihan, who is former Sun-Times columnist, a current columnist for the Irish American News, an author, an actor and the head of a public relations firm, Mike Houlihan Creative. The pair (along with the occasional special guest) will discuss the past week's top local news stories involving politics, sports and entertainment. They also plan on having a "Special Olympics Spotlight" segment, where they will mention a noteworthy achievement of a Special Olympic athlete, coach or volunteer.

The "The Skinny & Houli Show" was originally supposed to begin back on November 11th, 2009. For reasons not yet been made public, it did not start then. Instead, it was decided to begin next week.

While it is always good to have new local talk shows hit the airwaves, disrupting the popular Avenue 950 for a show so decidedly different from what is normally aired at that time, will only serve to anger & frustrate "Timeless Cool" fans. Wouldn't this program have been better suited for weekends on WNTD or another AM station altogether? Something that wouldn't harsh the mellow of all that jazz?