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WGN to add WABC-based show "The Other Side Of Midnight"

Here's how Valdes wound up on WGN. Originally Westwood One had a show hosted by Jim Bohannon, 10pm-1am ET, mostly non-political. He'd interview authors and celebrities in the world of music, TV and movies. I remember a good interview Bohannon did with Don McLean, the singer of "American Pie," who was beginning a concert tour. But when Bohannon got sick, Westwood One had Valdes filling in. And when he died, Valdes got the gig full time.

But Valdes has always been very standard conservative talk. Republicans always good and right, Democrats always wrong and evil. That wasn't what WGN was going for. During the day, the station is more middle-of-the-road. It made sense to have Bohannon overnight but it didn't make sense to have Valdes.

So now it will carry Frank Morano, who is also more middle-of-the-road.
 
Gregg. said:
Here's how Valdes wound up on WGN. Originally Westwood One had a show hosted by Jim Bohannon, 10pm-1am ET, mostly non-political. He'd interview authors and celebrities in the world of music, TV and movies. I remember a good interview Bohannon did with Don McLean, the singer of "American Pie," who was beginning a concert tour. But when Bohannon got sick, Westwood One had Valdes filling in. And when he died, Valdes got the gig full time.

But Valdes has always been very standard conservative talk. Republicans always good and right, Democrats always wrong and evil. That wasn't what WGN was going for. During the day, the station is more middle-of-the-road. It made sense to have Bohannon overnight but it didn't make sense to have Valdes.

So now it will carry Frank Morano, who is also more middle-of-the-road.
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Plus Jim Bohannon at least had some Chicago ties with the old Mutual-owned WCFL way back when.

The funny part is prior to getting Bohannon's show, Valdes was a weekend/fill-in host on WABC radio alongside Morano.
 
I worked with Morano at Salem's WNYM in New York. He hosted a pre-dawn show once a week on Sundays and produced the Joe Piscopo morning and John R. Gambling midday shows there, before going to WABC when the current owner bought the station from Cumulus. On a personal level he is quite eccentric, a strange bird with an odd assortment of friends and acquaintances. But he is an excellent radio talent.

His biggest goal was to be the modern-day version of Jean Shepherd, with a little Art Bell mixed in. He was never going to get that with Salem but got it at WABC, and now he's gone national. Audacy's KMOX in St. Louis and WCCO in Minneapolis have added him recently, and now WGN. Good for him.

I have never listened to his present show because I'm sleeping during those hours. I just hope he's keeping his run-of-the-mill "independent" libertarian/conservative/pro-Trump political views out of it. If there's one daypart to be free of the same old stuff, overnights is the place.
 
Gregg. said:
Here's how Valdes wound up on WGN. Originally Westwood One had a show hosted by Jim Bohannon, 10pm-1am ET, mostly non-political. He'd interview authors and celebrities in the world of music, TV and movies. I remember a good interview Bohannon did with Don McLean, the singer of "American Pie," who was beginning a concert tour. But when Bohannon got sick, Westwood One had Valdes filling in. And when he died, Valdes got the gig full time.

But Valdes has always been very standard conservative talk. Republicans always good and right, Democrats always wrong and evil. That wasn't what WGN was going for. During the day, the station is more middle-of-the-road. It made sense to have Bohannon overnight but it didn't make sense to have Valdes.

So now it will carry Frank Morano, who is also more middle-of-the-road.
Click to expand...

Shortly before Bohannon got sick, he had taken a fairly hard right turn. The show definitely felt like it had an "edge" (not in a nice way) compared to earlier years.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Part of that was likely to maintain his show's affiliate base. It's hard to sell a more genial program when the lead-in is, say, Mark Levin or Hannity on Memorex...
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It shouldnt be like that on talk radio even though it is and its important people point that out that you shouldnt have to follow the heritage foundations opinion as a host on conservative talk radio because they are funding the operation partly.... As for Morano he reminds me very much of how Art Bell started on one station kdwn in Nevada and grew to hundreds and hundreds of stations in all major markets. Frank Morano started on one station and has added tons of big affiliates such as KMOX, WCCO and many others.... not to mention crushing coast to coast am in the overnight ratings in New York City. What he is doing with overnight radio is something to behold.
 
Syfy said:
Frank Morano started on one station and has added tons of big affiliates such as KMOX, WCCO and many others.... not to mention crushing coast to coast am in the overnight ratings in New York City. What he is doing with overnight radio is something to behold.
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Calm down, fanboy.

Show us some numbers to back up your claim. Morano and WABC have boasted about his ratings a number of times in the past but have provided very little to verify those boasts.
 
Syfy said:
It shouldnt be like that on talk radio even though it is and its important people point that out that you shouldnt have to follow the heritage foundations opinion as a host on conservative talk radio because they are funding the operation partly.... As for Morano he reminds me very much of how Art Bell started on one station kdwn in Nevada and grew to hundreds and hundreds of stations in all major markets. Frank Morano started on one station and has added tons of big affiliates such as KMOX, WCCO and many others.... not to mention crushing coast to coast am in the overnight ratings in New York City. What he is doing with overnight radio is something to behold.
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It's easy to "crush" Coast To Coast when WOR keeps screwing with the schedule for informercials.
 
RadioFixerCLE said:
Shortly before Bohannon got sick, he had taken a fairly hard right turn. The show definitely felt like it had an "edge" (not in a nice way) compared to earlier years.
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Yes, I do remember that and was disappointed. Maybe Bohannon had kept his political leanings to himself all those years he was doing a late night talk show. Or maybe Westwood One told him to add conservative commentary to his show.

Other than Dave Ramsey and Coast to Coast AM, there really aren't any non-political or middle of the road talk shows with successful syndication. And since Bohannon was replaced with a standard-issue conservative talk host, I'm thinking this was an edict from management.
 
Gregg. said:
Yes, I do remember that and was disappointed. Maybe Bohannon had kept his political leanings to himself all those years he was doing a late night talk show. Or maybe Westwood One told him to add conservative commentary to his show.

Other than Dave Ramsey and Coast to Coast AM, there really aren't any non-political or middle of the road talk shows with successful syndication. And since Bohannon was replaced with a standard-issue conservative talk host, I'm thinking this was an edict from management.
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Coast to Coast AM is political - it has a political news segment and Richard Syrett, one of the weekend hosts, has a talk show on a station in Canada where he's described as conservative.
 
Nick Digillio would be more than happy to return to WGN to do late nights under certain agreed upon terms but NextStar is not likely to do so. Steve King and Johnnie Putman said that NextStar wanted to hire then back for five nights a week presumably in the 10PM to 1AM time slot but, they turned it down in favor of the once a week Saturday show they are currently doing.

Having a live a local show at past midnight holds up well in severe weather situations where today's radio is vast waste land. Syndicated talk apparently needs to be conservative as a preferred programming choice although most stations carrying these conservative talkers are consistent performing poorly but the station owners like them as in many instances reflect their political stances on issues especially taxes the corporations will/would have to pay.

Conservative talk is not a harmless programming choice for those that are drunk and ad dollar money, it also affects our national discourse as we are most assuredly seeing right now in todays's news.
 
Incredibly stunning that you can tune up and down the AM dial in the wee hours of the morning and hear virtually the same thing on what used to be 50kW "Clear Channel" stations and hear Red Eye Radio on virtually all of them. What ever happened to having a responsibility to holding a license for such large stations but showing zero responsibility to what used to be known and acceptable broadcast standards for your city of license.

Pretty sad.
 


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