McConnell to start at WGN radio on August 9th

[redsfan1966]

Its official! Former long time "Midday" host on 700 WLW Mike McConnell will start his WGN gig on Monday, August 9th...all the details are here--http://www.wgnradio.com/wgnam-new-daytime-line-up-mike-mcconnell-news-traffic,0,5361795.story

Good Luck Mike!

 

[redsfan1966]

apparently that link on the earlier post wont link up...but he is listed as being on air from 8:30 am until 12:30 pm central time...

 

[gr8oldies]

WGN does stream. Be interesting to hear Mike as the newby in a different element.

 

[philrandy]

I'm scheduling the morning off!...P.S. I was up there the week before the Reds played the Cubs. There wasn't any good "Original Thought" talent. Mike WILL DO WELL!

 

[Rusty Muck]

Here's a bizarre aside to WGN's new lineup, and partially expains the unconventional start time for McConnell's show.

The lineup calls for WGN's incumbent late-morning host, John Williams, to scoot to the 12:30pm - 3:00pm CT slot (on days when the Cubs don't play). The sticking point here was, for the past few months, CBS Radio's 50kw Minneapolis talker WCCO-AM has been utilizing Williams for their 1:00pm - 3:00pm CT slot (hosted from WGN's studios).

So in order for WGN's schedule to change, and since human cloning is virtually impossible, WCCO agreed to move Williams to the 9:00am - 12:00 slot on their station. But that results in Williams trading time slots on WCCO with their late morning host Chad Hartman, who was only installed on that station just a few months ago.

In addition, the new time slot for Williams is close to his original 1:00pm - 4:00pm CT time slot on WGN, before he assumed the morning slot for a few months, then back to middays, and to his most recent late-morning slot.

Holy crap. You talk about whiplash.

 

[ouuc]

The Williams/WCCO tie-in explains the weird :30 start/end times for Jarrett, McConnell & Williams. Before that explanation I thought it would make more sense to keep Jarrett 5-9 and have McConnell 9-12 and Williams 12-3.

 

[gr8oldies]

Listening to the first day online. Nice to hear him after a couple of months.

 

[jry]

Would people listen to him if he was back on, locally?

 

[gr8oldies]

I wouldn't see why not. There were a few phone calls from people who formerly listened on WLW today.

 

[jry]

I always listened to the weekend show.

Was he pretty much local on his daily, WLW, show.

 

[gr8oldies]

It was a mix of local, state and national (except for a brief time when they were trying to syndicate the weekday show)

 

[jry]

It was a mix of local, state and national (except for a brief time when they were trying to syndicate the weekday show)

Thanks for that. It is amazing how much great talent has come out of the Midwest region of the US and tons from Cincinnati.

 

[glieb]

The podcasts offered of Mike on the WGN site are great. You don't have to listen to them an hour at a time (like WLW). They break them down by topic and some are only a few minutes long. You can browse all the topics and only listen to what interests you.

 

[gr8oldies]

They don't have the whole show, however.

 

[gr8oldies]

So far, I'm thinking Chicago doesn't "get" Mike yet..least if I had to judge by the callers and WGN's Facebook page. Of course this is on a station that's having to make the changes WLW made in the 80s (with largely the same crew that made the changes) and not be a 65 to death station.

 

[Prais]

gr, what do you mean, "doesn't get?"

 

[KyDXIn]

It was a mix of local, state and national (except for a brief time when they were trying to syndicate the weekday show)

Thanks for that. It is amazing how much great talent has come out of the Midwest region of the US and tons from Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Ohio, supplier of talent, and pork, to the nation, since 1819!

 

[jry]

It was a mix of local, state and national (except for a brief time when they were trying to syndicate the weekday show)

Thanks for that. It is amazing how much great talent has come out of the Midwest region of the US and tons from Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Ohio, supplier of talent, and pork, to the nation, since 1819!

You forgot to mention black helicopters!