I can understand the slogan, "The Voice of Chicago", but News Talk 720? I do think of WGN as a talk station, but not a news talk station like WLS. Am I missing something? What do you think?
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News Talk 720?
- Thread starter StevenGastreich
- Start date
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tjthedj
Guest
In my opinion WGN has the BEST and most complete news on Chicago radio. I have NO problem with that slogan. When there is a "hot" story WGN turns "all-news." I would always listen to 'gn before 'ls or 'bbm. I've been doing that since about 1959.
tjthedj said:
That means you are in the 55+ bracket, no doubt.
And that is the problem. WGN is now 19th in 25-54, and has been in that range (19th, 20th or 21st) all year. The recent Tribune earnings decline was blamed on WGN; most of thier listeners are out of the sales demos.
tjthedj said:
My question is, why would they want to use the same positioner as WLS? Programmers always maintain that all positioning statements should be identifiable with the station. I can't see how using "News Talk" will help WGN keep a seperate identity from WLS for the listeners... and in the diaries for Arbitron.
Stupid move, imho.
Stupid move, imho.
WGN AM-720 isn't always on Cue with any news event that is happening in the Chicagoland area or anywhere else across the nation!
For example:
Spike O'Dell:
"Never On Cue With The News Media"
Whenever there is a serious news event that is happing in the news media, especially news stories that are negitive, Spike O'dell never's mentions it, all he talks about something that is completly different! All he talks about is caring for your pet dog, or whats cooking at the bakery shop, even talks about the wining team of of an sports event. Other radio stations get these local news stories that are negitive first, before WGN Radio gets there hand on it first! Even if it's a nation wide news event!
So there for: How could WGN Radio be a News-Talk format when it isn't?
To me WGN Radio is more of a variety-talk format, rather than talking about the current news events in the media?
For example:
Spike O'Dell:
"Never On Cue With The News Media"
Whenever there is a serious news event that is happing in the news media, especially news stories that are negitive, Spike O'dell never's mentions it, all he talks about something that is completly different! All he talks about is caring for your pet dog, or whats cooking at the bakery shop, even talks about the wining team of of an sports event. Other radio stations get these local news stories that are negitive first, before WGN Radio gets there hand on it first! Even if it's a nation wide news event!
So there for: How could WGN Radio be a News-Talk format when it isn't?
To me WGN Radio is more of a variety-talk format, rather than talking about the current news events in the media?
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tjthedj
Guest
Hey grandpa squirrel (are you black or brown?). Thdey have black squirrels here in Michigan. Never saw one in Chicago.
Anyway...
I respectfully diagree. Is that note about Spike sonmething you found on the internet?
I listen to WGN BECAUSE they are on top of things and interrupt the "softball stuff" when something big is happening.
Anyway...
I respectfully diagree. Is that note about Spike sonmething you found on the internet?
I listen to WGN BECAUSE they are on top of things and interrupt the "softball stuff" when something big is happening.
Dr Milt Rosenberg on "Extension 720" has more integrity in his little finger than the entire staff at WLS has, combined, including Roe Conn. So quarreling and quibbling about which station has the right to use the term "NewsTalk" is like one of those stupid topics Spike O'Dell does about which highway leads quickest to Janesville, Wisconsin..or Kathie & Judy debating whether the Grango mints will taste different after SEptember 9th when Marshall Fields reopens at Macy's. I can honestly say I have a fuller, thicker head of hair now that I did when I was 18 years old.
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tjthedj
Guest
Basically, anybody can call any format anything they want. The newstalk tactic by wgn is also a "confuser" as that was/is WLS's slogan.
The pd and manager at wgn certainly KNOW what they are doing very well.
The pd and manager at wgn certainly KNOW what they are doing very well.
tjthedj said:
>Hey grandpa squirrel (are you black or brown?). Thdey have black squirrels here in >Michigan. Never saw one in Chicago.Anyway...
>I respectfully disagree. Is that note about Spike something you found on the internet?
No Because I rather listen to Spike O’Dell on the radio and not to read some media source that tells a bunch of rumors, just to make money off of Spike.
>I listen to WGN BECAUSE they are on top of things and interrupt the "softball stuff" >when something big is happening.
I’m not talking about the big stuff such as: major disasters, terror plots and storms.
I know that Spike is on the ball when it come to big events. It is just the local news media that he doesn’t cover such as:
Gary Teacher Negotiations Are 'Back To Square One'
Man Suffers Heart Attack While Police Subdue Him
FBI Seeks Help In Finding Bank Robbery Suspects
O'Hare Traveler Charged After Bomb Joke
But wasn't WGN news "News/Talk 720" before WLS started using the "News/Talk" positioner?
I don't remember that, but anything is possible. I do like their "Voice of Chicago" positioner.[/quote]
I don't remember that, but anything is possible. I do like their "Voice of Chicago" positioner.[/quote]
I remember when WGN used the slogan, "Radio home of millions throughout mid-America." Do they ever still use that one?
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tjthedj
Guest
Nope that slogan has been retired a long time, as has "first in sound, first in service, first in sports, Franklyn MacCormack. Cliff Mercer and Eddie overnights, and morning man Two Ton Baker, Wally, Uncle Bobby, Eddie Hubbard, and afternoon drive Dave Baum and Howard Miller.
tjthedj said:
...Dave Baum and Howard Miller were never on WGN. You're probably thinking of WIND, although Miller never did afternoons there. He was always on in morning drive until making some racist remarks in the wake of Martin Luther King's assassination, when they fired him and WCFL hired him for a couple of years. I believe one of the first things John Rook did when becoming WCFL's programmer was get rid of Miller and take a Top 40 approach through the entire day, at which point Miller moved to WMAQ. NBC refused to pamper Miller's ego, so they dumped him fairly quickly; by 1975, Miller was replacing Baum on WIND's late-night "Contact" phone-in show (Baum had taken a job at KMOX St. Louis); Ed Schwartz claims he was the only person that got along with Howard during that final WIND stint...
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tjthedj
Guest
Well, I'm CERTAIN HOWARD MILLER was afternoon drive on WGN about 1970. I stood in the studio at 2501 with him on the air. Miller was also on WCFL mornings ((to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy - "Howard Miller in the Morning on WCFL")and WMAQ afternoon drive.
I may have confused Bill Berg with Dave Baum. They were BOTH at WIND, but I'm (as yet) unclear about wgn. At least ONE of those 2 was also at WGN.
I may have confused Bill Berg with Dave Baum. They were BOTH at WIND, but I'm (as yet) unclear about wgn. At least ONE of those 2 was also at WGN.
...Berg was at WGN a couple of different times. I remember him as an afternoon drive sub around the time Wally Phillips and Bob Collins switched shifts; Berg passed a comment about losing his WCFL gig when the Christers took the station over circa '84, calling WCFL "Amen 1000." If Howard Miller was ever on WGN, it was strictly as a fill-in or guest; he was never on the regular payroll of the station, and may have simply sat in between leaving WCFL and starting at WMAQ. Kinda like Larry "The Legend" Johnson filling in on the WMAQ morning drive shift for two weeks in late '73 between leaving WIND and starting his TV show in Green Bay...
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tjthedj
Guest
U,
I bet you're right about Howard Miller on WGN! I remember thinking when I was there, about the "POWER" at wgn; not only 50kw, but Phillips in the morning and Miller in the afternoon.
I notice Millers name does not appear on their website in the WGN "History" thread where Bergs name does. Certainly they would have listed a radio GIANT like Howard Miller had he been a regular.
I used to visit WIND in the Wrigley Building, and found Miller, Lee Rogers, Benson and Russell, Connie, and newspeople Dick Brasie, Dick Elliott, Walt Hamilton and a few others very nice - even to a high school kid, like me.
PS I share your admiration for Paul Gibson. WBBM was a horribie place. After a zillion attempts tto visit, they NEVER let me in, not once. The cop at the door of wgn on Bradley PL. was not even that nasty. I brought him a Gordon Tech jacket and after that I could have kidnapped Bozo.
PPS Is "the Ledge" still with us?
I bet you're right about Howard Miller on WGN! I remember thinking when I was there, about the "POWER" at wgn; not only 50kw, but Phillips in the morning and Miller in the afternoon.
I notice Millers name does not appear on their website in the WGN "History" thread where Bergs name does. Certainly they would have listed a radio GIANT like Howard Miller had he been a regular.
I used to visit WIND in the Wrigley Building, and found Miller, Lee Rogers, Benson and Russell, Connie, and newspeople Dick Brasie, Dick Elliott, Walt Hamilton and a few others very nice - even to a high school kid, like me.
PS I share your admiration for Paul Gibson. WBBM was a horribie place. After a zillion attempts tto visit, they NEVER let me in, not once. The cop at the door of wgn on Bradley PL. was not even that nasty. I brought him a Gordon Tech jacket and after that I could have kidnapped Bozo.
PPS Is "the Ledge" still with us?
...I'm under the impression that the WIND studios in the Wrigley may have been the old WBBM "Air Theatre" studios (before WBBM moved to McClurg Court). Dan Jedlicka included a bit in Larry Lujack's book about the listener visitation policy; WLS had a generally open policy, which Lujack found too distracting, and when he went to WCFL he had it written into his contract that no visitors were to be allowed into the station during his show. That policy provided a lot of material for "Klunk Letter of the Day." Lujack himself had always been easygoing and accessible outside of work -- if you bumped into him at the corner Osco or Dominick's he wouldn't pull the sneer out right away ;-) -- but while working he defended his territory like a mountain lion...I think the no-visitors-at-WBBM policy was CBS-wide by Paley's direct order. It also played into why Paul Gibson's advertising was always based on his silhouette -- if you never recognised him on the street, the less likely you were to disrupt his thought process by approaching him. For someone that worked on stream-of-consciousness like Gibson, that was essential...
...last time I checked, Larry "The Legend" Johnson was living in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. His last regular job was on WISN Milwaukee -- shoehorned between Don Vogel (finally! A link to WGN in this post!) and Limbaugh -- but he suffered a stroke about a year into the gig and WISN gave his shift to someone else. That was in 1990...
...last time I checked, Larry "The Legend" Johnson was living in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. His last regular job was on WISN Milwaukee -- shoehorned between Don Vogel (finally! A link to WGN in this post!) and Limbaugh -- but he suffered a stroke about a year into the gig and WISN gave his shift to someone else. That was in 1990...
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