Posted on 02/21/2003 10:12:13 AM PST by Chi-townChief
The usually friendly competition between two of Chicago's top news-and-talk radio stations exploded this week over the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the aftermath of the E2 nightclub catastrophe.
In a stunning, personal attack on his top-rated rival, WLS-AM (890) morning host Don Wade blasted Felicia Middlebrooks, the high-profile morning news anchor at WBBM-AM (780), as "Jesse Jackson's million-dollar mouthpiece."
Wade concluded his on-air tirade by calling on Middlebrooks' bosses to take her off the air "whenever a Jesse Jackson controversy erupts" because of Jackson's role in securing her new contract with the station last year. Operating behind the scenes, Jackson persuaded management to renew Middlebrooks several days after she turned down what had been its final offer.
WLS is an ABC talk station owned by Walt Disney Co., and WBBM is a CBS/Infinity Broadcasting all-news station owned by Viacom Inc.
While Middlebrooks declined to comment on Wade's attack, her boss was quick to respond.
"I would expect a competitor who has half the audience of 'Newsradio 780' to behave like that," said Drew Hayes, WBBM's operations director.
Wade made his remarks in the wake of news stories questioning Jackson's relationship with one of the owners of the E2 nightclub and his criticism of the city's safety enforcement.
"The inside story on the news department at WBBM over there is the Jesse connection," Wade told listeners. "The morning news anchor there has her job only because of the intervention of Jesse Jackson.
"There is no way that you can characterize Felicia Middlebrooks at WBBM as anything other than Jesse Jackson's million-dollar mouthpiece. Jesse Jackson's million-dollar mouthpiece is supposedly telling you the true story about this nightclub disaster and whether there's a Jesse connection. She owes her job--her million-dollar contract--to Jesse.
"I believe that in the interest of accuracy, that there should be full disclosure on the part of Miss Middlebrooks every time she reads a story about Jesse Jackson. She should read a disclaimer before the story divulging the fact that she owes her job to Jesse Jackson's strong-arming CBS.
"If I were the management at CBS, I would ask Miss Middlebrooks to take some time off and recuse herself whenever a Jesse Jackson controversy erupts. And considering the frequency with which Jesse Jackson controversies erupt, that could be a long, long time off," Wade said.
Since Jackson's role in her contract renewal became public, Middlebrooks has been under orders not to read any stories that involve him. But from time to time, she still does.
In the latest Arbitron quarterly survey, "Newsradio 780" ranked first in mornings with a 7.9 percent share and a cumulative weekly audience of 864,500.
Wade's WLS morning show tied for third place with a 5.0 share and 352,500 weekly cume.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
--Rick Springfield
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