Posted on 07/11/2006 9:13:51 PM PDT by paltz
(CBS) CHICAGO There’s a big shake-up in Chicago radio. He’s one of the most popular and polarizing personalities in town. Erich “Mancow” Muller has been let go from Q101.
CBS 2’s Jon Duncanson reports the man known for his mouth has been silenced…at least for now.
“When your contract's up sometimes you step up, you know?” Muller said. “You move on to better things.”
Whether on purpose or a Freudian slip, “Mancow’s Morning Madhouse” brought up the “C” word on-air Tuesday morning.
“It is not my last day,” Muller told CBS Tuesday morning. “I have a contract through August and I plan on fulfilling my contract. What they plan on is up to them.”
“I think it was just the best thing to do to say ‘Today was your last day,’” Q101 General Manager Marv Nyren later told CBS 2 News.
By Tuesday afternoon, the station had posted a statement on their Web site that Mancow has no future at the station starting now.
Muller has thrived on all sorts of controversy over the years, the last eight at Q101 (WKQX-FM). It has translated into high ratings.
But the station says advertisers weren’t flocking to what they considered a “shock jock,” and Mancow’s show wasn’t fitting into the station’s alternative rock format.
“So we said ‘It's time to make a change.’ Either we do something with the morning show or the rest of the radio station, and I guess the other 20 hours of the day won,” Nyren said.
“I'm like a white, ugly, skinny, masculine Oprah,” Muller has said in the past.
He has exploited that fact in nationally syndicating his show.
It is clear Mancow was going to leave the station when his contract ended in late August.
“I got bigger plans,” he said. “We're taking the show national. And I don't know what they're gonna do but...I wish ‘em luck.”
For his bosses, “national” was part of the problem.
“He was doing a radio show that was just as good for a station in Tucson, Ariz., as it was for Chicago,” Nyren said. "The problem from our point of view is that we wanted a show for Chicago.
Q101 says they’ll have an all-new morning show up and running Sept. 18. As for Mancow, he’s confident he’ll be on the air again in Chicago. If he knows, he’s not saying when.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
That was one of the more confusing articles I've ever read. J-School graduates just ain't what they used to be.
Thank you.
"It started out with him being more pro-gay"
If that's when it started, wouldn't have been the beginning? He was always a libertarian -- just like the South Park guys.
Satellite radio is here to stay. If you have it you know what I am saying. If you don't, then you will...
I said in #45 that those that don't have satrad, should...SatRad is unbelieveable...Best tech I have seen in a long time. No other provider can do what sat rad does...Content is king.
The Secret Service paid him a visit.
Chicago also gave up on Kevin Mathews too; another mistake.
"Pro-gay" may not have been the best word. I started listening to Stern back in '86 when he first syndicated into Philly. Back then some of his "humor" was at the expense of gays ("Out of the Closet Stern", "Homo Room", jokes at the expense of Richard Simmons, "Gay Rich", etc.) Not mean humor, but somewhat edgy.
Now he is either hands-off on any gay humor or almost an advocate for the gay lifestyle.
I'm actually not sure what changed him - it could have been a variety of things. I think it was the gay Hollywood mafia, but also the absence of Jackie, Bababooey's brother dying of AIDS, his new bachelorhood and being a single "city boy" out on the town every night - who knows. But there has been a noticable change.
And a Conservative Shock Jock at that - the worst possible kind. Boy, it looks like Chicago radio has really gone down the crapper since I've left. Kevin Matthews is gone too huh? Not that he was Conservatve, but in that time slot on the FM he was the only thing to listen to. And Howard is gone too. So what's left? NPR. And Steve Dahl. And since he is an admitted Liberal he will be allowed to stay. The Liberal Thought Police are working overtime in Chicago. Now if they could just figure out a way to get rid of that effing Limbaugh. Give 'em time, just give 'em time. At least he's only on AM so nobody can listen to him at work. Same for that despicable WIND.
Yup, the Liberal Thought Police in Chicago are very good at keeping Conservative ideas out of the mainstream. You just listen to what WE tell you to and shut up.
Old thread, I know, but I feel this is pertinent as it happened just recently.
Here in Iowa, Mancow was taken off of 103.3 two days ago. He's no longer on the air on Lazer. Reading in the paper, the managers decided that his commentary was veering too far into a serious discussion/current events spectrum, and was not what they had in mind for their preferred listener base. Basically, he got crap-canned because of his politics. I guess come Springtime, the station will replace the timeslot with a local show they've been working on, and that (they say) will be just as good as Mancow's Morning Madhouse. It's another case of the management telling the listener what they want, and not the other way around.
Of course, it'll probably turn out to be disc jockey drivel sprinkled with terrible music here and there. Goodness...Mancow was all they had going for them, and they ditched him. :/
Butters as Capt. Chaos.
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