Posted on 09/06/2011 2:03:23 PM PDT by Thebaddog
As radio firings go, Cisco Cotto’s was one for the books.
Just after finishing his midday airshift one Friday last July, Cotto was summoned to meet with his bosses at WLS-AM (890), the Citadel Broadcasting news/talk station where he’d worked for eight of the previous 11 years, first as a news anchor and reporter and more recently as a talk show host.
There he was told that even though his ratings were excellent and his show was consistently profitable, Cotto was being let go — effective immediately — to make room for the duo of Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft, who were being moved up from weekends.
“I just smiled at them,” Cotto recalled the other day. “They were confused by this, thinking perhaps I misheard them. But I continued to smile and said: ‘God is using you and you don’t even know it.’”
What would have come as really bad news for most radio personalities (especially those with a wife and two kids) felt more like a relief to Cotto. That’s because about a year earlier, he had graduated with a master of divinity degree following years of study at the Moody Bible Institute.
“I began contemplating planting a new church in Oak Park, but became increasingly uneasy about becoming a pastor while also being a conservative talk radio host,” he told me. “Politics and religion are already too intertwined. How could I be effective in inviting people in to hear about the Bible on Sunday when I was criticizing a whole segment of the political population Monday through Friday? So I prayed very seriously all summer about whether I could stay in conservative political talk. My firing was God’s answer.”
Cotto detailed plans for his non-denominational Christian church on a blog post last week and in profile published in the Oak Park-River Forest edition of Trib Local. For the 36-year-old native of west suburban Aurora, it’s more than a calling. It’s the culmination of a dream for the broadcaster long ago nicknamed “The Reverend” by former WLS colleague Jay Marvin.
Without hesitation, Cotto insists he’s done with all conservative political talk radio, ruling out a return to Salem Communications news/talk WIND-AM (560), where he worked between gigs at WLS. But he did turn up one day last week as a fill-in for morning host Mark Elfstrand on Moody Radio’s WMBI-FM (90.1). “Since I have a connection to the school it was a natural move,” he explained.
Could we be hearing more of him in the future? “I’ve been approached for conversations about doing Christian talk radio, non-political talk radio, and even going back to news,” Cotto said. “I’m willing to consider either of those because I still really love radio and neither of those formats would hurt my church ministry.”
I like him, too. I’ll miss his show.
Indeed. The Gospel at Sunday’s Mass was about how to correct your brother who has gone astray in a Christian way. Paraphrasing: First take your complaint to him personally. If he will not listen, then take 2 or 3 other Christians with you. If he still will not listen, then take your church leader with you and repeat the complaint. If your brother still will not mend his ways, then have no more to do with him.
I really butchered that, but you get the idea. It is your Christian duty to gently correct your brother’s errant ways.
Matt 18:15. I think you summed it up correctly.
I loved listening to Cisco. WLS has lost me as a listener during that time slot. Can’t stand Bruce and Dan with their constant uh,uh,uh,uh,uh. They are almost as bad as Obama off the teleprompter!
Are you old enough to remember when WLS fired Dick Biondi?
“But I would much rather have had Roe and Roeper yanked than Cisco.”
I agree. I heard Steve Dahl on with Roe awhile back. I emailed Garry Meier and told him he had the misfortune of working with the two biggest self-absorbed a**holes in radio. He sent me a great reply.
I miss Cisco, glad to hear he is doing something he loves. But I really enjoy Bruce and Dan.
I don't remember a thing about his firing but I vividly remember listening to Biondi at night in the Deep South when we could get a very clear signal from that 50,000-watt powerhouse.
With that set of lungs I think that the microphone must have been placed 10 feet away.
But back to the issue: how did WLS handle his firing?
I’m from the (first) Biondi era too, although I listened more to GN than to LS.
At our college station, there was a jock who was kind of a screamer. We engineers used to say that before Joe F.’s shift, we’d yank out the preamp strip in the board’s mic channel and put in a pad (attenuator).
***Are you old enough to remember when WLS fired Dick Biondi?***
\
Dad burnit you beat me to it! I was gonna post that! He later showed up on TV in northern California.
Relatively mild by today's standards.
I just read up on Biondi, he says he’s been fired 26 times in his career.
I'm a former WLS listener, and enjoyed Cisco's brief news appearances years ago. Having moved far from the Chicago area, I still keep WLS on my bookmarks toolbar (if only to listen to Rush when the local stations pre-empt him for basketball). I saw that Cisco had returned and been given his own morning show and listened to him a few times. Then last month I happened to see that he was no longer listed.
It looks like God wants him to start a church. I can't argue with that.
***Relatively mild by today’s standards. ***
I missed the night he told that joke but I heard the same thing.
We in NW Arkansas used to listen to WLS, WOAI, WWL and Kaay.
We tried to get KOMA but it was not broadcast in this direction. We got it real clear while living in Carlsbad NM.
It was about 9:45 on a Saturday night, I believe. Bindi claimed to be looking down over the Miracle Mile and said (to the best of my recollection), “You know, if the girls skirts get any shorter, they'll have two more cheeks to powder and another place to shave.” The station cut to commercial and Biondi never came back on. Perhaps he did proceed to get into a fight in the hallway as he claims, but I suspect that the fight wasn't about commercials as he has said. That might have been on his mind, too, along with the short skirts. And if Bob Hope was involved, Biondi stole the joke the same night.
Do you recall the year? I seem to recall hearing it too but my memory plays tricks on me, especially concerning events of approximately 50 years ago. I lived in southern Missouri at the time and every teenager was tuned to W.L.S. and especially to Dick Biondi.
I'm thinking it had to be 1963 or earlier as I went into the military in July '63 and my radio listening days were over.
Welcome to F.R. Don't push Mitt Romney or Ron Paul and you'll probably hang around a long time.
You will probably be called a "noob" a few times, let it bounce off and even though you're probably somewhere near my age (I'm 66) you will occasionally be treated as though you just started forming your political opinions the day you joined F.R. let that bounce off too.
Update on this old thread. Apparently, Dan Proft’s political donors threw some money at the station. That is the reason why Cisco was fired.
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