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.”
This is an update to this thread. You’re suspicions were right. Dan Proft’s political donors threw some cash at the station and that is why Cisco was fired. The donors wanted to raise Proft’s profile to run for governor. That is why the station didn’t have a reason for Cisco’s firing because his revenue and ratings were great.
It’s too bad that Dan Proft used his political donors to get Cisco fired. He wanted Cisco’s spot on the radio so that he could raise his profile for governor. Terrible to ruin someone’s radio career so that you can advance yourself politically.
Update to this old thread. Apparently, Mr. Proft’s political donors were the ones who got Cisco Cotto fired from his radio job. Dan wanted to boost his profile to run for governor and Cisco’s career in radio was the casualty. No respect for that.
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