No Longer Runnin’ With The Devil

It was not a huge surprise to hear CBS Radio recently fired diminutive former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth after just four months of trying and failing miserably to do Howard Stern‘s job in New York City and six other markets.

The news he has been replaced by XM Satellite Radio personalities Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia was rather unexpected. The duo was canned by CBS predecessor Infinity Broadcasting in 2002 after broadcasting the play-by-play of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Apparently they’ll do three hours for CBS, followed by two hours of satellite radio on costly XM, whose parent company XM Satellite Holdings is not doing well.

Roth was one of three entertainers hired to carry the Stern torch at 27 stations when The King Of All Media moved to Sirius satellite radio earlier this year. Toothy TV talker Adam Carolla continues to do Stern’s work in a handful of West Coast markets. Shane “Rover” French struggles in Chicago, but for how long? And who will replace him when he goes?

Maybe they could bring back former WJMK-FM DJ Dick Biondi from the living death that is HD and online radio, where he and other oldies personalities have been languishing since CBS Radio flipped WJMK-FM (104.3) to “Jack FM” last June (they can be heard at www.wjmk.com).

Biondi is no stranger to getting canned, having been fired 21 times during a 32-year period. According to legend he was let go by WLS in 1963 for telling the old baseball joke about the boys kissing the girls on the strikes and the girls kissing the boys on the balls. But the Radio Hall Of Famer was actually fired for getting into fisticuffs with management after complaining about the number of commercials on his show.

HD receivers are about $300 and use the same signal as the station, and there’s no subscription fee. As of press time there are about 35 Illinois radio stations broadcasting in HD but only 14 had an HD2 format up and running (for example, WGCI-FM (107.5)’s HD2 signal is old school hip-hop, while WDRV-FM (94.7)’s is “deep tracks”). For an updated list of local HD offerings, see www.hdradio.com.

LUDDITE RADIO G-STRINGS: One analog antidote for those sick and tired of corporate, high-tech, high-definition, multi-bit radio, TV, and recorded music is community-run low-power FM radio. In an effort to undo some of the damage caused by the Telecommunications Act Of 1996, which deregulated media and sparked a wave of consolidation and subsequent mediocrity that continues to this day, Congress passed the Low Power Radio Act Of 2000. During a six-month period in 2000 the FCC allowed organizations five-day windows to apply for low-power FM radio licenses.

Thousands of organizations tried to get licenses, but only about 700 were accepted. According to the Prometheus Radio Project, most of them were churches. An arts group in Three Oaks, Michigan that applied heard nothing until November 2004, when they learned they had exactly 18 months to create a station from scratch. With the assistance of everyone from the mayor (who helped build the transmitter shed) to local school kids (who created office murals), WHCR was launched late last year. The music programming includes shows hosted by longtime record producer Robin McBride, Yo La Tengo tour manager Joe Puleo, and The Indie Club, which specializes in local music (send CDs and press kits to 2979 Shawnee Rd., Bridgman, MI 49106). For more, see www.radioharborcountry.org or www. bellevia.com.

Another success story is downstate’s Radio Free Urbana, a project of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center that went online after a Prometheus-led “barn-raising” last November. Bands can send demos to WRFU, 202 S. Broadway Ave., Suite 100, Urbana, IL 61801. Learn more at www.wrfu.net.

The window to apply for low-power FM licenses closed in 2000, but two bills could expand it: Senate Bill 312, The Local Community Radio Act Of 2005 and HB 3731, The Expand And Protect Community Radio Act Of 2005. Write to Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama at 230 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60604. To find your U.S. representative’s address, go to www.house.gov/writerep.

For more on low-power FM, see www.prometheus.org. The advocacy group will make a presentation at the Allied Media Conference, June 23rd to 25th at Bowling Green University (for details go to www.alliedmediaconference.org).

ODDS ‘N’ SODS: Chicago Public Radio recently announced a plan to scrap music programming altogether and devote its three stations – WBEZ-FM (91.5), Chesterton, Indiana’s WBEW-FM (89.5), and Morris’ WBEQ-FM (90.7) – to news and talk. Shows like Steve Cushing‘s “Blues Before Sunrise,” Marian McPartland‘s long-form interview show, “Piano Jazz,” and “Jazz With Dick Buckley” – who’s been with the station since 1977 – would be history. They’ll continue to air the rock ‘n’ roll talk show “Sound Opinions,” which airs Saturday nights at 7 and was recently picked up by two Minnesota public radio stations. Disgruntled music fans have set up an online petition protesting the change at WBEZ. It’s at www.savethemusiconwbez.org . . . The latest Chicago media legend to be shown the door is TV newsman Walter Jacobson, who was relieved of his Sunday anchor and weekday commentary duties at WFLD-Channel 32. The Chicago Sun-Times recently lost veteran sportswriter Ron Rappaport in a buyout agreement that’s part of parent company Hollinger International’s initiative to reduce the workforce at local papers by 10 percent. Among those also exiting is classical music critic Wynne Delacoma.

– Cara Jepsen

Category: Media, Monthly