Chicago Radio Spotlight Update

Hello, all. Hope you had a nice summer. Mine was a lot of fun.

I have a bunch of new interviews scheduled in the coming weeks, but before I get to them, I wanted to update some of my previous interviews. More than a dozen of my previous interview subjects have changed jobs or had something significant happen to them over the summer.

I caught up with a few of them this week...


CHARLIE MEYERSON

I previously interviewed Charlie two years ago when he was the editor of Daywatch, but this summer he was named WGN News Director. I got in touch with him the other day to ask the question I've been wondering about...

Rick: What are your plans for the WGN News department?

Charlie: Radio news in the 21st Century faces many of the same issues confronting newspapers and other established media. For instance: In an age when the latest headlines are (or can be) at anyone's fingertips on demand via smartphone or netbook, why does anyone need a half-hourly newscast? How can we make each of those broadcasts unique, "must-hear" events?

The challenges are particularly acute right now for low-fi AM radio in a hi-fi/hi-def landscape. But the good news is that in the world ahead -- when all radio will be available via the Web and WiFi and WiMax -- an audio stream will be an audio stream will be an audio stream. The playing field will have been leveled, and the best and most compelling programming will win.

I would love to get others' thoughts on these matters, and one of the first things I did after taking the job was to establish a page to do that: WGNRadio.com/RadioNext

I'm not sure how to solve the puzzles on the table, but I hope the quest will prove fun and rewarding -- for us and our audience.


DAN MCNEIL

I've spoken to Dan many times over the years, and got an update from him after he left his job at ESPN. This summer he returned to the Score, and now hosts the mid-morning show with Matt Spiegel. I asked him how it was going...

DAN: I'm pleased with the direction the new show has taken. It feels comfortable and I wouldn't have anticipated that in such short order. You never know how these things will go. It's not a predictable thing. Spiegel is all I thought he'd be and I had high expectations from the lad. He pushes when it's the right time and can 'drive' it from time to time. I've never had that from a partner and it's refreshing. We also laugh a lot. With each other and with the audience. The Score needed an infusion of joy.


EDDIE VOLKMAN

I interviewed Eddie (right) about a year ago when he was still doing the morning show with JoBo at B-96. I caught up with him again this week to find out what he and JoBo are up to and what they have planned.

Eddie: Our 8-month contract payout just ended in late July, and negotiating with any other broadcast outlets BEFORE that would have violated the contract, and we're not stupid! Ha Ha!

So Jobo and I just chilled and enjoyed the paid vacation. I travelled a lot, including Hawaii, Europe, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Nashville & more.

Jobo mostly spent time at his Freeport, Illinois houses, designing, remodeling, and relaxing.

We've recently been in some meetings with a few Chicago radio groups and feel pretty good about popping back up on Chicago morning radio again soon, of course as "Eddie & Jobo."

We both did very well financially with our last contract, so we're willing to wait for just the right situation and deal to come along. I'm headed up to Vancouver for a week or so, then down to Oklahoma to visit my daughters. But thanks to digital media, I'm always close-by... I'll keep you posted!



MELISSA FORMAN

I've interviewed Melissa several times over the last few years, including this interview from two years ago. Just a few weeks ago she was let go by the Lite, which was a pretty surprising move. I got in touch with her the other day, and as you might expect, she isn't at liberty to talk about some things (contractually), so I asked if she had anything to say to her fans (who she wasn't allowed to say farewell to.) She replied...

Melissa: Thanks, Rick! I appreciate all the great support and emails from everyone! It means the world. A new website will be live soon at www.melissaforman.com. You can email me there at anytime. I'm really excited about moving forward and will definitely talk to you soon!


For the next few weeks I'll be posting a bonus interview--the unedited versions of my interviews with some Chicago television stars that also moonlight in radio. Last Wednesday I posted the Mark Suppelsa interview. This coming Wednesday it will be Dane Placko.

Next weekend I catch up with a few more previous interview subjects, all of whom have undergone big changes since we last spoke.

Mark Suppelsa

Mark Suppelsa is the morning news anchor for the Eric & Kathy show at WTMX, but he's also the co-anchor at WGN-TV News at 5:30 and 9. I interviewed Mark for Shore Magazine over the summer, and an edited version of that interview appeared in the magazine. The unedited interview is below.



Rick: You've been a reporter now for two decades. In those years, what do you consider to be the biggest story you've covered?

Mark: The biggest story I covered would certainly have to be the week of 9/11. And oddly enough, I wasn’t in New York , Washington or PA. I wasn’t even out in the field. Yet the circumstances played out so I essentially helped anchor all of the coverage for the week for NBC5. The main anchors Warner Saunders and Allison Rosati both happened to be out of the country on vacation and couldn’t, for obvious reasons, get flights back. So for 4 straight days beginning with the morning of 9/11, I had a news earpiece attached for about 13 hours a day as our coverage weaved between network and our local coverage. I felt at the time that I couldn’t detach for one minute because I might miss something. It is still an understatement to say, it was a most extraordinary time for us in that newsroom.

Rick: How about the other end of the spectrum? What was the most embarrassing on-air blooper of your career?

Mark: My most embarrassing moment dates back to my first full year employed on air in television. 1984 in Green Bay , Wisconsin at WFRV-TV. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I was the new kid anchor, writing and producing the 5 minute local news cut-in on the half hour during Good Morning America. Unaware of the time, the director came running into my edit suite to tell me we were on the air in less than two minutes. I tossed him the tape I’d been editing and grabbed my suit coat. I ran the hundred yard dash from the newsroom to the news studio and sat down as the floor director counted down from 10. That’s 10 seconds before I was on the air.

Suddenly, I realized I’d forgotten something important. My news scripts! So I did what any panicked, green, cub anchor would do: I ducked underneath the news desk and begged them to play a commercial. What you saw on the tv screen was an empty, swiveling, anchor chair.

But wait! It got worse. During that 60 second commercial break, I ran back to the newsroom to get the scripts and ran back to the studio not realizing a person can’t anchor the news very well while out of breath and practically hyperventilating. So for the next several minutes on air, I could barely get the words out, trying to explain why I was out of breath. When it was over, I thought, perhaps because it’s the day after Thanksgiving most people might be sleeping in and hopefully missed my most embarrassing moments.

Wrong. My general manager was on the phone within minutes.

Rick: When you do this for a long time, you meet an amazing array of people from all walks of life. Of all the people you've met covering the news, who has impressed you the most?

Mark: It is difficult to name –the- most impressive person that I’ve covered. While covering President Clinton’s 1996 re-election bid, I watched him as he took a whistle-stop train from town to town on his way to the Democratic Convention in Chicago . It was then that I witnessed his legendary ability to speak sans notes for hours on end to different crowds with different messages without every hearing a slip up or stumble.

But I found Minneapolis businessman and best selling author Harvey Mackay to be an extraordinary person. No one had more energy and ideas, and no one continued to learn new tools for life more than this man. He was learning Japanese in his 60’s back in the late 1980’s because he thought that Japan would be the next frontier for his business interests. He was right.

Rick: What is your favorite and least favorite part of the job?

Mark: The favorite part of the job is uncovering new information for a story you’re working. The chase is the challenge. The least favorite is the concept developed by consultants of selecting news story topics that supposedly attract a particular audience demographic. I’ve always felt, a good story, told well, will attract anyone.

Rick: Has technology changed your job since you started in this business?

Mark: Technology has been both a curse and boon to our business. Technology is killing the newspaper business as we’ve known it. Now, it’s making television more challenging as we try to harness an audience that is increasingly getting more and more news off the web. However, I’m always using Facebook and now Twitter to update that audience with news items and recruit them to our newscasts. So embracing technology instead of fearing it can produce results.

Rick: I know this happens all the time and it seems like TV people all have good answers to this question--What is the most unusual place you've been recognized?

Mark: Probably the most unusual place I was recognized was while canoeing on a lake in Montana . And I was recognized by a Minnesota viewer who remembered my days at KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities! It had been years since I’d been there having moved in 1993 to my hometown of Chicago. Those Minnesota viewers never forget.

Rick: Tell us something about you that your listeners/viewers would be surprised to learn.

Mark: That I drove a Chevy Cavalier for nearly 10 years until last year. Ok, it –was- a convertible. But I did get a fair amount of razzing from my tv colleagues who’d cruise by in their luxury vehicles.

Rick: If you weren't in television or radio, what would you be doing?

Mark: I half seriously say I’d be a forest ranger in the mountains of Montana. I just don’t think it’d pay the upcoming college bills for my kids.