Posted by Bud on February 13, 2010 at 12:33:39:
Former WLS host Pat Cassidy: 'Nice to sleep in'
Ousted sidekick saw it coming -- sort of
'It was nice to sleep in." That was veteran radio newsman Pat Cassidy's first observation Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after he and Mancow Muller were abruptly dumped as co-hosts of news/talk WLS-AM's (890) midmorning talk show and replaced by Cisco Cotto. Cassidy said he spent his morning reading the news reports about his exit from WLS-AM and some of the public's reaction to the news.
Was he caught off guard by his dismissal? Not entirely. "Whenever you have new management, you sort of expect some changes," said Cassidy, referring to the appointment of Michael Damsky as WLS-AM's new general manager in mid-January and Drew Hayes as operations director shortly thereafter.
Before taking over as general manager, Damsky was director of ad sales for Citadel Broadcasting's two Chicago radio outlets: WLS-AM and oldies WLS-FM (94.7). Hayes had held the same post at all-news WBBM-AM (780) and sports talk WSCR-AM (670).
Cassidy arrived at WLS-AM in the summer of 2008, after he opted not to re-sign with WBBM-AM, where he had been morning drive co-host with Felicia Middlebrooks for eight years. "I was very happy at WBBM," said Cassidy. But he wanted to see if he could do talk radio too, so he accepted a competing offer to join WLS-AM.
In hindsight, at least a couple of factors conspired almost immediately to complicate Cassidy's short tenure at WLS. First was the arrival of Arbitron's "portable people meter" in Chicago, which quickly changed the way the all-important radio ratings were determined in this market. Radio station general managers, including then-WLS-AM General Manager Mike Fowler, were forced to take a fresh look at their program lineups and decide what was -- or wasn't -- working.
Speculation at the time of Cassidy's arrival at WLS-AM had him taking over for Don Wade and Roma in the morning drive slot. But that duo's morning drive program suddenly was a hot commodity in the new ratings world, and they wound up staying on at WLS. Cassidy, at least initially, found himself without a show to call his own. A few months later, WLS-AM hired Mancow Muller, and Fowler suggested Cassidy team with Muller for a midmorning show.
"At first I was skeptical," said Cassidy. But the two developed a good working relationship. Still, they were very different. "Mancow was over the top, and I was more reserved," said Cassidy, who had spent more than 30 years on radio straightforwardly delivering the news. In fact, Cassidy said the toughest adjustment for him coming to WLS was actually learning how to be more opinionated.
Would he want to return to WBBM-AM, if management there ultimately decides they want him back? For sure. "I loved working with Felicia Middlebrooks, and the whole staff at WBBM is great," he said. But if he does return, he won't be able to sleep in, and he'll have to re-learn how to keep his opinions to himself.