Posted by Bud on March 28, 2010 at 06:58:09:
Landing new radio gig a crime to some
There are plenty of people hoping for a big break in radio who couldn't get arrested in this town.
Not Jim Laski.
Having served time in federal prison for pocketing bribes as Chicago's city clerk, Laski talks a lot about moving on with his life. He's also moving to the front of the line 10 months into his new career as a weekend and fill-in talk-radio host, scoring his own weeknight show on WGN-AM 720 that's set to take over the 7-to-9 p.m. slot, now home to "Sports Central," beginning April 12.
"One of the things I fight along the way is people call in and say, ‘Jim Laski, you're a hypocrite. Jim Laski, you did all this.' And I say, ‘Jim Laski did all this, but Jim Laski hopefully can give you insight,'" Laski, 56, said in what unexpectedly turned into a 90-minute conversation Friday. "I made a mistake. I fessed up to it. I tell people, and I don't mean this sarcastically, but short of public flogging on Michigan Avenue, I don't know what else I can do."
A flogging probably can be arranged.
"If that would resolve the issue," he said.
Who knows? Might not satisfy everyone.
"Well," he said, "I'm not going to do it if it's not going to get resolved."
Laski's felony conviction cost him his Second Amendment right to bear arms but not his First Amendment right of free speech. Ultimately, his show on Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN will sink or sail on its quality and whether he's interesting, prepared and articulate, although there may be some Chicago taxpayers whose trust he abused in the Hired Truck scandal who never bother to find out.
Politically, he describes himself as a "pragmatic progressive," neither Democrat nor Republican, "just trying to be more issue-orientated."
Listeners "want to have a good talk show," Laski said. "If they don't hear a good talk show, they're going to turn it off, and if they turn it off and the ratings aren't there, that's a problem."
And does Laski think he is good?
"I can't judge," he said. "I'm progressing. … I'll let WGN and the powers that be there decide if I've been doing a good job or a bad job. Obviously, I'm doing something right to move forward."
He rejects the idea that radio experience is a prerequisite for his new job, comparing it to a ballplayer who goes straight into the major leagues from school.
"I mean, I bypassed some of the minor leagues, so to speak," he said.
There will be opportunities for early course corrections. In Laski's first four weeks, 11 of his 20 nights are scheduled to be pre-empted by Cubs games. The Blackhawks may provide even more pre-emptions in the playoffs.
As for his crime, he would prefer to talk about the toll his family paid, and how he believes prison was good for him. He quit smoking, quit drinking. He's more physically active, happier.
"The old Jim Laski would think the current Jim Laski is a little boring," he said. "The old Jim Laski was all politics, ego, power. The new Jim Laski is more about just enjoying life and trying to be happy, but also talking about things that make sense to people."
Laski pleaded guilty to one of the two bribery counts against him, admitting he accepted nearly $50,000 to steer city trucking business to cronies. He said he was not guilty of the obstruction of justice allegations, and he repeatedly hesitated to concede any other wrongdoing.
"There are things that I'm not proud of, things that probably shouldn't have been done but were done, and I'm going to leave it at that," Laski finally said. "I mean, there are things that are better off forgotten."
Will everyone else forget?
"Paul," he said.
Phil.
"Phil," he said, "I don't know what qualifications I need to go on a radio talk show. Because I was a convicted politician, does that mean I'm not qualified to go on the radio and give my opinion?"
Of course not. But let's not give up on the public flogging idea so quickly, either.
"Will you be there as one of the witnesses?"
Actually, I might want to be one of the floggers.
"You sound very cynical," Laski said. "All I'm trying to do is try to have a career and try to pay the bills and be a good father, husband and son. I have to live with the stigma of being a convicted felon. I say that with tongue in cheek about the public flogging, but you know what? Some people would stand in line to watch that."
Might listen to it on the radio too.