Posted by Bud on May 09, 2010 at 13:54:57:
Most of you will remember that on the evening of March 31st, WLUP announced that Eddie Webb was leaving the station to work on a new syndicated rock radio show, coming out this summer. Marv Nyren proudly exclaimed at that time that The Loop would have "first dibs" on the new Webb show and would look to put it into the nighttime slot, which became vacant by Webb's departure and the subsequent on-air staff restructuring that needed to take place. Turns out, that wasn't quite the truth...
Webb is still working on getting the new syndicated show off the ground, along with VH1, but WLUP wants nothing to do with it. Instead, they will be naming a new nighttime host for their vacant 7:00pm-Midnight shift this week. The new host will be: Walter Flakus.
On the same evening that WLUP announced Webb's departure and the rearranging of their hosts, they also quietly announced the hiring of Flakus as a part-time & fill-in host. It seemed pretty obvious to most insiders that he was brought on as a replacement then.
Walter Flakus may be a familiar name to some Chicago rock fans, but not because of his radio skills. Flakus was the keyboardist & co-founding member for the Chicago-based rock band Stabbing Westward, which was officially around from 1992-2002. After the breakup of Stabbing Westward, Flakus worked in radio on the east coast, ending up as a Music Director and host for XM's Alternative stations "Fred" & "Ethyl" for two years, as well as an A&R rep for Q Prime Management in NY. In the last few years, he has worked with the bands The Clay People and Chokt. Lately, he has been part of the Goom online radio website, working some on the Rock-It station there.
He still has a home on the East Coast (New Jersey) and will now be commuting back and forth between there and Chicago.
He will begin as WLUP's official new night DJ this month.