Spike O'Dell: WGN is becoming "just another station"

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: Spike O'Dell: WGN is becoming "just another station" : Chicago Tribune's Tower Ticker by Phil Rosenthal : June 26, 2010 : : Former WGN-AM 720 morning man Spike O'Dell, who has been diplomatically quiet concerning changes at his former station, offered his unequivocal support for ousted midday host Steve Cochran via Facebook, saying it is "no longer the station that mid-America knows and trusts." : O'Dell later explained Saturday that it seems "WGN is becoming 'just another station' on the dial with what is going on" and he "blew an 'emotional gasket' and blurted out my response" at news of Cochran's exit. : : "Well Steve," O'Dell, who retired from WGN-AM and broadcasting in December 2008, posted on Cochran's wall, "as long as they are making all these changes, I hope they will change the call letters too. It is certainly no longer the station that mid-America knows and trusts. I don't know if I am mad or sad. Sorry partner." : O'Dell's note Friday was in response to Cochran's status update hours after learning his Friday show was his last at Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s radio station. : "So how was your day?" Cochran posted. "At about 245p as I exited the men's room (seems fitting) I was summoned to a meeting where I was sheepishly told today was my last at WGN." : O'Dell concluded his response by suggesting he and Cochran play some golf. "Not working is not a bad thing at all," O'Dell wrote. : Cochran's exit from WGN-AM after a decade was not completely unexpected. His contract expires at the end of the month and the station had trimmed his show by one-third to two hours when it moved it to 1 p.m. this spring. He had posted a note on Facebook on June 12 that he expected to be gone after June 30. : Also, WGN-AM earlier this month hired Mike McConnell, 54, a host from Clear Channel Cincinnati's WLW-AM who will come aboard in August in a slot to be announced later, though he has said it will "air sometime between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m." : This is just the latest change at WGN-AM since parent Tribune Co. was taken private in a deal engineered by real estate billionaire Sam Zell in late 2007. That transaction brought several former Jacor and Clear Channel radio executives into leadership roles with the Chicago-based media concern. : Changes have included removal of midday personalities Kathy O'Malley and Judy Markey and discontinuation of the station's long-running "Sports Central" program, moving host Dave Kaplan to expanded duties on Chicago Cubs postgame and pregame programming. : O'Dell, long a top-rated morning radio host in Chicago, planned his departure long before any of the changes in Tribune Co. management. He had told the company when he signed his contract renewal in November 2006 that it would be his last because he wanted to walk away after his 55th birthday, when he was still young enough to enjoy himself. : : Asked in January 2007 by the Chicago Tribune what would happen if the company offered him a huge amount of money to stick around past his intended exit date, O'Dell laughed. "You and I work for the Tribune. You know that doesn't happen," he said. : "Some people may think I'm nuts (to retire)," he told the paper then. "But that's my plan and I'm sticking with it. ... It's not that I'm going to be the wealthiest person in the world, but I'll be fine. We've invested well and we're OK. ... It's a tough biz, and getting up at 2 in the morning grates on you after a while." : A subsequent Jan. 30, 2007 Chicago Sun-Times column by Robert Feder said O'Dell's early talk of retirement served "only to destabilize WGN, unsettle listeners, fortify competitors, erode advertiser support, and prolong speculation on his eventual successor." : Cochran -- who, with the exception of a one-year stint in Detroit in the late 1990s and a few brief stretches between jobs has been on Chicago radio since 1993 -- originally seemed to be in line to replace O'Dell in the morning. But management was unable to come to terms with Cochran on a new contract. The job instead went, temporarily it turned out, to John Williams. : Williams, whose contract runs into next year, was replaced by San Francisco import Greg Jarrett in morning drive after six months and returned to middays. He remains in WGN-AM's 9 a.m.-to-1 p.m. slot, and since April also has hosted a two-hour weekday program for CBS Radio's WCCO-AM in Minneapolis. : Contacted Saturday about his Friday posting on Facebook, O'Dell indicated he isn't anti-change. : "A radio station has to evolve all the time," O'Dell noted. "It just seems that WGN is becoming 'just another station' on the dial with what is going on now. It seems to have lost the neighborly or friendly feel to it. I think people want to turn on their radio and enjoy what they listen to -- not get mad at it. : "I love that radio station so much," he continued. "I guess that's why it breaks my heart when I hear things through the grapevine or in the press. I have stayed pretty quiet the last year and a half. I'm not there any longer and no one cares what I think, and I'm fine that. That's normal. But when I heard the news about 'Cocky,' I guess I blew an 'emotional gasket' and blurted out my response to his Facebook post." : O'Dell said that he and his wife are "loving life" with their kids and two new grandsons, adding with typical humor, "The only time I get up at 2am now is to pee! Ha!"

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