Posted by Portage on Central on December 22, 2010 at 04:57:35:
WGN Radio launches new evening sports-talk show Thursday
Last Modified: Dec 22, 2010 02:33AM
More back to the future at news/talk WGN-AM (720). In the wake of controversial program director Kevin Metheny’s abrupt departure from the news-talk station last month, general manager Tom Langmyer is moving to put more pieces of the pre-Metheny WGN back in place. Langmyer’s latest move is bringing back a weekday sports and news program from 7 to 10 p.m., the time slot that most recently was filled by felon Jim Laski. Both Laski and Metheny, who gave Laski his high-profile gig, exited the station at the same time.
WGN-AM sports talent David Kaplan will host the new show, debuting Thursday, called “WGN Sports Night.” There will be a rotating roster of guest co-hosts, including Cubs TV play-by-play broadcaster Len Kasper, former Bears wide receiver Glen Kozlowski and several newspaper beat writers and columnists.
Sports insiders also will appear on the show, including Cubs general manger Jim Hendry and manager Mike Quade and Blackhawks radio play-by-play broadcaster John Wiedeman.
In addition to sports, the show will address some of the day’s big stories beyond sports. News anchor Andrea Darlas is on board to help handle breaking news outside the realm of sports. “This program will be entertaining and different from shows on other stations in that it will include a wide variety of topics, and not be limited solely to sports discussion,” explained Langmyer.
But the new WGN-AM evening show isn’t expected to be a major ratings threat to programming on other sports-focused local stations, including CBS Radio Chicago’s WSCR-AM (670) and ESPN Radio’s WMVP-AM (1000).
Because WGN is the radio home for broadcast of Cubs, Blackhawks and Northwestern University basketball games, the new evening show with Kaplan will wind up airing sporadically for much of the year. “It can’t get any real traction in the ratings that way,” explained one source in the local radio business.
Mayoral debate on ABC
Top-rated WLS-Channel 7 will air a mayoral candidate debate on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. It is unclear at this point how many of the candidates will participate. The hourlong, commercial-free debate, hosted by Channel 7 anchor and reporter Ron Magers, will be broadcast live from the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre in the Loop. It also will be streamed on abc7chicago.com and broadcast at a time to be announced on Univision Chicago.
To present the debate, Channel 7 is partnering with several organizations, including the Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago Loop Alliance, Chicago Urban League, League of Chicago Theatres, League of Women Voters, Mikva Challenge, National Council of La Raza, the Metropolitan Planning Council and Univision Chicago.
“We are proud of ABC 7’s long-standing tradition of broadcasting candidate debates, and with the intense focus on Chicago’s next mayor, we knew a timely mayoral debate was essential,” said Emily Barr, president and general manager of WLS-Channel 7.