Posted by chicagomedia.org on August 02, 2008 at 08:20:15:
In Reply to: WLS - "keep Wades, add Cassidy" posted by chicagomedia.org on August 01, 2008 at 08:08:47:
Radio waves: Leave Don & Roma alone!
Radio Justice Zorn, concurring in part and dissenting in part from Chief Radio Justice Phil Rosenthal's opinion this morning, WLS should keep Wades, add Cassidy:
Though I am often and increasingly infuriated by what I hear on the "Don Wade and Roma" show (weekdays 5-9 a.m. on WLS-AM 890) I believe the station would err if it followed my colleague's suggestion to cut the hours of the husband/wife duo and hand the 5-8 a.m. shift over to former WBBM AM 780 morning news anchor Pat Cassidy.
This is not a knock on Cassidy. He has a pleasant on-air persona as a news presenter, as they call them in England. And he may turn out to be an able talk-show host. But the skills are not necessarily transferable, and as someone who has done a dozen or so guest-host stints on radio stations over the years and listened to scores of others attempt the feat, I can tell you that hosting a good talk show is a lot harder than it sounds.
The Wades do it very well. Their preparation regimen is legendary and thorough -- they work through the wee hours combing through the print and broadcast news to find talk-worthy stories and present them in a rat-a-tat fashion. If you want to know what people in the Chicago area are or will be talking about and how the arguments are taking shape, their program is a reliable guide, which is why I often record it and later skip through all the commercials and radio boilerplate.
The idea used to be the conservative, Don, sparring with the liberal, Roma. But Roma has veered to the right in recent years and the show has lost its bi-partisan charm.
But, as Rosenthal reports, it hasn't lost its audience appeal. Under a new ratings system, "Don and Roma went from seventh place overall with just a 3.2 percent share of morning drive listeners .... to third place with a 6 percent share."
My advice to WLS: Let Cassidy prove his talk chops away from the glare of drive-time. And don't mess with Don & Roma.
(Zorn)