Posted by chicagomedia.org on September 02, 2008 at 18:58:20:
Mike North to bring sports talk to Internet
Teams with Lettuce Entertain You restaurants
Three months after walking away from CBS Radio's WSCR-AM 670 and with three months remaining until he's free to take a broadcast job elsewhere, sports talker Mike North said Monday that he is going to do a live, two-hour weekday show on the Internet site of Lettuce Entertain You's Wildfire restaurants for at least four months, beginning Monday.
"When I walked away from the Score, I said: 'Now what? I can't do radio or TV,' " North said by phone. "I was thinking of fighting it, the right to work, but at the end of the day, the Score could always match whoever offered me money. … By the time I went to court and it was settled, it would be January and I would be ready to go on. So I went to Rich Melman with this idea."
"The Mike North Webio Show," with Wildfire among its sponsors, will be streamed live at www.WildfireRestaurant.com Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. Downloads will be available each day, beginning at 1 p.m. on North's own site, NorthtoNorth.com, as well as iTunes.com.
"I've always liked him. I've loved his passion," Melman said in an interview. "I'm not going to tell you I'm any expert on Web shows or the Internet or anything like that. But I talked to a couple of our people and they said it was interesting. A number of people said this is the coming thing. So I said, 'Let's try it and tie it into one of our restaurants.' "
North was an original personality when WSCR launched in 1992. He left the station after failing to agree to terms on a new contract. Chicago Sun-Times writers Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley have taken over his slot in morning drive time.
Jen Patterson, who recently resigned from WSCR, will be reunited with North as executive producer. The program will originate from the north suburban studios of TalkZone Internet Talk Radio, with occasional shows done at Wildfire restaurants in the area.
(ROSENTHAL/trib)