Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 23, 2008 at 17:53:39:
In Reply to: Mancow joins WLS-AM, with Pat Cassidy posted by chicagomedia.org on October 23, 2008 at 07:26:12:
WLS has a 'cow
Erich "Mancow" Muller may not be an idiot, but he plays one on the radio -- an unreflective, loudmouth lout with an adolescent's weakness for toilet humor and jokes about private parts, and a dittohead's capacity for spouting right-wing vitriol.
His occasional, scenery-chewing commentaries for WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight" are fervid yet shallow, the most meretricious bid for ratings I've seen in all of Chicago broadcasting in the last 30 years. And yes, that includes WMAQ-Ch. 5's little fling 11 years ago with Jerry Springer, who is a veritable Eric Sevareid compared to Mancow.
Now we learn that WLS-AM is installing Mancow in its 9-11 a.m. shift starting Monday, replacing the steady if somewhat vanilla conservatism of itinerant talker Jerry Agar with...well, we'll see.
Maybe he's changed, but when he was last on the radio here regularly, Mancow was an insufferable font of foul, misogynistic inanity and overheated conservative bromides...a guy who simply wanted to talk at listeners rather than with them.
Phil Rosenthal quotes Mike Fowler, WLS-AM's president and general manager: "It's going to bring a lot of energy to the station. It's a younger version of Rush [Limbaugh], with some Roe Conn thrown in."
Conn should sue. He has a conservative outlook, to be sure, and doesn't shy from lighthearted talk about about sex, booze, gossip and so on. But he explores issues rather than pounding on them. And his 2-7 p.m. show on WLS is a veritable Parisian salon compared to anything I've ever heard from Mancow and his sidekicks such as "Turd."
Isn't that funny? He gave a guy a nickname that's the same word grade school children use to describe excrement!
Conservatives in the Chicago area must be feeling so proud today.
(Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune)