Posted by chicagomedia.org on December 05, 2008 at 13:17:23:
In Reply to: Steve Dahl will be fired posted by Yo on December 04, 2008 at 20:10:03:
Dahl leaves Jack-FM, but doesn't call it quits
By Ted Cox | Daily Herald Columnist
Published: 12/5/2008 11:33 AM
In the end - at least for now - Steve Dahl, Chicago radio's "Disco Demolition" man, went not with a bang, but with barely more than a whimper.
At the close of a fairly low-ley and routine shift Friday, Dahl announced the show would be his last on WJMK 104.3-FM, but he did not sign off his 30-year career in Chicago.
"You guys are taking me off the air," he said of CBS Radio. "I'm not retiring."
Dahl, 54, is simply the latest casualty of CBS Radio's companywide downsizing, which has been felt especially hard of late in Chicago. CBS' all-sports WSCR 670-AM let Mike North's contract lapse earlier this year, and last month Top 40-dance WBBM 96.3-FM removed morning hosts Ed Volkman and Joe Bohannon.
North was taken off the air abruptly just before his deal ran out, without being given an opportunity to say goodbye to listeners. By contrast, Dahl went surprisingly quietly and without blasting CBS Radio, perhaps because his $1 million-a-year deal runs into 2011.
The writing also had long been on the wall. When CBS Radio's former WCKG 105.9-FM, Dahl's previous radio home, went to an adult-contemporary music format favoring women listeners a year ago, Dahl accepted a move to "we-play-anything" 'JMK and shifted from afternoon drive to mornings. Ratings did not follow, however, and there was widespread media speculation his days on CBS Radio were numbered.
Dahl made it clear he intends to see CBS Radio honor its contract, but that leaves his career in limbo for now, along with sidekick Buzz Kilman. Station executives were apparently aware of Dahl's intention to make Friday his last show after extending the offer to let him finish out the calendar year. When Dahl faded out with Jimmy Webb's '70s-era "If You See Me Getting Smaller, I'm Leaving," announcer Howard Cogan, better known as the station's on-air signature voice Jack, paid Dahl tribute and sent him off with Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good."