Posted by chicagomedia.org on March 11, 2009 at 07:24:12:
Ever a hands-off host, Jerry Springer puts his foot down
Phil Rosenthal | Tribune Media
March 11, 2009
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Always playing the outsider looking in when it comes to his eponymous TV free-for-all, Jerry Springer has made a very comfortable living by standing clear of the fray. The guests make it camp. He's the counselor.
Now comes a fight connected to his show he feels he has no choice but to throw himself into headlong.
With syndicator NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution working on a deal to cash in on generous Connecticut tax incentives by moving the "The Jerry Springer Show" to Stamford after this TV season, Springer is taking on his bosses on behalf of his staff so that as many employees as possible at least get the chance to follow their jobs east.
Springer accepts the economic rationale for the Stamford move "because they're talking about millions and millions of dollars in terms of savings." The human price in Chicago is another matter.
"In this environment, you just don't say, 'Well, we're moving, bye!' just because you have the legal right to do it," said Springer, who this week is guest-hosting the still-vacant 1-to-4 p.m. shift through Friday on Chicago's WGN-AM 720. "This business of just cutting people loose, it's unethical, it's immoral, I just hate it. I don't want to be part of that."
Springer said that if he had nixed his show's move, "then that's the end of the show." But he feels his efforts already have "saved more people than I thought we would save," and his battle continues. He is even willing to personally pitch in on moving costs.
NBC Universal declined to comment Tuesday. The company is working to finalize its deal to move "Springer" and "The Steve Wilkos Show" from Chicago and Maury Povich's "Maury" from New York, lured by Connecticut's 30 percent tax credit on production costs and 20 percent tax credit on infrastructure costs beyond the first $1 million spent.
Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell's office has said the deal will bring 150 to 200 jobs to the state. Springer simply wants the people who now have some of those jobs to get to come with them.
"I think everyone on our show should be offered the option of continuing," said Springer, who intends to keep his home in Chicago even after his show moves. "They can individually make their own decisions whether they'll commute or move, but I don't like the idea of the company using this as an excuse to change people.
"You just don't mess with people like that. It's just horrible. I was totally depressed when I got the news. Obviously I'm going to survive it, but there are a lot of people here with families. They've devoted many years to this" show.
The 1-4 p.m. weekday shift on Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN-AM has remained open since December, but Springer went to pains to point out, both on the air and off it, that he's not looking to take anyone's job. He already has one gig (more if you count side projects like his scheduled summer run in London as lawyer Billy Flynn in the musical "Chicago"). But "it's fun to fill in," he said, and WGN program director Kevin Metheny is a friend from his Air America days.
"If he needs someone, I'm right around the corner," Springer said. "So he just said, 'Why don't you fill in for a couple days?' It's nothing more than that. To be honest, one day I would consider doing something like that, but that's when everything else is done. Radio has to be your only job. You can't do it part-time."
His plan this week is to take his cues from the audience, and he expects it's the absence of the Chicago studio audience that will have the greatest on-air effect in Stamford, which is 30 miles from New York City.
"Chicago's a big city, so you get the ethnic diversity, but you also get the Midwest sense of wonderment," he said. "There, you're going to get a New York audience, and I don't think anything's strange to them."