Phil Rosenthal on Meier joining WGN Radio

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: Garry Meier signs with WGN-AM : ------------------------------- : Garry Meier, who has been half of two of Chicago's more popular radio duos of the last three decades yet off the air for much of the last five years, has signed with WGN-AM 720, the station announced today. : Meier will take over the station's 1-to-4 p.m. weekday slot on Friday. The mid-afternoon shift has been officially vacant since December. A succession of guest hosts -- including Meier -- have filled in since John Williams moved to morning drive, succeeding the retired Spike O'Dell. : “Garry Meier is a household name in Chicago and has already brought many new listeners to WGN,” Tom Langmyer, vice president and general manager of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s radio station, said in a statement. “He's contemporary, smart, hip and fun. He's a great fit for today's new 'Voice of Chicago'!” : Meier, whose hugely successful on-air partnership with Steve Dahl ended after nearly 15 years in 1993 and whose popular pairing with Roe Conn ended after eight years, has mostly been off the air since contract talks to remain at WLS-AM 890 with Conn broke down in 2004. : A 2007 return to local airwaves, paired with Jim Turano, was cut short when CBS Radio's old WCKG-FM changed formats seven months after Meier's arrival, just as he and Turano were finding their groove. : Meier was among the guest hosts WGN-AM used in recent weeks. He always was seen as likely to wind up in some capacity at the station he regularly lampooned in his days with Dahl, who's now an occasional Chicago Tribune columnist and off the air until his lucrative CBS Radio contract expires in mid-2011. But it took time for WGN-AM and Meier to nail down a deal. : WGN-AM, which for a time also was courting WLUP-FM 97.9 morning star Jonathon Brandmeier before the longtime Chicago personality signed a one-year renewal with Emmis Communications last month, wanted to have its weekday lineup set before the beginning of Chicago Cubs baseball season, when the station traditionally has enjoyed a surge in its ratings. : The degree to which that pattern will hold with Arbitron now employing Personal People Meters rather than diaries to measure radio listenership remains to be seen. : Between next week's opening day and the first week in October, there are Cubs broadcasts scheduled for about one-in-four weekday afternoons, pre-empting some or all of Meier's new program. The frequency of those scheduled day games is greater early in the season, with four afternoon games scheduled for the week of April 13th, weather permitting. : "To have honed my broadcasting skills over the years listening to Ron Santo, to work on the same station as him is pure heaven. C'mon!" Meier said in the station's release. : "We're delighted Garry has agreed to bring his game-changing talent to WGN,” Kevin Metheny, the station's program director added. : (Chicago Tribune)

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