More Phil Rosenthal on Meier joining WGN Radio

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: Garry Meier joins WGN radio for midday slot : Phil Rosenthal | Tribune Media : April 3, 2009 : Back in his late teens and early 20s, he had a job in a drugstore and he worked in construction. While dating a woman whose family owned a sod farm, he briefly entertained a fantasy of someday getting a patch of land and selling patches of land. : Only one job ever felt right to Garry Meier. That was talking on the radio. Thursday he signed with WGN-AM 720 so at long last he could get back to doing just that. : Off the air for much of the last five years, Meier was half of two of Chicago's most popular radio duos of the last three decades -- first with Steve Dahl and later Roe Conn. He moves Friday into WGN's 1-to-4 p.m. weekday slot. : "This is all I know, so believe me, I'm very happy to be back and I think you'll see that in my work," Meier said. "I don't have the skill of making furniture or whatever. I wish I did, but I don't. This is what I do, and thank God I can do it -- and I never seem to lose that passion, no matter what I've gone through. That's the important thing." : Meier will be joined by Jim Turano, who contributed to his brief 2007 WCKG-FM return, which was aborted after seven months when CBS Radio flipped formats. : The hire ends a guessing game over who would get the mid-afternoon slot at WGN, which, like the Chicago Tribune, is owned by Tribune Co. The post has been open since John Williams switched to morning drive to succeed Spike O'Dell, who retired in December. : Meier comes aboard just before the start of the baseball season, when Chicago Cubs broadcasts traditionally bring a surge in WGN's ratings. Weekday afternoon games will pre-empt Meier about one-quarter of the time between now and early October, albeit with varying frequency. (There are four weekday afternoon games scheduled for the week of April 13, as many as in all of August.) : But even with the disruptions, WGN Program Director Kevin Metheny believes the station will benefit from "a show that people who like Cubs baseball but have felt that WGN wasn't perfect for them" will enjoy. : "Garry's talking about what's on his mind, which is typically what's on other people's minds but through a fun-house mirror," Metheny said. "It's of a somewhat different sensibility than what's been on WGN historically. It's a little more aggressive, a little more edgy and a little more youthful than what's been on WGN. But we … have a desire to be more relevant to a larger constituency." : Meier, 59, whose hugely successful, groundbreaking partnership with Dahl ended acrimoniously after nearly 15 years in 1993 and whose popular pairing with Conn blew up after eight years, has mostly been off the air since talks to remain at WLS-AM 890 with Conn broke down in 2004. : The common knock on Meier has always been that he is more effective as a counterpuncher rather than in the lead role. He believes his WCKG work with Turano speaks for itself. He was particularly encouraged during his guest run on WGN a few weeks back when Cubs announcer Ron Santo and Turano, impersonating Santo, did a "Dueling Ronnies" bit. : "He wants to try it again this way," Metheny said. "It's Garry's belief and the belief of many others who were paying attention at the time that, given more time, that would have worked quite well, so he has confidence in the work and we do too. But if nothing else, in 21st Century radio, we have to be responsive, willing and able to shift quickly to take advantage of things that are working or remedy things that are not working." : Meier would not discuss the terms of his contract, negotiated by his wife, Cynthia. ("I'm there until I'm not," he said. "I'm just happy we got the deal done.") And he acknowledged it's a little weird to be at Tribune Co.'s WGN in that he and Dahl "made jokes about it back in the day, but it's a different ballgame." : Dahl, who writes an occasional Chicago Tribune column, has been off the air since December, sitting out a lucrative CBS Radio contract that will keep him sidelined until mid-2011 and adjusting to what Meier has been dealing with. : "If you do this for a long time and then you're not doing it, it's frustrating," Meier said. "This is what I do, and I love doing it still, and I want to keep doing it until I don't."

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