Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 24, 2010 at 08:13:32:
In Reply to: Bob Sirott fired from WGN posted by ! on January 24, 2010 at 08:10:38:
Bob Sirott’s nearly three-year run on Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.’s WGN-AM 720 as host of “The Noon Show” is over. Effective Monday, John Williams will add the weekday hour-long lunchtime newsmagazine to his regular 9 a.m.-to-noon WGN shift.
The decision on Sirott, who will continue to do a weekend program with wife Marianne Murciano as well as be the station's "signature voice" and work substitute shifts, was one of a series of reductions at the station, both on air and off. Some part-time duties were eliminated. Six full-time positions were dropped.
Among the others released was veteran afternoon news anchor and reporter Dave Stewart. Also, former Chicago Bears receiver Glen Kozlowski was let go as weekend co-host of WGN’s “Sports Central, leaving Jim Memolo to fly solo.
"As we are all too well aware, we have been living through a fundamental shift in the entire economy," Tom Langmyer, the station's vice president and general manager, said in a memo to staff late Friday. "This seismic event extends well beyond WGN Radio, Tribune and all other media companies. It has happened and it continues to challenge nearly every industry.
"In the past year, the media has experienced double-digit declines in revenue as part of a trend of decline that goes back several years," "That does not make it any easier to say goodbye to people we appreciate and respect, but it is the truth. In these challenging times, we are responsible for sustaining and reinventing Tribune and WGN Radio, while doing everything in our power to do so with as much thought and respect possible. The changes we are making are necessary, difficult, and painful. No sugarcoating or rhetoric could ever hide that truth."
Sirott, a longtime Chicago radio and television standout, added the WGN program to his duties as a WMAQ-Ch. 5 anchor in April 2007. He left Channel 5 in June rather than agree to renegotiate his multi-year TV contract, which the NBC-owned station wound up having to pay off.
"This is good for me because, moving forward, I wanted to be free of the daily 'Noon Show' commitment to work on some upcoming TV opportunities," Sirott said. "I still wanted a place to hang my radio headphones, and I'll get that. If I have the time, they want me to be the prime fill-in host. Short of that, I'll continue to do that Sunday-night special with Marianne that we record during the week. And as the voice of the station, you'll hear me all the time.
"So I'm OK with this," he said. "They needed to restructure and not have a one-hour shift anymore, but they wanted me to continue doing stuff. My sense of this is all they're doing is changing their bottom line."