Robert Feder mentioned the new WKQX-FM morning show hosted by Brian Sherman and Steve Tingle in his article today and didn't exactly give it the benefit of the doubt...
He says the alternative rock station is trotting out its fourth morning show in two years (actually, only its second), and predicting doom and gloom for the show and hinted the station was better off with Erich "Mancow" Mueller, who occupied the slot from 1998 to 2006.
Personally, I say give it a chance. While I agree it has a long way to go in finding an audience, it has nowhere to go but up. Sherman & Tingle are already on in the afternoons, and it seems the show is more than ready to take on the heavyweights in morning drive.
As for Mancow Mueller, I haven't really said much about the former Q101 morning personality since he was bounced in July 2006 and this blog started two months later. In fact, out of the 1,300 or so posts I've wrote, he's mentioned in only 14 of them. He's not heard locally in Chicago anymore - hasn't been for two years. He's not a factor and is irrelevant to the local radio scene. Feder has certainly mentioned him more in his columns in the same time span, and I don't know why.
I've listened to the show before, and while it was exciting to listen to at first, it became more and more of a bitter rant fest, plus he became more of a hyprocrite, which sent me and a lot of other listeners fleeing for the exits.
I remember a few years ago when he stated in an interview regarding lyrics in many pop music and hip-hop songs were offensive. And yet, he was a radio personality at KMEL-FM in San Francisco which played such fare and his Q101 shows often was racy and featured porn stars. When you look up the word "hypocrite" in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of Mancow.
And his lawsuit against Q101 is quite baseless. I'm surprised it hasn't been thrown out of court by now. His claim of how Emmis kept him from being hired at urban outlet WPWX-FM (Power 92) is quite unbelievable and even more so given he wouldn't have been a good fit at Power 92 anyway, given he's clearly not a fan of the music they play.
And while he did well in his last ratings book at Q101, it was more of a curosity factor since a lot of people knew ahead of time his days at the station were coming to an end. Ratings for his show were slipping for years.
But think about this - how pathetic is Chicago radio when the most mentioned personality is someone who hasn't been heard here in the last two years?
While I respect Feder a lot - I've read him for 25 years - I think he's being unfair to Q101's morning team before the show even moves to its new time period. And to me, it's better to have a local morning show than a self-absorbed windbag who does his show from Chicago and isn't local at all.
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