Jay Marvin 'happy to be out' as WLS talk show host

[tritsofme]

Jay Marvin, the liberal firebrand who offered a semblance of balance to the conservative spin on news/talk WLS-AM (890), was forced out Tuesday as midday host at the Disney/ABC-owned station.



Eileen Byrne, who had been Marvin's co-host from 9 to 11 a.m. weekdays, will continue solo when she returns from vacation.

John Gallagher, president and general manager of WLS, said the decision to cut Marvin was made because the show "hasn't produced what it was designed to achieve." It was unclear whether the issue was a lack of ratings or a lack of chemistry between the two hosts.

Gallagher denied that politics had anything to do with Marvin's departure. Asked to name anyone else among the station's full-time hosts whom he considers liberal, Gallagher mentioned only Roma Wade, the wife and co-host of morning personality Don Wade.

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/feder/cst-fin-feder29a.html

[Inland]

1. ROFL! Marvin's attempt to morph into rightwinger fails

and if Roma is liberal--well, shit, she never contradicts Don in his rants. He talks for five minutes and she says that there MUST be another side to the story, which she doesn't know and nobody ever gives. What crap.

WLS has over the past two years made sure that the rightwingnuts who tune in for the hatefest in the AM stay all day long. No interruption in the spew for a moment, lest they change stations.

[baldingrockwarlord]

2. .

I'm going to miss listening to Jay AND WLS. Since the election, if I tuned in at all, Jay's (& Eileen's) Show was the only one left that I would listen to. Now, I'm done. I have been a lifelong listener to that station since the music radio days, and even stuck around for the transition to talk radio. I had always held out hope that talk radio at WLS would become more than just right wing politics, but that has never happened. Unfortunately I dont get AAR down in Central Illinois, and at work I can't listen to the webcast. Occassionally I can listen to AAR webcasts at home. I'm glad Mike Malloy ended up there. He's another one I USED TO listen to on WLS until they let him go too. I hope wherever Jay ends up that I can catch his show.

[KharmaTrain]

3. WLS - Long Lost Friend

Doesn't seem long ago WLS was a station with some balance...Mike Malloy, Jay Marvin (when he wasn't muzzled by corporates) and Garry Meier. Now it's all wingnut all the time. I took it off the push-buttons months ago and I'd rather listen to WGN <shudder> before I pop on their diatribes.

Fortunately the FM dial has plenty to offer...besides NPR/WBEZ (Talk Of The Nation is still the best talk show on radio) there's Pacifica programming from Northeastern & Loyola University's stations and from WILL in Urbana as well as Wisconsin Public Radio and Northern Illinois University.

Good news is WSAI...a 50kw flamethrower from Cincinatti is flipping to AAR and aims its signal at Illinois and Chicago. It's at 1530AM and can be heard from sunset to sunrise. The downside is, locally, during the day a station owned by Joe Gentille is on the air and plays goons like Michael Medved, thus not worth listening to.

Rumor has it that an AAR affiliate should be in Chicago early next year, but that's been circulating around for quite some time with no new info coming out.

Cheers

[chicagojoe]

4. Is that Medved moron the same guy

who was once a movie critic? He was a dork then, too.

[Fed Up]

5. I cannot stand that station anymore.

The only time I will listen is when Nate Clay is on, which is 4 hours a week. Everything else is RW rubbish.

WIND 560 AM is worse, they are all right wing, all the time. Why would WLS try and be like WIND when they could be more centrist? WIND already fills the RW appetite in Chicago.

[tcfrogs]

6. As mentioned in an earlier post

LS has been trending RW for a while, slowly and incrementally. I did enjoy listening to Jay & Eileen, and will miss him.

Read on a message board somewhere - someone predicted that they'll partner up Roe with Eileen in the morning, and he'll come back in the afternoon from 5 to 7. That would free up the station to play Rush & Hannity back to back live. Also, would allow them to pick up Michael Savage at 7.

Just some predictions I read elsewhere, don't hold me to them!