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Sorry this has taken me all week, but, as promised, here goes. For the uninitiated, I recently was asked how I felt and how others in the business feel about Mike North.
I believe Mike is one of the greatest success stories in Chicago media history. He came from nothing... his late father, Don, was a hard-working, Archie Bunker type (the apple doesn't...) his Mom very traditionally Italian and his brothers, likeable, 9-to-5 working class, regular Joes. Nothing pretentious. Typical family in the neighborhood in which I was raised. I immediately liked Be-Be. Nice woman. North was almost 40 when the Score went on the air in Jan. of '92. With almost no experience (he did a handicapping show on a foreign language station -- insert joke there) before the Score was born. In short order, Mike became the face guy of the radio station. The Score's biggest splash was made by North and Jiggetts.
Mike was unconventional, original, passionate, fully of energy, often very funny, and took no shit from anybody. His willingness to orchestrate uncomfortable interviews (with Mike McCaskey the day of the Jay Hilgenberg trade, August 27, 1992... with Isiah Thomas) became his calling card. Mike was willing to take an interview where nobody else would. He also was a willing, successful, self-promoter. Perhaps I wish I had or would have a little more of that in me, but I'm very comfortable in a team oriented approach.
Northy also knew how to make his show with Jiggetts fun. In a beatdown session with program director Ron Gleason, Terry Boers and I were told Mike and Dan were decidedly better interviewers because their guests had fun. Gleason wasn't right about much, but he was right about that. If anybody at the Score in those first four or five years were to tell you that Mike wasn't singularly the MOST responsible for the success of this daytime-only, start up operation, he is lying. Or delusional.
That first football season, North and I did a dozen or so Monday Night Football appearances for Miller. We got $500 each and it was a chance for the two most "user-friendly" hosts to promote the two "big" shows, the Monsters of the Midday and the Heavy Fuel Crew. I got to know North well and we had a lot of laughs and threw back a lot of drinks. It was a good working partnership. Mike and I also did some Saturday morning shows together that first year. Once, he hadn't gone home from the night before and was still buzzed. I announced we would be having Illini radio analyst Jim Grabowski on to preview the Illinois conference opener, to which North retorted "Now, I'm hard... I'm actually aroused."
That shoot-from-the-hip, say what most don't even think approach is what made Mike the best at the time. It also has contributed largely to the decrease in Mike's popularity over the past few years. Sweeping generalizations regarding race, sex, religious preference, just aren't as well received as they used to be. Some say that's what we call progress. Maybe. Topic for another day.
Boers and I had our share of petty jealousies of the Monsters. They quickly were established as the station's "franchise show," even though they competed in the cushy world of 10a-2p. They didn't oppose the Cubs regularly... Dahl and Meier... Brandmeier... etc., etc. They traveled more than we were allowed to in the early days. My kicking and screaming changed that, but it took time. Overall, however, it was a pretty amenable relationship. The two shows were very different, but both were well received and all four of us knew it was good to be on the same team. It was a glorious time for the band.
When Mike successfully convinced the station to shake things up in August of '99, we looked at each other much differently. I wasn't so much upset with him as I was management for allowing him to shake up MY show. I suspected it was so we all were on a level playing field and, should Mike have struggled doing a lot of non-sports and being on without a partner, Terry and I wouldn't have gained the "upper hand" on him.
I also was pissed management wouldn't change his habit of backloading spots in the final quarter hour of his 3:00 hour. Jiggs and I had enough problems finding a groove; I didn't think a lead in of 10 minutes of spots, a 5-minute interview with Tony Orlando or David Cassidy and George Ofman (five minutes after the hour because Mike ran late habitually) was in our best interest.
Several months went by where Mike and I didn't talk. It wasn't hatred or horribly uncomfortable, but we were in complete avoidance mode. I broke that ice when I sought his counsel on how he managed to work with Dan for 7 1/2 years. We were at dinner in Edison Park -- and by the way, if we weren't comped, Mike always insisted on paying -- when he gave me this pearl of wisdom. "When ya stop talkin' watch his mouth... and listen ta nuthin' he says... just wait for his mout ta stop movin', den go back to what you were doin' before he chimed in." Heckuva testimonial for making a relationship work.
Mike and I have quarrelled, but never on personal stuff. Always business. I think he's made some bad business decisions, but I choose to point the finger at his management teams that never seem to keep him committed to the station's credo of being a primarily sports-driven, guy radio station.
I'm not a huge morning radio consumer, but when I do listen to morning drive, I listen to North or music. He isn't that smart (and he admits that), but -- especially when he's talking sports -- he's a fun listen. I think Mike has a lot of radio left in him and I'm eager to hear more about his upcoming book project(s). Having said that, it was very satisfying when my show gave Mike a pretty good trimming in afternoon drive. To his credit, Mike congratulated me when we bumped into each other at the Super Bowl in Houston four+ years ago.
How do others perceive him? With fewer stars than I just put up. Their complaints of North, however, are complaints that should be levied at management, not Mikey. You want him to be more educated if he's going to go off on politics: demand he's more prepared. You want him to talk pop culture, insist he understands the young Miller Lite drinkers don't want to hear Sinatra stories. You want somebody to challenge him, insist Fred stand up and fight him more or find somebody less like him than Fred and have him do it. The Ann Maxfield thing was a disaster. Terrible, terrible idea. Just when you think you've seen it all in this business, stick around because there's another horrible decision around every corner.
I have a few friends at the Drive and one of them recently told me he was "disgusted" to learn of Mike's salary and the things he gets away on a regular basis. I think there are others at the Score who respect what Mike has done financially, but think he doesn't deserve it. I try to encourage them to get the proper representation and go "get theirs" instead of fixating on Mike's checks. I think Mike Murphy is a big North advocate. Murph always has been good on cross promoting other shows on the Score and North (back in the day...I'm not consuming much radio after noon now as I'm prepping) always chipped in on the Murph's show. If I were to pick one word that covers the sportsradio fraternity's consensus on Mike North, it might be disbelief. Disbelief of his success. His salary. His lack of success. His salary. His long leash. His choice of topics and regulars. Management's inability to put a leash on that puppy. Disbelief might be the best choice here.
I know I've been verbose... but I usually go long on topics that interest me. Mike North's radio career -- and life -- have been exceedingly interesting. Love him or hate him, he's made Chicago radio more lively for more than 16 years now. Never a dull moment. He isn't well educated or well spoken, but North has left an indellible impression on Chicago radio.
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