The LoHo Shit Show. Featuring Grimace

THE SOMEONE QUIT/LEFT/WAS FIRED

Lou Gerig, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Laurence Holmes

Lou Gerig, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Laurence Holmes

Ironically, Mac, by himself, fits all those categories.

Just saying that Mac quit The Score the first time, got fired from ESPN, and left The Score this time.

But, maybe I'm wrong and he got fired from The Score the first time. Forget how that went down.

Just saying that Mac quit The Score the first time, got fired from ESPN, and left The Score this time.

“I was miserable working with Dan Jiggetts. I liked him a lot personally, but we were doing two different shows. I thought the show preceding ours was one of the most hideous things I’d ever heard (Mike North solo); fifteen minutes of David Cassidy followed by a twelve minute commercial break. You know, we were restarting the engines at 4:05 every day—it was brutal. The Score did more than just blow up their station. They let ESPN radio back in the game. I mean they were on the canvas and the referee had already given them a ten count. Harvey Wells (the Score GM), brain surgeon that he is, let them off the mat. I respectfully protested what they were doing in several correspondences with the general manager.”

When that didn’t get the job done, McNeil took his complaints public. He was suspended. He came back on the air and tried to convince them again. It was no use, the Score had set their table, and as far as McNeil was concerned, they didn’t set a place for him.

“I asked them to reconsider politely three times, to consider putting me back with Boers, or even moving me to an overnight shift to just play out my contract. Finally in October, I had enough and said ‘I’m done.’ You guys won’t reassign me, and I’m not working with Dan another day.”

And just like that, a nine year relationship with a radio station ended with a resignation. In his mind, McNeil’s intensity, candor, passion, and love of sports were incompatible with the new Score. He walked away from a $200,000 a year job with nothing lined up, and no place to go.

Hey, I was right!

What are the odds?

At the same time, everyone needs 1 break and if thats how you get the Break fine. Of course if you have had 4 or 5 chances when others leave, maybe at best you are a fill in

Just saying that Mac quit The Score the first time, got fired from ESPN, and left The Score this time.

But, maybe I'm wrong and he got fired from The Score the first time. Forget how that went down.

Hmmmm I never figured Laurence for a Jeww

What?

Mac was only making 200K at the height of his popularity at the Score? Wasn't this at the same time Pappy was making 1.5 million?

Mike North, WSCR The Score talking contract
February 23, 2008|By Teddy Greenstein

The other day Mike North and his WSCR-AM 670 morning crew batted around names such as Keith Van Horn, Cliff Robinson and Bryant "Big Country" Reeves.

They all are NBA legends, because they parlayed modest talent into hilarious sums of money.

"Remember Cliff Robinson? Get me how much he made in his career!" North barked. "How about Keith Van Horn? He made $112 million? That is unbelievable!"

Equally unbelievable to some in Chicago sports radio is that North, whose contract expires at the end of July, would return to the Score for anything close to the $1.5 million a year he currently commands.

They point to his lackluster ratings and the trend of Chicago radio personalities (Mancow Muller, "Crazy" Howard McGee) breaking up with their suddenly cost-conscious stations.

Two officials guessed that if North were to return to mornings at the Score, he would be paid no more than $400,000.

"Are these the same dopes who thought I could never get $1.5 [million] a year -- and $700,000 a year before that?" North said by telephone. "They don't know how I negotiate or the dynamics between me and the station.

"Here's what I know: I'm an earner, I make money for the company I work for. There are no complaints from their side."

To that end, North said he has been offered a contract to return as the Score's morning host.

North wouldn't divulge details of the offer, but a source close to the negotiations estimated it at between $850,000 and $1 million per year plus ratings bonuses.

"They've made me a generous offer, a nice offer," North said. "I'm also checking out any other options I may have. That's what a good businessman does."

The offer came after North met Rod Zimmerman, senior vice president for CBS Radio Chicago, three weeks ago at Lucky Strike Lanes, near the Score's downtown studios.

"He beat me once, I beat him once," North reported. "We sat down afterward and did some talking. I believe I'm OK as a talk-show host, but I think I'm a better businessman."

Zimmerman wouldn't discuss the offer but said: "There have been proposals back and forth. ... We are talking with Mike privately and hope this relationship will continue."

North, a Score original who began with the station in 1992, might rate well with his bosses, but the fall ratings book was unkind to him. Among men 25-54, WMVP-AM 1000's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" earned a 5.4, compared with North's 3.1.

Though the gap closed from 8-9 a.m. (4.7-3.6), WMVP's late-morning "Waddle and Silvy" show poured it on from 9-10 a.m. Tom Waddle and Mark Silverman earned a 3.9 to North's 2.2.

"People get hung up on ratings," North said. "It is a scoreboard, but it's also not a level playing field, so they don't matter to me."

North has complained that it's difficult to compete with the behemoth that is ESPN and its nationally syndicated "Mike and Mike" show. While Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic are simulcast on ESPN2, North doesn't get much marketing help.

Others take the opposite view, wondering how a Chicago-based show can lose in Chicago -- even during a crummy Bears season.

North, 55, compared himself to the Cubs, historically a loser that crushes competitors at the gate. But the better analogy might be Alex Rodriguez, who's as well-known for his contracts as he is for his stats.

If Rodriguez were traded to Tampa Bay and hit .265, fans would laugh at him. But if his presence sold another 500,000 tickets, owners would love him.

North's advocates say he generates great publicity for the Score -- remember the "Shut the ... up" Ozzie Guillen interview last May? -- and has developed a cadre of loyal sponsors.

North knows the Score reported revenues of nearly $22 million in 2007 to rank a solid eighth among 29 stations in the market.

"You hear people say: 'Radio's changing,'" he said. "In what way? The [advertising] rates aren't changing."

Still, North knows he might have to take a pay cut and dip below seven figures. It's not Van Horn money, but it'll be enough to pay for the mustard on his hot dog.

"I come from a blue-collar family, and my dad worked 80 hours a week as an electrician," he said. "On his deathbed [in 1995] he asked me how much I made and I couldn't tell him, I was too embarrassed. I just told him: 'The family will be taken care of.'"

I think his deal was 5 years ending in 2008 so Mac left right before they gave North the big contract.

I miss articles and quotes like these -