Totally agree. 103.5 was playing Megadeth and Rammstein, Q101 was playing Fiona Apple and Eagle Eye Cherry. But Mancow jumped and proto-Clear Channel thought "Jammin' Oldies" was the flavor of the month and that was that.

I still remember stopping and pausing in real-time as I was hearing an uncensored broadcast of Metallica's "So What" on Lou Brutus's way out of town

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

Totally agree. 103.5 was playing Megadeth and Rammstein, Q101 was playing Fiona Apple and Eagle Eye Cherry. But Mancow jumped and proto-Clear Channel thought "Jammin' Oldies" was the flavor of the month and that was that.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Yep, I remember that as well. They really did have a great on-air staff and a great bench. Chris Payne was appointment radio for me listening in overnights.

Finished that book this weekend. Very good read.

The part that touched on the mid 90s-Steve & Garry breakup-launch of WMVP on the AM part was interesting in particular. Evergreen bought 103.5 The Blaze with the extent of making it a mainstream rock station and essentially moving the FM Loop music there as Rock 103.5 while the comedy talk of the AM Loop moved to 97.9 and 1000 went sports. I guess I never really realized that Rock 103.5 was supposed to be the direct heir apparent to the FM Loop because of the different branding and younger jocks they used, especially with Mancow going after Dahl, Matthews and Brandmeier on the air. Guys like Stroud and Skafish who had played music on the Loop kind of got lost in the shuffle and Stroud wound up on WCKG while Skafish wound up on Q101 and then I think XRT?

But WMVP bombed so badly as a sports station that they aborted it in '96 and moved the Loop talk back to 1000 (even though they kept the call letters WMVP and IIRC just went by "AM 1000" on air), while 97.9 went with Alanis and Jewel until it got sold a year later. By then 103.5 had evolved to almost all new/hard rock and WCKG had Stern and Dahl and was moving towards talk, so there was an opening for classic rock and that's where we basically got the next 21 years of the Loop until Jesus bought it out.

I finished it last weekend, too.

Towards the end of the book there was a paragraph by Spike Manton in which he said management came to he and Harry (Teinowitz) and told them their plan was to have Dan Patrick do mornings, Olbermann the afternoon, and Harry and Spike would be on in between them. Olbermann was coming to Chicago that Friday and they wanted Harry and Spike to show him the town, hang out with him all weekend, and for them to get to know each other.

Olbermann came in on Friday, management met with him, and they were supposed to meet again on Monday to sign the contracts. He spent the weekend with Harry and Spike and abruptly flew back to Bristol on Sunday. On Monday, everyone at Sports Radio 1000 was fired and Harry and Spike became the overnight show on the new simulcast WMVP/WLUP music talk station.

That makes it sound like Olbermann had such a bad time with Harry and Spike that it caused the whole deal to fall through.