I'm surprised this hasn't been posted here...unless I missed it. Mitch too slow to respond.


CRM Interview: Mike North
Published on Friday, 11 September 2015 14:00

For over a decade and a half, Mike North was one of the biggest names in Chicago radio, most famously known for being a top host on WSCR-AM/670 The Score for many years. With his outgoing personality, speak-your-mind attitude, and blue collar "everyman" persona, North quickly became a local media superstar, who was either loved or hated by fans. He was a star on WSCR-AM from its inception in January 1992, until his exit from the station in June 2008, leaving after North and CBS Radio could not come to terms on a new contract.

Since then, he has co-hosted morning television shows on Comcast SportsNet Chicago and WBBM-TV/CBS 2. He also had a column page in the Chicago Sun-Times, hosted shows and features on WIND-AM, hosted his own Internet radio show, and was a principle executive in the infamous, short-lived Internet sports radio project, ChicagoSportsWebio.com. North started working nationally with FOX Sports Radio in 2010, joining them full-time for the morning show "FOX Sports Daybreak" at the end of 2013.

One of the hardest working men in media, North continues to have numerous side jobs in addition to his national morning show, including: writing sports columns twice a week in the suburban Daily Herald newspaper, delivering custom videos for the Daily Herald's website three times each week, and starting this Sunday afternoon, hosting "The Mike North Sunday Drive."

That new show will be a live and local Bears post-game program on WDRV-FM/97.1 The Drive. Sunday's debut program will be at approximately 3:00, following the conclusion of the Bears/Packers season opening game.

In this interview, North talks about his long and varied media, his new show on 97.1 The Drive, and more...

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Chicagoland Radio & Media: You currently host a daily morning show for FOX Sports Radio, write a twice-weekly column for the Daily Herald, create video columns for the Herald three days a week, create almost daily videos for NorthToNorth.com, and write for GamingToday.com. Now, on top of that workload, you will be hosting a Sunday show on WDRV-FM and call-in twice a week to that station's morning show. What kind of batteries are you running on? When do you sleep?

Mike North: I want to work and I enjoy what I do. I'd take naps and drink coffee which keeps me "jacked up" as I like to say! I'm also going to be in the Sun-Times on Fridays on the handicap page in place of my dear friend Doug Buffone, which I consider a huge honor. I'm also doing a Bearcast pregame show on FOXSportsRadio.com and various Twitter outlets like @North2North. I'm doing it with my friend and a FOX radio guy Jonas Knox, so yeah, I'm into a lot of things.


CRM: How did you get connected with Hubbard Radio Chicago and WDRV-FM?

North: After Doug Buffone passed away, I ran into (CBS Radio Chicago SVP) Rod Zimmerman at Gibsons for Doug's final hurrah. He asked me if I'd be interested in taking Doug's spot with OB. I said of course, so I met with (WSCR-AM PD) Mitch Rosen and he told me he'd be back to me in a month or so. When it seemed no decision was forthcoming, my good friend Jeff Schwartz and I talked one night and (Hubbard Radio SVP of Programming) Greg Solk's name came up. An e-mail was sent and in nine short days, he hired me for a postgame show. Now I'm with a great station with a guy like Greg who has your back. I'm really psyched about this new show and being on local radio.


CRM: What do you have planned for the Bears post-game show?

North: Well I think callers are the stars. Truthfully, a lot of them know more than most of the football media in this town and I enjoy the conversation. Plus, Dan McNeil and I will be reunited, and of course, I plan on having my old partner Dan Jiggetts on with me when he is free. I plan on making "The Mike North Sunday Drive Show" fun and entertaining -- energized and authentic. My inner Bears fan will be very happy if they can win.


CRM: Can Ryan Pace and John Fox bring a football championship back to Chicago in the coming years?

North: Hopefully we will see improvement this year but I don't expect any championships. I think those are on hold for a while.


CRM: Could this actually be the Cubs year?

North: I'd like to think so. This young team is fun to watch and is getting it done.


CRM: You started doing radio way back in 1990. What attracted you to become a media personality?

North: I always love talking sports and I was tired of the vanilla way sports was being covered in this town. Unfortunately it's even worse now. The airwaves are filled with apologists and the teams run some of the stations which is too limiting. There just isn't enough accountability. I had a young guy come up to me the other day and say my Dad told me you're the Jagger of sports radio. Now that's a high honor -- it felt pretty darn good.

CRM: Professionally speaking, in the last 25 years, you've been able to go from a top Chicago radio talent to a nationally syndicated personality. You've also been an author, a columnist, a video blogger, Internet host, sports prognosticator, sports broadcaster, singer (albeit arguably), and television host. What other mountains would you like to climb professionally?

North: I'd like to do some local TV again and recently I did some stand-up comedy with Kevin Bozeman. We were just at Zanies in Rosemont a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed that a lot. I want to continue doing my job at FOX nationally for as long as they will have me. Also I have a screenplay idea I'm trying to get to Sylvester Stallone.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Or he saw a guy at a wake and was being friendly while having no real intention of offering the guy a job.

Or North made the whole story up and it never happened.

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Mitch was just being cordial, he's too soft to look someone in the eye n tell them no. Bernstein would never allow North back.

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North and ob would be hilarious. Mitch is a burrito

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

yeah i think it'd probably be a situation where they'd love to have north back for postgame, but it'd prolly freak out the rank-n-file and most importantly FOTStein who think that north would get his foot in the door with postgame and try to take over the station agian.

i'm sure that bernstein doesn't wanna deal with all that shit, so at the end of the day since it IS ostensibly just a post-game-show that gets pre-empted by whitesox/cubs baseball for at least 1/4 months that it wasn't worth the headache..... cuz to me at least, it's a no brainer that you'd wanna bring back north to ham it up to try and fill up the vacuum that doug left in the world of bears-postgame, but when you consider that NORT/pappy would no doubt try to parlay his one shift/gig into another gig and prolly start politicking and that would no doubt upset the establishment @ the station, yeah, at the end of the day it prolly wasn't worth the headaches to mitch (that is, if bernstein didn't firmly say NO and that was the end of that)

the other thing you gotta take into consideration is the % of people out there who refuse to listen to north PERIOD and won't give him another chance cuz that morning show era really killed his legacy/rep/cred in the chicago sports talk scene. i remember telling my dad about north doing bears postgame and he was like OH YEAH I'LL CHECK IT OUT.... i reminded him during halftime of the bears game and he was like oh yeah ok cool i'll give it a shot..... then today i asked what he thought and he didn't listen. he said he just stuck with the score's postgame (never underestimate the laziness/"listening habits" of people who are used to turning on a certain station at a certain time and will continue to do so out of ritual/routine) and he can't listen to north because [well, you know, he just can't listen to north.... that last show he had was horrible and i don't wanna hear that]

so for all the die-hard scoreheads out there who are more than happy to turn back to the clock and turn the dial to go and find one of their radio heroes/idols, there's prolly at least 5-10ppl who will specifically AVOID listening to north just because he's north and that misguided-at-best morning show really killed his chicago sports talk radio career. evidently he garnered a lot of ill will during that last run and it's enough to keep a significant % of people out there [gauging by thoughts on the board here] from tuning in, and if the score is trying to rebuild/revive/prolong a brand/show/listening-habit they're prolly not gonna wanna do it with a guy that's turned off so many people over the last ~10yrs. if anything they prolly figure they can put ANYONE on the air (which is pretty much what they did) and outside of the merits of the show itself there's enough people who automatically turn to the score when the bears game ends that they'll keep a decent % of those ppl for at least a year or two to keep the show going on, which in the end isn't that what it's really all about?

so yeah, sheeeeeit, i hear ya scorehead and your love for your heroes is a mighty thing..... but in this case i think you're kind of out there on scorehead island with a few other ppl (including me, who didnt listen to NORT enough during the morning show years to completely kill the nostalgia factor of being comfortable with his voice thanks to it being omnipresent in dad's car when he drove me around in the 90s) because your boy NORT really did a lot of irreparable damage to his brand with that last gig @ the score.

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Do we need to know who said no? It's like coming home to a pile of dogshit on a rug and asking who did it.

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so just last year Hamp and OB both worked for the SCORE. Mitch thought Big Cat and Kruetz would be better? Cheaper?

This guy is the WORST program director evar.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Dan Hampton did not work for The Score last year.

(Mitch Rosen)

Your FREE Windows 10 upgrade is ready!

"clicks the little x on the top right corner"

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

North is less Windows 10 and more HelpfulSpeedyDefinitelyNotMalwareSearchToolbar v3.1.

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so he got up at 6:45 to appear on Mully and Hanley out of the kindness of his heart?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Hampton was part of WGN's 2 1/2 Bears last season.

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Not a mult.

so it must have been the year before? time flies when you get old.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

north is linux mint. everyone thinks it sucks because its linux but in reality it can run off a usb thumbdrive and does everything you need it to while putting a smile on your face.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

fo sho. its like you stay the same always but everything just spins off the tape reel at an ever increasing rate. blah blah blah all this shit goes on and youre just there like 'yeah yeah a bunch of shit whatever when does cutler throw the next int'

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

It's been like 5 years.

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no not that long as I used to listen while walking to the metra station. Haven't been walking that long.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

The past is for cowards and losers.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

There is no such thing as the present. Everything is in the past.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Stated long before Larz sucking of Mike North's dick!

And what the fuck does..." I'm also doing a Bearcast pregame show on FOXSportsRadio.com and various Twitter outlets like @North2North"

Various Twitter Outlets? And do people get paid to do Bears pregame for FOXSportsRadio.com, which I never knew existed...I mean Bebe cant even listen

Then the pussy softball questions???? Do you think this is the Cubs year?

This guys LArz loves telling the world he is a some media info, but he is a pawn of those who give him stuff, when they want it given to him...big fucking wow

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

_________________
Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I don't get this. Why do other hosts have to approve anything? They don't work together really. Who cares who comes on for another show?

I worked for a guy like Mitch, who could not & would not make a decision without talking to everyone & getting everyone to buy in. Managers like this get nothing done & make bad decisions. Consensus building is a bad management style.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Yeah, what would Dan do if North got a seasonal weekly show? Not show up to work and breach his contract? Show up to work but do a really half-assed job? He's been doing that for three years.

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I'm leaning towards what this guy said.

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Once again...from last month.

FACT: North would have been invited back to the Score, but the current hosts overall said NO. Dont know exactly who said NO...maybe all, but enough to stop any further discussions from management.

So, yes, Mitch didnt follow up with North, but he did speak to him and mended some fences, but not enough to get him back.

I will guess Mitch chose not to contact North again and tell him that many or enough of the regulars now didnt want him back..as it probably is a good choice to not tell that to North, as nothing good comes from that.

Yet, a fence has been mended and maybe in time you might see him back, but if North keeps doing shitty interviews like this and takes shots at the guys who might hire him, of course he isnt coming back.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Your sources are as relevant as Dan Bernstein's.

North will never work at The Score again.

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I wouldn't think Mitch would have to tell North that Score guys hate him. I mean isn't Mike North smart enough to know this? Maybe not. But Bernstein hates him which means everybody at the Score has to hate him. It's really that simple. North doesn't know that Bernstein hates him?

Does your jealousy outweigh your obsession of me?

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”