When this show first started, it was Mike North arguing with Annie on politics, and North talking about entertainment/Chicago social issues, and so on with some sports mixed in.

The ratings were not there, and the Score was even advertising that 'Mike North Does Talk Sports', and we've seen an increase in the listener audience.

Now, it seems to be headed back into the non-sports direction again. First, he doesn't do the show from the Super Bowl, he spends most of one day talking impeachment, and now we have some lag time inbetween football, and baseball.

It's easy to be a sports show during baseball season where you games everyday to talk about, but I think this show needs to pick a direction, preferably sports, and go with it....

Also, what is the idea of not talking calls from the listeners except in special circumstances ? ? ?

Oh, it's picked a direction. South.

_________________
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

Like a snowball.... down the toilet. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

_________________
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Still a tough ... cookie ... to crack.

_________________
"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

DOWN GOES NORTH. Come on, you got sports talk hosts that can't talk sports and sports producers who can't produce sports - it's a big old radio mess and the bossess seem clue-less and ball-less to fix it.

North's show, as nearly all the score shows are, is totally driven by local sports issues. The attempts to fill time between seasons with political/entertainment talk have always failed. The time between the end of football and the NCAA tournament is a slow one. The Bulls are not much of a story and the Hawks.... The show is ok when the Bears, Sox, or Cubs are doing good. There is really not much of a reason to listen to the north show during the rest of the year.

You mean you don't listen for the brilliant politcal analysis of Annie? Mike's insight into the mob? And Fred agreeing with North along with capitvating movie reviews? You seem to be missing a lot of "quality" radio!!! The whole show sucks, even when the half wit attempts to talk sports.

The part I dislike the most is Fred never having a thought contrary to North, it seems like he's there only to suck up

You guys that listen and comment are the ones keeping North afloat. Sure you want to here how stupid the nimrod is on a daily basis. Thats why I listened in the past. Just think how bad his ratings would drop (even worse than they are now) if the people that hated North didnt listen.

If the show sucks that bad, dont listen. I dont and I dont miss it. I miss sports talk but they dont do that anyway.

Get a hobby! Lose North!

I don't think the half dozen or so people who blast North on this board are gonna sink the show by tuning out. All I can figure is that North must bring in a helluva lot of revenue to the station. Why else would they let him run roughshod over the station? For the the last 7 years he has been the de facto program manager.

_________________
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

MR B - A little Radio 101 for you: we can all listen all day every day and complain for free - and as long as we never participate in the Flawed Ratings System then our habits don't directly affect his ratings either way. Only those who respond to the Phone Calls & Diaries affect the North show numbers. Seacrest Out.

Dude Dude Dude! They know you're listening. They read your comments. If we are the average listeners, they feed off of your comments. They dont care if you like the show. They care if you listen. Sure the ratings system is not very accurate to the exact number, but I believe they are pretty darn close. Look at the number of responses on this site. The most by far are Norths. Why? He creates a buzz good and mostly bad but he creates reaction. People listen to hear him be contraversial or stupid (mostly stupid). I choose not to listen. I use to e-mail Mitch Rosen and complain. Mitch's response was always the same- "Thanks for listening". Now I hang out here to read whats up.


Radio 102 for YOU Mr. Smarty Pants!

No longer listen to WSCRnot with Sirius around.....couldn't take the ever annoying Maxfield and irritating Huebner, North is best solo, when he took tons of calls, that's when Mike is the Best.....also, Score Mgmt. you can take those 12 minutes commercial blocks and shove them!!!

Mister B & Rogers Waters, you're both right, but nothing really matters in the real radio world except the ratings that you have to show to advertisers. You can't say "it's a bonafide hit, look at all these negative emails & posts!" An ad buyer with GM isn't gonna hang his career on any ad buy unless it gives a good dollar-to-listener ratio, or however they figure that stuff out. Arbitron calls the shots. (and yes, then the Score sales staff is supposed to "spin it" their way I guess.)

The ratings are everything. It allows the station to set ad rates. They are also now able to tout the number of people signed up as streamers. A lot of people may tune in for a minute or two to hear the updates, but are now far from regular listeners.

Internet advertising costs a FRACTION of on-air advertising. I haven't bought internet ads for a while, but when I did I was able to buy 20 :60s on the stream for 1 :60 on the air.

Bernsie always mentions "xx,000 have now registered." Doesn't mean a damn thing. As I'm sure you all know, you have to register just to be able to listen one time, so those #s are absolutely meaningless.

_________________
Nothing clever or witty to put here.....