Below is part of Teddy Greenstein's Friday column in the Tribune.


Speech isn't free
CBS Radio officials not only asked Mike North to take a huge pay cut during negotiations, they also told him that if he re-signed, he couldn't criticize WSCR-AM 670 management on the air.

North said Thursday he would not accept that stipulation: "If Jim Hendry makes a bad trade or Ken Williams signs a guy [who fails] or the Hawks raise ticket prices, don't we get on their management? So when our management does something wrong, I can't say (general manager) Paul Agase is a jerk? Don't go telling me what I can and can't say."

North criticized WSCR officials in April for losing the Hawks' radio rights to WGN.

"They let them go because they thought [Hawks President John] McDonough was bluffing," North said.

North, who said he is mulling four offers from the "broadcasting world," will appear on Tuesday's "Chicago Tribune Live" at 5:30 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet.

Life goes on
Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley remain the heavy favorites to nail down North's 6-10 a.m. time slot.

"I can see them being an ideal morning show," program director Mitch Rosen said.

Laurence Holmes will host the midmorning show next week and possibly beyond as Mulligan and Hanley fill the early slot.

On some days, a guest will join Holmes. Steve Stone is set for Thursday, and the Score has reached out to Tommie Harris of the Bears and Richard Roeper of the Sun-Times.

North's team—sidekick Fred Huebner and producers Jen Patterson and Rock Mamola—have all been offered positions at the station. Patterson said she would take some vacation before deciding whether to stay.

Unbelievable.

Roeper is eye candy, yummmmmm

Kudos to North if that's true.

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You know me like that.

"CBS Radio officials not only asked Mike North to take a huge pay cut during negotiations, they also told him that if he re-signed, he couldn't criticize WSCR-AM 670 management on the air."
What a shocker there. The thing I can't believe is, according to Thursday's Feder column, The Score contract offer to North was for him to remain in mornings. Is that supposed to be a fucking joke? Or did they offer that to him (with his salary cut in half) knowing he wouldn't accept? If not, why the fuck would they want him back in mornings, even if he was willing to work for minimum wage?


North, who said he is mulling four offers from the "broadcasting world," will appear on Tuesday's "Chicago Tribune Live" at 5:30 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet.
Who in their right mind would have ANY interest in Mike North? There is NO chance in hell he goes to WLS or any other notable station.

Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley remain the heavy favorites to nail down North's 6-10 a.m. time slot.
I hope they get it.

"I can see them being an ideal morning show," program director Mitch Rosen said.
Rosen, you are a jerk for letting North curtain-jerk you since you started at The Score. Grow a sack and hopefully, don't let any more of your talent push you around in the future.

Laurence Holmes will host the midmorning show next week and possibly beyond as Mulligan and Hanley fill the early slot.
May I ask why?? This is another jerk - while I don't think is as horrible as others claim - is still someone who thinks he is all that and looks down at his listeners. Seriously, with talent such as Drinky, Brian Paruche or Goff, L Holmes is not deserving of any midday spot. They say he's filling in, but we all know that filling-in in these situations may be unofficial tryouts.

North's team—sidekick Fred Huebner and producers Jen Patterson and Rock Mamola—have all been offered positions at the station. Patterson said she would take some vacation before deciding whether to stay.
In all seriousness, where the hell else is a Jen Patterson going to go? I wish all of the staff (also known as the "little people" as their former boss referred to them as) the absolute best. Fred, I hope you never have the chance to co-host a radio show ever again. You can be an update guy. Rock, congrats on getting hitched, it was cool of you to post here and take a lot of crap... even though at times, you would have been better off being silent rather than defending the show and every move North has made.

I'll bet Pappy told Jen to take some vacation time before giving the Score an answer. He's trying to get another gig and you know he wants his beloved Jen Jen to come with him. This buys him some time.

He doesn't give a shit about Rock or Fred. Nor should he be expected to, really.

Also, I don't get the comparison Pappy made between making fun of sports teams GMs and his very own bosses. Those are the guys that you work for. It's understandable that his bosses would want to protect their own product.

What do you think other GMs and PDs are thinking when they read that? B&B don't really take shots at their bosses. Mac does. But I can understand a boss of a radio station making that off limits.

PDs won't take Pappy after hearing this. I mean, they'll put up with crap like this if he actually produced. But why do they need a head ache like North when he doesn't get listeners?

This again shows just how stupid North is. Let's see. CBS radio provides you with your employment, and if you're not happy with signing a new contract, you want to use their station to bash them?

Sure, Mike. What CBS did is a standard practice. Does he honestly think it would be different anywhere else? WLS wouldn't let anyone on their roster remain on the air during the last weeks of a contract during negotiations. Roe Cann, Don and Roma, etc.

Get over yourself already Mike. Like I said in my email, this guy believes his own hype.

Lets see, Mike wants it to be ok to be critical of the score managment while on the air, but its not ok for someone to write a critical column about him. Oh, Ok!



The fact that are going to waste ink on the status of Jen is just to funny. I am sure she a sweet girl, but come on, who cares?

SKybox is always hiring.

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I care, damnit. I want nothing but the best for Jen Jen. I'm on record saying she's the next Oprah.

If Papi had even once beaten Greenie in the ratings, WSCR would most likely allow him to mock/insult Paul Agase and Paul Agase's family on the air. They probably would even pay for the writers to write the insults.

Alas, Papi was just another Jamie Navarro or Todd Hundley.

I also think that the $800K offer probably contained enough bail out clauses to render it meaningless. That is probably why Papi walked.

Yeah. I mean Howard Stern used to always mock and rip his bosses. It was funny. But he was fuckin' Howard Stern.

This is North. 8th place North. Can't beat M&M North. His bosses weren't gonna take that shit from a guy who sucks.

Mike North has sucked for years Beardown, and his bosses were still taking that shit from him the entire time.

Are Broadcast and Entertainment Venues the same?

I Guess Mike is talking to Teddy?

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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.’”

I was wondering the same thing, BF. Now he has some use for Teddy?

This hasnothing to do with integrity. North just didn't want to be told what to do because HE'S the star.

Mgmt could have said they'd sign him, but he wouldn't be allowed to use the bathroom in his own house while he's on the air and he would have freaked and walked.

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Seems shortsighted and thin-skinned of WSCR management if they really told North he couldn't criticize them. Nobody cares who they are - it's just a device. For the blue-collar crew that makes up most of North's audience ( ), it is always enjoyable to hear the "boss" get ripped. North knows that. Dahl and Meier were never more popular than when they were railing against Gehron and WLS management.

North is in the opinion business. Part of what made him enjoyable and ultimately maddening was that he had no governor on his voicing of opinions. It seems disingenuous to have him voice his opinions on sports and sports media, oh, but except us. Don't talk about us.

The one thing that always bothers me about WSCR is that they act like there is no one else in town. ESPN doesn't exist. Don't ever talk about it. Not only that, they don't even talk about each other and WSCR shows. They have a myopic view of the sports arena in Chicago and they act like we are all imbeciles, blindly unaware of any context in sports media.

So, I commend North for not accepting that. North and his show had many, many problems. But, some people just want to rip the guy no matter what. If he had accepted that provision, people would have said he was selling out. I think he was right in this decision and WSCR needs to lighten up.

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You know me like that.

panther:
you're right about drinky being 10 times worse with callers than L-Holms...but that appears to sell on the score, BB are their highest rated show...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Panther, you have to be kidding me, Drinky is the one guy who givethe fans the most time to make a point. The only time I have heard him be a dick to callers is when the calleris being a dick. One last point, at least he takes calls.

"Dahl and Meier were never more popular than when they were railing against Gehron and WLS management."

Are you kidding me? Mentioning North in the same sentence as Dahl and Meier? Those two were absolute groundbreakers in Chicago radio. North is a guy who couldn't even beat a syndicated show. North had absolutely nowhere close to the popularity of Dahl and Meier in the Gheron days.

North was their employee. If he was in the Dahl and Meier ballpark, popularity-wise and ratings-wise, they would have caved to his every demand.

Ridiculous argument.

North is just spinning things. The fact is, it was all about the money. He looks stupid turning down 800k and he's trying to spin this to look better. All employers have a right to have employees following corporate standards. Mike was an employee.

my first reaction after reading that passage is that WSCR put that clause in the contract to make sure that North was gone for good.

they knew that North would refuse to sign a contract with such a clause, so it was an easy way of getting rid of him without necessarily "firing" him - they can always say "hey, we offered the guy a pretty good deal"

just a thought.

In my best Steve Stone voice.

This should be a lesson for all you young radio guys out there. You should never allow your wife negotiate your deal. Garry Meyer - out, Mike North - out.

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

I never said he was as popular as Steve & Garry. I was mentioning the use of complaining about management as an entertainment device for the listener, using them as an example. Stern does it as well, Mac does it, there are countless other examples of hosts complaining about their situation. It can be very riveting.

My point isn't that North was popular simply that this is another extension of the Score muzzling the hosts regarding topics that are obvious to their listeners. Have you heard anyone on the Score mention North's name this week with regard to this contract? I haven't. But, I've heard ESPN discuss it at length as well as it being in every newspaper.

Why restrain North from discussing his own station? They want him to talk about everything else presumably.

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You know me like that.

This is true. I agree. My boss would not want me publicly bad-mouthing him or his company. However, I think their industry is different. North is paid to give his opinion on exactly those things.

Look, I realize there is a point where a host could go too far with that. But, how often has North been suspended for complaining about management? Maybe he has but I don't recall any. I don't see why they would need to specifically restrict him in this manner if it had never been a problem before.

He's been suspended for many other things that they don't seem to be interested in specifically restricting him on. But, they are drawing the line on themselves now for some reason. It just seems like they are being thin-skinned.

Maybe you are right and they were just pushing him out.

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You know me like that.

One more thing about that. By offering him a contract, they are obviously saying that they want him back. So, on some level, they feel that he was successful and want his contributions. And I would say on a pretty high level, since $800k is probably more than anybody at that station makes.

So, the argument that he was some bum that should walk in with hat in hand to them does not seem to hold much water. They offered him a good contract and said don't talk about us. We like you, we want you here, give your opinions in an entertaining manner but don't criticize the Score.

It does make you think they put that in specifically so he would turn the contract down.

Also, at one time North was extremely popular in this town and more recently than Dahl and Meier (and I was a big S&G fan). That has nothing to do with what I was talking about but I thought it should be pointed out.

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You know me like that.

Doc, I imagine the clause is in every deal for every personality. What changed is the perception and wording of such clause. Mike must have felt a significant increase in the likelyhood that the management will exercise it. Stern and others got away with this type of stuff for years. Ratings made them bulletproof.

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

That's what I took it to mean as well. That they planned to enforce penalties related to whatever he might say against the station where they may not have in the past.

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You know me like that.

I hope and pray that he gets another job here in Chicago. Not because I want to listen to him, but because I know how much it will aggravate you lot. You who spend so much time bitching about Mike North are hilarious. As much as you bash him and his product (which I'm not at all defending) his separation from The Score has been FRONT PAGE NEWS! Oh, yeah, he's really inconsequential.

You all should be happy, though. You got your wish. Now move on!

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Du hockey comme dans le temps

hey chimp, fuck off

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Frank Coztansa wrote:
Please die in a fire.