The Milwaukee guy everybody says they love. What about him?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Bart Winkler or Ramie Maklouf?

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Ramie....but isn't he kind of a fill in host for weekend shows already? Winkler would be an amazing hire. He has all the bad qualities of Dan, Spiegel and Holmes and is a hardcore WI sports fan....well shit you can include Goff in that list as he would dedicate an entire hour to dissecting each Bucks game like he did before his milwaukee radio doom. Great producer who was good just chiming in and filling in. They already put 2 of those on the air for the afternoon show....

They could really use a strong Cubs voice since they will lead into many games and the season damn near eats up half the year. Go pull Mark Grace out of the townie bar and get him on the air.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

a day later and I have that same fundamental question

I listened to both transitions just to listen for any reference to the schedule or Bernstein's departure. but...nope.

What I did find interesting was Spiegel and Holmes bragging over their short shift today with Cubs Spring Training. Thinking efficiently, why have a full 2-man shift for afternoons with Cubs and Bulls coverage?

bigger problem is addressed in another thread of how the career path to being able to drive a radio show (it's different than podcasting) just isn't there anymore, and little hope they can find technically-good broadcasters like Bernstein or Mac or Parkins anymore. But, even short term, they have to do something. They have two competent radio hosts left at the station: Holmes and Spiegel


best idea I have given what they have to work with:
I suppose leave the morning show alone, even though it sucks - Mully can't talk and Haugh can't think - it isn't a problem.

Spiegel and Grote middays. If Marshall is under contract or something have him take over as Bears reporter, seems like a waste to have Grote doing the job as he has talent and proficiency to be a host IMO. Marshall isn't as bad as some let on here, but his other faults (mostly: being an out-of-towner) are exacerbated with the relative novice radio skills

Holmes and Co. afternoons. No need for a full-time second host in that slot. Larry is the new FOTS but also quarantined. He talk to the producers, bring on people for guest hosting based on the sports calendar (Leila a regular, sure, I will grant the rare win for the anti-DEI folks ) and introduce them all as proteges

Know it's only been three days, and Mitch had to take time personally to tell everyone Dan is 'gone', but I wonder if this ends up being a cooling off period and they bring him back by Bears season. Probably not, but there's no way they can go w/ this lineup for the upcoming season.

What do you do? Buy Wiederer out of his Tribune contract and make him and Grote full-time? Crazy to say since Grote has always been a fill in, pre/post game or beat reporter, but I think he'd bring credibility by bringing him on full-time somewhere. If not Wiedsey, Liesure? Idk, just can't be Marshall and Leila. I didn't listen to the whole show today, but listened to parts and there was an issue going to commercial....it had to go back to them and they were completely flustered. THEN when it did go to commercial, it was still a Dan Bernstein one (lol!)

And launch Spiegs too. Know I've mentioned that a bunch lately, but he brings zerto to the table anymore. Which makes sense, he's almost 60 for Christ sakes.

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I'm bringin Sellars back..

I also listened to the Sahadev Sharma interview. Leila immediately makes it awkward but not in the "omg, so awkward lmao!" way

Leila: Sahadev...did you...go to Japan? (*shouldn't she know this?)
Sahadev: yes
Leila: HOW BAD IS THE JET LAG

tough to capture on text, imagine the voice of someone finishing, but not quite, the last bite of a sub sandwich

lol the capital text. can hear it in her voice.

"OF COURSE I DON'T DATE. IF YOU KNEW MY BACKGROUND...YOU'D UNDERSTAND WHYYYYYY. thanks for texting in texter...."

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I'm bringin Sellars back..

Alright, so let's take stock, the identity from the old guard of hosts is gone completely from the lineup, save for Spiegs in afternoons who was an intern when the station gained its voice.

The new guard is also gone, either fired off during COVID or leaving for greener cable TV pastures.

In mornings the station has a dependable ratings workhorse, albeit helmed by guys quickly approaching 60.

Middays is now two people who, in bidding farewell to the last of the old guard, admitted they're not from Chicago so aren't familiar with the impact of the departed hosts. What's more, this pairing is being openly disdained by the patrons of the usual friendly confines of social media like Reddit and Twitch.

And finally in afternoons are the guys who have some of the longest running tenures of any hosts at the station, but were 4th and 5th starter types who got the prime drivetime slot almost by default. One is a middle aged man doing an off-Broadway production of what Bernstein created in the late 90s. And the other...I don't even know what to call Spiegel's approach to radio...holistic, maybe?

There's no firebrand to drive SEO on social media, no comedian to generate viral clips and bits, and the last of the old guard set fire to the bridges connecting the station to the local kingdom of the largest non-establishment sports media company going right now.

Oh, and you're paying at least one guy to go away.

Tuesday's transition between Leila and Matt & Laurence made it very clear that the mid day show's future is yet to be decided. Leila was adamant about the fact that she is filling in contrary to Matt thinking she had been awarded the time slot with Marshall who now is a free lance sports reporter/ anchor for ABC7.

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Harlem Nights Players Comedy Group,Elmwood Park
http://community.webtv.net/HarlemNights ... RLEMNIGHTS

First of all, Mulligan has to be coming up on 67 by now, right? He's a hard...whatever-age-he-is.

But yeah, this is a dire lineup. If they didn't have the Cubs, they'd be deeply screwed, because that's the only attraction they have left. Laurence has his little fanbase, and people seem to put the morning show on out of habit, but you now have a complete non-entity in the middle of the lineup and no one in the pipeline to come up and take it over. What do you do? Go back to Jason Goff to have him antagonize listeners and go up his own ass about a Clippers-Rockets series? Tried that, didn't work. Chris Rongey, who did his best work with the guy you just fired and who hasn't been a regular presence on the station since the Sox left? No, that's the thinking fan's "bring back Murph" at this point. Keep riding with part-time TV sports anchors who aren't even from here? At your own peril.

I checked the Infinity Sports Network site and Rich Eisen runs from 11-2 in Central Time. I wonder if they can cut a deal where he would do a special 10 a.m. hour "exclusive to Chicago" as voice-tracked and reheated as possible ahead of his national show, and then you can sell it as a "Chicago lineup." I think Cumulus and WLS had a similar deal with Ben Shapiro. But that could at least see you through the rest of 2025 and who knows what happens from there.

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I don't know, maybe Eisen really is the safest play, but riding out the summer of '25 having to cut awkwardly into a show you're licensing to go to Cubs Baseball, another product you're licensing, might be a little odd. Then again it might save money over paying 2 full-time hosts.

I don't think they can entertain bringing back around any of the Bernstein-clones that spawned at the station over the years, the McDoinks and Randazzos (oops, they're both doing PBP for horrible teams) and the smattering of others that would do Really Smart Radio on the weekends. They can't bring in anybody who would try it, either. If there's any dead cat bounce to be had from the station, maybe it's bringing someone in who does the same thing Bernstein and Boers did (take the piss out of what the format had become), just now from the other direction.

The point is to kill the station slowly over time. Name on decision Audacy has made that has been a good one, long-term, for any of their properties? Its like The Producers.

Yep just listened to it. Leila was very adamant that Matt was wrong. Hopefully it stays that way.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I was going to say flipping 104.3 to classic rhythmic/urban but they even botched that: instead of doing classic B96, they did classic GCI and called it WBMX but then avoided calling it WBMX half the time. Entercom had no business in major markets.

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Maybe they can bring back Brian PAH-Rook and Mike Esposito.

Transitions with Turd, the Traffic Freak, and Irma Blanco.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

How about Boers and Drinky? He always had a soft spot for Abbatacola. Drinky could use the money and Terry could use someone to help feed him soup.

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Rofl. It was weird with Matty and Terry. There was a gay daddy/son thing there.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Rock Mamola has ideas. None of them involved replacing Harris.

https://barrettmedia.com/2025/03/26/who ... the-score/



Leila
Goff
Grote
Hoge
Herron
While these are the top five suggestions, others included current Score fill in host Ramie Makhlouf; Chicago Sun-Times Bulls beat reporter Joe Cowley; former ABC7 Chicago sports anchor Mark Giangreco; SiriusXM host Chris Childers; and current Q101 Chicago radio personality Brian “Sludge” Haddad.

Cowley is an interesting name. He would definitely bring some personality and shake a few things up. But I cannot see that happening.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Has Cowley been relevant since he went off the Sox beat? He seems to pop up here and there covering the Bulls but he's not a hurricane of drama like he used to be for the Sox. He feels like as much of a throwback to 2007-2011 as Rongey. I don't think he even lives here anymore. In fact, I don't think Rongey does, either.

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They could use a heel. So, in that sense, Cowley would be a good choice.

I don't know much about Cowley at the moment, but I know he is a guest on the SCORE still at times. But when considering the other names and specifically Harris and Leila Cowley would be a huge upgrade over them. There are no personalities. I would take Rongey as well too. But I think he is still in St Louis.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

As the only female in the lineup, I'm guessing Leila is pretty much untouchable as far as cuts go, so whomever is going to be put/kept in middays is working with her.

If Goff insisted on keeping up with his Ringer podcast and Audacy was adamant he drop it, I doubt the two sides will sway from their respective positions just to replace Bernstein in middays. Plus, we—and hopefully Audacy—know how a Goff-led show ends up.***

I never got the appeal of Grote, but everyone says he's quick witted and funny, so if you're looking for someone to just play out the string then I suppose he's as good a fit as anyone else. He'll just be doing a weaker Bernstein impression, so there's no paradigm shifting with this choice.

Bringing back Hoge would be funny if only because it would be a fledgling Audacy killing another business just for fun, like when WWE threw a bunch of money at Cody Rhodes to take him away from AEW. I haven't followed his new endeavor, but my memory of his on-air time at WSCR just screams "Bernstein clone".

And as for Herron, didn't Dan get him soft-fired too for the lame shit they put out when he was a regular fill-in for awhile?

I don't know, whatever. Good luck with your first crap.


*** EDIT: Part of me still hopes that Jason has the silliness that he displayed when he started getting on the mic more during late-stage B&B. Yes Bernstein & Goff was an abject failure, but we have to consider that Dan have may have played a much larger role in programming that show than his ass-saving maneuvers let on, and Jason was just trying to be the good soldier and talk about whatever Dan wanted to discuss. To me, he's the only one of the replacements mentioned that I think, at least at one point, had a bit of that spark that made B&B special.

61....that's a hard 61. Dude must have CTE

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The Bulls being irrelevant has diminished Cowley's own relevance, but he does bring takes and has personality. And can talk a bit.

But not only does he not live in Chicago, he wasn't raised there to be a fan of the teams. Big Pittsburgh Steelers guy

Why are Spiegel and Holmes on now?

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Elections have consequences.

Show swap. They are flying out to Vegas and this helps with their flight time. So they are on middays and the 2 awful ones are on in afternoon today

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I do not understand his appeal, either, and have seen no evidence of him being quick witted or funny.

If he ever does that Fugitive impression on the air again he should be catapulted in to the sun. Preferably while holding hands with Zach Zaidman.