Bloggin' out some thoughts on the events of tonight... From the CRM Blogsite tonight:

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This evening, Crain's Ed Sherman reported that ChicagoSportsWebio's CEO had been bouncing checks this week. That CEO then fired Mike North, North's wife BeBe and Jeff Schwartz from the company. This is a HUGE story for a Friday night (or any night for that matter). As Mike North would say: "Whoooooah!

Right away, I have to say, big-time kudos to Ed Sherman. He has been doing a tremendous job that has been largely unnoticed by the general population, since he is blogging on the Crain's website, which doesn't get a lot of traffic. He has been breaking stories and uncovering information about sports & sports media the past few weeks that has not been covered anywhere else. He was the first to announce the bizarre situation melting down at ChicagoSportsWebio, too. He deserves a lot of credit for his work this spring & summer.

Now for the big story: ChicagoSportsWebio.com. Many negative naysayers said it wouldn't work -- largely because of their dislike of Mike North, a very polarizing media figure. CSW (It takes too long to type that name out. It's getting abbreviated for the rest of this rant.) should work and could work. It is the future of radio and the ideas, goals & efforts put into it were all pointing it in the right directions. This week, all of CSW's upward momentum crashed to the ground like a Nas Coyote-built flying machine.

As much as the negative naysayers are probably high-fiving themselves over a beer tonight, cheering a Mike North firing, it was not Mike North that messed up CSW. It is now publicly clear that the fault lies with David Hernandez. It was not Mike North who mismanaged funds, bounced checks and caused an uproar at CSW. It was Hernandez's end of the bargain at CSW that was dropped. As CEO, the blame falls squarely on his shoulders. Today, the funds were not the only thing he mismanaged. He mismanaged the most important people in the company in Mike North & Jeff Schwartz. North was the gasoline in the engine that kept it chuggin' along at a great pace. He was the main figurehead & voice. Most of all, he was the station's biggest & best pitchman. Say what you want about Mike North's sports personality persona, but you cannot take away the man's selling skills. North could sell water to a drowning man. The other secret superhero behind CSW is/was Jeff Schwartz. David Hernandez did not assemble that team of personalities, reporters, producers & staff. "Spaceball" had his hand in all of that, along with the selling of the concept to numerous advertisers. The messed-up ego of David Hernandez may not see it this way, but CSW WAS Mike North & Jeff Schwartz. Firing those two is like firing Mick Jagger & Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones.

So is CSW dead? Not yet, but it suddenly has gone from perfect health to critical condition. In addition to losing it's best parts, it now has to deal with a great amount of fallout from today's explosions. Many of the people there -- I could probably say MOST of the people there -- are loyal & friendly to Mike North & Jeff Schwartz. They are not loyal to David Hernandez, especially if their paychecks with his signature on them just bounced. Will they stay with the station now? Will they walk out? Will advertisers stay now? Are the plans for AM radio simulcasting now dead?

And there are the inevitable lawsuits... Yes, plural. The Norths will sue. Schwartz will sue. Staffers may sue. Advertisers may sue. Creditors & investors may sue. Mark my words, this will get a whole lot uglier before it gets better.

The end result will be one of these three outcomes:
- North & Schwartz will end up with controlling interest in CSW in the next month or so,
- Hernandez will come to his senses, kiss & make up with everybody at CSW,
- CSW will disappear from the virtual landscape, as North & Schwartz start up their own, better version of it.

One more thing about Mike North... what ever he is involved with is NEVER boring. The events of tonight prove that once again.

Hey now!

OK, so let's say North takes control of the webio. Who's going to invest in it? Who's going to buy ads? Is Pappy going to front his own money? I don't see how he could pay 5 people full-time salaries, much less 30. This thing is dead or reduced to a North-hosted podcast.

I think it's becoming apparent that Hernandez wanted to be play big shot executive and got it in way over his head, North used his Hernandez's ambition to exact revenge on WSCR, among other things.

I really have a hard time grasping the level of hatred Mike North instills in some here.

I've had guys steal actual money from me in investments I've made and I still don't have as much venom for them as some of you do for a guy that you all can't possibly have personal relationships with.

I mean the guy lost a job and you'd think the Berlin Wall just fell.

Best of luck to the other Webio guys. I hope you can still make a go of it.

Just a little question from someone like me who's ignorant of the ways of high-level corporate movers and shakers like the Norths and Hernandez:

Should the Chief Operating Officer of a company be expected to have any awareness or foreboding of a financial crisis so dire that employees' paychecks have been bouncing and were about to bounce some more? Would any knowledge or inkling whatsoever of this be a reasonable expectation to have of someone with the title COO or is that strictly under the purview of the money guys and he/she would never see financial statements and could be kept ignorant of the impending doom?

Just asking.

It's not unheard of for the COO not to be in tune with the financial situation of the company, especially if the CFO doesn't want them to know.

And I doubt that anyone other than Hernandez would have known enough to know which checks would bounce and which wouldn't. I think it is interesting that the checks actually bounced. Most corporate accounts have lines with the bank that allow them to go pretty well below $0 before the bank won't honor it. I know credit is tighter these days so Webio may not have had it but it still surprises me. I suspect he is seriously in the red if that many checks are bouncing.

She got screwed more than anybody at webio.

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

I really have a hard time grasping the level of hatred Mike North instills in some here.

50% commission seems pretty excessive Jimmy, unless you are just flat-out not paying people.

It's not unheard of for the COO not to be in tune with the financial situation of the company, especially if the CFO doesn't want them to know.

I've had guys steal actual money from me in investments I've made

I was always suspicious about availability, or lack thereof, of good due diligence guys in Kenilworth. That sucks, Doc.

I lost my appreciation for North when he stopped being entertaining. I'm more like KC in this—intrigued by a looming disaster but ultimately indifferent to North. This is not a moment to gloat w/ so many people getting screwed over: people who have entertained or tried to entertain us over the years.

I really don't get why the hatred is so visceral. Other than RV, how many of you have even met North? Did he fuck your wives, piss on your kids, kick your dogs? That's how you write about him, and this is why message boards get a bad reputation: clowns spewing irrational invective behind the cloak of anonymity. This board is at is best when it's about sharing info, cracking each other up and commiserating about shared interests—all the community aspects. Not so much when it's a circle jerk of misdirected rage.

Shit on North all you want, but at this point—and probably all along—it says more about you than it does him.

I’m a janitor. I work at a college. This weekend is graduation and from 6A-2P Pacific time today I cleared out toilets full of piss, shit and vomit and nothing I encountered in those bathrooms repulsed me as much as most the people on this board.

Poor poor Mike North. He deserves this bashing. HE's the one who made fun of and mocked the Holloway girl that was murdered and potentially drowned. (remember the mock interview of Holloway gargling water). That was funny to him but we cant laugh at this? I think some of you need to put this shit in perspective. And as far as I'm concerned, I hope it gets worse for North. I hope he loses everything. Scumbag "I give to over 200 charities" lie'n asshole. Yeah, thats a good guy. I respect the items you cleaned out of the toilets more than Mike "no funds" North.