Coppock: Where do I go from here?
Posted by Ed Sherman 6/17/2009 5:43AM on Chicago Business

Chet Coppock has been through more downers in his career than he can remember. But this one, he says, is the worst.

"It's a very desolate feeling," Mr. Coppock said. "I don't think I've ever felt this bad. I feel like I've been hit by a truck and I don't know how big the truck is."

Mr. Coppock signed off for the last time Tuesday from his Chicagosportswebio.com afternoon show. The gig, as he would say, lasted just over two months.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. After languishing on weekends at WMVP-AM 1000, he jumped at the opportunity to work a five-day, drive-time shift for the town's new Internet sports talk station. It was "a rebirth," he said.

He had a two-year, six-figure contract with the promise of more down the road. He said this was going to be his last job, his bridge to life's sunset.

Then it all stunningly unraveled when station president David Hernandez faced charges of business fraud by the SEC. The SEC alleges the funds for Webio were derived from an illicit Ponzi scheme.

Suddenly, it was all over for Mr. Coppock. Just like that.

Now at age 61, he wonders if he has done his last show.

"Nobody's going to hire me to be a go-go dancer," Mr. Coppock said. "(WMVP) wouldn't hire me if Chevrolet walked in with 100 large and said take back Coppock. We didn't leave on good terms. There's no room at (WSCR). I'm 61. Everyone wants the kids. I don't know where to go."

You could hear the pain in Mr. Coppock's voice when he later said, "I might have to enter the real world and frankly that scares the hell out of me. If I have to sell life insurance, I might have to slit my wrists."

Looking back, Mr. Coppock wonders why nobody knew more about Mr. Hernandez and his past: he was sentenced to 34 months in prison for wire fraud in 1998. Mr. Coppock said Mr. Hernandez simply struck him as someone who wanted to be around the action.

"My first reaction was he was a guy with a ton of cabbage who wanted in his whole life to be somebody," Mr. Coppock said. "He wanted to sit a skybox and have Jerry Reinsdorf acknowledge him."

Mr. Coppock said he bought into Mr. Hernandez's vision for the new endeavor. Again in Chet-speak, he said, "I went in with the same conviction Moses had in parting the Red Sea. I thought this would be a knockout, and in a couple of years I would sign a new contract."

Mr. Coppock still believes in the product and hopes that it will be revived in some form. But he knows "it isn't going to happen next Tuesday."

Mr. Coppock now wonders if he might have stuck around too long--again in Chet-speak--"like a fighter who didn't know when to get out of the ring."

I told him his analogy was wrong. A fighter who doesn't know when to hang them up risks damage to himself.

Being behind a microphone, knowing somebody is listening out there, has been the essence of Mr. Coppock for as long as he uttered his first, "How are you doing everybody...''

No offense to insurance salesman, but that's not for Mr. Coppock. He is a one-of-a-kind broadcaster in this business, in this town.

Borrowing from another of his signature lines, I told him, "It's your dime and still your dance floor."

"I can only hope, buddy," he said. "I can only hope."

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sugatsune. boricuabutch.

I love Chet. I grew up listening to him when he was the only sports show in town.

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

Your not the only one. I still rather listen to Chet then about 95% of the clown crew now on the airwaves.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I guess Chet won't be going for the life insurance sponsors.

Chet was great. I remember seeing Chet at the old Stadium walking around courtside in his full-length fur coat. Chet was Big Rock Candy Mountain, partner.

I hope he gets another gig. This is not the way he should go out.

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You know me like that.

Let me add: http://www.chetcoppock.com/

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sugatsune. boricuabutch.

Exactly.

I despised Chet's style of show but it always seemed that when Chet was involved, the event was legitimate...like when Madden and Sumerall were broadcasting a game.

I feel worse for Chet than anyone else.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Chester as a driver of the show for an extended period of time is turn of the radio and pop in a Motley Crue CD boring.

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

I still like Chet, but it's annoyting that he finds himself so entertaining, and laughs at all of his own jokes. Outside of that, get him a good partner, and he's pretty solid.

Chet seems like a solid guy and I both admire and respect his career and what he did for sports radio in this town. Having said that, I really don't like listening to the guy on the radio. To me, he comes across as a blowhard that likes the sound of his own voice too much. I will also shed no tears if he has to enter "the real world' with the rest of us. To be clear, I wish no ill upon him and hope he lands on his feet, however, my heart does not bleed for the guy by any stretch of the imagination.

List of People Chet is better than IMO
Terry Boers
Harry Teinowicz
Carmen De Falco
Laurence Holmes
Les Grobstein
Steve Rosenbloom
Mike Tirico
Scott Van Pelt
Dan Patrick
Matt Abattacola
Mike Murphy
Huge




Mac Silvy Waddle Howard Griffith Bernstein Hood and Jurko entertain me. The rest of these guys bore me.

Wow,you hit that one "outofhere"!!
I guess the guys on WGN sports are not worth even bringing up.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I grew up listening to Chet, long before The SCORE signed on at 820 AM during the day and when ESPN Radio 1000 was known as SportsRadio 1000 WMVP in the early '90s. Chet's show back in the day was the radio show of record, especially when Steve McMichael held out of Bears' Training Camp and he always had "Mongo's" agent Larry Bales on with him. I'll also never forget all the times Chet ate a sandwich when he chatted with Tommy Lasorda, and it was made into a promo. How 'bout all the times Coppock had longtime LSU basketball coach Dale Brown & even the likes of "Macho Man" Randy Savage and a number of WWF(now WWE) wrestlers promoting big time matches at what used to be called the Rosemont Horizon? You get the idea. That being said, at age 61 and with more than enough interviews to rival Larry King, this may very well be the end of Chet's broadcast career with the sudden demise of ChicagoSportsWebio.com.

Oh, please, this guy is the biggest blowhard out there - I'd argue bigger than North in many ways.

He'd slit his wrists, he's a beast of the radio business ... blah blah blah.

Guys like him SERIOUSLY need to check themselves and realize WHAT IT IS THEY DO FOR A LIVING. I enjoy sports talk as much as the next guy, but God damn is it irritating to hear guys like Chet/North and even McNeil over romanticize what they do and how epic their careers have been. Gimme a break.

The Jim Gaffigan Lesbian-lookalike has certainly run his course, and he should be THANKFUL for being the in the right place at the right time. If he was coming up now, he wouldn't stand a chance.

Cry me a river.

Had it not been for Chet, there would be NO SPORTS TALK RADIO in CHICAGO...End of story.

Wow, thank you, you beat me to it. Great stuff. Chet and his "legacy." Barf.

The thing I'll give Chet over North is that I think Chet's smarmy persona has just enough of an element of put-on to it, so you don't take him totally seriously.

Dear Lord I hope you are posting that in jest. If so, nice.

If not, WHAT? Really? If Chester had not been born this sports-lovin' town would have to cling to updates at the top and the bottom of the hour on WBBM/WMAQ?

Pssssht, please.

That's a load of crap. If Chet never existed we would be exactly where we are right now. Someone else would've filled in the void. Its not like he invented the concept, every city has sports radio and I'm pretty sure we would too even if Chet found a different career path.

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Why? No one else, I repeat, NO ONE ELSE would have come up with the idea of talking about sports on the radio?

SHARK's don't jest... THEY BITE!!!!

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants