July 24, 2009
LEWIS LAZARE Media & Marketing columnist
Taking a different path

If nothing else, Connor McKnight can say he got his new reporting job at all-sports WSCR-AM (670) in an unconventional manner. McKnight prevailed over a pool of more than 970 contestants in an "American Idol"-inspired competition to select a new reporter. WSCR Program Director Mitch Rosen first narrowed the field to 10 semifinalists and then four finalists, each of whom made an audition tape.

At the public contest finals last weekend, a panel of judges that included Rosen listened to the tapes, interviewed the finalists and then chose McKnight, who had previously interned at Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

At least initially, McKnight will work as an independent contractor at the station starting in September.

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If anybody cares, Coztansa is in a new band:
http://www.myspace.com/groverclevelandband

CHIP EGAN RESPONDS:
Posted by chip egan 7/24/2009 in reply to "Lazare: WSCR's Connor McKnight"
One of the things that bothers me with Lazare-as I'm sure many of you have noticed-is that he is several days late with stories, if he gets to them at all.
The Pepsi Max Score Search contest ended last Saturday. The story on Connor appears almost a full week later. That's inexcusable for the guy who covers media news. It's called news for a reason, Lewis, its new. Ed Sherman at least had the results for Crain's Chicago Business on Monday.
Secondly, I don't know where or how Lazare gets his info. but the winner of the contest was not hired out as an independant contractor. If he just went to the website he would have seen that it was a 30 hour a week job. The winner was a staff member not a contractor. When I sat with Mitch Rosen for my interview he explained that we would be on staff, we just wouldn't receive benefits. At no time was the term independant contractor brought up.
Boy, do I miss Robert Feder. Chip Egan

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If anybody cares, Coztansa is in a new band:
http://www.myspace.com/groverclevelandband

Nice, Chip.

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What bothered me when I wrote it was why didn't Mr. Lazare contact Mitch Rosen or Connor for response of what happened or how great Connor must feel for winning. I felt his coverage of what happened was something that was simply pulled from the website. The part that Sasha Fierce pulled was from a post I wrote that questioned the information in Lazare's story as well as how the media coverage from the Times has fallen off since Feder retired.