Steve Cochran has left the station. His contract was up at the end of June and neither side was making progress on a contract. They are replacing him with some guy from Cincinnati.

According to ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com, WGN 720 took Steve Cochran off the air without having a chance to say goodbye to his listeners! Talk about rude!

WGN never gave this guy the chance either.

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It was supposed to be Bill Cunningham from Cincinnati's WLW Radio supposedly making Steve Cochran expendable. Just when it appeared as if Bill was coming, he supposedly did a 180 and turned down WGN.

i think they'd get better ratings with old tapes of wally phillips.

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

Touche, Douchebag.

Moment of silence please for Bob Collins, or "Uncle Bobby" as many referring to the late, great WGN Radio morning man...Thank you.

Didn't Cochran get a huge break with Collins' death?

It was Spike O'Dell that took the reins from Bobby.

I'm not sure how to answer that. If I remember correctly, Spike O'Dell inherited the morning gig at WGN 720 shortly after Bob Collins' tragic death in that plane crash. Despite getting huge ratings himself, Spike got kinda tired of working morning drive and raised a lot of eyebrows when he decided not to renew his contract with the Tribune-owned news/talker, Cubs & Blackhawks' flagship. I'm not so sure that Steve Cochran got a huge break when Bob was killed.

Doucebag=John Crackpipe

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

But I thought Cochran moved to full-time from a fill-in/weekend gig as a result.

I think you are correct. I believe he got the mid afternoon slot when Spike moved to morning and John Williams moved to afternoon drive.

ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com reports that WGN 720 bosses yanked Steve Cochran off the air with only a few minutes remaining in what turned out to be his last show. Cochran's most recent boss, WGN Program Director Kevin Metheny, didn't exactly give Steve a vote of confidence...Cochran's show was one of 3 shows that had been flipflopped, for lack of a better word, in WGN's weekday schedule. Cochran had been doing afternoon drive before Garry Meier recently took over the 3-7p time slot. Got it so far? John Williams, who had been doing morning drive, was moved recently to middays 9a-1p to make room for some no-name from San Francisco, Gregg Jarrett, in mornings. Williams also does afternoons on WCCO Radio in Minneapolis, even though I believe he does the show from Trib Tower here. Cochran was doing early afternoons 1-3p after he was taken off afternoon drive and had replaced Williams in that time slot. Confusing? Believe it.

All he wanted was to drop in on his listeners.

"Do I look amused?"

Boy Uncle Bobby's career sure went down in flames.

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WGN Radio 720 management has been taking quite a P.R. beating lately, and the way they removed Steve Cochran the other day is just the latest example. From the controversial way longtime midday hosts Judy Markey & Kathy O'Malley were yanked off their air to hiring a convinced felon (!) in Jim Laski to host nights when the Cubs & Blackhawks don't play, the current WGN management team has come under a great deal of scrutiny for their programming decisions and the way they've let people go.

Those kind of jokes don't fly around here.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

The original plan was to replace both Steve Cochran & John Williams, midday host at WGN 720 and afternoon host at Minneapolis' WCCO Radio, with 2 guys from WLW Radio in Cincinnati. One of the two, Bill Cunningham, turned WGN down 2 weeks ago and decided to stay at WLW for a lot more money. The other guy, a Conservative no-name by the name of Mike McConnell, has accepted WGN's offer and is expected to sign on, likely in Cochran's time slot, come August 9th. Until then, fill-in hosts will cover the tabs from 1-3p Monday-Friday unless there's a Cubs' game along the way.

By the way, ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com also reports that WGN's controversial Program Director Kevin Metheny, whom Mac refers as "Pig Vomit", grabbed Cochran out of the men's room and told Steve to quickly wrap up his show before he could get a chance to say goodbye to his listeners. Steve's WGN contract was to expire June 30th, but his show would've been preempted by a Cubs' game vs. the Pirates that afternoon.

AWESOME!!!

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WOO LIFE!!!!

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

He should have taken the flight plan!!!!

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

It is a shame when a career crashes and burns like that.

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Just when I get old enough to not hate WGN they take off the guys that I like.

Very true. I heard some of Garry's show a couple of Fridays ago, and he has this bit where he plays snippets of songs people email in, kind of like an iPod playlist. Nothing like hearing music emanating from an AM radio.

Cochran sucked, by the way. I used to listen on Saturday mornings to hear Nick Digilio's movie reviews at 9:30. Cochran just imitated Letterman's mannerisms/laugh, and not very well I might add. Good riddance.

+1

Eddie Schwartz, news and sports.............

friends stop to say hello

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I just flipped on WGN and Jim Laski is reading questions from a Rules of the Road test to callers.

Brutal.