Mancow Joins WLS, Replaces Agar
Just days after Rob Feder offered it up in his last column, Phil Rosenthal confirms that Erich “Mancow” Muller will be joining WLS-AM 890 next week, replacing Jerry Agar in the 9-11am timeslot. Muller will replace Jerry Agar, whose contract reportedly expires this week. Muller will continue to host his syndicated morning show.
It was more than two years ago that Muller was bounced from Q101after eight years with that station. Since then, he’s continued to host his nationally syndicated morning show, distributed by Talk Radio Network. He’s also provided commentary for WTTW-TV Ch. 11on “Chicago Tonight”.
For at least his first week at WLS, Muller will be paired with veteran newsman Pat Cassidy, who jumped to WLS from WBBM-AM earlier this year. Since then, Cassidy has bounced around among different dayparts, playing the roles of news anchor, reporter, and sidekick. It’s not clear if the Muller-Cassidy pairing is a long-term combination.
Muller has long had the “shock jock” label hung on him, despite his occassional forrays into conservative talk radio. His arrival at WLS undoubtedly marks a change in the station’s programming philosophy. For the last seven or eight years, WLS has enjoyed its largest success with reliable conservative talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and morning drive duo of Don & Roma. Mancow takes the station in a less political direction, presumably because the appetite for conservative politics may be waning as this election season comes to and end. At the same time, Don & Roma are days away from the end of their current contract. Could Mancow be test driving the Big 89, in advance of taking over the morning slot?
[...] Get more background on the move [...]
I’ve been a loyal WLS listener for years, but will now switch my full allegiance to WIND 560 AM. Agar was a hell of a nice guy and a great radio personality. Mancow Muller, who is replacing Agar, can only dumb down the station. WLS is insulting its audience with this foolish move.
You have got to be kidding. Mancow for Agar? Looks like WLS is trying to lose it’s conservative listenership. I heard Mancow fill in for Agar several times and always switched to WIND or WGN. Looks like I’ll be switching permanently come next Monday. Mancow is just too far out there and is a poor man’s Howard Stern.
I agree, it looks like WLS is getting caught up in the whole manic “CHANGE” hysteria and believes there is no longer a market for conservative talk.
Bad move on their part. More conservatives listen to talk radio than liberals. Maybe they are not aware of what happened to ‘Air America’?
Loved Jerry and Deborah Rowe. Weekend programming is not worth turning on the radio to listen to. How many hours of financial shows can anyone stand listening to? And cars??? Who cares???
We are at a crossroads in this country and need hosts like Jerry willing to call a spade a spade.
Why are you getting rid of Jerry Agar? What can Mancow do that Jerry couldn’t have done better? Jerry was a breath of fresh air on Chicago talk radio and I, for one, will miss his common sense approach to the problems in our society today. Jerry was the only one that I know of who consistently took the Sun-Times and their stable of Obama lapdog reporters and staff to task for their media bias. Mancow is past his prime and his original audience has outgrown him. I hope Jerry ends up with another station in this area
How to ruin a good format. Jerry Agar is the only host worth listening to on WLS except for Rush. Don Wade has become such a “please don’t offend” personality that he is hard to listen to. When he does get into a good serious topic his big mouth wife has to cut him off. She starts blabbing nonsense about some other topic. Roe Conn the class clown now all of a sudden since he went to the conventions is an authority on every topic. If he discusses drinking, hot women and hollywood the three stooges that he has that sit there with him can jump in and talk. Maybe we can hear another lame story of Jim Johnson in Wisconsin. Boring. Every topic that Conn discusses has to circle back to him and his big ego. I turned to WIND a month ago when Conn comes on because the class clown just does not cut it as a serious political analyst or serious analyst of anything. He excels at being the class clown. Plus he can take his White Guilt somewhere else. Have you ever noticed, his three stooges cannot discuss any serious topic? Mankow, Please, he is a has-been loud mouth. NO THANK YOU. I Also agree with the previous comments that your weekend format absolutely sucks. All I need on Sunday morning is to have Bill Cameron kissing butt with Illinois politicians and during the week kissing the fat butt of Daley.
PS
What a great addition WLS made with Pat Cassidy. What in the world does that “News Reader Dunce” have to offer. When he sat in with Jerry Agar he proved his ignorance. If it isn’t written out in front of him as a script he has absolutely no idea what is going on in the political world. The other “Dunce” news reader on WLS is at 3pm when Mr.Know-it-all Ron Magers talks to the class clown. Those two can’t get enough of their own egos. Ron always reminds the audience, “well. the way we in the media, Blah, Blah, Blah” as if he sets the media agenda. After all these years he still hasn’t figure it out that all he is, is a news reader. Another alcoholic that now knows the world. The only one that knows more is Conn
In general, the latest for WLS on air is “The Big 89″ or the big this the big that. How annoying.
Man… I was pretty upset when Agar took over the Sunday afternoon spot from Terri O’Brien. But I gave him a chance and he wound up being probably my favorite local host.
I’ve been “out of the loop” a bit over the last couple weeks – Knew that Mancow’s name has been popping up here and there, but had no idea he was taking Jerry’s spot.
At this point, I’m pretty bummed. We’ll see…
Looks as though I will be moving totally to Dennis Miller and Medved.
I pretty much agree with all of the above, I listened to Mancow’s first show and learned nothing except he’s thowing away his vote. The Libertarians should take over the Republican party from within instead of deviding and deluting the conservative vote. That would be real “change”. I will be switching to Dennis Miller also, and as I can’t stand Don and Roma (they’re so stuck on themselves in their Cambria clad palace), I have already been listening to John & Cisco on WIND, as well as Michael Savage and Michael Medved.
Why don’t they let WLS listeners vote on who gets the 9-11 slot? They loser can take a weekend slot at WLS.
Agree with all above. With exception of Rush, WIND now “has it all” in this market. Too bad. Agar and his regular features were refreshing and enlightening. Seems like this “apolital” shift of the 9-11 slot is the broadcast equivalent of the Tribune’s latest silly “facelift”. in which trendy(NOT!) “streetish” names replace titles of sections in an attempt to appeal to non-thinkers.
Even as the WSJ gobbles up the home delivery market in Chicagoland as Trib readers leave the “Libune” in disgust, so will WIND build it’s base from former WLS listeners, looking for something more substantial than fast-talking, outrageous(also NOT!)silliness.
“apolital” = apolitical….sorry….stiff fingers can’t type in morning…
*
If Don and Roma are going to be on vacation when their contract expires, I hope WLS broadcasts Russ & Lisa from WORD radio in Greenville, SC.
DocFrog says it all. Both the Tribune and WLS are “dumbing it down.” Lots of fluff, no substance. I have tried to listen to Mancow for three days in a row now and each time I turn it off before 9:10. His voice and “in your face” manner are obnoxious. Jerry Agar was an intelligent, articulate radio host; Mancow is neither.
Mancow is an ” in your face” person and not enjoyable to listen to. They used to have all heavy hitters since Agar came aboard. If they get rid of anyone else I will find another station. As it is I am switching
the cow’s time slot. Agar had class. If it wasn’t for Ron Majors Con wouldn’t have a lot of class. Don and Roma are great and so is Rush.
I leave the country for 2 weeks and come back and find my favorite on WLS replaced by someone with ‘madcow’!
Are you all trying to ruin WLS. Or is ‘WLS’ moving toward ‘We Love Socialists’
I’ve got to find another radio station to listen too. And I totally agree with the comments about how most of the weekends are not worth turning on the radio, including the Notre Dame games.
Where did Jerry go? Maybe I can still listen to him.
Jerry Agar was an okay talk show host, but more like Alvin Davis than Ken Griffey Junior. He wasn’t going to be the star of the station.
As far as the direction that WLS is headed is concerned, I agree that they’re dumbing down the station. They got rid of Eileen Byrne and Teri O’Brien and now they have shock jock and the clown, Conn, who gets good ratings talking about women and Hollywood and movies.
WIND is all right, but I hate Savage, aka Weiner Nation, because he’s not a real conservative.
I like Hannity and Levin, unfortunately, they’re delayed and if there’s a primary or ND Basketball game, they get pre-empted.
Why did WIND Dump Ingraham?
Jerry Agar was an improtant part of my day. Looks like I’ll be playing my CD’s in the morning. I hope you don’t lose Don and Roma too.
I to have gone to wind 560 am. I do like Mancow but cannot stand Pat Cassidy (a typical flaming liberal jounalist). But, more and more I cannot listen to Roe Conn anymore. So, when Conn is on I go to wind 560 am
Whoa! What happened to my favorite talk radio station? I tried, but I cannot bring myself to listen to Mancow during morning drive. His subject matter is of no interest. I have grown to expect intelligent conversation from WLS in the past decades I have been listening. Also, what did Agar do to deserve being jilted? If the thought is that Mancow is available, so lets get rid of Agar….why not axe Don & Roma? Bad move guys.
I hope you’re enjoying broadcasting to the thin air!!
Jerry builds you up, then you dump him?
There are other channels.
I’m going to WISN. Bye!
“Salt”
WLS made a big mistake replacing Agar with that untalented, brassy and unlikeable noise box!!! Agar brought so many creative and entertaining features to the show. After checking out today’s “new” show with some nut job guest, I tuned my radio to another station. And, it’ll stay there until smarter management reprograms that time slot.
I used to listen to Jerry Agar in NC at 680 WPTF. He was great….knowledgeable, articulate and always got his conservative listeners fired up. We were all bummed out when he left. Was just surfing around today seeing if I could find him on the Web and I can’t believe your station let him go. What a dumb move. Guess being at ground zero for the “New America” is too hot politically for the station brass…..when are conservatives gonna grow some?
Still stunned Jerry was replaced by Mancow! What a disappointment from WLS. Mancow is irritating at best. I looked forward to Jerry, then Rush. I’ll stick with WLS for Rush only, the remainder will be WIND. Just learned Jerry is on WLS on Sat. noon to 2:00. We miss you Jerry and hope we will know when you go to another station so we can follow you.
I hate that wls has replaced Jerry Agar with Mancow Muller. If I could find out where Jerry is, I would be listening to that station. I like Don & Roma and will always listen to Rush, but Mancow is not to my liking. Conservative are still out here, so even though our candidate (John McCain is not a conservative) was beaten, we are not gone. We will regroup and be heard again. I will be listening to someone else between the Wades and Rush.
I too have abandoned WLS except for Rush and would love to be able to pull him in on a different station. Don Wade is okay but Roma is an annoying ditz who can’t even read her Healthy Trinity commercials without tripping over her own tongue. Replacing Agar with Mancow was an extremely disappointing colossal stroke of bad judgment. Then there’s Roe Conn who used to be funny but lately between his boundless ego, that miserable harpy of a traffic reader on speed whom he just had to get back on his show after we finally got rid of her, and Ron Magers who is clearly in love with the sound of his own voice and who has never witnessed liberal bias in the mainstream media (WHAT!!!!!) who needs it?. I guess WLS is gearing up for the reinstatement of the “fairness” doctrine (a/k/a Free Speech for Liberals Only). Anyway, I hope 890 and its plummeting ratings will be very happy together.
I agree with much of the sentiment posted here about missing Jerry Agar.
His show provided the thoughtful discussion of the issues that Mancow does not.
20 minutes of Agar’s replacement and I turned it off. If you continue to go this route WLS may lose me altogether.
I listened to WLS because of Jerry Agar when he left WABC. Now I asked him to email me when he knows where he is going.
Type in Jerry Agar into a myspace people search or a facebook search, because I run his fanpages there. If you want to know whats going on with him as soon as it happens, go to the websites I mentioned. I hope he will be back on air soon.
Goodbye WLS, slippery slope and all that. Perhaps they are going on the cheap. Don Wade and Roma are probably next. Is the station managers job to find what the people like and then go about destroying it?
Voting demographics have changed in America. If you want to be effective over the next four years recognize the current desperation of Obama to take effective charge of the financial meltdown by moving to the right, and styling himself as a pragmatist. He will probably take a whole lot of pages from FDR’s playbook, even though these ploys did nothing in the long run till 1938 arrived, and then the war intervened to save his program. That’s five full years of government pump-priming. The plain fact seems to be that no combination of economists and politicians appears to be the answer to our problems, which produces soulsearching both among liberals and conservatives. Once we recognize that Keynesian solutions are likely to be ineffective because the increase debt and promote inflation while providing jobs for a few, it will be necessary for talk radio to provide reasoned and potentially workable alternatives to our dilemmas. Hosts who recognize this MAY gather a following and have influence if the reduce the shrillness and the sarcasm without taking their eyes off the problems. How will WLS rise to the challenge?
I’m still mourning the fact that Jerry Agar left KMBZ in Kansas City. I finally figure out how to listen to him and now he’s gone. So where is he? He’s the best.
I am wondering why you don’t have Jerry Egar anymore. I thought he was great. First you guys got rid of Gary who used to be with Ro then Eileen who I also listened to and now Jerry. What the heck everytime I really like someone they are gone ;-(
VERY DISAPOINTING!
All so well said but WHERE IS JERY NOW??? I like Mancow and Mr. Miller ok but I respect Jerry and miss him. I look forward to finding him hopefully soon.
Mancow and Cassidy are boring boring boring. Bad decision to replace Jerry Agar. Bad bad bad!!!
Jerry Agar was truly a good man and an interesting host. Mancow can only downgrade your station. I will certainly not waste my time at work to listen, and would be embarrased if anyone heard me listening to Mancow while working.
All of us here miss Jerry Agar. He was a bright spot in the WLS line up. Mancow sounds like he should appeal to a teenage crowd. He does a very poor job of show prep and flounders around. Seem like the station needs a management change. I trust there ratings will drop and there is a house cleaning of the Liberal management. Sounds like Axlerod has his hand in this station.
OOps you goofed I so looked forward to jerry agar and Debbie. Mancow just doesn’t have it.
Jerry was bright, knowledgeable and witty. Really enjoyed his take
and almost ALWAYS agreed with him. Morning radio is not the same.
Mancow is arrongant and full of himself he just doesn’t fit!!
I also was disappointed when they removed Jerry Agar. I enjoyed Jerry’s show and do not listen to WLS from 9 to 11am any longer. Thank you for suggesting other radio stations, I will check them out. Mancow never seems to make any point, talk about ego.
I too have been getting the impression that WLS is gearing up for the Fairness Doctrine. No sense gearing up when they are going to end up losing their audience.
The weekend programming is the worst; I mean come on WMD, Women of Mass Discussion, yuck. I told a friend about WLS and the first time they listened they heard two women discussing if you can put ham and turkey on the same sandwich, wow, how insightful. Before that you listen to the same financial people say the same thing they said last weekend, nothing new, just mind numbing repetition. They took Debra Rowe, Teri O’Brien, and Eileen Byrne off and they were great.
I disagree about Don Wade and Roma I enjoy them. I emailed WLS management regarding my disappointment with the Jerry Agar situation but they did not respond, I can only conclude that they do not care. Maybe they are trying to run the radio station out of business?
If WLS thinks that conservatism is going away they are wrong. I wish Mark Levin were on earlier. It looks like WLS is becoming the Chicken Little station. WLS get a backbone!
replace Jerry with “mancow”?! what are you thinking?!
Wls U really messed up replacing Agar with Mancow. I listened just the other day and Mancow threatened a guest there causs he didn’t agree about exhaust from cars he threatened to punch his face. I think Cassidy is kind of fed up with his antics too
I personally thought that O’Brien was better than Agar. However, Mancow (or Mad-COW) has no business on a conservative or Republican leaning station.
I suppose Madcow has been telling us all about how corrupt Blaggo was and how Topinka would be a better choice for governor. No I’m sorry he’s probably looking at pictures of Britney Spears. What a fraud!
Jerry Agar was a joy! He’s got class and brains. Now look what you’ve done, WLS, you stuck obnoxious Mancow there, instead.
Don and Roma are boring. They are past their prime. I can’t stand listening to them and only do when “forced” to. I am tired of their commercials, too.
Please put Jerry Agar in the Don and Roma slot.
I am so happy to see so many people agree with me… I have been a LONG time WLS listener… and I grew to love Jerry Agar very quickly… I miss him so much…
And to replace HIM with that big mouth idiot really galls me…. I cannot STAND to even hear his voice…
I have been trying to find ratings to see how that slot is doing… HORRIBLY, I hope….
I have switched stationed around between 9 and 11:00 …. and if the “management” keeps this crap up, they will have lost me for good and I hope a lot more!!!!!
Kathy
All you people are giving knee-jerk reactions to the Mancow persona of the late 90s. I’ve been listening to him for years on his syndicated show–yeah there are some times when he can be quote-unquote crass. But what you don’t know is how reflective he can be, and how unbelievably common sensical he can be. It can be very galvanizing when you get sick of lily-livered liberal political correctness. I dare you to listen for a week. If you hate the show then turn it off.
What on earth were you guys thinking. Mancow instead of Agar? I think you`ve “slipped a cog” and I no longer listen to wls from 9 to 11. BIG MISTAKE!!!!!
Replaced Jerry Agar with Mancow? I agree with Janice… BIG MISTAKE!! I can’t stand the arrogance on that program, and no longer listen to WLS from 9 – 11. I listen to Hannity and Levin afater 2PM on on XM radio. I don’t need to hear Clyde, and that stupid drunk wagon garbage. I hope WLS sees the error of their ways. WLS – PLEASE BRING JERRY AGAR BACK!!
Anyone know if Jerry Agar is back on the radio, and what station?
Don’t be mean to Jim Johnson! He’s a sweet guy. I need more of Jerry Agar and Debra Rowe!!! What WLS could have done was bring in Larry Elder for more balance. Love DW and Roma, Rush, Hannity and Levin. I agree with the sentiment that there was a point Don Wade was weakened by the fear of the fairness doctrine. He’s back– I think.
Mancow is growing on me but I can do without the shock jock-esque characters- “gay producer” and so forth. Pat should stay in the newsroom with his colleague Ron Magers.
Roe Conn is lost to us forever. His head is in the clouds and his eyes are fixed to syndication/or t.v. dollars in the sky. If there was ever anyone who kisses up to the ruling party,to avoid the fairness doctrine hitting him, he is it! How weak is he!
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