Just a week after Citadel Broadcasting chief Farid Suleman personally showed WLS-AM 890 general manager Mike Fowler the door, the new general manager Michael Damsky fired program director Bomb Shomper. Both Feder and Rosenthal have the story. In an interview with Feder earlier this week, Damsky hinted that the change would be coming:

My top priority is make sure WLS is being programmed to best showcase the talent that we have. We have great individual shows, but now we need to maximize their value and restore the luster of the WLS brand

Shomper has been with the station for just over a year. He came to WLS in one of the more bizarre personnel realignments in recent memory. Shomper had come from WBAP-AM in Dallas to program WGN in 2006. In late 2008, frustrated with the slow pace of change at WGN, he essentially negotiated with his current employer, WGN, and WLS to make the jump. He landed at WLS, ousting previous PD Kipper McGee. Meanwhile, WGN brought in Kevin Metheny.

During his tenure at WLS, Shomper inherited a recently re-signed morning duo of Don Wade & Roma, the oddball pairing of Mancow of Pat Cassidy, and a quickly sinking afternoon show in Roe Conn. Shomper also brought in Illinois’ disgraced ex-governor Rod Blagojevich to host a weekend shift. The Mancow & Cassidy experiment seems destined to fail, as rumors swirl that Cassidy is working on an exit from WLS that would let him return to WBBM-AM. Roe Conn recently brought in a new partner Cisco Cotto, who effectively replaces Amy Jacobson, who replaced Bill Leff & Christina Filiaggi earlier this year.

There does not appear to be a timetable for Damsky to replace Shomper, but there should be a clear sense of urgency. While Don & Roma continue to over-perform their age and ability at this point in their career, the popular wisdom is that they are working out the last three years of what will be their final contract. There is no apparent successor in place. The unusual revenue sharing deal that has put Mancow into mid-days may be helping the station’s bottom line, but it’s not doing much to, “restore the luster of the WLS brand,” as Damsky hopes to do. The strategy to add Cotto to Conn’s show seems to be a last gasp attempt to salvage the once untouchable afternoon drive shift on WLS when Conn and Garry Meier were paired together. It’s too early to tell whether listeners will take to the new team.

To top off the challenges already laid out before the incoming PD are the health concerns that plague Rush Limbaugh, who has been a fixture on WLS since its inception. At some point, Limbaugh will close the book on his remarkable career and his replacement — either a new syndicated show or a local show — will need to be chosen.