Just a month into his tenure as the new general manager of WLS-AM, Mike Damsky and new operations manager Drew Hayes have already begun to make significant changes to the station. On Wednesday, the painful 16-month experiment of Erich “Mancow” Muller and Pat Cassidy finally came to an end. In addition, the painful 4-week experiment of Roe Conn and Cisco Cotto also came to an end. (Feder, Rosenthal, Lazare)

Longtime Chicago producer Rick Kaempfer interviews another longtime Chicago producer Todd Ronczkowski over at Chicago Radio Spotlight. Ronczkowski spent many years producing for Roe Conn & Garry Meier before their break-up and then for Roe afterward. He’s now the PD at WVON-AM. In the interview, Ronczkowski talks about his feelings surrounding the Roe & Garry break-up.

Radiogirl Margaret Larkin talked to Cisco Cotto, who recently made the jump from WIND-AM back to WLS-AM. Topics discussed include Mancow’s religious faith, working with Roe Conn, and the state of radio in 2010.

You can listen to the podcast here:

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Last week Lewis Lazare — or “Clueless” Lazare, as Bruce Wolf has come to refer to him — speculated in his Sun-Times column that CBS Radio’s WSCR-AM The Score might soon be heard on 105.9-FM, the current home of CBS’ Fresh FM format. Then, today, Ed Sherman, writing on his blog at Crain’s website, suggests that the market might be ready for a third sports talk station and that the FM band might be the likeliest place for…

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

…

Both Feder and Rosenthal reported today that Bob Sirott will no longer be hosting the “Noon Show” on WGN-AM 720. Sirott had been heard in that timelsot since 2007 and had often served as the senior fill-in talent during his time at WGN. Starting on Monday, John Williams will expand his shift and will be heard from 9am to 1pm each weekday. Sirott will still be heard with his wife Marianne Murciano on their Sunday night show.

Robert Feder reported on Monday that it’s looking increasingly likely that Jonathon Brandmeier will become the new afternoon drive host on WGN-AM 720 once Steve Cochran’s contract with the station runs out in March.

It was Friday, January 9, 2004, when Garry Meier last appeared on WLS as part of the “Roe and Garry Show”. Together with Roe Conn, Meier had spent eight years building one of the most popular radio partnerships in Chicago history.  In the midst of contract renegotiations, Meier was forced off the air by ABC Radio suits. Conn stated publicly on the air that he and Meier would continue to partner together regardless of what happened at WLS. As the…