{"id":17183,"date":"2018-03-09T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T14:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=17183"},"modified":"2018-03-09T09:08:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T15:08:07","slug":"robservations-steve-dahl-lock-loop-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/03\/09\/robservations-steve-dahl-lock-loop-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Robservations: Steve Dahl to \u2018lock up\u2019 The Loop today"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a> Steve Dahl (1979) (Photo: Paul Natkin)<\/p><\/div>\n

Robservations on the media beat:<\/p>\n

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Steve Dahl<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s probably fitting for Steve Dahl<\/strong> to be the last live voice we\u2019ll hear on The Loop. The Chicago broadcast legend and Radio Hall of Famer, who rose to stardom four decades ago on WLUP FM 97.9,<\/a> will preside over an official send-off for the classic rock station today. It comes on the eve of its takeover<\/a> by Educational Media Foundation and switch to contemporary Christian music just before midnight Saturday. To mark the passing, Dahl\u2019s afternoon show on news\/talk WLS AM 890 will be simulcast on The Loop. Both stations broadcast from Cumulus Media studios. Among Dahl\u2019s special guests will be fellow Loop luminaries\u00a0Sky Daniels<\/strong> and Kevin Matthews.<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to wrap my head around WLUP switching from \u2018Where Chicago Rocks\u2019 to \u2018Where Chicago Prays,\u2019\u201d Dahl said. \u201cThe Loop bounced radio waves around this city and into listeners\u2019 brains for 40 years. Luckily, the curtain never comes down in the theater of the mind, so in that sense it will live on. I am honored\/concerned I\u2019ve been given the keys to lock the place up. Have you seen my keys?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bob Stroud<\/p><\/div>\n

Also paying tribute to The Loop today will be longtime competitor WDRV FM 97.1,<\/a> the Hubbard Radio classic rock station known as The Drive. The daylong salute will kick off at 10 a.m. with a special edition of \u201cTen at Ten\u201d hosted by midday personality Bob Stroud,<\/strong> who\u2019s also a veteran of The Loop. Program director Rob Cressman<\/strong> promises some \u201cinteresting surprises\u201d as The Drive honors its rival and welcomes classic rock fans to switch to The Drive.<\/p>\n

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Garry Meier<\/p><\/div>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more: David Plier,<\/strong> weekend host on Tribune Broadcasting news\/talk WGN AM 720,<\/a> has lined up Loop legends Garry Meier,<\/strong> Kevin Matthews, Wendy Snyder<\/strong> and Bill Leff<\/strong> to reminisce about the station's glory days and its impact on the radio landscape. (Snyder and Leff, who first teamed up on The Loop, now host middays on WGN.) Plier\u2019s show airs at 2 a.m. Sunday and uploads as a podcast Sunday morning at wgnradio.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chicagoly<\/p><\/div>\n

It was only last spring that Chicagoly<\/a> won the Peter Lisagor Award for general excellent in print journalism.<\/a> Now the quarterly magazine is out of business. After two years of publication, 22nd Century Media has pulled the plug on Chicagoly, effective with its winter issue. Despite consistently good work, the print edition never turned a profit. \u201cIt's truly a shame, because what we produced was special and compelling, and it was unique \u2014 and needed \u2014 in Chicago,\u201d said publisher Joe Coughlin.<\/strong> \u201cThe messages from our readers since the announcement have really blown us away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Block Club Chicago<\/p><\/div>\n

The best media news of the week comes from Block Club Chicago,<\/a> the nonprofit neighborhood news website being launched <\/a>by editors from the former DNAinfo Chicago. Raising $183,720 from more than 3,000 contributors in one month, the startup became Kickstarter's most-funded local journalism project in U.S. history. \u201cWe are tremendously honored and energized by the response to our Kickstarter,\u201d said editor-in-chief Shamus Toomey.<\/strong> \u201cChicago really showed us they both miss DNAinfo and are eager for Block Club Chicago to come along. We can\u2019t wait to get back to doing what we love.\u201d Toomey said he expects the site to debut in late April or early May.<\/p>\n

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Chicago Tribune<\/p><\/div>\n

An effort to unionize editorial employees of the Chicago Tribune<\/a> may be heating up. Staffers met Thursday night at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza River North with representatives of the Chicago News Guild,<\/a> longtime bargaining agent for the Sun-Times and numerous suburban papers. The move comes on the eve of a sweeping reorganization<\/a> of the Tribune newsroom in which employees may be required to reapply for their jobs. Further cuts are expected as the newspaper prepares to leave Tribune Tower for smaller space at Prudential Plaza. Earlier this year news staffers at the Los Angeles Times voted overwhelmingly to be represented by the News Guild-Communications Workers of America. Tronc, parent company of the Tribune and the L.A. Times, subsequently announced the sale<\/a> of the L.A. Times.<\/p>\n

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WBBM transmitter (Photo: Scott Fybush)<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s a $46 million deal in the works to sell the transmitter site of all-news WBBM AM 780<\/a> in Itasca. Entercom CEO David Field<\/strong> this week disclosed the price tag (but not the buyer), according to Tom Taylor Now. <\/a>It\u2019s expected to cost the company $2 million to move the antenna a few miles west to Bloomingdale, where WBBM Newsradio would share the transmitter site of sports\/talk WSCR AM 670. As reported<\/a> last fall, the move would require the 50,000-watt powerhouse to drop to 35,000 watts during the daytime and 42,000 watts at night. The nondescript white brick bunker in Itasca has been home of WBBM\u2019s signal since 1942.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s best comment:<\/a> Richard Heffernan:<\/strong> Every time I'm back in Chicago, I'm deeply saddened by the sorry state of radio. What was once a truly great radio town has become like every other market with lame bits, faux outrage and forced laughter. But I happened to catch the first hour of the Steve Dahl Show on Monday (the day the Loop was sold) and it was nothing short of brilliant. The discussion of the Loop being sold and becoming a Christian radio station was smart, spontaneous and original. I laughed out loud more than once. I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud at anything on the radio but a politician. I read Steve getting a lot of grief in the comments section, but I don't think you guys appreciate what you've got. Especially with this line up. It was observational, subversive and a spot on reaction to an iconic event. It was great broadcasting. Something you never hear these days.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robservations on the media beat: It\u2019s probably fitting for Steve Dahl to be the last live voice we\u2019ll hear on The Loop. The Chicago broadcast legend and Radio Hall of Famer, who rose to stardom four decades ago on WLUP FM 97.9, will preside over an official send-off for the classic rock station today. It... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17183"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17198,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17183\/revisions\/17198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}