{"id":2013,"date":"2014-01-12T18:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2014-01-12T18:33:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T00:33:17","slug":"how-xrt-put-down-its-marker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/01\/12\/how-xrt-put-down-its-marker\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2019XRT put down its Marker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tom<\/a>

<\/a> Tom Marker<\/p><\/div>\n

Chicago radio veteran Tom Marker, whose full-time position was eliminated <\/a>after 33 years at WXRT FM 93.1, returns to the CBS Radio adult album alternative station Monday under decidedly different circumstances.<\/p>\n

Gone will be his six-figure salary, his contract, his benefits and all the perks of employment he earned over three decades as evening personality and host\/producer of his signature weekly \u201cBlues Breakers\u201d hour.<\/p>\n

Instead, when Marker hits the air at 9 p.m. to host his annual \u201cBlues Breakers Blues Of The Year In Review\u201d show, it will be on a part-time basis for a meager hourly wage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of what has occurred is exactly what CBS wanted,\u201d an informed source said. \u201cThey took a full-time, highly paid employee and converted him to a lowly paid, part-time freelancer. Forget that he\u2019s highly valued. Forget that he\u2019s loyal. He has no regular shift, he has no benefits, he has no standing, he has nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A firestorm of protest erupted when news broke here<\/a> Dec. 30 that Marker\u2019s position was being eliminated in a year-end budget cut. (Though he never mentioned it, his last appearance of 2013 that night had an air of finality to it.) Hundreds of fans vented their anger and disbelief on this blog,<\/a> on Facebook <\/a>and on WXRT\u2019s website. More than 3,375 signed an online petition<\/a> demanding his reinstatement.<\/p>\n

Despite the horrendous publicity, CBS Radio management remained silent while it dictated terms of Marker\u2019s severance \u2014 including a prohibition against speaking out about his status. \u00a0\u201cJoin me this Monday on 93XRT for the best blues of 2013 on Blues Breakers,\u201d was all Marker posted on his Facebook page<\/a> Saturday.<\/p>\n

Marker, a graduate of Columbia College, spent five years as program director and music director of WJKL in Elgin before joining WXRT in 1980. He\u2019s been host and producer of \u201cBlues Breakers\u201d since 1984.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago radio veteran Tom Marker, whose full-time position was eliminated after 33 years at WXRT FM 93.1, returns to the CBS Radio adult album alternative station Monday under decidedly different circumstances. Gone will be his six-figure salary, his contract, his benefits and all the perks of employment he earned over three decades as evening personality... 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\/2013"}],"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=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}