<\/a>Spike O'Dell (1983)<\/p><\/div>\n
WGN\u2019s nationwide search for a new afternoon personality was launched after Phillips, 61, asked out of that shift to launch a new midday program. Phillips has worked afternoons since July, when he voluntarily ended his 21 years as morning man.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Dell\u2019s new three-year, six-figure contract was negotiated by Chicago attorney Saul Foos, who also represented Phillips during his most recent contract talks with WGN in 1984. Foos described O\u2019Dell as \u201ca wonderful, down-home kind of guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
WGN program chief Dan Fabian, who first considered hiring O\u2019Dell three years ago, called him \u201cas likable as anybody I\u2019ve ever encountered. It\u2019s hard to spend time with him and not feel he\u2019s nice. No doubt he\u2019ll fit in here just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to his latest job in Davenport, O\u2019Dell spent a year as morning man at WBT-AM in Charlotte, N.C., and four years before that as morning man at KTSS-AM in Davenport. Last year, he wrote and recorded a novelty song called \u201cWham Bam Traffic Jam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still undetermined are new on-air assignments for WGN personalities Ed Schwartz, Paul Brian, Al Lerner, Ed Curran and Orion Samuelson \u2014 all of whom will be affected by the move of Phillips and the hiring of O\u2019Dell. Fabian said he hopes to announce a new program lineup by next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Twenty-seven years ago today, Chicago got its first look at Spike O\u2019Dell. By the time he left town 21 years later, he had succeeded two legendary figures at WGN AM 720 \u2014 and had become something of a legend himself. Hired to replace Wally Phillips in afternoons at the Tribune Broadcasting news\/talk station, O\u2019Dell settled... 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\/2663"}],"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=2663"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}