{"id":6880,"date":"2015-02-22T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T21:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=6880"},"modified":"2015-02-24T16:34:38","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T22:34:38","slug":"wls-drops-dumonts-beltway-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/02\/22\/wls-drops-dumonts-beltway-show\/","title":{"rendered":"WLS drops DuMont\u2019s \u2018Beltway\u2019 show"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bruce<\/a>

<\/a> Bruce DuMont<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday night\u2019s broadcast of \u201cBeyond the Beltway\u201d will mark the final airing of the political talk show on WLS AM 890 <\/a>\u2014 and perhaps the end of its 35-year run on Chicago radio.<\/p>\n

Host Bruce DuMont said he was notified that after this weekend the Cumulus Media news\/talk station no longer will carry the show, which airs live from 6 to 8 p.m. Sundays. WLS will shift to paid programming in the time period.<\/p>\n

(Tuesday afternoon update:<\/strong> \u201cBeyond the Beltway\u201d has landed a new local radio outlet on WCGO AM 1590,<\/a> the north suburban news\/talk station owned by Kovas Communications. Starting this weekend, the show will air live from 6 to 8 p.m. Sundays.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond the Beltway\u201d will continue to air in syndication on stations in 25 other cities. It also will continue to be heard on Sirius XM Satellite Radio\u2019s POTUS Channel 124,<\/a> and online at beyondthebeltway.com<\/a> and on YouTube.<\/a> A video version of the show, originating from the Museum of Broadcast Communications, airs on WYCC-Channel 20, <\/a>the public station owned by City Colleges of Chicago, and on Comcast Channel 100.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the loss of a 50,000-watt clear-channel radio outlet in its home market is a turning point for the show that began in 1980 as \u201cInside Politics\u201d on Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5<\/a> and moved to WLS in 1992. It was renamed \u201cBeyond the Beltway\u201d in 1995.<\/p>\n

DuMont said the decision to cancel his show did not come as a complete surprise after WLS cut its ties<\/a> last October to 25-year veteran Roe Conn, whose contract as afternoon host was not renewed. After that, DuMont became the station\u2019s senior on-air personality.<\/p>\n

Though he understands the economics of radio and the need for \u201cthat quick, reliable buck\u201d generated by paid weekend programming, DuMont said the move still hurts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on in the world, and this is one of the most historic, combustible times in our collective lifetime,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have a live, serious discussion every week \u2014 outside of the Washington beltway \u2014 about the future of the country and the future of the world is an important thing to have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday night\u2019s broadcast of \u201cBeyond the Beltway\u201d will mark the final airing of the political talk show on WLS AM 890 \u2014 and perhaps the end of its 35-year run on Chicago radio. Host Bruce DuMont said he was notified that after this weekend the Cumulus Media news\/talk station no longer will carry the show,... 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\/6880"}],"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=6880"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6929,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6880\/revisions\/6929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}