Remember the good old days at WLS-AM, when erstwhile morning
”Superjock” Larry Lujack, furious over afternoon deejay Steve Dahl`s on-air jibes, walked into Dahl`s studio and threatened to ram his head against a wall?
Well, it seems the good times have returned to Chicago`s oldest station, folks, featuring a different cast of characters and a revised approach to vitriol.
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Back in the mid-`80s, the contempt between Lujack and Dahl (now afternoon drive jock on WLUP-AM 1000) was palpable, as real as Dahl`s contract disputes with station management or the internal turmoil that was shaking the foundation of once-bedrock WLS (890).
Today, however, when razor-tongued mid-morning deejay Stacy Taylor slings carefully aimed arrows at late-afternoon host Bob Lassiter, or when the morning drive team of Don Wade and Roma (just Roma) rip each other apart and then devour their listeners, the station`s powers-that-be nod in
conspiratorial delight.
The confrontations are part of WLS` carefully-designed new format-talk radio with a one-two punch.
Six months ago, the station dumped its tired adult contemporary music format and introduced its audience to an eclectic lineup of Chicago-based and syndicated talk talent.
So far, the change has generated considerable attention, although no visible improvement in the all-important Arbitron ratings.
The latest quarterly ratings, released last week, gave WLS a 1.4 share of the Chicago listening public. That`s exactly the same share the station received last quarter, before the format change.
”I`m not topping trees, but I`m very pleased,” said station general manager Tom Tradup of the recently released figures. ”We knew we`d lose some listeners at first, but we`ve obviously gained some or the ratings would have gone down. And I can guarantee you, more people will be listening tomorrow than are listening today.
”Sometime within the first year, we`re easily going to have a 2.0 share, and hopefully we`ll be well on our way past that.”
Though the anticipated 2.0 share is a far cry from the 4.0-and-better ratings WLS enjoyed when Lujack was in his heyday, it would certainly be an improvement.
But only time will tell whether a solid audience will stick with back-to- back hours of intense discussion on everything from abortion to luxury cruise lines.
The station calls it ”high-powered, issue-oriented talk.”
Listeners bold enough to participate can expect to be verbally horsewhipped, more often than not. Those who choose to sit back and listen to the antics are likely to be alternately enraged, delighted or frustrated-but rarely bored.
Wade, of Wade and Roma (heard weekdays 5:30-9 a.m.), sounds as though his face is frozen in a scowl. He barks at rambling listeners: ”Will you get to the point!” An irascible political conservative, he has been recommending lately that American jurisprudence give Gen. Manuel Noriega the same swift justice Romanians gave executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and the day the U.S. invaded Panama, Wade crowed, ” `Pineapple Face` is down in flames!”
Roma is as liberal and sensitive as Wade is hard-edged. She is a yogi, and sometimes draws a heart near her name when signing autographs. She speaks in a soft, wavering voice but rarely backs down when confronting her partner, whom she likes to address alternately as a ”hatemonger” and ”fearmonger.” Taylor (weekdays 9 a.m.-1 p.m.), a recent California transplant who has been known to refer to an elevated train as a trolley, is the most even-tempered of the station`s talent, but rapier-witted nonetheless. A social conservative, he particularly enjoys taking stabs at his more liberal colleague, Lassiter, whom he once said ”rolls over like a spayed cocker spaniel” and pants with delight whenever someone criticizes the good ol` U.S. of A.
Lassiter (weekdays 3-7 p.m.) is perhaps the most unpredictable of the local hosts. Calling himself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, there is no subject too mundane for him to formulate a passionate opinion. He still gets calls from peeved Chicagoans who cannot forgive his diatribe on the lack of good pizza in this town.
”Some people like me, some people despise me, some people will never catch on to what I`m trying to do and that`s just fitive who is fast becoming one of the most popular radio personalities in the U.S.; Sally Jessy Raphael
(weekdays 7-9 p.m.), who specializes in warm, fuzzy advice; and Tom Snyder
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(weekdays 9 p.m.-midnight), whose pointedly opinionated New York-based talk show has aired on WLS since 1985.
Lean on minority voices
If it seems the talent lineup is long on white, male conservatives and short on liberal and minority points of view, Tradup said the station is trying to correct this.
”We`re far from where we`ll be in the near future in terms of airing women and minority opinions,” Tradup said.
WLS already has been highly criticized by the gay and lesbian community because of inflammatory comments Wade made in September, and Tradup is sensitive to charges that the station endorses racist attidudes.
Wade, in a conversation with Sandra Johnson of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power insisted on the air that he was ”a homophobe and proud of it,” and said gays with AIDS were criminals who should be quarantined.
”Don was severely reprimanded for his statements, and is very lucky he didn`t lose his job,” Tradup says. ”He understands that we won`t tolerate that kind of thing.”
Tradup and program director Drew Hayes also are quick to clear up another charge, which is that the deejays are shock jocks.
”Our talent is more honest than most,” Hayes said, ”but the intent is to tackle serious issues, not shock people just for the sake of it.
”Whereas, if Louis Farrakhan were a guest of Bob Collins, and he talked about the need to kill all white people, Collins would say, `How nice to have you on the show,` ” Hayes said, refering to WGN-AM (720) host Bob Collins, the ratings king of morning drive.
In fact, Hayes recently created a minor furor at the station the week after Christmas when he pulled Rush Limbaugh`s show midway through because the host was railing against women ”farding” in their cars.
”Farding” is an archaic term for applying cosmetics. Limbaugh later admitted he had intended that the word be mistaken for the slang term for flatulence, and said he was embarrassed by the incident.
”Calls from listeners were split down the middle as the whether we should have pulled the show,” Hayes said, ”But we pulled it because it was not in good taste. It wasn`t obscene, but it was gutter slang used for the sole purpose of shocking the audience, and that`s not what we`re all about.” Sharpening the cutting edge
What WLS jocks across the board tend to do is push and probe the corners of the envelope, and the station`s management is betting their style will become the standard for Chicago talk radio in the `90s.
The 65-year-old station, recently namedrndance” a year later, which ran for 35 years and was the precursor of Nashville`s Grand Ole Opry.
The station was one of the first to broadcast rock `n` roll, and for years was one of Chicago`s leading popular music stations.
Now WLS is venturing further into unchartered waters, and, if history is on its side, Chicagoans might spend the next couple decades screaming at their car radios.