Tuesday, December 02, 2014

WGCI Fires Morning Co-Hosts & PD

From Robert Feder's column yesterday afternoon...

Morning personalities Tony Sculfield and Nina Chantele were forced out Monday in a programming shakeup at urban contemporary WGCI FM 107.5. Sole survivor of the morning team is Leon Rogers, who will stay on with soon-to-be-named new hosts. Until then, Rogers will co-host mornings with weekend personality Rob Nice. Also out after nine months as program director of WGCI is Kenard Karter. His duties will be assumed by Derrick Brown, director of urban programming for iHeartMedia Chicago.

I met Tony at Windy City Live when I was there with Joel Daly earlier this year, and he was a very nice guy. I asked if I could feature him in my Illinois Entertainer column and he said yes, but said I had to get permission from the cluster's PR person. That's not too unusual, but it's normally just a formality. When I e-mailed and called the PR person, she didn't get back to me for weeks (remember--this is about giving FREE PUB to one of their morning shows), and when she did, she said she had to have the questions in advance, AND she had to listen in on the interview.

I declined.

In case you're wondering why Clear Channel (now iHeart radio) personalities don't get any pub in this town, wonder no further.