“Big” John Howell out at WLS-AM
Move takes place the same day ratings were released
With all the attention lately focusing on the decline of linear TV hastened by labor disputes and retrans blackouts, let’s not forget terrestrial radio – especially on the AM side of the band – is also in the fight of its life.
The latest evidence of this came Wednesday as Cumulus Media’s WLS-AM announced it had parted ways with afternoon talk show host “Big” John Howell after eight years. The news was announced on the station’s Facebook page.
“[Tuesday] was John Howell’s last show on The Big 89. He has been a staple of 890 WLS for over a decade. His wit, political prowess, and focus on Chicago conversations has given our audience a destination for smart, local radio in the afternoons. Thank you, John, for being a part of the fabric of The Big 89.” As noted by Rick Kaempfer’s blog Friday morning, WLS plans to replace Howell with the syndicated Mark Levin show from 5-8p.m. starting Monday.
A post from Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg’s blog Thursday morning suggested Howell was no longer a fit with the station’s shift to the right of the political spectrum, although WLS was labeled as a conservative talk outlet for quite sometime. Over the years, WLS tried to bring in personalities with a more neutral point-of-view on topics (think Bob Sirott and Marianne Muricano in 2016-17), but without much success. Steinberg noted Cumulus plans to make WLS “the most conservative station in the country”, but could be very tough to pull off in a solidly blue metropolitan area like Chicago – even with the presence of WIND’s Dan Proft, who doubles as a political operative.
Howell is a longtime journeyman in local Chicago radio circles, with stops at WCKG, US 99, WIND, and as host of a syndicated country show, Country Gold. Howell’s been with WLS since 2015, when he did morning drive and was paired with with Ramblin’ Ray Stevens a year later. Howell moved to afternoons in 2018.
In the latest Nielsen PPM rankings released Tuesday for August, WLS-AM ranked 24th with a 1.5 share according to numbers obtained by Radio Insight – half of the ratings WGN-AM had. WLIT-FM finished first with a 7.7 share.
This comes as the future of the AM band has come into question as select carmakers are looking to drop AM radio from their newest models, generating outrage from listeners and generating a considerable amount of press.
The news is certainly a big loss for local talk radio, whether your listened to him or not as more syndicated programming is taking over talk stations. With a stable of conservative hosts through syndicator Westwood One, Cumulus feels its cheaper to replace Howell with a national out-of-town voice than a local one.
For the time being, Steve Cochran remains as morning host.
I WILL NOW SAY GOODBYE TO WLS RADIO . I AM 72 YEARS OLD AND HAVE ENJOYED LISTENING OVER THE YEARS – BUT FIRING JOHN HOWELL IS THE LAST STRAW .
Almost as old as you and I quit John Howell a few months ago when his poorly disguised bias started creeping through– even in the promos for his show, which revolved around how bad everything else in on WLS. Oh, and Neil Steinberg is hardly a reliable source.
Totally agree. “Big John” was nothing but a leftist mouthpiece.
I heard him thanking Joe Biden for “low gasoline prices” this past Memorial Day Weekend. That would have been a logical time to start the countdown.
Yes Sir 👍 ditto
Didn’t take long at all to notice he’s a mainstream mouthpiece, screw’em
BIG MISTAKE !!!! It’s a shame that for all of us who listened to talk radio all our lives have NOTHING TO LISTEN TO but a bunch of crap !! I dreaded the weekends because there is not one thing interesting about talk radio on the weekends. Now, you are making weekdays just as bad !!!!! BORING….. just plain BORING !
Please get a clue .
You are brainwashed and need some real talk !
I’m 68 yrs old and a few months back someone ask him if he has watched the show 2000 mules and he said I’m not watching that just showed the bias an how far left he has gone. Now I’ve come back to WLs. Tony
Thank got WLS finally got rid of that bag of air John Howell!
The management of wls did the right thing to get rid of this bolshevick Howell, now its time to replace that middle of the road of the left Steve from the morning show.thank you!
Howell pretended to be above the debate. He didn’t succeed, at least not with me. I listened to his show only a few times, but never more than 15 or 20 minutes. It was enough.
Could never listen to John Howell. He was a fake conservative. How about offering the job to Candace OWENS Move Brandon Tatum or even bring back Stephanie Trussel!
Could never listen to John Howell. He was a fake conservative. How about offering the job to Candace OWENS Move Brandon Tatum or even bring back Stephanie Trussel!
closet liberal- good ridden
So obvious Big John far left !! Now lets say Bye Bye to Cochran ! Boring uninteresting show. Joan Esposito makes me nauseous. I will tune each morning to Dan and Amy . Intelligent interesting facts .