WGCI drops to 5th in first fall Arbitrend

Usually don’t report on trends, but WGCI is continuing to pay for dropping Howard McGee and replacing it with Steve Harvey’s morning show. It was a bad trend for Clear Channel, with just two of its stations showing an increase and WLIT bottoming out to an all-time low. The station recently flipped to Christmas music. But the unlikely winner was […]

WGN-AM sweeps Chicago summer book

A clean sweep of every major daypart kept WGN on top of the ratings in Arbitron’s summer book. WGN’s dominance started with Spike O’Dell in the mornings and went through John Williams and Cubs baseball in the afternoon. Other news of note: Mornings: – WGCI paid dearly for replacing top-rated (in 18-34) Howard McGee with syndicated Steve Harvey, with WVAZ’s […]

McGee to do fill-in work in Philadelphia

They snared Iguchi and Aaron Rowland from the White Sox, now they’re nabbing our radio stars:”Crazy” Howard McGee, who was unceremoniously dropped from WGCI-FM in Chicago this summer for Steve Harvey, will fill in for WPHI-FM host Colby Colbs for the next four days in Philadelphia beginning next Tuesday. Urban Contemporary WPHI is one of three stations owned by Radio […]

Bob Sirott’s take on Howard McGee

At the end of the 4:30 p.m. newscast on WMAQ-TV yesterday, Bob Sirott (a former DJ himself) addressed the firing of Howard McGee at WGCI during his One More Thing segment and talked about radio’s problems in Chicago, especially when it comes to replacing local talent with out-of-town syndicated programming. Though he missed two items (Harvey’s show is based in […]

Howard McGee finally exits WGCI

As reported here and in Feder’s column on July 6, Howard McGee is out at WGCI-FM as morning man and will be replaced by Steve Harvey’s syndicated program effective August 1 (Yes, the program starts on a Wednesday, in the middle of the week.) McGee’s last program was today. Also out are Nikki Woods and executive producer Art Porter. Leon […]

More on the "crazy" situation

More information on Howard McGee’s axing at WGCI came out in a place you wouldn’t expect it: a party. It was McGee who made an unexpected appearance at Elroy Smith’s going away bash at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Chicago Friday night, honoring the soon-to-be OM at Radio One’s urban AC and gospel stations in Philadelphia for his fifteen years […]

The craziness ends here

Robert Feder in today’s Sun-Times is reporting that “Crazy” Howard McGee will be dropped as morning host at Clear Channel urban contemporary station WGCI-FM and being replaced by Steve Harvey’s syndicated morning show. The move is expected to take place sometime around August 1. Harvey’s program had been airing on Crawford’s Urban AC outlet WSRB-FM, but Premiere Radio Networks, a […]