Chicago radio listeners are in for fewer local voices, writes Phil Rosenthal in the
, as WLIT-FM replaces Melissa Forman with a Whoopi Goldberg syndicated product. And "there
was a time when piping in a drive-time show from New York was unthinkable in Chicago," Rosenthal says, "as local listeners wouldn't hear of it, literally." He notes that even Howard Stern was a bust
his first time out in the Windy City. "Local powerhouses such as Crazy Howard McGee, El Pistolero and Spike O'Dell, along with Chicago headlines and traffic, are likely to always have an edge," he
adds, as they "provide something live you can't necessarily get off your iPod or from satellite pay radio." But for stations without that kind of drawing card, it is always tempting to flip a switch
and bring in distant voices "and suddenly you might as well be in New Jersey, New Mexico or New England." If "you're a listener in, say, Peoria, and your choice is between someone like Whoopi Goldberg
or the local person, you might opt for [the syndicated show] because you don't get the A team there," says Paula Hambrick, president of Hambrick & Associates, a local media buyer. "But if you're in a
top 10 market where there's someone who's very good who's also sitting there going, 'Boy, it's a beautiful day,' or 'Oh my gosh, look how hard it's raining today,' [that's liable to be more popular
than] someone in another market who's going, 'Hi Chi-town! How's it going?' That's the difference."
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