Second City producer Kelly Leonard has a theory about talk radio. He thinks there’s a relationship between what Second City teaches and what professional gabbers like Steve Dahl and Howard Stern do on the air for three or four hours at a stretch. “Second City builds personalities; radio is a personality medium,” Leonard says. Eureka: Second City Radio.
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Leonard, who’s been steeped in radio since childhood (his dad was WGN fixture Roy Leonard), mentioned his idea to WCKG station manager Jeff Schwartz, who wanted to give it a try. “We’re not going to do sketch comedy on the air,” Leonard explains. “We’re going to take the part of Second City that builds personalities and translate that to a radio format.” He envisions Second City folks hanging out the way they do backstage, talking about everything from the day’s headlines to their personal lives, doing character bits and taking phone calls. Leonard recruited Second City alum Jim Zulevic as a host, and for six weeks starting July 2, Second City Radio will air live from ten to midnight every Saturday on 105.9 FM. Zulevic, who will be joined by cohosts T.J. Jagodowski and Ed Furman, does the funnyman promos between sitcoms on the local Fox station, but he’s never done radio before. He says that’s what makes him perfect for the job.
Stern, he argues, is a hack who’s only kept afloat by the same old shock-radio tricks. But Stern’s departure from Infinity Broadcasting (which owns WCKG) to join satellite radio is the big bang fueling this and a frenzy of other radio activity. Starting in January, ‘CKG and the 40-some other stations that carry Stern nationally will have a huge hole in their schedules. Stern has at least eight million regular listeners, and Sirius Satellite Radio is paying him $500 million over five years to bring them over. Stern casts this as an escape from the constraints of the FCC, which has repeatedly fined him for breaking its language rules, but if his listeners follow him they’ll have to pay $12.99 a month for the privilege, and that’s after investing $100 or more in hardware.
When: Saturdays, 7/2-8/6, 10 PM
