News Wed Jun 25 2008

North Gone South

By Ken Green

Depending on whom you ask, this past week has either been dark days or breath of fresh air for Chicago radio.

Whether you appreciated his “everyman” approach to broadcasting or loathed him as a boorish oaf who had been given a bigger platform than he deserved, Mike North’s departure from morning sports radio was something of which to take note.

North, the morning man at WSCR-AM, reportedly called it quits this past Friday after he and the station couldn’t reach an agreement on a new contract. The station wanted to cut his $1.5 million contact in half, citing his declining rating numbers (According to the Tribune, North's ratings declined to 2.2 compared with 5.3 for his morning competitors, ESPN-1000's "Mike and Mike in the Morning". Way too many Mikes for me).

North, just as anyone else probably would who is used to the idea of pulling down a million dollar salary, rejected the move and has been off the air since, replaced by the journalistically-incestuous hosting duo of Sun-Times sports writers Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley (who also continue their afternoon show) until a permanent replacement can be named.

In almost any other situation, the “rags to riches” story of Mike North would be held up as an example for little sports reporters everywhere. His rise from owner of a hot dog stand to millionaire radio host was perfect for Chicago’s blue-collar work ethic and his ability to last 16 ½ years in the cut-throat, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business of radio is something of a modern miracle.

There’s more than one sports radio junkie that probably has wished that North had stuck to just sports talk. But along the way, North peppered his various shows with observations on race and sex and politics (definitely out of his league on that last one) that were almost always based on his personal opinion and rarely had anything to do with fact.

Race sometimes seemed to be his favorite topic to espouse on (besides sports, or sometimes ahead of sports) and listeners may recall his “Secret Asian Man” song parody lampooning Tiger Woods’ racial make-up, or his observation once that whites had more to fear walking through a black neighborhood than blacks walking through a white neighborhood, or his penchant to use the term “Chinaman” with regards to almost any Asian (which earned him a protest from the Asian American Institute when Senn High School announced they were going to name a field after him, after North used the term to describe former Cubs minor league pitcher, the Korean-born Jae-kuk Ryu) or his “Hug A (Insert Racial Minority Here) Days” he hosted.

Female fans, on the other hand, may have cringed a bit when North promoted “Steak and BJ Day” for his male listeners. I think it’s self-explanatory.

North seemed to enjoy getting into verbal confrontations with major sports personalities, as if to show that he wasn’t afraid of their fame and fortune, and that attitude sometimes was refreshing. Trouble was, such confrontations usually degenerated into shouting matches along the lines of “you shut up… no, you shut up”, which gave the listener little insight. His on-air confrontation with the White Sox’ Ozzie Guillen before last season’s Crosstown Classic was a blur of North’s “dem, dese and dose” Chicago dialect vs. Ozzie’s… well, Ozziespeak, accomplishing little. And he attempt to inject his brash humor into a press conference with former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley (North asked if Riley would be willing to shave his head if meant winning a playoff series) hit the deck like a lead balloon.

But, to give credit where credit is due, North was not afraid to ask questions that other reporters either shied away from or sugar-coated so much that they were rendered unrecognizable. He had to. He had built an image of a Chi-caw-go guy who wasn’t afraid to stand his ground that to do anything less was hypocritical. Or maybe he just didn’t know any better, the by-produce of NOT going to J-school. Indeed, he has won a slew of local broadcast awards, including four Achievement in Radio awards, the 1996 Broadcaster of the Year, the 2002 Best Talent on a News, Talk, Personality, or Sports Station, a 2004 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, two Chicago Emmy Awards and was 2006 Inductee into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, the first radio broadcaster ever to be inducted.

So his fans can only speculate where North will end up next. A rumor in the papers has hinted at WLS-AM, but it’s hard to see where he would fit in that lineup without some serious retooling of their format and lineup. More than likely he will end up at ESPN 1000, Chicago’s other all-sports radio outlet. A longshot would be an entirely new city, in particular WFAN in New York City, where North did a guest stint in 2007 in the morning slot previously hosted by (Irony Alert!) Don Imus. But would his inherent “Chicagoness” play in NYC?

As for North’s replacement, there are rumors that the afternoon drive team of Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers may be the front-runners. But would it be a stretch to say that Sun-Times’ columnist Jay Mariotti, who had a long-running feud with North, might have his name in the hopper? After all, he hosted his own morning show on ESPN 1000 – and was fired by them too. And his name does evoke a definite reaction, although mostly a negative one, even from his own co-workers. Don’t think that would be too good for ratings.

North can still be heard on the station – sort of. As of Wednesday, they were still running commercials in which he provided voiceover work. And his website is still up and running and offers a farewell to his Score fans. But like him or hate him, sports radio will be a little different without him on the air.