To his many admirers, Norman Pellegrini was to classical music radio station WFMT what Mike Ditka was to the Bears, Georg Solti to the Chicago Symphony and Mayor Richard J. Daley to City Hall.
The longtime program director was more than simply popular; he was a symbol, the champion of a programming philosophy that challenged listeners with more than just the playing of classical music favorites. Under Pellegrini, his supporters said, WFMT was a station that informed and educated as well as entertained.
And this winter, when WFMT demoted Pellegrini after more than 40 years as program director and promoted Dennis Moore to interim music
director, many listeners reacted with an anger that suggested WFMT might as well change its format to easy listening and surrender all pretense of being a serious player in Chicago’s fine arts community. They also bemoaned changes that were announced shortly before Pellegrini’s demotion:
– The cancellation of three spoken-word programs: “The Storytellers,” the Sunday night lecture series and the Friday night BBC drama show.
– The end of a Wednesday night opera series that often featured new recordings.
– Switching Studs Terkel’s interview show to 10:30 p.m. weeknights and moving Andrew Karzas’ “From the Recording Horn” to 10 p.m. Sunday, where it competes directly with WNIB’s popular Sunday night opera program.
Dan Schmidt, senior vice president at WFMT, said Pellegrini’s demotion was based on “creative differences” relating to the changes WFMT had instituted over the past two years.
Letters to the station complained that WFMT was turning into a “classical Muzak” station. Listeners decried the loss or cutbacks of interviews, plays, book reviews and criticism.
They wondered if WFMT’s quirky personality–scheduling newscasts not on the hour but when the music ends; no canned commercials; providing historical background to certain works of music–had gone the way of 78 rpm records.
Both professional music people and amateur music lovers criticized the decision to oust Pellegrini. They argued that without his guiding spirit there could be no WFMT.
Well, there still is a WFMT. A visit to the station’s new offices at 5400 N. St. Louis Ave. seems to indicate business as usual. As music culled from WFMT’s legendary library of 60,000 records is played over the air, meetings are held and phones are answered. If anything, there is more work to do, as announcers and off-air staff take up new positions to fill Pellegrini’s sizable shoes.
“Losing Norm is a sea change for the station; most of us grew up with Norm,” says announcer Jim Unrath, who joined WFMT in 1959. “But if we can’t follow in his footsteps we deserve to be fired. He has trained and influenced all of us. You don’t discard that kind of knowledge very quickly, nor would we want to.”
Associate program director Lois Baum, a 32-year veteran of WFMT and longtime colleague of Pellegrini (the two serve as co-hosts for the station’s Lyric Opera of Chicago broadcasts), says there was always much more to their operation than the public perceived.
“There was the view that Norm Pellegrini and (former general manager and “Midnight Special” host) Ray Nordstrand were the station,” she says. “But 14 people who have been here more than 20 years, 10 people more than 25, and half a dozen for more than 30. It takes a team of people to do all that WFMT has done over the years, and much of the team is still here.”
Baum, who for many years oversaw most of WFMT’s since-canceled spoken-word programs, says changing times have forced WFMT to re-examine its role.
“1996 is a very different time than 1956 or 1966 or 1976,” she says. “In those early years we had the advantage of being an educational and entertainment facility that didn’t have a lot of competition. . . . But people do not need us like they did in the 1950s. This is not a point of view; it’s history, facts.”
Chicago area classical music listeners didn’t mind telling WFMT what they thought of the station’s inability to change. They switched their allegiance to WNIB, which has topped WFMT in Arbitron ratings for much of the 1990s. But WFMT did gain during the winter quarter of 1996.
Dan Schmidt is the executive who will live in infamy in some listeners’ minds as the “man who fired Norm Pellegrini.” In fact, Pellegrini remains at the station as host for Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera broadcasts and for other special projects.
One veteran WFMT staffer, who requested anonymity, says the Pellegrini-Schmidt collision was not a surprise.
“I think (Pellegrini’s) way of looking at a problem and Dan’s way of looking at a problem were so different that they couldn’t sit down at a table and discuss it,” the staffer says. “Dan ended up making these decisions himself (about revising WFMT’s schedule) and because he is not a programmer the decisions did not have the informed, steady discussion that they needed.
“It was hard for Norm to let go and delegate. He wanted to make decisions like he did in the early days. But you can’t try to do everything all at once when something grows as big and as rapidly as WFMT did between the late 1960s and late ’80s.”
Schmidt has said he wants the move into the post-Pellegrini era to be “as smooth and transparent as possible.”
He quickly named Dennis Moore, who joined the station as an announcer in 1990, as “interim music director.” This title is a subtle but marked change from Pellegrini, who as program director not only picked the music but also determined what shows would go on the air and what would get cut.
Under Pellegrini, Moore already had been doing as much as one-third of all programming–selecting every piece of music for large portions of every day, usually at least a month or two in advance. April is the first month that Moore, with the assistance of Unrath, has fully programmed for WFMT.
Although some Pellegrini loyalists outside the station view Moore as management’s lackey, his promotion was applauded by several veteran WFMT staffers.
“Dennis was more or less heir apparent,” Unrath says. ” Most people felt like I did–that that he was the right guy for the job right now. Dennis is very knowledgeable about all kinds of music. He may be able to bring something fresh and new to the mix.”
Moore, who grew up in Florida and was music director of Orlando’s first full-time public radio station, calls his new post at WFMT “a tremendous honor” and says he “benefited very much” from his nearly six years with Pellegrini.
“When I spoke with Norm after the change was announced, he told me: `You’ll be fine; just hang in there and take things as they come,’ ” Moore recalls. “I consider Norm a mentor and was very much a fan of what he had been to this station. I had mixed emotions about taking over.
“I am quite in awe of WFMT and what it has meant to its community. Even though my love affair with the station may be shorter than most, it is no less intense.”
Contrary to outside scuttlebutt, Moore says there have been “no edicts” issued about programming and that the station remains “open minded” about future spoken-word programs. But another WFMT staffer says Schmidt probably will remain cool to spoken-word shows until the station improves its rating position against WNIB.
Moore, who is also host for WFMT’s “Live From Studio One” Monday night show, says a good radio station should be willing to take risks, even if it means listeners may temporarily turn the dial, which often means to WNIB.
“Both stations are valuable. It’s marvelous that a market can have two classical music stations,” he says. “But we are concerned with our product. Ratings won’t drive decisions in programming.”
If nothing else, Unrath observes, the changes have brought a more relaxed atmosphere to WFMT. For all his vision and programming skills, Pellegrini was not always the easiest boss.
“There seems to be a little less pressure than when Norm was here on a regular basis,” Unrath says. “Norm brought a good deal of tension to the station. He was tough on all his co-workers.
“But that’s one of the reasons the station was so damn good. Now it’s we who have to uphold Norm’s standards.”
Baum says WFMT’s label as “Chicago’s fine arts radio station” no longer “has the same meaning it once did.” The gravy-train days of the late 1960s through much of the ’80s, when all things seemed possible in terms of programming and special projects, are gone.
In a bottom-line era, Baum notes, WFMT must be more creative and imaginative in what it does with its resources as it competes for advertising revenue and listener support.
“Arts no longer have a place in the schoolrooms of Americans,” she says. “There is a whole generation who have no experience in having art as a daily part of their lives.
“The arts are a way of renewing us, our spirit and and our perspective. And now we need them more than ever. That is where WFMT has played and I hope will continue to play an important role.”
