Chicago radio bad boy Erich “Mancow” Muller, who spent the last eight years as morning man at alternative rock station Q101, got his walking papers Tuesday.
According to Marv Nyren, vice president and general manager of Emmis Radio Chicago, WXQX-FM 101.1 declined to re-sign Muller because research showed “Mancow’s Morning Madhouse” drew very different listeners than the music programming that filled the rest of the station’s programming day, and syndication had taken away much of the show’s local flavor. But he also cited advertisers’ uneasiness with Muller.
Even before Muller’s departure, the idea of being a “shock jock” was an anachronism.
From Howard Stern on down, the most jarring radio personalities have long rejected the description. It just doesn’t sell the way it once did.
Advertisers are wary. The FCC has become aggressive. And audiences, well, they’ve heard it all before.
“You can’t do anything on the radio that’s really dirty because the FCC will fine the hell out of [a station] but on a deeper level, what’s shocking in our society these days?” asked Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade publication. “Look at the Internet. Look at billboards. Look at movies. Look at cable television. It’s crazy to label yourself a shock jock. You’ve got to be funny. You’ve got to be creative. You’ve got to be intelligent. You’ve got to be entertaining. But shocking? There’s nothing shocking anymore.”
Which is a bit of a jolt in and of itself.
Muller, 40, said he expects to land at another local FM station soon but declined to name which one.
But the landscape already has changed, as has Muller. Though he rejects the “shock jock” tag, he admits that he’s a different broadcaster than he used to be.
The parting was amicable–“We shook hands, I walked him out, and he’s gone,” Nyren said–but he contends there just isn’t the same old appetite for outrage.
What once made Muller one of Chicago’s top-paid radio stars was starting to cost.
Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications shelled out $300,000 in 2004 to settle FCC fines, many of which were scored by Muller, and the FCC upped its fines on so-called indecent material tenfold earlier this month.
In the most recent Arbitron ratings survey covering the first quarter, Muller’s show was the 11th most popular in the morning among listeners 12 and older with a 2.9 rating.
Q101 will run “best-of” shows the rest of this week, then switch to a music-oriented show hosted by James Van Osdol as a prelude to launching a new morning show in September.
Oregon-based TRN-FM e-mailed affiliates to reassure them that Muller’s exit from Q101 “will not affect our agreement to provide the syndicated broadcasts of ‘Mancow’s Morning Madhouse.’ “
Nyren said he would have been more willing to sacrifice the local nature of the show had Muller been able to become more of a national radio draw.
Muller is willing to redefine himself, but he wants to be the one deciding how.
“You’re going to snicker when I say this,” he said. “But just as Rush [Limbaugh] saved AM, I want to save FM radio.”
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MANCOW TIMELINE
Stunts and lawsuits have been the overriding theme in the shock jock’s quirky career.
1988
Erich Muller makes his debut at one-kilowatt AM station KOKO in Warrensburg, Mo., near his hometown of Kansas City, according to Billboard. He got the idea to create a character named “Mancow” as a “half-man, half-cow and all bull.”
June 1993
Mancow makes national headlines as a San Francisco DJ by tying up traffic for hours on the Bay Bridge while his sidekick got a haircut.
July 1994
103.5-FM changes from WWBZ “The Blaze” to WRCX and hires Mancow for the morning show.
Sept. 1994
The WRCX morning man gets listeners to drop off the largest roadkill they can find at a shopping center parking lot. The station paid a fine and the cost of cleaning up the bloody “Roadkill Tuesday.”
Nov. 1994
Ex-Bear Keith Van Horne files $5 million lawsuit and demands an on-air apology after Mancow alleges Van Horne “manhandled” a woman following a traffic altercation, and that Van Horne later attacked him and made threats. Van Horne agrees to $1.6 million settlement with Mancow in 2000.
July 1998
Mancow agrees to leave 103.5 for Q101, signing a three-year deal with then-Emmis Broadcasting, now Emmis Communications. The contract reportedly is worth $3 million, making him the highest-paid radio personality in Chicago.
June 1999
Janet Dahl, wife of 105.9-FM personality Steve Dahl, files a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Mancow, citing several occasions on air in which Mancow calls her a “slut” and a “whore” who engages in “bizarre sexual conduct.” She settles with Mancow in 2001.
March 2004
Mancow files a $3 million lawsuit against David Edward Smith of Citizens for Community Values for harassing him with “spurious and unfounded” complaints. Smith filed 66 indecency complaints from 1999 to 2003. Mancow drops the suit in August 2004.
Aug. 2004
Emmis pays $300,000 to the FCC to settle the indecency complaints.
Jan. 2005
Mancow launches his show into national syndication under a deal with the Talk Radio Network.
[ TRIBUNE ]– – –
POLL POSITION
Will you miss Mancow in the mornings?
15.2% — Yes
84.8% — No
[ 9,279 votes were cast in the unscientific poll on redeyechicago.com and chicagotribune.com ]
