If you’re among those interested in acquiring Tribune Co., or even just its broadcast properties, here’s something you should know:
You’re very likely losing Chicago’s No. 1 radio personality within three years.
Spike O’Dell, morning man at Tribune-owned WGN-AM 720, has been telling friends and associates quietly that the renewal he signed late last year, which pushed his salary to seven figures for the first time, probably will be his last.
O’Dell, the market’s top-rated morning man for nearly seven years, is only 53. But he’s saved his money and, an avid golfer, he intends to spend it on greens fees.
“Some people may think I’m nuts,” O’Dell said in an interview Thursday. “But that’s my plan and I’m sticking with it.”
Circumstances can change, of course. Today’s retirement has been known to foreshadow tomorrow’s comeback. But O’Dell off the air is no different than his on-air persona and hardly one to make empty promises or idle threats. Beyond sometimes straightening up in front of the mike, he doesn’t posture.
The 20-year WGN veteran said he and his wife, Karen, have long talked about his departure from radio after he turns 55. They’ve been crunching the numbers since he signed his latest deal for two years with an option for a third. They already have a getaway home along a golf course in the Phoenix area along with another place in Galena, and believe they can make it work.
“I can’t guarantee that’s what’s going to happen, but that’s what I would like to happen,” O’Dell said. “My wife’s had to follow me as I’ve dragged her around the whole radio thing, and now she’s going to get to do what she wants to do. . . . It’s not that I’m going to be the wealthiest person in the world, but I’ll be fine. We’ve invested well and we’re OK.”
This development comes as those invested in Tribune Co. are hoping for a rebound. The company, which owns WGN radio and television, the Chicago Tribune and other media properties, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team, is weighing options to boost its sagging share price.
Like the Cubs, whose games are a summer staple on WGN, O’Dell’s continued success is a major reason the station has been Chicago’s top billing radio outlet in recent years. Overall, it took in more than $48 million in revenue last year.
O’Dell snared a market-leading 8.3 percent share of morning listeners age 12 and older in the fall 2006 ratings, the most recent quarterly figures from Arbitron. He has been the market’s top morning personality since succeeding Bob Collins, who died in a February 2000 small plane crash. Collins was No. 1 for 14 years. Wally Phillips, who preceded Collins in the job, was tops dating all the way back to the late 1960s.
In other words, WGN’s wake-up slot historically has been a virtual throne in local radio, and only three–all promoted from within–have sat upon it over the last 40 years or so.
Steve Cochran, whose current WGN deal lapses in March, is seen as O’Dell’s most likely in-house successor. Both Steve Mandell, who is Cochran’s agent and trying to work out a new deal, and Tom Langmyer, WGN’s vice president and general manager, declined to comment.
But if WGN were to lose Cochran or the station decided to cast a wider net, who knows who could wind up replacing O’Dell?
Through the decades nearly every successful radio voice in town has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the WGN morning slot, including Steve Dahl, Jonathon Brandmeier and Bob Sirott, though obviously openings don’t often occur and the station has done well eschewing outsiders.
Possible change on the morning shift gets talked about as a chance to broaden WGN’s audience, perhaps lure younger listeners. Ongoing success, however, has encouraged the station to resist such urges.
There’s an old saying about not fixing something until it’s broken. But then there’s also an adage about quitting while you’re ahead, and very few folks actually pull it off.
“People kind of think I’m crazy for thinking this, but I’m very much at peace with it,” O’Dell said of his plan. “I don’t want to stay past my due time. I’ve told my wife, if I’ve outlived this thing and I’m not as good as I should be, bring out the hook and drag me out of here. Too many people stay after they shouldn’t. It’s a tough biz, and getting up at 2 in the morning grates on you after a while.”
And what if the company offered a huge amount of money for him to stick around?
“You and I work for the Tribune. You know that doesn’t happen,” O’Dell said with the laugh of someone for whom that probably no longer matters.
AT LEAST WEAR A COAT THIS TIME, OK? Weather guy Dave Price, the one-time WBBM-Ch. 2 personality whose local on-air antics included standing in the rain sans umbrella or slicker at a Bears preseason game, returns to town Tuesday as part of CBS’ run-up to the Bears’ Super Bowl appearance. He’ll do reports for “The Early Show” in front of Millennium Park’s iconic Cloud Gate.
READING DEFENSES: Regardless of whether the Bears win or lose the Super Bowl, the Chicago Tribune intends to come out ahead. The paper has contracted with Triumph Books to put out a post-Super Bowl book to be released three days after the Feb. 4 game in Miami.
Triumph says the quickie book, with an initial press run of 100,000, will be called either “Bears: Super Bowl Champions” or “Bears: Tribute to a Fine Season.” You can guess which title goes with which outcome. (Just asking, but if the Bears lose to the Colts, wouldn’t a better title be, “Tangled Up in Blue”?)
Triumph also has cut a deal with the Colts organization for a book in the event favored Indianapolis beats the Bears.
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philrosenthal@tribune.com
