WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Valentines Day can be the worst day of the year for single people. For every participant in alternative celebrations like Galentine's Day, there are likely scores of others who sign up for online dating sites. Now there are countless niche dating sites, many claiming a scientific formula for matching that guarantees success.

Marking himself to be hated by hopeless romantics for years to come, Northwestern University professor Eli Finkel recently published research that suggests dating sites who promise the world are full of hot air.

Tuesday on Eight Forty-Eight we'll discuss modern dating sites with Prof.

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We are starting a new daily segment on the Afternoon Shift called "Top 3 at 3." Each day a producer will come in the studio with Steve Edwards to give their top 3. It can be anything from the top 3 news stories catching their eye to the top 3 margaritas in Naperville. You might get the top 3 ways to get to O'Hare or you might get the top 3 ways to gut a fish. You might get the top 3 Whitney Houston songs or the top 3 reasons you never liked Whitney Houston.

Today, we start the segment with a meta top 3: Top 3 new ideas you'll hear on WBEZ's Middays.

1) Full music tracks. Yep, we are finally jumping off that cliff. WBEZ (and NPR) are known for playing snippets or little 20 second parts of songs and then tucking them underneath the host or fading out to start another talk segment. Not anymore! In both Eight Forty-Eight and the Afternoon Shift, you'll hear full tracks of music chosen by our hosts and producers. It's a weird feeling internally. I expect beads of sweat to form on our engineer's forehead when the track goes past the one minute mark. But we want to bring music to the show. I want live music everyday, too. But that might be tough with our limited resources. But you'll hear a lot of live, local music.

2) Calls.

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Back before This American Life moved to New York, every Friday night at 7 p.m., a small group of people would crowd into the studio at the end of the hall to watch Ira Glass perform the radio version of a tight-rope walk. As incredible an experience as that was, there wasn't much room for interaction during that hour. Glass was busy picking out music and sometimes switching to a different edit of a segment while it was playing on air.

So today at 2 p.m. when he talks with Steve Edwards on Afternoon Shift, it might be the most access average listeners have had to actually talk with Glass.

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I met Whitney in 1990 at a very high-profile dinner party. 

I was invited because I was a fairly influential disc jockey with a successful morning show on V-103 (WGCI). I’m pretty sure this was part of a publicity push for her most recent album release back then. That album was I’m Your Baby Tonight, which produced two number one singles, including the title song and a song titled “All The Man I Need.” 

The dinner party was held in the private dining room of a posh downtown Chicago Hotel. I sat next to her at the dinner and had a chance to chat with her. She seemed to be a fun person who was aware of her star status … but she was still having fun at that point. She was very young and had not yet been swallowed up by the negative side of show business. I remember she and I laughed at lot. She was a beautiful woman … playful as opposed to sexy.

I really enjoyed the experience. I have to admit to a really dumb thing I did. I had purchased a very expensive tie for the occasion. In order to make sure I did not get any part of my dinner on it, I flipped it over my shoulder while I ate my soup. The problem is … I forgot that I had done that.

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Good news, listeners! Afternoon Shift director Jason Marck drove to Roseland this morning to pick up a dozen Old Fashioned Donuts.

Being a man after Jim Belushi's own heart, Old Fashioned Donuts are Steve Edwards' favorite. Hopefully today's launch of Afternoon Shift goes as well as Belushi's Olympic career.

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Today on the Afternoon Shift, activist, author and constant traveler Gloria Steinem reflects on her career and life as a leader in the feminist movement. Steinem was in town last week for a talk at Columbia College as part of their Conversations in the Arts series, during which she swept the city by storm in a media whirlwind. That's something she's become accustomed to: she didn't become arguably the most famous figure in the feminist movement without understanding the power of the press.

That doesn't mean that Steinem's immune to the sort of controversy that often plagued late feminist peer (and supposed rival) Betty Freidan.

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Here are the segments today on Eight Forty-Eight: You can stream the show live at 9am.

Our Data, Ourselves: As Americans spend more of their lives online, companies are finding an increasing number of ways to follow our data trails and find out all sorts of things about our spending habits, our likes and our dislikes. The information is being used to determine things like a person’s access to credit, employability and insurance coverage. Kevin Johnson explains how he received a letter from a credit card company saying it lowered his credit limit because of where he shopped. Erin Peterson, head of talent acquisition for Aon Hewitt, says why employers care more and more about candidates’ social media profiles. And Lori Andrews, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law explains the legal implications. To join the conversation, call 312.923.9239.

Vacant Properties: Vacant homes have become a hazard to whole neighborhoods. Community groups are fighting everything from crime, to fire hazards to just keeping grass clipped. It turns out this is a problem for local governments too.

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