WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Ah, you know it's Winter in Chicago when the streets are white. Not with snow, but with a salty residue that probably kills smaller life forms.

Welcome to another week, friends. Today is fun, it's the start of Steve Edwards' new show, the Afternoon Shift. It's from 2-4pm. What does that mean for you? Well, it's a great, local talk show to give you some hope that your lousy day just might end. What it means for me is two more hours a day to produce. We're up to the challenge though. Creating a good radio show creates good energy. And good energy is really the key to any given afternoon. Am I right?

Today: Ira Glass, Gloria Steinem, Navy Pier redesign and a study on why we vote for who we vote for when guessing on judges. Which you know you do.

We'll have our bumps along the way. But the new show has a great opportunity to be around for several years to come. If you like it, let us know. If you don't, turn on Roe & Roeper or go back to listening to the Robin Thicke channel on Pandora. 

Before we begin: Eight Forty-Eight has a great show today about personal data and internet privacy. 

A story: We're not talking Whitney Houston on any of our talk shows today.

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I'm going on Eight Forty-Eight today to read some of your comments on how you would have covered sticker-gate. I got some great feedback from yesterday's post and now I have full control of the airwaves to make you famous. You're welcome, Chicago.

Here are the ones I pulled out from various platforms. Remember, I asked people to help me out and give me suggestions on how they would put together a conversation based on the city sticker/gang symbol controversy.

Tom: A: non-story ..... or should have been. B: Politicians responded badly to a foolish observation. C: Public tragedy-mongers want to see kid crying on news. THANK YOU for NOT covering this.

Shelly: This isn't a non-story. At it's basic level, it might be. But what happened to this kid is representative of a growing trend in noncritical thinking in our government. Some British kids tweet they're going to "destroy America" on their vacation -- so let's bar them from entering the country (even though anyone with two brain cells could understand they meant 'party and have a blast' (oh, probably can't say "blast" either.) ) Let's arrest someone at the airport because he decided not to fly rather than be pat down by someone not a cop.

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Man, busy show today. Live radio! We added a segment this morning based on the news that Art Chicago is done at the Merchandise Mart. I could've also put in something on sticker-gate, but you know, I find that story to be a product of a new media world order. I'm not sure that story has the legs it had and the reaction it had if it weren't for media giving it full top-story treatment all day yesterday.

Here's the rub: The new way media works is to give the people what they want. In the case of this sticker story, I'm sure analytics and Web traffic played a major role, as both the Tribune and Sun-Times kept the story on their home page from Tuesday night to this morning. That's a long time for a story about a sticker controversy. And I know on our site that the very small story we put together dominated pageviews yesterday. Far and away the number one story of the day.

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The shows just keeps getting better. The last few Eight Forty-Eight shows have showcased some great conversations. Did you hear the sick day convo yesterday? Or how about Julie Frost on Monday, singing her song "Masterpiece" live in studio?

But today is a new day! And a new show. Becky Vlamis directs Eight Forty-Eight and writes up the rundown every day. So here it is (in italics), with my snarky commentary (not in italics):

Total Recall! This story isn't just about the Wisconsin recall effort, but about how the collective bargaining laws are about to affect police and fire in the land of cheese. We kinda saw that coming, didn't we?

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Hey hey! Two blogs in a row! Big Eight Forty-Eight today. And did you see Feder this morn? Nice Edwards mug:

Steve starts next Monday. Here's what is on Eight Forty-Eight today:

9 out of 10 Chicagoans hate the idea of speed cameras. Unfortunately, that one dissenter was Governor Pat Quinn. Chicago drivers in school zones and parks better watch their speed. After not showing his hand for months, Governor Pat Quinn has finally taken action on a bill that would allow Chicago to use speed cameras in those areas to fine speeders. WBEZ’s Alex Keefe explains the implications, and WBEZ’s Kristen McQueary says what the bill reveals about Gov. Quinn’s legislative style. Thomas Goetz, executive editor of Wired magazine, compares the Chicago plan to systems that use dynamic speed displays instead of cameras.

Where can a guy make $100k off of vacation/sick days anymore?

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I know it's been a while since I last wrote, but there have been lots of things in the lab to do. Have you listened to Eight Forty-Eight recently? We've gone almost all live, producing fantastic shows daily. I'm trying to get more live music in the mix and get callers to call-in on any subject. That's actually been harder than it seems, since this station has rarely taken calls in the past. You can throw the number out as much as you want, but really all you get back is people complaining about their skin rashes. You think I kid. But the number is 312-923-WBEZ. Tattoo it on your forehead.

Also, we've been able to incorporate the bloggers on-air with much more frequency. Louisa Chu is on Worldview today talking about her recent trip to Japan to tour tsunami-affected restaurants. And last week, we had Jim DeRogatis on talking about the city and summer music (who's booking it?) and Lee Bey explored Jesse Jackson Jr.'s idea of making Pullman a national park.

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Everyone okay? Did the four inches of snow kill you? I hope you survived.

This is going to be a fun show today! Why? Well, because it's live and our elevator's out. So we might have some surly guests who have to walk up three flights of stairs.

First, Preck in the house! County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is stepping up her defense of her ICE detainee stance, after news broke that someone she let go drove drunk and killed someone. The pressure is mounting for her to reverse her stance and let the Cook County jail hold illegal immigrant inmates until ICE can take over.

And hopefully she's wearing one of her famous pant suits. Blue or black? I'll let you know when she's in.

Then, Crispin Glover!!!!! One of my favorite actors of all time. He's a living Andy Kaufman. He's showing some of his work and hosting events at the Music Box Theater this weekend. One of our producers has never seen Back to the Future, which made me waste a good 20 minutes of time this morning explaining the plot. "See, he goes back in time...because his Dad is no...wait, um...okay...Michael J.

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