Comments on: “Here’s a lesson from the media…” –Bill Leff, WGN Radio (Update)

By: Happy Anniversary: Five Years of Chicago Carless | CHICAGO CARLESS

Happy Anniversary: Five Years of Chicago Carless | CHICAGO CARLESS — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:51:02 +0000

[...] “Here’s a lesson from the media…”–Bill Leff, WGN Radio Today, the host of WGN Radio’s new ChicagoNow weekend show, Bill Leff tried to teach me a ‘lesson’ by telling me I was ‘replaceable’ a minute before air time for an interview about my ChicagoNow byline. So I gave him a lesson from the blogosphere instead. As the seconds ticked down, I smiled, got up, and left to go buy my Thanksgiving turkey. [...]

By: HudsonC.

HudsonC. — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:19:10 +0000

What a Jerk……After all his own faults and problems, he thinks hes AAbove you cause hes radio, and your Internet….I hope he Relizes (spelling i know:) ) that Internet reaches the WORLD and radio reaches People In there Cars in The Area only….unless he hopes to be rebroadcast by someone…..That And ChicagoCarless is A great blog, and Mike is a big lovable teddy bear and Bill Leff is what? a stick man who needs some Meat on him, and maybe a can of color for his Casper Caveman look……

By: Mike Doyle

Mike Doyle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:23:39 +0000

David, I totally agree…oops, did I do it again?

By: David

David — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:21:15 +0000

“Last Word Syndrome” describes the situation perfectly!

He acted like a baby in person, and is still acting like a baby online.

By: Curious

Curious — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:54:39 +0000

I’ve briefly looked through your other posts to see if there’s as much comment activity as this one, and so far “no”.

WGN is a legendary station entertaining millions of listeners. Your blog, while entertaining, reaches how many? Thousands?

The fact that you don’t see the value in the partnership of ChicagoNow and WGN radio blows my mind. You are willing to risk killing the blog (or at least your relationship with it) because you interpreted a 10 second comment as rude? Both ChicagoNow and WGN are owned by Tribune – which entity do you think they care about more? Which one brings in more revenue? (hint: both answers are the same)

Waving out the window and not paying attention to a show you’re on is unprofessional. Walking out is even more unprofessional.

I have been in the radio business (btw radio is a form of media – you’re origional post indicated you thought it was not.) for a very long time and my first impression of the situation was that his producers screwed up, not Bill. I totally empathize with his annoyance at his guests not paying attention to business at hand and acting like juvenilles. I, too, might snap at that.

Bill’s show is still new and I suspect he’s working with inexperienced producers in addition to having inexperienced guests (how many ChicagoNow bloggers have ever been on the radio?). I can absolutely understand his frustration. And he was also prepared at that time to talk to another guest, not you. So with you not paying attention he was understandably irritated. That’s my impression from what you wrote – I wasn’t there and I did not hear the broadcast.

What I really can’t figure out is why you are making the situation worse. I can understand your blog about it, it’s what you do after all. But I don’t understand your comment-responses (makes it appear you have “last word” syndrome rather than allowing others to comment how they feel). Had you paid as much attention to Mr. Leff while on the radio as you do to this blog, things certainly would have turned out differently that day in the studio from the get-go.

By: Mike Doyle

Mike Doyle — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:23:49 +0000

Martin, very true. Of course, it’s all about the quality of the audience (many in mine are social influencers), not the size. You probably know that, considering you and many other disgruntled industry watchers have spent quite a lot of time reading this post today. Ironic, huh?

By: Martin Von Naustrum

Martin Von Naustrum — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:19:34 +0000

You do realize you have only 395 RSS subscribers, under 100o twitter followers, and chicagocarless.com doesn’t even register on quantcast it’s audience is so small, yet WGN Radio on a Saturday morning probably easily has over 100,000 listeners?