'Kathy & Judy' Cancelled By WGN Radio

Chicago Tribune:

The Girlfriends are going away. WGN-AM 720 this morning announced it is discontinuing the "Kathy & Judy" show, the ground-breaking mid-morning coffee klatch that former Chicago newspaper columnists Kathy O'Malley and Judy Markey hosted for 20 years.

Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune

Comments

[kaypic]

WGN has ruined my whole morning!! What a bonehead move that was to cancel Kathy & Judy. I would put them on at 9am and was entertained for the next three hours. I will never listen to WGN again. I wish someone would publish how much their ratings have dropped!! I'll bet plenty.

[rodsbadhairday]

I've been out of town and learned about this just recently.
What a bone-headed move. And what a way to diss a loyal
audience. I guess if you are over 45, radio is not for you.

Bye, WGN. I'll never listen to you again.
And may the whole rotten Tribune company sink into the
Chicago River, with samzell, the garden gnome trapped inside.

[Geraldine Barton]

I agree, whoever it was that cancelled K&J....must be crazy....

[larry278]

AM radio, regardless of its content, is a bore. People who listen to AM radio are bores too & revel in being bored. Those who listen to AM radio are obsolete as AM radio. WGN-AM is throwing out its old listeners. Maybe WGN-AM is going to go into another style, aka format, of broadcasting or is going to be sold. If Sam Zell or the Trib owns WGN-AM it is going to be sold since the Trib has gone into bankruptcy. The Trib will never come out of bankruptcy; the Trib & its property will be liquidated.
When does the City of Chicago go into bankruptcy & what is to become of Cook Co? Things don't look good for the rust belt or fly over country. They may become the great American desert of corporate farms & abandoned urban areas. People who can't or won't move to the east or west coast are fated to live a life of relentless abject poverty after all re-cyclable material is removed & shipped to re-cycling facilities. 21st century Chicago will inspire a new poem, "Chicago-land of the emaciated, giant refuse pile...". You get the point; don't you? Somebody will revise Carl Whatevers old poem.

[Bob Kahn]

whoever is program director at WGN must be nuts to cancel K & J in favor of
that guy who replaced them. Here is one listener they lost!!!

[constabull]

Radio is dying a slow and painful death. Good riddance.

[thedogatemyhomework]

There are alot of listeners who are absolutely devastated about the cancellation of this show (including some of the women in my family). They feel as though someone has died and they are really grieving. K and J turned into a kind of crack cocaine for middle aged and senior citizen women who truly don't know what they'll do without this show anymore. Honestly, it's kind of weird and creepy: They acted as if these women were real people in their lives who actually personally cared about them. I suspect K and J's show will be picked up by some station in Chicago...don't you?

[stav506]

I never listened to them unless I was a captive audience (my mother loved them). She's out of town so I called her when I saw this. WGN just lost about 15 listeners. All the females in my family said they are no longer going to listen once my mother passed on the news to them.

Wonderful way to get those ratings you need WGN.

[Carole Brewer]

Three generations of our family--male/female ages 25 to 75 enjoyed K & J. They will be missed, as is Spike. Aside from the Hawks and Cubs--It's hello ipod and podcasts goodbye GN--and thank you NPR for not messing with your format.

[Lakeview Greg]

Part of what made WGN good radio imho was the fact that for the most part, they stayed away from the yelling and screaming and all that and really kept to the "hometown" radio station thing. I didn't catch Kathy and Judy much, but when I did I enjoyed them.

I quit listening to WLS back when Roe Conn went on a rant defending Bush's response to Katrina.
I don't wanna have to quit listening to WGN. Keep the screamers off.

[KUVVY]

Jerry Agar reared his neo con head on Saturdays I hope he is not going to be the replacement. Way to much of Rush,Hannity,Savage in the Chicago area.

[LiberalUnderYourBed]

Who was the rocket scientist who hired Jerry Agar?
Listened a couple of times out of curiosity and almost threw up in my mouth.
I had to laugh at all of the callers shouting him down when he tried to make hay out of those school-kids who arrived late for a meeting with Obama. This wasn't the only time listeners called him out for spinning an idea out of context.
IMHO, Agar is a waste of skin.
Is WGN morphing into another right-wing wind machine? Hope not.

[bcmeanie]

Agar was on this morning, although the programming schedule on GN's web site says "various" for the K&J timeslot. I didn't like The Kathy and Judy Show but at least they were somewhat progressive. Agar is a tool. I've already written to management to tell them what I think of this latest right-wing tool to be added to their lineup and encourage Chicago listeners to do the same. Meanwhile, WCPT (820) is where to go for your sanity.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Yeah how about the wife beater Steve Harvey, LOL

[Chicago48]

I've got to find a new talk radio station. Does anybody have suggestions? Maybe something on the internet? This sucks. WGN's new manager is a hatchet man. He wants to turn it into WLS. Sad sad.

[rwext]

you are right, to get away from the political ranters you have Eric and Kathy, John Brandmeir and Ro Con

[stav506]

820AM is the local Air America.

[ihavenobias]

Why would I want to "get away" from politics?

If I'm not listening to music (most of which sucks on radio anyway), why would I want to listen to people droning on about ticket give-aways, American Idol and other superficial BS with the obnoxious FM radio voices?

Thanks but no thanks. Thankfully there are podcasts of Thom Hartmann and The Young Turks.

[Joe Mayenschein]

I agree, I grew up in the 60's and 70's jhaving to listen top it because my dad did, but then i grew to know why he listened to it. it is a station like no other anywhere in the country or even the world. And is awesome.

It was a great place to be it was like a bunch of friends sitting around shooting the bull.

Now it's all negative broadcasting and I hate it. I have in my mind a countdown happening for when Rush or drudge will be showing up!

This sucks soo bad, and ya notice with the new format of the web page there is no longer any e mail links where you can bitch at them too?