Dropping the Crystal (Clear Channel) Ball

There are 72 beautiful days of summer weather I have dedicated to nothing but R&R: Road-trips & Relaxation. A 15-hour, 1080-mile trip to Colorado Springs and a half dozen times down the street (I-94) & around the corner (interstate 196 to highway 31 to M20) to Walkerville, Michigan makes for a pretty eventful summer.
Being on the road and covering 2424 total miles could have been quite boring if I did not have the necessary road trip supplies.
- an entertaining driving buddy to who is willing to take goofy pictures at state welcome centers? Check!
- snacks and homemade lunches so we do not fall into the lure that is expensive highway restaurants? Check!
- auditory stimulation? Check!
The last item on that list is the most important. Without music, audio books or even the local radio stations, hours on the road will feel like days. My music is genre specific depended on the time of day. For those midday/early afternoon times when traffic is flowing, I play a little Lecrae, some Slick Rick or Lupe Fiasco…you know classic Hiphop. When I am driving late at night, it is Hidden Beach Recording’s Unwrapped Series or DJ Krush. For those times when I drive east trying to beat the sun as it pokes over the horizon, I only listen to smooth jazz.
Such was the case the morning of the 21st June when I set out for Colorado Springs. At 6:19am, the anticipation of driving to a never before visited state was the only thing keep me awake. As I got on I94, I tuned to what I thought was The Smooth Jazz Sunday Brunch with Rick O’Dell on WNUA 95.5. When I heard Latin sounds I was a bit confused because The Sounds of Brazil are on Saturday nights with Scott Adams and this was Sunday morning. Something was not right.
My hunch was confirmed as I searched my iPhone for news about my favorite radio station.
Phil Rosenthal’s (Chicago Tribune Media columnist) article WNUA swings to Spanish format was the second result of my "wnua chicago" search.
I shed a tear. I had been a loyal WNUA listener since 1997. I was registered for Ramsey Lewis’ Trip-a-Day Giveaway on his weekday morning show. If I was driving home at night, I had on Danae Alexander’s Lights Out Chicago. I remember falling asleep to Musical Starstreams.
WNUA was how I stayed relaxed these past 12 years and just like this their 22-year therapy broadcasts in Chicago ended? Rosenthal said it was Clear Channel’s, “effort to seize a share of the rapidly growing audience segment.” So Smooth Jazz WNUA was replaced with an all Spanish MEGA 95.5.

My question is this: Why do you get rid of a station that can reach multiple demographics for a station that only reaches one?
I guess I really do not want to know the answer seeing as how this was Clear Channel’s second horrible executive decision this year.
The first occurred on March 24 in what most of Chicago listeners assumed was Tom Joyner’s annual April Fool’s Joke. Each year he gets more elaborate with his pranks and replacing his morning show with Steve Harvey’s morning show from another Clear Channel station (107.5 WGCI) a week before April Fool’s seemed a little suspicious.
In the end, it was not joke. Clear Channel pulled Tom Joyner for Steve Harvey. A number of factors could have contributed to this spontaneous switch: a) Steve Harvey having a bestselling book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man backed by Oprah; b) a decline in advertiser backing or c) poor ratings.

With 13 years of intellectually stimulating conversation for morning commuter, replacing Tom Joyner with Steve Harvey’s raunchy dialog and abrasive tone was not my decision to make.
Therefore, with WNUA and Tom Joyner gone, I will continue my unofficial boycott of Clear Channel and radio by only listening to Pandora on my iPhone -- no commercials, no executive overrides and most importantly no drama.