DEAN RICHARDS

Veteran radio voice silenced by Nexstar.

I wondered why I hadn’t heard Dean Richards on Chicago’s WGN radio lately. Dean, the film critic who chats every weekday with Bob Sirrot about show biz and hosted his own Sunday show, was let go along with eight other WGN broadcasters, a number of them longtime veterans of the Chicago airwaves.

This is just the latest reason to hate the fact that big ownership dominates radio. Nexstar Media Group, which owns WGN, is the country’s biggest owner of TV stations (over 200) and wants to get even bigger, awaiting a $6 billion acquisition of TEGNA, a group of 64 stations.

Nexstar, you might remember, took the Jimmy Kimmel Show off the air last year after all that fuss that involved the Trump-aligned FCC. Nexstar was presumably worried that it needed to curry favor with the administration to insure its big deal be approved by federal regulators.

Already saddled with plenty of debt, Nexstar looks to take on more if the TEGNA deal goes down so competent, trusted broadcasters had to hit the streets.

WGN, from all appearances, seems to be doing fine. The station holds onto the old format of using experienced people to host shows with plenty of guests, local news, business reports and health info—reaching an older demo, for sure.

But that doesn’t matter since the Chicago radio station is part of a national media company that’s obviously more interested in television. When push comes to shove, heads had to roll for the good of the corporate giant.

That’s a loss for Chicago radio. I looked forward to the segment when Sirrot, himself a veteran broadcaster, and Richards would discuss the day’s entertainment news—not that the topics were always all that riveting (how many Wicked reviews do we need?) but because you got to listen to two old pros converse naturally and easily. It was casual radio at its best.

Dean’s Sunday show will be missed by many who liked hearing Dean knock about on the weekend, discussing cooking, entertainment or area history. It was just fun-- no political nonsense allowed.

I’d like to think that Nexstar could reverse course and bring Dean back to gain a triumphant PR victory but, unfortunately, I think their executives are too busy rubbing their little hands over buying a few more TV stations.

Note to employees at TEGNA stations to be acquired: watch your backs, the Nexstar budget train may be pulling into your town.