Who?

By Scott Smith in News on Oct 26, 2005 5:35PM

With Chicago being the number three market in the country, you’d expect that when Howard Stern departs Infinity for the greener ($$$) pastures of Sirius satellite radio, he’d be replaced here with a marquee name befitting the great radio history of Chicago. Or Adam Carolla.

Instead, Infinity chose to go with…Rover.

*crickets chirping*

Allow us to explain why: Infinity is hoping that the Glen Ellyn-born Rover (whose real name, Shane French, sounds much cooler in a second-rate Bond villain sort of way) will qualify as a local boy even though he’s been based in Cleveland for the past two years. Plus, the Trib’s Phil Rosenthal notes that he wears a Cubs hat “to cover thinning hair.” Get the key to the city ready, Mare! Rover debuts on January 3rd on 105.9 WCKG-FM.

The Sun-Times’ Robert Feder lists all the other candidates for the Infinity job along with changes afoot for other markets. Rover’s bosses are dialing down the expectations for the Stern clone by saying the changes will take up to 24 months to “shake out” (read: find someone better) though they note that Rover has “had some semblance of ratings success,” which is like saying Chicagoist had some semblance of sex when we were 14 because we owned some old copies of Penthouse.

In news that is both less surprising and less idiotic, the Loop has confirmed that Jonathan Brandmeier will return to the airwaves of The Loop 97.9 next Monday from 6 AM to 10 AM. Feder has an interview with the once and future Johnny B. whose new look makes him look like Richard Roeper’s younger brother (O.C.-style Photoshopping aside).