Eric Von is coming back to radio – and on the same station he left more than a year ago.
Von returns to the airwaves July 19 at WMCS, AM 1290, from 7 to 10 a.m. In the process he’ll double the urban station’s local weekday programming. Von’s show replaces some of the syndicated programming that filled the time occupied until earlier this year by the Morning Magazine until that show’s hosts, Joel McNally and Cassandra Cassandra, were let go in a budget-cutting move.
Von last held the afternoon drive slot on MCS, which is now the only news and talk station focusing on Milwaukee’s black community. He quit the station in February 2009. In coming back in the mornings, he returns to the time of day he held for 10 years when he first joined MCS in 1991.
Von’s has been a signature talk radio voice in Milwaukee, offering, outside of public radio, probably the most thoughtful and serious approach to a genre that more typically goes for sensationalism and polarization. His departure last year and the subsequent elimination of the Morning Magazine left many in Milwaukee’s black community with a sudden void in news and information focused on their interests. After the Magazine folded, WMCS’s only locally produced talk show was the one filled by Von’s afternoon successor, Earl Ingram.
Right-wing talk stations WISN-AM and WTMJ-AM – the only other commercial stations with any serious news and information programming locally – have little, if any, appeal for black audiences, and while elites tune in to the two public radio stations (WUWM-FM and WHAD-FM), neither one appears to have significant penetration among mainstream African-American listeners.
The cutbacks, which station management acknowledged outright were purely to save money, prompted an outcry among African-Americans, including a letter-writing campaign to Willie Davis, who with partners owns WMCS and two Milwaukee FM stations through the Milwaukee Radio Alliance. The campaign was spearheaded in part by retiring Rep. Annette “Polly” Williams after the firings of McNally and Cassandra.
Von’s return to the station was the result of a series of negotiations he had with Davis over the last several months. That turn of events isn’t entirely surprising. Over the years McNally and Von have both credited Davis, a one-time Green Bay Packers legend who mostly lives in Los Angeles, for trying to serve Milwaukee’s black community beyond just the bottom line.
Von stressed that in an interview with Pressroom Buzz this week. “Mr. Davis has shown the kind of commitment to the community that I always believed that he had,” he said. In rehiring him, Von continued, “I think he was trying to give to the community what they were asking for.”
At the same time, though, as the blogger “Giant” at The Milwaukee Drum notes:
Let’s be honest. Mr. Davis is all about business… Eric Von is the most popular and polished host they’ve had. He’s The Franchise and Davis brought him back to strengthen his lineup. They gave the ball to the rookie Earl Ingram who appears to be holding up the afternoon slot thus far… but the mornings are killing 1290.
Von’s departure last year came when he refused to accept a significant pay cut at the station. He declined to discuss financial specifics of his new deal, simply noting that he and the station “were able to come to terms that we both found acceptable.”
With less than three weeks to go until he goes on the air, Von is scrambling to put together his new show. “They’re kind of leaving the content to me,” he says of station management. He’s in talks to arrange for Marquette University broadcasting students to get some sort of internship opportunities with the show and in the process help make it more accessible to younger audiences. “Young people have a whole different view and a whole different set of resources that they rely on.”
And the name? That, too, isn’t yet certain, but Von has a preference. “I’m hoping it will be the Morning Magazine again,” he says.
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