Back to Main MenuCelebrationsFraud PreventionManage Your AdPlace an AdKevin Metheny, the controversial radio executive who Howard Stern once nicknamed Virus, had a volatile seven year run as the head honcho of Clear Channel Cleveland operation, cutting budgets, firing people and revamping programming at the radio giant six area stations. Metheny left Cleveland in late 2008 for Chicago, taking over as head programmer for the Tribune Company legendary flagship AM news talk station, WGN. He seems to be up to his old Virus tricks, there, too, judging from the hue and cry from WGN fans on the Internet, some of whom have even started their own Facebook fan page, in his blog. He recently wrote that Metheny moves seem to be intentionally to anger and alienate WGN traditional listeners and break the bonds of trust between the station and its audience that date back more than 80 years. has been more traumatic than you can even imagine because ‘GN is such a heritage, important station,” Feder said air jordan 10 in a phone interview Friday. “Metheny is air jordan 10 not just coming in and changing any old station. It was the No. 1 station in the market, the No. 1 billing station in the market. And what he has done is just unbelievable.”That is why you are seeing things like this Facebook page. “This is a grass root effort from listeners. These are people who are just outraged. These are not people with an ax to grind, these are not competitors. There is a real bond that people have with WGN radio. They really feel a kinship to the station. What he has done is squander all that good will and all of that good reputation in some weird effort to lower the demographics and to remake the station.”You can read more on the WGN situation in these two Feder posts:A rude Virus infects WGN radioAfternoon adrift as WGN rearranges deck chairsWGN is one of the oldest and most established news talk stations in the United States, a power in the industry for decades because of its close association with the Tribune Co., and its flagship newspaper the Chicago Tribune. It has the radio home of the Chicago Cubs and has a national reach, too, with a powerful signal at 720 on the AM dial that reaches half the country at night.were a well respected station for decades, says Cleveland based radio consultant John Gorman, who helped build Cleveland WMMS into an FM powerhouse in the 1970s and when you start slashing people and cutting costs, the quality suffers. Then, all it takes is one person. It really about cutting costs. When you start replacing people who are established in the market with less experienced people, the quality level goes down and it begins to affect the time spent listening to the station. It doesn take long to upset the audience. his tenure in Cleveland, Metheny was Clear Channel man, says Gorman, trimming on air talent and production staff and pushing other consolidation measures at the company six local stations WMMS/100.7, WGAR/99.5, WMJI/105.7, WMVX/106.5, WTAM/1100 and WAKS/96.5.had a volatile time here, says Gorman. in radio say he was not an easy guy, that dealing with him was like a daily root canal. His big focus here was trying to build WTAM into the city top radio station. He is the one who really put Mike Trivisonno front and center and turned Triv into whatever he is today. He definitely turned WTAM into something. But I not sure it is something to be proud of. left a message for Metheny on his WGN voice mail, asking for comment. We’ll update this post as soon as air jordan 3 he gets back to us. Interestingly, Metheny is listed a “fan” of the “Fire Kevin Metheny” Facebook page.Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy PolicyThe material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.