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Mike McConnell spent more than 25 years in his radio career outside of morning drive. In fact, he never even considered that he would be capable of working in the daypart. But, as you well know, things change. And that’s exactly what happened at 700 WLW, the heritage iHeartMedia news/talk brand in Cincinnati.
His move to morning drive was one born out of a simple motivation.
“That’s where they needed me when our long-time morning man Jim Scott decided to retire,” McConnell said of his 2015 move to the morning timeslot.
He admitted, however, that the change from longform news/talk host to morning news host wasn’t an easy transition.
“I am good at long-winded and getting a point across concisely is not my strong suit,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m better at it now because I’ve done it for a while, but being quick and concise was not something I ever worked on until I had to, let’s put it that way.”
Despite not being second nature to him, Mike McConnell said quickening his delivery did get easier with practice.
“It took probably half a year,” he said. “My on-air approach is very loose and very relaxed, and I will laugh at myself or mock myself. So it’s not real pressure, because whenever something goes wrong to start the show, I always say the first hour (5-6 AM) is the practice hour, and then the real show starts at 6 AM. So anything I do stupidly in the first hour doesn’t count. And that’s just my attitude. It kind of carries over to the rest of the show, too … I don’t put that much pressure on myself, because I think the audience can take the joke.”
700 WLW has seen a ratings surge in recent months. The iHeartMedia Cincinnati station has experienced ratings that haven’t been reached since the 1970s. And McConnell believes that loose approach plays an important role in the success of the station overall, and also his morning news show.
“We kind of have a reputation, sort of a legacy maybe, of being a news/talk station that doesn’t take itself overly serious,” said McConnell. “When it’s time to be serious, you get serious, but it’s always sort of a loose on-air approach. It’s fluffy, not stuffy. That has a lot to do with it. If you go back to when I first started here, and we had a different set of on-air people, it was the same then. It’s a reputation that’s been like this, probably since the 80s.”
McConnell believes that many in the industry misunderstood the success of Rush Limbaugh during his heyday. The prevailing thought, McConnell shared, was that being conservative was the key to big ratings and revenue. Instead, it was much more important to be entertaining than conservative, which is what Limbaugh perfected and what hosts at 700 WLW have continued to do.
Mike McConnell spent 25 years at 700 WLW before joining WGN Radio in 2010. He returned to the Cincinnati station in 2014 before moving to mornings in 2015. Count it all up, and he’s approaching his 50th year in the medium.
So, naturally, he’s fielding questions about what the future looks like. And he thinks there is still gas left in the proverbial tank.
“I got the gas in the tank, but I still like the idea of doing some other things. So I’d say retirement is on the horizon, the not-too-distant horizon, but that’ll probably come along,” he shared.
Despite that not-too-distant horizon drawing near, Mike McConnell still finds value in having a platform with a large audience. That, coupled with the management he receives with a Program Director like Scott Rinehart who “hire people who know what they’re doing and then leave them alone,” he isn’t chomping at the bit to call it a career just quite yet.
“When I started, my college radio station was a paid position. we were the only commercial FM in the country led by students, at the University of Dayton. So I started there in April of ’75. So, next April will be 50 years of doing this for a living. At that point, you can say whatever happens, that’s a pretty good run. And maybe it’s just about enough. It’s good to have a nice round number like that.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
