Garry Meier
More than a year after Garry Meier was silenced by Tribune Media news/talk WGN AM 720, the veteran Chicago radio personality is ready to start talking again.
Meier, 66, announced Tuesday that he plans to launch an online radio show and podcast early next year.
“The time is right now to go digital, since everything in the media world is migrating there,” he wrote on garrymeier.com. “At this point in my career, I want to try something completely new that offers me more control and freedom and also is the wave of the future.”
Leslie Keiling
Joining Meier on his new venture will be former WGN traffic reporter Leslie Keiling as news anchor. He offered few other details about his new show, instead urging fans to sign up for email updates and follow his new website in development.
Meier has been a man without a microphone since November 2014 when Tribune Media pulled him off of its online stream at wgn.fm and paid him through the remainder of his reported $800,000-a-year contract. Before that he was a prominent host on WGN from April 2009 to May 2014. A Radio Hall of Famer and former on-air partner to both Steve Dahl and Roe Conn, Meier has been a Chicago media mainstay for more than four decades.
Here is the full text of Meier’s message:
The Garrforce Awakens
If you enjoyed listening to me in my previous incarnations, I hope you will come along for what I hope to be another adventurous ride! I’ve missed talking to you this past year. I had to wait out the remaining time on a contract before I could return to the microphone. I called it unemployed . . . getting paid to be concealed Garry.
As I examined the media landscape, I decided to do something that a great friend and mentor told me to do ten years ago . . . onto the internet . . . and while I wasn’t ready to make the leap a decade ago, I thought the time is right now to go digital, since everything in the media world is migrating there. It is migration that just about every state will accept. At this point in my career, I want to try something completely new that offers me more control and freedom and also is the wave of the future.
While gas prices remain low, my excitement heading into this new chapter is very high. Another familiar voice will be part of the broadcast, as Leslie Keiling returns to do news. I’m happy to have her join me.
It might not be the way you listened on traditional radio but breaking away from all of that, I think, is a good thing . . . so hello from the 50 trillion-watt WIFI.
This web site will be changing and evolving as we go along, so check back often. There will be other fun things offered in the future to explore.
The launch date will happen in the early part of 2016 so stay tuned for more details and postings.
As always, I welcome your input and support on this 21st century journey.
Peace,
Garry