Chicago Radio: Who's OUT At The Loop

C-c-c-changes at WLUP 97.9 FM The Loop. The Cumulus-owned station Friday released two of its three personalities from its morning show, plus another personality.

Gone are:

• Maxwell (aka Slater, real name: Benjamin Bornstein)
• News anchor/co-host John Czahor.
• Peter Capone 

Maxwell was brought to Chicago in 2012 by Michaels and then-Operations Manager Jim Richards to quickly become the new morning show host at WLUP-FM. Previously, he has worked in his native Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Tampa, FL; and Baltimore, MD. In the many radio stations he has worked at before coming to Chicago, all but two of them were Clear Channel-owned stations run by Randy Michaels, according  to CRM.

Benjamin Bornstein, aka Maxwell

He may be best known for his years as the afternoon drive "hot talk" shock jock on Cleveland, OH's WMMS-FM. "The Maxwell Show" ran on that station from April 2004 until he was released in November 2009.

Maxwell was known for taking a page out of the Randy Michaels radio playbook and starting nasty on-air feuds with radio hosts on competing stations, in cheap attempts at generating publicity for himself. This included starting public fights with other, more popular radio shock jocks, like Rover, Opie & Anthony, and others.

Czahor was one of the few hold-overs from Merlin Media's failed experiment, FM News 101.1 (heard on WWWN-FM, which became WIQI-FM). While the vast majority of the FM News 101.1 staff was released in July 2012, Czahor stayed on with Merlin Media and shifted over to the new WLUP-FM morning show with Maxwell.

Prior to his one year with FM News 101.1, Czahor worked for nearly three years as a web producer for Tribune Company, where he first worked with Randy Michaels during Michaels' short and controversial run as CEO of that company. He also worked for a little over two years as a producer for CBS Radio Chicago.

WLUP 97.9 FM (4Kw) 54dBu Coverage

CRM notes than since Cumulus Media took over operations of WLUP-FM in January of this year, virtually no changes were made at the station until now.

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