St. James Replacing Mancow At WLS/Chicago
• Stand by for the formal announcement, but RAMP has confirmed that Talk radio vet Bruce St. James has been named as the successor to Erich “Mancow” Muller at Cumulus Talk WLS-AM Chicago. Last week it was announced that Mancow and WLS management has mutually decided to end his second tour of duty with the station, effective Nov. 25.
The news was broken, not surprisingly, by Chicago’s own Robert Feder, quoting from a staff memo by WLS PD Stephanie Tichenor that read, in part, “In our 97th year, we are changing. 2021 is the year we bring the focus back to who matters most — our listeners. And the dialogue begins on Dec 14th at 5:30am when our new morning show host, Bruce St. James, opens the mic on the New ’89. Bruce St. James is here to have a conversation, not a lecture. He is not here to change formats. He is here to continue what 890 already does best — inform and entertain our listeners.”
St. James, who has been filling in lately at WLS, notably spent a decade co-hosting the 9am-noon show with Pamela Hughes on Bonneville News-Talk KTAR/Phoenix until their departure in February. St. James has enjoyed a lengthy tenure in the Phoenix market, most notably 13 years as PD of Rhythmic KKFR, followed by a brief stint programming CBS Radio Rhythmic KZON (101.5 JamZ) and Country KMLE until May 2010, when he made the transition to the Talk radio side and joined KTAR. St. James is slated to formally debut on WLS on Dec. 14; until then, we expect a rotating wheel of fill-in talent.
