Peter Dominowski, the new program director at WFMT, feels ill-used by the Chicago press. When I called him for an interview, although I identified myself as someone with a viewpoint–that the old WFMT was a pretty good station–he sounded relieved. “I’m so glad to talk to you. All these reporters from other papers have been writing things about me and what I’ve done, and none of them have bothered to talk to me. That doesn’t happen in smaller markets, and I’m really surprised at it happening in a big one like Chicago.”
A great deal of controversy has surrounded WFMT in recent months. The new station manager, Alfred Antlitz, has abandoned WFMT’s decades-old policy of no prerecorded commercials, hired burblemeister Jay Andres away from rival classical station WNIB, and brought in Dominowski to replace Pellegrini, who’s now a “senior programming consultant,” all in the name of profitability. (Antlitz says program director will be more of an administrative position than it’s been, and that Pellegrini will still do some programming.) Profitability became an issue after the Chicago Educational Television Association (CETA), which owns both WFMT and TV station WTTW, sold the radio station’s one-time big money-maker, Chicago magazine, in 1987, and squirreled away the $9 million of net proceeds in a trust fund that WFMT did not control. WFMT recently became a union shop.
BM: Did you change Studs Terkel to 10:30 PM?
PD: Well, in general, most people that would like to listen to a talk show at that time simply aren’t able to, because of what they’re doing.
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PD: Well, I have a great deal of respect for Norm Pellegrini and what he’s done and what he’s meant; obviously, he’s managed to, over the years, be a great boost to the artistic and cultural community of Chicago, and I think he deserves a lot of credit and recognition for that. So I’m not really very uncomfortable at all with his being here; he’s been very generous and cooperative with me in our dealings together, and I would hope that’ll continue over time, because we hope to still retain Norm as a consultant to the station, and still keep him active in some projects.
BM: Do you know why he was replaced? Was it his idea?
PD: I think, in general, by trying to give the impression that we are more open, more friendly, more relatable.
