Support for Sly strong, mornings without him long.

You can't visit one statewide liberal blog without at least one story urging 92.1 The MIC to hire Sly in the Morning. Even Mayor Paul Soglin chimed in:

Madison radio needs local voices and local hosts.  Sly’s program on WTDY has provided a local forum for politicians and listeners for over 15 years.  No screening of callers to weed out those who disagreed, but a free flow of thoughts and ideas. I was a frequent guest on the program, as was State Representative Glenn Grothman.  There are very few issues on which State Representative Grothman and I agree but Sly treated each of us with respect and had a genuine interest in issues important to us. Local radio promotes and supports local businesses.  Sly had developed long-standing relationships with advertisers and contributed to their success. He continued his work off the air, helping to make this a better city.  He was involved in promoting Monona Terrace when many believed it would never happen. 

From WKOW News:



Sly did very well in the mornings, so it wasn't so much his ratings that tanked the station, but the influence of another radio loser taking control. It's a familiar radio story. The ratings advertisers value most? Adults 25-54  M-F  6a-10a

1. WIBA-FM  8.4  4,100 average person per hr.
2. WZEE        7.8   3,800
3. WMGN      6.8   3,300
4. WJJO         6.4   3,100
5. WMAD      6.2   3,000
6. WERN       5.7   2,800
7. WTDY      4.5   2,200

In the ever important Men's demo (age 25-54), Sly tied WMGN (Magic 98) for 7th place, at 3.7 percent. Sly's show trounced The MIC's Bill Press show, who came in 16th.

Just as interesting, even though WTDY ranked 11th overall, it had slightly fewer listeners per hour than 4th ranked WIBA-AM (includes Rush and Vicki McKenna), 600 to 900 respectively. WTDY also tied with The MIC.

In the meantime, here's the Cap Times editorial:

Madison misses John “Sly” Sylvester.

Sylvester, the veteran morning host on Madison’s WTDY radio, lost his gig last week when the station decided to flip its format. The decision by WTDY to drop Sly, and the station’s able news staff, was a deeply disappointing one.

But Sly’s loyal listeners and advertisers rallied quickly to find the stalwart of the Wisconsin uprising and ardent advocate for working people an on-air gig. On Wednesday they launched a petition drive urging the local progressive talk station, 92.1-The Mic, to consider hiring Sly for an early morning slot.

Before the day was done, close to 5,000 people had signed the petition, emailed or called the station with their message: “Wisconsin needs a progressive host to cover state and local politics from a point of view that only Sly can offer.”