Both sides put a nice happy spin on the situation but the Hubbard hire of Dan McNeil at WDRV in Chicago was short-lived and contentious along the way. Hubbard hired the longtime Chicago sports talker in March of 2015 as a morning anchor on the classic rock station. McNeil teamed up with Pete McMurray, producer Scott Miller, and news anchor Kathy Voltmer. On Thursday, Hubbard announced McNeil and the station have parted ways.
According to the Chicagoland Radio and Media Blog, McNeil’s hiring was the idea of Hubbard’s then Senior Vice President of Programming Greg Solk, and when Solk was let go, McNeil was not happy and everything went south. As a result of the friction with management, McNeil was taken off the air for over a week and unable to attend any station functions. He returned to the show in late May, but was only to do an occasional sports updates, not to interact with the rest of the team.
From the Hubbard press release, McNeil said, “It was an incredible chapter in my radio tour. I got to be a part of a terrific air staff… some really wonderful people. The Drive paid me go to movies, to take listeners to see AC/DC and the Who. I’ve been wanting to write a love letter to rock and roll publicly for years and I got to do it on one of the most sparkling classic rock stations in the country.”
The Chicagoland Media and Blog points out that for years McNeil was one of best sports talk hosts in Chicago, delivering high ratings and fantastic advertiser support. “However, with his upside also came a great deal of downsides, including frequently missing long stretches of work due to treatments for substance abuse, treatments for depression, suspensions, contract holdouts, arguments/disagreements with co-workers, and arguments/disagreements with management.”
