Dwyer & Michaels will return to Q-C

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By David Burke | Saturday, January 6, 2007 6:46 PM CST | () comments

Kevin E. Schmidt/quad-city-times The antics of Greg Dwyer and Bill Michaels continued during a press conference Friday afternoon at the Cumulus Broadcasting offices in Davenport when the announced their plans for the future.

Bringing Greg Dwyer and Bill Michaels back to radio station WXLP-FM (96.9) will be “landscape-changing” in terms of the Quad-City radio market, their new boss said Friday.

“We’ll more than carve out a niche. We’ll expect to dominate,” said Jack Swart, the market manager for Cumulus Broadcasting, whose lineup of area stations includes “97 Rock” — after announcing that the veteran morning-show duo is moving from KCQQ-FM (106.5) to his station. “If the program does what it has done historically, then this cluster can easily switch positions with Clear Channel’s (the company that owns Q-106.5 and other area stations) in ratings performance.”

A Friday afternoon news conference to announce Dwyer & Michaels’ move back to WXLP turned into a version of the show the two have hosted in the Quad-Cities for the past 16 years.

Click here to watch video.

They teased reporters who had found their unlisted telephone numbers and staked out their front porches when news of the move first broke Tuesday, and they mocked media outlets for using unflattering file photos and video.

While Dwyer & Michaels have a noncompete clause in their contract that prevents them from broadcasting on a Quad-City radio station for 180 days, the two will host the morning show on KRNA-FM (94.1), which is based in Cedar Rapids, from studios in Davenport. The 100,000-watt station, which is also owned by Cumulus, usually can be heard in the Quad-Cities. There also will be streaming audio available on the duo’s Web site, www.twodorks.com.

In July, the two will sign back on at WXLP, where they hosted the morning show under different owners from 1990 to 1995. The two stations could be the beginning of a possible network for Dwyer & Michaels, Swart said. Cumulus, the second-largest radio broadcaster in the country, has stations in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo-Cedar Falls and Dubuque, Iowa, Rockford, Ill., and the Quad-Cities.

A possible mininetwork for their show was one of the draws to moving back to WXLP, the duo said.

“We had an opportunity to grow without moving,” Dwyer said.

Although their morning show will have some natural changes with a different locale, the two said it essentially will stay the same.

“I think the reason we’re successful in the Quad-Cities is because we talk about things we can see and touch every day,” Michaels said. “We’d be regionally focused, but keep focused on Iowa and Illinois.”

Michaels said the two still will look for the “real people” approach to interviews and discussion topics.

“There’s always a story behind the story. We’ll look for that in other markets as well,” Michaels said.

The pair’s annual events, such as the adult Easter egg hunt, Granny Gran Prix and Prom From Hell will continue, they said.

Newscaster and producer Beth Davis will move with Dwyer & Michaels to their new station, and former WQAD-TV sports anchor Dan Burich will do sports reports. The other Dwyer & Michaels producer, Kirk Marske, is staying with Clear Channel, he said in an e-mail sent Friday to the Quad-City Times.

The co-hosts of the current “97 Rock” morning show, Dave Levora and Darren Pitra, will remain with Cumulus, Swart said, with their future plans to be announced soon.

“They are still part of our plan,” he added.

Financial details of the five-year contract were not divulged, but it will include incentives for ratings and the number of stations that carries the Dwyer & Michaels show.

“The money that we make will primarily be based on how hard we work and how well we do,” Dwyer said.

“These guys are not afraid of that,” Swart said. “They’ve stepped up to every challenge they’ve ever faced.”

Dwyer, 41, and Michaels, 40, both natives of the Chicago suburbs, met while they were broadcasting students at Illinois State University in Normal. They worked together for a year, hosting the morning show at Peoria, Ill., rock station WWCT-FM, before being hired by the station formerly known as 97X.

Now, Swart said, the Dwyer & Michaels show is back where it belongs.

“It’s a landmark show, and it belongs here,” he said. “And you can be assured it’ll stay here for a good long time.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.