Veteran Madison radio host John "Sly" Sylvester announced this morning that he'll begin broadcasting on Monroe-based station WEKZ 93.7 FM on Monday, Feb. 4.
Sylvester lost his job in November, when Mid-West Family Broadcasting laid off the entire news staff of Madison radio station WTDY.
In moving his talk show to WEKZ's 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. time slot, Sylvester, a liberal, says he'll be able to "not just speak to lefties in Dane County." He notes that the station reaches audiences in northern Illinois and even Dubuque, Iowa. (WEKZ has another studio in Freeport, Illinois.) He hopes the wider reach means more call-ins from listeners who disagree with his political leanings.
"You're less likely to get the echo chamber" with that reach, he says.
Sylvester refused to comment on rumors that his new show would include some live broadcasts from the Fountain on State Street. Kent McConnell, an operations manager at WEKZ, says this possibility is currently in the "thought process" and that nothing has been finalized.
Sylvester also praises WEKZ's owner, Scott Thompson, for not selling his station or downsizing its staff.
"I have to stress how rare the Scott Thompsons of the world are," Sylvester says. "There's so many good people on the bench because of media conglomeration."
While he's mostly looking forward to getting to "do my thing" on WEKZ, Sylvester also plans to bring back some interactive segments he hasn't done in years. In one segment he calls "Vinyl from Hell," he'll play bad music and have listeners guess the song titles.