Where Are The Women On Chicago Radio?

Angry white men do not make for good listening on radio.

On most days, Chicago radio feels like a giant frat house. I say this as someone who knows, admires and listens to some of the radio brethren.

But it’s dismaying that in this great city, in this purportedly enlightened age, so few women are riding the radio waves. Even worse, we’re paddling backward.

“Locally, things are worse for women — in talk radio, morning-drive radio, radio overall — than they were a quarter of a century ago,” says Robert Feder, a longtime media critic who blogs at vocalo.org.

Way back in 1985, Feder wrote a story about the shortage of women in Chicago radio.

“In my wildest dreams,” he said Thursday, “I couldn’t have conceived things would be worse for women 25 years later.”

Don’t believe it? Sit at your car radio, as I did Thursday afternoon, and press the scan button. Male voice after male voice.

True, some women, some very talented, can be heard in slots here and there, but with rare exceptions, not in solo or leading roles.