Wanted to thank the listeners for their support

My weekly radio show "Radio Chicagoland" is off the air, mainly because we lost a major sponsor who was with us for so long and we couldn't find a substitute in time to keep the show going. Regardless, I wanted to say thank you to all of the listeners who spent the past 9 months with me as we had so much fun, forst on WJJG AM Radioa nd later WCEV 1450 AM Radio. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to call my "radio friends."

We may or may not make it back ont he air. It all depends, so I will look at this as a brioef sabatical from on-air rboadcasting. Maybe find another radio station. Who knows.

But I did want to say thank you especially to Neha Mehra, our intern and Special Reporter on Youth News. She did a GREAT JOB! And so did Ali Ido, who provided special reports from the street in his "Street News" segments. What a great job they all did.

In the meantime, I will probably continue to podcast interviews that will be posted on both the Radio Chicagoland web site at www.RadioChicagoland.com, and also at the Southwest News-Herald web site at www.SWNewsHerald.com. Those interviews will be of general interest. I also plan to do some special interest interviews on the Middle East and Chicago's dysfunctional Arab American community in the hopes of shaking some sense into their senselessness. You can find those on Radio Chicagoland and also on my web site at www.Hanania.com.

Thanks and talk to you soon
Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Radio Show may be at an end

Well, we had a great 9 month run on radio, first one show every Wednesday with WJJG and the great Joe Gentile beginning in September 2007, and then at WCEV 1450 AM Radio every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 until 6 PM with its stronger signal on the South and Southwest Side and Suburbs. But alas, it is all about sponsorship and while we enjoyed some strong support for the majority of the show, the media market is collapsing and advertising is weak.

So, I am not sure if I will be back on radio Tuesday at WCEV. The station needs a stronger signal, is too "ethnic" -- although that's the call letters of WCEV "Chicago;s Ethnic Voice." But the ethnic angle sure turned off a lot of listeners. Wow! The feedback on the content of the rest of the stationw as harsh.

Still, during our brief two hours every Tuesday and Thursday we had a blast, getting more call-ins from listeners than any other show during the week.

Radio Chicagoland, the only radio show giving Southwest Siders and Suburbanites a voice on local, regional, state, national and international issues will be back! :)

Thanks everyone for making it so much fun.

The past show segments are either online or podcast at www.RadioChicagoland.com.

In the event I don't come back to radio, I will continue to do radio interviews and podcast them through the web site.

Thanks
Ray Hanania

PS ... read my columns on the www.HuffingtonPost.com, the Internet's highest rated web page ... numero uno!