Stone To Host Radio Talk Show This Weekend
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Ald. Bernard Stone's long and colorful political career might be coming to an end, but he's found a new gig on talk radio – at least for one day.
WLS-890 AM reported Thursday that Stone will host on the station from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday. He will talk about politics and take calls from listeners, the station reported.
Stone, 83, has served as alderman of the 50th Ward in the West Rogers Park neighborhood since 1973. But he was trounced Tuesday by certified public account Debra Silverstein, who is the wife of state Sen. and ward Democratic Committeeman Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago.)
The day after his defeat, Stone said he felt betrayed by the new alderman-elect's state senator husband. Ira Silverstein ousted Stone as Democratic ward committeeman in 2008, with the support of Mayor Richard M. Daley.
He also said he won't lift a finger to help either Ira or Debra Silverstein in this transition.
But WLS says Stone is looking forward, and even suggests he might want a permanent gig on the station.
"I may become a commentator on WLS, who knows," Stone says on the station's Web site.
If Stone gets a regular talk show on WLS, he won't be the first former elected official to do so.
In March 2009, a few months after he was arrested by federal agents, deposed Gov. Rod Blagojevich got a gig on WLS filling in for Don Wade and Roma. He later became host of a regular Sunday morning talk show at the station, but the show ended when his corruption trial began last year.
Blagojevich's trial ended in the jury deadlocking on all but one count, and his new trial is set to begin a week from Wednesday. But he got to fill in for Don Wade and Roma again last month.
Also among the on-air veterans at WLS-AM is former Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th), who was a daily afternoon talk show host at the station in 1993 and 1994, along with co-host Ty Wansley. The duo later moved to the old WJJD-1160 AM, where they continued until 1996.
Vrdolyak was the leader of the bloc of 29 aldermen who resisted and blocked the Mayor Harold Washington's legislative agenda and appointments during the infamous Council Wars. Stone was among the aldermen in that bloc.
Vrdolyak and Stone also both switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1987, and ran unsuccessfully on a ticket together the following year for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk and Recorder of Deeds, respectively. Stone later went back to being a Democrat.
