For weeks, the come-on ads for Disk
Jockey Howard Miller's new radio show reverberated over Chicago's WCFL:
“Howard Power! Howard Power! Howard Power!” Massed choruses sang God
Bless America as Miller earnestly avowed: “I'm proud to be a flag
waver! And I'll be waving it plenty every morning. You will find me
ready, hard-hitting with truth and justice.” In a full-page,
flag-bedecked newspaper ad, Miller pledged his allegiance to the Stars
and Stripes, the President, servicemen, policemen and firemen. Miller's
No. 1 fan, Mayor Richard Daley, delivered a testimonial on the air, and
congratulatory telegrams and flowers poured into the station. More
important, listeners began tuning in: since Miller made his debut in
October, WCFL's morning ratings have jumped from ninth place to second
in the fiercely competitive 24-station Chicago market. Miller now has
15% of the morning audience, and is closing fast on WGN's low-keyed,
folksy Wally Phillips .For Miller, the climb was especially reassuring: the show ends his exile
from the air for his rightist views. For 15 years, on other stations,
he had been the most popular radio disk jockey in the Midwest. Then one
morning ten months ago, four days after Martin Luther King Jr. was
shot, Miller began talking about the post-assassination rioting on
Chicago's West Side. On his top-rated WIND show, he declared that there
should be a day of tribute for “our brave policemen and firemen.” Then,
noting an inflammatory—and, it developed, totally false—report that
3,000 rioters were planning to storm the Chicago Avenue Armory, he
said, “Do you want to bet?”Hot Barrage. Besieged by irate telephone calls, the station decided
Miller's right-wing opinions might escalate tensions, and it
immediately pulled Miller off the air until the “whole thing died
down.” That only brought an even hotter barrage of pro-Miller calls,
and the station was forced to close down its switchboard and post
police outside the studios. Housewives picketed the station. The
Greater Chicago Police Association reacted by naming Miller their Man
of the Year.Miller retreated to his 160-acre farm in suburban Barrington with his
third wife, Nola. He claimed that the “traumatic shock” had caused him
to lose 26 lbs. in two weeks, and sued WIND for $5,000,000 for “trying
to kill me as a performer.” The suit was settled out of court in
August. To the surprise of many of his listeners, Miller then joined
liberal-leaning WCFL, a station owned by the Chicago Federation of
Labor. Explained Station Manager Lou Witz: “We feel a conflict of
opinions gives more interest to the station.”Radical Fringe. Miller certainly provides plenty of conflict. In a
typical hour of programming, he devotes 30 minutes to standard
middle-of-the-road pop music: a Frank Sinatra ballad, a Lawrence Welk
instrumental and, again and again, Andy Williams singing Battle Hymn of
the Republic. Sixteen minutes is given over to smoothly delivered
commercials, five minutes to news, and nine minutes to “commentaries on
our times.” Samples: — On law and order: “I don't agree there's a
civil war in this country between blacks and whites. I think there's a
great civil war between the lawbreakers and the law-abiders.”
