WXRT ’ S ANDY CHANLEY
I
t ’ s not like changes are made every day to the daytime lineup at WXRT . When disc jockeys come to work at the station , they stay a decade or five . New WXRT afternoon man Andy Chanley was well aware of this when he took the job .
“ That was my biggest worry going into all this ,” Chanley admits , “ but honestly , the reception I ' ve gotten here has been beyond anything I would have fantasized about . Everybody is just so nice . And I mean , everybody in the building . Everybody I talked to on the phone , everybody I met on the street , has been just so welcoming and open . That ' s been a real pleasant surprise for me .”
It probably helps that despite his longtime LA radio pedigree ( 30 years ), Andy is originally from the Midwest and knows Chicago and WXRT . “ I was born and raised in a suburb of Indianapolis , and I went to school at Purdue . So , I was just an hour and a half down the road for many years . As a kid with my folks , I made trips to Chicago , and then in college , and this is the first radio station I thought was really cool . From a music standpoint , I thought , oh my god , you can play that on the radio ? Because people weren ' t playing REM in Indianapolis . They weren ' t playing Big Star . So , this was the first place I heard a station like this , and I ’ ve come to find out in my travels , it ' s the only one on the planet . So , it ' s pretty cool to be a part of it now .”
Even when he was in LA , Chanley ran into Chicago radio icons regularly . “( Former WLUP great ) Sky Daniels was the one that hired me in LA at my last station ( KCRW ),” he points out . But it wasn ’ t Sky Daniels that pointed him in the direction of WXRT .
“ It was Laura Duncan , WXRT ’ s program director ( and brand manager ),” he explains . “ She is amazing . Even though she ' s had a tremendous radio career herself , she likes standing off to the side off in the wings and letting others get the adulation for some amazing things that happened here at the station . There is no one I ' ve ever met , that ' s a fiercer protector of the identity of a radio station . She knows what WXRT means to Chicagoans because she knows how much it means to her . There ' s nobody that ' s going to splash mud on WXRT while she ' s on the job .”
Chanley will be collaborating closely with her because he has also been brought in to be the music director . That transition will be more gradual . “ Luckily , I ' m still settling in on the air . And they ' ve given me a really soft landing here . I ' m learning how everybody does their radio show and getting to learn Chicago , but yeah , I ' m going to be rolling up my sleeves and helping to continue to try to make the station the best it can be . Here ' s the funny thing about that , though . It ' s almost comical to think about being a music director at a station where everybody picks their own music .”
As the music director , he ’ ll also deal with the many rock stars who visit the WXRT studios . He has quite a bit of experience with this from his time in Los Angeles . “ It ’ s pretty neat when you ' re sitting in the same room with artists like Steve Earle and Bob Mould and watching them play their instrument right in front of you . Those are pinch-me moments . I ' ve interviewed Johnny Cash , James Brown , and Neil Young , and it ' s interesting to me how human each of those three examples were . It was like when I first moved out to Los Angeles ; I remember pulling up for the first time to an intersection and looking up and seeing a sign
WXRT ’ s Andy Chanley
By Rick Kaempfer
that said Sunset . ‘ Oh , Sunset Boulevard is just a street .’ You know , it ' s such an ideal that you don ' t realize it ' s a real place . And then when you talk to some of these people , you realize how human and normal they are . One of my favorite people that I ' ve interviewed was David Crosby . There ' s nobody that was more ready to laugh or poke fun at himself than David Crosby . I expected Robbie Robertson , I don ' t know why , but I expected him to be guarded or standoffish . He couldn ' t have been warmer . I felt like I was talking to an uncle . So yeah , that ' s , that ' s a fun part of being in radio , getting to talk to some people that have made some music that you hold dear .”
And what is his plan for winning over the Chicago radio audience ? “ I ' ve long believed that you can hear if someone ' s having a good time . Even when you can ' t see them , you know , you can hear a smile . You can tell if someone is enjoying what they are doing . These people at WXRT are of a similar mind , and they told me , ‘ Listen , Chicago people are going to know if you ' re full of shit . They ' re going to know if you ' re lying about something or if you ’ re not authentic . And if you tell them the truth , they ’ ll give you a shot .’ Luckily , I ' m too stupid to know any other way to do it . I ' m just gonna be myself and spread as much joy as I can .” Chanley can be heard every weekday afternoon ( 3-7 pm ) on WXRT , 93.1FM .
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