It’s time for our look back at the year that was in arts and entertainment, 2020. Every day between now and New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, we’ll be posting a story painting the big picture on the year. Some days will have multiple stories, some days there was so much going on in one month we just stuck to that one. We hope you enjoy the look back, and let’s all hope for a happy new year and a much, much, much, much better 2021! Here’s today’s installment, months January and February, the two most normal months of the year. During this time, coronavirus was just a news story for the... Read More

The Planet is returning to local airwaves — along with one of the original voices of its galaxy. Dave Levora and Darren Pitra will return to the morning radio airwaves 5:30 to 10 a.m. Thursday on 93.9 FM with a new alternative rock format replacing that station’s eclectic Jack format. The alt rock playlist will echo that of Planet 93.5, the popular station that drew strong numbers during the alternative rock-ruled ’90s. Levora was recently fired from his gig as morning guy at WOC-AM, Pitra had been a free agent since being let go from Townsquare Media in 2016. Levora worked for... Read More

When’s the last time you listened to WOC? How old are you? If you’re somewhere under the age of 65, you probably couldn’t remember your answer to that first question. And if you’re somewhere over the age of 65, you probably couldn’t remember either, only for a different reason. I keed! I keed! In all seriousness though, the audience for local talk radio has been growing older and older over the decades. Most of the shows appeal to a decidedly conservative audience and the demographic for those kinds of shows skews older, and not just in radio. Median age of a Fox News prime time viewer?... Read More

It was worth a shot. But you can stop calling and e-mailing the stations. It ain’t happening. When it was announced first here on QuadCities.com that a number of on- and off-air personnel were let go from local I Heart Radio stations, including WOC’s Jim Fisher and Dave Levora, Debbie McFadden of Mix 96 and Q106, Todd Alan of KISS-FM and Ron Evans of Mix 96, fans of those shows were understandably upset. When it was learned that, a day later, two shows and six jobs had been restored to Des Moines sports talk station KXnO, due to, as they put it “overwhelming fan outcry,” there was some... Read More

It’s rare in life that you get a do-over, but this could be one of those opportunities for recently fired local radio personalities and the fans of their shows. According to the Des Moines Register, two shows and six jobs have been restored to local sports talk station KXnO, after those jobs and shows were cut earlier this week. Due to substantial fan outcry and outreach to the station deluging them with complaints, the jobs were restored. Obviously, this means that, given enough community outcry and support from fans, that at least one station was able to re-hire their on-air personalities axed... Read More

Jim Fisher’s firing from WOC-AM after 40 years may be the most shocking and resonant layoff by iHeart Radio Quad-Cities, but it’s not the only one. A number of other well-known and popular on-air personalities have been fired by the radio conglomerate. According to a number of reports on Facebook, other on-air personalities let go today include Dave Levora, morning host at WOC-AM, Debbie McFadden of Mix 96 and Q106, Todd Alan of KISS-FM and Ron Evans of Mix 96. Alan posted on his Facebook today, “It is with a heavy heart that I need to inform you that, as of this morning, I will no longer... Read More