Energy 92.7 & 5 goes off the air - January 5th, 2003

Sad day for Chicago. The speech:

Alright, umm, some final words which I wrote ahead of time so I hope I don't stumble, I kind of feel like Jerry Springer.

It's, uh, been our pleasure to learn from you and to do our best to entertain you for these past 2 years. Energy is not leaving tonight because the ratings are bad or some evil people are taking over the channel.

Energy's leaving because our company ran up too much debt in the 90's when everybody thought you could invest in anything and be rich over night. You remember the internet, of course. The people that gave our company the loans called in the notes and wanted their money. Our company had no choice but to sell off all of our radio stations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

The highest bidding company for 92.7 & 5 will get control of this frequency in a few minutes and will offer programming that fits in with the mission of their company. That's how the radio business works.

It's been an adventure for all of us that work here. We knew what we were up against, being a radio station that doesn't have the best signal so you'll never get the big ratings that produce the money that lets you have all the tools that the big guys have so you can get even bigger ratings. We tried our best to put on a professional radio station that we hope you've enjoyed. For me personally Energy was a figment of my imagination for a long time until one phone call 2 years ago when we were discussing what we should do with this channel.

Well we knew that our top 40 station was over because one of the big stations took our format. I suggested we try dance without hip-hop even though it had a spotty track record and we had absolutely no research to back it up. Going purely on faith in the people that work here, our CEO Charles Fernandez said "Let's do it". I'll never forget that.

On the behalf on Andre Solaris, Barry Strauss, Beth Reynolds, Intern Bill, Bill LaTour, Harry Hickson, Dave Harmeyer (also known as Kid Spin), Debra Pepraselli(?), Doug Stei, Edgar Yavarro, Elena Rodriguez, the E-Crew, Jaybo Jones, Jeffery T. Mason, Jessica Adleman, Jimmie Page, Jimmy Knight, Joe Campeise, JD, Joe "Vlazy" Smith, Josh Richmond, Kelly McNeal, Kyle Kelly, Luis Lopez, Mike Z, Pat Clarke, Paul Streator, Paul Trapotas, Paul Volker (God we got alot of Pauls), Patrick Garibaldi, Rebecca Welden, Rick Hype, Sarah Fell, Scott Kalachi, Scott Wort, Sean Caldwell, Susan HUnt, Tanya Sinclair, and Harry Legg; the best assistant program director one could ever hope for.

We thank you for listening and we wish you the best. Goodnight and goodbye.

And the CD didn't start.

(laughing)

And the CD didn't start.

Ok.

You're on the cart(?), Chris.

(song starts, cheering and clapping)

Side note: I had no affiliation with Energy 92.7 & 5, took this video off of jeffreyt.com, from Jeffrey T. Mason, who was an on-air personality on Energy.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• energy
• radio
• last
• dance
• dee dee - forever
• chicago
• 92.7
• 92.5

[djmarkski2000]

Chicago claims to be culturally diversified, however, all my favorites stations went off the air, first Energy 88.7 and then Energy 92.7, why????

[edfeltch]

The cd didn't start.

[akriticos1]

still love you Energy!!

[THADSTURBD1]

The second to last song, which is the one that the CD player didn't want to play (LOL!), was Dee Dee's "Forever" - Energy Edit... The last song was "Last Dance" by Donna Summer... Both songs were only heard on the webcast, not the airwaves in Chicago....

[macpatrick55]

@rater423 Dee Dee Forever

[thatguywillt]

@rater423 "The Launch" is probably what they used, to be honest I can't remember. The last song broadcasted was "Last Dance" as seen here: watch?v=fBP-DLAefT0

[rater423]

@rater423

I don't know how to edit my existing comment so I'll just reply to it. I think the song is "The Launch" by DJ Jean. Can anyone please confirm this?

[rater423]

I remember staying up that night and listening till the end. Thank you so much for preserving this moment. Does anybody know the last song they played on air? I believe it was the first song they played and it had a countdown in the middle or the end of the song.