Media
Media: December 2025 • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Pop-up Exhibit
Many of us worried it might never return after shuttering its previous location, but in October, the Museum of Broadcast Communications made a triumphant comeback in a new location, with an assortment of new exhibits. The date wasn’t chosen randomly. It was the 100th anniversary of Johnny Carson’s birth, and Johnny Carson is the big […]
Media: November 2025 • Wild Kingdom: Full Circle
Mutual of Omaha is so closely associated with wildlife that some people don’t even realize it’s an insurance company. “True,” host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Peter Gros, says with a laugh. “They ask us if we run an amusement park.” Since 1963, Mutual of Omaha has been the sponsor of the ultimate nature show, Wild […]
Media: September 2025 • John Owens’ Passion Project
You may not realize it, but you have either read or watched the work of John Owens if you lived in Chicago any time over the past 35 years. He wrote for The Chicago Reader (including a front page piece at the young age of 21) and the Chicago Tribune (for 28 years). But […]
Media: August 2025 • 670 The Score’s David Haugh
For 17 years, David Haugh was a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He has gone on to become the morning co-host at WSCR (The Score) with Mike Mulligan and to host a nightly television show on Chicago Sports Network. He’s a multi-media star now, but before he went into the media, Haugh was an […]
Media: June 2025 • Swany Leaves 101.9FM The Mix
WTMX (The Mix) recently announced that midday personality Lisa Allen was leaving the station. The announcement added “along with three other staffers.” When I read that, I had a bad feeling, so I called my old friend John “Swany” Swanson, my co-author of The Radio Producer’s Handbook, and asked him if he was one of […]
Media: May 2025 • Triton College Radio Celebrates 50 Years
50 years ago, college radio was thriving. Every major college or university had a college radio station, and most universities had a radio/TV department. Those college radio stations were the breeding ground for the hugely popular radio industry, spawning radio stars, up-and-coming musical artists, and a whole generation of hitmakers. Sadly, across the country, college […]
Media: April 2025 • Road to Rock Class of ’24 and ’25
If you were wondering what happened to the 2024 Class of the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was supposed to be inducted on March 30th, the answers were revealed last month. The Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 has rescheduled its annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony to Sunday, […]
Media: March 2025 • Flipside Records Remembered
Flip Side owners Carl and Larry Rosenbaum had three choices they were considering at the beginning of their careers. “Hot dog stand, a dry cleaner, or a record store,” Larry confirms. “And fortunately, we chose record store.” That record store became an empire in Chicago (1970s—1990s), a string of stores throughout Chicagoland, soon to […]
Media: January 2025 • Gone, But Not Forgotten
Every year, I write a piece about the people that we lost in the Chicago media world the previous year. We lost some great talent in 2024. Bob Newhart (July) If you’re my age or younger, you don’t remember a time when Bob Newhart was not famous. Bob was an ordinary Chicagoan when […]
Media: December 2024 • Chicago “Hearts” Billy Gardell
Billy Gardell became a household name while co-starring with Melissa McCarthy in the (2010-2016) sitcom Mike & Molly, but he’s certainly not a one-hit-wonder. He followed that with another five-year sitcom hit, Bob (heart emoji) Abishola. If you’ve ever wondered how to pronounce that correctly, you’re not alone. “It’s not Bob loves,” Billy explains. […]
Media: November 2024 • Danny Mac’s Beloved Bears Book
Dan McNeil was one of Chicago’s most controversial sports talk show hosts for decades. After long stints at the Score (670 AM) and ESPN (AM 1000), along with a few other stops on the radio dial (the Drive, the Loop), Dan has turned his talents to the written word. He has a new book […]
Media: October 2024 • Chicago’s Very Own Dean Richards
Dean Richards had an entire career before he started working at WGN-TV. He had been working in radio for nearly twenty years at stations like WFYR, WCFL, WIND, WCLR, WNUA, and WGN Radio. He had been a morning host, program director, and production director and held down nearly every day on the air. The […]
Media: September 2024 • Rewound Radio
Once again, Rewound Radio (rewoundradio.com) is spending the entire Labor Day Weekend featuring classic shows from WLS and WCFL from the 1960s and 1970s. Ted Gorden Smucker is the man behind the plan. “When I was a kid, I loved radio and TV,” Smucker explains, “and when I was probably around sixth, seventh grade or […]
Media: August 2024 • Catching up with 97.1FM The Drive’s Brian Sherman
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more approachable morning radio show than the Drive’s (97.1FM) Sherman and Tingle. They don’t just talk to the listeners on the phone, they do it in person. How many radio shows regularly go out to the bars with their listeners? Sherman and Tingle do it every week for a […]
Media: July 2024 • 45th Anniversary of Disco Demolition: A Loop Insider’s Story
In the heyday of the late ’70s and early ’80s, Loop (WLUP, 97.9 FM) was owned by Congressman Cecil Heftel of Heftel Broadcasting. The president of Heftel Broadcasting was Tom Hoyt. A few photos of Hoyt appear in my book The Loop Files, as do a few stories told by him during his Heftel […]
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