Tag: Media
Media – December 2023 • In Memoriam
Every December, I write a column dedicated to the great pros we lost in the media this year. This year was a particularly cruel one. We lost writers like Bill Zehme and Joe Goddard (Chicago Sun-Times), television stars like Jerry Springer, Richard Belzer, Suzanne Somers, Matthew Perry, and Richard Moll, recording and movie stars […]
Media: March 2023 • Sky Daniels Remembers The Loop FM98
Sky Daniels was one of the biggest stars at the Loop in their first heyday (1979-1981), and although he has gone on to an incredibly successful career in the record and radio business and is now retired and living in California, he still has very fond memories of his time in Chicago. But […]
January 2023: Media • In Memoriam
As we enter a new year, we do so without a talented group of broadcasters we lost in 2022. I won’t be able to name all of them, but here are a few that passed away from the world of radio and television. It became clear that 2022 wasn’t going to be a great […]
Media: September 2021 • “The Big ’89 to Hollywood”
Kris Erik Stevens’s arrival in Chicago in the late ’60s involved a bit of serendipity. “I was on my way from San Francisco to a gig I had just taken in Pittsburgh, and I stopped in Chicago along the way to see an old buddy of mine, Lyle Dean, who I had worked with […]
Media: August 2021 • “New Sports Radio Economy”
Jon Zaghloul, the host of the show Sports Talk Chicago (which airs locally on WCKG, AM 1530), was born and raised in Tinley Park, is a graduate of Andrew High School, and currently attends the University of Chicago. You read that correctly. Currently attends. He’s 21 years old. He was born in the 21stcentury “I’m […]
Media: July 2021 • “Radio Joan”
Joan Esposito was known to Chicago audiences as a television reporter and anchor after her many years at Channel 5 & 7. Still, when she accepted the job as afternoon host at Progressive Talk WCPT (820 AM), it was not her first job in the medium. “When I first got into broadcasting, I got a […]
Media: December 2020
2020 was a rough year everywhere, but we lost some of our all-time greatest broadcasters in Chicago. Television greats like Sheldon Cooper (WGN-TV general manager), Lee Phillip Bell (The Lee Phillip Show), Bob Petty (Channel 7/ABC anchor/reporter), Dick Johnson (anchor at Channel 5/NBC), Jerry Taft (longtime Channel 7/ABC weatherman), and Joel Daly (iconic Channel 7/ABC […]
Media: August 2020
Andy Masur knows his new gig as radio play-by-play man (WGN Radio) for the White Sox is a great opportunity, but he also realizes who he is following. “There’s a little pressure because it’s not so easy to replace someone like Ed Farmer (who passed away a few months ago). I don’t ever feel you […]
Media: July 2020
When John Williams arrived at WGN in 1997, he was thrilled because he grew up listening to the station. “I grew up listening to Wally (Phillips) and Roy (Leonard) and Kathy (O’Malley) and Judy (Markey) and Bob (Collins). I thought Roy was one of the most capable interviewers I ever heard. Wally was one of the most seamless broadcasters I ever heard. Bob Collins had the most […]
Media – May 2020
The Mix Morning show (WTMX, 101.9FM) is now officially called Eric in the Morning with Melissa and Whip. After an unprecedented run of success during morning drive time in Chicago, everyone knows Eric Ferguson, the star of the show. Most also know Melissa McGurren, a trusted co-host for many years. But who in the world […]
Media – April 2020
Steve Darnall remembers the exact moment he became obsessed with old time radio. “It was 1977, and I was driving in the car with my dad. I asked him to turn on the radio, and he turned on Chuck Shayden’s program, which aired old-time shows from the Golden Age of Radio. Dad told me that […]
Media – January 2020
When Brad Edwards was asked to be the co-anchor of the 5, 6, and 10 pm newscasts on CBS-2 Chicago in March of 2019, he was a little taken aback. Edwards had been a big part of the award-winning CBS investigative team since 2012, and “anchor” was a whole different ballgame. He knew what […]
Media: September 2019
Tim Virgin first hit the airwaves in Chicago over twenty years ago. “(Loop program director) Greg Solk hired me in 1996. At that time, they were thinking of turning the Loop into an XRT-ish type format, the best music on the planet, and he needed an alternative guy, and that was me. When they went […]
Media: August 2019
Twenty years ago this summer Phil Manicki started working for the radio company Bonneville International. At the time they also owned The Loop (WLUP), and just a few years later would create a brand new radio station called The Drive (WDRV). Manicki became part of the on-air lineup on that very first day and has […]
Media: June 2019
No one in this town has been a part of the Chicago media scene longer than WGN-Radio’s (and The Chicago Tribune’s) Rick Kogan. He was literally born into it. His parents, Herman and Marilew, were both fixtures in the heyday of Chicago’s print media. They lived the life. They hung out with Chicago’s glitterati. […]
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