Tag: Rick Kaempfer
Media: May 2022 • WGN’s Dave Plier
WGN Radio’s Dave Plier’s interest in the media began at a very young age. “Getting to see the Bozo show when I was a kid really did it. I saw the set there, and I remember thinking it was so small. I had no idea it was like that. It intrigued me and fascinated […]
Media: April 2022 • Dana Kozlov • Home at Channel 2
She’s the new weekend anchor at WBBM-TV, Channel 2 in Chicago, but Dana Kozlov has been in the news business for a long time.“This month is my 30th anniversary as a paid reporter.” After paying her dues hustling for stories for Channel 2, and before that, WGN Channel 9, she’s excited about the chance to […]
Media: March 2022 • “Mark Caro’s Caropop”
Mark Caro was a well-known writer at the Chicago Tribune in 2015 when he decided to take a giant career leap. “I was still really enjoying what I was doing,” he explains, “but It was important for me to leave when I was still happy as opposed to leaving when I was disgruntled and […]
Media: February 2022 • “Call it a Comeback”
For many years Nick Digilio held down the overnight fort at WGN Radio (720 AM). In that slot, he developed an enthusiastic following. He thinks the daypart itself was part of the reason for that. “A lot of people who listened were at work,” Nick says, “and if you’re working overnights, you’re probably doing […]
Media: November 2021 • “When Harry Met Rehab”
Harry Teinowitz and Spike Manton have teamed up to write a new play called When Harry Met Rehab, based upon the true story of Harry’s journey toward sobriety. It’s not the first time Harry and Spike have worked together. Their collaboration on the radio goes back thirty years. “When Spike and I started out,” Harry […]
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: June 2021 • “Steve King’s Cult 45”
People in Chicago know Steve King for his four–decade run as a radio DJ and talk show host (WLS, WGN), but before his legendary radio career began, he was doing something else entirely. “I was a full-time musician. That was my career in the early ‘60s. Even when I first got into radio (1966), If […]
Media: May 2021 • “Call Him Dash”
First of all, let’s get an explanation of the name. The night jock at WTMX is named Dash. “All my life, when I told people my name,” he explains, “I would say Jordan Gabriel Orman-Weiss. The dash was part of my last name. That’s where the name Dash comes from.” Secondly, Dash is a […]
Media: April 2021
It’s hard to describe everything Jon Hansen brings to Chicago media. He’s really a Jon-of-all-trades, able to shift from television to radio to just about anything else that requires a microphone. First and foremost, he’s one of the stars of the nightly gabfest (6-7 pm), The Jam on WCIU-TV. “It’s your Twitter feed on […]
Media: January 2021
After twenty-plus high-profile years in radio and television, Melissa Forman is an important part of the Chicago media landscape. “Twenty-plus years?” she responds. “Yikes. It’s going fast. My Dad always said to me: ‘Life is like a roll of toilet paper. In the beginning, it moves slowly, and in the end, it moves very […]
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: November 2020
When you have already been inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the National Radio Hall of Fame, and you are featured in the radio wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you might think that there isn’t really anything left to accomplish. But when John Records Landecker recently got […]
Media: October 2020
When Richard Milne was told he was replacing Lin Brehmer as the WXRT morning host in February, he knew the implications. “I’m the 5th ever XRT morning man in 48 years,” he says, ticking off the others: Scott McConnell, Garry Lee Wright, Terri Hemmert, and Lin Brehmer. “I’ve admired all of those people, but I […]
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