Back together: WGN reunites Wendy Snyder and Bill Leff

Wendy Snyder and Bill Leff

Wendy Snyder and Bill Leff

Fifteen years after their Chicago radio partnership abruptly ended, Wendy Snyder and Bill Leff are teaming up again. Snyder has been hired to join Leff as his midday co-host on WGN AM 720, starting next week.

Snyder, a lifelong Chicagoan and 28-year radio veteran, has been morning traffic reporter on WLS AM 890 since 2007. She resigned Thursday.

Snyder and Leff were first paired as evening hosts on WLUP FM 97.9 in 1994. Two years later they moved to mornings on the former WKQX FM 101.1. At Q101, they were just gaining traction in the ratings when they were dumped for Mancow Muller in 1998.

While both pursued separate radio careers, loyal "Wendy & Bill" fans longed for a reunion. It took the overhaul of WGN programming under new president and general manager Jimmy deCastro (their former boss at the Loop) and the promotion of Leff from overnights to middays to bring them back together.

Todd Manley, vice president of creative content at the Tribune Broadcasting news/talk station, said they'll be heard from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, starting Tuesday.

"It's one of the best pairings to ever happen on the radio," Manley said of the duo. "It was just about to explode [at Q101], and here we find ourselves in a place where we can breathe new life into it and watch it grow. They're two really special people who have great stories to tell about their life together on the radio and since then."

Since 2009, Snyder also has been co-hosting a weekly podcast with her husband, Jim "Jimmy Mac" McInerney, at SnydeRemarksRadio.net.

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