Here, in my estimation, are the 10 most notable Chicago media stories of the month.

Click on the arrows to advance the photos. To read the original posts, click on the headlines under each photo:
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Rich Miller

Rich Miller, the Illinois political reporter, editor, blogger and pundit whose Capitol Fax newsletter has been a must-read among power brokers for more than 20 years, is joining Crain’s Chicago Business as a contributing columnist.

Starting Friday, Miller’s column will appear twice monthly on chicagobusiness.com and eventually will be seen in Crain’s weekly print publication as well. Continue reading →

Tammy Leitner

Tammy Leitner, a Peabody Award-winning reporter who once appeared as a contestant on “Survivor,” is joining the expanded investigative unit at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 next week.

Her hiring will supplement a growing "NBC 5 Investigates" team that currently includes reporters Rob Stafford, Carol Marin, Lisa Parker, Phil Rogers, Dick Johnson, Marion Brooks and Chris Coffey. Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, confirmed that Leitner will start Monday.

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Connor McKnight (Photo: Elliott Serrano)

"Hit and Run" baseball show host Connor McKnight just became the latest prize in Chicago’s spirited sports/talk radio competition.

After more than four years as a host, anchor and reporter for CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670, McKnight has jumped to Tribune Broadcasting’s upstart competitor WGWG LP 87.7, where he’ll become part of the daily lineup. Continue reading →

Niala Boodhoo

It’s been two years since the esteemed Steve Edwards launched “The Afternoon Shift” amid great ambitions and high hopes of a programming renaissance at WBEZ FM 91.5.

As Chicago Public Media’s first new local program in more than five years, the two-hour afternoon talk show was seen as the cornerstone of a grand plan to add “more local service and more local programming” to the station’s daytime lineup under then-president and CEO Torey Malatia. Continue reading →

WMAQ-Channel 5 may be credited with a gold medal in Chicago’s late-news ratings race for February — but it’ll be with an asterisk.

Boosted by its network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, the NBC-owned station’s 10 p.m Monday-through-Friday newscast appears certain to win the Nielsens when the monthlong sweeps period ends Wednesday. Continue reading →

Tamron Hall

News that Tamron Hall was named co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of “Today” evoked memories of two other Chicago news anchors who'd ascended to the venerable NBC morning show. For Hall’s sake, let’s hope her tenure on “Today” resembles Jane Pauley’s illustrious 13-year reign more than Deborah Norville’s ill-fated 13-month run.

In any case, Monday’s announcement marked a huge career step for the 43-year-old Hall, who spent 10 years at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 before joining NBC News in 2007. Continue reading →

Dave Ross

The Dave Ross Mystery has been solved at last.

Three months after Ross announced he was leaving the Fox-owned station in Washington, D.C., to start a new job in Chicago, sources confirmed the veteran sports reporter and producer is joining 120 Sports, a new 24/7 all-digital sports network.

Billed as “the first multisport, league-built, live streaming video network built for the digital generation,” it will launch this spring from custom-designed facilities at Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios on the Near West Side. The startup was announced last week. Continue reading →

Jonathan Hoenig

Eighteen years ago — long before he was an internationally known hedge fund manager and financial commentator known as “The Capitalist Pig” — Jonathan Hoenig was one of thousands of those meshuggenehs screaming and yelling and waving their arms on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Electronic trading put an end to the frenzied culture, but vivid memories linger of that strange and storied era in the city’s financial history. Now Hoenig has brought them back to life in a fascinating documentary called “Pit Trading 101.” Continue reading →

Larry Potash

WGN-Channel 9 normally advertises its top-rated morning show as Chicago’s “must watch morning news.” But for 19 minutes on Friday, it was Chicago’s can’t hear morning news.

A technical glitch of epic proportion knocked out the Tribune Broadcasting station’s studio audio from 7:03 to 7:22 a.m., leaving “WGN Morning News” anchors Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten free to improvise even more than usual by holding up hand-written signs and making goofy faces. Continue reading →