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Dick Cavett, who brought intelligence and sophistication to television talk shows for more than 35 years, will be honored later this year by Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications. Continue reading →

Spike O'Dell

Twenty-seven years ago today, Chicago got its first look at Spike O’Dell. By the time he left town 21 years later, he had succeeded two legendary figures at WGN AM 720 — and had become something of a legend himself.

Hired to replace Wally Phillips in afternoons at the Tribune Broadcasting news/talk station, O’Dell settled in comfortably until 2000 when he suddenly was tapped to take over mornings from Bob Collins, who died in a plane crash. O’Dell rose to the occasion and kept WGN’s huge morning audience intact. For the next eight years, his show delivered top ratings. Continue reading →

Bob Saget

Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications will host “An Evening with Bob Saget” April 16.

The comedian and star of “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” will be on tour to promote his new book, Dirty Daddy (The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian). Continue reading →

Last Friday Chicago’s top-rated morning news program cut short its final hour to air a 30-minute government-sponsored infomercial about health insurance.

Viewers who tuned in to see "WGN Morning News" at 9:30 a.m. were subjected instead to "Get Covered Illinois: A Half Hour Special,” part of a monthlong statewide enrollment campaign for the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace. Continue reading →

Cassie Walker Burke

Cassie Walker Burke, the No. 2 editor at Chicago magazine, has quit to join Crain’s Chicago Business as an assistant managing editor.

Burke, whose title was executive editor, is the third Chicago magazine veteran to jump to Crain’s and the latest in a list of editorial staffers to leave the Tribune Co.-owned monthly since Elizabeth Fenner became editor in chief in September 2011. Continue reading →

Dave Hoekstra

Dave Hoekstra, a respected journalist and celebrated storyteller who brings the heart of a newspaperman and the soul of a poet to everything he writes, exited the Chicago Sun-Times Friday in the latest round of staff cutbacks.

A 29-year veteran of the paper, Hoekstra, 58, negotiated a buyout after Sun-Times Media disclosed plans last week to eliminate five editorial positions covered by the Chicago Newspaper Guild, including one columnist/critic whose name was not disclosed. Hoekstra was one of 10 Sun-Times staffers in that classification.

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By and large over the last 30 years, Chicago was defined on the world stage by three personalities — Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and Richard M. Daley. Since they all bowed out, the image of the city has been a lot less clear to those on the outside.

Until now.

With the debut tonight of “Chicagoland,” CNN’s extraordinary eight-part documentary series, a new Chicago emerges — a vibrant, vital and often violent 21st century metropolis — along with a new set of iconic figures (all of whom seem to be connected in one way or another to Mayor Rahm Emanuel). Remember the name Elizabeth Dozier in particular. Continue reading →

At WLS-Channel 7 they’re not just giving you the weather anymore. Now they’re giving you “ABC 7 First Alert Weather.”

The ABC-owned station this week unveiled the rebranding of weather segments on its newscasts and digital platforms and in a new weather-themed image campaign. Continue reading →

Cheryl Scott

This may be Chicago’s coldest winter in years, but things are heating up for Cheryl Scott.

After just two and a half years as weekend meteorologist at WMAQ-Channel 5, Scott, 29, has become the NBC-owned station’s most talked-about personality, amassing a social media fan base of more than 31,340 on Facebook and 19,500 on Twitter (a following exceeded only by Tom Skilling and Jerry Taft among Chicago weather people). Continue reading →

Four of the photographers who were fired when the Chicago Sun-Times eliminated its photography department last spring are rejoining the newspaper this week.

Rich Chapman, Brian Jackson, Al Podgorski and a fourth photographer whose name was not confirmed are expected to be rehired under terms of a contract settlement reached in November between Sun-Times Media and the Chicago Newspaper Guild.

But relief over their return was tempered by news of additional layoffs in the editorial ranks of the Sun-Times, the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana and the SouthtownStar. Continue reading →