Giacomo Luca

Remember Giacomo Luca? He’s the Roosevelt University prodigy who commuted four hours each way between Chicago and Lima, Ohio, where he anchored and produced weekend newscasts for NBC affiliate WLIO-TV.

Now just four weeks after he graduated, Luca, 21, already is moving up in the business: He’s just been hired as a bureau reporter for KFVS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It’s a 106-market jump — from the nation’s 187th market to the 81st. Continue reading →

Dick Cavett

Tickets are on sale for “A Salute to Dick Cavett” June 21 at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Dean Richards, entertainment reporter and critic for Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9 and WGN AM 720, will emcee the black-tie tribute to the 77-year-old legend who defined sophisticated conversation on television for more than 35 years. Continue reading →

Mark Giangreco, Cheryl Burton, Ron Magers, Kathy Brock and Jerry Taft

Back to you, Ron and Kathy.

Chicago news viewers remained faithful to WLS-Channel 7 in the just-finished May sweeps, giving the ABC-owned station a decisive Nielsen victory in all local news time periods from morning to night. Continue reading →

Garry Meier

WGN AM 720 took to social media Thursday to defend its reassignment of afternoon personality Garry Meier.

The move came in response to complaints from listeners after the Tribune Broadcasting news/talk station unveiled a new weekday program lineup Wednesday that shifts Meier off the 50,000-watt broadcast outlet and relegates him to to WGN.fm, the “freeform media” online streaming portal.

“We didn’t kill Garry,” WGN management wrote on its Facebook page. “He’s simply moving to a different, much better-furnished/lit corner of WGN Radio.” Continue reading →

Mark Suppelsa, Tom Skilling and Lourdes Duarte

The busiest television newsroom in Chicago is about to get busier.

WGN-Channel 9, which leads the market in producing 54 hours of local news each week, plans to add another hour of news — from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday — starting in September. Continue reading →

Linda Yu

With the May sweeps officially ending Wednesday, Linda Yu will go straight from the newsroom back to the operating room.

The veteran Chicago news anchor, who recently marked her 30th anniversary at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, will undergo a third surgery Thursday to repair a broken leg she suffered in a traffic accident while vacationing in Florida last January.

Yu, 67, will be off indefinitely from the 4 p.m. weekday newscast she co-anchors with Alan Krashesky. Continue reading →

John Williams

Breaking news: John Williams will return to middays and Garry Meier will lose his afternoon slot in a new weekday program lineup to be unveiled Wednesday at WGN AM 720.

Williams, a mainstay of the Tribune Broadcasting news/talk station for 15 years before he left in December 2012, will be heard from 10 a.m. to noon on WGN, starting Tuesday. He’ll broadcast from Minneapolis, where he continues to host afternoons at WCCO. Continue reading →

Joe Knowles

In what Chicago Tribune editor Gerould Kern described as “important leadership changes,” new editors were named Tuesday to oversee the newspaper’s sports and business sections.

Joe Knowles, a 38-year veteran of the Tribune, was named associate managing editor/sports. A former sports news editor of the paper who went on to launch RedEye and serve as co-editor of the tabloid, Knowles most recently has been the Tribune’s associate managing editor for editing and presentation.

Michael Kellams, a 16-year Tribune veteran who has been associate managing editor/sports since 2009, has shifted to associate managing editor/business. He succeeds Mike Lev, who has joined the editorial board of the Tribune. Continue reading →

Erin Kennedy

It’s showtime for Erin Kennedy as WBBM-Channel 2 tries yet again to compete for morning news viewers.

Kennedy, just in from in Cleveland, debuts Monday alongside Kris Gutierrez on the CBS-owned station’s chronically anemic morning newscast. Airing from 4:30 to 7 a.m. weekdays, it’s been trailing the ratings for years.

Until Kennedy’s hiring was announced May 6, CBS 2 had gone 12 months without a permanent morning anchor team in place. Billboards around town promoted Megan Glaros weather and Derrick Young traffic instead, all but ignoring the news product itself. Continue reading →

Here’s a look at Chicago’s most popular nighttime stars, according to radio ratings released this week for the period from March 27 to April 23.

Following are the top-rated shows as measured by Nielsen Audio among all listeners age 6 and older from 7 p.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, followed by share of audience. Continue reading →