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 →

Garrick Utley

Garrick Utley, the son of a pioneering Chicago television news couple, began as a copy boy for the Chicago Sun-Times and rose to prominence as a globe-trotting correspondent for three networks, moderator of “Meet the Press” and weekend anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and "Sunday Today."

Utley, who was 74, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his home in New York, according to family. He passed “with the same grace and dignity he showed throughout his life and career,” said Utley’s sister-in-law, Chicago journalist Carol Marin. Continue reading →

Steve Stone

After a one-year detour on one station and a strong overture from another, veteran White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone has agreed to return to CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670 as its resident baseball expert.

“It’s great to have one of the best baseball analysts in the game back on the Score,” program director Mitch Rosen said in a statement Thursday. “Steve is truly the best at breaking down and talking about both the White Sox and Cubs. Steve’s brand along with the Score brand is a Chicago sports radio home run.” Continue reading →

History will note that the first shot was fired Wednesday in the Great Chicago Sports Radio War of 2014.

It came in the form of a talent raid as 33-year-old producer and host Ben Finfer was hired away from CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670 to join upstart competitor WGWG LP 87.7. Branded as The Game 87.7 FM, the FM counterpart to Tribune Broadcasting news/talk WGN AM 720 launched with considerable fanfare Monday. Continue reading →

Here’s a look at Chicago’s top 10 morning shows (as measured in January by Nielsen Audio from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday), followed by average share of audience. Click on the arrows to advance the photos: Continue reading →