Larry Lujack (1967 photo)

Larry Lujack would have hated the vast public outpouring of love and affection that followed news of his death Wednesday after a very private, yearlong battle with esophageal cancer.

And he would have hated stories like this that called him one of America’s greatest radio personalities of all time and Chicago’s preeminent disc jockey for the ages.

Because true as it was, that's not what mattered to him. Continue reading →

Larry Lujack

Legendary "Superjock" Larry Lujack, a Radio Hall of Famer and one of broadcasting's all-time greats, has died of cancer at 73. Continue reading →

Employees at Chicago Public Media, including reporters, hosts and producers at WBEZ FM 91.5, have agreed to unionize for the first time.

By a 40-7 vote Wednesday, staffers authorized SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) to represent them in negotiating their first contract with the board of nonprofit Chicago Public Media. The election was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board after a petition signed by 39 employees was filed in late September. Continue reading →

Orchestra Hall (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

As an editor at the Sun-Times for more than three decades, Laura Emerick was at the heart of the paper’s coverage of movies, theater, dance and classical music. An old-school journalist in the best sense, she earned the respect and admiration of the paper’s writers and arts critics, including Roger Ebert, who relied on her as his primary editor for 20 years.

But even old-school journalists can learn new tricks, and last August Emerick left the Sun-Times to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association in the newly created position of digital content editor.  Just as the CSO was reinventing its content marketing efforts from top to bottom, Emerick was reinventing herself, too. Continue reading →

Tracy Butler, Jerry Taft, Mike Caplan and Phil Schwarz

After 30 years at WLS-Channel 7, chief meteorologist Jerry Taft remains as solid as ever on Chicago’s top-rated 10 o’clock newscast. At age 70, the former U.S. Air Force combat pilot shows no signs of cutting back.

But whenever that rainy day comes, bosses of the ABC-owned station want to be ready with more than just an umbrella. So they’re turning to a select group of Chicago area viewers to aid in formulating a long-range weather plan. Continue reading →

Cutbacks came to CBS Radio Monday with four sales positions eliminated in the seven-station Chicago group. Two more are expected before the end of the year, sources said.

Performance reasons were cited for the reductions among the group’s total sales staff of 97, according to insiders. Continue reading →

Susanna Negovan

Who knows? Was it the “thousand dollars in wine and champagne” she had at the dinner? Or was it the crystal vase from Tiffany & Co. delivered to her home as a gift before the event?

Whatever it was, Susanna Negovan’s report last week on “Good Day Chicago” struck some staffers at WFLD-Channel 32 as more brazen and more obnoxious than anything she’d ever done before. And that’s saying a lot. Continue reading →

Ron Coomer

Former Cubs infielder Ron Coomer will succeed Keith Moreland in the Cubs radio booth alongside play-by-play announcer Pat Hughes, sources confirmed Thursday.

Coomer agreed to a two-year contract as color analyst to be announced Friday by the Cubs and WGN AM 720. A Chicago area native who played for the Cubs in 2001, Coomer, 47, most recently worked on Minnesota Twins' pre- and post-game shows for Fox Sports North. Continue reading →

Jack Ryan

You may not be familiar with 22nd Century Media, but you probably remember Jack Ryan, the former investment banker who once ran as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from Illinois.

From the bitter disappointment of his aborted bid for public office in 2004, Ryan turned his media ordeal into a business opportunity. The following year he founded a hyperlocal publishing company on the premise that there’s more “positive news” out there than people were getting from traditional sources.

Today Ryan’s 22nd Century Media publishes 12 weekly newspapers and websites mainly in the southwest suburbs and on the North Shore. With the launch in February of a Highland Park edition up in Lake County, the company will reach an estimated 170,000 Chicago area households. That would put it on track to overtake Sun-Times Media as having the second-largest circulation statewide (behind only the Chicago Tribune). Continue reading →

Virtual Tom Skilling

Tom Skilling has never played games when it comes to his forecasts. But now everyone’s favorite weatherman is about to become a game himself.

The Chicago media superstar and chief meteorologist for Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9 will appear as a cartoon image in “Tom Skilling’s WGN Weather Challenge,” a smartphone game app designed by Chicago-based Cubicle Ninjas. Continue reading →