“Chicago Theatre of the Air” (1940s)

On June 1, 1924, Colonel Robert McCormick transformed his fledgling radio station into WGN, inspired by the motto of his Chicago Tribune as “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”

Ninety years later, WGN AM 720 has come a long way from McCormick’s vision of the novelty as “the little box that picks sounds from the air" and by most estimates still ranks among America’s greatest radio stations. Continue reading →

Jack Minkow

Jack Minkow brokered some of the biggest deals in the annals of broadcast ownership. But his most enduring legacy may have been his role in bringing Steve Dahl to Chicago.

President and CEO of Chicago-based Broadcasting Asset Management Corporation for 30 years, Minkow died Sunday after suffering two brain aneurysms. He was 68.

Before he launched his firm in 1978, Minkow managed radio stations for United Broadcasting Company in Baltimore and for ABC in Detroit and Chicago, including two years as vice president and general manager of WDAI (now WLS FM 94.7). Continue reading →

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 →