WGN-Channel 9<\/a> last month.<\/p>\nHere is the text of Graves\u2019s memo to employees:<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter almost 26 years at ABC 7, our political reporter Charles Thomas has decided it\u2019s time to retire from the daily deadlines of local television news.\u00a0As you know, Charles has spent the past eight years covering local, state and national politics, asking the tough questions and holding our political leaders accountable.\u00a0Before taking the political reins, Charles covered a wide range of topics that touched our communities.\u00a0His perspective and considerable storytelling abilities have added context to our newscasts since he joined ABC 7 in 1991.<\/em><\/p>\nCharles\u2019 remarkable career spans four decades. Before becoming part of our newsroom, Charles worked at ABC News in the Midwest Bureau, which was located in St. Louis.\u00a0He\u2019s also worked as a general assignment reporter for KGO-TV our sister station in San Francisco and WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.\u00a0Charles grew up in St. Louis and is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism (Go Mizzou!). He began his career as a radio newscaster at KCMO-AM in Kansas City, Missouri.<\/em><\/p>\nCharles tells me he\u2019s had a \u201cdream of a career\u201d here at ABC 7 and feels truly fortunate to have worked with you, who he describes as \u00a0the \u201cbest co-workers in Chicago.\u201d\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0been on the forefront of many if not all of the big stories we\u2019ve covered in the past 25 years.\u00a0Among the highlights: the OJ Simpson trial, the Great Chicago Flood, the Bulls victories and celebrations in the 1990s, and of course the election and presidency of Barack Obama.\u00a0As you can see, Charles truly has had a front row seat to history.<\/em><\/p>\nCharles\u2019 last day at ABC 7 will be March 3. After his retirement from ABC 7, Charles plans to explore digital storytelling focusing on the African-American community.\u00a0We\u2019ll spend time celebrating his career in the coming days.\u00a0For now, please join me in congratulating Charles on this next chapter and thank him for his many contributions to ABC 7.<\/em><\/p>\nJennifer L. Graves<\/em>
\nVP & News Director<\/em>
\nABC 7 Chicago<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Thomas, the veteran broadcast journalist and ace political reporter, is retiring after more than 25 years at WLS-Channel 7, the ABC-owned station announced Thursday. Following the February rating sweep, his last day at ABC 7 will be March 3. Thomas, 65, told colleagues his plans include launching a digital platform focusing on issues in... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13355"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13361,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13355\/revisions\/13361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}