{"id":14534,"date":"2017-06-08T12:46:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T17:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=14534"},"modified":"2017-06-08T12:46:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T17:46:20","slug":"craig-wall-headed-abc-7-lisa-chavarria-joins-nbc-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2017\/06\/08\/craig-wall-headed-abc-7-lisa-chavarria-joins-nbc-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Wall headed to ABC 7 as political reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a> Craig Wall<\/p><\/div>\n

Veteran Chicago newsman Craig Wall, who signed off last April after 19 years as a general assignment reporter at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32,<\/a> soon will be joining ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7<\/a> as chief political reporter, sources said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Wall is expected to replace Charles Thomas, who retired<\/a> last February after more than 25 years at ABC 7, including the last eight as political reporter for the top-rated station. Thomas most recently has been co-hosting mornings with Maze Jackson on Midway Broadcasting urban news\/talk WVON AM 1690.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wall, who chose not to renew his contract before stepping down April 14, is waiting for Fox 32\u2019s 90-day period to match other offers to run out before making his agreement with ABC 7 official, sources said.<\/p>\n

Reached at home, Wall declined to comment. But he hinted at his return when he tweeted <\/a>last week: \u201cLife is good. Is semi-retirement over yet? Soon. Stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University of Wisconsin graduate worked in Salisbury, Maryland; Lexington, Kentucky, and Salt Lake City before joining Fox 32 in 1998. For part of his time as a reporter and substitute news anchor, Wall served as shop steward for colleagues represented by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.<\/p>\n

Wall isn\u2019t the only former Fox 32 reporter who appears to be making a happy landing at another station in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Lisa Chavarria, whose contract was not renewed last April after five years as a reporter and substitute news anchor there, has been hired as a freelance reporter for NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.<\/a><\/p>\n

Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, confirmed that she\u2019ll start appearing on the air next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to share with you that I will soon be reporting for NBC 5 Chicago,\u201d Chavarria wrote on a Facebook<\/a> post. \u201cThanks for all of your messages of support over the past month! You guys are truly the best. I hope you'll stick with me as I embark on this new journey!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chicago native and graduate of Columbia College began as an intern in the Chicago bureau of NBC News and at Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9.<\/a> She later worked for stations in Traverse City, Michigan; Nashville and Houston before joining Fox 32 in 2012.<\/p>\n

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Lisa Chavarria and Craig Wall (Photo: Eric Hoffhines)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran Chicago newsman Craig Wall, who signed off last April after 19 years as a general assignment reporter at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, soon will be joining ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 as chief political reporter, sources said Thursday. Wall is expected to replace Charles Thomas, who retired last February after more than 25 years at ABC 7,... 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\/14534"}],"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=14534"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14540,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14534\/revisions\/14540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}