{"id":24849,"date":"2020-03-19T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=24849"},"modified":"2020-03-19T07:26:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T12:26:57","slug":"wgn-radio-cuts-evening-host-justin-kaufmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2020\/03\/19\/wgn-radio-cuts-evening-host-justin-kaufmann\/","title":{"rendered":"WGN Radio cuts evening host Justin Kaufmann"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Justin Kaufmann (Photo: WGN Radio)<\/p><\/div>\n

Justin Kaufmann, the Chicago public radio veteran whose hiring as evening host at WGN 720-AM<\/a> was supposed to signal a new day <\/a>for the legacy news\/talk station, just followed Steve Cochran, Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder out the door.<\/p>\n

Wednesday was Kaufmann\u2019s last night on the air. Nexstar Media Group chose not to renew his contract, which expires in early April.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a part of the WGN family for the past five years, so it\u2019s hard to say goodbye,\u201d Kaufmann told listeners<\/a> at the end of the show. \u201cBut I\u2019m sensitive to the fact that I\u2019m not the only one that\u2019s losing their job this week. Many of my friends who work in the gig economy, many of the workers at bars and restaurants, they\u2019re out of luck. All the small business owners, employees in the auto industry, the banking industry. There\u2019s not an industry that is not touched by this global emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

WGN Radio 720<\/p><\/div>\n

Kaufmann\u2019s ouster follows the recent departures of morning host Cochran and the midday duo of Leff and Snyder. All three moves were ordered by Sean Compton, executive vice president of Nexstar, which acquired<\/a> WGN in its takeover of Tribune Media in September.<\/p>\n

Thanking the former Tribune Media bosses who hired him, Kaufmann told me: \"I'm grateful to Jimmy deCastro and Todd Manley for the opportunity to be a part of a great radio station for the past five years.\u00a0The bond I have with the WGN listeners will never be broken. I am truly humbled that so many people let me into their lives on a nightly basis. My only regret is that I won't be there for them during this national emergency.\"<\/p>\n

WGN has not named a new evening host, but insiders say Ji Suk Yi is expected to shift from anchor of \u201cThe Wintrust Business Lunch\u201d at noon to replace Kaufmann from 7 to 11 p.m. weeknights. Filling in for Kaufmann tonight will be Jon Hansen.<\/p>\n

In the latest Nielsen Audio survey, WGN ranked ninth in evenings with a 3.3 percent share and cumulative weekly audience of 125,200.\u00a0Although Kaufmann\u2019s show frequently was preempted by White Sox baseball and Blackhawks hockey broadcasts, the coronavirus shutdown knocked out all play-by-play sports.<\/p>\n

Kaufmann, 45, joined WGN in 2015 after 21 years as a producer at Chicago Public Media news\/talk WBEZ 91.5-FM. A northwest suburban Chicago native and Columbia College graduate, Kaufmann also is the founder of Schadenfreude, the Chicago comedy ensemble.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure to serve you, to sit in this chair and be part of your nightly routine,\u201d he said in his on-air farewell. \u201cI\u2019m very optimistic right now that I will show up soon somewhere else \u2014 real soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s comment of the day:<\/a> Scott Knitter:<\/strong> What would pair nicely with reverb [on WGN Radio] would be a teletype track behind newscasts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Kaufmann, the Chicago public radio veteran whose hiring as evening host at WGN 720-AM was supposed to signal a new day for the legacy news\/talk station, just followed Steve Cochran, Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder out the door. Wednesday was Kaufmann\u2019s last night on the air. Nexstar Media Group chose not to renew his... 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\/24849"}],"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=24849"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24857,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24849\/revisions\/24857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}