As a weather forecaster for United Airlines, I called Jim Tilmon at his Channel 5 office and asked him if he wanted to view a volcanic ash avoidance study we used in our fight operations office. Our phone call lasted almost 10 minutes and ended with him inviting me to the studio. A few years later, he cold-called me at home and asked me if I wanted to audition for the weekend job at WFLD. How could I turn down that offer? With his mentoring and much practice, things worked out pretty well. I got to know him and Harry Volkman on a very personal level. Without a doubt, two of the nicest people you will ever meet! They are now both peering down from atop of the cirrus and cumulonimbus clouds . . .<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s one less watchdog keeping an eye on Chicago media these days. Veteran journalist Steve Rhodes is stepping back after 15 years as media critic for The Beachwood Reporter, the independent website he founded and nurtured as editor and publisher. \u201cThe site is officially suspended in animation until further notice,\u201d Rhodes announced Friday, preferring to... 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\/28285"}],"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=28285"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28300,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28285\/revisions\/28300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}