{"id":3906,"date":"2014-06-28T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2014-06-28T06:14:39","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T11:14:39","slug":"the-bird-is-back-wgn-radio-mascot-flies-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/06\/28\/the-bird-is-back-wgn-radio-mascot-flies-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bird is back: WGN Radio mascot flies again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"780\" height=\"585\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NHZMEric7IU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Just in time for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/2014\/06\/26\/feder-flashback-when-wgn-radio-turned-60\/\">90th anniversary<\/a> celebration of <a href=\"http:\/\/wgnradio.com\" target=\"_blank\">WGN AM 720,<\/a> the Tribune Broadcasting news\/talk station has brought back its iconic mascot from the past \u2014 the cartoon bird named \u201cChicago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This time around, the Bird will roost on social media at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wgnbirdchicago\" target=\"_blank\">twitter.com\/wgnbirdchicago.<!--more--><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi. I'm Chicago,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wgnbirdchicago\" target=\"_blank\">tweeted.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019ll keep you posted on all things WGN, The Game Chicago 87.7 FM, WGN.FM, and whatever else comes across my beak!\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3909\" style=\"width: 209px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/06\/28\/the-bird-is-back-wgn-radio-mascot-flies-again\/\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3909\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3909\" alt=\"WGN Bird\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird.png\" width=\"199\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird.png 199w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird-150x149.png 150w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird-57x57.png 57w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird-72x72.png 72w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird-114x114.png 114w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGN-Bird-144x144.png 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3909\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/a> WGN Bird<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Todd Manley, vice president of content and programming, compared the Bird to<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/chi-community,0,252445.htmlstory\" target=\"_blank\"> Colonel Tribune,<\/a> the \u201cWeb ambassador\u201d and social media face of the Chicago Tribune, which has amassed 791,000 followers on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColonelTribune\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a> and 4,200 likes on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Colonel.Tribune\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> since 2008. \u201cThe idea is to give the Bird a new life in a new space and really have it be the voice of Chicago through listening to WGN Radio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>At some point, it may spread its wings to Facebook as well. \u201cI certainly could see a time when the Bird is in a broad space that\u2019s more than 140 characters,\u201d Manley said.<\/p>\n<p>The original WGN Bird, which starred in television commercials, print ads, billboards and other marketing venues, was hatched under Dan Fabian, the station\u2019s vice president and general manager from 1987 to 1996.<\/p>\n<p>Fabian said the concept grew out of a proposal by Marion Dawson, creative head of the former Chicago advertising agency Dawson, Johns &amp; Black.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3907\" style=\"width: 216px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Dan-Fabian.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3907\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3907\" alt=\"Dan Fabian\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Dan-Fabian.jpg\" width=\"206\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Dan-Fabian.jpg 206w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Dan-Fabian-150x197.jpg 150w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Dan-Fabian-200x263.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3907\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Fabian<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cDawson had pitched the idea of animating a virtual commercial menagerie to represent all of our on-air personalities,\u201d Fabian told me. \u201cAs I recall, [Bob] Collins was to be a big ol\u2019 bear, Spike [O\u2019Dell] a squirrel and Milt [Rosenberg] \u2014 big surprise \u2014 an owl. Assuming that campaign might rival the government's weekly deficit, however, I suggested he pick one to play with as surrogate for the station's biggest fan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once they settled on a bird, Fabian wrote, produced and directed its celebrity encounters, including one with Bob Hope and another with Wayne Larrivee, Dick Butkus, Jim Hart and William \u201cThe Refrigerator\u201d Perry. As the Bird, he wrote a monthly column for the station's employee newsletter. He even voiced an ill-fated audio-animatronic incarnation of the friendly fowl. \u201cThe hand puppet didn't exactly take off either,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>It went on to become one of the most successful and memorable marketing campaigns in Chicago radio history, although not everyone fully appreciated the effort: \u201cEarly in the adventure, I received a rather angry letter\u00a0demanding an apology for having \u2018some clown with a big nose\u2019 play the typical 'GN listener,\u201d Fabian said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"780\" height=\"585\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fciIDudM8eY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just in time for the 90th anniversary celebration of WGN AM 720, the Tribune Broadcasting news\/talk station has brought back its iconic mascot from the past \u2014 the cartoon bird named \u201cChicago.\u201d This time around, the Bird will roost on social media at twitter.com\/wgnbirdchicago.<\/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\/3906"}],"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=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3916,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}