{"id":6527,"date":"2015-01-26T22:30:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=6527"},"modified":"2015-01-26T22:45:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T04:45:31","slug":"nbc-5-exec-frank-whittaker-out-for-cancer-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/01\/26\/nbc-5-exec-frank-whittaker-out-for-cancer-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC 5 exec Frank Whittaker out for cancer surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6528\" style=\"width: 702px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/01\/26\/nbc-5-exec-frank-whittaker-out-for-cancer-surgery\/\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6528\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6528\" alt=\"Frank Whittaker\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Frank-Whittaker.jpg\" width=\"692\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Frank-Whittaker.jpg 692w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Frank-Whittaker-300x169.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Frank-Whittaker-150x84.jpg 150w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Frank-Whittaker-400x226.jpg 400w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Frank-Whittaker-200x113.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 692px) 100vw, 692px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6528\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/a> Frank Whittaker<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Veteran Chicago television news executive Frank Whittaker will be taking a leave of absence as station manager and vice president of news at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com \" target=\"_blank\">WMAQ-Channel 5<\/a> while being treated for prostate cancer, he told colleagues Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Whittaker, 58, said he will undergo surgery Thursday and expects to be away from the NBC-owned station at least through the end of February.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was diagnosed about three months ago (on Halloween, actually), and have spent recent weeks undergoing tests and researching my options,\u201d he wrote in a memo to employees. \u201cSurgery is the best long-term option for me. Prostate cancer, as you may know, is very curable when detected early enough, as mine was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Chicago area native and graduate of Wheaton Central High School and Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism, Whittaker joined NBC 5 as news director in 1998 and was promoted to station manager and vice president of news in 2008. He previously was assistant news director and executive producer at ABC-owned <a href=\"http:\/\/abc7chicago.com\" target=\"_blank\">WLS-Channel 7.<\/a> He began his career at CBS-owned <a href=\"http:\/\/chicago.cbslocal.com\/station\/cbs-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">WBBM-Channel 2,<\/a> where he rose from desk assistant to special projects producer, assignment manager and 10 p.m. news producer.<\/p>\n<p>Whittaker told NBC 5 staffers he\u2019d be keeping an eye on things while he\u2019s away, adding: \u201cI do expect to be watching a lot of television and plan to have a computer nearby, so you may be hearing from me sooner than you think!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran Chicago television news executive Frank Whittaker will be taking a leave of absence as station manager and vice president of news at WMAQ-Channel 5 while being treated for prostate cancer, he told colleagues Monday. Whittaker, 58, said he will undergo surgery Thursday and expects to be away from the NBC-owned station at least through... <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/01\/26\/nbc-5-exec-frank-whittaker-out-for-cancer-surgery\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&#8594;<\/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\/6527"}],"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=6527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6530,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527\/revisions\/6530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}