Toni Falvo

Toni Falvo, the dean of Chicago television station ratings and research analysts, is joining Tribune Broadcasting as senior vice president of research.

In the newly created position, Falvo will reunite with Larry Wert, president of broadcast media for Tribune Co. The two previously worked together at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5, where Falvo has been vice president of research, programming and press. Until he joined Tribune Co. last February, Wert was president and general manager of NBC 5.

Earlier, the two worked together at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, where Falvo was director of research and Wert was local sales manager.

“I have been on a team with Toni in Chicago for over 20 years of my career,” Wert told me after announcing the appointment Tuesday. “She loves to win and works hard to achieve that. I look forward to her joining us in this new adventure.”

With the acquisition of its latest properties, Tribune Broadcasting will encompass 44 television stations nationwide in addition to numerous cable and digital outlets and flagship radio station WGN AM 720. Falvo will oversee research functions for all of them.

Noting that it soon will be the largest station group in the country, Falvo said: “It’s exciting to be part of that. I can’t wait to get there and work with Larry again. I’m thrilled that I can stay here in Chicago and get such a big job.”

A lifelong Chicagoan, Falvo, 58, joined NBC 5 in 1998 after 17 years at ABC 7, where she began as an accounting clerk in finance and worked up to director of research.

When she starts at Tribune Broadcasting Dec. 9, her office will move just a few hundred yards west from NBC Tower to Tribune Tower.