Kris Kridel

Kris Kridel, host of “The Noon Business Hour” and one of the most respected voices on Chicago radio, is back in afternoon drive on WBBM AM 780 and WCFS FM 105.9.

In a realignment of Monday-through-Friday shifts at the top-rated CBS Radio all-news station, Kridel will start her on-air duties with midday news anchor Sherman Kaplan on the noon show and stay on to anchor afternoon newscasts with Keith Johnson through 6 p.m.

“I feel like I have the best of both worlds here,” Kridel said Monday. “I get to work with the afternoon team — Keith Johnson and Jeff Joniak — and I also get to co-host the ‘Noon Business Hour’ with Sherman Kaplan. I really like the energy of p.m. drive, and the biz hour is my favorite part of the day.”

An award-winning broadcast journalist, Kridel joined WBBM Newsradio in 1986 from the former WFYR, where she was news director and anchor/reporter. She also is a regular contributor to “Chicago Tonight” on public television WTTW-Channel 11. In May Kridel was named here one of the most powerful women in Chicago journalism.

Coinciding with the schedule change, Lisa Fielding and Veronica Carter will share anchoring duties with Regine Schlesinger from 10 a.m. to noon weekdays. Fielding and Carter had been alternating in afternoon drive alongside Johnson since Steve Grzanich left last December.

Rick Gregg

In other news at WBBM Newsradio, Rick Gregg has been named full-time sports anchor and reporter, succeeding the late Eric Brown. A graduate of Joliet West High School and Southern Illinois University, Gregg has worked for Total Traffic and Weather Network since 2007.

Gregg, who joins Joniak, Josh Liss, Dave Kerner and George Ofman on the sports staff, had been filling in while Brown was ill. A 26-year veteran of the station, Brown died of cancer June 24 at 58.