Robservations: Kathy Hart to guest host ‘Good Day Chicago’

Kathy Hart

Robservations on the media beat:

In her first broadcast appearance in five months, Kathy Hart will turn up Wednesday as guest host of “Good Day Chicago,” the morning show on Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32. It’s not likely she’ll talk about her breakup with 21-year morning partner Eric Ferguson (she’s been under a “no comment” order from her former bosses), but it will be the first time fans will see or hear from Hart since she went on leave from “The Eric & Kathy Show” in late April. Earlier this month Hubbard Radio hot adult-contemporary WTMX FM 101.9 officially dropped her from the show and retitled it “Eric in the Morning with Melissa & Whip.” Hart won’t be a free agent until her contract with The Mix expires in December.

Rob Johnson

Rob Johnson, the veteran news anchor at CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2, just joined the ranks of newspaper columnists as a contributor to the Hinsdalean. He said he plans to write about his experiences as a husband, father and 14-year resident of Hinsdale. “We came to embrace a community that prided itself on benevolence, understanding that what you do for others is more important than what you do,” Johnson writes of his adopted hometown in his debut column. In 2015 he wrote a children’s book, Timothy Trainor: Head in the Game, about a young hockey player who suffers a concussion.

Marwa Eltagouri

Reporter Marwa Eltagouri, who covered immigration and neighborhood change for the Chicago Tribune, has resigned to join the Washington Post. She landed the job at the Tribune after an internship straight out of Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she graduated in 2014 with degrees in journalism and political science. “I feel so lucky to have worked alongside such talented people, whose dedication to reporting and storytelling is infectious and encouraging,” she told colleagues. “Thank you for your care and precision in producing a paper I'm proud to have been a part of.”

Eric Benderoff

“Hacks to Flacks: How to Transition to a Career in PR” is the timely topic of an upcoming panel sponsored by the Publicity Club of Chicago. Among former journalists who’ve made the leap to the “dark side” will be: Eric Herman, managing director of Kivvit; Colleen Mastony, vice president of ‎Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications; Tammy Chase, director of communications and media relations for Chicago Transit Authority; and Eric White, ‎account supervisor for Weber Shandwick. Moderator will be Eric Benderoff, director and Chicago market leader of Burson-Marsteller. The event will be at 8 a.m. October 18 at Burson-Marsteller, 222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza. (Here is the link for tickets.)

Robert Eatman

Services will be Thursday in Los Angeles for Robert Eatman, a prominent broadcast talent agent whose clients included Mancow Muller, Opie and Anthony, Drex, Rover and other current and former Chicago radio personalities. Eatman died Sunday of cancer at 65. A Chicago native and graduate of Chicago Kent School of Law, he represented AFTRA, SAG and other performers unions before forming his own talent agency in 1991. “Bob took me from $70,000 a year when nobody else saw anything in me and made me one of the top radio personalities in America,” Muller recalled. “Eatman made the difference.”