Dave Ross

The Dave Ross Mystery has been solved at last.

Three months after Ross announced he was leaving the Fox-owned station in Washington, D.C., to start a new job in Chicago, sources confirmed the veteran sports reporter and producer is joining 120 Sports, a new 24/7 all-digital sports network.

Billed as “the first multisport, league-built, live streaming video network built for the digital generation,” it will launch this spring from custom-designed facilities at Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios on the Near West Side. The startup was announced last week. Continue reading →

Jonathan Hoenig

Eighteen years ago — long before he was an internationally known hedge fund manager and financial commentator known as “The Capitalist Pig” — Jonathan Hoenig was one of thousands of those meshuggenehs screaming and yelling and waving their arms on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Electronic trading put an end to the frenzied culture, but vivid memories linger of that strange and storied era in the city’s financial history. Now Hoenig has brought them back to life in a fascinating documentary called “Pit Trading 101.” Continue reading →

Larry Potash

WGN-Channel 9 normally advertises its top-rated morning show as Chicago’s “must watch morning news.” But for 19 minutes on Friday, it was Chicago’s can’t hear morning news.

A technical glitch of epic proportion knocked out the Tribune Broadcasting station’s studio audio from 7:03 to 7:22 a.m., leaving “WGN Morning News” anchors Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten free to improvise even more than usual by holding up hand-written signs and making goofy faces. Continue reading →

Garrick Utley

Garrick Utley, the son of a pioneering Chicago television news couple, began as a copy boy for the Chicago Sun-Times and rose to prominence as a globe-trotting correspondent for three networks, moderator of “Meet the Press” and weekend anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and "Sunday Today."

Utley, who was 74, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his home in New York, according to family. He passed “with the same grace and dignity he showed throughout his life and career,” said Utley’s sister-in-law, Chicago journalist Carol Marin. Continue reading →

Steve Stone

After a one-year detour on one station and a strong overture from another, veteran White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone has agreed to return to CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670 as its resident baseball expert.

“It’s great to have one of the best baseball analysts in the game back on the Score,” program director Mitch Rosen said in a statement Thursday. “Steve is truly the best at breaking down and talking about both the White Sox and Cubs. Steve’s brand along with the Score brand is a Chicago sports radio home run.” Continue reading →

History will note that the first shot was fired Wednesday in the Great Chicago Sports Radio War of 2014.

It came in the form of a talent raid as 33-year-old producer and host Ben Finfer was hired away from CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670 to join upstart competitor WGWG LP 87.7. Branded as The Game 87.7 FM, the FM counterpart to Tribune Broadcasting news/talk WGN AM 720 launched with considerable fanfare Monday. Continue reading →

Here’s a look at Chicago’s top 10 morning shows (as measured in January by Nielsen Audio from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday), followed by average share of audience. Click on the arrows to advance the photos: Continue reading →

James C. Dowdle

James C. Dowdle, who began his career as an advertising salesman for the Chicago Tribune in 1956, retired 43 years later as executive vice president of Tribune Co. — and as the man who brought Harry Caray to the Cubs broadcast booth.

“He was a great executive, a great family man and a great sports fan,” WGN AM 720 host Bob Sirott said Tuesday in a podcast tribute to Dowdle, who was a longtime friend and neighbor. “He knew about Harry [Caray] and he also was very instrumental in the success of Bob Collins at this radio station.”

Dowdle died Monday of congestive heart failure at his home in Wilmette, according to his family. He was 79. Continue reading →

When Joel Daly stepped down as the dean of Chicago television news anchors in 2005, he insisted that I not describe his departure from WLS-Channel 7 as a “retirement.”

Yes, he was leaving the ABC-owned station after 38 years, but there was still plenty he wanted to do. “No, I’m not retiring. That smacks of Arizona and mid-week golfing,” he told me. “It’s more of a ‘change of pace in a different place.’” Continue reading →

Gerry Kern

Maybe it says something about the diminished importance of the media in Chicago these days. Maybe it says something about the low regard journalists have for their own profession. Or maybe it just says that I’m a sucker for meaningless lists.

Whichever the case, the March cover story of Chicago magazine left me scratching my bald head. For the third year in a row, the respected monthly ranks “the 100 most powerful Chicagoans.” And for the third year in a row, it gives short shrift to the city’s media constellation.

“You must have the influence, ability, or potential to make big things happen, for good or for ill,” reads an editor’s note on the criteria. "When you talk, people listen.” Continue reading →