Rob Elgas
Rob Elgas will team up with Linda Yu as co-anchor of WLS-Channel 7’s top-rated 4 p.m. weekday newscast, the ABC-owned station announced Monday.
The move is effective May 26 — the same day Alan Krashesky takes over ABC 7’s 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts following the retirement of Ron Magers. Krashesky currently anchors at 4 p.m. with Yu and at 6 p.m. with Kathy Brock.
Elgas, 42, joined ABC 7 as a general assignment reporter and fill-in news anchor last July — four months after signing off as a news anchor and reporter at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. He declined to renew his contract after 13 years at NBC 5, saying he planned to “cast a wide net and look at a lot of opportunities.”
Elgas, who had anchored weekday afternoons and mornings at NBC 5, was considered the odds-on favorite among insiders to succeed Krashesky at 4 p.m.
“Since joining our news team Rob has done an outstanding job for us,” Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of ABC 7, said in a statement. “He’s a Chicago area native who relishes covering news in and around Chicago and has forged a real connection with viewers here. His on-air warmth, experience and enthusiasm for his work are the same qualities that have made him such an integral part of our newsroom this past year.”
Born in suburban Arlington Heights and raised in Crystal Lake, Elgas attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining NBC 5 in 2002, he worked for KVIA, the ABC affiliate in El Paso, Texas. He began his career as a photographer for WICD, the ABC affiliate in Champaign-Urbana.
Here the text of Graves’s memo to the staff:
I’m pleased to announce that Rob Elgas will be the next co-anchor of ABC 7 Eyewitness News at 4pm. Rob will assume his new duties on Thursday, May 26, the same day Alan Krashesky moves to the 5pm and 10pm, and the day after Ron Magers retires. Alan will continue anchoring the 6pm news.
Rob joins Linda Yu, meteorologist Cheryl Scott and Jim Rose on the anchor desk. Rob will continue to report for Eyewitness News at 10pm.
Rob’s done a terrific job since joining our team last year and brings a wealth of Chicago experience to the desk.
You can read more in the attached release.
Please join me in congratulating Rob on his new role.