Sep 15, 2014 ¡ John Williams is heard weekdays 10 a.m. â 2 p.m. on WGN Radio, including the Wintrust Business Lunch from noon â 1 p.m. John originally came to WGN Radio in September 1997 as midday host. Before arriving in Chicago, he hosted middays on WCCO Radio, Minneapolis, for four years. Prior to that, John spent ten years at WMBD, Peoria.
In 1994, WGN News premiered a weekday morning news-hour, which expanded to three hours in 1996. In 1995, WGN-TV became the prime time affiliate of âŚ
The 15-minute broadcastâwhich originally aired weeknights at 6:45 p.m., with a midday edition at 11:30 a.m. being added in September 1949âwas anchored by news director Spencer Allen (who had been a reporter and news writer for WGN Radio since 1938) and used a large staff of photographers and technicians, many of whom had previously worked for the Tribune; Allen âŚ
Sep 09, 2020 ¡ Rollye James hosts overnights on WGN Radio, Mondays through Thursdays, 10pm to 1am/CT where she is openly candid about her decidedly off-kilter views and fascination with off-the-wall conspiracies. As a confirmed late-night person who âgets up at the crack of noonâ, Jamesâ quirky take on almost everything creates a natural bond with the after-dark âŚ
John Williams is heard weekdays 9 a.m. â noon on WGN Radio. John originally came to WGN Radio in September 1997 as midday host. Before arriving in Chicago, he hosted middays on WCCO Radio, Minneapolis, for four years.
In addition, Johnâs opinion pieces occasionally appear in the Chicago Tribune. John also hosts âThe Mincing Rascalsâ, a weekly news roundtable podcast with a rotating cast of Chicago area journalists. The podcast received awards in 2017 and 2019 from the Chicago Headline Club and the Illinois Broadcasters Association, respectively.
In 2020, the Saturday edition of âWGN Weekend Morning Newsâ expanded to three hours and a half-hour newscast returned to WGN-TVâs 10 p.m. weekend timeslot with âWGN Weekend News at Ten.â. Additional premieres included a weekly political program, âWGN-TV Political Report,â live coverage of Chicago Fire FC soccer, and âChicago Football Weekly.â.
The latter transformed WGN-TV from a regional power to a national Superstation in October 1978. In 1980, WGN-TV premiered the Midwestâs first hour-long newscast in prime time by moving its half-hour 10 p.m. newscast âNewsNineâ to 9 p.m. and expanding it to an hour as âThe 9 OâClock News.â.
In the 1990s, WGN-TV scored big with the 1989 return of the Chicago Bulls as a broadcast partner and the six NBA World Championship seasons with Michael Jordan that followed. 1990 also marked the return of Chicago White Sox baseball to WGN. In 1994, WGN News premiered a weekday morning news-hour, which expanded to three hours in 1996.
In 1995, WGN-TV became the prime time affiliate of The WB Television Network and the first Chicago TV station to launch its own website, WGNTV.com. Also in 1990, WGN became the first Chicago TV station with a local charitable foundation, WGN-TV Childrenâs Charities, a fund of the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.
WGN Television, whose call letters are derived from the Chicago Tribuneâs first slogan, âWorldâs Greatest Newspaper,â hit the airwaves on April 5, 1948 on Channel 9 in Chicago from its studios at Tribune Tower. Colonel Robert McCormick led the Tribune Company into the TV era, believing that âin television, we have embarked upon another ...
In 1961, WGN-TV began broadcasting from new facilities at 2501 West Bradley Place on Chicagoâs northwest side and premiered its own version ...
In 2016, WGN-TV also returned to its roots as an independent station, ending its affiliation with The CW Television Network , and expanded âWGN Saturday Morning Newsâ and âWGN Sunday Morning Newsâ to two hours. In 2017, âWGN Evening Newsâ expanded to three hours and WGN 9.4 became Chicagoâs TBD network affiliate.
WGN-TV began to extend its reach outside of the Chicago area beginning in the mid-1970s, when its signal began to be transmitted via microwave relay to cable television providers in areas of the central Midwestern United States that lacked access to an entertainment-based independent station. By the fall of 1978, the Channel 9 signal was transmitted to 574 cable systemsâcovering most of Western, Central and Southern Illinois as well as large swaths of Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Michigan âreaching an estimated 8.6 million subscribers. On November 9, 1978, Tulsa, Oklahoma -based satellite carrier United Video Inc. uplinked the WGN-TV signal to a Satcom-3 transponder for distribution to cable and C-band satellite subscribers throughout the United States. (United Video uplinked the station's signal without WGN Continental Broadcasting's consent, using a legal exemption in the 1976 Copyright Act 's compulsory license statute allowing "passive" carriers to retransmit broadcast signals without first seeking the licensee's express permission). This resulted in WGN-TV joining the ranks of Atlanta independent station WTCG (later WTBS and now WPCH-TV) to become America's second national " superstation ," independent stations distributed via satellite to cable providers within their respective regions, or throughout the country.
Owned by the Nexstar Media Group, it is a sister property to news/talk / sports radio station WGN (720 AM). WGN-TV's second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of Nexstar's national classic television multicast network Antenna TV, which is headquartered at the WGN-TV studios.
Entertainment division of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced the formation of The CW, a network that would initially feature a mix of programs originating on The WB and UPNâ which Time Warner and CBS, respectively, would shut down in concurrence with The CW's launchâas well as new series developed specifically for the CW schedule. In conjunction with the launch announcement, Tribune signed a ten-year agreement involving sixteen of the group's 19 WB affiliates (including WGN-TV), which would join eleven UPN stations owned by CBS to form The CW's initial group of charter affiliates. Because The CW primarily chose its original affiliates based on the highest overall viewership in each market among the pool of existing WB and UPN affiliates, WGN-TV was chosen as its Chicago affiliate over WPWR-TV, as Channel 9 had been the higher-rated of the two stations dating to WPWR's sign-on. On February 22, Fox announced that WPWR and nine other non-Fox-O&O stations (eight UPN stations, consisting of four in other major markets where The CW chose to align with a Tribune station and four based in non - Tribune markets, and one independent station) would become the initial charter outlets of MyNetworkTV, a joint venture between Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television meant to fill the two weeknight prime time hours that would be opened up on UPN- and WB-affiliated stations that were not chosen to become CW charter outlets. The CW did not commission the WGN national feedâwhich became known as Superstation WGN in November 2002 and then as WGN America in August 2008âto act as a national default feed for the network, as it was able to maintain sufficient national coverage at launch through conventional over-the-air and digital multicast affiliates in the 100 largest markets as well as supplementary coverage in the remaining 110 markets through The CW Plus, a small-market feed comprising primary and subchannel-only over-the-air affiliates as well as cable-only affiliates that were part of the predecessor WB 100+ service.
As of January 2020#N#[update]#N#, WGN-TV presently broadcasts 72½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 12½ hours each weekday, 5½ hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest newscast output of any television station in the Chicago market and the state of Illinois, and the fourth-highest newscast output in the United States behind WHDH in Boston, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, and WGN-TV's sister station KTLA in Los Angeles. In addition to its conventional local newscasts, the station produces two late-evening sports news programs: GN Sports, a half-hour sports highlight and interview program (airing weeknights at 10:30 p.m.), which is co-anchored by longtime sports director Dan Roan (who joined WGN as a weekend sports anchor and sports reporter in 1984) and Jarrett Payton (who joined the station in 2015 as the 4:00 p.m. sports anchor for the WGN Evening News ); and Instant Replay, a 20-minute Sunday evening highlight program (airing during the final 20 minutes of the 9:00 p.m. newscast), which is solo anchored by Roan.
Due to its news-intensive schedule, WGN-TV, despite returning to its status as an independent after ending 21 years of network affiliation, airs only four hours of syndicated programs within its weekday daytime schedule . Syndicated programs broadcast by WGN-TV (as of September 2019#N#[update]#N#) include Rachael Ray, The Steve Wilkos Show, Two and a Half Men, Black-ish, Elementary, Last Man Standing and Maury.
On June 27, 1961, the operations of WGN-TV and WGN radio were relocated to the WGN Mid-America Broadcast Center (later renamed the WGN Continental Broadcast Center and now simply referred to as WGN Studios), a two-story, 95,000-square-foot (8,826 m 2) complex on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center community.
WGN-DT4 is the TBD -affiliated fourth digital subchannel of WGN-TV, broadcasting in standard definition on UHF digital channel 19.4 (or virtual channel 9.4 via PSIP). On November 30, 2017, through an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, WGN-TV launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 9.4 to serve as an affiliate of the digital content network TBD.
Rollye James hosts overnights on WGN Radio, Mondays through Thursdays, 10pm to 1am/CT where she is openly candid about her decidedly off-kilter views and fascination with off-the-wall conspiracies.
In 2006, Wired Magazine cited her show as having âthe best bumper music.â. Rollye James originated, distributed, produced, and hosted a syndicated radio talk show that was heard on stations across America and on XM satellite radio for more than a decade. James has also hosted top-rated local radio shows in more than 30 cities across the country, ...
A repeat traveler on the road to Alaska, Rollye has driven the entire U.S. Interstate Highway System and says, âThe only state Iâve missed is Hawaii.â. Rollyeâs encyclopedic knowledge of R&B songs, artists, and record labels, and love of Chicago Soul is evident in the bumpers she plays.
Chicago news, traffic, weather and sports sprinkled with national news of interest, along with interviews, entertainment and technology reports, humorous segments and looks at pop culture.
By what name was WGN Morning News (1994) officially released in Canada in English?
In November, after the firing of controversial program director Kevin Metheny, Tom Langmyer instructed staff to identify the station as "720 WGN.". Weekend hosts Jerry Agar and the "News Junkie" Sean Wasson left the station, in a shift towards more general and less controversial talk programming.
WGN continues to recover from the controversial rule of former Tribune head Randy Michaels, who resigned under pressure in 2010 amid allegations of inappropriate and sexist behavior in the workplace, and former WGN Program Director Kevin Metheny. Industry observers described Metheny's tenure as one that nearly destroyed the venerable WGN, with staff moves that included replacing a popular evening host with radio rookie Jim Laski, a convicted felon.
WGN is one of the scant few news/talk radio stations in the country that broadcast s only locally produced talk shows, with a Sunday morning religious block featuring the only outside program on the station, The Lutheran Hour, as their sole syndicated program.
In addition to its talk programming (consisting of both topical and sports shows), WGN Radio broadcasts local news headlines, weather forecasts supplied by WGN-TV, traffic reports and sports headlines every half-hour on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and every hour on nights and weekends.
On 1934, WGN served as a founding member of the Mutual Broadcasting System. On April 5, 1948, sister station WGN-TV Channel 9 signed on the air. In 1939, Carole Mathews, the "Miss Chicago" of 1938, launched her own WGN radio program Breakfast Time with Carole Mathews.
Following the 2014 season, Cubs radio broadcasts moved to CBS-owned WBBM. In 2018, WGN became the flagship station for Chicago's other MLB team, the White Sox. WGN was also the longtime Chicago outlet for Paul Harvey until his death on February 28, 2009.
WGN (720 AM) is a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on the 18th floor of 303 East Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop, while its transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village. Since around 1990, WGN has maintained a news/talk format.