By Rick Kaempfer
WE REMEMBER
A
s 2018 comes to an end and a new year
begins, it’s time once again to pay trib-
ute to the people who passed away
this year. Once again, we lost some of the all-
time Chicago greats. Among them, the long-
time anchor and reporter Warner Saunders.
Saunders’ award-winning 29-year stint at
NBC-5 in Chicago touched countless lives.
Another television pioneer, John Coleman,
preceded him in death earlier this year.
Though he worked for both WBBM and
WMAQ, Coleman was part of the original
Eyewitness news team that dominated the rat-
ings in Chicago. His WLS Channel 7 colleague,
Joel Daly, offered this assessment of the former
weatherman. “The critics called him a clown!
He once did the forecast standing on his head,
an acknowledgment that he ‘blew’ the predic-
tion of a big storm. He was a genius! He told
his style of good, clean humor and play the
records he loved, but when a program director
or station manager told him to ‘play more
music,’ or ‘don't talk so much’ or ‘give more
time and temp’ or any of a hundred standard
killjoys, Art balked. "Just leave me alone and
let me do the job you hired me for.' If the PD
pinned a note to the bulletin board directing
Art to do this or don't do that, Art would rip it
off the board and read it to his listeners, who
often responded by calling the PD and protest-
ed the directive. Most PDs don't have a sense
of humor and Art was fired more times than
anyone can count. Art usually responded,
‘You can't fire me, I quit!’ and before anyone
knew it, he was on another station and took
his audience along, leaving his former PD
with a hole in his rating book. Art was a one-
of-a-kind, radio original. He was among the
John Coleman
Photo Courtesy of WLS-TV
the weather with chroma-key effects while
other [weather forecasters] were still using
puppets and cartoons. He's the only non-cor-
porate individual to reserve space on an early
communications satellite for his vision of a 24-
hour presentation of world and local weather
he called ‘The Weather Channel.’ He was a
gambler, who lost The Weather Channel in a
dispute with his financial backers. But most of
all, he was a pioneer who never received cred-
it for his vision!”
Sadly, these weren’t the only losses in
Chicago’s television community. Don
Sandburg passed away this year as well. He
will always be remembered for his contribu-
tions to WGN's Bozo's Circus, as well as for
playing Sandy the Tramp. WBBM-TV’s Jerry
Harper was the staff announcer for thirty
years - a familiar voice to Chicago television
viewers. WTTW’s Elizabeth Brackett’s contri-
butions were more in the traditional reporting
world. The Peabody Award-winning journal-
ist died in a tragic bicycling accident earlier
this year.
Towards the end of the year, we lost
WBBM-TV’s Mike Parker. Fellow reporter Jim
Williams worked with Mike for many years
and offered this tribute to his comrade. “Mike
Parker had an extraordinary combination of
talents that made him an all-time Chicago
great: beautiful voice, eloquent writer, gravi-
tas, insatiable curiosity. For those of us fortu-
nate to call him a colleague, Mike was an
invaluable presence in our newsroom. One
more thing: he was hilarious.”
The radio world also lost some Chicago
treasures. Among them was Art Hellyer, a
man who dominated the airwaves in Chicago
during the 1950s and 1960s at radio stations
like WGN, WCFL, WMAQ, and others.
Chicago radio historian Chuck Shayden knew
Hellyer well. “Art Hellyer might have been
called ‘Peck's Bad Boy of Radio,’ but only by
station program managers who wanted Art to
be something he wasn't. He just wanted to do
16 illinoisentertainer.com december 2018
first to use "wild lines" flying at him without
notice from his beloved record-turner, Lenny
Kaye. Art burned his bridges after him -- and
sometimes he burned them before he got
there, but he always maintained his brand of
showmanship and integrity. And his listeners
loved him for it. He was Number 1 in Chicago
for many years.”
The IQ of the Chicago radio dial also took
a hit with the death of WGN’s longtime intel-
lectual, Milt Rosenberg. Mary June Rose was
Milt’s program director for several of those
years, and she remembers him fondly. “I was
honored to have worked with Milt for a num-
ber of years near the end of his career, and I
miss him. He was the smartest person I have
probably ever met, and yet he talked to me as
though I was his equal (I’m not). He and I did-
n’t always agree, but our mutual respect made
it possible to learn from each other. We need
more of that today.”
The Chicago sports radio world also
mourned the loss of one of our favorite play-
by-play men. Joe McConnell passed away this
year, but his calls of Bears and White Sox
games remain a gold standard. Cheryl Raye
Stout worked with McConnell at WMAQ.
“When WMAQ radio acquired the rights to
carry White Sox baseball in 1982, Joe
McConnell became the play by play voice and
partnered with color analyst and former Sox
pitcher Early Wynn. Joe was already an
accomplished broadcaster with his Bears and
college sports. It was seamless the way he
transitioned to the White Sox. Joe was always
prepared, took copious notes and was a per-
fectionist. His voice was passionate and was
full of energy. By the way, working with Early
may have been one of his biggest challenges in
broadcasting, but you never knew that on the
air. Joe was brilliant at his craft.”
All of these broadcasting greats left us in
2018, and so did scores of behind the scenes
television and radio pros, but their contribu-
tions to the business will not be forgotten.